Figs and Proscuitto with Comté and Port Wine Glaze

On approach into Paris you could almost see the chill in the air. The sky was gray with a slight mist hugging the ground. When the airplane door opened, I wished I had a fashionable and warm scarf draped around me instead of my navy blue airline uniform. I know often there is a bone chill in the morning air, and as the day arrives, the warm breath of approaching autumn heaves a sigh. Fortunately, this was the case that day. In the late afternoon sun, my crew and I met to share our day before we went to dinner. We had reservations at, Le Vin dans les Voiles, a restaurant we had never been to before, but was recommended to one of us. It's on the outskirts of Paris in the 16th arrondissement, on a tiny street that isn't even on many maps.

The restaurant itself is so small that the owner, Phillipe, graciously handles all of his patrons. Each of us ordered different things from the chalkboard menu and one choice was as tasty as the next. I started with Fresh Figs wrapped in Prosciutto, topped with a Balsamic Glaze and served with salad greens. A blended wine from the South of France was carefully suggested by Phillipe. It was robust with the complexity of four blended grapes: 46% Carignan, 30% Syrah, 19% Grenache noir and 5% Mouvèdre, from Bernard Magrez Vineyards. The name translated means, "If my father knew". While I'm not sure exactly what his father didn't know, it lends to good dinner conversation!

My main course was a Filet Mignon with a Green Peppercorn Sauce and roasted potatoes. I finished with a softly baked Cream of Chestnut Cake with Creme Anglaise swirled with chocolate. Feeling very full and satisfied and needing an after dinner walk, I discouraged one of my friends from using her favorite 4 letter French word..."Taxi!!" We compromised and walked across the Pont du Garigliano before taking the metro back to the hotel.

Back at home in Boston, the same morning chill worked it's way into a warm, yet crisp day. And I wanted figs...figs with prosciutto. I had port wine that I made a reduction with, instead of the balsamic vinegar glaze that was on my figs in Paris. Comté cheese, and arugula with some of it's blossoms from the garden, sounded good too. I sprinkled a little fleur de sel on it at the finish. The slight crunch of the salt on the peppery arugula worked very well together. With food this good I'll be able to embrace tomorrow's arrival of fall. 

Figs and Prosciutto with Cheese and Port Wine Glaze

4 fresh figs, washed

4 slices prosciutto, sliced paper thin

4 slices of Comté cheese, or other cheese of your choice

a large handful of arugula, rinsed

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Toss the arugula with the olive oil. Divide the arugula in half and place each portion on a salad plate. Wrap a slice of prosciutto around each fig and place on top of arugula. Arrange the cheese on the plate,

and drizzle each serving with 1 tablespoon of the port wine glaze.

Port wine Glaze

1 cup Port wine, ruby or tawny*

*You don't need expensive port, but as with any wine that you cook with, make sure it is a wine you would enjoy drinking.

In a small saucepan, reduce the wine over very low heat. The wine should not simmer, but just steam to evaporate. Reduce the wine to 2 tablespoons. This will take about 45 minutes. Keep a close eye on the wine as it reduces, since it can quickly burn.

Makes 2 tablespoons of Port wine glaze. Allow 1 tablespoon per serving. 

 Figs and Prosciutto with Comté and Port Wine Glaze recipe (pdf)

Millefeuille d'Aubergines And Chèvre Frais

Maybe it was the glass of wine, the candlelit restaurant, jet lag, or Mercury retrograde. Perhaps the sun was in my eyes....or maybe it was just the camera that allowed me to delete all of my pics without asking me a second time if I really wanted to get rid of photos from a fabulous day with friends. C'est la vie! So I don't have a photo of my sumptuously layered fresh goat cheese and eggplant starter, from Ambassade d'Auvergne, in Paris. I did come home and create my version to enjoy as I remembered it in my mind and with my taste buds, if not from my photographs. Just as savory!

My friend and fellow "stew", Lisa Magnuson of the Providence Wine Examiner, recommended some wine selections to go along with this starter. Her top choices are, Spanish Cava (sparkling), Tavel Rosé, Alsatian Riesling (which is dry) or a White Bordeaux. Today I served a chilled Rosé from Provence that I had gotten previously in Paris, and it was perfect.

So pour a glass of wine, enjoy this with friends...and watch for tricky fingers on the camera buttons!!

Millefeuille d'Aubergines And Chèvre Frais

1/2 pound baby or small Italian eggplant

2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs (thyme, basil, oregano) or 1/2 teaspoon dried herb de Provence

1 clove minced garlic

sea salt and pepper to taste

1-2 teaspoons honey

4 ounces fresh goat cheese*

*If you can't find fresh goat cheese, whisk a small amount of milk or cream with the cheese to loosen it slightly.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Slice unpeeled eggplant 1/8 inch thick. Using a mandolin makes it easier and more uniform.

Place on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil, herbs, garlic and a light sprinkling of salt and pepper. Spread the eggplant out in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake about 10-15 minutes.

You want the eggplant to be cooked but not too brown. Since the slices are very thin, they will cook quickly, so keep a close eye on them. Once they are done, let cool.

In a 1 1/2 cup clear glass (so you can see the layers), drizzle a few drops of olive oil and place a layer of goat cheese first. You'll be making 4-5 layers, so you'll need about one ounce per layer. Drizzle a few drops of honey, then add a layer of the cooked eggplant, making sure they are laying flat. Add a light drizzle of olive oil over the eggplant. Press down to get rid of any empty spaces and to make a firm layer. Keep repeating, ending with the eggplant. Refrigerate until firm.

To unmold, set glass in a bowl of warm water for a minute, being careful not to get any water into the glass. Run a small metal spatula around the edges to loosen and invert onto serving plate. Drizzle some honey and olive oil over the top and garnish with fresh herbs.

Serve with crusty French bread.

Makes 1 cup.

Millefeuille d'Aubergines And Chèvre Frais recipe (pdf)

A Tropical Storm And How I Saved my Gnocchi

Tropical storm Danny was howling along the east coast as my son was packing his last belongings to go back to college. I did last minute laundry and planned my son's farewell dinner. One of his favorites is homemade potato gnocchi. I make it a few times a year and combine recipes while trying to find the ultimate one. This time I was using Thomas Keller's recipe from "The French Laundry" cookbook. I put the potatoes into the oven to bake, and since he prefers his gnocchi with just butter, basil and some freshly grated Parmesan cheese, it all seemed easy. After the potatoes were done, I hastily scooped out the inside and continued with the recipe that called for the addition of 2 tablespoons salt. That seemed like a lot, so I only put in a tablespoon plus a little more. I added the flour and eggs and quickly kneaded the dough. A taste proved my salt theory right. The dough was already really salty, and I hoped the boiling water would leach out some of the salt. I put water on to boil and went out to the rainy garden to snip some basil for the gnocchi. When I walked back in the house, the lights were out. We had lost our power! We lit a few candles, but cooking by candlelight started to lose its romanticism as the darkness grew. We chatted and lit more candles until we had about 6 lined up on the counter. Draining the gnocchi in the dim light, I was hoping they would be edible. My son politely ate 2 bites and we decided they were just way too salty. Disappointed, I made some packaged gnocchi for him, trying to salvage dinner. Sometimes things just don't go as planned. We had just finished eating when the lights came back on. The kitchen was a mess, but at least I could see to clean up!!

I then had a large batch of salty gnocchi that I didn't want to just throw out. I thought maybe if I made a sauce of fresh tomatoes and didn't add any salt to it, that it may all even out. So, the following day I persevered, made the sauce and was glad I did. Finally success! They were absolutely delicious with a freshly made sauce of tomatoes, garlic, shallots and basil. Next time I'll make the same combination with less salt in the gnocchi and some salt in the sauce. I am going to stick with my final adapted recipe and have it just right for my son's first visit back for a home cooked meal....barring anymore tropical storms!
Potato Gnocchi

2 pounds large baking potatoes (about 1 pound each)
2 eggs, or 3 egg yolks,* slightly beaten
1 1/4-1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt

Wash potatoes and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 1 hour or until done. Cool slightly, scoop out the insides and put them through a ricer. Put riced potatoes into a medium bowl and make a well in the center. Add 1/2 cup flour, the slightly beaten eggs and then another 1/2 cup flour and salt into the center. Quickly and gently mix together with your hands, adding more flour if needed, while forming into a ball. The dough should be barely sticky. The less flour used and the less handling will produce a lighter gnocchi. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut dough into 1/2 inch logs. Cut the logs into 1/2 inch pieces.** Using a generous amount of flour, press each piece against your thumb tip to make a dent or roll it over the back and off the tip of floured fork tines to make a ridged shape. Placed the shaped gnocchi on a lightly floured sheet pan. When finished shaping, cook them in lightly salted boiling water.

Add the gnocchi to the boiling water and until they rise to the top. Let them boil for a minute or 2 more and remove with a slotted spoon. Continue cooking all of them, and place on a parchment lined sheet until all are done. Serve right away with desired sauce or butter and cheese.

If you aren't going to be cooking all of them right away, they may be frozen. Freeze in a single layer on a sheet pan and then place in a sealed container to store in the freezer. Do not thaw them before cooking or they will stick together. To cook them, put the frozen gnocchi directly into the boiling water. The cooking time of the frozen gnocchi will be slightly longer.

Makes about 10 dozen small gnocchi.

*many recipes call for either just egg yolks or some use whole egg plus egg yolk. Just using egg yolk makes them much more delicate, but just a little harder to work with.
**I often don't roll them on the fork to make the ridges and they are just as good, if not traditionally shaped. The ridges help sauce cling to the gnocchi.
Tomato Pasta Sauce

1 large shallot, chopped into small dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 fresh basil leaves, sliced
6 medium tomatoes, 8 if using plum tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium skillet over medium heat, saute shallot and garlic in the olive oil until just soft. Coarsely dice the tomatoes into 1/2 inch pieces and add to the shallot garlic mixture. Toss in basil. Simmer over low heat until the sauce thickens and is no longer watery, about 40 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
Makes about 1 1/2-2 cups sauce.


Potato Gnocchi recipe (pdf)
Tomato Pasta Sauce recipe (pdf)

Green Fields And Flowers

On Sunday we left my energetic seaside town that has a dance...tango...tangle of people and cars, and went to the midwest. It is a land of Firemen's festivals, country fairs and "hello, how are you doing?" We stayed with my sister Sandy and her husband, who live down a country road of just a few homes. They have their own lake out back and across the lane is a neighbor's field of haystacks and occasionally visiting horses behind a barbed wire fence...none were there that day. The rest of the family usually converge here from the nearby city as we catch up while the kids squeal with delight on the tire swing, catch slippery frogs, go for a paddle boat ride or just run and see what nature has brought today. The crickets and birds chime in the background. Sometimes in the morning when you wake up early enough, you can hear a neighboring rooster crow, "good morning!" At dinnertime, if there is a last minute extra mouth to feed, my brother-in-law volunteers to run down to the farm stand and get a few more ears of corn as my sister effortlessly turns out a meal for a crowd.

Then the time came when we had to leave. The plane lifted off and we reluctantly left the fields of green and family behind until next time. Back at home, I looked at my own small garden and picked some lettuce that wants to bolt from the simmering sun we've had lately. The arugula already had some peppery flower heads, and the herbs are all flowering as they ready for the fall and its welcome crisp air. All I really wanted today was a salad of greens and herbs...no tomatoes, no cukes, just the greens and the flowering herbs blessed with a light vinaigrette. It almost looked more like a bouquet of late summer than a salad, and it tasted sweet with an herbal headiness. If you close your eyes gently, you might be somewhere in a field of greens and flowers.
Field Greens and Herb Salad

6 ounces mesclun greens
1 ounce assorted herbs, such as basil, thyme, chives, dill, tarragon, mint
assorted herb flowers

For a composed salad, arrange mesclun greens, herbs and herb flowers on individual plates and drizzle vinaigrette over them. For a tossed salad, chop herbs, and toss with mesclun greens, herb flowers and vinaigrette.

Serves 4.

White Wine Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons white balsamic or white wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
sea salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl, whisk vinegar into olive oil until thickened and emulsified. Whisk in Dijon mustard and sea salt and pepper to taste.

Makes about 1/3 cup.

Field Greens and Herb Salad with White Wine Vinaigrette (pdf)

~Thanks to Sandy and Don for being such wonderful hosts and to the the family for great fun. And thanks Zac, for some of the great pics taken with your 40 year old Praktica film camera.

Daylily Tarragon Chicken Salad

As I was looking at my daughter's vacation pictures from Cambodia on Facebook, my friend Debbie (another stew) called with a great idea. She just had a luncheon of lobster salad nestled inside colorful day lilies. She scooped up the lobster with the daylily petals, eating lobster salad and petal together. This sounded like a pretty and pretty unusual presentation. I did some research here and found that daylilies are not only edible, but have a long history in Chinese medicine and cuisine. I have a daylily bed with a wide variation in color and blooming time. I love the pinks, corals and purple all combined together, but today I was inspired by the golden and deep orange of the Cambodian Buddhist Monk's robe. The common orange daylily looked exotic as it enshrined the Tarragon Chicken Salad I made to go in it. It made me think of my daughter as she lives half way around the world, teaching art and learning about other cultures. Wanderlust seems to run in the family! Use your imagination and be inspired by your own daylilies and life to make this platter of happiness.
Tarragon Chicken Salad

2 cups cooked chicken, cut into 1/4 inch cube
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup champagne grapes (you may use larger grapes, just cut them in half)

In a medium bowl, mix chicken, mayonnaise, and tarragon together. Salt and pepper to taste and fold in the grapes.

Serves 4.

To use a daylily to fill with chicken salad, remove the stamen and pistil. Lightly rinse the flower and shake any excess water out, before filling.

Tarragon Chicken Salad recipe (pdf)

Thanks Debbie and Sam for the inspiration!

Back at home...Mushroom Cheese Crepes

Crepes are such a versatile food with their velvety suppleness. They can be street food, an every day meal or dressed up for a formal occasion, all depending on the filling and topping. On chilly days in Paris, I love to get a freshly made, hot crepe as I walk around. It warms the hands and the tummy. In the summer, it is quick dining al fresco. And sometimes after a meal I don't have room for a large dessert, but during the walk back to the hotel, a dark chocolate or Nutella crepe fills in the gap. The performance of the street crepe maker as they swirl the batter to the hot edges of the pan and add each requested ingredient, is just as fulfilling as the crepe itself. One of my favorite savory crepes, that you can't get on the street, is filled with buttery gruyère cheese and an assortment of sauteed mushrooms. Adding a brandy cream sauce and some fresh thyme makes it just that much richer and more special. I made this for lunch the other day with a small green salad and still had a few leftover crepes for dessert....the sweet rendition will be left for another time, though. For now, the savory.....

Mushroom Cheese Crepes

Crepe Batter

1 large egg
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons melted butter
pinch of salt
Butter, for the pan

In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and pulse for 10 seconds. Place the crepe batter in the refrigerator for 1 hour to rest. The batter will keep for up to 2 days.

Heat a medium crepe pan or non-stick pan over medium heat. Add just enough butter to coat the bottom of the pan. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly. Cook until the crepe starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and is lightly brown on the underside. Turn over using a spatula, and cook until lightly brown on the other side. Put on a plate to cool and then you may stack them. Continue making the crepes until all of the batter is gone. Crepes can be made in advance and either refrigerated or frozen, before filling.

Mushroom Cheese Crepe Filling

8 ounces sliced Baby Bella mushrooms*
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon brandy
3 tablespoons light cream**
sea salt and pepper to taste

1 1/3 cups shredded gruyère cheese

*you may use any assortment of mushrooms you like. I used a combination of Baby Bella, shitaki, chanterelle, dried portabella (soaked in water) and blue foot mushrooms.** If you want more cream sauce, just add another 3 tablespoons cream.

In a medium saute pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Saute mushrooms, shallots, and thyme until the mushrooms are cooked and the shallot is translucent, about 5-8 minutes. Stir in the brandy and cream and continue stirring until the cream is hot. Salt and pepper to taste.

Take a crepe and reheat in crepe pan. Add 1/3 cup shredded gruyère cheese on crepe and one fourth of the warm mushroom mixture. Heat until cheese melts. Fold into thirds, remove from pan and serve. Serves 4.

Mushroom Cheese Crepe recipe (pdf)

Kiss and Makeup

My friend, Beth had to exchange something at the large department store, Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Trying to exchange or return something in Paris is not a gratifying experience....in general the attitude is, if you buy it, you own it. So we had braced ourselves for an uphill battle. A few conversations and a half an hour later, she had graciously exchanged her item. We looked at each other with an amazing sense of accomplishment. I wish I had taken a picture to document it!! Walking through this architectural beauty with a stained glass ceiling ,and balconies that Marie Antoinette would have approved of, I noticed women getting makeovers at the cosmetic counter. As a promotion, world class makeup artists were there for 2 weeks. Since we were on a roll, we decided to see if we could have our makeup done. Undaunted, the charming artiste began to work his magic on us. Afterward, feeling pampered, pretty and pretty hungry, we went locally for dinner. Beth had researched restaurants, and we decided to give the nearby, Carte Blanche a try. After settling in, our waiter brought us an amuse-bouche of layered crab, tomatoes and avocado. An amuse-bouche is just like a kiss...something bestowed upon you to show the talent and intent of the giver. It is a prelude of what's to come. We were ready for more and ordered from the menu! We thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our meal, even with a mediocre dessert. After patting our lipsticked lips with the crisp white napkins and with shopping bags in toe, we headed home.

Here is my adaptation of "the kiss", with a little cayenne pepper to keep it hot...the makeup is on your own!

Crab, Tomato and Avocado Amuse-Bouche

For the crab layer:
2 ounces crab meat, with a squeeze of lime

For the avocado layer:
1/2 ripe avocado, smashed until almost smooth with a squeeze of lime and a
dash of cayenne pepper

For the tomato layer:
12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large clove garlic
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/4-1/2 teaspoon sea salt (to taste)
dash of cayenne pepper

You'll need 4-2 ounce shot glasses.

Mix all of the ingredients for the tomato layer in a bowl. Stir to meld the flavors and adjust the salt and cayenne pepper according to taste. Evenly divide the layers between the 4 shot glasses. In each glass, add one layer of the crab and then a layer of tomato mixture, draining most liquid from the tomato mixture as you spoon it into the glass. Top with the smashed avocado and serve with several crostini.

To make the crostini, thinly slice a baguette, brush with olive oil and toast.

Serves 4.

Written and photographed by Diane.

Crab, Tomato and Avocado Amuse-Bouche recipe (pdf)