A lighning of green tea : matcha éclairs

Des éclairs au thé matcha. A flash of light in the middle of rainy season. Un éclair is a lightning during a storm. And this dessert…

Green tea version.

Same crust as the petits choux (recipe here), but longer.

The filling is very Japanese at the base with matcha (green tea for ceremony) and shiro an (paste made of white beans and sugar), with gives a matcha an (green tea cream).

mame

About this paste.

… I creamed it with coconut cream, and added a little brandy for flavor. They look rustic as it’s a week-day snack so I didn’t smoothen my cream with the sieve and I didn’t pipe the dough. Do that for guests !

On top, sugar and matcha green tea.

Green asparagus. Pickle sauce beans.

This is food for hot days. Green asparagus with cheezinaise. Pickles and tomato sauce white beans. It’s spicy, refreshing, plant-based and easy to digest.

daif

Beans in tomato sauce are usually something to warm you up in Winter, but adding the tartness and sourness of pickles totally refreshes the dish.

Boiled daifuku mame white beans, reheated in tomato sauce. I have then added capers, home-made tarragon pickles, some steamed stalks of green asparagus…

… a minced small red onion. I’ve let that 3 hours at room temperature, so flavors mixed well.

Served with mizuna leaves.

Cheezinaise
It’s similar to this one. Sakekasu brings a cheesy flavor. It is made of miso, sakekasu (sake lees), chili pepper and turmeric. After pasting and adding water, I cooked it a few minutes and let cool, and later completed with olive oil.

I’ve boiled very briefly the thin green asparagus spears and refreshed them in iced water. I’ve eaten them with the sauce.

Mint cha gio, all your green leftovers inside Spring rolls

Veggies to use or lose, combined to an envy of nems as we say in France. I mean cha gio, the Vietnamese Spring rolls, that are a French favorite deli food. These rolls can be made in great style with many ingredients, deep fried and all. It’s a quick and casual version.

The filling is very simple : Minced lettuce, mint, garlic, onion and ginger. Salt, pepper. Mashed white beans. Fold in rice paper. Let a few hours to allow flavors to mix.

They could be eaten raw… if you don’t mind raw garlic and onion that are a bit strong. I pan-fried them.

The sauce : pounded garlic, brown sugar, a pinch of salt, chili and plenty of rice vinegar.

One side dish is a quick tsukemono (pickles) : grated daikon radish, broccoli leaves, cut sakura leaves, a little salt. Let 20 minutes then squeeze away excess liquid. A second dish is a “stalk” stir-fry in the space of pan next to the rolls. The menu :

Crème de sakura (sakura an)

桜餡sakura an is the girlie version of anko, the classic sweet bean paste used to make Japanese sweets.

It is traditionally flavored with pickled sakura.

Dried daifuku mame. They are big white beans, very convenient to make Japanese sweets.

After soaking and cooking.

1. Paste the beans.
2. Add color (beni koji for red) and syrup or sugar. I also add a little brandy.
3. Pass the paste through a sieve.
4. Add pickled minced sakura leaves (for strong taste) and/or flowers (for lighter taste and pink bits in the mass).
5. Let a few hours, so the paste takes the full flavor.

The pickled sakura must be rinsed and soaked, otherwise they are really too salty.