Pierre Hermé's "World Peace Cookies"

Today I joined the bandwagon - the WPC bandwagon. World Peace Cookies, that is.

So the story goes, Pierre Hermé created this recipe when he worked at a restaurant called Korova. It was Dorrie Greenspan, however, who published the recipe in her book Baking: From my Home to Yours. The story further goes that it was Dorrie's neighbor who, after tasting her cookie, said something like "these are so good....in our house we call them world peace cookies because we're convinced that if everyone ate these, world peace would ensue"....or something to this affect. From that point on, a new name was born.

What these cookies are in fact is a sablé chocolat (a choclate shortbread). The dough is very dry, as you can see from the photo. They contain not a single egg. The chocolate content is higher than the butter content. Not too bad for the diet, in my opinion, as far as cookies go. And very chocolaty! It has one secret ingredient, fleur de sel, which give them that little je ne sais quoi (I don't know what). Special. Chocolate & salt go very, very well together...


I highly recommend making these. I am apparently lucky because I read a few posts on the internet and some have had extremely crumbly dough (difficult to work with) or flat cookies. I'll take luck anyday! By the way, this is a roll into a log, refrigerate & slice-before-baking kind of cookie. I threw the logs into the freezer that last 20 minutes before slicing (out of a 3-hour total rest period in the fridge). And I cooked them in a convection oven (165°C) for 13 minutes instead of 12. Seemed to work well this time. I'm not sure if those are clues into anything valuable, but I thought I'd share that anyway.


Here's a link to the recipe by Dorrie Greenspan. World Peace Cookies. (Actually, it's a link to someone's blog that Dorrie herself refers everyone to.)

It's definitely worth sharing some of this peace in the world.

/:dma

Fava Bean, Spring Peas & Capellini - A Fast, Delicious Dinner

No matter what industry you're in, you might agree that simplicity can lead to greatness. Unfortunately, sometimes to create something simple involves a lot of behind-the-scenes work. (And perhaps only the creator would know how much work it took to make it look that "simple".) Last night, however, I made something that was actually very simple and it didn't take a lot of work....how's that for great?!

This dish was put together in about 30 minutes or less, with about 6 key ingredients. And I must say that it was satisfying beyond description. It's loaded with spring freshness, if only because of the fava beans and peas. These little guys count for everything in this dish! A twist of lemon adds a nice zing. Freshly chopped tarragon and cilantro add another dimension of zing. The "sauce" is made with a splash of chicken or vegetable stock, a pat of salted butter, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, and a pinch of piment d'espelette (red pepper from the southwest of France/northwest of Spain). C'est tout! (That's it!) What a way to highlight the freshness of fava beans & peas.


Ingredients (6 people)
capellini pasta for 6
fava beans, 2 kg (~ 4.5 lbs), unshelled
green peas, 1.4 kg (~ 3 lbs), unshelled shell, or a couple of cups of frozen peas
tarragon, fresh - 1 bunch
cilantro, fresh - 1 bunch
juice from 1 lemon
chicken stock (or water)
salted butter (or regular butter)
walnut oil, or high quality olive oil (optional)
piment d'espelette or sweet/spicy paprika (to your taste)

Steps:
1) Prepare the vegetables. Shell the fava beens, blanch them in boiling, salted water ~1 min. Drain, plunge into ice water to stop the cooking, and drain. Peel off the rough skin from each fava bean & set aside. Shuck the peas. Cook al dente in salted boiling water a few minutes. Drain & cold shock them (cold water) & set aside.

2) Bring water to boil. Chop herbs. Juice a lemon. Shave the parmesan cheese (if needed). Cook & drain pasta.

3) Into a saucepan, heat some stock (or use some water from the pasta cooking if you have no stock). Add some salted butter until melted. Add the cooked, hot pasta into this pan & swirl until every noodle is coated. Add the fava beans & peas. Add the lemon juice, herbs, parmesan cheese & seasonings. Swirl. Throw in some extra fresh almonds, if you have them! Add more stock or butter/water if necessary. Pour a light sprinkle of oil around. Serve immediately.


:/dma

Les Amandes Fraîches - Fresh Almonds

Today I was out & about, hitting the pavement, checking out parts of the 15th arrondissement (district) as a potential location for setting up shop. Along the way I came across a little store, an "Epicerie Libanaise" (Lebanese grocery store). It was an inviting store front that lured me in to see what new items it might have to discover. Many of its products I could not understand because of packaging written in arabic. Then there was a display case of prepared foods that I could understand, with my eyes at least, but it was much too early for lunch.

As I was leaving, however, I noticed a box just sitting there. A small crate actually. I asked the shop owner, "How much are those fresh almonds?" I wasn't sure if they were actually for sale, or just part of the store's inventory. He was really pleased with my question, which surprised me. He started talking about how these were the very first almonds of the season. I asked where they were from. He said "Lebanon", and then he continued talking about how fresh these were. (Having walked into a Lebanese grocery store, I kind of assumed they were from Lebanon....and I was hoping for a more specific answer....!) However, he was so caught up in talking about these almonds that I eventually dropped my intended follow-up question, "but where?"!

He quickly explained that these are at the highest price point they will ever be because, simply, they are at their freshest. They were 8€/kg, in case you're wondering (~$5.50/lb). After this, the almonds are less good because they are less fresh, and the price will go down, he explained.

Then, he asked me, "do you know how to eat these?" I said no. I've already worked with fresh almonds in the past, but I wasn't sure where he was going with this. Then he simply took a bite of one, green skin (or should I say fur), and all! It sounded all crispy- crunchy. My knee-jerk reaction was "pas possible!" (no way, I can't believe it!). It really did take me by surprise. He said, "si, si" (yes, yes). And he added, "What's really good is to eat these with a cold beer. But only when they're this fresh. Otherwise, you have to get the nut out." And with that, he ran away & quickly returned, putting me a handful of whole almonds (peeled) in my palm. "Here, take this. You seem to like almonds!"

There was a girl in the middle of paying for something while all this transpired, and without blinking, she reached into the crate, grabbed one & popped it into her mouth. I was a little shocked by her brashness, but I curiously watched her reaction at the same time. She said with a smile, "a little bitter....but yes, a beer would be great with these". And out the door she went.

It was my turn to try one, at the shop owner's insistance. It was surprisingly fresh tasting. Not as "almondy" as I was expecting. Definitely "wet" & moist & slightly bitter. I still couldn't get over eating that green casing. In fact, it's a strange concept to not only eat the green casing, but also, the shell itself. Today, it's all moist, but this is the same shell that eventually dries out & becomes light golden brown, as I had been accustomed to seeing back in the states.


I bought a small sac full to bring home. I wanted to share this almond taste test with Eric. We tried them, as recommended, with a beer. But not just any beer. It was a Belgian specialty brought from Brussels last week by some dear friends..... It was unanimous. Fresh almonds are a unique treat and they make for a very unique aperitif (before-dinner drink and appetizer). We couldn't eat them every day, but we're still glad to have made this discovery.


:/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

Sofia

Sofia is an energetic, very attractive, middle-aged women. She speaks with an accent that I later understand is Greek. She is the current owner of a traiteur/restaurant (catering company & restaurant) that she is selling because her husband wants her back, as she explained to Eric. Unfortunately, on my first visit there, she had told me she is selling because of stomach cancer. Yikes. I'm hearing all sorts of personal stories on this search. I can see why her husband is anxious for her to sell.

Her store is located on one of the city's most active, or should I say vocal, markets. It is abuzz with activity six days out of seven. Vendors are assertively trying to out-shout each other with the day's bon marché (deals). People from the neighborhood are buying their daily needs. Tourists can be spotted in the crowd, taking in the scene and trying to stay oriented. It's all hustle-bustle.

Sofia has been in business the past twenty years. She looked me straight in the eye and said, "you know when I arrived here, I could speak not one word of french. Not one word." And yet it appears that she has done very well for herself. Her storefront is small - it has a refrigerated counter that displays what she sells: hummus, olives, feta spreads, tarama, tabouli and other such greek/mediterranean/middle eastern "comfort foods". There are several tables in the room, also, that can seat up to 20 people. I see potential for private dining or private events at night, something she doesn't do at the moment. Her preference is definitely the catering side. The decor is pure greek: typical blue and white everywhere. (Another yikes.)

When I saw the kitchen for the first time, I thought I was going to die. Of excitement that is. The kitchen is bigger than the storefront!! It's big. Really big. AND, it has a cold room in the basement. What a dream. Except, the closer I look, the more I realize that it, too, has lots of "potential" and would need a lot of upgrading. However, letting the creative thoughts flow, I can envision running cooking classes here, and having the dégustation either in the dining room or even in the kitchen. I can also see using all that glorious professional cooking space for some serious production -- it's the most spacious and adequate kitchen I have seen yet (in proportion to the size of the business I'm searching for). Most kitchens in Paris are very small, miniscule even, and I can hardly understand how centuries of cooks have tolerated it! But somehow they have. This is one incredible kitchen, even in its current state.

Sofia wants to show us the wine shop a few doors down - to let us see how the owner has remodeled his space, and to give us an idea or two if we want. She knows everyone there - rounds of kisses to everyone. Even walking the short distance from her place to his, she's talking with everyone. She's like a magnet - everybody wants to talk with Sofia. Her smile is warm and wide, but even more so, it is sincere and amazingly light-hearted.

After the tour, including a visit upstairs to a small two bedroom apartment included in the monthly rent, we sit outside to soak in the atmosphere. The market is still abuzz. The early spring sunshine is a welcome relief and warms us up. She drops a plate off at the table, a sampling of what she makes and she insists we try. Very delicious! She wispered to me, "I'll show you how to do it all, but if you buy this place, you have to promise me you'll keep selling some of these things. My customers would never forgive me otherwise!" With a wink, she disappears. She's not really serious, but I can tell, she's hoping to find the right buyer as well.

This was quite unexpected - to find this spot I mean. It has great potential, great space, and I love the thought of having fresh produce at my fingertips absolutely every day!! It needs a lot of work to turn it into something "mine". Hummm...need to make a few more visits to figure out if it's right. Not sure if I see myself working directly on a market, and the store is located behind a stall of a market vendor...but who knows....will keep an open mind. It has potential.

Yvette

Yvette owns a small cafe/bar/restaurant on a quiet street in an even quieter arrondisement (district) in Paris. When I met Yvette, I immediately liked her. She is friendly, sincere, talkative, inquisitive, and she feels like family. In fact, she could be my french aunt! We instantly had something in common. She comes from Pau, where we were married six years ago. I think that touched us both, equally.

On my first visit, I walked in the door, and a man was standing at le zinc bar sipping a beer by himself, reading the newspaper. Nobody else was around. It was about 4pm. Yvette then appeared out of nowhere and we met for the first time. I started explaining why I was there - that I was searching for a small café or restaurant to potentially buy. I was a little relieved when the man left so that I could talk more privately with Yvette. Immediately, however, a lady walked in with a small dog in her arm. The lady's name is Paule. She gave kisses to Yvette & sat down in what appeared to be "her" seat. Her miniature dog took the opposite seat, and turned himself around in the chair to face the street, eager not to miss any of the activities. From that point forward, it was a conversation including three of us. No privacy here! But that's OK. Paule and Yvette were obviously good friends. They seemed to be about the same age: mid-sixties, give or take. I eventually learned that this was the case with most of her other customers as well (being good friends, I mean, although being in the same age bracket is probably true as well).

Yvette has been running this particular place for the last 18 years. It's an old place. Still untouched from decades ago, or more. Maybe a half century. It would need lots of TLC, but oh what potential! It feels like a well worn-in shoe. Behind the bar are all the small glasses and barware, but there is also the presence of one giant espresso machine. I'm practically sold on that machine alone! Such a serious looking machine. The seating area is small, and feels just right for what I'm looking for - it has 16 seats. She gave me a short tour of the place. When she showed me les toilettes (bathroom), I let out an uncontrollable "ohmygod". She said, "oui, un toilet turque" (yes, a turkish toilet). I couldn't believe I was still seeing one of these things. My first encounter with one was actually in Turkey about ten years ago. Let me just say that I preferred not going to the bathroom on that particular pit stop than to try such a crazy toilet! It was the most backward, foreign thing I had ever seen in my life! (For those not having the pleasure of seeing or using a turkish toilet, let me explain: it's basically a porcelain base set in the floor of a stall, or "bathroom" and it has a drainage hole. That's it. Sometimes, there are little feet positions outlined in the porcelain to give you a clue. Arguably, these are more sanitary than the standard pot toilet. And to the person who said this, I replied, rather sarcastically, "Right". )

Back to the tour. Next stop was to the cave (basement room). Two of them in fact. I felt awkward going down the stone stairecase. It is old, narrow, somewhat steep, and has a rope for holding onto instead of a hand rail. I could hardly keep up with Yvette! The basement is dry - a good sign. The floor is all dirt. Just like they all used to be. Her first cave is filled with her treasures -- her wine collection. Gevrey-Chambertins, Pouilly-fuissés, and of course, others such as Madirans and Jurancons from the soutwest region. I was dying to check out some of her old dusty bottles that must've been there for 18 years....but we couldn't get anywhere close to them with all the stuff in between. The other cave was used for soft drinks & beer. She stocks Leffe on tap and Duvel in bottle. A good sign. Back up the stairs, she is leap years ahead of me!

On to the kitchen. Another "ohmygod". Long and narrow and full of "potential". And sorely in need of a commis (assistant). She's a one-woman show and I don't quite know how she can do it. I couldn't. She pours the wine or makes the coffee at the bar, she seats the customers at the table, she takes the order, she prepares the meal, she clears, she cleans up and settles up the tab. She's basically open from 7am until closing (around midnight), 6 days a week. Did I already mention she's easily in her mid-60's?!

Eric came with me on the second visit to Yvette's place. We learned a bit more about each other. It turns out that Yvette arrived in Paris in 1958 to start working in a café, with three kids in tow. Maybe that puts her closer to 70? We had dinner there. It was a slow night for dining, but there were several men having un verre de vin (a glass of wine). Her customer base is almost 100% locals. Not many tourists crossing this particular street.

How to describe this cafe? Yvette is from the southwest, so her menu has magret de canard, foie gras, and other traditional fare. The lighting is harsh just like it used to be - it serves a function rather than providing ambiance. The wine is exceptionally good and ridiculously affordable just like it used to be. The food is hearty and enriching. But above all, the experience is rich. Not so much because of what we ate or drank (although good), but because of what Yvette did: she welcomed us into her home and treated us like family.

I love this old place. Need to make a few more visits to see if it fits my concept.

:/dma

The Start of my Search

For the past month or so, I began to consider the possibility of starting up my own business in a professional space outside our home kitchen. I'm thinking of a small café kind of spot that would offer lunch (perhaps to go or dine in), and that would also offer private events at night a couple times a week (private dinners or parties, wine tasting, cook book review, private cooking lessons, demo of product/equipment/technique, etc, etc) . If this sounds a little like Le Yumming....or La Salon Saint Michel (two small concept projects I've been involved with this past year), well, at least I'm being consistent! I continue to migrate towards these thoughts, and this tells me something.

Searching for a restaurant or local (commercial space) for sale in Paris has been a really interesting journey. My search started out small & quiet (right around the corner), and then it expanded quickly to most of Paris. I have a few criteria: the kitchen must be adequate to handle the things I want to make (sweet & savory), it must have extraction au norm (ventilation to code) to allow me to cook properly or should I say legally, the seating capacity must be small (less than 20-25) so that it's manageable, and ideally, it will also allow me to have some sort of a personal life (I might be dreaming a little here....) And with all of this, it must have location, location, location & be at the right price...good luck!

I've seen some interesting places and some really scary places on the market. All of them have one thing in common: each of the owners is a character. So, in my next few posts, I'm going to write about some of the characters I've encountered on this little journey.

I'm happy to say that it feels like I'm going down the right path. We'll see later on if this really turns out to be true, but for the moment, I'm enjoying the ride. A bientôt. Until next time.

A sign of spring seen yesterday while crossing town, going from one appointment to the next, just after a light rainfall, and just before the temperature dropped back to winter!

/dma