From a French-American Kitchen

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cat in kitchen

As many of you know, my younger daughter lives in France; she’s also an excellent cook who has written a child oriented family cookbook( now in its second edition) and teaches English through cooking to children in Lille, France -when she’s not crunching numbers for her day job.

I’ve found that natural cooks take recipes and change them after making them a time or two. Natural cooks seem to have a sense of what works together. Rebecca is one of those.

I am going to give you the original recipes which I sampled on my recent visit to her family. Change and experiment as you wish.

lentil soupRed Lentil Soup (Serves 4)

There’s nothing like a hearty soup to chase away the damp and gloom of northern France or northern New Jersey. Rebecca likes red lentils partly because they cook quickly. Don’t be daunted by the long list of ingredients. Assemble them before you start and the soup will come together quickly.

Ingredients
1 T olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp fresh ginger
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
about 6 oz split red lentils
about 5 cups vegetable stock
about 14 oz canned plum tomatoes
2 tsp tomato puree
a handful of fresh or frozen spinach
1 bay leaf
1 T tamarind paste (optional)
a handful of rice
juice of one lime
crushed chili pepper, to taste (optional)

Directions
1. Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and cook over low heat for 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to soften.
2. Stir in the celery and carrot and cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add the garlic, cumin,coriander, ginger and turmeric and cook for a further minute, stirring constantly.
4. Add the lentils, spinach, vegetable stock, rice, tomatoes with their juice, tomato puree and bay leaf.
5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, then half-cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 25-30 minutes until the lentils and vegetables are very soft.
6. Add the lime juice and hot pepper(optional) before serving

NOTE: You can garnish with cheese to the soup or yogurt. To make a heartier soup, add chicken or turkey. It’s hard to do anything wrong when you are making soup.

296613_220x165Spaghetti Aglio-Olio (Serves 4-6 as a main course)

My son-in-law is also comfortable in the kitchen. We all enjoy this recipe from On Top Of Spaghetti, a cookbook from the well-known Al Forno Restaurant in Providence , RI. You might ask how a Frenchman got a recipe from Rhode Island. On one of their trips to visit the states, the family stopped in Rhode Island with my older daughter who attended the Rhode Island School of Design. This is one of Melanie’s favorite restaurants. By the way, pasta-or les pates- appears frequently on French restaurant menus which is good for vegetarians in the meat and shellfish heavy cuisine of Northern France.

Ingredients
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 T minced fresh garlic – about 8-10 small cloves or to taste. Jerome uses LOTS of garlic, but make sure garlic is very fresh.
1/2 tsp or more fine sea salt
1 pound imported spaghetti or spaghettini

Directions
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
2. Heat olive oil, garlic and salt in a large straight-sided skilled over moderate heat, stirring often. Watch closely. You want the garlic to slowly turn golden without any browning.
3. As soon as the garlic is golden, immediately add 2 cups of water carefully as oil might spatter.
4. Raise the heat and boil vigorously until the garlic is soft and the liquid has reduced by half. Taste and add additional salt if needed.
5. Add a generous amount of salt to the boiling pasta water.
6. As soon as the water comes back to a rolling boil, drop in pasta. Stir often until it’s al dente.
7. Drain and transfer the paste to the skillet and over moderately high heat toss the spaghetti in the aglio-olio until it’s nicely coated.
8. Serve immediately with crusty bread to soak up sauce.

NOTE: Enhancements include: add crushed red pepper flakes to the garlic in step 2. Substitute a cup of dry white wine for a cup of the water in step 3. Experiment with adding herbs or even chopped cured olives.

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