Some other peppers and squashes
Hot chili peppers have been
enthusiastically adopted by Asia and the Americas but not by European cuisines,
which accounts for my gastronomic prudence. Although I appreciate not only the
bite but the different flavors of the many existing hot peppers, fresh and
dried, I have never really explored this universe.
I remember a splendid dinner at Mark
Miller’s Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe quite a few years back, after which I
immediately bought his recipe book. (1)
Unfortunately, these dishes were not really appreciated by our usual
guests at the time and quickly fell out of favor in our domestic production.
This could be revived, at least during our stays in the US where needed
ingredients are much easier to find and where this cuisine can now be
considered just a sophisticated version of the mainstream food culture.
With its bright orange red color,
its sweetness, its slight chestnut taste, and its characteristic French name, Potimarron became a sensation in France
a few years back, in top restaurants and local markets. Marketing success
demanded that its origins remain mysterious as long as possible. To this day,
French amateurs would not believe that it belongs to the colorful Japanese
Kabocha family of squashes.
Whatever its origins, this very
versatile squash easily beats all competitors in the kitchen area. It needs no
peeling, just eliminating seeds. Try slicing it with a cleaver in
croissant-shaped ¼ inch thick pieces that you will sauté in olive oil,
stir-frying them under constant supervision, covering after a few minutes. You
may speed up the process by adding water at this stage.
Stop cooking as soon as possible, so
that you can maintain the color and some faint crunchiness.
Salt and pepper to taste. What herb
should we add now? It should be bright green for contrast, not too strongly
flavored, a little bitter, as rare as kuri itself. What about chervil?
Recently, we saw new fruit hanging
down from our backyard palm tree. Upon closer inspection, we saw the fruit was
attached to a vine, coming from a volunteer plant in our neighbor’s garden.
They looked like giant green pears, crossed by deep ridges like the wrinkles of
some ancient grandfather. This is how we
started cooking the chayote, also called christophine and even chouchou in
Brazil or Mauritius. You just need to peel and carve out the inside. You can
then use it sautéed, baked, or even raw in salads if the fruit is young.
Apparently, many other parts of this plant are also edible.
Onion, Shallot, Garlic,
Chives, Leeks.
All of these belong to the same
pungent family of strong-smelling plants that Zen Buddhist monks, and maybe
other Buddhists as well, have removed from their diet for their supposed impact
on senses and desires.
Not being Buddhist, I enjoy all of
them without restrictions. Actually, my own experience is that frying onions is
recommended for any home-maker who wants to make his or her spouse feel
welcomed at home (setting the table is another technique which goes a long
way).
I need to comment on the use of
sweet onions. I have discovered their taste and their virtues in the south of
France where the large and flat “Onion de Lézignan-la-Cèbe,” available only
between June and September, has reached star status. Now, I use sweet onions,
either raw or cooked, whenever onion is called for.
In the US, I use the so-called Mayan
or Peruvian onion, which I generally mention in my recipes. Most recipes where
the sweet taste is not critical can be accommodated with any other onion type.
(2)
This mix, inspired from the Moroccan
onion and raisin T’faya, can be used not only as a side dish for couscous and
Mediterranean dishes, but as a chutney for all kinds of meat and fish dishes.
You will need:
×
1 ½ cup
of chopped onions
×
½ cup of blanched,
skinned roasted almonds
×
½ cup of
diced dried apricots
×
½ tsp.
cinnamon
×
1 tsp.
orange flower water
×
Salt and
pepper
Blanch and skin the almonds.
Parch the almonds in a pan on medium
heat until golden and set aside.
Brown the onions with salt in some
olive oil.
When golden, add the dried apricots
and the cinnamon.
Chop the almonds coarsely and add
them on.
Let the mixture simmer for 10
minutes.
Salt and pepper to taste.
These are simply onions sautéed
until golden with a good dose of curry added. This preparation makes the
simplest of chutneys.
These onions can be used in salads,
but their best use may be sautéed and melted as a first step for many cream and
butter sauces: The French beurre blanc used to flavor some fish as well as a
simple shallot butter spread over a rare grilled steak.
Garlic has always benefited from a
reputation affording many health benefits which, in modern controlled studies,
are proving not so easy to confirm. Although Gilroy in California presents
itself in typical subdued fashion as the “Garlic Capital of the World,” China
is the largest producer on earth, growing 4 times more than the next 10
producers combined. From experience, I would suspect that they probably eat
most of it.
I liked garlic without restrictions
when I was younger, but I have now become more of an elitist. I still like it
but in smaller doses, preferably raw or stewed, when it imparts its flavor
without overpowering: I want so much to appreciate everything in a dish that,
for me, garlic is best when it is perceived faintly as a modest contribution.
This is the mildest family member.
Compared to others, it needs to be cooked to express itself. Happily it can be
cooked fast so that it gains in flavor while maintaining its green freshness.
For recipes using leeks, see Soups, Salads, Appetizers, and Pasta. I will add 2
pieces of practical advice.
1. They can reach enormous sizes in the U.S. and you
should pick medium sized ones, about ¾ inch in diameter.
2. They can seem hard to clean with sand lost between the
green parts of their leaves. My method is to lay them on a board and cut them
lengthwise starting about 4 inches from the root, and cut them again the same
way after a ¼ turn. Rub between your hands under running water. All the sand
will come out. Trim the root part and the top of green leaves, which are too
coarse for eating.
The following vegetables belong to
different plant families and I have chosen to treat them in the end of the
Vegetable section. Most are not as popular as carrots and tomatoes. However,
they are among the most flavorful and sophisticated of all.
Spinach is good raw and cooked.
Fresh new spinach whose leaves are tender is even better. Cooking should be
limited to a few minutes of melting in a covered pan, with butter or olive oil
according to the end flavor you want to achieve. Beet leaves can also be
prepared the same way.
Spinach leaves can be sandy. Clean
them thoroughly and just cut the end of the stems, close to the roots.
Place them in a frying pan with some
of the fat you have chosen, for example a tbsp. of olive oil.
Salt and set the burner on medium
heat.
Cover with a lid, but stir from time
to time. The water left on the leaves after cleaning will be enough to steam
them.
2 minutes should be enough for the
spinach to be cooked, with gleaming dark green leaves and lighter shaded stems.
Beautiful! You can now transfer them
to a plate and finish the preparation in 2 possible ways, indicated below.
Parch (Roast) a few pine nuts in the
pan you have been using for the spinach until golden.
Add the spinach and a bit of olive
oil
Salt and pepper to taste. Stir
quickly and serve.
This will go well with most
Mediterranean fish or meat preparations, a baked fish for example.
Keep the spinach in the pan away
from the burner, add a bit of whipping cream, enough to create veins of white
in the green spinach.
Put it back on the heat for one
minute until warm enough.
Salt and pepper to taste.
This is an ideal accompaniment for a
roasted guinea hen or any cream-based chicken dish.
Cucumbers originate in India. On
their way to Western Europe and then to the rest of the world, they were
apparently adopted by Greeks for their salads. These ubiquitous Greek salads
can chase even well-intentioned tourists away from the country, the same way
daily full English breakfasts can turn you off of eggs for the rest of your
life.
People either love or hate
cucumbers, finding them watery, bitter or not digestible. These strong
reactions have been associated to some genetic differences (in people, not
cucumbers). However, even cucumber
haters can change their mind forever when confronted by well-prepared glazed
cucumbers.
In this preparation, cucumbers are
peeled, the seeds removed, and the cucumbers cooked in water and glazed (Same
process as for Glazed Carrots). I still remember with emotion the dinner and
place where I tasted these dazzling cucumbers for the first time. It was before
the advent of freeways, in one of these emblematic gastronomic restaurants distributed along the N7, the
road between Paris and Nice, the N7, like so many sacred stopovers. I also
remember the officiants, I mean the adorable waiters and maître d’, far beyond
retirement age, eager to uphold their restaurant reputation and make this meal
the experience of a lifetime for us. They succeeded.
Peel the cucumbers and cut in two
lengthwise.
Take the seeds out by running a
spoon through the middle several times.
You can then cut them again lengthwise
in 2 or 3, according to the cucumber size.
Cut in pieces 1 ½ inch long (Carve
them if you want - See Glazed Carrots for the process).
Place cucumber pieces in one layer
in a frying pan,
Pour water until it reaches the top
of the pieces, add some salt, butter, and cook them on medium heat until the
water is almost evaporated, normally about 20 minutes later. Check that they
are practically cooked.
Add some cream (crème fraîche or
heavy whipping cream) and bring to a boil until the cream thickens.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Add the herb of your choice. The one
outstanding complement for this dish is chervil.
Serve with guinea hen or squab.
Shoots of the asparagus plant are
consumed the world over in two forms, green and white.
White plump asparagus is available
in May and June in Northwestern Europe. Rightly considered a delicacy in France
and many other countries, it is the object of a real cult in Germany where road
stands propose it freshly picked and restaurants display entire 3 or 4 course
menus entirely devoted to the beloved Spargel. It is the best time of the year
to visit Germany.
Elsewhere in the world, the thin
green asparagus is the norm. This asparagus has seen the light of day, hence
its green chlorophyll color. It is a little bit more rustic, and to my taste
slightly more bitter.
Although they can be roasted and
cooked with butter or cream, white asparagus spears are generally steamed and
served with a vinaigrette, or béarnaise sauce. In a way, this seems quite a
vulgar treatment for such a delicacy, but you could also argue that this allows
you to experience the actual taste of asparagus, rather than some hazardous
transformation.
Clean the asparagus spears and peel
them, except the fragile tip which does not need it. White asparagus can break
easily and needs tender handling.
Get rid of the fibrous bottom part
by cutting it off or, even better, breaking it. Just gently bend the asparagus
on the bottom’s side with all your fingertips (2 hands). You will feel a
natural breaking point. Apply more pressure and the asparagus will break
naturally.
Steam them for 12 to 15 minutes,
probing the cooking progress with a fork.
Serve with a vinaigrette or a cream
sauce made in a bain-marie with one cup of cream and 2 egg yolks. Sprinkle with
your favorite herb… chervil, lemon thyme, sage, etc. You could also directly
flavor the sauce with bay leaf. Take the leaves out before serving to keep your
guests guessing for a while.
Boiling asparagus instead of
steaming it can allow you to make a reduction of the cooking water and start a
tasty sauce, but I find this process far too long for the expected result. A
reduction of white wine poured on sautéed shallots will be much more
effective.
Green asparagus can be steamed, like
its white cousin, but can also be sautéed or stir-fried. With these latter
methods, you can maintain a desirable level of crunchiness and you can
associate the asparagus with milder vegetables to your overall satisfaction.
The modus operandi is quite simple.
Clean the asparagus stems and trim
their stringy bottom by ½ to 1 inch. No peeling is needed.
Start sautéing in olive oil.
The tip of the asparagus will always
cook faster than the bottom. If you do not plan to display entire asparagus in
the plates, you can cut each stem into 3 or 4 parts and incorporate them in the
pan progressively, starting with the thicker bottoms that take longer to cook
and finishing with the tips.
The whole sautéing process should
take 5 to 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve as a crunchy side dish.
There are many kinds of artichokes
vying for your attention.
The artichoke plant arrived in
Europe from the south through Italy and this country is still the largest
producer in the world. Italians have also developed many culinary variations,
the most outlandish being the Roman Carciofo alla Giudia, where the whole artichoke, heart and leaves, is deep
fried in olive oil and offers a great study in flavor and texture contrasts,
surpassing even the most successful frite.
Needless to say, I tried to replicate it in my kitchen on my return from Italy,
but with only limited success.
For that reason, I propose a delicious
alternative recipe which uses small fresh artichokes. The fresher, the better
of course. If you already know the artichoke anatomy, the only difficulty is in
the preparation before cooking which necessitates a sharp knife, good skills,
and must be sped up as much as possible to avoid browning from oxygen on the
cut surfaces. A simple way to avoid browning is to throw the cut artichoke
pieces in a bowl of cold water with the juice of one lemon added. The
artichoke’s taste is not distorted in that process.
For each artichoke:
Cut off the stem 1 inch under the
artichoke heart.
Break each leaf above their fleshy
bottom part until you reach the inside purplish white leaves. Cut off the non
fleshy leaves away from the fleshy part: the safe way to do that is to cut the
artichoke in 2 crosswise.
Cut the artichoke lengthwise in 2 and
then 2 again.
Carve out the choke from the
heart.
Once your artichoke quarters are ready,
select a large frying pan and put in on a high heat burner with a ribbon of
olive oil. You can then stir-fry your artichokes, making sure they are browned
on all sides. Salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
Artichokes can play funny games with our
palate, distorting the flavor of other foods, sometimes making them sweeter
than they are. This is probably why I love them so much, as a side dish
accompanying roasts and other, sweeter vegetables.
Belgian endives (Cichorium intybus),
also called French endives, are these white salads grown entirely away from
sunlight. Their bitterness is quite seductive when they are eaten raw in a
salad, but even more so when they are cooked. Actually, the cooking process I
favor uses a kind of sautéing in a covered frying pan so that the endive both
caramelizes and cooks in its own steam. Ginger compensates for the endive’s
bitterness.
Cut each endive in 2 lengthwise and
carve out the harder inner part of the stem at the bottom.
Place them in a frying pan on medium
heat over chopped ginger with a ribbon of olive oil and start browning them.
The trick is to manage the lid of
the pan so that they caramelize and cook at the same time.
Turn them over once or twice.
Sal, pepper to taste, and serve.
Fennel grows in the wild, including
in the US where it can be found along roads or beaches. Every year, the plant
revives and starts to grow, similar first to dill, except that it grows high
stalks which eventually support flower heads. The tiny flowers become fruit
around August when they can be picked and dried at home. These are the fennel
“seeds” that you can find in supermarkets. Seeds and leaves are widely used
around the Mediterranean, traditionally associated with baked and grilled fish.
Many people would be reluctant to
pick their own seeds as this plant somewhat resembles the hemlock that killed
Socrates (actually, Socrates would have said “Hemlock does not kill people,
people kill people”).
Fortunately, we have good news: this
very aromatic plant can also be found fresh as fragrant fresh bulbs, coming
from a cultivar called Florence fennel, and also “anise” in the US. These bulbs
can be finely minced and eaten raw in salads (with mustard and lemon). They can
also be cooked.
In the US, these are sold with their
stalks, which helps keep them fresh on vegetables stalls.
Cut the stalks away one inch and a
half from the bulb (they could actually be used for other flavoring purposes)
and trim the bottom.
Take out the outer leaf of the bulb
if it is blemished.
Cut the bulb in 2 lengthwise.
Place the flat side of these halves
in a frying pan on low/medium heat with a ribbon of olive oil. Cover.
The fennel should cook in its own
steam and caramelize somewhat at the same time.
Check how it is doing from time to
time. It should be cooked after 25 minutes.
Salt, pepper to taste, and serve.
If mushrooms could talk, they would
certainly object to being part of a Vegetable section. But they cannot walk or
swim either, and that is probably why they ended up here. Deprived of
chlorophyll, they take their nutrients from a variety of sources, slowly
building up their structure until a good rain fills them up and they grow
overnight to our perennial amazement.
Humans seem to relish mushrooms and
not only because of their growth pattern. They taste “meaty” because they have,
beyond their own specific flavors, a lot of “taste enhancers” providing what we
qualify as umami. (3) But like many good things, mushrooms have their dangers.
Many species are poisonous, which may add to their attraction, at least for
many foolish people. (4)
Let’s now take the opportunity to
pay homage to all the unsung explorers who gave their life probing mushrooms,
so that we know today, more or less, which ones are deadly and which are not.
Wild mushrooms are considered the
best. Looking for them yourself in the forest is a primeval pleasure, but you
have to know well how to select them if you want to live till the next meal.
Fortunately, we can find some of them regularly now in some markets in the US,
in fall and winter, alongside the cultivated ones: brown and white common mushrooms
(Champignon de Paris), oyster and shiitake, for example.
I propose a simple way to prepare
most mushrooms: Clean them, slice them, and sauté them in olive oil.
You can do most of the cleaning with
a paper towel but, contrary to many pronouncements, you can also use some water
if needed. In all cases, start cooking them immediately after handling them.
Mushrooms are all water and will start giving it off as soon as they are
heated. Like for many products, cooking is about managing heat for the desired
result. You may want the intense flavor of well cooked, almost dried mushrooms
or the meaty chewiness of half cooked ones. I vote for the chewy side myself
most of the time. This means high heat for a shorter time. You can watch the
mushrooms giving off their water and that water evaporating. This is a sign
they are ready. Salt, pepper, enjoy.
A good side dish is a mix of
different mushrooms of the day, for example common mushrooms, oyster,
chanterelle and black trumpets. Cook each one individually to your taste and
mix them in the end. Enjoy the satisfaction of going from one to the other when
tasting.
Another asset: This preparation can
be saved for a few days in a tight container in the refrigerator and simply
reheated in a frying pan. And it can flavor nicely your next batch of
spaghetti.
Like so many delicacies, the French
cèpe (Boletus Edulis) is known in the US by its Italian name. Sigh… It does
offer an exceptional flavor, either fresh, preserved or dried, which has
contributed to its mythical status, just below the truffle and the morel. Its
design, with a fat stem and a two-tone cap, is the archetypical mushroom shape.
The traditional French way to
prepare fresh cèpes is to cook them
slowly until they nearly melt away and then cover the mess with a large amount
of minced garlic and parsley.
Needless to say, I want to taste
them and I do not subscribe to this school of thought. My personal way to
prepare them is to cut them in ¼ inch thick slices and sauté them quickly, so
they stay firm and meaty. If you eat them as an accompaniment, season them
according to the desired effect. If they stand alone, just sprinkle some fresh
thyme, chopped oregano or sage.
(1) For anyone eager to be charmed by Southwestern and
Mexican flavors, this book is a must buy
(2) Of course, only in the US can you safely equate Mayan
and Peru.
(3) See Harold McGee’s book, On Food and Cooking, for
no-nonsense additional information.
Even the largely used shiitake mushroom can provoke skin rashes if not
cooked enough
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