Chefs for a Day

Not a day goes by I don't think of something special, funny, or delicious I experienced in France.  One of the highlights of my trip was cooking in a restaurant kitchen in Paris.  I've been waiting for just the right moment to tell you about it and finally that moment is upon us.

Kelsy (who you may remember guest blogged here about those delicious sloppy joes!) was searching for cooking classes and stumbled upon an opportunity of a lifetime.  She told me about Un Jour Un Chef's concept...   Vouz vez les recettes, nous avons le restaurant (you have the recipes, we have the restaurant).  This means that we'd get to work in a professional kitchen with professional chefs who would help us execute our own menu!  My immediate reaction was that it sounded terrifying, but something that we had to do, and would be reminiscing about forever.  The next thing I knew, we were planning our menu with an American food theme and writing a bio that would be posted on their website along with our menu. We were locked in for June 1st.  We wanted to represent classic American food (which I hear is a growing trend in Paris right now) with a home-made, dressed up spin.  

Our menu:

spicy fried chicken strips 

on a green salad with herb buttermilk "ranch" dressing and cornbread croutons

Petits beignets de poulet épicé sur lit de salade 

bourbon and beer BBQ marinade pork ribs 

with green bean casserole and fennel garlic mashed potatoes. 

Ribs de porc caramélisés bourbon/bière, sauce BBQ, haricots verts à l'américaine

red wine brownie, carrot cake cupcake, and peanut butter cookie

Brownie, cupcake carottes et cookie au beurre de cacahuètes 

Les chefs du jour!

Kelsy and I set out early for a  coffee and croissant as we imagined what our big day would be like.  Giddy with excitement but not sure how much we'd get to do, or how everything was going to work we quickly headed to the restaurant after breakfast to make sure we'd be on time!  We arrived at the restaurant at 9 a.m. to find Ludovic, one of the chefs who would help us all day, putting away vegetables.  He showed us where to put our things and where to find chef jackets to change into.  Chef Jackets?!  We were in the big time now.  Very official.

 We got right to work in the kitchen, which was tiny by the way, chopping vegetables.  We were set free at the counter,where a long magnet stocked with knives hung along the wall at eye level.  We set to work on a large pile of potatoes, fennel, mushrooms, and onions.  Then, Ludo left us alone to finish preparing the pork ribs, which had been marinading over night.  It was here where we quickly picked up on the rhythm of the how this day in the kitchen was going to play out.

We got to work and the work didn't stop until after lunch service when everything was clean.  But it didn't feel like work since we were having a ball!  

As you know, I love to chop things, so this was a comforting way for me to get my bearings in a kitchen  where I didn't speak much of the language. The food was the one way I was certain I could communicate what I was capable of.  I really appreciated how we were trusted in the kitchen and nobody was overly concerned as to just how were were cutting the mushrooms, only that we were being safe.  Our second chef arrived, Pauline, the pastry chef/sous chef who spoke some English.  Between that and my limited French and Kelsy's translations, it was smooth sailing. 

we chopped giant bag of onions

While the chefs were not hanging over our shoulder at all, they were aware of what we were up to the entire time.  Every so often, we'd hear "les filles, cava?" (girls are you ok?) to which I'd reply "tres bien chef! oui!"  They loved to teach and share their love of cooking,  and stop to give us a good kitchen tip now and then.  They also never wasted a minute.  Every time we ran out of vegetables to chop, something new to do arrived in the kitchen as Ludo seemed to disappear every few minutes to retrieve ingredients or run a quick load of dishes through the dish machine. 

  

pork ribs marinating

green bean casserole!

After about 90 minutes of chopping vegetables, Kelsy and I prepared our chicken for the salad.  This included making a spice mixture, dredging and frying the chicken strips.  Then in came Ludo with a huge pile of fresh herbs for our ranch dressing.  Kelsy and I tried to get this dressing to a beautiful creamy consistency by whisking buttermilk but it just wasn't working.  We added cream cheese and mascarpone to the buttermilk and herb mixture, but it just wouldn't thicken.  Then Pauline stepped in and saved the day.  She taught us to mix the thinner liquid into the thick liquid to get the right consistency.  Ah-hah!!

I didn't get a picture of us making the chicken, so here is Kelsy stirring a gigantic vat of our mashed potatoes!!

At about 11:30 the restaurant manager peeked into the kitchen to see if things were ready to taste before lunch service began at noon.  When we finally got everything together, he tasted our dishes. 

"wee!! they liked our food!"

First the salad, then the pork, then deserts.  Every time we presented our dishes, which Ludo and Pauline showed us how to plate exquisitely (and instructionally since we'd be preparing each plate during service!!) , Eric would taste and we'd anxiously wait his reaction. 

"yesssss!"

It was nothing but mmmmmmmmmms as he shared it with the rest of the staff.  Our ingredients were prepared and our dishes had passed the taste test!  We were open for business.






It seems that this restaurant, which seats around 40-50 diners at a time, was a lunch spot for locals. They could choose any dish from our menu, the chefs menu or a traditional menu. 

As soon as customers began to arrive, Ludovic began calling out orders in the kitchen, "deux entrees du chef, un plat du chef, !"  It was time to work!  Funny side note here... in French, the appetizer is called the "entree" which threw me for a loop since in America the entree is the main dish... but  thanks to Kelsy I figured out that when he said entree I needed to make my salads asap!

So the service continued for two hours.  Orders would arrive, Kelsy and I would heat things up and plate them, place them in the window for pick up and hit the bell... ding!

DING!

 

 

Kelsy plating the ribs, potatoes and beans.  I think that I was one drizzling the sauce while holding the camera with my other hand!

The four of us worked in harmony during the busy service and whenever there was a lull, Pauline put me to work preparing the deserts as they were going to be flying out of the kitchen any minute!  

At the end of lunch, the manager called us into the dining room.  There sat six people finishing the last crumbs of their dinner and when Kelsy and I appeared out of the kitchen they started to applaud.  I took a little bow and said "merci, merci!" while Kelsy and the diners started having a conversation in French.  I tried to follow along, but the words began to flood together as my mind wandered and I took in the moment in.  Here I was, with one of my best friends, in France, having just served our American themed lunch to Parisians.  My feet hurt, my chef jacket was utterly food-stained but my heart was soaring.  


Find out about more Un Jour Un Chef here.  If you are ever planning a trip to Paris, I highly recommend this as an adventure.  It's free, but they really put you to work for the day!  It was fantastic. 

Kelsy has also blogged about our experiences on her blog A l'Americaine.

Les gourmandes!!!

An Extraordinary Cooking Adventure

When I was living in NYC with Jordan, she got a job at a restaurant called Market Cafe.  It's a little neighborhood gem in the  Hell's Kitchen area that had amazing, gourmet yet down to earth food.  This is the place where I really started to get into simple, but delicious and thoughtfully prepared food.  On my limited City budget, this place was affordable, it was one of those places where you could spend a lot if you ordered certain things but could also walk out there completely satisfied for under 15 Bucks, and having an "in" allowed me to get some free food from time to time too.

When Jordan moved to France, it became a meeting place for mutual friends to stay connected without her.  Every Wednesday night, for several months we'd dine at Market Cafe and catch up.  I looked forward to this camaraderie over dinner every week.  I also looked forward to the food.  If you ever travel to NYC, make sure you have dinner at Market Cafe, you will not be disappointed. 

My most favorite dish at Market Cafe still remains the scallops.  My mouth still waters just thinking about them.  Next time I visit NYC I will surely stop by for the scallops.  It is the kind of treat that my mom still reminisces about, because I took her there a couple of times when she visited.  They were  swimming in brown butter  served on on a bed of potato puree, and greens.

Jordan and I recreated the scallops dish and several others on Monday in her tiny cottage kitchen.  It was a massive culinary undertaking, I mean, we taught ourselves to sear scallops, baked two cakes, and made two varieties of bread!!

les cuisinières audacieuses

les cuisinières audacieuses

I missed the cultural experience of going to le poisonnerie, because it was closed that morning for a holiday... so we bought our fresh scallops at the supermarket, who had a special person dedicated to the seafood section.  The scallops were around 1 Euro a piece.  We bought 10, one for our trial run of searing, and 3 per person at the table (her partner, J, was a very fortunate beneficiary of our cooking adventure).

raw scallops

We looked up how to sear sea scallops on the internet and voila, it wasn't that difficult, though, they were delicate little things that could have been overcooked very easily... so not difficult, just required attention.

here I am trimming off the "feet" of the scallops, which is actually its muscle

our trial run scallop!

During this cooking adventure, we made tons of brown butter.  It really added a depth of flavor and richness to the dishes.  We used it for the scallops and one of the cakes.  :)

FRENCH BUTTER!

voila: the nutty, brown butter

I will let the photos describe the rest of our adventure, but first, here is the menu: and some links to the recipes.  Bon appetit!!

Jordan & Allison's Triumphant Recreation of Market Cafe

first course: sea scallops on q bed of mashed potatoes with brown butter and mache
second: green salad with oatmeal pumpkin bread and pumpkin hummus
third: baked flatbread "pizza" with potato puree, rosemary and green olives (i didn't get pictures of this as the excitement in the kitchen was at a maximum while it was being prepared, the photography fell by the wayside.)
desert:  brown butter banana cake (adapted from this recipe) AND amazing chocolate cake

mixing up a cake with this cool springy whisk we picked up at the le marché the other day (best impulse purchase ever)

batter for the brown butter banana cake

Can you tell how excited I am?!

This meal was a great way to reminisce about our days of life in the big city, while we bonded over our mutual love, as adult women, of cooking for friends and family.  Life doesn't get much better than this.  As I said as we finished our small pieces of cake...  Nous avons une belle vie!

We have a beautiful life!

Kitchen Table Friends: Cooking Together

Cooking Together

Cooking and food has been a large part of our friendship for many years.  We are delighted to share this sentimental blog post that epitomizes the feeling of and the reason for Kitchen Table Friends.

When Cara and I graduated college and started living on our own, we would visit one another wherever we happened to be living at the time and we'd always find ourselves cooking together.  In the early days of our twenties cooking meant browning ground beef and adding it to a jar of spaghetti sauce. A process, that in a tiny kitchen, involved multiple pans and heating things up on the stove. We were learning how to be grown ups and but in the kitchen we pretty much stuck to the familiar.  Since then, we have evolved, to extensive  kitchen repertoires that reflect not just what we know how to make but who we are and what we want to learn.  Now we roast vegetables, experiment with flavors from around the world, we zest citrus, toast and grind whole spices but no matter what we make we have fun together.

The past couple of days as we spent time together, we talked about why cooking was so meaningful to our friendship.  Cara remarked about what it meant to know where things were in a friends' kitchen, to know the little quirks about being in someone else's space.  Knowing and moving freely in the space of a close friend, is a mark of familiarity and of comfort. Living so far apart, this familiarity means a lot to the both of us. We compared the days when were friends in high school, and would hang out in each other's bedrooms, eating handfuls of M&Ms and telling all our secrets... to the time we spend together now.  We hang out in our kitchens, snacking and talking about what we're making as the conversation drifts in and out of other conversations about everything and nothing. As Cara would say, it's bliss.  

This is what we made:

mixed grain salad with roasted beets and cumin lime vinaigrette

ingredients: 
1 C mixed grains (we used 1/2 pearl barley, 1/2 bulgur)
3 C water
1-2  beets, cubed
2 C spinach, washed
1 green onion, minced
salt and pepper
olive oil
a handful of pepitas

toss beet with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 425 for approximately 30 minutes, test with fork for doneness.

I recommend donning an apron when chopping beets so you don't stain your cardigan.

rinse the grains with sieve, add to pot with water and bring to a boil. reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. you may want to add a drop of olive oil to the grains to prevent sticking.

set grains and beets aside until ready to assemble salad.


for the lime-cumin vinaigrette (adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone Deborah Madison):

1 clove garlic
salt
zest of 2 limes
2-3 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 Tablespoon green onions, minded
1 small jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/3 C olive oil
2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro

mince garlic and make into a paste with 1/8 teaspoon of the salt.

zest and juice the limes.
add garlic and lime zest and juice to bowl with scallion and jalapeno. 



toast the spices in a small dry skillet over medium until fragrant (this doesn't take long) and immediately remove them to a plate to cool. 

grind them to a powder (if you do not have whole, just use the powders, toasted as you would the seeds). add to the bowl.

whisk in the olive oil. 

let stand for 15 minutes.


top with fresh cilantro, just before using.



                                                                                 

slowly combine your grains with the vinaigrette and salt and pepper to taste. 
arrange spinach in a bowl and top with the grain mixture.  top with beets, pepitas, cilantro and green onions.  serve at room temperature and share with a friend. 

Kitchen Table Friends Together!

It's always a pleasure when friends come in to town, but it's more than a pleasure when your best friend and blogging partner can spend a few days in your city.  Cara is visiting Des Moines!  We've been catching up over breakfast and coffee, kitties, and now lunch. 

Here we are!

Kitchen Table Friends!  Allison & Cara

Lunch: leftover pasta from last night & avocado veggie wrap

Stormy Saturday Morning

I have a lot of homework to do this weekend. So I'm taking this gloomy Saturday morning to lounge around before errands and reading dominate my day.  I don't have real weekend cooking plans, but a few weekly menu meals got pushed out of the week due to busy schedules and an unexpected dinner invitation so I have the soup and the pasta left to make. 

However, last night, I had a flash of inspiration to make scones.  I didn't know it was going to be a gloomy morning, but now, as it rains and thunders, and I catch up on internet browsing (Food Gawker, Pinterest, Facebook, Bon Appetit.com, etc.) they are perfect.  Especially with some homemade strawberry jam and lots of coffee.

My Chia frog, who is trying to grow his seeds, looks a little jealous.

This make the dough ahead trick comes from my dear Kitchen Table Friend, Cara.  One Saturday morning, when I was visiting her in Denver Colorado, she magically produced warm scones (I believe they were lemon and currant!) out of the oven.  When did you make those? I asked, delighted.  She had prepared the dough the night before for a warm, morning breakfast surprise.  Yum.  Cara makes the best scones. 

I am improving, by practicing when the mood strikes, the Joy of Cooking recipe for classic scones with dried cranberries. I leisurely made the recipe last night and stored the dough in the fridge.  Then this morning when I woke up, as the coffee was brewing, I preheated the oven to 450, brushed the top with egg, and 20 minutes later, voila! Breakfast. 

My husband just popped in from working on something in the garage to get one and said "yuuuum!"  so I think I've done a good job this time around. 

Now, as I finish writing this, it seems the rain is clearing up... so that means I should probably get to work!

Carrot Cake Pancakes

Cara, I think you're going to like this one. It's about breakfast between friends!

One of the perks of bring in grad school and working irregular hours,  is that I can have friends come over for breakfast before an afternoon class.  Today Aimee rode her bike over so we could make carrot cake pancakes !  What a treat to have a friend over to start the week! I love meeting friends for coffee at Des Moines' wonderful local coffee shops, however, for me there are times when having a friend over so you can cook together cannot be beat.  Especially when that friend is a fellow food enthusiast.  When planning our breakfast, Aimee wrote in an e mail "Do we think about food too much?"  To which I responded,  "Yes and there's nothing wrong with that!" 

We followed the recipe, almost exactly but instead used vanilla almond milk (rather thank plain) and substituted canola oil for a delicious walnut oil.  These pancakes (which happen to be vegan, if you're into that kind of thing) had a spicy, nutty flavor.  They were light and fluffy (perhaps due to a pleasant bubbling that occurred upon adding the wet ingredients to the dry) and not too sweet. 

I do not love carrot cake, the cake version. It's often too dense and too sweet and the cream cheese frosting that is usually on top is just over kill in my opinion (recall... I don't like frosting very much, period.) This was a nice substitute. So, if you're ever thinking of making me a carrot cake, just make me carrot pan-cakes instead. 

Dinner With Friends

I love hosting friends at our house for dinner.

My friend Emily and I collaborate regularly on what we like to call family dinners.  We'll make our favorites, or try out new recipes. Whatever the menu, it's always a tasty and lovely time.

This weekend she brought falafel from the best/easiest falafel recipe EVER.  I found this recipe by visually searching on foodgawker (Go there now, I'll wait. ) I love searching for recipes on foodgawker because it catalogs many many food blogs, and it's a visual smorgasboard.

However, the recipe I found on foodgawker was based on the one that is found here here, which I find to be superb! I promptly shared it and am excited to share it again. 

The falafel were eaten with pita pockets and a delicious cucumber dill sauce and gone before I even had time to take a picture!!


I made empanadas for my contribution to family dinner.

Easily intimidated by pastry, I haven't made empanadas (or many foods that require a crust or a dough... Ryan's the baker around this house)  but I wanted to try it anyway.  Even though it's not my forte I am not opposed to the occasional culinary risk.  Sometimes I just have to get out of my comfort zone of chopping and roasting. Often it yields fantastic results (recall the ham) or a disaster... either way I have fun doing it. 

I could have googled endlessly and found many opinions and methods on empanada dough, but I just needed one easy recipe from a trusted source.  So I turned to my friend How To Cook Everything for a reliable dough recipe, and Mark Bittman didn't let me down.  It was probably one of the easiest things I have ever made. It required flour, vegetable oil and water and my beloved food processor.  I wish I would have taken a video of the dough coming together because it was awesome!  And oh so easy.

Ryan helped roll out the dough and turn it into tiny 6 inch rounds... 

                                        

The great thing about these little pastries, found in many cultures and by many names, is that you can fill it with anything you desire.  I chose spicy sausage, peppers and a little cheese.  I also made an apple filling for desert! 

Yum.  I look forward to more experiments with empanadas...  and many more dinners with friends.