The Tomato Knife

Even the day after, I’m still enamored with this dip and can’t keep from smothering crispy flat breads with it.

I was at the library yesterday, around 4pm, trying to get some research done and couldn’t stop thinking about how hungry I was. It’s obvious, one shouldn’t go to the library hungry - especially when one is looking at books about food. By 5pm, I was out the library doors, heading to the nearest natural food store: for almond butter and hot sauce. I’d finally decided to try out this dip idea I’d had for way too long (a year’s long for one of those “I’ll-get-to-it-one-of-these-days” recipes, isn’t it?).

What I like about this dip/spread is that is tastes almost creamy, but has no dairy in it. Instead, it has protein and calcium from almonds. I feel like this makes the savory taste of the roasted red peppers stand out even more.

Shopping List

2 large red bell peppers

4 tablespoons almond butter (without sugar)

1 clove garlic (minced)

Several dashes of hot pepper sauce

Salt and pepper

Recipe:

1. Cut the red peppers into pieces and bake with a bit of olive oil at 210C/410F. Cook until completely soft and blackening at the edges.

2. In a blender, mix the roasted peppers with the other ingredients. Add hot sauce, salt and pepper to your taste.

3. Refrigerate for about half an hour.

That’s all, really.

Tags: appetizers, vegetables

Lemon bars are one of my very favorite desserts – they always have been. When I was a teenager, my mom, sister, brother, and I would trek down to Albuquerque for violin lessons – that’s an hour from Santa Fe (where we lived) and thus shows pure dedication. Now that I’m thinking about it, though, I wonder if the dedication was really for the violin lessons… or for the lemon bars. More often than not, we would stop to have lunch at Savory Fair Café and Bakery (which I’m delighted to discover still exists 15 years later). I would always order the exact same thing – a combination plate with a colorful vegetable terrine, goat cheese and cornichons (just like in France)… and a lemon bar for dessert. I remember it being absolute heaven – moist, tangy and buttery.

The next time I tasted lemon bars as good as these, was six years ago in California. I was playing bride’s maid in a friend’s wedding, and was thus a lucky witness to all that goes on behind the scenes in the days before such a big event. There were many things to be done – pick up the dress and hide it away, cut out place cards, catch up on old memories, stack cumbersome boxes as UPS dropped them off, find thread to stitch girls into their dresses… you get the idea. In order to keep us going, we ladies required regular nibbles – including the Maid of Honor’s lemon bars (homemade from freshly picked Meyer lemons).

I kept the recipe and made it many times – with success! They always turned out because I followed the directions. Problems arose, however, when I got a scale and began weighing ingredients (like butter) in grams. Despite careful calculations, my lemon bars were no longer turning out the way I wanted – something had gotten lost in translation.

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Tags: dessert, santa fe

I’ve been on hiatus for way too long – doing everything but writing blog posts. I’m looking back at my date book: it’s all marked up with blue, red, black – even some purple to keep different going-ons in order. Can I blame it on springtime in Paris? The weather is not condusive to being good (i.e going home and doing what I’m supposed to be doing), nor are all the activities and other diversions around town. Among the most memorable readings I’ve attended recently are those of Amy Tan and Nicole Krauss, at Village Voice Bookshop. Both are authors I’ve admired for years and am glad to have heard speak. Sébastien and I also checked out the Musée des arts et métiers, where we saw a demonstration of the Foucault pendulum. We’d already seen the one displayed at the Panthéon, but it’s always impressive to watch a device made to demonstrate the rotation of the earth. I also spent a couple weeks in Bordeaux with family where we discovered laundry soap made from ashes. Yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking – how do ashes clean clothes? Shouldn’t it be the opposite? It’s not only environmentally friendly, it actually works – really well! Check out the 100% Gironde website for more info. Honestly, I swear by it now.

I’ve also been on the hunt for the best brunch in Paris. Being American, I grew up eating Sunday brunch, so I’m glad to see it’s now becoming popular in France. One big difference: restaurants in Paris often serve a fixed brunch menu with a more than ample combination of eggs, meats, pancakes or french toast, fruit, yogurt, cheeses, cakes, breads, coffee, juice – even wine! I don’t know about New York, but in New Mexico, we usually choose à la carte. I’d order eggs Benedict or pancakes, for example – not both at the same time. I also don’t remember ever paying more than about 15 dollars, max. In Paris, breakfast is reasonable, but brunch is more expensive. On average, it seems to run from 20 to 30 euros. Oh yeah, another difference: the fried eggs in France are only cooked on one side and are… can I say… slimy? There’s no “over medium”, so I opt for scrambled. This said, I really enjoy brunch in Paris and am certainly having fun putting restaurants to the test:

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Tags: restaurants

I’ll keep this simple: GROM. Best gelato in Paris. Natural. Organic. Taste the ingredients, not the sugar. Two scoops: espresso and salted butter caramel with a dollop of fresh (real, real) whipped cream.

81, rue de Seine (at Odéon). Go there.

And check out the inspiration:

Slow Food Movement

to justify eating more Grom.

Tags: ice cream, restaurants

I’ve been shunning exact measurements recently.

With all that’s going on in the world, I seem to find refuge in the simple flow of following ingredients into their recipe – I say “their recipe” because I’ve just been letting them take over. Maybe this is a bit off the wall, but I almost feel like a writer when I’m cooking, and my vegetables are my characters. Any novelist will tell you the characters they create eventually take over the story, lead it wherever they please. I feel like cooking is exactly the same. Yes, I usually rely on recipes (at least to start with) when I attempt baking – I imagine this particular arena filled with a basket of already-tried and tested proofs that are hard for me to compete with. Anything else, though, is fair game and the ingredients (from what just happens to be in the fridge, to what just happens to jump into the pot) dictate.

For me, cooking has two personalities: no stress or completely chaotic. Watch “Top Chef” (the current Monday night favorite chez nous) to witness an example of the latter. Come into our kitchen on a late (preferably sunny) Monday afternoon for the other side of the spectrum, when I let go of the first day of the workweek by creating my “zen zone.” Thanks to vegetable soup, cooking is like yoga – with wooden spoons. I just finished making a huge pot of my “soupe de grandmère” and feel like I’ve just done deep breathing and warrior pose. Unlike my marathon weekends when I  plunge into crazy, time-consuming and ambitious culinary adventures (and we don’t eat until 9 or 10 o’clock!), late weekday afternoons are often reserved for kitchen Bikram.

For my vegetable soup, I usually sauté some onions, garlics and leeks in olive oil. Then I add potatoes, carrot… even corn and white beans when I have them. I cover it all with water, add a couple bay leaves and some salt, and let boil until all the vegetables are cooked. A warm, comforting aroma spreads through the apartment (and the outside hallway and elevator) as it simmers. Like today, I often prepare it early, turn off the burner and reheat the soup when it’s dinner time. All in all, the preparation takes about 20 minutes (chopping veggies) and the cooking a minimum of 45 minutes – longer simmering simply brings out more flavor.

Tags: carrots, leeks, soup, vegetables

Why buy mayonnaise when you can make it?

Yesterday, at lunchtime, I wanted to make an inside out (or outside in) tuna melt (like a grilled-cheese sandwich, but with tuna). Dilemma: I didn’t have any mayonnaise – and as most of us would agree, tuna simply needs mayonnaise. I knew the closest grocer didn’t carry the only store-bought mayo I’ve ever liked (Maille) and I wasn’t about to complicate my day trekking it down. I was hungry and just wanted to have lunch – simple.

So, I made fresh mayonnaise. In a matter of minutes.

It was one of those first daring days of spring, when anxious (and long-awaited) sunlight floods through open windows. Like I said, I didn’t want to complicate my day – didn’t want to find a recipe, didn’t want to measure any ingredients. Yet, I wanted homemade mayonnaise. I’ve been living in France long enough to know what ingredients one usually uses in mayo and also to know that you have to whip in the olive oil last, in long steady streams with your electric beater. Thus, I started by putting two egg yolks in a bowl and mixing in some mustard and a tad of vinegar. I added salt and pepper…then started pouring in the olive oil. Really fun, actually. I just kept beating until the mixture was thick, stopping to taste and add more of whatever I thought was missing. At first I went overboard with the vinegar, but it all worked out.

SO, no fuss. Just add, taste, beat, taste, beat…until you’re happy with it.

Shopping List

2 egg yolks

Dijon mustard

Red wine vinegar

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

I ended up with a whole jar (an old yogurt pot). Since it’s fresh, it has to be eaten soon. What could I make? Another tuna melt? Egg salad? Deviled eggs? French fries (mayo is often served with them in Europe)? Avocado and crab?

As usual, I’m finishing my blog post, hungry.

Tags: cooking, sauces