France: Simple Cassoulet

So I'll admit, this whole random selection thing isn't working out quite like I planned. But that's OK. I'd rather cheat than let ingredients go to waste or bust my budget.

I was also thinking I'd save a cool country like France for something big. But I had lots of onions, carrots and celery in the fridge that I needed to get rid of. And it's been kind of chilly here, so I wanted to make a warming, quick, one pot dish that I could feed off of for awhile.

I decided to go ahead with a simple version of the French cassoulet, a meat and bean stew that is named for the cassoul pot it is traditionally cooked in (remember this bit of trivia if you ever play Foodie Fight). I don't have a cassoul pan, so I just do it in a regular pot. Some versions are loaded with all sorts of meat, like duck and bacon, but this one keeps it pretty straight forward. And I'm having a lazy weekend.

Of all places, I first learned of this dish on last year's Next Food Network Star. One of the contestants whipped it up as her signature dish. I thought it looked great, so I tried it. This time around I made some changes, using dried instead of fresh herbs (because I had them in my cabinet and didn't have to buy them) and regular pork sausage instead of chicken (because I like it). I also mixed up the technique a bit, letting the veggies cook in the oil from the sausage for added flavor. It came out pretty salty, so on a next go around I'll probably try to make some substitutions to scale back that flavor. I may have also screwed up the ratios substituting dried for fresh herbs. I like to eat it with some crusty bread and sprinkle some parmesean cheese on top.

What you need:

3 tbsps. olive oil

5 links of hot Italian sausage

3 yellow onions, chopped

5 carrots, chopped

5 celery stalks, chopped

10 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tbsps. dried thyme

2 tbsps. dried oregano

1 tbsp. dried rosemary

2 bay leaves

fresh ground pepper

2 cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

6 cups chicken stock

What to do:

Heat the olive oil in pan. Remove casings from Italian sausage, add to pot and cook until done. Remove with slotted spoon and place on a paper towel-lined plate.

Add the chopped veggies (including garlic) to the pot with the oil from the sausage. Cook until soft. Add spices and season with pepper. Let cook for about 10 minutes. Then add the beans, chicken stock and Italian sausage back to the pot. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for at least an hour, until the stew becomes thick.

One last thing ... a souvenir, if you will

OK. One last thing about Spain. But this one has been in the cue since my mimosa breakfast.

Two of my favorite things about Spain were the gorgeous, colorful tiles everywhere and the orange blossoms. I remember standing and looking over valleys and gardens and seeing the rows of orange trees that seemed to go on for miles. They smelled incredible.

As far as the tiles go, I managed to score a lot of cheap pottery with designs reminiscent of the traditional tiles. My favorite piece was this teal and white bowl with little pink and yellow accents.

Well I've broken it twice, both times because I was being an idiot. I managed to get it home from Spain in one piece, but did not pack it securely when I moved to Florida. It shattered, but I could not stand to get rid of it. So my dad fixed it. It then seemed like a good idea to display it on a shelf below a heavy drawer of a bookcase I put together myself. Yeah you can guess what happened. Drawer fell. Bowl shattered. Dad fixed it, which really speaks volumes about his craftsmanship. Now, I think the cracks give it character, just like the old tiles.

At some point I put some fake white flowers in it and it became the centerpiece on my kitchen table.

But then when I had the mimosa brunch, I bought one of those crates full of clementines and was trying to figure out what to serve them in. It was perfect!

It looked so nice one of my friends later told me she thought it was just for decoration.

A final thought on Spain ... for now

Well I'm going to leave Spain alone for a little while, but I'm sure will be back with more stories and cooking. My lil bro is a big Spain fan himself, so I'm sure he'll be making an appearance and cooking up some paella and tapas with me, figgy style.

But I feel that it's prudent to have a little discussion about the paella pan. I mean, why would anyone invest in a piece of kitchen equipment that's pretty much good for one recipe?

Basically because the pan is shallow and wide and comes in all different sizes. The sides are sloped and the bottom is dimpled, which helps the rice cook more evenly than a frying pan.

I keep wowing my friends with stories of ones I saw in Spain that were three feet across that chefs used to make the paella over an open fire. Traditionally they make the fire with orange and pine branches, and the smoke infuses flavor into the paella. The flames also help create a nice crust around the edges.

For lack of an open fire, we of course cooked our paella on a charcoal grill. I've also done it on the stove top and it works fine. Mine of course is probably a measly 18 inches. But just big enough for a decent size paella party : )

Spain, El Primer Viaje: Tortilla

Well I know my love of wine started in Spain. Perhaps so did my love of communal dining.

Sushi. Fondue. You name it. There's something about sharing food with the people you love that I find so comforting.

Of course one of my favorites is the traditional Spanish tapas.

Tapas would be the fourth (and sometimes second) of the typical five meals Spanish people eat in their day. For them, this pace isn't about weight loss or keeping their metabolisms going. It's more or less a good excuse to take breaks from work and hang out with friends.

A quick debriefing on the Spanish feeding schedule: Meal one is typically a light breakfast of coffee, light cookies and fruit generally consumed at the ungodly hour that Spaniards wake up. A few hours later, they're in the cafe for drinks and some light tapas (This usually coincided with my morning coffee... I could never get into this early business). Third meal is the big meal during siesta. Anything's fair game. Fourth is the traditional post-work drinking and tapas, followed by dinner in the late evening.

I didn't know much about Spanish cuisine when I went there, but very quickly realized I loved it. Simple things like olives, serrano ham and manchego cheese drizzled with olive oil and all packed with amazing flavor.

And then of course there is the tortilla, a delicious egg and potato omelet that you can mix up with various other add ins.

I've made the tortilla several times before, including a few times with a recipe my brother scored from his host mother when he studied in Spain. For the paella party I made one from the Williams Sonoma Savoring Spain and Portugal cookbook.

A note on the tortilla: The potato-egg ratio is extremely important so the tortilla holds together. I allowed a renegade potato to find it's way into my mix this time around, so it didn't hold as firm as I would have liked it.

What you need:

1/2 cup plus 3 tbsps. olive oil (Live large and get the real Spanish kind. You'll notice a difference in the flavor. They sell it at Publix, and I'm guessing most other decent supermarkets.)

2 lb. baking potatos peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick

salt and fresh ground pepper

1 yellow onions, thinly sliced

6 eggs, lightly beaten

4 oz. serrano ham

1 large red bell pepper

chopped flat leaf parsley

What to do:

Roast the red pepper. You can do this by heating the oven to about 375. Coat the red pepper in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for about 20 minutes. Occasionally turn the pepper so all sides get equal attention. After the 20 minutes, put the pepper in a bowel and cover with plastic wrap so the skin gets loose. Let it sit for about 15 minutes. When it is cool enough to handle, remove skin, stem and seeds from inside. Chop and set aside.

Heat the 1/2 cup of olive oil in a frying pan and lightly fry the potatoes until tender, but not browned. You may have to do it in two patches (probably will). When done, transfer to plate and season with salt and fresh ground pepper.

Once you've removed the potatoes, add the onions to the frying pan and cook until golden. Remove and let sit for about 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until blended. Add the onions, ham and roasted pepper and combine. Fold in the cooked potatoes.

Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan and pour in the mixture. Cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Then you'll need to flip the tortilla. You can do this by placing a plate on the top, flipping it over and then sliding it back into the pan. Cook another five minutes or so until the second side has set.

Serve with parsley as garnish.

Spain, El Primer Viaje

There's a lot to be said for a country where people spend much of the day lingering over coffee in the cafe, and then unwind in the evening with a nice glass of vino.

I had no idea Spain was so cut out for me when I went there. I had no way of knowing.

I ended up in Spain during my six-month semester abroad in college. There were two things I really wanted to do when I set my little heart on going to Syracuse for college: 1) Be the editor of the college paper and 2) Study abroad. But when I got to campus I realized I probably couldn't do both. Most people spent their entire college career working their way to the editor's office.

The universe, however, always has a strange way of orchestrating events in my favor. I ended up stepping up earlier than most people, giving me the opportunity to still study abroad if I wanted.

At that point, I wasn't sure. I flirted with the idea of extending my reign as editor. At least until it burned me out. I never expected the politics, drama, stress and tension that came with running a little 10,000 circulation paper with a bunch of extremely passionate, driven and in some cases certifiably crazy people.

I was barely halfway through my term when I realized I was ready for a siesta.

Originally, I figured I would go to London. That's where all the journalism majors went, and some of my friends would be there.

But being one for goal setting and planning ahead, I already knew at this point in my life I wanted to go to Florida. Given that, an editor I worked for during one of my internships raised a good point.

"If you want to go to Florida, don't you think it would be a good idea to learn Spanish," he asked.

Touche. SU also had a program in Madrid (I know, different dialect and all that ... but still better than English) and I started looking into it.

The photos of tiled arches, gothic churches, miles of orange groves and beautiful beaches lured me to the country. And after a few years running on three hours of sleep a night, I really liked this whole siesta prospect.

The reality was, in many ways, nothing what I expected.

I arrived in the country with a group of probably about 100 other college students, many of them from the Greek system and many of them not huge fans of the college paper (I had actually written up arrest reports on some of them). I didn't know anybody, and quite frankly didn't like most of them. I was lonely.

I was still feeling jet lagged when the culture shock started to sink in. I'm one for order. I like to know where I'm going. When my friends and I went on spring break in Chicago, I made up a schedule with a to do list for every day. In Spain, the group spent the first two weeks touring the country. I don't think I ever got an itinerary. I never had any idea where we were going. It drove me crazy.

They would just tell you to get on the bus at a certain time. I would always be there early, only to sometimes wait more than an hour for one of the Spanish tour guides to finish his coffee.

And the whole sleepytime thing was a myth. Turns out, Spanish people sleep less than I was at that point. They stay up into the wee hours of the morning (they don't even eat dinner until 10 p.m.) and then get up at like 6 in the morning. Siesta hardly makes up for it.

My mom kept telling me to just come home.

But eventually, I made a friend who was just as lonely and frustrated as I was. I remembered this semester was supposed to be fun and dropped my course load down to the bare minimum 12 credits I needed to be a full time student.

(This was actually really brilliant and strategic on my part. I needed one more science class for my degree, so I took the ecology of Spain, which involved learning about how Americans are destroying the earth and trips kayaking and horseback riding... I don't remember going to class after a while, but still got an A. Much better than physics or chemistry. I also knocked out a required foreign language credit and filled in the rest of the schedule with two literature classes that regularly met at the taverna to discuss writing over vino: Don Quixote and Hemingway in Spain... I cheated on Don Quixote and took the English version. I liked college better Spanish style.)

The rest of my days I spent in at the cafes. Mornings, I sat in the coffee shops reading for class or just people watching. In the evenings, I met up with friends (I did make some eventually) for tapas or vino. I'd go home at night and have dinner with my host family. Sometimes I just walked around the city taking it all in and thinking. I traveled. I found comfort in Harry Potter.

I went to Spain with a to do list of all the things I wanted to see and places I wanted to go in Madrid, but ended up putting it all off until the last week I was there. I quickly picked up the phrase "manana." I'll just get to it later. Just enjoying the simplicity of everyday Spanish life became more important.

Don't get me wrong. Six months hardly changes a person. It's still hard not to get caught up in the "where is my life going" and "am I on the right path." A few years ago when we finished a big project I started to stress about what life was going to bring me next. A co-worker quoted that cheesy line from the Matrix, something like "Don't worry where the path is going. Just walk to path."

But when I think about it now, I realize I learned that lesson a long time ago. I learned it from the Spanish. The hard part, sometimes, is honoring it.

One note on the photo, or lack thereof. All my travel photos are in Buffalo. At one point I scanned a bunch in so I could use them on the blog, but apparently forgot to include any from Spain. So I'll just get to it later : )

Spain, El Primer Viaje: Paella

Manana.

They say it a lot in Spain. Tomorrow. That's when I'll get to it.

It flies in the face of everything we value in this country. Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. The early bird catches the worm.

That's not how the Spaniards see it.

No, they'll sit for hours lingering over a good glass of wine or a cup of fine coffee. You could sit at a restaurant all night waiting for your bill if you do not ask for it. They don't want to rush you.

I happened to be in Madrid when the first Starbucks opened in continental Europe. People were outraged. They just couldn't understand why anyone would put their coffee in a paper cup and run, not sit there and enjoy it.

This whole laid back attitude drove me nuts at first, a highly driven, motivated and anxious college student. If the group leaders said be on the bus at 9, I was there early, only to sit sometimes for an hour and a half waiting for the trip to start. Usually, we were waiting for someone to finish their morning coffee.

So it seems appropriate that my friends and I have been saying we need to have a party ever since I got my paella pan. That was over a year ago at Christmas.

We kept putting it off. There was always manana. Finally, this weekend we did it. We hauled all of our meats and seafood and spices down to the beach, lit a grill, sipped some vino and had our own little paella party.

We used a recipe from a local woman who owns this business Tapas and Fun. She will come to your house and cook traditional Spanish foods. Since she hands out the recipes at her events, I figure it's OK to post it.

It came out all right. Some of us thought it was slightly light on flavor (but we're a group that likes spicy and bold in the spirit of Bobby Flay and Emeril). So next time we'll probably make our own go at it - more onion, more garlic, chicken stock, maybe some chorizo. As far as Spanish paella goes, it was very traditional.

And there will be a next time, now that we've mastered using the grill at the beach. Besides, there are so many things to say about Spain. Such an awesome cuisine. So many personal stories.

I'll get to them all at some point, but for now I'm still recovering from the beach blast. I guess they'll just have to wait until manana : )

Paella Mixta: Seafood and Meat Paella

(We doubled the recipe)

What you need:

1 small tomato, chopped

1 small onion, minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 lb. boneless pork loin, cubed

1 lb. chicken breast, cubed

20 medium sized shrimp

15 clams

15 mussels

2 cups clam stock

1 tsp. paprika

pinch saffron

salt

14 oz. rice (boma is the traditional kind ... arborio is an easier to find variety that works well)

lemon wedges

olive oil

What to do:

Heat about 3 tbsps. of olive oil in your pan. We used the grill, but you can also successfully do the paella on the stovetop. When the oil has heated, add chicken and pork and cook until meat is done.

Add the onions and garlic and cook until golden. Stir in the tomato and let cook for 15 minutes over low heat.

Add the paprika, saffron, rice, salt, clam stock and two cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the mussels and clams so that they open.

At this point, you want to keep cooking the dish until the rice is done. Cover with aluminum foil to lock in moisture and check periodically. Add more water as needed. The shrimp can go in when the dish is a few minutes from done.

Serve with lemon wedges that guests can squeeze over the dish.

Thailand: Reddish curry with seafood and veggies

I cheated again. This time for no real reason. It just seemed like a good day for curry.

So I decided to jet onto Thailand. No random pull from the wine bag of fun. Just a craving for curry.

As usual, I started seeking out recipes and comparing notes, looking for a good foundation. I ultimately ended up adapting a recipe from Cooks Illustrated: The Best International Recipes. (A birthday/bon voyage gift from my siblings when I started the blog... Thanks guys!). I made some adjustments based on what I could find at my local Publix. They didn't have the fresh lemongrass called for in the recipe, so I used lemongrass paste. And I couldn't find fresh red jalapenos, but there was one jar left in the canned goods aisle. I knew it was meant to come home with me. The recipe says you can also substitute green jalapenos. I guess the red is supposed to give it color. Mine came out kind of brownish anyway. I was hoping for pink.

The final product came out all right. At some point in the process I realized this is a hell of a lot of spices and flavors that go into this recipe. Never again will I underestimate a good curry. A note to my vegetarian friends, you could easily do this one without the seafood and go straight up veggies. Not sure what to make of the fish sauce ...

What you need:

For paste ...

8 dried red chiles (I used the de arbol kind)

6 cloves garlic, minced

4 shallots, minced

1/3 cup water

4 tbsps. lemon grass paste (or 2 stalks ... bottom 5 inches only)

3 medium red jalapenos, seeds and ribs removed

2 tbsps. minced cilantro stems

2 tbsps. peanut oil

1 tbsp. zest from a lime

2 tsps. coriander

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. grated ginger

1 tsp. tomato paste

1 tsp. salt

For other yumminess ...

1 1/4 cups water

2 tbsps. fish sauce

1 tbsp. brown sugar

1/2 lb. shrimp

1/2 lb. scallops

2 cups carrots (I bought the crinkle kind that looks like a chip)

1 package snow peas

1 package mushrooms (I used portabella, for lack of anything more interesting)

1 cup sliced red and green bell peppers

1 can coconut milk (14 oz)

1/2 cup basil leaves

1/2 cup cilantro leaves

2 tbsps. juice from lime

Jasmine rice for serving

What to do:

Preheat the over to 350. Place the dried chiles on a baking sheet and toast for about five minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Meanwhile, combine all of the other paste ingredients. When the dried chiles are cool, add those (minus the seeds and such) to the mix. Blend into a fine paste (I used my immersion blender).

Prepare the veggies and steam until they start to get a little tender. They will cook somewhat when added to the curry paste, but you want to give them a little jump start.

When the paste is mixed, put it in a skillet and cook until sizzling. Add the water and fish sauce and bring to a boil. Add the seafood and veggies and bring mixture back to a simmer.

Remove the seafood and veggies from the curry and set aside. Add the coconut milk and cook until curry sauce thickens. Add the seafood and veggies and remove from heat. Add the basil, cilantro and lime juice. Serve over jasmine rice.

A post script on this recipe: I was extremely tired by the time I finished making this on Saturday. Long story, but after an early morning and a day of cooking I could barely taste the dish and wasn't sure how I felt about it.

I heated some up for dinner Monday night and it's definitely much tastier on the re-up. The sauce thickens and the flavors meld together nicely. I still think it could use a little more spice. There is a little kick to it, but I could stand to go hotter.

Vietnam, revisited: Pho ba

Having barely made a dent in my to do list of countries - I've done 15 so far - there really isn't any time to go back for repeat visits.

But I guess sometimes in life instead of moving forward we do go back to places we've already been. Maybe there's something we missed the first time around. Maybe there's something comforting in knowing what to expect. Maybe we just like it.

In this case, I decided to have another go around with Vietnam after trying the roasted chicken soup at this place in Sarasota, Miss Saigon.

I was skeptical at first when my friends raved about the dish. I've never been a big fan of chicken soup. Or chicken for that matter. It can be so cliche. Would all of those Asian spices really kick it up to my palate?

Despite my wariness, I decided to try it on this cold, crappy day right before Thanksgiving.

It was amazing.

It comes as a subtle broth with rice noodles in a big bowl, a crisp, roasted chicken on the side along with jalapenos, bean sprouts, etc. The lightness of the broth really lets the anise stand out, and I love that flavor.

It's so simple I figured I should be able to replicate it at home. So I did some Internet research to come up with key ingredients and set out to create my own version.

My first stab at it was pretty good. Not quite like the restaurant, but still tasty.

I'll fully acknowledge I cheated and used store bought broth, rather than making my own. (Vietnamese cooks would probably cringe to hear this since the broth is the focus of many of their dishes). I used the Kitchen Basics all natural kind. This worked out OK for the most part, but the flavors of the broth were a little overpowering and kind of took over the dish more than I would have liked. Next time, I'll try it with the low sodium version, which has a milder flavor.

I also just used a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket. Come on. Aren't return trips supposed to be leisurely and easy?

Here's what I came up with so far. Thoughts?

What you need:

2 cartons Kitchen Basics stock

2 yellow onions, sliced

2 cinnamon sticks

5 pieces star anise

3 inches peeled ginger

1 tbsp. coriander

1 rotisserie chicken

1 package rice noodles

For serving:

Basil leaves

Scallions

Bean sprouts

Sliced, fresh jalapenos

Soy sauce

Sriacha sauce (the really spicy Asian kind)

What I did:

I started by putting the two cartons of chicken broth in a pot and adding a few cups of water and the coriander. I put the cinnamon sticks, star anise and ginger in a coffee filter, tied it with kitchen string and added to the pot to bring to a boil. I let it simmer for about an hour before adding the sliced onions and simmering for another 10 minutes until they were tender.

While all of this was going on, I cut the chicken into soup size pieces and prepared the rice noodles as instructed on the package. When the broth was done, I removed the coffee filter with spices.

Pour the broth over some noodles and add desired mix ins to taste.

I know, kind of anticlimactic after all of that. But easy, right?