As I was explaining in a previous post, my grand mother was really good at cooking leftover and that of meat in particular. I have kept the tradition and I cook once in a while some mironton. But I make often some variations from the original recipe. This time I didn’t use regular onion, but green onions with leaves. They are from Kujukuri, the northern part of Chiba by the ocean, and they are very soft and very sweet. I’ve used some already in some quiche and miso recipe, and I was really happy with the result. Using them in mironton kind of came naturally then. I simply used a bit of olive oil and vegetal oil mixed together. About 5 new potatoes, and a piece of pork filet diced. I cook everything in a pan at medium heat first then high heat, and add the green onions with leaves just halved. Stir once in a while until potatoes are done and onions are soft. That’s it.
Simple food
I have the impression that recently I have further decreased our intake of meat and fish without A. complaining much about it. Only after 5 or 6 days would he start asking for some. So once in a while I buy a pork filet or some ham, or some nice fish in Isumi. This weekend there was not much fish, probably with the rainy weather and the winds, so we went to our old little butcher shop and got some ham (the cat is crazy with the fat so I like to give him some!!!) and some pork filet (where there is stricly nothing to trash). Pork filet in a cocotte with some vegetables is such a treat that I simply cooked it that way. A bit of olive oil, a few new potatoes from our neighbors kitchen garden, some locally grown new carrots (yellow and orange) and a handful of green beans, the pork filet from Isumi, everything together at low heat and just stirring every 10-15min. You can add herb, salt, pepper, but I didn’t. Why would you make more complicated when it is perfect as it is?
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.