December 22, 2009
Chocolate-Dipped Hazelnut Marbles
[Billes de noisette au chocolat]
As a small gift to celebrate the holiday season, I give you this recipe drawn from my cookbook. It appears in the mignardise chapter, in which I give recipes for sweet bites to serve at the end of a meal -- in place of, or in addition to dessert, with coffee or tea.
For these particular treats-on-a-stick, you'll make your own hazelnut marzipan (wait, come back! it's really easy, I promise!), shape it into small balls, and dip them in chocolate. They are fun to assemble, and they make a lovely closing note to a festive meal. You could also keep them on hand for nibbling as you decorate the house, wrap up your gifts, or cuddle up with a steaming mug to delve into a good book. (You'll find the recipe at the bottom of this post.)
Speaking of gifts, I hope you'll consider bidding on some of the fantastic items that food bloggers around the world are offering for our Menu for Hope fundraiser. You could also bid in someone's name, and give that person the gift of a good deed, plus a chance to win the item come January. Read on for more information on the campaign, and the prizes I'm offering.
Last year I made a few suggestions of holiday-worthy recipes from the archives, and to those I would now add:
Savory:
~ Cheese thins,
~ Green pea cilantro spread,
~ Jerusalem artichoke soup with bacon,
~ Champagne and saffron mussels,
~ Lamb and orange khoresh (Persian stew),
~ Gratin dauphinois (potato gratin),
~ Spaghetti squash gratin with walnuts,
~ Brussels sprouts with onions and squash seeds,
~ Saffron-roasted cauliflower.
Sweet:
~ Raspberry dacquoise,
~ Green tea and red bean cake roll,
~ Maple pecan ice cream,
~ Vanilla poached quince.
"Chocolate-Dipped Hazelnut Marbles" continues »
December 17, 2009
[Edible Idiom] Être comme un coq en pâte
This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far.
This week's idiom is, "Être comme un coq en pâte."
Literally translated as, "Being like a rooster in dough," it means feeling cosy and pampered, being in a state of absolute contentment, with one's every need catered to. I've seen it likened to the English idiom, "being in clover" or "like pigs in clover," but I understand the latter refer primarily to financial comfort, whereas the French expression implies a more general sense of physical and spiritual well-being.
Example: "Quand il est chez sa grand-mère, il est comme un coq en pâte." "When he's at his grandmother's, he's like a rooster in dough."
Listen to the idiom and example read aloud:
"[Edible Idiom] Être comme un coq en pâte" continues »
December 14, 2009
6th Annual Menu for Hope
Today marks the beginning of the 6th edition of Menu for Hope, a fundraising campaign created by Pim and championed by food bloggers all around the world. The funds raised will benefit the United Nations' World Food Programme: it is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with more than a thousand other organizations in over seventy-five countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people become self-reliant so they can escape hunger for good.
This year, we are supporting a new initiative at the WFP called Purchase for Progress. This program enables smallholder and low-income farmers to supply food to WFP’s global operation. It helps them improve farming practices, and puts cash directly into their pockets in return for their crops. As a consequence, it also buoys local economy by creating jobs and income locally.
As you may remember from previous editions, this fundraising campaign works as a virtual raffle: every US$10 you donate will buy you a raffle ticket to bid on one of the items contributed by participating bloggers; you can buy as many raffle tickets as you like, and increase your chance to win the item of your dreams. The campaign ends on December 25, and the results will be announced on January 18. We bloggers will arrange for our bid items to be sent to the winners, and all funds raised will go to the World Food Programme.
I am offering four items for your consideration this year:
"6th Annual Menu for Hope" continues »
December 8, 2009
Carrot and Ginger Quickie Pickle
Pickling means preserving food in a seasoned brine or vinegar mixture, and in case you didn't get the memo, pickles are the new cupcakes.
I sorta kinda doubt it -- try bringing pickles to your nephew's birthday party -- but, as someone who grew up with store-bought jars of cornichons (gherkins) as the single pickled element of the family diet, I am most intrigued by the techniques involved, and the wide range of products they create.
I am a city dweller and it is unlikely that I'll ever have the bumper crop and larder space (or, um, patience) to fill dozens of towering jars with multicolored vegetables biding their time in their sterilized bath, so the method I am most drawn to is the quick pickle: this simply consists in pouring a boiling brine or vinegar solution over pieces of raw vegetables, and letting the mixture cool to room temperature. This type of pickle keeps for about two weeks in the refrigerator, so it is usually done in small batches that you can consume within that time frame -- unless you're giving some away to well screened friends and relatives.
My first near-pickling experience occurred at my friends Braden and Laura's place recently, as I helped Braden prepare the quick-pickled chili peppers he was later to serve with squid ink pasta and fried squid rings. My involvement was limited to the chopping of said chili peppers, which taught me an important, though non-pickling-related lesson: you should protect your hand with a glove or a light film of oil before handling a large amount of hot peppers, otherwise you'll wake up in the morning feeling like it's been dipped in acid.
Scoville scale aside, I had thus been introduced to the quick pickling thing, and was ready for a re-run in my own kitchen. So when I received a copy of Pierre Lamielle's very lovable cookbook Kitchen Scraps, the first recipe I decided to try was the carrot-and-ginger quickie pickle on page 82.
If you don't know who Pierre Lamielle is, head over to his food blog and tell him I said hi: he's a talented illustrator/cook with wit to spare, a definite knack for food-related puns, and a weakness for root vegetables.
His book is a collection of humorously written and illustrated recipes, and I am enjoying it more than a little. It is wacky, irreverent, and funny, yet the recipes are built on solid ground: the author went to culinary school, and this you can tell by his intermittent use of the verb "to blap," a technical term that means sticking something in the oven without making too big a deal out of it. So it's a book you can actually cook from, chuckling privately at the prospect of serving the bear butt-kicking granola, the whirled peas soup (give whirled peas a chance -- get it?), or the angel hair conditioner pasta.
Among the recipes I've flagged are the bread of roses (a bread pudding with chocolate and rosewater), bruno "bloody beets" barbabietola's beets and ricotta risotto (one of five mafia-approved risotti) and, of course, the stinking french onion soup, because that's hard to resist.
The quickie pickle was indeed a breeze to make -- it took about ten minutes, and I was on the phone for most of that time -- and I am delighted with the result: the ribbons look terribly pretty, and we've been eating them as a sweet and sour condiment nested inside tuna sandwiches, as Pierre suggests, or swirled over this warm squash and bean salad, and I can see it bringing a lovely brightness alongside a hearty, brooding stew.
As for the book, it has earned its place on the special bookshelf I reserve for alternative publishing projects from Canada, right between L'Appareil and Au Pied de cochon, and when my little nephew turns 19 years old rather than 19 months old, I have an inkling he'll get a kick out of it, too.
"Carrot and Ginger Quickie Pickle" continues »
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Permalink | Posted by clotilde in Recipe Inside! - Vegetables
December 4, 2009
[Edible Idiom] Être dans le pâté
This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far.
This week's idiom is, "Être dans le pâté."
Literally translated as, "Being in the pâté," it means feeling drowsy and out of it, usually in the morning after too much partying and/or not enough sleeping. It is a slang expression, not vulgar but definitely not elegant, so I don't really suggest you use it -- slang is the trickiest thing to get right in a foreign language -- but I offer it here in case it comes up in conversation.
Example: "Elle était tellement dans le pâté qu'elle est partie en oubliant son téléphone." "She was so badly in the pâté that she left and forgot her phone."
Listen to the idiom and example read aloud:
"[Edible Idiom] Être dans le pâté" continues »
December 1, 2009
December 2009 Desktop Calendar
At the beginning of every month in 2009, I am offering C&Z readers a new desktop calendar, i.e. a wallpaper to apply on the desktop of your computer, with a food-related picture and a calendar of the current month.
Our desktop calendar for December is a picture of a freshly popped cork, in anticipation of the holiday celebrations that will keep us all busy this month. I hope you embrace the spirit of the season, enjoy the company of your family and friends, and remember to keep things simple!
Instructions to get your calendar are below.
"December 2009 Desktop Calendar" continues »
Previously on Chocolate & Zucchini
Spaghetti Squash Gratin with Walnuts and Bacon 24 Nov 2009
[Gratin de courge spaghetti, noix et lardons]
It saddens me when people attemp to pass off food items as something they're not: they're selling those foods short, and setting ea...
[Edible Idiom] Ne pas mâcher ses mots 20 Nov 2009
Chewing giraffe provided by Wildlife 2008.
This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far.
This week's i...
Simple Tahini Sauce 15 Nov 2009
Ever since I received an electric steamer for my birthday last summer, I have been steaming vegetables with abandon.
Before that, I used a set of those bamboo baskets that you n...
Chocolate Marble Cake 10 Nov 2009
[Cake marbré au chocolat]
I grew up eating a store-bought chocolate marble cake called Savane. Created in the sixties by a French manufacturer that was acquired by an American c...
Sourdough Bagels 4 Nov 2009
When Maxence and I were in San Francisco late last summer, we had bagels for breakfast every single day. There were a couple of bagel shops not far from where we were staying, so...
November 2009 Desktop Calendar 2 Nov 2009
At the beginning of every month in 2009, I am offering C&Z readers a new desktop calendar, i.e. a wallpaper to apply on the desktop of your computer, with a food-related picture ...
Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Bacon 27 Oct 2009
[Velouté de topinambours au bacon]
It has been a while -- five years, to be exact -- since we last discussed Jerusalem artichokes around here, but they do belong to my regular w...
Apple Slices with Frozen Sheep's Milk Yogurt 20 Oct 2009
Maxence and I like to spend a weekend in Amsterdam every once in a while: we love the atmosphere of the city in any season, and we usually stay in a neighborhood called Nieuwmark...
[Edible Idiom] Long comme un jour sans pain 16 Oct 2009
This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far.
This week's idiom is, "Long comme un jour sans pain."
A...
Fregola Sarda with Zucchini and Parmesan 12 Oct 2009
The funny thing about a food blog, especially one that has been around for a long time, is that it doesn't really reflect the frequency with which each featured dish is cooked: i...