Pissaladière

It's Summer again! Well, technically,  we are still a few weeks away from Summer but as I have come to realize "Summer time" is a very cultural theme.  For French people, l'été really means July and August - the time of year when everyone gets some time off. June is when everyone starts to think about their Summer vacations ; this is why I really like going to France in June. Days are really long, Parisians are starting to slow down, eating outside ,and easing into their Summer days....
In the U.S., Summer officially starts at the end of May with Memorial Day weekend and finishes early September with Labor Day. This is when plane tickets prices soar; this is when everyone starts barbecuing or, if in Philadelphia, talking about their weekend at the Jersey Shore....

So, it's Summer again in the U.S. and time to entertain outside. Since we only live in a two-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia, we can not entertain a lot during the cold months of Fall/Winter/early Spring.We are fortunate, though, to have a large roof top in our apartment building, which we use as an extra room everytime it's hot enough to sit outside.  This varies a lot -  we experienced a very hot Winter, which made it possible to eat outside in February! Most generally, we really start opening up the terrasse at the end of April. This spare open space with full view of the Benjamin Bridge enables us to host a few parties during the warm days of Summer in Philadelphia...

Since apéritif is one of my favorite meals, we tend to organize large "apéros" on our roof top. This makes it easy to organize and host: no back-and-forth with the kitchen downstairs : the food is already out. Everybody can help themselves with what they like (or want to try).... It's just a nice way to chill out and enjoy the company of friends.

Among all the things we make are the usual suspects : Guacamole, Hummus, white beans and fennel dip, salsa and chips, nuts, cake aux olives et au jambon, charcuterie and cheese, etc.  This year, I made a few variations of pissaladières. Pissaladières are from the South of France and traditionally involve caramelized onions, black olives, anchovies on bread dough. Since I know few people  who like anchovies, I tend not to make them with anchovies, especially when a lot of children are coming over. This year, I had extra feta cheese so I added feta instead of anchovies since we were having more than 12 kids over with their parents. I don't bother making my own dough anymore (my sourdough starter died a while ago) so I just purchase pizza dough at the local supermarket.
Really easy to make - and as usual, something you can improvise around to adapt to the palate of your guests. It's also very easy to bring Pissaladières to a Summer pique-nique or your next BBQ since it's officially in season!
Bon Appétit!

Ingrédients

• A ball of pizza dough
• Onions (more than you think you need - I use 3 large ones for one Pissaladière)
• Herbes de Provence
• Anchovies, black olives, feta cheese

• Pre-heat oven to 400F
• Lay out the dogue in a square pan
• Cook the onions in olive oil until translucide but not caramelized (although you could caramelize them)
• Add herbes de Provence, salt, pepper to taste
• Lay the onions on the dough
• Add Anchovies/black olives, etc.
• Bake in the oven for 25 minutes

Crottins de Chavignol Chauds en Salade - Hot Baked Goat Cheese with Greens

One of our daughter's favorite dishes is hot baked Crottins de Chavignol served on a piece of toast along a plain salade verte. Crottins are small round-shape goat hard cheese. The most famous ones come from Chavignol - a small village near Sancerre in the Loire Valley. 
France (and Europe) being very strict as to protecting regional products and savoir-faire,  the crottins can only be called Crottins de Chavignol is they are actually coming from the Chavignol area.  They are protected by what we call an Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) which is a French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products that come from certain terroirs. Other areas in France produce crottins  de chèvre - they are just not labeled "de  Chavignol". 
We grew up eating crottins de chèvre chauds either as an appetizer or a lunch/dinner entree  They are an easy-to-choose-easy-to-make affordable dish that pleases most cheese lovers. For those of you who have traveled to France, they are generally on many casual restaurants, served on a slice of toasted Pain Poilâne (or any other pain de campagne if pain Poilâne is not available.)
Unfortunately, this is one of the dishes I hardly make in the US. Much to my family's regret. Reason? Price of the crottins. In France, you could purchase crottins de chèvre for less than 1 euro each (2 euros if you want them organic or de Chavignol), while in the US, I find them at at least $5/piece for locally-made cheese. What is an affordable entree in France become luxury across the Atlantic! 
We therefore serve them on special occasions only (or when they go on sale, which is to say... rarely.) 
As a result, whenever we go to France, our daughter makes sure to eat a lot of them, always volunteering to help prepare them whenever she can! I think that if we were not living in an apartment building in the center of Philadelphia, she would try to get a goat to make her own crottins! If you have access to crottins where you live, please try to make this salad. You would not be disappointed! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients
- 1 (or half) a crottin per person
- 1 (or half) of wholewheat bread
- Olive oil
- Salt & pepper
- Thyme/Rosemary (optional)

• Put the crottin on a slice of bread with rosemary/thyme on top
• Pour some olive oil on the crottin and the bread
• Bake in the oven under the High Grill for 5 minutes (or more depending on the power of your oven; you want the crottins to start melting but the bread should not be burnt)

Tarte au thon de l'été

Don't ask me what I did these past few months.... I did cook a lot but never managed to bring it to this blog. My apologies! Fortunately, Summer being in full swing, we all have a little bit more time to cook and experiment.
My nephew from Marseille came to spend the month of July with us in Philadephia to attend a ballet camp. Since our children were in France for their Summer-long vacances and that my husband joined them, C. and I ended up spending most of July together. Apparently, he was worried that spending time with his gluten-free vegan aunt, he was going to eat "des graines" everyday! My worry was that because of him spending time in the US, he would fall victim to the double-frappuccinos, supersized French fries and other double-cheeseburgers!!! At the end, it was a balance of easy-to-eat French and US food. We had vegan and beef hamburgers, blue corn tortilla chips (a lot!) and haricots verts (beaucoup), salade verte and Sweet Potatoes Fries....
One evening, C. suggested to make this Tarte au thon that my sister-in-law and many of my friends cook in France this time of year. We used the Marmiton recipe (for those of you who want the French version) and C. found it very tasty. I will definitively make it again for our family when they are all back from France. Until then, I would encourage you to try it! Served with a salade verte, it makes the easiest Summer dinner.
Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:
 - 1 pie dough (in France, people tend to use the puff pastry one; since I don't always have some handy, I generally make a pâte brisée)
- 2 cans of tuna (in water, no salt added)
- 2 small tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 eggs
- 20 cl light cream
- 3 tablespoons milk
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- Swiss cheese (optional)

• Pre-heat the oven to 400F
• Lay the dough in a deep pie dish.
• Spread the mustard
• Spread the tuna
• Slice the tomatoes and lay on top of the tuna
• In a bowl, beat the eggs and add the creme fraiche and milk
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Pour the batter onto the tomatoes and tuna
• Add the cheese if using some
• Cook in the oven for 40 minutes

La roulette russe: sauteed peppers

One of my favorite part of the late summer farmer's market are the small peppers that you saute in olive oil until they are fully cooked and eat with lemon juice and sea salt. My friends from California enjoy them pretty much all year long (sigh! heavy sigh since I just came back from a two-day business trip to the Bay Area....) but back East, it's just a seasonal treat....

Favorite peppers to serve that way are Padrón Peppers or the ones that we also find on the market (like the Bishop's Crown I got from Tom Culton Organics on the picture).   Unlike most peppers that are either sweet or really hot, you don't really know how hot a Padrón pepper is until you try them as only 10-25% of them are really hot...
Last year, we bought many Padrón peppers that were really not that hot... but this year, the farmer warned us that some of them were actually much spicier than usual. And sure they were!!

This is why we started calling it the "Roulette Russe" with our children when we eat these peppers... If you are lucky, the one you pick is not too hot; if you are unlucky, well, we have a nice slice of bread with butter ready for the unlucky eater! 

Despite a few really really hot ones, our children have been enjoying eating them. We serve them as an appetizer, or a side dish or even when we do our Friday evening aperitif....
Now if I could live in California... (re-sigh...)

Bon Appétit!

Cold Celery-Cucumber Soup

I just came back from two (too short) weeks of vacation in France where we spent time with relatives and friends in rural Normandie, Lozère (that's in the middle of nowhere France) and the French Alps (near Annecy - a city worth visiting both in the Summer and Winter!) Needless to say that we had a great time....

It was really hot (unusually hot for the season), which made us eat a lot of salades composées, generally made up with fresh vegetables from the potager. Spending time with friends who are lucky motivated enough grow their own vegetables in their potager (think fresh lettuce, peas,  tomatoes, fresh French beans, fava beans, zucchinis, eggplants, etc....) reminded me of my grand-mother's silly cucumbers & zucchinis!What I loved about gardening with my grand-mother in the Summer was to watch the vegetables grow and trick us into growing too fast for us to harvest and eat (hence a lot of canning!) My grand-mother got really upset when one zucchini/cucumber would escape her thorough gardening and hide from her to become so big that we could only puree them into a soup...

If you are feeling overwhelmed with cucumbers this summer, here is a quick recipe. I make this soupe froide a lot either with celery or with fennel. The recipe below is vegan (and my husband did say "hmm c'est super bon!!) but you could definitively use cream or yogurt instead of silk tofu and raw cashew nuts. Bon appétit!

Ingredients
- 2 small or 1 large cucumber (skin off but with seeds unless too bitter)
- 1 small celery stalks & leaves
- 1 small red hot pepper (optional)
- 1/4 cup of raw cashew nuts
- About 1/2 lb of silk tofu (250g)
- 2 Tbs of olive oil
- salt, pepper

• In a blender, put the silk tofu
• Add cucumber and celery (cut into small pieces)
• Add cashew nuts, hot pepper, salt and olive oil
• Blend until really smooth
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Serve cold

My Personal Comments

• In total I have about 7 cups (1750 ml) of ingredients in the blender (loosely packed)
• The trick is to blend the soup longer than you would want at high speed so that it becomes really smooth.
• I would add about a cup (250gr) of plain yogurt instead of the silk tofu.
• If using fennel, two small bulbs would do the work.

La salade composée verte....

May already went by, pff... And June also (re  pfff). I just can't really remember why it went by so fast.. but May brought our first CSA produces: fresh rhubarb, fresh asparagus, fresh French beans, fresh garlic, fresh lettuces etc.  Petit plaisir du dimanche... Nothing better than fresh local produces... Even though I have to be more creative when it comes to serving the same vegetables weeks after weeks... I feel fortunate to be able to have access to and be able to afford such produces. That said, I don't purchase ALL the fruits & vegetables we eat from the local Farmers' market. For once, it would require me to spend even more time in the kitchen to find good recipes to cook with the vegetables -I-could-only-find-at-the-market-that-Sunday. Then, I am not sure that my family would approve of eating within the limitation of this supply (Kale is definively not their favorite food.... yet!)... but more importantly, our already-high-food budget would explode...  So we compromise or, rather, mix-and-match.  When mix-and-matching, I use Farmers' market produces for dishes where they are served with minimum transformation and supermarket produces for the rest. For instance, if I am only serving a zucchinis compotée, I will use the Farmer's market zucchinis. If I am making a ratatouille, I will use the local supermarket ones. I am sure there is a difference. Maybe I would be able to tell it. Would it really matter? No. Will we enjoy the dish as much? Yes.

The only time when I don't compromise is when fruits or veggies (generally from the supermarket, including high-end ones like Wholefoods) have no flavor. I'd rather not buy these produces and fall back on something else, even if it means serving it twice the same week, than purchasing des fruits et légumes sans goût. Fruits AND veggies are meant to be flavorful. The flavor might be subtle (zucchinis for instance) or fragrant (raspberries)... but they have to taste flavorful! Unfortunately, for the sake of supply chain, supermarkets have been pushing for growers to forgo flavorful varieties (heirloom varieties, anyone?) to the benefits of varieties that can travel miles (some of which have been genetically modified to do so...). And unfortunately, some of these travel-resistent varieties do not taste as good (Canadian tomatoes exported to Philadelphia in February? Really??) It's a shame but not matter how many fresh produces I want to include in our family diet, I will try to avoid purchasing those as much as I can.  I want my children to know to appreciate fresh good produces and develop a taste for them.  I don't believe that they are too young to do so; they are already there when it comes to certain fruits (pears and strawberries especially)... so even if Kale is definitively not their favorite vegetable (yet!), I'll keep serving different varieties to them so that maybe, just maybe, one tastes better to them than another. I know what I will get at the Farmer's market this week-end....

One of the salade composées I have been making with our CSA produces is what I call my "salade composée verte" (as opposed to a salade verte, which in French, means plain lettuce). My sister-in-law made one for us last year when we were in Singapore to visit. Since then I have been serving it many times, and as usual, playing with the ingredients that are available to me when I make it. The key is to have a good balance between bitter-sweet and crunchy....It will work with whatever you get at the Farmer's market this week-end or at your local supermarket. No worries! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients

• 1 cup of cooked Quinoa (couscous or orzo would be fine too)
• Aragula or mixed greens thinly sliced
• Green veggies such as asparagus, snap peas, snow peas, cucumber, raw fresh zucchinis, avocados, edamame, celery etc.
• Toasted Pumpkin seeds (for added crunch)
• Green herbs (basil, parsley, tarragon, chive, green onions) - I generally pick one only.
• Feta cheese (if you have to have cheese in your salad)

My Personal Comments:

• There are no set-proportions but you want the veggies to dominate (ie, you don't put as much quinoa/couscous); the balance depends on what you like and have available to you. If you have fresh zucchinis, then I would not use cucumbers or celery.
• If I have vegan or lactore-intolerant guests, I serve the feta cheese on the side
• I serve it with a regular sauce vinaigrette for dressing

Smoked Salmon Dip

Our son has been diagnosed with foot & mouth disease. Not the one that can dissiminate cattles (my veterinary husband was fast to associate our son's symptoms to what he learnt in vet school a long time ago)... but the one that affects young children (syndrome pieds-mains-bouche et non pas la fièvre aphteuse for my French readers). And make them MI-SE-RA-BLE. Sooooooooo miserable...  And the rest of us at for the same token, even if we, fortunately, did not develop the symptoms (although suddenly, I feel like I have plenty of mouth sores!!)..
It has been such a long time since I had to wake up in the middle of the night more than once to attend a crying child! And feel powerless.....At least a few years ago, I knew what to do: feed, change a diaper, cuddle... and that was it! This time nothing seems to help... ....and apparently the symptoms might last up to one week...  One LOOOOOOONG week...

Forget about healthy diet at this stage... The only goal is to make our son drink fluids and eat some food... He was delighted to hear at the pediatrician's office that he could eat icecream. More than once a day. Even for breakfast!  Think: a child's dream-come-true...   but even icecream is hard for him to get down these days... And no, I did not offer Little Baby's Ice  pizza-flavor icecream... (yes, I know some people in Philadelphia are very creative; maybe too creative???) but maybe I should?

Kefir, hot chocolate, and homemade smoothies are his most favorite foods these days... So whatever makes him feed himself a little bit is welcome in his glass!! My home made soupe-aux-légumes did not make it past two teaspoons at lunch yesterday. Hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow to have a few more spoons... or I'll dilute it enough so that he can drink it with a straw!! No matter how willing I am to feed him Kefir yogurt and smoothies, he is like me who shivers from drinking too much cold liquid at once (no ice in my water. EVER). Here he is, drinking his Kefir with a straw (and every sip he swallows without crying makes he happy) but then, 5 minutes later, I see him shiver and soon heading to the bathroom. MI-SE-RA-BLE, I told you......  He feels so miserable that he does not even comment on the menu that we, meanwhile, eat. We do add Kefir and icecream on our menu (our daughter is delighted!)... but we still eat other real food as well! I can't wait for him to feel better. We actually started a list of dishes that he would want to have when he feels better. Think, his birthday is next week and he might have to pass on  his birthday cake! On his list are empanadas, galettes des rois, charlotte aux fruits rouge, bagels, moules-frites, fish with wild rice, corn on the cob, candies, fish fingers, pancakes, madeleines and viennoiseries (pains au chocolat, croissant, brioche, etc.) I told him that except for out-of-season corn on the cob and galette des rois, we'll that when he feels better. I get a smile when he thinks about it... So yes, once he feels better, I will take the time to make some of these dishes and remember to purchase the viennoiseries from school on Friday. But that's not until a few more miserable days. Pff...

Here is a dip that I served earlier this week to the three of us who could eat solid food. For Americans who love their bagels-and-lox-for-breakfast, it would feel like breakfast. For those of us who are not eating bagels for breakfast but rather for lunch, it would feel like a nice dip to serve before dinner or to go along with cocktail drinks. Unfortunately, not straw-friendly for our son at this stage. Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

- 1 cup Greek yogurt or Labne (Lebanese cream-cheese style)

- A few ounces of smoked salmon, cut in small pieces

- 1/2 Cucumber (diced)

- Capers (to taste)

- Dill

- Olive oil

- Salt & pepper to taste

• Mix the greek yogurt/labne with the smoked salmon, cucumber, capers and dill.
• Add a one Tbs of Olive oil and salt & pepper to taste
• Serve with buckwheat mini-crepes, pita chips or crackers... or on bagels!

My Personal Comments

• I like it best with Labne but Greek yogurt makes it a little bit lighter. You could,  obviously use cream cheese but I personally don't like with cream cheese.
• If you don't have cucumber, you could use celery. The idea is to add something crunchy to the dip.
• If I don't find dill, I use fennel fronds

Fennel and White Beans Dip

Since our children have been away for their long vacation in France, I have not been cooking as much I  generally do (and nope, even though we are not on our regular schedule anymore, my husband has not been cooking more, with the exception of the occasional BBQ! Sans commentaire!) Added to the fact that Philadelphia has been experiencing temperatures in the 100F (more than 40C), the idea of eating a warm meal does not appeal to me. And just thinking about turning on the oven makes me sweat!
Since both my husband and I have been enjoying the change of rythm to.... work more (pathetic, I know!), dinners have been generally a large salade composée or a cold vegetable dish with a side of dip: guacamole, mango salsa, hummus, edamame spread, etc.  That, with a glass of red wine, on our roof terrasse... a little preview of our upcoming summer vacations in France!

Since we were getting beautiful fennel bulbs with amazing fronds at the farmers' market the other day, I was trying to figure out what to do with the fronds so not to have to waste them (living in a building, albeit with a roof terrasse, we don't compost.) I have used fronds the way I use dill (it's the same family): in a salad or to bake fish in the oven/on the BBQ. I tried to make a fronds pesto but my blender being too weak I never managed to reach a puree-like texture. I was therefore happy to find an article on fennel in the New York times and realized that I could actually use at least some of the fronds.
Fennel, like turnips, has a very different taste when you eat raw versus cooked. I like both but never really ate raw fennel until I started adding it to salads for crunchiness (instead of celery). I never grew up eating pieces of raw fennel just like that as an apperitivo (I went to two different Italian families that did that and told me it's very common in Italy)....but have been more and more prone to doing the same!  Why not, Americans offer raw broccoli to dip into ranch dressing after all. Why not fennel? Try it! It's actually delicious when dipped in this fennel-based recipe! Perferct for your summer entertaining!
Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:
- 1 small bulb of fennel with some fronds
- 1 small can of white beans (I generally use cannellini) - rinsed and drained
- 1 small garlic clove, chopped
- a few fennel seeds, crushed (optional)
- Juice and zest of one lemon
- 2 Tbs of Olive oil (or more)
- Salt and pepper to taste

• Cut the fennel in half. Reserve one half and a few fronds for serving and decoration
• Cut the other half and some fronds into small pieces and put into a blender
• Add the drained white beans, lemon zest and juice, garlic, salt, pepper, fennel seeds and olive oil. Blend until desired consitency.
• Adjust seasoning and put in the fridge for 30mn or until serving.
• Decorate with a few extra fronds.
• Serve with slices of the remaining fennel, other vegetables or pita chips.

Spinach and Chickpeas Soup - Soupe aux epinards et pois chiche

The other day my daughter noted that "on mange beaucoup de soupe" (we a eat a lot of soup..).. Yes. Like it or not. Un peu ou pas trop.This is what happens in our family in the Fall-Winter time (and a little bit before and after that!). It's healthy, it's fast, it's a nice way to feed children plenty of vegetables at once...  so soupe au menu chez nous!! And not just for dinner (I think that I bring soup in my own lunch box about 3 days a week and if I go out, I will first look at the soups!)
I just promised to try to go beyond my usual soupe au cresson, Chinese Soup or just plain soupe de légumes when I have plenty of vegetables left with no inspiration time to make something else...
This spinach and chickpeas soup adapted from Mark Bittman has become one of our favorites and I have been serving it about twice a month (spreading it for a few meals, that is...). My children call it "la soupe verte" as opposed to "la soupe orange" (the Carrots/Sweet Potatoes Curried Soup, which by the way has been very much appreciated among a lot of my friends, relatives and other guests so try it if you have not already!!).  Orange is a sure deal (ie, no "encore de la soupe!!!).. verte is also good because they know that they'll get to eat some raisins and pine nuts with it.  That makes it fun for them and together with a fresh/toasted piece of bread and they are happily fed!
I have yet to work on having them like some of the other soups I made (cauliflower velouté, red lentils soupe, soupe a l'oignon, etc. ) but that never qualified for a "elle est bonne ta soupe, maman!!" And since soup season is far from being over in our family, I have a few more weeks to improve or to improvise! I bought a bag of yellow split peas at the Indian store the other day... that might be part of the next soup chez nous! Who knows it might well become "la soupe jaune"!! Any good colorful recipe/idea to share when it comes to soupe? Bon appétit!

Ingredients
-  1 or two garlic cloves
-  1 small onion, chopped
-  About 3 cups of cooked chickpeas (canned are fine); plus a few to garnish
-  1 pound of spinach (frozen is fine)
-  1 carrot (optional)
-  olive oil, salt and pepper to taste
-  Golden raisins and pine nuts to garnish

• In a large pot, saute the garlic and onion in olive oil
• Add the chickpeas, spinach and carrot and cover with water (about 1 liter or 4 cups)
• Cook until the spinach are fully cooked
• Using an immersion blender, puree; add water if you feel that it's too thick.
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Serve with raisins, pine nuts and a few chickpeas.

My comments

• I have added curry powder to spice it up a little bit

Yesterday With My Children We Made ..."Petites Saucisses en pâte feuilletée"

Our children had two weeks off over the Holidays and since I only had one week, that whole week was about spending good quality time with them. When school is on, I see my children but I don't have enough time to spend playing with them, except for the word games we play while they eat dinner. I do read them stories but I don't have the time to sit down and play a card game for instance, except maybe on the week-end.

So during our week off together, we played. Everyday. I took them out in the morning but after their afternoon nap, we decided to stay home and relax. And play. Le Père Noël had been kind enough to bring new games (Qwirkle, Four-square,  Uno, in addition to legos & playmobils), so we were ready to play them and have fun. It was really enjoyable...

One of the things we also did together was to cook. BUT since it was also MY vacations, I made sure that everything I cooked was fast-and-easy (with the exception of Christmas Lunch maybe!!).

One of the things my children love to eat are those little snack sausages. To make it fun, I thaw puff pastry and cut it in rubans which they roll around the sausages. We dip the sausages in mustard before so as to make them a little bit more spicy. It's easy. It's messy (YES!). It's fun, quoi! It's really enjoyable to see them master the different tasks (the little drop of water to close the dough at the top!) and love to make them. I feel that at least, they know that they can have fun in the kitchen... 

My goal for 2012 (I don't have resolutions; too hard to keep!!) : to make time for them in the kitchen because I know they enjoy being des petits marmitons. Even if it's just to mix the granola as we make it... or to help me shape the baguettes in funny shapes. This is priceless... and on top of that you can make sure that they'll develop an interest in food and therefore become better eaters. So don't wait, have fun with your kids in the kitchen. Bonne Année!!

Ingredients:
- 1 pack of snack sausages
- 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry dough- thawed
- Wholegrain mustard (or other mustard)
- a little bit of water

• Preheat oven to 400F (200 C)
• Cook the sausages according to instruction, dry them in paper towel
• Spread the dough and cut it into lengthy rectangular pieces. Ideally you should make nice triangles, but that's too time consuming!
• Dip the sausage in the mustard bowl then wrap it into a piece of dough. Place it on a baking sheet (parchmin paper or Silpat)
• Bake in the oven for about 20 mn or until golden.

Mango Salsa

My daughter is in First Grade and she is enjoying learning how to read and write. It's fun to see her being so happy to read a full sentence... and even more proud to be able to write new words. One of the games we have been playing these last few days is the "MENU GAME". She comes with her ardoise magique and asks me for the menu for the next meal. Then she gets down to the task of writing it down so that she can read it before we start our meal. This game is hard for a 6-year-old just discovering sounds. Why do "haricots" take a silent "h"? Why do French people spell onions : "oignons"? "Yaourts"? "Fruits"? This is tough! At least, since we eat a lot of veggies and most days, my children have yaourt and fruits for dessert, she gets to write it over and over again. It gets more difficult with the main dish as I try to diversify the menu and include international ingredients in our diet (curcuma anyone?)
Although she goes to a bilingual school, we have been playing this game in French only. English spelling is tough for French native speakers ("sprouts, eggplant, grapes, grapefruit, pineapple"?)... so we'll wait for a few months once the whole French potager is spelled correctly;)
Until then, here is a nice little exercise: easy for the adults who prep the food, relatively easy for the kids who want to spell (in English)... and very easy for everybody to eat with chips for an apéritif or as a side dish to fish. For those of you who want to be able to spell the French Potager by the end of the year, I wrote the ingredients in French as well. Bon Appétit!

Ingrédients:
- 1 mangue (1 mango)
- 1/2 oignon rouge (1/2 red onion)
- 1/2 concombre (1/2 cucumber)
- 1 bouquet de coriandre (a bunch of cilantro)
- Piment Rouge (Red pepper flakes)
- 1 citron vert (one lime)
- Sel (salt)

• Cut the mango and cucumber in small dices
• Slice the red onion very very thin
• Cissor some cilantro (as much as you like)
• Season with lime juice, salt and red pepper flakes.

Tuna and Salmon Ceviche

Until sushis became widely popular, it was really rare to eat raw fish in France. Except for their steak tartare or fresh oysters, French people don't really eat raw proteins. Sure, you'll always find one person who likes to gobble one fresh raw egg (aka gober un oeuf) but even if I can eat pretty much anything and I LOVE soft-boiled eggs, I can't gober un oeuf. Beurk...
The first time I ate ceviche was while traveling in South America (that's where it's originally from in case you did not know). My husband having lived in South America as a child enjoyed ceviche so we ordered shrimp ceviche one evening in Chile. Shrimp or fish is generally marinated in lime which "cook" them so you never have that feeling of eating raw shrimp/fish like you would if you had sashimi in a Japanese restaurant.
Like most recipes, every country in South America (at least the coastal ones with the exception of Argentina where fish is not mainstream at all),  has its own ceviche recipes. Back when we lived in Ithaca we were invited for dinner to our Ecuatorian friends' house (she really is from Argentina but being married to an Ecuatorian she had gotten used to eating ceviche, the Ecuatorian way that is). And for us who expected a raw-lime marinated-type of dish, we were really surprised to be served a shrimp soup  that had been cooked in a ketchup-based sauce topped with popcorns!! It was nonetheless very good but as you can expect, my husband who has very specific narrow ideas of what a ceviche should taste like, was disappointed! Not that he did not enjoy the dish (he liked it a lot) but this was not the ceviche he was expecting. And when it comes to food, expectations (especially the ones referring to one's mother's cooking) can be extremely dangerous! (My advice: never-ever dare trying to serve a dish that has been served to your spouse by his mother while growing up! No matter how good your recipe is, his expectations will kill your dish! The only solution, call it something totally different!!!)

Here is my brother's tuna-and-salmon ceviche recipe. He made is for us back in August (and yes, my husband liked it despite the fresh ginger and soy sauce ; his expecations were different since no shrimp were served!)  I made it again last weekend when we had a nice day that gave us a Summer day in October. It's definitively not a recipe I'll cook in the middle of cold weather... but something to keep in mind for next Summer, unless you live in the Southern hemisphere or in a climate where it feels like Summer everyday! Lucky you! Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:
- 1 pound of ahi tuna
- 1 pound of fresh salmon skin off
- fresh ginger : the quantity depends on your taste: I tend to like it a lot so I use a lot ; I grate about 1 inch.
- soy sauce to taste
- green onion (2) chopped
- 1 small red bell pepper, diced
- a few capers (optional)
- one mango
- 4 limes, juiced

• Prepare the marinade: mix the pepper, together with the mango, green onion, capers. Mix in lime juice, fresh ginger and soy sauce. 
• Cut the salmon and tuna in tiny cubes.
• Pour the marinade on the fish and put in the fridge for 30 minutes. The longer you'll marinate the fish, the more "cooked" it will be.

My Personal Comments

• If you are planning on serving it to kids (or adults who can't chew on fresh ginger), dice the ginger instead of grating it and remove the ginger pieces before serving.
• You could replace the pepper with a cucumber (if easer to digest). The idea of the pepper is to add "crunchyness" to the dish.

Black Olives Tapenade

I love olives.  I have always loved them and the story goes that for my two-year birthday a friend of my parents' gave me two olive jars. I was in heaven and did not bother playing with the doll I received as a gift! (hint: if you don't know what to bring to our house, good olives are always welcome!).
Being in France makes it cheaper to eat olives. Some of them grow just in your backyarkd if you live in the South of France... or just across the border in Italy or Spain or a little bit further away in Greece (but Greece is closer to Paris than San Francisco is to Philadelphia)...
Since we eat olives a lot in our family, my children have developed a good taste for them, including the spicy ones that we find at the supermarket.
My love for olives made me want to have a perfect Tapenade recipe to eat as an appetizer for our weekly aperitifs or just together with a nice salade composee for nice and relaxed Summer dinner. One that would not be loaded with salt and additives. One that would be smooth enough but with tiny bits of olives. This is not easy. I am not even sure this recipe is my favorite one. Why? Because I have not found the right olives to put into. I tried the cheap version with canned olives (yeah, canned, I know, I know) and it was tasteless. I then went the other extreme where I used cured black olives and that was way too strong (and too salty). Good thing I am in France these days, I'll be able to go and pick the ones I think would make a tapenade perfect. In the meantime, don't complain not to be in France (well, you can), but try to find the right olives near you and don't be disappointed if it does not work out great the first time. Trust me, when it comes to olives, you are on for major discoveries...I am still discovering some and can't wait to try new ones in the years to come!! Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:
- 1 cup of black pitted olives (Kalamata would do)
- 1 clove garlic (you could put two if you like it a lot)
- 2 Tbs olive oil (a good one)
- 1 Tbs lemon juice
- 2 anchovies (optional)
- 1Tb capers (I put 2 because I like them a lot too)
- Salt

• Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until reaching desirable consistecy.
• Add salt if needed (it will depend on the capers/anchovies).
• Refrigerate
• Serve with crackers, toasted bread.

Gazpacho

As I was driving the kids to school one day, we were behind a camion citerne (tanker) and everytime we are behind one, we play this game of trying to guess what it is inside the tank. I started that game a long time ago, trying to keep my children quiet in the car:  it was also a way to make them aware of how things move from point A to point B depending on their physical form.
Since we have played this game many times now (too many trucks on the Philadelphia highways!!), my daughter knows and start with the usual "orange juice, olive oil, water,". Picking up the game, my son started to say "apple juice, milk"... and then "beer". I started laughing! Soon enough he and his sister were saying "white wine, red wine, pisco!" We all started laughing...I felt that a stranger listening to this conversation could have thought that my husband and I are such heavy drinkers that our kids know all the names of the beverages we drink!! Yes, they tried a drop of Champagne at their christening; yes, they tried a drop of beer and wine; but no, we are not heavy drinkers! We just happen to enjoy a drink here and there (especially on our Friday aperitifs) and my kids just happen to be great observers...

Since it's hot these days, here is a cool non-alcoholic soup for you and your family. My children enjoy eating this gazpacho because they really get to chose the toppings they can eat it with! Worth the extra time to chop extra veggies to put on the table... Bon Appetit!

PS: And for those of you who had never had Pisco (a drink originally from Peru but which we discovered in Chile), here is a NY Times article I recently came across! We generally drink it with just lime, crushed ice and powdered sugar... but who knows, in a few years, my kids might add a few cocktail names to their "tanker list!"

Ingredients:
- 2 large cans of whole peeled tomatoes (good quality)
- 2 fresh tomatoes, skin remove
- 1 cucumber
- 1 red onion
- 1 clove garlic

For garnish:
- Bell peppers
- Onion
- Croutons
- Cilantro/basil/chive
- Cucumber
- Tabasco
- Salt, black pepper

• In a bowl, blend the canned tomatoes (including liquid), the fresh tomatoes, cucumber, 1/2 onion and garlic. 
• Chill for a few hours
• Serve cold.

My Personal Comments:

• If I am able to plan ahead, I refrigerate the canned tomatoes overnight so that they are already chilled when I blend them with the other ingredients.
• If can not plan, put the bowl in an ice-bath while refrigerating it. 
• To peel the fresh tomatoes, drop them for 30s in simmering water.

Hummus with Basil - Hummus au Basilic

It has been a while, well more than a month (yes, I know, too long), since I last posted a recipe. Part of the reason is that my husband is taking the pictures and it has been hard for the two of us to coordinate: you know the day I make something worth being published on the blog, he left his camera at work... or the day he has it at home, the salad I made for dinner is not worth a blog entry!! If only I'd follow the weekly menus I create on my way to work or while riding the bus, we could better coordinate... but that has been hard... and since my children are off school for their 11-week-long Summer, I don't need to plan and cook meals ahead of time anymore.  Part of me likes this but I also know that by not having a meal plans for the weeks to come, it won't really make my life easier. So chances are that I'll be somehow planning again soon (I can't help it, you see!!)

If you were to ask French people what (culinary-speaking that is) they associate Summer with, they'll tell you : "l'apéro" et "le barbeque". We did not need Summer to servir l'apéritif in our house (we have it every Friday!)... but Summer being here, it will mean that we'll offer l'apéritif even more often! Super! "moi, j'adore l'apéritif" says my three-year-old! But who does not enjoy munching on different things while having a drink and relaxing?
Since I try to offer something different than just chips & salsa and pistachios when we are having a drink, I have been experimenting. Hummus is something I now make a lot (as well as gougères)...and, as a consequence, never purchase anymore. Since we started growing herbs on our balcony, I had extra basil, which I added to my recette de base. You could really adapt the recipe to your liking; I also like adding roasted red bell peppers in hummus. If we have too much, I keep it in the fridge and serve it on the side of a large salade composée. The type of dinner that really does not require any planning. Ou presque! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpeas (if you use canned, keep the water)
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 Tbs lemon juice
- 2 Tbs Tahini (sesame paste)
- 2 Tbs Olive oil
- Salt
- Cayenne Pepper/Paprika/Cumin (optional)
- Fresh Basil

• Put all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. You can add some of the water from the canned chickpeas to reach the desired consistency or more olive oil or water.

My Personal Comments

• You could add an extra garlic clove if you like garlic a lot (I don't)
• You can keep it in the fridge for about 2-3 days.

Carrots - Sweet Potatoes Soup Thai Style

"Hmm, elle est super bonne ta soupe maman" did I get as a compliment when I served this Thai-style carrots and sweet potatoes soup a few weeks ago (honnest, that's what they said!). From both my children! I was surprised because I did not expect them to like it as much (it has fresh ginger after all).. How wrong was I! It has become my daughter's favorite soup. And mine as well these days...(just had some for lunch today actually!)
The first comment my children made was that this soup tasted like their favorite mussels recipe, "tu sais la bonne recette, pas celle que j'aime pas" (meaning "the good one, not the one I don't like") and of course I knew which recipe she liked better than the other when it comes to mussels : just timing how much time it takes them to finish their plate is generally a good indication of a pass/fail test!)
All in all, what they really like is the combinaison of lemongrass and coconut milk...so I might try to cook different recipes with this combo so as to introduce new dishes to them.
This recipe from Mark Bittman is rich : so make sure you don't serve two full bowls of it before a main dish. If it's going to be an appetizer, a small bowl will be enough (well, not enough because you might enjoy it so much that everybody will want a second serving!) At home, I generally serve it "as a main dish" together with bread and a salad or I make sure that my children have a piece of fresh fruit for dessert.
Simple. Easy and "super bonne"! Coming from a 5 1/2 and a 3 year-old, it's worth giving it a try, non? Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:
- 3 stalks Lemongrass

- 10 nickel-size fresh ginger pieces (about 2cm)

- 2 cloves garlic, peeled

- about 1 pound of carrot & sweet potatoes, cut in cubes.

- 1/4 ts Cayenne pepper (more to taste)

- 1 quart Coconut milk (about 2 cans)

- 1/4 cup fresh Cilantro (cut but keep the stems)

- Neutral Oil (grapeseed or corn) or Coconut oil salt.

• Grate about 1/2 inch of each lemongrass stalk and cut the rest of in 1-in pieces.
• Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the lemongrass, the ginger and garlic and cooke, stirring until the garlic is golden (about 5min)
• Add the carrots/sweet potatoes, the Cayenne pepper. Stir to coat with oil and cook for about a minute.
• Add the coconut milk, 2 cups of water, and the stems of Cilantro. 
• Bring to a boil and then lower the temperature. Let is simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrots/sweet potatoes are cooked.
• Take the Cilantro stems out and puree the soup.
• Adjust seasoning. 
• Serve with  fresh cilantro and lime wedges.

 
My Personal Comments: 

• I tend to keep the cilantro stems in the soup and puree them together with the rest.
• Use good quality  coconut milk and not the non-fat version!
• Since I bought coconut oil, I use it in this soup as well.
• I just eat this soup with a piece of bread for lunch or dinner!

Thai Lemongrass Shrimp Soup - Soupe aux crevettes et à la Citronelle

We got our first snow in Philadelphia last week, which makes me long for warmer days already. Since I don't have a trip au soleil planned anytime soon in my agenda, I can only dream of these warmer spring and summer days... "les jours où on met juste une petite chemise, un short, et hop, on s'en va", as would my daughter say refering to the hot days when she only wears a short and a t-shirt!
Since it's winter, soups are au menu at least 3-4 times a week chez nous. And because I always try to introduce new dishes to my children, I have been making this shrimp version of Tom Ka Gai soup lately. I discovered Thai food while living in San Francisco... and can't get enough of it (and yes, I'd love to take a trip to Thailand to visit this beautiful country and eat more authentic food).  Same with my husband, who does not mind having "just" a Tom Ka Gai soup for dinner (if with shrimp, he is a little bit disappointed!). Same with my children who enjoy it but still prefer la Soupe Chinoise that they request more, especially when I am about to serve du potage aux legumes!
As I was serving this soup the other day, we talked about Thailand and the fact that one of his classmates was going to move back there permanently in a few weeks. H. then said "oh, il va manger de la soupe aux crevettest tous les jours alors?" (he is going to eat shrimp soup everyday then...). I don't know if Thai people eat shrimp/Tom Ka Gai soup everyday in Thailand... but I sure could have some often in the cold days of winter in Philadelphia! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:
- 1.5 L (6 cups or 48 Fl oz) vegetable (chicken) stock
- 4-5 shrimp per person ( or 1 or 2 chicken breast, cut in thin slices)
- 1 Lemongrass stalk
- 4 keffir lime leaves
- 1 cup mushrooms (shiitake prefered)
- 1 small piece of galangal
- a few fresh red chilies (2-3) (or red crushed pepper)
- 1/2 to one can coconut milk
- 2 Tbs (30 ml) lime juice
- 2 Tbs (30 ml) fish sauce
- Fresh coriander or fresh Thai basil
- sugar (optional)

• In pot, grate the end of the Lemongrass stalk; cut the rest of the stalk and keep it for later.
• Pour vegetable/chicken stock and bring  to a boil. Add shrimp/chicken pieces and mushrooms , reduce heat to medium-high. Cook until shrimp/chicken is cooked. Reduce heat to medium heat.
• Add lemongrass stalk, galangal, kefir leaves, coconut milk, chilies and fish sauce. Cook for about 2-3 mn.
• Reduce heat to minimum, add lime juice.
• Adjust the flavor: if not salty enough, add more fish sauce, a teaspoon at a time; if too sour, add a few teaspoon of sugar; if too spicy, add more coconut milk; if not spicy enough, add more chili peppers.
• Serve with fresh coriander or basil.

My Personal Comments

• I serve this soup as a main course for our family. I add a little bit of rice noodle if I feel that they won't have enough that evening.

Cilantro and Curry Gougères with/without Sourdough Starter

My dad is obsessed with enjoys to make un plan de table when there are a lot of us sharing a meal, even a casual lunch in the country. There is a whole étiquette about how to sit people : how do the host and hostess sit, who sits next to the hostess, etc. etc. I don't know all of it but have been used to be assigned to a specific seat often enough to master the basics. In our family, with the plan de table always comes the chair vs. stool assignement as well. The basics are here even more straightforward:  my mother will always get a chair and my brothers will most likely get the stools! Who get the remaining stools is always left at my dad's discretion!
When we got married, my husband made a short speech as we were all sitting for dinner. While I can't remember all of it (désolée, that was more than 9 years ago!), I do remember a comment he made about sharing meals with my family. It had caught his attention that the more meals he was sharing with us, the more comfortable my parents were with him (and wanted him to feel comfortable), the more likely he was to be assigned a stool (as opposed to a chair!) I found that comment hilarious and still laugh about it today! I thought about it because last night, we had friends over for dinner and because we were late feeding the children (our children plus my daughter's best friend C. who had come for a sleepover), we decided to have them sit at the coffee-table for dinner while we, adults, were having a drink. It was a great moment to share with the children (who were even happier to be able to share the apéritif with us to be honnest ( for once I did not make gougères but I have made this recipe for l'apéro in the past.)
One thing leading to another, the kids successfully asleep in bed, we, adults, ended up having dinner sitting around the coffee table as well. We did offer small IKEA chairs or my husband's grand-father's homemade stools... but eventually, we all sat down. Very casual! Very cozy... and very enjoyable! I'd love to do it again... but please, don't feel that we are not enjoying your company if you are not asked to eat at the coffee table!! Bon Appétit! 

Ingredients
- 40 gr (1.41 oz) butter
- 70 gr (2.47 oz) fresh sourdough starter (100% hydration) (if no starter, see note)
- 90 ml (3.04 Fl Oz) water
- 35 gr  (1.23 oz) flour
- 80 gr (2.82 oz) cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 ts salt
- 1/4 ts curry powder
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped

• Pre-heat oven to 400F (200C)
• Bring water to a boil and melt butter in water.
• Add sourdough starter and stirr
• Add flour and stir; remove from heat.
• Let cool for 2 minutes
• Stir in eggs, one at a time
• Add cheese, cilantro and curry powder and salt.
• Scoop the dough (about one teaspoon at a time) and place the dollops on parchment paper
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown
• Let cool and eat.

My Personal Comments

• If you don't have a fresh sourdough starter, you can just add an extra 35ml of water and 35 gr of Flour instead.

Chou Rouge Râpé - Shredded Red Cabbage

If you ever ate a few lunches in a French cantine (or with a French family), chances are that you were served du chou rouge râpé. More than once. Together with carottes râpées or a salade de betteraves, chou rouge râpé is a pillar of French crudités, especially in the Fall and Winter when other vegetables such as cucumbers or tomatoes are off season.
Interestingly enough, French people don't eat much cooked chou rouge whereas they will eat a lot of sauerkraut in the traditional choucroute. I have personally never made a recipe calling for cooked red cabbage (I know, I have to work on a borscht recipe) but enjoyed it the few times I ate it at friends' or in restaurants (yeah, I am the kind of person who would order cooked red cabbage!!)
Since I have had too much chou rouge râpé growing up, I have not been serving it much to my children. One day though, I found a nice chou rouge and decided that it was high time for my children to be introduced to what is a pillar of French cuisine. Since they like carottes râpées and coleslaw, I figured that it would be relatively easy to have them try du chou rouge. But because I was anticipating some resistance, I mixed it up with carottes râpées. And like for my carottes râpées, I used the finest blade I had on my food processor so as to achieve a very thin, easy to chew, consistency. I served it with a vinaigrette, a traditional French dressing for crudités. The verdict? Well, it was not a franc succès but my kids did eat more than the required "try-spoon".
Because cabbage season is in full blast now, I am likely to serve them chou rouge râpé again soon. I like it more today than when it was served to us in the cantine... so hopefully my kids will get to like it as well. But no matter how much I would like to start cooking chou rouge, I think that I'll take the path of least resistance and keep with its raw version for the time being. At least with my kids. And even if kids are more likely to eat colored vegetables, between red and white, I'd rather see them enjoy sauerkraut! It will be a more useful taste to have for our future trips to France! Same with chou rouge râpé! So if you are planning a trip to France with your kids, even 10 years down the road, start feeding them chou rouge râpé today! Bon Appétit!