Tuna Lasagna Rocket Salad

"Don't talk when your mouth is full"

If there were two things I have learned about food from my parents, that would be loving and respecting food. My dad was the type who would do anything in the name of food, a real gourmet that is. He would planned weeks in advance if there's a special recipe he's concocting and he wouldn't mind crossing rivers and mountains to get his hands on the freshest ingredients or food he's craving for. But oh boy, oh boy I dolefully admit that his excessive "amour" for food caused him his health. He eventually had diabetes, anyways anything that is out of proportion is definitely not good.

My Mom on the otherhand, is the type who doesn't care if the food is not as tasty as long as it is cooked well with nutrients still intact and chewed slowly appreciating every spoonful. Mom is not as a good cook as was Dad but she always reiterated the value of choosing well what we serve on our table. It is from her that I have learned loving vegetables. Believe me she looks young for her age.

Though I cannot blame my Dad for being so for who doesn't love food and eating? We are all guilty of that. But our society is now confronted with a growing number of overweight individuals and obesity issues. We cannot just neglect this for a lot of health problem stems from this. I know it goes beyond what we put on our plate for this involves a change of lifestyle too. But we can already start from something small, like preparing healthy meals everyday. And who said that healthy food are not always delicious. Believe me it just requires a little bit of imagination.

It's true that there's definitely a lot of factors that's fattening our society; our stressful environment, bad eating habits and a lot more. But I only have one solution to that: nothing beats a good sinful scrumptous but a good dose of exercise and happy thoughts! I definitely feel lucky to have grown up with such extremities of my parents when it comes to food for their difference gave me the balance in enjoying food to the right limit.

This is my participation to Hank Cardellos' Stuffed Nation October event on "STUFFED: An Insider’s Look at Who’s (Really) Making America Fat" a hand in hand event with Jenn the "queen" of FoodieBlog Roll. I also added up some photos of the my sister in law's green wedding, hope you like them!

Tuna Lasagna Arugula Salad
Ingredients (4 people):

8 sheets of lasagna noodles
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 zucchini, diced
1 red pepper, diced
400 g tuna in brine drained
65g rocket (arugula)
4 tablespoons home-made pesto sauce

Preparation:

Cook the lasagna noodles. Drain and put them in the covered pan to keep warm. Heat olive oil in a skillet and fry zucchini and red pepper. They must keep their color. Remove from heat and gently mix the tuna and arugula. Place a little of the tuna mixture on 4 plates and cover with a sheet of lasagne. Add the rest of the tuna mixture and cover the remaining lasagne sheets. Add pepper and garnish generously with pesto.

Strawberry Tartar

Lost in Translation.

That movie of Sofia Coppola is one of my favorite. Not only because it was shot in Japan for where I lived sometime in my life. But it was quite a funny way to see how foreigners struggle in some foreign land. When my good Japanese friend to whom I have not seen for a long time (more than seven years) wrote to me few months ago about her upcoming visit here in France. I was really euphoric. For she is more than a friend to me, she is like a younger sister to me. And besides I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to practice my japanese the language I haven't spoken for a long while. I have never imagined that it would be that hard for me to speak Japanese again for everytime I opened my mouth its french words that are coming out. It was so frustrating at the beginning but I managed to keep up.

With her meager vacation left before her grand depart for her newly signed job in Honduras as a volunteer worker for JICA, she managed to spare three days to visit me here in Southern France. Her vacation was short but meaningful. Hubby took some day off to serve as chauffer, yours truly as the tourist guide and little Mayumi as the Mascot. She enjoyed Southern France and of course a little bit of my kitchen.

I am sharing here some of our photos too. A serving of this strawberry tartar also goes to Graziana of Erbe in Cucina this week's host of Weekend Herb Blogging. That authentic herb blogging event created by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen now in the caring wings of Haalo of Cook Almost Anything.



Strawberry Tartar

Ingredients:

500 g of fresh strawberries
a handful of fresh basil leaves
a handful of fresh thymes
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of balsamique vinegar
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper

Procedure:
This recipe is very easy and fast to make. This serves around four persons. Cut your strawberries. In a bowl mix your your vinaigrette: olive oil, salt, pepper and balsamique vinegar. With your fingers add the thyme and minced basil leaves. Toss your strawberry. I served it with some mozarella balls and jambon serrano.

The colorful market of Aix en Provence

Me and my tired daughter

View of Marseille from Notre Dame de la Garde

Mizuho, Me, Mayumi & Hubby enjoying ice-cream

The historical arena of Arles

The beautiful beach of Calanques

Our cute mascot

You can also try this other strawberry recipes:
Strawberry Gaspacho and Basil
Strawberry Sweet Sushi

Pancake Surprise: Creamy Onion Leeks and Fried Gambas in Cumin

Pancake Surprise of Creamy Onion Leeks & Fried Gambas in Cumin Pannequet de Poireux Fondu et Gambas au cumin

What type of pancake are you ?

I was raised to love food. Despite the fact that the number one cause of mortality in our family I suppose is food related (diabetes, hypertension, bad cholesterol, etc) we are all still passionately in love with food. And it is especially evident during breakfast where we normally feast on the last night’s left-over. When I was a kid during weekdays it was fried rice with fried salted fish all year long. Without a fail. And that is the reason why my sisters and I have learned to appreciate and savour pancakes sweetness on the weekends, we buy from the neighbor. Consider it our refuge from weekdays of salinity.

When I met my husband, he told me his specialty was crepe. (Huh?) He told me again, pancakes. (Ahhh, ok). So when he cooked for me, it was an immediate electric shock for me. First he added some beer on the mixture, (What?) then using his non-stick Teflon pan he started throwing the pancake up in the air showing all his acrobatic skills. (Wow). He garnished it with champignon, jambon Serrano, cracked egg and some grated gruyere. This is considerable remote from the pancakes I used to enjoy. I was really sceptical about his salty pancake at the beginning. But I was completely smitten from the first to the last bite.

I’ll be sending over this pancake surprise to my dear lovely Susan, the Well Seasoned Cook, for Pancakes on Parade, a delicious homage to pancake event that she is hosting. I hope I am still not late.

Pancake Surprise of Creamy Onion Leeks & Fried Gambas in Cumin
Pannequet de Poireux Fondu et Gambas au cumin

For the pancakes: 125 g of flour a quarter of milk 3 eggs a pinch of salt 50 g of butter 2 tablespoons of beer 1 tablespoon of melted butter for frying

Melt the butter. Beat the eggs as you would make an omellette then pour in the melted butter, beer and milk. Add the salt and the flour. Continue mixing until it becomes homogenous. Fry them in a non stick pan with butter.

For the Creamy Onion Leeks 1 cup of sliced onion leeks 10 cl of fresh cream salt and pepper 20 g of butter 1 tablespoon of olive oil

Heat the pan. Melt the butter and olive oil together. Put the onion leeks and caramelized them over low fire. Pour the fresh cream once the leeks have wilted and changed a beautiful golden color. Salt and pepper to taste. Set this aside.

Fried Gambas in cumin
about 21 pieces of gambas (approximately 2 to three gambas per pancake)
2 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of ginger powder
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 teaspoon of curry powder

In a bowl mix the lemon juice with ginger powder, curry and cumin seeds. Put the gambas and let it marinate for about thirty minutes. Then heat the pan and pour the oil. Fry the gambas for about five minutes.

Assembling:
For every pancake put a layer of creamy onion leeks, gambas and fold it as you would make package. You can tie them using chives, toothpick or some rafia.

It's like life, full of surprises..

You can also try these recipes:

Strawberry Sushi Crepe with minty chocolate sauce
Banana Crepe with Chocolate Sauce