Tag: shiitake

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).

No cooking or so little

This week I ‘ve had only one dinner home, all the other nights I’ve had business related dinners, and when it’s the case I always try to prepare something for A.. Something he likes and that can prepared in advance. A. likes sausages which are not really a favorite of mine, so I cooked some new onion, shiitake and new potatoes stew with sausages for him. It super quick to prepare, it cooks while I get myself ready to work, and A. is happy when he comes back alone to have a nice dinner ready!!! 

Dinner fix

Anytime I go to my pilates class I come back late and starving, so I need to fix us a dinner super quickly, and doesn’t require to much attendance to have time to do all I have to in the mean time. Psta are great for that: once they’re in the boiling water you are free for 10min. And before the water was boiling it gives enough time to prepare the veggies for the side. Recently I found that spinach and shiitake go very well along and I like to serve them with pasta, eggs…  The spinach are simply boiled or steamed, the shiitake grilled with a bit of oil (here served with pasta so olive oil). Then I just serve, add olive oil, pepper and ready to eat!!!!! 

Short but intense week

Yup!! Today is the last of the week for me!!  But squeezing in a whole week of work in 3 days is quite a challenge. Plus this is the end of the year for students in Japan and that means a lot of thesis reading, preparation for presentations and grading. So from 8:00 to 22:00 it’s all busy. Adding a few round-the-world meetings late at night and the cup is full. So we’ve decided to retreat for a few days in the mountains, probably snowboarding, ice skating and hiking. Being so busy is ok for me, it’s kind of normal, but having to break my sleep habits is really the worst for me. My body stops to regulate its temperature and I feel cold often. So last night I wanted a warm and fresh, soft and crispy, colorful, and ready in 10min. It turned out in a one-plate with steamed spinach, sautéed shiitake, raw celery, chickpeas and creamy boiled eggs.

Just because I love them so much!!

Saturday ravioli, Sunday ravioli, this week end I’ve been cooking quite a lot of things but never so many ravioli. I must say that now I’m really well equipped to prepare some and it’s so much easier that’s a real pleasure!!! And since our little neighbor gave us a bag of shiitake, for a bag of natsumikan the filling was all decided! So I made jumbo ravioli with a dough 2/3 semolina 1/3 chesnut flour. Chopped the shiitake and cooked them in oil, I use fat pieces of pork, until golden, then prepared the ravioli. Served as usual with just olive oil. I prepared 6 per person of these giant things (about 4cmx4cm) and that was perfect for dinner!!

Miso-parsley-pork meat balls

Nothing better than a one-bowl meal for a perfect lunch. Donburi are really easy to prepare in endless seasonal variations, with meat, fish or vegan, with white rice, brown rice, a mox of grains… 

For this one I used plain white rice, seasonal veggies: turnips, carrots and shiitake, and prepare miso meat balls. For that I used pork meat, about 100g, 1 egg, 2 or 3 branches of parsley, 2 table spoons of panko, and 2 table spoons of miso (of your choice). I mix all together and cook the balls in a frypan until golden. The mix miso-parsley is really delicious!

A little veggies medley

Broccoli, turnips, potato, shiitake for a good meal after work, there’s nothing better. Add a little of pork filet diced if you like it, sautéed in a pan with olive oil!

Ravioli testing

The making of ravioli
The making of ravioli

Too happy to have found the cooking gears I was looking for in Rome and the super Sicilian flours, I couldn’t wait to try them so I decided to make ravioli of course. For the filling since we arrived late on 31st I didn’t have so many options left for shopping, so I decided it’d be pork filet and shiitake. For the pasta I used my usual recipe (1 egg for 100g of flour), but used the “semolina di grano duro” instead of regular flour. The pasta is much drier and easy to roll, and the taste is perfect. I used the ravioli rack, but my filling was not smooth enough to cut the ravioli properly, so I finished them with the roller. Both are super easy to use and I was very satisfied with the result for a first try, I don’t how I was making ravioli before! It’s so much better. It makes them perfectly regular, and the taste and size were perfect.  Now I need to work a little more on my filling to have it smooth so that it’s easier to fill the ravioli, but without loosing the taste and without cheese for my husband… Many trials to come!!!

Mushrooms, yuzu pasta

Sorry for this little break from TPS. Work has been really busy in the past weeks, often coming back home pretty late and I’ve also had some end of the year parties, and dinner out with friends, so these last days have been pretty low on cooking. I’m happy to spend the weekend in the country and to have time to cook. So today, for our post tennis game I prepared these nice fusilli with grilled mushrooms: shimeji and shiitake with fresh yuzu peel and yuzu juice, dressed with a little of olive oil, sea salt and pepper. A perfect lunch to continue with a few hours in the garden trimming trees and preparing for winter. Have a good weekend!!

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