Today my greens have joyful colors.
They sell them as spinach but that’s not the common spinach. They are definitely beet leaves, what some call Swiss chards.
To garnish pasta in garlicky tomato sauce. Topping is cheezy sauce (sake kasu, miso, olive oil).
Pâtes fraîches au fromage frais. Fresh cheese on fresh pasta.
That’s being made…
I’ve curded some whole milk with a little rice vinegar. That’s not exactly cheese, but that’s close enough.
The liquid makes a nice sour drink.
The curd seasoned with salt, pepper, olive oil, onion, tarragon, parsley and marjoram. Let the flavors mix during 2 hours in the fridge.
Shiruna (chard or beet greens).
Stir-fried.
Then, freshly made egg spaghetti, in tomato sauce :
Serve the pasta topped with fresh curds, the greens as a side…
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”
I had really lots of herbs around. Can you name them ?
Starting easy : Spinach.
Parsley.
Shiruna, beet greens.
Karashina (takana), mustard greens. If you follow this blog you’ve seen them (here)
Tarragon.
Marjoram.
A milky cuke salad, flavored with fresh lemon balm. I had big huge cucumbers like in France. The local ones are much smaller usually.
There are prunes in the pountis. The sweet and savory contrast is excellent.
Vitamins to fight the horrible weather, it’s fog, pollen, yellow sand, PM 2.5, whatever… With the pea soup outside, I don’t want the same on my table.
(Postscriptum, that was yesterday, 10th, today the sky is blue, the air maybe cleaner, but saddest anniversary of the year. 2 years ago… Vitamins are needed.)
Let’s take a red Kintoki carrot. I’ve added a little lemon juice. I got a thick paste in the blender, but after I filtered it into a smooth juice :
And some greens…うまい菜 Umaina. It’s a kind of Japanese beet leaves/Swiss chard. I took only the green parts and some grapefruit juice.
Stoemp is Belgian mash-whatever… It’s when you don’t want to choose between potatoes and colorful vegetables, you have them together. It’s usually served with sausages or meat, but well, why not natto ?
I had those taasai (搨菜), Chinese beets. I had some last Summer, but normally their season is right now.
Half blend potatoes, half blanched greens passed in the blender.
Stoemp is the action of pounding the veggies with a potato masher or if like me you don’t have that, a fork.
That’s it !
Then I made two versions. One is vegan, with a little olive oil, topped by natto and mustard, all that reheated together.
Later, I had leftover that I reheated some with a little butter, a pinch of garam masala and an egg in the middle, in the oven :
I liked the 2 versions.
GOURMANDE in OSAKA 