Market Fresh Cod Ceviche

Market Fresh Cod Ceviche

INGREDIENTS//Serves 4

• 350-400 grams cod fish —high quality, fresh, de-boned, filleted, skinned, and pin bones free
• 1 small-medium red pepper, deseeded and diced
• 1 small fennel with its fronds, sliced thinly, fronds picked
• 1 spring onion, sliced finely
• A few sprigs of coriander—leaves picked, stalks chopped
• 2 limes, juiced or 1 lime and 1 small orange, juiced
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon espelette pepper purée, sriracha sauce, or tabasco
• extra virgin olive oil, optional
 

INSTRUCTIONS

Prepare your pepper, fennel, spring onions, and coriander.  Place it on the side.

Cut your filleted fish into small chunks and place it into a pyrex mixing bowl.

Add the salt, lime-orange juice, and the chili pepper to the fish and toss it around.

Place it in the refigerator for 15-30 minutes making sure to toss it around every so often.

When the sides are marinated, the color will turn opaque.  Take it out of the refigerator.

Add the pepper, fennel, and spring onion to the marinated fish and toss together.

If needed, add some more salt accordingly.

Then add the coriander leaves, a bit of the chopped sprigs and toss it together.

Garnish with the fennel fronds.

Divvy it up, drizzle a touch of olive oil and serve immediately!

NOTE
Spring onions or scallions as we call them in the U.S. are known as oignon nouveau, oignon frais, or cébettes in France.  The ones in France seem to have a larger bulb so I can easily slice them along a mandoline. 

Roasted Baby Artichoke With Parmesan

Roasted Baby Artichoke With Parmesan

INGREDIENTS//Serves 2

• 6 fresh baby artichokes
• 1 lemon
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 30g grated parmesan

INSTRUCTIONS

Prepare a bowl of water and lemon juice on the side enough to hold the baby artichokes. 

Cut off the spiky top bit of the baby artichoke and part of the stem.  Make sure to remove bottom and outer leaves and to leave a bit at the base.  The best thing about the baby artichoke is that you can eat everything inside—yes, even the choke as opposed to the ones in large artichokes. 

Cut each artichoke in half lengthwise and toss in the water lemon juice mixture.  This keeps the color of the artichoke from turning brown quickly. 

Drain the baby artichokes and put them in a steamer for about 15 minutes.  This gets them soft and tender.   Stab a fork in to do a quick check.

Take them out and place the steamed baby artichokes in a bowl, adding the olive oil, crushed garlic, some salt, pepper and lemon juice. 

Toss it all together and then place them on a baking sheet cut side up . 

Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on the baby artichokes and pop them in the oven at 210°C for about 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Thisgives them that slight crispness.

Kohlrabi Nori Omelette

It's been so rainy, dreary, and cold in Paris.  Thankfully these vibrant veggies vitalize my mind and body.  Can you spot the kohlrabi?  It's the round, stout bulb with the longs stems protruding out of it.

I tasted kohlrabi only a few years ago at a German friend's home.  We got home from a very hot and exhausting day at the park with the kids full of dirt, hunger and thirst.  She quickly dropped all her things, washed her hands and grabbed an odd-looking vegetable from her countertop that I had seen in markets before but never knew what to do with them, nor did I know what it was called.  She simply used a sharp knife to cut away it's thick skin and then sliced a piece, sprinkled some salt on it and handed it over to me to eat.  Wow, it was juicy and crisp!

Kohlrabi can be eaten raw or cooked.  This was supposed to be a fritter dish that flopped "in the making of".  It turned out to be more of an omelette instead.  It's a mistake but a good one to be discovered!

Kolhrabi Nori Omelette

INGREDIENTS

• 1 small kohlrabi, matchstick slices
• 1/2 cup shredded nori
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoon panko
• pinch of salt
• pinch of white pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

In a medium size mixing bowl, add your kohlrabi, egg, panko bread crumbs and the nori. 

Sprinkle a touch of salt and white pepper and whisk to combine all ingredients.

Pour mixture into a skillet and cook until the egg turns golden brown. 

Slide it onto a plate and serve. 

NOTE

I cut mine up into squares so that they were little bite size pieces.  They are great as kids snacks and appetizers.

Ratatouille Quesadilla

I just got back from San Diego, where I was paying a visit to meet my newborn niece, Sabine.  Unbiased of course, she is gorgeous.  Her nickname is "Bean" because that's what came out of her older sister's mouth when she was all of one year old trying to pronounce "Sabine".   Ever since she started out as a 'lil bean in her mama's belly, she's been referred to as "Bean".

Bean has that baby smell that I quickly got addicted to.  Every early morning, 6 a.m. to be precise, I would wake up and head to the kitchen: to find her, hold her, press my nose against her head and then inhale her baby scent.  If you are wondering why the kitchen, it's because my brother-in-law has started his day and mine (bless his heart) with a whole other scent, the coffee drop—Japanese style drip.  He has his tools in order: grinder, scale, and drip filter,

This is how my mornings played out until I got over my jet lag: rise and shine at 6 a.m. soon became rise and snooze til 9 a.m.  Although I still had Bean's baby scent to look forward to, gone was the aroma of the other bean —the coffee bean.  My brother-in-law was long gone and off to work.

Besides sniffing Bean's head and drinking coffee from the drip, I did eat a lot of Mexican food.  Afterall, San Diego is just next door.  I thought I knew it all from my days milling about at Mexican family soccer games in some Brooklyn park, where I could eat freshly made tortillas and salsa off their portable, makeshift grills right out of the backs and trunks of their cars, and buy Tecate beers straight from their coolers, all for two dollars.  Apparently not.
 

I discovered an ingredient called hominy that I'll have to search for in Paris.  Once I find it, I'm keen on making a fish based or vegetarian based pozole which I'll share with you in the future.  As for now, I have French Provençale ratatouille leftovers that I've converted into a Mexican quesadilla dish.  Olé!

Ratatouille Quesadilla

INGREDIENTS//Serves 4

•  1 x 400 gram tin of red kidney beans or other bean of preference
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 150 grams of emmental cheese
• 2 cups ratatouille or any vegetable filling
• 1/2 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro)
• 2 large flour tortillas
• Dallop of sour cream or crème fraîche

INSTRUCTIONS

Add some cooking oil in a pan and cook the shallots over medium heat until they have softened. 

Add the tin of beans and stir.

Throw in your spices: cumin, chili powder.   Stir it up a bit.

Then transfer it to a small mixing bowl and mash it up with a fork or a masher.

Since I had ratatouille left over, you can choose any combination of vegetables; just cook it beforehand.   My kids love this with spinach, so I simply steam the spinach.

Lay out your tortilla and spread half of it with the bean mash, and the other half with your vegetable filling of choice.  Be careful not to add too much filling otherwise it will fall out.  Try to keep it thinly spread.  Sprinkle some coriander over the cheese.

Grab two to three handfuls of cheese and spread over the beans.

Place it on a large cooking pan over medium heat and cook until the bottom of the tortilla warms up and starts to speckle up golden brown.

Using a spatula, fold the quesadilla in half.  Press down on the quesadilla with the back side of the spatula and cook until the whole side is golden brown and then flip and repeat.

Transfer to a cutting board and cut them into wedges.

Serve along witha dallop of sour cream or crème fraîche (depending on which country you live in) and garnish with coriandre.


 

White Asparagus and Fennel Butter

I must be missing NYC these days.  There are loads of recipes on how to cook white asparagus but the one that caught my eye was the one from Prune restaurant in the East Village.  My first thought was "Oh my gosh, it's still there".  Bits of NYC establishments are slowly being erased from when I knew it due to rent increase.  I get a pang in my heart when I read about any old haunts of mine closed down to be replaced by global retail or supermarket chains.  So happy to see that Prune is alive and kicking. 

Watch Martha Stewart and chef Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune restaurant making this delicious asparagus starter.

White Asparagus and Fennel Butter

INGREDIENTS//serves 2-3

• 1 bunch fresh white asparagus
• 1 lemon, divided (zest in compound butter and juice for asparagus)

COMPOUND BUTTER

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 whole fennel, finely sliced (including fronds, chopped)
• Lemon zest
• Pinch of salt
• Dash of pastis liquor

INSTRUCTIONS

To prepare your asparagus, snap off the stems where it naturally breaks and peel off the tough skin.

Prepare the lemon zest using a microplane or a flat or box grater with fine holes.  Then use the remainder of the lemon for juice you'll add into the pot of boiling water to cook the asparagus.  Save some juice to be squeezed just before serving the dish.

I don't have an asparagus cooker/steamer so I bundle the asparagus together with parcel string and I cook it in a pot.  Tie the parcel string around the bottom of the bunch of asparagus and tie further up to hold the asparagus in place so that it tries to stand.  To keep the asparagus in place and standing in the pot, brace it with two long skewers through the bundle of asparagus (cross through the bundle with a skewer forming an "X"). 

In a pot, add about 4 inches of water or enough so that the base of the asparagus will be covered.   Squeeze lemon juice and add salt to the water.  Bring it to a boil.

Add the asparagus and cover with a lid for about 30 minutes.  Make sure the asparagus is nice and soft and that the tips are steamed. 

Strain the asparagus, let it cool and serve on a plate with shavings of the fennel butter.  Drizzle some olive oil for extra delicious fat and salt to taste with a squeeze of lemon.

COMPOUND BUTTER

Finely slice your fennel and chop up the fronds. 

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan and caramelize your fennel for about 30 minutes on medium heat letting the natural sugars come out on its own.  During this time add whole of lemon zest to the fennel and add the fronds. Then add some salt and pepper.

When caramelized, splash a dash of pastis liquor and ignite it.  When the flame burns out let the fennel cool down. 

After cooling, in a food processor add your fennel and chop it down until fine.  Then take the rest of your softened butter and add in chunks at a time. 

Remove butter compound mixture from bowl and spoon onto parchment paper or plastic wrap and roll into a log.  Put it in the freezer until ready to use in a plastic ziplock bag to keep it airtight.  Use a mandoline or the large hole-side of a box grater for butter shavings.

Beetroot Hummus Dip

Living under the influence of a little girl, the color pink has made its way onto my table.  I never thought of my daughter as a pink kind of girl.  She's the kind that jumps into a mud hole and has uncontrollable laughs when she's covered in dirt.  She eats her whole carrot stick with a grip so hard, no one can pry it away from her even if your life depended on it.  She enjoys wrestling her brother to the ground, screaming at the top of her lungs, and coming home with grass stains on each and every possible limb.  Yet, she also loves to dress in pink and eat anything pink.  Preferably a cloud fluffy full of cotton candy pink.

This is dedicated to my little girl.  A variation to the basic hummus recipe that includes a veggie, the beetroot!  Any extra veg I can get in a day makes me feel good.  I have snuck this one into the hummus dip.  No secret about it, the color itself screams out loud.  It's an eye-popper and attention grabber that's perfect for parties.  I like to have this for breakfast, lunch or a snack on a piece of whole grain bread with slices of avocado and black radish.  So does Mila, but sans radis for now.

Beetroot Hummus Dip

PREPARATION

Soak the dried chickpeas overnight with a cover.  Be sure to add more than enough water to cover the chickpeas because they swell up to almost double their size. 

INGREDIENTS//yields 2.5 cups

• 1 cup dried chickpeas (yields about 3 cups cooked, 1 cup cooked=150 grams)
• 2.5 cloves garlic
• 1.5 teaspoons cumin
• 1.5 teaspoons sea salt (adjust accordingly to personal taste)
• 3.5 tablespoons tahini paste
• 1 small beetroot (boiled until soft), about 70 grams
• 1.5 lemon, juiced
• Olive oil, drizzle

INSTRUCTIONS

Drain and transfer your soaked chickpeas to a large cooking pot.  Fill it up with water with about an inch or two to cover. 

Bring it to a boil and then turn down the heat to a slow simmer for at least two hours.  If you see some white foam during this time, just scoop it out.  Taste check every 10 minutes afterwards to see if is firm enough on the outside and tender on the inside.  Next drain and rinse them under cold water. 

Optional:  I have heard of people peeling skin off of each and every chickpea before adding it into the food processor.  Apparently, the dip comes out smoother.  I don't know.  I never seem to have the time to do this.

Add all your ingredients into the food processor and turn it on.  Use your spatula to swipe along the sides occasionally so that you get every bit of it to blend together for a smooth consistency.  You can add water to the batch if it is too thick. 

Top it off with a generous drizzle of olive oil.

NOTE

I am a garlic fan.  I like my hummus and beetroot hummus with a sharp garlicky taste and a slight citrusy twang to it.  If you want a milder recipe just use 2 cloves of garlic and the sweet flavor of the beetroot will come through.  Add enough water as needed to achieve the consistency you like.  I added nearly a half cup of water to this recipe.