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Jaljeera, Cumin Lemonade
While teaching a school program on a hot day in India, the kids and I were served a drink I’d never tasted before. It’s a sweet, salty, and spicy lemonade called jaljeera. I’m in love; this is the best thing for a hot day, whether it’s a Tokyo heatwave or a dusty playground. There are…
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Curried Mushroom Toast
Back from India, Tod is perfecting his fusion Indian recipes. Here is this morning’s brunch – a creamy curried mushroom sauce over toast. We’ve made this before, but this time Tod’s included some of the more esoteric Indian spices. The result is a rich, full-bodied flavour. If you don’t have these spices and seasonings at…
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Scorching Orange and Mint Salad
We had a strange assortment of leftovers from a party, including a bag of oranges, a bunch of mint and and a whole jar of black olives. A friend recently returned from a trip to South America gifted us some unidentified dried chiles. This must be a salad! The addition of cilantro and salt rounded…
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Gyoza Variations
I don’t know why this didn’t occur to us sooner, but gyoza wrappers work well with non-traditional fillings. We’ve been experimenting and two of our favorites are spinach and feta (gyozakopita), and potato with sauerkraut (pieroza). You can use your favorite spanikopita or pierogie recipe, or try ours. Gyozakopita Filling 1 onion 1 clove garlic…
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Sardine & Tomato Risotto
This is one of Tod’s inspired creations the fuses Japanese stock with a classically Italian dish. It fits into the veg-aquarian mode of eating and is so full of umami that all you will need to accompany it is a salad. Sardine & Tomato Risotto serves 2 20 g dried konbu 1 cup katsuobushi flakes…
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Honey Gingerbread Cookies
When we were travelling in Prague and Poland at Christmas a few years back, we fell in love with lebkuchen and pirniki, German and Polish gingerbreads. They are hard to find in Tokyo, so this year I decided to try making some myself. There is a bewildering variety of European gingerbread so settling on a…
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High Fat, High Yum Shepherd’s Pie
This weekend, Tod made an incredible shepherd’s pie. It’s an adaptation of one from Alton Brown and it makes the best I’ve ever eaten. The reason it was so good is the large quantity of lamb fat and cream in it. If you are afraid of fat, this is not the dish for you. Otherwise, it is truly…
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Pesto Eggplant Bake
This is a variation of a favorite recipe, Baked Eggplant Parm, that I blogged about in 2010. The original has been a staple of our dinners ever since but I think this variation is just as delicious. It came about while I was visiting Heather in Utsunomiya. Her garden harvest while I visited was a…
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Ice Cream Fruit Pie
Summer is full of fresh fruits at the peak of their juiciness. Peaches, plums, melons, and berries of all kinds fill the produce section. Irresistible and so delicious. But after a few weeks, fruit salads and smoothies wear thin. It’s too hot to bake. What to do? Make an ice cream pie with fresh fruit! You’ll create…
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Red Quinoa with Green Baba Ganoush and Spinach
I could kick myself for not photographing this, but I wasn’t sure how the dish would turn out and didn’t have a camera handy when I brought it to the table. Moments later Tod, humming happy food noises, asked me to write out the recipe but it was too late for a picture – we’d…
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