Tastecation: Paris

I apologize for my long absence. After three weeks in Europe for work and other travels, I had a bit of a hard time acclimating back to being at home. But I'm back now to tell you all about my Tastecation.

First stop, Paris.

Ahhhh, Paris. If you're on a European Tastecation, you can't miss Paris. French cooking is at the center of all things gourmet. It is famous for its complex (and delicious) sauces, based in butter, or some other delectable fatty substance, typically smothering some exquisitely prepared meat or vegetable. This has, of course, led researchers and lay (fat) Americans to wonder how those annoying French can eat such decadent food and stay so freaking thin! Perhaps it's what some speculate - the wine. Oh, the wine! How can anyone talk about France without mentioning the wine? But I digress.

All of these things are wonderful, and I did enjoy a number of classic French meals, from flambéd crêpes at Crêperie Josselin, to scrumptious crayfish and melt in your mouth soufflé at Aux Lyonnais, to classic Niçoise salad and the most amazing espresso crème brulée (and I don't like crème brulée) at Le Comptoir du Relais. My mouth waters just thinking about this wonderful weekend in Paris. Mmmhmmm.

These things are obviously an important part of a successful tastecation, but my favorite part of Paris is the marketplace culture. In sharp contrast to the complexity of most French meals, you can walk down streets where you see these amazing French dishes in their most basic forms.

Oh you lovely little, squirming crayfish. I will eat you later and suck the delicious buttery goodness off of every surface of your tiny, crustacean body.

And you, my fungal friends, don't think I won't have you sautéd with white wine and butter.

Yes, I do talk to my food. Don't judge me.

But really, you have to go to a market street. And I really mean street.

While the French also have the insanely huge super grocery stores that we have in the United States, they also have a thriving culture of specialty stores and outdoor markets. As a result, an entire street will be lined with specialty stores from meats to cheese to fresh fruits and veggies to bread and, of course, wine. This creates the same convenience of an all-in-one store, with the expertise that comes from specialization.

In addition to the brick and mortar shops are the booths of the open air markets that are only open selected times during the week (also, most of the shops are closed a couple days a week, so make sure to note the hours of your favorite). Here you can get similar food to what you find in the shops in addition to other specialty foods. My favorite is the olive booth. Beautiful and delicious.

As a result of all this specialization, you are guaranteed the best food. You will get a freshly baked baguette from the boulangerie. You can taste the housemade tapenade before purchasing. And my favorite part, you can watch the cheese monger in the fromagerie as she gently squeezes the cheese to make sure it's ripe for you.

You will also find the pride that the French have in French food. No one has to tell them to eat locally. They've been doing it for years (they probably assume that no one knows food as well as they do). And in a trip to the market, you'll see that much of the food is from different regions in France.

And seasons are important, too. When I walked into the fromagerie near my hotel, I immediately saw the sign that said "Le fromage de chèvre, c'est de saison!" Yum. Goat cheese season! We tend to think of just fruits and vegetables as having a season. But spring also brings fresh goat milk and the start of fresh goat cheese. I couldn't pass that up.

So we took our goat cheese, a fresh baguette, and a bottle of wine to the Champs de Mars for a lovely afternoon picnic.

THAT is quintessential Paris life.

And I love it.

Tastecation: Helsinki

I am currently on a business trip in Finland. I've been here a number of times, but this is definitely my favorite time of year. If you look at the trees, it seems that they're all still naked.

But look a little closer and you can see the leaves starting to push their way out toward the bright sun and blue skies.

Like Boston, the people of Helsinki have endured months of cold weather and little sunlight. Now, for the first time in months, the sun is out and is warming everything around. When this happens, the Finns do what we do in Boston - celebrate! It's not necessarily a formal celebration, but more of an extreme mood adjustment accompanied with lying about with as little clothing as possible on any surface with even the least amount of grass.

In addition to the palpable happiness throughout the country, the Finns also celebrate asparagus for a few weeks each May. During "Parsaviikot" each restaurant has various dishes added to its regular menu featuring either green or white varieties of this delectable vegetable.

However, as I perused Kauppatori, the main central market in Helsinki, I noticed that the asparagus for sale was not from Finland, but from Holland or Spain. Surprisingly, there were a number of vegetables that were from Finland ("Suomalainen" items included radishes, parsnips, peppers, and even tomatoes), but the things everyone craved, asparagus and strawberries were from other countries.

So what's the fuss with asparagus? I have to believe that this is related to everything turning green for the first time in months. It's time to celebrate life, and the asparagus is the first green thing to come out of the earth, even if it is earth that's almost a thousand miles away.

From a locavore perspective, it's a little off. But from a seasonal perspective I totally get it and I appreciate celebrating food that is in season rather than forced into season.

While asparagus seems like a national obsession from the menus in all the restaurants, there is still a lot of local food. For example, I noticed that a good deal of cheeses and meats served at the breakfast buffet at my hotel are from Finland. In addition, there are the amazing false morels.

These guys are the first on the scene in spring in Finland. Only problem, they are deadly poisonous if not cooked properly and illegal in many countries. Yikes! Okay, maybe THAT is why they celebrate with asparagus.

Mushroom ragout with arugula and poached egg

So for my last post, I was trying to take a picture of some eggs and accidentally cracked an egg. Uh oh. Well, when life hands you a cracked egg, you poach it! I took the opportunity to do my spin on one of my favorite dishes at Craigie on Main. If doing this for guests, prepare most everything ahead so that you can focus on the poached eggs. I usually make this for myself, so I only have to poach one egg. If you have an egg poacher gizmo, it will probably be a lot easier.

Ingredients (for four servings):

• Mix of mushrooms (bag of dried morels, 2 portobello, 8 shitake)
• 1 - 2 C baby arugula
• 1 C whole basil leaves
• 2 C cooked pasta
• 1 C white wine
• 1/4 C butter
• 2 T olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 eggs
• 2 oz shaved or grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

Instructions:
A few words on mushrooms. I try to do local and in season with mushrooms, but splurged on the morels. I also had to extend my "local" reach out of New England and down to Pennsylvania for the portobellos and shitakes. If you're using reconstituted dried mushrooms like morels or chanterelles wait till the raw mushrooms are fully cooked before adding them. Also reserve the water you use to reconstitute them. Sure, it's a little stinky but it makes the most amazing broth. If you don't reconstitute any of your mushrooms just add a cup of water where the recipe calls for the mushroom juice and cook a little longer.

In a large sauce pan, heat olive oil over medium high flame. Add sliced raw mushrooms. When the mushrooms are fully softened and browned on both sides, add the garlic and about a teaspoon of salt (less if you're not a fan of salt). Stir frequently to avoid burning the garlic. When the garlic is cooked through add any reconstituted shrooms, their juice, and the white wine.

While you're doing this, cook the pasta. I had just made some ricotta cavatelli, so used that. I think gnocchi would also be a nice choice. Make sure to reserve about 2 C of the pasta water.

Add the butter and a cup of the pasta water to the mushroom mix. The starch in the water will help make a bit of a gravy for the mushrooms.

Now comes the fun part... poaching the eggs. Now that I know the vinegar trick, I really love poached eggs and have used them in other recipes. Add about a tablespoon of white vinegar to the poaching water. Bring the water to a full boil. Crack the eggs into separate ramekins (or other small container) so that you can drop one in all at once. Have your spoon ready so that you can quickly coax the white of the egg back to the yolk. Repeat with the other eggs.

Add the cooked pasta in with the mushrooms. Check that there's still a broth. Add a little more water if it has dried up. Spoon the mushroom and pasta mix into bowls. Sprinkle generously with cheese. Add a mix of arugula and basil on top.

This meal was the only use I made of my winter garden of arugula. Growing salad greens in a window in winter is difficult. But this was so worth it. While I usually use thyme and rosemary with mushrooms, the spicy and tangy flavors of the arugula and basil really balanced the richness of the mushrooms and the yolk of the egg.

You want the yolks to be pretty runny, so try to cook them for about 2 - 3 minutes max. Then scoop them out with a slotted spoon and put on top of the mound of mushrooms, cheese, and greens. Sprinkle with a little more salt and pepper and serve.

To eat, pierce the egg and mix the yolk in with the sauce of the ragout. You will likely want to eat this with a spoon or at least have some bread on hand to sop up the rest of the sauce.

City fresh eggs

Close to 15 years ago, I read Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. While I didn't agree completely with the logic of his argument, my eyes were opened to the disgusting ways in which we raise the animals who become our food. I quickly decided that I would become a free-rangatarian, and I was likely one of the first of my kind. Of all the cruel excuses for animal husbandry, I believed that of egg laying chickens was one of the worst. So unlike most vegetarians who occasionally ignore the egg in their meal, I was pretty hard core about not eating factory farmed eggs. Hence the nickname "free range".

Free range to your health
Fast forward a few years and people started to understand what I was talking about when I said "free range". In fact, many people agree that it is probably a good idea, if only for the health benefits. And it's true. Hens that are allowed to forage outside of cages tend to produce eggs lower in fat and cholesterol and higher in omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins (see the table below from Organic & Thrifty). Some people even argue they taste better, but I can't really vouch for that. I do know that it is easier to eat without a side of guilt.

Factory farming ("free range" is not the perfect solution)
Now fast forward even further, to today. Thanks to more books about animal treatment and documentaries, like Food Inc., people are starting to really see and really get how absolutely abhorrent the factory farm paradigm is for the animals and the people involved.

So what's the solution? I always buy free range eggs at the store, however I have my doubts as to the authenticity of their claims. For example, claims that their chickens are free range and fed a vegetarian diet are dubious. Part of what chickens pick up when foraging outside a cage is a variety of bugs (in Hawaii, many people had kept chickens in order to keep the cockroach population down). Bugs, I learned in grade school, are not vegetables. I have a sense that producers started labeling their products as "fed a vegetarian diet" after the whole mad cow scare. To be fair, chickens would likely eat a cow if you fed it to them, so an optimistic view of this package labeling is that they're just trying to assure us that we're not going to have mad eggs.

If they're not being straight forward about their health claims, what about the actual heart of the matter "free". Are these animals actually free or just marginally free? Do a quick internet search and you'll find a lot of pictorial evidence to the contrary.

Know your farmer
Every time I have a chance to buy farm fresh eggs at the farmer's market, I jump on it. They're usually half the price, much higher nutritional value, and they're supporting the local economy. Sometimes they'll even take back the egg cartons, which also allows you to reuse, keeping packaging out of the waste system and helping the farmer save a little money.

Be your farmer
But you can get fresher than that. You can raise your own hens in your own backyard. You think I'm crazy? It's a national trend. In fact on a jog through my Cambridge neighborhood, I ran across a whole family of poultry hanging out.

Certainly a lot of people started raising their own chickens and growing their own food because of the recent recession. Unfortunately, many found that the cost of raising chickens is not offset by the tons of eggs you receive. However, chickens will eat just about anything, so you can make due feeding them your scraps and supplementing with chicken feed and foraging in the yard.

I haven't raised my own chickens so I'm not an expert, but from everything I've read there are certainly some things you should consider.

1. They need a coop. Even city porches or yards have predators, if only the cat next door. You need to keep your birds safe.
2. High production hens can lay as many as an egg a day. And they don't need a rooster.
3. Roosters are a liability for raising chickens. They're noisy and not actually necessary. They'll make your neighbors complain.
4. Many cities allow for chickens as pets, which means if you don't eat the chicken, you can keep it. 

For way more information than I have on chickens, check out the city chicken:

http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/index.html

Crunchy bread

One of the first tiffs I had with my boyfriend was when I got offended when he said I was crunchy. I argued, "I don't like granola. I shave my arm pits. I LOVE white bread!" While I have relented that I am probably at least a little bit crunchy, I do still really prefer a good, crusty white loaf to whole wheat. There's something about its quintessential breadiness; the way that you can eat it with anything. So when said boyfriend suggested I make a whole grain loaf, it took me a while to actually try it out.

After much experimentation (sorry to all my friends on whom I tested not so awesome recipes), I think I've arrived at a very yummy version of a whole grain no-knead bread recipe. I invite you to make the recipe as is, or to play around with it yourself. The trick is always to have enough white flour to compensate for the really heavy dense stuff you put in it. I've read that the maximum you'd ever want whole to white would be 1:1. Otherwise, the bread ends up way too dense (and stone like). I'm pretty happy with a 1:2 ratio.

While I often buy flour which is milled nearby in New England (like King Arthur), they actually get their grains from places like Kansas or North Dakota, which are not local by any stretch of the imagination. I am willing to make this sacrifice because I do love the wheaty carbohydrate foods like pasta, bread, and pizza. So instead, I'm committed to buying in bulk and making it myself whenever possible. The good news, for those of you equally addicted to bready food, is that this no-knead recipe is extremely easy. The only hard part is that it takes time (not effort, just time).

Ingredients:

• 2 C unbleached white bread flour
• 1 C whole wheat bread flour
• 1/2 C rolled oats
• 1/2 C rolled wheat (if you can't find this at your store, just double the amount of rolled oats)
• 1 T sugar
• 1 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t instant yeast (if you use active dry, double the amount and proof for 10 minutes with the sugar in luke-warm water)
• 1/2 C total of any combination of seeds (I used pepitas, sunflower, and flax; if you want to use larger nuts, like walnuts, mix them in before the second rising)
• 1 5/8 C filtered water

Instructions:
Start by roasting your seed combo in a shallow pan over medium high heat. Stir frequently to keep from browning. Take off the heat after about five or so minutes. (If you're using active dry yeast instead of instant, start proofing now.)

Mix the rest of the dry ingredients in a large, non-reactive bowl. I'm a huge fan of the Pyrex mixing bowl set with lids. When making breads and pasta, this basically eliminates the need to cover in disposable plastic wrap (yay!).

Add the water and the roasted seeds and stir till mixed thoroughly, about a minute. You will end up with what they call a "shaggy" dough that is wet and sticky. This recipe calls for more water than a typical kneaded dough. You're basically providing enough food and water (and time) for the yeast to do all the work through fermentation that you would have to do by kneading, namely allow the gluten molecules to bond to each other, creating the elasticity to hold the shape as the yeast releases air in baking.

Then comes the easy part - cover and wait.

Wait.

And wait a little more. In total, you should let it rise at room temperature for at least 14 hours or even longer if you have the time. I typically make the dough the night before I want my first loaf. The dough will have settled into the full shape of it's container (rather than the ball you left it in) and should be dotted with bubbles.

You can cook it all at once or you can take a quarter or a half or whatever amount you need. The rest of the dough you can store in the refrigerator till you need it. One quarter will give you about 2-3 servings. Unless you're feeding a small army, you should only cook a small amount at a time. The whole grains are really awesome at holding in water, so you end up with really moist bread. But you can also end up with a mold time bomb if you don't eat it within a few days. No matter when you use it, the bread turns out great, although I will admit that it tends to be lighter when made without refrigeration.

Whatever portion size you've chosen, plop it on a floured wooden surface. I give it a few good kneads, but all you really need to do is flop it over on itself a few times picking up some of the flour. (If you want to add nuts or dried fruit, do so at this time.) Cover with a smaller Pyrex bowl (should be big enough to allow the dough to double in size) for fifteen minutes. Generously dust the inside of the bowl with flour. Form the dough into a ball and place into the bowl. Cover and let rise for at least two hours.

If you're taking dough from the fridge to use, follow the same steps as above, but then tweak the second rise. If you want bread for dinner, take dough out in the morning and let it rise all day. If you need it more quickly you can use a proofing box or preheat your oven to 100 F for about five minutes and place the covered bowl inside with the door ajar. Don't allow the oven to get too hot. You don't want the dough to be above 90 F or it will kill all the yeast. This method will shorten the rising time to just shy of two hours.

About a half hour before the second rise is finished, preheat the oven to 475 F with a Dutch oven warming inside. To get a gorgeous crusty crust, you will need a covered cooking dish to hold the water in. I've found a Dutch oven works best. If you're cooking the entire thing you'll need at least a 6 quart Dutch oven. Scale down accordingly for other portions. Other methods include cooking on a pizza stone with a pan of water below it. Also, spraying the loaf with water 3-5 times during the first ten minutes of cooking.

To get the dough into the cooking device, dust the top of the dough with flour and then flip the bowl over your hand. Gently coax the dough out and quickly transfer it to the cooking device. Cover and place in the oven. Start checking the bread around 15-20 minutes in. Once a nice crust has developed, take the top off and allow it to cook 15-20 minutes more. Cool on a rack and then enjoy alone or with butter, goat cheese, or jam.