Echine du Porc with Broccoli and Cauliflower

Tossed with garlic and olive oil, then roasted  

Cottage Pies

We had these for lunch on Boxing Day.   Recycled from Christmas dinner, I tossed the capon and it's gravy with the vegetables and topped this with the garlic mashed potatoes.  More!

Christmas Capon

A capon or chapon is a castrated young rooster.  I thought is was a lot fattier than goose.  Tasted like chicken.  I made a stuffing using dry, packaged toast, celery, onions and mushrooms.  Earlier I had made a large pot of broth with chicken gizzards and used the broth to make the gravy and to moisten the stuffing.  Garlic mashed potatoes, green beans and an apple tart completed the menu.   

Abou Fahad

Magdalin

Brodetto

The seafood is irresistible at this time of year.  The French like to celebrate the season with fresh seafood platters, so there is quite a variety available in the market.  This seafood soup is Italian and boy howdy was it good!  I used sea bass, langoustine, mussels, clams, squid and enormous gambas   I'm pretty busy now getting ready for Christmas but I will supply the recipe on request.     

Beef Ragout

Odds and ends from the refrigerator; cabbage, celery, parsley, tomatoes, carrots, onions, zucchini 

Cute little French finger-lings 

I put together this ragout from things I found in the fridge and around the kitchen in order to make room for all the goodies I'm buying for Christmas dinner.  The boys were making toll house cookies on their side of the island.  Very messy those boys.

    

Not bad

Smitten Kitchen's Mushrooms

Since making this blog, I have been talking to an old friend (you know who you are), who has recommended some literature on healthy eating.  Looking back over some of my posts, it looks like I only do hearty and/or pork.  This is not necessarily a bad thing but it is also not a true picture of the Rosemary cuisine.  However,  just to make a point Ms. S, and of course to please you, after seeing a fantastic recipe on www.smittenkitchen.com, I thought first of me (salivating) and then of you (health conscious).


This is a wonderful recipe.  I like mushrooms and here in Sens, there are numerous varieties.   I chose the brown ones that my husband loves.  This dish is prepared using the same ingredients as you would use when preparing escargots (snails); with a buttery, garlicky, parsleyed sauce that is baguette dippable.


While shopping for the mushrooms, I found some mixed, young salad greens.  I think they called them petites pousses.  In addition, I found a small fresh goat cheese, soft and moist.  Leaving the market, I went to the  bread maker (boulangerie) that anybody who is anyone goes to or doesn't eat bread(elitists).

Use butter.  Use good quality butter even if you decrease the amount.  Use butter or never mind, go to McDonald's.

I like this picture of the mushrooms before they were roasted.  I ate a few of them like this.  Mmm.

SMITTEN KITCHEN'S MUSHROOMS

1 pound mushrooms such as cremini or white, halved lengthwise if large

2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and chopped
3 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley


Preheat oven to 450°F with rack in middle. Toss mushrooms with capers, garlic, oil, 1/8 teaspoon salt and several grinds of pepper in a 1 1/2- to 2-qt shallow baking dish. Top with butter and roast, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender and golden and bubbly garlic sauce forms below, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and parsley. Serve immediately, with crusty bread on the side for swiping up the juices.



Wine suggestion:   Petit Chablis                     

Chairman Mao's Pork Belly

Several years ago while living in Rwanda, I ordered the Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook probably from amazon.com.   Rwanda's infrastructure, still recovering from the unbelievable genocide that claimed over a million lives, had regressed to almost a precolonial state.   The capitol, Kigali, had very few supermarkets(one, small) and a lot of those little stores that sold the basics; salt, flour, rice etc.  


There was one store run by a second generation immigrant Indian couple in their sixties whose grandparents left India for Rwanda in the 1800s .  They told me that they had visited India once when they were in their 30s but felt like foreigners and couldn't wait to return home.  


Their store was very "A Bend in the River".   All of the food and supplies were behind a very large counter, the owners manning the cash register and waiting on the customers with the help of two young men for fetching and carrying.  You would request items directly from one of the owners, who would relay this to the clerks, who found the items and placed them on the counter.   After all the items were bagged and paid for, the clerks loaded them into your car.  Very accommodating, if they didn't have something you wanted, sometimes they could acquire those items through who knows what means.   Still, they were friendly, reliable and one of the most interesting families that I met in Rwanda.  But even with the help of this resourceful couple, it was impossible to plan menus that involved anything more than meat, potatoes and vegetables in their most basic forms.  The Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook languished.       


  

The Christmas of that first year in Rwanda, we decided to spend in our house in France.  The cookbook came along with me, as visions of condiments danced in my head.  

The Sens market is well stocked with both locally produced and imported meats, vegetables, fruits and cheeses.  There is so much to choose from that it is hard to choose.   So I calmed myself, looked through the cookbook twice and chose the Chairman Mao's pork belly recipe.  This has become a family favorite; with caramelized sugar, the aroma of star anise and cinnamon, this dish is irresistible.   I've changed it up a bit from the first time I made it, but the original recipe works just fine.  I like to accompany it with a stir fry of noodles and vegetables.

CHAIRMAN MAO'S PORK BELLY


2 lb Pork belly
4 tbsp peanut oil
4 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp sake or Chinese wine
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, sliced with skin
2 star anise
1 stick of cinnamon broken in two pieces
2 dried red chillies


Light soy sauce, salt and sugar
Spring onions


Score the pork belly, salt the skin well and refrigerate overnight.  Prick the skin all over with a fork and roast the pork for about 45 minutes at 425 degrees to brown and crisp the skin if you can.  I couldn't.  Remove from oven and cut into squares.  


Heat the oil and sugar in a wok over a gentle flame until the sugar melts, then raise the heat and stir until the melted sugar turns a rich caramel brown.  Add the pork and splash in the wine.  Add water to cover, along with the ginger, star anise, chillies and cinnamon stick.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 40-50 minutes.  


Towards the end of the cooking time, turn up the heat to reduce the sauce and season with soy sauce, salt and a little sugar to taste.  Add the spring onions just before serving.   




Wine suggestion:  Alsatian Riesling

  

 

Magdalin's Soup

 Magdalin Aldhubhaibi is one of my best and oldest friends.  We've know each other since we were in Bangladesh and since then we have attempted to spend Christmases together, succeeding in Mali, Ethiopia, France and Senegal.  She's coming tonight.


Magdalin was born and raised in Sudan, daughter of a Syrian mother and a Greek-Cypriot father.  She is married to the original "bad boy" from Kuwait, Abdoulaye Abou Fahad (or just father of Fahad).  Our sons have played together and so have our husbands.  And so have we all.


It's been a pretty crazy day.  The workers came to install the counter tops and then Nicolas came to install my 120 and 220 pop up plugs.  I had intended to make a veal roast but with the workers inside, that idea went out of the window.  Just as well, Magdalin's flight is delayed by 3 hours.

The round things in the middle of the island are my 120 and 220 pop up electrical outlets

Magdalin is traveling from Kuwait and she is sure to be freezing!   I decided to make her a soup with chicken, ham and vegetables.   That and a little champagne should do the trick.


MAGDALIN'S SOUP


6 chicken thighs
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper 


2 tbsp olive oil
3 celery stalks chopped
1 large onion chopped
1/2 each yellow, green, red bell pepper chopped
1 cup of ham cubes

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp cumin

1 bay leaf

1 large Maggi chicken cube

5 large potatoes irregularly cubed
3 large carrots sliced


salt and pepper to taste


Sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic powder on the chicken thighs and cook them on a rack in a 400 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes until browned.


While the chicken is cooking, saute the celery, onion and peppers in the olive oil until soft.  Add the ham cubes and continue to saute for another 2 minutes.


Place the chicken thighs in the pot on top of the vegetables and ham.   Add water to cover, the thyme, cumin bay leaf and Maggi cube.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes.   Remove chicken, allow to cool, then remove skin and bones and chop coarsely. 


Add the chopped chicken, potatoes, carrots to the pot and simmer until the carrots and potatoes are cooked, about 30 minutes.


Wine suggestion:   Too tired for Champagne, we drank some nouveau Beaujolais.





        

Spaghettoni and Meatballs

My mother was a pretty good cook and it was something we told her to keep her spirits up.  But it was true.  A southern girl, born and raised in Texas, married to a Louisianan, you can imagine our meals.  Fried chicken, biscuits, gravy, hot water cornbread, grits, potato salad (with egg and mustard), kidney stew, gumbo, ribs, neck bones, catfish, chitterlings, batter fried tripe, etc.   Her not so "hidden talent" was Mexican food.  Not Tex-Mex but real Mexican food that included chicken enchiladas, burritos, soft tacos, chile rellenos(using freshly roasted peppers) and of course chili.  The chili and beef burritos she made contained chopped meat, not ground and there were no beans in the chili.  When she made chili beans (a kind of thick stew), she used ground meat and beans, when she made chili, she made chili and served it with warm flour tortillas.

She also made a lot of traditionally, American comfort foods such as pot roast, beef stew, chicken pot pie (baked in her big black skillet), chicken and dumplings, lasagna and spaghetti and meatballs.

The spaghetti and meatballs were always served with garlic bread and salad.  Back in the day, she would finely mince garlic to add to the butter,  but later on she just dumped in garlic powder like everybody else.  Hey, as she used to say, "even iron wears out".

I haven't made or eaten spaghetti and meatballs for probably over a decade.  I forgot about it or just dismissed it as unsophisticated, children's food.  Of course it didn't help that the kids were mad for "cans".  Cans meaning Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs, spaghetti and franks, etc.  You know, ABC macaroni type things.  This stuff was imported from the U.S. and was a treat for the kids on weekends when they would beg, "Please can I have a can?"   Easy for us.

Anyway, spaghetti and meatballs, when made with the same attention given to loftier repasts, is gourmet comfort food.  Garlic bread, a good fresh salad and an appropriate wine;  I was going to suggest Chianti but I used a Bourgogne Cote Chalonnaise for the sauce, continued it for the meal and it was so right!

For this recipe, I cooked my sauce most of the day on a really low flame.  I like thick sauce that adheres to the pasta.  I did not brown my meat balls in oil but instead baked them in the oven.  For the garlic bread, I dumped in the garlic powder just like everybody else.  I also decided to go for the spaghettoni pasta, a bit thicker than spaghetti.

SPAGHETTONI AND MEATBALLS

Sauce
1 small onion chopped
3-4 large cloves of garlic minced
1/3 cup olive oil
2 28 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes
2 basil leaves
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup of red wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Meat balls
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground veal
1/2 lb ground pork
3 slices of coarse bread soaked in water, then squeezed dry
1 small onion chopped
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, beaten

Note:   I made 12 large meatballs from this quantity and froze the rest.

1lb spaghettoni or spaghetti

For the sauce:  Saute the onion and garlic in the oil until soft but not brown.  Add the tomatoes, basil, oregano, sugar, wine and salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 2 hours.  Low, low flame.

For the meat balls:  Mix meats, bread, onion, parsley, garlic powder,Parmesan and eggs.  Knead together to blend well.   Form into balls.  Brown in oven for 25 minutes at 350 or brown in olive oil in a skillet on the stove top.

When the sauce has simmered for at least 2 hours, add the meatballs to the sauce and continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Cook pasta according to package directions, drain.  Serve sauce on top of pasta, adding 2-3 meatballs per serving and top with grated Parmesan.

Wine suggestion:   Chianti, Merlot or Bourgogne Cote Chalonnaise

 

    



  



          

Turmeric and Ginger Pork Steaks

My stove, the "piano gastronome" has arrived and is installed.   Naturally, I had to play something.  Since I really missed having an oven for the last 2 months, I decided that it should be an oven dish.  Normally these pork steaks are awesome on the grill but it's too cold, the BBQ men aren't here to light the fire and,  hey, I have 3 ovens.                                                                                             

This Lacanche is a beauty!  The exhaust hood alone is to die for.  The stove top has four regular burners and a fifth covered burner in the center for slow cooking.  Top left is a grilling oven, bottom left is an electric oven and top right is the gas oven.  Bottom left is a really small storage drawer.  Whatever.


I couldn't decide which oven to try first, so I calmed myself with an Italian Amarone (wonderful black cherry tasting wine from the Valpolicella region) and decided to go with the electric, my least favorite, but I thought it was good time to try it out before the ravenous hordes arrive for the holiday season.


For the last 30 years I have been cosseting and praying over the stoves provided by the State Department.  They have not been reliable and require an attentive cook.  Not so with my Lacanche. Decide your temperature, decide the length of time and then go webcam someone until the timer goes off.   Beautiful, beautiful.


I have to say a word about cooking pork:   Old school has it that you should cook it until it's dry and chewy.  The new generation, unafraid of death, believes that "rare is fair".  Non.  Just in case trichinosis makes a reappearance, as has tuberculosis, cook the pork until all the pink is gone, but no further.  Dry, chewy pork is not worth eating whether roasted or grilled or baked.   Moderation in all things.  

I decided to give this meal an Asian slant.  Spiced, soy sauce marinated pork steaks, wok-ed zucchini and chickpeas with tomato.  Be sure to sprinkle the meat with freshly ground star anise just before cooking.  Note:  If I am making large quantities that require freshly ground spices, I use a dedicated coffee grinder.   They are not expensive and get the job done fast.   


  

             


TURMERIC AND GINGER PORK STEAKS


4 pork steaks


2 inch piece of ginger, minced
3 large garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper


2-3 star anise


Place the steaks in a zip lock bag.  Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl, except for the star anise.  Pour the marinade over the meat and squish around until all the steaks' surfaces are covered.   Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.  


Remove meat from refrigerator.  Grind the star anise and sprinkle it on both sides of the steaks.  Place on a rack in a roasting pan and roast at 425 for 20-30 minutes, depending on the meat's thickness.  






Wine suggestion:   Masi Amarone  



          

      

Olive Salad

There is no place on earth like New Orleans!  They've got it all; music, food, beautiful people and that down home southern hospitality that I've only seen rivaled in Thailand.

A few years back (before the hurricane), we sub-leased an apartment in the New Orlean's Garden District. The apartment was on a quiet, well kept street with friendly, smiling neighbors.  It was a perfect location, a block away from the St. Charles streetcar stop, surrounded by well known cafes, restaurants and nightclubs specializing in blues and jazz.

We arrived on Saturday night and the next morning promptly took the streetcar to a Gospel Brunch I had booked ahead.   The music was wonderful!   The kind of inspirational, hand clapping, foot tapping songs that belong to no denomination and invite everyone to participate.  The brunch buffet was extensive; grits, sausage, bacon, waffles, french toast, scrambled eggs, ham, biscuits and gravy, toast, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, ribs and I can't even remember what else.  There was loads and our waitress was there to make sure we tried everything!   We really had a great time because of her and tipped outrageously.  

Imagine our surprise the next morning, when we saw her coming out of the house across the street!   As if we needed more food, (we ate almost every meal out, cooked in the house and snacked our way across the city)  from time to time she would drop off some of her husband's home cooked meals; sweet potato pie, red beans and rice, gumbo, boudin, fried chicken.   Obliged, out of courtesy, to do justice to his efforts we just "manned-up", polishing everything off with gusto.   We gained so much weight that it was a relief to return to Ethiopia after 3 weeks of hedonistic excess.  

Not all of the food in New Orleans is pork and fried, but a lot of it is.  A visit to the supermarket's meat section is enlightening.   As you walk along browsing you will see the packages of  pork, pork, pork, pork, chicken, pork, pork, pork, beef, pork, pork, pork......  While reading the newspaper you also notice an inordinate amount of early deaths; young men and women in their 20s and 30s, no kidding, and all of them couldn't have been "drive-bys".   Anyway, New Orleans cuisine is a must before dying or, if it happens, during.

The Central Grocery is world famous, and rightfully so, for it's Muffuletta Sandwich.   The sandwich is basically a Dagwood/Hoagie/Subway type sandwich layered with a killer olive salad.  Even if you don't like olives, you'll love this.  It's great alone or on bread or mounded on lettuce or stuffed inside tomatoes or let your imagination be your guide.  This would be truly awesome on a hot Italian sausage sandwich!        


Buy a round loaf, or as round as you can get it, cut in half lengthwise and pull out some of the soft insides.   Buy 2 kinds of sliced cheese and three kinds of sliced meat.  Make the olive salad and look at the pictures.         

Serves four.

                                             

OLIVE SALAD

  

12 ounce jar of drained Giardiniera 

1 cup of pitted black olives, preferably Greek

2 cups of pimento stuffed green olives

12 ounce jar of drained roasted peppers

5 large cloves of garlic, minced

3 tbsp of capers, chopped

1 cup of extra virgin olive oil or better                                                         

1tbsp of oregano

1 tsp of crushed red pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

Coarsely chop black olives, green olives and roasted peppers and put in a large bowl with Giardiniera.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

If you want this sandwich to be an authentic copy of the one at the Central Grocery, use Genoa salami, mortadella and ham for the meats; mozzarella and provolone for the cheeses.  But really, with the olive salad to seal the deal, all combinations are possible and I don't see how you could go wrong.  

Whenever I see a hearty sandwich like this one, I always think of beer.  

The best beers are European; Germany, Holland, Belgium, UK 

and not France.  Some African/island country beers to try are:

 

Burkina Faso: So.b.bra

Haiti: Prestige

Kenya: Tusker

       

 

Benin: Castel

Ethiopia: Bati

Ghana: Star

Tanzania:  Kilimanjaro

     

Enjoy!