FRENCH RECIPES: POT-AU-FEU OR PETITE MARMITE

Published by Saturday, May 23, 2015 Permalink 1

Emmanuel Ménétrier / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

ESCOFFIER’S RECIPE FOR POT-AU-FEU OR PETITE MARMITE

Pot-au-feu and petite marmite in today’s vocabulary are the same thing. Until the nineteenth century, the term pot-au-feu simply referred to a family soup to which was added different ingredients every day, usually with beef and chicken added on Sunday. The regional variations were endless, depending on availability and season and depending on the cook.

In 1829, the French etymology dictionary defined  pot-pourri  as “the name our fathers gave to the pot-au-feu.” In the nineteenth century, the recipe started to take on its modern ingredients of beef, root vegetables and a veal bone, but it still included chicken, which many people, including my French butcher’s wife, leave out these days.

Escoffier, who codified French cuisine in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, set down the recipe in Le Guide Culinaire in 1902, still calling it petite marmite. The regional variations started to disappear, and the recipe has now been simplified by most home cooks to contain only beef, no chicken. Escoffier insisted on the importance of the chicken, but today, one rarely finds a pot-au-feu with mutton, veal, pork, chicken, duck or turkey. The other name, petite marmite, has pretty much gone out of usage.

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Green Leafy Foods Can be Dangerous to Your Health

Published by Saturday, July 20, 2013 Permalink 0

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The Rambling Epicure, Editor, Jonell Galloway, food writer.

Green Leafy Foods Can be Dangerous to Your Health

From the archives

by Jonell Galloway

The Huffington Post says Americans have reason for their eternal, but ever-changing, plate fright. In the US, E. Coli, Salmonella, Norovirus and numerous other bacteria and viruses are found in food more often that we might think.

Peppery pourpier from the Lake Geneva region.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a non-profit, consumer advocacy group, often referred to as the “American food police”, says the leafy greens we are encouraged to eat every day can in fact be the most dangerous of all vegetables. Over the last 20 years, there has been some 363 outbreaks and 13,568 illnesses due to green leafy foods alone.

According to Dr. Steve Swanson of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, lettuce is only second to ground or minced beef in cases of E. Coli. Snopes gives a good explanation of how all this happens, and many suggest that we lay off pre-washed, bagged salads until more is know about exactly how greens are contaminated.

One thing is almost sure: one of the reasons salad is particularly more high risk than other vegetables is that we most often eat it raw. So wash your salad, and then wash it again. Don’t just spray it. Wash it in a basin or sink, and change the water several times.

The other high risk food is eggs, numbering 352 outbreaks in the US in the last 20 years, with 11,163 cases of illness reported.

If we want to make a “top ten” list, the other culprits, in order, are tuna, oysters, potatoes, cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts and berries.

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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.

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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.

 
 
 
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Sicilian Orange and Fennel Salad

Published by Thursday, November 15, 2012 Permalink 0


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Sicilian Orange and Fennel Salad Recipe

by Diana Zahuranec

As fall slips into winter, the open air markets in Turin, Italy push nature’s seasonal fruits and vegetables to make early appearances in the crates and boxes stacked inside each bancarella, or stand. Oranges, grapefruits, and clementines from Calabria and Sicily showed their waxy globes in the middle of October; bitter turnip tops called cime di rapa were available by the end of September; spiky artichokes, still not technically in season, have been around for weeks.

The sweet, crispy finocchio, or fennel, one of my newly-discovered favorites, entered the scene two weeks ago at the beginning of November. Last year’s discovery that I’ve waited impatiently for since the end of September is the sweet, soft kaki vaniglia, the persimmon, which has a designated corner in my refrigerator. These bombs of juicy, fruity sugar are an after dinner treat that could almost replace autumn pies. Almost.

According to the illustrated and finely detailed wheel of seasonal fruits and vegetables that I bought at Eataly, citrus fruits have just begun their yearly cycle in November. I pat myself on the back, since I resisted buying these until a few days ago. There was one mysterious exception in the form of yellow-green skinned citrus fruits, easy to peel and sour-sweet inside. They came from Calabria, and the hulking, big man that sold them ensured me they were sweet and ripe, never mind their greenness. The man who sold them seemed to have been plucked from another time and place, where people can and still do pick oranges in the fields all day for decent wages, the weakening winter sun warm on their backs. His nails were dirty and his accent thick (presumably Calabrian).

Once at a food photographer’s studio in Emilia-Romagna, the chefs and food stylists there prepared a tangy, salty, sweet salad from the South. It had been inspired by the chef’s Sicilian roots. It’s now one of my favorite meals, and I have to wait for these seasonal fruits and vegetables before I can enjoy it. It evokes flavors from a land where the sun shines across fields with rows and rows of citrus trees, bright orbs decorating the branches in a warm Christmastime.

The traditional olives to pair with this are black ones, but I had green, which I might actually prefer. Being the salt queen that I am, a shot of capers hits the spot, but I don’t know how “traditional” that is. Also, blood oranges knock the pretty factor up a notch for this already aesthetically-pleasing plate.

Recipe

Sicilian Orange and Fennel Salad

For 2-4 people (depending on if using as a light lunch or as a side dish)

 

Ingredients

1 large fennel
1 medium orange
¼ red onion, sliced finely (or less)
¼ cup black or green olives, pitted and sliced thinly
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil
Optional: 1-2 Tbsp capers, hot pepper
  1. Slice the fennel in half, and then core each half by cutting out the tough triangular sections at the bottom.
  2. Trim the ends, reserving green fennel leaves for garnish. Trim any bruised parts. Slice finely and set aside. Note: I also slice the very end green stems, because they’re strong in flavor and very crunchy. They may be too astringent for some tastes.
  3. Peel the orange. Setting it on its side, slice it very thinly so that each piece is divided into segments. Keep them as full round slices, or break them into halves or double segments.
  4. Layer the fennel, orange, and onion, then scatter the sliced olives over the top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, and garnish with the fennel leaves. Add a dash of hot pepper and a sprinkling of capers if you so choose.
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Rosa’s Musings: Beet Salad with Cottage Cheese & Soft-boiled Egg

Published by Monday, November 5, 2012 Permalink 0

Rosa’s Musings: Beet Salad with Cottage Cheese & Soft-boiled Egg

by Rosa Mayland

 

Some people are not afraid of the cold and others regard it with utter contempt. Even though I can’t say I savor every season or mid-season of the year, I nonetheless definitely prefer the fresher season as I hate sweating excessively or getting sunburned like a shrimp on a barbie.

Sometimes I wonder if those predispositions are linked to my DNA or whether is it just a personal preference. What if our genes influenced our manner of conducting ourselves and our traits of character? Hmmm, that is quite a difficult question to answer, but I believe that if our health can be defined by our bloodline, then there are chances that our emotions, temperament and identity are also outlined by it.

You see, my father’s ancestors were Swiss mountaineers who might have had Danish or English origins (my family name is NOT Swiss at all). Then, on my my mother’s side they came from the rugged areas of Northern England where Viking settlers made themselves at home and also from European Russia, a place which is known for its dreadful cold.

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Simple Sustenance: In Season and Healthy — Peach and Spinach Salad

Published by Tuesday, September 4, 2012 Permalink 0

by Renu Chhabra

One should eat to live, not live to eat” –Benjamin Franklin

Peaches are synonymous with summer.

California being the largest peach-producing state, we are blessed with an abundance of them. Farmers markets are flooded with these fuzzy yellow beauties. So many of them. Different varieties with vibrant colors. Juicy, sweet, and simply delicious.

Farm-fresh peaches have flavor that can’t be found in supermarket ones. I have tasted a few California varieties that need no explanation. Instead, just close my eyes and bless the soil and the farmers who nurtured them. It’s nature’s bounty at its best.

These peaches are in season from May through September. Baking, grilling, roasting, and poaching are definitely a few ways to enjoy them. But nothing beats the joy of savoring them in their natural form. So, I made a salad with this seasonal fruit and paired it with baby spinach.

Another ingredient that gives this salad a little zing is the peach balsamic vinegar. My culinary find that is absolutely delicious. Drizzle a little on salads, grilled vegetables, toasted baguette, or ciabatta, with or without olive oil. It stands out on its own. Its peachy flavor is the star that shines through.

A few other ingredients that complete this salad are ginger, honey, almonds, raw sesame seeds, and roasted sunflower seeds. Ginger and honey, a classic combination goes well with peaches. Raw sesame seeds and roasted sunflower seeds add earthiness and texture. Finishing with a grind of good sea salt (I used pink salt) and pinch of red pepper flakes complements the sweet peaches and honey. All together it makes it a sweet, salty, and spicy experience.

Recipe

Dressing
 
2 tablespoons peach balsamic or white balsamic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon juice of ginger
1 teaspoon honey or agave
Sea salt to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste (optional)
Salad
2 medium yellow peaches, sliced or diced, your choice
2 handfuls of baby spinach

Garnish

Sliced raw almonds
Raw sesame seeds
Roasted sunflower seeds

  1. Mix all the ingredients for the dressing in a mason jar. Set aside.
  2. In a bowl, gently toss spinach with light dressing.
  3. Place spinach on a serving dish.
  4. Drizzle some dressing on peaches and mix. Serve spinach carefully.
  5. To finish the salad, drizzle a little more dressing and sprinkle sea salt and pepper flakes on top, if needed. Garnish with almonds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds.
  6. Serve immediately.

Note: Use dressing to your taste, but be careful not to drench the spinach with too much of it.

    1. Mix all the ingredients for the dressing in a mason jar. Set aside.
    2. In a bowl, gently toss spinach with light dressing.
    3. Place spinach on a serving dish.
    4. Drizzle some dressing on peaches and mix. Serve spinach carefully.
    5. To finish the salad, drizzle a little more dressing and sprinkle sea salt and pepper flakes on top, if needed. Garnish with almonds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds.
    6. Serve immediately.

    Note: Use dressing to your taste, but be careful not to drench the spinach with too much of it.

    • Simple Sustenance: Summer in a Bowl – Honey-Ginger Papaya Salad

      1. Mix all the ingredients for the dressing in a mason jar. Set aside.
      2. In a bowl, gently toss spinach with light dressing.
      3. Place spinach on a serving dish.
      4. Drizzle some dressing on peaches and mix. Serve spinach carefully.
      5. To finish the salad, drizzle a little more dressing and sprinkle sea salt and pepper flakes on top, if needed. Garnish with almonds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds.
      6. Serve immediately.

      Note: Use dressing to your taste, but be careful not to drench the spinach with too much of it.

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Health Challenge: Getting your vitamin D fix this winter

Published by Monday, October 17, 2011 Permalink 0

by Tamar Chamlian

Vitamin D is of vital importance to our bodies. Most of us know that simple exposure to the sun for up to 10 minutes a day is sufficient for the body to make its own vitamin D.

Now that winter is setting in, if you live in countries that barely see the sun for months on end, you will need to seek other sources of getting your vitamin D.

It’s actually simple and easy. Here are the top three foods that can provide you with Vitamin D, with suggestions on how to use them.

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Switzerland: Watermelon and Fennel Salad Recipe

Published by Thursday, September 8, 2011 Permalink 0

Switzerland: Watermelon and Fennel Salad Recipe

by Jenn Oliver

Until recently, I didn’t know anyone did anything with a watermelon besides just cut it up and eat it. I mean, it’s already completely sweet, juicy, the pure essence of summer. Why mess with the perfection embodied in this pink fruit? The mere sight of a ripe watermelon evokes memories of childhoods past. For me, it evokes images of weeks at girl scout camp, running around outside, carefree, swimming in the lake, making new friends, riding horses…you get the idea.

But why not play, and see just where the flavor of this fruit can go? Have you ever thought about the flavors of this king of summertime snacks and how they would meld with other foods? I certainly hadn’t until Meeta challenged us Plate to Page alumni to photograph watermelon as a fun photography assignment — two photos — one raw, and one in a dish. Yes, a dish. Who puts watermelon in things? Ha, maybe it was time to change my perspective and open my eyes to other possibilities.

Perspective is a funny thing. Sometimes our first impressions have such a profound effect on us that we forget to look for other possibilities right in front of our noses. I think that’s why I like to go for walks and hikes, because all that time away from everything gives my mind space to think and breathe. And sometimes, I even get to get lost and freak out after sitting at a train station for 30 minutes until I figure out that the train only passes through on weekdays…

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Food News Daily: August 30, 2011

Published by Tuesday, August 30, 2011 Permalink 0

Mainstream Anglo Media and Press

Baked Trout With Arugula and Blueberries, Washington Post

Here’s Eating Lunch With You, Kid, New York Times

Cheers! It’s a real ale renaissance: Despite pub closures and a dwindling lager market, record number of microbreweries are opening, The Guardian

10 Best English Cheeses, The Independent

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