Easter Lamb

Easter’s Jewish and Christian celebrations often include lamb for reasons more historical than gustative. When Moïse sought to liberate its people from the Pharaoh, God inflicted the ten plagues upon Egypt. The last and decisive one struck the first born of men and beasts. During the first Passover, Jewish families kept captive sacrificed a new born lamb to mark with its blood their front door: the Angel of Death would then pass it by. Christianity borrowing from Judaic tradition designated Christ in the Liturgy as the sacrificial lamb. Traditionally of course spring is also the time when fresh new lamb comes to the market, although nowadays globalization has made season irrelevant. It is one of the few remaining grass-fed meat in the United States and therefore a good source of omega-3. It makes for a festive dish to feed a crowd with almost no pain. And the next day the leftover can be dressed with the same mint sauce and a green salad for an easy lunch. To conclude the meal and celebrate the anticipated riches of the season, a moist and flourless chocolate cake is called for. For a starter, I suggest to pass around blinis, the Russian version of a savory pancake, garnished with cream, salmon roe and smoked salmon.
Ideally the leg of lamb should cater to every guest’s taste in doneness, from rare to well done, with all the nuances in between, not to forget an enticingly crisp skin all around. To achieve this goal you need to start the roast in a hot oven for a quarter of an hour and count about 12 to 15 minutes cooking time per pound of meat. The lamb is perfumed by inserting salted anchovies in slits inside the meat and rubbing olive oil, thyme, rosemary and coarse black pepper on top. To save time, it cooks on top of sliced potatoes, which will be perfectly crisp by the time the roast is ready. The sauce is inspired by the mint British love to serve with lamb.

Blinis (Easy, Preparation time: two hours largely unattended, Cheap)

Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
½ cup warm water
1cup milk
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 eggs separated
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch of sugar
¾ stick melted unsalted butter
Additional butter for cooking

Material:
1 blender
1 eggbeater
1 rubber spatula
¼ cup
1 frying pan
1 spatula

Proof the yeast in warm water according to the package instructions.
Mix all the ingredients in the blender except for the whites.
Pour the batter into a bowl large enough to accommodate the rising. Reserve under a cloth on a warm place for 1 hour and a half.
At cooking time, beat the egg whites and fold them into the batter.
Set the frying pan on a medium flame and add a little butter. Form little mounds about 3 inches in diameter on the pan, using the ¼ cup. When the batter starts bubbling, turn them over.

Oven-baked leg of lamb on a potato bed (Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 2 hours, Expensive)

Ingredients:
8 lbs (3.5 to 4 kg) leg of lamb, bone-in
Can of anchovies
2 Sprigs of Rosemary
1 teaspoon coarse pepper
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1tablespoon olive oil
8 large baking potatoes
2 heads of garlic

Sauce:
2 cups tightly packed mint leaves
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
½ cup olive oil
1 garlic clove minced
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Material:
Food processor
Roasting pan
Paring knife and board
Colander
Kitchen towel
Aluminum foil

Preheat the oven to 425F (318C) with the roasting rack on.
Pierce the leg of lamb with a sharp knife and insert in the opening a half anchovy and a rosemary leave. Repeat the operation in 19 other spots all over the leg. Strain them in a colander and dry them in the kitchen towel. Spread them out in the roasting pan. Sprinkle with coarse salt and the remaining rosemary leaves.
Reduce the remaining anchovies to a paste in the food processor with the tablespoon of oil. Add the coarse pepper to the paste and cover the roast with this paste. Place it on top of the potatoes. Bake for 15 minutes at 425F before reducing to 375F (190C). Turn the roast over and toss the potatoes around before returning to the oven for another hour and thirty minutes.
Remove the roast from the oven. Place on a cutting board and cover loosely with aluminum foil for 15 minutes before carving. Toss the potatoes and leave them in the oven.
Place the ingredients of the sauce in the food processor and blend. Reserve in a sauce dish.

Serves 8. Accompany with a side dish of green beans.

Green Beans (Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
2 lbs (1 kg) French string beans, both end of the beans removed
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh butter or olive oil

Material:
1 6-quart pan
Colander

Fill up the pan with water. Add the salt and bring to a boil over the high range of the stove. When the water is seriously boiling, add the string beans. Cook for 20 minutes, without covering to preserve the bright green coloring of the beans. Strain and place in a serving bowl. Toss with butter or oil and serve immediately.

Grannie’s chocolate cake (Easy, Preparation and cooking time:45 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
7 oz (250g) dark chocolate with at least 55% cacao content
1 stick sweet butter (113g)
1tablespoon (14g) all-purpose flour
7 oz (250g) crystallized sugar
6 eggs separated

Material:
1 saucepan
2 salad bowls
1 wooden spoon
1 eggbeater
1 silicone spoon
1 9-inch silicone mold

Turn the oven on to 360F (182C)

Unwrap the butter and place it in the saucepan. Set the saucepan on the lower setting of the gas and bake until the butter is just melted. Turn off the gas. Add the chocolate broken in small pieces to the butter, stirring occasionally with the wooden spoon until melted.
Separate the whites from the yolks. In the salad bowl containing the yolks, add the sugar and beat until creamy pale yellow. Mix in the sifted flour. Add the melted butter and chocolate, stirring the content until well mixed.
Beat the whites until peaks form. With the silicone spoon add carefully the whites to the batter, until the mixture is homogeneous.
Pour the content in the silicone mold and bake in the oven until the chocolate smell suffuses all the kitchen or 20 minutes have passed.
Let the cake cool before inverting on a plate. A nice touch is to sift a tablespoon of powdered (confectioner) sugar over the top. A caramel or chocolate frosting is nice too.
Serves 8 to 10.

A Simple Picnic

The first picnic of the year should be (almost) spontaneous. A few raw vegetables, some dips, pâté, fresh bread and a dry swatch of grass are all it takes to breathe in the fresh air and enjoy the caress of the sun. And if the weather remains uncooperative, just invite memories of summers past.
One such remembrance brings visions of large baskets brimming with tiny artichokes, red and white radishes, spicy green onions, tomatoes, carrots and celery, to be dipped in tapenade. The real thing calls for pounding anchovies, capers, pitted black olives and olive oil in a mortar until reduced to a smooth paste. Although it will do wonder for the upper part of one of your arms, and will appeal to purists, I much prefer using a food processor, and good quality pitted olives. My recipe does away with the anchovies, guilty of imparting too much salt to the mix, and replaces capers with garlic cloves and herbs, much better for the heart’s health.
Along the crudités, came bread and pâtés. My favorite is rillettes. The pork is cooked until it falls right off the bone and shreds itself to pieces without human intervention. A lot of fat and a few secret spices are then added. Duck leg confit perfumed with thyme flowers on one hand and leftover baked salmon enriched with kefir, smoked salmon and dill on the other are two perfect alternatives to the traditional pork rillettes.

Tapenade (Easy, Preparation time: 5 minutes. Cheap)

Ingredients:
6 oz (186g) pitted Kalamata olives, from a jar
¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves
3 cloves garlic peeled

Material:
Colander
Food processor with the blade attachment on
Silicone spoon
Dip bowl

Drain the olives in the colander. Pour them in the bowl of the food processor. Add the olive oil, basil and garlic. Pulse, until the mixture is homogeneous.
Scrape into the dip bowl. Serve with vegetables and pieces of bread.
Comes summer, Tapenade is a staple in my refrigerator. A spoonful added to the Foolproof Dijon Vinaigrette of last week or the Fruity Sauce of Microwave Magic makes both suitable for a tomato, tuna or lobster salad. I replace mustard with tapenade to season barbecued beef. Using green olives instead of black, I mix it with potatoes for a purée to garnish any baked fowl.
Salmon Rillettes (Easy, Preparation time: 5 minutes, Reasonable)

Ingredients:
6 oz (174g) baked salmon*
2 oz (60 g) smoked salmon
¾ oz (20 g) dill
½ cup (110 ml) Kefir or liquid yogurt
Drops of Tabasco

Material:
Food processor with the blade attachment on
Silicone spoon
Dip bowl

Place all the ingredients in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse until shredded.
Scrape into the dip bowl.
*If you do not have leftover salmon (I tend to always purchase more than we will eat, because I love to eat it on toasts as rillettes, or cold with a cucumber yogurt and herb dressing the next day) sauté minced shallots in a little oil or butter, add water and bring to a boil. Place your salmon in the water, turn off the gas and cover the pan. Remove the salmon from the water after 10 minutes and proceed with the recipe.
Duck Leg Rillettes (Easy, Preparation time: 15 minutes, cooking time: 6 hours largely unattended, Cheap)

Ingredients
For the confit:
4 fresh duck legs
¼ cup (60 g) coarse or Kosher salt
2½ cups (750 ml) duck fat

For the rillettes:
The meat and skin of the confit
1 small shallot peeled and cut
10 stems of fresh thyme in bloom

Material:
Closable plastic bag
Slow cooker
Set of tongues
Food processor with the sharp blade attachment on

The day before, unwrap the duck legs and place them in a bag along with the salt. Close the bag, shake and place in the refrigerator overnight.
The following day, rinse and dry the legs of duck and place them in the slow cooker inset. Pour the duck fat on top. Cook on the low setting for 5 to 6 hours. Retrieve the duck legs with the set of tongues. Strain the duck fat in a closed container and store in the refrigerator for another batch of duck legs.
Remove the bones from the duck legs and place the meat and skin in the bowl of the food processor. Add the shallot and the leaves and flowers of 6 of the 4 stems. Pulse until the meat and skins are just shredded. Divide into four small containers. Pour a tablespoon of duck fat on top and decorate with a sprig of thyme.
It will keep for several weeks: “confit” is a French word for preserve.
Serve for a picnic, as an appetizer or offer as a housewarming present.

Eggcellent

Spring finally chases away snow and the first plants make their apparition in the vegetable garden: green mounds announce the gracious arabesques of garlic and when summer comes, a bounty of heads. No other object symbolizes these miracles more than the simple egg favored at Easter, and its astonishing properties. Because the egg’ s shell is permeable, it absorbs the salt in the boiling water. For the same reason, to impart the perfume of truffle to an omelet, it is advised to store the raw egg in its shell with a truffle in a closed box. As acid attacks the shell, to facilitate its removal once the egg is boiled, use a bath of cold vinegar water. As to prevent breakage while cooking, you can try piercing the egg with a pin on the round bottom side prior to plunging it in the water: as the water boils, you will see bubbles of air exit through the hole. I have to say that the averages do not work for this so called scientific method recommended by a PHD. One out of two eggs broke while boiling whether pierced or not. However it did not affect the outcome, as the egg once shelled looked as good. Rather than a strong boil, favor a slower one: the texture of the cooked egg white will be just tender. Finally to center the yolk, roll gently the egg during the 10 to 12 minutes it takes to cook.
To go along with the eggs, simply add raw or barely cooked vegetables and the occasional shrimp and scallop. The earth deity, Demeter, rejoices in the presence of her daughter Proserpine on a six months release from her husband Pluto’s somber realms. Thanks to her good mood the seeds we nurture in our window boxes will be ready in eight weeks for transplanting outside. Even sooner, as the earth crumbles in our finger we shall plant directly in the ground peas, beets and radishes and collect asparagus and rhubarb. But for now we still have to make do with winter vegetables even if we dress them in bright colors.
Each recipe serves 4.

Leeks vinaigrette (Easy, Preparation time: 15 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
4 leeks
2 eggs
1teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon of vinegar
4 tablespoons Dijon vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Material:
Board and paring knife
Wooden spoon
Steamer, 4-quart pan and its cover

Pour water and salt in the 4-quart pan and bring to a boil over the high setting of the gas range. Lower the gas. Place each egg delicately with a spoon in the softly boiling water. Cook them for 12 minutes, turning them occasionally with the same spoon to insure that the yolk will remain perfectly centered. Retrieve them from the boiling water and place them in cold water perfumed with the spoon of vinegar while you attend to the leeks.
Cut away the green part of the leek, about 2 inches or 6 centimeters and slice away the bottom root. With the knife, form a cross on the top, and immerge the whole leek in cold water. Any sand or earth trapped between the leaves will sink to the bottom. Prepare the vinaigrette.
Cut the leeks longitudinally and then slice them. Steam them for about 5 minutes or until soft. Place in the salad bowl. Add the vinaigrette.
Shell the eggs. Slice, and cut the eggs into smaller pieces. Place on top of the salad.

Foolproof Dijon vinaigrette (Easy, Preparation time: 5 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
¾ cup (125 ml) olive oil
¼ cup (60 ml) red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon (14 ml) Balsamic vinegar
1tablespoon (14 g) Dijon mustard
1 shallot peeled and thinly sliced

Material:
Glass preserve jar and its cover

Pour all the ingredients in the jar and close the lid tightly. Shake well. All the ingredients will mix and turn into a thickened yellow emulsion. Use what you need and store the rest in the fridge until the next usage. Shake before pouring.

Mushroom Salad
(Easy, Preparation time: 5 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
10 oz (280 g) white whole mushrooms
1tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 oz (28 g) Parmesan cheese
Chives washed and cut thinly.
3 tablespoons Dijon vinaigrette

Material:
Vegetable peeler
Paring knife and board
Salad bowl

Wash the mushrooms in cold water. Slice off the bottom. Turn the mushroom on its side and slice thinly. Place the slices in the salad bowl as you work and pour the lemon juice on top to prevent them from blackening. Pour the vinaigrette over the mushrooms and mix. Using the vegetable peeler, garnish with thin slices of Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle the chives on top

Egg surprise (Easy, Preparation time: 15 minutes 1 hour before cooking time: 20 minutes, Reasonable)

Ingredients:
4 artichokes raw or canned artichoke hearts
½ oz (14 g) dried chanterelle mushrooms
4 raw shrimps
8 bay scallops
4 eggs
4 tablespoons crème fraîche

Material
1 8-quart pan
1 salad bowl
4 individual soufflé molds

Put the dry chanterelles in a salad bowl. Cover with warm water and soak for an hour.
Set a pot of water over the high setting of the gas range and bring to a boil. Add a tablespoon of salt. Drop the artichokes in the water. When the boil resumes, turn the artichokes over and cook for another twenty minutes, or until a leaves break off easily from the body. Bring to room temperature. Remove all the leaves and keep for eating on their own with vinaigrette. If you are using canned artichokes heart, drain the water and rinse the artichokes.
Preheat the oven at 360 F (180 C)
Slice the hearts and place in each soufflé mold. Peel the shrimps, remove the tiny black intestines by pulling on them, cut in three and place in each mold. Add two bay scallops each. Divide the mushrooms in 4. Crack carefully one egg in each dish without breaking the yolk and add a tablespoon of cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Bake for 20 minutes. The white should be firm but the yolk still runny. Serve with sweet potato fries, to dip in the yolk (recipe follows).

Sweet potato fries (Easy, Preparation time: 20 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes or yam
4 tablespoons duck or goose fat (see December 16th, 2008)
1 garlic clove, unpeeled
1tablespoon (30 g) butter
1teaspoon crystal salt
1 tablespoon freshly minced parsley

Material:
1 peeling knife
1 paring knife and board
1 4-quart saucepan

Peel the sweet potatoes with the peeler. Cut each potato in two lengthwise. Quarter each half to obtain thick fries. You should have about 24 fries when you are done dividing.
Place the fat into the saucepan, and heat it up over the high setting of the gas. When it smokes, throw in the potatoes and the unpeeled garlic clove. Lower the gas setting, and turn occasionally the fries over to insure an allover golden tone, for 15 minutes. Remove the fries from the grease on a paper towel. Save and refrigerate the remaining fat. Wipe off the grease from the saucepan and set back the potatoes in it, on the low flame of the gas stove. Add the butter in dots. When the fries have absorbed the butter, sprinkle the salt and then the parsley.
Dispose 8 fries around each soufflé dish.

Bistro Cuisine

Bistro fare is irremediably linked to Paris and conjures simple satisfying dishes. Unlike the grander brasserie, which features an oyster bar at the entrance or the even more imposing restaurant first created by the chefs of the aristocracy, after the Revolution decapitated their patrons, the bistro had a humble beginning: it started as a wine shop. Today, its atmosphere bon enfant, neighborhood location and familiar menu capture the essence of Paris. Not the grand boutiques, but the soup on the corner of the stove, which, started the morning by the guardian perfumes the entire building and accompanies your climb up the stairs.
The dish I suggest for this snowy week is pot-au-feu. As highlighted by Alexandre Dumas in his Great Cooking Dictionary, the heart of a good pot-au-feu is the beef. The cheaper the cut, the better, as the long cooking time will tenderize the meat. The flavor comes from the winter vegetables cooked for the last twenty minutes in the degreased broth. A warm upside down apple tart is one of the customary conclusions to the two-course pot-au-feu. The next day, the leftover meat and vegetables are delicious cut in pieces and seasoned with mustard dressing and pickles.
The recipes serve 6 with a pot-au-feu salad for 2 the next day.

Pot-au-feu (Easy, Preparation: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 3 to 4 hours the day before, Cheap)

Ingredients:
4 lbs (2 kg) of beef for stew, cut in pieces, bone reserved (shank, oxtail and short ribs)
1 onion piqued with cloves
1 bouquet garni (one leek leave wrapped around a sprig of thyme, a bay leave, a celery stalk)
1tablespoon salt
Whole pepper grains
8 carrots peeled
8 turnips peeled
8 red potatoes unpeeled and cleaned
8 leeks cleaned
1 head of cabbage blanched in boiling water for 5 minutes
For the sauce:
4 tomatoes peeled
2 sprigs basil

Material:
1 8-quart heavy-bottomed pan
Food processor
A set of tongues
A double boiler
An ovenproof dish
Aluminum foil

Cover all the meat, the onion and the bouquet garni with cold water in a large pot, reserving the bones of the shanks aside. Bring to a boil and start removing the impurities with a slotted spoon. Lower the gas and simmer uncovered for 2 hours and a half up to 4 hours. Remove the meat and reserve. Either filter the broth through linen or refrigerate it until the following day in a covered plastic box. The fat will solidify at the surface, and can be easily removed.
Turn the oven at 380F (190C). Put the bones in an ovenproof dish and cover with cold water, place a foil on top and cook in the oven for an hour.
Place the peeled tomatoes and washed basil leaves in the food processor. Purée until the sauce is smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Thirty minutes before serving, reheat the meat by steaming it in a double boiler and cook the vegetables in the purified broth. Five minutes before serving, add the whole peppercorns to the broth and vegetables. The minimal cooking time will prevent any bitterness to spoil the soup.
Serve the broth as a starter with the bone marrow on toasted bread sprinkled with coarse salt. The meat and vegetables on their own will provide the second course. Propose the cold tomato sauce, horseradish, coarse salt cucumber and onion pickles as garnishes.

Tarte Tatin
(Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 40 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
6 apples peeled cored and quartered
¼ cup (60g) sugar
2 tablespoons (60g) butter
1tablespoon (14g) cinnamon
½ recipe sweet pastry dough from previous post

Material:
Non-stick frying pan
Wooden spoon
Rolling pin and sheets of parchment paper
6-inch (18cm) silicone or conventional cake mold buttered and floured

Turn on the oven at 380F (190C).
Place the frying pan on the medium setting of the gas after having added the butter sugar and cinnamon. Wait until the butter melts before adding the apples. Cook, stirring, until the apples yield to the knife. Pour the entire concoction in the cake mold.
Roll the pastry dough between two layers of parchment paper. Remove one layer and reverse on top of the apples. Peel off the second layer. Tuck the pastry sheet inside the mold. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the pastry turns golden. Remove from the oven and turn over on a pie serving plate.