Of Buckwheat and Mussels

Well, I said I was going to make menus and this is certainly just that! Five components make this meal a daunting task, but I have to say, it was well worth the time I spent in the kitchen. David Tanis, the author of Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys, spent some time in France, specifically off the coast of mainland Brittany, on the Ile de Brehat. Buckwheat is grown, and ground, here in this area. The French call it ble noir, which is usually translated incorrectly to black wheat, but buckwheat comes from a leafy plant, rather than a grass at all. In this region, chefs use the buckwheat to make galettes, similar to crepes, but usually filled with savory ingredients rather than sweet. Mussels in French cuisine are somewhat like fast food, according to David Tanis. However, if a tourist strays from the regular track, they will find small, local restaurants who prepare their mussels as they are best, a la mariniere, with white wine and just a few aromatics.

The first component of this meal are Buckwheat Galettes with Ham and Cheese. I had a bit of difficulty making these "galettes" without them sticking to my pan. I finally switched to a non-stick pan and used non-stick spray as well, and was able to obtain some sort of results, but this one might take some practice. I managed to get two of them that worked well. The batter for the galettes consists of buckwheat flour, all-purpose flour, eggs, whole milk, salt and some roasted buckwheat groats, ground to a fine powder. After 2 hours in the fridge, the batter was a bit thicker then when it went in. I ladled a small amount of the batter into the well-oiled pan and spread it around, allowing it to brown on one side. With a spatula, I flipped it over and allowed it to brown on the second side as well. Once the galettes were cooked, I used some ham and grated gruyere cheese to layer one half of the galette, and flipped the other side over, like a quesadilla. I allowed them to heat in a 400 degree oven until the cheese was melted and the outsides were crispy.

The next component of this menu is a Mache Salad. I have seen mache rosettes in the grocery store in the past, but I couldn't find any today, so I opted for baby greens with herbs instead. To dress the greens, I used a mixture of diced shallots, sherry vinegar, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, dijon mustard, olive oil, and walnut oil. The salad also had some crumbled hard-boiled egg in it, which was a really nice touch. This was the easiest of the components and the one that I completed first, so that it was done and out of the way.

Now, for the main course in this fabulous menu: Mussels Mariniere, Brittany-Style. In this recipe, butter is melted in a hot pan, and diced onions are added, allowing them to soften in the butter for about 5 minutes. Some salt, pepper, garlic cloves smashed into a paste with some salt, a thyme sprig, a bay leaf and 2 cups of dry white wine are added to the pan, and then the mussels are added as well. After about 10 minutes of allowing the mussels to steam, I threw in a large handful of parsley and mixed everything well. Dinner was finally ready!

While I was making all of the above, I was also working on the last two components of this dish...the dessert components. The Apple Compote was simple to make, and really delicious. I don't usually like applesauce but this was like nothing I've ever tasted before! Using only four ingredients (apples, sugar, a lemon slice, and water) made this a brilliant little gem that I will definitely be making again. The lemon slice really made this dish unique - the bit of tartness among all of the sweet was just pure yumminess.

Finally, I also made some dough for butter cookies! The dough had to sit in the refrigerator for an hour before I could safely slice it for baking, so I did that at the beginning of the process, right after making the galette batter. 2 sticks of butter (they are butter cookies, after all), sugar, egg yolks, salt, vanilla extract and flour made this crumbly cookie dough. I was able to make two logs of dough for the fridge so I saved one for later in the week. I did make about 16 cookies though, and enjoyed one with my apple compote. It was very sweet end to a truly delicious meal! 

Singapore-Style

Last night, I picked up a few lobsters and set to work making the first recipe from a cookbook I've been pretty intimidated by ever since I received it. The book is Gordon Ramsay's Maze, and it really is a beautiful cookbook. It's organized in threes, with three dishes using one main ingredient, before moving on to another. I was intrigued by the recipe for Native Lobster Singapore-Style, and I was right, it was delicious. However, I wish I had gotten softer shelled lobster because when a sauced dish uses lobster still in its shell, it can make for a very messy dinner!

This recipe started off with a little bit of murder...I know, don't judge me. I had my husband do it because it's still a bit difficult for me to do myself. The best way to do it is by using a heavy chef's knife to quickly cut into the natural cross of the lobster's head, and then cut down and slit it in half. It takes a minute for the lobsters to stop twitching and that can be a bit startling, so be prepared. Once they are good and, well, dead, the recipe asked me to cut the tails into pieces, keeping the meat in the shell. The claws needed a good cracking which was quite difficult with these really hard shells. I panfried all the pieces of lobster in a large wok of heated peanut oil. This made for some really succulent lobster meat - I was totally impressed by this technique!

Once the lobsters were pan-fried to perfection, I removed them and set them off to the side while I heated some diced onion, minced garlic and ginger, a chopped red chile and some salt and pepper. After a few minutes, I added bean paste, sweet chili sauce, ketchup and 2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped. After another minute or two, I added some sesame oil and soy sauce, stirred it together and turned the heat down, allowing the mixture to simmer for a couple of minutes. As you can see, the dish comes together quite quickly, so I'm glad I had my sticky rice cooking all this time in the rice cooker.

I poured a cup of stock into the wok, and returned the lobster as well. At this point, the heat gets increased and a mixture of cornstarch and water, as well as a slightly beaten egg are added to finish off the sauce. This will quickly thicken the sauce and give it a velvety texture. Now, let me just say, this recipe concludes with a line "Eat with your fingers..." We did have to do that because of the hardness of the claws, and the need to use a nutcracker to get at the meat but it certainly wasn't a clean process. The sauce was thick and gooey, which was delicious, but I think we went through a roll of paper towels! If I made this again, I would most certainly take the meat out of the claws before adding it back to the wok. Aesthetically, it was a prettier plate with the shells. Logically, not so much.

The third part of this "menu" was supposed to be a Champagne and Raspberry Gratin...but unfortunately, there were no raspberries at the store yesterday. I'll keep my eye out for them because I would like, at some point, to complete this menu. Besides, doesn't that dessert sound decadent?

Sfince! (A Sicilian Dinner : Part 3)

As promised, last night I made the third part of my Sicilian dinner menu. Sfince are fried puffs of dough, and they are magical! The dough is simply butter, water, a tiny bit of sugar and salt and some flour. Once all of that is incorporated in a pan, you pour the hot dough into an electric mixer and add four eggs, one at a time. What you get is a very thick batter, and now it's time to fry!

After heating a pan of oil, I dropped a few spoonfuls of the batter in, and they immediately multiplied in size! They puff up so quickly, but you've got to nurse them for a few minutes until they become golden brown and crispy. (The first batch did not stay in the oil long enough...they were spongy and light in color - I learned my lesson!) Once I'd fried them all up, I drizzled the platter with some warm honey and they were ready to eat! Light, fluffy and crispy all at the same time! My husband had a great idea to drizzle them with some maple syrup too, and that was delicious as well!

This concludes the Sicilian dinner! Up tonight: Native Lobster, Singapore Style!

A Sicilian Dinner : Parts 1 and 2

Tonight, I decided to go with the Sicilan option from the current menu: Sicilian Salad and Pasta "Timballo" with Fresh Ricotta. You may notice that there was a dessert included in the menu, but we were so full after dinner that I decided to save dessert for tomorrow night, and serve it after the leftovers from tonight's meal! Siciliy is a part of Italy, but it might as well be it's own country! Sicily was ruled by many different groups, including the Normans, Arabs, Spanish and French, so their cuisine has influences from many of these conquerors.

The Sicilian Salad is actually something most Sicilians would not think to eat, as they prefer eating their vegetables cooked, but the author of Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys
felt that the mixture of ingredients tasted to him like Sicily itself, and thus, the name of this salad. Thinly sliced fennel and radish, along with scallions, lettuce and arugula is dressed with some lemon juice, smashed garlic and olive oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Before serving, the salad is tossed with orange rounds and torn mint leaves. It is a very refreshing salad, and even my 4-year old niece was asking for more salad with oranges in it! I'm glad we've got leftovers for tomorrow night!

A "timballo" is a classic Sicilian dish, usually made on special occasions. The recipe I used is a very simplified version, as the original is covered with breadcrumbs or pastry and has the image of a birthday cake after it is unmolded. This was a much looser take on the traditional "timballo" but it was delicious. I made some homemade tomato sauce with garlic cloves, yellow onion and fresh tomatoes that I peeled, seeded and chopped. That's a time consuming task but it's worth it for the taste of tomatoes in their prime. To peel a tomato, you want to boil it in water for 2-3 minutes, and then dunk it in ice water, allowing it to cool. The skin will peel away easily from the meat of the tomato. This hint was not included in the recipe, so I'm glad I had that little trick up my sleeve. It makes things much easier!

I decided to add some proscuitto ribbons to my sauce, for a bit more substance. This is a vegetarian dish, as it is written in the book, but I wanted to alter it a little bit to include meat, and proscuitto seemed like a logical solution. Once my sauce was done, I boiled some "calamari rings." The recipe calls for anelli pasta, which are rings but much thinner. The "calamari rings" pasta that I used were thicker, and multi-colored (and flavored - red being tomato, I think, and green being spinach). Once the pasta was cooked, it was to be tossed with some olive oil, salt, pepper and red chili flakes. Half of the tomato sauce is spooned on to the bottom of a baking pan and mixed gently with half a pound of ricotta. I used part-skim ricotta since I was using a large amount of it. The pasta is poured on top and then topped with the rest of the tomato sauce. Spoonfuls of ricotta blot the top of the baking pan, and then Pecorino cheese is sprinkled on top. After 10 minutes in a 350-degree oven, it's ready to serve, so I sprinkled some basil on top and plated each dish. The "timballo" is very hearty and really tasty! Even though five of us were eating dinner, there's still enough left over for dinner tomorrow night, including the Fried Puffs with Honey (Sfince).

So stay tuned for Part 3 of this menu, which will conclude tomorrow evening. It sounds pretty incredible and I'm looking forward to trying them after what I already know is a delicious meal!

One of the Best Dishes in Boston!

We went to Island Creek Oyster Bar to celebrate my husband's birthday last night. Instead of telling you about my entire meal, I really felt it necessary to discuss one particular dish on their menu. This is one of my favorite meals in the city of Boston, and possibly...ever. The award goes to: Lobster Roe Noodles. The dish includes grilled lobster, braised shortribs, chanterelle mushrooms and a bit of pecorino romano cheese to top it all off. Let me tell you about it!

Sorry for the dark image - it was dark in the restaurant!

The noodles, which are fresh pasta noodles with the addition of lobster roe, are a pale orange color, and creamier in texture than other noodles. They almost melt in the mouth. The shortribs are so tender and just fall apart with the fork, while the grilled lobster is tender and succulent. The chanterelle mushrooms add a wonderful earthiness to the dish and the Pecorino adds the perfect amount of saltiness to each bite. The addition of baby cucumbers to the dish was a really great one. There are all these decadent, earthy flavors, and the crunch of a refreshing cucumber pairs nicely.

The first time I had this dish, and I raved about it to our server, he told me that articles were written about this dish, before anybody wrote about the new restaurant, and I can see why. While I normally don't order the same thing twice at a restaurant, I just had to have it again. I have yet to find anything similar on any menu in the area, and I love a unique dish when I find one. Make sure to take a visit to Island Creek Oyster Bar and try out this entree!!! And of course, have some oysters while you're there!

Latin Infused

Tonight, my friends and I are going to the Pitbull and Enrique Iglesias concert. In celebration of Latin-infused music, I thought I'd leave you with the recipe for one of my favorite Latin-infused drinks, and the national drink of Brazil: The Caipirinha!



from Flickr - by MorphixStudio

This drink uses cachaca (sugar cane rum), sugar and limes to make a sweet, refreshing libation.

2 tsp granulated sugar

8 lime wedges

2 1/2 ounces cachaca

Muddle the sugar and lime wedges into a glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes and pour in the cachaca. 

Saude! (Cheers in Portuguese)

A History of Chili

Prime Rib chili, corn pudding with poblanos, and spicy sweet potato chips with blue cheese dip leftovers have overrun my fridge, so we had it again for dinner tonight...and it was just as good as the first time! I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything tasted just as delicious! It's so often that you make something amazing, look forward to leftovers for the next 24 hours and then are stunningly disappointed by the lack of taste and substance left over in your tupperware. I'm so glad this one worked out because I plan on it being lunches for the rest of the week as well! In honor of "chili week" here at my house, I thought I would give a little background on chili as a dish, and where it has come from, as well as what it once was.

In the epilogue to this chapter in Tyler Florence's cookbook, Dinner at My Place, he mentions that this Prime Rib Chili is a Texas-style chili, and Texas-style chili has no beans. He also goes on to explain that Texas-style chili got its start in prisons, where the cooks wanted to try serving something different than bread and water, and so took some cheap cuts of meat, cooked it down until tender with lots of spices, and chili was born. Inmates would rate jails on the quality of their chili, and freed prisoners would even write for the recipe, saying that what they missed most about prison was a great bowl of chili.

Obviously, that's not the first time chili was ever made, but it's where it got it's start in Texas, in the 1860's. Another form of chili that American frontier settlers used was a mixture of dried beef, suet, chili peppers and salt that was formed into large blocks left to dry, that could then be boiled in pots along the trail. I found some really interesting terms in the Wikipedia entry on chili. Apparently, there were women called "chili queens," during the 1880s. These brightly dressed Hispanic women operated around large gathering areas, appearing at dusk to light fires and reheat pre-cooked chili for sale by the bowl to passersby. The first version of a food truck? Maybe! Unfortunately, when the San Antonio health department imposed new sanitation laws that made the "chili queens" adhere to the same laws as indoor restaurants, they disappeared virtually overnight.

from Flickr - by *mewot*

Before World War II, you could find "chili parlors" all over the state, run by families who each claimed to have their own "secret recipe." Dating all the way back to 1904, "chili parlors" were opening outside of Texas, and in fact, as recently as 2005, one of these "chili parlors" is still known to exist on Pine Street in downtown St. Louis.

from Flickr - by armadilo60

The arguments about what ingredients do and don't belong in chili are long and drawn-out but whatever way you like it, it's a hearty meal that warms you on a cold day, fills you up when you are feeling hungry, and makes for great leftovers!