SOCCA

(Chick Pea Flour light, thin, salty, crisp pancakes)

By Gael Verger

Speciality of Nice. This is an apperitif for 10 people

• 250g of Chickpea flour
• 500 ml of water 
• 2 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 tea spoon salt

Preparation

Mix flour and water to make a very thin batter, like a crêpe batter.  Add olive oil and salt.

Let the batter rest for 1 hr. Remix it before using.

Use a 35 cm diameter pizza pan, the oven must be extremely hot 230°C/410F. Put the empty pan in the oven and when is extremely hot and put 2 tbspoon of olive oil on it.  Put the pizza pan back in the oven to heat olive oil. 

Add 2 ladles of the batter on the extremely hot olive oil pizza pan. Thickness of the dough, approximately 0.5mm.  

Every oven is different so your first socca will guild you for the next batch.  Cook for 7 min at 230°C/410F (You my need to us the grill few minutes before the end of the cooking period). 

The texture of the socca must be crispy top and inside hardly soft (moelleux).

You can make 2 pizza pans with this.

Bonne dégustation   

Anchoiade (aperitif)

By Gael Verger

Ingredients for 8 people

20 anchovies, packed in salt  (not  the anchovies in olive oil)

2 big garlic cloves, pressed

2 tablespoons fresh thyme

6 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation

clean/rinse the anchovies well (take of all the salt), drain them

remove the bones from the center

use a small robot mixer, put in the anchovies, pressed garlic cloves, fresh thyme (just their small leaves) and olive oil (add water if too compact)

mix few times

Serve with cut raw veggies or oat crackers... 

Onion, Mushroon and Feta Tarte Tatin

Basically this is a main course dinner version of the French upside down apple pie.
It can be vegan based on the kind of cheese you use, or if you use any at all. It can be "cheesed-up" is you use Stilton or a strong blue cheese.

As I retired vegetarian, I loved this dinner. My family... well, I recommend you serve it to older children with more varied tastes! I think I will keep it a a starter or for lunch with my girlfriends!

Onion, Mushroom, Fennel and Feta Tarte Tatin

1 puff pastry, defrosted and rolled out if necessary or made of GF recipe or use spelt
3 onions
2 large fennel
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups/12oz/200gr chestnut mushrooms
4 Tbsp/50gr roasted pine nuts
1 cup/250gr broken up feta or blue cheese
1/2cup/125gr ricotta cheese (optional)
sea salt &     pepper

Pre-heat oven to 180C/375F.
Line a large quiche pan with baking paper.

Slice onions into 6 wedges.
Take branches off fennel and slice of bit of the bottom. The slice into 6 wedges, like the onions.

Place olive oil in a large frying pan, saute onions and fennel, until onions are softened and lightly colored. About 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, break up your cheese into to smallish chunks. If using the ricotta, mix it with the chunks.

Add the mushrooms and salt. Saute for 5 more minutes, stirring now and then. Taste to adjust salt & pepper. Pour into the prepared quiche pan. press to flatten a bit. Spoon cheese over onion mixture. Cover with pastry, tucking edges inside/under.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until pastry in golden. I checked mine around 25 minutes and had to cover the pastry with a piece of foil as it was already golden brown.
let sit for 5 minutes before you turn it upside down on a large plate/platter.

Serve with a green salad....

Summer Tomato Pie

Don't you just wait for the taste of a sun-filled, grown-in-the-dirt, summer tomato. We eat so many raw, I am always looking for another way to use them.
Here is an English (as in the country) adapted classic French recipe I adapted again!
Great as a starter or a meal with a huge summer salad tossed with freshly made, mustardy vinaigrette...

Summer Tomato Pie

One pre made pastry shell, or you can make your favorite recipe.

3Tbl (soupspoons) sour cream or creme fraiche
2Tbl (soupspoons) Dion mustard (yes, it is different)
10-12 large tomatoes, cored, peeled and sliced
sea salt
ground black pepper
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
olive oil to drizzle on top

Pre-heat oven to 375F/190C.

Line with baking paper a 12inch/30 cm push-up-bottom tart pan. Or use a quiche pan. Place rolled out pastry in pan.

Mix together creme fraiche/sourcream with Dijon mustard. Spread over pastry base.
Arrange in a fold-out-card fashion the tomato slices around the pan to fill. I usually start at the outside edge and work my way INTO the center in a circular fashion.
Season with seasalt and pepper.
Strip thyme leaves off stalks. Scatter leaves on top.

Bake for 40 minutes.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Serve warm or cold. But don't leave overnight or the pastry will get soggy!

Cocktail/Aperitif Meatballs

These aren't the lightest or healthiest things I have ever posted, but they sure are good. They are, once again, served at cocktail hour to my French neighbors & friends in my quest to open the french world to great American cooking! I adapted these, out of necessity of lack of ingredients, from my friend Tani's recipe.

Tani's Meatballs

1 lb (500grams) ground lamb or beef, with a bit of fat on it, not too lean
(You can choose to mix this with sausage/farci meat if you like)
1 cup grated (rape) emmental or swiss cheese
1 package feta cheese, broken or cut into as small pieces as you can cut
Old/hard bread or breakfast biscuits,to make 1 cup ground -you can substitute fine polenta or semolina in a in a pinch
1 tsp (coffee spoon) flax seeds or 2 tsp ground flax seeds
1 tsp seasalt

Pre-heat oven to 350F/175C.
Grind up bread and flax in food processor to make it inot fine crumbs.
Combine all ingredients in large bowl, by HAND. Squeeze into 1 inch/2 cm balls. It is important to squeeze them well so they don't fall apart in the cooking.
Place on a baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Artichoke Dip ("Almost fat-free"!!)

I dont know about you, but I stopped eating Artichoke Dip when I was around 18. It was then i started to literally feel all that mayonnaise inside me. For me, it came out as greasy skin! Having now been living in France close to 3 years (OMG!) I have found a new interest in these American favorites. The French are always looked at as a race that appreciates good food - true, good taste - true, and good quality ingredients... not always true. What I have found is that French families, like American families, are looking for good healthy food, and the time to make it. Maybe this interest is a pride of American cooking, taste and innovation, while I add my own quality and time standards.

This is a take on a low fat Martha Stewart recipe. I'll soon post another non-mayo version! Serve this with raw veggies (crudites) and/or small toasts of baguette. Actually serve it whatever you have, it will be eaten!

Artichoke Dip

2 cans of artichoke hearts, drained & rinsed
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1 1/4 cup + 1 Tbl grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbl (soupspoon) fresh lemon juice(keeps it from oxidizing and turning brown)
1 clove garlic, chopped fine or grated
1 scallion/green onion chopped

Pre-heat oven to 425F/210C.
In blender or food processor, place 1`can of artichokes, mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, garlic and puree.
Add 2nd can of artichokes and scallions. Pulse only to combine. Leave in small chunks.
Place in a 1 quart/1 liter baking dish (I used glass), top with another 1 T of Parmesan.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown and bubbling.

"Real"Italian'Tomato and Mozzarella Pie

I was served this simple meal at our nieghbor, who IS first generation Italian... living in France. Served with a light, crisp, sweet lambruscoa and a salad. I have used it as an hors dóevre, dinner or lunch. It is best kept really simple.

1 pre made pie pastry (NOT sweet, in French they call it Pate Brisee)
1 ball mozzarella (buffalo if you can get it)
1 tomatoes, preferably local and organic so they have flavor! (best is out of someone's home garden!)
a few slices of zucchini (courgette)
1 clove garlic
seasalt

Spread pie crust out on lined cookie sheet or round pizza pan. Pre-bake for 5 minutes at 325F/170C.
Meanwhile, slice mozzarella thin, keeping it in rounds. Slice tomato and zucchini/courgette in thin slices, and place on paper towel to absorb some of the moisture, while you wait for the crust to come out.
Chop or grate garlic.

Once pastry, which serves as the crust, is out of the oven, arrange mozzarella around it. It will not cover all of the pastry but it will melt and be perfect. Then place tomato slices and few slices of courgette/zucchini. Sprinkle crushed garlic around and seasalt to taste.

Return to oven for about 20 minutes. Check it and see if you'd like it crisper or the tomatoes cooked longer.

Mussels with sausage

OK, I live in one of the worldwide centers for mussels, oysters and wine...and, I am not a real shellfish fan, nor do I prefer the wines of this region of France! Also,even though my mother grew up on Canadian lobster, I have never cooked shellfish before this recipe. Of course, I decided to cook this for 20 French locals... and they all wanted the recipe. :)

4 TBS (3soupspoons) butter, divided
1/2lb (500grams) ground sausage or farci meat (with herbs)
(you can links instead just break open and crumble the meat out)
2 shallots, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry white wine
juice of 2 lemons ( i just squeeze them by hand, into the pan)
3 lbs (2 kgs) mussels, cleaned (you can ask your fishmonger to do this)
2 TBS (2 coffeespoons) thyme
ground pepper (opt)
bunch of fresh parsley (opt)

In large pot melt 1 TBS of the butter. Add sausage/farci meat and cook stirring it into bits (try not to eat it all...) until cooked through.

Add shallots & garlic, stir until you smell them. About 1 minute.
Add wine, increase heat to high, cook until liquid is reduced to half. Reduce heat to medium and stir in rest of butter and lemon juice.

Add mussels, place bunch of parsley, still tied in a bunch on top. Cover. Increase heat to high. Stir now and then until mussels are cooked- meaning they are all open and come out of their shell easily. About 5-6 minutes.

Take out parsley. Stir in thyme and pepper.
Serve immediately.

You will need no utensils to eat. Use an empty shell, still attached to its other side, as a pincher to get out the other mussels from their shells. You will need a fork for the sausage, and.... don't forget the bread....