Since I came back from Japan, I have been wanting to make Takoyaki which are Japanese octopus balls usually find in the streets of Japan and eaten as snacks. They are delightful (of course if you like octopus). I went to Japan town and got all the ingredients, then when I arrived home, I decided to change my menu and went for a more Mediterranean recipe instead. As we say in French “il n’y a que les imbeciles qui ne changent pas d’avis” (only imbeciles don’t change their mind). I was quite hungry, and I thought I didn’t want to eat something called a “snack”. So takoyaki will have to wait.

Needless to say I adore octopus, in any shape or form, and my two favorite ways to eat it is either as a stew or grilled.

I made this herb salsa a few days ago to eat with grilled fish and I had some left that would be perfect for this dish as well. You don’t need to make two sauces. You can pick between the roasted pepper sauce or this herb one…or both if you don’t mind the extra work (which is very minimal). Honestly, I love to serve it with both. The roasted pepper salsa brings out the sweetness and the herb salsa is more pungy and citrussy and both are really a great combination for grilled octopus.

This dish is fairly simple as far as technique and likelihood to mess it up. Now, it require many different ingredients, but not too many spices. I don’t like dishes that are too complicated where you lose the essence of the primary ingredient, therefore end up not knowing what you are eating anymore. So this dish does not fit in that category despite its ingredients.

I included some saute greens that are optional, but I love my greens so it’s up to you to decide if you want to add some or not. The ones are used are Asian greens that looks like rapini, but any stems green would work.

Ingredients for 2-3

For the roasted pepper salsa

• 2 red peppers
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• cayenne pepper (to taste)
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

For the herb salsa

• 1/2 bunch dill
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 1/2 bunch basil
• 1 garlic clove
• zest of 1 meyer lemon
• juice of 1 meyer lemon
• 1/2 ts cumin
• salt and pepper

For the fava beans and fennel saute

• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 fennel head, shaved very finely and thinly
• 1/2 cup fava beans (shelled)
• 2 tbs dry white wine
• salt and pepper
• lemon oil for drizzling

For the octopus

• 400 g cooked octopus
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Instructions

For the roasted pepper salsa

Roast peppers under broiler until they turn black on all sides. Remove from oven and let it cool. Remove seeds and skin and place in a mixer with the rest of the ingredients until the mixture becomes smooth.

For the mix herb salsa

Mix all ingredients in a mixer less the lemon zest until fine, like a pesto texture. Add lemon zest at the end.

For the fava bean and fennel saute

Remove fava beans from pod. Bring a water to a boil in a small pot.  Cook fava beans in water for about 3 minutes. Drain and remove the fava bean from their shell. Keep aside.

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add fennel and mirin and cook at medium heat for a few minutes until the fennel starts to soften but still remain firm. Let mirin evaporate. Add fava beans and mix well. Adjust with salt and pepper and drizzle with lemon oil.

For the octopus

You either need precooked octopus you can find at any Asian market or raw octopus that you will cook yourself in water until soft (it should take about 40 minutes). When cooked, cut a few tentacles in about 4.5 inches long. Marinate them in olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper for about one hour. Grill on barbeque on skillet until golden brown and crispy on each sides (about 10 minutes).

Here is a Sunday lunch that gave me some punch (en plus ca rime) – I have not eaten salmon in a long time, probably because I find salmon a little boring to be honest. Maybe when a product becomes easy to find, I lose my interest, not that I like “hard to get” products but let’s say that what’s rare tends to be more special. So I tried to make this salmon a little more interesting and special. Et voila, c’est fait!

I am not a huge fan of regular potato puree with fish, so cauliflower worked very well here, and this way you lose the starch content.

I like to use large chard leaves, the flat and smooth kind (such as swiss chards) instead of spinach, simply because spinach leaves are fragile to manipulate and it’s sometimes difficult to find large leaves. In this case, I used one chard leave for one salmon fillet. For the vegetables, you can use whatever you like, I love the combination of fava beans and oyster mushrooms, they have two complementary textures and go very well together.

I really liked this dish, the herbs made it very fragrant, delicate and not a strong salmon dish with too many powering flavors. I will certainly put this on my “to make again soon” list.

Ingredients for 4

For the salmon

• 4 salmon fillets (about 1/2 lb each)
• 4 large chard leaves
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper

For the purée

• 1 small cauliflower
• 2 medium size potatoes
• milk
• 1 tsp salted butter
• salt and pepper

For the vegetable fondue

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 shallot
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 cup oyster mushrooms
• 1/2 lb fava beans
• 1 tomato, peeled, seedless and diced
• salt and pepper

For the tarragon jus

• 1/2 bunch tarragon
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper (if needed)

Preparation

For the salmon

Blanch chard leaves in salted boiling water for one minute, until the chard softens but still keeps it shape. Remove from heat, and place in cold water to cool. When cooled, remove from water and pat dry carefully with a towel, removing excess water. Using a knife remove the hard leaf from bottom to top, this will leave you with two long panels of chards.

Remove skin from salmon, add salt and pepper on both sides and cook three minutes each sides, in a pan with a little olive oil. Then, wrap carefully the salmon with the two chard panels. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice and cook in a pre-heated oven at 360F for about 10 minutes or until the salmon is cooked to your tastes.

For the purée

Cook the potatoes at low heat covering them with milk. When they’re cooked remove from heat and let them cool in the milk. At this pint, they would have absorbed a substantial part of the milk.

Boil cauliflower in salted water for about 10-15 minutes until tender.

In a mixing container, mix potatoes and cauliflower and mash with a potato masher to obtain a smooth texture, adjust with salt and pepper. Then add butter and mix well.

For the vegetables

Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallot, sweat for a few minutes, then add mushrooms and cook until the eater evaporates. Place fava beans in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, let them cool. Peel fava beans and add to the mushrooms. Stir well, then add tomato and crushed garlic. Cook for a few minutes, until the tomato softens but still remains firm.

For the tarragon jus

Bring 1/2 cup of broth to a boil, add tarragon and cook for 30 seconds, remove from the pot and pat dry. In a blender, mix tarragon with broth to make it into a very fine mixture. Remove from blender into a bowl, add 1 tbs olive oil, 1 tsp lemon juice, salt and pepper if needed.

After placing your puree and salmon in the plate, add a some vegetables around and end with tarragon jus.

Opah or moonfish is found in Hawaii and has a fatty flesh, somehow like tuna and salmon. It’s a unique fish due to its flat and round shape and color. I really like its texture and you can prepare like you would any fish with that dense texture. “Nage de poisson” literally translated into “fish swim” is a culinary term used to describe a fish or seafood that is cooked in a broth of court-bouillon (I believe court-bouillon is also used in English). It’s a light and healthy cooking method and very flavorful, depending on what you use on your broth.

Of course, there are many ways to flavor the broth, you could also use saffron, fresh herbs, spices, etc.. but I wanted to keep it simple, fresh and clean.

The sweetness of those colorful carrots combined to the vinegar added in the broth make this dish very well balanced.

Usually, this cooking method is quite popular among those who want to keep a thin waist line…it’s healthy while being delicate and flavorful, so a winner in my book.

Ingredients for 2

• 2 fillets of opah
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup fava beans, peeled
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 3/4 cup (or 20 cl) dry white wine
• 0.5 oz (or 15 g) sugar
• 2 tbs raspberry vinegar
• 5 fl oz (or 15 cl) water
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Bring water to a boil and cook fava bean for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and peel the beans. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a pan and add carrots. Cook for a few minutes. Add wine, sugar and vinegar, cook at high temperature and let the wine reduce. Add Opah and cover with water. Add salt. Let cook the fish until cooked all the way through, then add fava beans. Serve in soup plates, with broth, fish in the center and the vegetables on top. Add a good amount of freshly crushed black pepper on top.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2012/08/i-wish-i-could-swim-nage-of-moonfish-with-fava-beans-and-carrots/feed/ 1 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2011/03/ocean-tagine-tagine-with-squid-fava-beans-and-leeks-and-simple-pepper-quinoa-couscous/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ocean-tagine-tagine-with-squid-fava-beans-and-leeks-and-simple-pepper-quinoa-couscous http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2011/03/ocean-tagine-tagine-with-squid-fava-beans-and-leeks-and-simple-pepper-quinoa-couscous/#comments Tue, 22 Mar 2011 04:11:03 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=12776 Tagine de la mer – Tagine aux seiches, fèves et poireaux

This was a dish I made while I was in France…since my dad was in the hospital, my mom and I just cooked simple meals because by 1pm we needed to be at the hospital. Tagines are wonderful if you don’t have to much time to eat but still want to enjoy a healthy and flavorful meal. Clay pot cooking is one of my favorites, and as soon as you try it, you will have a difficult time going back to a regular-pan cooking. It preserves all the aromas of each ingredient and infuses all the flavors together.

Like in papillotes, you can cook anything you like in tagines, just be creative, with a little audacity, and you’ll get a fabulous dish. A couple of years ago, it was not as easy to find a tagine claypot, but nowadays, most stores carry them (at least in California);  tagines are becoming more trendy, simply because it has traveled outside borders and everyone has discovered their health benefits, and still keeping amazing aromas.

I have seen many types of couscous in France (in France we call the actual grain semoule, couscous being the Algerian dish, made with vegetables, meat and semoule) different kinds of whole grains, such as kamut, quinoa, spelt, etc…since my mom had diabetes, I tried to make dishes that were good for her, or at least that did not aggravate her diabetes. This quinoa couscous is a perfect grain to go with any tagine. Of course people who don’t like squid can use other ingredients such as shrimps, or white fish. I kept the couscous simple with no major strong flavors, to really enjoy the tagine broth, couscous being a minor addition in this meal, necessary but secondary.

Ingredients for 3

• 1 lb squid
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 1/2 leeks, cut in 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 lb fava bean, peeled
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp ras-el-hanout
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 inch ginger, grated
• salt and pepper

For the quinoa couscous

• 140 g quinoa semolina
• 1 tbs olive oil
• vegetable broth
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt
• cracked pepper

Preparation

For the tagine

Heat olive oil in tagine and brown the onions. Add leeks and cook for about 5 minutes. Add squid, and all other ingredients except for the fava beans. Mix all ingredients well. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and cook fava beans for three minutes. Remove from heat, drain and peel fava beans. 10 minutes before end of cooking time, add fava beans to the tagine, cover and let it cook for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle with fennel leaves or mint and serve with couscous.

For the quinoa couscous

Proceed like for a regular wheat couscous. Bring vegetable broth to a boil. Coat couscous with olive oil using your fingers. Add broth to the couscous, cover and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Using a fork, separate the grains, add lemon juice and cracked pepper. Adjust with salt if necessary. For broth quantity, I cover the couscous with 5mm of extra broth above couscous.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2011/03/ocean-tagine-tagine-with-squid-fava-beans-and-leeks-and-simple-pepper-quinoa-couscous/feed/ 10 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/10/get-a-pillow-and-take-a-nap-pillows-with-fava-beans-asparagus-and-feta/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=get-a-pillow-and-take-a-nap-pillows-with-fava-beans-asparagus-and-feta http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/10/get-a-pillow-and-take-a-nap-pillows-with-fava-beans-asparagus-and-feta/#comments Thu, 28 Oct 2010 05:53:16 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=12456 Prend un oreiller et fais une sieste – Coussins de filo aux fèves, asperges et chèvre

I could definitely sleep on top of those stuffed pillows, they’re warm and smell so good. For a long time, I didn’t like to manipulate filo dough, it was either drying too fast, or breaking, so I got annoyed with it and decided to leave it aside. Tant pis!

Then the idea of giving up, annoyed me even more…so I bought a pack of filo dough, and I decided to play with it…so far, the games were fun but I don’t seem to be able to finish the box 30 sheets of dough is quite a lot. It’s much lighter than puff pastry, then if you brush it with olive oil instead of butter, it’s even lighter!

I was reading an article on restaurant food, and it seems like fried food has never been that popular. So for those who like fried food, you can fry those pillows. Filo dough unlike puff pastry can be fried. I baked mine since I am still the “health nut” cook. One of the few things I like fried, is the fried green tomatoes I had once in a restaurant in the city. I can eat this once in a while, but I just don’t feel like frying it at home.

Fresh goat cheese tends to be bland, so I combined it with chives and garlic. When you bite on a crunchy pillow, the aroma of the cooked herbs comes out and you get a delightful sensation, melting cheese, crunchy filo and soft vegetables. Those are quick to prepare and cook, so they’re perfect to be served with a salad for a light lunch or as appetizer if you have unexpected guests.

Ingredients for 4 (2 each)

• 4 sheets filo dough
• 1/2 lb fava beans
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1/2 lb fresh goat cheese
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tbs chives, chopped
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Cut asparagus in 1 inch pieces and cook in salted boiling water for about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. Remove beans from the pods and cook in boiling water for three minutes. Drain and remove the peel.

In a small cup mix goat cheese, chives and garlic.

Remove filo dough sheets from box. Lay one sheet flat on a working surface. Brush the sheet with olive oil. Place another sheet on top and cut to have four squares. Place 1 tbs of fava beans and 1 tbs of asparagus in the middle, add salt and pepper. Top it with goat cheese mixture. Bring each side towards the center to form small pillows. Proceed the same way with the rest of the sheets. Brush the top of the pillow with olive oil.

Bake in a non-stick sheet at 370 for about 10 minutes or until the pillows are golden and crunchy. Serve hot.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/10/get-a-pillow-and-take-a-nap-pillows-with-fava-beans-asparagus-and-feta/feed/ 21 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/05/i-am-in-love-again-vegetable-and-haloumi-skewers-on-mache-salad-with-fava-beans-roasted-bell-pepper-capers-and-lemon-vinaigrette/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=i-am-in-love-again-vegetable-and-haloumi-skewers-on-mache-salad-with-fava-beans-roasted-bell-pepper-capers-and-lemon-vinaigrette http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/05/i-am-in-love-again-vegetable-and-haloumi-skewers-on-mache-salad-with-fava-beans-roasted-bell-pepper-capers-and-lemon-vinaigrette/#comments Sun, 30 May 2010 05:38:32 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=10952 Je suis encore tombée amoureuse – Brochettes de haloumi et courgettes sur salade de mâche aux fèves – vinaigrette de poivrons grillés, citron et câpres

Have you ever felt this strong chemistry with someone you just meet for the first few seconds, without even talking just by the energy that this person emits? It can be a man or a woman, just anyone. There is something out there, as if your energy “captures” the energy of the other person and something magical happens…Now between a man and a woman, it can be more of a sexual chemistry (well among same sex people too, if you are gay). It happened to me with a lady I met (I am not gay) and the first three seconds I saw her, I just liked her. I felt so comfortable and at ease, that I thought I knew her. Not sure how it’s called, maybe the pheromones (between two people from opposite sex), the chemistry, I don’t know. It is a strange feeling when this happens. Things feel just right.

Well this happened to me today with…this salad. I am just in love. In this particular case it has to do with the flavors, my palate met those “magical flavors and we are in love (well at least me). I have been eating this three days in a row and cannot get enough of it. I am hooked, the only problem is that that beautiful haloumi has too many calories for a every day consumption, so I just added a few pieces here and there, among the other vegetables. This whole composition matches what I love best and what I enjoy eating most, light, fragrant, nutritious, dishes that make you feel good after you eat them. I am very health conscious (sometimes I tend to be a freak in that area, I am aware of it), since I work out two hours a day and I do pay a lot of attention to what I eat. The good thing is that I am against all kinds of diets, which I think most of them deprive your body from many nutrients, and I cannot eat blend food, it needs to be exciting, fragrant, and most of all stimulate my sense. So yes I am deeply in love, and here is the “heureux élu“, the lucky one, that makes my palate race. Et ça, c’est l’amour!!!!!

This type of dressing can be used in many ways, I just like it on grilled vegetables, the sweetness of the grill pepper combined with capers and lemon results in a wonderful and magical blend.

Now my other little weakness is the mâche salad, I have always been going crazy for it, we grew it in the garden and it’s a very common salad in France. I have some strong memories of huge quantities of mâche prepared just for me when I came home from High school (I was lucky enough to come and have lunch with my parents when going to school)…and those memories will not fade away.

Ingredients for 4 (2 skewers each)

• 3 small zucchini, cut crosswise (about 3/4 inch thick)
• 1/2 red onion
• 16 cherry tomatoes
• 1 piece haloumi
• mâche salad
• 1 cup fava beans
• 1/3 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp lemon
• salt and pepper

For the vinaigrette

• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tbs basil, chopped finely
• 1 tsp capers, chopped finely
• zest of 1 lemon (keep some for decoration)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a mixing container, combine zucchini, tomatoes, onions, then add cumin, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Cover, marinate and refrigerate for a few hours.

After they marinate, using a bamboo skewer, take a zucchini slice, an onion piece, a piece of haloumi, onion and proceed with all the ingredients. Grill on a grill pan until all the sides are golden brown. Serve hot on a bed of fava bean/mâche salad, and spoon vinaigrette on top.

For the vinaigrette

Roast pepper in the oven under broiler. When the skin is all charred, take pepper out from oven, let it cool, then remove skin and seeds. Cut in small dices.

In a bowl, combine peppers, capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, basil, garlic, cayenne, salt and pepper. Mix well.

For the salad

Remove fava beans from their pod. Bring a pot of boiling water to a boil, then add fava beans. Cook for about 3 minutes (less if the beans are small and tender), drain and peel. Set aside.

Let the fava bean cool. Mix with mache salad, and drizzle with a little oil, lemon juice and a little bit of salt.

After this weekend ordeal, I needed to eat something to soothe my mind…Pasta especially pasta in bianco (with burro e parmigiano, butter and parmesan) is a dish that always remind me of when I was a child and sick, my mom would cook this dish for me who supposedly helped to cure whatever sickness one may have. It did not but, it’s sometimes good to believe it.

You cannot tell an Italian how to cook pasta, it’s ingrained in their DNA…Like the Swiss and skying, it seems like they’re born with skies on.

There are indeed many ways to cook pasta, one less known method is called “risottata“, meaning like a risotto where broth is added gradually. I did not come up with it, it’s a very old Italian method of cooking pasta! so, no pasta is not always boiled in salted water, drained and served topped with sauce. There is an interesting and funny article in English about the different cooking methods and cooking time of pasta on Identità Golose.

My father loves pasta overcooked…well at least well cooked, my mom and I, if it’s not VERY al dente, we don’t eat it, so usually the al dente eaters, take the pasta out of the pot first while the other ones can wait a while longer. He always looks at us horrified, mà come potate mangiare la pasta così cruda???? (how can you eat pasta that raw), well we can.

Pasta risottata being cooked a long time, takes longer than the usual way of boiling it in water. The risottata method allows it to keep its starch, therefore develop a particular creaminess (I wanted to show that creaminess on that second photo even it’s a screaming, right in your face type of a picture!)…can you just imagine the deliciousness of the pasta while having absorbed all that flavorful broth? It’s really my favorite way to cook and eat pasta. You need to try to believe it. For this cooking method, you need short pasta (pasta corta) such as small penne, or anything that size.

The recipe is quite simple, the greatness of the pasta comes first from the risottata method, then the combination of the ingredients make it a real treat.

Ingredients for 2

• 160 g short pasta
• 100 g fresh fava bean, pod removed
• 2 zucchini, diced in small cubes
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
• vegetable broth
• 1 shallot
• 1 garlic clove
• Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan and add garlic, stir for a few minutes, then add zucchini, cover and let cook until the zucchini start to be cooked but firm, then add tomatoes, salt and pepper. Let cook until the tomatoes start to soften. Set aside.

In the meantime, blanch fava bean grains in boiling water for about 2 minutes depending on the size of the grains. IF the grains are small and tender, one minute is enough. Drain and peel beans. Add to the pan with the other vegetables.

In a pot, heat olive oil, add shallots and brown them. Add pasta and proceed like you would for a risotto, adding gradually broth to cook it. When the pasta has reached the desired consistency (it will need to be slightly creamy), add vegetables and parmesan. Stir well and serve hot.

I have had some poached eggs lately at a new little place that used to be a French restaurant called Couleur Café run by French people. It closed down, and opened again under another name, Pizza Nostra run by the same people and now it’s an Italian restaurant, well the menu is more Italian than French. I liked it before when they were serving French cuisine and I like it now serving Italian cuisine. One of my favorite brunch menu item is the poached eggs on asparagus artichokes and eggplants with a side of frisée.

The best poached egg salad I had was in Lyon. Of course, if you ever go to Lyon, you need to order a Salade Lyonnaise at L’Est one of Paul Bocuse‘s four brasseries (one of the most famous French chefs of this century). The four brasseries are comprised of Le Nord, Le Sud, L’Est and L’Ouest (North, South, East and West). That salad is really a masterpiece. Unlike other French cities, where you tend to get very tiny portions on your plate, Lyon is very different in that respect. That salad was enough for four people and so rich that it had probably the amount of calories I consume in three days…but a real delight. Actually, Lyon is my favorite city in France, I prefer Lyon than Paris, it reminds me of San Francisco, a very livable size city, a clean metro, and nicer climate.

So going back to our egg, what do you do when you get a poached egg? Do you break the egg right away or eat the rest of the dish and break the egg at the end? I think I never really changed from when I was 8 years old. I just hate to break the egg and see the yolk dripping by, sometimes I just feel like sticking the whole egg in my mouth, just not to break it.

Ingredients for 2

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup snap peas
• 1 cup fava beans, skin removed
• 4 asparagus, cut in 1 inch pieces
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp mixed herbs, chopped (parsley, chives, etc…)
• 4 slices pancetta, diced (optional)
• balsamic vinegar for drizzling
• parmesan or pecorino, shaved
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add shallots, brown them, then add pancetta, let it cook for a couple of minutes until it gets a little crunchy, then add garlic. Stir for a couple of minutes, then add snap peas and asparagus, salt and pepper. Cover and let it cook at slow heat.

Remove fava beans from the pod. Bring water to a boil in a small pot, then add fava beans. Cook for one minute depending on the size of the beans. Drain, let it cool and remove the skin from the beans.

Add to the snap peas and asparagus mixture.

To poach the eggs: In a medium size pot, bring water to a boil with salt and vinegar. When it started to boil, reduce heat so that it boils very slowly. Break egg in a bowl and slowly bring the bowl on top of the boiling water and pour it very slowly and carefully in the water. Make sure the egg whites don’t get spread out in the water, and bring the white close to the yolk. You can use two spoons to try to “glue” the egg whites all together on top of the yolk. remove the egg carefully and place in cold water to rinse the vinegar and stop the cooking process.

When the vegetables are cooked but not overcooked, drizzle with balsamic vinegar, shave some parmesan on top. Spoon vegetables in serving plates, place one poached egg on top, Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.

That might not be that original but it is so good that I had to put it up. I don’t know why but I am a little tired of seeing fish served with potato purée,  not sure either why almost all restaurants do that, but it is certainly a big déja vu and I am wondering why they could not use other vegetables, such as turnips, parsnips, fennel, etc…It’s not so much the potato that bothers me, but the purée.

As much as I want to become a vegetarian, and stop consuming animal base products, including fish, I am unable to do it, well I am probably weak in that respect.  Another weakness on the list (among many)…A friend of mine, big meat consumer, refuses to eat fish because he considers fish to be close to humans and he said it’s like eating our own specie, isn’t that strange? I never had a fish as a pet, maybe if I had one, I wouldn’t be able to eat them either. Since I have Pepito, the parakeet, I am wondering how can people eat birds…he is such a little friend. Most of the time, people eat what they eat, without thinking about what it actually is. At some point in my life, I even tasted porcupine…something I would not be able to do today.

I love fava bean so much that I would put them everywhere, salads, soups, fish, pesto, side dish…fava bean rule! I think I have been on a low carb diet lately because I have been thinking about potatoes a lot, and usually it’s a clear sign that my body wants some. I am not a big potato eater, but once in a while, I enjoy them.

Nage in French means swim, and it’s a way we use when talk about a dish that has been prepared with a court-bouillon, a brothy type of stew, or simply broth. Here the salmon swims in the broth, and it’s a very healthy recipe. The thing is when fish is cooked en nage, you need to make sure your broth has lots of flavors or it tends to be insipid. I had white cod cooked this way in a top notch restaurant in San Francisco and it was so bland, the poor fish was barely swimming in some dirty tasteless water.

The broth has a gorgeous yellowish color due to saffron and the potatoes are cooked in it, so they absorbed that color as well.

Ingredients for 4

For the nage

• 3 cups water
• 1 onion, cut in quarter
• 1 carrot
• 1 celeri stick
• vegetable bouillon
• 1/2 tsp anise seeds
• 2 bay leaves
• bouquet garni (oregano, thyme, marjoram, etc…)
• 3 cloves
• 1 saffron dose
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 6 whole black pepper corns
• salt

For the salmon

• 4 salmon fillets
• 4 medium size potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly about 5mm thick
• 1 lbs fava beans
• chives for decoration

Preparation

Heat olive oil and add onion quarters. Cook for a few minutes, add water, vegetable broth, and all the other ingredients. Cover and cook for at least 30 minutes. The liquid needs to reduce and become a little thicker with all flavors infused. Adjust with salt.

In another pot, add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Add fava beans and cook for about 3 minutes. Drain and peel. Set aside.

When the broth is almost ready, add potatoes. Cook for about 10 min or until cooked, do not over cook or they will get mushy, the slices need to remain full.

Add salmon fillets, cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until salmon is cooked to your taste. Add fava beans and remove from the stove.

Remove salmon fillets and potatoes, and set aside. Drain the broth.

Place salmon in a deep dish, add vegetables around and pour some court-bouillon around. Sprinkle with chives, anise seeds and a few saffron threads.