Crushing these gorgeous baby artichokes into a pesto broke my heart. I have always wanted to make artichoke pesto but never really managed to turn the artichokes into a paste. They’re so cute and delicious as hearts that really putting them through a mixer, is something I hate to do. Today, I got the courage to do it. Here, we got something different and quite delicious. Honestly, I am not sure I will have the courage to to this again. I simply love to bite into an artichoke heart, I love the crunchy bite, it’s that simple. You could use this pesto on pasta of course, or as a sauce for grilled meats…or even to spread it on some country bread.

When you’re eating spaghetti squash prepared this way, you almost forgot, it’s not pasta. I undercooked the squash to get a crunchy bite, to get the “al dente” feeling. I loved this pesto. Now for the vegan crowd, you can omit the parmesan and add more walnuts. I use very little parmesan to enhance this pesto a tiny bit. You don’t want to add too much cheese either and overpower the natural delicious flavor of the artichokes.

This pesto tends to be lighter than regular basil/pine nuts pesto, its texture is more dense too, so I added a few tablespoons of water to make it creamier.

I am flying tomorrow for France, to go see my father who had a stroke last December, so I will try to post a few local recipes, in the meantime, have a nice and colorful June.

Ingredients for 2 as a main course

• 1 large spaghetti squash
• 1 lb artichokes, trimmed and cleaned
• 1/2 cup parsley
• 1/2 cup basil
• 2 tbs raw unsalted walnuts
• 1 garlic clove, crushed + 1 chopped
• 2 tbs parmesan (optional)
• 3 tbs olive oil
• water
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Cut the squash lengthwise, wrap in parchment paper and cook in a pre-heated oven at 400F for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Remove seeds first, then the spaghetti pulp. Set aside and keep warm. Save eight artichokes quarters for decoration

Heat up a pan, add the crushed garlic, stir and add baby artichokes cut in quarters. Adjust with salt and pepper, add 2 tbs white wine, and cover, decrease heat and let cook until tender. Let it cool.

For the pesto, mix  artichokes with all other ingredients a mixer. Adjust with water if the pesto is too thick.

Add pesto to the spaghetti squash and mix well using your hands, to coat the squash with the pesto. Serve with an extra tablespoon of pesto on top and four artichokes quarters on each plate.

Originally I wanted to keep this vegan, then I could not resist to use that beautiful Greek yogurt I had in the refrigerator. Kale is quite THE popular vegetable these days, at least in California, and everyone talks about its health benefits, and how everyone should use it in its diet. It’s even used in juices along with other fruits and vegetables when doing a detox, I tried it in a “Green juice” and I have to admit that I tasted it and really liked it. It seems like juicing is quite in fashion too in California but its real health benefits have been questioned among experts.

I often ate kale growing up, it was regularly found on our table, since my grandfather grew it in the garden. I consider myself lucky enough that my parents always made me eat what they were eating, and there was no special “meal” for the kids. People might criticize this upbringing, and think it’s a little strict, but in retrospective, I think it helped me to develop a palate and tastes opened to so many different flavors and textures.

Kale and chick peas are a wonderful combination, their respective textures complement each other quite well. Tempeh is also a great alternative to chick peas in this dish.

Tzatziki is always a delicious appetizer dish (or meze), I like to serve it as a side dish sometimes like here, it’s always refreshing. Tzatziki is mainly a Greek specialty but often found in Turkey too. It’s made with goat milk yogurt, thinly sliced cucumbers, olive oil, mint, garlic. I would think that everyone has its own specific recipe. I do not consider myself to be an expert in Greek cuisine, and only been to Greece once, but this version of tzatziki is more than delicious. I will have to go and check at my Greek grocer if he has a family recipe to share with me…but I guess if it’s a family recipe, he won’t.

Ingredients for 2 as a side dish

• 1 bunch kale
• 1 cup cooked chick peas
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
• 1 tsp ginger, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 red chili, seeded and sliced
• 1 tbs olive oil
  

For the tzatziki

• 1 cup Greek sheep yogurt
• 2 Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 1tbs mint
  
• olive oil
• salt

Preparation

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, cook kale for 2 minutes, drain and squeeze excess water.

Warm olive oil in a pan, add onions, stir for a few minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients except for the kale and chick peas. Stir well. Add vegetables and cook until fragrant.

Serve in small plates with tzatziki on the side.

For the tzatziki

Squeeze extra water using your hands from the cucumber. Add to the yogurt, then add remaining ingredients and let it rest for about 15-30 minutes.

For the pastry “connaisseurs“, Napoléon is a famous pastry from Eastern Europe, made out different layers of crème patissière (custard), and puff pastry. While in Lithuania, and during its Russian campaign, Napoléon fell in love with this dessert, and named it after himself. The rumors even say that he lost the battle of Waterloo, because he ate so many of these the night before the battle. But of course, those are earsay, and only historians can prove this fact.

This is my savory version of Napoléon. This savory Napoléon has different layers of king oyster mushrooms and eggplants. King oyster mushrooms are simply oyster mushrooms that are grown to a large size, just like portobello are cremini mushrooms grown until they reached a particular size. What I like about king oysters is their meaty legs that remind of the fresh porcini, you can just slice them and enjoy them saute with garlic and parsley or any way you like.

This savory version of Napoleon has manchego and a drizzle of a parsley/garlic/paprika/olive oil mixture in between the layers, which adds a pleasant note to each bite. The concassée finishes the dish with a nice balance of chili and slight acidity of the tomato.

These cute little bundles of vegetables can be served as an appetizer, then two would be perfect, but then there is no rule in the number want to add on each plate.

Ingredients for 4-6 pieces

• 1 medium size eggplant (seedless), sliced
• 1 large king oyster, sliced
• 1/2 cup manchego, sliced
• 1 zucchini, sliced lenghtwise
• 1 tbs olive oil
• Fleur de sel
• pepper

For the herb-oil

• 1 tbs parsley, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• salt and pepper

For the tomato concassée

• 2 medium sized, heirloon tomato, chopped, peeled and seedless
• 1 tbs extra virgin fruity olive oil
• cayenne pepper
• fleur de sel

Preparation

Grill eggplants on a grill pan or cast iron grid. Set aside. Saute mushroom slices in 1 tbs olive oil. Slice zucchini with a mandoline, making ribbons. Grill zucchini on a grill pan. Set aside.

For the herb-oil, mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.

For the tomato concassée, after peeling the tomatoes, crush one tomato, with a mixer to make a purée. Cut the other tomato in small pieces. Mix both tomatoes, add cayenne, pepper and fleur de sel. Add olive oil. Mix well.

Start assembling the napoleon. In a flat surface, place one slice of eggplant. Add 1/2 tsp of herb-oil. Place one slice of mushroom on top. Add manchego. Proceed with another slice of eggplant, mushroom and manchego. Wrap it all with two slices of zucchini (one might be too short to be wrapped around). Place in a pre-heated oven at 390F until the manchego has melted.

Serve in a plate with one tbs of tomato concassée. Drizzle extra olive oil on the tomatoes, and add some cracked black pepper.

]]> http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/appetizers/a-little-bundle-of-joy-napoleon-of-eggplants-king-oyster-mushrooms-and-manchego-tomato-concassee/feed/ 28 http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/side-dish/back-to-provence-tian-provencal-and-tapenade-tartine/ http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/side-dish/back-to-provence-tian-provencal-and-tapenade-tartine/#comments Sat, 24 Jul 2010 03:04:23 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=11821 De retour en Provence – Tian Provençal et tartine de tapenade

Tian is a traditional dish from Provence, and should be made in a clay dish…since I just broke mine, I had to use a Pyrex one. The vegetables are sliced thinly, placed upright and cooked in the oven for a long time. You can add goat cheese as well, but I wanted to keep it vegan and light, so to get additional Mediterranean flavors, I served it with a tapenade tartine. This is a very simple dish to make yet delicious due to the slow cooking of the vegetables and all the herbs that have infused in it.

Of course, there are various recipes for tian, some people don’t add onions, but fennel, or potatoes, but tomatoes, zucchini and eggplants should always be around. You can play around with herbs, cheese, etc…but I wanted to keep it simple. Sometimes I like simple flavors and don’t want to add too many intricate and complex flavors into a dish. The slow cooking turned the vegetable almost “confits” in the herbs and own juices.

Usually tians are served with grilled meats or fishes, they add wonderful aromas to a dish. I have to admit that I ate the whole tian by myself and was still hungry. Usually this would be sufficient for four, if you serve it with a fish or meat, or also rice in case you want to keep it vegetarian. It really depends on how much vegetables your guests can eat. Quand on aime, on ne compte pas, that’s what the French say, when you love, you don’t count…which is true for many things. The tapenade tartine is a nice element if you want to keep your meal vegan, that olive spread is simply divine with this tian.

Ingredients for 3-4

• 3 large tomatoes, sliced crosswise
• 3 zucchini, sliced crosswise
• 2 medium eggplants, sliced crosswise
• 1 onion,
• lavender salt
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
• 1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
• 1 tsp basil, chopped finely
• 2 tbs olive oil
• pepper

For the tapenade, see recipe here

Preparation

Spread some olive oil, all over the dish, preferably a clay dish.

Place all vegetables upright in the dish, alternating between a slice of tomato, two slices of zucchini (since the zucchini tend to be smaller), one slice of eggplant, and onion. The vegetables need to be tightly arranged so they stand still.

Add herbs and garlic, sprinkle with lavender salt and pepper. Add olive oil all over the vegetables.

Cover with aluminium foil and cook in a pre heated oven at 365-370 for about 40-45 minutes. Remove the foil and let the vegetables get golden brown.

I bought a new mandoline before I would slice a few of my fingers, one day I cut the tip of my index while shaving fennel and had to go to the emergency room, so my new mandoline is much better and safer, and in the kitchen safety is somehow an important part of the whole game.

With my new De Buyer (being faithful to European made utensils because I know them better, I had to buy a French one, actually I have Japanese knives that are incredible) and one of the great feature of this mandoline is that you can adjust the thickness of the cut by twisting the handle from left to right or right to left. The blade is lightly dented so you can get a very thin and sharp cut, or a thick (and still sharp) cut, even on soft fruits and vegetables like very ripe kiwis or oranges.

So to try out my new mandoline, I wanted to make a whole dish with sliced vegetables because I just felt like playing with it. I’m sure I am not the only one who loves to play with a brand new toy. When I buy new clothes, I have to wear them right away, even if I have to run to the store buy salt, I can wear a brand new silk shirt just for the simple pleasure to wear something new. When it comes to kitchen utensils, it’s the same. What to do with 12 zucchini and a mandoline? well you just go crazy and slice them to make tagliatelle. So here they are…

My mom makes an traditional Italian dish made with pasta and chick peas so I used her tomato sauce twisting it around a little and used it on the zucchini tagliatelle. I really loved this dish, it’s savory, fragrant due to the oregano, light and nutritious, so how can you say no to that? This is a fairly simple dish, with a few ingredients which most of the time, if you have great quality ingredients, turns out delicious. You can taste all the ingredients in one bite and it all blends in a beautiful symphony of flavors.

For the tomato purée, I used the imported Italian tomato sauce from Parmalat, it’s just crushed tomatoes with nothing else added, they have quite a un-acidic flavor unlike some other tomatoes. Parmalat is a very famous brand in Italy and I knew them for their dairy products and mainly milk that was sold in card board like here they would sell orange juice, which healthier to use than canned tomatoes. I was excited to be able to find the Parmalat tomatoes. Grazie Parmalat! You can use fresh tomatoes too, but they need to be of good quality or the sauce will not be as good.

Ingredients for 2-3 as a side dish

• 6 zucchini sliced lengthwise
• 7 oz (or 200 g) cooked chick peas
• 10 oz (or 300 g) good quality crushed tomato or fresh tomatoes
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1 garlic clove
• cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper
• fresh shaved parmesan for garnish

Preparation

Start preparing the sauce. In a small pot, heat olive oil, add garlic, stir for about 30 seconds, then oregano. After about 1 minutes (watch out not to burn the garlic) add 1 cup tomatoes, salt, pepper and cayenne.  Add wine. Let the sauce cook until the water has evaporated, add chick peas and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Using the mandoline, slice zucchini lenghtwise in about 2mm ribbons. Bring salted water to a boil, add zucchini and cook for about 30 seconds. Drain, and carefull pat dry with a towel, making sure not to break the zucchini. Add to the tomato sauce, stir carefully. Add extra oregano, and serve with sahved parmesan on top.

I forgot how DMV can be a nightmare, waiting for your number 389 when the current number is 210 can be the story of an afternoon. So people bring balls to play with, and all kinds of entertainment to spend three to four hours.  I somehow like to observe people, it’s certainly more interesting to observe people sur la terrasse d’un café, in a cafe terrace with a coffee in your hands, so when your hands are holding nothing more than a number, patience becomes a virtue and people looking becomes one too.

I had prepared this gratin in advance so it just needed to be gratiné when I got home and that’s the beauty of gratins, you can prepare them in advance and throw them in the oven when ready to be served.

I have used goat milk in soufflés and in the béchamel when preparing gratins that turned out lighter with a more delicate touch than with cow milk, and partly due to the fact that goat milk is lighter to digest than regular milk. You can slightly taste to goat milk which is not as strong as in cheeses. Basically you can replace goat milk in many dishes using cow milk. Gratins are very common in France and can be made with any vegetable.

Gratin can be considered a plat unique (a one meal dish), and universally appreciated, it’s certainly a meal in itself with a side salad. If you feel like something hot with a golden crust, stop thinking, this is it. Some people are fighting to eat the crispy crust while others are fighting to get to the soft melting middle. What type of gratin eater are you? I am definitely a crust lover, but would not mistreat the middle either. No matter how you eat it, gratins always evoke a comforting and warm cuisine that everyone loves.

I would use premium gruyère cheese that melts well and leaves a nice golden crust the quality of the cheese is important and will make a great difference in the texture of your gratin. Also, you could add a little goat cheese as well instead of adding gruyère in the mixture but gruyère on top is a must if you want a golden and melting crust.

Ingredients for 2-3

• 1 medium cauliflower, broken into florets
• 1 leek, cut in 1 inch chunks
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 3 tbs butter
• 1.5 tbs flour
• 1.5 cup goat milk
• 5 tbs imported Gruyère cheese
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and brown them. Add leeks, adjust with salt and pepper and cover with lid until leeks are tender.

Cook cauliflower in salted boiling water until cooked but still firm. Drain and set aside.

Start preparing the béchamel by melting butter, then adding flour. Stir well. Add milk, salt and pepper and reduce temperature to medium heat. Keep stirring until the mixture starts thickening. Cook for a few minutes until it has reached a nice consistency, but should not be too thick.

Using individual ramequins or one larger dish, add one layer of leeks, then add one layer of cauliflower and end with another layer of leeks. Sprinkle with 1 tbs gruyère cheese (or goat cheese for each ramequin) and pour béchamel. Try to coat your vegetables with cheese and bechamel by mixing the vegetables carefully. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, grind fresh pepper and cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 30 minutes or until the gratin has reached a golden brown color.

It’s time for some rice…rice and potatoes are two ingredients I rarely use, French people eat a LOT of potatoes, at my parents my mom rarely made them, Italians are more pasta eaters than potato eaters. A while ago, I started buying all the different kinds of rices I ran into, from black rice, to bamboo rice, any shape and color rice I saw. It seems like the excitement faded away, but I don’t want to leave rice aside, because I love it. It’s nutritious, healthy and can make wonderful side dishes.

The world of food has so many items to explore than sometimes, you get caught trying out new ingredients, and leaving aside the ones you know too well.

This rice has a rich and deep yellow color you get with combining saffron and paprika or pimenton as they say in Spain but I found Spanish pimenton to have a more smokey flavor.

Basically the rice is steamed in a vegetable broth with saffron and paprika, so it comes out almost orange. Such a vibrant color to have in ones plate.

Plain white rice is great with spicy dishes, it enables to decrease the powerful and strong flavors of the spices and balances everything perfectly. Sometimes I enjoy some more intricate rice dishes like this one, you can just eat it as a main dish and as is, because it’s a whole meal in itself and full of fragrant flavors. I certainly don’t want to call this vegetarian paella, which would be so wrong, but it has some similarities in some of the spices and cooking method, even though I did not use a paella tray, nor used Spanish rice.

Ingredients for 2-3

• 5.29 0z (or 150 g) brown rice
• one dose saffron
• 1/4 tsp Spanish pimenton
• vegetable broth (rice x 2)
• 1 shallot
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tbs mixed oregano, very finely chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, cut in very small cubes (1/4 inch)
• 1 cup fresh peas (or frozen)
• 1/2 bunch asparagus, cut in small chunks (1/2 inch)
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a rice cooker or regular pot, mix broth, rice, saffron, pimenton and salt. Let it sit for a few minutes until the saffron has dissolved.  For broth quantities, I use about twice the amount of rice, in this case, since it’s brown rice, which takes harder to cook, I use about 3 times its quantity. If using rice cooker, broth needs to be at 2 cm above the level of the rice.

Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and let them soften. Add all the mixed vegetables and stir well. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked but still firm, add garlic and oregano and cook for a few additional minutes to get the flavors out.

Mix in the rice, stir well until all the vegetables are well incorporated into the rice.

It looks like artichoke season is starting and you see them come out on the shelves, one of the largest producer being close to the Bay Area in Castroville (they claim to be the artichoke capital of the world, which is quite a big statement, but they certainly do produce a lot of them), we have in San Francisco, lots of beautiful artichokes, the babies, the medium, the large, you pick which one you want. I even planted some in the garden, but seems like it takes over 300 days for them to grow, so I cannot count on my own crops this year!

I had some fresh chick peas left from last week and I just wanted to use them in a tagine. They remain green and taste so good but cook very quickly so when using them in a dish, they only need to cook for 15 minutes or so, therefore add them at the end. I love tagines, I could eat them every day. The flavors of all the spices infusing with all those wonderful vegetables is a pure pleasure to cook (and to eat of course too). After 10 minutes of placing the tagine in the oven, the house starts to be filled with incredibly aromas. It’s like a pure perfume. Ca embaume.

As in the majority of my tagines, I used Ras el hanout which is a traditional mix of Moroccan spices and literally means “the roof of the grocery store” in arabic. A few common spices included in Ras el hanout are cardamom, mace, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, lavender, ginger, nigella, turmeric, etc..but so many more. It’s used in Middle Eastern cuisine to enhance many dishes such as couscous, meat dishes, etc…

The composition of Ras el hanout can vary from 24 to 21 spices but can go as far as 40 spices, so there are so many variations of Ras el hanout as there are cooks, manufacturers and tastes. I bought a big bag of spices in a Moroccan grocery store in France that will last me my lifetime, and that is a very nice blend, not one spice overpowering the mix, and a very well balanced combination. Unfortunately the manufacturer did not include the list of the spices he used, so I am afraid I won’t be able to know what has been used and to what quantity. In France we have a huge Arabic population, probably the biggest among all other European countries, which means a lot of stores with great products and very inexpensive.

Anyone who loves artichokes and spices, will really enjoy this dish, besides the beauty of tagines is that it might take you a while to clean the artichokes, and peel the potatoes, but then you just put it in the oven and cooks by itself, comme une grande fille!

Ingredients for 4

• 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut in big squares
• 8 medium size artichokes, trimmed
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut in big square
• 1 cup fresh chick peas
• 1.5 tbs Ras el hanout
• 1 preserved lemon, cut in 4 quarters
• 1/2 cup green olives, cut in halves
• chili powder
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients together except for the chick peas and using your hands mix well.

Place the vegetables in your tagine pot, cover and cook in a pre-heated oven at 390F for about one 1h30 min. Add chick peas 20 minutes before removing tagine from the oven. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve as a side dish or as a main dish, with a quinoa or couscous accompaniment.

You probably don’t care about salsifis and there is nothing extraordinary about the recipe. It’s all about the salsifi. Sometimes I like to feature some unpopular vegetables like this one, it’s a root vegetable that people tend to forget like cardoon, so I thought to bring it back from the deads.

I have not had those for such a long time, I have been eating salsifis when I was a child, their consumption is quite common in France but nowadays even there people tend to forget them.

I have just seen some of those at the store today and it just reminded me that I had forgotten to post those while in France.

Basically, they are a long root and have a thick brown skin, their flesh is quite white and they taste like artichoke to me, but some people say it tastes more like oysters so that’s how they got their name from. Honestly I have seen no similarities between an oyster and a salsifi.

You would need to wear gloves when peeling it since its flesh tends to stain hands and the flesh and skin are quite sticky, somehow like a glue. So I’m sure you wondering then, why even bother. Well, there is a good reason to include salsifi in your diet, they contain a lot of minerals and vitamins and are a wonderful vegetable with low calories and lots of fibers, so I think we should re-introduce it in our diet. You can make gratins with them, quiches, I have aslo tasted them in stew and are quite delicious. When preparing them simply like this, you need top quality olive oil, and the juice of a fragrant lemon such as meyer lemons.

Ingredients

• one bunch of salsifis (maybe 10)
• 1.5 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of one lemon
• freshly ground pepper
• Fleur de sel
• Parsley, finely chopped (optional)

Preparation

Peel salsifis. Cook in boiling water for about 7 min, or until cooked but not mushy. Drain and sprinkle with vinaigrette, top with pepper and fleur de sel.

]]> http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/side-dish/could-it-be-oyster-plant-simple-salsifis-salad/feed/ 4 http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/appetizers/gratin-with-a-twist-not-dauphinois-potato-zucchini-and-roquefort-gratinne-m/ http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/appetizers/gratin-with-a-twist-not-dauphinois-potato-zucchini-and-roquefort-gratinne-m/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:23:11 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=6286 Gratin fantaisie et pas Dauphinois! – Gratin de pommes de terre, courgettes et roquefort

There is the traditional gratin Dauphinois (from the Dauphiné region) where the potatoes are cooked in milk, then placed in the oven with butter (NO cheese) the real gratin Dauphinois has no cheese! Even though most people add cheese, the purists will scream and pull their hair when hearing a gratin Dauphinois recipe with cheese, then you have to remove the “dauphinois” in front of the “gratin” to be accurate. I tend to be lenient as far as cuisine is concerned but I really don’t like to give a inaccurate name to a recipe. It’s like people calling me Cynthia instead of Silvia (which they often do).

Then you have less traditional gratins like this one, very delicious but with Roquefort cheese and other additions of vegetables such as mushrooms, etc… This is a one meal dish and perfect with a green salad but I would not call it a light dish due to the potato-cheese content. It should probably be listed on the category “comfort food” to use the American terminology, even though I don’t like the idea that food can be comforting, I would prefer to use the word “simple” instead. I would call a friend “comforting” but not food. Eating too much heavy food, does not leave me comforted, rather the opposite.

You need to slice the potatoes very thin with a mandoline otherwise it takes a little too long to cook them especially if you are using a large dish instead of small individual ramequins. You could also avoid the pre-cooking process of the potatoes, then the cooking time needs to be increased at low temperature. When pre-cooking the potatoes in milk, make sure not to overcook them, and you need a kind that will remain firm, otherwise the potatoes will break and become mushy.

Ingredients for 4

• 2 large potatoes OR 14.10 oz (400 g) of potatoes, sliced thin
• 2 zucchini, sliced thin
• 4 tbs Roquefort cheese, crumbled
• 2 tbs crème fraîche
• 2 tbs Greek yogurt
• about 2 cups milk
• thyme
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Add potatoes in a pot and pour enough milk to cover the potatoes, let cook for about 5 minutes but still need to be firm. Add zucchini and cook for another 3 minutes. Remove from stove and drain. Place potatoes/zucchini in a deep dish and add salt and pepper.

In a bowl combine Roquefort cheese, yogurt and cream, thyme. Adjust with salt and pepper. Roquefort is somehow salty, taste the mixture before add extra salt.

In ramequins place some potatoes/zucchini, then add 1 tbs of Roquefort/cream mixture, proceed with another layer of potatoes and top with Roquefort mixture.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and potatoes cooked all the way through.