¡Sacre bleu! Comfort, French style

And yes, it IS a food of love

FONDUE  (fon-doo)     serves as a snack for a party of four to six

I had heard of fondue as a kid, but it wasn’t something we did at any regularity in our home, although it was a fun new treat – and it remained a relatively ‘exotic’ dish:  All of us gathered around a pot with this strange blue flame under. Dipping long forks with bread bites daintily into the goo (goo was good) – thrillingly mystified me -- one of the things that adults did that regularly confused us youngsters.  We loved cheese, and any way to eat it was just fine with us.  But all the effort to dip pieces of bread with a fork into that stinky cheese a bite at a time was a bit much -- for even us kids.   

I learned about fondue from my Swiss friends.  In French it means ‘melted’, a pretty obvious redundancy name.   I tried out perhaps a dozen types of cheeses to make my fondue.  It is always made of a mix of good melting cheeses and good tasting cheeses, so two or three in a blend wasn’t unusual.  I went through cheeses I had no idea how to pronounce, but they were recommended.  After all that effort and tasting, I finally ended up with two cheeses of exotic and rare quality:  Swiss and Monterrey jack.  Really!  They had all the flavor and texture of the fancy Fondues I’d tried, and boy, a whole lot cheaper and easier to find.  The key to this dish is LOW flame all the way through preparation and presentation.

Tools: if not a ‘fondue’ set consisting of elevated pan and rack/flame, then a wide, low pan over a gentle hot plate – or small crock-pot (go for safest options on the serving or dining table); box grater or grating wheel on processor

Ingredients:

         ½-¾    lbs each - quality Swiss/Gruyère, and Monterrey Jack

                        (try Pepper Jack!) cheeses, fresh grated to total

20-24 oz (but a handful of grated pecorino, fontina,

emmental and/or appenzeller – would never hurt!)

            ¼     cup flour

          1-2      tbs butter (half/half with olive oil if you choose)

          1-3      cloves garlic, minced (your love of garlic suits the
                        amount here)

            ¼     tsp (light pinch) nutmeg

            ¼     tsp thyme, crushed to a powder if dry, ½ tsp finely
                        minced if fresh

            ½     tsp fresh ground pepper, or white pepper for lack of
                        color, if preferred

             2     cups dry white wine, or dry champagne (dry sherry
                        may work but must be a quality, light vintage)

          1-2     tbs Kirschwasser, Kirsch, or other fruit brandy

           

            Large pretzel sticks, large dipping corn chips or tortilla chips,

                       at least twenty-thirty    

            Crisp fresh vegetables and fruits (apple, pear, jicama, star fruit,

                       just under-ripe peaches and plums sliced as long as
                       possible; celery and carrot sticks cut 4-5 inch long)
                       sliced into ½ to ¾ inch wide ‘planks’ -- spritzed with
                       citrus juice to keep from browning – to make at least
                       twenty-thirty planks

            Crisp dried (freeze dried or roast dried) vegetables, stick form

Deep-fried anything – French fries, asparagus spears, beans,

           sweet potatoes fries, ‘hush puppies’, etc.

                Dried/cured meats like dry salami, kielbasa, smoked sausage,
                       roasted cocktail wieners etc., cut into planks

Good quality, paisan/country breads – crusty, rich flavored,
           firm inner texture, able to be dipped into thick goo. 
           Cut into ‘sticks’ about four to five inches long by
           ¾ inch, at least twenty to thirty sticks.

            Powdered cayenne pepper, paprika, cumin, and salt. 

                       Mixed together in ¼ -- 2 – 1 – 1 ratio.   

Preparation:  In large bowl, using fingers, toss the fresh-grated cheese shreds well (pre-shredded packaged cheeses are not the best choice, but will be OK if it’s all that’s available) with the flour (sprinkled evenly), coating all the shreds.  Use only the flour that adheres to the individual cheese shreds.  In the cooking/serving pan on medium heat setting, bring butter to melting with the minced garlic and thyme, and sizzle till aromatic, removing the rawness.  Stir in the wine and heat until bubbles appear on the sides.  Adjust heat to medium low or lower to maintain THIS heat, and do not heat higher than this level.  Add the floured cheeses a handful at a time, stirring to melt.  And last, add the liqueur and serve.

Funnel the powdered spices into a shaker and lightly dust the moist fruit and vegetable sticks before dipping.  The powder will help the cheese adhere to the slick surfaces – as well as the obvious lovely ‘heat’ spike and back-flavors.  Bread sticks can be ‘firmed’ by grilling in a small bit of garlic-infused oil/butter and/or baked in low (200°–250°) oven till gently crisp.  If you don’t have the long forks, give a shot at serving and dipping without forks, and try using the foods as serving ‘sticks’ (set your own rules as to ‘double-dipping’).  If not, just use a regular fork, with a barbed tine for grabbing, as a best bet. 

Options: Wine need not be the base liquid of choice.  Pale beer, ale, pilsner or lager make a great alternate flavor boost and texture contribution – and a rich back taste as well.  Try the recipe with aged grated cheddar replacing the Swiss/Gruyère, added to the mix and maybe a spoon of rich, hearty mustard with the garlic at the beginning.

Have various flavors to sprinkle onto your cheese-coated foods, like sliced/diced olives, sesame/caraway/poppy seeds, roasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds, pickled jalapeño rings, capers, sweet or dill relish, minced shallots, sliced radishes, raisins, currants, or grated Parmesan or Cotija cheese.   It’s back to the fun idea; the kid in you will love it.

RATATOUILLE (rat-uh-too-ey)          
 serves six to eight as a side dish

The day we took the train into Paris from Germany, we went right to the office to meet everyone and had lunch with them.  They were serving a dish called ‘ratatouille’, a vegetable dish, and I thought ‘OK, vegetables for a main dish, let’s see’.  I’d never heard of it, let alone tasted it.  Well, the bottom line is, I was addicted.  It was such an amazing flavor and texture for my mouth, a wonderful awakening for my young life.  I didn’t even miss any meat.

The flavor and texture of the dish is derived from a combination of elements: the vegetables, the preparation that creates caramelization (there’s that word again) and texture, and the slow cooking and spicing that brings out hidden flavors.  It is a classic dish, served to kings and to peasants.  It should be known all around the world.  Heck, it was a movie!

There are several camps of thought in the technique of preparation of this dish.  Some feel all the vegetables are to be cooked all together, others support cooking the vegetables separately and blending at the end.  Some promote a baking step, while others enforce a ‘stew’.  Some cut the vegetables into a dice of larger ‘bite’ size and some choose a smaller ‘chutney’ size. Still others cut the vegetables into discs, like coins, and layer them in a rich tomato sauce and bake it all.  They are all wonderful, and not one of them is the right one.  They all are.

With all that information given you, I’ll just pass along the dish as I prefer it.  The one I ate all those years ago.  It was made of the known vegetables, plus a flavor or two more I’ve added.  Here goes:

Foundation flavors:

                        Tomato, sweet onions, olive oil, garlic, thyme, bay,
                        rosemary

Secondary flavors:

                        Bell peppers, eggplant, fennel, nutmeg, marjoram

Forefront flavors:

                        Zucchini, yellow squash, garlic, mushrooms, basil

I may be confusing you a bit with my layered offering of flavors.  But this is how the dish hits the taste buds, with flavors arriving to the delicious receptor part of the brain in different deliveries, in layered surprises.  In this recipe, we’ll be cooking in three sets, then blend and bake briefly at the end.  The basic recipe didn’t include mushrooms or yellow squash, but by now you must know I’m not a slave of tradition.  All I can say is:  make, taste, enjoy and remember.

Tools:  large frying pan (seasoned cast iron skillet or sauté pan, non-stick with ovenproof ability), cutting board, bowl for ingredients after cooking, and an 3 qt casserole should you not have a frying pan that is oven capable

Prep:  Eggplant is a very unique vegetable.  It can be heaven or hell, depending on how it is prepared and cooked.  Merely sauteéing this vegetable may bring it to a tasty finish, but textureless - and we definitely want texture with this vegetable.  Removing some of the moisture content before the sauté will allow it to take on more 'tooth', more texture - more like a well-sautéed mushroom for the 'bite's' sake.  For this recipe, we’ll venture on the safe side and expect that the vegetable could be bitter (and knowingly too water-laden), and act accordingly.  The best option is to find a Japanese eggplant, which is long and slender, usually pale purple or lavender.  It has the benefit of less seeds, more flavorful flesh, and with edible (more tender) skin.  For this recipe we’re using one foot-long eggplant about two to three inches in diameter or thereabouts.  Otherwise, the taditional USA 'bulb' type deep purple eggplant is fine.  Peeling or not is your option - some like the peel.  Cut and prepare in the same manner as the Japanese style eggplant.

Trim the ends from the eggplant and slice the body into ¾ inch discs and lay them out flat on a paper-toweled surface and salt well, flip and salt again.  Place the slices in a colander over a bowl (all set in the refrigerator) to leech out the bitter and/or excess juices for at least an hour, then rinse discs well, and dry completely between paper towels, pressing lightly, then dice to ¾ inch dice.

Preheat oven to 350°

Foundation: 

          4-6     small to medium sized tomatoes (Roma are excellent,

                        meaty and flavorful), cut in half, de-seeded with

fingertip, diced to ¾ inch size (skin on is OK)

          3-4    cloves garlic, chopped fine, sliced paper-thin, or minced

2     small white or yellow onions, diced ¾ inch

1     tbs olive oil

            1     bay leaf

            ½    tsp each thyme and rosemary, dried and crushed in
                        palm with opposite thumb when adding

            ¼    tsp each, salt and fresh-ground pepper

Preparation:  Bring frying pan to medium-hot, then add the oil, bring to heat and add the onion.  Sauté the onions until limp and beginning to golden, then reduce the heat to medium and add the garlic, salt and pepper, rosemary and thyme.  Sauté very low for another few minutes until the onions are very soft, sweet and golden.  Now it’s a matter of gentleness -- add the tomato chunks and bay, stirring well, and gently sauté on a gentle heat for a good five to seven minutes, stirring occasionally until there is a soft sauce yet still discernable firm chunks of tomato and tender onion.  Carefully add to mixing bowl, remove and save the bay leaf.

Secondary flavors:

             3      tbs olive oil

           2-3     tbs dry wine or sherry

           1-2     tbs red wine, champagne or sherry vinegar (remember
                        that the vinegar ingredient is pungent, and releases

                        vapors when boiled, don’t breathe them in)

1      Japanese eggplant, salted/rinsed, diced (see above)
                        or aforementioned  bulb-style eggplant            
             2      small to medium bell peppers, color choice is yours,

                        stemmed, seeded/deveined, sliced to ½ inch strips    

            1       medium fennel bulb, or half of a larger bulb (optional);
                        cored, quartered and sliced thin

            ½    tsp marjoram, dried -- ground in the palm of the hand
                        with the opposite thumb when adding

              ¼    tsp salt and pepper

Preparation:  To the same unwashed pan, add a splash of water to loosen all the fond, then add the recycled bay leaf to clean it off, then work until the pan is near dry, yet cleaner.  Add the three tablespoons of olive oil, and bring to heat.  Stir with wooden flat spatula/spoon to loosen any tomato residue and then the eggplant, fennel and bell pepper chunks and stir/sauté well distributing the oil to all the surfaces of the chunks (add a bit more oil if necessary, eggplant is a veritable ‘sponge’), then sprinkle with the freshly powdered marjoram, and salt and pepper.  Sauté fairly high the eggplant until it begins to golden, and the bell peppers are soft and paling in color, the fennel beginning to tender, then lower the heat to medium.  Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the peppers and fennel are just barely limp with golden brown edges and the eggplant has taken a firm and golden brown appearance.  Add the wine and vinegar together to deglaze the pan once more, stirring well -- the liquids will evaporate quickly to half their amount.  Remove to bowl with tomatoes and onions.

Forefront flavors:

            1      tbs extra virgin olive oil

            1      clove garlic, sliced fine (a paper-thin slice is
                        preferred, but more difficult) or minced

          2-3      young, small zucchini squashes, about 1 inch
                        in diameter, five or six inches long, cut in
                        ¼-½ inch coins - halved if necessary

          2-3      young, small slender yellow crookneck squash,
                        about 1-2 inches in diameter, five or six
                        inches long, cut same as zucchini, may be
                        quartered at the fatter end

            ½     pound white button mushrooms or Crimini,
                        sliced ¼ to ½ inch

         pinch salt and fresh ground pepper

          1-2      tbs fresh basil (about five to eight leaves, cut
                        chiffonade, or diced medium-fine) at last minute     

            ¼     tsp (a whisper of a pinch) fresh ground nutmeg

            ½     tsp herbes de Provence, crushed in palm with
                        opposite thumb

                ¼     tsp salt and pepper

Preparation:  In medium-hot pan, add oil and bring just to heat.  Add the slices of squashes and mushrooms and sauté at that heat until the vegetables begin to soften; add the nutmeg, garlic and salt and pepper and sauté till the vegetables release the liquids and continue till the pan begins to dry a little.  Reduce the heat to medium and sauté until their edges begin to golden and darken, about five to seven minutes.  At this point, add the set-aside vegetables and chunk tomato sauce, mix gently, and bring all to heat, and reduce to low flame and add the basil and herbes de Provence, stir very gently and place in oven, or into casserole dish and then into oven.  Bake briefly to blend flavors, equalize the heat, and set the sauce, about ten to fifteen minutes max, that’s all.  Remove and air cool.  A bit of extra virgin olive oil may be lightly drizzled over just prior to serving.

Perfect if prepared immediately prior to dinner, but easier earlier in the day, chilled and reheated, or at room temperature is just wonderful as well.  But this final oven time with cooling allows the host to meet and greet, serve everyone the hors d’oeurves and libations and then let everyone to sit down and begin the salad course. 

I am on the guest list, right?

Options: this French vegetable dish can be made more ‘Mediterranean’ by adding a few ingredients.  At the beginning, with the ‘Foundation’ layer of flavor, add to the heated oil just before the onions, one or two fillets of anchovies, or 1 tsp anchovy paste (anchovies will dissipate in the cooking).  This sets a wonderful flavor, not recognizable as ‘fish’, just a rich back taste. Because of this, the addition of salt at this stage is not necessary. Another ingredient to try, add 1 tbs of rinsed capers plus a quarter cup rough-chopped Nicoise or Calamata olives (pitted), with the stage including squashes and mushrooms (likewise, no additional salt needed).  Portabella, shiitake or wild mushrooms may be used as well.  Also consider at the final blend, adding a few tablespoons to a quarter cup of toasted pine nuts or toasted slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds; and topping when going into the oven with a quarter cup of fresh grated Parmesan, pecorino, Romano, asiago or Cotija cheeses.  Dream a little rêve. 

OK, for you yanks, that pronounced 'rev', which means, yes, 'dream'.



This is def one you'll knead to know!

BETWEEN PIZZA
AND QUICHE

A Christmas sojourn all those years ago into Germany, Switzerland and Alsace Lorraine had so many rewards.  We drove several hundred miles in that week (and we saw so many different cultures – not like driving for hours in the US and still seeing the same state).  When we got into Alsace, we started noticing that when towns had the suffix heim or berg in the name, that they most likely had a castle, or more accurately, the ruins of a castle.  We saw ruins in many places, and unlike here, they weren’t surrounded with chain-link fences that were decorated with trash and spray-painted graffiti.  They just sat there with their crumbling moss-covered huge walls going up to a bare sky, softened with tall stalks of briars and vines.  I remember one ruin, in a huge roofless room, there was a massive stone chair that sat among grasses and leaves with birds nesting in carved decorations of floral, arch or animal design.  I felt like I’d stepped into some storybook, and the modern connections with the world I knew all just faded away.

And you thought I’d only focused on food. 

Oh, yeah, back to that.  As I said, we all ate very well.  I guess I looked like I needed to be fed in those days.

One dish that greeted us at the home of one of my friend’s parents (they owned a sauerkraut factory) was a cross between a quiche and a pizza.  The best of both worlds.  In the courtyard of the home was a huge brick oven, and from that came some amazing things.  The house surrounded the courtyard, and the barnyard animals boarded downstairs, and the people lived upstairs – you know, heat rises, so the animals’ body heat was a big contributor to heating the house.  It was Christmas, and I wasn’t cold. 

But this stone oven ‘pizza’ was one of the most amazing versions I’d seen.  She’d take the rolled-out dough and smooth a big ladle-full of a mix of beaten eggs and fromage blanc.  Over this she’d generously sprinkle cooked-down onions and bacon, then slide it all into the oven (on a sheet of asbestos I now cringingly remember! – but in those days, no one knew).  Out would come a masterpiece of flavor and bubbly goodness. 

Five of us ate five consecutive pizzas/quiches.  Don’t judge me, but yes, I was a pig.

Fromage Blanc, or ‘white cheese’ in English, is similar to sour cream.  There is actually quite a bit of a difference, so the most similar presentation of cream ‘import’ we hear about is crème fraîche (a fresh cheese), a closer relative.  They are all made from cream of different fat levels, and are altered by various bacterial action.  It falls somewhere between sour cream and cream cheese (oh what a place to fall!), and when cooked, it doesn’t produce a ‘whey’ or watery by-product as sour cream sometimes does.  You may not find fromage blanc, so crème fraiche will work best.  Should you choose to use sour cream or crème fraîche, you can make the whey issue less by letting set in a colander or sieve lined with cheesecloth or a quality paper towel for at least a couple of hours to drain away the excess water.  If crème fraîche isn’t readily available, try mixing equal parts sour cream and room temperature cream cheese (or Greek or plain yogurt) together and – if you care to take the time – let the mix likewise set for a bit to drain the excess waters, and you will come up with something close.  You don’t have to, but hey, it’s fun to get to know other ‘cultures’.  Ahem.

The recipe isn’t difficult:  Pizza dough – and the prepared store-bought offering is just fine, or procuring a batch or two from your favorite neighborhood pizzeria (roll the dough out to smooth/join folds, and stretch the pizzeria bit out), prepare about ¼ inch thick, and let stand till close to room temperature and expanded/relaxed a bit; or store bought puff pastry could work nicely as well – set out a bit after rolling out to remove folds and relax the texture; golden cooked-down onions; garlic and herbs (marjoram, chervil, tarragon or other gentle leaf herb); rendered, cooked and drained bacon brought to a chewy soft-yet-done stage; and equal parts of beaten eggs and fromage blanc (start with three eggs and a half cup of the thickened cream) as the base sauce.  Roast in a hot (400°) oven for fifteen to twenty minutes, or until hot and bubbly and deep golden crisp on the edges.   Um, no asbestos, OK?

Options:  The usual suspects:  sautéed till almost tender mushrooms (carefully broken apart or sliced wild, or exotics make a nice difference); capers; artichoke hearts; olives (green and/or black); pickled onions with the caramelized onions; pepper flakes; and cheeses (feta, brie, camembert melted along with the usual expected mozzarella).

And I bet you that you won’t eat just one.  Don’t make me the only pig.

Just eating this dish makes me think of crumbling, moss-covered castles and stone thrones.