Food for Food's Sake: Smileyfood in Paris!

I am just back from four days in Paris with my mother and sister. I have found all the cliches about French food to be true: Ubiquitious crepes, croissants, and baguesttes; red wine at every meal, a preponderance of nutella, affected waiters. But especially true is this: Eating is something that is done with purpose in Paris. There is no food-as-fuel multitasking nonsense- I didn't see one to-go container or a styrofoam coffee cup. I call this Food for Food's Sake.


Here's my mom and I enjoying a Kir Royale on the Champs d'Elysses. It's champagne with cassis, a currant liquer. Drinking mid-day was somewhat new to me but I managed to adjust.

This was my dessert at the Louvre cafe: currant sorbet with berries and whipped cream. I'm finding that I am not a fan of rich desserts, and this was a perfect hot-day sweet. My family and I had all run out of steam and just couldn't deal with the lines and seat-searching at the cafeteria. It turned out to be a lovely meal. Below is the chocolate pyramid that my sister ordered. It was light and chocolatey and not at all cloying or over-rich.
What in the world is that fruit on top? We couldn't figure it out.
My mother ordered a rhubarb tart that had a surprisingly strong mojito ice. It was almost too beautiful to eat. Almost.
My sister, ever the carnivore, ordered steak, which came covered in butter. No complaints were heard. Actually, she said very little until her plate was empty.

At the Champs d'Elysses we had a lovely salad that was described on the menu as "Small assortment of vegetables." It was actually a large pile of delicious hearts of palm, carrots, corn, olives, green beans, peppers, corn, and lentils. It was fantastic on the hot, humid day!
There were very few candy bars or packages of candy. Bakeries like this, however, were pretty ubiquitous. The pastries were like little pieces of architecture.

This omelette had the most lovely texture: crunchy, chewy, gooey.
At the same meal, my sister ordered a salad with baked goat cheese. It tasted as good as it looks.

One of the more exciting discoveries was a restaurant called La Table d'Erica. I had read about it in my guidebook and was so sad to find that it was closed. But it did allow for some great photo ops. Here's a close-up:

There's Nothing Better Than a Long Lunch

During the school year, teachers like me are lucky if they get 20 minutes to eat their food. Then there is the challenge of coming home after a long day and trying to cook something remotely interesting.

Which is why during the summer, as often as I can, I let my cooking take an often unnecessarily long time with needlessly complex recipes. My friend Carolyn is coming for lunch today and I've made a Hakurei Turnip Gratin, Bok Choy and Tofu Dumplings, and a Citrus Salad with Star Anise Syrup.

Hakurei Turnip Gratin
Here is the link to the original recipe.

Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in a non-stick 12 inch skillet.

Wash one bunch of white hakurei turnips well, top and tail them, and slice thinly. Layer the slices in the pan. Sprinkle the sliced turnips with 1 teaspoon dry thyme, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper.

Cook for 3 minutes over medium heat, then pour 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup vegetable broth over the top. Cover and cook the turnips over medium heat for 20 minutes. Remove the cover and cook to reduce the liquid. When most of the liquid has reduced (about 5-10 minutes), and the sauce is thickened, add 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese. Serve hot!

Grapefruit with Star Anise Syrup

I am crazy for Star Anise lately. Ever since making Chinese tea eggs, I've been on a real kick. This is grapefruit at its most exotic and delicious. This is a very, very easy summer recipe. The only thing that is time-consuming is getting the grapefruits out of their little casings. Just buckle down, roll up your sleeves, make sure you don't have any paper cuts, and peel 'em. If you don't have grapefruit, this would be great with any fruits. You could even jazz up a fruit salad. I'd use oranges, mango, even banana.

To make the syrup, mix equal parts sugar and water (about 1/4 cup) and add 3-5 pieces of star anise. Cook over medium heat for 5-10 minutes, then let stand as long as you'd like- more time=more anise. Let cool and pour over fruit.

Savory Hamentashen

Every Purim I find myself kind of disappointed by the hamentashen at the Jewish day school where I work. The school orders about 1000 huge, doughy, dry pastries and this year they were filled with chocolate. Not a bad idea, but I really prefer jam. They were delicious when dipped in tea, but after two of them I was so sugared out that I really needed an anecdote. So, I went home and improvised some savory hamentashen. You can invent your own, too- I sauteed onion and garlic in oil and white wine, put in nearly equal parts vegetable and cheese, and added an herb and an egg or two. A formula that works every time.

For the dough, I made a pie crust that my husband found on Cooks Illustrated. It was pretty easy and astoundingly delicious. Please note that the recipe contains vodka. This cooks off, and my husband the alchemist insists that it has something to do with preventing glutinous formation. I don't know what that is, but I don't like the sound of it. Anyway. I, Erica Smiley, will never use store-bought pie crust again. Here's the recipe for this wondrous pie crust. One recipe makes enough for one recipe of one filling.

Fillings:
















Mushroom Parmesan Sage

1 package mushrooms, chopped
olive oil
cooking wine
1/4 cup or so parmesan cheese
3-4 dried sage leaves
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic
Sautee onion and garlic in oil and wine until onions are translucent. Add sage and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms shrink. Remove from heat and let cool. Add parmesan and egg. Nibble.
















Spinach Feta Rosemary

1 package pre-washed spinach
1-2 tsp rosemary
olive oil
cooking wine
2 eggs, beaten lightly
3/4 cup feta, crumbled
1/2 cup chopped onion

Sautee onions and garlic as above. Add rosemary and sautee several minutes. Pile up the spinach and cook until wilted. Let cool and then chop and add cheese and egg.

Coat your hands with flour and flatten small handfuls of dough into patties. Place about a tablespoon of filling in each one and pinch three corners. Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes, until browned.

Beth's Hot Pizza Dip

This post begins one of the most ridiculous series of blog entries I've made so far. Saturday night, we crammed almost 40 people into our little apartment for my husband's 30th birthday feast. He made amazing ribs (he will ghost-write a blog entry later today). All I know is that they involved margarita mix. I worried about not having enough food. Silly. As ridiculous as our food options were (sushi, ribs, toffee, homemade salsa, homemade guacamole, chocolate dipped strawberries, bruschetta), our friends brought dishes that tipped the scales from delicious to magical.

For example, my friend Beth's pizza dip.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
• Scant ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• Scant ½ teaspoon dried parsley
• ¼ teaspoon dried basil
• 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese and/or pizza cheese blend
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup pizza sauce
• 2 tablespoons chopped green bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• 2 ounces pepperoni sausage(or kielbasa), chopped
• 2 tablespoons sliced black olives

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, oregano, parsley, and basil. Spread mixture in the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate, or a shallow microwave-safe dish.
2. Sprinkle all of the Parmesan cheese and ¾ cup of the mozzarella cheese on top of the cream cheese mixture.
3. Spread the pizza sauce over all.
4. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, then top with green pepper, pepperoni and olive slices.
5. Cover, and microwave for 5 minutes, or bake, uncovered, at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Serve hot.

Recommendation: serve with Tostitos Scoops chips

Squashes for my Mom

My mom loves squash of all kinds. She just started following my blog and asked me for my acorn squash recipe. My husband, the aforementioned Gastronomic Masochist, found this recipe. It is amazing and not masochistic at all- quite hedonistic actually if you double the goat cheese in the recipe.

But I digress. When I was a kid I thought it was kind of gross. Now I'm obsessed with it. Here are a couple of my favorite squash recipes: Acorn Squash with Pecans and Goat Cheese, Delicata Squash Quiche, and Squash Souffle.

Acorn Squash with Pecans and Goat Cheese

This is pure bliss, and so visually impressive. It's great with a soup. I can't find the original website, but here's the recipe.

2 acorn squash, halved crosswise and seeded
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2/3 cup pecans, chopped
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 sprigs thyme (or dried is fine)
4 ounces goat cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Halve the squash and scoop out seeds. Brush with butter and salt. Bake 30 minutes upside down on baking sheet.

In a small bowl, combine nuts, syrup, and thyme. Turn squash upright on baking sheet and fill them with the mixture. Slice goat cheese into four equal parts and place on top of mixture. Season with salt and pepper and bake 10 minutes more. Drizzle with more syrup if you want.

Delicata Squash Quiche

You don't necessarily need delicata squash. But we had it in the house after a farmshare and we had no idea what it was, so upon googling it we found this recipe. We have a combination steamer/rice cooker, so this is super easy. I guess it's not a quiche since it has no crust, but it's delicious nonetheless. You cut it into chunks like brownies. But they're not brownies.

Squash Souffle
This is DELICIOUS. I've been told that it tastes like mac and cheese without the pasta, so if you're looking for a gluten-free mac and cheese alternative, try this. If you aren't gluten-free, use panko bread crumbs on top.

Greek Pasta Salad

Eventually, I'll remember to take pictures of the food I post on here so I won't have to look up random google images. Until then...

Greek Pasta Salad
1 box pasta (not spaghetti
4-5 tomatos, chopped
1 tbsp rosemary (double if fresh) or basil
1 jar kalamata olives, de-pitted and chopped
1-2 cups feta (depends how much you like it)
drizzle of olive oil


This is the prettiest salad! Just boil the pasta, let it cool or run cold water over it, and mix it with the chopped ingredients. Drizzle with olive oil and serve!

Eggplant Casserole

Eggplant Casserole:
Facebook Status October 21, 2008

Eggplant casserole is my favorite. I invented this recipe when I was faced with too much eggplant. It's a one-bowl recipe and a crowd-pleaser. It's great with white bean soup and beer bread. The best part is, it's an incredibly flexible recipe. You can add in whatever veggies are in the fridge except probably carrots and potatos, which might cook too slowly and be awkwardly crunchy. I like to use feta cheese because it's low-fat, cheap at the local market, and it doesn't melt and get too gooey, and it adds a really nice mediterranean flavor and saltiness.

Why this is delicious: there's lots of soft, crunchy, salty cheese and veggies between layers of chewy eggplant. You can make it kosher for passover by substituting matza meal for the breadcrumbs, and vegetable substitutions are fine. Just play around with this recipe; anything is good.

1 eggplant
olive oil
1 zucchini, chopped
1 yellow squash, chopped
2-3 tomatos, chopped
chopped olives (optional)
1-2 cups feta
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (you can make these by toasting bread and crumbling it)
Rosemary, basil, oregano to taste (fresh or dry is fine)
salt and pepper to taste

9x13 pan

Spread 1tbsp olive oil over the bottom of the pan. Slice the eggplant thinly and lay half of it across the bottom of the pan. Top with a little more oil and a layer or breadcrumbs. In a separate bowl, mix chopped veggies, cheese, another tsp or so of oil, and herbs and spices. Pour veggie cheese mix over eggplant pan and put another layer of eggplant, oil, and crumbs over it to top it off.

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Spinach and Yogurt Dip

I served this dip on Tuesday night, and again Wednesday morning for leftovers at Rashi with lime tostitos. I adapted this and simplified it from a recipe for Turkish Borani Esfanaj, seen here:

http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/africa/middle-east/persian/borani-esfanaj1.html

The original recipe would have probably been delicious too, but I was in a rush and didn't have time to measure out all the spices! I also put in more yogurt because I like a creamier dip, mint because it was there in the fridge, and feta because I like salt. I think that some olives might also be divine, but then I'd leave out the mint.

Here's how I did it:

1 package frozen spinach
2 cups thick greek yogurt (I used Fage, found at most supermarkets)
1 cup crumbled feta (really really cheap at McKinnon's market in Davis Square)
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice (bottled is ok)
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh mint leaves (in the produce section or in bulk for cheaper at Farmer's Bounty, Davis Square)