Easy little carbonade, with early Autumn market’s basket…

The inspiration is the Belgian dish carbonade flamande, a beef stew with dark beer. It’s hugely adapted to my local ingredients. I had that alcohol free beer to finish and some frozen beef meat leftover. And season’s produce waiting to be cooked. All that took us away from the rich original Winter dish, but that’s ideal for now as weather is hot (versus sooo hot before).

I’ve started by pan-frying a sliced onion till they get a golden color. Added beef thinly cut (2/3 defrost), a chunk of kurozato black sugar, thyme, a little fresh ginger, a piece of dry chili pepper and 2/3 of a can of beer (alcohol free). Covered. Let 15 minutes on low heat. The meat is so thin that it cuts very quickly.

I’ve added croutons made of toasted abura age (fried tofu pockets) with mustard spread on it, a little water, salt, pepper. Let 15 more minutes.

Served with more croutons and thyme on top. And I had veggies :

Small long satsuma imo sweet potatoes.

I steamed them with kabocha pumpkin and small potatoes.

Freshly boiled black edamame.

Poulpes au rouge, fugly and yummy.

Local seafood and exotic recipe. Daube de poulpes.
That beast is ugly, sorry. And the daube…it’s a stew that never looks refined.

pork daube

That falls apart, that’s shapeless. Forget.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ! Stay ! That’s delicious.

Small tako (octopus, poulpes) from the area of Kobe. That’s something you cook extremely briefly or really longly. Today, the slow way…

Slow simmering.

After…hours and lots of red wine later.

It melts in the mouth.

Ginger makkoli stewed chicken

Chicken and shiitake mushrooms cooked with makkoli, the Korean fermented rice drink. I’m probably not the only person on the planet doing it but that was an improvisation and I loved the result.

So this is the weapon used for the crime. I’ve associated it to ginger and kuko (goji berries) to remind Korean medicinal drinks.

Cook onion, fresh shiitake mushroom a little in oil.
Then add a chicken breast, a few slices of fresh ginger, a sip of soy sauce, cover with makkoli. Cover, let on low heat.
When the meat is tender, break it in big pieces with a fork. Add goji berries, fresh spinach and a little potato starch if you want a thicker sauce. Cook slowly 5 more minutes.

Served on home-made tortilla colored with turmeric, with kimchi as a side.

And a glass of chilled makkoli.

Tiger stew

They are called toramame (tiger beans) for obvious reasons. I’ve used them to make a very simple cassoulet/baked bean dish.

They become a little darker when they cook. After soaking the bean overnight, I’ve refried cut onions, garlic, laurel leaves in olive oil, added the beans, water and let simmer on the stove till beans got tender.