Recipes – Page 9 – Nicole Peyrafitte

Poor’s Man Lobster & Garlic Scapes

Also called monkfish, lotte or baudroie in French, this excellent —not so good looking— fish belongs to the Lophius family. The firm consistency of its flesh resembles lobster meat. The liver, cheek and tail are eaten. The head is rarely seen at the fish store. The tail is the piece most often available for purchase. I got mine at the Bay Ridge Green Market and it was beautiful. Monkfish has been my favorite sea fish since I was young. Back then it was because there were “no” bones — only one big central bone that is easily removed, but none of those little sneaky ones. The meat can be roasted whole or cut into chunks. It can also be sautéed, skewered, poached, broiled, pan fried & served with all kinds of sauces. My choice today was: roasted, wrapped in duck bacon, tied with garlic scape.

Monkfish or Lophius Piscatorius

I shared this dish with my friend, poet Patricia Spears Jones, and I would appreciate it if she would comment on it. Meanwhile you can read one of her great poems here.

Recipe:
Preheat oven 375º
Cut the fish into equal chunks.
Coat an oven proof dish with extra virgin olive oil.
Wrap the pieces with duck bacon, or regular pork bacon (though the duck bacon gives it an interesting flavor)
Tighten with a garlic scape ( if already a little hard peel the scape)
Cut little pieces of bacon, sprinkle on top.
Add salt and fresh ground pepper.
Put into the oven for about 20/25 minutes.
Serve with boiled potatoes if it is a main course.

Garlic scapes

Note on Garlic Scape:
Often just called “scapes”, these beautiful curly greens are the flower stems that are snapped off the garlic in early summer in order to give more energy to the bulb to grow. Their taste is milder than garlic bulbs. They can be chopped and used in stir fry like green beans or asparagus. A real delicacy, and I look forward to see them at the Farmers Market or Food Coop every June. (For more info read this article on Mother Hearth News).

Rhubarb Delight

This is one of Pierre’s favorite dessert and I must say I like it too. Rhubarb is not something I grew up with, I didn’t encounter it until my first trip to England. I was a fille au pair at the mansion of Lord & Lady Bolton in Yorkshire. I was in charge of two things; first: was to take the lady’s horse out for a walk in the morning; and two: was to help cook supper. One of the recurring dessert was rhubarb and custard. I don’t remember exactly how we did it then, but this is how I make it now. I like the “enhanced” custard a lot! It is rich, creamy, but not too sweet.

How to make it:
Cook the rhubarb with maple syrup until very soft.

Custard w/ whipped cream:
Boil 2 cups whole milk and reserve.

1/3 cup of sugar
2 egg yolks
Whisk together until foamy.

In another bowl
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup flour
Mix with the egg yolk texture.
Add the milk, mix thoroughly and return to low heat. Cook the mixture, it will thickens quickly, but keep it under a low flame and mix constantly so the ingredients will bind well because uncooked flour is not digestible! Reserve to cool. Keep it covered to prevent a skin to form on top.

You can chill both the rhubarb and the custard until you are ready to serve dessert. When ready to serve whip the heavy cream, add a dash of vanilla extract. Then fold gently cream & custard together. The ratio is equal amount of whipped cream and custard. Garnish with a fruit, strawberry will be best but I had only a peach and I think it looks interesting too. Voilà for now! I am a busy busy preparing for Friday June 19th performance & dinner at 5c Café. I will post about that tomorrow, but save the date for next week end.

Egg Nest

More eggs, more rice & more good fast food today. I had very little time to cook but was craving comfy food after being Momyger for the weekend. When Miles (my younger son), gets to work as an actor I become half mom, half manager, that’s what a Momyger is! I am learning a lot about the job, thanks to the coaching of Joseph (my older son). Miles’ latest role took us to Upstate New York, around the Poukheepsie area, for the shoot of some promo scenes of an horror movie called Muttnick by William Szarka. Miles (Joris-Peyrafitte) plays Muttnick a 17 year old boy who has been raised with dogs —and like one of them— until age 5. He has been rescued by Sam (D.J Hazard) whose life mission is to hunt down and kill people harming animal gratuitously. You can see more pix of the shoot here. Warning: some are bloody, so refrain if you are sensitive to gore. I never watch horror movies, I don’t like them at all, but I have to say, to observe the shoot was a lot of fun. It is amazing & often funny, to get to see the tricks that makes horror “looks real”.
So after a lot of fake blood, a lot of mosquitoes, a lot of driving, a lot of sandwiches (especially for Miles who had to eat about 10 of them for one scene!), too many danishes and way too much coffee, I got home Monday lunch time craving a tasty, comfy home cooked meal. The fridge looked very bare when I opened it. There was still 1 cup of cooked brown rice leftover from 5 days ago (good thing that it takes a while for cooked rice to go bad), the end of a kimchee jar, a couple of eggs and parsley. I could have made another version of Om-Riz, but what would I blog about! I opted for what I could call a Korean style fried rice and I called it “Egg Nest”. Another very fast, cheap and satisfying dish.

Recipe
1 Tbsp of olive oil
about 1 cup of cooked brown rice
about 1/4 cup kimchee (I like Sunja’s natural kimchee, very flavorful and no MSG unlike many others)
1 egg (room temperature)
1/3 cup chopped parsley

Egg Nest in the wok
The “egg nest” in the pan

In a wok heat the olive oil. Add the rice and the kimchee under high heat. Make sure the mixture doesn’t stick in the pan. Let it fry for a few minutes.
Lower the heat under the wok. Make a well in the middle of the rice and add one whole egg delicately (see picture above). Cook the egg until done to your liking.
Personally I like to make the bottom get a little bit crunchy, a sort of bottom crust.
Now comes the tricky moment —a non stick pan will make this procedure easier, but it is manageable in the wok if you are careful— make sure you slightly loosen the bottom of your mixture with a spatula. Slide the all thing onto a plate. Sprinkle with paprika garnish with plenty chopped parsley.
Voilà! To wrap up there is a few pix of the shoot. We had a great time, and I must say crew and actors worked super hard. I hope this turns into a feature because they sure deserve it. Good luck guys!

Full album here

OmRiz or Nicole’s version of Omu-Rice

Back in September I posted a blog about Omu-Rice: the omelet, rice & ketchup popular Yoshoku (洋食) dish. In japanese Yoshoku means western style food. Today I bring the dish back to the West and voilà my version commanded by the leftovers available in my fridge. One can think of many other ingredients like: peppers, broccolis, zucchinis, cheese, etc. Make your own version & please post it in the comment section.

Recipe:
2 tomatoes —my very first ones of the season—
1/4 of red onion,
1 egg
1 cup leftover of rice brown rice
I tablespoon of persillade
1 dash of Melinda hot sauce
Salt & pepper

Sauté the onions in olive oil, keep them crunchy. Add diced tomatoes, persillade, salt, pepper and Melinda’s hot sauce. Mix thoroughly and sauté until very hot. Reserve & keep warm.
In a wok heat one tablespoon of olive oil really hot, meanwhile with a fork beat egg hard, add salt & pepper.
Pour the egg batter on the wok spread it around. The trick here is to keep the omelet as flat as possible to later cover the rice nicely. Cook for a few minutes and flip to the other side. Do not overcook, your omelet needs to be moist.
Shape the rice mixture oblong on a plate and cover it up with the omelet. Garnish with a slice of tomato and a sprig of parsley.
It is a solid and satisfying lunch. Bon Ap!

Sardine Tartine

Henri IV was born in Pau in 1553; he became the King of France and Navarre in 1589 until his assassination by Ravaillac in 1610. He was a very popular king, two of his nicknames were: “Good King Henri” & “the Green Gallant,” the latter referring to his constant womanizing. He had to change faith before being crowned, converting from Calvinism to Catholicism and is famous for having said: “Paris is worth a mass!”. He wanted all French families to have a Poule au Pot every Sunday—that is, a stuffed chicken in the pot. Another food anecdote about Henri IV, reported in the Dictionnaire universel de cuisine: Encyclopédie illustrée d’hygiène alimentaire, is that he loved sardines and made them popular at the court of France.

Today there is still a brand of sardines named after him, though I don’t now how good they are as I have never tried them—if you have, please let me know! I usually buy the Brisling in Spring Water because I rather do the seasoning myself with good pungent olive oil. If you read my blog, or know me, you already know that I don’t like, nor buy, canned food — sardines (along with tuna fish, and a couple of tomato cans a year) are the exception that confirms the rule.

The tightly packed sardines in their little tin can are a nutritional gem. Sardines have not only the highest content of Coenzyme Q10 but also tryptophan, Omega-3, calcium, phospohorus, vitamin B12, B3, D, & proteins. This simple food makes for a very quick and healthy lunch.

Recipe:
1 can of sardines
1/4 finely chopped onion
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
2 tablespoons good extra virgin olive oil
Lots of fresh ground pepper
Salted pastured butter

Mix is all up and serve on buttered toasts. An important note: I butter the toast after they have been toasted, the secret is to have a thin layer of good fresh butter in between the sardine mix and the bread; trust me, that is what makes this little toast exquisite. Serve with Nicole’s simple salad, and if you haven’t yet seen the video, here it is:

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Category: Recipes