Recipe for Community

How to describe the sense of shock the horrible events of this past January here in France provoked in my little neighborhood of Gentilly ?

One street over, just behind my house, police discovered an apartment full of guns, ammunition and rocket launchers that one of the Charlie Hebdo terrorists rented a month before. Someone any one of us could have seen in the street, said a passing hello to, ( we say hello here ! ) even had a morning coffee with at our local cafe across from the train station. 

The sense of our broken community here in Gentilly in the days and months following "les attentats" was saddening. Everyone seemed to have retreated to their own group, whether that be Parisian, Portuguese, American , Italian, Algerian, Roumaine, Columbian, Auvergnat...the barriers were up again. The doors closed. Mother tongue once again separates us.

The majority of my neighbors in the building in front of my house are Algerian. I am known as "the American cook" . Everyone knows my business. They see me trundling off to work with a caddy full of vegetables and whatnot. We say in passing that we'll be sharing recipes come summer for our local get together at the school down the street. That was last year.  

This year on my return from the States this past January, all the shutters,"les volets" were firmly shut. And now only quick hellos where eyes don't meet. 

How did we get here ? I asked myself.  And how do we start our conversation again ?

Well my thing has always been food. Food conversation. Food sharing. It is mv point of departure when diving into the map of a person.

The first time I encountered this here in Europe was on one of my train trips from Rome to Bologna, many, many years ago. The train cars in those days had individual compartments and sat eight, four abreast.

Conversation began somewhat vaguely about the weather, the trip. Somehow the subject became Mortadella (giant sausage from...Bologna). And we were off. I didn't know anything about mortadella but two hours later not only did I know something about mortadella, making mortadella (wow! the idea that someone made such a beast at home ? Thrilling! ) ,  heard the mother's mortadella recipe with pistachios but when I got off the train at Bologna Centrale; I had an invitation to lunch !

So there do occur opportunities here and there to repair this sense of distance and lack of understanding. Sharing a meal is definitely one way of opening a door. The language of cooking and eating?  Something we all have in common !

We watch one another at a market while waiting in line, enter into conversation with the person buying 8 kilos of some green that you've never seen before ...what are you going to make with all that ?  I ask...and so it grows. Positive connections and life experiences built around food, eating, cooking and sharing.  

This weekend, our group here on the plateau of Gentilly will be getting together in the parc near the exit of the RER.We have asked a Roumanian chef from Montreuil to come and make several Roumanian dishes with us : Gulas and Sarmalé. In addition to the eats, we have a Balkan group of dancers and musicians coming.

So begins the possibility of conversation and discovery. New sense of connection and hope.  And dancing! yes there will be dancing!

Pix from our last fete, a bring your own, pot luck kind of affair; this past March.

            

Eye for the Edible : Alłium ( garlic family ) flowers !

We have these here in our community exercise area and walkway which abuts a wild garden. I know the Gentilly gardeners and am sure that this area doesn't get any kind of pesticide. So when I saw one that had blown over after a stormy night, I thought why not? City eats !

Any part of an allium is edible. Flower, stem, root. Onions, garlic, leek, chives...all work. Four colors of flower : vibrant blue, purple, white and yellow too. 

I like them just as they are. No cooking. I can see using them on a delicate filet of sole or with another vegetable like green beans or in a simple green salad. Slightly sweet, these delicate little blossoms offer a gentle onion flavor without overwhelming you. Very, very pretty too. 

These are great late spring, early summer perennials for your garden if you have one to play in ! Very popular with honeybees and other flying fellows. Other beasts don't seem interested. Not even the dreaded slugs ! Although that may be because of the local hedgehogs. Yes ! Lucky me ! I have a visiting family of hedgehogs here !

Alliums grow almost anywhere and in any kind of soil. And they are one of those bulbs that keeps on giving. Like tulips ! 

Yes that's a Romig Pot ! One of her lovely little stoneware ovals with a matte white glaze. Today's lunch ! 

Books We Are Proud Of : Julie Andrieu's Mes Cocottes !

You know what a cocotte is don't you? Sometimes called a dutch -oven, these enameled cast iron pans should be in everyone's kitchen. Preferably in several sizes. I prefer the word "cocotte" ! Cuter by far !

Whether you have a Creuset or a Staub or even one of the more generic brands. These pans last a lifetime and more. They make generous food. Slowly.

Enter Julie Andrieu  and "Mes Cocottes" ( Les Editions Culinaires /Alain Ducasse) 

Lovely Julie Andrieu is a friend to some of France's best known chefs,  a television presenter and cookbook author, she is also an intrepid traveller across the globe, hunting recipes the world over.

She has a nose for the unusual. Knows how to tweak recipes with a just a touch of originality and verve. Sure-fire favorites.that you were copying out, saving, sharing and passing on to friends and family. Ones you knew you were going to make again. And again.

"Mes Cocottes" was our* third book for Julie. It is divided into two sections.The first : classic french recipes revisited by Julie with flair and originality. The second section has recipes with a more world flavor. There isn't a bad recipe in here. Not one.

Our favorites if we had to choose but one or two or three? This is very difficult! But I'd say the Potimarron (Pumpkin Squash) with Spices was one. The Boeuf San Gilloise ( Beef with Onion, Herbs, Black Olives ) was another. See what you think!



Julie Andrieu's Caramelized Pumpkin with Spices

( for six) 

Ingredients: 
1.2 kg ( 2 1/2 lb) of Pumpkin or Kabocha Squash, peeled and de-seeded

1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp Fenugrec  
1 tsp Fennel
1 tsp sesame seed

optional : 1 teaspoon black mustard seed
                1/2  teaspoon cubébé pepper 
fleur de sel ( sea salt crystals)  

2 Tbsp sunflower oil

1 heaping Tbsp raw cane sugar 

Cut the pumpkin into cubes more or less 2 inches square. 
In a large cocotte, gently heat the spices (whole not ground! ) in the oil until they color slightly and start to "pop" . Add the pumpkin, sprinkle the sugar, the salt and toss. Cover and let the pumpkin caramelize over a pretty strong flame for 10 minutes or until a sharp knife enters easily. 

Taste and add a bit of fleur de sel, and black pepper. 

She served this with a roast veal or pork. Tremendouus !



And here was our second favorite : 

Julie Andrieu's Boeuf St Gilloise ( Slow Cooked Beef with Onions, Herbs, Capers and Black Olives from the town of St Gilles in the Camargue )

(for 6 )

Ingredients:

6 slices of approx 2 cm (1 inch) thick entrecote (which is kind of a rib eye steak w/o the bone altho if ya got one in there leave it in there! It only adds to the flavor !! )
3 cloves of garlic
3 onions
12 or so anchovies (don't be afraid of these! They "melt" away and really add something absolutely unidentifiable to the whole thing! Take my word for it! No fishy flavor whatsoever !)
1 little jar of capers
3/4 leaves of swiss chard
15 or so black olives (nice quality!)
1/2 branches of celery
5cl (1 Tbsp) olive oil
10 cl (2 Tbsp) good red wine vinegar

25cl  white wine
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 large bunch of parsley finely chopped
generous helping of fresh thyme ( take the stems out)
3 laurel leaves
2 cloves

1 t coriander seed
fresh oregano /marjoram

The How To Part :

Marinate the beef in the wine and oil overnight in your fridge. The next day, preheat the oven to 150° C.  Peel and finely chop the onions and garlic. In a large bowl combine the onions, garlic, capers, anchovies, black pepper, chopped parsly, thyme, the swiss chard chopped into large pieces and the clove. Don't salt it !

In a large size cocotte ( dutch oven ) make layers of the onions/herbs mixture and the meat (without the juices and marinade) Put several laurel leaves in here and there. Sprinkle the red wine vinegar 'round everything, Now add the juices/marinade. Cover with a bit more water. Put the top on and cook 3 hrs.

DO NOT OPEN EVEN IF THE FIREFIGHTERS ARE AT THE DOOR!

Sprinkle with lightly chopped fresh oregano (marjolaine) and cracked coriander seeds.

Serve in the cocotte, with a bit or red rice from the Camargue (which has a nice nutty texture and flavor)

- As the Editions Alain Ducasse changed hands earlier this year, "Mes Cocottes" can be found for a pittance on Amazon.fr. It is also available as an ebook on itunes. Whatever the format, I really recommend your getting a copy for your kitchen library. Yes, it's in French !

Oh and the cover? Not our doing. Which is why I haven't posted it. The beauty of this book is in it's interior !

- One hungry food stylist on a cold and wet Paris eve.  

*Photographs Rina Nurra, Food Stylist : Lissa Streeter

** our other books for Julie were : Julie Cuisine Le Monde Chez Vous ( Editions Alain Ducasse) and Mes "Mini's" de Julie pour Le Creuset.

Winter Blues Got You Down ? Vegging Out is an Antidote !

So what you need bubbling in your kitchen, is a pot of happily colored veg soup and some parsnip crackers !  Always nice to have a plan as to how to beat the winter grey here in Paris!

Veg soup is the easiest thing. Various veg, peeled and chopped some into chunks : carrots, rutabaga, red cabbage, some just cut in half: cherry tomatoes, and some left in their skin like the cloves of garlic. Few grains of cubébé black pepper, a larger generous sprig of thyme and the stalks of parsley that you might have thrown out, find a home here.

Two onions, browned slowly in a bit of olive oil, all the veg and goodies tossed in on top, water to cover and you are off! I start this out on top of the stove and move it to the oven after it comes to a bubble.  

Slow slow oven : 100° C

To go with my plain jane veg soup, I'm trying out a new recipe for parsnip crackers. This is a variation on making neat and tidy baked parsnip strip chips. Visually, these look much more chaotic!

 

Parsnip Crisps :
2 parsnips
5- 6 juniper berries ground with a mortar and pestle
small bunch of fresh thyme
bit of sea salt
Olive oil

Using the veg peeler, i make quick work of my two parsnips. Some of the strips are nice and neat and others are little shreds. Nothing goes to waste here!

Sprinkle a few drops of olive oil, add the freshly ground juniper berries, salt and thyme and toss as you would a salad.

Spread this in an even layer over a parchment paper covered cookie sheet which goes right in the oven above the pot of veg . Both while away in there for a couple of hours, sweet perfumes filling the entire house..

Take care to turn the pan every so often so that no one corner browns before another.    



I put this on in the morning and serve both at about mid afternoon.

Brightens up any day!

-L

Thank You Brother Victor, Benedictine Monk, Master Vinegar Maker

This is my Mom's neighbor, Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette . a Benedictine monk, living in the Hudson Valley for something like 40 + years. Beautiful portrait of him by Francesco Mastalia.

Originally from Pau, France, Brother Victor moved to New York City in the early sixties. He moved up to the Hudson Valley and built  Our Lady of the Resurrection Monastery *  with his fellow monks.

Benedictine Monks live off what the land provides, what the world offers. There is no retirement, no pension. Their days are spent in prayer and work. Each monastery must provide for itself. These days, while sometimes having student intern and help with care for the animals, Brother Victor is the monastery's only permanent resident.

Brother Victor is also a world renowned cookbook writer. Published in some 14 languages, "From a Monastery Kitchen" is a wonderful collection of his very personal experience with seasonal recipes and life philosophy.  There are fifteen other titles which he has written : Soups, Salads, Spirituality, Christmas meals, special meals... all of which you can order here!

Every summer, the monastery's Vinegar Festival is a larger and larger affair. How he keeps up with all this activity is indeed miraculous and a testament to his connection and participation in his surrounding community. Loved and beloved by all that have crossed his path : neighbors, visitors, festival participants, his good cheer spread far and wide.

The monastery has farm animals: chickens, sheep, goats, a kitchen garden, an up to date  website with all kinds of information relating to life at the monastery, the tenets of the Benedictine brotherhood and last but not least, information on the various types of vinegars produced there.

And oh are these delicious! Some have an apricot, prune or citrus, cherry, a hint of some discrete spice: cinnamon, juniper, ginger, black pepper, lavender, sage, dill, tarragon...It's hard to pick out exactly! Each vinegar is very different.

He shares his vinegar recipe with anyone that asks.  Offers advice when you think something has gone wrong. If it smells good it hasn't ! If it smells bad, it has! Wash up and start over again ! In 10 years of vinegar making, I've never had a problem.

One important element in vinegar making is of course the vinegar "mother". Brother Victor's was brought over many many years ago from another monastery in southern France. The monastery sells jars of vinegar mother of varying sizes for anyone that wants to take up the challenge.

Starting a vinegar is a pretty simple affair. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't mean just taking a glass of wine and dumping that in a vinegar jar. As Jared, a former Brother Victor Intern explains in his terrific website : Jared's Vinegar Blog "that will just give you 'sour wine '" !!!

So how do you make vinegar? First choose your time of year. I start mine after the winter holidays while it's still cool out. No midges about!

Starting out with about four bottles of red wine and a selection of aromatics.

A small piece of licorice root, fresh ginger, cubébé pepper, a piece of cinnamon stick, one tiny clove, a handful of chopped dried turkish apricots, several organic shallots and cloves of garlic, ripe fruit, perhaps some lavender...

All that goes into a large stainless steel pot where it bubbles gently over a low flame for 30 minutes. It sits overnight. Each element giving something to the wine. Believe me, this is already wonderful stuff!

I then strain out these additions. But don't throw away this goody! A nice borscht welcomes these leftovers. So does the interior of a roast chicken.  Adds marvelous flavor.

This lovely, strained elixir goes into the beautiful MomPot Vinegar jar.. She made this for me many years ago. Having a potter mother is a great thing. She saw a glass vinegar jar at a shop here in Paris, down the street from BHV, selling all manner of wine equipment, now sadly long gone.  She bought several handblown glass spigots and started making vinegar jars. I was the lucky recipient of the first one!  

I add the vinegar mother and we are off!

Vinegar "mother" is basically a bacteria that transforms sugars (in wine, fruit juices etc) into vinegar!

It looks something like a skin sitting atop the liquid ( wine, cider, beer even) and as it grows, you will need to push it down under the surface every so often. It is a living thing. And I have no idea why people throw this out or call it "spent".
It is anything but.

I'm adding a new one, fresh from Brother Victor's so that I can offer my ten year old mother this year to some intrepid and courageous reader of this blog !

The vinegar mother needs oxygen so I fold several layers of cheesecloth that sit on top of the jar. No lid.  That allows some air but the summer fruit flies generally leave it alone.
It's not a problem if there are a few that get in there. All part of the process.

The jar  lives under the bathroom sink in what is "a cool dark place". I'm superstitious about putting the jar down in the basement where I store wine. Figure each thing has it's place. And it's easier to check on. I push the floating mother back down under the surface every week or so.

I top it off with any drops of leftover red wine that I have altho have to say, that isn't very often. I've been known to open a bottle of wine just to feed my vinegar. Only organic red wine. You can make vinegar out of just about any "fruit" juice : apple, cherry, pineapple, pear, grape, plum, champagne...

The "juice" ferments for about 1O months. Come Christmas time, I strain off the mother/s and bottle up each years supply, offering it to friends and family. A welcome gift!

Here in France, there are several types of vinegar jar available. In glass, oak, or classic ceramic stoneware, they all work.

The stopper and spigot, are optional. There are glass*, wood, plastic spigots available. But I have to admit, that Mompot spigot seems almost superglued on. I don't have the heart to try and remove it.
I use a ladle to get whatever I use right out the top of the jar. And I suppose I'll just keep getting it out that way.

.

 Now for the offer ! I'm giving away this years vinegar mother to the first person that leaves a comment under this post! I'll send you a little package of vinegar mother anywhere in the world ! 

So feeling like you would like to try making your own vinegar? Leave a comment below !!

I'll reply by e-mail asking you for your postal address. Please don't write your email nor your address in your comment. We will share that information just between us in a more secure fashion!  

-Oolala !! Big drops coming down ! Hail even ! Happy to be toasty and warm inside today!

- Lissa


All the vinegar jar images are from : Etsy ( hand thrown ceramic) , Les Pieds Sous La Table ( oak cask and  traditional ceramic styles from France) , Emile Henry Home : ( colorful ceramic jars). Divertimenti UK  is yet another address selling vinegar jars on this side of the pond.

A large 2 Gallon Glass Mason jar, with or without spigot, is also a good, inexpensive alternative !

*Our Lady of the Resurrection Monastery  : 245 Barmore Road, Lagrangeville, New York

** Glass and rubber stoppers/spigot from Switzerland   

***Handblown glass spigot/rubber stopper from France 

Shops We Love in Paris : Grock Café Furniture

Awhile ago, an agency asked me to source furniture for an ad with traditional French café table and chairs. And while I knew where to get that great garden furniture : Fermob, but the classic bistro/café stuff? Hummmm.

When I first came to Paris some 20 plus years ago, there was a terrific shop near Bastille on rue Ledru Rollin selling used  tables, chairs, signage, odds and ends that one might find in any bistro here in France. I got my first table top there. A grey formica. Loved that place and was very sorry when they sold out to a motorcycle supply shop.

There was another place near Montparnasse that sold very pricy vintage zinc bars and bistro antiques. Guy finally retired maybe ten years ago. So that was out.

And I've read about the marvelous Strada in Lille, a company that sells restored vintage French bistro, café restaurant stuff. But that's Lille. Not exactly next door.

So when Grock Café opened their place near super trendy Merci, the Paris Home and fashion store, I was pretty chuffed!

About a 5-10 minute walk up Boulevard Beaumarchais from Place de la Bastille, this is a shop worthy of a look-see.

 They know what they have. It isn't cheap but it is the real thing. Hand woven chairs like ones seen from St Tropez to Lille !




The bent wood rattan looks like it stepped out of a turn of the century Parisian Brasserie doesn't it? .


That said, there is modern stuff too. But for my money, the traditional models are what make this store special. That and the quality of their workmanship. All made in France!










                           




It's all custom order here at Grock. You choose the table top you want, the base that you want in the color or pattern, using an image or graphic of your choice. This stuff is made to last. Sturdy, it can take a beating. And yes, those tables are heavy !

Same thing with the chairs. You have a huge choice of styles, colors, weaves. Wonderful!















Grock Café 
87, Blvd Beaumarchais
75003 Paris

+33 01 40 05 22 71
email: contact@grock.fr

Closed weekends.  
Open Monday thru Friday 
10AM - 7PM

More good news ? 
The basement filled with "material d'occasion",  
That translated means "used" vintage stuff. 
Significant savings!  

So something a little brighter for this sunny Sunday 
after what seemed like a seemingly endless grey week! 

Paris, in the month of February is not for everyone!  

-L

Forks for the Twenty-first Century

This should be in quotation marks because it isn't me that calls chopsticks "the fork of the twenty-first century" it's my Mom, Romig. 

She may have a point don't you think ? Most of Asia eats with chopsticks. Not India. Not Thailand. but pretty much everywhere else. Wherever Chinese culture has had an influence, they eat with chopsticks. I think there will be more and more of us that will find they like eating with these tools too ! 

Different materials in different cultures. Koreans like smaller, brass (now non oxidizing stainless steel ) chopsticks. Japanese like lacquer ones with fine pointed tips. Chinese chopsticks are longer and have blunt tips. They are probably plastic but could be metal too. That blunt tip is a sure sign that they are of Chinese origin. 

I love the precision of chopsticks. You can pick out individual ingredients. Communal eating eating out of one large platter, which is fun, seems a bit more hygienic. You don't need serving spoons or forks or even knives as everything is cut into more or less bite sized pieces. 

Learning to eat with chopsticks requires a bit of practice.

When I moved to Japan on my tenth birthday ( August ) Mr Miyagawa, the father of the family we were exchanged houses/cars/lives with, said that on New Years Day, we would be invited to a neighborhood celebration. All of the kids would play a game of picking up as many dried peas from a large center plate and transferring them to a smaller plate as they could in a minute's time using their chopsticks. In China, they practice with larger, squishy cotton pompoms. Japan ? Slippery itty bitty things !

He strongly encouraged me to practice this bean transfer daily so as to not to embarrass myself in front of the other kids. All I needed to hear. Quite a competitive little girl, with four months daily practice, I was a wiz at picking up dried beans come Jan 1st!   

I've got a small collection of chopsticks that I use daily. Still practice bean transfer from time to time just for fun. It's no longer a competitive sport in my world thank goodness !

Books We Love : Essential Cuisine: Michel Bras

Essential Cuisine Michel Bras  - Aubrac - Laguiole - France

This is a classic. I think this is the first book on a chef's cuisine that plates everything exclusively on a white background. And not on a round porcelain plate either.

Everything is seen from directly above or at slight 3/4 angle. Each dish is a colorful, exuberant painting crossing from left to right. There is no sense of either the table, nor a plate. Nor really an outside life. In one sense this is the cerebral cooking of an architect or sculptor.

Michel Bras is a visual man. One of those one in a million chefs who's experience in the visual arts (trained as an architect ) precedes his cooking career.    

I remember when this book first came out in the spring of 2002. I thought it was spectacular then and I still do. It was published by a small press in Arles, France :  Le Rouergue. They specialize in wonderfully graphic  contemporary illustrated children's books. I think this was their first offering in the culinary category.

There are two photographers credited ; Christian Palis and Jean-Pierre Trébosc. It seems as if they work as a team, Palis also shooting the reportage/landscapes of the Aubrac area.

Many chefs are guys. Many photographers are guys. Guys like Black. Stainless Steel. Both are dramatic! Rigorous. Masculine. So you would have thought a chef like Michel Bras might have have chosen the black route. But no. White it was ! Luminous. Clean. Modern. 

We are talking pre Adrià's massive El Bulli Book published in 2003. Totally different style. The two books were the two monster sized books from chefs of their decade.

Essential Cuisine : Michel Bras has spawned quite a few "children" . Anne Sophie Pic's The White Book ("Le Livre Blanc") photographed by Mikael Roulier is one. William LeDeuil's beautiful  Ze kitchen galerie : Produits et recettes créatives de William Ledeuil photographed by Eric Laingel is another. Both books go back to the one recipe, one white plate/bowl what have you but I still see a resemblance to the Bras/ images. 

Anyone that hasn't got this in their culinary library, I'd suggest hunting down a copy. Unfortunately now out of print, both the original French edition as well as the English version, are still available. A bit pricey but this is a very special book.  

If someone would want to update this work, the one aspect that I might work on would be how to include real life around these recipes. The Bras restaurant table and landscape outside of the Aubrac are visually extraordinary. I'd like to see the two playing off one another as they do in real life.

So here we have a book published over ten years ago with images that still look viable. Bras's Essential Cuisine still looks good to me. Still inspires me ! Not many books do after 10 years+ time.

Hat's off to you Michel!