Well here I am again with shrimps…when we cook we all find our inspiration from different sources, it can be our moms, grandmothers, books, chefs, travels, anything. For this particular recipe, I inspired myself from one of Alain Ducasse’s recipes that I twisted around quite a bit, but I kept his idea of wrapping the soba around the shrimps. Isn’t this a great idea? What I love about Alain Ducasse or Christophe Megel is that they mastered the art (it truly is an art) of blending contemporary influences with classical cuisine which awaken all your senses into a taste bud ecstasy.

At first, I thought it sounded strange, borderline unappealing, then after looking at it, and reading the recipe a little longer, I realized that this would be an amazing little appetizer. I made my own dipping sauce with pomegranate, chilis and garlic, and I could not get enough of those shrimps. Now, the original recipe deep fries the shrimps, I somehow refuse to deep fry anything, you can do it, if you want but I have a little “mental blockage” with fried food, so the devil did not manage to make me deep fried this, even if Alain does. Désolée Alain, je n’aime pas la friture! I am sure he would understand!

What I love about this recipe is its composition of textures and flavors.

The soba get a very pleasant crunchy bite due to the batter where ice cubes have been added at end of the process, they melted in the mixture, it helped make the batter light therefore give a particular crunchiness to the soba. There is a feast going on in your palate at first bite, and it’s such an exciting sensation!

Ingredients for about 10 shrimps

• 10 shrimps, deveined
• 2.11 oz (or 60 g) regular soba or green tea soba
• 1/3 cup (or 75 g) cornstarch
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup (or 100 g) flour
• 1/3 cup (or 75 g) water
• 1/3 (or 75 g) cup ice cubes
• salt and pepper

For the pomegranate-chili dipping sauce

• 1/2 cup pure unsweetened pomegranate juice
• 2 tbs pomegranate glaze
• 1 tbs honey
• 2 tbs rice vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 chili, finely diced
• salt

Preparation

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add soba, cook for a few minutes until still a little crunchy, then remove from heat, drain and place in chilled water. Let cool, drain and set aside.

Dip shrimps in corn starch.

In a mixing bowl, mix egg with flour and water, stir well. Add ice cubes and keep stirring until they dissolve.

Dip soba in batter, remove excess batter and wrap around the shrimps.

Heat olive oil in a pan (enough to get 2 mm of oil in the pan), then add shrimps, let them brown on all surfaces. When cooked removefrom pan, and pat dry with a paper towel to remove excess oil. Serve hot with dipping sauce.

For the dipping sauce

Mix all ingredients together except the garlic and chili and cook for a few minutes until the honey is dissolved and the sauce has a little reduced. Let it cool, then add chili and garlic.

A la pêche aux moules, moules, moules, je ne veux plus y aller maman, les gens de la ville, ville, ville, m’ont pris mon panier… despite mon panier, I still want to go mussel fishing!

I am afraid I cannot stop eating seafood, it’s becoming an obsessive compulsive thing, I somehow realized the more you do something, the more you want to keep doing it…and right now I am dealing with eating mussels or anything that looks like a mussel (so clams are included in it). I promise this will be the last seafood dish for a little while, unless I am unable to control my seafood compulsion and if I come to that point, I think I will have to start doing yoga or meditation.

I have been to my favorite store this weekend to the other side of the Bay and loaded my cart with so many wonderful goodies I thought I would never find. I think the day I will leave the Bay Area, I will miss this store so much, because at this point I have not seen something that amazing and exciting anywhere else, not even in any European city…just Berkeley, California. Berkeley I salute you.

Mussels are so popular in Mediterranean cuisine, and moules marinières, probably the most common way to prepare mussels in Belgium (and in France too), and are on every menu of any French restaurant in the US. So enough of moules marinières, and let’s add un “petit piment” in our mussels. Dans la vie, il faut du piment!, we need some spice in your life, don’t we?

Leeks and mussels go so well together, and here the broth is enhanced by lemon juice and chili, with a dash of beer, what a flavorful combination. I usually count 2 lbs of mussels per person, depending if you serve mussels as an appetizer or main course and the appetite of your guests.

Ingredients for 2

• 2 lbs mussels
• 1 lb clams
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 leek, chopped
• chili flakes
• juice of one lemon
• a dash of beer (1/2 cup)
• 1/2 tbs parsley, chopped
• 1/2 tsp basil, chopped
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a large pot, heat 1 tbs olive oil. Add shallots and garlic, stir and let it brown for a few minutes. Add leeks and cook until tender, then add chili flakes.  Add mussels and clams to the pot. Stir well, adjust with salt and pepper.

After the mussels and clams are half open, add beer. Mix well. Cover and let the mussels cook until they open completely. Add lemon juice and 1 tbs olive oil, stir and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, at the end at parsley and basil.

After this Thanksgiving celebration, it’s good to go back to a healthier kind of cuisine. The turkey ended up so dry, due to a guest arriving over an hour late, and my new oven with circular heat that cooks three times faster than traditional oven. I think I am so done with the turkey anyway. Arriving 20 minutes late to a sit down dinner when food is served is fine, but one hour is somehow rude. Don’t you think? everyone has its “acceptable” time and for me 20 minutes is the limit. An unforeseen circumstance might also happen but that’s not something that happens on a regular basis.

Malfatti or Gnudi is a traditional Tuscan dish…I make them often but never think of posting them. It’s basically ravioli without dough called “gnudi” in Tuscan meaning “naked” or also “malfatti” meaning “not well made”, they’re either served with a gorgonzola sauce, a béchamel or tomato sauce and baked in the oven. I like it with a light and spicy tomato sauce, then you can just play around with them and see what you prefer. There is no meat just vegetables and cheese, so it’s quite a light dish.

I like traditional and rustic dishes like this one, because they’re peasant food and you cannot find them in the stores nor in restaurants, so it’s basically recipes you find only at people’s houses. Tuscan and Marchigiana cuisine are quite similar with slight variations since they’re two regions in Central Italy. Growing up on Marchigiana cuisine, Tuscan cuisine is not completely foreign to me. Even after living half of her life in France, my mom still cooks traditional Marchigiana cuisine and barely makes French food. She would make quiches or choucroute once in her while but that’s it. I guess no matter where you move, and for how long, you are still attached to what you are used to eating growing up.

I did not put the flour quantity, you need to add enough so that the spinach/ricotta mixture is no longer soft but still a little sticky. If you put too much flour, the ravioli will get heavy and chewy. You just have to play with the flour. It took me a few times before making them just right.

Ingredients about 20 ravioli

For the ravioli

• 1/2 lb ricotta
• about 1/2 lb fresh spinach
• 6 tbs parmigiano reggiano, grated (+ 2 for sprinkling on top)
• 2 eggs
• flour
• salt and pepper

For tomato sauce

• 4 large ripe tomatoes, peeled, seedless, crushed
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 basil leaves
• chili powder
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the sauce

Heat olive oil in a pot, add garlic, stir to get the flavor out, add basil, tomatoes, chili pepper, salt and pepper, and cook until the tomato is cooked for about 15 minutes.

For the ravioli

Cook spinach in a large pot of boiling and salted water for about 5-10 minutes, depending if you use baby spinach or regular ones. Drain, let them cool and remove excess water by squeezing with your hands. Chop them.

In a large mixing bowl, mix spinach, ricotta, parmesan, eggs, flour salt and pepper. At this point, you need to play with the flour, try getting a soft mixture not too sticky, but not too thick. It still needs to stick to your fingers a little bit.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Start making the gnudi. Add about 1 cup of flour to a plate, and start forming small balls with spinach/ricotta mixture the size of a big walnut. Coat them well with flour.

When water is boiling carefully, add gnudi to the water, it’s better to cook about 10 at one time, so they have enough water and space too cook. When gnudi come out at the surface, remove them, and drain. Proceed the same way for the second batch.

Place in a oven tray and pour some sauce on top, sprinkle with parmigiano and olive oil, then cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 20 minutes or until the top turns golden brown. Serve hot.

I have been thinking lately about Thanksgiving menu and I am not sure what to make yet. Last year was mainly a “French” Thanksgiving with of course a Turkey but prepared the French way since the guests were French, and the traditional kind of French, and I wanted to make something different this year since the guests will be the same.

I love to make those vegetable galettes, they’re quick to make, original and delicious…so I might keep this for some side dishes, but not yet sure. You’ll probably think that those have nothing to do in a Thanksgiving menu, but I think it is allowed on my table since I did not grow up here. So that is my lame excuse. For years, I have been invited at friends’ house for Thanksgiving, so I never got to organize one, it’s been three years in a row that I am actually having friends over and it’s been quite fun.

I made those zucchini galettes gluten-free for some gluten allergic guests. I usually make them with regular flour but for those who cannot tolerate gluten, rice flour works fine. The flour I bought was a little more grainy than wheat flour but was not really a problem. I thought cooking without gluten would be tricky and it’s actually not. There are tons of alternative to wheat and it tastes great too.

Ingredients for about 8 galettes

• 5 zucchini, very thinly sliced
• 2 eggs
• 5 tbs or more brown rice flour or regular flour
• 1 tsp chopped thyme
• 3 tbs feta, roughly crumbled
• chili flakes
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Using a mandoline, slice zucchini very finely. Place in a drainer, and sprinkle with 1 tbs coarse salt for about 30 min. to let the water come out. Rinse under running water to remove the salt and squeeze tightly with your hands to remove excess water. Place in a mixing container.

In a large bowl, beat eggs with flour to make a thick paste. If paste is liquid, add extra flour. Mix well to obtain a homogenous mixture. Pour on top of zucchini. Mix well so that the zucchini get coated with egg mixture

Add thyme, chili flakes and adjust with salt and pepper, (don’t add too much salt, since the mixture is usually salty enough due to the feta cheese and salt remaining in the zucchini). Add feta, mix carefully not to break it, you want to incorporate feta pieces in the mixture.

Heat large pan, and spoon about 2 tbs of mixture forming some regular galettes. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

Serve hot as an appetizer with smoked salmon, or with a salad, or as a side dish.