To hold you over...

I'm still in the process of moving from place to place, suitcase to suitcase, and soon, country to country. In the meantime, for your comic pleasure:

Thank you, toothpaste for dinner. And I promise, very very soon, new recipes featuring tasty French ingredients.

Creamy Leek & Potato Gratin

This is easy and quick because the potatoes are parboiled, so you don't have to spend an hour constantly checking the oven. It's based on a recipe posted on Bittman's blog, which I really recommend checking out. You can easily make this vegetarian by using veggie stock in place of chicken stock (or vegan by omitting the cream and using veggie stock instead of milk, but I wouldn't recommend it; in fact, I wouldn't recommend being vegan at all).

I made this alongside a roast chicken. We've pretty much perfected the roast chicken, though it was more the result of years of trying various "recipes" before finding the best one (which, as I should have known from the start, is Alice Waters'). But now I am posting this while eating the leftovers (which are actually what's in the photo above-- we forgot to photograph the fresh gratin) alongside Portugese sardines and an arugula salad. I forgot how good sardines and potatoes are together; perhaps I'll make something involving both soon. There are certainly plenty of both (and leeks, too) for very little money in Paris.

You'll need (serves 4-6):

2 enormous leeks, or 4 medium ones

3 medium yukon gold potatoes

1/4c heavy whipping cream

2c milk (lowfat's fine but nonfat's not)

1T chopped fresh thyme

1T butter

1c chicken stock

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Quarter leeks lengthwise and clean them well. Slice thinly. Melt butter in a large pan. Add leeks, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, peel potatoes and slice thinly (not too thinly-- 1/4 inch at most-- you don't want them falling apart). Put in a small saucepan with milk just to cover. Add salt and dried herbs, if you want (we use French cooking salt that has herbs in it). Simmer gently until just tender. Milk has a tendency to boil over, so be careful.

When the leeks are tender, add chicken stock and raise heat. Boil until almost dry, then add cream and stir until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Turn off heat and let sit 1 minute to thicken. Stir in chopped thyme.

Spread 1/2 leek mixture in a baking dish. Using a slotted spatula or spoon, remove potatoes from milk and spread onto leeks. Top with the rest of the leeks. This shouldn't look dry; if it does, add a little of the milk the potatoes cooked in.

Bake until top is golden brown. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Sushi Bowl

This is a tasty, healthy, and very easy to put together lunch. You can buy pickled mackerel from Tokyo Fish, if you live in the East Bay, or any market that sells Japanese or sushi products. This is a great way to use leftover rice but it's great with fresh rice too.

You'll need (serves 1):

2/3c cooked brown rice

1/2 avocado

1/2 filet pickled mackerel

wakame seaweed (soaked in boiling water to reconstitute)

nori seaweed, cut into strips

small piece of ginger, minced

1T soy sauce

1t rice vinegar

1t mirin (sweet cooking wine)

1T Sriracha

1T hoisin sauce

Combine ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar and mirin in a medium bowl. Add rice and stir to coat. Chop wakame seaweed and toss with rice. Top rice with sliced avocado (salted and peppered), sliced mackerel, nori sheets, and a squirt of Sriracha and hoisin.

Chicken and Dumplings

This post was prompted by my sister, who is very upset that I haven't been blogging lately. I've been really busy in the past few months, working, moving, and packing, and getting ready for a year in Paris. While I can't promise regular blogging in the next month, this is definitely a rib-sticking kind of dish that should hold you through January (though I'll do my best to write a few more posts before leaving). Come February, I promise a return to regular posting, and many Parisian-inspired dishes over the next year.

Chicken and Dumplings is a dish popular in the Southern US that originated during the Great Depression. It's cheap, tasty, and the ultimate comfort food: a thick and creamy broth, chewy but fluffy dumplings, the requisite peas, and flavorful mouthfuls of tender chicken in every bite. This version is based on a Cooks Illustrated recipe and has a nice tarragon flavor. For the base stock of the recipe, I used a vegetable-laden homemade broth (chicken carcass, leeks, carrots, celery) that I cooked for about 10 hours until it was very reduced and flavorful. You can use store-bought chicken stock but (need I say) it's not as good.

You'll need (serves 6):

8 chicken thighs (with bones & skin)

2T cooking oil

1/2 stick butter

2 medium leeks, cut lengthwise and then cut into 1-inch pieces

1 large onion, diced

6T flour

1/4c vermouth

4 1/2c chicken broth

1/4c whole milk

1t minced fresh thyme

1c frozen peas

3T minced fresh tarragon

for the dumplings:

2c flour

1T baking powder

1 1/2t kosher salt

1c whole milk

3T reserved chicken fat (you'll get this as you cook)

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil until just smoking. Cook chicken in batches, skin-side down first, until golden brown on both sides. Transfer browned chicken to a plate. When you're done, pour fat into a bowl and set aside. Remove browned skins from chicken, and eat them if you are so inclined.

2. Turn heat down to medium. Melt butter. Add leeks, onions, salt and pepper. Cook about 10 minutes, until soft. Stir in flour and cook until light brown. Deglaze with vermouth, stirring well to combine (it's ok if there are small lumps of flour; they'll go away). Add broth, milk and thyme. Bring to a simmer. Return chicken and any accumulated juices to the pot. Cover and cook 1 hour.

3. Transfer chicken to cutting board. Shred meat with two forks; discard bones and gristle. Return meat to stew and bring back to a simmer.

4. Make the dumplings! This is fun. Stir flour, baking powder, and salt together. Microwave milk and fat until just warm. Stir milk/fat into flour with a spoon until just incorporated and smooth-- don't overstir.

5. Stir peas and tarragon into stew. Drop small lumps of dumpling batter into stew by scooping some up with a spoon, and using another spoon to push batter into pot. You should make a layer of dumplings on the top of the stew; try not to let them touch.

6. Cover stew and cook at a simmer until dumplings have doubled in size, about 10 minutes. Serve!

Katie's Back! Feast

Katie, my partner in complicated cooking crime (see our past feasts: sushi, offal, around-the-world, & summer), is visiting from Scotland, where she's been living for the past year and a half. We designed a meal that highlighted seasonal ingredients, since she's been missing California produce. Unfortunately we were a bit too ambitious; we prepared 8 courses but our guests could only stomach 6. Nixed courses were a salad with arugula, heirloom tomato, avocado, and black radish, and a cheese course pairing Iberico with Bosc & Comice pear and Fuyu persimmon. We did manage to eat the following:

Spanish White Gazpacho with Grapes

Seared Duck Liver with Fig and Rosemary

Bay Scallop Ceviche with Avocado and Smoked Turkish Pepper

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Crispy Calamari, Baby Artichokes, Eggplant

Wild Mushroom & Goat Cheese Puff Pastry

Skirt Steak with Spicy Roasted Pepper Sauce and Savory Chimmichuri

chez johnny jump up

Ridwan made an incredible nine-course meal for John's birthday. I was lucky enough to attend and help out.

Here are some shots of the finished dishes (photos by Mike Seeman):

black truffle souffle

celery remoulade, frisee, crispy duck confit

fried artichoke, capers, lemon-heirloom jam

smoked salmon, baby greens,

matchstick potatoes, creme fraiche

kabocha squash soup, bacon lardon, fried bread

roast beef, yorkshire pudding,

horseradish cream, mustard

whipped delice d'argental, caramelized fig, balsamic syrup

carrot cake

poached pear, candied walnut

Caramelized Steelhead with Sweet & Sour Sauce

This delicious concoction was actually made by the Green Kitchen next door. Briefly marinating the fish in a sugar rub gives it a caramelized crust when you pan-sear it. The sauce is a nice touch.

You'll need:

salmon or steelhead

sugar

1 in ginger

2 cloves garlic

1 serrano pepper

juice of 2 limes

handful cilantro

Rub sugar into fish. Let sit 20 minutes.

In the meantime, combine sauce ingredients in a blender; blend and set aside.

Heat a non-stick skillet and add oil. Place fish in pan (skin side down if you eat the skin; top side down if you don't). Don't move it; let it cook about 5 minutes until the sides are opaque. Flip and cook 1-2 more minutes.

Serve with sauce, jasmine rice, and julienned vegetables.

Savory French Toast Breakfast

This is a nice brunch dish, and could also make a light lunch. Just soak thickly sliced sourdough bread in an egg, milk/sour cream/yogurt, cayenne pepper mixture. Then lightly fry, as you would french toast. Top with heirloom tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil and arugula. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar & olive oil.

Basil Gazpacho

I made this a few weeks ago and, like most of what I've made lately, I took pictures but didn't have time to post. I think gazpacho is the ideal late summer dish. You get to take advantage of sweet, juicy, cheap tomatoes, and you don't even have to turn on the stove!

You'll need (serves 2-3):

about 2lbs ripe tomatoes, cored but not peeled or seeded

1 cucumber, peeled

1 large clove garlic

1 jalapeno

1t Worcestershire sauce

1t tabasco

1t red wine vinegar

1T olive oil

salt & pepper

basil for garnish

In a blender, combine all ingredients except for basil. Blend well. Refrigerate at least an hour. Serve garnished with basil.

Cranberry Beans, Sausage, and Arugula

This is an easy meal with a lot of flavor -- nice meatiness from the sausage, spicy-sweet bite from the peppers and arugula, offset by the creamy cranberry beans. You can eat it like a chili or serve over a grain; we served this over Israeli couscous.

Cook the beans first (we used fresh cranberry beans). In the meantime, brown the sausage; saute onion and garlic, add tomato paste, some cumin and cayenne...

add chopped fresh chilies (we used sweet Jimmy Nardellos and mild habaneros). Add the beans when they're al dente, and cover with chicken broth so the beans cook until creamy and absorb the rest of the flavors.

Just before serving, stir in a few handfuls of baby arugula. Stir just until it wilts. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Gioia Mozzarella

This mozzarella is a revelation. I was never a fan of fresh mozzarella -- I prefer aged, "stinky"cheeses -- but that changed when I first had Burrata, fresh mozzarella with a heavy cream center. However, because of the fresh cream, Burrata has a shelf life of about 48 hours, and is prohibitively expensive. (You can find it featured in our summer feast from a few years ago.) When I discovered Gioia's mozzarella-- not Burrata, but almost as creamy and flavorful-- I ate the entire ball before it made it into the fridge. Then I bought another, and made this salad.

If you live in the LA area, I strongly encourage you to visit Gioia's factory in El Monte. If you live in the Bay Area, Berkeley's Country Cheese on Monterey & Hopkins gets a shipment in every other week.

Ocean Perch in Pastis Vegetable Sauce

Any firm white fish would pair beautifully with this intensely flavorful sauce, made of Pastis (Pernod, Ricard, or any anis-flavored liquor), fresh tomatoes, and sliced carrots, and cooked down until thick and substantial. Served with garlic toasts, this makes a healthy and easy one-pot meal. I served a simple gazpacho as a first course; that recipe to come, soon.

You'll need (serves 4):

4 filets of ocean perch or any firm white fish (even filet of sole would work here, since you don't move the fish around while cooking so it probably won't fall apart)

3 medium leeks, chopped (you should have about 1c chopped leeks)

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 head garlic, crushed and sliced

2 jalapenos, chopped

1 dried chile

a mix of heirloom and cherry tomatoes, totalling about 1c, cut into large chunks

3/4c Ricard, Pastis, Pernod, etc.

1-2c chicken broth or water

1/2t saffron threads dissolved in 2T hot water (optional)

2T tomato paste

4 carrots, sliced

1/4c basil

1 loaf bread

good olive oil

Heat olive oil and saute leeks and onions until translucent. Add garlic and jalapenos, saute until garlic is fragrant. Add tomato paste and stir; cook until slightly caramelized. Add Pastis and bring to a boil; boil until reduced by 2/3 and aroma is no longer alcoholic. Add saffron, dried chile, tomatoes and broth. Reduce heat to low and cook until thick, about 30 minutes. Add carrots and cook another 20 minutes.

In the meantime, slice bread and fry slices until golden in olive oil. Salt and set aside.

10 minutes before serving, salt and pepper fish and lay on top of pan. Cover and steam until fish flakes, about 10 minutes. Serve with olive oil toasts.

Za'atar Salmon Cakes

We often buy too much salmon and have just a bit leftover. Unlike other leftovers, which last up to a week, fish should be eaten within 24-48 hours. I usually flake it in a bowl, add an egg and some breadcrumbs, chopped jalapeno and green onion. This time, I added some za'atar and a bit of feta cheese too. The result, served with a bit of leftover homemade salsa and a tomato-feta salad, was delicious.

Shrimp Ceviche with Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho

This is a great meal to make when it's too hot to cook. The shared ingredients in the ceviche and soup bring them together nicely. If you don't want to use the stove at all, you can make the toasts in a toaster, but they're better fried in olive oil. The combination of ceviche, soup, and toasts is surprisingly substantial.

You'll need (serves 2):

for the gazpacho:

2lbs heirloom tomatoes

1 cucumber

2 cloves garlic

1 jalapeno pepper

small handful cilantro

1t worcesterchire sauce

1t red wine vinegar

a few dashes hot sauce

1 lime

for the ceviche:

1/2lb shrimp, preferably fresh

1 avocado

a dozen or so cherry tomatoes

1 jalapeno

small handful cilantro

2 limes

toasts:

a loaf of bread (we used Rosemary Pugliese)

2 cloves garlic

1/4 olive oil

In a food processor or blender, combine all gazpacho ingredients and blend until smooth. Season generously with salt and pepper. Refrigerate.

Clean shrimp and chop roughly. Place in a small dish and cover with lime juice, salt, pepper and chopped jalapeno. Stir and let sit until shrimp turns opaque. Add tomatoes, avocado and chopped cilantro. Cover and refrigerate.

Heat olive oil in a heavy skillet. Crush garlic and saute in oil until fragrant. Remove cloves when brown. Fry bread until golden on each side.

Serve gazpacho with a dollop of ceviche in center and toasts (and extra ceviche!) on the side.