my French onion soup

Through its history and up until its demise in the 70"s, les HALLES, in the middle of Paris served as the main wholesale market of produce, dairy, meat and fish for Paris and its surrounding area. The word "halles" origin may be from the English:" hall"( or may be it is the other way around...),since it was a huge architectural complex of many halls for the products shipped from all over France.The neighborhood was its own village , with cafes and restaurants opened during" les Halles" odd hours, which were mostly at night until the early morning, catering to all the workers. As a child, I never experienced that world, but it I remember hearing of the tradition for parisians to treck at least once in their life, to one of the open bistrots, and have the hearty ,cheesy onion soup around midnight , on a cold winter night.. in the area what was called then " the belly of Paris".As for me, much later, I dragged significant , on an early date, to one of the few remaining restaurants in the quartier, whose specialty was: breaded pigs feet, which he very daringly tried but that is another story....
So, today, on another winter night ( it is almost spring here, but the nights are always cold), I want to make a rich,fragrant,home transporting, brazenly good soup with just a few ingredients:butter ( it is the french part of the recipe),onions,thyme, broth,gruyere, and bread, that will take me back to a noisy bistrot with paper tablecloth and a red wine carafe and with the natives cheering,loudly as the steaming cheese crusted bowl of soups emerge from the kitchen.



recipe:( for 2-3)

you will need:
4 onions
2tbsp butter
2tbsp thyme
1tbsp brown sugar
1 can organic broth ( vegetable, chicken or beef, the traditional one is with beef)
1 cup water( or more to taste)
1/4 cup of madeira wine
2 slices of bread
1/4 cup grated cheese ( gruyere is preferred)
1 garlic clove
salt and pepper to taste

saute your onions rings in the melted butter in a wide pan so that the onions are not too crowded and can brown nicely. sprinkle with the sugar and thyme.keep the heat on low.
occasionally turn them until they get a nice caramel color.( up to 45 minutes)
transfer them to a soup pot and add the broth, water ,wine and let the flavors meld on medium heat for 30 minutes.
toast your bread, rub the slices with the raw garlic clove, and spread the cheese on top. broil to melt.serve the soup, drop the bread on top, scatter some fresh thyme and extra pepper.The bread will get soggy with the hearty juice and you can break it up as you
slurp the soup,

quinces ( coings)

Quince is a pretty obscure fruit to most people. to find it , you will have to look for an overgrown pear like fruit with a navel tip , a wonderful slight guava scent. it might be difficult to find but in the most foodie towns of America or.... in Spain, Portugal,the East of France...
Quince is a fairly old fruit, that has been eaten for way over 4000 years. First around the caspian sea, then became a greek delicacy, baked with honey and eventually made its way west to become the quince jelly of France and the membrillo (quince paste paired with cheese) of Spain. The main requirement of quince is to cook it.A delicious way is to peel it and cook it in a vanilla syrup until soft and golden.serve with creme fraiche or ice cream.

vegetarian cassoulet

I love this dish.It is as hearty,and tasty as the real thing.
Cassoulet comes from Western France, and it is a dish of peasant origin, done for hundreds of years , using local ingredients.The base is white beans, the protein is usually mutton and pork( sausages and bacon slab),all stewing together with garlic, thyme, salt and pepper.Usually at the end bread crumbs are added and it is broiled until golden.
Now,for me, being a vegetarian, the substitution of meat by mushrooms is totally extraordinary. mushrooms hold their chewy self and give that meatiness to the bite, plus their taste is in keeping with the seasonality of that dish.It can be a great centerpiece for a vegetarian thanksgiving.

mushroom cassoulet

recipe for 2:
1tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1tsp of thyme
salt pepper
2 cups of organic canellini beans(cooked with bouquet garni, if possible)
1 cup of wild mushrooms(left in chunks)
1/2 cup of white wine

sauteed the shallot and garlic in olive oil until golden, add your mushrooms and let sit, uncrowded until slightly browned, add your fresh thyme, salt and pepper, cook for 5 minutes.
add your cooked beans, the wine and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes.
add a bit of olive oil if it looks dry and if you want, scatter some rustic breadcrumbs, plop it in the oven ,broil for 4 minutes.devour.

(breadcrumbs are out for us, since there is some gluten sensitivity floating around here)

figs and shallots

What I love, love , love:
when at the farmers market, I find piles of fresh shallots from Dirty Girl farms.meaning, now.
when my fig tree in the backyard delivers its bounty of luscious figs.(I had to harvest them just in time before the couple of squirrels got to them(.... I supply them with bread and cheese crusts, pine nuts etc to fill them up)

Shallots are the base of many French delicacies.raw in kicky vinaigrettes( without the bite or tears from onions, or the sharpness and lasting bad breath of garlic), sauteed in butter as the start of many unique sauces:, sauce gribiche, or bearnaise.... or for a beurre blanc, my favorite where the shallots are reduced with a little vinegar before the addition of butter, that emulsify into a unctuous,out of this world...cloud of deliciousness.

Fall salad for 2:
2 little gems lettuce ( or heart of romaine)
1 anjou pear peeled and sliced
1 small pomegranate ( cut a quarter of it and remove seeds)
fresh goat cheese
1 shallot ( I use 1 teaspoon of minced shallot)
sherry vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper
dijon mustard


make your vinaigrette by sprinkling your salt and vinegar in your bowl, add a tablespoon of sherry vinegar and toss, it will help dissolve the salt, add minced shallot and 3 TBsp of olive oil and a dash of mustard.whisk.
add your other elements and top with the goat cheese with a dash of freshly ground pepper.

ratatouille

A great aunt who spent some girlhood years in Greece and Turkey taught my mom to make an incredible "Imam baiili" a sort of eggplant and tomato stew, rich, melty and fragrant of hot summers. But my mother had another summery recipe in her repertoire and it was the famous ratatouille of Provence.A medley of the few vegetables found around the local farm gardens.The real trick of the successful ratatouille is to cook each vegetable separately, since they soften at different times, and to finish it off by blending it all in one glorious ode to the South. I have to say that she mastered that dish and not only it tasted heavenly but it looked beautiful, since each vegetable had retained its original color.But it also took a long time to make.
So, for the sake of my love of roasted eggplants( reminiscence of the Baiili) and my summery devotion to a few ratatouilles each year, I decided to cut corners and roast the "rata" as it is called casually around the tables of France.
First I cubed the eggplant and sprinkled it with oregano, salt and olive oil.in it went in a 425o oven.then, I transferred the eggplant into a bowl and filled the gratin dish with layers of olive oil, tomato sauce , the roasted eggplant , the cubed zucchinis,diced garlic,chopped basil and topped it with slices of early girls tomatoes.a little salt ,pepper, pepper flakes and Parmesan and in it went for 30 minutes.No as pretty as my mom's rata was but so deep in flavors, just as meltingly rich as I could hope for.

feeling raw

In less than two months, I have worked on different recipes that included raw beets. The first one was a root vegetable salad, using parsnips, turnips,celery root,beets etc all finely julienned into a revelation of sweet, crunchy, colorful twist on some winter, more uncommon vegetables.
This time, it was a simpler translation of just carrots and red beets ( for the other recipe, I had used 3 kind of beets, which made it kinetic looking with the hot pink concentric lined chiogga ).
Make a simple vinaigrette of orange juice, salt pepper, minced ginger and olive oil.mix each vegetable separately.plate side by side, sprinkle some fresh scissored mint.So healthy and tasty....

comal

At a cooking class in Oaxaca, I discovered and bought my" simple" comal. It lingered below the oven for a while stuck between tart pans and pie shells.What do to with this comal? how different from my cooking pans ? wrong ! I have started using it like mad, and it is wonderful. I love mexican food, and my hand made tortillas ( form Primavera), get all blistery and a tad smoky when warmed on the comal. My pimentos del padron, or baby poblanos get a nice tinge of fire( after having been rubbed with olive oil) and get very tasty when sprinkled with kosher salt.