I am always amazed at the delicious dishes you can make with vegetables. I can certainly spend the rest of my life without looking at meat or any dead animal on my plate.

You could of course replace barley with brown rice, farro, quinoa…most of my recipes are versatile and I see them as ideas and suggestions.

In this recipe, I cooked barley in a rice cooker with broth and white wine, somehow like a risotto but not cooked by liquid absorption more like a steamed rice. It’s quite helpful when your time is limited. Of course, the texture is very different, not creamy and more dry, which works perfectly here because I added the cream of asparagus at the end.

Ingredients for 3

For the portobello

• 3 medium size portobello
• 1 tbs olive oil + 1 tbs
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 garlic clove crushed
• 1.5 medium leeks, sliced
• 2 tbs heavy cream or creme fraîche
• thyme for sprinkling
• 3-4 tbs gruyère cheese, grated
• salt and pepper

For the barley

• 4.20 oz (or 120 g) barley
• vegetable broth
• white wine
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 bunch asparagus
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the barley

Cook barley in a rice cooker with vegetable broth and white wine. The quantities are half each (50% broth, 50% wine). Usually, for liquid quantity vs. grain, I put enough liquid to cover grain + half inch extra liquid on top of the grain.

In a pan, heat olive oil and sweat the shallots until they become soft and translucent. Add leeks and 4 tbs vegetable broth. Cover and let cook at slow heat until the asparagus are soft. Adjust with salt and pepper. Blend in a mixer until the texture becomes smooth and creamy. If it’s too thick add broth.

When barley is cooked, add asparagus cream, mix well and keep warm.

For the portobello

In a pan, heat olive oil and add garlic. Stir a few minutes until fragrant, then add leeks. Add 2 tbs broth and cover. Let cook at slow heat until the leeks are soft and tender. Adjust with salt and pepper. Add thyme and cream. Let reduce. Remove from heat and set aside.

Sprinkle portobello with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Broil under broiler for about 5-10 minutes until the mushrooms produce water, but are not mushy. Remove from oven, absorb water with paper towel, and divide the leek mixture on top of each mushroom. Sprinkle with cheese and cook in a pre heated oven at 380F for 15-20 minutes or until mushrooms are golden brown.

Serve mushrooms hot on a bed of barley.

I am a heavy smoker of those cigarettes! The excitement is more related to the feuilles de brick (the wrapping sheets, literally translated into “sheet brick”) than to those cigarettes themselves. I used to bring feuilles de brick from France anytime I went there, just because I cannot find them in the US. Strangely enough, no store carries them (even though feuilles de brick are Middle Eastern), not even the Middle Eastern stores. Most people here use filo dough instead or won ton wrappers, which are very different.

I love feuilles de brick just because they are not as fragile as filo dough and the texture is much more pleasant, the “crunch” is very different. You can check more recipe here with feuille de brick.

Now my frustration ended, thanks to Laurent and his “Gourmet and More” Epicerie he opened in San Francisco, in Hayes Valley. Whoever lives in the city has to go to Gourmet and More if they’re into real French products (not imitation). They even have a “cheese room” where they cut the cheese for you, yes! you have “Fromage à la coupe“, like in France, and not wrapped in plastic like at Whole Foods or most stores. They sell boudin noir, boudin blanc, saucisse de Toulouse, de lapin, rillettes, crozet (pasta specialty from Savoie), many olive oil, teas, etc… a heaven for French people or those who like French products.

Anyway, those cigarettes are filled with leeks, shrimps and mushrooms and baked in the oven. You can also fried the cigarettes in a pan with oil but I prefer to bake them to make them lighter and not as oilier. You can fill them with whatever you like and served with a simple green salad as an appetizer or light lunch, they’re delightful.

Don’t forget, if you are rooming around San Francisco one of those days, drop by “Gourmet and More“, say Bonjour to Laurent and Josiane (his wife), get some cheese…and some feuilles de brick!

Ingredients for 4 cigarettes

• 1 tbs olive oil + 1 tsp for basting
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 leek, chopped
• 6 large shiitake, finely diced
• 20 medium shrimps, cut finely
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tbs crème fraîche
• 1 tbs chives, chopped finely
• 4 feuilles de brick
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and cook them for a few minutes until soft. Add leeks and shiitake, cover and cook at medium heat until the vegetables are cooked and the water evaporated. Add shrimps and cook for a few minutes. Adjust with salt and pepper. Add garlic and stir well. Add crème fraîche and cook until the cream has thickened and reduced (no liquid in the pan). Add chives and mix well.

Place about 3 tbs of mixture in a feuille de brick and roll in order to form cylinders, like you would do to make egg rolls.

Baste with some olive oil. Pre-heat oven at 370F and bake for about 20 minutes or until all the sides are golden brown and crunchy. Serve hot on a beg of green mâche or peppery salad.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2012/08/do-you-smoke-cigarettes-with-leeks-shrimps-and-shiitake/feed/ 3 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2012/05/a-gratin-among-others-mussels-and-leek-gartin-with-curry-sauce/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-gratin-among-others-mussels-and-leek-gartin-with-curry-sauce http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2012/05/a-gratin-among-others-mussels-and-leek-gartin-with-curry-sauce/#comments Thu, 31 May 2012 03:34:29 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=14327 A gratin parmi tant d’autres – Gratin de moules et poireaux au curry

This is probably my last post before I fly to France, next week. I have to fly for family reasons and looking forward to it. June in France is my favorite month, the days are long and it’s still light until 10 pm. Since my mom will be in the hospital, I will have to cook for my father and I am trying to find some exciting recipes for him to enjoy. I think this one will be one among others. The difference is that I will be using “Moules de Bouchot” instead of American mussels.

In France, moules de bouchot are grown in Brittany and Normandy, they’re considered to be the best of all mussels. They’re small but with a very flavorful and delicate meat. These mussels are grown in on a wooden pole in the ocean and in a way to keep predators away. If you speak French here is some interesting information on how they are farmed.

The mussels I used were bigger than moules de bouchot nonetheless very tasty. Leeks and fish or seafood are wonderful combined together, so in this recipe it’s all enhanced by a spicy curry sauce. The curry flavor is not too strong since it’s infused with the cream and gives this gratin a little exotic touch without empowering it.

The world of gratin is infinite, so you could of course, substitute mussels with white fish or even scallops, it’s all up to your imagination and to your taste buds.

Ingredients for 2

• 1 shallot, chopped
• 2 leeks, chopped
• about 20 mussels (depending on the size)
• 1 tbs mild curry powder
• 4 tbs heavy cream
• salt and pepper

For the topping

• 5 tbs panko breadcrumbs
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbs parsley, chopped
• 1 tbs cilantro, chopped
• 3 tbs olive oil
• chili powder (to taste)
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Steam mussels in a large pot, when they open, remove from shell and keep the juice. Remove the mussel meat from the shells and set aside.

Prepare topping mixing all ingredients together in a mixing container.

Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallot and let it sweat, add the leeks, salt and pepper and let ccok for about 10 minutes on medium heat. Add mussel juice and let reduce. Add curry powder, mix well, then add mussels and cream. Let the cream reduce slightly then divide in two recipients.

Add one layer of the topping. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 20 minutes, until the crust turns golden.

Serve hot with a mâche salad.

I am back in the US and I did not post anything while in France, simply because I had no time to cook – I think I prepared lunch for my parents twice, the rest of my stay my mom cooked and we had guests so no time to shot anything…and to be honest, I had no motivation to cook. What a shame!!!! I always think, I will have time to shot the old town, la vieille ville or our gorgeous Place Stanislas (the most beautiful square in Europe) painted in gold, or our beautiful architecture. But no, I get there and I get caught in family stuff, my life changes completely, and this time I even left my camera in the suitcase! Oh well, c’est comme ca, et tant pis!

These purses are made with feuilles de brick (also called brick dough or brick pastry in the US) that I bought  while I was in France (they’re more popular over there than filo dough) , they’re mainly used in middle eastern cuisine and really hard to find in the US, so far I have not found yet a store that carry them, except Amazon, but they’re too expensive. I paid only 0.90 Euros for a pack of 10. You can substitute filo dough sheets, but I prefer the texture of feuilles de brick, they’re more resistant and not as fragile.

Aumonières were an old type of purse that people use to carry on their belt so that no one would steal the money. In the food world they refer to any dough (crêpe, filo dough, feuilles de brick) filled with anything, it can be fish, vegetables, meat, etc.. basically it’s a eatable purse filled with food instead of money.

Sometimes I like to substitute crème fraîche with fromage blanc. If you are using fromage blanc instead of the heavy cream for the sauce, you won’t be able to boil it, not cook it, so you’ll have a cold sauce instead of hot. In this case, a hot sauce goes much better with the whole dish since the purses are hot.

You can use shrimps or scallops instead of crayfish, and use your creativity for the filling, it’s all about what you like!

Ingredients for 4 people

• 8 feuilles de brick
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 leek, chopped
• 1/2 lb crayfish tales (already cooked)
• about 16 cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
• 2 tsp sesame seeds
• salt and pepper

For the sauce

• Crème fraîche or fromage blanc
• Curry to taste
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add leeks and cook until tender. Adjust with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Cut two circles of about 2.5 inches 4 brick sheets. Then take a whole sheet, brush the surface with olive oil, and place two of the small circles in the middle. Divide the leeks in the center of these circles, add six tomato halves on top of the leeks and top it off with the crayfish, Sprinkle with sesame seeds, salt and pepper. Proceed the same way for the other purses.

Close the purses by bringing the sides to the front forming a purse. Tie it up with cooking thread. Bake in a pre heated oven at 370 F for about 15 minutes, make sure the purses don’t burn or become too dark.

For the sauce, bring the cream, lemon juice and curry to a light boil, then add salt and pepper.

Serve the purses hot with the sauce on the side.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2012/02/i-got-my-purse-stolen-purses-filled-with-crayfish-leeks-and-cherry-tomatoes-curry-cream-sauce/feed/ 6 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2012/01/thank-you-antoine-french-vegetarian-shepards-pie-with-mushrooms-taleggio-and-three-purees/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=thank-you-antoine-french-vegetarian-shepards-pie-with-mushrooms-taleggio-and-three-purees http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2012/01/thank-you-antoine-french-vegetarian-shepards-pie-with-mushrooms-taleggio-and-three-purees/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:44:17 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=13889 Merci Antoine – Hachis parmentier végétarien aux champignons, taleggio et aux trois purées

In France Hachis parmentier is something eaten quite frequently and that kids love, due to its combination of potato puree and ground meet. My mom being Italian, she never really prepared this, but when I went to my friend’s houses, hachis parmentier was a dish served quite often. I remember my mom saying that she didn’t like it because it was made with leftover meats therefore not something too exciting (actually people do use meat they had left from pot-au-feu or boiled meats, etc…). A “hachis” is a dish where all the ingredients are ground, chopped alltogether. Haché means ground, viande hachée, ground meat.

Parmentier comes from Antoine Parmentier, a pharmacist and chemist born in the 18e century. After a trip to Ireland, he discovered the health benefits of potatoes and became convinced that potatoes would help treat problems of poor blood circulation, intestinal problems, etc…He introduced potato to Louis XVI to cure starvation and as a result this dish was born. I think the Irish or English version is called Shepherd’s Pie.

I have been wanting to make a vegetarien hachis parmentier and have been thinking about this recipe for quite some time, without really succeeding in finalizing it. Not being a huge fan of potatoes, I wanted to use something “more” than potatoes, so here is a purée of carrots, yams and sweet potatoes and I honestly loved every bite of this hachis parmentier. I cooked the carrots and potatoes in milk so they absorbed a good amount of it while cooking. The hachis is made of wild mushrooms, leeks and celeri…the sweet flavor of the potatoes combined with the nutty mushrooms and melted taleggio is simply fantastic (Taleggio is an Italian soft cheese with a fragrant and strong nutty flavor). Funny, how you can see on the picture some smoke coming up from the hachis, since it came straight out of the oven. I wouldn’t think the smoke would show on a picture.

You can add more mushroom mixture, and play around with the layers, in my version I added a thicker layer of potato mixture, it’s all about how you want it to be. I served this in individual ramequins with a small salad, you can serve hachis parmentier in a large dish and serve it as a meal by itself, it’s a very satisfying meal and really don’t need anything else on the side.

Ingredients for 4 individual hachis

For the mushroom-leek mixture

• 2 shallots, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, finely diced
  
• 1/2 lb mixed mushrooms (cremini, shiitake, chanterelles, etc….) cut in small pieces
• 1 leek, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• thyme
• Taleggio, sliced
• Panko bread crumbs for topping

For the potato-carrot mixture

• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut about 1 inch trunks
• 1 small yam, peeled and cut in about 1 inch pieces
• 1 small sweet potato and cut in about 1 inch pieces
• milk (enough to cover the vegetables)
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Start by preparing the potato-carrot purée. Cook carrots, sweet potatoes, yams in milk at medium heat. When cooked remove from stove, drain milk and keep aside and mash vegetables. Adjust with salt and pepper. If too thick add milk set aside.

Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and celery and cook until tender and slightly browned. Add leeks and let them cook covered until tender. Remove from pan and set aside. Add some extra olive oil, and cook mushrooms until water evaporates. When cooked, add leeks and mix well. Add garlic and let cook for a few minutes more. Add thyme, salt and pepper.

In four deep individual dishes or ramequins, place one layer of mushrooms, top it with taleggio, then finish with carrot-potato purée. Sprinkle with panko breadcrumbs. Cook in a pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes, then broil top until it turns golden brown. Serve immediately.

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/2011/02/vegan-or-not-vegan-red-cabbage-veloute-with-mixed-vegetables/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=vegan-or-not-vegan-red-cabbage-veloute-with-mixed-vegetables http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2011/02/vegan-or-not-vegan-red-cabbage-veloute-with-mixed-vegetables/#comments Thu, 10 Feb 2011 05:45:12 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=12678 Vegan…ou pas vegan – Velouté de chou rouge et légumes

It has been a long time since I posted a recipe on my blog. Not that I gave up blogging, or that I disappeared for no reason. I was in France for about one month and instead of enjoying my time with my family, I had to deal with the stress of my father’s health, since he had a stroke right before Christmas which left his left side paralyzed. Of course, I was devastated, in shock and could not talk about it, cook, blog, nor think about cooking until a few days ago. Of course, France was cold, grey but still a great place to be in those circumstances where everyone from family, friends, doctors, nurses were simply amazing.

I usually do not post any private information about my family, because I want this blog to remain really food centric and not having people get distracted by personal stories. I know most people like to read those types of stories, they feel this way more connected to the blogger, but I feel uncomfortable about throwing my personal life out there. I don’t know why. Anyway, I just wanted to tell people who have been kind enough to follow me, and read my blog to tell them that I did not forget anyone, on the contrary, I did miss everyone I met in this amazing food blogosphere (if that’s a word).

Now back to the kitchen. I rarely buy red cabbage, I mainly buy it for its color which is one of my favorite color. I thought buy using it in a soup would make the soup turn purple, I was a wrong, well not completely wrong. To get a deep red purple, you need to leave the soup rest for a couple of hours, without blending it. Otherwise, the soup gets a pinkish color, but nothing that would look like a purple. The flavor is very smooth, a little sweet due to the onions and leeks, but very hearty. I used mimi creme, which is a vegan cream but you can use regular crème fraîche, all depending if you are on a vegan mood or not and if you want to count your calories.

Soupe au chou is a traditional French soup, made out of white cabbage and eaten white beans and sausage which is considered a peasant soup. This is another lighter version with a different texture. The fried leeks julienne placed on top at the end, add a wonderful flavor that finishes the soup to perfection. Do not skip on the leek, they do make a difference! small things like this make often a difference!

Ingredients for 6

• 1 medium size turnip, diced
• 1 medium size yellow onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 leeks, 1 chopped, 1 julienne
• 3 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1/2 red cabbage, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp curry
• vegetable broth (enough to cover the vegetables)
• 6 tbs mimi creme
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Cook all vegetables in broth for about 15 minutes, but do not over cook them, add curry, cream salt and pepper. Fry the leeks julienne in olive oil at high heat and cook until crispy. Drain and set aside.

Blend soup using an immersion blender.

Serve in bowls, and divide some of the fried leeks in the center. Serve with toasted baguette.

I forgot how DMV can be a nightmare, waiting for your number 389 when the current number is 210 can be the story of an afternoon. So people bring balls to play with, and all kinds of entertainment to spend three to four hours.  I somehow like to observe people, it’s certainly more interesting to observe people sur la terrasse d’un café, in a cafe terrace with a coffee in your hands, so when your hands are holding nothing more than a number, patience becomes a virtue and people looking becomes one too.

I had prepared this gratin in advance so it just needed to be gratiné when I got home and that’s the beauty of gratins, you can prepare them in advance and throw them in the oven when ready to be served.

I have used goat milk in soufflés and in the béchamel when preparing gratins that turned out lighter with a more delicate touch than with cow milk, and partly due to the fact that goat milk is lighter to digest than regular milk. You can slightly taste to goat milk which is not as strong as in cheeses. Basically you can replace goat milk in many dishes using cow milk. Gratins are very common in France and can be made with any vegetable.

Gratin can be considered a plat unique (a one meal dish), and universally appreciated, it’s certainly a meal in itself with a side salad. If you feel like something hot with a golden crust, stop thinking, this is it. Some people are fighting to eat the crispy crust while others are fighting to get to the soft melting middle. What type of gratin eater are you? I am definitely a crust lover, but would not mistreat the middle either. No matter how you eat it, gratins always evoke a comforting and warm cuisine that everyone loves.

I would use premium gruyère cheese that melts well and leaves a nice golden crust the quality of the cheese is important and will make a great difference in the texture of your gratin. Also, you could add a little goat cheese as well instead of adding gruyère in the mixture but gruyère on top is a must if you want a golden and melting crust.

Ingredients for 2-3

• 1 medium cauliflower, broken into florets
• 1 leek, cut in 1 inch chunks
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 3 tbs butter
• 1.5 tbs flour
• 1.5 cup goat milk
• 5 tbs imported Gruyère cheese
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and brown them. Add leeks, adjust with salt and pepper and cover with lid until leeks are tender.

Cook cauliflower in salted boiling water until cooked but still firm. Drain and set aside.

Start preparing the béchamel by melting butter, then adding flour. Stir well. Add milk, salt and pepper and reduce temperature to medium heat. Keep stirring until the mixture starts thickening. Cook for a few minutes until it has reached a nice consistency, but should not be too thick.

Using individual ramequins or one larger dish, add one layer of leeks, then add one layer of cauliflower and end with another layer of leeks. Sprinkle with 1 tbs gruyère cheese (or goat cheese for each ramequin) and pour béchamel. Try to coat your vegetables with cheese and bechamel by mixing the vegetables carefully. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, grind fresh pepper and cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 30 minutes or until the gratin has reached a golden brown color.

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

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

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

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

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

Ingredients for 2

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

Preparation

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

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

I finally received my mom’s package, it only took six days which is really not much. I was expecting it and was wondering if they would open it at the customs but it arrived intact.

I was not sure of what she put in there! lots of my favorite goodies. She even included my dry soup sticks, the Maggie Sveltesse (my sinful soup sticks but with 50 calories per soup, let’s not be too tough on them), Lavazza Espresso to get me even more wired than I actually am, chocolates, chocolates and more chocolates, cosmetics to make sure life in the US does not give me wrinkles…and of course some foie gras, thing that I don’t eat, she doesn’t really care, she just will send foie gras every year, even though I asked her to NOT include it, she included it any way. I can always serve it when my friends come over for dinner, since I believe it’s no longer allowed in California…I am not going to develop further the fois gras production topic and people are free to eat whatever they want. I just have a tough time with cruelty towards animals for whatever purpose it is. So yes, fois gras is a delicacy and part of French gastronomy, I think it’s just so cruel to stuff those poor geese, make them sick and eat their liver. Sorry to be a little crude, but basically, it comes down to that.

I decided to slow down on carbs, but I got those Farfalline Haute Couture, so I had no other choice than cook them. Yes, you can change your mind sometimes. They’re too pretty…I had some shrimps and a bunch of beautiful leeks which were perfect for those little butterflies. In Italian, they’re called “farfalle” and in French “papillon” which mean “butterflies” not “bow tie”, which would be way too long “noeud papillon” (= butterfly nod). Le papillon ne s’est pas envolé, il a juste atterri dans mon assiette!

I adore this pasta dish, the leek cream with seafood is absolutely fantastic. It’s creamy but yet not the kind of “Creamy” you get when you add cream to a dish, but very flavorful and velvety creamy without the heaviness of a cream.

Ingredients for 2

• 5.30 oz (or 150 g) farfalline or other squid ink pasta
• 2 leeks
• 1/3 cup broth
• 6 large scallops cut in 4 or 24 small scallops
• 8 large shrimps, cut in 3
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• cayenne pepper
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Cut leeks in small slices crosswise, wash well. In a pan, add 1 tsp olive oil, add 1 garlic clove, stir for one minute or so, then add leeks, cook for a few minutes, then add broth, salt and pepper. Cover and let it cook until the leeks are tender. Leave about 1 tbs of leeks aside to add at the end. Mix the remaining leeks in a blender to obtain a creamy consistency. If the leeks are too think, add extra broth.

In a pan, heat 1 tsp olive oil, then add diced seafood, cayenne, salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes, then add 1 garlic clove. At that point, you’ll have some liquid in the pan. Add the liquid to the leeks. Continue sauteing the seafood until cooked, but not over cook it, or the scallops will turn rubbery.

Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain, place in a mixing bowl, add half of the leek sauce, mix well.

Serve in a plate, spoon extra leek sauce around the pasta, top it with seafood and extra leeks. Sprinkle with a little extra olive oil and serve hot.

Heat up leeks to keep it warm.

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