As usual, I like to chatter before getting down to the business. I am a good cook, but unfortunately, out of lack of self-confidence, I have started trying my hand at Asian food only recently, so 50% of my recipes will be Italian. At least they will have the merit of being true, so you guys out there can compare what you have eaten in the States (or here in Japan for that matter) with what I recommend here. Some dishes, very typical as they are, will be new to you. This because what has become famous abroad is 10% of what we got. I am far from being a nationalist in any sense of the word, but this is simply true.

There are many variations to any recipe, and even my cook books do not often agree one with the other. Always experiment with quantities. Those given in books and recipes are almost always wrong. The most incredible example is the site www.tartetatin.com, made in France by French and dedicated exclusively to Tarte Tatin, the French version of apple pie. Well, unless they have corrected it recently, their recipe fot the tarte is wrong. Try it, and you will fail. They forgot a vital step, that is reducing the volume of the juice produced by your apples. I owe my success in making the tarte to Brin de Muguet's Fred's kindness. He told me where the mistake lies.

So, as any cook will know, the fact I have personally tried each of these recipes is valuable information. If whatever you are doing does not feel right, feel free to try to fix it as you see fit.

Note: Unless stated otherwise, all quantities are to serve from four to six persons, according to appetite and body size.

The golden rule to remember when cooking Italian food is that, as the Economist correctly pointed out recently, Italian dishes are always simple (Italian pizza rarely has more than four ingredients, including oil and cheese). Clear tastes are our strength, and Italian food is basically not (although it has often become) sophisticated . That is its main quality, that should be respected to get the essence of our cuisine. These recipes are dedicated to my friends who, over the years, have eaten my food and often asked for the recipes. Here they are, more or less as I make them in my own kitchen.

Another thing:

WHEN YOU EAT ITALIAN, BREAD IS NOT AN OPTION. IT'S A MUST. YOU MUST EAT BREAD TO FULLY ENJOY THE FLAVORS OF OUR CUISINE. I just cringe when I see Japanese eat Italian food and there is no bread on the table.
Eat bread: you will not regret it. My foreign friends who have tried minestrone with bread now will eat it in no other way.

THIS RECIPE REQUIRES AN OVEN.
As a kid, I used to ask my mother almost every week to make lasagne, but she would make them at the most every six months. Now, as an adult, I understand why. But now things have changed and, though still time consuming, lasagne can be ready in just three hours instead of the six or more they used to require. You see, pasta sheets used to be boiled one at the time, but now you can buy Barilla pasta at Kinokuniya that does not require precooking. You just put the sheets as they are in the pan. The following recipe produces a huge amount of meat sauce left over, which can be frozen and used when needed. You can also halve all quantities.

Ingredients:
200 g of beef or pork (remember BSE) minced meat
One or two stalks of celery
One big carrot
One big onion
1.5 kg of canned peeled tomatoes
Heinz canned white sauce
Parmesan cheese in tidal amounts
Pepper, salt and clove

First chop up really fine the celery, the carrot, and the onion, put them to fry in olive oil and a tad of butter on middle fire until soft (but they must not brown). Add the meat, let it brown, mash up the tomatoes and add them in. When the concoction boils, salt and pepper as you like, add a touch of clove, lower the fire to the minimum and let it go for an hour or more until it has dried up and looks right.

At this point, we are ready for the real thing: the lasagne. Take a square metal container, butter it generously, put some meat sauce and white sauce at the bottom, sprinkle with abundant parmesan, mix and spread the whole thing all over, and cover with a layer of lasagna sheets of the kind whose package says "No precooking required" (IMPORTANT!). Do not forget to break them up in two or four to let off the steam, or your lasagna will explode, ruining everything. Repeat the operation with the meat sauce, the white sauce, the parmesan and the lasagna sheets until you will have completed four or five layers. Put in the oven and let it cook for about 30 minutes, until very brown on top.

This is a great dish because, as good as it is, it requires only 20 minutes of wait from the moment you start cooking to that in which you start eating.

NOTE: NEVER TRUST THE COOKING TIMES FOR PASTA GIVEN BY THE LABEL in Japanese. THEY ARE ALMOST ALWAYS WRONG, SOMETIMES BY AS MUCH AS 50%. If you don't believe me, go to Kinokuniya, find the pasta section, and look at a package of perciatellini pasta made by De Cecco. The Italian prescribes 8 minutes, the Japanese 12. Always read the Italian or English instructions. In Italian, the word for minutes is "minuti". It should be easy for you to find the cooking time on the package. Sometimes cooking times are not specified. In that case, check the pasta often.

Ingredients:
100 g of spaghetti per person
3-4 eggs
50 grams of bacon
Parmesan cheese
A package of milk cream
Some fresh parsley
Salt and pepper

Put the water to boil. While it heats up, chop the bacon up in pieces about a cm long and wide, put it on the fire and, when it's crispy, put it aside. Chop finely up the parsley. Put the eggs, the cream, the parmesan cheese, the parsley in a bowl, salt and pepper (be generous with the pepper) in a bowl and whip them into a uniform sauce. When the spaghetti, which in the meanwhile you will have probably put into the water, are ready, get them out and toss them in the air 8-10 times to cool them up a bit. This because you don't want the egg yolk to harden: it must stay fluid. Put in the bacon, stir well and serve. If when eating I feel the spaghetti are too dry, I add a bit of olive oil and stir.

NOTE: NEVER TRUST THE COOKING TIMES FOR PASTA GIVEN BY THE JAPANESE LABEL. THEY ARE ALWAYS WRONG, SOMETIMES BY AS MUCH AS 50%. Read the English or Italian instructions on the package.

Ingredients:
400 g of spaghetti
100 g of blue cheese
50 g of butter
A package of milk cream
Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper

Like Carbonara, the full preparation of this recipe requires just the time necessary for the spaghetti to cook. A great time saver when you are hungry.

Put in a pan the butter and the cheese, melt them on the fire and blend them together well with a spoon. Add the milk cream, a generous amount of pepper and the parmesan. If needed, and milk or parmesan to make the sauce more fluid or dense, and then add it to the penne (or spaghetti) when they are ready. At "Il Primo", chef Yamamoto adds some tomato puree, an unusual but good idea.

Ingredients:
One or two stalks of celery
One big carrot
One big onion
One can of peeled tomatoes
Vegetables you like.
2 liters of stock
Fresh rosemary
Pepper and salt

Cut up all the vegetables and put them all together in a container. Chop up really fine the celery, the carrot, and the onion, put them to fry in olive oil and a tad of butter on middle fire until soft (but they must not brown). Add the tomatoes, the vegetables, the stock and let the resulting gunk boil on low fire until it has become fairly dense. When the soup is almost ready, salt and pepper. I like to pepper very generously my minestrone, but you might prefer moderation. When you judge it to be ready, add pasta and overcook it slightly. Before putting the dishes on the table, add a toasted slice of baguette per person and serve.

This recipe is an adaptation of a very unusual dish I ate in a restaurant in Southern Italy. The reason it was so unusual is that the pasta was "orecchiette", used only in Italy's deep South, and the bacon was really speck, a type of bacon-like meat typical of the German-speaking areas of the extreme North of the country. Having no orecchiette and no speck, I had to adapt it, but it's very tasty and quick to prepare, so it has become one of my mainstays.

400 g of pasta (whatever type you want)
100 g of bacon
3 zucchini

Fry in olive oil the bacon until it is cooked but not crisp, add the three zucchini cut in round slices and cook on middle-low fire (this is important: if the fire is too high, the slice will harden and fry rather than soften and become a paste) until they are very soft, almost falling apart. Salt, pepper and use the result with plenty of parmesan as a sauce for the pasta.

There is another interesting variation of the recipe:

400 g of pasta (whatever type you want)
200 g of bacon
4 zucchine
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
1 can of peeled tomatoes

In the previous recipe, just replace zucchini with eggplants and, at the end, add a can of peeled tomatoes to the concoction, letting it cook for 15 more minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

This is another wonderful quickie. It is not nearly as salty as you might expect.

Ingredients:
3 anchovy fillets
15 -20 capers
2 cloves of garlic

Chop up together the capers and the garlic until they become almost a paste. Put them in a skillet with olive oil, cook them for a couple of minutes, add the anchovy fillets. When the fillets have completely dissolved in the oil, the sauce is ready. Use it with any type of pasta you like.

Ingredients:
200 g of beef or pork (remember BSE) minced meat
One or two stalks of celery
One big carrot
One big onion
2 kg of canned peeled tomatoes
Parmesan cheese in tidal amounts
Pepper, salt and cloves
About 400 g of tagliatelle

First chop up really fine the celery, the carrot, and the onion, put them to fry in olive oil and a tad of butter on middle fire until soft (but they must not brown). Add the meat, let it brown, mash up the tomatoes and add them in. When the concoction boils, salt and pepper as you like, add a touch of cloves, lower the fire to the minimum and let it go for an hour or more until it has dried up and looks right.

Boil the tagliatelle, add the meat sauce, sprinkle with parmesan and serve.

Risotto is another typical Italian dish which is not so well known abroad. Too bad, because it is very good, even though a little time consuming

Ingredients:
400 g rice (Japanese rice will be fine. Don't use Thai or Basmathi rice, though)
200 g spinach
1 leek
1 small onion
White wine
Parmesan cheese
Oil
Butter
Milk cream
2 liters of stock, salt

Clean the spinach, wash them, chop them up. Clean the leek and the onion, chop them up real fine, put them in hot olive oil and butter, and let them go until they are soft (they must NOT brown! Universal rule). Add the spinach. Let them cook for five minutes, add the rice, let it toast for a couple of minutes, sprinkle it with a glass of white wine, which you will let evaporate. Add enough stock to cover the rice, and add more when necessary. After about 20 minutes, the rice will be ready. Add a bit of butter, the cream, some parmesan cheese and serve. Each person can then, if desired, add more cheese later.

 

This recipe is a little unusual, but excellent. Very good during the winter.

Ingredients:

400 g rice
200 g pumpkin (without skin)
1 clove garlic
White wine
Butter
Parmesan cheese
Rosemary
Milk cream
2 liters stock
Salt

Cut the pumpkin in thin slices and put it together with the chopped up garlic in a skillet to fry in 40 g of butter and a little olive oil. Let it cook for 10 minutes at low fire squashing in once in a while with a fork. Salt and pepper it. Throw in the rice, let it toast for a couple of minutes, sprinkle it with a glass of white wine, which you will let evaporate. Add enough stock to cover the rice, and add more when necessary. After about 20 minutes, the rice will be ready. Add a bit of butter, the cream, the rosemary leaves cut as finely as possible, some parmesan cheese and serve. Each can then, if desired, add more cheese later.

 

8 chicken fillets
Butter
Salt and pepper

This is a great way of preparing chicken, because it couldn't be simpler than it is and yet, unfailingly, every time I prepare it, somebody asks for the recipe after generously praising my cooking skills. Take some chicken breast fillets and cook them in butter. Salt and pepper.

320 g of tortellini
Plenty of butter
Parmesan cheese
Sage

Again, an extremely simple recipe which in Italy is a classic. Take some butter, a good amount because it has to become the sauce for the tortellini, and melt it in a container put in hot boiling water, so that it won't burn. Put three or four big sage leaves in it and leave them there until they are soft and have given all their flavor to the butter. Together with the customary huge amount of parmesan, it will be a great sauce for the tortellini that you in the meanwhile will have boiled separately.

400 g of kidney beans, chickpeas, or both
100 g of macaroni
One or two stalks of celery
One big carrot
One big onion
500 g of canned, cubed peeled tomatoes
Some sprigs of rosemary
Salt and pepper

This famous dish is in a sense only a variant of Minestrone. Chop up really fine the celery (including the leaves), the carrot, and the onion, put them to fry in olive oil and a tad of butter on middle fire until soft (but they must not brown). Add the tomatoes, let simmer, the vegetables, let simmer again, finally the stock and let the resulting gunk boil on low fire until it has become fairly dense. When the soup is almost ready, salt and pepper. I like to pepper very generously my pasta e fagioli, but you might prefer moderation. When you judge it to be ready, add pasta and overcook it slightly. Before putting the dishes on the table, add a toasted slice of baguette per person and serve.

 

The following recipes were given to me by my friend Noyi, who is a Thai microbiologist who comes occasionally to Tokyo to work. Before that, I did a lot of experimentation on my own without much success. I did have recipes, but they were either imprecise or they required ingredients I did not have.
The Three curries have very distinct tastes and I recommend you to try all of them. About where to buy the ingredients, see the Ethnic Groceries section of this site.

Green Curry

For 4 people
- Thai rice, 300 g
- Chicken deboned drumsticks or breasts, diced, 200 g
- Two spoons of Nam Plaa (fish sauce)
- Mae Ploy green curry paste (I found it impossible to make it on my own: too many ingredients are unavailable in Japan), 40 g
- 3 eggplants, peeled, diced and previously boiled for a couple of minutes
- 400 g of coconut milk, either from a can or from powder
- 1 carrot cut in big pieces
- Bamboo sprouts in ribbons, 50-100 g
- Two small red peppers cut in strips
- Lemon grass leaves, 4 or 5

Put some oil in a pan and fry on middle fire the green curry paste for a minute or so until done. Add the diced chicken with the Nam Plaa, brown it, then add some coconut milk, the eggplants, the peppers and the bamboo sprouts. Keep frying on mediumfire gradually adding the rest of the milk, then the spices and let go until it has the right consistency. If you wish to add more paste to make it hotter, fry some in oil in a separate pan, add some milk and then pour into the rest of the curry.

The rice: the rice cost me a lot of experimentation, because everybody seems to have a different opinion about the percentage of water to rice it takes to steam it. My Indian friend Sohan and the cook at Rajput say 2 parts of water to 1 of rice. I tried and rice was reduced to mush. The Japanese say "doryo" , that is equal amounts. But this is in my experience not enough. I got great results with Thai rice and 1.3, 1.4 parts of water to one of rice.

To use my method:
Put 1.4 parts of water to 1 part of rice (already washed) in a pan, bring the water to boil, lower the fire to the minimum and cover the pan, letting it go until there is no water left. I also add salt.

Serve covering the rice with green curry.

 

For 4 people
- Thai rice, 300 g
- Beef in thin slices, 200 g
- Two spoons of Nam Plaa (fish sauce)
- Mae Ploy red curry paste, 40 g
- 2-3 pumpkin slices
- 400 g of coconut milk, either from a can or from powder
- 10 sweet basil leaves and two chilies
- Two spoons of Nam Plaa (fish sauce)

Put some oil in a pan and fry on middle fire the green curry paste for a minute or so until done. Add the meat and the Nam Plaa, turn over a few times, add the coconut milk and stir until well mixed. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes. Add pumpkin, cooking over medium heat until it's tender. Add the basil and the chilies. remove and serve over rice.

For the preparation of rice, see the Green Curry recipe.

Yellow Curry

Much less known than the green curry, but in my opinion even better, this very simple curry deserves all your attention, especially if you prefer mildly hot food.

4 people
- Thai rice, 300 g
- 4, 5 chicken wings
- Mae Ploy yellow curry paste,40 g
- Two spoons of Nam Plaa (fish sauce)
- 3 already boiled potatoes
- 400 g of coconut milk, either from a can or from powder

Put some oil in a pan and fry on middle fire the yellow curry paste for a minute or so until done. Add the wings, the Nam Plaa and a little milk and let go until the meat is done. Add the rest of the milk and the potatoes, mashing them to give the curry consistency and let go until ready.

For the preparation of rice, see the Green Curry recipe.

Bad to your health, definitely, but tastes like heaven.
- 250-300 g pork
- A lot of garlic (4 or 5 cloves): the more the better
- Nam Plaa (fish sauce)
- Oyster sauce
- Sugar, 1 teaspoon
- Pepper
- Red chili sauce with garlic

Squeeze or cut very finely the garlic. Cut the meat in thin, short ribbons (2-3 mm) and put it to season with the other ingredients for a couple of hours with the garlic and the other seasonings, then deep fry until very crisp and brown.

 s

Sohan Ahluwalia is an old friend of mine who comes from Bombay. He gave me this recipes (All of them. Thanks, Sohan), which made me realize the secret to many Indian sauces and their texture: onions.

- 500 grams of chicken (the part you prefer). I use breast meat.
- 3 large onions
- half a head of garlic
- 1 can of peeled tomatoes
- salt, chili pepper, turmeric, garam masala, cumin
- half a can of coconut milk
- Rice (Basmati if possible)

Cut the chicken in cubes, put it in a pan with powdered hot chili pepper, vinegar and salt, mix and put in the fridge for some time while you prepare the rest of the stuff.

Take the onions and chop them finely up, grate or mash the garlic and some ginger, and fry in oil on low fire until the ingredients have become almost a very soft paste. DON'T LET THEM BROWN.

Add a can of tomatoes and let everything cook until again it has become a uniform, reddish paste.

Put in the chicken with the vinegar and let it cook until done.

Add as much salt, chili, turmeric, garam masala and cumin as you like.

Mix, add water and let go until you have reached the density you like, than add the coconut milk, turn off the fire, cover the pan and let the stew sleep for a while until you are ready to eat.

THE RICE: Cook it in a rice cooker. The safest way. I always add a tad of Turmeric powder because I prefer it yellow ...

Dahl Meat

1 wine glass of yellow lentils (Dahl)
3 onions
2 cloves of garlic
Ginger
2 Bay Leaves
1 can of peeled tomatoes
300 g of chicken meat
Turmeric
Cumin powder
Chili powder
- Rice (Basmati if possible)

Put the Dahl in water with 2 cloves of garlic and the Bay Leaves, salt, chili pepper, turmeric and cumin, then boil.

Chop up finely 3 onions, put them in hot oil with cumin powder and fry on low fire until the ingredients have become almost a very soft paste. DON'T LET THEM BROWN.

Add a can of tomatoes, grated ginger and garlic, salt, chili pepper, garam masala and let everything cook until again it has become a uniform, reddish paste.

Add the meat and 1/2 a packet of yoghurt. Mix.

 

Add the Dahl, which in the meanwhile have probably softened enough, Otherwise, wait, then put them in with water and everything else. Blend well all ingredients.

 

Melt some butter (or, in the unlikely case you have it, some Ghi), add half a teaspoon of chili powder, let go on very low fire without letting it brown and use the resulting sauce to pour over the rice and the Dahl on each individual plate.


THE RICE: Cook it in a rice cooker. The safest way. I always add a tad of Turmeric powder because I prefer it yellow ...

- 2 big onions
- 1 can on tomatoes
- 1 pack of mushrooms (shiitake)
- 4 pack of green peppers
- 2 potatoes
- 250 g of chicken
- cloves
- bay leaves
- hakkaku
- cardamom
- cinnamon
- garam masala
- 1 bullion cube
- rice
- butter
- saffron or turmeric

Put the thickly sliced onions in a frying pan and cook them in oil until they are very soft. They must not brown. Add two, 3 cloves, 2-3 cardamom pods, hakkaku, bay leaves, cinnamon and cook lightly. Insert the mushrooms and the green pepper cut in ribbons. Cut the potatoes in 4 and put them in. Add the can of tomatoes, the chicken cut in cubes, salt, chili pepper, powdered coriander seeds, garam masala. Take two glasses of rice, add salt, after 5 minutes put the whole thing in a rice cooker, add 1 1/2 glass of water, 1 cube of bullion, put some butter and saffron or turmeric on top, close the rice cooker. After the rice is ready, open it, add lemon to the biryani and mix.

 

- yogurt
- salt and pepper
- fresh coriander

Chop up the coriander, add it to the yogurt, salt and pepper, stir, serve.

 

Panir Bhurji

- 500 g of yogurt
- Half a lemon
- one onion
- one tomato
- turmeric
- chili powder
- cumin

Prepare the Panir (Indian- style cheese) mixing the yogurt with the lemon juice, putting it into a piece of cloth and letting it lose fluid over a sink for some hours. Then take it down, put it in a dish without removing the cloth and lay some weight on it. Wait one hour until it hardens.

Chop the onion up and let it go in a pan with oil until it is very soft. Add the cubed tomato and let it cook, adding cumin, turmeric, and chili powder to taste.Once the Bhurji is made, add the cubed Panir.

Channa Masala

- 300 g of Channa (chickpeas)
- 3 onions
- 1 can of tomatoes
- 1 -2 cloves of garlic
- ginger
- 1 bullion cube
- Channa Masala (spice mix)

Soak in water the Channa at least 12 hours before cooking them. When they are ready, wash them accurately.

Put the thickly sliced onions in a frying pan and cook them in oil until they are very soft. They must not brown. Add the tomatoes with chopped up ginger, garlic, and salt. When the sauce is ready, add the Channa, stir, add a bullion cube, water and the Channa Masala. Cook until the Channa are soft.

My apologies to all in the know for not using the correct characters in the names of the recipes. I could find no font containing all of them.

- 2 wine glasses of lentils
- 1 clove of garlic
- butter
- red pepper
- fresh mint leaves
- croutons

Wash the lentils, put them in water and let them boil on moderate fire for an hour or until soft.

Pass them through a sieve and throw away the skins.

Put them back in the pan, add the grated or mashed garlic, salt and boil longer.

In a separate pan, melt a generous dose of butter, put in it the red pepper powder and the mint leaves and stir on moderate fire until the mint is soft and has given its taste to the sauce.

Put the sauce in the soup, cook and stir, throw away (if you wish) the mint, and serve with croutons.

 

- spinach
- 1/2 an onion
- garlic
- yogurt
- black olives
- two spoons of tomato paste (optional)

Chop the onion up, put it in hot oil on low fire and let it go until soft. MUST NOT BROWN.

Wash and cut the spinach, adding it to the onions with the tomato paste, pepper, salt and cook until very soft.

Let the result cool, add yogurt, grated garlic, decorate with olives and serve.

I love the way Turks eat rice, with some butter melted in it. You can get the same result simply by putting some butter in the electric rice cooker.

This recipe is more difficult than it sound, but it's worth the effort. Requires an oven.

- 2 big eggplants
- half an onion
- some tomato paste (three spoons?)
- salt, pepper
- A sauce to be prepared separately and composed of:
o 1/2 a clove of garlic, grated
o 1 spoon of vinegar
o one teaspoon of sugar
o 2 spoons of yogurt
o the juice of 1/4 of a lemon
o Pepper

Put the eggplants in an oven, turning them around once in a while until they are very soft (this is important). When they are ready, get them out and let them cool, then get out their pulp with a spoon.

Chop the onion up, put it in hot oil on low fire and let it go until soft. MUST NOT BROWN. Add the tomato paste, salt, pepper, and let everything cook until creamy, then let it cool down.

Put the result with the eggplants in a blender, then put in a bowl and add the sauce prepared separately as explained above.

- 500 g of yogurt
- 3 spoons of Nana, that is dry mint powder (available in Okachimachi's Ameyoko's Center)
- 1 grated garlic clove
- Oil

Put the yogurt into a piece of cloth and letting it loose fluid over a sink for two hours. In the meanwhile, put the Nana or dried mint in some oil and cook it on low fire so that in doesn't burn. Take the yogurt down add the oil with the Nana, the garlic paste, and salt. Mix well and put it in a fridge.

 

As I said somewhere else, Turkish food was my introduction to Middle Eastern food. Recently, after being given as a present Christine Osborne's marvelous recipe book "Middle Eastern Cooking", available at Kinokuniya and highly recommended to anybody interested in food, I have even started preparing her recipes with good success. I would like then to pass you the recipes I liked best and that proved easier to prepare to an amateur like me. My thanks to Christine. To be able to get her book in exchange for something as vile as money was simple, sheer luck. Simply eating some Pita (available at Kinokuniya and Tokyu supermarkets) with Hummus, Labneh, Ispanak Taramasi (see above), Labneh and Muhammara with some olives and Feta cheese is a feast: easy to digest, incredibly refreshing, cheap to make, no cholesterol.

400 g of long grain rice (Basmati, for example, available at Al Flah. See above)
salt
2 tablespoons olive oil and some butter

Here in Japan, the easiest way out is to put the rice in a rice-cooker with the olive oil, the salt and the butter and let it go. I think this rice is indispensable, when eating Middle Eastern food.

Perhaps the best known among Middle Eastern dips, Hummus, or chickpea dip, is a great way to start cooking this sort of cuisine. Very easy to prepare. Me and my best half are already addicted to it.

175 g dried chickpeas
salt
150 g tahini (sesame paste, see below)
1-2 garlic cloves
juice of 2 lemons
olive oil to taste. I put a lot.

Soak the chickpeas in plenty of water overnight. The next day, change the water and boil them for 1 1/2 hour until very soft. Mash them by hand or with a blender adding a little of the water in which they boiled, then add the grated garlic, the olive oil and the lemon juice, and mix well. Chill. Eat.

300 g yogurt
salt
mint (optional)
olive oil

Place the yogurt at the center of a large piece of cloth, tie the corners and hang over the sink for some hours until very thick. Remove the yogurt from the cloth, salt and chill. Garnish with finely chopped mint and olive oil.

This is a very tasty, easy to prepare dip that, like hummus, keeps well in the fridge.

Feta cheese 2 smallish onions
olive oil
80 g finely crushed walnuts (commonly available)
a slice of bread crumbled in water
1 tablespoon paprika or more
a pinch of cumin powder
salt

Fry the onions in oil until soft and golden, add the bread and the other ingredients, but not the Feta. Mix the stuff until uniform, let cool and add the Feta, mixing well.

225 g bulgur (cracked wheat, available at Al Flah. See above. This is a key ingredient. Do not give it up).
175 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
8 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 medium tomatoes, skinned and diced
1 x 5 piece cucumber, diced
salt & pepper
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
black olives

Soak the bulgur in water for one hour before preparing the salad, hen drain it and pat dry it with a cloth. Place it in a bowl with the onion, mix, add the mint, parsley, tomatoes, cucumber, seasonings, oil and lemon juice. Mix well, chill, garnish with the olives and serve. The lemon taste must be prominent.

One word of caution: Cod roe is easy to find, in Japan, but it has an unbelievably strong, salty taste I don't like and which produces Taramasalata completely unlike anything you eat at Istanbul or Bosporus Hasan. Try to use comparatively mild roe or reduce the amount you use.

4 thick slices of stale bread
4 tablespoons cold milk
100 g cod roe ("tarako" in Japanese)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 small onion, finely minced
juice of 1 - 2 lemons, to taste
1 egg yolk
4 tablespoons olive oil
Ankara's cook also adds some boiled potato

Remove the crust from the bread and soak it in cold milk. Remove the skins from the cod roe and pound it in a mortar until soft, add the squeezed bread, the garlic, the onion, half the lemon juice and pound or blend until creamy. Then, add the egg yolk and continue to pound or blend, adding little by little the olive oil and the rest of the lemon juice. Chill and serve as a dip with pita bread, olives or celery.

 

One word of caution: Note that the word Tahini actually indicates two different things, one being the sesame paste, and the other being the dip, of which the sesame paste is an ingredient. Here is the recipe for the latter:

Tahini (sesame paste)

sesame seed
vegetable oil

The sesame seeds are readily available in Japan, because they are used in Japanese cuisine. Put the seeds and the oil in a blender and blend very well.

2 cloves garlic
salt
juice of two lemons
6 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
a pinch of cumin
1 teaspoon of finely chopped garlic

Crush the garlic and the salt together, mix with a little lemon juice and blend with the Tahini. Add the cumin and the remaining lemon juice until you get a smooth paste. Serve in a bowl garnishing with the parsley.

 

2 large eggplants
4 teaspoons Tahini
juice of one lemon
2 cloves garlic, crushed
salt and pepper
olive oil

Cut the skin of the eggplants to allow steam to escape, bake or grill them until they are very soft, cut them in half and get the flesh out, mashing it well.

Combine with tahini (sesame paste, see recipe above), lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper and blend until smooth. If too thick, it can be diluted with water.

 

1 liter chicken stock
salt and pepper
50 g rice
2 eggs
juice of one lemon
parsley to garnish

Prepare the stock, season with salt and pepper, add the rice and let simmer until it's tender, about 15-20 minutes.

Prepare the sauce beating the eggs in a bowl adding little by little the lemon juice.
Before serving, add the sauce to the soup, which must NOT be boiling, otherwise the eggs will fuck up. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Extremely simple and tasty dish, goes well with anything.

900 g potatoes
some cumin
4 tablespoons olive oil
juice of 1-2 lemons
2 cloves garlic, crushed
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped leeks
some chopper parsley, to garnish

Boil the potatoes let them cool a bit, cube them, sprinkle with cumin.

Prepare the dressing with oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Pour it over the potatoes. Toss the salad, chill it, and before serving it sprinkle it with the leeks and the parsley.

A package of frozen pie dough (available in most restaurants. Three sheets will be fine)
olive oil

Filling
2 bunches of spinach
salt & pepper
2 medium onions, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoonfuls butter
2 large eggs, beaten
some warm milk
parmesan cheese (should be Feta, but what the fuck)
some paprika

Wash, chop up the spinach, salt them and leave for one hour. I keep the stalks because I am cheap, but the recipe says to throw them away. Rub the leaves, removing the water.

 

Sauté the onions in butter until transparent. Beat the eggs in a bowl, blend in the milk, add the onions the cheese, the paprika. Mix well with the spinach. Add salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Grease an ovenproof dish. Oil one side of one dough sheet and lay it in the dish, which it must overlap. Brush one more sheet with oil and place it on top. Place the spinach on the sheets and trickle some olive oil on them. Oil the third sheet and put it on top. Bake until the top is golden brown.

 

Ferakh al-hara (Spicy Chicken)

5 spoonfuls olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon chili powder
salt & pepper
1 heaped teaspoon crushed garlic
A 1 kg chicken (like the excellent ones on sale for 350 yen at Al Flah. See above)
80 g rice per head (Basmati available at Al Flah or Thai rice available at Nikko in Okubo)

Preheat the oven at about 190 degrees Celsius. Make the sauce mixing the oil, the lemon juice, the chili powder, the garlic salt and pepper. Place the chicken pieces in an ovenproof dish and cover with the sauce. Bake for 30-40 minutes, avoiding basting in the end to allow the chicken to become crisp. Put on a bed of butter rice, made adding some butter and salt to the rice in a rice cooker. Serve.

 

4 roses
half a liter of water
honey to taste

It may sound strange to boil roses, but the resulting iced tea is wonderful. Boil the petals for five minutes or until they lose color. Strain and add honey, or simply cool it in the fridge before dinner.

&nbs