Tales of Tuna: Tuna Confit with Sun-Dried Tomatoes,
Tapenade, and Pine Nuts

February 17, 2009 // 1 Comment »

I just made something delicious, and inspired, if I do say so myself. Though it’s true that my cooking is in the vein of the Mediterranean, I find that I oft avoid the clichés of this region, and as such have unwittingly eliminated olives and sun-dried tomatoes from my cuisine. Quelle domage, I know. This happened quite by accident, I’m sure, and my discovery of the offense was as serendipitous as it’s origins unintentioned. You see, I was sent a recipe for Panisse the other day, of which I made a giant batch and have been dining on ever since (panisse is the true term for chickpea fries, another food that has, to my chagrin, become trendy in America.) I studded my panisse dough with black olives, and served it with a tomato & pine nut relish, redolent of garlic. I shall post that recipe, which in fact precedes this one in conception, later. A few days ago I splurged and bought some frozen, wild caught Yellowfin tuna. If you are recoiling from the screen in horror, I am with you in spirit. Frozen meat is a colossal tragedy, frozen fish condemnably so. But, voiyez kind people, I am landlocked, in ze middle of Texas, so one does what one can. Needless to say, the texture of the fish was less than pleasing, and the taste unremarkable. Turned off by this, I ignored the fish for a few days and feasted on the leftover offerings of the restaurant (and yes, even though I declared to my kitchen crush that nothing must transpire between us, he still makes me food constantly. I am developing a roll, and a double chin! I wonder how long I shall remain appealing to him?) This morning, I once again returned to thoughts of tuna, and what to do with my thawed,old, less-than-delicious extravagant expenditure. Confit! Indeed, the French, particularly in the region of Landes, in Southwestern France, have made preserving meats by pre-salting them and then slowly cooking them in fat, in which they are stored, a defining culinary tradition. So, pourquoi pas? I gently poached my tuna in the olive oil I’d retained from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, so that it would infuse it’s flavors into the fish, added a couple slivered garlic cloves, some lemon zest, two handsome sprigs of rosemary, and some chiles. And now, back to what I was saying before: having again recaptured the romance of Mediterranean clichés, I finished the dish with diced sun-dried tomatoes, black olive tapenade, and a sprinkling of pine nuts. C’estait delicieux! What more could a girl ask for?

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Quiche Lorraine

January 29, 2009 // No Comments »

Ingredients:

• 180 g smoked slab bacon, sliced into small lardons
• 100 g Gruyère, grated
• 2 T olive oil
• 3 eggs
• 250 ml cream
• salt, pepper
• nutmeg

Procedure:

1. Refrigerate the bacon prior to cutting, in order to firm it and facilitate slicing. Cut the bacon into thick strips, and then cut the strips into thin lardons, or rectangles.
2. Place the lardons in a small pot of cold water, and bring to a boil. This process removed the excess curing salt from the meat. Drain thoroughly, and then pat dry. Heat 2 T oil in a cast iron pan over medium heat, and then brown the lardons lightly. The idea isn’t at all to caramelize them deeply, just to color them, as the French say.
3. Drain the cooked lardons.
4. Beat the eggs, cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg to form a flan filling.
5. Blind bake quiche crust at 180 degrees Celsius, until the edges are colored but the bottom is still white. Remove the beans and then cook at a little more.
   Beat one egg and brush the interior of the tart with the egg wash. Bake a little more, so that the egg will harden as a sealant, keeping the crust firm under the pressure of the filling.
6. Lay the lardons on the bottom of the quiche, and sprinkle generously with shredded Gruyère.
7. Pour in a very little amount of flan, and sprinkle a small amount of cheese over this.
8. Place the quiche on a baking sheet, to facilitate clean up if it ruptures, and bake for about 20-25 minutes in an 180 Celsius oven.

Posted in The Recipes

A Sweet Idea

January 27, 2009 // No Comments »

Last night, as I contemplated vegetable options for my dinner party, I was overwhelmed by the unmistakable craving for sweet potatoes. It had been a chilly day, overcast and predictive of rain, and by the time evening rolled around my hankering (yes, I use this word. And almost in earnest, too) had built to such a mighty intensity that I spared myself any futile efforts towards other vegetables. I find the almost shocking sweetness of these tubers, as a palatable indication of the complex carbohydrates and dense nutrient profile they offer, to chase away the cold with singular efficiency. Bored with the terribly overdone idea of sweet potatoes roasted with brown sugar or male syrup (of which I am admittedly a fan,) I desired a more savory rendering to accompany my rosemary- marinated pork loin. Sweet potatoes are one of the very few exceptions I make in my culinary life, preferring them cooked in butter than in olive oil. The damages created by holiday feasting in full evidence, however (bursting buttons and split seams, anyone?) I wanted them to be less… excessive. No butter, no sugar. Not wanting to compromise their lushness either, I realized the following: though they aren’t related to potatoes, we treat sweet potatoes in exactly the same way as les pommes de terres. The French are very much in the habit of cooking potatoes in duck or goose fat, and I find this to be the only potato preparation that actually tempts me. So why not? Sweet potatoes tossed in a smidge of duck fat, with salt and pepper. A bit of animal fat, yes, but of the healthful kind (ducks and geese contain an amino acid that we lack, and which therefore makes their fat extremely beneficial to us.) I roasted them as plain medallions, but they’d carry the flavors of either rosemary, thyme, or sage delightfully. If my pork hadn’t been so thoroughly perfumed with rosemary, this is the one I would have chosen.

If you have any leftovers, cube them and toss them into warm quinoa! Add pecans and you have a lovely lunch, add chickpeas and you have a one-pot veggy dinner.

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Quiche Crust

January 24, 2009 // No Comments »

Ingredients, for 1 quiche crust:

• 2oo g flour
• 100 g butter, cold and hard, like certain members of the male gender
• 5 g salt (a pinch)
• 1 egg
• 2 T ice cold water

Procedure:

To Form the Dough:

1. Sift the salt and flour together.
2. Cut the butter into the flour, using either a pastry cutter or your fingertips.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the egg and water, using your fingers to barely mix the ingredients. They won’t really come together. You make that happen by using the “fraisage” technique: grab lumps of the dough, and, using the heel of your hand, drag them across a clean counter, one at a time. Do this just once. The dough will be immediately more supple.
4. Press the two to four bunches of dough fraisé together. They still won’t really come together, which is good. Press the dough firmly into a ball. Wrap in saran wrap and then flatten into a disk.
5. Let the dough rest in the fridge overnight, or store it there for a few days. This dough can be frozen and kept for up to a few weeks, although a fresh batch is always optimal.

To Mold the Quiche:

1. Let the dough warm up a little before use. It will fracture if it’s too cold, and refuse to flake if too warm (room temp is too warm.) You want it barely pliable. Work the dough momentarily through saran wrap. I like to form it back into a ball and flatten it again, in the span of abut 30 seconds. Overworking is your enemy here.
2. Roll out the dough according to galette dough instructions, although you want to leave it about 1/4 thick in this case.
3. Gently roll the dough around your rolling pin, and position over a buttered and chilled quiche ring or tart pan. Use your thumb to gently press the dough into the “corner” between the side and the bottom of your mold, turning the mold all the while with your other hand. The motion should be quick, fluid, and sure. You will learn with practice.
4. Still using your thumb, press the dough gently to the sides of the mold, with an almost imperceptible downward motion. Then, place your thumb atop the mold and press down, rotating the pan. This creates an even lip of crust which is thicker than the bottom. This is the secret to molding an excellent tart crust, which is unfortunately absent from most recipes. The usual specification for “mold the dough into the tart pan” is incredibly vague, I realize, and withholds critical information, leading to tart blunders that forever discourage the home cook. If you’re wondering why my instructions are often novel-esque, it is because I hope to teach the skills of cooking along with providing ingredient quantities.
5. Wrap the molded quiche in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm again, while you deal with the ingredients for the filling.
6. Prick the bottom with a fork a few times, and blind bake at 180 celsius, with beans, until the edges are colored but the bottom is still pale. Beat an egg and brush the interior of the crust with it. Add the filling of your choice, and bake until done, about 20-25 minutes.

The variability of ovens, altitudes, and length of cooking for different filling ingredients prevents me from providing a specific time. But this is good: I have found that since I liberated myself from strict adherence to cooking times, the quality of my baking has improved remarkably. In France, pastry chefs never pay heed to times or even specific temperatures. Most things are baked within the realm of 180 degrees celsius, and cooked for 20-25 minutes. Miraculously, this inclusive frame is effective in baking almost anything to golden brown perfection. The moral of the story here is not to feel beholden to pre-specified requirements; cooking is forgiving, baking a little less so, but with practice it is a science than can become increasingly artistic and personal. Rely on your senses more than anything: you can see when a crust is golden. Removing it before this point just because a recipe says you should is useless, and letting it bake more, to a crisp, is a waste. You will smell doneness, and hear the bubbling of  filling that is ready.

Posted in The Recipes

Wild Mushroom Quiche with Shallots and Chervil

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Ingredients:

For the Mushrooms:

• Wild Mushrooms in Season: 300 g chanterelles, 250 g porcini mushrooms, 300 g black trumpet mushrooms (also known as horn of plenty.) * If wild mushrooms are not in season, substitute 250 gshiitake mushrooms, 250 g cultivated mushrooms, 250 g oyster mushrooms.
• 1 T butter
• 3 T olive oil
• 4 shallot, finely diced
• 1 T chives, chopped
• 1 T chervil, chopped
• salt and pepper

For the Filling:

• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks (this custard requires more egg yolk than others to balance the moisture of the mushrooms.)
• 200 ml crème fraîche
• salt, pepper

Procedure:

1. Sautée the mushrooms is extremely hot oil, to evaporate all their water content. Drain them in a sieve.
2. Sweat the shallots, salted and peppered, in butter.
3. Add the mushrooms to the shallots, and continue to sweat. Taste for seasoning: remember that there is no cheese or bacon in this recipe to add saltiness, so a generous amount of salt is required, particularly as dairy (in the form of eggs and cream here) needs to beseasoned rather aggressively. Add the chopped chervil and chives.
4. Whisk the eggs and cream together. Season gently.
5. Lay the mushrooms on the bottom of the quiche, then pour a small amount of filling on top.
6. Bake 20-25 minutes at 180 celsius.

Posted in The Recipes