Lettuce Try Something New!

Lettuce isn't just perfect for a salad, but great for wraps. I've heard of lettuce wraps before, primarily with tofu inside, which is still delicious, but I've discovered you can use lettuce as a wrap with so, so much more.

I was out to lunch with my dad over the Thanksgiving holidays and we shared an appetizer which caught our attention when we looked over the menu. Elk lettuce wraps. Sounds good, right? This was new to me in two ways: A new kind of lettuce wrap and eating elk. I've never had elk before, but it was good. After a bad bite of tough meat, the rest of the elk was tender and delicious. The restaurant made these wraps southwestern style with a chunky mango salsa and cotija cheese. I had never heard of cotija cheese and learned later that it's a cheese from Mexico and is only produced between the months of July and October because the cows that produce this kind of milk are only fed the kind of grass necessary to make the cheese. It's a salty, grainy, firm cheese and is most similar to feta or some Italian parmesan. Anyway, getting back to the elk wraps, they were a creative way to eat elk as an appetizer. The only problem was that they were hard to eat when wrapped up and with hands - everything fell out and the lettuce easily ripped. But I could try and make something like at home. Definitely worth it.

My second recent experience with lettuce wraps was inspired from another restaurant outing. After going out to dinner with my parents, I tried to recreate this dish. Quinoa Lettuce Cups. This was essentially a lettuce wrap instead of a cup. Using a large piece of bibb lettuce as the base "cup" I put a spoonful of quinoa first, then marinated finely chopped tomatoes (I marinated the tomatoes in balsamic vinegar for about an hour or so before putting them in the wrap) and chunky-chopped avocado. Roll it all up and there you have it. I had the same issues with the elk wraps about the lettuce easily ripping, but it's still so good. Maybe next time I should try using two pieces of lettuce to make it a stronger wrap?

Obsession: Chez Robert Rodriguez

A few weeks back, my mom and I took a trip to the French country side. Without much planning, we ended up in Carcassonne - an old fortress town. While the town itself was quaint, but underwhelming, the meal we had made up for it. Chez Robert Rodriguez (this place) was one of the most spectacular meals I've had in a while. The chef's focus is on local products, changing menus, and creativity. Also, the wine selection is amazing.  This tiny five (or six) table restaurant is kitschy, warm, and totally worth the trip.

 Scallops with Local Veggies 

Saumon Fumé

Escargot

Veggies and Quinoa Pancakes

Goat Cheese with Honey, Fig Reduction and Almonds 

The Franceman 15

Contrary to popular belief, I will not be returning from France weighing over 300 pounds. While I have enjoyed the (not-so-)occasional pain au raisin et café...

... to wake me up before 3 hours of teaching "head, shoulders, knees and toes" to over-energized seven year olds, I have also never seen this much fresh produce. There are markets everywhere. One of my favorites is the St. Aubin Market every Sunday which, since there is absolutely nothing open on Sundays, is packed with people from around the city. I promise to work up the nerve to take pictures of the cheese trucks and the paella stands soon. Another favorite is the Bagatelle Market which is a transplanted Moroccan souk - olives, dates, and vendors that love to haggle. 

In the meantime though, I had the pleasure of traveling to Paris (en route to Berlin and Belgium) where I wandered through a pretty spectacular market. It is on the corner of Saxe and Breteuil (every Saturday until 1:30 ish... allowing you to sleep in). I highly recommend finding the man with Tabouli. 

And lastly, if all else fails - I have found 'diet' chocolates from Belgium... Still unsure how this works.

Experimental Food Society Spectacular, Brick Lane, London

On Friday I went to an event called the Experimental Food Society Spectacular. Basically, it was live food porn, and I loved it.What up ConnColl


"Snack Box" - lamb testicles, dried mealworms, jellyfish salad... not my ideal snack but ok


Design your own tea!


Fancy coffee contraption


Teeny cupcakes baked inside of quail eggs


Curly Whurly Eiffel Tower


London likes cupcakes

A Royal portrait, in fondant

If only macarons really did grow on trees...

Delizie italiane

Last weekend I visited Milan and Cinque Terre and enjoyed some tasty Italian delicacies. Fun fact: Cinque Terre is the birthplace of pesto (thank you!) and limoncello (gross... un-thank you) Here are some of the best gastronomical creations that Italy has to offer!

Pizza, duh.

GELATO.

So good.

The tastiest cappuccino I've ever had the pleasure of drinking.

A cat who tortured himself by staring in the window of this seafood restaurant as the chef prepared fresh fish.

Oh Honey, You're Bee-Utiful!

Honeybee hives in Wisconsin in the late afternoon sun

As it gets colder out and the beautiful fall colors start to fade, or at least here in the mountains of dear ol' Colorado, I reminisce about the warmer days. Last month when summer was coming to an end, I was invited up to Wisconsin by my boyfriend's family to help them with their annual Honey Fest. They, along with two other close families, keep honeybee hives throughout the year and each year come together to collect the honey from the hives.

Beautiful honeycomb frame from the hive. Golden Delicious.

It was only within the past few years that I've come to appreciate the role bees play in the complicated web of ecosystems. They are a very important player in pollination and the circle of flora life. I read an article from the International Herald Tribune (or New York Times, you choose) that stated that bees are accountable for pollinating one third of crops in the United States. These crops include almonds, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, cranberries, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers...ok you get the idea. So bees are important. They aren't only irritating insects making a buzzing noise around your head, they serve an important role in nature and they are indeed very good at it. But it's not all hunky dory. There has been a depressing trend of many bee colonies suddenly disappearing. A lot of bee colonies are slowly dying out. It's called the colony collapse disorder. Scientists believe this phenomenon is from issues like increasing globalization (bee pathogens can travel from bee colony to bee colony faster than ever) to lose of natural habitat. So even if bees are good at their job, there need to actually be bees around. There's a growing trend of urban beekeeping. Communities take care of bee hives in urban environments.

Some of the honey in jars after being filtered three times

Anyway, last month I loved being a part of the honey collecting tradition. It was a lot of hard work though by the time we finished we had processed and bottled approx. 30+ gallons. We used an electric centrifuge which spun out the honey from the frames and then filtered it multiple times before putting it in jars. What's remarkable is the honey will taste different each season because of the variety of plants the bees are exposed to. For instance, one year, a family had honey that tasted like lavender because the bees had access to lavender. By the end of the day I'm pretty sure I had honey in my hair, on my pants, on all my fingers and probably behind my ears too. That sticky sweet stuff gets everywhere. It's delicious to eat any time of day for any meal or even to bake with. I substitute it with sugar sometimes when making muffins or cakes or put it in my tea. It is also the only food that will never go bad. How about that!?

Using a heated carving knife, we cut off a layer of wax before putting it in the centrifuge to spin the honey out. You can then melt the wax and use it for something...candles anyone?

Moroccan Cuisine - Two Directions

This article is from the New York Times. Appropriate for our culinary anthropological blog we have going on here. Click on the word "article" or click here.

El Mercado - San Vicente, El Salvador

[These pictures were taken while my camera was half hidden in my bag. Sorry there are not more pictures, but the market is the best placed to get robbed, and I kinda like my camera!]

My First Day in Toulouse: stories of fromage

After a less than pleasant flight over the pond and lugging 100 lbs of luggage, I arrived in Toulouse yesterday evening. The city is adorable, quaint, and on certain streets, I forget that I am in France (the number of halal butchers, spice shops and moroccan restaurants put me right back in the medina of Rabat... which I'm still undecided on). However, unlike Morocco, Toulouse has an abundance of delicious, diverse, and heart-warming cheese (as much as I loved my vache qui rit) My 24 hours in France can be broken down by these.

Last Night:
late night tomate mozza panini, overflowing (literally) with buffalo mozza. it takes a grilled cheese to the next level. we took these sandwiches to go and walked to the canal where we found a spot right on the water. unfortunately, due to the lack of lighting along the river, i was unable to document the deliciousness. so instead, ill just find the gooeyist picture i can find, which still isn't even that gooey. (thanks google).

Lunch Today:
i ordered a salade saumon. first of all, props to the friend for integrate lox into every meal. how has this not caught on in the states? in addition to the fresh, crisp lettuce, the salad came adorned with petit pieces of toast covered in melted goat cheese (more like a bucheron) and lightly drizzled honey. bomb.
(real pictures to come when i am able to unpack and find my camera converter... oops.)

Dinner Today:
i was introduced to the mecca of cheese: raclette. for those of you unaware of what this monstrosity is... it is a HUGE wedge of cheese (a bit sharper, but nothing too overpowering) that has a heat source above it. the cheese melts, you scrape it with a wooden spatula, and you spread it over everything. it is traditionally served with potatoes and charcuterie; however, for those averse to meat, its pretty fantastic on everything (bread, tomatoes, alone). it may even put fondue to shame... i'm not sure if i would go that far yet. Also - I think that most places now sell these hot plate versions of raclette; however, they seem much less fun than these archaic, steel contraptions we had:

et voila!

More Millet Muffins Madame

A couple of years ago when my mom introduced me to quinoa, I thought to myself how unique it was. Now I find that it’s everywhere. So when earlier this summer I was listening to NPR and the show was explaining the benefits of millet, I thought, “This will totally be the next quinoa.” Perhaps it already is and I’m not as cultured as I consider myself to be. But I was inspired. After listening to the NPR program I bought some millet from Whole Foods in their bulk section, then put it away in the pantry and completely forgot it for the entire summer. Then a couple of weeks ago my mom was going through the pantry and took the millet out asking me what it was. I had forgotten entirely, but the voice in the back of my head said to keep it and not to throw it out. How did I remember that it was the millet I had bought after being enthralled with the NPR program? I have no idea, but it came to me one day, yet I didn’t know what to do with it. I looked around and decided to make millet muffins.

"Harvesters Resting" By Jean Francois Millet

Millet is an ancient grain that’s been around for centuries. According to Wikipedia (the encyclopedia whose main purpose is to make individuals procrastinate) archaeologists believe millet was more prevalent than rice in the prehistoric era. There are many different varieties of millet from all over the world, but India is the proud country to have the highest produce followed with West Africa. Cultures use it as a main staple item, ground up as flour, ingredient in local alcohol and additionally (again, according to Wikipedia) as bird feed, particularly for parakeets and filling for juggling beanbag. Who knew?

Millet doesn’t seem to have the same nutritional value as quinoa, but similar value to wheat, however, it doesn’t contain gluten. It’s high in B vitamins good for: healthy skin, hair and muscle tone (Heavens knows I’d like that), improved immune and nervous system function, increase the rate of metabolism and reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer whooooo!

Millet Muffins: courtesy of allrecipes.com

So here we go - millet muffins. They came out delicious. A bit sweet but I think next time I’ll put in less brown sugar. And instead of regular flour I used whole wheat flour to make it more healthy (though the amount of brown sugar that went in counter balanced the healthiness of the whole wheat flour). I think I was expecting the texture to be more like corn bread, but maybe that would have been the end result if I had ground up the millet a bit instead of roasting the grain whole. In the end the millet adds an interesting, yet appropriate crunch to the muffins. If you have a desire to make these muffins I roughly followed the recipe from this website: http://www.slashfood.com/2008/08/01/millet-muffins-from-the-metropolitan-bakery-cookbook/

Farmer's Markets and Heirloom Tomatoes

I don't like tomatoes. I never really have. I'm trying to like them, slowly, gradually because I know they're so good for you. Vitamin C, antioxidants etc etc.
I remember a couple of years ago, a college roommate brought some fresh picked cherry tomatoes from her house and offered me one, saying it tasted like candy. It did not. Not according to the kind of candy I eat.


However, heirloom tomatoes are delicious. How does this make sense, you ask? I have no idea. But I'm intrigued by the beautiful colors, designs, shapes and even taste of these tomatoes. And where is the best place this time of year to find this beautiful produce? FARMER'S MARKETS! Living in Colorado the summer season is short, but I truly appreciate every morning Sunday when local farmers come to the village, set up their stall and sell their juicy, fresh produce. It's expensive, no doubt about that, but totally worth it. You're supporting local farmers and eating wholesome foods. Yesterday at the farmer's market I was convinced by my favorite peach farmer to buy some of their apples. His winning argument: The apples in the grocery store may have been stored in a cold storage center for up to three months! But these apples here (points to apples) were pick within the last four days. Sold!


Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I visited my friend in San Francisco and we stopped by her neighborhood's farmer's market where I saw the most terrific mosaic of heirloom tomatoes. We bought a few, some mozzarella and some fresh basil and made an insalata caprese. This salad...mmm mmm good. No need for more description.

Brick Lane Market, London

A Moroccan feast on Brick Lane.