I am not sure how this recipe was made alive, I kept looking at my two packs of polenta, thinking I need to use them at some point. I love polenta, I just never think of making it. It’s one of those things that you need to have it in your pantry but then, in the pantry it remains. I grew up eating the traditional polenta from Marche region in Italy, the way my mom used to make it, with tomato-rabbit sauce. It was delicious but a little too stuffy.

Polenta has many uses and is quite a versatile ingredient. You can make sweet cakes, or use it as a thickening agent, or anything you like.

I used almond milk in this recipe, the natural kind which contains only almonds and water, and no thickening agents and flavors.

This is a simple dish, enhanced by the sweet pepper coulis. A perfect dish for a hearty lunch for one of those muggy days in the city. This pepper coulis could be the base of pesto, but I didn’t add any parmesan nor nuts so it has a smoother texture and more liquid.

Ingredients for 3-4 cakes

For the cakes

• 300 g baby spinach
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup natural almond milk
• 6 oz (or 170 g) express polenta
• 3 tbs feta, crumbled + 2 tbs
• 1 tbs mixed herbs, chopped
• salt and pepper

For the pepper coulis

• 2 red bell peppers
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/4 tsp cumin powder
• 1/4 tsp piment d’espelette
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs basil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the cakes

Preheat oven at 380F.

Heat non stick pot, add spinach and cook until wilted. Remove from pot, squeeze water and chop roughly.

In a mixing container, combine milk and eggs and beat well. Add spinach, onion and polenta. Add crumble feta and herbs. Adjust with salt and pepper and mix well.

Using silicon molds (about 8 cm each) or non stick mini pans, divide the mixture in each container.

Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes until the top gets golden.

Serve hot with pepper coulis.

For the pepper coulis

Roast peppers under broiler until the skin gets burnt on all sides. Remove from oven and let it cool in a plastic bag.

Remove the peel and seeds.

Add all ingredients in a mixer and mix to a smooth texture.

Believe it or not, this dish belongs to the express category. Today feeling exhausted and hungry, and not in the best mood, probably because of a foggy weather (San Francisco weather in the summer), like we say in French, “le ciel me tombe sur la tête“, the sky is falling on my head, which means that everything is so heavy that you have no energy.

I am dreaming on a relaxing vacation on a tropical island with white beach, some sun and nothing else. Since that is not possible right now, I decided to bring some sun inside the house, and what better to enlighten your day, than a vibrant and delicious vegetable dish?

Of course, being exhausted, I did not envision myself, spending hours cooking and cleaning afterwards. Mentally, it was impossible. So here we go, we have broccoli as the lead actor and a bunch of secondary vegetables that play an important role as well. Never undermined the role of a secondary actor, it changes the whole play.

The baby kale saute, is really optional, you could very well serve these galettes with the butter bean salad only. I was in the mood for some kale, and it complement this dish quite well, so I added it. It’s not essential.

Ingredients for 3-4

For the galettes

• 2 cups broccoli floret (some stem too)
• 1 tbs cumin seeds toasted
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• chili flakes (to taste)
• 4 tbs feta, crumbled
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• salt and pepper
• Greek yogurt (optional)

For the kale

• 2 cups baby kale
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• salt and pepper

For the butter bean-avocado salad

• 1 cup butter beans, cooked
• 2 heirloom tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 avocado, diced
• 1 tbs fresh mint, chopped
• 1 tsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the galettes

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook broccoli for about 3 minutes, until lightly cooked and  crunchy (if too cooked the broccoli will absorb too much water and the galettes will remain soggy). Drain and chop roughly. In a mixing container, mix broccoli, cumin and flour. Mix well all ingredients. Then add eggs and mix to obtain an homogenous mixture. Add garlic and chili and mix well. At the end, add feta carefully making sure not to break the pieces of feta. You need some unbroken pieces of feta in the galettes.

Heat oil in a large pan. Take some mixture (the equivalency of 2 tbs) and form small galettes. Cook on both sides until golden brown and cooked all the way through.

For the kale

Heat olive oil in a large pot, add garlic until fragrant. Add kale and cook at high heat until wilted. Adjust with salt and pepper.

For the butter bean-avocado salad

Mix all ingredients together, keep chilled.

I made a large quiche just like those mini ones for a dinner party, and I had leftover dough…which I did not want to throw away. Why throw away food that you enjoyed making and put time into it?  I love to play with crusts, quiches and tarts, after all, they’re the basics of French cuisine. For savory tarts, I love to use olive oil instead of butter in the crust, and make it wholesome. Olive oil adds a wonderful flavor to crusts and cakes and make them lighter. Of course traditional French cuisine uses more butter, but this blog is not about traditional French food.

I love the combination of zucchini, feta and mint, they pair so well in almost anything such as in savory cakes, flans, couscous, etc…The crust and its herbes de Provence flavor, gives you a kick of Southern French cuisine, with all its aromas, and fragrant scents. Yes indeed, these quiches will bring some warmth and will brighten your day, as Southern French food does, it’s filled with flavors, colors and freshness…so isn’t this a bit of happiness too?

I am one of those crazy people that get affected by the weather, and a bright day with natural light gives me so much happiness. If I could chose the perfect weather it would be a sunny day with 80F temperature, with a light breeze. If anyone of you live in that particular climate, please let me know and I will just move there! (no humidity please). There is a French expression that most old people would respond to when asked, comment allez-vous? “How are you doing?” most of them respond, oh comme le temps!, meaning “like the weather”, which really can show you how much the French are truly “doing” like the weather! so if it’s raining, you can just imagine how they’re doing! Ask no more…

Ingredients for 4 mini quiches

For the crust

• 4.4 oz (or 125 g) wholewheat flour
• 1.69 fl oz (or 50 ml) olive oil
• 1 tsp herbes de Provence
• water
• a pinch of salt

For the filling

• 2 tbs kalamata olives, chopped
• 2 small zucchini, thinly sliced with a mandoline
• 2 tbs feta, crumbled
• 1 tbs mint, chiffonade
• 2 eggs
• 4 tbs heavy cream
• 4 tbs milk
• cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the crust

Place flour in a mixing bowl, then add herbes de Provence, salt, oil, and start mixing, add water gradually enough to make the dough elastic and not crumbly. Mix well to form a ball. Wrap in a plastic film and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Divide dough in four parts and using a rolling pin, roll into 4 round sheets. Lay flat inside four tart molds.

For the filling

Place sliced zucchini in a bowl and sprinkle with coarse salt, mix well to coat. Let it sit for 15 minutes. Rinse under cold water, squeeze extra water using your hands and pat dry using a paper towel. Cut roughly.

Place olives on top of crust. Mix zucchini, feta and mint and put mixture on top of olives.

Beat eggs with cream and milk, a little salt (not too much since the feta is salty and the zucchini have absorbed some salt too), and cayenne pepper. Pour on top of zucchini mixture.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 20-30 minutes until the top is golden brown and the crust is cooked on the bottom.

If life leaves you pizza dough, make more pizza!!

I love mini sizes portions, and bites, I think there is some cuteness in the size of a small bite, you don’t have to cut it, destroy it in from of your eyes before it reaches your mouth. It fits there perfectly.

As far as pizza and coffee are concerned, I tend to be a real snob and compare all pizza to pizza in Italy, after all they invented it, so throughout the centuries, they have mastered the art of pizza making. There are a few good pizzeria in San Francisco where the pizza is close to Italian pizza (France has awful pizza, I remember a pizzeria in Nancy where I grew up called La Mamma, where they served pizza with gruyère cheese, that was terrible). I have no idea if the greatness of Italian pizza has to do with the brick oven where it’s cooked, with the natural flavor of the ingredients that is different, but it’s something hard to describe, the dough is thin and crunchy, there is little cheese and the cheese melts to perfection and does not hardens that quickly.

I am not going to discuss the perfect dough texture, or flavor, nor give the description of the perfect thread of melting mozzarella, (maybe if I was Balzac I could)! because I don’t think I have enough English vocabulary but it’s something you have to experience for yourself. I was thinking to build a brick oven in the garden mainly to cook pizza, but unfortunately the size of the garden will not allow it.

I think we all have our particularities in the way we approach certain traditions and traditional dishes.

We all have our favorite pizza, it can be deep dish, thin crust, with one or two toppings, etc…and that’s the way it should be. Eat pizza the way we like it.

These mini pizza are not what you would find in a traditional pizzeria in Italy even though last time I was there, I was invited by the family to try a pizzeria that had dessert pizza on their menu, such as orange pizza, chocolate and nut pizza, etc…and were surprisingly enough, really delicious.

These mini pizza combine the flavors of Mediterranean countries, and are delightful. The beauty of small bites is that you eat one or two and you feel satisfied, when you have a whole pizza in front of you, you feel somehow “obliged” to finish it (I do).

Ingredientsfor one large pizza or 4 small

For pizza dough

• 1/2 lb (or 250 g) flour
• about 5 fl oz (or 150 ml) lukewarm water
• about 0.4 oz (or 12 g) compressed yeast dissolved in the water
• 1.5 tbs olive oil
• salt

For the topping

• red pepper pesto – see here for recipe
• 4 small Italian eggplants, sliced
• 4 tbs feta
• 8 baby artichokes (+juice of 1 lemon)
• kalamata olives (optional)
• basil, chopped (optiona)
• olive oil for drizzling

Preparation

For the dough

Place flour in a working surface, gradually add yeast/water mixture, salt and oil. Mix well to obtain a soft dough, the dough should be elastic and souple, almost sticky. Cover with a towel and let it rise for about 2 hours.

For the topping

Grill the eggplant slices on a grill pan. Cut in halves and set aside. Trim the artichokes, removing the green leaves around, cut the top and cut in quarters. Place in a lemon juice/water bath to prevent them from staining. Saute in olive oil and garlic until tender. Adjust with salt and pepper.

Cut dough in four equal parts. Roll each dough portion with a rolling pin (or with your hands if you have mastered the art of twisting the dough). Spread some red pepper pesto on top of the dough, add eggplant, artichokes and feta, if you using olives add at this point.Adjust with salt and pepper if necessary but the feta and olives being already salty, you might decide not too.

Cook in a 390 F pre heated oven for about 20 minutes or until the bottom is cooked.

On my stay in Tel Aviv, I walked almost all over the city for five days…the weather was beautiful, it felt so much like summer to me so while France was snowed in, I enjoyed my five days as if it was the last time I would be in short sleeves and eat croissants on a terrace.

As much as Jerusalem had a magic light, Tel Aviv had amazing restaurants, I loved all of them, everything was fresh and exquisite and I got to explore the city and its great neighborhoods and specialties with my map (and my high heels, shameless to say). As bad as I get in orienting myself, sometimes I think I have a disease. I can drive or walk every day by the same place, without ever remembering it. Maybe the “tête en l’air” virus.

I did remember Ben Yehuda street and the green restaurant that had been intriguing me for days with its flashy green color. It was a colorful looking place that seemed to serve organic food and decided to give it a try. It was a mixture of a traditional Californian vegetarian cafe type of decor combined with a Mediterranean menu which intrigued me. Every item on the menu had a calorie count and was under 300 calories per dish. I was not aware that Israelis were that health conscious. I finally ordered the lentil salad not knowing what to expect and thinking how exciting a bowl of lentils could be? Well, it could certainly be very exciting! that was seriously the most, delicious, flavorful, healthy lentil dish salad I had in quite a long time.

I loved it so much, that I wanted to try to reproduce it from what I remembered and it turned out quite well. Who can say no to a one meal bowl full of nutrients with so little calories? Certainly not me.

Ingredients for 2

• about 5.30 oz  (or 150 g) green lentils
• 3 medium size beets (golden or red), cooked and diced
• 1 cup arugula
• 2 tbs feta, crumbled
• 2 tbs mint, chopped
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/3 tsp cumin powder
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Cook lentils in salted water until cooked but not mushy. Drain and set aside.

Cook beets in water until tender, about 45 min. Let cool, then peel them. Cut in about 1 inches pieces and add to the lentils, then add arugula. Add mint and scallion and mix well.

In a bowl, mix cumin, olive oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Pour dressing on top of the salad and toss. Add feta and mix carefully.

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.

You can make those just for the fun of it because they’re so easy and quick to make. Those cute flans have been always a favorite of mine and whoever tried them too. They are addictive and once you’ve made them, you will keeping making them over and over again just because they’re so quick to make and for such a fasted prepared meal, the result is worth the effort. Sometimes, it happens you spent so many hours cooking and then when it’s time to eat, you realize that all that time cooking was not worth it, because the result ended up just ordinary. This is not the case.

I did some research to find out what was the right translation for the word heirloom in French since I have never seen them over there, and weirdly enough, it’s literally translated by “ancient tomatoes” or tomates anciennes. I have never seen them in France in supermarkets but seems like they do exist, so I would imagine it’s something that had been introduced recently to the market.

Anyway, I bought one giant yellow tomato that weighted 1 lb, it was huge and was enough to use in a few recipes. You might want to use a red tomato instead of a yellow one, the contrasts will be much prettier since the flans are already on the yellowish tone, here it looks like yellow on yellow. I have always learnt that you just don’t wear the same tones of colors together…and what works for clothes, works for food too. Colors and just colors after all.

The tomato vinaigrette is a great and refreshing way to accompany this kinds of dishes, and I use it quite often.

Ingredients for 6 flans

For the flans

• 3 small zucchini, grated
• 6 tbs feta
• 12 mint leaves, roughly chopped
• about 8 kalamata olives, roughly chopped
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbs heavy cream
• 4 tbs milk
• salt and pepper

For the heirloom tomato vinaigrette

• 3 medium heirloom tomatoes, grated
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the zucchini flans

Grate zucchini. Squeeze water with your hands and place in a container. In small silicon molds (you can get any shape you want) place about 1 tps zucchini, then add feta, olives and mint. Proceed with zucchini and with the other ingredients for a second layer.

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with milk and cream, salt and pepper.

Pour on top of the zucchini layers filling all molds equally.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 30 min or until the flans are slightly browned and cooked in the middle.

For the tomato vinaigrette

Cut the tomatoes crosswise and remove seeds. Using a cheese grater, grate tomato halves and place in a container. Add olive oil, cayenne pepper, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Place one flan per plate and spoon about 1 tbs of tomato vinaigrette around it.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/09/just-for-fun-zucchini-flans-with-olives-feta-and-mint-in-a-heirloom-tomato-vinaigrette/feed/ 12 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/08/spaghetti-squash-got-squashed-pancakes-of-spaghetti-squash-with-feta-and-oregano/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spaghetti-squash-got-squashed-pancakes-of-spaghetti-squash-with-feta-and-oregano http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/08/spaghetti-squash-got-squashed-pancakes-of-spaghetti-squash-with-feta-and-oregano/#comments Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:24:53 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=3025 On a écrasé la courge! – Galettes de courge spaghetti à la feta et origan

I love galettes, or pancakes, or anything that has vegetables in it and that looks like a flat crêpe. Spaghetti squash is a great vegetable to prepare yet not very popular. You can make so many different dishes and in so many different ways. Besides, its texture and aspect are very interesting. I used to serve this squash as a vegetable dish, in its shell, then I got tired of it, and figured, it can be prepared like zucchini.

Strangely enough, I have never seen it served in any restaurants…I don’t know why it’s not popular among chefs. Now I am wondering if chefs who own restaurants do come up with menus with specialties they really enjoy preparing or if the completely adapt their menus to the tastes of the local population. Probably a combination of both. Nevertheless, I think that especially in America, where people are more open to new flavors and cuisines due to its melting pot of nationalities, people can easily be “trained” to new flavors and concepts. It is more difficult in Europe, especially France and Italy where everyone is still attached to local traditions and cuisines and are two countries with ancient and reputable culinary history.

Those pancakes have little egg and little flour, so as any vegetable pancake, they tend to be a little soft in the middle, this is not a fritter so don’t expect them to have to consistency and texture of a fried dough. One spaghetti squash will be enough to make about 20 pancakes.

Ingredients for 6 pancakes

• 10.6 oz (or 300 g) spaghetti squash (1/3 of a whole squash)
• 1 egg
• 3 -4 tbs flour
• 3 tbs feta cheese
• 2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
• 1/3 tsp chili flakes
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbs olive oil

Preparation

Start cooking spaghetti squash. Cut in half lenghtwise and wrap in aluminum foil, don’t leave any hole, the foil needs to be well sealed. Cook for about 1h30 min in a 400F pre-heated oven. Check once in a while to see the squash is a little soft but not too soft. If you cook the squash too long, it will be filled of water and you won’t be able to get the spaghetti strands out of it, therefore won’t be able to make those pancakes.

When cooked, remove the seeds, and remove the spaghetti-pulp with a fork. Place in a container.

In another mixing bowl, mix egg with flour, salt and pepper, to form a thick dough, if the dough is too liquid, add flour.

Add chili flakes, oregano, salt and pepper to the squash, mix well. Add egg/flour mixture. Mix with well, and at the end add feta cheese. Mix using tip of your fingers not to break the feta, you want to keep some chunks.

Heat olive oil in a pan, and spoon one large tbs of the mixture in pan. Cook on both sides, at medium size heat. You might need to adjust heat not to burn the outside of the pancakes but still brown them and cook them inside.

Serve hot with a salad, or as a side dish.

Tra una torta e una pizza – Tarpiz con verdura mista del sud, feta e rucola

When you can decide what to make between a pizza and a tart, and you end up doing something in between those two, it would be inaccurate to call it either tart or pizza, that’s why it should get its own name. Entre les deux mon coeur balance (in between those two my heart can’t decide), like my heart has been balancing between France and Italy my whole life, so I might as well be a representation of this round and savory Tarpiz…really Tarpiz is really what it is…and I feel I am a Tarpiz myself.

Lately, I have been avoiding to use white refined flours in my pastries or other dishes where it requires flour. I have been going to the Rainbow and buying all those wonderful cereal flours, such as quinoa, kamut, buckwheat, spelt, etc…they’re wonderful for baking, very healthy since high in fibers and protein and most of all they taste absolutely amazing. I definitely stay away from white refined flour when possible. 

Our modern society has been consuming too many refined and industrialized food, lacking nutrients and vitamins. We have forgotten natural and ancient grains used in the old time as far as Antiquity, such as spelt, kamut, millet, etc…and really wished that restaurants would also serve food that would be focused on nutrition rather than heavy in grease and sugar to make it more “flavorful”. Flavor is not linked to sugar and grease, but on quality of the ingredients.

Anyway, this Tarpiz is made out of whole wheat and kamut flours, topped with grilled vegetables, and rucola. I love pizza bianca (white pizza) with rucola they serve in Italy. 

For about 4 people

For the dough

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup kamut flour
• fresh yeast dissolved in 1/2 cup lukewarm water or less
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt

For the topping

• 1 red bell pepper, grilled
• 1 small size eggplant, sliced crosswise
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 tbs feta, crumbled
• a few cherry tomatoes (5 or 6 cut in half)
• 1 tbs kalamata olives, chopped (optional)
• 1 handful of wild rucola
• salt and pepper

For the dough

Mix flours together. Dissolve one tsp of fresh yeast in 1/2 glass of lukewarm water. Stir well until the yeast has completely dissolved. Mix yeast, salt, olive oil with flours, making a dough. Knead the dough to make it into a nice and elastic texture. Let it rise for a couple of hours at medium temperature. It needs to double it size. Then fold again, make a ball, wrap in plastic and leave in the refrigerator for one about one hour.

For the topping

Broil the bell pepper under the broiler, until all sides are browned. Remove, let it cool and remove the skin and seeds. Cut in stripes.

Cut the eggplant crosswise, sprinkle with salt and olive oil and broil under the broiler on both sides. When nicely browned, cut in half or quarter depending on the size of the eggplant.

Cook the onions slowly in olive oil until they become soft almost like a jam. 

Start spreading the dough, then top with onions, eggplants, cherry tomatoes, bell pepper stripes, olives, feta cheese, salt and pepper. Cook in a preheated oven at 375F for about 25 minutes. Remove and add rucola. Serve hot.