I got inspired  by a very popular Turkish dish called “Mthlama” made out of Swiss chards, onions, mint and eggs. I used kale in this dish, simply because I love the texture of a thicker green leaf.

Turkish cuisine has combined flavors of Mediterranean and Arabic cuisine, of course Ottoman Empire was so powerful and rich in culture and arts, that left a huge trace in a large part of the Asian continent. Turkish cuisine is high in colors and flavors, it has evolved during centuries into a very refined cuisine. Due to their geographical location, the seven Turkish regions have various specialties all sharing a common point of having powerful flavors. I would like to visit Turkey some day, not only for their gastronomy but for their designers as well.

When you’re in the mood for some greens, this is a very fragrant and light recipe that will satisfy you without leaving you hungry. I would not call this a very elegant nor sophisticated dish, it’s definitely a rustic dish that sits in your plate with an imperfect shape. But when the yolks starts dripping on the minty greens, and you dip your “mouillette” (toasted bread sticks for dipping) in it, it is pure pleasure…you know, one of those simple pleasure, such as smelling a rose, or biting on a crunchy and fresh piece of baguette (that’s the French in me).

So if you have a bunch of greens but have no idea on how to prepare them, this is perfect. It does not need advanced culinary skills, just a few eggs, mint, et voilà c’est prêt!

Ingredients for 4

• 2 bunches kale
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup vegetable broth
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 3 tbs mint
• 4 eggs
• 4 slices country bread sticks, toasted
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Blanch kale for 5 minutes in salted boiling water. Drain and chop in small strips, removing the stem which tends to be hard.

Heat olive oil in a pan, add onions and brown then them. Add Kale and broth, cover and let the kale cook and soften. Adjust with salt and pepper. Add paprika and mint and stir for another 5 minutes until the water and juices evaporates.

In a baking and deep dish, form little nests and break an egg in the middle. Add salt and pepper on top of the egg and drizzle with olive oil.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for 10 minutes, ensuring the egg is not over-cooked. Serve with toasted bread.

If you’ve been to Savoie (Savoy), you’ve probably tasted one of their specialties, la Tartiflette. Unlike what it may sounds, Tartiflette is not a tart. It’s not an old dish either. Most recipes derive from an ancient one and go back in times, some can be retraced to Etruscan era. Not tartiflette. It’s a dish that was created in the ’80s in Savoie, as a way to promote and sell reblochon, one of their local cheese.

Basically traditional tartiflette is made out of layers of thin sliced potatoes with caramelized onions bacon and topped with reblochon cheese on it. Of course, this is a heavy dish served when you go skiing in the mountains since Savoie is the main ski resort in France. My version has asparagus has brie (a cheese from the brie region, close to Paris) and St Nectaire (a very old cheese from Auvergne, pressed and uncooked made with raw milk). Now the cheese is supposed to look like this only with the crust up. I would not call this tartiflette simply because the reblochon cheese has been replaced by brie and St Nectaire, and those two are not cheeses from Savoie. Hope that makes sense. Even if it’s a fake one, it’s delicious.

For those interested in preparing a real tartiflette, add bacon when browning onions and replace brie with half reblochon and that’s it! Reblochon ( a soft washed-rind cheese, made with cow milk) is traditionally cut in half, and placed crust up on top of the potatoes so that the cheese will be able to melt and infiltrate the potatoes, and the crust will remain golden. I did not want to add a half brie here, for many reasons, one of which being a calorie issue. As far as fat content is concerned brie and reblochon and St Nectaire, they have a similar ratio of 45%.

Tartiflette is a rustic meal, it’s not considered a sophisticated dish, nor complicated to prepare, but you need great cheese, preferably imported that melts well and potatoes that remain firm without crumbling. Then if you have those two components right, you’ll get a great tartiflette…presque comme en Savoie!

Ingredients for 4

• 4 large yukon potatoes
• 2 onions, sliced
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 28 asparagus
• Brie
• St Nectaire
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Boil potatoes in a large pot of water, when cooked remove from pot, and let them cool. Peel and cut in 5mm slices.

Heat oil in a pan, add onions and brown them.

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add asparagus and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and drain. set aside.

In a deep dish preferably using a clay pot, spread olive oil at the bottom of the pot. Add one layer of potatoes, add onions, add one layer of cheese and asparagus. Adjust with salt and pepper. Proceed again with potatoes, onions, asparagus and top it all with cheese.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F until the cheese has melted and the crust golden. Serve hot with a green salad.

Who said tarte tatin is made with apples and is a dessert? Even though tarte tatin IS a traditional French dessert made with apples (most French restaurants do serve it on their menu with a scoop of vanille ice cream), we have tons of savory versions as well. Traditional tarte tatin comes from Sologne region where Caroline Tatin and a few nuns owned a restaurant in early 1900 (which still exists and is still called Restaurant Tatin). Their main clients were hunters, and a Sunday during hunting season while making an apple-based dessert, Caroline let the dessert burn, so she had the wonderful idea to add some extra dough and put it back in the oven…needless to say that was a huge success among hunters, and since then became a famous dessert. Out of a mistake, came out a wonderful dessert!

Basically tarte tatin is an upside down tart, now of course, you can play around with its ingredients and the savory versions are really a wonderful alternative to regular tarts.

The toppings and in this case, the artichokes are caramelized due to the juices of the ingredients falling down on the bottom of the dish. For the puff pastry, you can either make it, or buy sheets. I found some decent puff pastry that is not too greasy and remains fluffy and crunchy, so if you have time (about extra 2 hours) and have well mastered the art of puff pastry making, you can make it. In my case, it really depends on the time I have. Today I had little time to make it, so hello Whole Foods. The ingredients for the crust are for about 2 tarts, usually when I make puff pastry, I keep extra and use it when I have lots of guests.

For the ingredients you can use your imagination, this combination is well balanced and delivers a nice harmony of flavors.  The sweetness of the onions allied with manchego and artichokes texture make it a delicious tart.

Ingredients for 3-4

For the puff pastry

• 8.8 oz (or 250 g) flour
• 6.5 oz (or 185 g) butter
• 4.4 oz (or 125 g) water
• 0.17 oz (or 5 g) salt

For the toppings

• 3-4 medium size artichokes
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 3 tbs dry white wine
• 2 onions, sliced
• manchego cheese, sliced (enough to cover the surface of your dish)
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the puff pastry

In a working surface,  place flour in the middle, add salt, then add water gradually, mixing with the flour to form a ball.  Cross top of the ball with a knife and place in a plastic wrap to rest for about 30 minutes. Remove wrap and lay in a flat surface, spread it out with your hands to form a cross shape dough. With a rolling pin roll it flat and place soft butter in the middle. Bring sides of the dough towards the middle and flatten out with rolling pin. Fold again using same procedure about 6 times. Place in the refrigerator for 30-45 min after the second round and again after the fourth round.

For the tart

Start trimming the artichokes. Heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic, stir and add artichokes. Add wine, salt and pepper and cover with a lid, cook at medium heat until the artichokes are tender. Remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, heat olive oil, add onions. Cook at medium heat and let them caramelized. It will take about 15-20 minutes. Add balsamic vinegar, and let it reduce for about 1 minute. Add thyme, salt and pepper.

In a deep dish pan, place artichokes in the bottom to cover the surface of the pan. Add onions, then add manchego covering the surface of the onions.

Roll the puff pastry and place it on top of the ingredients. There will need extra pastry about 2 inches extra (your sheet will be 2 inches larger than the dish, the puff pastry tends to shrink while cooking). Make sure your ingredients are holding into place and using your hand firmly press on the puff pastry.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 370-375F until the top of the puff pastry is nicely golden. Remove from the oven and turn upside down using a plate and serve immediately.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/05/i-like-it-upside-down-tart-tatin-with-artichokes-caramelized-onions-and-manchego-cheese/feed/ 40 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/11/mother-duck-just-laid-some-eggs-duck-egg-omelette-with-onions-tomatoes-goat-cheese-and-herbs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mother-duck-just-laid-some-eggs-duck-egg-omelette-with-onions-tomatoes-goat-cheese-and-herbs http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/11/mother-duck-just-laid-some-eggs-duck-egg-omelette-with-onions-tomatoes-goat-cheese-and-herbs/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:23:45 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=5051 Mère canard a aussi pondu – Omelette aux oeufs de canard, onions, tomates, chèvre et herbes

I found those beautiful duck eggs at Whole Foods a couple of days ago, among quail and ostrich eggs! I bought six and just two were left so I figured that was going to be my lunch. First I wasn’t sure if I was going to post it or not, then I decided it would all depend on the final look. Pretty and tasty was going to be posted. Just pretty could have been, but just tasty was not. Obviously it was both.

I am not a huge fan of Whole Foods but some of my clients want only organic products and the only place I can find them is Whole Foods, since the Rainbow does not have any animal-based products. So, I have been shopping there for myself digging for some interesting products as well and I have to admit that they do carry some unusual and local products which makes the shopping quite fun.

I haven’t had duck eggs for such a long time, my mom used to make homemade pasta with them and it makes a beautiful yellow dough. They contain more fat and are tastier than regular eggs. You can use them instead of using regular eggs, but they’re heavier and bigger, and the yolk has a deep orange color. When using duck eggs in recipes, you might need to change proportions, since they’re bigger than regular eggs.

You might wonder what’s the big deal of eating duck eggs? They make great pastries, and do have a special flavorful taste. So those are good enough reasons.

Omelette is the French word for frittata but not sure how to call it in English, I think Americans use the Italian word if I’m not mistaken. This omelette is really delightful, enhanced by herbs and goat cheese combined with the sweetness of caramelized onions, it all makes a great brunch dish.

I love omelettes, but never make them. Don’t you have something you love but never think of making it? In my case, that’s omelette…

Ingredients for 2 omelettes

• 4 duck eggs
• 2 tomatoes, seedless and peeled, roughly chopped
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced
• 2 tbs mixed herbs (basil, chives, parsley, etc..), finely chopped
• 3 tbs goat cheese, crumbled
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan, add onions and brown them. Add tomatoes, cook for a few minutes, but do not let it turn mushy. Add salt and pepper.

In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs with herbs salt and pepper. Pour on top of onion mixture. Cover with a lid and cookd until the bottom part is golden brown, and top of omelette is cooked. Add goat cheese on half the side of the omelette and fold the other half on top. Cook for a few more minutes and serve with a green salad.

Even though this week is a crazy week, I think I am even crazier to be cooking, when I should be either packing or painting or working on some menus and certainly not working on my blog. I am just a little obsessive when food is concerned and I just wanted to make this schiacciata for such a long time, that I decided to stop postponing and make it in a little rush!

Another Italian little stuffed bread, it can be called focaccia ripiena (ripiena = stuffed, filled), torta ripiena or schiacciata…the dough is somehow the same, then it’s stuffed with vegetables and melting cheese.

Schiacciare means to crush, so schiacciata means crushed. Basically the dough is crushed flat so you get a great filling in between the two sheets. You have different types of schiacciata, in Florence, they also have schiacciata con l’uva which is a sweet version of this one but made with black grapes. In the South, in the Catania region (Sicily), they have schiacciata catanese which is a savory schiacciata stuffed with sausages, cheese and cauliflower. I have seen schiacciata mainly stuffed with vegetables and never tried any other version.

This is perfect for a little aperitivo, you can cut it in small squares and serve it with some olives and cold cuts when you have guests over with a little cup of Champagne. The melting fontina on top of vegetables in the middle of a deliciously crunchy, salty and “herby” crust is delightful. The rosemary is my favorite herb on focaccia, its scent infuses in the crust and your house smells like a bakery from heaven. You can use caciocavallo cheese if you can find it, but the cheese needs to be a melting one.

You don’t need to work the dough as much as I did, I let it rest overnight. When I have time, I let it rest a long time, then knead it again, the whole process taking 12 hours, I get a wonderful dough, light and airy and crunchy on the outside. If you don’t have time, you can just let it rest for one hour, knead it again and let it rest for another hour, and it should be fine.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 500 g white flour
• Beer yeast dissolved in a glass of water (or more)
• 4 tbs olive oil (+ 1)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• rock salt for topping
• 1 rosemary sprig for topping, roughly chopped
• 1 thyme branch for topping, roughly chopped

For the stuffing

• 2 zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced
• 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
• Italian fontina cheese
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 + 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a mixing container, place flour. In a glass dissolve about 1 tsp beer yeast in a lukewarm glass of water. Mix with flour and add olive oil and salt. Gradually mix all ingredients together and knead the dough with your hand. You want a soft consistency almost sticky but very elastic dough, so if the dough tends to be hard, add water. Knead for about 10 minutes. Place in a container, cover with a cloth and let it rise for about one hour. It should double its volume. Knead the dough again and let rise for another 2 hours. Repeat the process twice.

While the dough is rising, start melting onions. Heat olive oil in a pan, then add sliced onions. Let them brown at medium temperature, then decrease heat, cover with a lid and let it cook slowly until they turn soft and caramelized. Remove from the pan. In the same pan, heat 1 tbs olive oil, then add mushrooms and zucchini, salt and pepper, and cook until the vegetables are soft and water has evaporated.

Cut the dough in two pieces. One should be a little bigger than the other one. Using a rolling pin or your hands, roll the dough in two sheets, one slightly larger than the other one. The dough should not be too thick, about 7 mm thick.

Using an oven tray, or a large rectangular dish, place larger dough in the greased dish, add one layer of onions, then add mushroom/zucchini mixture. Add slices of fontina on top and cover with the other dough sheet, using the extra dough from the bottom sheet to seal the sciacciata.

Place rock salt all over the top, spread olive oil all over the surface and add rosemary and thyme. Using a fork, make a few holes on top to prevent the dough from inflating. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F – 380F. When the top is lightly golden brown, remove from the oven. Serve hot.

My downstair neighbor John who happens also to take care of the building, came to show me a cookbook a friend of his offered him, and he wanted me to take a look at it, see if I knew the chef who was French (originally from Brittany) Josephine Araldo. She moved to San Francisco in 1924 and was famous long before Julia Childs was a household name. She owned a restaurant in San Francisco where she was also the chef until she died in 1989. So I looked through the book and I loved it, it’s called “From a Breton Garden“, and Josephine had a lot of recipes that are unknown and that you will not find in any other cookbooks.  Some traditional and less traditional recipes from Brittany, many of them come from her grandma and are quite amazing.

A lot of French cuisine cookbooks are the same with often the same traditional recipes, such as onion soup, boeuf bourguignon, sole meunière, etc…twisted around. I got a gift certificate for my birthday at Borders, and honestly I spent over an hour in the cookbook section and was unable to find something I really really liked. I have tons of cookbooks, I don’t care about traditional French, Italian or Asian cookbook, I am looking for something new and different, with beautiful pictures. If anyone has some suggestions, I will be happy to check them out.

Well, I promised John I would make something from the book and share it with him…so after reading almost all the recipes, I realized I didn’t have all the ingredients I needed. But since I like to keep my promise, I needed to come up with something. I was thinking about those tartlets for a long time and decided to go ahead with them. I was a little disappointed and didn’t want John to be disappointed either that I didn’t make anything from Jospehine’s book. Next time.

I made those tartlets for some of my parties and were always successful. They’re very easy to make, even the dough can be made in a blink of an eye. The crust has a nice golden color due to the wholewheat and almond meal, and the filling has no cream like regular tarts or quiches so it is quite light. I wanted to balance the fat content since roquefort and walnut are somehow fattening ingredients but there is just a little bit of cheese and nuts, so nothing to worry about too much.

Other blue cheeses such as Stilton would work as well.

Ingredients for 6 tartlets

For the crust

• 3.52 oz (or 100 g) wholewheat flour
• 2.8 oz (or 80 g) white flour
• 1.7 oz (or 50 g) kamut flour
• 3 tbs almond meal
• 2.23 fl oz (or 70 ml) olive oil
• water
• a pinch of salt

For the tartlets filling

• 1 1/2 large yellow onions, sliced crosswise
• 6 large tbs roquefort cheese (stilton could work), crumbled
• 3 tbs walnuts, chopped
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbs parsley, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the crust

In a mixing container, combine all the flours together and almond meal. Add olive oil, progressively and salt, then add enough water to make a nice smooth dough. You will see that if water is not enough, the dough will be crumbly.

For the filling

In a non stick pan, heat olive oil, then add onions, salt and pepper. Cook onions stirring in high heat to brown them, then decrease heat at low temperature, cover with a lid and let onions become soft, almost like an onion fondue. Add balsamic vinegar at the end and mix well.

Roll the dough and place in tartlet molds (preferably non-stick molds). Place one layer of onions on top of dough. Add roquefort cheese on top, and walnuts.

In a mixing bowl beat eggs with milk, parsley, salt and pepper. Pour on top of your tartlets.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375 for about 20-3-minutes or until the crust is cooked and the top golden brown.

Unmold and serve hot with an endive salad.

I love my rectangular molds and think I haven’t used them that much, so I need to place them somewhere I can see them, otherwise I tend to forget I have them. What a shame. Well, it’s the same thing with clothes, the ones you don’t see, you don’t wear.

I just realized the sun goes down sooner, it’s completely dark at 8pm in San Francisco, despite the weather being sunnier. Completely the opposite of where I grew up. The longest days are in June, you still have light at 10pm and it’s really a wonderful feeling. So fall is just around the corner, I feel time goes by so fast, you blink, and one month is already gone.

Fall recipes are coming and I will be exploring plenty of delicious savory tarts. They are a perfect light lunch of appetizer. J’adore les tartes salées! Tu veux une tarte? Do you want a tart? In French slang than can also mean a slap! Not sure exactly where that comes from.

The particularity of this tart is its crust. I have decided to use less and less refined white flours, and use organic spelt, whole wheat or other nutritious flours made out of grains. Then, in addition, I decided to flavor the crust. This crust has black sesame seeds, chili flakes and dried mixed herbs…and olive oil instead of butter. So we have a healthy version of the traditional French tarts with pate brisee made with white flour and butter. I prefer to use olive oil for savory tarts than butter, the crust is lighter, and you can taste the olive oil which adds a lot of character to the tart.

I am still dealing with the dilemma of eating wild salmon vs. the farm raised one, and I really don’t know what to do. I don’t want to eat salmon that had been injected with coloring, nor eat grey salmon (I don’t think they would sell it anyway) but I don’t want to contribute to destruction of environment. So I am confused.

I had leftover dough that I will use to make some other tart, but the quantities for the tart are good for a round medium size mold of maybe 8.5 inches diameter. My rectangular one is 14×4 inches. If you are using a larger mold, you need to adjust quantities, add 1 egg and more milk and cream and probably extra spinach.

The below pictures are a traditional French mustard, tomato and tuna tart, made with leftover crust I had. This is a very quick and easy savory tart, nonetheless delicious. You can use any type of dough for this an it turned out great with the sesame, chili and herb crust. You just need Dijon mustard, tomatoes, tuna, chives, and of course the egg/cream/milk mixture. This is what we make when you don’t know what to cook and you have some unexpected guest that pop in.

Ingredients for about 6 people

For the crust

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup spelt flour
• 1 tsp black sesame seeds
• 1/2 tps chili flakes
• 1 tsp mixed dried herbs like herbes de Provences, etc…
• 80 ml olive oil
• 1/3 cup water
• a few pinches of salt

For the topping

• 6 cups raw baby spinach (or 1 cup of unfrozen spinach)
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 salmon steak (about 1/2 lb), cut in cubes
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup low fat milk (or regular milk)
• 1 1/2 tbs dill, chopped
• 1 tbs chives, chopped
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the crust

Mix all flours in a mixing container. Add sesame seeds, chili and herbs, mix well to combine all ingredients. Add olive oil and salt.  Add water gradually, while mixing to obtain a smooth dough. Do not over knead. Form a ball and wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 30 min.

In large pot, heat olive oil, add garlic, cook for a few seconds to get flavor out, then add spinach. Add salt and pepper, and keep stirring until the spincah are wilted. Remove from heat and squeez excess water. Set aside.

In a pan, heat olive oil, and add onions. Cook the onions slowly until the melt and become soft. When cooked, add 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar, and stir for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.

In a mixing container, mix eggs, eggs, cream, salt and pepper.

Roll the dough and place in your greased non-stick mold (it’s better to grease them anyway even if they don’t stick). Add onion layer, then place spinach, followed by the cubed salmon. Add dill and pour egg mixture on top. Add cracked black pepper.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 30 minutes or until the top of the tart is golden brown. Serve hot with a simple green salad.