Posts tagged mushrooms
Thank you Antoine – French vegetarian shepherd’s pie with mushrooms, taleggio and three purées
Jan 7th
Merci Antoine – Hachis parmentier végétarien aux champignons, taleggio et aux trois purées
In France Hachis parmentier is something eaten quite frequently and that kids love, due to its combination of potato puree and ground meet. My mom being Italian, she never really prepared this, but when I went to my friend’s houses, hachis parmentier was a dish served quite often. I remember my mom saying that she didn’t like it because it was made with leftover meats therefore not something too exciting (actually people do use meat they had left from pot-au-feu or boiled meats, etc…). A “hachis” is a dish where all the ingredients are ground, chopped alltogether. Haché means ground, viande hachée, ground meat.
Parmentier comes from Antoine Parmentier, a pharmacist and chemist born in the 18e century. After a trip to Ireland, he discovered the health benefits of potatoes and became convinced that potatoes would help treat problems of poor blood circulation, intestinal problems, etc…He introduced potato to Louis XVI to cure starvation and as a result this dish was born. I think the Irish or English version is called Shepherd’s Pie.
I have been wanting to make a vegetarien hachis parmentier and have been thinking about this recipe for quite some time, without really succeeding in finalizing it. Not being a huge fan of potatoes, I wanted to use something “more” than potatoes, so here is a purée of carrots, yams and sweet potatoes and I honestly loved every bite of this hachis parmentier. I cooked the carrots and potatoes in milk so they absorbed a good amount of it while cooking. The hachis is made of wild mushrooms, leeks and celeri…the sweet flavor of the potatoes combined with the nutty mushrooms and melted taleggio is simply fantastic (Taleggio is an Italian soft cheese with a fragrant and strong nutty flavor). Funny, how you can see on the picture some smoke coming up from the hachis, since it came straight out of the oven. I wouldn’t think the smoke would show on a picture.
You can add more mushroom mixture, and play around with the layers, in my version I added a thicker layer of potato mixture, it’s all about how you want it to be. I served this in individual ramequins with a small salad, you can serve hachis parmentier in a large dish and serve it as a meal by itself, it’s a very satisfying meal and really don’t need anything else on the side.
Ingredients for 4 individual hachis
For the mushroom-leek mixture
- 2 shallots, chopped
- 1 celery stalk, finely diced
- 1/2 lb mixed mushrooms (cremini, shiitake, chanterelles, etc….) cut in small pieces
- 1 leek, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- thyme
- Taleggio, sliced
- Panko bread crumbs for topping
For the potato-carrot mixture
- 2 large carrots, peeled and cut about 1 inch trunks
- 1 small yam, peeled and cut in about 1 inch pieces
- 1 small sweet potato and cut in about 1 inch pieces
- milk (enough to cover the vegetables)
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Start by preparing the potato-carrot purée. Cook carrots, sweet potatoes, yams in milk at medium heat. When cooked remove from stove, drain milk and keep aside and mash vegetables. Adjust with salt and pepper. If too thick add milk set aside.
Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and celery and cook until tender and slightly browned. Add leeks and let them cook covered until tender. Remove from pan and set aside. Add some extra olive oil, and cook mushrooms until water evaporates. When cooked, add leeks and mix well. Add garlic and let cook for a few minutes more. Add thyme, salt and pepper.
In four deep individual dishes or ramequins, place one layer of mushrooms, top it with taleggio, then finish with carrot-potato purée. Sprinkle with panko breadcrumbs. Cook in a pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes, then broil top until it turns golden brown. Serve immediately.
The other grean bean – Curry Mung beans galettes and tofu-garlic dipping sauce
Jul 19th
L’autre haricot vert – Galettes de haricots mung au curry, et sauce tofu à l’ail
I don’t often cook with mung beans, but once in a while I like to eat them, they’re so cute and round and tiny with a little white eye staring at you.
Of course, I didn’t grow up eating those beans since they’re mainly used in Asian cuisine, and growing up Asian cuisine was not part of my diet.
I remember in Nancy, the first time I ate Asian food, was in a Vietnamese restaurant, the only one in town, I must have been 13 year old (so it’s been a long time!), it was located in a gallery (and still is).
Then I used crab mushrooms, as an accompaniment, those look like beech mushrooms to me, but they seem to be different. I saw a box of crab mushroom at the Asian store, next to a box of beech mushrooms so I came to the conclusion that they’re two different kinds of mushrooms. If I am wrong, please let me know. I would love to know.
The exciting part of this dish is that it’s vegan…and absolutely delicious. The tofu dipping sauce is so creamy and fragrant that the non-tofu friendly crowd will forget it’s tofu. I used regular tofu but silken tofu would be even better. Do not be intimidated by tofu, it’s such a versatile little ingredients and due to its neutral flavor, you can create so many dipping sauces an have a tofu makeover session! it’s so much fun to play with it!
Ingredients for about 10-12 galettes
For the galettes
- 170 g dried mung beans
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 1 poblano pepper, finely diced
- 1 carrot, shredded
- 1 leek, finely chopped
- 1 tsp curry powder
- a dash of soy sauce
- 2 tsp roasted sesame seeds
- 2 tbs mint, chopped
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
For the mushrooms
- 1 box of crab mushrooms
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp mirin
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 1 tbs cilantro, chopped
For the tofu dipping sauce
- 1/4 lb tofu
- 2 tbs soy yogurt
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp soy sauce
Preparation
For the galettes
Cook mung beans in water until tender. Drain well and let cool. Mash with a potato masher or with your hands.
Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and brown them. Add peppers, and leeks and cook until tender. Add carrots and stir for a few minutes. Add curry powder, stir well and cook for a few more minutes until all the vegetables are coated with the curry powder. Add soy sauce and stir.
Add the vegetables to the mashed mung beans and mix well to obtain a homogenous mixture. Add sesame seeds and mint. Form patties usig your hands. Coat each patty with panko crumbs.
Heat olive oil in a pan, place each galette in the pan and cook both sides until golden brown. remove from pan and serve hot with crab mushrooms and tofu sauce.
For the crab mushrooms
Was mushroom and disassemble them. In a pan, heat olive oil, add onion, ginger and cook the mixture until fragrant, then add garlic and cook for a few extra minutes. Add mushrooms, stir well, then add mirin. Cook until the mushrooms are cooked but still moist. Add cilantro.
For the tofu dipping sauce
Place tofu and other ingredients in a blender, and blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
As cute as caviar – Black quinoa, adzuki beans salad with fennel, carrots and mushrooms
May 16th
Aussi mignon que le caviar – Salade de quinoa et haricots adzuki, fenouil, carottes et champignons
I had bought some adzuki beans a while ago, yes I know there are so many kinds of beans, and this one is one among many others. It’s a bean mainly grown in the Himalayas and used in Asia in sweet preparations, they’re mostly known as red beans. Of course, I am not Asian, therefore in my culture beans are prepared in savory dishes and I wanted to try to prepare them in a more Western way, because after all a bean is a bean. I love black quinoa, it tends to be more flavorful and earthy than white quinoa and its nuttiness in this dish allied with the sweetness of fennel and red beans make it a palate pleasing combination.
Honestly, I was not sure I would post this because I thought it will be another quinoa/bean dish which is not the first on on my blog. After the first bite, I definitely thought it was blog-worthy, the colors were so contrasting all together and it resulted in a delicious and harmonious blend of flavors.
After yesterday delicious snapper with kumquat sauce I had shot, which for whatever reason my camera decided to not “save”, and after I ate everything, realized that not even one shot was there. I was wondering if this would happen again with this red bean dish…It seemed like my Canon was in a good mood today, and decided to keep this one. It happened a few times before and tends to be frustrating, especially after the terrible week I had.
Sometimes to speed up the cooking process of beans that have not been previously soaked, I add a little baking soda, it does reduce cooking time.
You can eat this salad warm or cold, either way it’s delicious.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 cup black quinoa
- 1 cup adzuki beans
- broth (1/2 onion, 1/2 carrot, 1 celery stick, 1 bay leaf, thyme)
- 1 shallot, diced
- 2 carrots, sliced in half lengthwise then crosswise
- 1 fennel bulb, diced
- 1 cup cremini mushrooms, diced
- 1 garlic clove
- 3 tbs cilantro, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
For the vinaigrette
- 2 tbs olive oil
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1/4 tsp cumin powder
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cook beans in water with all carrot, onion, celery, bay leaf, thyme. Cook for about 45 minutes until the beans are soft. Drain and rinse.
Steam quinoa like you would do with rice.
In a pan, heat olive oil. Add shallot and let brown, add garlic and cook for another minute. Add carrots and fennel. Cover and let cook for about 10 minutes. When the vegetables are half cooked, add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Stir well and cook until the mushroom water evaporates.
Combine quinoa with beans, then add the vegetables. Let it cool.
For the vinaigrette, add all ingredients together mix well. Pour vinaigrette on the vegetable/quinoa mixture. Add cilantro, toss and serve.
Come here little turnip – Turnips stuffed with mushrooms, spinach, roquefort and walnuts
Mar 30th
Petit navet, viens par ici – Navets farcis au champignons, épinards, roquefort et noix
Aren’t those irresistible? Turnips tend to be forgotten as a vegetable, even though often used in soups. In France we eat turnips in so many ways, and we even use their leaves in soups. I love turnips, they have a peppery taste and are equally delicious, roasted with lavender salt, braised, or even steamed. They always make great presentations and combine tons of wonderful flavors. Stuffed turnips like any other root vegetable are delicious, I rarely make them, once in a while I get that particular urge, but it’s rare.
Navet in French means of course turnip, but also can be used in a more familiar language to refer to a bad movie, quel navet! meaning, what a lousy movie!
One block down the street, we have a “fruit and vegetable barn” a great little grocery store filled with fresh fruits and vegetables of all kinds, owned by a very funny Greek guy, who sometimes works at the cash register making jokes with its clients. This morning he started singing La Marseillaise (the French anthem) as soon as he saw me, then gave me a bunch of gossips about the French president Sarkozy. Since I am not following the teledrama, I had no idea of what was going on, but he seemed to be well au courant! I told him I came to get some turnips and one was going to be for him because I was very impressed by his “knowledge”…no matter what, it is still knowledge!
Ingredients for 6 turnips
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 6 medium sized turnips, peeled
- 6-7 medium size mushrooms, finely chopped
- 1 cup cooked spinach, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 3 tbs Roquefort cheese or Stilton, crumbled
- 2 tbs walnuts, finely chopped
- butter
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
After peeling the turnips cut the top and start removing the inside with a small scoop or melon baller. Chop finely and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a pan, brown the onions, then add mushrooms and chopped turnips. Cook for about 5-10 minutes, then add spinach. Add garlic, stir well and cook for a few minutes. Adjust with salt and pepper
In the meantime, cook turnips for about 5-10 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain and remove excess water.
In a mixing bowl, combine mushroom mixture with walnuts, and Roquefort.
Fill in the turnips with mixture. Cook in a 370F pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes add a small piece of butter on top of each turnip and let it melt and brown for another 10 minutes.
Serve hot with a salad, as a side dish, or any way you want to enjoy them!
Lilou's gourmande galette – Quinoa galette with bell peppers, mushrooms and mint – Leek cream
Mar 24th
La galette gourmande de Lilou- Galette de quinoa aux poivrons, champignons et menthe, crème de poireaux
Feeling like quinoa? after quinoa salads, I wanted something cakey but savory…My baby parrotlet Lilou ate all of the quinoa I made last Saturday, he loves quinoa and barley so now we share the same meals. There is always an extra portion for Lilou – Seems like quinoa is a bird seed along with millet but I do love bird seeds.
This particular parrotlet loves when I cook, he is so curious and intrigued to the point that when I chop vegetables, he gets so excited, he flies from his cage into the kitchen and starts chirping; just adorable.
I had a quinoa galette a few years ago in Paris at “La Maison du Danemark” on the Champs Elysées, a quite famous fish and seafood restaurant serving a Danish contemporary cuisine with an elegant touch and once in a while when preparing quinoa, I think about that galette.
With years going by, I really don’t remember what was in the galette, it seemed plain, I just felt like turning those cute seeds into something solid to bite on. After all, galettes are delicious, you don’t need to add too many ingredients into the mixture, you just enhance them with a coulis or a cream of vegetables like this one.
Dans le même esprit (in the same style), I made millet galettes a while ago, that are a derivative of those, so you can just play around with the ingredients and have fun. I used almond flour to thicken the batter and it added a pleasant nutty flavor. I like to steam quinoa, like I would do for steam rice, and usually I use 2 doses of water for one dose of quinoa.
Ingredients for 3-4 galettes
For the quinoa galettes
- 2 cups cooked quinoa (or 1 cup uncooked)
- 1/2 orange bell pepper, finely diced
- 4 cremini mushrooms, chopped
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbs almond flour
- 1 tbs mint, chopped
- salt and pepper
For the cream of leeks
- 1 large leek, chopped
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- 1 tbs crème fraîche or heavy cream
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cook quinoa in a pot covered with twice its quantity of water. Cover with a lid and cook slowly until the water has been absorbed.
Heat olive oil in a pan, brown onions, then add mushrooms and bel pepper. Adjust with salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and let it cook until the vegetables are tender but still firm. Remove from heat and add to the quinoa.
Add eggs and almond flour, mix well. Add mint and adjust with salt and pepper. At this point, the mixture will be thick but still smooth.
Place in silicon molds of about 10 cm diameter or greased ramequins. I love silicon molds because the food doesn’t stick and cooks quickly. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 20 minutes.
While the galettes are cooking, prepare the cream of leeks. In a pan, heat olive oil then add leeks. Stir for about 3 minutes, then add broth, salt and pepper. Cover and let it cook until the leeks are tender, about 20 minutes. Add cream and stir well, cook for another additional 5 minutes.
Blend in a mixer, and if the sauce is too thick add more broth.
Serve each galette with a few spoonful of leek cream around.
Unexpected canapés – Chèvre and mushroom canapés with honey and lavender sal
Mar 3rd
Canapés inattendus – Canapés au chèvre et champignons, miel et sel de lavande
I made a pizza a few nights ago, something I don’t do as much as I used to, and I had leftover dough I didn’t want to through away. I just hate to throw away food and more so doughs that can be used in so many different ways. I have been thinking to combine goat cheese and lavender on some sort of a tart or small bites, voilà, c’est fait en un tour de main (it’s done in a hand twist if you have dough of course). Those canapés are tiny, about 2 inches in diameter, even though they seem a lot bigger by looking at the picture.
As much as I dislike lavender as a scent, I would never buy lavender soaps or fragrances, but I adore lavender in food, it feels like Provence with its warm and sunny days, vibrant colors and flower fragrances. Lavender is like vanilla for me, the smell in fragrances makes me cringe but I love cooking with it.
The particularity of pizza dough, is that it needs to cook fast at high temperature, to get a crisp bottom and not chewy. Usually I bake it in a very hot oven, at high temperature and the dough is always perfect. Well, it’s perfect for me, since I like it crunchy and not soft and chewy.
I used large oyster mushrooms, but any mushrooms such as cremini, would work fine. You could also use eggplants, that makes a great combination with goat cheese.
Never throw away leftover dough of any kind, you can always use it, it makes beautiful bites so when unexpected guest show up, they come in handy.
For about 12 canapés
- pizza dough or pate brisée
- 1/3 lb mushrooms
- 12 slices goat cheese
- honey
- lavender salt
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Sauté mushrooms, in olive oil, add salt and pepper and let cook until the water evaporates.
Roll dough very thinly, about 2 mm thick. Cut 2 inches circles with a cookie ring. Place some mushrooms, top it with goat cheese. Sprinkle with lavender salt and honey.
Bake in pre-heated oven at 400F for about 10 minutes until the bottom is golden brown and cheese has melted.
Serve hot.
A soup for my new cocotte! – Brussels sprouts, potatoes and mushroom velouté
Dec 7th
Une soupe pour ma nouvelle cocotte! – Velouté de choux de Bruxelles, pommes de terre et champignons
I have already made Brussels sprouts soup with cannelli beans a while ago, this is another version that is as good as the other one, just a little greener. I prefer Brussels sprouts in soups than as a side dish, I think their flavor gets smoother and more subtle. It has a velvety and creamy texture, with a nutty flavor from the mushrooms but very delicate. The weather forecast predicted a rainy week and season as a matter of fact and I am getting ready for some winter dishes and brussel sprouts being a winter vegetable, will be occasionally on my table this winter.
I know many people are not fond of Brussels sprouts, but I think it’s good to try new ways to prepare things. I like them, I am not crazy for them like I would be for artichokes but I like to make velouté with those cute little round balls.
I got a new cocotte Le Creuset (I think in the US it’s called Dutch oven), I had an old one that was too small. That’s wonderful to cook anything such as stews, sauces, soups, and I cooked the soup to celebrate its first use. I think every one who cooks has a cast-iron cocotte. It is indispensable in cooking. The advantages of enamel cast-iron pots is that they diffuse the heat evenly and are perfect for slow cooking, braising, roasting, etc…
Le Creuset line tends to be a little on the expensive side in the US, it’s not that cheap in France either but still cheaper than here, in my opinion, it’s worth it since those pots last a lifetime.
Ingredients for 4-5
- 1 lb Brussels sprouts, cut in halves
- 4 potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 cup cremini mushrooms, roughly cut
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 thyme leave
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 4 tbs crème fraîche
- 4 slices prosciutto (optional)
- 1 vegetable bouillon cube
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Wash the sprouts, cut the extra stem and remove the hard leaves from the outside.
In a large pot, heat olive oil, add onion and brown them. Add thyme and stir for another 5 minutes.
Add Brussels sprouts, potatoes and stir again to coat the vegetables with olive oil and onions. Add bouillon and water. For water quantity, I cover the vegetables with about 1 cm water showing above level of vegetables. That is the perfect quantity I use when making velouté. Adjust with salt and pepper.
Cook until all the vegetables are cooked. When cooked remove thyme branch, and blend using a blender or a mixer.
Serve with a small spoon of creme fraîche and a slice of grilled prosciutto.
A wild side – Wild rice "à la forestière" with mushrooms, carrots and walnuts
Nov 15th
Un côté sauvage – Riz sauvage à la forestière aux champignons, carottes et noix
I haven’t realized Thanksgiving is coming soon, then I am leaving to visit my family in France shortly after, not sure I will have time to make it to Italy but we’ll see. It’s been one year I did not go home, and I am starting to have the one year “itch”. I remember I made this rice for Christmas for my parents guests, many years ago as a side dish to stuffed quails with ris de veau (sweatbreads) and everyone loved the whole thing. It was the time I still could eat a bird.
My mom would always invite this longtime Italian girlfriend (from the same town in Italy) with her French husband and son for Christmas and I was not looking forward to it. Those guys were the snobbiest, uptight and annoying people I have ever seen, always criticizing and making fun of others. But every year, my mom would feel so guilty to let them spend Christmas by themselves, so she invited them at home, and we would spend January 1st in their home. That was like a punishment to me! So the first time I made this rice was for them as a side dish. At least something came out of those Christmases. My mom always had this sense of “duty” or “obligation” to take care of people and sometimes it can be overwhelming. I bet everyone has those memories of some family dinners and having to deal with some unpleasant parents’ friends.
It’s a very simple dish but quite tasty and always a beautiful and refined accompaniment to a fish or meat. What is called “à la forestière” in French is mainly a dish that has mushrooms, “forestière” meaning from the forrest (forêt = forrest). Rice à la forestière is a French classic, so this one has been modified and made it into a more modern and light version with a twist. The nutty flavor of wild rice enhanced by walnuts is delightful.
Ingredients for 4
- 300 g wild rice
- 2 carrots
- 2 shallots
- 1.5 cups cremini or wild mushrooms
- 1.5 tbs walnut, chopped
- 1/5 tbs parsley, finely chopped
- 1 tbs olive oil
Preparation
Cook rice for about 40 minutes until cooked. You can either use a rice cooker or cook it in a pot the traditional way.
In a pan, heat olive oil, add shallot and carrots. Cover with a lid and let the mixture cook, then after 10 min add mushrooms, cool for an additional 10 min or until the water has evaporated. Add cooked rice, stir and adjust with salt and pepper. Add walnuts and parsley. Mix well and serve.
Fregola is acting like a risotto – Saffron fregola with grilled zucchini and mushrooms
Oct 14th
La Fregola è gelosa del risotto – Fregola allo zafferano con zucchine e funghi
I adore Fregola’s texture…those little round balls that are similar to couscous but are really not…It’s a pasta specialty from Sardinia and when cooked they remain somehow chewy and al dente at the same time.
This fregola has been prepared like risotto with a saffron broth then enhanced at the end with grilled vegetables and parmesan. I think you can find Fregola at any Italian grocery store or specialty store. We have a Sardinian restaurant in San Francisco called La Ciccia, they serve traditional Sardinian cuisine, which is really good (you can find fregola dishes, octopus in umido, pane carasau, etc… lots of traditional Sardinian products) and not really the typical Italian-American you see very often in many Italian restaurants, which I think is a mixture of different cuisines and influences. It might have been traditional 150 years ago, then with time, it became a modified cuisine mixed with local influences and ingredients.
Fregola is an authentic Sardinian pasta product and I have never seen it served in any other Italian restaurant other than at La Ciccia. As a matter of fact, I have never seen it in other parts of Italy either because it is a very regional product mainly consumed in Sardinia. So if you can find it, try it out.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying Italian-American is not good food, I’m just saying it’s just not real traditional Italian cuisine. For example Cioppino, that tomato seafood stew you can find in many restaurants in San Francisco, even though it sounds Italian, it is not. It’s something that was created in San Francisco. Isn’t that funny? A well-made cioppino is excellent, but it’s not really Italian even though you can find some similar dishes in Italy, I have never seen Cioppino.
I would be very curious to see the cuisine in Australia, if it went through the same trends and if it evolved like cuisine in the US did. Australia being also a new country, it might have had a similar phenomenon. A friend of mine gave me an Australian cook book she bought over there, and I have to say that the cuisine is very interesting with lots of influences too but put together differently.
Anyway, going back to Fregola, which is somehow the topic of this post, it can be cooked like risotto, or like pasta, or used in soups, or like couscous. It is a very versatile little ball and really delicious.
Ingredients for 3-4
- 1 cup fregola
- 2 zucchini, sliced crosswise
- 10 medium size mushrooms
- 1 shallot
- 1 saffron dose
- 2 cups or more vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- Fresh parmigiano reggiano, grated
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Infuse broth with saffron for about 20 minutes.
In a medium pot, heat olive oil, add shallots and brown them. Add fregola and coat it with olive oil as you would do for risotto. Add saffron broth and wine gradually. Adjust with salt and pepper.
Grill zucchini in a grill pan and cut in smaller pieces. Set aside. Saute mushrooms in 1 tsp olive oil, and cook until the water evaporates. Mix with zucchini.
When fregola is cooked. Add vegetables, and stir well. Add parmiggiano and serve hot.
It's raining soup! – Red rice soup with spinach, watercress, carrots and mushrooms
Oct 13th
Il pleut de la soupe! – Potage aux épinards, cresson, champignons, carottes et riz rouge
After the fog, the rain…yes I heard more is coming our way. Today was so rainy and windy, that the wind broke my brand new umbrella!
In Europe, people have this particular image about California that it’s such a sunny place, lots of palm trees, white sandy and warm beaches, and lots of extremely fit people with six packs abs. I grew up watching American series with all those elements and when I first arrived to California with my business school, we were so excited, as excited as if we were going to land on the moon. “California here I come”…then you realize that what you’ve seen on TV, is just true on TV and not in real life. Maybe it is true in Los Angeles where the movie making machine has taken roots but not in San Francisco.
We just didn’t know that San Francisco and Los Angeles were that far apart, that the climate in those two cities was so different and that they could be two different countries speaking the same language.
I had no idea that the weather in San Francisco was most of the time foggy, cold and windy…and after a terribly foggy summer, we are entering a rainy season. When it rains outside, sometimes it rains in my kitchen and when it rains, soups are in the menu.
No I am not complaining, this is not a complaint in case you think it is, I am just explaining how California is perceived for Europeans…white beaches, sun sun and more sun and muscular men.
The great thing is that there are so many wonderful stores, exotic products, that you start to realize that fog and cold beaches do have a certain charm after all. The good thing is that you will not get a skin disease related to sun rays if we are looking at the bright side of things. I have never lived in a warm city so I cannot really miss the sun, since I never had it. My hometown was even colder, rainier and foggier. I always complained to my parents asking them why they moved from a sunny place in Italy to a overcast and rainy region in France, and the response was “we moved where there was work”. Fair enough.
In France, we have a traditional velouté made with watercress and potatoes, la soupe au cresson, but today I didn’t feel like a velouté but wanted some chunky soup texture. It is indeed a watercress soup but with more than watercress. I love the Bhutanese red rice in soups, the little thing that can be unappealing for some people, is its color, when cooked in broth, the broth turns into a brownish reddish color. If you don’t like that, you might want to cook the rice separately and add it at the end. The other option you have to avoid a reddish broth is to use a brown or round white rice instead.
Ingredients for 2
- 1/2 cup uncooked Bhutanese red rice or any other rice (or 1 cup pre-cooked rice if desired)
- 1 bunch watercress, stems removed
- 2 cups spinach, chopped
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 6 large cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 carrot, shredded
- 1 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 thyme sprig
- 3 tbs pecorino, grated
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a large pot, brown onions in 1 tbs olive oil, add thyme. Add rice, stir for a few minutes to coat if with olive oil, then add broth. 1o minutes before the rice is cooked, add carrots, watercress, spinach.
Saute mushrooms in a tsp olive oil, and let water evaporate. Add mushrooms and garlic to the soup. Let it cook for another 5 minutes. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with olive oil and percorino cheese.
