Summer cooking update

What did I cook this summer? Nothing. It's been mainly tomatoes cut up with some olive oil and basil, grilled zucchini slices that I brush with a mixture of olive oil, salt, dried herbs and tomato paste, and roasted eggplant slices that make my mouth itchy (ugh, allergies). The few things I have managed to make this summer:

Sopes after I had to make refried beans from my over-pressure-cooked pot of black beans topped with shredded chicken breast with achiote

Turkey tacos because I wanted to try out the new Rick Bayless frontera grill skillet sauces. I used my mini muffin tray turned upside down to hold these

Cherry brown butter tart because we had an over abundance of cherries after we went cherry picking in Jersey. Not a huge fan of this actually

Roasted carrots that I decided I had to make after I had the roasted carrot and avocado salad at ABC Kitchen

Peach crumble a la Orangette because our peaches were going to go bad. I later made this with plums. With plums it's better.

Speculoos ice cream with speculoos cookies I brought over from Paris. Might try this using the spread next time since letting the cooking dissolve in the ice cream base liquid made it a little grainy

Kimchi pancakes although I didn't notice that the kimchi had MSG in it (boo!)

Soba noodles with zucchini which is a great summer dish. Actually, soba with anything is a great summer dish. Even plain soba.

Spaghetti with spinach pesto, Parmesan and pine nuts

Slow-roasted tomatoes which I then packed in olive oil for later use. These are getting ready to go in the oven

New Le Creuset braiser

My first meal using my new Le Creuset braiser. I threw a bunch of stuff together and it was pretty tasty. A thinly-pounded chicken breast stuffed with mushrooms, spinach and cheese, with some tomatoes and green beans and leftover marinara sauce. At some point I think I deglazed the pan with some water and vinegar or something...anyhow, it was delicious! 

Except for the fact that I forgot to take out the toothpicks holding the chicken together and JP almost swallowed one. Whoops...

In a cooking frenzy - Part 1

I went on a cooking frenzy after going to the market. Cherries and apricots are both in season so I got a bunch, among other things.

I can't resist when sweet, juicy apricots are €2 per kilo! Of course, most bruised and I was forced to make them into jam!

It was my first foray into jam making. Pretty tasty so far but a little too sweet. I was also afraid I wouldn't boil it long enough and it would come out soupy but no. Its quite the opposite...but the taste is there. I swear!

Recently I had a panna cotta-like fromage frais 0% fat dessert somewhere so in my attempt to recreate it, I got some fromage blanc (I couldn't find fromage frais) and mixed it with some gelatin and now its sitting in the fridge. We'll see how it turns out. And I think I'm just going to stick with this as my yogurt from now on. So sad hasn't been in my life for the past 5 months!

I also got some broccoli. I used to really dislike it (its a texture thing) but its recently grown on me and it makes a very satisfying and filling dish (especially when making it with garlic and red pepper flakes and pairing it with some parm, bacon (!), toasted almonds). I burnt the garlic, as always. I ate it as a main but you can make it as a side or toss it with some pasta.

Spicy broccoli with other stuff

Broccoli cut into florets
1/2 cup of lardons, or diced bacon
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes (I like mine spicy!)
Small handful of toasted almonds
Parmesan or other hard cheese

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the broccoli and remove to an ice bath after 3-4 minutes. While the broccoli is blanching, you can mince the garlic.

Fry up the diced bacon (the key is doing it on low-medium heat otherwise it smokes because bacon fat has a fairly low smoking point). Remove and let drain on a paper towel.

Add some olive oil to the same pan used for the bacon, and on low heat, saute the red pepper flakes with the garlic until fragrant, about 30 second to 1 minute. Add the broccoli (which, I hope, you remembered to drain...I didn't so I kinda added it wet and things splattered because hot oil and water aren't friends). Saute for a few more minutes but don't burn the garlic like I did.

Put it on a plate, add the bacon, add the toasted almonds, and top with some freshly grated Parmesan. Alternately you can chop the broccoli and mix it with some pasta along with the bacon, almonds and cheese (add some reserved pasta water to bring it all together).

Roses are red

Aren't these gorgeous?!

JP (who I heart mucho) got me flowers! Porque you ask? Well apparently one day he was fiddling around with the time function on excel (this is what he does in his down time at work I guess) and had a smart idea. "Hey lemme figure out when our 1,000 day anniversary is!". And so, on that day, I got these. That day was today (or yesterday? But the florist couldn't deliver then because it was a holiday in France. A holiday during which I was, of course, at work for half the day).

It was drizzling outside and they arrived with all these drops of rain and I was just scared that they'd wilt during the day! But no, its thankfully alive. Apparently the internet site suggested the following message: "Let this bouquet of flowers be a messenger of our love". Oh please. Blah. Too sappy for me. But JP being JP wrote some cute (and less sappy) stuff. Including how he hopes we'll reach 10,000 days.

Now, JP - did you use excel to do the math on that? That is over 24 years. There'd be little Mexican Russian babies running around, are you kidding me?! Well they wouldn't be babies, they'd be waaaay older. I'd be almost 50! That's nuts! Be careful what you wish for... :P Anyhow, I'm trailing as usual.

Starving at work with no fresh food in my apartment, I turned to my pantry (and copious amounts of dairy products in the fridge). Et voila! It totally hit the spot. I rarely want pasta but I was looking for something quick, easy, comforting and with tons of flavor. I'm writing the recipe for 2, but, of course, I made it for one (where's my Cooking for One book JL?)

Pantry Spaghetti with Creme Fraiche

1/4 box of spaghetti (or however much 2 ppl eat)

1 large clove of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes (depending how spicy you like it)

1/2 medium white onion, chopped

1/4 cup creme fraiche

Handful of breadcrumbs

Put a pot of salted water to boil. Once boiling, add spaghetti.

Meanwhile, put a small pan on low heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil, the red pepper flakes, garlic and onion, and sautee gently for 5 minutes, until the garlic and onions are starting to brown a little. Add the creme fraiche and let simmer for a minute or two. Take off heat.

Once the spaghetti is done, put the pan with the creme fraiche sauce back on low heat, and add the cooked spaghetti until it is evenly coated with the sauce.

Put into a bowl, top with breadcrumbs and eat. So simple, so good.

May day

Being a perpetual returner, I needed to go and return some clothes I bought. But I completely forgot it was May 1st and didn't realize everything would be closed. That hindered my returning-abilities but at least the Marche des Enfants Rouges was open. I've been really awful lately and needed to get some salad leaves in me. On the way there, I stopped by Hure, a bakery which I'd heard has fantastic savory mini-breads. I wanted to get the Reblochon-Lardons (essentially cheese and bacon) but they had run out, so I settled for the Lardons.  

It was so ridiculously good. Imagine a soft, mini ciabatta stuffed with bacon bits and all the dough being infused with that smoky flavor. Wow. I need to go back and try some other ones (they had merguez, chevre, tomato mozzarella, among others), but it will be hard to resist the bacon. Thankfully it's a 10, rather than a 5 minute walk from me, else I'd be in even more trouble.

Also, on May Day, they sell one of my favorite flowers of all time everywhere - Lily of the Valley! Most people buy a stem or two; I got a whole bouquet. 

The smell is super intoxicating. Either that, or lilacs, are going to be my wedding bouquet. I also like snow drops but those wilt super fast. Yes, I'm planning ahead. That and that my food will be served family-style. Moving on.

I also stopped by my butcher where I attempted to explain that I wanted hanger steak by pointing to my chest (hanger steak "hangs" from a cow's diaphragm). They figured out what I wanted and asked how many people its for cause I only wanted half of it. I had to confess and say one. So sad. So so sad. Steak is not something you should eat by yourself. Chicken, fine. Veal, ok. Even ground beef. But not steak. Anyhow, I rubbed some TJs taco mix seasoning I had on hand and threw it on a hot cast iron skillet. The result:

Mmmm. Really good meat. The seasoning was good but a little too much cumin for me. Maybe something a little simpler next time. Regardless, I ate it all.

Making the rounds

My corporate apartment looks like a page (or three) out of the ikea catalog. The kitchen is ikea with ikea tableware, glasses, pots, pans, everything. It's almost like I'm cooking at JP's again - same cutting boards, same colander, same cheese grater, same pots and pans...sounds like all the tools for some pasta! And so, shying away from jarred sauces at Monoprix (they don't seem to be very good, are tiny, and way overpriced), I made the tomato sauce that has (apparently) been making its rounds on the internet for a while. I only recently read it on Smitten Kitchen (one of my favorite food blogs!). 

Deb is right...this sauce is pretty gosh darn lusciously silky (I mean come on, it has 5 tablespoons of butter!). I think I'd add some herbs to it for a better flavor profile but even by itself its yum. I tossed the sauce with some orecchiette. I don't know if that was the best choice of pasta shape (I think buccatini would be really good...or I guess spaghetti), but that's the only pasta I have on hand at the moment. Plus, I find orecchiette really adorable. Please note, that amount of sauce below is not all the sauce. That's probably 1/4 of it so...1 tbsp of butta.

Other things making the rounds that I have yet to take a stab at are the Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookies and the Jim Lahey no-knead bread. I'm waiting or the rest of my stuff from NYC to arrive (it's somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean...) particularly my Le Creuset for the no-knead bread (and other recipes I have yet to make). Which means I gotta wait until I move into my apartment (can't wait!). Same for the chocolate chip cookies. Gonna start baking and bringing stuff to work like I did in NYC...but I'm going to stick to the good American stuff: brownies, cookies, cupcakes (surprisingly, I haven't seen them here yet) and rice krispie treats (although I hear the ingredients are hard to procure here for that...anyone wanna stash some rice krispies and marshmallows in their suitcase for me?)

Pretending to cook for two

Ah, so difficult to get used to cooking for one (do I even want to?). I knew I didn't need to get two zucchini's when I bought them but getting just one to stuff is so sad. But I think after making the stuffed zucchini I realized I don't like cooking for one. It's boring. I have no one to taste my food other than myself! It's so much easier for me to toss a salad together, or butter some bread, or reheat some frozen ratatouille. Sigh.

Stuffed Zucchini (loosely adapted from Chocolate and Zucchini)

2 round zucchinis

1/2 lb ground beef

1/2 onion

1 clove of garlic, minced

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1/4 cup of grated cheese

Olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs de provence (or whatever herbs you have)

Preheat the oven to 400F. Cut the tops off the zucchini and core out the inside and reserve the zucchini flesh. Put the zucchini shells and tops into a casserole dish, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. place in the oven for 20 minutes until the shells are soft but not collapsed.

Meanwhile put a pan over medium high heat. Add a count of olive oil and sautee the garlic until fragrant. Add the reserved zucchini flesh and cover with a lid. The zucchini will render a lot of water, so drain periodically. Add a tablespoon or two of tomato paste, salt, pepper and herbs and continue cooking the zucchini until soft (about 10 - 15 minutes). Place in a colander either over a bowl or in the sink and let drain.

By now the zucchini shells should be done. Take them out of the oven and place them upside down on a paper towel lined plate. In the same pan as the zucchini flesh, sautee the onion over medium heat in a little olive oil. Add the ground beef, season with salt, pepper and herbs and continue to saute until lightly browned. Add a tablespoon or two of tomato paste and stir to combine. Take off heat and add the cooked zucchini flesh. Mix thoroughly.

Stuff the zucchini with the sauteed beef mixture. Put the tops of the zucchini on and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven, take the tops off and divide the cheese evenly on top of the two zucchini. Put the oven to broil and put the zucchinis back into the oven for a few minutes until the cheese has melted and is golden brown.

You can also make vegetarian stuffed zucchini...just substitute rice or quinoa or some grain for the meat and use ricotta as a binder.

Bye bye best(est) city in the world

The movers came to pick up the rest of my stuff on Monday, leaving JPs apartment pretty much scrubbed clean of any of my belongings. And now I'm in the Air France lounge at JFK. How depressing. Sure, lounges are nice and all but not when you're leaving what I've learned over the years is the best city in the entire world. There's so much to do, so much to see, so much to EAT! You can do whatever you want, whenever you want, regardless of the time of day (or night for that matter). And there's something for everyone. I don't know why tourists like NYC (I don't think I would, it takes more than a few days to get accustomed) but I definitely know why people love living there.

And so, for my last supper (hah, funny korovka...) I made JP's favorite: lasagna rolls. I've made these a few times and they never come out the same because the filling depends mostly on the ingredients I have on hand. I loosely adapted the recipe (as I tend to do) from Giada de Laurentiis' lasagna rolls. It's a perfect way to use up any leftover cheese or veggies you have an hand. I usually eat only one of these but I've seen JP polish off up to three in one sitting. Plus, they taste great reheated!

Lasagna Rolls (adapted loosely from Giada de Laurentiis)

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons flour

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons milk

Salt, pepper and nutmeg

6 lasagna sheets

3/4 cup + 1/3 cup ricotta cheese

1 ball of mozzarella, diced finely (or you can use shredded)

1/2 cup of frozen spinach, thawed in the microwave and squeezed dry

2 links of hot italian sausage

Any other veggies you have on hand, finely diced

6 slices of prosciutto

2 cups marinara sauce

Shredded parmesan

Preheat oven to 450F

Noodles: Set a pot of water to boil. Add salt and a little bit of olive oil. Add the lasagna noodles and boil until they're no longer firm (7 minutes or so). Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet so they don't stick together.

Bechamel: While the noodles are boiling, make the bechamel sauce by melting butter over medium low heat. Whisk in the 2 teaspoons of flour and whisk continuously for two minutes. Add the milk and turn heat up to medium high. Whisk the bechamel until it begins to simmer and thickens. Take off heat and add salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.  

Filling: Take the italian sausage out of the casing and sautee. When there's almost no pink visible, add whatever veggies you had on hand (I added some finely diced zucchini but you can also add some mushrooms or peppers or whatever you have). Sautee a few minutes more and take off heat. Mix the 3/4 cup ricotta, thawed spinach, the mozzarella (leave some for sprinkling on top later), and the sausage and veggie mix. The hot sausage should melt the cheese a little binding the mixture. If not, you can add an egg in there but I usually don't. You can also add whatever spices you want to the filling.

Assembly: Pour the bechamel sauce into the bottom of a 9*9 inch glass dish. Take a lasagna noodle and spread some of the 1/3 cup of ricotta on one side. Add a slice of prosciutto and then place a heaping tablespoon of the filling towards one side of the noodle. Roll up and place seam-side down into the glass dish. Continue with the rest of the noodles. Top of the marinara sauce (I like TJ's Rustico sauce), sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella and add some shredded Parmesan on top. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes until the sauce bubbles. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes until the cheese on top is golden. Remove from the oven, let stand a few minutes and serve.

This is what happens to my leftover filling:

I fry it in a tiny pan like a pancake!

Pulling pork butts

I really should not be allowed to step foot into grocery stores. I walk in needing a few items and walk out carrying two huge bags filled to the brim. This happened last week. I decided it was about time to use the Le Creuset the people-who-keep-me-sane-at-work got me for my "going-away" to Paris gift. And what better way to do so than to make pulled pork?! MMMMM.

And so I walked out of Whole Foods with the two bags (helped by JP, of course) that contained, among other things, the chicken and the ricotta and the lettuce and the tomatoes for the stuffed chicken breast dinner, italian sausage for my upcoming lasagna rolls, apples (on sale, can't pass it up!), pineapple (just because), some other things, and a 2.5lb pork butt. It's not really the butt, it's the shoulder. 

And as I usually do with non-baked goods recipes, I decided to research. How does one go about making pulled pork in a dutch oven? My favorite pulled pork of all time is Big Bob Gibson's (I don't know how Chris Lilly = Big Bob) pulled pork sandwiches that we had at the Big Apple BBQ for two years in a row. Best thing about the whole food fest. So I used Chris Lilly's dry rub and since I didn't have anything to inject the pork with, I just poured some apple juice down the sides of the Le Creuset. Into the oven at 225F for 4 1/2 hours. I was pulling the pork at 2:30am. And reheated it the next day for dinner (after we went to an all-you can drink brunch at Mercadito for $21, which was pretty gosh darn AWESOME and resulted in a very happy JP + PG running around Paragon finding me ski pants, for reasons we shall not mention but might involve having 5+ drinks). 

Pulled Pork (loosely adapted from Chris Lilly)

2 1/2 lb pork butt (also called shoulder or boston butt)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup smoked paprika
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon chili powder 
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2/3 cup apple juice
Hot sauce (optional)
Brioche, white bread, parker house rolls, or whatever vehicle you want for the pork

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix the all the dry ingredients together (add more heat / sweetness if you want). Rub the pork butt with the spice mixture so it has a very thick coating (use all of it!) and pat down to adhere. Place in dutch oven with the fat side up. Pour apple juice down the sides of the pan, making sure not to get it onto the top or sides of the pork. Cover with the lid and put in to oven. Immediately turn the oven down to 225F and let it be, undisturbed, for 4 1/2 hours. 

Remove the pork butt from the oven and shred the meat on a cutting board using two forks. I like to get rid of as much of the fat on the meat as possible, so I just throw those parts out. Put the shredded pork into a bowl and add the liquid thats in the dutch oven by the 1/4 cup until the pork has a moist consistency. Season with more salt to taste and add a few squirts of hot sauce (optional but it can be sriracha, cholula, tabasco, whatever you have on hand...I used chimay habanero salsa). Serve between slices of white bread, brioche or parker house rolls.

Resolutions or lack thereof

I never make new years resolutions, mainly because I can't stick to things like that. I can try to stick to something or promise myself something, but I know I won't be able to see it through. Instead I make little resolutions every once in a while like "mmmm, I ate salad this week and now I can eat chocolate" which the following week becomes "oh man, I ate so much chocolate, must eat salad...". I like to reward myself when I'm good. But I've been really really really really bad.

So I got back from Brazil on December 24th. I stepped on the scale January 7th. +9.4lbs since I returned. Oh dear oh dear. But fear not! My excuse is New Years, mama's bday, and eating a whole lot of delicious restaurant food which will continue into this weekend (dinner Friday night at Azul Bistro, brunch Saturday with the family + JP at Churrascaria Plataforma, brunch Sunday with the kiddies at Mercadito for endless guava mimosas, dinner Sunday with JP at Maialino...and that doesn't include the pork butt I have in the fridge and the lasagna rolls I promised to make). So I conclude I ate a lot of salty food and am retaining water and that's at least half that weight. Yogurt + salad when I get back to Paris, but for now, I will enjoy myself.

We had chicken breasts stuffed with ricotta, spinach and mushrooms, along with a side salad tonight, which is my idea of healthy. Not sure how healthy it is, but at least lets pretend! I've been wanted to try stuffing chicken for a while and this was the perfect time to do it.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

2 chicken breasts, pounded thin

1/2 cup part skim ricotta

1/2 cup chopped frozen (or fresh) spinach, thawed in the microwave

Handful of cremini mushrooms (lets say 8 small or 6 large), diced finely
1/2 shallot, diced finely
1 clove of garlic, diced finely
Salt and whatever other spices you want
Sriracha

Preheat oven to 400F. Thaw the spinach in the microwave and wring out as much water as you can using a paper towel. I like to put the spinach in a paper towel, making a little bundle, put it in a seive and just press on top of squeeze out the water, otherwise my hands get scalded with hot spinach water...

Put an oven-proof medium-sized pan (if you don't have one its OK) over medium-high heat with a turn of olive oil (thats once around the pan). Dice the shallot and garlic, turn down the heat to medium-low and add to the pan (I used to burn onions and garlic all the time until I realized I just need to turn down the heat...). Sautee for a few minutes until translucent. Add diced cremini and sautee until nicely browned. While the cremini and onions are in the pan (turn the heat off when they're done), pound out your chicken breasts to no more than 1/2 inch thickness. Put the ricotta into a medium sized bowl, add the spinach and mix until incorporated. Add the cremini mixture, salt, and whatever spices you want to use (I used a little cayenne pepper). Mix until incorporated and then add a few squirts of sriracha to taste.

Put the same pan as before on medium-high heat with three turns of olive oil (bottom should be coated). Take the chicken breasts and put a heap of the ricotta spinach mixture into the center (make sure the inside part of the breast is facing up). Fold up the sides and secure each with a toothpick. When the oil is hot, place the chicken bottom side down into the pan and let it pan fry for about 6 - 7 minutes until you see that the sides of the chicken are turning white. Place the pan in the pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes (if you didn't use an oven-proof skillet, you can put the chicken on a baking tray / cookie sheet lined with foil). Serve with a side salad, and don't forget about the toothpicks...