[Swiss Chard Strudel]

Last Saturday, I recruited a few dear friends to help me eat the Chocolate & Zucchini Cake I had baked : with Maxence away on a business trip, it was just me and that good-lookin’ cake, and although I can always be trusted to do my fair share of the eating, that’s exactly the problem. Plus, I needed opinions! So Ludo and Marie-Laure, and our next-door neighbors Stéphan and Patricia, were invited over for a little potluck dinner.

Ludo and Marie-Laure took care of the cheese course, bread and wine, and our neighbors brought appetizers, including little toasts of a wonderful chicken liver mousse made by their butcher friend. I love chicken liver, its sweet taste and soft texture, and this was really well seasoned, with shallots and herbs. Stéphan also made a gratin de pâtes, a sort of pasta bake with multicolored quinoa pasta, tasty and moist.

As for me, I contributed the cake, and wanted to make a savory dish as well. I had recently found sheets of filo dough (also spelled phyllo) at Monoprix, a slightly upscale French grocery store, so filo dough concoctions had been on my mind for awhile. I also had a fresh bunch of swiss chard and a round of fresh goat cheese, so I was inspired to make swiss chard strudels.

Filo dough is not commonly sold in mainstream stores around here. It is easier to find brick dough, which is somewhat similar, but not quite : brick dough is a North-African specialty (rather than Middle-Eastern), the sheets are round instead of rectangular, and they are thicker and not as smooth. It was my first time working with filo dough, and it turned out to be a bit more tricky to handle than brick dough. The thinness of filo causes it to dry out pretty quickly, so it’s a good idea to cover the stack of sheets with a damp towel. But not too damp, otherwise the sheets will get too soft and they’ll tear when you manipulate them. It does takes a little adjusting, but it is really worthwhile.

When layered and baked, the sheets of filo get this really pleasant consistency, brittle and flaky in places, soft and smooth in others. The swiss chard and goat cheese filling was really tasty, and the pairing was fabulous, both texture and flavor-wise. Not to mention that it also makes for a fairly elaborate and pretty presentation, worthy of a special occasion.

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Last Saturday, it was my great pleasure to have two American friends over for a late morning cup of coffee. Ruth, a coworker from my California days, was visiting Paris with her partner Pia, and she had contacted me to know if I’d like to meet up. We had the loveliest time chatting together and catching up.

It should be said that Ruth and I have been through special times together : she and a few other coworkers (namely Marni, Geoffrey and Marcia) had made it a habit to play Boggle in the office kitchen (roomy and warm, bright orange and blue, how I miss that kitchen) during lunchtime. You know, Boggle, where you shake sixteen dice in a plastic box (rattle rattle rattle) then let them settle to form a grid of letters, and try to find as many words as possible on the grid before the sand timer runs out.

I gradually joined in the fun, and became a real Boggle enthusiast. It was a fabulous way to learn a bunch of tiny improbable English words, which I can never get enough of, and I loved the mood we played in, cheerful and relaxed. People would walk in and out of the kitchen, hover over the game (hints were highly fordbidden of course, but they would make a big show of pretending to see 7-letter words), the wonderful Mark C. would unfailingly make his favorite “it boggles the mind” pun, and we would chew on our sandwiches between each game, comparing lists and counting points.

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In my post about Pissaladière, I alluded to my father’s signature vinaigrette. Such a teaser could not go by unnoticed, and many of you expressed an eager curiosity. The request for more information was passed on to my father, and I will now step aside, and let you read his reply :

Yes, perhaps the time has now come for the secret recipe of CDV (“Clotilde’s Daddy’s Vinaigrette”) to be revealed to the astonished (and expectant) world. To be secretive is one thing, to be selfish another. This has been a family secret from times immemorial, handed down countless generations from Father to Son. But I have only two (lovely, bright, charming and adorable) daughters, and no son to take over the heavy burden from me. So here we go.

First, let me say that making a Vinaigrette is not only an art, it’s also a science. You must carefully consider:

– the list of ingredients
– their quality
– their quantity, both relative and absolute
– the size, nature, form and shape of the bowl and of the spoon

There are many other significant parameters, of course, which we will ignore at this stage, since this is just Vinaigrette Making 101, after all. For the record, let me mention:

– the room temperature
– the atmospheric pressure
– the direction of the wind, and its force (you can’t very well use the same vinaigrette method in a leisurely south-westerly breeze, and in a severe northern gale force 9, imminent.)

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[Semi-Dried Tomatoes]

Remember how I mentioned buying a bottle of balsamic vinegar and some coriander anchovy tapenade at the balsamic vinegar tasting the other day? Well, I lied.

I also got a little bag of semi-dried tomatoes, moist and plump.

They come in a sealed package which seems to protect them well because the best-by date is in June — of 2005. The suggested uses include adding them to sandwiches, salads, pasta, risotto, stews, terrines, quiches and pizzas. Talk about leaving no stone unturned! Now all I have to do is make up my mind and decide what to do with them. Ah, choices choices choices…

The label is very promising, describing them as moelleuses (mellow), goût intense (intense flavor) and sans conservateurs (preservative-free).

But the best part, is this : “Ingredients : Tomates.”