White Asparagus and Fennel Butter

I must be missing NYC these days.  There are loads of recipes on how to cook white asparagus but the one that caught my eye was the one from Prune restaurant in the East Village.  My first thought was "Oh my gosh, it's still there".  Bits of NYC establishments are slowly being erased from when I knew it due to rent increase.  I get a pang in my heart when I read about any old haunts of mine closed down to be replaced by global retail or supermarket chains.  So happy to see that Prune is alive and kicking. 

Watch Martha Stewart and chef Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune restaurant making this delicious asparagus starter.

White Asparagus and Fennel Butter

INGREDIENTS//serves 2-3

• 1 bunch fresh white asparagus
• 1 lemon, divided (zest in compound butter and juice for asparagus)

COMPOUND BUTTER

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 whole fennel, finely sliced (including fronds, chopped)
• Lemon zest
• Pinch of salt
• Dash of pastis liquor

INSTRUCTIONS

To prepare your asparagus, snap off the stems where it naturally breaks and peel off the tough skin.

Prepare the lemon zest using a microplane or a flat or box grater with fine holes.  Then use the remainder of the lemon for juice you'll add into the pot of boiling water to cook the asparagus.  Save some juice to be squeezed just before serving the dish.

I don't have an asparagus cooker/steamer so I bundle the asparagus together with parcel string and I cook it in a pot.  Tie the parcel string around the bottom of the bunch of asparagus and tie further up to hold the asparagus in place so that it tries to stand.  To keep the asparagus in place and standing in the pot, brace it with two long skewers through the bundle of asparagus (cross through the bundle with a skewer forming an "X"). 

In a pot, add about 4 inches of water or enough so that the base of the asparagus will be covered.   Squeeze lemon juice and add salt to the water.  Bring it to a boil.

Add the asparagus and cover with a lid for about 30 minutes.  Make sure the asparagus is nice and soft and that the tips are steamed. 

Strain the asparagus, let it cool and serve on a plate with shavings of the fennel butter.  Drizzle some olive oil for extra delicious fat and salt to taste with a squeeze of lemon.

COMPOUND BUTTER

Finely slice your fennel and chop up the fronds. 

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan and caramelize your fennel for about 30 minutes on medium heat letting the natural sugars come out on its own.  During this time add whole of lemon zest to the fennel and add the fronds. Then add some salt and pepper.

When caramelized, splash a dash of pastis liquor and ignite it.  When the flame burns out let the fennel cool down. 

After cooling, in a food processor add your fennel and chop it down until fine.  Then take the rest of your softened butter and add in chunks at a time. 

Remove butter compound mixture from bowl and spoon onto parchment paper or plastic wrap and roll into a log.  Put it in the freezer until ready to use in a plastic ziplock bag to keep it airtight.  Use a mandoline or the large hole-side of a box grater for butter shavings.

Spruced Up Ginger Biscuits

I've got an English friend.  We'll call her "Lady Jo" or "LJ" for short, although it could have been "Trucker Jo."  This was her husband's pick-up line when he met her: "Oh, Jo?  Like an American trucker Jo?"  Yes—and that actually worked.  They've been happily together for 20+ years now.

Lady Jo is so beautifully British especially with that accent of hers.  She can tell anyone to shut up without sounding offensive and she always totes a thermos full of tea tucked away for tea time.  She is whom I go to for baking advice because she's got an aunt with creds whom she goes to for baking advice.  One day, LJ popped over with this recipe in hand and the gingerbread man cutter in the other.  What a delightful surprise for me!  Ever since then,  I haven't stopped making them.  My kids are kept busy individualizing their gingerbread men and I look forward to dunking them in my cuppa.  Merry holidays everyone! 

GInger Biscuits (nude)

INGREDIENTS//yields 25

• 350 grams plain flour
• 1/2 heaping teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 150 grams butter
• 175 grams golden syrup
• 150 grams sugar (I use brown sugar)

INSTRUCTIONS

Sieve the first three ingredients together.  Then rub in the butter.

Heat the golden syrup in a small pan until runny, add the sugar and stir until it dissolves.

Add it to the dry mixture and mix well. 

Roll into walnut size balls and arrange it on a tray leaving enough space in between each biscuit dough.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 165° depending on size of biscuit.  Let it cool and then lift it off the tray with a spatula.

Optional:  Decorate at your own creative will.

NOTE

I usually roll the dough up in balls much larger than walnut size for the gingerbread man.  Depending on the size of your gingerbread man cutter or other shaped cookie cutters you'll have to roll up enough dough so that when you flatten it, it spreads out enough for the cookie cutter to fit.  Oven time varies for size and thickness of your cookies.  I used a 4 1/2 inch length gingerbread man cutter and rolled it out about 1/4 inch thick.  I left it in the oven for 15 minutes.  These are the hard, crunchy English style biscuits.

Beetroot Hummus Dip

Living under the influence of a little girl, the color pink has made its way onto my table.  I never thought of my daughter as a pink kind of girl.  She's the kind that jumps into a mud hole and has uncontrollable laughs when she's covered in dirt.  She eats her whole carrot stick with a grip so hard, no one can pry it away from her even if your life depended on it.  She enjoys wrestling her brother to the ground, screaming at the top of her lungs, and coming home with grass stains on each and every possible limb.  Yet, she also loves to dress in pink and eat anything pink.  Preferably a cloud fluffy full of cotton candy pink.

This is dedicated to my little girl.  A variation to the basic hummus recipe that includes a veggie, the beetroot!  Any extra veg I can get in a day makes me feel good.  I have snuck this one into the hummus dip.  No secret about it, the color itself screams out loud.  It's an eye-popper and attention grabber that's perfect for parties.  I like to have this for breakfast, lunch or a snack on a piece of whole grain bread with slices of avocado and black radish.  So does Mila, but sans radis for now.

Beetroot Hummus Dip

PREPARATION

Soak the dried chickpeas overnight with a cover.  Be sure to add more than enough water to cover the chickpeas because they swell up to almost double their size. 

INGREDIENTS//yields 2.5 cups

• 1 cup dried chickpeas (yields about 3 cups cooked, 1 cup cooked=150 grams)
• 2.5 cloves garlic
• 1.5 teaspoons cumin
• 1.5 teaspoons sea salt (adjust accordingly to personal taste)
• 3.5 tablespoons tahini paste
• 1 small beetroot (boiled until soft), about 70 grams
• 1.5 lemon, juiced
• Olive oil, drizzle

INSTRUCTIONS

Drain and transfer your soaked chickpeas to a large cooking pot.  Fill it up with water with about an inch or two to cover. 

Bring it to a boil and then turn down the heat to a slow simmer for at least two hours.  If you see some white foam during this time, just scoop it out.  Taste check every 10 minutes afterwards to see if is firm enough on the outside and tender on the inside.  Next drain and rinse them under cold water. 

Optional:  I have heard of people peeling skin off of each and every chickpea before adding it into the food processor.  Apparently, the dip comes out smoother.  I don't know.  I never seem to have the time to do this.

Add all your ingredients into the food processor and turn it on.  Use your spatula to swipe along the sides occasionally so that you get every bit of it to blend together for a smooth consistency.  You can add water to the batch if it is too thick. 

Top it off with a generous drizzle of olive oil.

NOTE

I am a garlic fan.  I like my hummus and beetroot hummus with a sharp garlicky taste and a slight citrusy twang to it.  If you want a milder recipe just use 2 cloves of garlic and the sweet flavor of the beetroot will come through.  Add enough water as needed to achieve the consistency you like.  I added nearly a half cup of water to this recipe.
 

Heartwarming Red Split Lentil Soup

Brrr, winter season is right around the corner and this soup fills me up and keeps me nice and toasty.  One of the best things I love about Paris is that it is full of ethnic diversities.  You can find pockets of many ethnic communities spread thoughout this city.  I love the idea of being able to dash over to the 15th arrondisement just to pick up a date syrup at a Persian grocery store.  This is where you will find a restaurant row of Persian cuisine and grocery stores a.k.a Petite Perse or Little Téhéran.  As I enter the grocery store, my sensory receptors are instantly heightened, things seem foreign and I am intrigued.  This is where I can easily pass an hour picking up every jar and package to decipher its labels, discover ingredients and wonder how these things are used.  What gives me pleasure is the feeling of having purchased my date syrup straight from Persia—minus the cost of airfare and flight time!  I appreciate every drop of syrup that comes out of the jar because I know it has traveled a long way.  Plus, it's a nice conversation piece.  "Oh, the date syrup? I bought that from  ̶P̶e̶r̶s̶i̶a̶,  umm—I mean the Persian grocers in the 15th..."

I can carry on about other goodies that I buy from Litte Africa (Chateau Rouge in the 18e), Chinatown (Ave de Choisy in the 13e, Arts et Métiers in the 3e, Belleville in the 10e, and Little Tokyo (rue St. Anne in the 1er and 2e) but it'll be a long list.  Today I was in La Chapelle (Little India in the 10e) for a baby bump portrait session.   I was early so I picked up some mangoes and red split lentils for this recipe and made a pit stop at the no-frills Indian take-out joint for its chai.  With my hands cupped around the chai, I stepped out in the cold and hovered over it.   I took in the scent of spices wafting up from my masala chai, lifting my head towards the streets in front of me and with a long exhalation felt removed from wherever it is that I come from.  It didn't matter. 
Today, I was in India.

Red Split Lentil Soup

INGREDIENTS//serves 6

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 3 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1.5 teaspoons coarse salt (adapt according to taste)
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1.5 liters vegetable or chicken broth
• 2 cups lentil (red or yellow split lentils)
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon curcuma (or tumeric powder)
• Bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro)
• 1 wedge of lime

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium Dutch oven or heavy pot.  Then add the diced carrots, celery, onion, minced garlic and bay leaf.  Add some salt and mix.  Cover the pot and let it cook for 5 minutes.  

Uncover and add the cumin seeds, stirring it around.  Then add the tomato paste, the liter of vegetable broth and lentils.  Bring it to a boil. 

Turn down the heat to a low simmer.  Add the curry powder and curcuma.  Cover and let it simmer for about         15 minutes or until the lentils are soft. 

I usually take a cup of the soup and pour it in the blender with a small handful of fresh coriander.  Then I stir this back in with the rest of the pot.  It gives it a chunkier consistency.  Squeeze a bit of lime and garnish with fresh coriander.

NOTE

It's kind of a cross between lentil soup and lentil curry.  You can add more liquid to it for a soupier mix or less liquid for a thicker consistency.  If you opt for the thicker consistency, you can top it over some basmati rice for a more filling and curry like meal.

P.S.  I just had to throw this one in the mix...

Cannelés Bordelais

I have a deep affection for this sweet pastry.  It was introduced to me when I arrived in France 10 years ago at a dinner in my friend's apartment.  We didn't speak much of each other's languages at the time but I figured I should be the one making the effort since I was living in her country.   Mainly I was impressed by her incredible patience in listening to my very broken French and with her subtle corrections—which proves she was actually listening to me—encouraging me to carry on as if I was fluent as a singing bird (mind you, wine was involved).   Then she won me over as she came out with a beautiful plate of cannelés bordelais.  I bit into one and fell in love.  I never had anything like this texture.  A thick caramelized chewy crust with a soft, moist custard center.  I had to know how to make it.   The next time I saw Sandrine—my quintessential French friend, with her Jean Seberg styled crop and pretty make-up free face—she gifted me the recipe and the particular mold the cannéles are baked in.  It was the perfect, thoughtful gift with a French touch.  I am sharing a song by Étienne Daho, another cultural lesson well learned by her.  So when you take out your tray of baked cannelés to Étienne Daho's whispery voice in the back, top it off with a "voilà" and suddenly we feel so à la française!

Cannelés Bordelais

PREPARATION TIME

15 minutes plus an hour of refigeration time, even overnite if you want to prepare ahead.

BAKE TIME

1 hour

INGREDIENTS//yields 16

• 1/2 liter whole milk (2cups)
• 1/2 stick vanilla (slit lengthwise)
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 whole eggs
• 250 grams powdered sugar (2 cups)
• 100 grams flour (3/4 cup)
• 50 grams butter (3.6 tablespoons)
• 1 tablespoon rhum

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat the milk and infuse the vanilla stick in the hot milk.  Once it starts to boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot.  Set it aside to cool. 

Melt the butter and let it cool. 

In a medium size mixing bowl, combine the flour and sugar.

In a separate bowl,  whisk the eggs together (the whole eggs and the egg yolks).  Then add it to the sugar and flour mix.  You can stir by hand or by mixer until its consistency becomes slightly thick and smooth. 

Take the vanilla stick out of the cooled down milk and add it to the flour, sugar, and egg combination.  Continue to stir everything together.

Add the butter, and continue to mix in the rhum.

Let the batter sit an hour in the fridge or even overnight.  You will find that the batter settles a bit at the bottom after refigerating.  Just stir it gently and then fill the cannelés mold up half way.  Place in oven for an hour at 350° F or 180° C.   I usually check the crust while it's in the oven.  I like it when the crust gets more than golden brown.  When it's done, take it out of the oven and let it cool. Voilà!