Recipes « (y)our food choices™

We have an upcoming trip planned for London and Paris in April and we can’t wait until we depart. We’ve never been to Europe, and aside from Canada and Mexico we have never left the U.S. We are also big fans of French and European culture even though we have yet to experience them up close and personal. We hope that in the years to come we’ll be able to travel to Italy and Spain to experience their cuisines in person. Whenever we see Lidia Bastianich or Jose Andres cooking up their regional dishes we both wish we had the luxury of being able to travel and eat delicious foods. Some day soon we’ll visit Italy and Spain, but for this first venture to Europe it’s all about Paris and London.

Pate, Cheese, Pear, Cornichon and Olive

Give us a bottle of Champagne (or a nice Cava, or sparkling wine), a baguette, some cheese, pâté, Dijon mustard, olives and cornichon pickles and we’re as happy as we can be. That also happened to be our midnight Valentine’s Day celebration menu from last Sunday. I was working late, serving the masses their Valentine’s Day dinner, while Steve was at home preparing our feast. The most complicated part of the nosh was preparing the Pâté, which is essentially just chicken livers and butter. We found the recipe in the March issue of Martha Stewart’s Living and the only thing we did differently was to pour the Pâté into a jar instead of pouring it into a plastic lined bread pan.

The amount of pâté was too much for both of us to eat in one sitting, so now whenever we need a reminder of what’s to come on our Paris vacation, we can spread a little on some toast or crackers, dreaming of the day when we can truly eat like Parisians. Even if you’re not as lucky enough to get Paris this year, you can still make up a batch of Martha’s pâté to keep on hand for those days you need to be reminded of how good life really is!

Steve’s Note:

When I think of food torture I think of my childhood. I think of sitting at the family table or at a TV tray with a plate of pan-fried beef liver and onions with a side of canned peas and lumpy boiled potatoes. If this meal didn’t make me cry (believe me, it almost always did) or vomit (it happened once), at the very least it meant that I would be tethered to my seat at the table for what felt like an eternity. These standoffs would last until my plate was cold and mom couldn’t take the suffering of her child martyr any longer. After choking down “just one bite,” I’d be dismissed from what was a mercifully rare but memorable ordeal.

Martha’s simple pate recipe is, I suppose, a sort of liver therapy. A rehabilitation of sorts of my attitude toward a lowly food that has much more to offer than poor cooking methods will ever reveal. We hope you’ll give it a try.

Cheers, Steve

Pâté Recipe

3 shallots, diced

12 Tbsp butter, room temperature, cut into pieces

1 lb. chicken livers, cleaned of fat and connective tissue

½ cup dry white wine

1 tbsp fresh thyme

Dash of cayenne

Salt and pepper to taste

Melt 2 tbsp butter in skillet. Sautee shallots over medium heat until softened, approximate 5 minutes. Add chicken livers and sauté for approximately 10 minutes. Add thyme and white wine and simmer until the wine has reduced by half. Pour contents of the pan into a food processor and puree adding the remaining 10 tbsp butter and process until completely smooth. Scoop puree into container and refrigerate for 2 hours. Serve on baguette or your favorite cracker.

Top (L to R) Garbanzo beans with kalamata olives, roasted peppers, lemon & olive oil, accompanied with roasted goat cheese stuffed figs wrapped with prosciutto. With parsley, vinegar and olive oil. Bottom (L to R): With whole wheat pasta, saute of greens, shredded cheese, and prosciutto. With brown rice, peppers, pistachios, olive oil, and vinegar.

I know I’ve been down this road with earlier posts. I’m a big fan of the legume and in our house, they’re almost always prepped and on hand for any number of uses. Our pressure cooker makes easy work of cooking dry beans. It takes a good 30 minutes to go from dry to tender. And because we don’t buy them in cans, we’re not only saving money, we’re reducing waste.

The ceci bean (or garbanzo or chickpea or Egyptian pea) cooks just as quickly as any other hard, dry bean in spite of their rough and tough exterior. I love these beans for their firm texture and their warm, nutty flavor. Never mind that they’re packed with fiber and protein as well as a host of minerals including calcium and phosphorus. Most of us know them in pureed form as hummus, but we eat them in a variety of ways – whole in salads, as an addition to brothy soups, as a spread on bruschetta and as a companion to whole wheat pastas.

After picking over the dry beans to remove dirt and rocks, give them a good rinse and then place them in a bowl and cover with plenty of water before soaking them overnight. After soaking, rinse the beans well and place them in a large stock pot, cover with fresh water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer beans for approximately one and a half hours or until just tender. They should be completely softened. This isn’t an instance where you want ‘al dente’ centers. You can skip the soaking step if you’re using a pressure cooker. Be sure to reduce the cooking time to approximately 25 minutes. You’ll want to release the pressure after 15 minutes to check them. Adjust the remaining cooking time accordingly.

Dry Garbanzo Beans

Cooked ceci beans are fine hot, but they’re even better at room temperature. Simply dressed with extra virgin olive oil, fresh chopped parsley, course sea salt and a dash of red wine vinegar, these beauties offer up a hearty, comforting bite.

Cheers,
Steve & Jason