Corn Vichyssoise: Thank You, Gwyneth!

Corn Vichyssoise:  Thank You, Gwyneth!

by Victoria Challancin

Gwyneth Paltrow.  Is there anything this talented young woman can't do?  She acts, she wins Oscars, she sings, she blogs, she is a first class celebrity, and...and she cooks!  Author of the new cookbook, My Father's Daughter:  Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness, she is now featured in cooking magazines as well, like in the June Bon Appétit whose cover she graces.


In last week's cooking class for professional Mexican cooks, we prepared Gwyneth's Corn Vichyssoise and it was perfect!  So creamy...so creamless.  Made from frozen corn cobs (our fresh sweet corn isn't in the markets yet here in my corner of Mexico), this soup was surprisingly good.  Excellent, even.  Lightly, freshly sweet, healthy, relatively fast--it is a perfect soup for summer.  And it is equally good hot or cold.  I've said it before, "What's not to love?"

Gwyneth Paltrow's Corn Vichyssoise

(Recipe by Gwyneth Paltrow, Bon Appetit, June 2011)

Serves 4.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 medium leeks, white and light-green parts only, coarsely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)

5 ears shucked corn, kernels cut from cobs, cobs reserved (or use frozen if necessary)

1 cup coarsely chopped peeled potato (about 1 medium)

4 cups good-quality vegetable stock

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup crème fraîche or sour cream

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives

Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add corn kernels, reserved cobs, potato, and stock. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Increase heat to high and bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cover with lid slightly ajar, and cook until the vegetables are very soft, about 35 minutes.

Discard corn cobs; let soup cool slightly. Working in batches, purée soup in a blender until v(Recetery smooth. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a large bowl; strain, discarding solids. Chill soup until cold. If too thick, thin with water by 1/4-cupfuls. Stir in lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Spoon a dollop of crème fraîche atop each serving and sprinkle with chives.

Enjoy!

©Victoria Challancin.  All Rights Reserved.

Heidi Swanson's Goat Cheese Liptauer Cheese Crostini

Heidi Swanson's Goat Cheese Liptauer Cheese Crostini--the smidgen that remained after class

Heidi Swanson's Goat Cheese Liptauer Cheese Crostini

by Victoria Challancin

Heidi Swanson probably needs no introduction in the world of food and blogs.  She not only hosts the popular blog 101cookbooks.com but is also the author of two cookbooks:  Super Natural Cooking: Five Delicious Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Foods into Your Cooking and the newly released Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen, both excellent books for practicing vegetarians and people trying to incorporate more natural foods (grains, local produce, and eggs into their diets.

This recipe was on her blog recentlly and it grabbed me as an accompaniment to the Chilled Zucchini Soup with Purslane recipe that I posted last week.  And it worked perfectly.  The dill relish and the caraway seeds gave it that perfect exotic touch.  And I loved making it with goat's cheese instead of the more traditional cream cheese.  I prefer the way Heidi served it on tiny pieces of dense, wholegrain bread, but as I only had baguette...Easy, fresh, tasty.  What more can we ask for?  Thank you, Heidi.

From Heidi's blog: 

Liptauer Cheese Crostini

Use room temperature butter and cheese. It helps the spread cream up beautifully. And slice your bread much more thinly than what I've done here. I could only track down pre-sliced black bread the day I shot these. You can make the spread a few days ahead of time if needed.

8 ounces / goat cheese, room temperature
4 oz unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 big pinches of salt, or to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds, toasted & crushed
1 teaspoon capers, rinsed, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped shallots or onion
1 tablespoon chopped pickles

a few dozen thin crostini or crackers*
one bunch of chopped chives, to serve

Cream the goat cheese in a large bowl wither by hand or with a hand blender. Add the butter and incorporate that as well. Add the paprika, mustard, and salt and cream some more. Now, by hand, beat in the caraway seeds, capers, shallots, and pickles. Taste and adjust until everything is to your liking.

Assemble no more than an hour before serving, so your bread doesn't go soft. Spread the liptauer across each crostini, and sprinkle with chives.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

*You can make crostini simply by tossing pieces of bite-sized, thinly sliced bread with a couple glugs of olive oil and the placing them on a baking sheet in a 350F/180C oven until deeply toasted. Cool and store in an airtight jar until ready to use.

Prep time: 10 min

        Enjoy!

Heidi Swanson's Goat Cheese Liptauer Cheese Crostini--on toasted baguette

Heidi Swanson's Goat Cheese Liptauer Cheese Crostini

Heidi Swanson's Goat Cheese Liptauer Cheese Crostini

©Victoria Challancin.  All Rights Reserved

A Perfect Light-Crumbed Cake with Ganache Frosting

A perfect slice...

A Perfect Light-Crumbed Cake with Ganache Frosting

by Victoria Challancin

In yesterday's cooking class for Professional Mexican Cooks, we made a perfect cake.  A perfect cake made at over six and a half thousand feet in altitude.  Perfect.  Light-crumbed and lovely.  For the frosting we used a chocolate ganache, added while still warm and pourable.  Beautiful.  The finished cake has so many reflections on its pretty, shiny surface, that I don't have a good photo of it, but truly it was a nice all-purpose cake.  And easy.  

Cook's Notes:  I added the high-altitude adjustments in parentheses.

Yogurt Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

(Recipe by Tony Rosenfeld for Fine Cooking Magazine)

Serves 12

For the cake:  

4 ounces (1/2 cup)unsalted butter, softened, more for greasing pan

9 ounces (2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour (plus 2 T for high altitude baking)

1 teaspoon baking powder (less 1/4 t for high altitude baking)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 cup granulated sugar (less 1 T for high altitude baking)

3 large eggs

1 1 /2 cups plain yogurt, lo- fat or full-fat (plus 2 T for high altitude baking)

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the ganache frosting:

3/4 cup heavy cream

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken into small pieces

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

To prepare the cake:

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350F (375F for high altitude).  Butter a 9-inch cake pan.  LIne the pan with a piece of parchment paper (we used waxed paper) cut to size.  Butter the paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream the sugar and the butter on medium speed until smooth and fluffy.  Reduce the speed to low, add the eggs, and then add the yogurt and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and  bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes (it took longer at this high altitude).  Let cool completely on a rack before turning the cake out of the pan.

Make the frosting and frost the cake:

Bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Reduce the heat to low, add the chocolate and corn syrup, and whisk until the chocolate is completely melted.  Remove from the heat and let cool for 15 minutes.  Transfer to a large bowl and refrigerate uncovered, stirring every 30 minutes or so, until it firms to a spreadable texture, about 45 minutes (or do as we did and use it when it is warm and pourable).  Transfer the cake to a cake plate.  Spread the ganache evenly over the top and sides of the cake with an offset spatula.  The frosted cake can be refrigerated for up to five days.

Enjoy!

The ganache in a pourable stage

The ganache, tidied up a bit

...and perfect roses from my husband...

©Victoria Challancin.  All rights reserved.

Chilled Zucchini Soup with Purslane

Chilled Zucchini Soup with Purslane

Chilled Zucchini Soup with Purslane
by Victoria Challancin

In 2008 I began a post called Purslane:  Weed, Culinary Star, and Cure-all with these words:

"What common edible weed has six times more vitamin E than spinach, seven times more beta carotene than carrots, and more Omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy vegetable plant? Purslane. Gathered in the wild throughout the world, this nutrient-rich plant has been used as a medicine for over 2000 years and for 10,000 years or more as a food source. And now it is creeping its way back onto American tables. Why?"  

As I reread that post, I smiled, remembering my first encounters with purslane so long ago when I lived in Bahrain, where it is much-appreciated in salads.  Now I live in Mexico, where although purslane (verdolagas in Spanish) is consumed cooked, I have to actively "sell" it as a salad ingredient.  In my cooking class for Professional Mexican Cooks this week, we made this lovely soup.   I could tell the cooks were skeptical at first, but one taste of this refreshing soup proved enough to make them reconsider purslane as a raw ingredient. The purslane was a hit.  As it will be with you if you try this easy recipe from the current June issue of Food and Wine.

Cook's Notes:  We omitted the olive oil drizzle, though it would make both a pretty and tasty addition.

Chilled Zucchini Soup with Purslane

(Recipe from Food and Wine, June 2011)

ACTIVE: 25 MIN                              TOTAL TIME: 45 MIN PLUS 3 HR CHILLING

SERVINGS: 12 

 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

1 small onion, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

8 small zucchini (3 pounds), thinly sliced, plus long zucchini shavings for garnish

Kosher salt

3 cups water

2 tablespoons finely shredded basil

2 cups ice

Freshly ground pepper

2 cups purslane leaves and small stems

In a large saucepan, heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook over moderate heat until translucent, about 8 minutes. Stir in the thyme and bay leaf and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sliced zucchini, season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the water and bring to a boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Discard the bay leaf and stir in the shredded basil.

Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until very smooth. Transfer the zucchini puree to a large bowl. Stir in the ice. Refrigerate the zucchini soup for at least 3 hours, until thoroughly chilled.

Season the soup with salt and pepper. Ladle into shallow bowls and top with a small handful of purslane and zucchini shavings. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.

MAKE AHEAD

The zucchini soup can be refrigerated for up to 1 day.


Enjoy!

Mexican Pottery

©Victoria Challancin.  All Rights Reserved.

Paris: A Perfect Day, A Perfect Meal

Angelina's Easter Window

Paris:  A Perfect Day,  A Perfect Meal 

by Victoria Challancin

Do you know the French word flâner?  It means to idly stroll, to lounge about, to walk and absorb your surroundings.  A perfect thing to do in Paris--or perhaps anywhere.  Live in the moment.  Drink in Life.

It all started with a casual stroll down rue de Rivoli in Paris, a saunter, if you will,  on a bright Spring day. I was heading to the Musée d'Orsay to see the current Manet exhibit, an extravaganza of works including many I had never seen and was greatly anticipating.  Easter week.  Mistake.  The crowds were daunting.  I left unfulfilled and meandered instead to the Grand Palais, where an exhibit on the works of Odilon Redon was showing--and another on the countryside of Renaissance Rome.  OK.  I was in Paris; I wanted to see a new exhibit; I was game, if fairly ignorant on the subject.  I didn't know that much about Redon, I confess.  I was aware of some of his more recognizable works, I knew he thought the Impressionists silly, I knew he dabbled in the spiritual and symbolic realms, in fact, I knew little.  What a wonderful surprise.  I was dazzled.

Passing Angelina's tea room, I pause to marvel at the beguiling Easter window display.  Angelina's is a landmark in the world of tea salons in Paris.  Usually, I stop and at least purchase something to go.  On this day I just looked...and drooled.

And then I made it to the Restaurant Le Soufflé, on rue de Mont Thabor in the first arrondissement.  I had known of this restaurant by recommendation for years, but had just never made it.  This time I made a late afternoon reservation, determined not to miss it.  The entire menu is only soufflés.  Savory and sweet.  Wow!  What a concept!  And never a fear of failure, I am certain.  This is a formula that works.

An entire restaurant dedicated to soufflés?  My kind of place...

Why did I snap a photo of a piece of bread on a plate near a pat of butter?  Because it was impossibly good.  Impossibly tasty.  The bread...the butter...the fat...the calories...perfect!

A mundane salad?  Non, non! A plate of the freshest mesclun dressed with a flawless mustard vinaigrette.  Flawless in that way of French simplicity.  And so good.  And refreshing.

For the main course I selected my soufflé to be accompanied with chicken in a creamy wine sauce and primeur baby vegetables, which included fennel, spinach, haricots verts, and potatoes aligot.

More soufflé?  You bet.  Was it possible that I ate the entire Grand Marnier Soufflé by myself?  Sadly, it is true.


A Perfect Day?  Oh my yes.  A stroll, a great museum, a memorable restaurant, and Spring in bloom all around.  I feel thankful and lucky indeed.

Victoria Challancin

Flavors of the Sun Cooking School

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

©Victoria Challalncin.  All Rights Reserved.

Raspado: An Easy Mexican Dessert

Photo by Zack Popovsky   

Raspado:  An Easy Mexican Dessert

by Victoria Challancin

The word raspado comes from the Spanish verb raspar, which means to scrape.  This makes sense once you have seen the snow cones of Mexico, sold from carts on the streets all over the country, of scraped ice flavored with a variety of syrups.  This particular raspado is similar to an Italian granita--and it is easy to prepare, easy to vary (try using only strawberries, as in the photo above, or pure mangoes for a special touch--or pineapple!), and soooooo easy to consume.  Makes a great palate cleanser as well!  The touch of chile isn't overpowering, rather, it makes an interesting background note that compliments the flavor of the strawberry.  Garnis with mint or additional orange peel if desired for a pretty presentation.

Here is a version by Marcela Valladolid that I tested for her as a part of her second season of Mexican Made Easy for Food Network.  She rightly calls it "no fuss," as it is truly simple to prepare.

No Fuss Mexican Ice 

Raspado

(Recipe by Marcela Valladolid)

Yield: 8 servings

Prep         10 min                  Inactive   8 hr 0 min                  Cook         3 min

Ingredients

Syrup:

1/4 water

1/4 sugar

Raspado:

3 cups roughly chopped fresh strawberries

2 mangos, peeled and roughly chopped

1 tablespoon orange zest

2 serrano chiles, seeds and veins removed, diced

Directions

Syrup: In a small pot, bring the water and sugar to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Raspado: Add the strawberries, mango, orange zest, chiles, and simple syrup to a blender and blend until smooth. Cool completely. Pour the mixture into a 9 by 13-inch pan. Freeze until firm, at least 8 hours or overnight.

Scrape with a fork and spoon into small glasses or cups and serve immediately.


Enjoy!

Victoria Challancin

Flavors of the Sun

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

©Victoria Challancin.  All Rights Reserved.

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