Bouchons au Thon

My copy of A Homemade Life was delivered today. You need to have this book. Go order it. I'll wait.

I knew exactly which recipe I was going to make first. In the chapter titled "What France Would Taste Like," Molly Wizenburg tells of her junior year abroad in France, and the French family that hosted her. Her host mother was:

"...Tall, trim, and proper, with a singsong voice and a name that, when properly pronounced, rang like chimes at Sunday mass....

"Aside from her role at home, my host mother was also the French equivalent of a Tupperware saleswoman. She tested and sold silicone baking equipment, the bendy, nonstick baking pans, molds and sheets that have become so popular in recent years... At least one night each week we'd have a "Flexipan dinner," a meal centered on a recipe that my host mother was testing in her silicone molds... My favorite were the bouchons au thon (literally, "tuna corks"), an odd, homely and surprisingly delicious mixture of canned tuna, tomato paste, crème fraiche, Gruyère, and eggs, baked in muffin molds.

"Canned tuna isn't usually something I go crazy for, but these bouchons were special. With a texture somewhere between the filling of a quiche and a freshly made country pâté, they tamed the flat pungency of the canned fish with the sweetness of tomato and the rich butterfat of crème fraiche. We ate them warm with roasted potatoes, and, for lunch the next day, cold with a green salad. They were unlike anything I'd ever had. They tasted like what I imagined France itself would taste like, if it were small enough to fit in my mouth. I gave thanks almost daily for all the France and its Flexipans brought to my life, but mainly for those bouchons au thon.

--"What France Would Taste Like", from A Homemade Life, by Molly Wizenburg (and orangette.blogspot.com)

After reading this chapter, I folded down a corner of the recipe page. I had to make these.  Furthermore, I had to make them with roasted potatoes and salad, exactly as was written.

Bouchons au Thon

The recipe measurements and directions below yield 8 bouchons, "enough for 4 light eaters." I have kids in daycamp and a husband in the midst of the P90-X workout. There are no light eaters around here. So I doubled the measurements and filled all 12 cups of my muffin tin. 

There were no survivors.

  • 1 6-oz can tuna packed in water, drained well
  • 1 cup lightly packed finely shredded Gruyère
  • 1/3 cup crème fraiche
  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 3 large eggs (alas, I only had 4 eggs in the house and I'm not sure this affected the recipe or not, as you'll see below)
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325. Grease 8 cups of a standard-sized muffin tin and set aside.

Put the tuna in a medium bowl and break it up with a fork; there should be no chunks larger than a dime. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well with the fork, mashing a bit as you go, until the mixture is thoroughly combined. It will be a soft orange-pink color.

Divide the mixture evenly among the 8 prepared muffin cups.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the bouchons look set on top and around the edges. Transfer the tin to a rack and let cool 5 minutes. Carefully run a small, thin knife around the edge of each bouchon to make sure it isn't stuck, then carefully remove them from the tin. They will collapse a bit as they cool.

These were UNBELIEVABLE. Truly unlike anything I'd ever had before and completely perfect with the roasted fingerling potatoes and green salad. My only concern was that even baking for closer to 30 minutes, the bouchons didn't seem to set, and some fell apart when I scooped them out of the tin.  They just seemed more "slumped" than I was expecting. Maybe it was the lack of eggs, or not owning Flexipans, or maybe next time I should try a 350 oven. Then again, Molly does describe them as having a consistency between quiche and pâté. Anyway, regardless of texture and presentation, they were freakin' awesome. Redman picked at one. Panda ate three. Jeeps and I put away four each.

Did I mention I love this book?

Meal in a Ziplock Bag: Fish Bake

That's a rather wordy title.  I was going for something catchy like D**k In a Box but it....um... Hey, look, I learned how to expand what's called the "Kitchen Sink" in Wordpress, which lets you change your font color, among other things!!

Sorry, let's just start over.

Score another Meatless Monday with this quick and easy Meal in a Ziplock Bag!

Kitchen Sink Fish Bake

  • White fish filets of your choice - cod, tilapia, roughy.  If frozen, thaw completely in fridge or in cold water.
  • 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
  • Grated zest of 1 lemon, and juice squeezed from said lemon.
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • 1 pint grape tomatoes, rinsed and left whole (I only had 1/2 pint, I wish I'd had more, you can never have too many roasted grape tomatoes)
  • 1/2 bag frozen green peas.  Not necessary to thaw but swish them under some cold water in a colander
  • Kosher salt and pepper
  • 2 teaspoons seasoned breadcrumbs (optional)

Put all ingredients except breadcrumbs in a ziplock bag, close bag, and "moosh" them around until evenly coated with marinade.  Leave alone for anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple hours, but if it's really hours then put the bag back into the fridge.

Preheat oven to 375.  Spread fish and veggies onto a baking sheet, sprinkle with breadcrumbs.  Bake 10-12 minutes until filets are opaque.

You can substitute lime for lemon, cilantro for parsley, and swap out any of the veggies as long as they are something that doesn't need a lot of roasting time - thin sliced zucchini, asparagus spears, small green beans, etc.

Chana Masala

So over vacation I fell in love with Molly Wizenburg, with Orangette, and with A Homemade Life:  Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table.  I may be late to this party, but so be it.  She is my new girl crush and this book is, as we speak, being shipped to me to keep for my very own because this library copy for 3 weeks just isn't going to cut it.  This is the world's most perfect book.  This book was written for me.  And I'm afraid I'm going to be a bit of a pain in the ass about it, but so be it. Let's dive right in, shallllllll we?

While not a vegetarian herself, Molly confesses to consistently falling in love with them ("My love is for herbivores only"), and now she is married to one.  So her book includes lots and lots of delicious-sounding recipes for salads and meatless meals.  Including her husband Brandon's recipe for chana masala.

For the uninitiated, chana masala is an Indian dish of chick peas and tomatoes, heavily and beautifully seasoned.   It's fantastic by itself with hunks of pita or naan, or served over rice, which is how I did it tonight.

You can read the full post and story here (and please do go to her blog and if you can, get a copy A Homemade Life because she's just a wonderful, wonderful writer).  But if you want to cut to the chase, let's just cook.

Chana Masala, from A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenburg

  • Good-quality olive oil or coconut oil (coconut oil in this dish is KILLER)
  • 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
  • 2 medium cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds (I did not have seeds, I used 1/2 tsp of ground cumin)
  • ½ tsp ground coriander
  • ¼ tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp garam masala (you can buy this pre-made in the spice aisle, or make your own)
  • 3 cardamom pods, lightly crushed (I did have these because cardamom is my favoritest spice ever, but you could skip the pods as there is cardamom in the garam masala)
  • 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
  • 1 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
  • 1 Tbs cilantro leaves, roughly torn, plus more for garnish (I had no cilantro and used parsley)
  • A pinch of cayenne, or to taste
  • 2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 6-8 Tbs plain whole-milk yogurt, optional
  • A few lemon wedges, optional

1.  Heat oil in saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until it is deeply caramelized and even charred in some spots. Be patient. The more color, the more full-flavored the final dish will be.

2.  Reduce the heat to low. Add the garlic, cumin seeds, coriander, ginger, garam masala, and cardamom pods, and fry them, stirring constantly, until fragrant and toasty, about 30 seconds. Add ¼ cup water, and stir to scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook until the water has evaporated away completely. Pour in the juice from can of tomatoes, followed by the tomatoes themselves, using your hands to break them apart as you add them; alternatively, add them whole and crush them in the pot with a potato masher. Add the salt.

3.  Raise the heat to medium, and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, add the cilantro and cayenne, and simmer the sauce gently, stirring occasionally, until it reduces a bit and begins to thicken. Taste, and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Add the chickpeas, stirring well, and cook over low heat for about five minutes. Add 2 Tbs water, and cook for another five minutes. Add another 2 Tbs water, and cook until the water is absorbed, a few minutes more. This process of adding and cooking off water helps to concentrate the sauce’s flavor and makes the chickpeas more tender and toothsome. Taste, and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

You can stir the yogurt into the chana masala before serving, or leave it out and serve with a squeeze of lemon.  However you serve it, do so with a sprinkle of cilantro/parsley and a pinch or two of the garam masala.

Served over coconut rice, this was pass-out delicious and so easy to make.  Plus your house smells amazing while it's cooking.  Jeeps ate two huge bowls and has called dibs on the leftovers for tomorrow (Molly says it's even better the second or third day).

Garam Masala

Garam masala is a basic blend of spices common to North Indian and other South Asian cuisines.  From the Hindi Garam "Hot" and Masala "mixture" the Garam refers to the intensity of the spices rather than the heat content; it's spicy but not like a chile pepper. Garam masala can be found pre-made in the spice aisle but spices are always so pricey and I was pretty sure, according to my memories of Laurie Colwin, that I already had all the separate spices necessary to make my own.

When I got home, I remembered my mother was in current possession of my copy of Home Cooking so I consulted the Oracle of the Internet.  Honestly...what excuse is there for not knowing anything anymore?

So this is the recipe I found from Allrecipes.com and indeed I already had everything, although this pretty much wiped out my jar of cumin.  What is it about cumin anyway?  It smells like an old sweat sock but it's just so awesome...

Garam Masala

  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon ground pepper
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Combine all spices together and store in a covered container in a cool, dry place.  In my case, in a cunning little glass jar with a cork that used to hold saffron threads, which Pandagirl stole from me, which I stole back.

 

 

Random bites

Here's the first pea harvest.  I know, try to contain yourself at the sight of such abundant bounty.  Still, good things come in small packages, and there is nothing like picking them off the vine, pulling the string, splitting the pod, and scraping it along your bottom teeth to pop the peas in your mouth. That is how you do it, right?

Moving along.  Here was some yumminess:  Quinoa Patties as found on Stacey Snacks.  I'd had my eye on these and over the weekend I cooked up about 4 cups of quinoa and just had it keeping in the fridge.  Monday night I was late in the city, so I texted the URL to Jeeps...oddly, just as he was peering in the fridge and wondering what to do with the quart-sized Chinese food container filled with quinoa.  They were made and waiting when I got off the train and they were dynamite.   We had them with just steamed broccoli; Stacey shows them with a dollop of guacamole, and in another post she has them on a bed of greens with, hello, a sunnyside egg on top.

Speaking of eggs, it has been beastly hot the past two days, with more beastliness to come.  But is it hot enough outside to fry an egg?  My neighbor Elizabeth does not suffer clichés gladly, and demanded proof over hyperbole.  The results are in, and yes, it was that hot:

[Editor's note - Naive ninny that I am, I really did think Elizabeth had conducted said experiment but later she confessed to a Google image and then passed along an article about how, in theory, it is not possible to fry an egg on the sidewalk because it does not reach the temperature required to denature and coagulate the egg whites.  I called her a fraud and told her that to salvage her street cred, she should crack an egg on the hood of her car.  Stay tuned]

Oh, here's a treat.  Last year we went to friends in Westport for Memorial Day, and one of the appetizers they served was goat cheese in apricots with hazelnuts.  We went crazy over these and let me be perfectly frank:  goat cheese and I have a contentious relationship.  For years I wanted to like it, I felt it was something I really should like, but whenever I had it...I just didn't like it.  But I kept on and each time I didn't like it a little less.  And then with the apricots in Westport...maybe it was the type of goat cheese or the company it was keeping, but I think I ate half the platter and Francesca and I fought for the last one.

So this was my lunch on Tuesday.  I went the extra step and drizzled some honey over them, and then a pinch of sea salt.  And they were so good, I made like another four and ate those too.

Tuesday night I went back to dance class.  I have not been in....many years.  My mother is guest teaching at my friend Jen's dance studio, 5-6-7-8 Dance Arts, for the month of June.  So I went and I took Pandagirl, and I wasn't prepared for how emotional I'd feel at one, being back in class; and two, being in class with Panda.  And my mother.  We weren't halfway through the first plié combination when I was getting teary.  And now I have this amazing picture of three generations at the barre:

Also taking class was Jen and Anne Marie, both of whom were my mother's students as well.  Being with them in class was like traveling back in time.  It felt so familiar...and yet it was different.  You could just see in our carriages that we remembered all the training, but so much unneeded luggage of youth has been left behind and to hell with perfection - now is the time to just dance.  It was also humorous how many times we each had to break and turn our knees in to relieve our howling joints, or massage a cramp out of our arch.  My body felt okay that night, but by Wednesday afternoon my calves and hips were filing for divorce.

Last, a preview of my next "Reads" post.  It's easy to say that a book is one of your favorites so I just want you to get an idea of what neighborhood of favorite I mean when I talk about In this House of Brede:

It is a book very beloved to me.

Hazelnut. Nutella. Blondies.

As my good friend Jen would say, "Shut the front door!!"

As another good friend Mary would say, "Are you fucking kidding me??!?!"

I found these on Stacey Snacks, where I haven't been for a while so I had a nice long catch-up this morning with a cup of coffee, and I bookmarked about 12 recipes. These blondies, though, demanded instant attention, and an immediate trip to Hannaford because I was out of Nutella (strikes chest, shame be upon me).

Shameful Nutella Blondies

  • 8 tablespoons (one stick) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
  • 3 rounded tablespoons Nutella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil or parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides. Spray with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mix melted butter with brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.

Add salt and flour. Mix until just combined. Add hazelnuts and mix until evenly distributed in batter.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Plop three rounded tablespoons of Nutella onto the batter. Swirl into the batter with a knife.

Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes, or until the middle is set. Do not over bake. Lift using the foil or paper and transfer the blondies to a rack to cool completely.

I can't even describe what the house smelled like when these were baking but I imagine the foyer of Heaven would be similar. And as for taste, they demanded that a cup of coffee be made immediately.

Super gooey goodness and dare I say a little too gooey and perhaps my rounded tablespoons of Nutella were too rounded, or perhaps my swirling technique was lacking.  But they were shut-the-front-door good!!

Trader Joe's Watermelon Salad

So when you first walk into Trader Joe's, there are, right inside the automatic doors, two big bins of whatever produce is usually on sale. Yesterday it was navel oranges and watermelons. On the chalkboard attached to the watermelon bin, it said, "Watermelon! Delicious in a salad! Try it with peach salsa, basil and gorgonzola cheese!"

And I thought, "Um. OK. I'll do that." I always appreciate direction.

So I bought a watermelon, gorgonzola cheese, and a thing of Joe's peach salsa (which I love anyway). Basil I already had in the garden. And today for lunch, I gave it a try.

And wow!  Hey!  This was a pretty awesome salad.  I love the watermelon and basil together, and the peach salsa gives it a nice kick. To be truthful, I am not a huge gorgonzola fan. I see the point of having the savory counterpart to the sweetness of the fruit, but if I try this again I will use feta cheese instead, and see if that's more in line with my taste. Still, for a summer salad, this one rocked, and went perfectly with the little bit of grilled chicken I had leftover from last night.

Thank you Joe!!