I discovered this very simple preparation of asparagus in Japan, I don’t know if it is anywhere else as popular as it is here, but it is for sure an extremely simple recipe that goes very well for barbecue or for very quick dinner fix. It consists in rolling green asparagus in thin slice of pork. In Japan it is simple there are 4 main pieces of pork at the butcher: filet mignon, thick boneless cutlet, thinely sliced boneless cutlet, and boneless ribs or belly. For this recipe usually a fatty meat such as ribs or belly (豚バラ) is used but I prefer a less fatty meat so I use thinely sliced cutlet. You just need to wash the asparagus, I remive the hardest part, then roll them in the meat (from which I remove the fat if I don’t have time to cook them for a long time) and then grill in a pan without any grease. I serve that with rice, it is good too to had umeboshi. It it is so simple and so delicious!
Rough puff
With the terrible weather on Saturday, I thought it was a good occasion to work and cook. And for cooking, I was thinking of making something that I usually don’t have time to do when the weather is nice and we spend most our time outdoor gardening or playing tennis or swimming. My objective was to make puff pastry. Since I have never really made puff pastry (only a version for pain au chocolat, with yeast…) I decided first to browse a few recipes, before deciding what to do, and that’s how I found a recipe of “rough puff” on by Clotilde Dusoulier on her blog Chocolate and Zucchini, a quick version of the real puff pastry, that doesn’t require to insert the butter layer by layer and to be rolled every hour or so. This version only require one hour in the fridge. The layering is done before. Since I had to work and I am always looking for sustainable recipes that I can repeat easily, trying rough puff was a must for me! So instead of classic puff pastry, here I am trying this new recipe. Of course I slightly changed the proportions because I like it less buttery, I used only 100g of butter but may be 115g would have been good for a more golden finish. I use soya milk instead of water or milk. Contrarily to what announced it gave me much more pastry that expected so I made an apple tart, two half moon apple pues and with the rest a bowl of sesame crackers. Making the pastry was really easy and it was really quick (quicker is better because the butter need to stay cold and hard). The pastry was indeed puffy, but not as much as a regar puff pastry, as expected. The taste and crispiness was great. For the sweet version I would have definitely add a bit of sugar. May be it’s because I use nothing but apples without sugar nor flavoring. The sesame salty crackers were addictive (top picture)!!! A great recipe that needs a little improvement to fit my taste but so easy to make that I will use it againand again!!!
Miso-lemon dressing
Recently it has been quite difficult to find gnocchi in our usual grocery stores, and gnocchi were our staples for late Friday dinners when we arrived in the country. So I have had to find a replacement. Today I tried soba (buckwheat noodles) that I prepared with plenty of greens and I decided to serve them not with some regular sauce made from soya sauce such as tsuyu, but rather a white miso base. And since I had some fresh lemon I also used it. The redult was even better than I expected. The sweet white miso and the lemon are a super match. The lemon taste is very present, cancelling the sweetness of the miso and the miso softening the bitterness of the lemon. So here is my recipe for 2 people.
– 200g of soba noodles, I use 100% buckwheat flour noodles
– 4 tsp of white miso
– 1/4 of lemon
– 1 tsp of soya sauce
– brocoli, brocoli sprouts, green beans, baby spinach… asparagus, green peas, horse beans… are all good too
Boil a large amount of water to cook the soba. In the meantime in a heated pan slightly oiled cook the washed vegetables. The much remsin crispy, so don’t over cook them. In a bowl mix together the miso, the lemon juice, the soya sauce. Serve ghe noodles in a large bowl, add the miso dressing and stir well, add the vegetables. Eat right away and have a beautiful weekend. Isumi is under the rain, and work for the museum exhibition is what I have to do today!
Barley risotto
I’m a big fan of all kind of cereals and leguminous plants. I like to use them in many recipes. In Japan there exists many, such as adlay and millet and of course all the beans (豆) families: edamame, azuki, black beans… I also like the European or Asian ones too, barley, lentil, chickpea… that are less common. In particular barley is really nice to cook as a substitute of rice. I use it to make risotto (here is a winter recipe). It is more crunchy than rice and the texture goes very well with all kind of vegetables. This time I used in in a risotto primavera, with fresh green peas, fresh new onions, fresh green beans and fresh basil. I added some bacon for A. It is very simple to prepare. First in a. It olive oil cook the baconand the new onion. Then add the barley and rost it. Finally add water, and the vegetables. It cooks under cover for 20min and then it’s ready to eat! Don’t forget to add the vegetables in order of longer cooking time to avoid over cooking them.
Breakfast!!!
Cooking in the morning for breakfast is great when I have the time: pancakes, scones, crepes… but it is not always possible and sometimes I prefer to bake something the day before so that it only takes the time to prepare some fresh fruits in the morning. My basic recipe is usually that of a cake. This time I used a German mix of dates and flax seeds that our friends made me discovered when we were in Germany last September. I added some more flax seeds and it was really rich and not too sweet, so perfect for breakfast.
What do you like to orepare for breakfast?
Salmon spinach ravioli
Ravioli, in particular jumbo ones, are one of my favorite dish, both to eat and prepare. Or may be I just enjoy making them because I enjoy eating them so much!!!
This time I made spinach and salmon ravioli, a king of classic I guess, but so very delicious!
The pasta is always the same for two as a whole meal: 100g of semolina or manitoba, 1 egg, 2tbs of olive oil, a bit of salt. For the filling I used 1 filet of fresh salmon and a bouquet of fresh spinach. In a small pan with 1cm of water I add the salmon and the washed spinach. I cook first under cover, then I dry the mixture at low heat after squeezing it into rough purée, add some black pepper. Once it is dry enough I put it too cool down. Roll the dough and male the ravioli. Finally just boil them and serve with cream, butter or olive oil, as you like!
Last day of GW
Here it is… the golden week is going to end soon… it’s going to be hard to leave our stray cat, the garden and the big kitchen. I have baked a dozen of breads, tarts, quiches, I have made ravioli and all sort of things. DIYed with A. and gardened quite a lot. We’ve had 10 friends visiting, went for walks in the woods, meet snakes we didn’t know about… In short, country life.
So to conclude this golden week, I would like to introduce a new recipe, inspired loosely from Pierre in Osaka: a cold new onion soup. My recipe is probably much simpler than that at Pierre, but the result was amazing. New onions are in season and I can only recommend you try!
Cold new onion soup, for 4 people as a starter
– 3 large new onion
– 15cl of fresh cream
– salt and pepper
Peel off the first skin of the onion, cut them in four, set in a pan and cover with water, add a bit of salt. Boil them until soft. Blend them with the remaining water (if not too much), add the cream. Keep at room temperature or refrigerate before serving. When serving add black pepper.
Quick pizza
Finding some fresh rucolla at the farmers market suddenly triggered my craving for a vegan fresh pizza. Nothing more simple, with the delicious little new onions and the small very ripe tomatoes I had already. Making pizza dough for the crust is really simple, and with the warm weather the rising time and proving time are really short. This time I almost didn’t let if proof and the crust was thin and crusty, delicious.
Pizza dough
– 170g of flour
– 6g of fresh yeast
– 80g of water
– 15g of olive oil
– 5g of salt
– 1tbs of sugar
As for any regular dough, mix all the ingredients and knead until smooth. Let rise for 1h in a warm place. Work the dough on a flat surface and roll it to the size and shape you want.
Now you can top it with whatever you want and preheat the oven at 200deg. For the topping I used small tomatoes halves and small new onion first, with a few drops of olive oil. I baked for 15min. Then rose the temperature to 230deg and baked an other 5-8min. Stopped the oven, add the washed rucolla and keep 2min in the hot oven before serving.
Have a beautiful weekend
Golden week
So, here we are, right in the middle of the golden week. All our friends have left and we’re planning to spend a few days doing some DIY and gardening. Having friends at home I spent a lot of time in the kitchen to prepare them my classics: breakfast with freshly baked bread, creamy scrambled eggs, local products: ham, fresh fruits… For lunch, it is more about vegetables and salads, and for dinner, since evenings are still chilly, cocotte cooked Isumi pork filet with new potatoes and angelica. And the little bonus for dessert: fruits tarts with coconut custard. All my recipes are meant to take the best of the local ingredients with simple preparations.
So here are my recipes:
Cocotte pork filet
– 1 pork filet, the size depends on the number of persons you are cooking for
– 2 large new potatoes/person
– a bouquet of fresh angelica (ashitaba)
– olive oil
– salt and pepper
Cover the bottom of your cocotte with 1mm of olive oil. Set the pork filet and start cooking at low heat. Brush the new potatoes undr water to remove soil and dust and the thickest skin. Cut them in 4, add them in the cocotte. Cook under cover for 25min, stir regularly. Wash the ashitaba, cut the hardest part. Add to the cocotte with salt and pepper, and continue cooking until the bottom is all golden, and stir a few times while cooking at high heat. Finish with a bit of olive oil to melt all the extracts. At the moment of serving cut roughly the ashitaba with scissors.
Coconut custard fruits tart
The recipe is basically the same as here except that I added some fresh coconut in the custard, and added mangoes to the strawberries. The result was 12 superb little tarts! I now often do individual fruits tarts to avoid having to cut them and damaging there beautiful balance and aspect. I also find it easier to keep them that way.
