Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Franglais: Black and Bleu

RECIPE: Black and Bleu

Black and Bleu

Get the whole story at The Huffington Post.

Food to me is all about comfort. The comfort of knowing that your heart is still beating and your clock is still ticking because you’re hungry. And if you’re hungry for food, you’re hungry for life. One of the most terrifying things I can imagine is a woman who has lost her appetite. Dead girl walking (and not eating). The horror.

But sometimes, to be fair, life can really punch you in the face. And those are the days you need a little more comfort than others. And in my mind, those days when the subway never comes or your dog mistakes your closet for the toilet are the days that earn you free hedonistic, bacchanalian license in the kitchen. How good could life be, after all, without a few little sins?

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Categories: 30 Minutes, Eat, Main Courses, Meat, Recipes, Series
 
Monday, August 16th, 2010

The Secret Ingredient (Chorizo) Part I: Chorizo-Steamed Mussels and Clams with White Beans

RECIPE: Chorizo-Steamed Mussels and Clams with White Beans
Chorizo Seafood and White Beans

Chorizo Seafood and White Beans

Get the whole story at Serious Eats.

Chorizo is one of those secret ingredients that makes for no-effort cooking because it already has so many secret ingredients within itself. Of course, it is perfect just sliced up and stuck on a skewer with a slice of manchego, or grilled to a charred black on a grill, eaten just as is. That is how I most often eat it. Another phenomenal way to eat chorizo is the way it is served at Brindisa in Borough Market in London: halved, grill-charred, and served on a ciabatta roll with baby arugula, roasted piquillo peppers, and extra virgin olive oil. It leaves me breathless.

The best part about those chorizo sandwiches in Borough Market is the red grease that runs down your hands when you eat it, and it’s that red grease that makes chorizo the perfect secret ingredient. It is full of two delicious things: smoked paprika, and garlic. Well, and, of course, pork fat. With those three things in a dish, how could you go wrong?

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Categories: 30 Minutes, Easy, Eat, Fish, Main Courses, Recipes, Series, The Secret Ingredient
 
Friday, August 13th, 2010

French in a Flash: Roasted Shrimp Cocktail with Chermoula

RECIPE: Roasted Shrimp Cocktail with Chermoula
Roasted Chermoula Shrimp Cocktail

Roasted Chermoula Shrimp Cocktail

Get the whole story on Serious Eats.

One of the best things about living in a strange place for a long time is getting to know not only its dominant, namesake cuisine, but all the other little cuisines that make up the culinary mosaic of the neighborhood. New York is the perfect example of this. What is New York cuisine? An old, terrific, dark-wood steakhouse, maybe. But that is hardly representative of New York. Instead, I grew up on great plates of Italian pasta, broccoli in black bean sauce from the Chinese takeout, and avocado rolls from my neighborhood sushi place. In London, I have discovered great Bangladeshi food. And in France, historical conquests and waves of immigration have brought us my personal favorite, Moroccan.

Moroccan is my personal favorite because my Mémé, my grandmother, was born in Casablanca and moved to France as a teenager. What I love about France and Morocco is the two-way street that seems to arch like a great bridge over Spain. Mémé already spoke French, and was used to French fashions and customs, when she arrived in Europe, because they were so prevalent in Morocco. And when I am in France, I find that Moroccan cuisine, like Mémé, must have booked a one-way ticket to Paris, because it is everywhere, from the merguez-frites stands, Paris’s answer to New York’s hot dog-on-the-go, to refined establishment couscous houses.

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Categories: 15 Minutes, Appetizers & Hors D’Oeuvres, Easy, Eat, For a Crowd, French in a Flash, Individual, Recipes, Series
 
Friday, August 6th, 2010

French in a Flash: Cold Tomato and Tarragon Soup

RECIPE: Cold Tomato and Tarragon Soup
Cold Tomato and Tarragon Soup

Cold Tomato and Tarragon Soup

Get the whole story at Serious Eats.

We, proud Americans, know that peanut butter belongs with jelly. A perfect pair. A dynamic duo. But in France, tomato and tarragon are an incontestable couple.

I have featured the two together before, in an adaptation of the tomato and tarragon chicken I learned in Paris. But summertime screams for the naturally gifted ingredients to strut their stuff raw and unadulterated, and nowhere is that exemplified better than in the kind of Goblin Market of fruits and squashes and herbs that overflow even the most usual of supermarkets. Summer tomatoes, sweet and plump and incomparable in their fleshy delicacy, should throw basil over for a summertime fling.Tarragon is anise-sweet like fennel, fragrant like basil, fresh like parsley or chervil. Like the balance in a tomato, it is unassumingly delicate and unique. You should see them together—and taste them. They’re the perfect pair!

Cold Tomato and Tarragon Soup
serves 6
Cold Tomato and Tarragon SoupIngredients
  • 2 1/2 pounds vine tomatoes, seeded and in chunks
  • 1 Vidalia onion, in chunks
  • 1 red bell pepper, seeded and in chunks
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 3 tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves (from approximately 2 large stems), plus more for garnish
  • 2 cups tomato juice
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
  • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
  • 1/2 cup baguette crumbs, or fresh bread crumbs
  • 4 ounces crumbled fresh goat cheese, for serving

Procedure

  1. In a large blender, place all the ingredients EXCEPT the bread crumbs and the goat cheese. Blend everything together until almost completely smooth. Taste, and season well with salt and pepper.
  2. Add the breadcrumbs to the blender, and just whiz to incorporate. To make baguette crumbs, take the stale butts of old baguettes and smash them in a food processor. I always keep a baggie of these in my freezer, but any fresh bread crumbs will do. Just avoid heavily flavored breads like rye.
  3. Decant the soup into a pitcher or punch bowl, and cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve in mugs or bowls with some crumbles of fresh goat cheese and whole tarragon leaves, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

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Categories: 15 Minutes, Easy, Eat, French in a Flash, Recipes, Series, Soup, Soup & Salad, Vegetarian
 
Friday, July 30th, 2010

BBC Radio Recipe: Blueberry Galette

RECIPE: Blueberry Galette
Blueberry Galette

Blueberry Galette

Galette is what I like to call pie for dummies (like me). The crust is folded free-form around a nest of sweet summer blueberries. Too easy to be so good.

Blueberry Galette
per person

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 250-g short crust, rolled into a round
  • 1/4-inch thick
  • 400 grams blueberries
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • Milk for washing the crust

PROCEDURE

  1. Stir the blueberries together with the sugar and pinch of salt.
  2. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C.
  3. Roll out the dough, and place it on a baking sheet.
  4. Add the flour to the blueberries, and thoroughly mix.
  5. Mound the blueberries in the center of the dough, and fold up the edges to make a sort of open-centered pie.
  6. Use a pastry brush to brush the exposed crust with milk.
  7. Bake for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. The crust should be golden, and the blueberries bubbling.
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Categories: Desserts, Eat, Recipes
 
Friday, July 30th, 2010

BBC Radio Recipe: Rack of Lamb with Basil Pistou Crust

RECIPE: Basil Pesto Crusted Rack of Lamb
Rack of Lamb with Basil Crust

Rack of Lamb with Basil Crust

This is a recipe I’ve been making for years! Combine a simple basil pistou with fresh bread crumbs, and pack it onto a rack of lamb. Roast for a glam, but easy and traditional, dinner party center piece.

Basil Pesto Crusted Rack of Lamb

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 large package of basil, stems torn off (about 80 g)
  • 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
  • 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
  • 500 g rack of lamb, Frenched

PROCEDURE

  1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
  2. Make the pesto by blitzing together the garlic, basil, pine nuts, and olive oil in the food processor. Season with salt and pepper.
  3. Pulse the bread crumbs into the pesto to make a paste.
  4. Season the lamb with salt and pepper. Place it on a baking sheet drizzled with olive oil.
  5. Pack the pesto paste onto the lamb.
  6. Roast for about 30 minutes (63 degrees C)

*Note: the lamb in the above photo was made for someone who likes lamb well done, and was roasted for nearly 40 minutes.

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Categories: BBC Radio Recipes, Recipes, Series
 
Friday, July 30th, 2010

BBC Radio Recipe: Radishes with Homemade Tapenade

RECIPE: Radishes with Tapenade
Radishes and Tapenade

Radishes and Tapenade

When I was staying at the Hotel La Jabotte in Cap d’Antibes, every afternoon they had cocktail hour. They served simple vegetables with little dips, like tapenade or caviar de tomate. Riviera cocktail hour inspired this recipe…

Radishes with Tapenade

INGREDIENTS

  • 350 g can black olives in brine (150 g olives)
  • 1 tablespoon capers (in brine)
  • 2 anchovy filets (in olive oil)
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 tbs lemon juice (1/4 lemon)
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 bunch French breakfast radishes

PROCEDURE

  1. In a food processor, pulse together the olives, capers, anchovies, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and black pepper into a fine rubble.
  2. Serve with the radishes, and sprinkle the radishes with Maldon salt.
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Categories: 15 Minutes, Appetizers & Hors D’Oeuvres, BBC Radio Recipes, Easy, Eat, For a Crowd, Recipes, Series, Vegetarian