[A Duet of Pesto : Rucola Pesto and Red Pesto]

On Saturday night, my dear friends Marie-Laure and Laurence and their respective (and dear, too) boyfriends Ludo and Jean-Christophe came over for dinner. This had been decided just the day before, so Saturday morning saw me sitting on the couch, surrounded by cookbooks, perusing them for inspiration. In passing, I have plans to create an exercice video which I will simply call “The Cookbook Workout” : I’m certain I burn an insane number of calories just lugging those piles of cookbooks around, from shelf to couch to counter, and back to shelf.

I decided to keep things simple, and skip the first course, replacing it with a little something to eat with the apéritif (pre-dinner drink). I like doing things that way, because it’s a friendly, laid-back way to start the meal, and I like the dynamics it creates, allowing people to hover around the bar and mingle. I also like to welcome my friends with something homemade : they’re probably hungry, and what you eat on an empty stomach is what you appreciate best, so it might as well be something I’ve lovingly prepared, no?

The idea of making pesto variations had been on my mind for a while : you start from the basic pesto recipe (basil, pinenuts, pecorino and/or parmesan cheese, olive oil and garlic), and work from there, replacing some of the ingredients by their cousins, be they close or removed — another kind of herb, another kind of nut, another kind of cheese. In this instance, I made two variations : I made a green rucola pesto, subbing rucola leaves (a.k.a. arugula) for the basil, and I used sundried tomatoes to make a red pesto.

I served both in their little jars, with a basket of thin ciabatta slices and two knives : each of us could prepare his own little canapés, putting as little or as much of the pesto of his choice as suited his taste. In truth I ended up doing most of the spreading while we chatted, but that’s just because I enjoy those things. And you know, these boys get so engrossed in conversation that they’ll starve if you’re not careful.

I will most definitely do this again : it is colorful and tasty, it is incredibly easy to make, and it gives me the perfect excuse to buy a big and beautiful granite mortar and pestle! You can prepare the pestos ahead, and keep them on hand for an improvized mini-meal. The pestos can also be used like regular pesto of course, in pasta, as a sandwich spread, as a salad dressing…

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[Goat Cheese and Herb Vegetable Terrine]

When trying to decide what to bring to the Paris Potluck the other day, my thoughts immediately turned to a terrine. I love terrines : I like the name, I like the dish you make them in (and specifically my own), I like the nice, country feel they have to them. They are also a wonderful thing to bring to a buffet, because they can usually be sliced into many servings (well unless they are micro-terrines like Barrett would have me make in my mini paper cups), they need to be made ahead, and they are best enjoyed cold or at room-temperature.

I have a great terrine cookbook I’ve mentioned before, but they were running an article on terrines in the latest issue of the French magazine Saveurs, and I decided to try one of the featured recipes. Coincidentally, it turned out that Christoph, who also attended the potluck, had bought that same magazine, and had decided to make a terrine from that same article on that same night. Thankfully we picked different ones : the plan wasn’t to turn the potluck into a side-by-side taste comparison of the same terrine made by all the attendants. Although, come to think of it, that would have been fun too!

The recipe I chose was originally for a “Terrine de légumes au fromage de chèvre et à la menthe“. I didn’t have mint on hand, but I had flat-leaf parsley and window-sill basil, so it turned into a “Terrine de légumes au fromage de chèvre et aux herbes”. The recipe has you steam carrots and zucchini in sticks, and layer them with a batter made of fresh goat cheese, eggs and faisselle. Faisselle is a kind of fresh soft cheese (usually cow’s milk, but also goat’s or sheep’s), which looks and tastes like a thick and slightly curdled yogurt. It is sold in a tub, with a draining rack inside that you pull out to separate the whey from the faisselle. If this is unavailable to you, my best substitution guess would be half thick yogurt and half cottage cheese.

My terrine turned out just as I had hoped. It was pretty easy to assemble, and it cooked perfectly in the time imparted. This is always a source of anxiety with egg-based terrines : realizing, right as you serve, that the inside of your beautiful construction is completely raw and collapsing from the center, is a torment I would not bestow upon my worst enemy — fret not, I have a slew of other horrifying things in store for them.

We brought the terrine to Isabelle and Ethan’s place, still in its dish (beautiful, beautiful dish, have I mentioned that?), and I managed to claim territory over a small area of the kitchen counter, to double-flip it onto a serving plate and slice it. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but Isabelle’s knife bread worked well and I managed to keep the slices together.

The terrine’s taste was very pleasant and fresh, and the cut slices looked oh-so-pretty, with their confetti of green and orange. The cheese part is moussy and soft, and the vegetable pieces, cooked al dente, come in delightful contrast. I do think, however, that this terrine would be better served on its own with some bread, than as part of a buffet : its taste is subtle and mild, and somehow all the different flavors of all these other delicious dishes overpowered it a little. But I would definitely repeat this, possibly with other vegetables and goodies layered inside, provided they’re dry enough (otherwise the cheese batter may not set) and not too heavy (or they may sink to the bottom).

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Our neighbor-friends Stéphan and Patricia have been busy repainting their living-room these past few weeks. On Sunday they were finally done, so they rearranged the furniture, knocked on our kitchen window with the Ceremonial Wooden Spoon, and invited us over for a little newly-repainted-house-warming drink.

You just don’t go to a house-warming party — however improvized — empty-handed, so we decided to prepare a few nibbles to accompany the bottle of champagne we knew they’d open. This seemed like the perfect occasion to try a recipe I had noticed in Trish Deseine’s latest cookbook, called “J’en veux encore!”. This new book has a focus on kids : dishes they’ll enjoy, recipes you can make with them, recipes they can make on their own. No particular conclusion should be jumped to here, we have no plans to start a family as of yet : this cookbook is just chock-full of great ideas and beautiful pictures — for everyone, not just parents.

The recipe I used here is a simple dip made by blending a can of white beans (drained) with lemon juice and peanut butter. It caught my attention because the flavor mix sounded great, and I loved how it used ingredients that you can easily keep on hand, to deal efficiently with dip-emergency situations. Of course, I couldn’t very well just follow the recipe as written, so I made a few modifications, substitutions and additions : lime juice instead of lemon, sesame butter in addition to peanut butter, sun-dried tomatoes for color and zing, and a little chili sauce and Worcestershire sauce for spice and seasoning.

We ate the dip with little sticks of young carrots and cucumber, and it was a real hit : creamy, tasty and quite addictive. A little rummaging around the kitchen had also produced a little tin of foie gras from the Perigord, which we sliced and spread on toasts, as well as a package of mini boudins créoles, spicy blood sausages like they make in the french Carribeans, to be served warm. So we were able to admire the pristine white walls in truly excellent conditions.

And you have just been introduced to the magic concept of “apéro dînatoire” — a pre-dinner drink with so many accompanying nibbles it simply cancels out dinner!

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When I went to the Salon Saveurs recently, I had the pleasure of meeting with a few Chocolate & Zucchini readers. A few hours of wandering up and down the aisles brought us closer, and as we all sat down, exhausted but exhilarated, the idea of creating a little supper club was brought up. The idea was to throw a dinner party where everyone would bring a dish, à la potluck. Isabelle and Ethan offered to host the first edition, which took place ten days ago.

We had a wonderful evening in Isabelle and Ethan’s cosy appartment in the 12th arrondissement, everyone engaged in lively — and often food-related — conversation, and I was delighted to see my salon companions again, and to meet new friends.

The whole team from the Salon Saveurs was in attendance : Isabelle and Ethan, Alisa, Amy (who came with her boyfriend Nicolas), Pascale (accompanied by her husband David), myself and Maxence. Meg from Too Many Chefs was there too, and we had the pleasure of meeting Christoph, whose comments you may have read on C&Z, and his wife Suzanne. Three foodie friends of Ethan and Isabelle rounded up the count to fifteen, Jonathan, Malory and Peter. Eight from America, four from France, two from Germany and one from Great Britain — quite the cosmopolitan bunch!

Needless to say, we ate like kings :

– Isabelle made a Zucchini Carpaccio (I had never had anything like this and loved it) and a Spring Vegetable Risotto,

– Meg contributed her tasty Chickpea and Leek Soup, the recipe for which is posted on her blog,

– Amy brought a fantastic Pea and Roasted-Garlic Crostini with Olives and Pecorino Cheese,

– Great minds think alike : Christoph and I both brought terrines from the latest issue of the French magazine Saveurs : he made the Sundried Tomato and Fish Terrine, while I made the Fresh Cheese and Vegetable Terrine, the recipe for which I will post soon,

– Jonathan and Malory brought a colorful Instantaneous Carrot Salad and a lovely Asparagus Tart,

– Alisa made a scrumptious and goodie-filled endive salad,

– And we ended all this on a delightful sweet note thanks to Pascale‘s Hazelnut Financiers (recipe on her blog) and Pistachio Tuiles, as well as Isabelle’s perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies (made from the famous Nieman-Marcus recipe).