Cocktail d'agrumes, crevettes, et avocat

This can be roughly translated as "Shrimp & Citrus Cocktail with Avocado". It's something that Chef Laurent Chareau presented at the Deauville Omnivore Food Festival last month (see photo at bottom of post). As he was preparing it, my mouth was salivating....honestly, it was uncontrollable. I mean, these are the tastes & flavors that I absolutely adore! I couldn't wait to try this one at home. He didn't present a specific recipe as much as simply throwing together the dish. The concept is very simple, as you'll see. Here's my interpretation:

Shrimp & Citrus Salad with Purée of Avocado
(inspired by Chef Chareau; interpreted by me)
4 servings

Salade Part
2 grapefruit
1 navel orange
1 blood orange
1 lemon
16 decent sized shrimp
1/4 small red onion, diced finely
fresh herbs (flat parsley, cilantro or mint) - chopped

Section the citrus so you have no skin or pith. (Resist the urge at this point to eat all of your hard work....the oranges & grapefruit sections will look and smell sooo good.) Leave the orange & grapefruit sections whole, but dice the lemon. Peel & de-vein the shrimp. Cook the shrimp if raw (BBQ anyone?). We are BBQ-deprived here, so we buy them already cooked at the local outdoor market. They are super fresh & very good. Put the citrus sections & shrimp in a bowl. Reserve the extra juice, or just drink it while nobody's looking! Add the red onion & fresh herb. (I'm especially partial to the mint....) Add vinaigrette just before serving - enough to generously coat all the fruit & shrimp.

Vinaigrette:
olive oil
vinegar (balsamic) or lime juice
ginger, lemongrass, garlic clove (optional)
salt
soy sauce (optional)

Put your preferred acidic liquid in bowl (vinegar or lime/lemon juice/citrus juice). Add salt. Add chunk of peeled ginger, lemongrass & garlic clove to infuse. Wisk in olive oil (use 3-4 times more olive oil to the quantity of vinegar you have.) Filter solids before using. Make sure it's got a good acidic tone. Throw in some soy sauce if you like. (I did.) Vinaigrette should be a somewhat thick consistency.

Avocado Purée part
3 medium avocados
lemon juice
cumin, tabasco sauce, salt & pepper (piment d'espelette preferably) - to taste

Remove pits & pulp from avocados. Squeeze lemon juice over the avocado to help prevent it from darkening in color. Use a hand blender & mix until the consistency is smooth. Season as you like with tabasco sauce, cumin & salt/pepper. (Careful with the cumin....not too much otherwise it can overpower all the other flavors, in my opinion). Resist the urge to eat spoonfuls of the guacamole....it's so tempting, but you're almost there. Only the assembly left!

Assembly:

1. In a martini glass or other glass - put layer of shrimp/citrus salad on the bottom. Season. Add layer of avocado purée. Sprinkle with piment d'esplette or spicy/smoked paprika.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Decorate the avocado purée with anything crispy. I used fried carrots in the "martini glass" and then I tried roasted hazelnuts. Chef Chareau used rice crispies fried in saffron butter and he also used roughly chopped roasted cashews (two different dishes). I would love to try the rice crispies...doesn't that sound kind of funny?
   
   
   
3. Instead of a martini glass, you can use a regular plate (shown here with hazelnut topping):

Conclusion:

This is every bit as good as it sounded. In fact, Eric & I each had one as an entrée (first course) last night, and then proceeded to immediately assemble a 2nd one instead of refrigerating the left-overs! One was plenty-enough.....we just couldn't help ourselves. This is a wonderfully, light-tasting first course. The acidity from the citrus mixed with the sweetness of the shrimp mixed with the richness of the ever-so-slightly seasoned avocado....is a great blending of flavors. I will make this again and again....with pleasure. Thanks Chef for sharing this great idea with us.

OFF4 - 2009 Chef Chareau Demo

Chef Chareau's Cocktail d'agrumes, crevettes & Avocat

:/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!