Rouelle de porc braisée au vinaigre balsamique (Balsamico soft pork roast)

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An old fashioned cast-iron slow cooked roast, with its sauce and season steamed veggies. The balsamico vinegar brings the char color and some sourness that lights it up.

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That’s a meal that takes 5 minutes to throw… and 2 days to cook, but you don’t care as you have nothing to do.
The cut is called sune in Japanese, I think it corresponds to rouelle in French, a round cut in the pork leg. It’s just ideal for this type of recipes.
A grated carrot, a grated onion, 2 chunks of garlic, a handful of oregano, 1/2 of balsamico vinegar, some water.
2 hours low heat. The next day, again, 2 hours.

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The meat is easy to cut, with a pleasant soft texture.

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The sauce : everything in the pot except the meat, passed in the mixer. I’ve added, paprika powder for the color, salt, pepper, reheated.

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Steamed romanesco.

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Steamed new potatoes.

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And a little plate of stalks of spinach and mustard leaves, stir-fried with spices.

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Maquereau au four – baked mackerel.

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Spring is a bit this year. Let’s enjoy baked fish.

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Okinawan yellow skin potatoes. New.

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A bed of baked potatoes with a fragrance of white wine.

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Tarragon brings an interesting flavor.

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Cover with the mackerel (maquereau).

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With a quick ciabatta.

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Green duet. Herb and prune pounti, and cucumber lemon balm salad

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A big pounti pie, and 2 small ones…
I made this dish before and there is some explanation of its origins as a French peasant dish :
about the “pounti aux pruneaux”

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I had really lots of herbs around. Can you name them ?

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Starting easy : Spinach.

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Parsley.

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Shiruna, beet greens.

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Karashina (takana), mustard greens. If you follow this blog you’ve seen them (here)

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Tarragon.

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Marjoram.

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A milky cuke salad, flavored with fresh lemon balm. I had big huge cucumbers like in France. The local ones are much smaller usually.

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There are prunes in the pountis. The sweet and savory contrast is excellent.

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Matelotte de truite ayu

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A matelotte is a French river fish stew, with a creamy wine sauce. It’s out of fashion now, which is a shame. It’s really delicious. Well you need good river fish. When I was a kid, we often had neighbors that were emptying their fish pond, and we had some more often that we wished. Now it’s a rarity.

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Ayu is a type of small river trout. They are farmed, at least partially. It’s rarely if ever prepared this way.


Japanese ayu dish

I got a few that were a bit too large for Japanese style, but perfect for my purpose.

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Garniture aromatique. Fresh veggies and herbs in butter. The sauce is based on white wine.

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With lots of mushrooms.

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You can have reasonably healthy side dishes. Pink sauerkraut.

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Salade trévise (radicchio).

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A good Sunday meal.

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Le Nancy. Grandma’s so soft chocolate cake.

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Gâteau au chocolat de Nancy

Nancy, the city.
Lorraine has two capital cities. The real one and the fake one that pretends. Well, I know which is real but that’s not the topic.
The situation has advantages. The region has two iconic traditional chocolate cakes. One for Metz, one for Nancy.


Gâteau de Metz

VS

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Gâteau de Nancy

The official recipe.
My proportions : 2 eggs, 60 g each for chocolate and butter, 1 tbs each for cocoa and flour, 1 ts sugar.

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