FFWD

FFWD – Chanterelles with Cabbage & Nuts

~ Teresa ~ 15 Comments

mushrooms

It’s easy to think of disincentives for being late: a tapping foot, the flustered greeting, that feeling of being out-of-step with everyone else. But sometimes there are advantages, too. I couldn’t make it to last week’s Farmers’ Market, so I don’t know if they had chanterelles for sale, but I do know I couldn’t find them anywhere else all week. This afternoon, though, there were several baskets of the beautiful fungus sitting front and centre on Wild Foraged‘s table. I scooped up a box, but I admit I almost gave up on the idea of this week’s dish when I found out they also had Chicken of the Woods on hand.

My better angel prevailed and here we are, with an appetizer that is sweet and savoury, meaty and vegetal, all at once. I made a small portion of the dish for the two of us to share, substituting savoy cabbage for the napa and using some vegetable stock in place of bouillon. I’d forgotten to pick up hazelnuts on the way home, so I used chopped almonds instead. I think they were as nice as hazelnuts would have been. I also took Dorie’s bonne idée and threw in some green grapes, which added another lovely layer of flavour to the dish.

The hardest thing about this dish is obtaining the mushrooms. The easiest thing is deciding to make this again before chanterelle season is over. See for yourself, here.

And because we’re heading into the home stretch of Around My French Table, I’m trying to do at least one catch up a week until I’m up-to-date:

Lyonnaise Garlic and Herb Cheese

cheesy

I’m sort of glad I waited so long to make this one, or else it might have become a staple item in my refrigerator. Fromage blanc (or in my case, ricotta drained overnight until thick) mixed with alliums and herbs makes a wonderful spread for crudités, breads, or crackers. I loved it with oatcakes and slow-roasted tomatoes. If Kevin wasn’t adhering to his vegan diet of late, I’d have filled tomatoes with the stuff for him. I’ve still got quite a bit left and I’m thinking it might find its way into a savoury tart very soon.

Find out what the rest of the French Fridays crew thought about their Chanterelles with Napa and Nuts

And here’s where you can find the verdict on Lyonnaise Garlic and Herb Cheese

FFWD – Quinoa Salad

~ Teresa ~ 33 Comments

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I’m a rather mediocre meditator. If I go to a sit or even a day-long retreat, I can meditate successfully and feel as though I’ve gotten a lot out of it (which is entirely the wrong attitude, I know). But, on my own, it doesn’t happen. At least not in that formal, sit and allow your thoughts to pass through, focusing on your breath, kind of way.

My true meditative practice happens when I’m out in the garden or chopping vegetables in the kitchen. It’s in those moments, or in the in-between spaces like a quiet bus ride or a long walk, that I truly reach for a meditative state. The demonstration of this kind of practice is one of the reasons I love the film How to Cook Your Life.

And yes, this week’s French Fridays assignment put me in mind of this, as I cubed or thinly sliced a heaping plateful of vegetables today. Now, I should let you know that the recipe for this week wasn’t actually quinoa salad, it was couscous salad. But, since the other half of the household can’t have gluten, I decided to change it up a bit. It’s a Moroccan-inspired take on a grain and vegetable salad that didn’t suffer at all from the substitution. In fact, I loved the colour the tumeric and other spices lent to my plain quinoa.

You can find the recipe on Epicurious, along with the suggested accompaniment, lemon chicken. Because quinoa is packed with protein, we were able to make a vegan supper of it, along with some corn on the cob.

And as an added bonus, Kevin declared this the best recipe I’ve tried recently. Now, that’s something to contemplate.

Find out what the rest of the French Fridays crew thought about their Couscous Salad

FFWD – Roasted Red Peppers & Gâteau Basque à la mode

~ Teresa ~ 21 Comments

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Hello French Fridays, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I’ve missed you, but I got hit with a nasty sinus infection last month that took away much of my sense of taste and smell, along with almost all of my cooking mojo. I’m coming back on an easy one, so I added in a couple of catch ups, too.

Roasted Red Peppers

pepper collage

I’ve never been a fan of commercial roasted bell peppers – they’re usually a little slimy and the best part of the flavour is in the oil they’re packed in. Homemade roasted peppers, though, are an entirely different matter. Dorie’s recipe has you roasting the peppers in the oven, making it easy to cook them until they blacken and collapse. Once they’ve cooled down enough to peel, it’s just a matter of layering them with seasonings and marinating them in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. I made mine last night and they were wonderful as an appetizer. Unlike the ones out of a jar, they weren’t without texture and they certainly weren’t slimy. Instead, they had a light coating of good olive oil and they were covered in garlic and herbs. I also took a quarter cup of the oil and a slice of pepper, as Dorie suggests in her bonne idée, and made a vinaigrette. I used balsamic instead of sherry vinegar and it was a perfect dressing for salad this evening. Even better, there are still plenty of peppers in the fridge for me to work my way through Mary’s list of roasted pepper ideas.

Gâteau Basque

slice

There has been some disagreement amongst my fellow Doristas as to whether this dessert is a cake or a giant cookie. I don’t really care, because it’s delicious. I used my mother’s homemade cherry jam to fill the gâteau, which isn’t really traditional, but it was wonderful all the same. It’s quick and uncomplicated to make, as long as you leave yourself enough time to chill the dough. I enjoyed this as a summer treat, but I think it will be even better in the wintertime, when a jam-filled treat will bring welcome reminders of the sun.

Olive Oil Ice Cream

ice cream

Now, I’m not the kind of person that would throw out a cake just because it was made a couple of days ago, but they do tend to get a little drier over time. Since I still had some leftover Gâteau Basque today, I thought a little ice cream might be just the thing to freshen it up. I didn’t have an ice cream maker when the group made Olive Oil Ice Cream, so I decided to tackle one more catch up this week. I was skeptical, I have to say, about olive oil in my ice cream. But this recipe produces a very adult vanilla flavour. The oil cuts the sweetness and enhances the vanilla, while adding a layer of savoury fruitiness all its own. It paired really well with the gâteau, but I would have been just as happy to have it alone, or with some summer fruit.

So, I think I’ve managed a fairly respectable return, don’t you? Once I catch up on the rest of July’s recipes, I’ll be almost on track again. I have to say it’s been good to see you, French Fridays. We shouldn’t wait so long again.

Find out what the rest of the French Fridays crew thought about their Roasted Peppers

You can find links to everyone else’s thoughts about cherry-jam-filled-goodness here: Gâteau Basque

And here’s where you can find the verdict on Olive Oil Ice Cream

FFWD – Zucchini Blossoms

~ Teresa ~ 10 Comments

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I’m a week behind with French Fridays, once again. Everyone else is writing about their adventures with Coddled Eggs with Foie Gras, but I’m going to tell you about deep-fried zucchini blossoms.

There was a little drama involved in collecting the blossoms for this recipe. I have two zucchini plants in my garden this year, but I wasn’t sure whether they would be ready in time for last week’s posting or not. At the beginning of the week, I could see that there were about six male blossoms getting ready to bloom – I thought I could safely take four and leave two for the bees. I watched them carefully and when they seemed like they’d be ready the next day, I went and got a variety of vegetables to batter and fry with them, along with the ingredients for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s
 chile dipping sauce.

I went down to the garden the next morning and all six blossoms were gone. I don’t know if they dropped off the plants and shrivelled into nothing, or they got harvested by another creature who knew how good they were. In any case, I was disappointed.

Luckily, I only had to wait a few days more before I could try again. I harvested four blossoms, carefully laid them on paper towel and kept them in the fridge until it was time to stuff them. I used an herbed goat cheese to stuff mine, instead of the titular shrimp. I was surprised at how easy the blossoms were to work with – I had them cleaned and stuffed in much less time than it took to prepare the rest of the vegetables. I also substituted an equal weight of gluten-free flour for AP flour and the batter turned out perfectly.

However, I wasn’t quite finished with drama yet. My over-sensitive hard-wired smoke detector went off when I was about halfway through the vegetables I deep-fried along with the blossoms, so I had to abandon my cooking and wrap bags and tea towels around the alarm until it stopped.

All of the blossoms had been cooked and there was a plateful of vegetables for us to dip in the chile sauce, too. It was an enjoyable snack and the blossoms were delicious.

I’m not going to be repeating it, though. I’m not enough of a fan of deep-fried food to wrap towels around the smoke alarm very often at all. And the rest of my zucchini blossoms are being put to work producing enough zucchini to overwhelm me at the end of the summer.

This month, French Fridays is doing something a little different – four Doristas were asked to pick recipes and this perfectly seasonal, perfectly elegant pick was courtesy of Diane, from Simple Living and Eating – drop by and thank her for me, won’t you?

Find out what the rest of the French Fridays crew thought about this recipe: Shrimp-filled Zucchini Blossoms

Guacamole and Tomatoes – A French Fridays Catch Up

~ Teresa ~ 11 Comments

Today’s post should be about delicate zucchini blossoms in a tempura-like batter, but I’m not there yet – or rather, my garden is not. I am short on blossoms as yet, but that should correct itself by tomorrow or Sunday, latest.

Instead, I’m catching up on the two previous weeks’ dishes, which were so simple it makes me wonder how I let life get in the way of making them before today. They were perfect for a hot summer’s evening graze, which also included hummus, salsa, and crudités. (Not that it qualifies as hot here by the rest of North America’s standards, I’m aware.)

Guacamole with Tomatoes and Bell Peppers

Guacamole

This recipe came up in the rotation on the last Friday of June and was whipped up in my kitchen in less than fifteen minutes today. The recipe calls for the guacamole to be presented chunky or smooth. I chose smooth and used my food processor to make it, instead of a mortar and pestle, as Dorie does – mine isn’t big enough.

I used a little too much jalapeño for Kevin’s taste, but I enjoyed the bite. The inclusion of the tomatoes and red pepper made this guacamole reminiscent of a green avocado salsa, though I think I like this recipe better. Tomorrow, it’s going to be even spicier than it was today, so I’m going to pick up some sour cream to cut the heat. Along with corn tortillas and some vegetables sautéed in cumin and oregano, I think we’ve got tomorrow night’s dinner covered.

Tomatoes Provençal

Tomatoes

For the month of July, the choices for each week’s assignment were made a little differently than usual. Four of our regular participants were each asked to pick one recipe and to start the month, Kathy of Bakeaway with Me chose Dorie’s Tomatoes Provençal.

Local tomatoes are starting to show up in the markets and roasting them is such a nice way to deepen their flavour. I was especially pleased with the topping – minced garlic with a mixture of herbs from the garden. I love being able to go outside and take as much as I need from the plants in my backyard. It’s one of the many pleasures of summer, isn’t it? I used basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and chives. Nothing else was needed but a little salt, pepper, and olive oil.

We loved these tomatoes, so much so that I saved the leftover juices to use for salad dressing or cooking down vegetables for the frittata I’m planning for later this weekend.

If I were you, I’d give them a go and then visit Kathy’s blog to tell her what a great choice she made.

Find out what the rest of the French Fridays crew thought about the Guacamole with Tomatoes and Bell Peppers.

You can find links to everyone else’s posts on last week’s recipe here: Tomatoes Provençal

FFWD – Halibut with Capers, Cornichons, and Brown Butter Sauce

~ Teresa ~ 13 Comments

Halibut

If you follow French Fridays, you might notice that the fish in the dish above isn’t the one called for in this week’s recipe. My local fishmonger is an Ocean Wise establishment, which means they carry only sustainable seafood. It also means there was no skate in sight there, as it’s currently being over-fished worldwide. So instead of skate, I picked up halibut, which is a firm-fleshed recommended alternative. It’s also one of my favourites, so I was pleased to make the substitution.

A lot of conversations about ethical and healthful eating in my house revolve around my partner’s choice to move toward veganism and my philosophy of eating meat less often than I eat vegetarian. But another important part of all this, for me, is where food comes from. Sourcing wild or humanely raised meat is something I strive toward (though I don’t always succeed). I also think the same attention needs to be paid to non-animal food, as well. So, I’ve been following the controversy around Jeanette Winterson and the rabbit with interest. Many of these questions are being discussed in the wake of the Twitter frenzy her photos created. There certainly doesn’t seem to be one answer to the question of what ethical eating looks like.

In the case of this French Friday, the sustainable choice was also a delicious one. If only all ethical decisions had outcomes so rewarding. Halibut was perfect for pan-frying and serving with tangy, brown butter sauce. I couldn’t believe how well the cornichons fit into to the dish – their crunchy tartness was a nice contrast to the tender fish. I usually bake fish, but this dish reminded me that I should get my skillet out more often.

Not much else is needed for accompaniment, as Dorie points out in the head note to this recipe, so buttery rice and steamed vegetables made good companions for the fish – a perfect summer meal.

I cheated and just took a quick snapshot of the dish after saucing it, because I was eager to eat and didn’t feel like letting that beautiful halibut get cold. If you want some gorgeous photos of this week’s dish, you’ll have to go and see what the rest of my French Fridays colleagues got up to: Skate with Capers, Cornichons, and Brown Butter Sauce

FFWD – Crab-Avocado “Ravioli” & Salmon Rillettes

~ Teresa ~ 17 Comments

Salmon

This post will have to serve for both this week and last, as I was laid low with a nasty flu over last weekend and into this week, so I’m just catching up on life now.

I made the salmon rillettes earlier this week. The combination of poached and smoked salmon is fantastic, especially when combined with chile pepper,spring onion, pink peppercorns, and lots of lemon. I halved the recipe, but it still made quite a bit of this spread. I can see serving half as an appetizer and saving hoarding the rest for sandwiches the next day.

Avocado

The crab-avocado “ravioli” came together in less than half an hour this evening. The fussiest bit is slicing the avocado to make the ravioli, but the one I picked was just barely ripe, so it held together quite well. I couldn’t get fresh crab meat – there is some sort of supply issue right now, according to my fishmonger, but the canned stuff wasn’t bad, I thought. I quartered this recipe, as crab doesn’t keep very well and there’s only two of us. It still made enough for a small plate of “ravioli” with enough left over to put on toast later. I thought the combination of lime, cilantro, and shallot worked well with the crab, but am I a cretin for wishing there had been a little cream or mayonnaise in the mix, too? Probably.

These were both delicious appetizers that I’ll be making again. This group has been a boon to my entertaining recipe repertoire – so many of the light and first course recipes have been winners, haven’t they? So much so, that I keep imagining that if we ever had a Dorista potluck, we could safely cover the table with enough delicious pre-dinner nibbles that we’d never make it to the main course.

Find out what the rest of the French Fridays crew thought about this week’s recipe: Crab-Avocado “Ravioli”

You can find links to everyone else’s posts on last week’s recipe here: Salmon Rillettes

FFWD – Pipérade Stir-fry

~ Teresa ~ 10 Comments

Piperade

Since the Slow Food movement came on the scene, it hasn’t just been fast food that’s come under fire. Those twenty-minute dinners that get you in and out of the kitchen, often relying on pre-prepared ingredients, have lost their credibility, too. But, fast isn’t always a compromise when it comes to flavour or food value. Sometimes quick preparations with fresh ingredients act as healthy flavour-boosters – think quick pickles or quick kimchi. Sure, it’s worth preparing things the long way, for depth of flavour or shelf-stability, but it’s nice to know you can take shortcuts sometimes, too.

This week’s French Fridays dish is one of those shortcuts to flavour. We’ve encountered pipérade before in the group, when we made Chicken Basquaise. This quick version doesn’t have the where-have-you-been-all-my-life quality that the sauce in that recipe possesses, but it’s a healthy, vegan riff on the same sorts of flavours.

I strayed a little from the recipe, choosing to sauté the onions, garlic, and hot pepper (some jalapeño I already had on hand) instead of adding them raw to the sweet peppers, but I think that was a good choice for us this time. I also skipped the green pepper, because the ones in the market today were a little dubious.

The secret to this take on pipérade is caramelizing the sautéed peppers with red wine vinegar. It mimics the flavours created by slow-cooking in the traditional recipe and can serve as a side or condiment alongside any of the traditional proteins that are paired with the real thing. I think it would also make a great accompaniment for barbequed steak. Our leftovers are going to be featuring in scrambled eggs tomorrow, or maybe even a frittata.

After that, I might have to make another batch.

Peppers

Find out what the rest of the French Fridays crew thought about this week’s recipe: Pipérade Stir-fry

Green As Spring Venison Stew – A French Fridays Catch Up

~ Teresa ~ 14 Comments

Stew

Every eater has limits. It might be something simple, like avoiding raisins in other foods (unless it’s chocolate). It might be something broader, like avoiding whole categories of food for health or ethical reasons.

Though I have a few mild food sensitivities, I don’t talk about them much.They’re boring, annoying, and better kept to myself. I do talk about eating gluten-free, since that’s an absolute necessity for my partner. I’ve also talked a little bit about his movement toward eating vegan or vegetarian most of the time, since that can affect what I post for French Fridays. Some dishes, like the one I’m posting about today, have to wait until I’m cooking for meat-eaters.

Most of my decisions about what I cook and eat are based on some broad parameters, that I adjust as necessary. I try to eat fresh, local, sustainable, in season, and organic as often as I can. I try to shop at locally-owned places more often than I do at large chains. I try to eat meat less often than I eat vegetarian or vegan.

There are always exceptions, of course. There are national brands that I trust. Sometimes I shop for the items I need for a particular recipe, rather than cooking what’s in season. Sometimes a frozen vegetarian pot pie is the best option for a busy night.

There are also a few things I never budge on. Veal is one of them. I just don’t feel right about eating it. So, I don’t. Instead, I usually substitute wild venison wherever it’s called for. I’m lucky enough to have access to wild meat from hunters I trust. That said, I know that my choice is an arbitrary one in a food system that’s often broken. I’m sure that I’m ignoring other food choices I make that are equivalent to veal’s problems. I certainly wouldn’t condemn anyone else for their choices around eating. There are far too many factors that govern where each person’s choices and limits lie.

At any rate, this recipe is a winner whatever you choose to feature as your protein. It’s also at least as full of healthy vegetables as it is protein. The secret is in the sauce. The usual aromatics are cooked with the meat, but at the end, cups and cups of fresh arugula, spinach, dill, parsley, and tarragon are added to the broth, along with a little crème fraîche (or in my case, some sour cream I already had in the refrigerator).

The result is a vibrant green sauce that tastes as much of the greens and herbs as it does the broth. We had the stew over potatoes I’d roasted with garlic and rosemary the first night. The next night, the leftover sauce topped simply roasted chicken thighs, with a salad on the side. There was still a little sauce left over after that, so it went into the freezer to be used to flavour a soup some time.

I could see this sauce as an accompaniment for any number of proteins or poured over all sorts of roasted vegetables. It’s one I’m going to come back to over and over again, I can tell. Without reservation.

You can find out what the rest of the French Fridays crew got up to this week here: Smoked Salmon Waffles And here is the link to the rest of the group’s thoughts about this recipe: Green As Spring Veal Stew

(French) Food Revolution Day 2014 – Part 1

~ Teresa ~ 12 Comments

salad

Last year, the Doristas participated in Food Revolution Day for the first time. As you may remember, I got my partner to cook and write about a French Fridays recipe. This year’s theme was getting kids excited about food, so we were tasked with choosing one or more recipes from Around My French Table that we thought kids should know how to make. It was a tough task.

I finally decided that a healthy salad was my first choice. Making Wheat Berry and Tuna Salad would involve some ingredients that are familiar to a lot of kids, while introducing some that were likely to be new to them. It’s also one that gives kids some practice with knife skills. And it’s a recipe that’s not too hard, even for a beginning cook.

My second choice was Salted Butter Break-Ups. These cookies have been a hit with everyone I’ve made them for, young or old. Not only is this giant break-apart cookie fun to make, it also introduces many baking fundamentals and is a good first step for a young baker to move on to other doughs like pâte brisée.

The young cook I’ll be working with is my downstairs neighbour, but we can’t get together until the end of this weekend. So, there will be a Part 2 to this Food Revolution Day post, once we’ve made the dishes.

In the meantime, find out what the rest of the French Fridays crew chose to cook with kids: (French) Food Revolution Day 2014.

There is also a wealth of posts across the internet today, celebrating cooking with kids and healthy food. Here are some of the channels where you can find these stories:

Food Revolution Day: http://www.foodrevolutionday.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/foodrevolutioncommunity
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/foodrev (#FRD2014)
Google+: http://www.google.com/+foodrevolutioncommunity
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/foodrevolution
Instagram: @foodrev (#FRD2014)

Much thanks to Mardi Michels for organizing this for us again this year!