Millefeuille can mean different things in French…Originally millefeuille is a traditional dessert sold in many bakeries, made out of two layers of crème patissière (custard) and three layers of puff pastry. It’s called millefeuille because of its many foldings of its puff pastry (which contains a lot of layers), obviously this millefeuille has nothing to do with sweets and custard but it does some layers too, so we call this a millefeuille (literally meaning thousand sheets).

After one delightful week of no fish and no seafood just vegetarian meals, I somehow found myself with a raw fillet of salmon left that I had from a previous dinner, which needed to be cooked, or would end up in the garbage, which is something that will never happen in my house. That would be sinful to throw away food in general and salmon even more so. After thinking and thinking about how to hide this fish in a dish, I finally decided to go with a millefeuille, because first of all it looks pretty, then you can barely see the salmon, so millefeuille, it was going to be! As far as artichokes are concerned, it’s one of my favorite vegetables, so I use them whenever I can.

Pomme de terre Anna is a traditional dish in French cuisine but most precisely Parisian cuisine, potatoes thinly sliced and cooked in the oven with a little melted butter and rock salt. They seem to have been created in Paris in the 19e century by the Chef of the “Café Anglais”, Adolphe Dugléré, who fell in love with one of its beautiful client Anna Deslions, and called them Pomme de terre Anna. Funny how love can boost creativity! They became since then a very famous potato dish! You can serve them as a side dish just in their cute round shape, but I love to play with food and today they were my toys.

Then to add the final touch, I made a jus de persil. I was hesitating between a jus de tarragon, then I figured I would leave the tarragon for something else, and parsley would go quite well here. Alors voilà, c’est fini!.. and this is definitely French no need to even think about it!

There are a few different steps in the process but it’s a fairly quick dish to make, so even if you don’t have too much time, it’s really worth trying it. It’s a delightful dish!

Ingredients for 2

• 2 medium size potatoes
• 2 medium size artichokes
• 1 heirloom tomato, peeled, seedless and diced
• 2 tbs butter, melted
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 tbs white wine
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbs chives, chopped
• juice of two lemons (1 for the artichokes, 1 for the salmon)
• Fish fumet (or broth) (1 tomato, 1 branch celeri, 1/2 leek, thyme, basil)
• 1 small salmon fillet (would be enough for 4)

For the parsley jus

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

Preparation

For the parsley jus

Bring 1/2 cup of broth to a boil, add parsley and cook for 30 seconds, remove from the pot and pat dry. In a blender, mix parsley 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.

For the millefeuille

Start preparing the potatoes. With a mandolin, slice potatoes, pat them dry. In a small ramequin or round silicon mold of about 3 inches diameter, place slices one on top of the other. Using a brush, spread some melted butter on top and sprinkle with rock salt. Cover with a silpat (silicon sheet) if using the silicon molds or with aluminum paper if using a ceramic ramequin. Also if using a ramequin, it needs to be greased first or the potatoes will stick on the surface. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 30 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, trim the artichokes, cut the hard green leaves around the artichokes and the top, cut them in quarters then in small slices. Squeeze lemon juice to prevent them from staining. Heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic, stir, then add artichokes and wine. adjust with salt and pepper, cover and cook until the artichokes are tender.

Add tomatoes to the artichokes, cook for a few minutes, then add vinegar. Stir well and let the mixture cook for a few additional minutes. Add chives.

Poach salmon in fish fumet for about 15 minutes. Drain and using a fork, break salmon into small pieces. Add lemon juice, chives, salt and pepper

Assemble millefeuille. In a plate, place one potato piece, add one layer of artichokes, then add salmon. Proceed with another potato piece, artichokes and salmon. Sprinkle with parsley jus and serve some extra on the side.

I consider those to be Mediterranean tapas, actually tapas don’t have to be Spanish, or do they? …a small bite can be a tapas in my opinion.  I am not too familiar with Spanish traditions but it seems like it. When I went to Madrid, what they called tapas were basically small portions of all different things.

One of my greatest pleasure is to entertain, so appetizers, hors d’oeuvres and small bites are my favorites. Those are so perfect because they are not too time consuming (a little but not too much) and taste delicious. You could also use filo dough instead of those egg roll wrappers, it would be a great substitute but I didn’t have any.

Purple being the color of the moment, anytime I got asked “what is your favorite color?”, I realized that it all depends on my mood. I had the red craziness phase last month, now it’s the purple. I buy anything purple, I got myself a pair of purple corduroy pants, purple scarf, t-shirt, etc.., and I have been wearing my purple pants for over a week, without an ounce of weariness.

Obviously as soon as I saw this purple pepper I bought it, I have never used purple peppers before, I fall in love with its color, not really knowing what to do with it. When a fruit of vegetable is too pretty, I usually don’t eat it, I just look at it, so I didn’t want to do the same thing with this beauty.

As pretty as this pepper is from the outside, the inside is shockingly ugly, it’s the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde pepper. As soon as it’s broiled, the skin turns brownish and its pulp whitish. So, if you buy a purple pepper, don’t expect a purple pulp, just buy it for its color while uncooked, not for its taste. This pepper has nothing to do with the regular red or green bell pepper and has somehow a flavorless side to it. I am glad I bought one, so now I know I will not buy it again! It’s just pretty, but when dealing with food, pretty isn’t enough!

As for the chards, I only used the leafy part, not the stem. The French throw away the leaves and make gratins out of the stems. Italians do the opposite, my mom always made those as a side dish everything combined stem and leaves. I think it’s a shame to throw away the stems, but they’re not really used in these rolls, so you can sauté them with garlic and serve them as a side dish.

Ingredients for 8 rolls

For the rolls

• 2 bunches chards
• 8 tsp goat cheese
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 8 wrappers
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• chili oil
• 1 tbs olive oil
• Szechuan pepper
• salt

For the dipping sauce

• 3 yellow heirloom tomatoes, seedless and diced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 sprig fresh oregano
• 1 tsp butter
• vegetable bouillon
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Wash chards, remove the stems, and place in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Drain well, squeeze extra liquid and chop them. In a pan, heat olive oil and add garlic, stir well to get the flavors out, then add chards and sauté them quickly. Add salt and stir. Set aside and let it cool.

Broil pepper under broiler. When the skin is charred, remove from broiler and let it cool. Peel and remove seeds. Cut in long strips.

Using a large egg roll wrap, place chards in the middle, add one bell pepper strip, pepper, red bell pepper, goat cheese and chili oil. Continue the wrapping process. From about 10 cm rolls.

Heat olive oil in a pan, and place rolls. Let them brown evenly all around. Cut them in half and serve with dipping sauce.

For the dipping sauce

Peel tomatoes and remove seeds and dice them finely. In a pot, melt butter, add garlic and oregano sprig. Stir for a few minutes to get the fllavors out. Add tomatoes, bouillon, salt and pepper. Reduce the tomato until it thickens. Remove oregano sprig and let it cool.