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)

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

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!

Barley Salad with Feta, Cucumber, Chickpeas, Red Bell Pepper and Basil

What I like best about being in Europe is that distances make it possible to travel to visit friends and relatives at affordable cost and time while seing beautiful landscapes. My younger brother currently lives in Strasbourg, a medium-size French city, home of the European Parliament, located on the Eastern part of France, at the border with Germany. The French high-speed train (TGV) takes you there in 2h20 from Paris (as opposed to close to 5 hours by car), which made it a definite stop during our European vacations this Summer. It was also the perfect opportunity to visit my dear friend J. who lives with her family in Offenburg, a small town in Germany that is only 30 mn away from Strasbourg. I had been to Strasbourg a few times before but only as a tourist. Being here at my brother's, discovering their local playground and commerçants makes it even more enjoyable.
Alsace, the region where Strasbourg is located, is famous for a few culinary spécialités such as Choucroute, Kouglof, Munster cheese, good beers, and excellent wines like Gewurtzraminer and Riesling. All of which I enjoy, preferably on a Winter day. Let's face it, as my brother was telling me the other day, the culinary répertoire of Alsace is worth le détour unless it's boiling hot outside or/and you are on a diet! Portions served in restaurants are American-like, and even local have a hard time finishing their plate (and no doggy-bag option here). Only my husband would have been crazy willing to eat a choucroute on a hot day like today in Strasbourg. Because he is enjoying his own American-size portions on the other side of the Atlantic, we are cooking a lot of grandes salades composées. It's in the upper 90s today and we don't feel like eating anything "heavy" (but I won't say no to a glass of Riesling!!).
I realize that it is quite a challenge to feed children a salade composée when they are used to eating a three-course meal with a serving of fish/meat with vegetables/grains. Of course it depends on what we compose the salade of. The most famous French salade composée is the ubiquitous Salade Niçoise, which I have adapted here for my family. Here, we generally compose with what's available in the fridge/cupboards while trying to balance vegetables and grains and taking into account what everybody already had for lunch to avoid redundancy. Most of the time the end-result is creative (to say the least) but nonetheless delicious.
I find out that our children eat the salade composée with limited reluctancy when we agree to let them pick out one thing (or two) they don't like (for real or just because their cousins don't like it). It is also my experience that the thinner the ingredients are cut, the more likely they will be eaten. I don't offer a mush of shredded pepper-carrots-radish pour autant (not appetizing at all!!) but I do cut the bell pepper and onions very very thin! And, just for the fun and the appetizing colors of salades composées, I always try to have 3 or more colors in the salad! It's Summer after all! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:
- Barley  (about 1/2 cup dry barley)
- Feta cheese, crumbled or cut into small dices
- Fresh cucumber, diced
- Cooked chickpeas
- a small red bell pepper, thinly cut
- Fresh basil

• Cook Barley according to instructions and cool in the fridge
• Prepare cucumber and red bell pepper
• Mix in chickpeas, cucumber and bell pepper into barley.
• Just before serving stir in Feta cheese and chopped basil
• Serve with a Sauce vinaigrette

My Personal Comments

• If you have extra barley, keep it for another dish (salad or soup)
• You could add red onions for extra flavor

http://sites.google.com/site/wayfyktdrecipes/home/barley-salad-with-feta-cucumber-chickpeas-red-bell-pepper-and-basil

Tabbouleh

This past week-end, I attended my Business School 10-year reunion in Fontainebleau (France). 10 ans déjà! Pff, we could not believe we left school 10 years ago! It was a wonderful week-end spent with friends I had not seen for the last 5 (I went briefly to the 5-year reunion but could not stay because I was pregnant and needed to rest a lot) or 10 years. As you can imagine, we spent the whole week-end catching up. It was such a treat to see so many friends who had flown from all over the world (Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Austria, England, Lebanon, Israel, etc..) and spend time together. Even though it had been 10 years, it felt like we left each other yesterday. Of course, some of us changed jobs a few times, some of us moved to different countries, some of us got more gray hair, some of us got married/divorced, had children... We talked a lot about our children and since I write this blog, we talk about food! Well, we talked a lot about food this week-end because most of the socialization was done around a meal. Not a pizza-beer type of meal but a traditional four-course French meal. And since we had not seen each other for such a long time, we spent hours at the table! A lot of things had changed on campus but one thing that had not changed was the buffet menu!

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Guacamole

Until I came to California, I think that I had Tex-Mex food only twice in my life. For cultural, geographical and geopolitical reasons, Mexican food (and it's US-adapted Tex-Mex food) did not make it to France the way it made it to the US: pico de gallo salsa does not mean anything to my friends; we don't have fancy-burrito chain and definitively no Taco or Chili chains! The only two things French tend to associate with Mexican food are margaritas and corn chips. But that again is  more the result of the influence of large agro-business companies that have pushed their products on the French market rather than culinary tradition!
Living in the US, I have adapted and adopted Tex-Mex ( I would be ashamed of calling it Mexican) food in my daily cuisine.  I find that corn tortillas are a great variation of my buckwheat galettes; I find that a large bowl of chili (con or sin carne) is a great alternative to lentils; but more frequently, we have corn chips with guacamole.

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Cucumber Salad with Fresh Mint, Mustard and Yogurt Dressing

 As I already mentioned in a previous post, French eat a lot of crudités (raw vegetables) for appetizer: shredded carrots, tomatoes, celery roots, red cabbage, radishes, and obviously cucumber. When it comes to dressing, most French families only swear by their own home-made vinaigrette. While I am sure you could find a recipe with exact proportions somewhere, I don't have one to share with you. I just make it "au pif" (by feel?)... and I have been making it "au pif" as long as I can remember! When I was younger and spending time with my paternal grand-parents in Burgundy, I was in charge of the vinaigrette for the crudités. Since we were in the kingdom of Dijon mustard, I had the right to go heavy on the mustard. My grand-parents use to grow fresh estragon (tarragon) and ciboulette (chive) in their garden and I would add a lot to the vinaigrette, ending with what I used to call "la sauce moutarde verte". It was thicker than your traditional vinaigrette, then not a mayonnaise either since I did not put any eggs in it. Just writing about my sauce moutarde verte brings back great memories and makes my mouth water... I think that I'll purchase tarragon on my next trip to the market. Better: I'll grow some on my balcony!
Because my mother wanted us to diversify our diet, once in a while, she'll make a yogurt-based dressing instead of a traditional vinaigrette. As a result, I grew up eating cucumber with yogurt-based dressing; my husband grew up with a cream-based version made by his mother! And evidemment, I have been using yogurt (not so much cream) to season some of our crudités as well. Because plain yogurt is... well plain, I always add a little something to make it more interesting to our palate : Dijon mustard with/without seeds, Tabasco, curry powder, fresh cilantro, fresh mint, fresh basil, fresh chive... and occasionally (because it's so hard to find in the US), fresh chervil (my favorite herb).  My children enjoy all options and as long as I scissor the herbs very fine, they are eating them without complaint. Who knows, soon, they'll be making their own version of my sauce moutarde verte! Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:
- 1 cucumber, pealed, seeded and sliced
- 3 TB plain yogurt
- 2 Ts Dijon Mustard (or more to taste)
- A few sprigs of fresh mint, washed, dried and scissored
- Salt, pepper to taste

• In a bowl, mix plain yogurt, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper
• Scissor the herbs and reserve
• Put everything in the fridge (in separate bowls)
• When ready to eat, assemble and stir gently.

My Personal Comments:

• If your children don't eat herbs, then you can serve them first and then add the herbs to the remaining dressing.
• It's a great salad for Spring and Summer time.
• The dressing won't keep for long, especially after you put the herbs in.
• This dressing tastes better when cold.

Quinoa Salad with Beets, Cucumber, Tomatoes and Tofu

Since my Miso Soup post, I have been purchasing more tofu to feed my family. I would like tofu to be part of our diet because it is a new protein source that would add variety to our menus (in addition to the fact that it's also much cheaper than meat and fish.) However, my first attempts at offering more tofu were not a real success. A little bit disappointed but knowing that I have two good young eaters, I knew that I would manage, one way or another, to make them not only eat it but actually enjoy it.
I faced three challenges when feeding tofu to my family. First, it's not an ingredient I have purchased a lot in the past, hence the lack of exposure my children have had to tofu. They are not against trying something new in general, but because of this lack of exposure when they were very young, combined with the other two challenges, they were reluctant to eat it at first. The second challenge is texture: tofu is a new texture to them. There is nothing really comparable in our diet... fresh mozzarella or just crème au caramel might be the closest (or not?). My daughter loves both but my son, like many toddlers, has something against this soft-chewy-but-not-so-chewy texture. Yet again, like everybody most toddlers, when hungry, in a good mood (i.e., rested), in good company (i.e., with all of us at the table), and entertained, he is able to eat fresh mozzarella (crème au caramel is never an issue though!)... so I never gave up on feeding him tofu. The third challenge is maybe the toughest one : it's my husband's attitude towards tofu.

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Creamy Mushrooms with Polenta Croutons

France being so close to Italy, we share a culinary heritage. Among the many things we eat on both sides of the border, is Polenta. Polenta, a dish made from boiled cornmeal, did not enjoy a great reputation in France until recently as it was for a long time a peasant dish. My husband's maternal grand-mother spent a lot of time in the Alps (ie, close to Italy) where a lot of Italians emigrated to escape poverty. They brought Polenta with them and as a result, my husband's grand-mother made Polenta a lot. She calls it la polente... and if you ask my husband about la polente, he does not make a happy face (to say the least). For his grand-mother would make a soupe a la polente : she would mix milk and Polenta together and serve it as a liquid soup (yes, I know, I would not make a happy face either!!). In my family, my mother would occasionally make Polenta as we know it today : thick and creamy and we would eat it with ratatouille. This was not my favorite dish but not something I could not eat either.
I had my best culinary experience with Polenta while living in San Francisco. My best friend M. took me out for dinner one evening to celebrate her birthday. I chose Polenta with creamy mushrooms... and it was eye-opening jaw dropping good! To this day, I still think about this dish everytime I have polenta for I have not been able to reproduce it myself (but that's why I am no professional chef!).

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Crayfish and Potatoes Salad

When I used to work in Paris, I was traveling to England a lot. I always loved to travel (some) for work as it gave me an extra opportunity to discover places I had never been before (but who on earth want to do tourism in Basingstoke, dites-moi?). On some occasions, I could also meet up with friends living in London and that was always a plus. One thing I came across while in London was the Prêt à Manger delis. They had the best fancy sandwiches ever (back then) and it was a compulsory stop for me. I would particularly love their crayfish (écrevisses in French) sandwich with fresh arugula. I would get it often and would enjoy every bite of it!
When I moved to the US, I was happy to discover that they were actually opening locations in New York City. Not that we lived close to New York City (Upstate New York feels VERY far from New York City). But somehow, it made me feel better. Unfortunately for me, they did not offer my favorite sandwich.  I do remember reading that one of their main challenges was to make New Yorkers love crayfish!

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Seafood Salad with Avocado, Tomato and Grapefruit

We have this tradition in my family where the one whose birthday we celebrate has to choose his/her lunch menu (you would have to ask my siblings and my parents to tell you whether there was one specific dish I always requested because I can't just think of one right now). This is my older brother's favorite salad. He would inevitably choose it for his birthday lunch menu and we would tease him about it because he was SO PREDICTABLE with his lunch appetizer! Since we started  living away from each other (and now literally around the world), we started to pool birthdays. For instance, if we only see each other in July, then we'll pool the June/July/August birthdays together, making it a little bit trickier for the menu selection but never impossible! The advantage of pooling birthdays is that we get to celebrate someone's birthday a few times (let's say my brother and his wife would celebrate my brother's birthday with their children at their home and then with us/my parents/relatives on another day). The other advantage is that we have learned not to care so much about THE actual birthday day.

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Cabbage Salad with Apples, Walnuts, Raisins and Cheese

How do you eat your cabbage? Do you actually eat any? If not, you should give it a try. Really. I mean it. First, cabbage is really good for you; it's also very affordable and if you are lucky to find fresh whole cabbages near where you live, you could have enough to serve it over several meals. I personally don't like cabbage in a soup (bad memories of camp food). I love it when it's cured and made in Choucroute (with meat or with fish). I also love in Coleslaw, which, as you may recall, is now one of my favorite recipe for raw cabbage. I also cook it in stews like the Potée Lorraine but I won't cook that dish often. The following recipe is a traditional way I grew up eating raw cabbage in France.

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Coleslaw with Mayonnaise or Tahini (Sesame Paste) Dressing

Coleslaw? French people don't eat much coleslaw and that's a shame! Really! We do it a lot (I mean A LOT) of shredded carrots and shredded red cabbage salads but somehow we did not come to coleslaw until fairly recently. I had it maybe twice before coming to the US and realizing that it is a favorite side dish everywhere in the country.
But why make coleslaw when you can purchase it already prepared at the deli counter in the local supermarkets? I'll give you a few reasons: 1) It's fresh. 2)You control the ingredients (less or more cabbage, what about a few radishes or parsnips, more carrots, an apple?). 3)It's very easy to make. 4)Your kids will be delighted to see how a whole carrot ends up shredded. 5)You'll have made something "from scratch" that everybody loves in your family!

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Green Beans Salad with Tomatoes, Garbanzo Beans and Hardboiled Eggs

While I generally make hot entrees for dinner, there are times, especially in the summer, when we just crave a large salad. The following one is a modified version of the French Salade Niçoise. Instead of potatoes, I used Garbanzo beans (chickpeas), which we all enjoy eating. My kids love to pick them one by one in their plate (perfect for small motor skills development!)...

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