Saumon au Poivre Vert (Salmon With Green Peppercorns)

"A fashionable discovery of nouvelle cuisine, green peppercorns add piquancy to all kinds of sauces and stews. Available pickled in jars or cans, they are great to keep on hand in your pantry."

Tonight Bill and I decided to frog out. We made a delicious French meal of pan seared salmon with a rich peppercorn cream sauce, accompanied by baked tomatoes topped with garlic. It was tres magnifique!

Buttercup Squash Soup

I recently made this easy soup on a chilly fall night. It had a great balance of flavors and was very warming to the belly and soul :) Buttercup squash is a variety of winter squash that is sweeter than most and has a creamy, dark orange flesh.

I started by sauteeing one small chopped onion and 2 minced garlic cloves in a bit of vegetable oil.

Then I added the cubed squash, 1 large diced potato, 1/2 cup diced celeriac, 1/2 cup diced carrots, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon marjoram, 1/2 teaspoon chervil and salt and pepper to taste.

I added 6 cups water, brought it to a simmer, and cooked everything for about 10 minutes.

Then I added a bunch of chopped kale, and simmered for about 5 more minutes.

I blended it with an immersion blender, but left some chunks of potato in there for texture.

Add some nice bread and you've got a healthy and satisfying meal!

Golden-Fried Pumpkin Purses

Here is a seasonal recipe from Alain Ducasse in his Flavors of France cookbook. It is essentially a fried ravioli stuffed with pumpkin, leeks, rice and Parmesan cheese, that apparently comes from Monaco where the locals call them "Uncle Johns", or "barbajuans".

The first step is to roast a pumpkin in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour and a half. Quarter your pumpkin, place the pieces skin-side-down on a baking sheet, and drizzle with olive oil.

Meanwhile, make the pasta:

Mix together:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 large egg

1/2 cup ice-cold water

Knead the dough for a minute, form into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Next, begin to make the filling:

Boil 1/2 cup Arborio rice for 10 minutes with 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt in 1 1/2 cups water.

Drain the rice and set aside.

Then mince the white and tender green parts of 4 slim leeks, and saute them in a skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil for about 4 minutes.

Once the pumpkin has cooked, remove the skin and mash it til smooth in a large bowl.

Mix in:

the cooked rice

the sauteed leeks

2 large eggs

3/4 cup (6 oz) Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

(I forgot to take a photo of the mixture all together, but here is the pumpkin; you'll see the filling below as it is assembled with the pasta.)

Roll the pasta dough out into long sheets.

Spoon 20 walnut-sized scoops of filling along the bottom half of each pasta sheet, then fold the top half over to cover the mounds.

Press the edges together around each mound, then cut into ravioli shapes:

Heat 6 cups of peanut oil to 325-350 degrees F.

Fry the ravioli, about 6 at a time, until golden.

Transfer to paper towels to drain, and salt immediately with a high quality sea salt.

Serve hot as an appetizer.

Pumpkin and Basil Lasagne

Tis the season for pumpkin! Here's the recipe for the delicious seasonal lasagna that we made tonight...
1.5 lbs pumpkin
2 Tbsp olive oil
16 oz ricotta cheese
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
3/4 cup fresh basil leaves
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 oz Parmesan, grated
4 oz fresh lasagna sheets
6 oz grated mozzarella cheese


Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Cut the pumpkin into thin slices and arrange in a single layer on the tray. Brush with oil and cook for 1 hour, or until softened, turning halfway through cooking.


Place the ricotta, pine nuts, basil, garlic, and Parmesan in a bowl and mix with wooden spoon.

Brush a square 8 inch ovenproof dish with oil. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Arrange one third of the pasta sheets over the base of the dish and spread with the ricotta mixture. Top with half of the remaining lasagna sheets.

Arrange the pumpkin evenly over the pasta wtih as few gaps as possible. Season with salt and cracked black pepper and top with the final layer of mozzarella.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is golden. Leave for 10 minutes, then cut into squares.

Braised Rabbit with Fresh Pasta

I made an impulse purchase of fresh rabbit yesterday and then came home and didn't know what I was going to do with it... so I searched for a recipe and thought this one was appealing (source, Gourmet May 2003). It calls for braising rabbit in a red wine and tomato sauce scented with cinnamon and orange.

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Then, using a cleaver, cut the rabbit into about 6 individual serving pieces. Make sure to remove the kidneys, heart and liver. Season the pieces with salt and pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in an oven-safe casserole, then brown the pieces of rabbit.

Remove the rabbit and set aside.

Add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil to the pot, then stir in 2 sliced onions, 2 minced garlic cloves, a long strip of orange zest, 1 cinnamon stick and 2 bay leaves. Cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes.

Add half a cup of dry red wine, and reduce for about 2 minutes.

Add 2 cups chopped canned tomato and 1/2 cup water.

Add the rabbit back to the casserole and nestle it into the sauce, covering it as well as possible.

Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook at 350 degrees for one hour, turning the rabbit after 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, ask your sous-chef to whip up a batch of homemade egg noodles.

Serve the rabbit and sauce over the boiled noodles with a bit of finishing salt.

(I forgot the parsley :( Next time!)

Roasted Eggplant Salad with Feta Cheese and Pine Nuts

I really just love eggplant so much! I think I could eat it everyday. But, out of consideration for my lovely family and their opinion that is quite different from mine, I do not! Even though summer has come to an end, eggplant is still growing and going strong in our neck of the woods, and I had a big hankering for it yesterday and so I made this really delicious salad for dinner.

Ingredients (to serve 6)

2 large eggplants, sliced into 1-inch-thick rounds

1 tsp dried marjoram (or 2 tsp fresh, if you can find it)

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

12 oz. mixed salad greens

1/3 lb feta cheese, crumbled or cut into small cubes

1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

cherry tomatoes

Dressing:

juice of one small lemon

salt

pepper

• First, toss the sliced eggplant with the olive oil and marjoram in a large roasting pan, and roast at 400 degrees until done, about 30 minutes, stirring every so often.

• Meanwhile, wash the salad greens.

• When the eggplant is done, toss the salad greens with the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Divide the greens among 6 plates, sprinkle some pine nuts and feta cheese on top of the greens, then arrange the slices of roasted eggplant on top with a handful of cherry tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Fabulous Food in Portland, ME

This is a fantastic article. I love the focus on fresh, local ingredients and the collective spirit of local chefs tirelessly striving for the best. Never been there. The article totally makes me want to go.