Posts tagged potatoes
Surprise, surprise – Artichoke and potatoes papillote Provençale
Mar 8th
Surprise, surprise – Papillotes d’artichauts et pommes de terre à la Provençale
If you like a light and healthy cuisine and yet very easy to prepare, well papillotes are for you. This cooking technique can accommodate any ingredient, fish, meat, fruits, vegetables, etc… and papillotes can be prepared in advance and are cooked at the last minute, so you don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen when the guest are having fun.
Even though easy to prepare, there are some basic rules that need to be followed when preparing a papillote, such as cutting finely and regularly the fruits or vegetables to reduce cooking time and keep the flavors. Also marinating some fishes, seafood, or poultry to enhance the dish. Aren’t those a delightful way to serve your side dish when you have guests? It’s like a little present on your plate, you open it like a candy et voilà, surprise!
You can play with the folding of the papillote, as a rectangle, triangle, as a candy shape, or even heart shape and be creative with it.
Today I found those gorgeous and fresh baby artichokes at my favorite market, and I gave them a provençal makover. You need small creamer potatoes that will remain firm when cooked and you get a delicious dish avec un petit air de Provence. These papillotes would be perfect served with a white fish or poultry. I ate mine as a main meal and it was perfect.
While in France I searched all the new products such as salts, peppers, etc…I found this amazing salt and I fall madly in love with it. It’s a sel gris de Guérande (Grey Guérande salt) with Piment d’Espelette (a fragrant Basque pepper), I love it so much that I just add it in any dish. You could make this yourself, if you buy Piment d’Espelette and Sel gris de Guérande, then mix them together and keep them in an air-tight container for a while to get the salt infused.
You can add sun dried tomatoes and onions to give a little more character to the dish. Also, both aluminum foil or parchment paper can be used, so have fun with your papillotes!
Ingredients for 2
- 1/2 lb baby artichokes, trimmed and cut in halves
- 1/2 lb creamer potatoes, cut in halves
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tbs dry white wine
- 1 tsp herbes de Provence
- about 10 kalamata olives
- Sel de Guérande au Piment d’Espelette (optional)
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic and stir for a few seconds, then add artichokes and potatoes. Coat the vegetables with the olive oil, then add wine. Decrease heat and cover with lid. Cook for about 5 minutes. In a mixing container, add vegetables to herbes de Provence, olives, sun dried tomatoes (if using them), Piment d’Espelette salt and pepper. Mix well.
In a aluminum foil, add a little olive oil, place vegetables on top and close papillote very tightly so no air can get through it.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 15 minutes. remove from the oven and serve.
Vegan…or not Vegan – Red cabbage velouté with mixed vegetables
Feb 10th
Vegan…ou pas vegan – Velouté de chou rouge et légumes
It has been a long time since I posted a recipe on my blog. Not that I gave up blogging, or that I disappeared for no reason. I was in France for about one month and instead of enjoying my time with my family, I had to deal with the stress of my father’s health, since he had a stroke right before Christmas which left his left side paralyzed. Of course, I was devastated, in shock and could not talk about it, cook, blog, nor think about cooking until a few days ago. Of course, France was cold, grey but still a great place to be in those circumstances where everyone from family, friends, doctors, nurses were simply amazing.
I usually do not post any private information about my family, because I want this blog to remain really food centric and not having people get distracted by personal stories. I know most people like to read those types of stories, they feel this way more connected to the blogger, but I feel uncomfortable about throwing my personal life out there. I don’t know why. Anyway, I just wanted to tell people who have been kind enough to follow me, and read my blog to tell them that I did not forget anyone, on the contrary, I did miss everyone I met in this amazing food blogosphere (if that’s a word).
Now back to the kitchen. I rarely buy red cabbage, I mainly buy it for its color which is one of my favorite color. I thought buy using it in a soup would make the soup turn purple, I was a wrong, well not completely wrong. To get a deep red purple, you need to leave the soup rest for a couple of hours, without blending it. Otherwise, the soup gets a pinkish color, but nothing that would look like a purple. The flavor is very smooth, a little sweet due to the onions and leeks, but very hearty. I used mimi creme, which is a vegan cream but you can use regular crème fraîche, all depending if you are on a vegan mood or not and if you want to count your calories.
Soupe au chou is a traditional French soup, made out of white cabbage and eaten white beans and sausage which is considered a peasant soup. This is another lighter version with a different texture. The fried leeks julienne placed on top at the end, add a wonderful flavor that finishes the soup to perfection. Do not skip on the leek, they do make a difference! small things like this make often a difference!
Ingredients for 6
- 1 medium size turnip, diced
- 1 medium size yellow onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 leeks, 1 chopped, 1 julienne
- 3 potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1/2 red cabbage, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 tsp curry
- vegetable broth (enough to cover the vegetables)
- 6 tbs mimi creme
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cook all vegetables in broth for about 15 minutes, but do not over cook them, add curry, cream salt and pepper. Fry the leeks julienne in olive oil at high heat and cook until crispy. Drain and set aside.
Blend soup using an immersion blender.
Serve in bowls, and divide some of the fried leeks in the center. Serve with toasted baguette.
No reblochon, no tartiflette – Fake Tartiflette with asparagus and brie
Aug 11th
Pas de reblochon, pas de tartiflette – fausse Tartiflette végétarienne aux brie et asperges
If you’ve been to Savoie (Savoy), you’ve probably tasted one of their specialties, la Tartiflette. Unlike what it may sounds, Tartiflette is not a tart. It’s not an old dish either. Most recipes derive from an ancient one and go back in times, some can be retraced to Etruscan era. Not tartiflette. It’s a dish that was created in the ’80s in Savoie, as a way to promote and sell reblochon, one of their local cheese.
Basically traditional tartiflette is made out of layers of thin sliced potatoes with caramelized onions bacon and topped with reblochon cheese on it. Of course, this is a heavy dish served when you go skiing in the mountains since Savoie is the main ski resort in France. My version has asparagus has brie (a cheese from the brie region, close to Paris) and St Nectaire (a very old cheese from Auvergne, pressed and uncooked made with raw milk). Now the cheese is supposed to look like this only with the crust up. I would not call this tartiflette simply because the reblochon cheese has been replaced by brie and St Nectaire, and those two are not cheeses from Savoie. Hope that makes sense. Even if it’s a fake one, it’s delicious.
For those interested in preparing a real tartiflette, add bacon when browning onions and replace brie with half reblochon and that’s it! Reblochon ( a soft washed-rind cheese, made with cow milk) is traditionally cut in half, and placed crust up on top of the potatoes so that the cheese will be able to melt and infiltrate the potatoes, and the crust will remain golden. I did not want to add a half brie here, for many reasons, one of which being a calorie issue. As far as fat content is concerned brie and reblochon and St Nectaire, they have a similar ratio of 45%.
Tartiflette is a rustic meal, it’s not considered a sophisticated dish, nor complicated to prepare, but you need great cheese, preferably imported that melts well and potatoes that remain firm without crumbling. Then if you have those two components right, you’ll get a great tartiflette…presque comme en Savoie!
Ingredients for 4
- 4 large yukon potatoes
- 2 onions, sliced
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 28 asparagus
- Brie
- St Nectaire
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Boil potatoes in a large pot of water, when cooked remove from pot, and let them cool. Peel and cut in 5mm slices.
Heat oil in a pan, add onions and brown them.
Bring a pot of water to a boil, add asparagus and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and drain. set aside.
In a deep dish preferably using a clay pot, spread olive oil at the bottom of the pot. Add one layer of potatoes, add onions, add one layer of cheese and asparagus. Adjust with salt and pepper. Proceed again with potatoes, onions, asparagus and top it all with cheese.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F until the cheese has melted and the crust golden. Serve hot with a green salad.
A table with a view – Grilled baby cuttlefish with crushed herb potato and tapenade salad – Garlic vinaigrette
Jun 9th
Une table avec vue – Salade de seiches grillées avec pommes de terres à la tapenade et vinaigrette à l’ail
This one will be among my favorite seafood salads…When you are in love with so many dishes, it’s hard to just pick one, so I have a list of dishes, and this one is a part of the “killer list” or “la liste qui tue“.
Saturday after a delicious dinner at a famous San Francisco seafood restaurant, located at the Embarcadero facing the Bay Bridge called the Waterbar, I met again with octopus. If you ever end up in San Francisco and want to stay away from the touristy seafood restaurants on the Pier 39, try the Waterbar. I think it’s a little pricey but if you want to spend a nice romantic evening “déguster” (savor) amazing fish and seafood, the Waterbar is a great choice. Nothing is fried like in many restaurants, every dish has been carefully prepared and cooked with refinement to enhance its natural texture and flavor. You get the most amazing seafood dishes staring at the gorgeous Bay, so nothing to complain about.
This salad has been inspired by the octopus dish I ordered. The octopus was sliced and topped with an abundant and garlic chutney, arugola, and some potatoes topped with tapenade. I fell in love all of the sudden. I saw it, my heart melted. You must think that I do fall in love quite easily, if you give me grilled seafood (looks like I am back eating fish and seafood) with fresh herbs, garlic , I just cannot help myself.
I found this cute cuttlefish at the store that reminded me of Italy, cuttlefish is very popular in Southern France and Italy where they use its ink to make risotto al nero di seppia (squid ink risotto), seppia means cuttlefish, but squid and octopus ink is also used in gastronomy. So cuttlefish has replaced octopus here and I felt a little closer to home. Cuttlefish is thicker than squid, so it require a little more cooking time.
I made extra tapenade which is a traditional spread from Provence (Tapena means capers in Provencal language) made out of olives crushed into a purée. It can be stored for days in the refrigerator and be used in so many other ways.
Ingredients for 2
- 8-10 baby cuttlefish
- cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
- some arugula or other greens leaves
For the potatoes
- 6 medium yukon potatoes
- 1 tbs tarragon, chopped
- 1 tbs parsley chopped
- 2 tbs extra fruity cold pressed olive oil
- salt and fresh cracked pepper
For the tapenade
- 1/2 lb (or 250 g) kalamata olives
- 1 garlic clove
- 2.11 oz (or 60 g) capers
- 1.41 oz (or 40 g) anchovies
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 3.38 fl oz (or 100 ml) olive oil
- pepper
For the garlic vinaigrette
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs walnut oil
- 1 garlic clove crushed
- 1.5 tsp orange champagne vinegar
- 1.5 tsp pomegranate glaze
- 1 tsp chives, chopped
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cook potatoes in water until cooked. Peel and let them lukewarm. Crush roughly with a fork leaving some big chunks and incoporate herbs, olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix carefully.
Grill cuttlefish on a grill pan, turning them around until cooked, about 7-8 minutes or less, depending on the size of the cuttlefish.
For the tapenade, place ingredients in a mortar, and crush all ingredients into a paste, except for olive oil, lemon juice and pepper. Add olive oil gradually at the end like you would proceed for a mayonnaise while stirring. Add lemon juice and pepper when tapenade is ready.
For the vinaigrette, mix all ingredients together, mix well.
Place a small amount of potatoes in a plate, top it with a tsp or more of tapenade. Place cuttlefish and cherry tomato halves around the potatoes and drizzle with vinaigrette.
Thanks Anna! – Millefeuille of potatoes Anna, artichokes and salmon, Parsely jus
Apr 27th
Merci Anna!- Millefeuilles de pommes Anna, artichauts et saumon, jus de persil
Millefeuille can mean different things in French…Originally millefeuille is a traditional dessert sold in many bakeries, made out of two layers of crème patissière (custard) and three layers of puff pastry. It’s called millefeuille because of its many foldings of its puff pastry (which contains a lot of layers), obviously this millefeuille has nothing to do with sweets and custard but it does some layers too, so we call this a millefeuille (literally meaning thousand sheets).
After one delightful week of no fish and no seafood just vegetarian meals, I somehow found myself with a raw fillet of salmon left that I had from a previous dinner, which needed to be cooked, or would end up in the garbage, which is something that will never happen in my house. That would be sinful to throw away food in general and salmon even more so. After thinking and thinking about how to hide this fish in a dish, I finally decided to go with a millefeuille, because first of all it looks pretty, then you can barely see the salmon, so millefeuille, it was going to be! As far as artichokes are concerned, it’s one of my favorite vegetables, so I use them whenever I can.
Pomme de terre Anna is a traditional dish in French cuisine but most precisely Parisian cuisine, potatoes thinly sliced and cooked in the oven with a little melted butter and rock salt. They seem to have been created in Paris in the 19e century by the Chef of the “Café Anglais”, Adolphe Dugléré, who fell in love with one of its beautiful client Anna Deslions, and called them Pomme de terre Anna. Funny how love can boost creativity! They became since then a very famous potato dish! You can serve them as a side dish just in their cute round shape, but I love to play with food and today they were my toys.
Then to add the final touch, I made a jus de persil. I was hesitating between a jus de tarragon, then I figured I would leave the tarragon for something else, and parsley would go quite well here. Alors voilà, c’est fini!.. and this is definitely French no need to even think about it!
There are a few different steps in the process but it’s a fairly quick dish to make, so even if you don’t have too much time, it’s really worth trying it. It’s a delightful dish!
Ingredients for 2
- 2 medium size potatoes
- 2 medium size artichokes
- 1 heirloom tomato, peeled, seedless and diced
- 2 tbs butter, melted
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 2 tbs white wine
- 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbs chives, chopped
- juice of two lemons (1 for the artichokes, 1 for the salmon)
- Fish fumet (or broth) (1 tomato, 1 branch celeri, 1/2 leek, thyme, basil)
- 1 small salmon fillet (would be enough for 4)
For the parsley jus
- 1/2 bunch Italian parsley
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- salt and pepper (if needed)
Preparation
For the parsley jus
Bring 1/2 cup of broth to a boil, add parsley and cook for 30 seconds, remove from the pot and pat dry. In a blender, mix parsley with broth to make it into a very fine mixture. Remove from blender into a bowl, add 1 tbs olive oil, 1 tsp lemon juice, salt and pepper if needed.
For the millefeuille
Start preparing the potatoes. With a mandolin, slice potatoes, pat them dry. In a small ramequin or round silicon mold of about 3 inches diameter, place slices one on top of the other. Using a brush, spread some melted butter on top and sprinkle with rock salt. Cover with a silpat (silicon sheet) if using the silicon molds or with aluminum paper if using a ceramic ramequin. Also if using a ramequin, it needs to be greased first or the potatoes will stick on the surface. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 30 minutes.
While the potatoes are cooking, trim the artichokes, cut the hard green leaves around the artichokes and the top, cut them in quarters then in small slices. Squeeze lemon juice to prevent them from staining. Heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic, stir, then add artichokes and wine. adjust with salt and pepper, cover and cook until the artichokes are tender.
Add tomatoes to the artichokes, cook for a few minutes, then add vinegar. Stir well and let the mixture cook for a few additional minutes. Add chives.
Poach salmon in fish fumet for about 15 minutes. Drain and using a fork, break salmon into small pieces. Add lemon juice, chives, salt and pepper
Assemble millefeuille. In a plate, place one potato piece, add one layer of artichokes, then add salmon. Proceed with another potato piece, artichokes and salmon. Sprinkle with parsley jus and serve some extra on the side.
For a happy lunch – Melting potato bouchées with herbs and mozzarella – Yogurt mint dipping sauce
Apr 20th
Pour un déjeûner gourmand – Bouchées de pomme de terre aux herbes et mozzarella, sauce yaourt menthe
I kept forgetting about those potato bouchées, I think we tend to forget good old recipes in our search to find new ones, but this one is too good to forget. So as we continue on a vegetarian journey for a little while, I wanted to feature a delicious recipe that has been quite popular among non vegetarians as well. The combination of melting mozzarella and fragrant herbs with this soft potato mixture is a delight.
Potatoes are one of the ingredients I am not using very often but I have decided to incorporate them more in my diet especially since I have been on a vegetarian trend, I will probably go back to consuming fish at some point but for the time being mangeons sain!
I used purple potatoes, I figured the purple would look great on my blue plate, but it seems like they lost their vibrant color in the cooking process, therefore the “purple” is barely noticeable on the picture. You can use any other type of potatoes, purple potatoes contain more starch therefore tend to be slightly sweeter.
I served these potato bouchées with a grilled fennel, and red onion salad that was incredibly delicious. I will post the recipe soon because they were a match from heaven.
Ingredients for about 10 bouchées
- 5 medium sized potatoes, cooked and peeled
- 2 tbs parsley, chopped
- 2 tbs chives, chopped
- 2 tbs basil, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 200 g mozzarella, diced
- salt and pepper
For the yogurt dipping sauce
- 200 g small plain yogurt
- 1 shallot
- 1 tbs mint, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Roughly mash cooked potatoes, and mix herbs, mozzarella, salt and pepper and form some small patties about 4 inches diameter. Heat a non-heating pan or a grill pan. Cook patties until golden brown on each side and serve with yogurt-mint sauce.
For the dipping sauce, mix all ingredients together.
Artichokes are back in town – Tagine of artichokes, chickpeas, potatoes, red peppers and olives
Mar 8th
Les artichauts sont de retour – Tagine d’artichauts, pois chiches, pommes de terre, poivrons, et olives vertes
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.
Grandma's secret recipe – Potato crescia with greens and many other things
Feb 17th
La ricetta segreta di Nonna ‘Nita – Crescia di patate con verdura, e tante altre cose
My grandma used to make this crescia when we were kids (my cousins and I) since we were all living together as in a traditional Italian family, and we were just going crazy for it, it was called la crescia colle patate (in dialect it’s more like la crescia col patet). I remember her bending and in sweat, flipping the crescia back and forth on top of the grill on burning coals, she was already old but working so hard to make us happy. We had a fireplace in the attic we would use to grill meat, roast chestnuts, and grill crescia, when my grandma was in the mood for it. The wooden flavor would make anything taste wonderful.
Crescia is a word used in my parents region to call some types of focaccia or piadine, it’s basically a local word. Piadine are from Romagna region and are famous all over Italy, and of course in most of all in the neighboring regions of Romagna. They’re flat types of bread very thin and that are stuffed with various cheeses, greens such as spinach or kale, prosciutto, lonza or any other local product.
I don’t want to confuse you between a crescia and a piadina, but they’re two cousins, and if you ever end up in Romagna you might run into piadina and a meet a crescia if you arrive in Urbino, la città di Raffaello. In Romagna, piadina is a street food, and you can find many restaurants where they’re served with so many side dishes that you can stuff your own piadina with whatever you want.
Crescie on the other hand are usually grilled and originated in Marche and Umbria regions. There are different recipes for crescia, most of them do not have potatoes in the dough, but mainly flour, eggs, lard, water, salt and pepper. My grandma version has potatoes and no lard.
My grandma made this crescia with a potato base and made it a little thicker than regular piadina, and it was our treat. It is hard to translate something so typical and precise into another language, most of the time there is no translation for it because it does not exist anywhere else. I was trying to find some equivalent in English and could not find it.
When the crescia gets cold, it gets a little rubbery, so you need to eat it hot. The base is somehow a gnocchi dough base with a little more flour. Since I don’t have a fireplace, I cooked this in a skillet and it worked quite well.
I used dandelions in this recipe, my grandma used white cabbage, you can also use spinach or any green you like and any Italian cheese such as pecorino, or any sharp cheese. If you have a wood fire place where you can grill food, please try to make a crescia, it’s heavenly.
Ingredients for 6 crescie
- 4 large potatoes, boiled
- 2 cups flour
- 2 eggs
- 2 mozzarelle di bufala (or pecorino, etc…), sliced
- Prosciutto or any other cold cuts (optional)
- salt
- olive oil
For the greens
- 1 bunch dandelions or any other greens
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 rosemary sprig, roughly cut
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the greens
If using dandelions, previously cook in salted water for about 5-7 minutes, than drain, let it cool and squeeze excess water. Heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic and rosemary, stir to get the flavors out without burning the garlic. Add the greens and saute for a while. Adjust with salt and pepper.
For the crescia
Boil potatoes in water until cooked allt he way through. Let them cool and peel.
In a bowl, mash potatoes into a thin purée, add egg and flour and mix to form a smooth and solid dough.
In a wooden working surface, divide the dough in 6 equal portions and roll each of them into a round flat circles about 3 mm thick.
Heat a large non stick pan or a grill, then cook crescia until both sides are golden brown, maybe a few minutes, depending on how think your dough is.
Remove from grill, drizzle with olive oil, coarse salt and stuff with greens, cheese and prosciutto.
Gratin with a twist not Dauphinois! – Potato, zucchini and roquefort gratin
Feb 4th
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.
No soup for the holidays – Soup of cauliflower, chickpeas and quadretti
Jan 31st
Zuppa con cavolfiore, ceci e quadretti
I heard California got a lot of rain this season, all the news talked about it when I was in France and I heard it from my neighbors when I got back. The good things is that it’s clearing up. Eventhough France was very cold with -10C temperatures some days, my mom never made soup and neither did I. Of course during the holidays, we tend to eat “holiday meals” and strangely enough soup is not entitled to the be on the “holiday” list, so I somehow missed it.
One soup I really like is this cauliflower soup with chick peas and small pasta, you can put potatoes instead of the pasta, or even both. You can use any small pasta such as quadretti (little squares), ditali (small cylinders) or any small pasta to be used is broths or soups. I had none left so I cut some fettucine into small pieces, and it worked quite well. The difference is that quadretti are a egg pasta and thinner than fettucine which are not supposed to be used in soup as per the pasta étiquette. So I went against the étiquette, nonetheless it was really enjoyable. I think some ingredients can be substituted and some others, cannot. In this case, I would say it could be.
I am not sure how the word “pasta” is used in the US, if it refers to a particular pasta dish cooked in a particular way and not in soups. Then not sure what the word “noodle” refers to either, so I will try to be as accurate I can be. For me noodles reminds me of the Asian pasta, and not Italian pasta. Every kind of pasta in Italy has its own name, that makes it quite easy to what type of pasta you are talking about.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 medium size cauliflower
- 2 potatoes
- 4 medium tomatoes, seedless, peeled and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tbs onions chopped
- 1 rosemary sprig
- 1/2 lb chick peas (either canned or dry and soaked overnight)
- 5 tbs quadretti or small pasta for soups
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a large pot, brown onions, then add garlic, stir a few minutes. Add tomatoes, cook for about 5 minutes to let the water evaporates, then add potatoes, cauliflower and rosemary. Stir well to coat all the vegetables and cook for about 7 min stirring. Add enough broth to cover the vegetables (you might want to add extra to have enough liquid to cook the quadretti). Let it cook until the vegetables are tender but not mushy, remove rosemary then add chick peas. Cook for another 10 minutes. Add pasta and 1 garlic clove and cook until desired texture (I like them al dente). Sprinkle with olive oil, cracked pepper and serve.
