Posts tagged cherry tomatoes
I got my purse stolen – Purses filled with crayfish, leeks and cherry tomatoes, curry cream sauce
Feb 8th
Aumonières aux écrevisses, poireaux et tomates cerises, sauce curry
I am back in the US and I did not post anything while in France, simply because I had no time to cook – I think I prepared lunch for my parents twice, the rest of my stay my mom cooked and we had guests so no time to shot anything…and to be honest, I had no motivation to cook. What a shame!!!! I always think, I will have time to shot the old town, la vieille ville or our gorgeous Place Stanislas (the most beautiful square in Europe) painted in gold, or our beautiful architecture. But no, I get there and I get caught in family stuff, my life changes completely, and this time I even left my camera in the suitcase! Oh well, c’est comme ca, et tant pis!
These purses are made with feuilles de brick (also called brick dough or brick pastry in the US) that I bought while I was in France (they’re more popular over there than filo dough) , they’re mainly used in middle eastern cuisine and really hard to find in the US, so far I have not found yet a store that carry them, except Amazon, but they’re too expensive. I paid only 0.90 Euros for a pack of 10. You can substitute filo dough sheets, but I prefer the texture of feuilles de brick, they’re more resistant and not as fragile.
Aumonières were an old type of purse that people use to carry on their belt so that no one would steal the money. In the food world they refer to any dough (crêpe, filo dough, feuilles de brick) filled with anything, it can be fish, vegetables, meat, etc.. basically it’s a eatable purse filled with food instead of money.
Sometimes I like to substitute crème fraîche with fromage blanc. If you are using fromage blanc instead of the heavy cream for the sauce, you won’t be able to boil it, not cook it, so you’ll have a cold sauce instead of hot. In this case, a hot sauce goes much better with the whole dish since the purses are hot.
You can use shrimps or scallops instead of crayfish, and use your creativity for the filling, it’s all about what you like!
Ingredients for 4 people
- 8 feuilles de brick
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 leek, chopped
- 1/2 lb crayfish tales (already cooked)
- about 16 cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
- 2 tsp sesame seeds
- salt and pepper
For the sauce
- Crème fraîche or fromage blanc
- Curry to taste
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a pan. Add leeks and cook until tender. Adjust with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Cut two circles of about 2.5 inches 4 brick sheets. Then take a whole sheet, brush the surface with olive oil, and place two of the small circles in the middle. Divide the leeks in the center of these circles, add six tomato halves on top of the leeks and top it off with the crayfish, Sprinkle with sesame seeds, salt and pepper. Proceed the same way for the other purses.
Close the purses by bringing the sides to the front forming a purse. Tie it up with cooking thread. Bake in a pre heated oven at 370 F for about 15 minutes, make sure the purses don’t burn or become too dark.
For the sauce, bring the cream, lemon juice and curry to a light boil, then add salt and pepper.
Serve the purses hot with the sauce on the side.
Another way to cook pasta – Pasta "risottata" with fava beans, zucchini and cherry tomatoes
May 12th
Un’altro modo per cucinare la pasta – Pasta risottata con fave, zucchine e pomodorini
After this weekend ordeal, I needed to eat something to soothe my mind…Pasta especially pasta in bianco (with burro e parmigiano, butter and parmesan) is a dish that always remind me of when I was a child and sick, my mom would cook this dish for me who supposedly helped to cure whatever sickness one may have. It did not but, it’s sometimes good to believe it.
You cannot tell an Italian how to cook pasta, it’s ingrained in their DNA…Like the Swiss and skying, it seems like they’re born with skies on.
There are indeed many ways to cook pasta, one less known method is called “risottata“, meaning like a risotto where broth is added gradually. I did not come up with it, it’s a very old Italian method of cooking pasta! so, no pasta is not always boiled in salted water, drained and served topped with sauce. There is an interesting and funny article in English about the different cooking methods and cooking time of pasta on Identità Golose.
My father loves pasta overcooked…well at least well cooked, my mom and I, if it’s not VERY al dente, we don’t eat it, so usually the al dente eaters, take the pasta out of the pot first while the other ones can wait a while longer. He always looks at us horrified, mà come potate mangiare la pasta così cruda???? (how can you eat pasta that raw), well we can.
Pasta risottata being cooked a long time, takes longer than the usual way of boiling it in water. The risottata method allows it to keep its starch, therefore develop a particular creaminess (I wanted to show that creaminess on that second photo even it’s a screaming, right in your face type of a picture!)…can you just imagine the deliciousness of the pasta while having absorbed all that flavorful broth? It’s really my favorite way to cook and eat pasta. You need to try to believe it. For this cooking method, you need short pasta (pasta corta) such as small penne, or anything that size.
The recipe is quite simple, the greatness of the pasta comes first from the risottata method, then the combination of the ingredients make it a real treat.
Ingredients for 2
- 160 g short pasta
- 100 g fresh fava bean, pod removed
- 2 zucchini, diced in small cubes
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
- vegetable broth
- 1 shallot
- 1 garlic clove
- Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a pan and add garlic, stir for a few minutes, then add zucchini, cover and let cook until the zucchini start to be cooked but firm, then add tomatoes, salt and pepper. Let cook until the tomatoes start to soften. Set aside.
In the meantime, blanch fava bean grains in boiling water for about 2 minutes depending on the size of the grains. IF the grains are small and tender, one minute is enough. Drain and peel beans. Add to the pan with the other vegetables.
In a pot, heat olive oil, add shallots and brown them. Add pasta and proceed like you would for a risotto, adding gradually broth to cook it. When the pasta has reached the desired consistency (it will need to be slightly creamy), add vegetables and parmesan. Stir well and serve hot.
In and out Focaccia – Focaccia with green olives, oregano, cherry tomatoes, and ricotta salata
Mar 23rd
Focaccia fuori e dentro – Focaccia alle olive con origano, pomodorini e ricotta
Fougasse stuffed with olives is quite a common little bread in France, nothing too original in here, but then I added oregano to the olives inside the dough and topped it with cherry tomatoes and ricotta salata to make it a little more “full”.
In Italy focaccia is a little different, it tends to remain simpler with rosemary and onions or just tomatoes, but I have never really seen focaccia with cheese. Oh well, that’s not really a problem. I had leftover dough from another focaccia I made when I had guests, and I really love leftover dough so you can play with it, it’s like a little toy.
The great things with such a “loaded” focaccia is that you can just eat it as is, and don’t need extras to accompany it.
Whoever has been to France probably knows the boulangerie Paul, it’s somehow a huge chain that sells bread all over France…yes the word chain is not very sexy nor has a great connotation in terms of quality….BUT Paul makes good quality breads, very consistant (and not cheap, referring to the baguettes with the grid marks on the bottom, yuck, I really hate those) so you can be in Orleans, Nantes or Paris, the bread is always the same…which is unlikely to happen if you enter an unknown boulangerie. Some breads can be ecstatic and others below average…and getting an average baguette IS a spoiled day for a French. Of course boulangerie Paul cannot compete with the best local boulangeries in town but they do have cute and delicious little breads and their petits pains aux olives, aux noix (walnuts) or aux lardons (bacon) are quite good. So basically my point was that I made this fougasse thinking about my friend Paul…
So when in France and you’re not sure where to find good pastries or bread, check out Paul, even though it’s not top of the line, little artisan baker, their breads and pastries are fresh and good.
When making bread dough like this one, it is important the dough remains very fluffy and elastic, if your ratio of flour vs water is too high, the dough will be hard and will have a tough time rising. You need a soft and almost sticky dough.
Ingredients for one focaccia
For the dough
- 1/2 lb flour
- about 6 g compressed yeast
- about 120 ml water
- salt
- 2 tbs green olives, chopped
- 1 tbs fresh oregano, chopped
For the topping
- about 15-20 cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
- 2 tbs ricotta salata, crumbled
- rock salt
- olive oil for drizzling
Preparation
In a mixing bowl or working surface mix flour with salt olive oil and yeast that had been previously dissolved in lukewarm water.
Knead the dough, if too sticky add flour but the dough needs to be elastic and borderline sticky when kneading it. At the end of the kneading period, the dough will be elastic and very soft.
Cover with a towel and let it rise for one hour, then knead again and let it rise for two hours.
Spread the dough using your hands, you don’t necessary need a rolling pin, you can flatten it up using your fingers.
Top with cherry tomatoes, placed evenly on top, then ricotta. Sprinkle with rock salt and olive oil.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 390F for about 20 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown and top as well.
You can serve it hot, lukewarm or even cold, it’s delicious either way!
