Champilège 2 : amuse-shiitake

Amuse-gueules are small stuff to entertain your snout. The hat of a shiitake is the perfect size.

Shiitake mushrooms.

Soaked bulgur is the base, with red onion, garlic, thyme, olive oil, salt, pepper…

Baked till golden. Serve hot.

Tabouleh

Mini-mezze. OK, 2 items only… Well that should be 3. I have to confess what happened to the third.

Ah la la… In the name of culinary science, I tried to cook falafels in the waffle maker. Verdict : FAIL !
Oh they did cook, but they were glued there and split in 2. I had to eat directly from the molds.

Back to tabouleh. This is the Lebanese style. Far away from its remote French cousin.

Made with bulgur and all the herbs I had to use or lose. I though I had lots of herbs but I could have used 3 times more.

Bulgur takes longer than couscous to rehydrate.

It’s crunchy and solid under the teeth, delicately fresh and fragrant.

Served with a veggie mix, chick peas, favas, red paprika, seasoned with mace.

Casual wrapper (my quick tortillas)

A tortilla, a filling, a sauce… the Mexican universal sandwich. That’s an easy meal, no ?

Carrot-hummus (dinner)

Bean mix, Chinese style (lunch)

wrapatouilles (buckwheat tortilla, ratatouille)

Chinese osmanthus pork

seafood veggie tortilla

egg on green ful, crispy version

crispy, green ful, veggie-olive mix

Etc.

I could buy my tortilla. I did (the veggie ones are bought). That’s not common in Japan. Maybe out of 100 grocery stores, 1 have them, so after all… But well, either it’s a frozen pack of 30 (just enough for a snack, if you eat a lot), or only 4 for the same price, super-packaged, loaded with preservatives, etc. That seemed complicated to make, and the bought ones were not bad.
Then I tried to make mines. Oh my ! That’s so simple, and for me, they taste so much better : fresher, with tastier ingredients.

DIY wheat tortilla

-1/4 cup flour + 1 tbs oil/lard + just enough hot water
(spices or others are optional : today’s 1 tbs of rice bran + 1 ts paprika)
-Make a dry dough. Drop it roughly on your counter a number of times. Form 2 balls (ping-pong size). Roll 2 circles.
-Cook in a flat frying pan (non oiled)

2 ways :

To get them soft : with a lid, slow cooking, low heat, and I spritz water 1 or 2 times when I turn them. Reheat in steamer/microwave.
To get them crispy : no lid, high heat (them moderate), cook quickly, check often as you may burn them. Reheat in oven-toaster.

Lunch :
Bean mix + whites of negi leeks + tobanjan Chinese chili sauce

bean mix recipe

That’s a wrap !

Dinner :
Grated carrots.
Hand-pasted hummus (chunky) with tahini, garlic and Louisiana chili.
Negi leeks.

SOBA ike-men (noodle arrangement)

Soba : Japanese buckwheat noodles made of pure buckwheat, buckwheat and wheat, or wheat and tea for matcha soba. Do not confuse with *chuka soba* and *yaki soba* which are ramen (Chinese style noodles).

More about noodle types :
Guided tour of my soba closet