MATZO MEAL FROM MATZO MATZO BALLS

Matzo Balls in France. 

Matzo ball mix does not exist in the south of France, nor in Alsace. When I have seen a box, (like in Paris) there’s garlic in the mix, which I can't eat. I gave in and made them from scratch. I love matzo balls.  I can eat them all year long.

This is no Tori Avey 5-page recipe; it's a weird recipe, because of the ingredients, but they turned out to be the best matzoh balls I’ve ever made. Making matzo into meal was a pain in the ass, but for a recipe of only 6 matzoh balls, it was worth it. A Seder table of 10 would have killed me, so I need to figure a better way to grind-up matzo.

I used Heumann’s “Tartines” style pain azyme for the meal. They are the closest thing to matzo I remember from the States. About 3 of these Tartine matzos make about a ¼ cup of meal in a Cuisinart, less the cracker bits that never ground up (which I ended up making into balls separately, and turned out pretty damn good). 

INGREDIENTS:

A very good ¼ cup of fine ground matzo meal from matzo.
¼ tsp baking powder (optional for Passover)
½ tsp JL Ramen noodle vegetable flavor-pack powder. (the only pack I can find w/o garlic or other crap in it-and the ramen are decent. They come in a green package and I buy them at Grand Frais).
1 large egg
1 T light oil (colza/sunflower…)
Sprinkle in some frozen chopped parley (boxes are at Picard…)
Do your own stock, or use some of the flavor pack from the ramen noodles to make a stock (this is why I do not add salt to the matzo ball mix).

Fork-mix matzo meal, baking powder, frozen parley bits and flavor pack spices in a small bowl. In another small bowl, fork mix together the egg and oil until well blended.

Pour egg mixture into the dry mixture. Mix all together with a fork until just combined. Do not over-mix. Put the bowl of matzo ball mixture covered in the fridge and let rest at least 30 minutes.

Bring your cooking stock to a nice simmer-boil. Form the chilled matzo meal mix into 6 27g each lightly rolled balls. Keep ‘em light.

When broth is boiling, reduce to a simmer and drop the matzo balls gently into the liquid. Let cook 30-45 minutes until fluffy and soft. Keep the pot covered, turn them over only once during their cooking time. The balls are ready when they are floating and bouncing on the surface of the water. Cook longer if they seem dense or tight, that means they haven't cooked long enough. The should look soft and airy.

Mazel tov!

COFFEE CAKE WITH CINNAMONY-SUGARY STUFF ON TOP

Sundays are still difficult for me in France. 

I want to cook, bake, meet up with friends, go to a movie, have a drink together. No schedule, just go with the flow of the day. Holiday time is even more difficult. Going out always meant bumping into a friend, which led to a drink, a trip to see Christmas lights, just hanging out. 

I'm not being whiny; it is what it is. My friends are not here or not close enough to show up at the door unannounced and welcomed. I'm not sure if that will ever exist for me here; I really don't think it exists even for French people. A day filled with happenstance and no rdv? Doubtful. 

Maybe I'll make a coffee cake.

Cake: 

57g butter melted 

1 egg 

1/8 tsp salt 

1 cup buttermilk 

Zest from one clementine (don't zest it yet)

250g flour 65T

60g sugar, which includes a packet of vanilla sugar (@ 11g)

1.5 tsp baking powder 

½ tsp cinnamon 

½ tsp powdered coriander 

Topping: 

115g butter 

100-105g muscovado sugar 

1T flour 

3/4 tsp cinnamon 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cake: 

In a large bowl fork mix all dry ingredients except the salt. 

In a medium bowl melt butter in oven, leave out to cool. Zest the clementine into the melted butter. 

In medium bowl whisk salt, buttermilk and egg into cooled butter. Add this liquid mixture to the dry mixture. Mix well; it’s a dense dough. Spread into an 8” cake greased pan. 

Take about a 1/3 of the butter and with your fingers shred it into the topping mixture till crumbly. Spread this mixture on top of the cake. Slightly swirl it around the cake. You can't really 'swirl' but sorta try; it will make dents and pocket, don’t worry. Cut the rest of the butter into small pieces and sprinkle it on the top of the cake. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes. Let cool in pan till butter is absorbed into the cake. 

Eat the clementine, have a piece of cake with hot coffee. 

PLUM BUTTER

PLUM BUTTER

I miss Michel. He's been dead more than a month and all I want to do is cook. Sleep and cook. 

My return to L.A. feels almost surreal. Nothing's changed. I imagine Michel walking the woods, returning to the apartment, watching Zorro, having sausage and pickles for dinner. 

Comme habitude, I call to make sure he is alright. He tells me he misses me, he misses my family, he misses L.A. When will I be back? Soon, I tell him. Before the fresh walnuts arrive. 

Fuck, I hate this...

I can't find a decent plum to save my life this summer in California. In  the Moselle, they are sweet, deep and so juicy. What happened to the plums of my childhood in California? We had beautiful plums. There was a tree in our backyard aching with plums. Sweet, luscious, beautiful plums. All that surrounds me now are these weird roly things of blah. 

I tried making a thick plum butter with what I could pilfer from a few trees. Michel would be pleased. With a good faisselle, Michel would be oh, so pleased. Fuck, I miss him so much. 

Nobady knows what a faisselle is in L.A.

(what I did with the plum quantity I had on hand)
900 grams plums, plus one or two set aside - washed well.
150 - 170 grams turbinado sugar (depends on the sweetness of the plum)
3 fluid ounces water
juice from one lemon

Split plums in half, remove pits, keep them and count them! Do not peel. Cut into small-ish pieces. Place everything (including the seeds) in a 3-6-quart nonreactive saucepan.

Add the water, sugar and lemon juice. Cook on low heat until the fruit is very soft, about 20 - 30 min. Remove from heat, add a tiny splash of brandy/b&b/whatever. Let cool.

Remove seeds. Add the extra plum/s cut into small pieces. Purée plum mixture with its liquid in a food mill.

Return puréed plums to very low heat, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, until thick enough to liking; between 10 - 30 minutes. Depends how thick you want it to become when cool.

Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Go find some faisselle...

ZUCCHINI WHOLE WHEAT MUFFINS W/FLAX

It's only June in California, and already I have found 5 huge zucchini left on my doorstep.  

6 muffins

3/4 cup whole wheat
1/4 cup flax meal
1tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp or good pinch
1/4 tsp good allspice

1/4 cup nice strong honey
scant 1/4 tsp maple extract (very strong stuff)
1 large egg
1/4 cup canola or light oil
some zests from a lemon
9.5 - 10 oz (270-275gm) the whole zucchini quickly pulse-chopped in Cuisinart (keep liquid)

(if you want: small handful walnuts, toasted, finely chopped or/and some currents)

In a sieve over a med bowl, add first six ingredients. Put aside.
In the mixing bowl, mix the egg, oil, extract, honey and Cuisinart-ed zucchini (easier to measure honey if you measure the oil first).

Sift dry ingredients into the med bowl. If using currants/walnuts add them now to the sifted mixture.
Pour dry bowl stuff into the wet bowl stuff. Fold well with spatula.
Put aside while prepping pan and oven (give the baking powder time to start working).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees convection, a 'little higher if not convection. Butter well a 6 muffin tin, including top of pan. When oven heated to right temperature, fill tin completely full to top with batter. Put in oven.

350F, 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned and pick comes out clean. Cool in pan @ 10 minutes.

VELOUTÉ AUX CHÂTAIGNES ET AU LARD

Velouté aux châtaignes et au lard

toujours y'a des conneries avec des recettes dans Saveurs 
(Spécial fête hors séries no26 hiver 2016)

dec. 2016

-3C. chez lidl, marché de noël, promenade en Allemagne,apéro avec des amies. la soupe elle nous attends ce soir.

50-70 cl de bouillon de volaille, selon la consistance souhaitée (mois de bouillon plus d'eau chaud)

1 bocal de 400 g de châtaignes au naturel (420 g marque Carrefour dans une bouteille pellées au feu)

40 g de noisettes entiers

20 g environs de beurre

10 cl de crème liquide (plus - jusqu’à 25 cl)

8 tranches fines de poitrine fumée

1 petit oignon (moitié d'un très petit. si plus on a le goût d'oignon et pas du châtaigne)

1 brin de persil plat (ou cerfeuil or curly parsley)

Pelez l'oignon et hachez-le. Faites le revenir sans coloration dans le beurre pendant 4-5 min. Ajoutez les châtaignes puis versez le bouillon. Faites cuire à petits bouillons pendant 20 min. Mixez avec la crème et ajustez l'assaisonnement. 

Faites dorer les tranches de poitrine fumée et les noisettes sur 2 plaques différentes pendant 10-15 min. dans le four à 180C.

Retirez les peaux des noisettes en les frottant dans un torchon puis hachez-les. Ciselez le persil.

Servez le velouté avec la poitrine fumée croustillante et les noisettes hachées. Parsemez d'un peu de persil, poivrez et ajoutez éventuellement un filet d'huile de noix (si vous voulez…)

The instructions for these recipes on Pedaler, they probably make sense only to me. Ask if you have questions.

GRATIN D'ENDIVE AVEC DU JAMBON CUIT (SANS BÉCHAMEL)

Gratin d'endive avec du jambon cuit 

(sans béchamel)
..it's my mother who made this when I was a child, then my wife, now me. And now you, ... my wife. (...Michel)

déc. 2016. 

Il faisait froid, froid, froid dehors avec du brouillard. Les luminaires de noël étaient très lumineuse.

4 belles endives

170 grammes de fromage râpé du--comté est mieux, mais on peut se servir de gruyère, du emmental…

4 tranches du jambon

qq. noisettes du beurre

qq. filets d'huile d'olive assez pour cuire les endive dans une poêle

Cuire les endives avec l'huile d'olive dans une poêle doucement, couvert pendant au moins 20-30.min.

Regardez-les chaque 5-10 min., tournez-les sur chaque face. Enlevez les feuilles extérieures s'ils deviennent brûlés.

Préchauffer le four à 200 C,  gradin 2

Quand c'est fini de cuire, laissez-les refroidir (un peu). Enrober-les avec le jambon, mettre dans un plat en pyrex. Saupoudrez-les avec le fromage, un peu de poivre et une pincée du noix de muscade. Parsemez le beurre au dessus.

Cuire pendant 15 min. regardez-les quelque fois pour voir si le fromage est bien gratiné.Servez-les tout de suite, et bon appétit !!! 

The instructions for these recipes on Pedaler, they probably make sense only to me. Ask if you have questions.

QUINOA TABBOULEH

Quinoa Tabbouleh
I leave for France soon and must clean out my fridge...




juin, 2015
I want to go I want to stay I want to go I want to stay...

2 - 3 bunches curly parsley with small, young leaves, stems removed.

1 small bunch of mint leaves.

Handful of ciboulette.

1 zucchini

1 hot house cucumber

1 – 2 lemons plus some zest.

olive oil

salt

pepper

1 cup quinoa

tsp of butter or olive oil

70 – 85 grams sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped

(I use 1 package Trader Joe’s dried tomatoes)

Peel cucumber, cut in half, scoop out seeds. Clean zucchini,
cut in half, scoop out seeds (if any). Place both, cut sides up on a plate,
sprinkle liberally with salt. Let sit while quinoa cooks.

Cook the quinoa:

In a pot put quinoa, 2 cups water, the butter (or oil).
Bring to boil, then add finely chopped tomatoes, cover and simmer for @20 minutes until almost all the water is absorbed. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork, keep covered and let cool completely.

Rinse and pat dry the cucumber and zucchini, loosely
big-dice. With Cuisinart, chop into small pieces. Place in very large bowl.

Chop finely together in batches, the parsley, the mint
and ciboulette. Place in bowl with other stuff. Add freshly ground pepper @ 7 turns. Add cooled quinoa and tomatoes. Mix well.

Now, this is really by taste and how much/little oil you like in your tabbouleh. 

Lightly salt. Add some zest then add the juice from one lemon and a few filets of olive oil, mix well. Taste, see if it needs more salt or pepper. Let it sit just a few minutes and see if you need more lemon juice and olive oil. Gets better with time in the fridge - lasts me a week of eating.

The instructions in the recipes on Pedaler, they probably make sense only to me. Ask if you have questions.

THE 2012 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: A PAPER NAME

A large brown envelope arrives in the mail. Inside are 10 campaign flyers, perhaps an updated voting card and 10 thin slips of paper about the size of an index card. Each carries the name of a presidential candidate.


On Sunday, with your paper names in hand, you go to the local bureaux de vote. You take one last glimpse of all the candidates' faces plastered on the wall before you walk inside, take a small blue empty envelope, enter an 'isoloire', choose a paper name and place it in the envelope. Then you seal it, slip it in the transparent 'urne justement', have your voting card stamped and voila, you're done.

Take that, you sad chad.



It's a voting system that sounds somewhat archaic, but damn, it really works.

YAY! GUESS WHO CAN BE NAMED HEIDI THIS YEAR?!

In 1926, the Société Centrale Canine (SCC) decided that all dogs registered in the Livre des Origines (LOF) and born in the same year would be given a name beginning with the same letter, excluding the letter Z (not too many name choices in French).

Then in 1976, this practice was standardized for all animals and excludes the letters K, Q,W, X and Y, for the same reason as Z. You can add a nickname between the time an animal is identified with the S.C.C. and when he/she is given a birth certificate.

Pretty wild, yeah?

EXPRESSIONISMUS/MI: GIVE ME LIGHT

Often during winter the skies in Lorraine are grey. When grey skies begin they continue well into March. Grey skies can be lovely for awhile but then the grey…well... makes one feel grey. 

I have learned to appreciate this time of year with its coldness and slowness, but the grey still trips me up. I’m simply not wired for so much grey. 

My body expects light, tons of light and color, all the time. In California, color and light are everything. We wear orange in January and pink in February. Our winter skies are normally a clear, bright blue, and though we need every drop, we become terribly grumpy if it rains for more than 5 days. 

RECIPE/RECETTE: BEET HUMMUS

Beet Hummus
(Based on a recipe by Clotilde Dusoulier)

300 grams beets par-cooked
35-40 grams tahini
1/2 shallot
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp du sel
@ 10 twists of the saveur pepper

Mishn everything in a cusinart at pulse. Tastes better the next day.




Recipes on Pedaler probably only make sense to me. They are here so I don't forget what I did.
If you can comprehend my scratch-notes, yay for you! Ask if you have questions.

MARK ROTHKO: THE KITCHEN AT WHITECHAPEL GALLERY

I hadn't read closely the description for the exhibition Rothko in Britain. I expected perhaps paintings by Mark Rothko done in Britain or at least from a collection in Britain or maybe painted while eating digestive bickkies in Britain, but the exhibition turned out to be really an exhibition about an exhibition.

There was only one painting present by Rothko, Light Red Over Black (1957) which was shown during Rothko’s first British solo show held at Whitechapel Gallery in 1961.


The exhibition is about this particular exhibition. It displays wonderful photographs, film footage, detailed correspondences between Rothko, galleries and other artists as well as a series of recordings made by visitors to the original 1961 event.

WATER

I see, with mindfulness, how good habits can be obtained in a very short period of time. I also see how good habits can be easily sabotaged (by me) in an even shorter period of time.

I'm focusing on how to make good habits so routine in the pattern of daily life that I don't need to even think about them. They are just done, like brushing your teeth.

Bim-Bam-Bum-Done.

HAVE YOU A LETTER FOR MRS. TYBURY?

My morning walk ended, not in the forest as I had planned, but through a small village just outside the forest, and it was the perfect walk.

I discovered a brook, a grotto with Mary and the dying naked Jesus covered in snow, firecracker remains, a luthier's shop, oh, and I did not fall - not even once.

AI WEI WEI: WHEN THINGS GO RYE WITH SUNFLOWER SEEDS

I think an artist who is clear on their intent make a stronger artist. I know that sounds stupid and basic, but believe me, there are many artists out there simply throwing up and tagging it art without understanding (or caring) what just took place, which is cool, I guess... just doesn't draw me into their world.

LA TOUSSAINT Á L'ITALIENNE

Autumn this year in the Lorraine is amazingly sweet. People are all a bit giddy by the sunlight and crisp blue skies we are experiencing.

Me  Like  It

With such an abundance of clear skies lately, many took advantage of the beautiful weather to clean and prep their loved-ones' cemetery plots for the upcoming la Toussaint.

People take scrub brushes, buckets and rags and spend dedicated time spiffing up burial plots of those they love. A dirty cemetery plot on la Toussaint could leave people talking for weeks. 

SOLAL'S PAGE PRIVÉE #1

BONJOUR TOUT LE MONDE!

Cette page était crée pour Mr. Booger Breath lui-même...SOLAL!! Et lui, seulement peut voir cette page.

Mr. Pas Beau m'a dit que tu aimes les batteries - c'est les drums baby, les drums! Voila ce dessous c'est les drummers fabuleuses:

RECIPE/RECETTE: ANN'S CHEESE MADELEINES

Anne's Cheese Madeleines

100 grams flour
5 grams levure chimique
50 grams sugar
70 grams butter
2 eggs
120 grams comté rapé
1/2 citron
a pinch of salt ( 2 grams)

Faites together and let settle in the frigo for about 15 minutes. Put in prepared madeleine mold (Anne used silicone). Cook at about 180C for 20 - 25 minutes.


Recipes on Pedaler probably only make sense to me. They are here so I don't forget what I did. If you can comprehend my scratch-notes, yay for you! Ask if you have questions.

MUDAM FOOT'S CAUGHT IN SPACE

Living near four borders gets me to and from certain countries in about the same time it takes to get to Santa Monica from Pasadena -- going 65 mph. Being able to say things like "See yah later, off to Germany for tofu!" does keep my spirits up. It's just too wild.

On my way for tofu one day, I decided to go via Luxembourg, to a museum in a city within the city, which has lots of space and an installation by a woman from Korea who lives in New York. After the museum and getting lost on the highway, going towards Brussels, I returned to France via Germany, with my tofu.

What the heck just happened here?

It's called space, babee, space. I played with space which played with my mind and allowed me to experience things and places in such a way that will never take place in space again.

cool...

IN COGNITO - WISH YOU WERE HERE