Mediterranean Food Connection: “Cocas à la Frita”, or Sweet Pepper & Tomato Compote Turnovers

Published by Tuesday, August 27, 2013 Permalink 0


Recette de Christophe Certain

This recipe is currently being translated into English.

Les cocas à la frita recette facile en images, chaussons de pâte brisée fourrés d’oignons, tomates et poivrons revenus

Voila ma recette de cocas, testée à de nombreuses reprises, elle est infaillible, même si elle n’est pas traditionnelle.

Ne pas mettre trop de farce (2 C.A.S.) sinon les cocas risquent d’exploser à la cuisson.

Si vous utilisez de la frita, veillez à ce qu’elle ne soit pas trop liquide pour les mêmes raisons. Otez le jus s’il y en a. Le blanc d’oeuf permet de bien stabiliser la fermeture de la pâte à la cuisson, le jaune d’avoir une belle couleur dorée.

La recette traditionnelle de la pâte à coca se compose de 50% farine, 50% saindoux, avec un peu de sel. Comme ça vous pourrez comparer !

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Mediterranean Food Connection: Frita, or Sweet Pepper & Tomato Compote

Published by Wednesday, July 31, 2013 Permalink 0

Mediterranean Food Connection: Frita, or Sweet Pepper & Tomato Compote

Recipe translated from the French and adapted by Jonell Galloway (from the archives)

Original recipe by Christophe Certain

Cliquez ici pour la version française

 

Mediterranean countries each have their own version of sweet pepper and tomato compote. In France, they call it piperade. The Pieds-Noirs — French colonials born in Algeria — call their version of this Mediterranean classic “frita”. Unlike piperade, frita contains no garlic.

Frita is a wonderful thing to have in the fridge, because it can be used in many ways. You can eat it warm as a starter, or cold as a starter. It’s a perfect dish to make ahead for those dinner parties where you’re short on time.

You can also use frita to make bruschetta, or use it as a pizza topping or to make empanadas. If it’s still warm in the pan, you can put eggs on it, cover it and cook over low heat until the eggs are poached.

Algerians often eat frita as a side dish with merguez sausage or grilled meat and fish, such as grilled meat on a skewer or tuna à la plancha.

To make a pizza: Put a layer of frita on a pizza crust. Sprinkle with grated cheese, anchovies in oil and black olives. Bake at 450° to 500° F / 250° C until crust is cooked and well browned.

Recipe

Click here for metric-Imperial recipe conversions.

Ingredients

400 g crushed tomatoes (fresh or canned)
3 red and green bell peppers
3 onions
1 lump of sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Cut onions and peppers into think slices.
  2. Heat olive oil in heavy frying pan. Add onions and peppers.
  3. Cook over low heat until onions start to brown.
  4. Add tomatoes and sugar. Salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft and form a jam-like substance.
  6. Taste. Adjust seasoning if necessary.
Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Spontaneous Cuisine: Lebanese Zucchini Salad Recipe

Published by Tuesday, July 16, 2013 Permalink 0

Spontaneous Cuisine: Lebanese Zucchini Salad Recipe

by Jonell Galloway

Mezze: summer vegetables with a new twist for your picnics

What are summer vegetables for us are year-long vegetables for the Lebanese and Syrians.

Choosing your courgettes or zucchini

Zucchini should be dark green and firm to the touch. Avoid wrinkly-looking courgettes, which are not fresh.

Choose young, small ones. The taste is more delicate and sweeter. Larger older courgettes often have large seeds, and tend to be bitter.

Recipe for mezze-style courgette (zucchini) salad

This is a kid-friendly recipe.

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Wine and Food Pairing: Trofie alle Castagne Pasta with Pesto, Potatoes and Green Beans

Published by Monday, July 15, 2013 Permalink 0


//

Wine and Food Pairing with James Flewellen: Trofie alle Castagne Pasta with Pesto, Potatoes and Green Beans

Trofie alle Castagne with Pesto, Potatoes and Green Bean recipe

Trofie alle Castagne with Pesto, Potatoes and Green Bean

Try a Verdicchio wine from central Italy with this dish. This white wine has a complex, subtle, more vegetal flavour profile, as opposed to bright fruit and floral notes. This herbaceous quality will go very well with the similar flavours found in the green beans, while the acid in the wine will cut through the fats in the cheese and the oil in the pesto leaving your palate refreshed.

English: Bottle of Verdicchio dei Castelli di ...

 

If you like your fruity wines, try a decent Pinot Grigio, whose acid will play a similar role to the Verdicchio. But be warned – many of the mass market Pinot Grigios out there have an overly fruity flavour profile and a touch of sweetness, which won’t complement the pesto as well.

On the red side and staying true to the Italian theme, a lighter red will do the job. You want something savoury on the whole and not overly tannic or alcoholic – which can be hard to find in Italy! A lighter-bodied Chianti Classico could work well, but you may want to have extra Parmesan on hand to round out the tannins!

 

Join James Flewellen and Jonell Galloway at “Celebrate the Chartres Festival of Lights & Autumnal Equinox with a Food & Wine Tasting Masterclass” in France from September 19 to 22, 2013.

 

___________________________

Dr James Flewellen is a biophysicist at the University of Oxford. James learned his trade in taste through the Oxford Blind Wine Tasting Society, of which he was the President from 2010-2012. During his term, he represented Oxford at many international blind tasting competitions – twice winning the prestigious ‘Top Taster’ Award in the annual Varsity blind tasting match against Cambridge University and captaining winning teams in competitions throughout Europe.

One of James’s goals is to clarify the complex and hard-to-navigate world of wine for both novice and experienced tasters. He applies his scientific training to wine education, illuminating concepts of taste, tannin and terroir in an approachable, entertaining manner. James runs wine education courses in Oxford through the Oxford Wine Academy and is completing the WSET Professional Diploma in Wine and Spirits. He is the regular wine writer for The Rambling Epicure and is the founder of The Oxford Wine Blog. He is also currently co-authoring The Concise Guide to Wine and Blind Tasting – a book surveying the wine regions of the world and how to blind taste.

 

 

 

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Mediterranean Food Connection: Zucchini and preserved lemon salad, a recipe by Christophe Certain

Published by Tuesday, July 9, 2013 Permalink 0


Mediterranean Food Connection: Zucchini and preserved lemon salad, a recipe by Christophe Certain

Recipe translated from the French and adapted by Jonell Galloway

This recipe is perfect for Ramadan.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 onions, chopped
4 zucchini / courgettes
1 tablespoon of capers in vinegar
1 preserved lemon (see note I posted here a month or so ago about how to make them), chopped into 3 mm / 1/8” cubes
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil or butter

Equipment

Large, deep frying pan

Instructions

  1. Heat olive oil or butter. Sautée onions.
  2. While onions are cooking, wash zucchini / courgettes. Start by cutting off ends, then cut then slice them into medium-thick slices, leaving the skin on.
  3. When onion is translucent, add zucchini / courgettes. Mix well, but gently.
  4. Let this mixture cook over low heat for about 15 minutes, until the water from zucchini / courgette has evaporated. They should remain crunchy, but if you prefer them soft, just cook them a little longer.
  5. Add capers and chopped lemon.
  6. Leave on burner for a few minutes, gently stirring, so that the zucchini / courgette will absorb the lemon flavor.
  7. This dish can be eaten warm with chicken or fish, for example, or cold, as a salad.

You can view the original recipe in French on Christophe’s website Cuisine Pied Noir.

 
 
 
Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Simple Sustenance: Flavors of the Mediterranean — Parsley, Dill, and Bean Dip with Feta

Published by Wednesday, March 13, 2013 Permalink 0


//


by Renu Chhabra

“Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea.”Pythagoras

IMG_6898

Pass the salt please.

We hear this often while eating meals. I sometimes think what life in the kitchen would be without salt. Nature’s pure offering and staple of any pantry!  It’s one ingredient that can put life in any recipe. Just a pinch of it does wonders. But it’s the right amount of it, according to one’s taste buds that makes a recipe sing….. not too much or too little. Hence the term, “salt to taste.”

Some overly salty feta cheese was the center to make this dip. It was too salty for our taste buds. Really salty. And wasting it seemed unnecessary. To give it a new life, I combined it with a few ingredients on hand. A can of unsalted garbanzo beans worked well to mellow the saltiness of the feta. Parsley added color and freshness, and dill enhanced it with its delicate flavor. Lemon juice and garlic brought all the flavors together.  I finished it with olive oil and a sprinkle of sumac.

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Encylopedia of Pasta

Published by Friday, July 6, 2012 Permalink 0

by Diana Zahuranec

This is too exciting not to share.

I have discovered an entire, legally downloadable Encyclopedia of Pasta by Oretta Zanini de Vita, translated by Maureen B. Fant, with hand-drawn sketches of over 300 traditional types of pasta. A description and production method, origins and with what recipe each kind is used are included for every pasta shape. Plus, there’s a lovely introduction about pasta.

Next to see if it is downloadable on a Kindle.

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

The Rambling Epicure has a baby sister!

Published by Wednesday, September 21, 2011 Permalink 0

The Rambling Epicure has a new baby sister site where you can follow international food news and trends as they happen. It’s rather like a Twitter feed, but with more than 140 characters and photos to liven it up. It’s Jonell’s little blah blah mini-blog.

See you there!

Click here to check it out.

  • Recipe: Roasted Pumpkin Flan, A Recipe from Carmen Gonzalez
  • New York Times: Pop-up Restaurants in London, Up and Coming Chefs Cook in Apartment or Warehouse
  • Recipe: Frita, or Sweet Pepper and Tomato Compote
  • Obese and non-obese have different brain responses to junk food photos, says new study
  • The Atlantic Life on Antibiotic Resistance and the Case for Organic Poultry and Meat
Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Mediterranean Food Connection: Cocas à la Frita

Published by Friday, May 6, 2011 Permalink 0

Recette de Christophe Certain

Click here for English version

Les cocas à la frita recette facile en images, chaussons de pâte brisée fourrés d’oignons, tomates et poivrons revenus

Voilà ma recette de cocas, testée à de nombreuses reprises ; elle est infaillible, même si elle n’est pas traditionnelle.

Ne pas mettre trop de farce (2 C.A.S.) sinon les cocas risquent d’exploser à la cuisson.

Si vous utilisez de la frita, veillez à ce qu’elle ne soit pas trop liquide pour les mêmes raisons. Otez le jus s’il y en a. Le blanc d’oeuf permet de bien stabiliser la fermeture de la pâte à la cuisson, le jaune d’avoir une belle couleur dorée.

La recette traditionnelle de la pâte à coca se compose de 50% farine, 50% saindoux, avec un peu de sel. Comme ça vous pourrez comparer !

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Mediterranean Food Connection: Grilled Peppers, a Classic Mediterranean Dish

Published by Friday, February 11, 2011 Permalink 0

by Christophe Certain

Click here for French version.

Grilled Peppers, à la Grand-mère

This recipe is simple but absolutely delicious. It was passed down to me by my grandmother. When people who’ve never eaten it taste it for the first time, they always ask me what I put in it to give it that incredibly special taste. The answer is: nothing.

Grilled bell peppers have a totally different taste from raw bell peppers; they are sweet and fruity. A chemist might say this is due to the transformation of the starch into sugar during cooking, with undoubtedly a few Maillard reactions thrown in (a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar).

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

UA-21892701-1