Pork fillet in cocotte

I have a beautiful Staub cocotte that I use  not often enough. It's a pity because I love vegetables cooked in the cocotte, when the juice and extracts mix together.

So today I decided to use it and prepare a Japanese style pork filet in cocotte with new onions and carrots.

 In the cocotte I put a little of sunflower oil, 2 new onions cut roughly, 2 little taro potatoes and one carrot, then I lay a large pork filet on top, salt, pepper, laurel and cooked for 30-40min. (In my case the vegetables were perfect for two, but I seeved only half of the filet)

Once finished, I opened the cocotte and added a little of soya sauce to dilute the extracts, which gave a dark beautiful and delicious glazing, almost tasting like miso.

Served with rice with soya beans and fresh pickled vegetables.

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Sticky millet croquettes

I discovered just recently while on a trip to Nagano prefecture that in Japan they grow some sticky millet. It looks very much like millet but once cooked it is much stickier.

I found this consistency perfect for vegan croquettes. So I mixed some boiled sticky millet with some vegetables sautéed I had in the fridge: a leek, half new onion, 2 small carrots gratted, one egg and a few linen seeds, and made croquettes that I cooked in olive oil in a frypan.

I also made a version with cheese but taste-wise without was really delicious and if the cheese makes the croquettes creamy and more golden, I don't think it is a must.

New onion vegetable sauté and seeds

Spring is in the air!!! Sunny days are getting a little warmer, in a week daffodils have sprouted everywhere in the garden and new vegetables start slowly to appear. It starts first with onions. They are so sweet and with a taste that is so much the annunciation of warmer days that I love them!!!

This morning there were plenty of new onions at the coop and I bought several and decided to prepare some vegetables sauté with some seeds.

In a wok I put a little of olive oil, peeled and cut in big chucks one new onion, add one carrot cut in sticks, later I added brocoli, small tomatoes cut in halves, sunflower seeds, salt and pepper. Separately I boiled a mix made of some lentils, barley etc...

Once cooked I mix everything in the wok with a little more olive oil, just before serving.

Simple lunch

I like to use leftovers to cook myself something for lunch. Yesterday evening I cook some veggies ragu (pink radish, sweet potato, leek, na no hana), and one big spoon was left over. So for lunch I added a carrot, linen seeds, pine nuts and an egg on the side, and I got a perfect lunch.

Even faster fix for dinner: tomato-carrot-chick pea raggu

This is the end of the year at the university and it is a busy time for both professor and students. Recently, I'm coming back home later and later in particular because this no excuse not to go to the gym. Last night after my pilates class I needed a very quick fix for dinner so that it allowed me to have some time to prepare the apartment for my sister's visit later this week (yes! Prunellia is flying to Tokyo very soon!).

Chick peas are really handy when it comes to prepare something in 5 minutes! Dinner menu tonight: tomato & chick peas raggu with carrots.

I first roughly cut tomatoes and cooked them in olive oil, add laurel, ginger, carvi seeds, salt and pepper and small carrots halved. 

I left it on low heat, time to do the other tasks I had to do. Then once ready to eat I added a can of drained chick peas and served with baby leaf salad, olive oil and linen seeds. Delicious, warm and slightly spicy!

u no hana - うの花

I really love okara. It's basically the pulp of soya beans remaining after the fabrication of tofu and soya milk. It's full of proteins and it as a very mild taste. It is easily found in supermarket in Japan (together with tofu, nato and yuba) and also very easy to use in several recipes. The most famous okara recipe in Japan is probably u no hana (うの花). A mixture of okara and cooked vegetables.
Since I found nice okara, I wanted to make u no hana, but as always I twist the recipe. Usual u no hana is often very mild in taste and in color, and recently I like colorful plates for dinner (see my recent post). So instead of the classical ingredients I used carrots, purple sweet potato (again!), shiitake and na-no-hana (rapeseed).
I cut in small stick all the vegetables and cook them in the above order in a bit of oil and finally added soya sauce, a little of sugar, a little of sake (the original recipe has mirin in it, but recently I don't use mirin anymore, for it's too strong taste that covers the taste of the other ingredients).
Finally I added the okara and stirred (a little too well so that the purple color of the potato transferred to the white okara:( ).
A delicious colorful vegan dish, served with rice and ume-boshi.