My friends Tim and Mary invited me to prepare dinner for Tim’s business friends. Since it was a working week night, we selected dishes that could be served in about 2 hours. Mary prepared Thai Chicken Barbeque for appetizers, Cream of Asparagus Soup for the starting course, and Creme Brulee for dessert. I prepared the main courses which consisted of: Pan-Seared Steaks with a Mustard Sauce, Pan-Seared Scallops and Prawns with a Spinach, Arugula and Orange Salad, Fingerling Potatoes With Aioli, and Carrots and Parsnips Braised in Butter.
Archive for Geo:French
Pan-Roasted Salmon
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Wild-caught salmon fillets are coated with coriander seeds, roasted in a pan for a few minutes, and served with a delicate, tangy white wine-orange sauce. Here is the Pan-Roasted Salmon recipe. |
The Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake
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Today, I visited an overseas friend who taught me some of her native dishes. To celebrate her arrival to our town, I baked her The Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake, which has only 3 mandatory ingredients: chocolate, butter, and eggs, and an optional one: coffee liqueur, which I obliged. |
Cream of Potato Soup
| Here is Cream of Potato Soup, a comfort food for the cold Minnesota winter, from MFK Fischer, a comforting food writer. |
Green and Red Lentils
Today, we prepared two lentil dishes — Lentil Sausage Soup with red lentils and French Lentils With Bacon and Vegetables with green lentils (lentilles du Puy).
We started the soup by soaking red lentils in boiling water. Then we sautéed onions, garlic, cumin seeds, fresh thyme, celery and carrots in olive oil. Then, we drained the lentils, added it together with chicken stock and tomato paste to the sautéed vegetables. Finally, we added turkey kielbasa, red wine vinegar, sour cream and a generous amount of Parmigiano Reggiano (parmesan cheese). Here is the Lentil Sausage Soup recipe.
We started the French lentil dish by gently boiling the lentils only until they were cooked but still firm and retaining their form. In another pan, we cooked bacon only until they were cooked, still limp and slightly browned. We removed the cooked bacon, added olive oil and sautéed onions, garlic, summer squash, Chinese broccoli, Swiss chard, fresh cayenne pepper, and kohlrabi green tops. Then we added the cooked lentils and bacon and seasoned the dish with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Here is the French Lentils With Bacon and Vegetables recipe. Here is a French Lentils With Summer Vegetables recipe that substitutes the bacon with tomatoes and an additional fresh cayenne pepper.
Chestnut Soup and Fruit Salad
To celebrate the holiday season, we prepared a comforting chestnut soup and a festive fruit salad.
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We cut fruit wedges from a variety of citrus fruits… |
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…and combined them with cherries, kiwi, pomegranate seeds, and slivered almonds into a colorful fruit salad.
Here is the recipe. |
| …Then, with the help of some friends, we embarked on the laborious task of peeling rare American chestnuts grown in the Frame farm nearby… |  |
| … and prepared a hearty chestnut soup.Here is the recipe. |  |
Persimmon and Pomegranate
Today, we worked with two unusual ingredients –
| hachiya persimmons which we prepared in a steamed pudding, |  |
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and pomegranate which we prepared in a soup. |
Here are the recipes.
Cranberry, Potato, and Carrot
| Today, continuing with ideas for Thanksgiving, we prepared cranberry sauce, both classical and garlic mashed potatoes, and glazed carrots. |  |
Here are the recipes.
Cauliflower and Squash
Today, to provide ideas for Thanksgiving, we prepared two cauliflower dishes and one squash dish.
| The first cauliflower dish was prepared Indian-style with homemade curry spices.
The second cauliflower dish was prepared Roman-style with the combined flavors of garlic, lemon, and olive oil. Finally, the squash dish was prepared French-style with glazed squash and gently cooked onions. |
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Here are the recipes.
Luigi Cooks 