As you know, I live very close to the one monument in Paris that EVERYONE knows and it defines the skyline of the city. Let’s face it, whether you live here or are a visitor, we all look for that symbolic sparkling construction, especially when it glitters at night. I often hear the roar from the adoring crowd from my apartment when the lights begin their hourly performance. Even after six years, I still find it to be kinda cool, well ok, when I remember to look at it, absolutely mesmerising. Spring means the timing of the lights disco show changes, due to daylight saving. At this time of year, the lights begin sparkling at 9pm. I have a ringside seat and to be perfectly honest, I can take it for granted and I chide myself for it every occasion a visitor arrives who stands incredulous before what I stare at everyday.
But as spring arrives and the trees begin to form their green magic over buildings, and the sheer volume of leaves covers the grey of my normal winter view, the light changes and there is a huge warm hug given from the colour that arrives in the early evening. It weirdly changes everything into a Palm Springs yellow reminiscent of a 1950 photograph. Such is the changing light of Paris. But really for me, spring in Paris should be coloured green.
And I eat like spring time in Paris! When I think cooking and eating, I think green - asparagus, peas, fava beans, spinach and herbs. So many herbs coming back from their winter down time: lovage, sorrel, chives (both normal and garlic) amongst the hardy ones that survive the winter grey. My garden on the rooftop is budding anew and I am madly planting seeds with a view to eating and cooking a little better in a few months.
So I wanted to share with you some things that I have been making and cooking with the green, Here goes, enjoy.
Hope you get to make one or two of these bright and delicious things and turn your life Parisian green.
Ail des ours pesto on green steroids
500g of Ail des ours that you may or may not have found on a Swiss mountainside (wild garlic)
50g of peeled and green pistachios, very lightly toasted.
Salt and pepper
20g of lemon juice
25g grates pecorino or parmesan
100g olive oil or ail des ours oil, if you have made that too
Method :
Place a pot of water with a good with a good pinch of salt on the stove and heat until boiling. Blanch the ail des ours in the water for no more than 20 seconds, take out and plunge into iced water to stop the cooking. Leave for a minute, then remove and dry on a cloth, squeezing out all the excess water.
Roughly chop the leaves and place in a blender with all the other ingredients.
Once pureed ( you may need to add slightly more oil, it depends on the speed of your blender) check for seasoning.
You can also make this in a mortar and pestle although you will need to add the oil in stages and finish with the lemon juice and seasoning.
You can now use it in anyway you wish - like spreading on your crispy panisse !!
The pesto, the ail des ours and ail des ours oil !
Spinach and spring pea panisse : (Inspired by Jeremy Fox)
210g chickpea flour
65g of white polenta
1 1/2 Tbs of sea salt
1 Tbs of Zaater
1 Tbs of olive oil
200g peas (lightly blanched and cooled)
150g English spinach - I used frozen, defrosted and squeezed dry of water
Method :
Grease a 33 x 20 x 4 cm pan with olive oil.
Start by placing the peas and the spinach in a high speed blender and puree until smooth, adding a small amount of water as needed in order for the machine to puree the vegetables to smooth. Remove the puree and pass through a sieve. Set aside for now.
In a medium saucepan, whisk together the flour, polenta, zaater, salt and olive oil with 950ml of cold water. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk the batter as it starts to cook and thicken. The batter is ready when it starts to pull away from the sides of the pot which should take about 5 to 8 minutes.
Then add the pea/spinach mix to the batter and check for seasoning and mix well until the batter is even in colour. Then add the panisse to the greased pan, spreading it evenly with a spatula. Cover it with with parchment paper and weight it down with up to 750g of weights ( I used knives and forks) and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, remove the panisse from the refrigerator and remove the weights and the parchment paper. Then carefully upend the panisse onto a cutting board and cut into your desired shape - I like them to look a little like rectangles that are about 3cm x 6cm. Then take a frying pan, pour in a 100ml of olive oil and heat until just below smoking. Gently place the panisse into the pan and fry until golden on one side and turn over and fry the other side until golden as well.
Take out of the pan and place on paper towels and season with a sprinkle of salt. You can eat as is or eat them with the ail des ours pesto ! Or serve with some lightly grilled green asparagus.
The good thing about both recipes are that they are gluten free friendly and if you leave the cheese out of the pesto are both vegan too
Set the table :
This one was taken when playing with a more Italian feel after making a batch of brown bread ice cream with toasted bread folded through. I ended up serving it with a beet puree and chocolate caraway crunch. I love how these ice cream coupes have come back into use. I believe I found these ones at a church fete in Normandy
Fun things seen in Paris :
Yes indeed, a man with a cat (no lead) on his lap on the metro. After one stop the very pretty cat, moved to the seat beside his owner and had a quick nap. C’est normal, non??!!!
I hope that if you find yourself in Paris in the next few weeks, you get to enjoy a Parisian market. I have four in my area and as mentioned before, I love the one at President Wilson in the 16th arrondissement (Wednesdays and Saturdays) . I also go to the one at Avenue Saxe, in the 7th (Thursdays and Saturdays), the one at Boulevard Grenelle, in the 15th (Wednesdays and Sundays) and sometimes the one at Avenue de la Jean Fontaine also in the 16th, although this one is smaller but quality wise very good ( Tuesdays and Fridays)
Happy cooking everyone and see you in two weeks.
Kathxx