A Simple Tarte aux Epinards

I usually spend the summer in France, visiting my extended family--something I am truly missing this year as the summer goes by. Although I can't complain about the enjoyable summer I am currently having, it is hard to think that I won't see my family for another full year (at least). I have a cousin my age who lives there, Kim. She is kind of like the sister I never had, and one of my best friends.

Our summer days used to consist of waking up late, sitting around being lazy and going to the beach. Something we both have in common is that we are always hungry...or should I say, we are often in the mood to eat (whether hunger is present or not)! Being that we weren't too dedicated to making full blown meals, we had a small arsenal of easy, satisfying and delicious recipes we made over and over.

One of them is this tarte aux epinards, which is a savory spinach tart with goat cheese and lardons (I have yet to find lardons here so I usually just use bacon or diced pancetta), a recipe I found in a magazine and now make from memory (so I don't have any of the exact amounts for the ingredients). We used ready-made crust for the tarte, and this pie crust from Trader Joe's here is a good alternative to the frozen pate brisee they sell in French supermarkets. One day this summer maybe I will make my own from scratch. But for now, this lonely pie crust sitting in the refrigerator needs to get used up!

I let the dough thaw for about an hour and then laid it inside this tarte mold. I poked holes at the bottom with a fork to prevent  it from bubbling up. I don't know if that's necessary, it's just something we always did with Kim, as per the instructions on the frozen pate brisee.

Then I poured my mountain of frozen spinach into the pan. Seriously, it was like watching an iceberg melt! Spinach is so misleading though--it always shrinks so much after it's cooked. I added just a little bit of creme fraiche to the spinach:

 

Instead of using bacon I substituted for turkey bacon since my dad doesn't eat pork. In any case, for this recipe, it doesn't really  matter--the point is to blend in some of the smoky flavor with the creamy cheesiness of the rest of the tarte. In another variant of this recipe I've also used smoked salmon. After the turkey bacon and spinach were cooked I set them aside.

 

I mixed three eggs with some more creme fraiche, salt and pepper. The recipe normally calls for just liquid heavy cream but I personally prefer the taste of the creme fraiche! I stirred until I got a nice, smooth, yellow mixture.

I rounded up the ingredients and put everything together: first the spinach, then the bacon, poured in the egg mixture and then added big chunks of goat cheese on top. In France we usually use what is called a buche (a log) of goat cheese which has a white crust like you would find on brie. The inside is a mix between a soft creamy goat cheese and a crumbly goat cheese center. It's perfect for this tart because when sliced up into circles, it holds its shape nicely and the crust browns in the oven. This crumbly goat cheese I'm using here is just as tasty but a little less neat in presentation.

 

After putting it in the oven for 25 minutes at 400 degrees here's what came out:

It was tasty, though lacking a little in salt. I'm always afraid to make things too salty but as a result most recipes I make end up needing more...I must work on this! Thankfully in this recipe the goat cheese and the bacon add some saltiness.

I think next time I want to try another classic, the quiche Lorraine! Stay tuned!

A Quick Treat

 Here's a quick lunch I made yesterday, inspired by the quesadillas Andrew makes me sometimes:

I grated the last of the gruyere we had and mixed it with some goat cheese, since that's all we had laying around, and opened up a tin of refried beans. Why are refried beans so delicious? I half wanted to heat up the whole tin and just call that my lunch. I added some lemon juice and cilantro and threw it all in a pan with some sizzling olive oil. Here's the end result:

I ate this laying on the couch, half doing the crossword and watching the first two episodes of Rubicon. Good show so far, I think. Don't you just love days off?

A Summer Dinner.

My grandpa who now lives in France has spent the past month and a half with us, visiting. It's been great to have him around, especially before I found a summer job--he kept me company most every day! Unfortunately, his last day with us was Friday. On Thursday night, my boyfriend Andrew and I decided to cook up a little dinner for the family in his honor.

It's been pretty warm the past few days in Seattle, or at least warm enough that we thought we should finally try out one of the chilled soups from Andrew's soups cookbook. We settled on potato leek soup, although I still have my eye on the chilled cucumber one (next time, next time)! This was actually the first soup I've ever made--I'd previously stayed away for fear of them being too difficult or time consuming. This one was so simple, I've decided to make a ton more once fall and winter roll around.

First Andrew cut up the white part of three leeks and three small potatoes. I thought the leeks looked really pretty, like satiny green ribbon.

Meanwhile I chopped a whole onion (you can never have enough, in my opinion), a celery stalk, some chives and a clove of garlic.

After melting some butter into a large pot we tossed in the onion, leeks, celery stalk and garlic. We cooked them on low heat until they became soft. Then we added chicken broth and the potatoes and let it come to a boil.

At this point, I was ready to eat the soup already! Once it came to a boil and we let it sit a little before pureeing it, it was a little less aesthetically appetizing..but the aroma was still delicious!

After we blended everything up it turned a nice creamy pale green (and looked more appetizing once again) so we decided to only add just a little bit of creme fraiche. We let that sit and cool while we prepared the rest of the meal.

For the main course, we thought something light, not too rich and non-fussy would be best, since we weren't going to have too much time to cook, but we still wanted something flavorful and a bit "fancy". The night before I happened to stumble upon a link to a recipe on Perry's Plate via the via the Kitchn blog for Nutty Lemon Herb Brown Rice with Avocado, served with salmon. The picture was so colorful, and immediately caught my eye. Plus, since my mom is such a great cook already, when I cook for my family I try to make recipes she hasn't made, to avoid any comparisons. Earlier this year I had tried to make Andrew my mom's delicious lasagna and failed miserably, creating instead what we now refer to as "beef noodle."

The rice was simple to make, and we ended up zipping through it so fast that I had no time to take pictures. We decided to use almonds for the "nutty" part of the rice, a delicious choice! The rosemary, white wine vinegar and lemon juice all smelled delicious as we added them to the brown rice and the broth. The salmon we just tossed in some flour before throwing it in a pan on medium high heat until we got a nice browning on both sides.

Just before serving the soup we sprinkled chives on everyone's bowls and then it was time to eat! The meal (accompanied by delicious cider) was a success, even my brother who can be picky about food had two helpings of the soup and asked for the recipe. My grandpa raised a toast to the cooks--a job well done, it would seem!

Commencer par le commencement (tout simplement)

I thought it logical to inaugurate the blog with a breakfast post! I am definitely not a breakfast person during the school year. Before 10am, it's hard for me to eat anything really consistent. I usually stick to coffee and at most I will eat some toast or some instant oatmeal. But on weekends and school breaks I like to treat myself to some more elaborate, slightly less healthy breakfasts.

We don't have a lot of ready to be made breakfast food in my house like pancake batter, bacon or sausages, frozen waffles or anything of that ilk but we usually have cheese, eggs and sliced bread. So a few years ago I looked up some fried egg sandwich recipes. There are so many ways to make them, and things to add for extra flavor! Past incarnations of the recipe I have made have included (separately, not all together): smoked salmon, green onions, chives, raclette cheese, whole grain dijon mustard, ketchup, onions, shallots, tomatoes, ham, turkey, bacon, turkey bacon, gruyere, edam, muenster, and just about anything I could find in the fridge and the pantry at the time. Being a lover of bread, melted cheese and eggs, this is essentially my dream breakfast, and it is so easy to make!

So foraging through our fridge today I came up with eggs, lean turkey slices and gruyere...nothing too exciting! I added some whole-grain dijon mustard to make it a little more flavorful. This bread my mom buys is actually really a delight in spicing up sandwiches all on its own. It's called Dave's Killer Bread and I am obsessed! It has a ton of seeds of all shapes and sizes that are delicious and crunchy, especially when fried up or toasted! I like to very lightly toast my bread before I fry up the sandwich so that I can more easily lightly butter the outsides of the slices.



First I fry up the egg on medium heat in a little olive oil. I wait for the oil to get really hot before I crack the egg. Then I try to shape the egg so it doesn't run wild across the pan. Once the egg white starts to solidify, I poke the egg yolk with a spatula to spread it around and make the egg smooth, flat and manageable. After the bottom gets crispy brown (this is how I personally like it), I flip it over just for a second, as I like to try and keep the yolk runny if I can.



Next I slip the egg onto the bread with a light coating of whole grain Dijon mustard, add the gruyere and finish assembling the sandwich. From here, I just wait for the cheese to melt and the bread to get nice and crispy on the outside. If I find that one side is getting too charred, I just flip the sandwich over. Once the cheese is melted to your liking, you're all set! Pour yourself some orange juice, make a cafe au lait and enjoy!



I am not a photographer in any way, but I am hoping to improve on my cooking and my photography as the blog goes on. Stay tuned for more complex recipes and hopefully better photos!