Tag Archives: フランス料理

French Cuisine: Vendee Duckling and Morels at Pissenlit

May 17, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Service: excellent and very friendly
Facilities: great washroom, great cleanliness overall
Prices: reasonable, good value.
Strong points: Interesting wine list. Great use of local products.
entirely non-smoking!

This is the third dish we had at Pissenlit the other day after that great terrine and the lukewarm white asparaguses and Jamon Serrano. combination

This is also a cclassic French delicacy:
Caneton de Vendee aux Morilles fraiches/Vendee Duckling with fresh morels.

Ducklings have made the Vendee (central west France under Bretagne/Brittany) for ages. When you combine them with fresh morels imported from France, it is difficult to beat them!

The duckling was first roasted. The fesh morels were cooked in a suce composed Red wine, Madeira wine and fond de veau/veal stock.
All the other (steamed/etouffe) vegetables were organically grown in the city of Mishima, in the eastern part of Shizuoka Prefecture!

PISSENLIT
420-0839 Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Takajo, 2-3-4
Tel.: 054-270-8768
Fax: 054-627-3868
Business hours: 11:30~14:30; 17:00~22:00
Closed on Tuesdays and Sunday evening
Homepage (Japanese)
Credit Cards OK

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French Cuisine: Asperges Blanches Tiedes et Jamon Serrano at Pissenlit

May 15, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

This is the second dish we had at Pissenlit the other day after that great terrine. combination

This is also a combination of two countries this time:
Asperges Blanches Tiedes et Jamon Serrano

The white aparaguses from France werved lukewarm with first class ham from Spain/Jamon Serrano.
The vinaigrette was a lukewarm one based with taragon in particular.

That certainly disappeared quickly!
Just the time to take the pic as the Missus wouldn’t let me linger on it!LOL

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French Cuisine: Pressee de Poireaux sur Terrine de Foies Blonds, Vinaigrette aux Truffes by Pissenlit

May 15, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

You know that Chef Tooru Arima has achieved a well-earned fame when you learn that such respected local chefs as Tetsuya Sugimoto visit Pissenlit for dinner to enjoy and talk gastronomy, be it Japanese of French!

I have decided that describing a full meal at such establishments does not make justice to their art. Each sampled deserves an article of its own!

This particular appetizer/hors d’oeuvres is actually a combination of two very different terrines:
The base is provided by a slice of Terrine de Foies blonds de Volaille, a terrine made with the “white” livers of poultry raised outdoors in real nature.

The second tier is leeks from Belgium first steamed than pressed into a terrine with a very light jelly.

The leek terrine is seasoned with roughly ground black pepper.
The vinaigrette is made with balsamico vinegar, fond de veau and truffles. A green final touch is provided with small Italian parsley leaves!

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French Cake by Bernard Heberle: Thé Citron

May 13, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

My good friend, Bernard Heberle, the owner/chef of Abondance in Hamamatsu City has recently been elected the best patissier in Shizuoka Prefecture (4,000,000 souls) by the biggest Food Blog Community in Japan, namely Tabelog!

He was kind enough to send me his latest creation with the following comments in French:

“Voici le Thé citron
Donc un mousseux a la bergamote sur un pain de Genes a l’earl grey entoure d’un biscuit joconde bicolore
Comme si tu mangeais un Royal milk tea , a ne pas prendre avec un espresso ou autre café…
Bonne dégustation.”

“Here is the Tea Lemon cake
A mousse perfumed with bergamotte on a pain de Genes perfumed with Earl Tea surrounded by bicolour joconde biscuit
Like if you were eating a Royal milk tea, not to be eaten with an expresso or other coffee…
Happy tasting.”

Hope you understand!
In any case another absolute marvel!

Abondance
Address: Hamamatsu Shi, Sumiyoshi, 2-14-27 (in front of Seirei Hospital)
Tel.: 053-4738400
Fax: 053-4738401
Opening hours: 10:00~20:00. Closed on Tuesdays.
Homepage

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Cheese Souffle: The Basic Recipe

April 29, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

After being asked about my cheese souffle by a new Foodbuzz friend, I thought it was about time I re-post the recipe for this French classic.
Sorry, as I was caught a bit off my guard I had only and old pic of my cooking available. Let’s hope I will come another one soon!

When you mention the word “Souffle”, the first reaction you get is: “Too difficult!”. It is actually dead easy, and I can tell you that some restaurants make an enormous profit from them!

INGREDIENTS: For 4 people
Eggs: 4
Flour: 50g
Butter: 50g
Milk: 300cc
Shredded cheese: 100g
Salt
White Pepper
Nutmeg
Thyme
Laurel

RECIPE:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Butter well the inside of a (possibly round) deep oven dish (about 18cm x 8cm). This will help the souffle rise and prevent it fom sticking.

Separate egg yolks from egg whites.
In a large bowl add a little salt to whites and beat them until solid.

On a small fire, prepare a Bechamel sauce (white sauce):
Melt butter completely, pour in flour and mix well with spatula until smooth. Pour in milk and mix well (diffferent people have different techniques, but I found that the best technique is to mix half of the milk little by little first, then pour in the rest and use a whisker to make a smooth sauce). Add salt, pepper and spices. Keep stirring gently.

Once the sauce has thickened to the point of almost solid, take off the fire (or switch off the fire).
Mix in the egg yolks with a spatula until colour is even. Then proceed the same way with the cheese little by little until mixture comes smooth off the spatula.

Check that the whites have not gone back to liquid (That happened to me quite a few times, so make sure to check! In such a case, just beat them again. They will go back to a satisfactory state quite fast.). Mix in half first as delicately as possible with a spatula (not a whisker, or you will break the air bubbles in the whites and the souffle will not rise!). Then do the same with the second half. Pour in the mixture in the dish and put in the oven to bake for 45 minutes ( although that depends with every oven). To check whether the souffle is properly cooked, insert a thin wooden stick or knife deep into the souffle. It should come out smooth.

Before serving, make sure that everybody is at the table before serving. ” The guests wait for a Souffle, a Souffle does not wait for the guests!”

NOTES:

-1) This souffle can be cooked in individual dishes. In that case the cooking time shall be about 30~35 minutes.
-2) Instead of cheese you could use tinned tuna (2 x small cans), or fresh spinach (one bunch; boil it a couple of minutes in salted water first, then drain thouroughly, and mince it as thinly as possible), or crab (add a little brandy to it and mix beforehand), or thin short narrow strips of ham, or even ham & cheese. The variations are endless!

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French Restaurant: Hana Hana (2010/04/16)

April 16, 2010 dragonlife 3 Comments

Cassoulet

Service: excellent and very friendly
Facilities: great washroom, great cleanliness overall
Prices: reasonable, good value.
Strong points: Generous portions (for a Japanese restaurant), classic French and Italian and unpretentious. “Special” Wine list!

Last night saw cats and dogs falling anew with the unpredictable weather. Neither of us felt going back home and starting cooking. It was about time we visited an od friend of ours at Hana Hana!

The greatest quality of this unpretentious and very friendly restaurant combining the delicacies of Southern France and Italy resides in its succulent fare served in generous portions (for a Japanese restaurant), and all this at reasonable prices (for japan, again!)

Here is what we had last night:

Appetizer: deep-fried /shiroebi/white shrimps/Glass shrimps on a potato chip and amadai/Tilefish tartare on a lotus root chip.

Tilefish or amadai/アマダイ/甘鯛、尼鯛　in Japanese

Glass Shrimps/White Shrimps or shiroebi/白海老 in Japanese.

The Missus ordered a “Country-style” salad, but it was so big that the chef served a single portion on two different plates without even asking us! Great home-made sausages, duck and so on!

As for the beautiful duckling terrine, the two of us had to dig in as the portion was definitely not Japanese-sized! LOL
It certainly wasn’t easy to keep off the bread!

Now, the Missus’ main dish as a great combination of French and Japanese cuisines: Baked amadai/tilefish with wasabi sauce!
Did I tell you that Shizuoka Prefecture grows 80& of all wasabi in Japan?LOL

When I was wondering what main dish I would order, the chef just suggested, Alsation Choucroute or Cassoulet?
Not fair! Being a Burgundian, I was truly caught halfway!
Alright, I’ll take the Cassoulet!
…..
My, my, now, that was big!
The Missus: -I’ll have the finest little piece of each: Duck confit, pork belly cut and home-made sausage!
She could have tried to help me more…. LOL again!
Do you know the hree basic cassoulets? To give you an idea, mine included two of them!
No need to tell you it was perfect!

We don’t make a rule of eaing dessert, but we have never been able to escape from Hana Hana’s offerings!
The Missus had this Creme Blanche (meringue, fresh cream and cottage cheese) with a red fruit soup, a beautiful combination in colours and tastes!

I’ve always been a sucker for Hana Hana’s Creme Brulee!
Just the right amount of cream and plenty of caramel and a beautiful ice-cream on top!

I’ll have to find a reason to go back on my own!
Why?
There is still this Alsatian Choucroute bugging me!

Hana Hana
Open for lunch and dinner. Closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
420-0037 Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Hitoyado-cho, 1-3-12
Tel. & Fax: 054-2210087
Credit cards OK

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French Gastronomy: Pigeon at Pissenlit

April 5, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

When I saw the new “noren/entrance curtain” at the entrance of Pissenlit the other day (secret?) I knew it was a lost cause!
I just had to check what was on the menu, which evolves so well with the seasons!

The chef, Mr. Tooru Arima, told me that he had just received pigeon from Ibaraki Prefecture!
-Okay, I’ll go for it!
-It will take some time. How about an hors d’oeuvres first?
-Fine, I leave it to you!

What came was a very unusual combination of North African and Japanese cuisine!
Actually, when you think that Japan imports vast quantities of squid/cuttlefish from North Africa, I shouldn’t have been surprised.
The squid is called “mimi ika/耳烏賊”, meaning squid with “large ears”. It is comparativeley small but with large “ears”.
The dish consisted of a taboule salad with Moroccan couscous and home-marinated, very soft mimi ika squid, and plenty of local trefoil and herbs.
A very sophisticated hors d’oeuvres!

And then the whole pigeon came!
It is prepared in two steps, first a l’etouffee/pan steamed and then roasted before being cut and served with its sauce and vegetables (organic vegetables from Shizuoka).
Cooked to perfection, well roasted and crunchy on the outside and tender and half raw in the middle. Going through many textures in a single bite!

The head has been cut to reveal the brains, a real delicacy if a bit gross!

Now the “stick” is very japanese in concept. It is simply a yakitori made with the liver and heart of the smae pigeon!
Barbarous again, but so delicious!

It was lunch and I had been ravenous. I therefore finished with a small plate of cheese to go with the red wine:
Aged gruyere, Trou du Cru, Crottin Chavignol, Roquefort and Explorateur!

What’s in next? LOL

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French Cake by Bernard Heberle: Foret Noire

April 2, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

My good friend, Bernard Heberle, the owner/chef of Abondance in Hamamatsu City has just been elected the best patissier in Shizuoka Prefecture (4,000,000 souls) by the biggets Food Blog Community in Japan, namely Tabelog!

He was kind enough to send me his latest creation with the following comments in French:

“Biscuit léger au chocolat surmonté de copeaux de chocolat imbibé de liqueur de griotte sertie d’un moelleux au chocolat blanc et griottine et une mousse au chocolat amer et finition a la crème chantilly vanillée.”

“light chocolate biscuit topped with chocolate flakes imbibed with griotte/cherry liqueur surrounded with a white chocolate moelleux and griottine/cherry, and a sour chocolate mousse and vanilla scented Chantilly cream.”

Hope you understand!
In any case an absolute marvel!

Abondance
Address: Hamamatsu Shi, Sumiyoshi, 2-14-27 (in front of Seirei Hospital)
Tel.: 053-4738400
Fax: 053-4738401
Opening hours: 10:00~20:00. Closed on Tuesdays.
Homepage

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Poached Egg, Smoked Salmon & Avocado Salad

March 20, 2010 dragonlife 10 Comments

When looking for a new idea, it is sometimes more practical to look at what is avalaible all year round like eggs, tomatoes, onions, avocado and so on!

Here is a simpel idea you can improvise on for great impression with simple ingredients!

Poached Egg, Smoked Salmon & Avocado salad!

INGREDIENTS: For 4 people

-Eggs: 4
-Avocado: 2
-Smoked Salmon: 200 g
-French dressing: as appropriate
-Onion: 1
-Myoga ginger: 2
-Fresh dill: 4 sprigs
-Salt: as appropriate
-Pepper: as appropriate
-White wine vinegar: as appropriate

Sauce A):
-Mayonnaise: 60 g (make your own if possible)
-Ketchup: 15 g (try and make your own to impress your guests!)
-Milk: 1 tablespoon
-Brandy: 1/2 teaspoon
-Tabasco: as appropriate

RECIPE:

-in a pan pour water and add white wine vinegar and salt. Heat till just before boiling point. Break egg (one at a time will mean better results!) over the surface and poach. Help white to fold around the yolk. Once the yolk has started solidifying scoop the egg out delicately and transfer into a bowl of chilled clean water. Once the poached eggs have completely cooled down, delicately take them out and take as much humidity off as possible by placing them on top of a clean piece of kitchen paper.

-Peel the avocadoes. Cut them in half and discard the seed. Cut them in thin half moon slices and season them with French dressing.

-Slice the onion into very thin circles. Dropthem in cold water for a while, take them out and drain them thoroughly of all water. Do the same with the myoga ginger after having sliced it thin lengthwise.

-Sauce A):
Mix all ingredients and rectify with salt and pepper if deemed necessary.

-Like in the picture above, onto four individual plates mount the ingredients in the following order: Smoked salmon, sliced onion, sliced avocado, poached egg, sliced myoga ginger and dill. Pour an appropriate amount of sauce A) over the egg.

Enjoy!

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Celery Vichyssoise

March 20, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

It is celery high season in Shizuoka Prefecture which produces half of all celery cultivated in Japan.
Vichyssoise, a soup named after the city of Vichy in Central France was apparently created by Louis Diat, a Frenchman living in the United States.
There is a plethora of vichyssoises, be they hot, cold or chilled.
Here is a simple suggestion made with celery you can easily improvise on especially on quantities!

Celery Vichyssoise!

INGREDIENTS: For 4~ people

-Onion: 1/2 finely sliced
-Celery: 1 finely sliced
-Potato: 1 finely sliced
-Butter: as appropriate
-Chicken consomme soup (water: 500 cc/2 1/2 cuos + 2 chicken bouillon standard cubes)
-Milk: as appropriate
-Fresh cream: as appropriate
-Salt and pepper: to taste

RECIPE:

-In a all-purpose large enough pan, drop butter and melt before first dropping in the sliced onion you will fry over a medium fire until it becomes translucent. Add sliced celery and potato and fry gently, taking care that the colour does not change.

-When all butter has been wholly absorbed by the vegetables, add the chicken consomme and cook until the vegetables start disintegrating.

-Transfer the whole into a food mixer and process.

-Transfer into a large bowl set over a larger bowl containg ice to chill the soup. Add milk to thin it to your convenience. Check taste and rectify with appropriate amounts of salt and pepper. Leave inside refrigerator to chill the soup thoroughly.

-Add appropriate amount of fresh cream and stir before serving.
Top the soup with small celery leaves for better effect!

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French Cuisine: Sauteed Landes Duck Foie Gras with Madeira Sauce on Truffles Risotto

March 11, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Another reason for visiting Pissenlit on a regular basis is that Chef Tooru Arima is capable of using the most extravagant ingredients and still offer them at a very reasonable price.

This Duck foie gras (how about that, Arnie?LOL) from the Landes area, South Western France) was fried/flambe to perfection. It sounds easy, but the timing is extremely difficult. I should know as I cannot count the times I have failed.
Now the Madeira sauce was in perfect balance with the foie gras, whereas the truffles risotto offered the salted counterpoint to the sweetness of the foie gras and sauce!

Alright, how much? Less than 30 US $!

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French Cuisine: Landes Duckling and Orange Salad at Pissenlit

March 11, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

Tooru Arima is a lucky chef:
He has access to some of the best organic vegetables and fruit all year long in this country.
No wonder he can prepare this succulent salad with duckling from the Landes area in France and cook it to perfection before letting it cool down and cut it thin slices to be served with oranges from Shizuoka. As for the green leaf vegetables inclkuding trefoil, luccolla and others are all organic and from our prefecture.
Customers are lucky, too, aren’t they? LOL

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French Gastronomy: Mosaic Vegetables Terrine at Pissenlit

March 11, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Tooru Arima has a special love for anything vegetables and is constantly on a quest to serve them in an original manner!

Above is a beautiful example of his imagination.
Served with a red sweet pimento mousse, it makes for the best appetizer in town with a great white wine!

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Cheese Plate and Wine Tasting at Gentil

February 27, 2010 dragonlife 5 Comments

Cheese Tray of the day (2010/02/26):
-Top row: Brie de Meaux (4 months, France), Gorgonzola Dolce (Italy), Bleu D’Auvergne (France), Raclette (6 months, Hokkaido, Japan).
-Bottom row: Chevre Noir (2 years, Goat Milk, Canada), Mont D’or (France), Petit Agour Basque (Ewe, France), Cream cheese and Rum Raisins creation by Gentil.

It was about grand time I paid a visit to Gentil, the oldest French restaurant (1964) in Shizuoka City.
It is a great and accordingly expensive restaurant, but if you confine yourself to a plate of cheese and a glass of good wine, it is actually great value.
Ms. Keiko Kubota is THE authority on any cheese in Japan and actually helps mature cheese she acquires all year long in season only.

As for wines, the pairings are just sublime.

As I had oredered the full tray and requested a white wine, I was offered the following:

A white from my country!

Alsace, France, Riesling by Jean Ginglinger, 2008.

Very clear and clean. Bright golden colour
Aroma: Fruity and sweetish, very natural, green grass, Muscat and apples.
Taste: Soft attack, fruity at first with muscat, but quickly taking a very tangy turn with green grass, green apples and peach memories.
Very pleasant and great pairing with cheese. Kept it own all the time in spite of the strong cheese.

Now for the plate!
All the cheeses represented on the tray at the top of this article are feature except one!
Can you guess them all?

The raclette came on toasts!
I will not bore you with the tasting of the cheeses. They are just all top in their own categories and seasonal. The only thing I will say is that start chasing them around wherever you live!LOL

You do need some sugar to balance all the salt ingested with the cheese!
Chocolate cake, Mikan/Orange jelly and Creme brulee (and sorbets!)

Instead of coffee, I opted for the sorbet/sherbet farandole:
Camomille & Milk, Rum Raisins, Maro-Blue/Usubeni Aoi Herb.
The little mignardise is a snow ball bicuit made with chocolate and caraway seeds.

Need I comment more?

Restaurant Gentil
Address:420-0031 Shizuoka Shi, Gofuku-cho, 2-9-1, Gennan Kairaku building, 2F
Tel.: 054-2547655 (Reservations advisable)
Fax: 054-2210509
Opening hours: 12:00~14:00, 18:00~last orders for meals at 21:30. Bar time 18:00~23:30. Closed on Mondays.
Credit cards OK
Homepage　(Japanese)

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Horsemeat Steak at Pissenlit

February 24, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

The Japanese love horsemeat.
Whereas the French will eat it in the shape of fried steaks or steak tartare (did you know that the real tartare steak is made from horsemeat?), the Japanese will eat it as sashimi. They also will let it mature frozen and thaw justenough before savouring it!

Pissenlit, being a French restaurant in Shizuoka City, the approach is naturally totally different!

The meat is prime horsemeat from Normandie horses raised in Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyushu Island.
Chef Tooru Arima will fry it slowly to perfect tenderness and serve it with a red wine sauce of his own.

He will place the steak on a slice of kooushi daikon and surround it with other organic vegetables: kikabu/yellow turnip, Stick Senior/Broccoli variety, kiiro and aka ninjin/yellow and red carrots, mekabetsu/Brussels sprouts, Milano daikon. All vegetables are grown in Mishima City, Shizuoka Prefecture except for the Brussels sprouts from Kyoto.