Snapper Fillets en Papillote with Tapenade

Lately, I've been watching way too much Jacques Pepin. It seems like he is ALWAYS on the Create Channel. First, he's doing fast food his way. A half hour later, he's cooking up a storm with Julia Child. And later, looking significantly older, he's crafting recipes in a newer show called "Essential Pepin."

I really don't mind any of this. In general, I revile "celebrity" chefs. Yet Monsieur Pepin, despite his legendary status, seems a very likeable fellow. More importantly, he has the gift for turning simple ingredients and easy-to-learn techniques into tasty dishes that epitomize the essence of the Mediterranean. 

Best of all, he doesn't strike me as a self-aggrandizing sellout mainly interesting in peddling his own line of cookware or hot New York restaurant.

This recipe, inspired from Pepin's common use of parchment paper (papillote) to cook fish, also uses the decidedly-French condiment of tapenade. 

Snapper Fillets en Papillote with Tapenade
-2 sheets parchment paper
-2 red snapper fillets
-Lemon slices
-Thyme sprigs
-Chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place 1 red snapper fillet in the center of each piece of parchment paper. Top each filet with a heaping tablespoon of the tapenade (recipe below), a slice of lemon and a sprig of thyme or 1.2 tsp dried thyme.  Fold edges together, then tightly fold in the edges, crimping around all sides to seal packets completely. Place on baking sheet.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Place each packet on plate, let sit for 2 minutes, open parchment and serve over rice. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Tapenade
-2 anchovy fillets
-4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
-2 tablespoons capers
-3 tablespoons Nicoise or kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
-2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
-Salt and freshly ground pepper

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth, season with salt and pepper. 

Chilaquiles in Roasted Tomatillo Sauce

I used to think that Rick Bayless was the one and only go-to television personality for Mexican fare.

Not anymore.

These days, I watch Pati's Mexican Table whenever it happens to come up on the Create Channel. Pati Jinich makes great, no nonsense recipes drawn from her Mexican childhood. It feels like she has an insider's view of the culture that a Chicago restauranteur just doesn't have. Admittedly, it took me a while to warm up to Pati. The first two or three times the show came on, her excruciatingly-high pitched voice drove me mad. Now, it is only mildly annoying.

Pati's recipe for chilaquiles is a good one. When I lived in Albuquerque, I remember my Mexican American friends raving about this dish as one of their childhood comfort foods. It's easy to make and perfect for a cold winter night. 

Chilaquiles in Roasted Tomatillo Sauce 
-Small corn tortillas 2 poundsgreen tomatillos, husked and rinsed 
-Half of a large white onion  
-2 serrano chiles  
-1 garlic clove 
-2 or 3 cilantro sprigs 
-2 cups vegetable or chicken broth 
-3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for brushing tortillas

 

To Prepare the Tortillas:
Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Cut the tortillas into 2-inch pieces and brush with oil, sprinkle salt. Set them on a baking tray and bake in the oven until crispy, about 15 to 20 minutes. Let the pieces cool. Store bought tortilla chips work for this recipe as well.

Tomatillo Sauce:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the tomatillos, onions, garlic and serrano chiles in a bowl. Add about 1 tablespoon of oil and mix well. Put the ingredients in a baking tray. Sprinkle with salt.

Bake until tomatillos are soft and plump and all the ingredients look charred. Let the ingredients cool. Add the charred vegetables, the cilantro and the broth to a blender and mix well.

Heat a pan over medium heat, adding one additional tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, add the sauce from the blender and finish cooking over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Season to taste.

   
When the sauce is hot, quickly but carefully add the tortillas. Stir the tortillas into the mixture so that they are fully coated with the sauce.

Serve the tortillas and salsa in a large platter, garnished with the sliced onions, crumbled Mexican queso fresco, cilantro, and sour cream or crème fraîche . Eat immediately.

Postcards from Italy 2012

If I were a real chef or culinary writer or food blogger or whatever, a trip to Italy would naturally result in a veritable vault of photos of glorious dishes, dissected with my not-so-poignant notes on aromas, secret ingredients, and perceived preparation techniques.

Nah.

Been there, done that. Long before blogs ever existed, I filled moleskine after moleskine with notes of the whereabouts and menu offerings of trattorie and tavernas from Milano to Madrid.

So our most recent photo collection from La Bella Paese look more like this:

Eighteen days in Italy. Sixteen of them on the trail, with just two rest days to recover from the longest, 12-hour days out. Climbed 7,000 footers; explored river gorges; and ambled over windswept, barren plains.

You can count the times we ate in restaurants on the fingers of one hand. But some of the highlights - pasta with zucchini flowers and saffron, fish baked in a potato crust, and crostini with guanciale and rosemary - were outstanding.

Endive and Anchovy Salad; Fresh Cod Vinaigrette with Sea Salt

I don't go to France very often. Figuratively, that is, since the closest that I've come to really being there is the Spanish Basque Country on the other side of the Pyrenees. For me, the Mediterranean has always been about Italy and Spain. Once in a while, however, I force myself to pick up a French cookbook and learn more.

French cuisine, as anyone who has leafed through Escoffier will surely know, has a tendency to be mind-numbingly complex. I therefore gravitate to the south of France - places like Provence - where the preparations are simpler, seafood is more pronounced, and the use of butter in recipes can no longer be described as prodigious.

K has been clamoring for a trip to Paris for some time now. Personally, I'd rather go elsewhere. After reading The New Provencal Cuisine: Innovative Recipes from the South of France, however, I just might reconsider. Louisa Jones' nice little book draws its recipes from the kitchens of chefs working throughout Provence, like Christian Etienne of Avignon, who envisioned this endive salad and cod vinaigrette.

If we do wind up going to France, forget Paris... We're heading straight for Provence.

Endive and Anchovy Salad 

• 4 endives, trimmed
• 1 tsp butter (I left this out)
• 4 anchovy fillets in oil, drained
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp chopped chervil

Cut the tips off the endives about 2 inches from the top non-root end); mince finely and reserve, remove the bitter hearts from the stem ends and discard. Reserve leaves

In a small sauce pan, melt butter and add anchovy. Cook for 1-2 minutes over low heat; add garlic and vinegar and stir to make paste. Remove from heat and beat in 3 tbsp oilive oil, salt and pepper.

Mic 2 tbsp of anchovy mixture into the minced endive tips and make a mound in the center of each of 4 plates. Make a pattern of endive leaves around the mound in a petal design simulating a daisy. Drizzle the anchovy sauce on the petals and sprinkle with chopped chervil to serve.

Fresh Cod Vinaigrette with Sea Salt 

• 4 cod fillets
• Salt and ground pepper
• 1 ½ cups olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• Small bunch chives
• 5 springs parsley
• 5 tarragon leaves
• 5 chervil leaves
• Sea salt
• 2 medium tomatoes, peeled seeded diced

Preheat oven to 400. Sprinkle cod with fine sea salt and pepper and place in oiled gratin dish just large enough to hold them. Bake until just barely forks 10 – 15 minutes. Check after 10.

In a small bowl, mix lemon juice salt and pepper and slowly beat in olive oil to make a vinaigrette.

Remove skin from cod. Transfer to a serving platter, spoon over the vinaigrette and sprinkle with herbs and sea salt. Arrange tomato as a garnish or sprinkle on top. I don't buy tomatoes in the winter - chances are you are getting one of those chemical-ridden ones from Florida - so I used roasted red pepper as the topping instead.

Serve hot or lukewarm.

Stuffed Piquillo Peppers

I've never contemplated running with the bulls. For one, it is ALWAYS the lone American who gets the horns. More importantly, I just can't imagine visiting Pamplona during San Fermin - the popular annual festival that culminates with the running of the bulls. Too many freaking tourists for my taste. And since it all unfolds in the height of summer, airfare costs to Spain are out of sight.

Our trip to Pamplona, therefore, came in the autumn months. The city has a lot to offer, including Bar Gaucho, one of the very best "tapas" bars in all of Spain. Just bear in mind that in Navarra, they don't call 'em tapas. They're pintxos.

On pintxos menus, one of the most pleasing and versatile ingredient is the piquillo pepper. It is a small, sweet pepper that roughly resembles the beak of a bird... hence the name piquillo. They are harvested and roasted in the autumn months, then peeled, seeded, and packed into tins. You see them hanging from balconies in the picturesque small towns of Navarra, especially Lodosa.

In the last few years, the piquillo has been making its way into American food stores. They are now my "roasted pepper" of choice. One simple preparation calls for them to be stuffed with cheese and served with a sherry vinaigrette. Simple. Delicious.

Stuffed Piquillo Peppers

•  3 tablespoons Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon sherry vinegar, preferably Pedro Ximenez
• 1/2 tablespoon minced shallot or red onion
• Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper
• 8 piquillo peppers
• 1 ounces Roncal cheese (or Manchego)
• Fresh thyme sprigs
• Fresh parsley, minced 

Pat peppers dry with a cloth or paper towel and stuff with slices of roncal, a sheep's milk cheese from Navarra. If you can't fine roncal, Manchego works fine too. Combine oil, sherry vinegar, shallot, sea salt and pepper and whisk into a vinaigrette. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add the stuffed piquillos and cook, 2-3 minutes per side, turning with tongs, until the cheese has melted. Place on a serving plate and drizzle with vinaigrette; sprinkle with parsley and garnish with thyme sprig.