Nature and Cuisine

Laguiole is famous worldwide for its cutlery. It is a small stone village in a valley of the Massif Central; a region time has shaped into a succession of green Roman shields. On these round mounts troops of beefs go to pasture in fields delimited by lines of trees. Water is never far and rushes to meet the bottom. It is this landscape that Michel Bras and his family, all natives from Aubrac have appropriated with the help of architect Eric Raffy from their contemporary Relais & Châteaux. The building leans on the hill and projects its reception and bar over the village. Its four plateaus, the restaurant and kitchen on top and three others for the bedrooms, are like giant stairs carved into granite. Each picture window opens up on nature and is an invitation to explore the region inside and out.
The cuisine of Michel and Sébastien Bras, father and son is equally respectful of its environment. Michel Bras’ most famous recipe is a salad, the gargouillou, where seasonal vegetables in different stage of doneness, from raw to crisp to blanched are barely accented with perfumed oil, a mushroom sauce and a ham and vegetable stock. That’s where our enchantment started. Each subsequent vegetable we were then presented with, managed to be both true to its taste and exalted. A subtle mixture of curry, coriander, garlic and yoghurt awakened the green asparagus. Turnips married morels and peas in a highly successful ménage à trois. Sautéed cabbage of a kind accompanied another raw crunchy sort in egg vinaigrette. The endive lost its bitterness to a creamy concoction of truffle juice. One of the desserts used potato chips and a saffron potato cream and managed to be ethereal.
Sébastien confided me the recipe I asked for. It features basic ingredients: potato and anchovies and looks deceivably simple to make. However it takes some practice to lay flat a potato. With a mixed salad, it is a lovely meal.

Baked potato with anchovies Adapted from Michel and Sébastien Bras (Somewhat challenging, preparation and cooking time: 40 minutes, cheap)

Ingredients:
1 large Idaho potato per person
1 garlic clove peeled
1 can of anchovies in olive oil
Clarified butter (recipe follows)

Material:
1 peeler
1 board
1 paring knife
1 brush
Kitchen string
1 individual cocotte or silver foil

Preheat the oven at 360F (180C)
Peel and rinse the potato. Using the paring knife, form a continuous band with the flesh of the potato.
Place the potato ribbon on the board. Lightly rub the garlic clove along. Brush with oil.
Take the anchovies out of the can and purée them with the back of a fork. Lay the anchovies paste on the potato ribbon. No need to add salt, as the anchovies are already salty. Add some pepper to taste. Roll the ribbon on itself and wrap with a piece of kitchen string to maintain its shape.
Put the clarified butter in a pan over medium heat and sauté the potato until it colors slightly.
Either wrap it in silver foil, or put it an ovenproof cocotte and bake for 20 minutes. Serve immediately with a salad and lots of herbs.

Clarified Butter
(Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 10 minutes, cheap)

Ingredients:
1 stick (1 cup) butter (or any other quantity needed)

Material:
1 pan
1 strainer
Paper towel
Salad bowl or any other recipient

Melt the butter in the pan over low to medium gas. Put the paper towel over the strainer and the strainer over the salad bowl.
Pour the melted butter in the strainer. The strained butter is clarified butter, butter without any residual cream, which allows it to cook at higher temperatures.
It keeps longer in the fridge than regular butter.

Deluxe Cuisine

In Puymirol, a charming fortified village on top of a hill close to Agen Michel Trama with the help of his friend, famed decorator Jacques Garcia has restored an ensemble of medieval houses and cloister, which once belonged to the Counts of Toulouse. The baroque décor complements the style of the chef. Rich curtains cover the walls and sconces in the shape of arms echo the oversized clawed feet of the tables. The cuisine has the same opulence. Duck liver comes in several guises, cold as a lollypop for an appetizer, or hot as the heart of a mushroom hamburger for an entrée. Vegetables and fruit are also given the full treatment. Cauliflower becomes creamy and rich as a risotto. And Tarte Tatin, the French upside down apple pie takes on a totally new turn as a miniature tree. Tiny compote apples of different colors dangle from the branches, while leaves made of pastry alternate with real one. The epitome of transmutation is Trama’s signature dish; a potato robed in Swiss chard leaves and soaked in a truffle sauce.
Luxury has a price and the massive adjunction of truffle makes the dish very expensive. It is however pure bliss for truffle amateurs and builds on the classic combination of the two tubers in a purée.

Steamed potato with truffle in a truffle sauce
(Easy, Preparation and cooking time:1 hour, Expensive)

Ingredients:
4 medium Idaho potatoes
½ cup (120 ml) truffle juice
1/3 cup (80 g) black Périgord truffle
1cup (250 ml) chicken or vegetable stock
1 stick (130 g) butter
8 Swiss chard leaves

Material:
1 4-quart saucepan
1 colander
Set of tongues
Paper towel
Peeler
Film wrap
Whip or egg beater
Steamer

Put the potatoes in the 4-quart saucepan. Cover with water and add 1 teaspoon of salt per liter of water. Turn the gas on medium, bring to a boil and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender but firm. Strain and refresh in cold water. Bring to room temperature and peel. Reserve.
Wash the Swiss chard. Discard the stalks or keep them for a gratin. Plunge the leaves in boiling salted water for one minute. Refresh in cold water to stop the cooking process and dry between two pieces of paper towel. Reserve.
Peel 32 slices of truffle. Cut every potato in 8 slices. Season each slice with salt and pepper and reconstitute the potato, alternating 8 potato and 7 truffle slices. Repeat the operation with the remaining three potatoes.
Place a piece of film big enough to wrap around the potato on the counter. Layer over it 2 Swiss chard leaves. Center the potato in the middle and wrap the film tightly around the leaves containing the potato. Repeat with the other 3 potatoes.
Place the pan over the low setting of the gas. Pour the chicken stock and truffle juice in the pan and reduce for twenty minutes until you have about ½ cup (150 ml) left. Reserve in a container.
Steam the potatoes in their film in a steamer for 12 minutes.
In the meantime prepare the sauce. Set the pan over the low setting of the gas, melt 2 tablespoons butter and add the remainder of the truffle cut in pieces. Cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the gas. Add the reserved truffle and stock. Add the rest of the butter at room temperature while whipping constantly with the eggbeater. Season to taste.
To assemble the dish, place each potato in a warm soup plate. Lightly cut the potato longitudinally and pour the truffle sauce. Add one slice of truffle on top.

The future of Cuisine

On the “route des Châteaux” in Pauillac are some of the most famous Bordeaux: Pichon-Lalande, Lynch-Moussas, Haut-Bages Libéral, Latour. To a connoisseur it reads like a library of favorite authors.
There is also a 2 Star restaurant, which, according to all who visited it deserves his third one, Château Cordeillan-Bages. In a vast minimal dining room overlooking vines, Thierry Marx, a bon vivant Bruce Willis, serves a thoroughly festive contemporary cuisine. Trained first as a baker he uses his martial arts expertise to direct his team. They perform enthusiastically a magical show. Presto, a translucent and smoking package appears to the table to reveal a beef filet on a bed of burning vine twigs. A clay envelope broken in front of your eyes unveils a fish flavored with chocolate. And beware of the sausage: its casing is a red pepper, the inside a mousse made of calamari. Here, molecular cuisine is put to the service of a great artist whose painting is not only three-dimensional, but also manages to tease the taste buds.
Thierry teaches on Friday morning in the Château to any one willing to learn. Reserve early, there is a one-year waiting list.
He adapted to my conventional kitchen the following recipe, which serves 4. It is quintessential Marx in that the regular parts of a risotto, rice, white wine, and saffron have been changed to germinated soy, soymilk, and mushroom essence. Crunch is retained, but is provided by a vegetable rather than a grain.
Every ingredient is found in your local supermarket, except for the oysters. Pick the meatiest one and ask your fishmonger to open them for you and save the water while doing so. As you can only purchase them by the half dozen, do not hesitate to use more for the recipe than the mere two prescribed.
For the mushroom stock, buy 3 oz (100g) dry black porcini mushrooms. Place them in a bowl and cover them with boiling water. After ½ an hour you will have reconstituted mushrooms you can save for another usage and the mushroom stock you need for this one. You may also purchase 3 oz (100 g) fresh porcini mushrooms, add 4 oz (125 ml) of water and cook them covered in a pan at the lowest gas temperature for 10 minutes until the mushroom is soft and its perfume transfers to the water. Wash, dry discard the germ and mince the germinated soy in advance, as it is the most fastidious part of the recipe, and may easily take an hour.


Soy and Oyster Risotto (Easy, Cooking time: 10 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
2 cups (500 g) germinated soy, germ removed, cut in small pieces with a knife
1 teaspoon (5 g) mascarpone
1 teaspoon (5 g) Parmesan
2 oysters shucked and cut in small pieces, juice reserved
2 tablespoons (28 ml) mushroom stock
2 tablespoons (28 ml) natural soymilk

Material:
1 4-quart saucepan
1 knife
1 strainer
1 salad bowl
1 eggbeater manual or electric


In a saucepan over the medium setting of the gas, melt the mascarpone and Parmesan cheeses; add the oyster juice, the oyster pieces, the mushroom stock, the soymilk and the soy pieces.

Before the liquid boils, strain the solids and divide them in 4 plates. Whip the juice until it bubbles up and pour it delicately over the solids.

Do not add salt and pepper. The seasoning is just right.

Paris 3 Stars Restaurant

This week, and the next two, I am exploring the quintessence of French cuisine: the 3 star restaurant.
First stop: Le Meurice in Paris. Yannick Alléno presides over its Napoléon the Third refurbished golden décor. The cuisine is as beautiful as the space and manages to be both truthful to the ingredients, refined and seasonal. It is both based on tradition and original, making one pause with the pleasure of recognizing the dish and appreciate the twist it was given. The langoustines and lobsters were superbly cooked. The pairing of each, langoustines with the tiniest slice of turnip, avocado oil and preserved grapefruit, lobsters with a subtle marrow and meat gravy and green asparagus, was just right. A sweetbread simply sautéed in a crust of chestnut accompanied a truffle risotto of “fragula” a cereal from Sardinia. In homage to the season, the tiniest ribs of lamb were served with crisp potatoes flavored with lemon and basil. Yannick playfully added a molecular olive to the dish. The dessert, a caramel tart with flambé bananas and passion fruit sauce on the side stuck the exact slightly bitter balance to complement the Riesling Grand cru Rangen de Thann SGN 1998.
But what is in it for the home cook besides making a reservation next time you are in Paris? Yannick was kind enough to let me publish one of his recipes. And I put it to the test of my tiny home kitchen. The first challenge was the veal stock. At the market, I found a veal shank and asked the butcher to cut it in pieces I could use for an osso bucco and to give me the tail end of it for my stock. I sautéed some onion in butter and put it, and the veal piece in my slow cooker along with a cleaned leek, a peeled and grated carrot and salt. I “forgot” it for 6 hours, strained it and refrigerated it until the next day. The stock is by then a translucent jelly with a thin layer of fat easy to remove. The morels are a seasonal mushroom found in the wild: Michael Pollan goes hunting for them in the hills of California for his fourth foraging meal in The Omnivore’s Dilemna. If not washed thoroughly, they can be gritty. As to the yellow wine, it is from the region of Jura in France with a smoky robe and a distinctive rich taste that sets it apart from other white wines.
Although the recipe is time consuming, it takes two hours not counting the veal stock preparation, the sauce is so fragrant and tasty that my guests polished it off with a piece of bread! I can also imagine using it as a swirl in a butternut squash soup.

Morels in yellow wine with a stuffed romaine leave in a brown butter sauce
Adapted from Yannick Alléno

Ingredients
1-Yellow wine sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
2 carrots (200 g) cut in slender sticks about ½ inch (1 cm) long
1 cup (200 g) Paris mushrooms cut the same way
2 cups (500 ml) yellow wine
1½ cups heavy cream

2-Stuffed romaine:
1 romaine salad washed
5 cardoon leaves
3 slices bacon cut in small pieces
1 cup (250 ml) veal stock

3-Butter:
½ cup (100 g) veal stock (recipe follows)
1 tablespoon (15 g) butter

4-Morel:
32 morel mushrooms (200 g) five times immersed in fresh water and dried
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon (10 g) minced shallots
1 carrot peeled and minced
1 celery branch peeled and minced
1 cup (250 ml) yellow wine


Material:
14-quart saucepan
1 frying pan
1 peeler
1 paring knife and board
1 strainer



1-Set the 4-quart pan on the medium range of the gas. Add the butter, the carrots and the Paris mushrooms. After a couple of minutes, add the yellow wine and cook until there is no liquid left. Add the crème and cook for another 15 minutes. Strain. Add salt and pepper to taste.
2-Wash and dry the salad in a salad spinner. Reserve 4 medium leaves and shred the remainder in slender pieces.
Peel the cardoons. Blanch them in boiling water for one minute. Cut them in small pieces. Blanch the romaine leaves in the same manner and lay on a flat surface in preparation for stuffing.
Fry the bacon, add the cardoons and the shredded romaine. When it starts coloring, add the veal stock and cook for 10 minutes. Strain the juice and place the vegetables and bacon in the center of the romaine leaves. Fold over and keep warm in the oven set at 250 F (100 C).
3-Set the frying pan on the slow range of the gas. Add the butter. When it reached a warm brown color and starts smelling like nuts cooking, add the veal stock and reduce. Reserve and keep warm in the oven.
4-Set the frying pan on the low range of the gas. Fry the minced shallots in a little butter. After two minutes add the carrots and the celery and melt slowly until the vegetables are soft, about two minutes. Add the morels. Mushroom water will come out. Let it reduce. Add the yellow wine and simmer slowly for another couple of minutes.
Dispose in each plate a quarter of the morel mixture and a stuffed leave. Pour the brown butter sauce over the stuffed leave. Lay the yellow wine sauce as an arabesque on the empty surface of the plate.
Serves 4 as an appetizer.

Veal stock (Easy, Preparation time: 5 minutes, Cooking time: 6 hours largely unattended, cheap)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion peeled and minced
1 carrot grated and roughly sliced
1 leek green parts removed partially and washed
½ teaspoon salt
The end of a veal shank bone and all

Material:
Frying pan
Slow cooker
Strainer
Storage containers

Place the frying pan on the low settings of the gas. Melt the butter. Add the onions and cook for about 3 minutes without letting them color.
Place the cooked onions, the carrot, leek, veal shank and salt in the inset of the slow cooker. Recover with just enough water to submerge everything. Set the dial on high for 6 hours.
Strain into a container and store in the refrigerator for up to three days, or freeze for three months after having removed the top layer of fat.
About 3 cups.

Paris markets

There is a popular song by Gilbert Bécaud about the markets of Provence and no mention of the Parisian ones although there are about ninety today and are a terrific source for any cook*. They have been around since the fifth century AD: the oldest one was in the Île de la Cité and has since given room to the permanent flower market. It is well worth seeing on the way to the Sainte Chapelle, a glass window jewel tucked inside the Palais de Justice.
For more substantial nourishment, you can shop for an entire meal and sometimes even consume one without leaving the street where they take place. Some of them are so large you may even compare prices and quality. It is the occasion to pick what looks best on a given day and let your imagination do the rest. To go back in time even further you can rent a bike from the city of Paris. It comes equipped with a front basket, which begs for a fresh baguette and any other purchases.
I fell in arrest in front of a fishmonger’s stall. Atlantic whole fish have the run of the place because of the proximity of the ocean: the small soles good for one person and the bars for 3 caught my attention. I selected the biggest bar at 750 g (1 lbs and ½ ) and asked it to be cleaned but not scaled. Because of the reduced format of its head it can serve three. In the States where Atlantic bars may not be available, a large red snapper (over 2 lbs) or two smaller one may be needed to serve the same amount, as snapper heads are larger. Because in Paris, my apartment is tiny and I need to keep cooking odors to a minimum, I opted for the Portuguese salt crust method. The salt forms a crust in cooking and sticks to the skin of the fish. It contains and enhances all perfume inside, hence the dill branches in the cavity.
At the vegetable counter white asparagus, fresh peas, bean pods, and gariguettes, the oblong fruit of Provence, with the taste of wild strawberries in a large size formed an irresistible complement. My dinner requires 20 minutes cooking, 10 minutes preparation time, is reasonably expensive and comes smell free.

Baked whole fish in salt crust

Ingredients:
2 lbs (1 kg) coarse salt
1 lbs ½ Atlantic bar or 2 lbs red snapper
2 stems dill

Material:
1 baking sheet
1 sharp knife
1 spatula

Preheat the oven at 420 F (250 C).
Insert the dill branches into the fish cavity.
Place 1/3 of the salt in a diagonal on the baking sheet in a width sufficient to accommodate the fish. Add a little water before laying the fish over the salt. Cover the fish with the remaining salt. Add a little water, as if you were molding a sand fish on a beach.
Bake in the oven for twenty minutes if using a bar, for 30 minutes if cooking a red snapper. The crust will turn gold.
Remove from the oven. Prepare the three serving plates close by. With the handle of the knife, break the crust. Using the knife and spatula remove the salt crust along with the skin of the fish and discard. Cut the fish in filets and place on each plate. Propose olive oil and lemon quarters on the side.

Spring vegetables (Simultaneous preparation)

Ingredients:
1 lbs (500 g) asparagus
2 lbs (1 kg) peas
1 lb (500 g) fava beans
½ lb (250 g) cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Bouquet of chives

Material:
1 4-quart pan
1 slotted spoon
1 peeler
1 colander
Scissors

As you preheat the oven, fill the pan with water and bring to a boil.
Remove the peas and fava beans from the pods and discard the pods. Peel the asparagus and cut off the hardest part of the stem.
Place the fava beans and tomatoes into the boiling water. When the boiling resumes, remove fava beans and tomatoes from the pan with the slotted spoon, and replace with the asparagus. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until tender. Strain.
Peel the skin of the tomatoes and the fava beans.
Reheat all the vegetables together with a tablespoon of oil and a teaspoon of salt in the same pan.
Snip the chives with the scissors and serve directly on the plate along with the fish.

Gariguettes or any local strawberries (No preparation)

Ingredients:
1 lbs (500 g) strawberries
1 cup (250 g) crème fraîche
¼ cup (60 g) sugar

Wash the strawberries and serve in a salad bowl.
Pass the crème fraîche and the sugar around for dipping each strawberry first in cream and then in sugar before eating.

*To obtain a schedule of all Parisian markets open air or covered by postal zips type marchés Paris in the Google bar.

Moroccan Pies

A trip to Morocco in April is a jump into summer and a feast for all senses. The gardens are full of peas and beans. Apple blossoms follow almond flowers. All the perfumes of Arabia surround our senses and the gardens. Verbena, rosemary, lavender, orange blossoms, roses, cinnamon, cumin, saffron and curcuma are everywhere. They suffuse the Argane oil used for massage after the steam bath and awaken our meals. Spices decorate the markets and color clothes and food. A stop at an apothecary allows your nose to identify the essence of the country. It is its delicacy and sweetness, which seduces the palate.
From Marrakech the magnificent and winded road to Skoura goes 2600 meters high over the Atlas, and passes contrasting vistas of mossy quiet plateaus, high snowy mountains, arid precipices and torrents. Nested in an oasis of palm trees, Dar Alham, the house of dreams is where under the guidance of its chef, Mohamed El Mantouh, I finally learned to prepare pastillas, the thin ubiquitous crust used for savory and sweet rolls as well as for the sweet and sour pigeon pie which is the obligatory start to a repast fit for a sultan or a marriage. Although Moroccan cuisine is as diverse as its regions, pastilla is a microcosm: with each bite, a little piece of the country full of orange blossom, cinnamon, sugar, almond and herbs becomes a part of you. Today, instead of preparing the crust from scratch, one uses supermarket bricks or Greek phyllo sheets. The recipe provided serves 6. Along with a simple green salad it is sweet enough to be both main course and dessert. Replacing the pigeons by a chicken will ease the shopping. It is indispensable to serve mint tea along.

Pigeon pastilla (Medium difficulty, Preparation time: 2 hours, Can be prepared ahead, May use leftovers, Relatively expensive)

Ingredients:

For the crust
3 bricks about 9 inches in diameter (24 cm)
1 egg beaten for basting

For the meat garnish:
8 young pigeons emptied and cleaned, or alternately 1 large chicken
3 tablespoons fresh olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1cup (250 ml) chicken stock
1 large red onion minced

For the scrambled eggs:
4 eggs beaten
Pinch of salt

For the almond:
½ cup (80g) almond
¼ cup (40g) crystallized sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon plus extra for dusting

For the onion:
1 red onion
1tablespoon olive oil
1tablespoon sugar

For the herbs:
3 tablespoons minced parsley
3 tablespoons minced coriander

Material:
Food processor
Pressure cooker
Strainer
Basting brush
Pastry sheet covered with parchment paper

Set the pressure cooker on the high setting of the gas. Add the oil, the onion and sauté the pigeons. After 10 minutes, add pepper, garlic, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Finally pour the chicken broth. Close the pressure cooker and cook for 30 minutes. Check that the meat tears away easily from the bones. Strain the pigeons and pour the broth back into the bottom of the pressure cooker. Bring the pigeons to room temperature.
Scramble the beaten eggs in the pigeon perfumed chicken broth over low gas.
Toast the almond, grind them coarsely and mix with the cinnamon and sugar.
Stir-fry the onion in the oil with the sugar and cinnamon.
Detach the meat from the pigeon bones.
Preheat the oven to 180 C (360 F).
To assemble the pastilla, place two layers of brick on a piece of parchment paper. Center the chicken or pigeon meat on the brick surface, leaving a margin of 3 inches (10 cm) all around. Layer on top successively the onions paste, a few drops of orange blossom water, the almond mixture, the scrambled eggs and finally the herbs. Apply a thin layer of raw mixed egg with a brush on the margin of the brick. Cover with the remaining brick and wrap the borders over, forming a tight package. Turn over on the pastry sheet and paint the whole top of the pastilla with the remaining egg. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes until the crust is golden.
Set on a serving plate and sprinkle with cinnamon and powdered sugar.


Mint tea (Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 15 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon green tea leaves per person
2 mint stems per person
1 coffee spoon crystallized sugar per person

Material:
1 fireproof teapot

Place the tea in the teapot. Add 1 tablespoon of hot water per spoonful of tea. Stir the pot energetically. Throw the water out, but not the tea. Repeat twice. Add the mint. Fill up the teapot with warm water. Add the sugar. Bring to a boil. Serve from high up in a glass. Pour the content of the glass back into the teapot. Repeat twice, before serving everybody.

Strange and beautiful veggies

Photo courtesy of Steve Miller*

Curiosity may well have killed the cat but it certainly enriched our meals and scientific knowledge. Without adventurous bodies to explore far away continents and bring back strange fruit and plants to acclimate to our latitudes, our plates would be so much duller. Some countries would have an identity crisis: imagine Italy without the tomato or France without potato, both imported from America. All the adventurers who first tasted an unknown vegetable or fruit and then brought it to botanical gardens deserve all our gratitude. Thanks to them Europeans eat Arabic artichokes (Cynara cardunculus) and Canadian sunchokes, also called Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus tuberus) and Americans and Chinese consume French crosnes (Stachys affinis). Although these plants belong to widely different genii, their edible parts, the flower in the case of the artichoke, the roots for the crosne and the sunchoke, share a somewhat similar flavor. The latter two look like homunculus and may intimidate the novice cook at first. Their delicate nutty taste and the variety of their textures -from very crunchy for the crosne to tender for the sunchoke- should recommend them. They are very easy to prepare: the crosnes need only be sprinkled with coarse salt and rubbed in a paper towel before a quick rinse in cold water. The sunchokes are to be boiled until tender before their skin can easily be removed. Until I became familiar with the Rialto market in Venice, I either ate artichokes raw when they were small, or at room temperature after they had been boiled for twenty minutes. The sight of merchants peeling away their petals and uncovering their heart taught me what the small flying saucers reposing in water basins between the radicchio and the bunches of aragula were. One subsequent favorite dish was open lasagna garnished with thin slices of sautéed artichokes, Parmesan and olive oil. Because the lasagna for sale at the supermarket is too thick and that making it from scratch is time consuming I substitute crêpe. All recipes serve 4.

Sunchoke purée and sautéed scallops (Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes, Reasonable)

Ingredients:
1 lbs (500 g) sunchokes
2 tablespoons (28 g) butter
¼ cup (60 ml) crème fraîche or heavy cream
½ lbs (250 g) scallops
Salt and pepper to taste

Material:
1 saucepan
Calendar
Food processor
1 frying pan

Set a pot of water on the high range of the gas. When the water is boiling add the sunchokes. After 20 minutes, or when a knife pierce easily the soften sunchoke, drain the water. Peel the sunchokes. Set them back in the pot and add the cream. When it boils again, put everything in the bowl of the food processor fitted with the sharp blade and pulse until thoroughly blended. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Set the frying pan on the medium range of the gas. Add the butter, and, when it is melted stir-fry the scallops for two minutes on each side. The scallops should be golden on the outside.
Serve the scallops on top of the purée as an appetizer.

Sautéed Crosnes with aragula and cremini mushrooms (Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 20 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
½ lbs (250 g) crosnes
½ lbs (250 g) cremini mushrooms
1 bunch aragula
¼ cup (60 ml) goose or duck fat
Salt and pepper to taste

Material:
Paper towel
1teaspoon coarse salt
1 colander
1 wok or frying pan

Sprinkle the salt on top of the paper towel. Place the crosnes inside and rub gently through the towel. Place the crosnes in the colander and discard the towel. Rinse the crosne in cold water. Cut off the tiny roots. Clean the mushroom in cold water. Slice off the bottom and cut in small pieces
Place the fat in the wok on top of the medium range of the gas stove. When the fat is melted and start smoking add the mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes. Add the crosnes and cook for another five minutes. Add the aragula for another two minutes. Correct the seasoning and serve as a side dish to the crêpes.

Artichokes Crêpe (Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
4 artichoke hearts
1cup (250ml) béchamel (recipe follows)
¼ cup (60 g) Parmesan cheese sliced or grated
1cup savory crêpe (recipe follows)
1 tablespoon (14 g) butter

Material:
1 saucepan
1 non-stick pan
1 spatula

Set a large saucepan of water on the high range of the gas. When the water boils, add the artichokes and cook for twenty minutes, or until the leaves can easily be detached. Refresh the artichokes in cold water until they can easily be handled. Peel all the petals and nibble on them if you so desire. Remove the straw from the heart with a spoon.
Warm up the béchamel and add the cheese.
Set the non-stick pan on the high range of the gas. Melt a small piece of the butter and pour enough of the batter to cover the pan. Detach the side of the crêpe and, using the spatula turn it over after two minutes. Place the artichoke heart in the middle of the crêpe, pour ¼ of the béchamel on top. Fold the crêpe side to obtain an envelope. Repeat four times.

Béchamel for 1 cup (Easy, Preparation time: 5 minutes)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup (80 g) flour
2 tablespoons (28 g) butter
1cup (250 ml) milk
Nutmeg freshly grated
Salt and pepper to taste

Material:
Saucepan
Wooden spoon
Strainer
Blender
Rubber spoon

Put the butter to melt in the saucepan on the low settings of the gas. Strain the flour over the saucepan, stirring butter and flour together. Add the milk and bring to a boil. Do not worry about the lumps. Pour the lumpy mixture in the blender and run progressively to high. You will obtain a smooth béchamel in minutes. Remove from the blender with the rubber spoon.

Sweet and savory crêpe batter (Easy, Preparation time: 5 minutes)

Ingredients:

Savory for 1 cup:
¼ cup all purpose flour
¼ cup whole wheat flour
1 large egg
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ cup milk
3 tablespoons butter

Sweet for 1 cup:
½ cup all purpose flour
1 large egg
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ cup milk
3 tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Material:
Blender or Food processor.

Place all ingredients for each type of batter into the blender and mix until perfectly homogeneous.
Each recipe will serve 4.

Orange sugar crêpe (Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 5 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
1 cup (250 ml) batter
2 tablespoons (28 g) butter
2 tablespoons (28 g) of sugar
2 juicy oranges

Material:
1 non-stick frying pan
1 juicer

Juice the oranges. You should get 1 cup juice.
Set the non-stick pan on the high range of the gas. Melt a small piece of the butter and pour enough of the batter to cover the pan. Detach the side of the crêpe and, using the spatula turn it over after two minutes. Place on a plate. Sprinkle with sugar. Wet the sugar with just enough orange juice and form a roll with the crêpe. Repeat three more times

*http://www.healthoftheplanet.com
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