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Potato Broccoli Crepes

27 Sep

A year ago I was walking the streets of Paris for the second time… enjoying as much as my senses could gather.  I loved the ambiance, the rhythm of the city… everything!!!  I felt that if I wanted I may be able to even live there.

Place de la Madeleine      notre dame    crepes nutella

Well, that’s what my friend Jesiel actually did.  She has moved herself to Paris to start at 33 a new career as a Pastry Chef.  She recently started a blog – Sweet Journey of Inspiration – to capture her travels and her love for good authentic food, especially pastries.

So to reminisce about my days in Paris and to celebrate Jesiel’s decision to leave all that is familiar to her and start anew in a city where she still is learning the language, I decided to make these savory crepes…

Savory crepes… crêpes salées or gallettes are extremely popular in menus across Paris.  As you can see from my previous post on Parisian crepes, they’re mostly made from buckwheat flour and come in an infinite variety of savory combinations.  I had mine then with potatoes, spinach and cheese. 

Crepe epinard 1

Well, with the abundance of broccoli we’ve had recently, these are made with delicious broccoli.  They’re simple to make and a nice savory alternative to using up those crepes from our crepes recipe post right here…

 

POTATO BROCCOLI CREPES

1 small red potato, quartered
3-4 broccoli florets
Handful of shredded cheese – it could be gruyere or a cheese blend like I used
Handful of walnuts
Drizzle of honey – optional
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 crepes – recipe here
 
  1. In a small saucepan filled with about ½’ of water, place the potato quarters.  Salt the potato.  Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat.
  2.  When the potato is about to be done, place the florets on top of the potato for them to steam.  After covering the saucepan again, wait about 15 seconds and turn off the stove.  The florets will cook with the steam and remaining heat in the saucepan for about 10 minutes more.
  3. If you have already made your crepes, you should reheat them so they’re flexible and pliable again.  So while you wait on the broccoli to finish cooking, heat up a skillet (I use the same skillet I used to make the crepes in the first place) and over medium heat, place the crepes for about 1 minute on each side.  This will just reheat them and bring them back to life…
  4. Drain the water from the potato and broccoli.  Mash the potato and broccoli together.  Season mash with salt and pepper.  Add the shredded cheese and nuts to the mash. Mix well to combine.
  5. Place about ¼ cup of mashed mixture onto each crepe, fold and place in a plate.  Drizzle with a bit of honey over crepes and sprinkle added nuts on top for garnish.

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Potato and Yautía Pastelón

24 Sep

Recently my grandma was in the hospital… and when this happens, my mom stays with her all the time and I become the official vegetarian food delivery service.

This is one of the recipes I made for my mom while she was staying with my grandma at the hospital.  It was easy to make, nutritious and delicious.

 

POTATO AND YAUTÍA PASTELÓN

2 medium red potatoes, chopped into 2” pieces
1 medium white yautía, chopped into 2” pieces
1 broccoli stalk, both florets and stem, chopped into small pieces
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
½ onion, chopped
1 tbs sofrito
2 tbs horseradish
3 tbs butter, divided
1 tbs parmesan cheese
1 handful of shredded mozzarella cheese
Sal t and Pepper to taste
About 1 tbs of olive oil
Canola Oil Spray

 

  1. In a medium saucepan, I place the chopped potato and yautía pieces along with the broccoli stems but not the florets.  I add water until it comes up halfway.  Add salt to taste, cover and bring to a quick boil over medium heat.  I usually lower the heat when I see some steam coming out of the cover to avoid the water to completely evaporate.  Pieces are usually cooked after 15 minutes. 
  2. Right before you turn off the heat from the potato/yautía… place the broccoli florets inside the same pot so it steams with the steam from the pot.  Cover immediately, wait about 15 seconds and turn off the heat on that burner.  Broccoli florets will be cooked thoroughly in about 5 minutes.
  3. While the potatoes and yautías cook, we prepare the filling… in a medium skillet over medium heat we add olive oil and sofrito.  Sauté for a few minutes.  Add the chopped onion and sauté some more until the onion softens.   Add the thawed corn and cooked broccoli florets. Season with salt and pepper and mix well so all the flavors mix in.  Set aside.
  4. Drain all the remaining water from the cooked potatoes, yautías and broccoli stems and return to the same pot.  Add butter, olive oil, horseradish and parmesan cheese.  You could add a handful of shredded mozzarella cheese too if you’d like.  Mash it all together until smooth.
  5. In a medium-sized glass baking dish sprayed with Canola Oil, add about half of the mashed potato/yautía mix.  Spread it out evenly across the bottom.  Add the corn/broccoli filling on top of this layer.  Now cover with the remaining potato/yautía mash.  Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese.
  6. Bake in oven at 450F for about 10-12 minutes, until the cheese on top melts and becomes golden brown.  The pastelón per se is all cooked so you’re just looking for a nice crusty top.

 

Serve alongside a crispy green salad…  This is a great potluck dish or to take to someone when they’re “under the weather”.

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Arroz Kristina

26 Aug

My friends from French class and I used to meet at Chez Kristina every Tuesday to practice our French grammar and practice our vocabulary and speaking fluidity.  Since last Summer we took an indefinite break from our weekly get-togethers and I truly miss them. 

Kristina was gracious enough to open up the doors to her house each week and also usually made us dinner.  Many times we offered to help and these reunions were the reason or excuse for many recipes shared here – Mushroom Goat Cheese spread, Cranberry Trifle, “Shrimp” Creole, and the Pita Pizzas made with Spinach and Tomato Sauce.  But many times, Kristina surprised us with a creation all her own. 

One of these creations was what I lovingly call Arroz Kristina – a rice Kristina made in the oven so little tending in necessary.  The flavor is spectacular and it’s great to make for yourself or for company, just like Kristina made it for us.   I tried a few times before this recipe with little success.  It was mostly my fault for screwing up the liquid measurements to accommodate for whole-grain rice.  But recently I discovered Texmati rice, whole grain basmati-style rice apparently grown in Texas that cooks almost exactly was white long-grain rice – similar in texture, liquids to use, time to cook.  This rice is FAST!!!

After discovering Texmati rice and having a pint of mushrooms in my fridge about to spoil, I decided to give Arroz Kristina another serious try…  and the results were as good as the original.

ARROZ KRISTINA

¾ cup of Texmati whole-grain brown rice
1 pint button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
½ red onion, diced
½ green bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbs ume plum vinegar
½ cup frozen spinach or  2 cups fresh baby spinach
¼ cup walnuts, chopped – you can use any nut you wish…  I’ve used pecans also
1 cup water or vegetable broth
About 2 tbs olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
¼ cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
 

 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 400F
  2. In a medium-sized skillet over medium heat, pour about 1 tbs of olive oil and sauté the diced onions and peppers.    After a few minutes, add the garlic cloves.  Stir to combine.   Add the mushrooms and stir so the olive oil in the pan coats them and so the garlic doesn’t stay all together in the bottom to potentially burn.
  3. After a few minutes of cooking and the mushrooms browning a bit, add the vinegar and season with salt and pepper.    Cook for a few minutes for the mushrooms to absorb the flavors and cook completely.  After a few minutes, set aside to cool a bit.
  5. In a glass casserole dish, add the rice, frozen spinach (no need to defrost at all) or chopped fresh baby spinach leaves, walnuts or pecans, cooked mushroom mixture and water or vegetable broth.  Mix together to blend and season with a bit of salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.  Be careful here and try to avoid over salting… remember you seasoned the mushrooms so keep that in mind.   Cover with foil paper.
  6. Place in oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  At about the 1 hour mark, check the rice and fluff and move a bit if necessary.  Keep covered and leave in oven the additional 15 minutes.
  7. After time has elapsed, uncover, add the cheese, cover again and turn off oven.  Let the cheese melt with the residual heat in the oven.

 

The color of the dish might be a monotone brown, but the flavors are really good.    You could also use fresh spinach and the color would be greener…  but using frozen spinach is just as good and super easy to have always at hand in the freezer.

I want to thank Kristina for always opening up the doors to her house for our French extra-curricular rendez-vous.  I am extremely grateful for her hospitality, but most of all for her friendship.  Hope that we can retake these weekly meetings, if not in her house, possibly in mine.  And possibly start sharing once again new recipes we can all share with you…

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Sopa Paraguaya

16 Aug

Every Wednesday, Serious Eats gives us readers a challenge for the weekend based on articles found in newspapers around the US.  This past weekend’s challenge was to create something delicious with CORN.

I’ve been meaning to learn my friend Rosani’s recipe for Sopa Paraguaya for some time now.  And just like I do every time – I gather the recipe, I gather the ingredients and then… something comes up and the ingredients stay in the cupboard indefinitely.  That’s why I was so glad to hear about this challenge because it would give me the chance to make this Sopa Paraguaya once and for all…

Sopa Paraguaya translates literally to Paraguayan Soup.  It’s not technically a soup – it’s more like a corn bread or a polenta… and about the Paraguayan part… well, it’s from Paraguay but if you’re ever there, don’t ask for a Sopa Paraguaya because these are known there as “chipa guazú”. 

UPDATE  11-03-2012:   If you indeed get to visit Paraguay like I did back in March, you’ll see that this version I learned originally is more like a hybrid of what they traditionally call a Sopa Paraguaya and a Chipaguazú.  Check out the distinctions between the 2 traditional dishes here.

PARAGUAYAN SOUP

½ packet (3/4 cup) cornmeal
8 oz (1 cup) frozen corn kernels – defrosted
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbs of butter
1 tbs olive oil
1 ½ cups evaporated milk
1 ½ cups regular or soy milk
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
½ tbs baking powder
2 links of Veggie Hot Dogs, sliced (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Canola oil Spray
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
  2. In a large sauce pan over medium high heat, add the oil, butter and onion.  Add a little salt and pepper to help the onions release their juices.  Sautee until onions turn translucent.  Add the veggie dog slices and heat thru.
  3. Add the milks and let them warm through.  Add the cornmeal slowly while whisking to avoid creating lumps.  Keep on whisking once in a while until the mixture thickens.  Add the baking powder.  Add the corn kernels and shredded cheese.  Mix well so the corn kernels are evenly distributed within the mix and the cheese has melted.  Take off the stove.
  4. Transfer to an oven baking dish that has been sprayed with canola oil.
  5. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes until the top is golden brown.  Let rest for about 15 minutes to allow it to set before cutting into it…

I have loved sopa paraguaya ever since I first had it at the Yoga Center… now, thanks to Rosani, I can make it anytime I crave it.   The veggie dogs are not necessary, but I think they add a nice touch to it.

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Spinach Crepes Revisited

11 Aug

I love spinach crepes… they’re my favorite savory combination of crepes. 

I used to eat a spinach crepe every Saturday as lunch at the Alliance Française…  I had a spinach crepe too for lunch when we visited Versailles last year.   When given the choice, a spinach filling usually wins for me.

p1010690.jpg

Crepe epinard 1

When I did the Gateau des Crepes for the Fête de la Bastille celebration, the recipe yielded more spinach filling and more crepes than we actually need for the crepe stack.   And if it’s just me eating, the same components can be assembled differently in a more single dish friendly format.

 

SPINACH CREPES REVISITED

2 spelt crepes
About 2 tbs of spinach béchamel filling
2 tbs grated gruyere cheese
1 small handful of toasted walnuts, chopped

 

  1. Pre-heat toaster oven to 350F.
  2. If crepes have been refrigerated, we’ll need to reheat them slightly.  In a small non-stick skillet over medium heat, place crepe individually for a few minutes until they’re warm and pliable.
  3. Take each crepe and spread about 1 tbs of filling into each one.  Sprikle with half the walnuts into each crepe.  Roll crepe onto itself and place in a buttered dish.
  4. Spread some extra spinach filling over the crepes and sprinkle with a bit more walnuts.  Add the grated gruyere on top to finish.
  5. Place in oven for about 10-15 minutes until the filling heats up and the cheese on top melts well.

 

Two crepes is, to me, the perfect serving for one person.  You can drizzle a bit of honey or agave nectar on top if you’d like a different sweet touch to the crepe…  I highly recommend it.

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