Tag: pork

Brown rice risotto

Summer is here right? We’re past June 21st already! But in Japan June is not summer as westerners could imagine it, rather I could say that the rainy season has finally started, with pouring rain one day, and humidity level increasing noticeably. Summer will start later in July for us! In the meantime the summer vegetables are  getting better every day, more ripe, more tasty. And I love to make summer risotto that can be eaten hot or lukewarm with all the summer vegetables, in particular zucchini!

A. doesn’t like brown rice as much as I do, or rather I would say he loves as much brown rice than white rice so I have to cook both evenly! What is nice with Japanese brown rice is that it is easy to cook in many ways, much more than white rice I find. In particular pilaf and risotto suit it very well. With fresh summer yellow zucchini, red onions, and sage from the garden, the dinner was all set. Simply chop the onion and cook until soft in olive oil. I’ve added some thin slice of pork because I had them, but it’s optional. Add the brown rice, stir. Add water, sage chopped, salt and pepper. Finally when most of the water is gone add the yellow zucchini diced. Cook and stir for 3min. Serve, add more sage, gratted cheese… as you like. 

The weekend is arriving soon, but before TV shooting this afternoon about my research work and the exhibition at the museum. I have a huge stage fright for TV shootings as I find it deforms us so much and spaking in Japanese to TV is going to be even worse… 🙁

Kumquat-shiitake-pork pasta

A new video testing with the preparation of a a singular recipe: pasta with a sauce made with shiitake, kumquats and thin slices of pork. A very nice and surprising combination that puts a bit of warmth and colors in a gloomy rainy day. Tell me how you like the video or what you would like to see. I’m testing several options.

Cocotte cooking

I really love to cook with my Staub cocotte. It suits a lot of ingredients but I’m still a novice so I learn little by little how it works. I am always very happy with the result. It’s very tasty and delicious, but I find that it makes plating really hard because all the ingredients tend to mix and color the same. So I need to work on that a lot. My basic recipe is plenty of veggies and a little of meat, pork usually. For today’s recipe I used lotus roots, carrots and sato imo, and for the base leeks. Olive oil and rosemary. That’s it! How do you use your cocotte? Tell us about your recipes!!!

One-plate lunch

What best when it’s getting chilly outside than a bowl of hot and steamy white rice? And to complete the lunch, a plate with angelic (ashitaba-明日葉) omelette, grilled pork, grilled cherry tomatoes and turnips with miso. Very quick to prepare, tasty and warming! 

I am also very pleased to use my new Arita yaki bowls! 

Saturday energy lunch

We are back to our little weekend routine: going to the country, gardening, playing tennis, baking bread etc… Which means a lot of outdoor time and a lit of activity. Lunch always to be energetic and well balanced. Pasta, rice or cereals make a good base, and since we have local and fresh vegetables and meat or fish I also use many. Today I opted for grilled vegetables that can cook while outside gardening, together with Sicilian ring pasta and some dried tomatoes and thyme pork balls. The veggies are oven roasted in olive oil for 60min. The pork balls I made them with fresh pork meat, 2 dried tomatoes chopped and a tsp of dried thyme (if you have fresh one it’s even better). I them mix all together, made tiny one bite balls and cook them in a bit of olive oil.

Baby corn

I like corns but I don’t know too many ways to prepare them: butter grilled, boiled, in salad, in soup, with rice… I don’t really like the butter grilled or simply boiled when you have a whole chunck and need to use your fingers. Plus they often come in bundle of 3 or 4 corns, and for two it’s really too much. So basically I don’t buy corn. Last week on top of the big sweet corns they had fresh baby corns at the farmers market. Baby corns are to me a typical ingredient of Asian food in Western countries, together with square bamboo shoot, glutamate slimmy shinny sauce. So I don’t recall having the opportunity of eating fresh baby corns before. They come with the leaves just like the big ones and are very easy to prepare. For the first try I simply grilled them with new potatoes and pork filet. So that they roast in the juice. They were tender crisp with the typical taste and texture of baby corns. Delicious!!

And now I am in Paris reuniting shortly with the Parisian sister before some Provence cooking postings! Have a nice Sunday! 

One plate

Gloomy, rainy chilly day… What best then a warming plate in front of you? With little turnips, pork fillet and quinoa, simply cooked in a pot, here is a very healthy and nourishing meal. In a little bit of olive oil I simply put the pork filet in a cocotte and cooked under cover. When almost done I added the little turnips simply washed, and cooked under cover until all golden. Don’t forget to turn them time to time to roll them in the juice. I prepared the quinoa separately but when dressing the plates I added the quinoa in the juice of the cocotte. I served without any addition. Enjoy!

Greens part 1

The farmers market was full of greens, of all sorts, leafy, flowery, sprouty… And we couldn’t resist… So now the fridge is full of fresh greens to be eaten, and it’s good because I working next Saturday and won’t be able to refill, plus we have guests for dinner Friday evening. 

I particularly was happy with the asparagus and the little zucchini, all so fresh that they don’t need to be cooked or barely. That with some spring brocoli, lotus roots and snap peas, I have the perfect balance to accompany a nice Isumi pork cutlet. The veggies are blanched in very little water then slightly rolled on olive oil. The pork just pan grilled.

Isumi pork 🐷 → Isumi ham

The city of Isumi has a special pork meat called Isumi pork (いすみ豚), what is special about it I can’t really say now but it is for sure delicious, very tender and juicy. But since they grow pork in the area, we were thinking it’s really a pity they don’t make ham (it’s really hard to find good ham in Japan in particular in supermarket in Ohara), until our friend S. visited us yesterday and arrived with some fresh ham, from Isumi!!! Super nice ham!!! So we decided to go and check out the place where to get some, a small meat shop near the railway and Ohara station. They have smoked ham and pepper ham. We tried both and both are amazing! Apparently the pork farm is apparently in Otaki. We will probably go and check what they have soon. In the mean time, we are really happy to have found some really nice ham and had some for breakfast with eggs and buckwheat crepes!!

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