Paris

I spent the last two weeks in Paris to watch the French Open at Roland Garros.  As much as I love shopping and cooking in Paris, on this trip I mostly ate out.  Food is so important in Paris so it was no hardship  to experience several new and old favourite restaurants.  

Here are just a few photos from my meals.

A springtime salad from La Terrace near Ecole Militaire

Served with a panier du pain

The "Plateau de fruit de mer" and the lightest Millefeuille au Fruits Rouges from L'Ecaille de la Fontaine

A classic Croque Monsieur with green salad

Pizza Margarita and Macaron de Framboise from Le Jardin de Roland Garros

Mango Ice Cream

This week I found the good non-fibrous tasty mangoes in Auchan. I couldn’t resist trying out my new sorbetièr (ice cream maker) to make mango ice cream with them. Delicious!!!

Mango Ice Cream

2 large ripe mangoes, peeled and pitted

250 mL (1 cup) 2% (partially skimmed) milk

45 mL (3 Tbsp) 35% (heavy or whipping) cream

30 mL (2 Tbsp) light brown sugar

10 mL (2 tsp) fresh lemon juice

Dice 1/2 of one mango and chill in the fridge. Purée remaining mango in a blender or food processor. Add milk, cream, sugar, and lemon juice; blend until sugar dissolves. Freeze the mixture according to ice cream maker recommendations (or use food processor method below*). When the ice cream is partly frozen, stir in chilled mango. Serve immediately once the ice cream is completely frozen or transfer to a container to store in the freezer for up to 1 week.

*Food Processor Method: Chop mango and freeze in a single layer for a minimum of 5 hours until solid. Pulse frozen mango with sugar until coarsely chopped. Add the mixture of milk, cream and lemon juice through the feed tube and process until smooth. Serve immediately or transfer a container to store in the freezer for up to 1 week.

Sweet & Tangy Chicken Wings

The skies over Luxembourg have been clear of clouds and airplanes this weekend. The ash from the eruption of Iceland’s Mount Eyjafjallajokull volcano arrived in Europe. In Luxembourg this created a slight haze in the distance and a very light powdery coating over everything. The airport was closed but I’m not sure how much of the Luxembourg closure had to do with the atmospheric conditions here and how much is due to the closure of the usual destination airports. Either way the skies were empty of the usual planes and their telltale trails.

A typical evening sky over Luxembourg

Clear Skies over Luxembourg this Weekend

Tulips are beginning to bloom. Daffodils are almost over. Trees are coming to life. Colour is returning to the world. Birds are sitting in their nests. Spring is really here.

In honour of this, and maybe partly because our local chicken wing ‘fleiten’ restaurant ‘Beim Bär’ will be moving soon to the nearby village of Wellen after about 40 years here in Nittel, I decided to make these sweet and spicy Asian flavoured chicken wings. I served them with a simple coleslaw.



Sweet & Tangy Chicken Wings

1 kg (2 lbs) chicken wings, tips and drumettes separated
10 mL (2 tsp) grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
15 mL (1 Tbsp) oyster sauce
30 mL (2 Tbsp) mild chile sauce
15 mL (1 Tbsp) honey
7.5 mL (1/2 tsp) cayenne pepper
7.5 mL (1/2 tsp) garam masala (or curry powder)

Combine ginger, garlic, sauces, honey and spices. Pour over chicken wings and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for several hours. Place wings on a paper or foil covered tray and bake, uncovered, in a 180°C (360°F) oven for 25 minutes. Turn wings and continue to bake for another 25 minutes until browned and cooked through.

Chocolate Walnut Fudge

Fudge is a wonderful homemade candy. It is easy to make and yet one that I had never tried in its classic form. I had made Divinity Fudge once but this Chocolate Walnut one is better I think. I very rarely ever eat fudge but it is a decadent treat that deserves a try. I made it a batch as an Easter treat for friends and wound up finding that it was too good to resist. I might just have to make some more!


Chocolate Walnut Fudge

Butter
500 mL (2 cups) sugar
1 mL (1/8 tsp) salt
180 mL (3/4 cup) evaporated milk
5 mL (1 tsp) light corn syrup (or Golden Syrup)
60g (2 oz) chocolate
30 mL (2 Tbsp) butter
5 mL (1 tsp) vanilla
500 mL (2 cups) walnuts, chopped

Butter sides of a large heavy (2 L / 2 qt) saucepan (to prevent crystals from forming when the syrup boils). Combine sugar, salt, evaporated milk, corn syrup and chocolate in pan; cook, stirring over medium heat until chocolate melts and sugar dissolves. Cook to soft-ball* stage without stirring. Remove immediately from heat and add butter without stirring. Cool to lukewarm 43°C (110°F). Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture into a large bowl and beat until fudge thickens and loses its gloss. Mix in walnuts. Spread in a buttered or paper-lined 23x23x5 cm (9”x9”x2”) pan. Let cool completely and cut into squares.


* To test for soft ball stage:
Candy thermometer - Clip thermometer to the side of the pan after the syrup boils. The thermometer bulb should be well covered with the syrup and not touching the bottom of the pan. Thermometer will register 112°C to 114°C (234°F to 238°F) when soft-ball stage is reached.
Cold-water test - Drop a few drops of syrup into a bowl of very cold water. Syrup will form into a soft ball that flattens when removed from water.

Bretzel-Sonndeg

Today is Brezelsonndeg (Bretzel Sunday) in Luxembourg. It is a typically Luxembougish tradition where boys offer their sweethearts bretzels (pretzels) to show their affection on the 4th Lenten Sunday or Laetare Sunday which is halfway between Ash Wednesday and Easter. If the affection is returned the boy will be rewarded with a decorated egg from his girlfriend on Easter Sunday.

Bretzels are handed on on the Grande Rue in Luxembourg City and celebrated at festivals across the country. There is even a Bretzel Queen crowned each year.


Bretzels are either pastry or soft bread pretzels that come in various sizes. They are sold in roadside cabins and bakeries. This one was made with pastry and covered in chopped nuts and icing.

Radicchio Salad

Happy Valentine's Day!

A couple of weeks ago my Italian colleague was looking for the French names for a couple of ingredients. I soon realized that he was writing down a recipe for radicchio salad. I didn't know the name for radicchio in French so when I got home I looked it up in my handy “Guide des Aliments” and e-mailed him the response “chicoree de Treviso”. The next day, he told me that was not the right name for the small round radicchio but the name for the elongated endive like one. A short discussion on the different types of radicchio and chicory ensued. This prompted me to investigate further.

He was indeed correct that the elongated ones with red leaves and white ribs that are similar in shape to endive are “Radicchio di Treviso”. They actually have IGP – Indicazione Geografica Protetta – status in Italy. In Belgium and Luxembourg it is known as Rood Witloof. The small red ball-shaped radicchios that resemble small red cabbages are “Radicchio Rosso di Chioggia”. It is sometimes mislabelled in other parts of Europe and the US as radicchio de Treviso.

There are several different varieties of chicory including (Belgian or French) endive, radicchio, and curly endive. The leaves of these distant cousins of dandelion have a bitter peppery taste. They are wonderful in salads but can also be cooked. The red varieties add dramatic colour to salads. The taste of chicory works well with hazelnuts, walnuts, citrus fruit and blue cheese.

I threw together this simple but dramatic salad using radicchio, pine nuts, Roquefort cheese and a simple vinaigrette.

Lentil Soup with Cilantro and Tomatoes

We had more snow during the week. Light flurries throughout the day that added up to a massive traffic jam in Luxembourg city by the evening rush hour. By the time I got home (3 hours after leaving the office instead of the usual 40 minutes) it was raining. The next day, it was +6°C and in the afternoon the grey blanket across the sky parted and the sun shone giving the ray of hope that we are nearing the end of winter. I have been noticing other signs that spring is just around the corner too. Birds have been building nests in the trees. Not sure why I never noticed this in previous years but it could be that they are a bit difficult to spot amongst the mistletoe we are used to seeing hanging in the branches. In the larger trees there are more robust twiggy nests and in the smaller trees more mossy looking ones. I also spotted shoots breaking ground for the early spring flowers.


Lentil soup seemed to me to be a good thing to serve during this bridge period between winter to spring.


Lentil Soup with Cilantro and Tomatoes
Serves 6

15 mL (1 Tbsp) olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
180 mL (3/4 cup) red lentils
2 x 400 g (2 x 14 oz) cans chopped tomatoes
2 L (8 cups) water
1 chicken stock cube
80 mL (1/3 cup) chopped cilantro*
10 mL (2 tsp) turmeric
5 mL (1 tsp) paprika
5 mL (1 tsp) black peppercorns, cracked
Pinch ground cumin

Heat oil in a large soup pot; add onion and garlic, cook, stirring, until onions are soft. Stir in lentils, chopped tomatoes, water, stock cube, cilantro, turmeric, paprika and peppercorns; bring to a boil, the simmer uncovered for about 1-1/2 hours (or until lentils are tender).
Remove most** of the solids from the soup to a blender and purée until smooth. Blend puréed solids back into the soup and stir until heated through. Sprinkle with cumin and serve.

*Cilantro is also known as fresh coriander.
* *Amount will vary depending on the texture you want for the soup.

Beet and Chocolate Fudge Brownies

It was another snowy weekend in Luxembourg and surrounding areas. I have not seen this much snow in the previous 10 years that I have spent in Europe combined. My colleagues have been commenting that this would be nothing for me being a Canadian and that I must be used to the cold and the snow. To which I point out that I came here to avoid the very snowy and cold Canadian winters. The impression here is that the vast wilderness of Canada is very beautiful in winter. It can be in urban areas when one does not have to go to work. In the cities the story is very different – the snow can turn to slush and then freeze making roads and sidewalks very hazardous. It is not fun to experience -20°C especially when wind chill factor is factored in. Fortunately we have not experienced such cold weather here (hope I am not jinxing that by stating it). The older I get the less tolerant of winter I become.

There is still work to be done in the vineyards even in the snow.

To compensate for the weather, I decided to make something chocolaty. Since I had raw beets (rather hard to come by in the grocery stores here), I cooked them intending to make salad but in the end sacrificed one for these moist and delicious brownies.

Beet and Chocolate Fudge Brownies

250 mL (1 cup) butter

100 g (4 oz) unsweetened chocolate (70% cocoa)

250 mL (1 cup) cassonade (or Muscovado) sugar

5 mL (1 tsp) vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 large cooked beet, grated

250 mL (1 cup) all-purpose flour

2.5 mL (½ tsp) salt

Melt half of the butter and the chocolate in a double boiler. Let cool.

Cream together the remaining butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape bowl and blend in the cooled chocolate mixture. Beat in grated beet. Stir in flour and salt. Pour into a greased and floured 29 x 23 x 4 cm (11-1/2 x 9 x 1-1/2 “) baking pan; bake in 175°C (350°F) oven for 45 minutes (or until done). Let cool in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into squares.

Haïti

I was in Port-au-Prince, Haïti during the last week of November, 1985 just two months before President Jean-Claude (Bébé Doc) Duvalier was ousted from power and exiled to France. It was also the time that AIDS was spreading and Haïti was hit hard by the epidemic and the loss of tourism.
Haïti was once known as the "Pearl of the Caribbean" and was France's richest colony (owing to slaves working in the sugar plantations). It is now the poorest of the Caribbean nations. A striking example of that is just a stones throw from the Presidential Palace, Cité Soleil, the worst slum in the Americas. This nation that is the western third of the island of Hispanola has had a long and difficult history. It has suffered from invasions, political unrest, corruption, hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. The poverty is overwhelming to the point that it has aggrivated the deforestation which in turn lead to mudslides that choked the ocean and killed the fish causing even more food shortages.

The people are very resilient and the smiles on the faces of the school children beam. My memories of Haïti include:
- the little boy who poked me with a stick (to see if I was real I guess) then laughed and ran off
- a visit to La Belle Epoch restaurant where I first ate conch soup and fried plantain chips
- the view of the very outside of Cité Soleil
- the amazing colourful paintings (which sadly I didn't buy)
- world's best vanilla and coffee
- visit to an orchid nursery
- seeing how snails are packaged for shipping to a US restaurant
- visit to the industrial park outside Port-au-Prince where they made baskets by hand

I feel for the losses of the survivors of the earthquake but live in the hope that they will be able to build a better Haïti out of the ruins.

Unfortunately I don't have any Haitian creole recipes to share but will work on finding some.

Tangy Tender Spareribs

Europe is experiencing one of the most severe winters in decades. Snow has been falling and staying on the ground due to the freezing temperatures. Driving has been hazardous and there have been lots of train and flight delays and cancellations. Today on the Germany / Luxembourg border we have a light dusting of snow and a temperature of -3°C with more of the same expected for the rest of this week.

Snow covered vineyards beside the Mosel in Germany

With all this wintery weather I might be forgiven for thinking about posting a recipe for comfort food instead of something light and healthy to make up for excesses of the holiday season. Spareribs are probably thought of as summer food - parboiled and finished on the barbecue. In this recipe, they are covered in sauce and slow cooked in the oven. The pork will be fall off the bone tender but a bit greasy. You could wait until the ribs are partially cooked to remove some of the grease before adding the sauce. The barbecue sauce and lemon make this dish tangy. I suggest serving it with coleslaw and rice.

Tangy Tender Spareribs

½ cup water
1-1/2 tsp Bisto
½ cup barbecue sauce
500 g (1 lb) pork spareribs cut into individual ribs
1 onion cut in slices
1 lemon, cut in slices

Mix together water, Bisto and barbecue sauce. Place ½ of onion and lemon slices on the bottom of a glass baking dish. Place the ribs in a single layer on top, then the remaining onion and lemon slices. Cover with sauce and bake in a 180°C (350°F) oven for 2-1/4 hours to 3-1/4 hours, until ribs are tender.