Creamy Marrow Bean, Tomato and Tarragon Casserole with Garlicky Croutons + Chocolate and Graham Cracker Tart

This is one of my mom's favorite dishes! It's inspired by a Deborah Madison recipe that she found in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I think everyone should own this book! Deborah Madison approaches vegetarian food in the most un-hippie way possible. I don't think any of her dishes could leave a meat eater unsatisfied!

Anyways, back to the recipe. My mom bought some great local heirloom beans called Marrow beans from a stall at the Topanga farmer's market the other day. Madison actually calls for flageolet beans in her recipe, but I think almost any non black/kidney bean would work fine. We soaked the beans overnight and then drained off the liquid and cooked them until tender with some rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, an onion and some of my favorite smoked dried chilis. The beans were so fresh that they barely took any time at all to cook!

Before:


After:

In a separate pot, I sautéed some shallots in olive oil and butter. After a few minutes, I added in about 10 diced roma tomatoes along with some white wine and let that cook for another 5-7 minutes.


I cubed up a loaf of bread and coated it pieces in minced garlic, olive oil and melted butter before toasting them in the oven.

We steamed some green beans until they were just shy of being done and then combined them in a large casserole dish with the drained marrow beans, stewed tomatoes and shallots, about a cup of cream, half a cup of chopped parsley and maybe 2-3 tablespoons of chopped tarragon. I topped the casserole with the croutons and baked it, covered, until it started to bubble around the edges. At this point, I took off the foil and and let the croutons brown a little more. After taking the dish out of the oven, I finished it with some parmesan.



For the salad, I simply mixed up a little apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, salt, pepper, mustard and olive oil and then coated some lettuce leaves with the dressing right before eating.



Chocolate Tart -

I used this gourmet magazine recipe for the chocolate filling but skipped the glaze. For the crust I used regular graham crackers instead of the chocolate ones, used about half as much sugar and added in about a teaspoon of cinnamon. It turned out really well. I served it with a little raspberry compote.

Breakfast/Lunch In Paris

Greetings from Paris!! After 5 days in here, Lucas and I still hadn't had a chance to get to one of the farmer's markets, so this morning, we took a little walk over to the Marché des Enfants Rouge around the corner from where we're staying to gather some ingredients for a breakfast/lunch at home. We bought some baguette, a soft and very stinky cheese whose name I cannot remember, a perfect cantaloupe and some fennel, sucrine and lemon for a little salad.

Sucrine lettuce is one of my favorite things in the world. It's essentially baby lettuce heads but it has a perfectly sweet and slightly bitter taste to it. I love it served with oeuf mayonnaise (boiled eggs with fresh mayonnaise). Unfortunately, I've never been able to find sucrine back home so I try to eat it as much as I can while I'm visiting here.

So for the salad, I quartered up a few sucrines, sliced up a head of baby fennel and dressed them with lemon, olive oil and salt. This was a really simple, but still a completely perfect meal. yuuummm. We're heading to Amsterdam tomorrow and planning on doing a lot of cooking there so stay tuned for more updates in the next few days!

Wild Trout + Wilted Mustard Greens and Zucchini Panzanella

Please forgive me for the lack of updates - I've been terribly busy with finals and now that the semester is finally over, I have to pack up my apartment and put everything in storage before I leave for my trip on Wednesday! Lucas and I are going to spend 3 leisurely weeks in Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Barcelona so expect lots of photos and food!

Back to tonight's meal: I started by cutting up some stale sourdough bread into bite sized chunks and spreading them out on a baking tray. In a small pan, I cooked up equal parts of olive oil and butter, threw in 3 minced garlic cloves, salt, pepper and some chili flakes. Once the butter had melted and the garlic had softened, I tossed the garlicky mixture with the bread and put the tray in a 450 degree oven until the bread started to turn brown.

Next, I sliced up 2 zucchinis and a bunch of mustard greens. I sautéed both vegetables together in a little bit of olive oil for about 6-7 minutes. Lucas picked up some wild trout at the market this afternoon and I simply cooked that on medium heat in the pan that I had cooked the olive oil/butter/garlic dressing for the bread in. I let the fish cook for a few minutes on each side and then put the pan in a 350 degree oven until the fish was just cooked.

When the vegetables were cooked, I poured in a little bit of balsamic vinegar, a little more olive oil and squeezed in the juice of about a third of a lemon. I then added in the toasted bread and some roughly chopped parsley and tossed everything together about 10 minutes before the fish was ready so the bread could soak up the juices from the vegetables and the dressing.

This turned out to be a very nice light spring meal! Now I must get back to packing up my apartment but here are the pictures -