Cook The Book Fridays- My Paris Kitchen

French Fridays: Artichoke Tapenade and Rosemary Oil – David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen

April 3, 2016 by Renee

This week, for French Fridays, the cook the book recipe could not be any easier. These are what I would normally call “non-recipes” because they are so simple and quick, you could make them last minute if unexpected guests arrive. Just a quick whirl of the blender and a food processor and you will have a sophisticated appetizer to serve to anyone who comes through the door.

First, we made oil infused with rosemary which was used to drizzle over the toasted bread and the finished artichoke tapenade. The piney rosemary creates a lovely, fragrant oil that can be used in many ways; drizzled over pasta or vegetables or used to flavor meats and poultry. It can also be used as a base for salad dressings or marinades. Infused oils are great to keep on hand to add that “je ne sais quoi” to many of your dishes. Plus, they made terrific gifts, especially when in a pretty bottle tied with string.

I learned something new with this tapenade. Apparently, tapenade can not really be tapenade without the addition of capers. The very word for capers, comes from the Provençal word tapenas. So here, when I made a black olive-lemon tapenade, it wasn’t actually tapenade but rather just a very tasty dip. The regular black olive tapenade I made in that post was correctly tapenade though. So I got it half right!

And for this recipe, I definitely got it right! It was excellent. Not only did we enjoy it with a toasted baguette, but we slathered it on the grilled chicken we had for dinner as well. I think this one will be added to our list of standard “breads and spreads” platters that we enjoy all year around.

For details on recreating these recipes, check out the CookTheBookFridays site and see others who are also cooking the book-

You can also buy the book here:

Follow the group on Twitter @ctbfridays

#cookthebookfridays #mypariskitchen

Visit the Facebook Page: Cook The Book Fridays

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links to my Amazon Associate’s account. This means I receive compensation if you make a purchase using these links.

Here, I am having a little fun taking photos of the artichokes.

“The artichoke above all is the vegetable expression of civilized living, of the long view, of increasing delight by anticipation and crescendo. No wonder it was once regarded as an aphrodisiac. It had no place in the troll’s world of instant gratification. It makes no appeal to the meat-and-two-veg. mentality. One cannot attack an artichoke with knife and fork and scoff it in three mouthfuls. It is first for admiration, then each leaf has to be pulled away for eating and dipped in sauce. When the leaves have gone, there is still the fibrous tickley choke to be removed before the grey-green disc- the bonne bouche- can be enjoyed.”

– Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book

French Fridays: Belgian Beef Stew with Beer and Spice Bread – David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen

March 19, 2016 by Renee

Carbonnade flamande au pain d’épice

This recipe could not have come at a better time. We’ve been experiencing some fabulously warm weather here in NYC the past few weeks, but alas, this weekend, to celebrate the Spring Equinox, a dip in the thermometer and another snowfall is in the forecast. The heat in my house has been turned back on and all the windows are tightly closed. So it’s only apropos that we recreate this hearty stew on this last, cold weekend of winter.

Beef carbonnade is popular in Belgium and in the north of France where the winters are long and the ales are plentiful. The “winter warmer” beers are brewed to be stronger, richer and more full-bodied and taste great when you are curled up next to a roaring fire while you are wrapped in your snuggliest blanket or here, where it’s used to slowly braise a piece of meat into tamed tenderness.

The crucial choice will be, of course, which beer or ale you choose to use for your carbonnade. The variety will really transform the character of the dish depending on the beer’s profile. Needless to say, a good Belgian ale, perhaps of the Trappist variety, such as Chimay, would really be the best choice, but another, with good character, particularly an amber ale, will work just as well.

The distinctive feature of this dish is the spice bread coated with a thin layer of mustard (I used Maille Dijon, of course) that is used to flavor and thicken the sauce. Using the French classic, pain d’épices, a deeply-infused bread spiced with cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, and honey, it’s reminiscent of gingerbread or Lekach, a honey-cake, and is intensely aromatic. The bread’s distinctive flavor improves with an overnight rest, giving the flavors time to mellow.

As the dish cooks, the bread breaks down and melts into the braising liquid, providing a thick, rich and slightly sweet and sour sauce that clings to the tender hunks of beef.

While the stew is simmering, during its last hour, you have just enough time to make a batch of herbed fresh pasta to go alongside.

Get the recipes for Belgian Beef Stew with Beer & Spice Bread on pages 198 and 293 of My Paris Kitchen. The herbed fresh pasta can be found on page 230.

For details on recreating these recipes, check out the CookTheBookFridays site and see others who are also cooking the book-

You can also buy the book here:

Follow the group on Twitter @ctbfridays

#cookthebookfridays #mypariskitchen

Visit the Facebook Page: Cook The Book Fridays

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links to my Amazon Associate’s account. This means I receive compensation if you make a purchase using these links.

French Fridays: Dukkah-Roasted Cauliflower-Cook The Book Fridays-David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen

March 4, 2016 by Renee

When I saw that the French Fridays with Dorie group had just started cooking from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen, I knew I had to join right in, I just couldn’t resist! It’s one of my favorite cookbooks and not just because I adore David, or because it’s features my home away from home, Paris, but it’s truly one of the best cookbooks I own. And I own many!

The book holds a prominent spot in my kitchen bookshelf, set apart from my other cookbooks that live in the den library. It sits alongside some of my most beloved and used books, The Perfect Scoop , the Silver Palate Cookbook and Aglaia Kremezi’s Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts to name a few.

I actually just bought a second copy to use for this cook the book challenge because I want to keep my signed copy in good condition (I’m a dork that way!). I know that since I will be using it even more often now, its pages will be become receptacles of splashes and stains, drips and drops, and they will be torn and tattered in no time- the sign of a well-loved cookbook. I’ve been quite good about keeping it nice until now but I don’t want to take any chances!

Luckily, the group is only recreating just two recipes a month, a much more manageable regimen for me than a weekly recipe. Life is hectic. Finding time to shoot and edit photos or to write anything (outside of my professional life) has been a real challenge this past year. (As you can see by the lack of postings here on KC.) But I should be able to handle two posts a month!

This week’s recipe is Dukkah-Roasted Cauliflower (p 224). Since the group just started last month, I went back and made the last two recipes as well-Steak with Mustard Butter and Fries (p 206), and Winter Salad (p 98). What a terrific dinner we had!

Dinner began with a winter salad, a beautiful white salad made of Belgian endive batons and coated with a pungent, creamy Roquefort cheese dressing. Endive is a member of the chicory family, which I really like sautéed. It also includes radicchio, escarole, and my nemesis leafy green, frisee. I absolutely hate frisee. I pluck it out of every salad and leave it jumbled like a pile of barbed wire on my plate.

I am not particularly fond of raw bitter greens. Cooking them mellows their sharpness and, in my opinion, makes them edible. Raw, I prefer peppery arugula and lite delicate lettuces such as butter greens or baby spinach. This was actually palatable due to the copious amounts of the Roquefort dressing I made to coat it. I was actually a little disappointed that I only bought one. The dressing is now being used as a dip for carrots and other cut up vegetables. Yum!

Winter Salad (Recipe in My Paris Kitchen)

Steak frites is such a simple and quintessential Parisian bistro dish. Adding to the meat a hint of smokiness with a chipotle chili powder and topping it with a compound butter made with a sharp Dijon mustard transforms it into a highly flavorful, mouthwatering experience. This was served with a heaping side of freshly made, crispy French fries. The best thing is to save a few to mop up the leftover meat juices and tangy, buttery sauce.

Steak with Mustard Butter and French Fries (Recipe in My Paris Kitchen)

Lastly, we also had Dukkah-Roasted Cauliflower. Dukkah is a warm, aromatic Egyptian spice blend made up of nuts (mostly hazelnuts but can be made with almonds, pistachios, other nuts, or a combination thereof), sesame seeds, coriander seeds, and cumin seeds. The blend can be purchased in some gourmet and ethnic markets, but it’s incredibly simple to make at home. Quickly toasting the nuts and spices draws out their fragrance and gives them an earthy flavor that is often not like the character of the raw spice.

Using a mortar and pestle, or a quick whirl of a food processor, the mixture can be ground into a fine powder or left with coarser chunks of nuts and seeds. It’s a versatile blend with many uses- mix it with olive oil for dipping flat breads into or sprinkle it on hummus, tahini or yogurt. You can also dust it on vegetables for roasting; it is delicious on squash, zucchini and especially cauliflower.