Araignée de Porc à la bière et à la moutarde

 Araignée de porc à la moutarde

sert 4 personnes

Ingrédients :

1 kg d’araignée de porc

4 échalotes

1 gousse d’ail écrasée

1 cube de bouillon de légume

500g de champignons de Paris

3 cuillères à soupe de moutarde à l’ancienne

1 cuillère à soupe de poudre de moutarde Coleman’s ou de moutarde forte de Dijon

1 canette ou une bouteille de bière blonde

3 feuilles de laurier

2 cuillères à soupe d’origan

1 cuillère à soupe de farine

1 cuillère à soupe de Maïzena

4 cuillères à soupe de lait en poudre

ou, selon la version, 1 pot de crème fraîche épaisse d’Isigny

sel, poivre

Couper le porc en gros morceaux, mettre dans un saladier et verser une cuillère à soupe de farine plus poivre en poudre. Mélanger.

Faire revenir dans une cocotte les champignons lavés entiers pedant 15 minutes en les m"mélangeant souvent. Reserver.

Faire revenir les morceaux de porc farinés en les tournant pour qu’ils soient bien dorés. Réserver.

Faire revenir à feux vif les échalotes hachées finement pendant 3 - 4 minutes. Ajouter l’ail écrasé la dernière minute. Bien remuer. Ajouter l’origan, le cube de bouillon de légume, la viande, la moutarde, les champignons. Bien mélanger et faire revenir une minute.

Ajouter la bière, un peu de sel, l’assaisonnement sera à rectifier à la fin, le poivre. Porter à ébullition puis réduire la température et laisser mijoter 1h30 à petit feu. Remuer de temps en temps pour vérifier que ça n’accroche pas.

Dans un grand bol, ajouter une cuillère à café de Maïzena, verser 3 louches de sauce et fouetter pour faire une crème sans grumeaux. Ajouter cette crème au reste de la préparation.

puis, 2 versions :

Version light ajouter 3 cuillères à soupe de lait en poudre. Bien mélanger et laisser cuire à petit feu 5 minutes

Version riche, à la place du lait en poudre ajouter un pot de crème fraiche épaisse d’Isigny et laisser cuire à petit feu 5 minutes.

Rectifier l’assaisonnement en ajoutant ou pas du sel.

Délicieux avec des endives braisées, des pommes de terre (à la vapeur, sautées, etc), es haricots verts.

Bon appétit !

It’s A Sin. Review

 For Jon Z.

Very good series which got it right in many ways. The sexual frenzy of being free at last in a big city. The depiction of the incredulity and even denial when AIDS started to kill people is so well done. The fear and more denial when it starts to strike hole. 

For the first time in history, despite the general feeling of homophobia in society, gay men were allowed to be themselves and have all the sex they wanted only to be targeted by a mysterious sickness that seemed to punish them for daring to be so free. No wonder they thought it was a conspiracy. 

For most people under 40, this series will feel like a period piece, as far away in the past as the death of Kennedy or Pearl Harbor. So much has changed since. We know what causes AIDS, HIV has been tamed by the ever more efficient treatments, life expectancy of treated HIV positive people is the same as everyone else, PrEp reduces the risk of contamination, and a vaccine, (thanks to Covid) is maybe in the offing.

There are still too many countries where you can be killed just for being homosexual but large swathes of the world the mores have switched from rejection and hostility to, first tolerance (which is far from enough), then acceptance and the discovery, with the banality of same sex relationships including marriage, that the Gay Agenda includes shopping for groceries, doing the laundry, paying taxes, raising children (of at least, cute dogs or cats)…

The cast of characters is of course a little stereotypical. One for each “type” of homosexual more or less. How could it be otherwise in such a short mini series (239 min) but that’s how every watcher identifies with a different part I guess.
I was Colin and I grieved when he died. Even more so because he caught HIV in what looked more like a rape than consensual sex. 

 
Most of the women here are great, caring, understanding, strong. Except for the “mother from hell” in the last episode blaming everyone but herself. 
Anyway, worth watching whatever your age. If you are young? You’ll get a little education on the sexual revolution that took place in the seventies only to be thwarted after a few decades. And if you ate a little older to remember what it was like to see friends and lovers helplessly dying and, on top of it, be blamed for their fate. 

The series ends on a positive note. A party with laughs and tears and memories of people we loved and will keep loving…

Beignets de flocons d'avoine (en français)

Beignets de flocons d'avoine (beignets d'avoine et légumes)

Pour autant que je me souvienne, c'était un plat que nous avions hâte de manger quand nous étions enfants, d'abord chez Ida de ma grand-mère, puis préparé par ma mère. Facile à préparer, bon marché, épanouissant. Les ingrédients les plus courants sont des morceaux de cerveau d'agneau ... 😱 Nous avons adoré ça! Voici la recette originale de ma grand-mère (en français). Je l'ai un peu peaufiné ... 😉

Ingrédients

1 poireau finement haché 2 oignons, hachés 1 carotte de taille moyenne râpée 1 courgette ronde de taille moyenne râpée 250g de flocons d'avoine 3 oeufs 500 ml de lait 2 cuillerées de farine 1 sachet de levure sèche ou mieux, fraîche 1 cuillère à café d'huile d'olive extra vierge 2 litres d'huile de friture (j'ai utilisé de l'huile d'arachide) 3 gousses d'ail écrasées les feuilles, râpées de ½ bouquet de persil, un bouquet de ciboulette, tranché finement une cuillère à café de paprika poivre noir moulu sel selon le goût

Préparation

Faire revenir les oignons et le poireau à l'huile d'olive dans une poêle, 3 minutes à feu moyen, 10 minutes à feu doux, à couvert. Laissez-les refroidir.

Dans un bol à l'aide d'une spatule ou d'un robot culinaire, mélangez les flocons d'avoine, la farine, la levure, les œufs, l'huile d'olive. Ajoutez le lait jusqu'à obtenir une texture pâteuse mais pas trop liquide.

Laisser lever la pâte pendant une heure. Ajouter tous les autres ingrédients et bien mélanger.

Du fromage râpé peut être ajouté. J'ai fait les deux versions.

Chauffer l'huile à 160 ° C Versez une cuillerée après l'autre du mélange avec une grande cuillère en s'aidant d'une plus petite cuillère pour pousser le mélange dans l'huile. Laissez-les frire pendant 5 minutes avant de les retourner et laissez-les frire pendant 3 minutes ou jusqu'à ce qu'elles soient dorées.

Retirez-les de la casserole et laissez-les égoutter de l'huile sur du papier absorbant.

Une option serait de les faire cuire au four sur une plaque avec du papier sulfurisé à 160° C pendant 30 minutes (ou jusqu'à ce qu'elles soient bien dorées). Moins gras et tout aussi délicieux. Servir avec une salade. Parfait aussi pour un pique-nique...

Oats and vegetables fritters (or patties)

Beignets de flocons d'avoine (oats and vegetables fritters)

As far as I can remember, it was a dish we were looking forward to eating when we were kids, first at my grandmother's Ida, then prepared by my mother. Easy to prepare, cheap, fulfilling. Ingredients could be added the most common being bits of lamb brain...😱 We loved that!

Here is the original recipe from my grandmother (in French). I tweaked it a little... 😉

Ingredients

• 1 leek chopped finely
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 medium size carrot grated
• 1 medium size round courgette grated
• 250g of oats
• 3 eggs
• 500ml milk
• 2 spoonfuls of flour
• 1 bag of dry baker's yeast or better, fresh one 
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 litres of frying oil (I used peanut oil)
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed 
• the leaves, shredded of ½ a bunch of parsley, one bunch of chives, thinly sliced
• one teaspoon of paprika
• ground black pepper
• salt to taste

Preparation

Fry the onions and the leek with olive oil in a pan, 3 minutes at medium heat, 10 minutes on low heat, covered. Let them cool down.

In a bowl or using a spatula or a food processor, mix the oats, the flour, the yeast, the eggs, the olive oil. Add the milk until you obtain a soft  but not too liquid texture.

Let the dough raise for an hour.

Add all the other ingredients and mix well.

Grated cheese can be added. I did both versions.

Heat the oil to 160°C

Pour one spoonful after another of the mix using a big spoon with the help of a small spoon to push the mix into the oil. Let them fry for 5 minutes before turning them and let them fry for 3 minutes or until light brown.

Remove them from the pan and let them drain of the oil on absorbent paper towel.

A option would be to have them baked in the oven on a tray with baking paper at 160°C for 30 minutes (or until brown). Less fat and just as delicious.

Serve with a salad. Also perfect for a picnic...

Spinach, salmon, shrimps lasagna

For Janet 😉

Here is my take on a classic (at least here in France) almost as popular as the bolognese sauce version. I followed a recipe but I also improvised so this will help me remember what I did before I forget. And it tasted better than all the spinach lasagna that I ever bought in delis.

Ingredients

For six. Divide the quantities accordingly

• lots of spinach!
• fresh tarragon leaves
• chives
• parsley 
• pre-cooked lasagna sheets. I bought two boxes in case I wouldn't have enough and ended up using like one third of a box
• 3 shallots
• 10 button mushrooms
• butter (lots!)
• 800g of shrips (500g if they are already shelled)
• 400g of salmon filets
• salt, black pepper, nutmeg

for the white sauce

• butter 200g
• flour 100g
• whole milk 1.5l
• Gruyère cheese shredded 
• Roquefort or whichever blue cheese you can put your hands on
• salt, black pepper, nutmeg

Preparation

Cut the shallots thinly. Sauté them in a mix of butter and olive oil for 15min in a big pan on low heat (a wok with a lid will be perfect)

Add half a glass of water

Add the spinach leaves after removing the stems, washing them several times and cutting them in three. Wait until the leaves shrivel (a few minutes will be enough). Add the rest of the leaves if there were too many of them. Add the chopped fresh parsley, chives and tarragon leaves. Cook for a few more minutes. Add nutmeg, ground black pepper and salt to taste.

Reserve in a big bowl, drain and keep the juice.

In the same pan, add more butter and olive oil and sauté the mushroom that have been cut in thick slices on high heat for a few minutes. Add them to the spinach.

The Sauce Mornay:

Heat 200 g of butter on medium heat and when it starts to bubble, add 100g of flour. Stir continuously for 2 minutes. Add progressively 1.5l of milk. Stir until the sauce thicken. It will take 5 to 10 minutes. Do not use high heat or the sauce might burn at the bottom of the pan. Add nutmeg, ground black pepper and salt. When it is thick enough add 150g of blue cheese or Roquefort, 500g of shredded Gruyere. Stir until all the cheese is melted. I was left with a small quantity of sauce in the end but it's better than not having enough of it. Which more or less defines my philosophy concerning cooking. And life in general 😁

Final phase:

Assembling and cooking the lasagna

Shell the shrimps if they are whole. Cut slices of salmon from the fillets.

Place your sheets of lasagna at the bottom of a buttered baking dish and cover the surface with them. No problem if they overlap a bit. Pour half a ladle of the spinach juice on them. Add a layer of spinach/mushroom mix, cover with the slices of salmon then a layer of white sauce. 

Add another layer of lasagna, half a ladle of spinach juice, the spinach/mushroom mix, the shrips, more white sauce.

Add the last layer of lasagna. Cover with white sauce.

Put in pre-heated 160C/320F oven fo 40 minutes. I used a tray under the baking dish because I knew it would overflow a little. And it did! 

Raise to temperature of your oven to 200C/392F and cook an additional 10 minutes for a nice brown appetising look. You can all use the grill to achieve that.

Allow the baking dish to cool for half an hour. Serve and enjoy...

 

Poem during lockdown

 Lockdown is no fun obviously but it can offer opportunities to be creative. 

A friend's birthday was the occasion for writing my first poem in English (except some fridge magnets attempts years ago), playing with Photoshop and filming myself all over my neighborhood in Pars' 15th arrondissement during my allotted time outside.

That's what I ended up with...

A birthday card inspired by artist Christian Boltanski 'Le Manteau" (the coat) from a postcard I bought at Pompidou Center. It is not a cake but it has candles, somehow...

Christian Boltanski, "Le Manteau", Pompidou Center

The text of the poem I filmed myself reciting all over my neighborhood to worried looks of passerby...

I had to sacrifice some of the meaning for the sake of rhymes but it was worth it and it is still what I wanted to say!

I Know A Boy

I know a boy in Broken Bow,

Half blind and with a worried brow

Who claims not to be a poet

But who sometimes will write sonnets

Full of smooth thoughts and clunky words

And a good sense of the absurd

I am no romantic he gloats

But every story that he wrote

Will tend to prove the contrary.

And I am sure Dinkel agrees…

Today is his special birthday

And I wish him on this Friday 

To be very happy and gay!

Plus another birthday card!

And the video... Happy Birthday John!

References:

Dinkel 

Half Blind Poet

Potatoes and Cervelas salad Swiss style

Potato and Cervelas Salad Swiss style

Zurich Lake

The idea is simple. boiled potatoes, sausage and cheese. All the rest is optional.

That’s what the Swiss use to bring for picnics in the mountains. It is one of their national dishes with fondue. That’s what I ate for the first time in Rheinfelden and Zurich when I spent my holidays with my great aunts, Annie and Mathilde a long time ago. It stayed with me

Rheinfelden, Switzerland

Ingredients for 4 (adjust accordingly)

8 medium size potatoes

2 sausages.

Cervelas is like an oversized frankfurter of wiener. So either you find jumbo frankfurters or you use 4 regular ones. Any sausage with a smooth texture will do. Cervelas is already cooked. With frankfurters or wieners you might have to boil them first and let them cool before using them in the salad. Dont get sick by eating raw sausages, doctor’s advice.

200g of Gruyere cheese.

Any hard cheese will do (Jarlsberg, Emmentaler, Edam, etc. I have no idea what kind of cheese you find in US supermarket, especially in the Midwest or the Great Plains😉) but Gruyere is better. 

8 radishes

3 celery stalks cut in small slices. I skipped them because I forgot to buy some 😭

6 green onions or 1 small white or red onion (green is better)

6 gherkins or pickled cucumbers as they might be called in the center of the US (wink, wink…)

Sweet or not, your choice.

Half a bunch of parsley, the leaves only (non negotiable!)

a few tarragon leaves (negotiable) or dill, or chives, or nothing…

For the vinaigrette sauce

1 teaspoon of mustard (regular kind)

1 teaspoon of whole grain mustard (harder to find) Another spoonful of regular mustard if you can’t find the whole grain mustard.

3 tablespoons of cider or malt vinegar

4 tablespoons of oil, the one you like better. I used olive oil.

salt, pepper

Preparation

Boil 4 liters of water (that will be 16 cups or 1 gallon for you) in a big pot with 3 spoonfuls of kosher salt

Add the potatoes when the water start boiling and cook for 20 minutes (watch it! it might try to overflow 😱)

When properly cooked, you must be able to stick a fork in them effortlessly.

Either you peel them or you leave the skin as I did. More taste with the skin but I fear you'll peel them...

Drain and wait for the potatoes to cool down.

In the meantime, prepare the vinaigrette 

Mix all the ingredients and stir until smooth. Leave aside. Was that easy enough?

Cut the sausages (once cooked and cold). If you have jumbo frankfurters of wiener, cut them in half lengthwise then cut thick half slices. If you only have regular size sausages, just cut them in round slices

Cut the gruyere cheese in small cubes

Cut the radishes in thin slices

Cut the pickled cucumbers whichever way you like 😁

Slice thinly the green onions or cut the white or red onions in tiny little cubes

Chop the leaves of the parsley (and any other herb you added, you daredevil!)

Cut the potatoes lengthwise now that they are cool enough not to give you 3rd degree burns. You might need those hands of yours again, who knows…

Cut them in thick slices like you did with the sausages

Mix all the ingredients, add the vinaigrette sauce, stir and serve.

Bon appétit !

You can replace the vinaigrette with mayonnaise, who am I to judge? I just don't want to hear about it 😜