Encornets de pesto - Baby Squid with pesto

If you like Mediterranean food, including baby squid, you just might like this.  It's really delicious if you can find fresh ingredients, which is what I did here, thanks to a visit to Marché Raspail in the 6th district of Paris.  This becomes a great 1st course for summer - served at room temperature.

Ingredients for 4 servings
600g whole baby squid, cleaned up & cut into small rounds
1 lemon to garnish the plate

Pesto:
2 bunches of fresh basil
1 clove of garlic (2, if you love garlic)
80g (approximately) parmesan, high quality
80g (approximately), toasted pine nuts
splash of lemon
~100 ml of high quality olive oil

• In your food processor, add garlic until pulverized.  Add basil & mix.  Add parmesan & pine nuts.  Add olive oil.  Season.  Add lemon juice.  Adjust seasoning & ingredients as necessary.
• In a frying pan, heat a splash of olive oil.  Add the calamari rings, season & cook until tender (some water will be released).  Don't overcook or they become rubbery.  Remove from pan.
• Coat the calamari with some pesto.  Stir.  Add more pesto as required & season to taste.

Be sure to serve with a fresh baguette & a nice Sancerre.

Enjoy!

/dma

Langoustines Epicées , Mousseline de Carottes, Sauce Coriandre

Spiced Langoustines, Carrot Mousse & Cilantro Sauce.
It's been a while since I've posted anything food-related. The search for a restaurant around town has taken up lots of my time. That's not to say I haven't been in the kitchen lately. Au contraire! I've also been cooking up a storm over the past few feeks. And I simply have to post this. It's one very, very deliciously exceptionally good dish. It's a take off of something I learned a couple of years ago while working at Hélène Darroze (2-michelin star restaurant in the 6ème) . When I was at the restaurant, I always prepared the langoustines (Norwegian lobsters), cooked them & made the sauce. Somebody else on the vegetable station always prepared the carrots. And yet somebody else put all the pieces together on the plate (usually the Second, 2nd in charge). All of that was before the server could rush it out to the customer while still piping hot. Wonder no more why such restaurants can cost an arm & a leg....it's all that attention to detail & perfection...!

The languostines taste just like lobster, maybe better, if that's even possible. (When they are as fresh as the ones we had, as in still hyper-actively moving around when we bought them at the outdoor fish market, then I guess it's possible! Being that exceptionally fresh & alive did, however, make it really, really difficult to deal with back at home. I'll spare you the details. Let's just say that Eric had to leave the kitchen.)

Chef Héléne Darroze has posted this recipe in several public, free magazines & you can find it on line if you're looking for the authentic deal, including exact proportions. Here, below, is my adaptation. In english, but without any specific quantities! (Only because I didn't keep track of them.)

Ingredients (for 8) - Inspired by Hélène Darroze; adapted recipe

Langoustines ~3-5 per person depending on size
carrots 1 - 1.5 kgs
navel orange ~1 piece
butter/cream (but not if you're watching your cholesterol...humm...)
cilantro 1/2 bunch
spring onions - a couple
demi-glace (veal or chicken)
white wine
favorite spice blend, cajun spice blend, etc.

Method:

1.) This is my version for preparing the carrots & I like how it worked. Steam carrots & section the orange. Purée the cooked carrots in a food processor. Add the orange sections to processor one at at time until you get the flavor just right. Same with the juice. Add until you end up with a nice, fluffy consistency. Not watery from too much orange juice! Season well. Passer au chinois. (Pass through a fine sieve filter.) Can be done ahead & re-heated at low temp in the oven, or used right away while still hot.

2.) Remove shells from langoustines, but leave the tail end for decoration. You could easily use shrimp in place of langoustines. Before pan-frying, dip the langoustines in your favorite spice blend. I used something from Morocco called ras-el-hanoute, a ground spice blend of over 35 spices typically used to make tagines.

3) Sauté the langoustines in duck fat, olive oil, butter, or your preferred fat. To test for doneness, touch the langoustine. (Yes, touching food for doneness happens all the time at restaurants...but don't worry, my finger is clean. ;). They should be firm to touch, but not hard (ie, overcooked). Removed from pan when cooked.

4.) For the sauce, this has been adapted for the home kitchen. The results are just as satisfying. De-glaze the pan with some white wine. Reduce. Add demi-glace (you can buy this at Williams Sonoma's in the states, or G. Detou in Paris, etc). Add chopped spring onions & chopped cilantro. Monter au beurre. (Add a few knobs of cold butter to sauce pan, off the heat, and swirl until melted. This will add a richness to the flavor, give it a nice sheen, & get it to a nice consistency. A real french cooking technique for any sauce! Or skip this step if you are watching your cholesterol....uuurrrghhh....)

5) Assemble: Put a few spoonfuls of carrot purée on your plate. Top with langoustine or shrimp. Spoon some sauce all around. Don't forget to season with salt & pepper.

Voilà. Fine dining at home.....let me know if anyone tries this out. If not, just call me & I'd be happy to private chef it for you in Paris! Or, for the real deal, head straight to Restaurant Hélène Darroze. I highly recommend it. And believe me, I can't say that about every place I've worked at!

Address:
Restaurant Hélène Darroze
4, rue D'Assas
75006 Paris
http://www.relaischateaux.com/darroze

/dma

Falafel in Paris & at Home

Has anyone gone to L’As du Falafel lately? Was it still good for you? As with many people, this place became my all-time favorite for a great falafel in Paris. I tried others in the Marais, but it was L’As who stole my heart.

We were surprised to find the place newly renovated on our recent visit. Out with the “hole in the wall” decor; in with the new: more seating, tables & freshly painted walls. Normally, this could be a good thing, right?

Except, that day, I had a bad falafel experience. It was the first time this happened in 2 years of going there. It's like, unheard of. And, I was REALLY disappointed. Eric's platter arrived 5+ minutes earlier than mine (which is a long time to wait when you've already been anticipating it all morning). When my pita finally arrived, the falafel was cold! I was too shocked to send it back. I tried the next one, but it was cold, too. All of them were disappointingly "off".

We overheard the table next to us ask each other, "Are your falafel lukewarm also?" The answer was "yes"..... So, I’m wondering if anyone else noticed the difference, or did we just have a bad night?

However, the silver lining in all this sad falafel news is that it motivated me to finally try to make them at home. And so I did, and they tasted really GREAT! I mean, I was so happy to find a recipe that tasted authentic and that reminded me of the ones I used to enjoy. I will not take you for granted again, “mes p’tits falafels”!

Here's the recipe, thanks to Epicurious.com.

After cooking a bunch of falafel by now, I can pass along some of my conclusions & experience:

• I let my chick peas soak 2 nights since I thought I’d have time to do them the next day, but then didn’t. Keep in the fridge though (better hygiene) & change the water often. It was just fine this way.
  

Before & after soaking.... how nicely they plumped up! 1 cup dry = ~2 cups soaked!

• Don’t worry about not cooking the chick peas after they soak. This is the 1st time I used “raw” beans after they were soaked & I wasn’t sure it’d really work….but it did! No problem.
• Be careful not to over process the chickpeas in your food processor. Stop when you can see grains and do the "ball in your hand" test to see if you've added enough flour. They'll still be moist; no problem.

20-25g per ball; Makes 25 - 30 balls this size. Freezes well, too.

• Don’t overdo the amount of onion since the inside is not cooked per se. If you have too many onions, it makes for some really bad onion-breath, not to mention an overpowering taste overall. Unless that's your thing...
  
• Cooking the balls is a little trickier than expected & I think proper cooking is actually the key to a great result. In my opinion, cooking at a lower temp (160ºC/ 320ºF) is better than at a higher temp (190ºC / 375ºF), as recommended in the recipe. In my first attempts, I cooked them at 190ºC for 2 minutes, however, the outside was way overcooked & the inside was undercooked (tasted too raw). Then I tried it at 160ºC for ~ 3 minutes & it worked really well.

Undercooked inside

Overcooked...Warning: do not attempt to use a fork when at this stage!

Just about right...nice, golden color; not too crispy, not too soft

• Breading them (“panure à l’anglaise”) is not at all necessary. I tried it to see. Curiosity, y'know? In fact, I’d say it ruins the taste/texture a bit. I much prefer them “au naturel”...which, conveniently, is also easier to make!
• If, like me, your closest grocery store doesn't stock baking powder (apparently an American product?), you can make your own. Here’s what I did:
  

Cream of Tartar - 2 tablespoons

Bicarbonate of soda* - 1 tablespoon

Cornstarch** - 1 tablespoon

* aka levure chimique en francais, aka, baking soda in english

** aka Maizena en francais

Happy falafel-ing!