Island fish, somen chilled vermicelli and rape blossoms…

A slice of tai (seabream)cooked nearly like a dessert, with warm cake flavors : vanilla, almond… Chilled noodles. Greens. Natto. That makes a hot day lunch.

I first stir-fried the renkon (lotus root, sliced) and onion (sliced), put them aside. Then in the same pan, the fish with a little bit of star anise, salted. In a cup, I mixed saffron, vanilla powder, water, a pinch of sugar. 1/4 ts of potato starch. I’ve added to the fish when it was cooked, turned 2 or 3 times while reheating on low heat. I finished with a few drop of almond oil.

Steamed na-no-hana (rape blossoms) with sesame seeds.

Somen : thin wheat vermicelli. It’s boiled, refreshed in fresh water and served in a bowl of iced water. Next to it a dipping sauce : dashi (fish broth), black rice vinegar, onion et soy sauce.

Another little side, natto with nira (garlic chives) and onion.

Tarte orangette

It’s a chocolate and mikan orange tarte.
Believe me it’s a delight.

We call sticks of candied orange peels orangettes. And they are often coated with chocolate. That’s the idea of this tart.

I’m taking advantage of Japanese products :

arai goma (in the pate sucree)

mikan mandarin oranges (in the marmelade)

Click here about the star anise marmelade

Marmelade de mandarines à la badiane

How the star anise got married with the tiny Japanese orange…

An avalanche of mikan, the Japanese mandarin oranges. The season is really starting now. These are small like ping pong balls and irregular, but totally delicious.

Easy to peel.

Juicy. I’ve eaten tons already.

And cooked a few with star anise into a spicy marmelade. Not marmalade. It’s any citrus jam/compote for in French. But this one is not any. It’s specially delicious.

And it’s … addictive. Already made another batch.

Lackered

Little fun party today : Peking duck.
Am I fooling you ? I wish it was it, but well…
Correction :
Pekinfied duck skins
But that did it for me. That was delicious.

And that’s really recycling, rock bottom level budget cooking. I kept skins in the freezer when I used duck breasts in other recipes.

Made them sweat their fat with star anise to flavor. Discarded fat.

Added soy sauce, spices and sugar. Discarded the fat.

Dried excess fat with kitchen towel. Grilled them on slow heat in oven-toaster.

Lackered skins.

Sauce made with dochi, banana, chili pepper, oil.
I served with negi leaks, cucumbers and some fresh steamed crepes.

Take a crepe, fill, roll… Verdict : hao chi le !

Soupe du jour : Easy pork pho

The Vietnamese pho soup is usually made with a longly simmered broth. I didn’t make broth, I boiled directly the spices and veggies. That’s different, but quick and tasty.

a slightly more traditional pho

Pork, carrot, mushrooms and rice noodles…

… and South-East Asian plants I had in my freezer (lemon grass, galangal, citrus leaves, coriander leaves) and pantry (star anise, cloves, Sichuan pepper, dry chili, garlic). Then I added nuoc nam fish sauce, sugar and lemon juice.