gra - no - la

i just came back from two and half weeks in gluten-free, avocado-filled, burrito-haven california.

generally when i travel, i get inspired (or re-inspired) to undertake personal projects.

let's just say, my first project upon my return to paris ... was extremely simple. and DELICIOUS.

can someone say homemade granola ?

you mix oats, nuts, honey, and whatever else you want together => and then bake it for about 20-30 minutes, mixing it around every ten minutes or so. (add dry fruit at the end)

so easy, right?

well... i kind of messed up the first time.

fyi, granola cooks quickly!

but i did a second take and it came out much better.

(those black spots are raisins)

et voila! and my personal mix was oats, honey, almond flakes, raisins, cinnamon, and to give it a bit of a kick ... beurre salé ! (butter with large chunks of sea salt)

Persephone's Vice

I'm breaking the 2010 seal for "le fromage qui pue".

And I feel overwhelmed given the myriad of culinary adventures I've experienced for the first half of the year (including 2 trips to Italy, multiple exquisite picnics and brunches, high-class meals with Jordanian senators, and my latest favorite kitchen gadget....). The time will come for each of these subjects.

But let's start with something simple - but which resonates in my palette's memory so clearly.

In April, Erica and I met up for the weekend in Istanbul (incredible city and weekend).

To be honest, above all gastronomic pleasures and surprises we experienced,

like mussels being sold on the street 24/7:

or stall after stall of literal turkish... delights:

or all the GREEK food (i'll save the overwhelming personal cultural connection I felt in Istanbul for another time):

what I miss most --- is our morning cup of freshly squeezed juice. And not just any juice.

Pomegranate juice.

The pomegranate is such an exotic, mysterious fruit to me. And moreover, JUICE! What a luxury! And here, it was so readily available and fresh and delicious for only 2 lira (1 euro).

No better way to start your morning.

Finally, sorry to say this but, certainly one thing to NOT get excited about in Turkey is the "Turkish Tea". I was expecting that the tea would be like the tea at La Mosquee - the sweet mint tea that comes in the really cute cups (perhaps that's me being culturally insensitive?). Yes, you find that sort of tea in North Africa.

Turkish Tea however, is (disappointingly for me) really strong boring black tea.

I prefer the Turkish (very similar to Greek) coffee.

cultural differences in food packaging

i've learned that even simple inane things like food packaging can be cultural.

my first experience with a specificity to french food packaging was ...

#1. rice in a bag

instant rice comes in a box with four individual packages. naturally, i would heat up the water. cut open a bag. pour the rice in. and cook.

until one day, i was making rice for a french friend and as i was cutting open the bag, he was like... "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?! -- don't cut the bag! just throw the entire bag with the rice into the water!"

i didn't believe him. how could you throw a plastic bag into boiling water?

lo and behold, he was right. and let me tell you.

rice in a bag. is GENIUS.

(we don't have that in the US, do we? cause we should)

#2 sugar in a box

this one's for pilar.

ok, american and french have different food packaging concepts. understandable. but this is a spanish - french difference. you would think the countries being so close together, they would have a common base of food packaging. but no.

sugar in france often comes in a box. so pilar would open the sugar box from the top - like you open a cereal box. makes sense, right?

the french however, are quite clever when it comes to packaging. pilar did not notice the handy side opening - allowing for a clean and efficient pouring of sugar (rather than spooning out clumsily from the top).

and finally,

#3 oven-resistant pie dough wax paper

this packaging was definitely the biggest revelation for me...

in france, they sell pie dough wrapped in a wax paper.

sidenote: i never used to make apple pie in the US, but due to the combination of a) apple pie being the embodiment of american culture, and b) pie dough being so readily available, i started making it for potlucks and dinner parties -- and after three years of living in france and baking apple pies, it's become sorta my trademark (i was even graced with an apple peeler for my birthday last year to ease the process ... )

anyway. i also make quiches. so i use pie dough a lot.

and naturally - when making a pie/quiche, i used to pull out the wrapped pie dough, cut open the packaging, separate the dough from the wax paper and do my best not to massacre the dough as i transferred it to the pie mold. but--- it got messy every time.

until one day....

i was at a friend's house watching him make quiche. he cut open the pie dough packaging, unraveled the dough with the wax and put the wax paper directly into the pie mold!

i was. flabbergasted.

it changed my life.

not only do you have a neat crust, but you cut down on time. and you don't have to grease your mold.

i'm telling you, i was blown away.

that's it for now ....

have you misunderstood any quirky food packaging lately?

garden update

so it turns out that gardens - well, at least "balcony herb gardens" - are not so difficult to maintain. they're like babies. they just need food (water + sun), lots of it, and some lovin' care.

my last garden update dates from june at the end of this post. since that post, my chives/tomatoes/basil pot evolved incredibly! (see below)

but then, something tragic happened...

summer ended.

and gone were the days of glory. for us. and for mr ciboulette, mlle tomate, et baby basilique:

pretty dramatic huh? that's how evil winter is.

well, to be honest, what really happened was - my window frames are made of wood and therefore full of moisture. when it's hot, it's ok, b/c the moisture dries and the windows can open and close no problem. but when it's cold, the moisture stays, the frames expand, and I CAN'T OPEN MY WINDOWS (to feed my babies). and so, i just watch day after day. hopelessly. as they whither away. **

** right right, i should get this window problem fixed. that takes effort though. and i'm a bit lazy.

queso de cabra con miel

one very cool thing about europe is that you can decide to go to another country ya know, for dinner.

while riding the epics waves in biarritz this past weekend, we decided to cross the border to st. sebastien for some yummy tapas (also known as "pintxos" in the land of basque).

forty minutes later, we found ourselves (somewhat clueless) on the streets of spain, asking people "donde esta la bahia?" -- the "bay" - as in, the epicenter around which the city is based. (les boulets)

we eventually managed to find the "old town" where the streets are lined with pintxos bar after pintxos bar (bringing back a recollection of a st. sebastien visit with dad three years, where we spent an evening eating lots of jamon and getting drunk off of sangria... good times)

at our first pitxos stop, all seven of us ordered sangria. we were pumped and ready to go.

however ... i'm not sure if it was because we were foreigners or because it was the bartender's "specialty"-- but the version of "sangria" that we were served, consisted of wine mixed not with bits of fruits, but ...with a shot of every single liquor the bartender could find behind the counter!

despite the unpleasant concoction, we washed down our little tapas, and continued on our way.

we eventually ended up at a pretty good place called manto (or munto?). it was PACKED and we quickly realized that you had to be aggressive, methodical, and know what you're doing in order to access those finger-sized treats.

soon enough, our palettes were met with a melange of jamon iberica, croquettas, spicy squid, stuffed peppers... and the best of all (a semi-unanimous decision) was the chevre-miel. or shall we say, queso de cabra con miel.

let me repeat. from top to bottom:

a piece of goat cheese lathered in honey. sitting on...

a bed of onions sauteed with olive oil and a touch of sugar. atop...

a delicious wedge of baguette.

all heated just the right amount so that the cheese has a soft sweet texture that melts in your mouth.

yup. divine.

and well-deserved after a full day of getting "brassé" (beaten) by the gnarly waves......

mozzarella di bufala

real quick one.

the italian goddess letizia dazzled us with one of her "light" salads the other night- -

- grilled eggplant

- roquette

- jambon cru

- fresh basil

- cherry tomatoes and....

- mozzarella di bufala

(and just a very generous drizzle of olive oil)

when we were at the supermarket buying the ingredients for the salad, i was all ready to go with the cheap mozzarella, ya know the one i usually get.. and she was like, no! bufala is much much tastier. and i was a little skeptic that this buffalo mozzarella that was about 3 times the price of the other was going to be better than the normal one. so we got both. to test.

and ya know what ?? the mozzarella di bufala was not 3 times better than the normal one.

it was 10 times better!!!!!!!

and apparently it really does come from the milk of a water buffalo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_mozzarella

i'm not sure how i feel about that. i'm just not going to think about it.

and i'm just super excited about the salad i'm going to eat tomorrow (yup, i already bought me some buffalo mozzarella and roquette to replicate the salad. hehehe).

sign off.

le fromage qui pue

at last.  

the most appropriate post has arrived to this blog.  

i can not take credit however, because the experience and the following recount belong to the lovely Amy Caren Mednick **:

**Amy and the cute curly-haired hubby Aron, took the "Harmony of Wine and Cheese" course at Murray's Cheese

First of all, they told us some rules for pairing wine and cheese. Here are the basic ones i took away: 
1.anything with bubbles (beer or sparkling wine) goes great with very soft creamy cheese.
2.you can and should usually eat the rind unless it's really hard.
3.goat cheese loves white wine.
4.cheese goes best with white wine, so if you have a red, it's good with really strong cheese (the acidity balances the strong flavor, such as garlic)

most importantly, THE CHEESES.
best cheese EVER EVER EVER: Ossau Iraty. It's made in the Basque Pyrenees of southwestern France-- that's right by you right Alki? You should stop reading this immediately and go get some. It's a sheep's milk cheese and is magically creamy and delicious.
Our other favorite was Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, which was cheddar but was crumbly like parm. And there was a pretty good goat cheese called st maure.

thanks amy for your extremely insightful (and savory) report!!! :-)  mmm...cheese.  i am all over st. maure but i don't know ossau iraty (i bet ingrid, remi, or vincent are probably laughing at me now).  i'm so so so excited to try it next time i'm at le fromagerie.  

two years ago, when i finished my business program and was deciding whether or not to stay in france, i said to myself "if i find a job at areva, i'll stay in france.  otherwise, i'll take two months and do a bike-cheese tour around france and then go back to the US".   i ended up getting a job with areva.  

and so i never did that tour.  

but-   i'd still really like to.