I haven’t celery rave in a long time, for no specific reason, maybe because I don’t enjoy peeling it. is that a good enough reason? maybe not.

In France we eat celery rave a lot, mainly in rémoulade. Rémoulade is grated celery with mayonnaise, so a big word for something quite simple. In this recipe, I combined it with the sweetness of fennel and scallops.

I have noticed that many Americans don’t like fennel nor liquorice, so if you belong to the fennel-haters category, you can replace it with thinly sliced zucchini and instead of fennel, you can use cumin seeds.

I have been making some mango vinegar and playing with it on some recipes other than salads, and I really like it on seafood.

When cooking the scallops, always add salt at the end, otherwise if added while cooking, the scallops won’t turn brown and will form water. Also, when browning scallops, make sure the butter won’t burn. If it does burn, you need to discard it and use fresh butter. Or alternatively, filter the sauce at the end, so that the sauce looks smooth with no butter residue.

Ingredients for 2

For the celery root purée

• 2 small heads of celery, peeled and diced (1 inch)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp onion, chopped
• vegetable broth
• 1 tbs heavy cream
• salt and pepper

For the braised fennel

• 1 tbs onion, finely diced
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 large fennel bulb, shaved with a mandoline
• juice of 1 orange
• salt and pepper

For the scallops

• about 5 grams butter
• 4 large scallops (fresh not frozen)
• 1 tsp honey
• 3 tbs mango vinegar
• Fleur de sel

Preparation

For the celery root purée

Heat olive oil in a pan and add onion, let them sweat and add celery root. Cover with broth and let cook until absorbed and until celery is tender. You might need to use more broth in the process. Adjust with salt. Mash with a potatoe masher and add cream. Stir well and keep mashing until smooth and homogeneous.

For the braised fennel

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add onions and fennel and let it cook until fragrant but not until the onion turns golden brown.Add fennel and orange juice, salt and pepper. Cover and let cook at slow heat until orange juice absorbed and fennel tender. Keep warm.

For the scallops

Melt butter in a pan. Add scallops and cook on both sides until golden brown, about 2 minutes each side. Remove from pan and keep warm. Add honey, stir well and deglaze with mango vinegar and stir well.

Using a rind, place purée at the bottom of the plate. Add fennel on top and scallops at the end. Drizzle scallops with fleur de sel. Pour sauce around or on top of scallops and serve hot. You might want to have your plates warmed up before plating.

Bourride is a Provencal dish, let’s say the cousin of bouillabaisse. It’s originally made out of monkfish. In this version, I added shrimps and clams and fennel in the broth. I love the combination of fennel and fish/seafood. It’s a light and flavorful dish that can be enjoyed all year round. Not being difficult to make, it can also be prepared in advance, just get the broth with the vegetables ready the night before and you can only cook the fish the day you are consuming it. That is a big convenience.

These days I have not been a big fish and seafood eater, but once in a while if I make an ocean dish, it needs to be special. Bourride is delicious and light, especially if you don’t add too much aioli.

Bourride is served with aioli. Aioli is used in all Mediterranean basin such as Provence, Spain and Northern Italy. It’s usually a condiment made out of garlic and oil, sometimes an egg is added but for purists, egg is to be avoided.

Ingredients

For the soup

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 1 fennel, diced
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced (1/2 inch pieces)
• 1 leek (the white part), sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tbs parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1.5 lb monkfish, cut in 5 cm pieces
• about 15 shrimps, peeled and deveined
• about 15 clams

For the aioli

• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 yolk
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 3.4 oz (or 100 ml) vegetable oil
• 3.4 oz (or 100 ml) olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the aioli

In a bowl, or mortar crush garlic, add yolk and mustard then add slowly vegetable oil. Add olive oil and continue stirring until the mixture is smooth. Adjust with salt and pepper.

For the bourride

Heat olive oil in a deep pot. Add cut vegetables and let them sweat for about t0 min until they get soft. Add garlic, parsley and wine. Stir well, then add broth. Let it cook for about 20 min until the vegetables are well cooked. Mash roughly with a potato masher. Remove about 1 laddle of broth and set aside.

Cook monkfish in a little oil on all sides, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Add monkfish to broth, add shrimps and clams. Cover and cook at medium temperature until the clams open.

When fish is cooked, mix 3-4 tbs aioli with the left aside broth and mix well. Add to the fish/broth mixture. Sprinkle with parsley and serve hot with toasted bread or as is.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2016/07/a-different-kind-of-bourride-bourride-of-monkfish-clams-and-shrimps/feed/ 0 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2016/05/grilled-octopus-fennel-and-fava-bean-saute-roasted-pepper-salsa-mixed-herb-salsa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grilled-octopus-fennel-and-fava-bean-saute-roasted-pepper-salsa-mixed-herb-salsa http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2016/05/grilled-octopus-fennel-and-fava-bean-saute-roasted-pepper-salsa-mixed-herb-salsa/#comments Sat, 07 May 2016 22:11:03 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=17784 Poulpe grillé sur lit de fenouil et fèves, coulis de poivrons grillés, et sauce aux fines herbes

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).

 I remember reading about this recipe in a French magazine such as Femme Actuelle or Elle à Table, but it’s been a while ago and I don’t remember so I have been making it from memory, which is certainly not exactly the same as the original. It’s nonetheless delicious. Anything vegetarian is very appealing to me and especially a meat dish like pot-au-feu. Pot-au-feu which is as emblematic as the Eiffel Tower. It’s a traditionally beef dish cooked for a long period of time in a broth with vegetables and herbs. Usually the broth is served separately (sometimes cooked with pasta) and the meat is served on the side too, with moutarde de Dijon or other condiments. It’s a very popular dish in France and always enjoyed with family and friends since there always too much meat left.

Now pot-au-feu is not my favorite dish, and I love to find some vegetarian alternative to some heavy traditional dishes.

If you look at the ingredients of this pot-au-feu, it has definitely a Southern French flair, with Pastis and fennel, how can it not?

This vegetarian pot-au-feu can be eaten as is and it does not need anything on the side, other than a simple green salad. The broth is infused with saffron, pastis and herbs therefore very fragrant and make this dish very colorful and vibrant.

I cooked it in my clay pot at low heat and turned out delicious.

Ingredients for 2-3

• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 sprig thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 pinch saffron
• 1 large fennel bulb, cut in 6-7 quarters
• 2 medium size artichokes, trimmed and cut in quarters
• 3 medium size yukon potatoes, cut in quarters
• 1/2 meyer lemon, seeds removed and cut lengthwise, then in two
• 1/3 cup Pastis
• 1 cup broth
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a large pot, heat olive oil, then add garlic, thyme, bay leaves, saffron. Stir for a few minutes until fragrant. Add vegetables, pastis and broth. Cover with lid and let cook for about 30 minutes at low heat until vegetables are tender.

Pardon my ignorance, I thought the soft crabs were a particular kind of specie…They’re apparently not. When I found out that they’re basically regular crabs that molted their hard shell, I felt a little bad to eat them. Poor little crab without his house…but I already bought them, so I had no other option that cook them…so the little homeless crab had to end up in my plate. I found a very useful site explaining how to clean them on ChefsLine.

Radicchio has two of my favorite features, colorful and bitter, which combined with fennel makes a very harmonious combination. The sweetness of the grilled fennel stands out beautifully, and complement the slight acidity of the cream of chick peas due to lemon juice and capers. So what about the crab?? I have been talking about everything except about our naked crab..and this recipe is not about fennel, nor radicchio BUT only about the crab!

This crab is such a treat, every bite is meaty and delicate, it is baked so not as crunchy as you would get it it was fried, but definitely healthier. So delicious! the topping makes it flavorful with a little sesame note and blends to perfection with the chick pea cream.

Ingredients for 4

• 8 soft shell crabs
• 6 tbs breadcrumbs
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 3 tbs almond meal
• 1 tbs sesame seeds
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbs parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper
  

For the cream of chick peas and capers

• 1/2 lb cooked chick peas
• 4 tbs plain yogurt
• 1 tbs garlic, crushed
• juice of one lemon
• 1 tbs capers, chopped
• cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper

For the fennel-radicchio salad

• 2 fennel bulbs, thinly sliced
• 1 radicchio head, sliced in 1 inches slices
• 1 tbs olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the salad

Grill radicchio and fennel on a grill pan, then place on a large bowl, add other ingredients and set aside.

For the crab

In a mixing bowl, mix all ingredients together except for the crab (of course). Top each crab with the breadcrumb/almond mixture, drizzle each crab with a little olive oil, and back in the oven at 400F until the top is golden brown and the crab is cooked.

For the cream of chick peas

Mix all ingredients except capers and yogurt in a blender. Remove from blender and add capers and yogurt. Mix well and set aside.

Serve with some warm salad in the middle of the plate, two soft shell crabs on top and spoon cream of chick pea on the side.

I had bought some adzuki beans a while ago, yes I know there are so many kinds of beans, and this one is one among many others. It’s a bean mainly grown in the Himalayas and used in Asia in sweet preparations, they’re mostly known as red beans. Of course, I am not Asian, therefore in my culture beans are prepared in savory dishes and I wanted to try to prepare them in a more Western way, because after all a bean is a bean. I love black quinoa, it tends to be more flavorful and earthy than white quinoa and its nuttiness in this dish allied with the sweetness of fennel and red beans make it a palate pleasing combination.

Honestly, I was not sure I would post this because I thought it will be another quinoa/bean dish which is not the first on on my blog. After the first bite, I definitely thought it was blog-worthy, the colors were so contrasting all together and it resulted in a delicious and harmonious blend of flavors.

After yesterday delicious snapper with kumquat sauce I had shot, which for whatever reason my camera decided to not “save”, and after I ate everything, realized that not even one shot was there. I was wondering if this would happen again with this red bean dish…It seemed like my Canon was in a good mood today, and decided to keep this one. It happened a few times before and tends to be frustrating, especially after the terrible week I had.

Sometimes to speed up the cooking process of beans that have not been previously soaked, I add a little baking soda, it does reduce cooking time.

You can eat this salad warm or cold, either way it’s delicious.

Ingredients for 4

• 1 cup black quinoa
• 1 cup adzuki beans
• broth (1/2 onion, 1/2 carrot, 1 celery stick, 1 bay leaf, thyme)
  
• 1 shallot, diced
  
• 2 carrots, sliced in half lengthwise then crosswise
  
• 1 fennel bulb, diced
• 1 cup cremini mushrooms, diced
  
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 tbs cilantro, finely chopped
• salt and pepper
  

For the vinaigrette

• 2 tbs olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/4 tsp cumin powder
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Cook beans in water with all carrot, onion, celery, bay leaf, thyme. Cook for about 45 minutes until the beans are soft. Drain and rinse.

Steam quinoa like you would do with rice.

In a pan, heat olive oil. Add shallot and let brown, add garlic and cook for another minute. Add carrots and fennel. Cover and let cook for about 10 minutes. When the vegetables are half cooked, add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Stir well and cook until the mushroom water evaporates.

Combine quinoa with beans, then add the vegetables. Let it cool.

For the vinaigrette, add all ingredients together mix well. Pour vinaigrette on the vegetable/quinoa mixture. Add cilantro, toss and serve.

I am just wondering when allergy season will end, I think this year it’s been a bad year and I have to chose between allergy pills that will stop the itchy eyes, sneezes and runny nose but make me so sleepy and drowsy or continue life being congested and still drowsy. At this point, I don’t know, I just want to function normally. I understand that complaining about something so minor is silly when half of the planet is dealing with life and death situations, so I will just focus on simple food that is easy to make and that remind me that delicious food can help alleviate some minor discomfort.

I usually serve this flavorful salad just simply the way it is, as a salad, or with melting potato bouchées or grilled fish. All the vegetables have been grilled and they blend together beautifully, they remain crunchy, and have their natural flavors enhanced by the hot grill.

It takes about 15 minutes to make including the chopping of the vegetables and grilling, so I consider this a “fast food” dish. Fast food literally meaning food that is prepared fast, in my kitchen, I don’t associate it with unhealthy and processed food.

Now if you want simple, quick and delicious, this is the one, but it’s also peu calorique! (low in calories) so even better. I noticed a lot of people are on a diet or trying to lose weight, I guess that’s a sign summer is on its way and that swim suits and light revealing clothes too. As far as San Francisco and its beaches are concerned, you might need a scarf and wind jacket instead of a swim suit…I just want to dream of a swim suit…and thinking about it, I don’t remember when was last time I wore one of those.

I love cuisine sur le grill, the beauty of it is that you can grill anything, vegetables, fruits, potatoes, just about anything you want while keeping all the flavors, the colors and shapes of your ingredients.

Baby roma tomatoes are perfect for grilling because they’re firm and slightly bigger than cherry tomatoes and a lot sweeter, so you can grill them easily, they will remain firm but need to grill them quickly at high heat so they won’t get mushy.

Ingredients for 3-4 as a side dish

• 2 fennel bulbs, sliced
• 1 red onion, sliced
• about 10-12 baby roma tomatoes, cut lengthwise
• 1 tbs capers, chopped
• 1 tsp strong Dijon mustard
• juice of one Meyer lemon
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the vinaigrette

Combine oil, mustard, lemon juice, capers, salt and pepper. Stir well all ingredients together.

Using a grill pan, grill all vegetables, starting with the fennel, the onions and tomatoes. Place them in a mixing bowl.

Add vinaigrette on grilled vegetables and serve with favorite fish or savory galettes.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/04/lets-grill-all-of-them-grilled-fennel-salad-with-red-onions-baby-roma-tomatoes-mustard-capers-dressing/feed/ 28 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/04/a-happy-match-cream-of-fennel-and-cannellini-beans-with-marinated-feta-tartine/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-happy-match-cream-of-fennel-and-cannellini-beans-with-marinated-feta-tartine http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/04/a-happy-match-cream-of-fennel-and-cannellini-beans-with-marinated-feta-tartine/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 06:10:59 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=9078 Un mariage bienheureux – Crème de fenouil et haricots blancs, tartine de féta mariné

Fennel and cannellini is a very Mediterranean combination, then if you accompany it with feta, there is no more doubt about it. Fennel is perfect for soups and purées, and of course in so many other ways too. When I make those purée types of soups, I cannot help it to accompany it with a tartine of country bread and with some kind of cheese, Roquefort, ricotta, feta, goat cheese, anything that will enhance a spoonful of that sweet fennel flavor.

My favorite alcoholic aperitif being pastis, I love fennel since its sweet anis flavor reminds me of Marseille and the South of France. If you ever end up in Marseille, you have to drink a pastis, it’s the local drink and incredibly refreshing during summer time…of course if you like anis.

Technically what is the difference between a cream, a velouté, a bisque, when talking about a soup? Their main common point is that they’re thick and blended soups. Yes, in the French language there are quite a lot of words to describe “a soup” but they all have very distinct and precise meanings, there are so many nuances that sometimes it’s intricate to explain them accurately.

The velouté is a blended soup, creamy and unctuous and enhanced by cream that contains meats and crustaceans. The cream is made out of pure vegetables combined with crème fraîche.

Bisque is a velouté in which its main ingredient is a crustacean and thickened by yolks and cream.

Then of course, we have the bouillon and the consommé, which are broth based and have a liquid texture. The word soup is a generic one, and does not give you any information on the type of soup you are eating…just a soup.

I did not add cream in my cream of fennel, so technically it cannot be called “cream”, you can add crème fraîche at the end like it should, I am just keeping things light, so au revoir la crème.

Ingredients for 4

For the soup

• 2 fennel bulbs, sliced
• 1 medium size onion, chopped
• 1 sprig thyme
• 1/2 lb cannellini beans, cooked
• vegetable broth
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs mint for decoration

For the tartines

• 4 slices country bread, cut in halves
• 4 tbs feta, crumbled
• 1/8 tsp cumin powder
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp olive oil
• cracked black pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a large pot and brown onions, then add fennel and thyme. Stir well to coat the fennel, then add broth (enough just to cover the fennel mixture), adjust with salt and pepper.

When the fennel is cooked, add cooked cannellini beans, and let the soup for about 10 minutes (adjust broth if necessary).

Remove from heat and blend in a blender into a thin mixture.

For the tartines, crumble carefully feta cheese in a container, add spices, herbs and oil. Mix carefully not to break the cheese. Toast slices of bread and top if with cheese.

The salmon got a little jealous and was raving to be coated with a citrusy orange sauce too, because he thought that not only canard can be made “à l’orange”, he was the perfect candidate for the title too…and he was. On peut faire plein de choses avec des oranges!

The fennel at my local grocery store has been so round, and perfect looking that I could not resist and bought a lot of those beautiful bulbs. After the shrimp salad, now the salmon dish. You might think that fennel-orange and fish-fennel are two déjà vu combinations, it might be, but the secret here is the broth that makes this salmon a wonderful fragrant dish. Then when you love something, you can never get enough of it.

What I like about this dish is is the lightness of its fragrance, the salmon already has a strong flavor so I don’t like to add too many spices and powerful ingredients to a naturally strong ingredient, then I think it is confusing to your palate when you eat it, well mine gets very sensitive and does get confused easily if too many strong ingredients are combined. C’est la confusion totale! I served this with barley pilaf, whose little crunchy texture accompanied the whole dish very well.

I used some herbs to enhance the broth and that’s basically where the fragrance comes from. I was so happy I finally planted a bunch of herbs in the garden, so let’s hope the three semi-abandoned cats hanging outside the house won’t come and dig them, I am not too familiar with cats’ behavior but seems like they like to play with plants…and catch birds…and seriously have been scaring me a little due to their giant size and the way they are staring at me and my bird through the windows, I haven’t felt any love coming this way.

Ingredients for 2

For the fish and fennel

• 2 salmon fillets, skinless
• 1 fennel bulb, sliced thickly
• Juice of 1 orange + zests
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• flour for coating the fish
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

For the broth

• 1 leek, cut in chunks
• 1 carrot, cut in chunks
• 2 celeri sticks
• 1 onion, cut in quarters
• 1 tomato cut in quarters
• 2 bay leaves
• 6-7 basil leaves
• 1 tsp fish fumet
• 6 black peppercorns
• 2 cups water

Preparation

Start preparing the broth, by adding all ingredients together with 2 or more cups of water. Let it simmer for one hour, adding more water if necessary. At the end of cooking time, when broth has reduced, you need about 1.5 cups broth. Drain and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a pan, and add fennel. Let it cook at high heat until both sides are golden brown (about 5-7 minutes), add salt and pepper. Add crush garlic, stir for about 30 seconds, then add 2 ladles of broth. Reduce heat and let it cook all the way through (about 15-20 minutes).

Heat olive oil in a pan. Coat fish with flour and saute in oil. Let it brown on both sides, then add orange juice, 2 ladles of broth and wine. Let it reduce.

Happy Valentine’s day to everyone! Joyeuse St. Valentin!

Valentine’s day is not only the celebration of love but also of friendship, so I think everyone is concerned. It seems like the celebration goes back to antiquity in Greece where February was the month of love and fertility and when Zeus got married to Hera. Also during Roman times, this time of year, took place a celebration honoring Lupercus who was the God protector of fields and herds and February 14 was celebrated love and fertility. So we are perpetuating a very ancient celebration.

This Valentine’s day it’s muggy and grey and all you want to do is stay inside. After looking at what is going on on the the East Coast and the snow storms, I am thankful to have an overcast sky, and not be burried under the snow.  I used to have really terrible cabin fever when I lived in Boston and I am afraid I cannot handle extreme weather.

On Sunday morning, Valentine’s day or not, I like to get my croissants and pains au chocolat, it just happens occasionally but when it does, it’s a treat. So when you have that type of breakfast, lunches are usually on the light side.

I somehow love the combination and texture of this salad, the sweetness of chickpeas and fennel, the crunchiness of  the shrimps and the bitterness of arugula are blending harmoniously together…just like a happy couple. Valentine’s day for me is all about harmony, balance, and of course….love.

Ingredients for 2

• 1.5 cup arugula
• 12 large shrimps, peeled, deveined, and cut in half
• 150 g cooked chick peas
• 1/2 large fennel bulb, shaved
• 2 tbs red onions, finely chopped
• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 garlic crushed
• orange champagne vinegar
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the salad, mix arugula, fennel, chick peas, red onion together. Saute shrimps in a little olive oil, add salt and pepper and let them cool.

For the vinaigrette, combine oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Add shrimps to the salad, add dressing and toss well. Grind some fresh black pepper and serve.