Blog – Page 48 – Nicole Peyrafitte

Petit Diner Rapide (Fast Food II)

Still not much time to cook due to the last crunch on my next cd with Michael Bisio (title: “Whisk! Don’t Churn”) scheduled to be released on March 12 at Justin’s in Albany where it was recorded live November 20th 2008, remember?
We still had to eat and I must say I like the challenge of having to make something really quick with whatever is available or brought to me. Pierre went shopping; he strolled down to our favorite local store, Aunt Halime’s Halal Meat on 3rd Avenue and Ovinton, and brought back a beautiful rack of lamb, a bag of frozen artichoke bottoms (unusual to find artichokes bottoms, it is usually hearts) and got a nice bottle of Cahors at the local wine store.

We decided that it was too much to make the entire rack for the two of us. I cut out 6 small chops and he took the rest up to Albany. The artichokes bottoms where a great accompaniments to the simply pan fried chops. I was also impressed by their quality; they were firm & flavorful, grown in Egypt and imported via Beirut, Lebanon. Of course I had to go visit the website, and the Alwadi company doesn’t look like a mom and pop’s business, but more like the Goya of Middle Eastern food. Still I can’t complain about the artichoke, au contraire, and they didn’t list any preservatives, which is rare for frozen artichokes. Though I will not use them too often as I am trying to be mindful of my carbon footprint!

This is how I prepared them:
I steamed artichokes for few minutes. I added olive oil & a dollop of butter to the same pan I had fried the lamb chops in, sautéed the bottoms cut an half for few minutes, adding 2 cloves of garlic. Before serving, add chopped parsley. C’est tout!
We shared the bottle of Cahors with the help of my son Joseph who stopped by for a drink and then we returned to our cd designing happy and satisfied!

Petit Lunch Rapide (Fast Food I)

Not much time for lunch today and not much food in the fridge either. Though I was craving for some fresh healthy food so I had to dig into the emergency reserve . The only canned goods I store are:
– Albacore tuna in water and with not preservatives.
– Sardines in water with no salt and preferably the small ones.
– Organic tomatoes crushed, puréed or whole (I buy a can or two of whatever is on sale )
– Organic chick peas.
I debated whether to make a tuna salad or some hummus. Chick peas sounded a better choice, Pierre is coming to town this weekend and animal protein will be plentiful.
Another thing I always have in my fridge are carrots and onions. It took me 15 little minutes to make

Petit lunch rapide:
Hummus (with my can of chick peas),
Julienned carrot & turnip salad,
Turkish olives
Toasted rye bread

Hummus:
I made it “a visto de nas” as we say in Gascon or “off the cuff” & without consulting any recipe. I rinced the garbanzos (chick peas) & dumped the entire can into the food processor with 1 teaspoon of sesame oil ( I didn’t have any tahini), 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 onion, 1/3 cup olive oil, 1 lemon juice, salt, 1 teaspoon of cumin. I think that’s it.

Photo Pierre Joris

Carrot & Turnip Salad:
I am not trying to show off my knife skills, I just don’t have a mandoline here in Bay Ridge but I must admit that I also enjoy cutting veggies this size and shape. I used 3 small carrots and 1 turnip ( it had gotten lost in the fridge, I forgot to put it into the Pot of Feu last week). I dressed them with rice vinegar, olive oil, grated ginger, salt & pepper and wished I had parsley, but I didn’t.
Serve with spicy olives and some good bread -toasted or not. If you have to leave the house, make yourself a sandwich: hummus on the bottom, veggies on top. Voilà! This is my idea of fast food. It is filling, satisfying, cheap & healthy!

Winter Brunch

Winter Quiche
Swiss chards, onions, jambonneau, maple syrup
Mixed Greens
any greens dressed with a garlic vinaigrette
Orange & Pomegranate Salad
Sugar cookies
Sliced oranges, pomegranate, roasted sliced almonds, cinnamon

Tired of pancakes and French toasts for brunch? I am! This is a nice variation of the Quiche Lorraine, from Lorraine in the North East of France near the German border. In old cook books it is spelled Kiche, showing its derivation from German – the word is an alteration of the German word Kuchen which means cake. The original recipe is a simple batter with some bacon. My version today uses the traditional batter to which I have added lots of onions, swiss chards and the jambonneau –you can substitute for bacon or porc confit (yummy!). Let your creativity flow and make your own variation using only seasonal produce (that means no tomato in winter!).
A few variation ideas: quiches with leeks & onions; or shrimp & red & yellow bell peppers; or tomato & basil & goat cheese; mais encore spinach & blue cheese …etc

Pate Brisée
2 cups Flour
2/3 stick unsalted Butter (soften not melted)
1 whole Egg
1 dash Salt
1 tablespoon Sugar
a few spoons (3) very cold water
Place the flour in a bowl, make a well in the middle into which you put the butter cut into small pieces, the salt, the sugar, the egg and few spoons of cold water. Knead it all together until all the water is absorbed. Beat it on the counter, form a ball. Keep it in the fridge in a humid cloth.
When ready to use, roll it out on a floured surface and transfer it to a buttered and floured tart dish (about 9 inches).
For quiche and tartes (you can use this dough for pies) pre-cook 10 minutes at 300 degrees. First poke the dough with a fork, cover the bottom with parchment paper and cover with dry garbanzo beans or pie weight –I used foil and black eye beans because I didn’t have either parchment paper or garbanzos; in the kitchen we aways have to improvise!

Generic Batter for Quiche
Beat 4 eggs lightly and mix in 1 1/4 cup of heavy cream, salt, freshly ground pepper, nutmeg.

Today’s filling:
1 onion thinly sliced
2 cups of chards chopped
1 cup of bacon or duck confit or jambonneau
2 tablespoon maple syrup
salt & pepper

If you are using bacon, sauté it first, then use drippings and in the same pan first sauté the onions until golden, then the Swiss chards until wilted. Add some oil and/or butter if needed.
If you are not using bacon:
Melt a tablespoon of butter with a tablespoon of oil and sauté onions until golden, add the confit and/or the jambonneau & the swiss chards. Add maple syrup. Stir well and scoop out into the pre-baked pie shell. Pour the batter over.
I sometimes top it with Gruyere (real Swiss cheese).
Bake it in the oven for 45 minutes at about 350/375 degrees –you know your oven better that I do.

Serve the quiche with a mixed green salad, dressed with olive oil, rice vinegar, one clove of garlic crushed and minced, salt & fresh ground pepper. (If you haven’t , go see Nicole’s simple salad on YouTube)

For dessert I suggest a refreshing sliced orange & pomegranate salad with roasted sliced toasted almonds & cinnamon. Do not combine the pomegranates & the oranges until ready to serve, the pomegranate will bleed all over the oranges. Sprinkle with cinnamon and top with toasted almonds.

About the cookies: it was an experiment. I had a little left over pate brisée and decided to roll the dough in organic crytalized sugar, cut it into pieces, flattened them and an bake them on a buttered sheet. It ended up being a very nice contrast of texture and sweetness with the tangyness of the fruits.
Bon weekend et bon ap!

Le Pot au Feu

Originally Pot au Feu meant an earthenware or a metal cooking pot. Today, it is a common French dish and to me the ultimate winter comfort food. It is very easy to prepare and economical, low cost cuts can be used. It can be prepared in 15 minutes, then simmers all afternoon long filling the house with a marvelous aroma. Several cuts of meat can be used but preferably cartilaginous cuts such as oxtail and marrowbone (I got a beautiful beef shank marbled with cartilage). My mother always combines veal & beef cuts.
Equivalent dishes are: the New England boiled dinner, consisting of corned beef or a ham shoulder, & the Irish corn beef and cabbage.
There are many variations and they are all good, the only one rule is too cook it long enough. What I really like about the French version is the cleanness of the taste. Unless it is homemade, I don’t eat much corn beef, the prepared ones at the store are usually too salty, full of m.s.g and other preservatives. I have added Jerusalem Artichokes in this version, it is unusual and it was a test —the main reason being that I had some in the fridge but I didn’t have any potatoes at hand. No regrets! It added a subtle layer of flavor, I will do it again!
I was curious to price my Pot of Feu –which lasted for three meals. I did the shopping at the Park Slope Food Coop.

Ingredients:
1 (1.42lb) Grass fed Beef Shank bone $6.13
3 small organic carrots carrots $0.55
1 organic turnip $0.31
2 organic leeks $1.37
3 Jerusalem Artichokes $1.85
Total $10.23

already in my pantry:
3 ribs of Celery
1 Onion
3 cloves ( stick them onto the peeled onion)
4 peppers grains 1 teaspon of corse sea salt
Whole grain mustard (moutarde à l’ancienne)
Gherkins (cornichons)

Put the meat, the vegetables (except the potatoes &/or the Jerusalem artichoke) & the spices into the pot and cover with cold water.
Bring to a boil and let simmer gently for 2 to 3 hours. The meat as to be really tender. 1/2 hour before the end of the cooking add the potatoes and/or the Jerusalem artichokes.

Strain the broth onto a soup tureen and have the soup as a first course. If you wish you can add vermicelli or small pasta onto the broth.

Don’t forget to eat the marrow! blow out the marrow from the bone onto a piece of bread, sprinkle with sea salt. YUMMY!

Serve meat, veggies & condiments & Bon Appetit!

[ Pierre’s addendum: & don’t forget to tell your readers that when you have slurped your way through the soup & there is just a little left at the bottom of your plate, you add a good rasade — shot — of red wine, mix it with the soup, put down your spoon, raise the plate with two hands & slurp the mixture down with audible slurping satisfaction noises. It’s called “faire chabrot” which means etymologically “to drink like a goat.” It’s a total pleasure.]

“The Hopeless Poem” now in English!

While I was in France this summer I posted a new poem in French called “L’Espoir Tue”. A couple of weeks ago, while sharing pierogies and carrot cake at the Stage Dinner in the East Village with our dear friend Stash, the conversation came about *hope* & I told him about my poem. Though we still disagree about hope, Stash was willing to help translate it into English. Stash Luczkiw is a journalist/editor for Cartier Magazine and a poet originally from New York who has been in leaving in Milan for over 10 years.

Hope Kills

(after an article by Dr. Fogarty)

Hope is an inescapable and very hard-to-cure disease
Hope is a mirror that offers a blurry and idealized reflection of my desires
Hope—like daylilies—invades and depletes my essential resources for sustainable growth
Hope is a toxic fantasy of the future
Hope fills the necessary voids with synthetic satisfaction
Hope prevents neither death nor suffering
Hope could be
should be
maybe will be
but is not

And oh, yes! Hope inspires calm
it promises abundance to the rich as well as to the poor

Without hope the love of happiness detaches itself
to make way for an inevitable and uncomfortable reality

But it is there
stripped of all artifice
without prestige
without seduction
without escape—
and with much less consumption
that the quest begins
&
Life opens

Nicole Peyrafitte
Original Title in French : L’Espoir Tue
Assistance to English Translation: Stash Luczkiw

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