Flat-bean stir-fry with pork...

The last time I blogged about, or even made, an Asian-style stir-fry, unless I'm mistaken, was in October last year.
I made another one yesterday. It was about time.

The main vegetable in yesterday's stir-fry was haricots plats (in English "flat beans). They are a variety of string bean (haricots vert.) I also put in some onions and garlic, some red, green, and yellow bell peppers, and some mushrooms. The pork was a shoulder roast (a Boston butt) that I cut up into small pieces.

To season the stir-fry, I made a "wok sauce" — a mixture of soy sauce, oyster sauce, mirin (Japanese rice wine), black bean sauce, and hot red-pepper sauce (Tabasco, Texas Pete, or Portuguese piri-piri. Maybe other sauces too, but I kind of wing it when i make a wok sauce and decide by tasting it to see whether it needs more sweetness, more spiciness, or more soy. I like British HP sauce in it too.

Sliced Brussels sprouts with lardons and beans

This is a recipe I found entirely by accident on the internet the other day. Credit goes to Jacques Pépin.

The first step is to trim and slice a pound of Brussels sprouts. The easy way to slice them is with the slicing blade on your food processor. You can drop six or eight sprouts in the processor's "feed tube". Then do another small batch. In just a few minutes all the sprouts are sliced. I rinsed sliced sprouts in cold water after slicing them and then let them drip-dry in a colander before cooking them in a skillet on the stove.

The second ingredient is meat of some sort, if you want it. I used French smoked-pork lardons. Diced cooked chicken would be a good substitute, as would diced cooked pork or veal. Sauté the meat in a skillet and then sauté the Brussels sprouts in the same pan, adding oil or some other fat to taste.

The third and last ingredient is a cup or two of cooked beans. I used canned flageolet beans in mine. Jacques used canned white beans in his. Red beans would be give the dish a nice color contrast. Lentils would be good, as would black-eyed peas, etc.

'Tasha

This is a photo of Natasha, the Sheltie dog that we call 'Tasha. Her ninth birthday is coming up the week after next.

After posting yesterday about an omelette I made recently, I came across
this post about the same recipe from November 2025.

Eggs for lunch

Yesterday for our lunch I made an egg dish that I guess is a kind of omelet. Or a quiche cooked in a frying pan — a quiche sans pâte, or "crustless" quiche. One recipe for this type of egg dish that I just found calls it une omelette paysanne à la farine.



The photo on the right shows the flavor ingredients that went into the omelet/quiche we had. I also added some diced up some pre-cooked chicken breast. Smoked-pork lardons (bacon) would be good if you don't have chicken. Or don't add any meat at all.

The way to make such an omelette is to whisk four whole raw eggs together in a bowl or measuring cup. Add three generous tablepoons of cream, three of flour and three of finely grated cheese (Parmesan, for example), whisking all these ingredients together for make a smooth batter. Let the liquid mixture rest for a few minutes while you sauté flavor ingredients including, for example, mushrooms, onions, garlic, along with red, green, and yellow bell peppers, in a non-stick frying pan. Or cooked spinach, broccoli, or other green vegetables instead of peppers and mushrooms if you prefer.

When the vegetables are cooked, spread them evenly on the bottom of the frying pan and pour the egg batter over them into the frying pan. Cover the pan so that the eggs will start to heat through and set. If you use a pan with a metal handle, you can then set the pan in a hot oven and let the omelette start to brown on top. Sprinkle on a little more grated cheese if you want. Use a spatula to check if the omelet is sticking to the frying pan. Slide it out onto a serving platter, or serve it directly out the frying pan. We had ours with air-fryer French fries.