"A RECIPE TO IMAGINE"

MUSHROOM AND ENGLISH PEAS QUICHE
Crust: 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp sugar 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces 2-4 tbsp chilled (in the freezer) water

How to par-cook crust: In a food processor (or large bowl), combine dry ingredients + butter and pulse (or break with hands if using bowl) to coarse meal texture; Add water a tbsp at a time as you pulse, until the dough comes together almost whole (texture must be moist and should hold full); Transfer into plastic wrap and shape into a ball, and with palm: flatten the dough into a 1” disk; wrap completely and refrigerate for an hour to set (or up to 3 days); … When set, take out from fridge and preheat oven to 325 degrees Roll out dough onto a floured parchment paper, and with a rolling pin press it flat and thin (like pizza), and size it up just a little over the greased/non-stick tart or cast iron pan’s edge (whichever you’re using; I used cast iron) and shape crust, and cut out excess; Cover crust with parchment paper and pour uncooked rice or beans onto pan as weights — and stick in the oven for about 30-35 minutes (the edges of the crust should be JUST slightly browning, and that’s when to take out from heat; and let cool — very cool before using); Save rice (or beans).

Ingredients for the filling of the quiche: 1 cup Mushrooms, rough sliced (any you like; I used Shitake; Oyster would be great) 1/2 cup Leeks or shallots, rough chopped 1/2 cup English peas, fully cooked (I recommend cooking mushrooms and leeks with peas -- and save its water for stock) 1/2 cup Chives, rough chopped 4 pieces Eggs, beaten 1/2 cup Whole milk 1/2 cup Heavy cream 1/2 cup Gorgonzola cheese (or Danish Blue), crumbled in chunks 1/2 cup Ricotta or Cottage cheese 1/2-3/4 tbsp Rock salt 1 tbsp Black pepper corns, fresh cracked (heaping tbsp) A pinch Red pepper flakes A pinch Herb de Provence (if you have, this is optional) Dusting Nutmeg, grated over

How to:
 In a large bowl combine all ingredients in beaten egg and milk-cheese mixture, except the spices; mix well; Then add the spices all around — starting with the salt, then the pepper, the chili flakes and the nutmeg; Mix again gently; and set aside in the fridge.

WHEN PAR-COOKED CRUST IS COOLED DOWN, AND WHEN YOU’RE READY TO BAKE QUICHE (Ideally if having guest, bake an hour before they arrive so your home smells great). Preheat oven to 375 degrees Pour egg mixture into the crust, arranging them in such a way that leeks poke out around and that the two cheeses stick out (when baking these two ingredients will char beautifully and infuse a subtle smokiness in the quiche); Add more salt and pepper to taste; And bake for about 45min - 1 hr until set (check with a toothpick inserted — should come out clean).

AND THAT’S YOUR QUICHE! PS. I think cooking is not so much a matter of prescription but of following of instincts, and love. One reads the recipe so to imagine its coming together because of gathering and family and friends time. That’s the beauty of cooking, I think: when we make a home of it.

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A New (S)tart

I baked the pie this afternoon (with tea prunes and almonds), along with a dish called Pasta Alla Norma, a Sicilian classic with roasted eggplant and ricotta salata in tomato-basil sauce (this according to my research was a tribute of Italy to the one and only Maria Callas, the "(P)asta Diva." (A foodnote: a spiked the acidity of the sauce with roasted meyer lemon moons to challenge the core flavor of the tomatoes, and added a little brown sugar to slightly offset to sweet. About the pie, walnut liquour is the "nectar" in the almond filling buried in the infused prunes.)

I know it's been a while since my last post. But I will answer why, with a quote:

"The band sounded full. It's not like we had an increased number of options in how to cut it. I was hoping when it was finished it would sound at least cohesive, like the effect of three or four instruments coming off like a full orchestra. But that's hard to do with separate tracking. On one of the last takes, I captured the song in its essence. It was frigid and burning - lonely and apart. Many hundreds of miles of pain went into it." ~ Bob Dylan

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Chez, Cheese!

This is my homemade citrus chai tea "ricotta."

This is an accidental cheese. I didn't want to waste the hot chai tea that curdled after pouring the milk - I forgot about the grapefruit zest in it - and so remembering a Rachel Khoo episode, yes! I can separate the solids through a fine mesh cloth. And that's what I did. The resulting cheese (after drying them on the windowsill for a few hours) was quite artisanal, without trendiness and overration. To my biggest surprise my chez cheese tasted awesome and nuanced - a chai  caramelization detected with a (lemon cream) twist; no pun intended! It worked delicious and luscious on my warm bread, and was perfect with my pasta (roasted onion petals Austrian dumpling), again, another Rachel recipe!

CS Lewis said that thinking about someone through a creative process (as inspired) was meeting that person face to face - but the "best kind." Let me get my camera ... 

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Nagasaki Rice

A very close friend from Portland sent them over - and it is a yearly gift - a bag of short grain rice from her family's ancestral farm in Japan, and I cooked them right away. I made a dish inspired by an uni bowl appetizer I had from Mu Ramen shop, a new restaurant in Long Island City which has received reviews to high acclaim. My rice had toasted seaweeds like Mu's, but unlike it had salmon eggs (instead of uni) and sweet-salty homemade tamago omelet (instead of tuna tartare), and for freshness mixed in tricolor cherry tomatoes halved, and fresh lettuce and raw Brussel sprouts, their outer soft leaves. It's almost like a Korean bibimbap, right? (Except the gumption of kimchi.) Mine came from dressing the salmon roe in a quick marinade of Todaro mustard, carrot juice chili oil and pepper flakes! Mu's bowl, what's artful about it is, it doesn't try to impress. It's deeply, unadulterated good. The uni rice bowl with salmon roe and wasabi and tuna alioili  - a taste of distinction each a whole ensemble! And that's what I tried to achieve. Thanks, Shizu (my friend from Portland), I cooked my Nagasaki rice with your whole farm in mind - all the colors of her fruits, all the joy of home! 

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HOME OF THE "BRIVE"

I am dedicating this blog to a town in central France, Brive-la-Gaillarde, the "strong" land of the foie gras (and my favorite condiment, the violet mustard), and the macarons home baked not "designed," sold during open market days. We had stayed in Brive over the holidays, and the fillings and the condiment inside this sandwich I made this morning were all parting gifts from our hosts there - the most hospitable people on earth! - where from the moment we stepped in their door potatoes cooking in duck fat permeated the kitchen; welcome wines never ever sold outside Brive flowed like honey; and wheels of cheese slowed the pace of our hearts for their goodness' sake. Brive is a "state of (food) mind." I remember a dinner conversation with our hosts - about cuisines of the world - and appreciated the argument made that, except for French and Italian food, the world's other flavors and cooking techniques were "good," but were not "FOOD." To explain what this meant, I have to digress and talk about the first salad I was served that time, simply with arugula and onions, yet dressed with olive oil infused with pistils of an African orchid. The combination of vanilla essence in olive oil essence was so distinct a taste it seemed to me a deliberate meditation on food-making/alchemy. And that's when I got the meaning of the "proverbial" argument. That FOOD, especially French, was not for eating, but for the visceral surprise pleasure to the appetite and mouth; that it didn't undergo cooking but acting; not served but performed; definitely not black and white, but noir. And I wasn't in a fancy restaurant to understand it. I was at the home of the brive. Therefore the sandwich I made, in this New York - terrine, mustard, vanilla oil - is a classic!   

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