What do you think about Japanese cuisine? Do you hate it? Love it? Or maybe you have just never tried anything else apart from sushi? I don’t know if I have never mentioned it (if I don’t, I am doing it now), but I am in love with Japan ♥. I love its culture, its language (I have even tried to learn it when I was ten years old. As I suppose you have already guessed, I didn’t succeed) and of course its food.  Contrary to what people thing, Japanese cuisine is a very simple one and it focus on fresh products and the flavor of each ingredients (instead of a concoction where they become unrecognizable)

I have been a big otaku for years ; now I just don’t have time to read manga or watching anime, but I still like it. Actually, two of my biggest hobbies began with manga: drawing and website/graphic design. I could spend all the day drawing the characters of my favorite series. Luckily enough, my teachers didn’t care about the fact that I had all my notebooks full of faces and little drawings. And of course, my first websites were (you guessed it) about manga and anime. I began to design websites when I was only ten years old!

Now, I have too many books from school to read and too many homework to do, so the only way I have to put in practice my interest in Japanese is cooking; I can live without TV (actually, I don’t watch it anymore), cinema, computer games or even without going out on Saturdays nights, but I need doing at least some cooking to relax.  

Well, writing a post (my first guest post!♥) about Japanese culture for some friend of mine (who is even more a lover of Japanese culture than me) is another good way to take a break from schools :) I cooked a Mushroom miso soup and wrote the recipe, which you can read here. By the way, you can visit his blog, NihongoUp: it’s about Japanese language and culture. Philip is a Russian New Media developer & designer (check out his game to learn Japanese!) who has been living for years in Czech Republic. He has got a small section about food and recipes, and I tried one of them: Stir-fried tofu with green beans. Maybe I can’t afford going to Japan, but at least I can eat a tofu with green beans at home :)

Check out this mushroom miso soup recipe on NihongoUp blog!

By the way, I have created a Twitter account (I couldn’t resist it!) Now I have to get the hang of it. What do you think about Twitter? Do you think that it will suppose the disappearance of blogs  (yeah, some people think it will) and that microblogging is the future? Or that it is just a passing fashion? In any case, I succumbed to the temptation, and now I have a Twitter widget on the right side of the blog :)

Stir-fried tofu with green beans By Philip, from NihongoUp Blog(recipe here) I have introduced very little changes in this recipe because it’s incredibly easy. It’s the perfect everyday dish: healthy, balanced, tasty and quick. The only ingredients I omitted are fresh minced ginger and mirin because I run out of this ingredients (visiting the Asian store is in my “to do list” since September). The original recipe calls for extra-firm tofu, but mine was frozen. I would say it worked as well as regular tofu. I forgot unthawing it, so I put it in the steamer for five minutes and it turned out perfect. Then,  press it between two plates and something heavy on top as you would do with a non-frozen tofu block (it allows the tofu to absorb better the flavor) and marinate it in the mix of tamari (soy sauce), mirin, sesame oil and maple syrup for 15 minutes.

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I have been a cauliflower hater most of my life. I hated all about it: the taste, the color and specially the smell. I remember that when I was little, I couldn’t stand arriving at home from school and smelling this thing — just mentioning “cauliflower” was enough to send shivers down my spine— while it was cooking in the kitchen. I admit that I was a little bit fussy about food when I was little (not just with cauliflower) but I still can’t understand my past aversion to this veggie. My mother was always trying to disguise it covering it with an omelet; it worked with my brother, but not with me….I was too clever (just kidding. I suppose my brother loved omelet too much to leave it on the plate. My mother, of course, always made sure that the cauliflower was broken in tiny, tiny florets)

Now I love it. And I don’t need covering it with anything: I can eat it plain, steamed and just with a drizzle over it. Actually, I eat most of my veggies this way: it’s easy and you can savor them in all their glory (I am sure that I have already told it…and more than once. I wonder why I am such a pain in the neck).  I could do a list of all the veggies I hated before going vegan and that now I adore, but I am afraid that you would fall asleep before I finished.

A couple of days ago I was in a café, speaking with a friend: she ordered a chocolate bun and told me she was addicted to it; I told her that I was addicted to Brussels sprouts and broccoli (now I am afraid that I lost her forever).

But if I only ate steamed veggies I wouldn’t have anything to blog about, so sometimes I need to cook something more elaborated. An example is this cauliflower curry I did for this month Tried and Tasted. Since Renae sent me a box full of spices because I complained about how difficult it was to buy them here (I won’t get tired of saying it…you’re a darling! : ) I suppose you will receive soon your parcel from Spain), every time I cook something Indian I am like a kid with a new toy….at least I can cook something without omitting half of the ingredients! 

So if you like Indian cuisine too, have a look at Sunshinemom’s Tongue Ticklers, the blog of the month in Tried&Tasted November edition. The hostess is Raaga, from The Singing Chef. As always, you have more information Raagas entry on T&T, or in Zlamushka’s original post. But the principle is easy: you cook something from Tongue Ticklers, make a photo, blogs about it and send it to the hostess (this month to The Singing Chef  webmistress). Non-bloggers are welcome too.

Feel free to use this logo (I am the official T&T designer…yay!),but it would be nice if you linked back to Tales of a Spoon ;) It’s the only thing that I ask in return.

Cauliflower and green peas dry curry - Gobi Matar ki sukhi subzi Serves: 3 From: Tongue Ticklers 1 kg cauliflower ½ cup peas (I used one cup) 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp carom seeds  ( Sunshinemom emphasized that it shouldn’t be omitted, but I didn’t have any) ¼ tsp fennel seeds 1 ½ coriander powder ½  tsp cumin seed powder ¼ turmeric Chili (to taste; I didn’t add  too much) 1/8 dry mango powder 1 tsp fenugreek Coriander and dry fenugreek leaves (I omitted this) Break the cauliflower in small florets. Heat a little bit of oil in a skillet (or in a wok) and add the cumin, carom and fennel seeds. Add the cauliflower, salt and cover until half cooked. Add the peas and cook until almost done. Add the powdered spices (turmeric, coriander, chili, mango and cumin). Sauté. Adjust the seasoning if needed. Finally, add the fenugreek, sauté for a minute more and turn off the heat. Sunshinemom recommends serving it on rotis or rice

Verdict
Definitely, you can’t omit half of the spices when cooking something Indian like I was doing. I have done curry many times before, but it never tasted like this (I suppose it’s logical when you curry lack some essential ingredients, like turmeric). It was spicier than I am used to, but I liked it. I have been only once in an Indian restaurant (it was in Prague, and my friends told me that it was real Indian food. If their Indian friends told them it, I suppose it was true) and it was rather spicy….but very pleasant to palate. You know, spicy enough but not too spicy. Well, this is the most similar to something Indian I have ever cooked :-) Light, easy to digest (fennel and cumin are very good in this sense), low-fat and quite quick. Maybe I will try a wet variation of it (but first I have to find a soy yoghurt without a tone of sugar in it)

Now that summer is over, I have dug up some photos I did when I was still on holidays.

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Fall is definitively here. The wind is already cold and gusts on morning and afternoons, and you only want to stay at home with you cup of hot tea (or coffee, or herbal tea. I would like to be so healthy, but I can’t). I fancy again hot porridge on mornings, and for me it’s the sign that cold days are already there. And of course, sweet potatoes and chestnuts. I have been living on sweet potatoes lately, but today I ate chestnuts for the first time this autumn. I bought them at school. Yeah, at school: 11 year students (which here is called 4th of ESO, and it’s the last compulsory year) are selling roasted chestnuts in the school café to recollect money for their end of year trip. I think that the authentic fall tastes like chestnuts and sweet potatoes, doesn’t it? It’s common to see people who sells them in the street , especially just before “Castanyada”, a traditional Catalonian celebration which takes place during the All Saints’ Day (although every time more and more people is replacing it with Halloween) and where people eat roasted chestnuts, panellets (small marzipan cakes) and sweet wine. We even saw Trick ‘r Treat,— Michael Dougherty horror film—in English class! 

I have posted recipes with pumpkin and sweet potatoes so far (chestnuts and panellets are in my “to do list”, but  I have sun a little bit other wonderful vegetables like….Brussels sprouts, for example. I don’t know why there are so much Brussels sprouts haters.  I can understand spinach haters or even chard haters—although I love this veggies as well—….but what is wrong with Brussels sprouts? I love eating mine plain, just steamed and with a drizzle of olive oil on top (like a lot of veggies), but sometimes I fancy something different. Brussels sprouts is not the kind of veggie you usually put in your slow and long cooking dishes, but I decided to try. The result was today’s recipe.

Curried rice and red lentils with Brussels sprouts I haven’t used too much curry in this recipe, so if you like your curried dishes spicy consider adding a little bit more. The coconut milk makes it even milder, and cooking it on a low heat and whole softens the Brussels sprouts without making them fall apart. Feel free to try it with other kind of rice (white rice, Arborio, basmanti rice…), but be careful with the cooking time. From: original recipe Serves: 3-4 1 tsp curry powder 1/2 tsp garam masala 1 onion, chopped 5 tbsp tomato paste 1/2 cup brown rice, half cooked 2 pears in quarters 1 cup Brussels sprouts 1 cup water 2 cups shredded cabbage 1 cup red lentils 1 cup stock 125 ml coconut milk more water if needed salt oil Heat about 1 tbsp of oil in a saucepan. Add 1 tsp of curry powder, 1/2 tsp of garam masala and cook for a couple of minutes on a low heat (don't burn it!)Add the chopped onion, about 5 tbsp of tomato paste and the half-cooked 1/2 cup of rice. Cook for 5 minutes more. Add one cup of water or stock, salt (if you are using water), and cover for 10 minutes. Stir the shredded cabbage, one cup of red lentils, 125 ml of coconut milk and another cup of stock. Cook on a low heat until the rice is well cooked and the lentils are falling apart. It must be a moist dish, so add more stock or water if needed.

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It seems like I’m not the only one who has got a food blogger’s block, judging by the last post of The Sophisticated Gourmet (who despite having a food blogger’s block, has cooked some New York-style bagels that look more than appetizing). I suppose it has something to do with my lack of time (and creativity). School is absorbing all my time and energy like a sponge! So it’s logical: if I don’t cook anything blog-worthy, how can I write a good post?

Today’s recipe is  Che Dau Trang and, and it iss my contribution to the october’s Tried&Tasted, the blog event created by Zlamushka. This month the featured blog is Wandering Chopsticks (what a lovely name!), and the hostess is Trupti of Trupti’s Food Corner.  Wandering Chopsticks is a food blog specialized in Vietnamese dishes, although there is plenty of non-Asian dishes too. Among the dozens (or maybe hundreds? The recipe index is vast!) of recipes, I decided to try this, the Vietnamese Dessert Pudding with White Beans and Sticky Rice in Coconut Milk, or Che Dau Trang (Ok. I think I will follow calling it just rice& beans dessert pudding)

Vietnamese Dessert Pudding with White Beans and Sticky Rice in Coconut Milk I won’t copy the recipe here again: you can get it here. Actually, I cooked this many weeks ago….and now I regret it. Why? Because I bought coconut milk for the first time in my life a week ago. And I don’t know why I haven’t done it before because I loved it! Taking advantage of my visit to Barcelona, I stopped by the Asian supermarket and bought a couple of cartons of coconut milk. I have drunk my morning coffee (I think I am becoming a caffeine addict) with coconut milk since then. It adds a delicate and slightly creamy touch that I love. Why I am talking about that now? Because my coconut milk pudding…was without coconut milk. Yeah, I cooked it with soy milk, and I would not recommend you doing the same. It tastes great anyway (I ate the full pot in two days), but it will curdle. So if you have coconut milk, use it. I have also used brown rice instead of glutinous rice. I don’t know if glutinous brown rice exists, but I have only seen white glutinous rice. Because I try to avoid anything refined, I opted for the brown variety. I reduced the amount of sugar. The original recipe called for ½ cup, but I added only 2 tbsp, and it was enough for me. The verdict: I sincerely liked the dish, even with soy milk and with non-glutinous rice. I suppose you can eat it like a dessert, but I think it would be a wonderful breakfast. Actually, this was the way I ate it. It is an easy and tasty way to combine grains and beans in the same dish (and get complete protein) without resorting to the typical rice and lentils combo.

I love this photo :) It was taken during the party we did in the beach to say goodbye to Summer and Summer holidays. I have not posted it until today because although we began school a month ago, the weather has been abnormally hot during all September and part of October, so nobody had the feeling that it was fall….until a couple of days ago. I was freezing yestarday while waitng for the bust! So, see you next year, summer :) Me with two of my friends (I'm the one in the middle)

 

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Do you like fall and winter vegetables? I do. I think I even like them more than summer veggies.  Pumpkins, sweets potatoes, Brussels sprouts, beets, artichokes, chestnuts…. If you love them too, you will like today’s recipe: pumpkin & sweet potatoes stew with white beans. It’s easy, made from seasonal ingredients and healthy! I love fall and winter vegetables because you can cook wonderful comfort meals with them. Ok, steamed broccoli is great (have you tried it just with a drizzle of olive oil and some nuts on top?), but when it’s cold and rainy outside and you want something filling and warm, broccoli is definitely not the first what I think about. Instead, I begin to dream about bowls of steamy chilies, casseroles, soups and stews.

>No, it’s not cold here yet. Actually, today it was 27ºC (80,6ºF),but I suppose that summer is being too long this year, and I have already began to miss my cold days comfort food.

Making stupid faces in front of a camera is SO funny :) I went to the dentist last week to change the elastic bands of my dental braces. Now they are blue! Luckily, it didn't hurt as much as the first time: after two or three days I was able to eat almost normally.

Which is your favorite comfort food or comfort meal? Mine is always something with beans and veggies, cooked on a low heat until they become tender. I sprinkle my stews with nuts (actually, I sprinkle everything with nuts) or seeds because I like the contrast between the crunchy and moist and tender ingredients.

This month is the month of vegan food, and many of the blogs that I follow are participating. I really admire people who can write for a whole month one post a day, which is the main rule of Vegan MoFo. I even don’t know how I found time to write this (short) post. I suppose that I just didn’t want to study on a Friday evening, and I tried to convince myself that I must write a post. Compared with this duty, my Philosophy or Economics homework is something superfluous ;) Luckily, I don’t have school next Monday (hurrayyy!), so I will try to compensate a little bit.

How many of you are participating in Vegan MoFo? Some examples of the great reacipes that vegan bloggers are posting these days are this Mole-Roasted Cauliflower or this Vegan Mauritian Stew. Don’t they look delicious? :)

Pumpkin & sweet potatoes stew with white beans I love oven baked sweet potatoes. I eat them whole, with the peel because it is the part I like the most, especially when it caramelizes and becomes crunchy. But if you do that, you must scrub with a scouring pad. I used non peeled sweet potatoes in this stew, but you can peel your if you want. You will lose a little bit of texture, but you will improve the presentation: the peel, which is darker, gives a less bright color to the dish. This is a rather sweet main dish (all the ingredients are quite sweet), so I would recommend to serve it with something salty. I ate it topped with ground almonds and gomashio (ground sesame seeds with salt) and crackers. How about these savory onion crackers? The spice blend was inspired in SasanV’s Iraqi-Inspired Seitan and Eggplant Stew. I only added mustard seeds. You can play with the seasoning: if there is some spice that you don’t like, leave it out. Begin with 2 tsp of seasoning blend and add more if you think it’s not enough. Or just add you own seasoning blend. Whatever is your spices choice, the stew will taste much better the next day, or the next one….if there is some stew left, of course :) Serves: 3-4 as a main dish From: original recipe. Seasoning blend inspired in SasanV’s Iraqi-Inspired Seitan and Eggplant Stew Seasoning blend: 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp smoked paprika 1/4 tsp nutmeg 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon 1/8 tsp cardamom 1/8 tsp ground cloves ½ tsp mustard seeds Stew: 2tsp of the seasoning blend above. 1 tbsp olive oil ½ onion, chopped 1-2 medium sweet potatoes, diced 1/3 of a medium pumkin, diced 1 apple, peeled and diced 1 ½ cup cooked white beans (feel free to substitue with any kind of beans) 1 ½ cup broth and additional water if needed Salt If you are using dried white beans, soak them the night before and cook them as always. I used dried beans and reserved the cooking water and used it as the broth. If you are using canned beans, you can use a buillon cube instead (or your homemade stock) Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the spices. Cook on a low heat for a minute, until they become fragrant. Add the chopped onion and sauté for a couple of minutes more. Add the diced sweet potatoes and cook for 5 minutes on a medium heat. Add the pumpkin and apple. After a minute, add the beans, the broth (or water) and salt. Cook for 30-40 min on a very low heat, adding more water or salt if necessary. Serve it very hot, with ground almond and a drizzle of olive oil on top.

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It’s curious how a person can live several years in a country, and don’t go out from the city where he or she lives.  I have lived in Moscow until the age of seven, and I have never been to St. Petersburg…until this summer. Yeah, after knowing that I was going to come to Russia, my lovely cousin (I don't know which blog I must link: this or this?)organized a weekend trip to St. Petersburg because she knew that I have never been there before.  

The journey was tiring because we took a night train, which means that nobody slept very well (an armchair is not the most comfortable place to sleep), but I don’t complain because seeing the city worth it. St. Petersburg in summer is full of tourists, with wide roads and old but restored buildings that looked very picturesque. Unfortunately, I was wrong with my weather prediction, and I spent the two days roasting in trainers and long jeans because it was 25ºC (which means that you have the feeling that it’s like 35ºC).

I could explain how beautiful the city was, but I think you will enjoy more seeing it by yourself =) Probably a Russian recipe would have gone better with the post, but I have got by on quick and easy dishes since I began school (you know, the difficult life of a student). So here is a quick and easy pumpkin soup with cashews, tofu and panch phoran. Don’t you love this wonderful vegetable? I have on mind more pumpkin recipe (like the raw shredded pumpkin with raisins and cinnamon I had today for lunch), so if you are a pumpkin lover too, be on alert.

A vegetarian café in St.Petersburg. Me drinking a cup of tea (yeah, it's what I am looking at) and my cousin. The room where we stayed. I would like to have a balcony like this. Out breakfast: a huge amount of fresh fruit. Blackberries, raspberries, cherries, prunes from the closest market. A Japanese restaruant called "Two chopsticks". I ordered the vegetarian set. Delicious! Last day, in the theathre.

 

Creamy Pumpkin soup with cashews When I saw SusanV recipe Cauliflower Dal with Panch Phoran, I knew I had to try this spice blend. Panch phoran is used in Bangladesh and Eastern India, and it’s composed from cumin, fennel, fenugreek, mustard and kalonjii in equal amounts. I didn’t have kalonjii, so I omitted it. I could say it a panch phoran….my way It’s difficult to explain its tastes or smell, so I will only say: try it. Combined with the sweetness of the pumpkin, the creaminess of the tofu and the nutty note of the cashews, it won’t disappoint you. Recipe from: original recipe Serves: 2-3 ½ medium pumpkin 1 peeled apple ¼ bloc firm tofu 2-3 tbsp cashews 1 cup water ½ cup milk (I used soy milk, coconut milk would taste great too) 1 tbsp panch phoran (or to taste) 1 tsp vanilla essence 1 tbsp oil 1tsp salt Extra cashews for decoration Chop the pumpkin, the apple and the tofu. Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the panch phoran, until it becomes fragrant. Add the chopped ingredients and sauté for a couple of minutes. Put the water to boil, and add all the ingredients. Cook on a low heat for 20-30 minutes without the lid (or only partially covered), or the milk can boil over. Put it all in the food processor and puree until it becomes a smooth cream. Add more salt if necessary. Serve with some extra cashews on top and a drizzle of oil.

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I think I deserve applause: I have survived my first week of school! After three month of doing nothing (reading doesn’t count as work for me), I assure you that it was not easy. This week has been very different from my usual summer weeks:  very little cooking, very little Internet (and no TV, but I don’t watch it in summer either. Does anybody else think that TV is unnecessary when you have a computer?), no photographing, no running or cycling. Hat kind of life is that?

Instead, I have spend half of my time  in front of the laptop, writing my research project about Russia and the Soviet Union — and I only wrote less than ten pages — and the other half at school lessons (many of which are tedious, boring and endless). I like studying (well, I like studying some things), but I am fed up with studying the varieties of the Spanish for four years in a row. I want to go to the university. Now.

Somo shots from the museum-park-sanatorium. More photos of Moscow parks at the end of the post.

 Luckily, this morning I went running. Otherwise I would have gone mad. I have the feeling that I have a creative crisis. Those of you who are bloggers: which is your everyday inspiration that helps you to go on with your project? The other day I was reading Lara Ferroni’s post, who said that sometimes she must remind herself why she is doing that, why exactly is she blogging. That sometimes she just doesn’t find that spark she needs to sit down and write. And I felt much identified.

I have had a lack of creativity lately. Like a mental block. I want to write, but every time I try to begin with a new post, the words don’t flow. I write, delete, write and delete again. And then I ask myself if what I am writing will interest someone. I am talking enough about food? Or maybe too much?  An excessive amount of photos?   

At the beginning, I didn’t think about posting this recipe. I thought it was something too common for the blog. But when I tried it, I immediately knew that I had to share this. And the praises of my family confirmed it.  I use bananas in my baked goods as a blinder quiet often. A part from blinding them, bananas give them extra flavor and moistness. But it also makes them heavier and denser. This bund cake is moist and spongy and light at the same time. I loved the cake, but I am not sure about the icing. The original recipe called for cashews, but I didn’t have so I used pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  It was OK, but I think that cashews would have worked better. You can try with an easy orange icing  instead. As regards the original recipe, I changed a few things. First of all, this was a Meyer Lemon Bundt Cake, and it used lemon zest and juice.  I have also used a combination of sunflower and olive oil, and substituted the agave with honey and sugar. And of course, the spicy touch of the garam masala** (see below). By the way, I must thank Renae for her fantastic present: a box full of spices and some other yummy things (the espresso beans have already disappeared, he he). You are a darling! The garam masala spices mix I used in this recipe is the one you sent me.  Orange Garam Masala Bundt cake Inspired by this recipe from Bitter Sweet. 1 cup soymilk Zest of one orange ½ cup orange juice ½ cup honey (or agave if you don’t eat it) ¾ cups sugar ¼ cup sunflower oil ¼ cup olive oil 3 ½ cups wheat flour 1 ½ tsp baking powder ¾ tsp baking soda ¾ tsp salt 1 tbsp flaxseeds 2 tsp garam masala Icing 1 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds (I used a mix) 1/4 cup honey ¼ cup soymilk (begin with less, and add as needed) 1 tsp vanilla extract Preheat the oven at 175ºC (or 350ºF) Mix the soymilk, the zest and the juice and leave it to stand for five minutes. Add the honey (or agave), the oil and mix. Now combine the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and garam masala. Grind the flaxseeds and add them too. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Combine it well, but do not over mix it. Pour the dough in your bund cake pan. Bake for about one hour. Let it cool. For the icing, just combine all the ingredients and blend until completely smooth. Blend it during several minutes if needed. Pour it over the cooled cake. ** From Wikipedia:  “Garam masala, from Hindi garam, "Hot" and masala "mixture", is a basic blend of ground spices common in Indian and other South Asian cuisines.[1] It is used alone or with other seasonings.[..] The composition of garam masala differs regionally, with wide variety across India. Some common ingredients are black & white peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves, long pepper (also known as pippali), black cumin (known as shahi jeera), cumin seeds, cinnamon; black, brown, & green cardamom, nutmeg, mace, star anise and coriander seeds

As I promised, here is more photos from Russia. This time, the theme is Moscow parks. It there is something I like about Russia is its parks. Some of them are as big as forests, with tall trees and lots of vegetation. And the best is that some of them are almost in the center of the city, so you always have a park not very far away from home. I’d give my right arm to have one of those parks near home here, in Spain. While I was in Moscow, I went running a couple of times to the closest park (called “Neskuchniy sad”, or “non-boring garden”) and it really like running in a forest. A  forest in the middle of the city. There are also parks outside the city or in the outskirts, which are at the same time museum, like Tsaritsino park or the Arkhangelsk museum-park-sanatorium.

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