Aragula Soup - Soupe à la Roquette

Aragula ("roquette" in French) is a favorite green in our household. I don't know whether it was already common in the US in the late 80s  but I don't remember eating any in France growing up. Choices of greens for our salade verte were really limited to laitue, feuille de chêne, mâche et frisée (I promise to make frisée aux lardons one day - a favorite of my husband's but not something I ever ever enjoyed (even before I stopped eating meat)!)

Aragula is something I really discovered in the US and have come to love (unlike iceberg lettuce).

We could eat some everyday, especially when the other green options for our daily "salade verte"are iceberg lettuce or another unappealing romaine. 

We eat aragula just plain with a balsamic vinaigrette, or in my home-made improvised mix-greens salad or other salade composée, on a white pizza or in a sandwich! Although it sometimes touches warm food, I had never thought about making it into a soup until I realized a few months ago that, because I was traveling a lot (hence the absence of posts since Feb! Sorry....), we were not going to be able to eat the whole aragula before it would go bad (and yes, it does go bad relatively quickly, even when we purchase it in a clamshell container (I know, I know)), I would have to come up with a soup. It was freezing cold outside (we had a LLOOOOOONG winter this year) and I figured that I could pretty much cook it in a similar way as I do the Soupe au Cresson. 

Easy. Simple. Delicious. And a great success.

To be honest, between watercress and aragula soup, I prefer watercress (if and only if, this is wild watercress (or watercress that actually tastes like watercress! (I have been disappointed sooo many times here...))... but making this aragula soup is a good alternative. Whereas the taste of aragula that can be pungent when eaten raw, it becomes milder in the warm soup - making it an easy alternative for children for instance. 

I also think that this soup, or a slightly modified version of it, will be great served cold this Summer. Until then (I could eat hot soup every day), I know that I can go and purchase more aragula... we'll never run out of ideas (next on my list is aragula pesto (recipe anyone?)) to eat it all... Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (for 4 persons)
- aragula, washed and chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 small onion, minced
- 2 potatoes, skin off and cubed
- salt and pepper to taste
- Olive oil

• In a pot (with lid), over medium-heat, saute the onion, garlic and potato in olive oil.
• Add about 3 cups of water
• Put the lid on and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
• Immerse the aragula for two minutes
• Blend thoroughly
• Add salt and black pepper to taste .
• Serve with crème fraîche, grated cheese, toasted bread.

Rutabaga Fries

I don't like kids Menus in restaurants. I don't even look at them. The only time I allow them on the table is if they have some games for the children to play while we order our food from the "adult" menu.
I know that if the restaurant outing has to be an enjoyable experience for both adults and children, (ie children are not dictating where the whole family is having dinner) feeding children what they like very much is a close guarantee to a peaceful dinner. I get that. I am a parent as well. However, the idea that the only things children will be allowed to eat until they are 8 or older (12?) are chicken nuggets, hamburger, cheese sandwich, mac&cheese or pizza makes me roll my eyes! Children above one are NEVER too young to try and eat new food...

When my parents came over for Christmas, we went out to one of our favorite restaurants BYOB (Bring Your Own Beverage - small restaurants that don't want to pay for the liquor & alcohol license and for buying a large offering of alcohol beverages allow patrons to bring their own bottles and don't charge a corking fee). As we were waiting inside the restaurant for our table to be ready, a man in his early fifties who was on his way out saw our children and told them "you are going to eat here? You are too young for this food!" We were all in shock! My children did not understand why he was saying that! Obviously, he had a few drinks too many but still, insead of telling them how lucky they were going to be able to enjoy really good food, he just thought that it was a waste of food and money for our children to eat with us. Needless to say that I jumped into the conversation and asked why he thought that they were too young? He did not really took the time to answer me properly; he only mentioned that the sweetbreads were really good. I would not know because we did not order that dish but I can just say that we all had a great dinner... and look forward to going back.
Do our children eat everything? No. However, they know that they have to try. It might not be their best dish ever... but at least they try. And more than once as it takes a few good trials to develop and acquire a taste for new textures & flavors.
Take the Rutabaga fries I made for us one Sunday evening. Our children tasted them but could not really care for them. I have to say that I am not a big fan of rutabaga either but will I make them again? Yes. Will our children will have to eat a few again? Yes. Will they eat them? Yes. Will they like them? Most likely not. But at least, that evening, I will have managed to make them eat something different.
Bon Appétit!

Ingredients
- Rutabagas, peeled and cut in fries-shape
- Olive oil
- Thyme and salt to taste

• Pre-heat the oven to 400F (200C)
• Lay the fried into a frying pan and coat them with olive oil. Add salt and thyme
• Roast in the oven until golden brown.
• Serve hot

Pea Soup - Soupe aux Petits Pois

Our son is now fully recovered from his very bad coxsackie virus; he does have a few scars on his hands and feet but they are steadily disappearing. Pff! What a relief! His case was so bad that I took him for the second time to the pediatrician to request stronger pain relievers to have him start eating and talking  again. He stopped talking!!  (that's when we realized how sick he was!). When she saw him, the nurse's very first words were "I wish I had some students to show them a REAL case of coxsackie!!!" (???!!!!! Although I am totally in favor of teaching-clinics, I did not find this sentence really appropriate to say to a parent who comes desperate to get CARE for her sick child! However it did make me realize that our son did, indeed, developed very serious symptoms! (Apparently the nurse had seen a father develop such symptoms and yes he was MI-SE-RA-BLE!))
Now that our son is out of his misery, we are steadily working our way down his list of "dishes-I-am-going-to-have-when-I-can-I-have-real-food-again": viennoiseries (checked), fish with wild rice (checked),  candies (checked), Pho (checked), bagels (checked)...
While looking for fresh lemongrass at the Asian supermarket to make Moules-Frites, my eyes caught "fresh peas leaves". Since I can not leave a supermarket without trying something new, I decided to purchase (among other Asian vegetables only my relatives in Singapore could identify without hesitation), a small bag and to make a soup out of it. I did not dare to just saute the vegetables in case they would be too bitter.
This reminded me how my grand-mother used to feed us fresh peas (without the leaves though) that were grown by farmers in the two fields surrounding her house in the country. She would go and steal pick small peas... Nothing too wrong with that, except that they were a variety made to feed... cattles! And certainly not grown the organic way!!  She could not care less. She thought that because she was picking them very young, they were not too starchy for us to eat! Anyhow, we survived the few summers that peas were the crop-of-choice in the region!

In order to spice up this soup a little bit, I made a feta-and-parsley (mint would have been a more British version) dip to doll up on top of the soup. This was a real add-on that we all enjoyed very much.
Our children liked having a few round peas in their soup as well... and were asking for more the next day! This would be perfect for very young children (without the feta-dip). One more nice-and-easy soup to make for the winter! Next on the list? Empanadas! Bon Appetit!

Ingredients   - A bag of fresh peas leaves
- A bag of frozen peas
- 2 cloves of garlic

For the optional feta-dip (made in a blender)
- Feta cheese
- 1/2 bunch of fresh parsley (I used curled but flat would have been OK)
- 1 TBs of Olive oil
- A spoon of plain yogurt (if you need more liquid to blend the feta and the parsley).

• In a pot, saute the garlic cloves in olive oil. 
• Add the pea leaves and stir until they shrink (like fresh spinach)
• Add the bag of frozen peas
• Add water and let simmer until the peas are cooked
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Serve with fresh peas and a doll-up of the feta-parsley-dip

My Personal Comments

• This soup is vegetarian if you omit the feta dip  

• Mint would have been OK instead of Feta

• You could chill this soup for the summer.

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

Meyer Lemons Madeleines

Since Meyer Lemons were on sale at the supermarket the other day, I decided to use some to make des madeleines. In France, madeleines come in all shapes (long, oval, round), quality (palm oil, pure butter) and flavors (chocolate, orange, "authentique" (whatever that means!!), lemon).
In addition to lady fingers (aka boudoirs in French), madeleines are the perfect little cakes you give to young children. But like Proust, every adult has a little madeleine story (au propre comme au figuré, non?)
While children would eat them for their gouter, adults are more and more tempted to eat them with their after-lunch espresso... or with a cup of tea over the week-end... or with no special reason! I even know people who have them for breakfast instead of the traditional tartines de confitures!
We grew up eating madeleines while we were with my grand-parents in Normandy. My grand-father was spending part of his summer near Semur-en-Auxois in Burgundy and every year, on his way back, he'd stop at the Biscuiterie du Mistral to stock on madeleines (and other butter cookies). I had not had madeleines for a while until this past summer when one of my cousins ordered cookies direct from the biscuiterie via internet! So yes, all of us, now adults, were savouring these little treasures while rememoring good old times! And children were starting to build their own memories!
Proust did not make madeleines famous in France but did contribute to making them more popular overseas. I long for a good madeleine once in a while and I recently realized that I needed to bake them more often so that my children start to appreciate them more (seeing them loving those double-sided cream cookies makes me cry sigh...)  This recipe for madeleines is more labor-intensive than others since you have to make a syrup first. However, they do taste great with Meyer lemons. I'll try other recipes out and will keep you posted. After the gougères, I'll make sure that you start baking good madeleines for your family! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup (125 gr) sugar
- 1/3 cup (80ml) meyer lemon syrup (make this first)
- zest from 2 lemons
- 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1.5 stick(12 tablespoons or 180g) melted salted butter, cooled to room temperature

Meyer Lemon Syrup
- 100ml lemon juice
- 1 cup sugar

• Prepare the syrup:
• Cook the lemon juice and sugar over low-medium heat so that it turns into a syrup and reduces in volume.
• Reserve and cool entirely!

• Prepare the dough
• In a bowl, beat the sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy
• Add the cold syrup, the zest and stir well
• Sift the flour and baking powder together.
• Gently stir in the dry ingredients into the wet until fully incorporated.
• Pour the melted butter and stir until smooth.
• Cover with a piece of plastic wrap, making sure that the plastic touches the dough to avoid crust forming
• Chill in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. The longer the better!

• When ready to bake:
• Preheat oven to 450F (225C)
• Butter and flour madeleine molds
• Fill the molds about 2/3.
• Bake in the oven for 6 minutes
• Lower the temperature to 400F (200C), open the door and cook for another 2-4 minutes
• Remove them from the oven when the edges are brown and the top springs back when touched.
• Cool before serving.

My Personal comments:

• I like to make the syrup in the evening, then the dough in the morning to let it rest all day before baking. Alternatively, you could make the syrup in the morning, the dough in the afternoon and let it rest overnight in the fridge.

Zucchini - Fennel soup

It's not winter yet but I already feel that I want to eat de la soupe. Halloween being around the corner, all the pumpkins and other squash are out and I only want them cooked in soups. You know, soup is my easy dinner option. A nice hearty soup served with bread and cheese, that's almost perfect dinner for me!  While I know I'll enjoy the soup, I also know that my children won't be that thrilled! And that it will take it longer to feed them that evening. Well, c'est la vie! I am not going to change my menu because they don't like soup that much! I do try to make it look more appealing to them by making polenta croutons or roasting purple potatoes on the side. We also play different games to make them eat yet another spoon of soup. One of the games we love to play is the "une cuillère pour...." where we name one person in our family each time we eat a spoon of soup. We start with my children' cousins... and, that's when I am happy to have a large family! By the time we get all the 7 cousins on my side, plus the 3 cousins on my husband's side, plus the additional second-cousins whom we see every summer, we are almost done with the bowl (because let's face it, I am not serving my children super-size bowls of soup!!) Whatever game we play, I generally manage to have my kids finish their bowl of soup. It might take a while but we get there eventually! And if I am lucky, despite the "je n'aime pas la soupe", they might even ask for a second serving!
Being French, I could make soup with pretty much any kinds of vegetables. I sometimes use chicken/vegetable stock but if, like now, I am on my low-iodine diet again and therefore staying away from processed sources of sodium, I just use additional herbs/spices to flavor the soup. One thing I want to make more in this winter are beans soups (any good recipes to share?). Until now, before Fall really sets in, here is a good end-of-summer-early-Fall recipe. Good? Oh yeah, we did not have to play any games to finish it! But we did have polenta croutons! Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:
-  1 large bulb of fresh Fennel, sliced
-  3 small zucchinis, cut into small dices
-  3 small potatoes, pealed.
-  1L (32 Fl oz) of water or vegetable/chicken stock
-  30 gr (1 oz) butter or equivalent of olive oil
-  1 sprig of Thyme (optional)
-  Salt, black pepper to taste

• In a Dutch oven or thick-bottom pot, melt the butter (olive oil) over medium heat. 
• Add the garlic, fennel, zuchinis and herbs. Toss them a few times so as to coat them in butter/oil.
• Reduce heat, cover the pot with a lid and let simmer for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are really soft.
• Add water/stock, the potatoes cubes and bring to a boil.
• Simmer the soup for an additional 15 minutes or until the potatoes can be mashed.
• With an immersion blender, blend the soup.
• Add salt/black pepper to taste.
• Serve with a dollup of crème fraiche

My Personal Comments:

• You could add carrots if you have some that need to be cooked.
• You could serve this soup to a child starting solid food.

Chicken with Pineapple - Poulet a l'ananas

We love fruits in our family. My children request their piece of fruit at the end of each meal and if I hide berries, kiwis or  banana in their yogurt, somehow this does not count as "fruits" to them. I try to diversify what fruits we purchase depending on what's in season, what's available, and what's affordable. Living in the US where fruits are grown year-long in Florida and California or where international agreements with countries like Mexico, Chile, and Costa Rica, we are spoiled. We have access to more "exotic" fruits at a more competitive price than in France. And I feel lucky but I always double check the place where fruits & vegetables are grown! I can't purchase tomatoes grown in Canada, sorry. I'd rather eat tomatoes grown at latitudes more South (OK, not too South, do they grow tomatoes in Patagonia?)
A few months ago, I was talking with a friend who lived in Ireland for a few years. He was on his way to Florida and made stop-over in Philadelphia to visit us. We were talking about where he'd like to live after Ireland. Being European, he had a lot of options (Europeans can work in most European countries without a work visa) but one thing he said struck with me. He said that "he'd rather live in a country where fruits and vegetables grow mature on trees/plants with natural sun before they reach their markets" He was tired of eating beautifully-shaped-green-house-grown-and-tasteless tomatoes from Holland while in Ireland! That's when I realized that I would have a hard time living in a country where cold weather or natural location make it difficult to eat fresh fruits and vegetables all year long! In other words, I'd have a hard time to live in Sweden but would not mind living in Italy!!

Pineapple (or ananas en français) is a fruit I enjoy only if cooked. If I eat too much of it fresh, I get minor aphtous ulcers which are definitively not pleasant. So I don't resist the temptation and eat it fresh just cook it! I cook it with brown sugar as dessert or, like in this recipe, I cook it as a vegetable. I personally love it and so do my children. It's always a new and fun experience when I serve them "un fruit comme un légume": apples (like apples in the Rôti de Porc aux Pruneaux et aux Pommes), mango, figues (why are they sooo expensive??), quinces, coconut, grape... we pretty much cook all of them as vegetables  in sucré-salé dishes. It's delicious, it's original (unless you eat a lot of Asian food already) and a great add-on to make your easy-to-cook dinner look fancier and healthier! It's also a great way to feed young children fruits before they can digest them raw!  Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:
- Chicken breast, cut into small pieces
- 1 onion minced
- 1 small pineapple, diced
- Green beans
- Cashew nuts (optional; not recommended if you are feeding a young child)
- Olive oil, salt and black pepper to taste
- Cayenne Pepper (optional)

• Pre-heat oven to 400F (200C).
• Put the pineapple dices on a baking dish and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes (until cooked)
• Cook the green beans (boil them, steam them, cook them in the microwave...)
• In s pan, over medium heat, saute the onion and chicken in olive oil.
• Once the chicken is cooked, add the pineapple dices, the green beans and cashew nuts and saute for another 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper, and Cayenne Pepper to taste.

My Personal Comments:

• If you want, you could use Soy sauce to season this recipe
• You could serve it with Basmati Rice but with green beans and pineapple, I find that's enough for us.

Duck Hachis Parmentier

I grew up eating à la cantine in France (ie, at school) and even though I was not a picky eater there were a few things I did not like and that would make me sick even before eating them.  Hachis Parmentier was one of them and it was dramatic (oui, oui, dramatique!!)  for me since it was on the menu at least once a month! Hachis Parmentier, a mix of ground meat (generally leftover) and potatoes puree, is a pillar of French traditional cuisine. Not the cuisine you'll be served in a top restaurant in France, but rather the one that you cook for your family or for a large group of people (like à la cantine).
It took me a long time to be able to eat Hachis Parmentier without gagging (too much school history)... and even longer to cook it myself. I still don't consider it "a real dish" but because it's so easy to make and generally popular among children, I have been cooking it more often. It 's the perfect dish when you ave 10 children age 1-to-12 driving you crazy running around you. I even think that it is a great alternative to the boring traditional pizza that people serve when five children pretend to come and sleep at your place!

The good thing about Hachis Parmentier is that you can make your own version depending on the meat leftover you have. In this case, we had Duck confit one evening and I had leftover so I used duck meat. You can also serve it with or without cheese on top (I prefer cheese) and with additional vegetables if you feel like it. What would prevent you from making it this week? Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (serves 6)
- 1 pound (500 gr) of ground meat, cooked
- 3 shallots, minced
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 2 Tb of tomato paste (two small tomatoes, diced)
- Olive oil, salt and black pepper
 - 2 pounds (or about 1kg) of potatoes
- Milk or/and light cream.
- Parmesan cheese

• Pre-heat oven to 360F (180C)
• In a large pan, saute the shallots and garlic in olive oil. 
• Add the meat and tomato paste and cook for 10 minutes under low heat.
• In the meantime, boil the potatoes. Once cooked, drain them.
• Mash the potatoes and add warm milk/cream until you reach desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper
• Place the meat in a large deep dish. Cover with mashed potatoes and cover with ground Parmesan cheese
• Cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes until cheese is fully grilled.

My Personal Comments:

• You could add a carrot or a few dices of celery to the meat for extra flavor/veggies or make a sweet potatoes/carrots puree instead of mashed potatoes.

Cold Celery Soup With Purple Potatoes

Soups are regularly on our weekly menu...and there is no exception in the Summer ( and I am talking Northern Hemisphere Summers!!) You see, when we were in the Alpsa few days ago, there were days when we were not taking our fleece away and even my husband who, unlike me, is not cold sensitive was not taking his away, c'est pour dire!.. Too cold.  On those depressing June days, hot soups were more than welcome! Une bonne soupe poireaux-pommes-de-terre with local cheese and cream! Delicious!
On hot days like today (temperatures reaching above 30 C or 86 F), cold soups are de rigueur.
In addition to being a way to feed more vegetables to my family, soups are also a good way to have my children drink extra liquids. Over the past few weeks, I noticed that my daughter was not drinking enough. When she is in school, she generally drinks a bowl of chocolate milk in the morning, then she has a mid-morning glass of water/juice in school and then she drinks from her water bottle over lunch and then again when she comes home at goûter and at dinner. On vacation, instead of increasing her water intake because of heat, she actually decreased it. And if there is something that is not good for anybody, it's not to drink enough. It's even more dangerous with girls as they tend to be prone to urinary tract infections that a lack of water only accerbate. I am now more aware of her need to be reminded that she needs to drink more. I keep telling her to "boire plus".... but as a way to increase her daily water intake in the Summer, I make cold soups as well.
This recipe for Celery Soup can be served both cold and warm. Because celery has a strong flavor, I used a few potatoes in the soup as well. And since celery is not my husband's favorite vegetable either (too many bad céleri rave salads growing up (a salad made of shredded celery roots with mayonnaise that was unfortunately a regular on our school menu)), I made sure to serve the soup with "something else" to make it more attractive. In this case, I used purple potatoes that I sauteed together with extra tiny cubes of celery in olive oil for a few minutes. This was a big hit among both my children and husband. My children had never seen purple potatoes before, so there was something new to eat...but to be honnest, I could have used regular potatoes and it would not have made a difference for them. Who does not like pommes-de-terre sautées? To me, it made a difference because the end-result was joli and appétissant. And that matters a lot, especially when cooking with root celery that is not attractive in the first place! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients
- One head of root celery
- 2 medium potatoes
- Light cream
- A few purple potatoes (optional), cut into tiny dices.
- Olive oil, salt and black pepper to taste

• Start by pealing and cutting the celery roots.  Cut a few dices that will be sauteed with the potatoes
• Peal and cut the yellow potatoes as well.
• Saute the celery and potatoes in olive oil for a few minutes
• Cover with water and simmer for 15 minutes until cooked
• Using an immersion blender blend the soup. If you are serving it chilled, put it in the fridge for at least one hour. The longer, the better.
• About 15 minutes before serving, saute the purple potatoes and celery root dices in olive oil.
• Just before serving (cold or warm), add a few spoon of light cream
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve with purple potatoes and celery root dices.

My Personal Comments

• I like it both warm and cold.
• If you don't want to serve it with purple potatoes, you could serve it with a little bit of fresh chive or tarragon.

My daughter's Tomato Soup

For the last few weeks, my four-and-a-half daughter S. talked to us about her soupe à la tomate. She started the conversation one morning as my husband was taking her to school. She said that she had this super recette and that she wanted to make it. For a few days, she kept talking about her soupe à la tomate... so when my husband went to the market with her, they bought fresh tomatoes and onions to make it. We postponed the actual cooking day because it was never convenient for me to help her make her soupe à la tomate when she was suggesting it. In order to make her accept the fact that we could not make it aujourd'hui, I prompted her about her super recette. "C'est facile (it's easy), she said. "Tu prends les oignons, tu prends les tomates et tu les cuits ensemble et tu les mixes" (you take the onions, the tomatoes and you cook them together and then blend them). "Après, tu mets du sel, du poivre, de la crème, du fromage et des croûtons"(then you add salt, pepper, cream, grated cheese and croutons). Facile, indeed! When we were finally ready to make it, she was in charge of telling me what to do. I was just asking questions to maker her improve her super recette. I made her peal and chop the onions. She was very proud because, unlike me who start crying the minute I chop onion, shallots or even leeks, she did not cry. While we were chopping the onions and garlic, my two-and-a-half son was playing with water in charge of cleaning the tomatoes (they were really clean!!). We talked about sauteing the onions in butter or olive oil (she chose olive oil). She helped cut the tomatoes and then stir them with the onions. I had to convince her that we needed to add a little bit of water to make une soupe. Otherwise, we would have une sauce tomate. From then on, we let her soupe cook on the stove and she helped me puree it with the immersion blender.

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Leeks and Potatoes Soup

I CAN NOT turn down a good bargain on leeks! Leeks (poireaux) are a staple of French diet. There are poireaux in (almost) every potage de legumes that a French family can make; they are a delicious side-dish in fondue de poireaux; when young, we just eat them cold with vinaigrette, etc. To the point that you don't even write them down on your grocery list anymore. It's a given. You purchase leeks automatically. As a result, the basic of supply-demand economics make them very affordable when in season.
My grand-mother, like 90% of French people with a vegetables garden, used to grow some in her potager. Evidemment! And inevitably, she would give us some whenever we were heading back to Paris after a stay at her house. My older brother could not stand having leeks in the car because when kept in a close-and-somewhat-warm environment, leeks don't smell that great (they are related to onions). I agree but it never bothered me that much. It did bother me that it bothered my older brother because it meant that we had to drive with an open window in the Winter cold days so that he could get pass this smell. So me and my younger siblings were shivering in the back because my older brother had a leek-sensitive nose! Merci bien! That said, his aversion for leeks (or their smell, really) was never strong enough to deter my grand-mother to load our car with poireaux (and other less smelly fruits and vegetables.) Certainement pas!We would just leave them by the car and load them at the very last minute!
Moving to the US, it was quite a shock to discover how much leeks cost here.

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First Bites..... ..Cauliflower and Red Lentils Puree

As I said in my post on lentils, lentils are very good for you...Lentils are really healthy: they are high in fiber, iron, magnesium, and folate. They are also fat-free and high in proteins. Besides, they are affordable, hence a great dish to serve to your family. You should definitively add them to your monthly diet (if not already!).
While we mostly eat French Blue Lentils at home, I have come to purchase red lentils (lentilles corail, in French) to add them in vegetable soups. Red lentils cook very fast and, therefore, don't "hold" as well as green or blue lentils and the few times I have tried not to overcook them, I failed.

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Apple, Rhubarb and Banana Compote

As I already said in a previous post, we eat a lot of home-made apple sauce in our family. Somehow, I can't pass a good bargain on apples, even if the apples don't look really nice. As long as they are worm-free and look tasty, I'll take any and turn them into apple sauce. Because, plain apple sauce can become a little bit boring when eaten too often, I usually try to use other fruits to mix in with the apples. Rhubarb is another favorite after quinces.
Rhubarb is one of these strange plants which leaves are poisonous (well, if you were willing to eat approximately 10 pounds of them!!!) while the stalks are used for cooking. Rhubarb is very easy to grow in a garden. The reason I know that is that both my grand-mother and my mother were/is growing it with no care. There is a plant in the back of my parents' backyard, close to the natural compost pile.Since nobody tends to the rhubarb, the compost must be working because the rhubarb plant grows very well, as if on steroids!

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First Bites.... Cauliflower and Carrots Puree - Build Up Recipe

Cauliflower... for some reasons it seems that people have a hard time with it. I know that my husband does not like it in gratin much...and because my children will notice his hesitation when it comes to eating it, I have tried to come up with other ways to prepare it. You know, it's all about my "Eating-By-Example" Theory....
One of the best way to maximize the chances that your children will grow up eating (liking?) cauliflower is to introduce it early to them. And like turnips in my previous post, you hide it in other well-liked vegetables. In this recipe, the orange color of carrots attracts the little one attention who, then are more willing to swallow the mix. I tested it with my two children when they were younger and it worked. It worked again with them when I cooked it recently. My daughter did ask me what the little white pieces were... but when I told her it was cauliflower, she did not care.

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First Bites... Turnips and Potatoes Purée

Turnips (navets in French)? Pff... some of you might not even try to read this post because of them. And yet, I do think that turnips need to be granted more attention. I personally love turnips in every forms and just in case you had not noticed, I already used some raw (in Coleslaw) or steamed (in Potée Lorraine). I have yet to roast some... but for the time being let's just puree them. My grand-mother grew turnips in her garden and if she managed to trick the wild rabbits, she would get a small production that she would inevitably share with all of us. So, I grew up eating turnips!

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Apples and Quinces Compote (Apple Sauce)

My grand-mother used to say that “you don’t have to be hungry to eat apple sauce”. She had a lot of apple trees in her fields, some, les pommes à cidre, dedicated to her home-made apple cider and Calvados, and others, les pommes à couteau, just for us to eat. When the apples were not good-looking enough for us, she would just cook them in her pressure cooker (with skin, seeds, and occasionally worms (hey,  hey were local and really organic!!)). Then it was my job to make la compote (the apple sauce) using her old vegetable hand mill. I don’t know how many kilos of apple sauce I made with her over the years… but except for the worms, I never got tired of eating it afterward (preferably tedious). Nowadays, I cook apple sauce a lot for us. I find that home-made apple sauce tastes better than the one you can find in jars. Besides, as always when you cook from scratch, you control the ingredients (no salt, no preservatives or other undefined “natural flavors”) and you can also play with the fruits (rhubarb,  quince, banana, strawberries) and spices (cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom) to achieve different tastes.

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First Bites.... Carrots and Zucchini Puree

I remember when we decided to start our first child on solids. Like most French people, we decided to start with carrots, not with hot cereals. I don't have anything against hot cereals (I actually like oatmeal with warm milk (yes, yes)!!) but I think that they taste too bland to me to be introduced first, especially if the child has been/is being breastfed. The whole point of starting a child on solids is to make her discover new stronger tastes and textures early on. Offering rice or oatmeal cereals does not serve that purpose well to my opinion.

So, for my child, I made my first carrots puree and watched out as she took her first bite... It was the first time we were introducing the spoon as well, so there was some adaptation to the new utensil too. Needless to say that it was not a great success! I'm not sure how much she actually ate (maybe three full spoons?); her whole bib (and our walls) turned orange....... but at least we had started the process! And as her mom, it was also a big step for me to see her take that first bite. I was emotionally moved (sigh)!

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Carrots and Fresh Mint Soup - "Build Up Recipe"

  

I had carrots (lots of carrots) in the fridge and I did not know what to do with them. It also happened that I had fresh mint available. I thought that I could make carrots puree (mashed carrots) but since it was really cold outside, I felt that a soup would be more appropriate. I called this recipe "Build Up Recipe" because you could feed infants, picky eaters, children and adults without changing the recipe a lot.  Friends of mine have asked me to publish more recipes that could feed picky eaters... and even if my children are not too picky, there are days when I adapt my recipes to make sure dinner will be pleasant for everybody....

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