A Transatlantic Birthday

I celebrated my 23rd birthday earlier this week! It was an extremely low key family affair with some of my favorites: champagne, smoked salmon, mezze-style salads and chocolate. Sometimes it's the simplest things that are the most special, mostly because you know just how good they are. But now I'm looking forward to a joint birthday celebration this weekend, with dancing, takeout food the next day and empty Superbowl Sunday streets!

Galette des Rois

Epiphany marks the visit of the Three Kings, or Magi, to baby Jesus. Despite being nearly two weeks late, these guys certainly did not intend on cutting the festivities short. Indeed, they extended celebrations for the birth of Christ past Twelfth Night on January 5 all the way until Mardi Gras. To commemorate such devoted partiers, many countries around the world still bake a King's Cake (or several) throughout the months of January and February.

In France, children and adults alike look forward to the flaky, buttery tart with its rich layer of frangipane. But not just for its sweet indulgence - tradition goes that a little charm will be hidden inside the tart and the person who happens to eat the surprise slice containing the charm will be crowned King or Queen for the day! This is a very serious undertaking, and fairness is ensured by forcing the youngest in the party to slip under the table and randomly assign each slice.

Collecting charms is part of the fun!

As with parking spots and radio sweepstakes, some always seem luckier in receiving the special slice... Like my sister!

January Salads

I love salads. I could eat salads every day. Not because I'm a girl and feel obliged to make salads a staple of my diet, but because the salad possibilities are absolutely ENDLESS. How could one possibly get bored with salads, or find something to genuinely dislike about them, considering that no two salads are the same. If you're vegan, build your salad around beans. Carnivorous? Grill yourself a steak salad. Need something warming? A roasted winter vegetable salad is lovely. Or if you're feeling spicy, you can always go for a taco salad tossed with pickled jalapeños.

Summer often steals the show in terms of salad season, but January comes as a close second in its righteous, if usually short-lived, healthy resolve. And since I prefer cold-weather produce (Carrots! Parsnips! Brussels sprouts! Squash!), winter salads usually rank as some of favorites anyway.

Here's what I've been whipping up the past few weeks:

Raw Cauliflower, Celery, Dates with an Herby Orange Dressing.

Steamed Carrots Tossed with Garlic, Parsley, Lemon Juice and Trader Joe's Pre-cooked Lentils.
(Seriously, buy those).

I Love Roasting Fennel, Artichoke Hearts and Eggplant.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash - a Favorite Combination. 

Oysters Abound!

Winter is oyster season. With the first signs of chilly weather and gray clouds comes the planning of our family's first yearly visit to the oyster farm. And when the holidays are in full swing, that's when I know that a lot of the milky mollusk will be enjoyed. I read that oysters should be neither harvested nor eaten during months not containing the letter R (May-August) but such a rule makes me recite all twelve months in my head and therefore requires too much thinking. To me and my family, Christmas Eve = oysters and New Year's Eve = oysters.

We enjoy ours simply, with lemon juice and maybe mignonette if I'll make some, as well as some buttered toast. With my Mom doing all the shucking, an appetizer of oysters turns into quite the luxurious experience for the rest of us.

This year I happened to be in the company of another group of oyster fanatics besides my blood relations, and so the oyster feasting extended past January 2nd. 

Upon realizing that the three of us - the sous-chef and bartender at my job as well as myself - all had a random Wednesday off, an oyster excursion was quickly arranged. We would meet at the Hog Island Oyster farm on Tomales Bay and spend the day at their outdoor picnic tables cracking oysters, beer and wine. I was in for a much different experience from that with my family. Less French, more West Coast beach BBQ. We slurped down chef-made cocktail sauce, grilled oysters and clams steamed in garlic, butter and white wine-filled saucepan over the fire pit. I was even put on shucking duty, and acquired my first wound!

Tomales Bay, and the city of Marshall

Scene of the crime, complete with new Korean friends.

New obsession - barbecued oysters

Drive home along Tomales Bay

As much as family oyster time has its own special place in my heart, those barbecued oysters carved a little spot of their own. Just drop the whole oyster on the grill, wait for it to pop (much like a mussel or clam) before opening it completely, then return the oyster on its half-shell to the grill. Drop a bit of butter, a slice of garlic and a dollop of cocktail sauce to the precious vessel and leave to bubble for a few. Then slurp with a slice of sourdough bread, being careful not to burn your face (lesson learned first-hand).

A few tips for shucking oysters: put on a good glove, point the knife right into the oyster's hinge (finding the soft spot will get easier with practice) then wedge it open. Don't jab at the oyster as this will only splinter it, making it harder to open and getting shell into your precious goo. Once you do get it open, run your knife along the inside of the shell to detach the oyster and flip it over to let your impressed entourage that it is ready to eat!

For more advice, visit Hog Island's "Oyster 101" page.

On Rachel Khoo's "Little Paris Kitchen"

Image courtesy of BBC.com

A few weeks back, while skimming through the Cooking Channel's scheduled programming for Saturday and Sunday morning - a Friday highlight, I can assure you - I noticed a new show was on air. One that actually interested me. To be quite honest, themes revolving around the wondrous healing properties of echinacea or the myriad of ways Pillsbury crescent roll dough can be transformed do not get me excited to record a show. I used to love watching cooking shows, and Ina Garten's "Barefoot Contessa"  is what first pushed me into the kitchen. She made me want to prepare a fennel-stuffed pork loin and cauliflower gratin at 14. But I haven't found many interesting programs lately amidst the let's-pay-hommage-to-middle-American-food and let's-start-cooking-healthy-stuff-now recurrent themes. My DVR is sadly bereft of weekend culinary inspiration.

Then I stumbled upon "The Little Paris Kitchen," a BBC series hosted by a cute British girl with a fringe and bold lips. My eyes boggled at the description. A new show about a young woman cooking French food authentically (meaning, much lighter and simpler than you might expect from the capital of gastronomy) from her tiny flat in the most beautiful city in the world? Series recording confirmed.

Rachel Khoo declares at the start of each show that she wants to take the fear out of French cooking. As such, she draws the viewer in as a friend and explains with humor and lightness just how she likes to prepare classic French dishes, while preserving necessary reverence to the food obviously so dear to her. Her show also provides a glimpse into the Paris scene, from its cheese shops to bakeries to crêpe stands. The guests on such segments obviously feel comfortable enough around Rachel to joke, laugh and giver her a hard time, but also to open their world to the camera and passionately explain just how a miche of bread should sound when you tap it. It often happens that these guests will veer toward speaking French, but Rachel translates and interprets effortlessly to make sure the viewer doesn't miss a bit of the lesson at hand.

The show's cinematography is also really refreshing. Voyeuristic views of Rachel cooking in her tiny kitchen alternate with close-ups of her bright pink lips tasting soup, along with shots of her rummaging through cramped drawers, lighting her double-burner stove with countless matches or struggling to grab a hanging pan. No fancy Viking ranges or marble islands to be seen, just a chipped white mixing bowl used show after show for marinading beef, mixing pastry dough or folding mousse de marrons. Her tiny oven, about as big as an American's toaster oven, also cracks me up.

Ultimately, I think the show is greatly served by the fact that Rachel Khoo is British, and therefore still an outsider to French culture and gastronomy. She is neither snobby nor fussy about cooking proper French food, but rather strives to make it approachable so that many more may taste the same food she fell in love with. But that does not mean she shies away from the more esoteric classics like île flottante or meringue. She just makes them fun, accessible, and really delicious-looking. She is eager, curious and hungry. And I know she will get many more young girls to hit the kitchen, like I did.

New Year Savory Tarte Tatin

I hope 2012 ended brilliantly for you all, and that 2013 holds many exciting projects!

We celebrated the first of the year very quietly, around roast lamb and a season's vegetable tarte tatin drawn from Mimi Thorisson's beautifully inspiring blog, Manger. After all the holiday drinks, dinners and desserts, simple celebration was fundamental. But don't think simplicity equates abstemiousness, and that my New Year's resolutions were scheduled to debut promptly on the first of the year. In fact I managed to annihilate three slices of spinach, olive and cheese pizza at a co-worker's open house a mere few hours before the family dinner mentioned above. Along with a few coconut chocolate chip cookie bars. And at least half a bottle of wine. Now about those resolutions...

Patiently peeling sunchokes.

Winter goodness: chestnuts and sunchokes.

Carefully assembling the layers so that the tarte looks beautiful when flipped and demolded.

I wouldn't be my mother's daughter if I didn't bring a few modifications to even the most well-balanced, carefully-crafted recipes. So because we weren't well-stocked in the endive department I added a few leeks, and used garlic instead of shallots. The potatoes were also left out. I used complete deference with the real stars of the dish though, the chestnuts and sunchokes. Their rustic earthiness and inherent richness is just not to be messed with.

Warning: For the next few weeks, please expect a slew of soup and salad recipes.