Super fresh radish with beautiful green tops call for a simple vegan soup, simply boiling and then blending the tops in water, adding salt pepper and soya milk. Ready and delicious.
Baking!
We have friends from Germany visiting us and they’ve bring some nice cheese, so I’ve baked quite a lot and bigger breads than usual. This one is a big loaf of half campagne with poppy and flax seeds, perfect for breakfast with cheese.
Choux
Instead of the traditional strawberry tart for A.’s birthday, I decided to make choux. It’s not something I’m very found of because ot often goes with cream or filling Idon’t like too much, but A. likes them very much. It’s actually very simple to make and with just an ice-sugar frosting it’s really delicious. It was my first time making some so they were a bit too big to my taste but taste-wise it was perfect! Recipe soon to come!
Tex-Mex quiche
I know that sounds a bit odd but the recipe of this quiche uses influences from western tex-mex cuisine. I first used corn flour for the dough, mixed with half white flour. Then for the base I used 3 eggs and a block of firm tofu, 1 capiscum (paprika) diced and 1 tomato; and some texmex mix of spices. I prepare a sable dough, roll it to 1mm and prepare a pie dish. In a bowl I mix the tofu (drained of course) the eggs and the spices, add the diced capiscum and set in the dough, slice the tomato and add on top. Bake 40min at 160deg.
Tribute to our grand mother’s mironton
Our grand mother was doing magic with left overs of meat, in particular porc filet. It would be used in the filling for stuffed vegetables, in cannelloni, or hachis parmentier for exemple. But she would also use them for “mironton”. Her mironton was just simple: onion, potatoes and chuncks of pork meat fried in oil and butter. It was definitely something I loved very much!!! Now her version may have been a little too rich for us now, so I kept the idea but slightly changed the recipe, but the main attributes remain. I replaced the onion by some Japanese mushrooms, and used only a little of olive oil. I cut in rough pieces the left over of the filet mignon and the potatoes (with the skin), and then simply cook them in a heated and olive oil greased pan until golden. The key is to cook until it’s almost burned, and then stir and repeat. It should for kind of blocks, golden and crispy, but soft inside. Add a bit of salt and pepper when serving.
Cocotte
I always buy pork from Isumi when possible, for it is really tender and soft. My preference: pork belly (豚バラ – butabara) for the taste (but I only eat it when it’s ultra cooked and the fat has melted, and it’s all crispy) and pork filet (ヒレ – hire) because there is no fat and it’s really tasty. With the cold weather lasting a bit too long, I’ve opted for a nice cocotte of veggies with pork filet and pork belly for two meals in one preparation. In my Staub cocotte I first put a little of olive oil, then line the slice of pork belly, then I’ve cut 8 little carrots in halves and added them, 6 big shiitake sliced thickly, a piece of lotus root sliced thinly, one yellow paprika sliced. Plenty of thyme and fresh rosemary, salt pepper and the pirk filet. I cooked under cover for 45min and stirred every 15min. I served only the veggies and the pork belly for lunch, and kept the filet for an other meal. I kept the whole cocotte as such because I wanted to keep the juice for some pasta also (I just boiled some anneli siciliani that I rolled in the juice and keep to serve with the filet).
Apple, vanilla and cinnamon cookies
I love to eat freshly baked and still warm bread, pancakes, brioche or whatever for breakfast, but it is unfortunately not possible every morning. So sometimes I bake in the evening so that we have something ready in the morning. And for that tarts, cakes and cookies are the best. I love the classic mix apple-vanilla-cinnamon, so i made some kind of thick cookies with fresh apples on top for our breakfast. The trick is to have them not too sweet for breakfast, so I mixed the flour with oat bran and just a little of sugar and a little of butter, I added one egg and a little of baking powder, plenty of cinnamon powder and vanilla beans. I then roll the dough to 3mm thick and cut the shapes of the cookies. I peeled the apples and cut the shape too a little smaller and topped the cookies with it. Baked them at 170deg for 20min. And added a little of vanilla on top. Simple and perfect anytime of the day actually!
One plate lunch
Despite being officially spring, this weekend has been rather cloudy and chilly so I wanted to prepare a warm dish for lunch, I first boiled some green lentils, added with a few coral lentils too hoping the color will sustain, but it vanished in the green (learn your lesson, better boil them separately). Then I prepared some ashitaba (angelica) rolls with pork meat. I find that ashitaba goes very well with potatoes and pork, and also eggs (see my post on ashitaba here).
It’s very simple, you need some fresh ashitaba, thin slices of pork cutlet, one egg battered, bread crumbs. Roll a little bundle of ashitaba into a slice of pork, then pass it into the egg and finish with the bread crumbs. I fixed with a little toothpick and then cook them in a fry-pan with a bit of oil until golden.
For the vegetarian version (the one on the top of the plate in the picture), cut the the ashitaba roughly, mix with the egg and the bread crumbs and make some patties that you cook in the fry-pan too. I served it with the warm lentils and a few tomatoes. Bon appetite!
Quinoa soup
What if suddenly the temperature drops again and it feels like winter again?
Nothing as simple as a making a quinoa soup! I’ve spotted the recipe the very first time I was browsing my vegetarian cookbook received for Xmas, and didn’t had a chance to make it before: no quinoa, not the proper veggies, to warm… But last night was perfect. The recipe is extremely simple, and it takes very little time to prepare because quinoa cooks really quick, so that makes a perfect option for days at work. Of course I slightly changed the original recipe because I didn’t have potatoes and i found anyway that potatoes+quinoa was a little to much, so I replaced the potatoes by lotus root.
For this quinoa soup for a full dinner for 2 you need: 90g of quinoa; 1 tomato; 1 little leek or half onion; a handful of fresh spinach; 2 potatoes or the equivalent of lotus root; salt, pepper.
In a pan heat a bit of oil, chop the onion or the leek and throw them in the pan, add the tomato diced, then the spinach washed and roughly cut and finally the potato or lotus root, cut in big chunks. Finish with the quinoa. add water to cover the whole ingredients and add an other 2cm. Add a bit of salt and pepper, and cook for 20min under cover.
Serve while hot. I thought about adding an egg at the end of the cooking, but then realized that it was already well enough energetic, so finally didn’t.
