Book Club Savory Loaf

I got the Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook a while back, and value it for creative, french recipes with an international touch. Some of the recipes are familiar parts of French cuisine, like quiche or Steak Tartare. But Clotilde is so creative, and offers innovate creations alongside french classics passed through generations. I've enjoyed the recipes I've tried in the past, and I realized a couple weeks ago that this book had been gathering dust on my bookshelf for longer than I would like!

The perfect occasion to pull the cookbook back out came along last weekend, when I was choosing a recipe for my book club get together. Our book had some Spanish references in it, so I decided to make something with a Spanish flavor to complement the Sangria our hostess was serving. I remembered a recipe for Chorizo, Sun Dried Tomato, and Pistachio loaf, decided the chorizo was enough of a Spanish spin for my tastes. This recipe was perfect for book club-- easy to hold in one hand, interesting and exotic, yet not too strange for the more cautious palates in the group. Everyone really loved it, and I was pleased with the results. I think this would be an ideal pre-dinner snack to serve along with a glass of white wine, like David Lebovitz recommends.

Tomato, Pistachio, and Chorizo Loaf

From Chocolate and Zucchini, by Clotilde Dusoulier

1 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp sesame seeds-- one for the pan, one for the topping

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

3 large eggs

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup plain unsweetened yogurt (I used greek 2%)

3 1/2 oz Spanish chorizo, skin removed, diced

12 sun dried tomato halves, packed in oil, drained and finely diced

3/4 cup shelled unsalted pistachios

3/4 cup (loosely packed) fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan, sprinkle half the sesame seeds onto the bottom and sides, and shake the pan to coat.

Combine the flour and baking powder in a small mixing bowl and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, wisk together the eggs, salt, and pepper. Pour in the oil and yogurt, and whisk again. Stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until just incorporated. Don't overmix- a few lumps are ok. Fold in the chorizo, sun-dried tomatoes, pistachios, and parsley. Stir to combine. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, level the surface with a spatula, and sprinkle with the remaining sesame seeds.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the loaf is golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes our clean. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan, then unmold and cool completely on a rack. Cut into slices or cubes just before serving.

Mustard Chicken Stew

This is an example of efficient prep ;)

Good news everyone! After a busy month of traveling and starting my new position at work, I'm finally starting to feel normal again. There have been a lot of long days at work, which has left me little energy or inspiration to cook. Joe has really picked up the slack and kept us very well fed, but I've started going into withdrawal over my lack of cooking. Thankfully, I'm starting to feel more in control of my new job, and it's making my life happier overall.

Tonight I had extra motivation to get into the kitchen... Top Chef starts up again tonight! Foodies around Chicago have really gotten into this show during the last two seasons, as chefs from our city have cooked their way to the final episode each time. I love this show! It has just enough drama to qualify as reality TV, and getting to know the different chefs as the season progresses is really inspiring. While I have no desire to be a restaurant chef, their ideas and passion are so exciting to watch. There is a chef from Chicago on again this season, so I'll be cheering for her from the beginning.

What better time than Top Chef premier night to get back into the kitchen? Joe and I decided to cook together tonight, and we choose a comforting sounding dish from a well known blogger's cookbook: Chocolate and Zucchini. It is really starting to feel like winter here, and this dish sounded like comfort food with a french twist. Plus, it wasn't too many ingredients or complicated steps, so I knew we could handle this on a weeknight.

The result was really satisfying and had great flavor. I was afraid of the number of onions it called for (I used 4 instead of 6), but the red onion flavor really mellowed out while it was cooking. The wine and mustard added a nice acidic zing, and I loved the thyme flavor. Clotilde was right when she said the leftover sauce would be great over pasta; the rich and satisfying flavor was addicting! My only complaint was that using pieces of a whole chicken meant a whole lot of skin and bones to deal with. I guess French people are better with their knife and fork, but I couldn't think of a neat and easy was to enjoy bone-in chicken as part of a stew. The flavor was great, but trying to eat the meat off the bone while enjoying the rest of the meal was a challenge. I think next time I'll compromise by using boneless chicken thighs, for that dark meat flavor without the obstacle of the bones.

Mustard Chicken Stew

From Chocolate and Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier

Ingredients
- 1 whole head garlic

- Olive oil

- Salt and freshly ground pepper

- One 3-4 pound whole chicken, cut into 8 serving pieces (2 breasts, wings, thighs, legs)

- 6 medium red onions (about 2 pounds)

- One 28 to 32 ounce can good quality whole peeled tomatoes, drained

- 1 Tbsp fresh thyme or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme

- 2 bay leaves

- A pinch of chili powder

- 1/3 cup dry white wine

- 3 Tbsp old-fashioned whole seed Dijon mustard (or 1/4 cup regular Dijon mustard)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Peel away the outer layers of the garlic bulb skin, leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact. Using a knife, cut off 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the top of cloves, exposing the individual cloves of garlic. Place garlic head on a piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle olive oil over the garlic, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap the garlic head with the foil and place in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes or until the flesh of the cloves are light brown feel very soft when pressed with the tip of a knife. Set aside to cool.

3. While the garlic is roasting, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot (with lid) or Dutch oven, on medium high heat. Rinse the chicken pieces in cold water then pat dry with paper towels. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Brown the chicken pieces, starting them skin-side down, cooking them a few minutes on each side, working in batches so that you don't crowd the pan.

4. While the chicken is browning, peel and quarter the onions. Remove chicken from pan when nicely golden with tongs or a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate. Discard any fat and oil beyond about 1 Tbsp left in the pan. Put the onions in the pot and cook them until softened, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes.

5. Add the tomatoes to the pot, the thyme, bay leaves, and ground chili powder. Put the chicken pieces on top of the tomatoes. Pour in the wine and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for 40 minutes, stirring from time to time so that the vegetables don't stick.

6. After the garlic has cooled enough to handle, squeeze out the roasted garlic from the cloves into a small bowl and crush with a fork. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to serve with the chicken stew.

7 When the chicken has cooked, add the mustard to the pot and stir to blend. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook uncovered for 10 more minutes, or until the sauce is thick enough to cling to the meat. Remove bay leaves. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve stew over rice or pasta, with the garlic paste on the side.

Cookbook Challenge: Absorption Pasta

I go back and forth on my opinion on trying new recipes or techniques for old standby recipes. Sometimes a new idea will spark great flavors in a classic dish, but other times the new recipe will leave you wondering if there was actually anything wrong in the first place. I cook a lot of pasta in my kitchen, and I've always cooked my noodles the way most people do-- by boiling them. I didn't even think there could be another way to cook noodles until I came across the Cacao and Zucchini Absorption Pasta in my Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook.


The method involves cooking the noodles in liquid, similar to the technique used to make risotto. You coat the noodles in olive oil and sauteed onions and garlic, then add just enough stock to cover the noodles. The broth absorbs into the pasta, cooking the noodles and flavoring them at the same time. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? I thought so, too, so I decided it would be this week's Cookbook Challenge recipe.

I ended up pretty disappointed in my results. I think my biggest mistake was adding too much liquid, which lead to really mushy pasta by the time it was absorbed. I used a very wide saute pan, but wonder if something smaller might have worked better. And even if the cooking technique had worked out, I thought the flavors were kind of boring. I added Herbes de Provence to my recipe, and used the pine nuts I had on hand in place of the cacao nibs.

At first I thought this was a crummy recipe, and that I wouldn't bother with it again. If my pasta boiling technique is working, then there is really no need to replace it. But before I wrote this post I found the original blog entry on the Chocolate and Zucchini website, and the description and resulting comments made me re-think my position. If so many people had great things to say about this dish, maybe it's worth another try to see if my technique improves and results in a new and interesting pasta dish. I might wait until the weather cools down a bit, and see how it works out as a fall evening pasta dinner. Let me know if you have any success with this recipe.

From Chocolate and Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier

Ingredients (Serves 4)

6	cups low-sodium chicken stock
3	tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3	garlic cloves, minced
1	medium yellow onion, finely chopped
14	oz dried short pasta, such as ricciole, penne, or fusilli
4	small zucchini, cut into sticks or thin slices
2	tbsp cacao nibs (not chocolate-coated), toasted in a dry skillet and coarsely crushed (substitute with 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted)
	Aged Parmesan, coarsely grated

Instructions

1. Pour stock in a pot over medium-high heat and keep warm.
2. As stock is warming up, heat oil in a wide sauté pan. Add garlic and onion and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, until fragrant, stirring regularly to avoid colouring. Add pasta and stir constantly for 2 minutes. Add just enough stock to cover pasta, and lower heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more stock when absorbed. Five minutes into cooking, add zucchini and season with salt and pepper.
3. Taste pasta for doneness. If not quite done and all the liquid is absorbed, add a little more stock or water, cover, and cook for a few more minutes. Repeat until al dente consistency; total cooking time will depend on the type of pasta. Adjust seasoning, transfer into bowls or plates, sprinkle with cacao nibs and Parmesan, and serve immediately.

Cookbook Challenge: Tomato Tatin

I took the month of June off, but now I'm back to my Cookbook Challenge. Each month I pick one of my cookbooks to focus on, in an effort to keep them from gathering dust on the bookshelf. This month's cookbook is a fun mix of the internet recipes I depend on, and the physical cookbooks I can't stop buying. Now, if you're reading this, I hope you've already heard of Chocolate & Zucchini, one of my favorite blogs. It is a wonderfully written peek into the cooking and adventures of a Parisian woman, and once you start reading you won't be able to resist going back for more. As you know, I'm obsessed with all things French, so this book was the perfect birthday gift from my parents.

While I've only made one recipe from the book so far, I have to say I love this cookbook! It is written in a style that's similar to a blog, where each recipe has a story or meaning behind it. This is a cookbook I was able to stick in my purse and read on the train to work, which is a feature not many cookbooks can brag about. I've really enjoyed catching a glimpse of Clotilde's kitchen and life in France, and I think most foodies would enjoy just reading through her antidotes.

This Tomato Tatin is all I ask for in a side dish... roasted tomatoes, goat cheese, pesto, and puff pastry. Pretty much the four food groups you need to survive. While I don't think I'd make this again for a regular weeknight dinner (a bit rich for my usual taste), I would love to make this again for guests. It's not too many ingredients, but they blend together perfectly. And It's dramatic when you flip the finished dish over to reveal the tender tomatoes hiding underneath.

Tomato Tatin by Clotilde Dusoulier

1 sheet store bought puff pastry
Extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds roma or plum tomatoes
fine sea salt and fresh ground pepper
herbes de Provence
1/4 cup black olive tapenade (or I used pesto)
6 ounces fresh goat cheese
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves (I had these but forgot to use them!)


1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 10 inch ceramic quiche pan with 1 tsp olive oil. (I used a small rectangular baking dish)

2. Halve the tomatoes lengthwise and core them. Run your thumb in the hollows of the tomatoes to remove the juice and seeds. Arrange in the pan, skin side down. You can crowd them a little; they will shrink as they bake. Season with salt, pepper, herbs, and a good drizzle of olive oil. Bake for about 30 minutes, until softened. Remove from oven (leave heat on).

3. If you use a round quiche pan, you will need to roll the dough into a circle about 1 inch larger than the pan. Since mine was a rectangle, I simple trimmed it down to the appropriate size. Prick dough all over with a fork. Spread with tapenade or pesto, leaving a 1 inch margin all around.

4. Cut the cheese into 1/3 inch slices and arrange over the tomatoes in the pan. Lay the dough, tapenade side down, on the cheese, and tuck in the overhanging flaps of dough. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

5. Let cook for a few minutes on the rack. Run a knife around the crush to loosen. Place your serving dish over the pan, and flip the tart over onto the serving dish. If any tomatoes stick to the bottom of the pan, just place them back on the tart where they belong. Serve warm or at room temperature. Just before serving, snip or tear the basil leaves and sprinkle over the tart.

This tart ended up being the perfect size to fit on this lovely Irish platter we got as a wedding gift from my parents thoughtful Irish friends.