Ann Mah's Blog, page 25

New newsletter (and giveaway)!

Bonjour, mes amis!

I'm starting a new project that I'd love to share with you: My new newsletter! I'm preparing my first edition now, which I plan to send next month (and every quarter (or so) thereafter). It'll feature more food porn photos, special recipes, stories from my travels, and news about my books, articles and appearances. I've done a lot of traveling this fall — Burgundy, Alsace, Aveyron, and Rome (next week!) — and I'm so excited to fill you in on my adventures.

You can sign up to receive my newsletter by clicking here. And in case you need a little extra incentive, I'm hosting a giveaway! If you subscribe by December 31, I'll enter you into a drawing to win a selection of adorable Cartes d'Art notebooks (perfect cahiers for keeping track of French vocab, or your favorite bottles of wine) and Muji pens (sparkly!), packaged together in an organic cotton tote from La Grande Epicerie. Three winners will be chosen at random. (If you've already signed up for the newsletter, don't worry — you're already entered in the drawing.)

Merci mille fois, as always, for your support, mes amis. I'm looking forward to communicating with you in a whole new way!

xoxo

P.S. Please know that I'll never share your email address with anyone, even if they threaten to banish me from fromageries around the world.

Wine with personality

One of the best parts of living in France has been getting to know winemakers like Jean-Marc Espinasse, and the delicious wine he produces at Domaine Rouge Bleu in the Rhone Valley.

Jean-Marc and I became friends through his wife, Kristin, who pens the lovely blog, French Word-a-Day. Before I ever lived in France, I used to sit in my grimy Beijing office, reading Kristin's tales of family, friends, and Golden Retrievers in sunny Provence and dream of life there.

Last year, I was honored to share an event with Jean-Marc at Shakespeare & Co  (I read from my book, he offered a dégustation). It was a lovely evening — what could be better than wine and friends amid the book-lined walls of a literary landmark?

Well, in case you missed last November's tasting, Jean-Marc is back in Paris — where he will be offering two dégustations this week! In honor of his events, I'm thrilled he took the time to answer a few questions.

What will you be pouring at your upcoming events in Paris?

A wine named Dentelle, which means "lace" in English. The name refers to both the Dentelles de Montmirail, a famous hill where the grapes were grown, as well as the wine's lacy style. We will also be pouring a wine named Mistral, which refers to our famous strong wind and also to the wine's very powerful style.

You're a relatively new vigneron, having recently completed your fifth harvest. What inspired you to start making wine?

Working as a broker with other small, organic winemakers with a strong identity. Their devotion to making natural wine with high personality inspired me to do the same.

How does your wine reflect your personality?

I have made a wine called "Lunatique" which really can reflect my personality but this is a very small amount of our production. But, generally speaking, I think my wines are a bit moody, sometimes they show wonderful and sometimes they need a bit of time to express themselves. But I know they have been made with love so I know they are good.

Your wine is sold around the world, including the US, Australia, and Japan. Do different countries prefer different cépages?

I don't think so. We are making natural wines (which means organic in the field and no additives in the cellars) with a strong identity and this is what our distributors look for.

What's your favorite wine and food pairing?

I remember (almost 20 years ago) cooking spaghetti with a Roquefort sauce and pouring a Chateauneuf du Pape with it. Well, this is still quite good. Now, my favorite pairing is pigeon with a Pommard. As people say, the more you evolve with wine, the more you go to Burgundy and this is also true for me.

Are you in Paris this week? Come meet Jean-Marc and taste his delicious, gold medal-winning wines (the 2009 Mistral was recently awarded two stars by the 2o12 Guide Hachette des Vins). And if you see me there swilling back a glass, please come and say hello!

Thursday, Dec 1, 17h00-20h00

La Carte des Vines

26 bd Beaumarchais, 11e

Friday, Dec 2, 17h00-19h30

La Dernière Goutte

6 rue Bourbon le Château, 6e

Joyeux Thanksgiving!

Whether you're pilgrim or Indian, pumpkin pie or pecan, dark meat or white, football fan or kitchen junkie, marshmallow sweet potatoes or plain, happy Thanksgiving! I'm off to Aveyron for a bit of book research but I'll be back next week with tales of amazing, elastic aligot.

In the meantime, as you begin to prepare your free-range, organic, herb-rubbed, kosher bird for the oven, I leave you with two quotes from the 18th-century French food lover and philosopher Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin:

"The fate of nations depends on the way they eat."

and

"A man can become a cook, but he has to be born a rôtisseur."

Happy turkey day, tout le monde!

 

Comfort me with pumpkin

My husband's grandmother loved Canadian rye whiskey, which she kept in recycled airline cocktail bottles in her purse. She believed in the four "L"s: living, loving, learning, laughter, all pronounced in a Queens accent so thick you could spread it on a bagel. Her chicken soup remains legendary. "Wouldja like a plate a soup?" she'd ask (or so I'm told). Nanny died last week at the age of 91.

I met Nanny less than 10 years ago, so I never really knew her in her prime, when she was a beautiful, young grandmother lavishing attention on her grandkids. I kind of feel like I knew her back then, however, if only from my husband's stories of Pacific Northwest vacations in a camper, or the summer they all went to Montreux, Switzerland for the jazz festival — trips that went a long way towards establishing his wanderlust and probably led to our itinerant lifestyle today.

Recently, I've stared a lot at the photos of my husband as a toddler, which he brought back from his grandparents' house a few weeks ago, picturing the loving arms that hugged him. One of the (many) scary things about death is that the people who knew you as a baby, who remember those years better than you, disappear, taking a part of your childhood with them.

After we heard the news, my husband went out and bought a bottle of Canadian Club in Nanny's honor. That night, he sipped a couple of fingers on the rocks while I drank leftover Champagne and made baked pasta, kind of like macaroni and cheese, but with the addition of pumpkin, chard, sage, and mushrooms. Part of being in a relationship means your partner's sadness becomes your own. This dish celebrated autumn, but it was also comfort food, cozy and warm.

Fall Harvest baked pasta

I first read about this pasta on Bear with a Wooden Spoon, which was inspired by this recipe by Scandilicious. But I made so many changes and modifications, based on what I had in the fridge and my own hypochondriac impulses, that I've created my own.

Serves 4 (hungry) people

Half a small pumpkin

Olive oil

3 tablespoons canola oil

3 tablespoons flour

1 pint milk

3/4 cup buttermilk

Pinch of nutmeg

Pinch of cayenne pepper

1 small basket of mushrooms, sliced

1 small Swiss chard

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

2-3 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped

1/2 lb whole wheat penne

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

5-6 sage leaves

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF). Wash, seed, peel and cut the pumpkin into 1-inch chunks. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for about 20 minutes.

Prepare a roux by adding the flour to the hot canola oil in a saucepan, stirring constantly until it smells warm and toasty, and turns faintly brown. Add the milk and whisk over low heat until the mixture thickens. Off heat, add the buttermilk, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. Meanwhile, in a sauté pan, brown the mushroom slices in a little oil, and then stir in the garlic, crushed red chili and minced sage leaves. Wash the chard and remove the green leaves (save the stems for another recipe) and chop finely. Add the chard to the mushrooms, season, cover and allow to cook for 10 minutes or until softened. Meanwhile, cook the pasta for 5 minutes.

When the chard has softened, combine it with the béchemel, pumpkin chunks and cooked penne, stirring thoroughly and adding dashes of pasta cooking water to keep the mixture loose. Taste and adjust seasoning. Pour the mixture into a lightly greased baking dish and scatter with the grated cheese and sage leaves. Bake for 10 minutes, or until bubbling. Raise the oven to broil and lightly brown the top until golden (about 3 minutes).

Itacate

A few weeks ago, I was eating at one of the taco stands that have sprung up recently in Paris. We were feeling rather lucky having achieved the impossible — finding a spot for three for dinner — but it turned out that my real luck was being seated next to a chatty gentleman from Mexico.

As we discussed important topics such as the best tequila to use in a margarita, and roving Beijing taco trucks (I ate regularly at the one owned by his friend), my neighbor told me about another taqueria — his favorite — in the 1e. Needless to say, I ran over there at the first opportunity.

With its plastic tables and chairs, Itacate is reminiscent of a joint in an Orange County strip mall. But the food has true south-of-the-border-spirit, even if the salsa has been toned down for timid French tongues.

Not everything was a winner. But the tacos that were good were like Olympic medalists. The pork carnitas featured luscious roasted meat — teetering just on the modest edge of lean — rolled with a sprinkle of cilantro and squeeze of lime into a corn tortilla. Nothing could be simpler or more satisfying. (Well, maybe a dollop of truly fiery salsa, unapologetic and not patronizing, would have been even more satisfying.)

The chorizo taco, with house-made sausage meat, won the silver medal, a salty blend of spice and succulence that left my fingers slippery with red grease. It left me wanting more — more tacos, washed down by more frozen margaritas (an affordable indulgence at 4.50€ a pop).

Itacate

94 rue St-Honoré, 1e

tel: 01 42 33 39 87

Alsace

Is everyone bilingual in Alsace? On a recent trip there, I heard shopkeepers and restaurant owners switching between French and the local dialect, Alsacian, snapping from one to the other without batting an umlaut.

Alsacian is etymologically close to Swiss German — I heard lots of ja, ja, ja, mixed with the occasional ça va — which is fitting for this rich and diverse region situated on the French border with Germany.

A misty fog accompanied my journey, adding a poignancy to a landscape that has experienced losses from many, many wars, and traded hands many, many times.

 

And everywhere, from the village of Obernai to the vineyards outside Andlau, I saw autumn leaves.

The vines pictured above, by the way, produced the wine in this photo: beautiful, flowery whites with a brisk, mineral finish. I loved the elegant, long-necked bottles, too.

And though I'm saving tales of choucroute for my book, I can tell you I saw (and ate) cabbage. Lots and lots and lots of it.

In fact, choucroute turned out to be the perfect fuel for a chilly stroll along the canals of Strasbourg's Petite France.

Then again, so did a glass of pinot gris accompanied by a tartine prepared tarte flambée-style — that is, bread spread with crème fraîche, bacon and Munster cheese, and broiled until melty and crunchy. It was, one might say, the perfect blend of French and German.

P.S. Check out a few more of my photos here.

For wine tasting:

Marc Kreydenweiss

12 rue Deharbe

Andlau

tel: 03 88 08 95 83

For tarte flambée tartines:

L'Epicerie

6 rue du Vieux-Seigle

Strasbourg

tel: 03 88 32 52 41

Cooking the books

Bonjour, mes amis! A few weeks ago, I asked you to name your recent favorite cookbooks. I was excited to hear your suggestions, and I'm even more thrilled to share them. Here's what you're cooking from these days:

  

Rhino75: Am currently working my way through Signe Johansen's Scandilicious, Dan Lepard's baking bible, Short and Sweet, and Glynn Christian's How to Cook Without Recipes - which has some interesting stuff on flavour trails, etc.

Me: I love hearing from Brits, because their cookbook suggestions are so fresh and different! These three books are a perfect example. I'm fascinated by Scandilicious, which is written by a young Norwegian cook and has exotic (to me) recipes like Bergen fish chowder, or cardamom cake. I'm always drooling over Rhino75′s tweets about the soda bread or farmhouse loaf he's whipped up from Dan Lepard. And as I become more experienced in the kitchen, I'm also becoming braver. Glynn Christian's book sounds like an excellent way to hone my improvisational skills. PS. Check out Rhino75′s new baking blog, Bear with a Wooden Spoon, with gorgeous photos of his latest creations!

  

Brassfrog: I can't live without 660 Curries: The gateway To Indian Cooking by Raghavan Iyer. This is a veritable encyclopedia of spices, methods and recipes. Want cabbage and peas? There are three different recipes. The same with cauliflower. Lots of tips, hints and tricks. Spice blends and spice suppliers.

Camille: Miss Masala is a constant favorite.

Voie de Vie: I recently picked up 50 Classic Curries by Manisha Kanani (I really want to make great curry!).

Me: I've been an Indian cooking addict ever since I discovered Miss Masala by Mallika Basu (she also has a terrific blog). I can't wait to experiment more, especially with 660 Curries, which I recently bought for my dad based on Brassfrog's suggestion. Thanks!

Sherry: In my dreams, I'm working my way through the Essential Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy, which was a wedding gift, and makes me hungry whenever I see it on my shelf.

Jeanne: The cookbooks I return to the most are Chez Panisse by Paul Bertolli and Alice Waters and The Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy.

Me: I just discovered that The Essential Cuisines of Mexico is a compilation of three Diana Kennedy books: The Cuisines of Mexico, The Tortilla Book, and Mexican Regional Cooking. With over 300 recipes, it sounds like the volume for Mexican cuisine. I would love to cook from this book! I am curious, however, if the ingredients are too specialized and/or hard to find?

    

Camille: Super Natural Every Day is a real winner. I just bought two more vegetarian cookbooks for my brother (Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven and Plenty by Ottolenghi).

Jeanne: On my to buy list is Plenty by Ottolenghi as Camille mentioned. I saw it last weekend in Anthropologie and it is beautifully illustrated.

Terry: My most recent discovery is Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. It is a reference book really, but with great recipes too.

Me: I love vegetarian cooking, especially for weeknights. Super Natural Every Day sounds like it has great, new ideas for using whole grains and different vegetables (I would love to try her chanterelle tacos). I have to confess that I'm not a fan of Plenty. It's beautiful, but I found the recipes inaccessible and fussy. I'd love to hear your experiences with it. I love the idea of Jane Grigson's book, which offers romantic vegetable lore and recipes. Sounds right up my alley!

  

Katia: My absolute favourite cookbook is The Cook's Companion by the quintessentially Australian chef Stephanie Alexander – it starts with a wonderful section with the basics (like pizza dough and stock), then is broken down into sections by main ingredient and by alphabetical order – starting with "abalone", "apples" and "artichokes and cardoons" to "yabbies and marron", "yoghurt" and "zucchini and squash". There are recipes for everything from classics (like lemon tart or chicken noodle soup or fig and rum chocolate truffles) to modern Australian recipes (tajine with quince, or pasta with wild fennel and sardines).

Voie de Vie: My two favorites (of the half dozen cookbooks on the shelf): Joy of Cooking and Patricia Wells's Bistro Cooking.

Lindsey: Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentiis. It's not old, it's not particularly original, but I've made some amazing meals from it so it's become my trust Italian bible!

Camille: Everything I've made from David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert has gotten rave reviews.

Me: I love hearing about your tried-and-true cookbooks, the ones you know will never let you down. I can't wait to explore your favorites, especially Everyday Italian, which I know my husband will appreciate as an Italian food fan(atic). I've been looking for a companion to Lydia's Italian American Kitchen (another great book).

 

Ann in SF: I have a book titled The New Joys of Jell-O, copyright 1973. A classic with chapter titles like Centerpiece Desserts, Salads That Help Make the Meat, and Things You Never Thought Of. I guess it's just another form of aspic, Lots of groovy pictures too.

Lindsey: I love Rachel Khoo's Pâtes à Tartiner which is really easy to follow. Also, who doesn't want to make their own Nutella?

Anne:  The one I made using Tastebook that compiles recipes from a group of friends with whom I cooked once a month in Paris.

Me: I love your more unusual suggestions, too! What holiday is complete without a jello salad mold? Homemade Nutella from Pâtes à Tartiner sounds divine, especially since the bottled variety is full of evil palm oil. And, as a prodigious recipe collector, I'm checking out Tastebook tout de suite.

Thank you for sharing your favorite cookbooks, mes amis! I had so much fun discovering them.

 

Home sweet stir fry

When my husband went away for the weekend, I planned three days of abstinence and industry for myself. I would humor the workaholic in me (so often ignored) and write late into the night. And I would indulge the hypochondriac in me and eat only healthy foods for his entire 72-hour absence. I prepared my garments of sack cloth.

Which precisely explains how I woke up on the couch at 1.30 am with the TV blaring a Gilmore Girls marathon, and a half-filled bottle of wine lolling recklessly on the floor. In the bathroom, I tried to ignore the throbbing pain at the base of my neck as I peeled the contact lenses off my eyes.

The next morning I surveyed the kitchen. Dots of sesame oil glistened against the shiny black surface of the stove, a bottle of Sriracha left sticky rings on the counter, a pile of pots colonized the sink like urban sprawl. Slowly, the night came back to me:  the need to relax after 12 hours in front of the computer. The impulse to cook something fast. The resulting noodle stir fry eaten with just-one-more glass of wine in front of just-one-more episode of sugary girl-pop TV.

At least I'd had the wherewithal to store the leftovers in the fridge. Turns out, they were the perfect way to nurse a hangover.

Ginger noodles

I hesitated before offering this recipe because it's so simple it's almost facile. But then I thought, I love simple-almost-facile recipes, especially for busy weeknights. This is a dish I make when I don't have a lot of time to cook. Or, clearly, when I'm tipsy.

Chicken and marinade:

1/2 lb chicken breast (boneless, skinless)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon Shaoxin wine (or white wine)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

For the vegetables:

1 1/2 tablespoons neutral oil (canola or sunflower) (divided)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch root ginger, peeled and minced

1- 1.5 lbs napa cabbage (or other sturdy green vegetable: broccoli, leeks, cabbage)

1 teaspoon chili sauce (optional)

5-6 tablespoons soy sauce

2 cups water

1 teaspoon sesame oil

500 grams/1 lb long noodles

Serves 4

For the chicken: Cut into thin slices and mix with the marinade ingredients. Allow to marinate while you prepare the other ingredients.

Chop the napa cabbage (or other green vegetable) into small, bite-sized morsels. Peel and mince the garlic and ginger. Bring a large pot of water to boil for the noodles.

Heat a skillet or wok over high heat and add a 1/2 tablespoon of oil. Add the chicken with marinade and cook, tossing constantly until the meat is cooked through. Remove to a separate dish. Clean the pan.

Reheat the pan and add the remaining oil. Add the garlic and ginger, stirring until fragrant. Add the napa cabbage (or other vegetable) stirring to combine. Quickly, add the water, soy sauce, and chili sauce, combine, lower the heat and cover. Cook for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables soften. Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to the package directions.

When the vegetables are cooked, add the chicken, heating everything through. Add the drained noodles to the pan, stirring to combine with the sauce, which will be very liquid. Taste, adding more soy sauce if necessary. Drizzle with the remaining sesame oil.

Bookmarked recipes

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My cookbook collection takes up almost six bookshelves, yet I still find myself hoarding recipes online. More often than not, you'll find me with my MacBook on the kitchen counter,  exposed to all manner of drips and drops, as I touch the mousepad with buttery fingertips. I thought I'd share a few of my tried-and-true favorites from hither and yon, all recipes worth endangering your laptop for…

Matzoh balls — The fall months mean cold — in more ways than one. When I have a scratchy throat and that weird feeling on the roof of my mouth, the only thing I want to eat is chicken soup. This Bon Appétit recipe produces genuine light and fluffy matzoh balls that my husband claims rival those of his Jewish grandmother. A few recipe notes: I've never chilled the dough overnight (though I'm sure it would help) and I don't make the matzoh balls mini (because I'm impatient). Also, don't cook the matzoh balls in the soup — they suck it all up, leaving you with no broth.

Pie crust — It's pie season! Apple! Pumpkin! Pecan! After years of sticky dough frustration, I'm still not very good at rolling out a crust. But a few years ago, I did find the perfect pie dough recipe, from this New York Times article by Melissa Clark. Her secret ingredient is leaf lard, but I get chest pain just thinking about cooking with pork fat. Instead, I use the all-butter recipe and, if I'm baking an apple pie, I make the cheddar crust variation. Adding cheese to the dough makes it wonderfully pliable and easy to handle.

Buttermilk biscuits – Here's a simple, not-too-buttery recipe for easy biscuits. If I have leftover dough, I cut it into individual biscuits and freeze it; sometimes I use it as a topping for chicken pot pie.

Stuffed pumpkin – Dorie Greenspan's recipe for pumpkin stuffed with bread, cheese and other delicious things has traveled round the internet and back again. I'm just another fan who has made and loved it.

Thai green curry — A few days ago, Chez Loulou tweeted about Thai green curry and shared this recipe from The Young Thailand Cookbook. I ran to the Asian store to buy coconut milk, lime leaves, curry paste, and all the other ingredients necessary. The resulting green chicken curry made we weep with both spice and happiness. Do you ever feel like a recipe has changed your life? I can't wait to experiment some more with this one, adding tofu or shrimp dumplings. Recipes notes: I added more chilies (because I like it spicy), and used those teensy Thai eggplants instead of peas. I also added a squeeze of lemon juice at the end — I think the curry benefits from the balance of sweet, spicy, tart and bitter.

What recipes have you bookmarked, mes amis? I'd love to try them!

Les Buttes-Chaumont

Ever since I moved to Paris, I've wanted to flâner in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, a leafy aerie in Paris's northeast corner. Well, after three years here, I finally made it last weekend.

En route, I stopped for a big plate of Chinese potstickers at Croque Camille's beloved Restaurant Raviolis, and a coffee at Le Mistral, and then it was off to the park to walk it all off.

Built on a former gypsum and limestone quarry, the park ripples with cascading hills that offer views from various highs and lows. The groves of trees planted on different levels make you feel like you're lost in a sylvan wilderness.

And then you catch a glimpse of something (like the Sacre Coeur), and in a blink you remember all over again where you are.

Oh, yes. It's Paris.