Category Archives: Recipes

Mushroom and Bell Pepper Quiche Recipe

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Golden brown and hot from the oven

It seems that the quiche is a staple of the French diet. You can pick up a mini Quiche Lorraine from the boulangerie for lunch, or order a slice of leek and salmon quiche served with salad at a café.  However, they are so easy to make, it’s best just to do it yourself.

As a nice vegetarian dish in the middle of the week, I like to make this mushroom and bell pepper quiche. I’ve tried using other vegetables, such as zucchini, but found it made the tart a bit watery. As the ready-made buttery, flaky pâte brisée pie crust is available in every grocery store in France for only around one euro, it’s a cheap and easy option when you don’t feel like cooking something more elaborate. In the US, a pre-made pie crust will work.

 

Ingredients:

- 1 pie crust (pâte brisée)
- 5 eggs
- ½ lb (250g) button mushrooms (champignons de Paris)
- 1 green bell pepper
- ½ log of goat cheese
- 1 tomato
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 small shallot
- Herbs de Provence
- olive oil
- salt and pepper

 

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 200˚ C (392 or round to 400˚F). Slice up the bell pepper and mushrooms and dice the garlic and shallot. Sautee in a pan with a bit of olive oil, adding salt, pepper and a few pinches of Herbs de Provence. Cook over medium heat for 8-10 minutes until the liquid has been reduced.

In a bowl, beat the eggs and add additional salt and pepper.

In a glass pie pan, roll out the dough with a layer of waxed paper underneath. Pinch the edges around the perimeter of the pan so that they don’t cave in. Add the egg mixture into the pie pan, then the sauteed vegetables. Use a slotted spoon or slotted spatula to transfer the vegetables to the pie pan in order to avoid scooping up the liquid and spread evenly.

Slice the tomato thinly and layer on top of the mixture. Slice the goat cheese log until you are about half of the way through, then layer these rounds on top as well. Put in the oven for about 25 minutes. Make sure the cheese is slightly browned and bubbling. Enjoy!

Translated and tweaked from:

http://www.marmiton.org/recettes/recette_tarte-aux-champignons-poivrons-et-chevre_66845.aspx

 

© 2012 Pasa’s Paris

 

Lentil and Vegetable Stew

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Lentil stew, perfect for a rainy evening at home

With so many rainy days in Paris, a hearty soup is the perfect thing for dinner. Although no match for my grandmother’s delicious lentil soup, I enjoy making this stew whose recipe I found on epicurious.com. Since kale (chou frisé) is impossible to find in Paris (for me, anyway) I substitute with Asian cabbage or spinach. I also use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth which I think gives it more flavor.

Makes 8 bowls of soup, takes 1 to 1 ½ hours, depending on how fast you chop.

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 large carrots (8 to 9 ounces), peeled, chopped (1 1/4 cups)
  • 1 medium celery root (celeriac), peeled, chopped (3 cups)
  • 1 medium rutabaga, peeled, chopped (2 cups)
  • 1 pound brown lentils, rinsed
  • 1 tablespoon herbes de Provence
  • 8 cups (or more) vegetable broth
  • 1 large bunch kale (about 9 ounces), ribs removed, leaves coarsely chopped

Preparation:

Heat oil in large pot over high heat. Add onion and next 3 ingredients; sprinkle with salt and pepper and sauté until beginning to soften and brown, 10 to 11 minutes. Stir in lentils and herbes de provence. Add broth and kale. Bring to boil, stirring to incorporate kale. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover with lid slightly ajar, and simmer until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Add more broth to thin, if desired. Season with salt and pepper.

It takes me a while to chop everything up, but the results are very tasty. I ask my husband to pick up a fresh baguette from the corner boulangerie on his way home from work, and we’ve got dinner for 2 for only about 6 euros, plus I eat the leftovers for lunch for a couple days after.

Bon appétit!

 

Grapefruit Endive Salad Recipe

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Grapefruit Endive Salad with Krisprolls and Saint Moret cheese

I’ve been getting in a lunch rut lately, eating too much boxed soup and demie baguettes, which is easy to do since these things are so tasty in France.

I happen to be a salad fan, and the French seem to love their endives, so I decided to try out this recipe that combines bitter, sweet, citrus, creamy and nutty flavors all in one bite.

For one person:

½ grapefruit, peeled and diced

1 handful of raisins

1 handful of walnut halves or pieces

1 endive, chopped

3 small whole wheat toasts such as Krisprolls

St. Moret cheese to spread on toasts (similar to cream cheese)

 

Vinaigrette:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

Grapefruit Endive Salad

For the vinaigrette, stir all ingredients together at the bottom of the bowl you are going to use to serve your salad. Rinse the endive and chop into bite-size pieces. Place in the bowl. Cut a grapefruit in half, peel and dice one half. Place into bowl. Add the handful of walnut halves and the handful of raisins. Mix the salad together. Spread St. Moret cheese on the toasts. If you enjoy blue cheese, add Roquefort to the salad instead to give it a kick. Et voila! This salad is sure to wake up your taste buds and leave you feeling satisfied. Bon appétit!

© 2012 Pasa’s Paris

 

Rabbit with Mustard Sauce Recipe

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Rabbit with Mustard Sauce

In France, you have access to all kinds of wonderful boucheries, which means you can cook with proteins that can be hard to find in the states, such as duck or rabbit. I bought a couple of rabbit thighs (instead of a whole rabbit) and tried out this recipe originally from Gourmet magazine.

I recommend allowing 2 hours from start to finish. The nice thing about this recipe is that you don’t need an oven, which worked well for me because I don’t have access to one at the moment. If you decide to use a whole rabbit like the recipe calls for, it yields 4 to 6 servings.

I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil and left out the cornstarch, which meant the sauce was a bit thinner. You may wish to use less mustard, or substitute the cornstarch with crème fraiche and then simmer for about 15 minutes longer. Serve with mashed potatoes or sautéed leeks.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium onion
  • a 3-pound rabbit, cut into 8 pieces
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 1/4 cups dry white wine
  • 1 3/4 cups chicken broth (13 3/4 fluid ounces)
  • 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Preparation

Finely chop onion. Pat rabbit pieces dry and season with salt and pepper. In a deep large heavy skillet heat oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking and brown rabbit pieces on all sides in 2 batches. Transfer rabbit as browned to a large bowl.

In skillet cook onion in 1 tablespoon butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Add wine and boil until liquid is reduced by about half. Return rabbit to skillet and add broth. Simmer rabbit, covered, until tender, about 40 minutes.

Transfer rabbit to cleaned large bowl and boil sauce until reduced to about 2 cups. In a small bowl whisk together 1/4 cup sauce and mustard and whisk mixture into sauce. In another small bowl stir cornstarch into 1 tablespoon cold water and whisk into sauce. Simmer sauce, whisking, 3 minutes, or until thickened. Whisk in remaining tablespoon butter, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Return rabbit to skillet and cook over moderately low heat, turning rabbit to coat with sauce, until heated through.

Bon appétit!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rabbit-with-Mustard-Sauce-101107