Boxcar Kitchen - The other sides

Brown buttons sur la Croisette

esther — Mon, 28 May 2007 12:51:00 +0200

Although this month has been short on posts, it hasn’t been short on much else. My sister and her husband came to visit from San Francisco and with them they brought my brand spanking new Pentax K10D. My first ever digital reflex, YEAH!!! After spending an all too short visit running around Paris making sure that my sis got to taste the very best of everything (alas the list is WAY too long), I settled down to business. For the first time in my life, I am one of those people that actually read the manual and the hub is oh so proud of me for it. Honestly though, there are so many buttons and special features on this camera that I sometimes think K10D is smarter than me. The next step is to tackle my development software that is already humming away happily on my laptop. I am totally spoiled.

These brown buttons were the subject of my first "photo session" with the new equipment and I felt like such a paparazzi. Something delicious will soon happen to these beauties; I promise. I did realize though that I wasn't quite sure what brown buttons actually are and after a quick search, I learned that brown buttons, cremini and portabella mushrooms are all pretty much the same thing. I'm probably the last person on planet earth to figure this one out but, better late than never. Cremini mushrooms are immature portabellas- baby portabellas. And apparently, the only difference between them is another 48 - 72 more hours of growth. Again, this is most likely common knowledge but I was flabbergasted. The other good news is that now I can finally stop complaining that we don't have portabellas in France and pull out some favorite recipe.

Creamy lentil salad

esther — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:55:00 +0200

I L-O-V-E my food blog. I might even love it more than the actual food I make. The time I spend musing about what to cook or bake and the research that goes into it are some of my most enjoyable and creative moments. But no matter how much it inspires me, there is always the inevitable slump. No matter how much I love my perfectly arranged kitchen, my not so organized cupboard of goodies and my cheery Sunday market, there comes a point in time when I want absolutely nothing to do with them, when I'm not feeling the vibe.

Luckily for me and even more luckily for those that I feed, this slump is usually relatively short lived and is smoothed over in part by trips to my neighborhood Picard when the going really gets rough. But more often than not, inspiration comes in the form of a telephone call to my sister or my mother. The "So what are you guys having for dinner?" question is usually the third or fourth one out of my mouth after asking how everyone is doing. As I listen, I then proceed to go about my kitchen, checking the fridge to make sure I have the ingredients or similar ones necessary to make the described dish. I'm a shameless copycat cooker.

This salad is the result of one such conversation with my sister over Easter weekend. I had gone about making a special dinner on Sunday and I was totally drained of ideas come Monday. My sister's version was much more interesting than this one and it was filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley and feta. I didn't have any of these things and couldn't bring myself to walk the 10 measly minutes to the store to get them. Hence, the changes.

Regardless of the short list of ingredients, this lentil salad or the slumpy salad as I started calling it came of pretty darn good. I completed the four unglamorous steps of pour, drain, dump and chop in between commercials and then served it with slices of organic smoked salmon. Simple, light and easy; even borrowed inspiration can be delicious.

Creamy lentil salad

1 cup lentils
1/2 cup whole wheat couscous
2 large cloves garlic
1 Tbsp. tahini
Juice of 2 lemons
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp ras el hanout
2 handfuls arugula
Salt and pepper

Pour boiling water over the lentils and let sit for about 30 minutes. After, drain the water and rinse the lentils. Add the lentils and garlic to a large pot of water to cook until the lentils are soft but not mushy. Drain the water, reserve the garlic and let the lentils cool.

In the meantime, prepare the cousous by pouring about a cup of boiling water over the half cup of grains. Cover and let sit until all the liquid has been soaked up and the couscous is tender. Fluff and add to the lentils.

In a food processor combine the reserved garlic, tahini, lemon juice and spices. Pour over the lentil couscous and refridgerate.

Remove from the refrigerator about an hour before serving. Mix in arugula and salt and pepper.

Makes about 4 side servings

Turn up the heat

esther — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 16:42:00 +0100

Winter isn't just about snow boots, wooly sweaters and one big steaming bowl of soup after another. It's also about sneaking away from intermittent weather to a far away tropical paradise. There is nothing like a sandy beach in the winter; it makes it just that much better.

In honor of our upcoming trip to Florida I put this salad together earlier in the week. The buttery avocado and clean taste of grapefruit are a refreshing change from other heavier fall/winter fare and are a definite sign of warmer days to come!

Fresh citrus salad

1 pink grapefruit
1 haas avocado
50 grams of hearts of palm
fruity olive oil

Start by cutting away the skin of the grapefruit. Be sure to remove all the pith and then cut into sections keeping only the flesh of the fruit.

Slice the avocado lengthwise and slice the hearts of palm into little rounds.

Mix all together, dress with olive oil and serve!

Makes 2 small or 1 large portion

Cranberries alakazam

esther — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:25:00 +0100

This is the last picture related to Thanksgiving. I promise. After this post, this food blog will be dedicated to all things wintery, evergreen and Christmas. Unless I have another idea that is.

Cranberry sauce is one Thanksgiving staple that I have never really loved. I could easily make it through the day without it but it's part of the tradition and the show must go on. This one however is actually pretty good (I even took seconds) and was by far the easiest thing to make. I just threw everything together and 10 minutes later alakazam! We had a delish sweet relish that would be great year-round and especially with a nice pork roast.

Candided Cranberry Sauce

200 grams fresh cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
zest of 1 clementine
1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger

Combine all the ingrediants together in a big skillet and cook covered for 10 minutes.

The cranberries remain whole and you can control the amount of 'jelly' by adding more or less water and covering or uncovering the skillet.

You can serve the sauce warm or you can make it ahead of time and store it in the fridge.

Pork and beans for a new millennium

esther — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 17:42:00 +0100

I've been flipping through The New Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas for the last few days. For some reason I always forget that I have it and it is such a great cookbook. It usually takes me awhile to decide what to make since absolutely everything in there is delicious and totally approachable. It's pretty rare to find an entire cookbook made up of things that you have on hand in your kitchen.

I originally decided on Thomas' recipe for white beans with baby potatoes and herbs but once I got in the kitchen I went a little crazy trying to use up things that I had in my fridge. In the end, the only similar remaining ingredients were white beans, potatoes and rosemary but the results were YUM!

Millennium pork and beans

260 grams white cannellini beans (1 small can)
1/2 cup vegetable stock
100 grams smoked lardons
1/2 large Granny Smith apple
2 handfuls arugula
6 small new red potatoes
3 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic
Salt and pepper

Heat oven to 225° C. Set water to boil then add salt and potatoes. Once the potatoes are soft remove and cut lengthwise. Spray the potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with half the rosemary and some salt. Roast the potatoes.

In the meantime, fry the lardons in a skillet (no added fat) until all the lard has cooked off and the remaining meat is brown and crispy. Remove all excess grease.''

Heat olive oil and add finely chopped garlic. Add white beans. I added a ladle of homemade vegetable stock and a little water to soften canned beans and to give them some flavor. If you use dried beans, you can season them during cooking and skip this step.

Chop apple into small cubes leaving a few larger slices for decoration.

In a large mixing bowl combine the beans, lardons, potatoes and apple. Add the remaining fresh rosemary and season to taste. Just before serving, add the arugula and toss.

Note: This makes a great simple meal served with grilled lemon chicken