Leek Week(end)

To complete my week of leeks I offer this potato leek soup, particularly appropriate on this chilly January day. While I admit it's not much to look at, it is a really tasty soup. Not to be confused with vichyssoise (also a potato leek soup), the French classic typically served cold and topped with chives, this simple rustic soup lacks the addition of heavy cream. Save that for your gratin.

Potato Leek Soup

2 large leeks, split lengthwise, washed well, and chopped (white and pale green parts only) 
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 pound boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

1. In a large heavy saucepan, cook the leeks in the butter with salt and pepper to taste, covered, over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are softened but not browned. 

2. Add the water, the broth, and the potatoes and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. In a blender purée 1 cup of the soup, stir the purée into the remaining soup with the parsley, and season the soup with salt and pepper (or with an immersion blender, pulse to the desired texture).

Winning!

It's Super Bowl Sunday and peeps are obsessed. Especially in New York. Who's going to win? Will Madonna's performance be memorable? Are there any commercials left that haven't already been promoted to death all week on TV? What should we eat?? I think its kind of funny that food magazines put a lot of effort into inventing extra special Super Bowl menus and that the morning TV programs are riddled with the latest decorating ideas for your Super Bowl party. Ummm...when it comes to sporting events shouldn't you just order some pizzas and call it a day? Why get themey and make it more difficult than it has to be? (Save that effort for Cinco de Mayo.) Either you're into football and want to watch the game, or it's just another excuse to hang with your friends and to eat some nachos.

Since it's just another day to me, I'm making yet another lentil concoction. (You might be more interested tomorrow after your hefty beer and mozzarella stick intake tonight.) And it's covered in bacon! I know. Delish. Since I eat a lot of lentils, I'm always looking for a new twist in my preparation. Bacon made my quinoa taste better, so I knew it had to add that special something to my lentils as well. And it does. Hope your teams wins.

Warm Lentil and Smoked Pork Belly Salad

Adapted from The New York Times

3/4 pound smoked pork belly, or good-quality slab bacon, cut 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick

1 large onion, halved

4 thyme branches

1 small carrot, peeled

1 cup small green French lentils, cleaned and rinsed

1 small bay leaf

Salt and pepper

1 pound fingerling potatoes

1 large shallot, finely diced

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 garlic cloves, smashed to a paste

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/4 cup fruity olive oil

2 teaspoons capers, rinsed and roughly chopped

2 tablespoons cornichons or other sour gherkins, roughly chopped

1/4 cup chopped scallions, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish

1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish

1. Put the pork belly or bacon in a pot with one of the onion halves, 2 small thyme branches and the carrot. Cover with a quart of water and simmer gently until tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Turn off the heat and keep warm in liquid.

2. Meanwhile, put the lentils in a medium pot. Add the other 1/2 onion, 2 small thyme branches and the bay leaf. Add 4 cups water and a little salt. Simmer gently over medium heat until firm-tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Drain (discard the onion, thyme and bay leaf) and keep warm.

3. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in their skins in well-salted water until done, about 15 minutes. Drain and keep warm.

4. Make the vinaigrette: Macerate the shallot in the red wine vinegar for 5 minutes in a small bowl. Add the garlic, Dijon mustard and a pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil to make a thick sauce. Stir in the chopped capers and cornichons. Just before serving, stir in 1/4 cup scallions and 1/2 cup parsley.

5. To serve, dress the lentils with half the vinaigrette, then transfer to a platter or serving bowl. Slice the pork belly crosswise into 1/4-inch slices (save the broth for soup) and arrange over the lentils. Cut the potatoes lengthwise and arrange, cut-side up, around the platter. Spoon the remaining vinaigrette over the sliced meat and potatoes. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon each scallions and parsley. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Mayo. Yo.

I've never been a fan of mayo. Or sour cream. Or yogurt. Blech. So why did I decide to make homemade aioli (that's garlic mayo, y'all)? It must be because all of the healthy veggies that I've been eating. That's so not meant to last. And...I did happen to come home with a couple of heads of smoked garlic. Totally random. I had never seen it before, but it just seemed like the perfect ingredient for a smoked garlic aioli with patatas bravas...aka Spanish fries. Oh. Yeah. And aioli just sounds so much better than mayo.



Apparently smoked garlic is popular in France where it is known as Ail Fumé. In all of the days (!) that I've been there, I never noticed it in markets or on menus. (Francophiles? Any insight?) Anyhoo, it evidently exists in New York grocery stores and I am it's happy recipient. It smells a lot more smokey than it tastes, but proves the perfect partner for my aioli. Well, after I made it a second time. The first one kind of broke. Whoops!


Broken.

Fixed.

When you make your own mayo BY HAND, you have to be patient and initially only add a few drops of oil at a time so that it thickens gradually without breaking. I guess my arm was getting tired of whisking (it was about to fall off!) so I added the oil too quickly. Don't despair. There is a way to bring it back! Add a single room temperature egg yolk to a medium bowl, then slowly whisk the separated aioli into it. The additional yolk re-emulsifies the sauce. Boom.

I didn't deep fry my potatoes because all of that hot oil kind of scares me, but I did recall that my mom used to saute sliced potatoes for a dinner side dish sometimes. They look super tasty, right? They were! Even though they weren't deep fried. Just add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a frying pan, heat, then add sliced potatoes in a single layer. Cook for 4 minutes then flip and cook about 4 minutes more until golden. Toss with salt. Eat.



As good as this crispy potato-smoked garlic aioli combo is, I'm still not down with mayo. Or sour cream. Or yogurt. Or pudding...



Smoked Garlic Aioli

2 smoked garlic cloves
1 large egg yolk
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1. Mince the garlic and then mash to a paste with a pinch of salt using a large heavy knife. (Or, use my new technique and grate the garlic cloves on a microplane.) Whisk together the yolk and mashed garlic in a bowl. Combine the oils and initially add just a few drops at a time to the yolk mixture, whisking constantly, until the aioli begins to thicken. Then add the oil slowly in a very thin stream (whisking constantly!) until all the oil is incorporated and the mixture is emulsified. (If the mixture separates (see photo of my broken aioli!), stop adding the oil and continue whisking until the mixture comes together, then resume adding oil.)

2. Whisk in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. If aïoli is too thick, whisk in 1 or 2 drops of water. Chill, covered, until ready to use.

Ice Ice Baby

Last week I took a cooking class at the Institute of Culinary Education with my fabulous friends, Chad and Julie. I've taken classes at ICE a couple of times before (Thai cooking, cheese and wine pairing...) since they offer a ton of recreational courses. On Friday night we opted for The French Steakhouse...for obvious reasons (see photos below!) and because Chad and I had been talking about taking some meat centric classes (fortunately Julie agreed with the theme). I've always wanted more experience cooking meat since a.) I live alone so never buy large cuts of meat and b.) I live in a small space, NOT a particularly high-heat cooking friendly environment, as searing or grilling meat instantly sets off the smoke detector and the lingering smell of smoke lasts for at least a week. So, I took a class.

Our class of 16 broke into 3 groups in order to complete our vast menu. The one common recipe among the groups was the Pommes Anna (though some burned theirs...) but beyond that, the remaining recipes were unique to each group. Group #1 (ours!) made Celeriac Remoulade, Huitres Mignonette (oysters with a sherry-shallot sauce), the aforementioned Pommes Anna, and Onglet Bordelaise (hangar steak with red wine sauce). Don't ask me how to pronounce any of that. Not even the English words.

How did it all go down? I would call it organized chaos. But once everyone figured out what to get started on, peeps seemed to relax into their assigned tasks. Our leader, Chef Sue, was a calming presence despite the shouts from across the room. "CHEF! CHEF SUE! SUE! SUE! SUE! SUUUUUE!" She was able to attend to everyone and, according to her, we all finished in record time. (More time to eat!) Chad, Julie and I decided that we would revisit some of our favorite recipes and remake them together at home. And by home I mean Chad's.


Chad musseling an...oyster. He shucked them all. Good job, Chad!


Oyster close-up. Lacking focus. Too. Hungry.


Frisée aux LARDONS! Nuff said.


Butchering the onglet. That's hangar steak to you and me.


Grillin' & chillin'.


Tasty morsels of beef.


Potatoes that I sliced on the mandolin. (That's a mandolin with a sharp blade, not a mandolin from the lute family.) I managed to keep all of my digits intact.


Another group's Pommes Anna. (My group's PA might have been accidentally burned...and I might have been partially responsible.)


Meat fest 2010!


Pile o' French food.


Profiterole with ice cream and chocolate sauce.


Sliced celeriac relaxing in some acidulated (lemon) water.


Remoulade deconstructed.



Celeriac Remoulade

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
3 tablespoons capers, drained and chopped
3 tablespoons chopped cornichons
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 tablespoon chopped chervil
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3 – 4 dashes Tabasco
1 pound celery root, peeled and julienned (keep in acidulated water until ready to use - see photo above)

1. In a large bowl, combine the mayonnaise, capers, chives, chervil, tarragon, mustard, anchovy paste, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco.

2. Drain the celeriac well. Add to the remoulade sauce and toss gently until lightly coated. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Partially Organic Gratin

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go food shopping with a few friends (Jen, Lisa, Kristin) and a nutritionist from Food Trainers. In addition to regular nutritional counseling, whether for weight loss or sports training or living a gluten free life, they also offer "market foodtraining." Our trip to the grocery store was an example of a market field trip in which a nutritionist leads a small group through the store, making suggestions about when to buy organic, which fish contains the least amount of mercury, or simply which packaged foods are the most healthful (particularly helpful for those who don't cook!). You can read a more extensive summary by my friend, Jen, here.

I think that I generally make the 'right' choices when grocery shopping, so was pleased to discover that I recognized most of the information that was provided to us. But I did learn more about making better choices with regard to purchasing local (within 100 miles) and/or organic products. Although I do purchase some produce from my local farmers' market, I find that when I hit the actual grocery store, I tend to not pay attention to organic vs. conventional produce, unless it relates to the price. I did learn that by purchasing even some organic produce I can still reduce my overall pesticide ingestion. Also, if I make the effort to recognize the origin of produce, California vs. Chile or New York vs. Ohio, I can make a conscious choice to select produce that didn't have to travel as far to get to my grocery store.

With all of this information at my fingertips, I have been more aware of what I am buying, even purchasing organic milk about every other trip to the store (the Whole Foods 365 brand quart of milk is only $.99! vs. $3.69 for the organic choice - it's a tough choice!). And since I am still thinking about Thanksgiving side dish ideas that will not make you feel like a fat bastard, I perused the produce aisles today and ended up buying some Belgian Endive (from...Belguim, Ooops!) and some LOCAL ORGANIC potatoes to make a gratin that I read about in The New York Times.

Usually gratins are loaded with heavy cream and cheese (yes!) but this one eliminates the cream, though it still allows for the cheese so that you get the essence of a gratin. Umm...I actually added a bit more cheese. (Just a bit!) I think an extra 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan sprinkled on top is not going to make or break the calorie count. It's going to be the extra dollop of homemade whipped cream on top of your pie that does that.

Endive and Potato Gratin
(Adapted From Martha Rose Shulman)

1 pound Belgian endive (about 4 medium), quartered lengthwise
Salt
1 pound small red potatoes, quartered
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons walnut oil (or extra virgin olive oil)
1/2 cup grated Gruyère cheese (about 2 ounces)
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Oil a two-quart baking or gratin dish. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice water. When the water comes to a boil, salt generously and add the endives. Blanch for 1 - 2 minutes, and then transfer to the ice water. Cool in the ice water, then drain completely and dry on paper towels. Cut crosswise into thirds and transfer to a large bowl.

2. Steam (or boil) the quartered potatoes for 10 - 15 minutes, until tender. Add to the bowl with the endives, along with the walnuts, parsley, thyme, walnut (or olive) oil and half of the Gruyère. Season generously with salt and pepper, and toss everything gently together. Turn into the prepared baking dish, scraping all of the contents of the bowl into the dish. Sprinkle the remaining Gruyère and Parmesan over the top.

3. Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until the edges of the vegetables are browned and the gratin is sizzling. Remove from the heat and serve hot or warm. Serves four.

Advance preparation: You can prepare the ingredients several hours before baking. Toss them together in the bowl again before you turn them into the gratin dish.

Howdy Ho!

Mr. Hanky makes an unexpected appearance.