This one's a keeper! Bouillabaisse and Tarte Tatin - did we teleport to France?

It's just about that time of the year...not quite, but almost. The point in time where you want to forego interaction with most humans, where your circadian rhythms and internal clock scream, "HIBERNATE!" full blast in preparation for the cold that's sure to follow, where you're dying to curl up at home on a weekend night but kind of fearful that too many weekends in a row of you and Modern Family might result in permanent damage to your social life... Cue: DINNER PARTY. It need not be a flamboyant undertaking (although it can be, if you wish), nor does it need to take up all day. Plus, cook with others and suddenly it's an event, an evening, an activity. Anais seems to be the one prompting me to cook recently, and it was at her suggestion that we got a small group together for this weekend's affair.

What to make, what to make? I wanted something easy, something one-pot (or close to it), something comforting yet impressive, and something that we could do together. What better a time than to bust out my mother's bouillabaisse (French fish and seafood soup/stew) recipe? Yellow, fraying and splattered with cooking juices, we keep the instructions in a plastic envelope for fear that one day this magical artifact will disintegrate into thin air (and looking at the picture below, it seems as though that day is not too far away). Torn from the New York Times in 1975, it's one of our oldest and most cherished recipes. I always make a few modifications which I'll share with you below.

Legendary soup and recipe.

And I know I didn't have to add anything to that, but I'm feeling pretty Europe-tantilized these days (one of my best friends just moved to Belgium and my parents are all giddy that they're visiting Paris for a dermatology conference in December), so what better than to go with the French theme and make a Tarte Tatin? Deceptively easy, ethereally delicious, and completely manageable, it's the perfect dessert to pair with this meal. And last but not least, some cheese! We didn't have a cheese course, instead I served it with chunky, grainy country bread at the same time as the soup in order to spread the gooey delicacies on the bread and dip it into the broth forming a melty, tomato-y mouthful of goodness. But I cannot emphasize enough the value of going to a real cheesemonger and talking to the guy (or girl). Explain what you like. Tell them what you don't. Be honest if you don't know much. They WILL help; that's what they're there for! I told my guy, "I like melty cheeses. I like it when my cheeses smell like four-day-old toe jam. BUT I'm having guests, and they might not like their milk products quite so funky." He put together the four most perfect cheeses - three from Quebec and one from Switzerland - wonderful complements to each other, different textures, colours, types of milk, scents, strengths...a lovely companion to the soup. 

CHEESE! Yes, I made little label-flags. You have full permission to make fun of me. 

Since I made the meal backwards (dessert first, the main later), I'll include it here backwards too.

Tarte Tatin

Sour Cream Pastry

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

6 tablespoons chilled sour cream

Apple Filling

3/4 stick unsalted butter, cut into large chunks

1 cup of sugar (don't cut these amounts down any further! I already omitted 1/2 a cup of sugar and 1/4 stick of butter!)

approx 8 medium (about 3.5 lbs) Gala apples (or other apples good for baking)

a pinch of cinnamon (optional)

a pinch of ground ginger (optional)

1 egg, beaten to blend

Blend flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl/mixer with a whisk attachment. Add butter and beat at medium-slow speed until butter is the size of small peas, about 3 minutes. Add sour cream and beat until moist clumps form, about 1 minute. Gather dough into a ball, press together, and flatten into 6-inch-diameter disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours. You can make this a day ahead of time and let soften slightly before rolling out!). 

Preheat oven to 425 C. Spread butter over the bottom of a 12-inch-diameter ovenproof skillet (if the handle of your skillet is plastic you CANNOT put it in the oven!! You'll have to move the apples to a pie dish before baking). Sprinkle sugar over butter and place over medium-low heat, cooking until better melts, sugar begins to dissolve, and mixture starts to bubble, about 3 minutes.

Melting the butter and sugar...deadly. I have a feeling my guests are glad they're only seeing this now

Remove from heat. Arrange apples on their sides around the edge of the skillet, placing apples tightly together. Arrange as many apples as will fit, and sprinkle with a touch more sugar, and a pinch of cinnamon and ginger, if using. Put skillet over medium heat, boil, adding extra apples as there is room, until a thick peanut butter colour syrup forms, about 45 minutes. If wanted, you can flip apples using a fork or paring knife halfway through to ensure even cooking (that's what I did), adding a touch more cinnamon and ginger once flipped.

Add the apples in concentric circles

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...

Cook until liquid is thick and about the colour of peanut butter. The addition of some cinnamon and a sprinkle of ground dried ginger spices things up a touch.

Remove from heat once peanut butter colour forms. Roll out pastry on floured surface to 12-inch round; place over apples. Cut four 2-inch slits on the top of pastry. Press pastry down around apples at the edge of the skillet; brush pastry with some of the egg glaze.

Bake tart until pastry is deep golden brown, about 30 minutes. Transfer to work surface and cool one minute. Cut around the edge of skillet to loosen pastry Place a large platter over skillet. Using oven mitts to protect your hands, hold the skillet and platter together TIGHTLY and invert, allowing the tart to fall onto the platter. Lift off skillet, and rearrange any stray or wandering apples. Cool tart 30 minutes and serve with ice cream, creme fraiche, or sour cream. Voila!

Flip the dough over and tuck under the apples.

Bake until browned, and then remove from oven.

Carefully flip onto platter and rearrange any fallen/out-of-place/naughty apples. Enjoy!

Bouillabaisse

About 8 servings

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chunks of onion (I added 2 leeks and reduced the amount of onion by about as much)

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

1/2 tablespoon loosely packed saffron stems (if you're a student on a budget, you can omit these - they're expeez - but if not, I would encourage you not to skimp...saffron is subtle but makes all the difference)

1/4 cup of flour

2 cups fish stock, clam juice or water

2 cups peeled, red, ripe tomatoes, fresh or canned (I use canned)

2 cups (or even more) dry white wine

1 1/4 pounds fillet of non-oily, white-fleshed fish like sea bass, talapia, or any other that will hold well in a soup (ask your fish dude!)

1 pint or more scrubbed, well-cleaned mussels or littleneck clams (I used clams)

1 teaspoon chopped thyme (if you have)

about 10 shakes Tabasco

1 cup 15% cream

salt and pepper to taste

Parsley to taste

**Note** You can also toss in other seafood - here I used some shrimp and squid, but you can also toss in lobster, scallops, crab meat, etc.

Directions

Heat oil in a pot and add onion, leeks if using, garlic and saffron until fragrant and soft, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in flour using a wire whisk. 

Add fish stock, tomatoes and wine, stirring rapidly with the whisk. When blended, cook, stirring often, about 30 minutes.

Onions, leeks, garlic, oil, whisked together with flour to create a roux (this will thicken the stew once the liquid is added!)

Clam juice and wine.

Added tomates! (aka tomatoes)

Whiskwhiskwhisk.

Cut the fish into 1 1/2 inch cubes (better too big than too small, they will flake unto smaller pieces while cooking anyways), there should be about 3 cups. Add the fish and cook about 5 minutes or until fish flakes easily. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer about 5 more minutes, until clams/mussels open and any other seafood is cooked through (sometimes I add a touch more wine here and let it cook down if it looks too thick for my liking).

NOTE! All this can be done before or as your guests arrive. Keep it on a low simmer. HOWEVER, if you're adding squid, only toss it in a minute or two before you plan on serving the soup, otherwise it will get rubbery!

Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with parsley, put on some jazz and let yourself be transported to Paris!

Adding some cream.

A little stir...

...and a little taste...can you guess what I probably said? "A little more salt and a few splashes of Tabasco."

Our table. Can a Saturday night get much better? (That's how I know I'm getting old. Hah.)

Spiced chickpea nibbles

Perhaps I'm on a new-snack-recipe kick, but the kale chips prompted me to do a little more fun-and-easy snack searching. My friends and I were going to the 10 PM special at Lemeac - a fantastic deal for anyone who hasn't yet discovered it (and one of my favourite restaurants in Montreal, deal or not, but I'll leave the review to Val's Bits and Bites) so I wanted to serve little munchies that go well with drinks, but nothing to take the place of the tantalizing tartares, soups, short ribs, and calamari to come. Kale chips were a go-to, especially since they were already on my mind, but what other deceivingly easy snacks could I come up with? Spiced chickpeas! Healthy (they're baked) and sassy (spices lend the usually-boring chickpea some zest), they're perfect pre-dinner nibbles.

Spiced Chickpeas

1 15 oz can of chickpeas

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

a total of about 3-4 teaspoons of mixed spices of your choice, but here is my suggestion:

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (or less, for those who don't love spice)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Many spices! I didn't actually land up using them all

Preheat oven to 375 F. Drain chickpeas and rinse with cold water until there is no more foam. Place on paper towel and gently roll to dry with another paper towel.

Mix spices together in a small bowl (I skipped this step, but it's a good idea to ensure even distribution of spices over the chickpeas). Toss chickpeas with olive oil and spice mix. Spread in a single layer on baking sheet and bake for 40-50 minutes or until they are slightly browned, a touch crunchy, but not as hard as little pebbles! Serve warm or cooled.

Rolling chickpeas to dry

Spice mix, olive oil, and chickpeas

Toss to mix

Roasted chickpeas

A simple, easy, and yummy little amuse bouche!

Kale-i-fy your life

In no way do I mean do be condescending by starting off with relatively simple recipes but a) I'm studying for a physics midterm which kind of makes me want to bang my head against the wall and cry, b) I want to use the tail-end of summer's bounty before it disappears in the Houdini-esque manner that defines fall, and c) these babies are good! Plus, unless you're actively trying to find ways to burn your money, there's no reason to pay upwards of $5 a box for a pathetic amount of kale chips anyways (and we both know that when you do that, essentially you're paying for the plastic box they come in). So, kale chips! Perfect for snacking on with wine, a healthy fun-to-eat snack, and good nibbles while you're studying, in the kitchen, on long drives, or anywhere else where your adventures take you.

Kale Chips

- Kale (a bunch! However much you want)

- a few tablespoons of olive oil

- seasonings (salt, lemon or lime juice, lemon salt, garlic salt, chili powder, sugar...)

Preheat oven to 375ᶱF. Wash kale and pat dry (or spin, if you have a salad spinner). De-stem kale leaves by cutting out the thick, fibrous backbone. 

Washing and spinning kale

Cutting out stem (you would have a second hand there to help you cut, but alas, I needed to take a picture!)

Kale once de-stemmed

Wet hands with olive oil and moisten each individual leaf with oil. Note: do not cut corners and douse the leaves in olive oil – they will burn in the oven at this high a temperature! 

Kale leaves in olive oil

Moistened leaf, not too oily!

Place leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet. Do not over-pack or they won't crisp properly.

Season as desired! I like a hefty amount of salt (surprise, surprise), and a squeeze of lemon is good too. One of my good friends likes the mix of sweet and salty – a touch of sugar and a bit of salt. A smidgen of chili powder is always good with salt too...feel free to mix and match! Bake for about 10 minutes or until leaves are crisp, but not brown/burnt (keep an eye on it, everyone's oven is different). Remove from oven. Let cool slightly and arrange leaves in glass.

I went upstairs and my leaves are a little on the crispy side!

Yummmm! Perfect decorative munchies.

Title clarification

Last night's post was a little bit of word vomit (a la Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls...if you get my reference, I like you already); I kind of haphazardly made a blog and posted before I could turn back and regret it. I feel like I owe you all a little bit of an explanation regarding its title though - "Salt and Balsamic??" What the hell is that supposed to mean? There are stories that go with both elements of this title. There are some things a girl just can't live without. For my friend Val it might be a special moisturizer, for Jacq it's undoubtedly a "sick" pair of shoes, and for Kara it's that perfect chocolate chip cookie straight out of the oven. My things? Salt and balsamic. Maybe dijon mustard too, but the first two win out.

My mom tells me stories of how as a 3-year-old I used to slurp the balsamic vinegar from my plate. You'll still see me drawing designs in the remnants of my salad dressing and licking my fingers. And when I'm alone? I do drink the leftover balsamic from my salad plate. But I reserve that for the comforts of my own home (imagine doing that in a nice restaurant or on a date? I'd be banned from the establishment and dumped in about 3.2 seconds!). But Bon Appetit recently ran an article about 5 simple, overlooked ingredients you can add to dishes to amplify and enhance flavour, and "acid" was one of them. No hardcore stuff you'd find in your chemistry lab, but add a little lime to your guac, squeeze a little lemon in your salad dressing, give your saucepan a generous splash of red wine vinegar, and all of a sudden your meal has depth! and tang! and zest! My favourite though, is balsamic vinegar, so that's where part A of the title comes from.

Part B? Well, anyone who knows me can attest to my salt addiction. I would try to cut back for health reasons, apart from the fact that my blood pressure is on the low end of the scale, and so I see no problem in adding a little salt to my soup, or my salad, or my butter, or (best of all) on some raisins, nuts and chocolate (weird, I know, but it hits the spot). Salt too, adds depth and flavour to a dish when it might not have been obvious before, and while I realize my appreciation for salt borders on fanatical, I do think that the average lay-healthy-eater needs to appreciate it more. Most of the massive amounts of sodium we consume comes from processed food, which has all kinds of preservatives and unpronounceable junk in it anyways. If you're a healthy, conscientious eater who doesn't eat much pre-packaged, frozen food, you should be pretty good in the sodium department. On top of that though, I love the ritual of it. You know those pompous, fancy restaurants that never have salt on the table? I always think, "What a shame!" First of all, people have different levels of salt preferences. Just as we like our meat prepared differently or how our spice levels vary, so too does the amount of salt we like differ. Also, adding salt to a meal includes the consumer (i.e. me, eating the dish) in the process of creating the dish (i.e. it makes me a chef for a fleeting instant). Suddenly, I'm not only a placid, lazy patron, but I'm part of the creation of this meal, putting the finishing flourishes on something I will then enjoy. 

So salt and balsamic, two things I would have a lot of trouble living without, are the title of my blog. And while they seem to be solely food related, in truth, they aren't. Balsamic reminds me of my childhood, of adding zest to life - a little something I hope this blog will help with. My salt tale is representative of participation, and of finding deliciousness, luxury and enjoyment in the simple things. Together, they are vital (for me, at least...I managed to find balsamic in Zambia, thank goodness). And thus I honour them here.