Chez Basilic: New Recipes

Roasted Garlic Soup with Shrimp (Aigo Boulido)

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:01:55 GMT

This is a more refined version of the well known Provençal soup "l'Aigo Boulido", literally garlic boiled in water. Reputedly a house remedy for convalescents, including those with a hangover. This delicate soup is extremely comforting and the fragrance of the garlic inviting. Roasted garlic mellows in taste after it has been cooked, loosing its raw sharpness completely. The added touch of toasted bread decked with shrimps converts this humble dish into a memorable one.

Paella de la Huerta

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:08:33 GMT

Everyone knows paella, a mixture of rice and seafood from Spain, right? Wrong! The original paella (pronounced "pah eya") came about as a way of cooking rice with vegetables from the garden, perhaps supplemented by bits of chicken or wild rabbit. Originally from the countryside around Valencia it has now become one of the best known Mediterranean dishes. This recipe is close to the original using only vegetables. A perfect summer dish easily prepared when season's bounty is plentiful. Make sure you use short-grained rice for paella (also called paella rice), so you get the right consistency ...

Leek and Sorrel Pancakes with Smoked Salmon

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:08:33 GMT

Sorrel is one of those vegetables that are a rare feature in many kitchens. It has a tangy and slightly lemony flavor. Just like spinach it shrinks when cooked loosing its bright green color and turning into a shade of olive green. It is used in soups, as a side dish for meat roasts or mixed in salads. This recipe from Israel probably has its origins in Russia. But it fits well into the ever adaptable Mediterranean cuisine. If you can't get your hands on sorrel use spinach or rocket (arugula).

Lemon Roasted Green Beans with Almonds

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:24:16 GMT

A variation of "Haricots Verts aux Amandes", the green bean dish so popular in France. Roasting green beans is a delicious alternative to boiling them. It brings out their sweetness and intensifies the flavors. A side dish that needs little effort and tastes absolutely great.

Çoban Salatasi (Turkish Shepherd's Salad)

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:24:16 GMT

A medley of juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, tender green beans, bright peppers, crunchy radishes - all drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and topped with feta cheese. Çoban Salatasi, also known as Choban Salatasi, is a classical dish from Turkey, very appropriate for the summer. Serve as a side dish or as a light entrée with a crusty bread - in Turkey one would use the ubiquitous "Ekmek".

Apricot Almond Custard Tart

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:01:49 GMT

A traditional recipe from the Provence, "Tarte aux Abricots à la Crème d'Amande", a delicious and light apricot tart. The intense flavor of apricots combines well with an old-time favorite - baked custard.

Salted Cod with Grilled Vegetables

Sun, 31 May 2009 09:26:21 GMT

At first glance rather strange that a salted codfish dish has its origins in Venice, a city where fresh fish abounds. But sailing ships used to deliver salt to Norway and returned with dried and salted codfish. A great staple to use on long voyages, hence its popularity with seafaring nations before refrigeration became common. In Italy the dish is called Baccalà con Verdure Grigliati. We use dried, salted codfish (Italian: baccalà) for this dish, not the dried, unsalted one which is called "stoccafisso".

Cheese Custard with Asparagus & Tomato Vinaigrette

Mon, 4 May 2009 17:26:21 GMT

A tasty and versatile recipe for an appetizer, light lunch or as a side dish to your preferred meat or roasted veggies. A great choice for a summer brunch with fresh fruits. One of my favorite ways to serve it is with green asparagus and tomato vinaigrette. The light golden brown custard together with the green asparagus and the red tomato vinaigrette not only creates a sensory magic on the plate, but also magic on the taste buds.

Involtini di Melanzane (Eggplant Roll-Ups)

Wed, 1 Apr 2009 16:12:39 GMT

Eggplants are elegant, versatile and can be served in so many ways that they have become one of the most used vegetables in the Mediterranean region. It appears there are as many recipes of Involtini di Melanzane (Eggplant Roll-Ups) as there are cooks in Italy. They are great as a first course at room temperature or served warm as a main dish. They can be prepared in advance, giving you time to enjoy your guests. If you prefer, you can grill the eggplants instead of frying them in olive oil.

Baked Camembert

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:00:12 GMT

Camembert is probably the best known cheese outside of France. It derives its name from the village of Camembert about 60 km southeast of Caen in Normandy. French like their Camembert semi-firm: soft on the fringes with a grainy, firm core inside. In this recipe you will experience Camembert in a molten state, bursting with flavor under a crispy coating of bread crumbs. I like to serve it with "Belgian Endives (Chicory) with Roasted Red Peppers" (photo). The flavorful molten Camembert combines with the tender bitterness of the endives and the roasted red peppers in vinaigrette.

Butter Bean, Feta & Olive Salad

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:21:56 GMT

Greeks love their Fassolia Gigantes, the large white beans grown in the Kato Nevrokopi region northeast of Thessaloniki. We use regular butter beans in this recipe, which are from the same family but a bit smaller and easier to obtain outside of Greece. Butter beans are closely related to lima beans, a much beloved staple of the Southern US. Lima beans are slightly curved and light green in color whereas butter beans are a bit smaller and white. If you are in a hurry you can use canned or frozen butter beans. Using dried butter beans requires a bit more work as you need to soak them overnight and cook them the next day.

Poached Oranges with Grand Marnier

Thu, 5 Mar 2009 11:05:25 GMT

When we talk about poached fruits, pears and apricots come immediately to mind. But why not try "Arance al Grand Marnier", poached oranges with Grand Marnier? Poaching concentrates the orange flavor and the syrup gives them a fresh and glossy look. A dash of Grand Marnier or Cointreau gives this light dessert the extra kick.

Coniglio all'Etrusca (Etruscan-style Rabbit)

Mon, 2 Mar 2009 14:33:56 GMT

Tender rabbit meat Etruscan style in a savory sauce of herbs and spices. We enjoyed it at the tiny restaurant "Il Rossellino" in Monticchiello di Pienza, a historic hilltop town south of Siena in Tuscany. The original dish in this game rich region of Italy calls for hare. But most restaurants in Italy use rabbit nowadays. This dish is usually prepared in an iron casserole, which keeps the meat particularly juicy.

Pasta with Arugula (Rocket) and Anchovies

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:52:21 GMT

"Pasta con Rucola e Acciughe" is a tasty dish, easy to prepare. In Italy it is mostly served as "primo piatto", the dish before the main course. "Rucola" in Italy, "Arugula" in the States and "Rocket" in Britain is the common name of this plant. It has a slight peppery bite with a touch of walnut. A native of the Mediterrean region its popularity has increased around the world as the Mediterranean cuisine expanded its reach. While mostly used as an add-on to salads, it goes well with other dishes, like pasta.

Goat Cheese Soufflé with Sofrito

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:32:06 GMT

"Soufflé de Queso de Cabra con Sofrito", a delicious and light dish from Spain. It is baked in individual ramekins, making it a great choice for entertaining. The goat cheese soufflé has a delicate texture and subtle flavor, a pleasant contrast to the more robust Sofrito, a slowly sautéed tomato-garlic-green pepper sauce widely used in the Spanish and Latin American cuisines.

Empanada Gallega (Galician Chicken and Pepper Pie)

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:08:22 GMT

This is a pie made with chicken, onions, green and red peppers and peas; a recipe from Gallicia, the Northwestern corner of Spain. Hence the name Empanada (pie) Gallega (from Galicia). A favorite dish for any time of the year using leftovers from a chicken dish. Don't be intimidated making your own dough. Once you have mastered it you will use it with all sorts of fillings. Empanadas are widely used in Spain and the Spanish speaking Latin American countries. Every region has its own special filling ranging from vegetables, meat, poultry to seafood. The Argentines use plenty of meat (no wonder), the Chileans love their Empanadas de Horno filled with olives and hard boiled eggs.

Polenta Rounds with warm Goat Cheese

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:17:43 GMT

"Crostini di Polenta al Formaggio di Capra", a tasty little dish we once had as a first course in the restaurant La Galleria in Poggibonsi south of Florence. The mild flavors of the Polenta contrasts with the roasted peppers and piquant taste of the slightly molten goat cheese.
Most visitors pass Poggibonsi on their way from Florence to San Gimignano without realizing that the town has a couple of excellent restaurants and osterias, serving superb Tuscan dishes.

Duck Breast in Port Wine and Caper Sauce

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:40:12 GMT

"Magret de Canard avec Sauce aux Câpres" a typical French dish for the colder season. A good duck breast really needs nothing more than a quick sear and a slice. This recipe is from a restaurant in a small village near Uzès, the fabulous historic town in the Gard Provençal. The duck breasts were tender, very lean and the port wine & caper sauce gave it a very pleasant note. It is best served with creamy polenta.

Pan-seared Cod on a Bed of Puy Lentils

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:19:47 GMT

"Filetes de bacalhau fresco com lentilhas verdes", a delicious dish I had in a small restaurant on Madeira's rugged north coast. I liked it so much I asked João Luis - owner, cook and waiter all in one person - for the recipe. Bacalhau means codfish in Portuguese, but the word is almost exclusively used for salt cod and the dishes made from it. Fresh cod is rarely consumed in Portugal, so you need to add "fresco" to the word "bacalhau", to describe what the rest of the world simply calls cod.
Madeira is a wonderful place, steep mountains rising from the Atlantic Ocean. It has a very intensive agriculture on small plots on thousand of terraces - backbreaking work. Nearly all the produce here is ......

Pasta con Fave e Rucola

Sat, 6 Dec 2008 15:12:17 GMT

Pasta with fava beans (broad beans) and rucola (arugula, rocket), a simple recipe and easy to prepare. In Italy this dish would be served as a "primo piatto", a first course or as a main course. Italians are very flexible - it depends on one's appetite.
You can use tagliatelle, fettucine or pappardelle, the thick broad pasta popular in Italy. The rucola greens, also known as arugula or rocket, gives this dish a nice touch. Broad beans are one of the oldest crops in agriculture. Along with lentils, peas and chickpeas, they became part of the Mediterranean cuisine around 6000 BC. In the US we use the Italian term fava (singular, the plural is fave) - fava beans in the US and broad beans in the rest of the anglophile world.

Chickpea Soup with Shrimps

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:22:43 GMT

Minestra di Ceci con Gamberi, a recipe from Sardinia, puts together what appears to be at first glance an odd combination: chickpeas and shrimps. You will applaud the outcome. Easy to make and simply great! I have opted for the canned chickpeas. The dried variety requires overnight soaking and 1 - 2 hours cooking. Purists will not agree with me, but then again how much time do you have to prepare a tasty soup. Believe me, I have tried both methods and I see no difference.

Tellines (Wedge Clams) à la Persillade

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:42:12 GMT

Wedge clams are tiny, smooth clams in a wide variety of colors. You find them in wet sand on the shores of both sides of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. A good place to look for are tidal pools and puddles. What they lack in size, they make up in number and above all in taste - small, delicate tidbits. In the US and Canada they are virtually unknown as delicacies. A different story in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy!

One variety of wedge shells are the Tellines. They are a specialty of the Camargue, the Rhône delta. Cumbersome and tedious to harvest but quite easy to prepare. Harvesting is subject to strict rules: the tellinier (the wire mesh bucket dragged through the wet sand) cannot be wider than 1 m, the mesh size must be at least 1 sq cm and the minimum size of the longest side of the tellines 2,5 cm.

Onion and Gruyère Tart

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:16:45 GMT

Tarte à l'Oignon et au Gruyère is a popular recipe all over France. It is a melt-in-the-mouth dish: light, delicious and with character. If you don't find Gruyère cheese in your part of the world, you can use mature Swiss cheese, albeit it is not a full substitute. A perfect dish for a light lunch or appetizer.

Seafood Stew with Pearl Couscous and Parsley Aioli

Sat, 1 Nov 2008 16:36:28 GMT

This version of the Ragoût de Fruits de Mer can be made with different cuts of fish and shellfish, whatever you find fresh in the winter catch. It is served with parsley Aïoli, a nice variation of the traditional Sauce Rouille we normally use for fish stews in the Provence. If you cannot find pearl couscous - also known as moghrabieh, mughrabia, maghrebiyya, berkuki or Lebanese couscous - substitute it with Israeli couscous (smaller than the pearl couscous).

Bolinhos de Bacalhau (Codfish Croquettes)

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 10:57:02 GMT

Salted codfish was a staple on Portuguese ships during the 15th and 16th century, the times of the famous Portuguese navigators like Vasco da Gama, Pedro Alvares Cabral and Fernão de Magalhães. They needed food with high nutrional value which could be stored for months. Today Portugal remains the champion of using salted codfish in its cuisine, albeit most of it is now caught and processed on the Lofoten Islands in Norway.

Bolinhos de Bacalhau - in some regions also called Pastéis de Bacalhau - are a well known and widely available appetizer in Portugal and Brazil. Bolinho means small cake. They are a must if you serve petiscos (appetizers) or as they call them in Brazil, salgadinhos, a term which means "savories". They go well with a cool beer or a caipirinha.

In case you wonder how to get your hands on salted codfish in the US: you can order it from internet stores.

Red Snapper in Creamy Broccoli Sauce

Sat, 4 Oct 2008 10:19:27 GMT

Dentice con Salsa di Broccoletti, a tasty dish from the Italian shores. Red Snapper is quite common in the Mediterranean Sea and Broccoli, well, it's one of those vegetables one hates or loves. Those who hate it probably had it served boiled in water with mother's admonishment "You have to eat your veggies!" That's sufficient to ban it from the table for life. Those who love it swear on its anti-oxidant properties believed to prevent stomach and colon cancer. This recipe turns broccoli into a sauce with anchovies and lemon spicing it up. An invitation to join the broccoli lovers to enjoy this tasty, light dish.

Small roasted potatoes in garlic or a crusty white country bread make a nice complement to this dish.