Christmas dinner 2013

A late start to the day and a small meal for the two of us this year.

The starter was Lasagnesandwich met Zalm en Basilicumdressing (web). Directly translated that's a lasagna sandwich with salmon and a basil dressing; clumsy and we need a better name, since this was quite good and would be a nice company dish, easy to assemble and can be done ahead. I made a half recipe with four lasagna sheets, cutting each in half for assembly, leaving squares of pasta. (The recipe actually has you cutting the stacks after assembly, but I think this would be a mess.) The basil dressing is olive oil, lime juice, and basil leaves, buzzed in the blender. First sheet, some smoked salmon with a bit of dressing, second sheet, thin slices of avocado that have been tossed with lime juice, third sheet, more smoked salmon and a bit of dressing, All topped with the fourth sheet. I decorated the top with some leftover bits of salmon and a pretty drizzle of dressing. Very well accepted.

When we went to the market to find something special for our xmas dinner, we had in mind some ostrich steaks or medallions of venison. But the ostrich vendor wasn't there and the venison vendor had only bits of meat for a civet (a stew). So that's what we had. I smerged recipes for Civet de Chevreuil from two books (SaveurFR, p238 and Petit, p625). Actually, chevreuil is roe deer, where my farm-raised venison was daim or fallow deer. The French recipe called for finishing the sauce with pig's blood (or even hare's blood per Larousse Gastronomique); I didn't see any of this at Leclerc and the butcher was closed when Ed went by, so I did without. The result was a very nice, tasty stew. The meat and veg marinated for over 24 hours, then the bits of meat were browned and everything simmered for several hours until tender. And tender and delicious it was.

Then we had a cheese plate with small pieces of three cheeses along with a bit of arugula and a plain vinaigrette. There was a tomme de savoie, St Felicien, and Delice du Poitou, a cinder-covered local-ish goat cheese (from the town where we visit the Bach à Pâques festival) with a lovely texture and taste.

Our dessert was Poire Pochée Chocolat et Vanille (VPG), Chocolat and Vanilla-Poached Pear. This was tasty enough, but nothing special. I bought long, skinny Conference pears, but when I should have bought short, fat Comice. And the chocolate seemed dried out, where it looks like I should have been able to spread it like peanut butter. Not a keeper.

(Ha, I've just found this recipe on the web, but in a version serving 6 rather than 4 as it was published in VPG. The picture in VPG is the same but cropped a bit and reversed. And, assuming the one for 6 is original, the one in VPG was cut back badly. Where there was 250g each of almonds, chocolate, and sugar, VPG has 170g almonds and 135g each of the chocolate and sugar. Now, I don't mind cutting the sugar back, but the chocolate wasn't right. I actually used less almonds, having gotten tired or chopping, and more chocolate but not the full 170g.)

Altogether a tasty and filling dinner, but not too much. And I see we've had the red tablecloth for three xmases in a row now; will try to do something different next year.

Lunch in Paris

Lunch in Paris
Elizabeth Bard
Little, Brown (2010)
ISBN 031604279X

Yes, Cook the Books has come around again, and although I read this book early in April, what with one thing and the other, I'm just getting around to cooking and posting.

I must say that Lunch in Paris is not especially a book I'd have picked up on my own. In the past I've read a lot in the expat-in-France genre, but now I'm living that dream myself (after 26 years in the Netherlands) and don't feel so much the need to share vicariously in someone else's adventure. In this case, I'm a generation older and moved to France for the countryside, weather, food, prices, and lifestyle (i.e., early retirement) rather than for love. Nevertheless, we share many of the same reactions to our expat experience. I did have to laugh at the importance of having your name on a utility bill. I now keep a copy in my checkbook, in case I need to show it somewhere.

"Pardon me, sir, I couldn't help but notice; the cobblestones outside your door are older than my country." For an American (of the US type) who was once awed by sleeping in a 200-year-old log cabin in New Hampshire, living in Europe has really been an eye opener. I no longer think something 200 years old is very old. My house was built in 1900—it's a youngster. Everywhere you go, you're surrounded by history and tradition that are many, many centuries old. Paleolithic cave paintings, Roman baths, traces of Richard-the-Lionheart. Living as an expat, one soon learns that there are many more views of history than we were taught in school. Even the story of WWII more complex and even rather different from what we learned.

And, oh dear, problems with the language. Struggling with numbers at the market. I try to listen, I really do, but sometimes I just don't get it. The nice lady at our post office now shows me her calculator after she's added the total.

Bard and I even share food experiences. Fear of mayo. I grew up thinking Miracle Whip was mayonnaise, and detested all forms of the white, slimy stuff. Real mayonnaise was a revelation, although I discovered this before we ever moved to Europe. Croissants. When I first visited France at not quite 13, I loved to peel off the flaky layers of my morning croissant. (Reportedly Julia Child's recipe for croissants in Mastering the Art of French Cooking is do-able has has good results, but I haven't gathered my courage in hand for this yet.) Also on this trip I discovered the tiny fraises des bois, wild strawberries, each one an explosion of flavor. Now I have these in my garden.

For our Lunch in Paris meal, we started with Haricots Verts in Walnut Oil (Lunch, p216). I love haricots verts and the walnut oil I used is special. Every January, my commune has a soirée énoissage, an evening of walnut shelling. After several hours of shelling walnuts, we were treated to a simple dinner (onion soup, beans and pork served with dandelion greens, homemade apple tart). We had the option to purchase a liter of the walnut oil produced from our efforts, and this is what I used to make these beans. They were especially good because of our effort, of course.

Next there was Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Roasted Sweet Potatoes (Lunch, p312). Lamb, North African food, slowly cooked meat dishes, all food I love. And I love the combination of traditions in a single dish (fusion cuisine of a different sort).

I wonder about the "serves 8" part; I think 5 or 6 would be more like it. I started with about about 3 pounds of bone-in shoulder. Boning a chunk of meat like this is something the butcher can do in about 5 minutes, but takes me closer to an hour. (Not my favorite kitchen job.) I neglected to weigh the boned amount.

Since it's largely made ahead of time, this tagine would be an ideal party dish. I suspect you could prep everything the day before and just assemble and pop in the oven before you're planning to serve. As suggested, I served this with couscous, topped with raisins and cinnamon. Very yummy it all was.

And for dessert, a very French choice at this season when our tree is over-flowing with cherries, and one of my favorite meal closers (and occasional breakfast), clafoutis de cesises (Petit, p898, with technique and inspiration from other sources). Here it is fresh from the oven.

Altogether, this project was more fun than I initially expected. Now I've got another book with lots of stickies still to cook. And several links to "real" French cookbooks to help me build my collection in that area.

Thanks to Jo at Food Junkie Not Junk Food for hosting this book challenge!

This week in the kitchen V2

Monday/9-May-11: There was a quart of strawberries, so I made a half recipe of Grandmother Katie's Strawberry Preserves. The recipe seemed clear enough when I typed it up years and years and years ago, but when I actually did it, I've got lots of questions. And no one to ask. Don't we miss our grandmothers! Before being jarred, it has to sit in a bowl (at room temp?) for 3 days or more, getting stirred a couple of times a day. Too bad I'm not such a big strawberry jam fan.

Dinner was a quickie, good, if quick—a half recipe of Tonnarelli ai Canestrelli (Tonnarelli with Scallops) (ClassPast, p107), scallops, with De Cecco linguine in this case. An interesting recipe because a part of the scallops were chopped fine. Probably the larger ones could have been quartered. Served with a salad of mâche.

Tuesday/10-May-11: Yogurt on overday. Busy stirring the strawberry preserves periodically as directed.

We had our main meal at lunch today. Started with a Greek-ish zucchini salad (as that was the only veg in the fridge—where did the broccoli go that I thought was there?), steamed zucch slices tossed with olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, and mint and topped with crumbled feta. Served with red lettuce leaves from the garden.

For the main, I roasted a pintade/guinea hen in the Romertopf, salted, with a lemon stuck up its bum, sprinkled with lemon thyme leaves from the garden, and surrounded by carrots and potatoes. Its feet came untucked while it was cooking.

It's so easy to cook a bird or whatever in the Romertopf. I just forget about. It is funny that it actually browns while closed in the dish.

Anticipating that I won't feel much like chewing after surgery on Friday, I've started a bit pot of stock, using the pintade and a chicken carcass from the freezer.

Wednesday/11-May-11 and Thursday/12-May-11: Cloud computing, ha! Blogger's gone and lost two days of updates here! If they're restored, I'll update this. Meanwhile, I'll try to remember what was going. Some things that happened:

• Wednesday evening I made Lime-Pepper Chicken (MC). Served with polenta, and ... a veg, but what veg?
• Using cherries from our tree, I made up the broth for cherry sorbet. Had a senior moment, intending to make a half recipe, but ended up with a whole recipe, using only a (short) half of the sugar.
• Thursday, I jarred up the strawberry preserves; took one to Barbara and David, who provided the berries; the other is for us.
• Dinner was Fava Risotto with Fresh Sage (Uncommon, p185, cookbooker). And a salad. And for dessert ...
• Froze the Cherry Sorbet (Scoop, p127) using cherries from the garden.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/13-May-11: Yay! Didn't have to stay in the hospital overnight! (I had salivary gland stones removed.) Hadn't really planned on dinner, since Ed had planned to eat out during the day, but that didn't happen. Quickly defrosted some Creamy Roasted Carrot Sauce, grated some Parmesan, boiled some spinach penne, and that was our late dinner.

Saturday/14-May-11: Nice healthy chicken noodle soup tonight, well, bird noodle soup. Broth was chicken and guinea hen; meat was turkey; noodles were whole wheat. A big shot of tabasco and it made a tasty soup.

Ed picked a kilo or two of cherries. I'll have to find something more to do with these.

Sunday/15-May-11: Dinner was a quiche/tart thing with broccoli, roquefort, and walnuts, a very nice combination. Then a salad of roquette (rocket or arugula), with a vinaigrette featuring the walnut oil from the nuts we shelled. Then a clafoutis de cerises, (Petit, p898, with touches from others).

Went to the boulanger this afternoon only to find that they're on vacation. Bread in overnight, Authentic French Bread (Magic, p22) the only ATM bread whose recipe I can remember.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, #2 SOUP: yes, #3 MIDDAY: yes
This month: #4 PASTA: yes