Recipes – Page 8 – Nicole Peyrafitte

Duck Hearts, Trouts, Kanoon & More

A few years back Pierre and I bought a kanoon — from the arabic: قانون, kanoûn, qanoûn or kanun— at a Luchon street fair. It is a North African clay brasero for cooking with charcoal. It makes great tagines and it is very convenient when we have no time to make a big fire in the fire place or when the weather is really hot. Monday I used it to cook our entire meal that consisted of local offerings from the Luchon market:
Hors d’Oeuvres:
Hure de porc or pig’s head paté (Martial Vargas)
Paté de truite with chives (Pisciculture d’ Oô)
First Course:
Hearts of duck salad (Lazorthes, a.k.a. “Caniche”)

Main Course:
Mountain trout from the pisciculture de Oô (see last year’s post for another recipe made with these excellent trout)

Potatoes, beets & broad beans (Madame Fondeville)

Cheese & Dessert:
Goat cheese (Alain Garcia a.k.a Emingo)
Mara des bois strawberries in red wine & honey

Pierre fired the kanoon with lots of charcoal to have enough to cook the whole meal in it.
First I cooked the veggies in a cast iron pot. Instead of using oil I used the incredibly tasty salted fatback the Jammes gave me as a present when I went to get the lamb (see previous post).

I rendered half a cup of fat and added potatoes, beets, salt & lots of black pepper and set it on the kanoon for about ½ hour. I added the beans later, as they take less time. When cooked, I reserved the veggies and set them aside.
Meanwhile I had cut the duck hearts in half. These hearts where beautiful. They were bright red & so fresh. I placed my special open fire frying pan on the kanoon and again melted some fatback. Once the fat had rendered and the pan was very hot I added the hearts and fried them until cooked but still pinkish. Be careful: overcooked hearts get unpleasantly rubbery. At the end I added a generous persillade and served them warm on top of a very lightly dressed salad.
While we ate the salad I tightly fit five trouts in the tagine dish. I coated the trouts with olive oil in which I had soaked garlic cloves and added the cloves too. I topped the whole thing with “new” onions, one quartered lemon, salt and & piment d’Espelette —that is, a very popular chili that grows in the the Basque country and is fragrant and not too spicy. The trout cooked while we ate the delicious hearts of duck salad. We waited for them a little, but who cares when the Tariquet Rosé & the conversation are flowing!
I very much like the combination of the hearty veggies and the delicate trouts, thought the trouts could have been a little spicier.
We opened the red Saint Mont wine to accompany my favorite local goat cheese made by my good friend Alain Garcia (see picture above). The dessert was a nice conclusion to our meal — sorry I didn’t take any pictures but I was too involved with the company!
Voilà! for now as I am off to visit my dad (87!) at the local physical rehab center where he just arrived after successful complex back surgery that will hopefully allow him to walk better… I teased him today that if he keeps progressing as fast as he does, he might even be ready for soccer season! (before being an hotelier & a politician — mayor & senator — he was the regional star soccer player)!
More soon and thanks for following our summer adventures!

C.S.A & Sour Cherry Sangria

Most of you probably know about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), which has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. This is how it works: a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Typically a share consists of a box of vegetables, though other farm products may be included: as you can see above there are fruits. This year the Bay Ridge CSA program offered fruit shares. The consumers purchase a share (aka a “membership” or a “subscription”) and in return receive a weekly offering of seasonal produce throughout the farming season. “Our” farm is Hearty Roots Community Farm in Tivoli NY. I have not yet met the farmers personally, nor have I visited the farm, but so far I like their produce and the variety. I also like the way we get it; instead of getting the traditional prepacked individual box, we are instructed what to take and we get to pack our own from the bulk crates (except for the fruit, but that is from another farm anyway). C.S.A arrangement creates many rewards for both the farmer and the consumer, if you want to read more on the subject click here. I do share a share with my older son’s family and this is what we got this week.

Veggie Share:
8 scallions
1 head of lettuce
2lb of zucchinis
1 red cabbage
1 lb of japanese turnip
1 lb of Chioggia beets
1 bunch of basil

Fruit Share:
1/2 pint mulberries
1 pint sour cherries
1 pint blueberries

I boiled the beets until tender and dressed them with fresh scallions, sprinkled with olived oil, salt & pepper. I saved the beets greens and mixed them with sautéed potatoes. What I really like is to discover what I am getting and I can’t wait to get home and start processing my new bounty.

DSCN3544

The sour cherries were a little disappointing. They didn’t have much taste raw, not really sour enough to make an interesting sauce — I used to make a wild salmon with sour cherry sauce. As they were very pretty, I had the vision that they might enhance a not so great white wine I had sitting in the fridge. Bingo! This made a great summery aperitif! Let’s call is Sour Cherry Sangria! I crushed the cherries in the wine, added one dash of maple syrup plus one serious dash of grappa. Let it is sit for a few hours in the fridge. Strain and serve in small glasses with a fresh sour cherry at the bottom! Enjoy the summer — and the next post should be from my dear Pyrenean mountains. Adishatz!

Long Island Sound Mahi-mahi

Saturday morning we extracted ourselves from moving madness mode to go to the Bay Ridge green market. I was craving good fish and I know I can always rely on the American Seafood stand, they do catch all their fish on Long Island Sound and to this day they have always provided top quality fish, clams or mussels. There I had the nice surprise to find Susan who had been working for the buffalo cheese and meat stand but returned to the fish stand. After a serious scanning of the offerings and pow-wow we settled for Mahi-mahi. Our friend Claire who is visiting us from Brittany never had it and honestly I didn’t know Mahi-mahi was caught in Long Island Sound. I might have been fooled by it’s Hawaiian sounding name, Mahi-mahi. Also called dolphinfish, it is neither a mammal, neither a member of the Delphinadae family —dolphin family, but one of the two members of the Coryphaenidae family, the other being the pompano. The darkish flesh of Mahi-mahi turns white once cooked; it is dense, a little firm and quite moist. Like any other fish, don’t overcook it. I prepared it very simply and here is how:

Recipe:
Heat oil in a skillet, place fish on the skin side first. Cook for 3/5 minutes depending on thickness, repeat on the other side.
Keep warm between 2 plates.
Sauté 1/3 cup per person of sweet fresh white onions in the same pan, remove and deglaze the pan with a touch of Mirin and dry white wine.
When ready to serve adjust salt & pepper to taste and “monter la sauce au beurre” —that is to swirl in, until completely melted, a dollop of unsalted butter; it will give your sauce a velvety texture and a rich flavor.
I served it with all the leftover veggies from last week’s CSA. Swiss chards, bokchoys, scapes were sautéed in olive oil with abundant fresh garlic and provided a beautiful bed for the Mahi-mahi. Top it with onions, serve the sauce on top or around and bon appétit to you!

Summer Tisane

We are in the process of moving and boy! do we need restorative teas. I like making my own brews and this is my latest concoction. It is very refreshing and soothing & it sure beats any store bought fancy ice teas. The healing qualities of the ingredients are a plus: turmeric is an antioxidant —see previous blog, star anis (badiane) will help with gastric conditions, ginger with nasal congestion & digestive problems, and sage soothes upset stomachs, quiets the nerves, and helps with upper respiratory infections.

For one big teapot this is what I used:
1 finger of ginger
1 finger of turmeric
2 branches of sage
2 star anis
Boil water and pour over ingredients. Let it sit all night and the next morning strain it and put it in the fridge.
Alright, let me dive back into the packing madness — I might not blog for a few days, but soon I will be in my brand new kitchen! I am really excited about that.

Summery Garlicky Beans

As blogged last week, this past Friday I set up my kitchen/stage at 5C Café in Manhattan. I want to thank Michael Bisio who delighted us on bass, Pierre Joris, Yuko Otomo & Steve Dalashinky who read fun & beautiful food & Paris poems, Miles Joris-Peyrafitte who took the photographs and helped set up/clean up, Adrien Aquilina for his assistance on waiting tables, as well as Bruce, Trudy & the volunteers at 5C for their graceful hospitality & for giving me the opportunity to cook and sing. Many thanks also to a sophisticated, warm & engaging audience. Please feel free to post comments about the evening if you were there. If you were not there: the menu, the recipe of the main course, & Miles’ photographs are below.
But first let me tell you about my next performance coming up this Thursday with Peter Knoll on electric guitar. No food this time, but singing 3 French songs. I am really excited to be part of the Mongrel Vaudeville, and looking forward to the various & extravagant performances.
Program:
Mongrel Vaudeville “Blue Moon in June”
What: Performance
Host: Julian of Nowherr
Start Time: Thursday, June 25 at 8:00pm
End Time: Thursday, June 25 at 10:00pm
Where: thru the swingin doors at Freddy’s Bar & Backroom
485 Dean Street Brooklyn, NY 11215
That’s the corner of Dean Street and 6th Avenue in Brooklyn.

Now Friday’s menu:
Appetizers:
Sardine Paté w/ pink peppercorns (see Sardine Tartine blog ; all I added were the pink peppercorns)
Syrian Cheese served with green spicy Turkish and black Moroccan lemon olives
Baguette
Main Course:
Summery Garlicky Beans & Kale
(Thank you d’Artagnan for the coco Tarbais beans)
Dessert:
Strawberry short cake w/ live whipped cream!
(Thank you Pierre Landet for the pan and the strawberries)

Photographs by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte

Summery Garlicky Beans & Kale Recipe

I don’t have exact proportions, and it is really up to you to make it the way you like. Though as a rough indication here are the ingredients and the proportional ratio.
Soak beans over night: 2/3 white (coco tarbais) for 1/3 red beans (dark red pinto beans).
Cook your beans separately and reserve.
Sauté —in duck fat, or olive oil— enough diced onions to cover the bottom of the skillet in which you will cook your dish.
Add a few ribs of diced celery and diced red pepper. Sauté for a few minutes.
Add the purple kale, about half the pot, sauté until wilted.
Add the green garlic cloves. Make sure you buy them with the green stalk attached. Use about 1/2 a head per person. Green fresh garlic is very mild, do not be afraid.
Add about 1 to 2 garlic scapes per person (see last blog for info on scapes). Make sure they are very tender, if not peel them and cut them like green beans.
Salt & freshly ground pepper.
Add stock or water to just cover your vegetables & legumes.
Cook for about 40/60 minutes depending how big your pot.
Just before serving add one tablespoon of a pesto —my “pesto” had only basil/regular garlic & olive oil, but nothing prevents you to add pignoles and cheese. I just wanted to keep it light as the appetizer had cheese and the dessert, whipped cream.
Make it soon because the garlic ain’t gone be fresh for much longer.

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