Poulet a l'estragon - Tarragon Chicken

It's Summer again and with it come all the herbs to spice up dishes! We grow a few on our rooftop - we gave up on cilantro and parsley because we eat so much of them that it's not "space-efficient". To much of my regret, we don't grow chervil either because it's too fragile. We therefore tend to have thyme, oregano, sage, basil, rosemary, chives, tarragon as well as mint. This year our tarragon is really enjoying the warm and damp weather - trying to move in with the oregano in the next pot!

My paternal grand-parents had a huge (OK, maybe not HUGE but it did look very big to me at the time) tarragon bush in  their garden in Burgundy. There was more tarragon in this garden that we could all eat and somehow, despite long cold Winters, it always came back for us in the Summer.

We would use tarragon to flavor the sauce vinaigrette (made with Dijon mustard, évidemment!) in our salades but as well as with cooked dishes. 

At home these days, I use it in pretty much every salad I make or in some hummus or other dips that we eat for apéritif or just with the rest of the meal. I recently made this Poulet a l'estragon and would encourage you to make it if you don't know how to use the tarragon you bought the other day or that your neighbor gave you! 

There are different versions of this dish - you could omit the crème fraiche is you wanted to keep it on the lighter side or if you are serving it with green beans or other vegetables that do not call for a sauce (as opposed to rice or potatoes which is what most French people would eat it with.) Some people add tomato paste in the sauce - nothing that I remember from cooking it with my grand-mother but why not...  I will leave it it up to you do improvise... Bon Appétit!

Ingredients

- Chicken (here again, you can decide if you want to use a whole chicken cut in 1/8 or if you'd rather use only chicken breasts)

- White wine (1/2 cup or 125ml)

- Chicken stock or water (1 cup/250ml)

- Shallots (minced) - I like them a lot so I use at least 4 or 5 depending on size

- Tarragon (at least 3 sprigs and 2 Tbs chopped tarragon as well)

- Creme fraiche (optional)

- Olive oil, salt and pepper 

- Salt & Pepper

In a pan, warm olive oil and brown the chicken to your liking. Set aside and réserve

In the same pan, saute the shallots in olive oil until they are golden.

Add the white wine and deglace the pan. Simmer until white wine redues

Add chicken stock (or water)

Add tarragon sprigs

Add the chicken back and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked (you can use a lid to ensure the sauce does not all evaporate)

Take the chicken out and place it in the oven to keep it warm

Add the crème fraiche in the pan over high heat and fresh chopped taragon - stir and bring to a boil. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Pour over chicken and serve.

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.

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.

Soupe Chinoise - Chinese Soup

Since we started taking our children out for Phõ, they have been more into big bowl of soups. Not the Velouté d’épinards or the Soupe aux Poireaux I tend to make but the big bowls of soup that are Phõ-like. Since I have not looked for a recipe for Phõ yet (any suggestions?), I have been making my own "Soupe Chinoise" as we like to call it. And since while traveling through China once, I saw French cookies that looked nothing like French cookies to me, I don’t mind calling this soup a Soupe Chinoise even if it does not come close to an authentic Chinese soup.

My children love this soup : they like the idea of playing with chopsticks, adding toppings, diving for pieces of chicken (or shrimp), being adventurous and adding a few drops of hot sauce, etc. What they like best though is to slurp their noodles. For once they are allowed to make noise while eating something! And we explain to them that it’s perfectly accepted in some Asian countries to slurp your noodles. “Ohlalala, c’est super,” exclaimed my daughter. My son could not be happier and he would make as much noise as possible while slurping his noodles, which has the immediate effect of making us all laugh. And there is nothing more pleasant than a family dinner with laughter all around. Tant pis if the kitchen table looks like a someone just got out the shower without drying themselves a little bit (it happens often in my family and not just with the younger generation !) Tant pis. Because we all enjoyed a meal together and that’s what’s the most important!

The beauty of this Soupe Chinoise is that you can make it the way you want and build it up for your children. You just need broth (chicken, beef or vegetables), proteins (chicken, shrimp, tofu, beef), Asian noodles (rice or wheat), vegetables (carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts, Napa cabbage, bok choy, onions), extra toppings (fried onions, chive, cilantro), seasoning (sesame oil, hot sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce) and you are all set. Be creative! Let your children be creative and experiment (even with chopsticks!). Let them slurp their noodles and slurp yours too! It would make them laugh… and chances are your Soupe Chinoise (or whatever you call it) will be one of their favorite dish! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

- 6 cups (750ml) of water
- 1 bouillon (chicken or vegetables)
- 2 TB (30ml) Fish Sauce
- 2 TB (30ml) Low Sodium Soy Sauce
- Carrots, pealed and sliced
- Napa Cabbage (or bok choy), cut into small pieces.
- 1 small onion, minced
- chicken breast, cut into small pieces
- Asian Noodles (I prefer wheat noodles but rice noodles would make it gluten-free)
- Chive (for topping)

• In a saute pan, saute the onion, the carrots and onion in Soy Sauce
• Add Chicken and cook until chicken is fully cooked
• Bring water to a boil. Add bouillon and fish sauce
• Add noodles and cook noodles in the stock.
• Add vegetables and chicken.
• Serve in large bowls topped with chive, raw onion bits and raw cabbage.
• Serve with hot sauce/sesame oil, etc...

My Personal Comments:

•  I like to put raw cabbage on top of the soup for crunchiness
•  I personally like the chicken version better than the shrimp version.
•  Don't hesitate to put more fish sauce/soy sauce if you like a stronger taste.

 

Mustard-breaded Turkey Breast

We don't go out much to eat. Not that I don't like eating out : on the contrary (but who does not?)... but you see, I enjoy sitting down for a meal and having a proper conversation with my husband and children. A conversation that is not interrupted by rugby-player-like catches, water floods, or just the usual "fais attention, prend ta fourchette, non pas les doigts dans la sauce". And even if my children behave, the idea of having to rush through my meal because, let's face it, 40 minutes of good behavior is what we can expect from young children, takes away the fun. I'd rather stay home and have a nice glass of wine with cheese while my children decide to clean the bathroom floor with a full bag of wipes sleep.
Besides, when we go out,  I am really appalled by the limitation of the children's menu. It invariably offers:  macaroni & cheese, grilled sandwich, chicken nuggets, hot-dog or/and pizza. Why? Tell me why?

Read More

Chicken Stir Fry

My friend HW from Toronto (but originally from China) was visiting over the Holidays. Since we live far from our relatives, it's always a treat when friends and family come all the way to Philadelphia to visit us. Because, no matter how cool Facebook is, it's really not the same to catch up with old friends around a cup of hot chocolate (or for that matter hot tea or just plain hot water!!)....

HW loves French food and we tried to cook French cuisine as much as we could.  One evening, I don't know what I was thinking (she is Chinese!) but I decided to cook a chicken stir fry. As usual with me, one ingredient triggers one full recipe. My husband had bought snow peas (petits-pois mange-tout in French because you eat it all (tout), pod included) at the market and they were sitting in the fridge... so I decided to do something about them before they went bad. And I thought about chicken stir fry, or rather, my recipe of chicken stir fry.

Read More

Chicken with Mushrooms , Fresh Peas, Carrots and Basmati Rice

I grew up going to the Farmers' market every week, even twice a week sometimes. "Faire le marché"  is a social event, an activity rooted in the life of (some) French people: people get to know each other and exchange the latest news; customers have their favorite vendors and tend to be very loyal; politicians come to shake hands and discuss their latest projects, etc...

Read More