Friends, it is supposed to reach 98° F here today (that is 36.6 for you Celsius folks) and I am just this shy of filling up a sippy cup with rosé, stringing it around my neck and calling it a day. I strolled the aisles of the supermarché this morning for an extra long while just to suck in as much air-conditioning as possible and I could tell that I wasn’t exactly the only lolly-gagger either.
So, like many of you, I have been avoiding the oven as if Todd Akin was hiding in it (actually if he were I might be tempted to turn it on–oops, did I write that?). Happily this time of year, the simplest ingredients make for fine meals. This Greek salad’s presentation was inspired by the amazing “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”. Sigh. I want to be an 85-year-old sushi master, don’t you?
But there is nothing innovative in slicing and dicing. I did come up with a new spread as an alternative to hummus however, using some of the same ingredients in a moment of utter desperation as Remi pushed back lunch “for just a bit later” yet again. In to the food processor, or robot as they are called here, went some sun-dried tomatoes in their oil (about five), along with half a container of feta, a handful of sardines and some freshly squeezed lemon juice. I know, it sounds odd but it certainly was interesting, especially if you have a few leaves of peppery black basil to throw in as well as crunchy bread to smooth it on. Non?
But last night, after I had sheepishly suggested “Gazpacho?” for dinner for the fifth time this week and was met with a raised eyebrow, I high tailed it into the hot zone once and for all and did a fishy Asian take on steak frites. I know that quite a few of you like to cook and are no strangers to spice-crusted salmon. My version involved cumin, paprika, curcuma, chipolte and an especially American mix called “smokehouse maple” that was brought back from the States. I baked the filets on low heat and then made a little crumble (it is in fashion to call everything a crumble in France these days) for the top with diced almonds, more chipolte powder and soy sauce that I also drizzled lightly on the salmon. For the “fries”, I steamed haricots jaunes then sautéed them in sesame oil and fish sauce along with a shallot and a bit of spring onion with sprinkled flaxseed on the lot. The “ketchup” was a bit of tomato purée with more soy sauce, lime juice and a splash of tabasco. Voila!
and just because it is so catchy:
So tell me, what do you have cookin’?
Eventually, mymother graduated to the hamburger-helper, frozen "vegetable medley" (we all loved that stuff) and shake-'n-bake level of cooking….but, then, microwaves came along in the 70's, so even those were abandoned. She hasn't looked back since then and remains utterly indifferent to food (which probably goes a long way towards explaining why she's weighed between 98 and 115 pounds her entire, married life).
Like a lot of other folks, I learned to cook whle taking a Ph.d. in literature (as you might know, this sort of degree generally entails waiting on a lot of tables in a lot of restaurants for a lot of years).
Well, enough of this….suffice it to say that I don't regard myself as an expert cook. I do happen to read fairly decently, and I'm reasonably adept at following instructions.
Level Best as Ever,
David Terry
http://www.davidterryart.com
Well, thanks, Helen….but I've got to say that I'm not really an "expert cook"….or at least I don't think I know very much (an opinion doubtlessly affected by my being good friends with four James Beard award-winning chefs and cookbook writers). 3 of my other close, longtime friends own very succesful, renowned, and innovative restaurants.
When folks learn where I grew up, they invariably exclaim "Oh….how lucky! You must have had all the WONDERFUL SOUTHERN COOKING!". I tell them that no one in my family knows how to cook at all….certainly not any of the women. My brothers have both, in a self-defensive manner, learned how to grill, but even then they have a markedly limited repetoire….mostly consisting of what their young sons will agree to eat.
The fact is…..my great-grandmother, grandmother and great aunts grew up with SOMEONE else working in the kitchen. I think each of the girls (as was the case for my mother in the late fifties) learned how to make one or two fancy little desserts, which they made only when a potential marriage-prospect visited. A great fuss would, for the suitor's benefit, be made over this display of Supreme Domestic Accomplishment….although it was corporately assumed that no man was a genuine marriage prospect unless he would be able to hire a cook for the household. The LAST man any of them would marry would be a man who knew how to cook.
All of my female relatives (spanning three generations) have made it basically clear that The Men are the ones who lost The War (you can guess which one they're still referring to), so The Men can be the ones who go back into that servant-less kitchen and get cracking.
Moreover?…my grandmother (who scandalously, for that time, divorced at age 26) happily spent the next 25 years as the matron of a very pleasant (truly) private orphanage. Hence, she ate institutional food for the rest of her life. My father AND my mother (who was a genuine orphan…unlike my father, who merely lived in the orphanage with his mother) spent their entire childhood and adolescence eating in the orphanage's dining-hall, without ever setting foot in a kitchen….not even a single time.
My mother was adopted, at age 13, by a very wealthy family….chauffeur, butler, two maids, housekeepeer, AND a cook, etcetera. So, for the next seven years, she never went into a kitchen. I think she learned how to "make" shrimp-cocktail (six shrimp arranged around a little bowl of bottled "shrimp cocktail sauce", with a garnish of celery and a lemon wedge…..the height of elegance in 1958).
When my parents married at age 22, neither of them knew a SINGLE thing about cooking. Nor did my grandmother (who soon came to live with them). I do not exagerrate (nor spell very well, either). Bascially, you might as well have had three toddlers in a kitchen.
My father entered the air force right after marrying, and they found themselves on an airforce base in Biloxi, Mississippi. That first week, my mother thought of making "spaghetti". She poured a couple of cans of tomato sauce in a pan, broke a bunch of uncooked, dried pasta into the sauce, added raw hamburger, and boiled it for an hour. I've gathered that it was predictably dreadful.
According to both my parents, my mother simply adopted the habit of taking her two boys (we were born a year after the marriage) in our strollers down to the docks each morning…where you could buy oysters, crabs, and shrimp for FIFTY CENTS A BUCKET (once again, no kidding). She managed to conquer the intricacies of boiling shellfish…..and that's what we were almost exclusively raised-on, along with carrot sticks, apples, and whatever the bread-lady (there still was one back then…walking house-to-house every morning with deliveries) was making/selling….(to be continued)
I made nearly the same for myself last night! Although I need to see what kind of chillies you use. I can never find the right ones at the market–they are either too bland or they burn my tongue off (and I am not afraid of a little heat).
Anywho, "great minds"…have a great weekend!
Holy cow, you raised him right now, didn't you? 🙂
If I ever do get David over here, I am afraid I will wrangle him into the kitchen! Not very hospitable to admit but true!
And I was just saying to Remi that the ONE thing that I miss most about no longer having a BBQ is making grilled sardines. Whew. So simple and so good. No wonder they call it the "perfect food"!
That would be a correct assumption, Chef David. And as I am lazy (do you notice how I keep repeating that?) I will simply go out and BUY citron confit rather than make it. 🙂 As I love lemon and lentils and nuts and mint, well, I think it is safe to say that I will be addicted to this salad. Merci…
In answer to your question… Absolutely nothing!! Just kidding… I wish… and I am about to rev my cuisine making mood up for this coming weekend…
I did make a good pasta last night… easy… too hot to be anything else but easy… loads of diced chilli, fresh ripened tomatoes, fresh garlic, rocket and grated parmesan into the olive oil… toss in the pasta… Quite delish if I say so myself! xv
This all looks and sounds divine.
What was cooking around here? To my surprise, peach pie (peaches & nectarines & cream, to be exact). Quelle surprise – my son made it!
Not too sweet, gorgeous to look at. Delish.
I love the salad dish you featured. We grill on our balcony and then dine in our air-conditioned dining room. Lots of salad and grilled salmon or chicken. I had grilled sardines yesterday which were delicious.
I enjoyed reading David Terry's suggestions, he clearly is an expert cook.
Helen xx
P.S. Heather, if Remi hates capers….substitute tiny chunks of preserved lemon (you do know how to make this, don't you…it's SIMPLE).
I'm pretty sure that a man named "Remi Benali" has made the acquaintance of a preserved lemon in his lifetime.
—david terry