Courgette with Bûche de Chèvre and Walnuts

Courgette with Bûche de Chèvre and Walnuts

Zucchini has been in season for several months already at the organic store, and a great cheese pairing with zucchini is chèvre (goat) cheese. You could pick any chevre, probably an aged one as opposed to a fresh one, I would save the fresh ones for a salad. The aged goat cheese intensify in flavor as they cook, or so it seems. And perception is everything!

Ingredients:

1-2 Zucchinis

Bûche de Chèvre – a log of goat cheese, fresh or aged

Handful of Walnuts coarsely chopped

Olive Oil to cover Zucchini lightly

Fleur de sel to taste

Preheat over to 190˚C (375˚F) while chopping the walnuts and slicing zucchini in rounds (I slice mine about 3-5 cm thick  or ¼ inch, in other words, not too thin or they might get soggy in the oil.) 

Place zucchini rounds in a glass baking pan and sitr in the olive oil.

Bake for 15 -20 minutes, then for last 5 minutes gently mix in the chopped walnuts, chèvre and fleur de sel.

A few notes:

Extra Ingredient Mixing Ideas: (Because it’s fun to MIX!)

To make this recipe sweet, you can drizzle honey over all the ingredients once you’ve added the chevre, walnuts and salt.

To make this recipe spicier, dash a bit of cayenne pepper on top.

To make this recipe more colorful, add paprika, which has minimal flavor but adds that red dusty color.

To make this recipe more Basque, add piment d’espelette – a mild red pepper, adding a bit of flavor and color!

The photo below shows this dish along with Pommes Sarladaises and Magret de Canard à

l'Orange with homemade Plum Sauce from our own plum tree (watch for the upcoming recipes!), accompanied by a "Blanc" Pineau des Charentes liqueur from the Cognac region (usually served as an aperitif or with dessert, but I had it with my dinner!

Why Preheat the Oven? To get to the right temperature for cooking BEFORE you put the food in. So turn that oven on as you walk into the kitchen (some ovens take longer than others).

Why Cook at 190˚C (375˚F)? I cook everything at 190C, 375, it tends not to burn things but gets them cooked in a decent amount of time while locking in flavor (or maybe I’m just maing this up!)

Why Use Glass? For the oven, I use glass as much as possible to reduce the toxic load from treated metallic pans, as these usually have some coating which essentially is a plastic. Plastics leach their toxins into food, especially when heated or frozen.

Why Eat Organic? I try to use as many organic ingredients as possibly in all my cooking. Organic food has been grown using biodegradable substances (instead of persistent chemicals which do not biodegrade and remain in the environment and in us). Buying organic food tends to support smaller farmers using organic methods, and organic foods are generally not industrially genetically modified; they are “non-GMO.” Eating GMO foods (such as soy, corn and wheat) changes our own DNA expression and the proteins in GMO foods cause many adverse reactions and food sensitivities in many people and animals. Organic food tends to taste better overall. You can feel good about each bite, as opposed to non-organic food, whose growing methods and pesticide residue is utterly ambiguous to the consumer.

Disclaimer: The “health” information in this blog is not meant to cure any illness, but rather as information, to better understand the cooking process and my reasons for the choices I make.

The "Raw Kale & Egg Salad" Salad

Last summer, I learned from my pal, award-winning blogger Erica Green that you can eat kale raw as a salad, like spinach, lettuce and cabbage. Both Safeway and Whole Foods carried kale but once we moved to France, I couldn't find it. I figured out the name in French: "chou frisé” and asked at the marché if they sold this. They said it would be available in the winter. Just two weeks ago, to my joy and rapture, I saw bouquets of kale near the cauliflower and grabbed a couple of bunches and developed the following recipe:

The "Raw Kale & Egg Salad" Salad

Salad (for one big serving in a spacious bowl): Fresh Kale Salad with vine-ripened cherry tomatoes halved or quartered, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, crumbled walnuts, sprinkling of turmeric, pepper & fleur de sel

Dressing(in a mug or small bowl): Mix of olive oil, walnut oil and sesame oil, ½ tsp smooth Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, flax seeds, sesame seeds

Egg Salad (perpared in a separate, small bowl): Two boiled eggs chopped, ½ tsp mustard, 1 tsp mayo, dash black pepper.

Remove the kale leaves from the thicker stem areas, rip or cut into bite-size pieces, and add dressing. Then scoop on the egg mixture, garnish with black pepper and chives if you have them! (I didn’t in the picture.)

If you are not crazy about say turmeric or walnuts, then just leave them out! You can also add avocado to this salad, which adds creaminess along with the egg salad. The combination of kale, egg and nuts in this salad makes for a crunchy, hearty salad with a nice balance of protein and complex carbohydrates, while the dressing, mustard and mayo ingredients give it creaminess and the balsamic vinegar give it some acidic pop.

Freshness Tip: If the kale looks a bit weary because it hasn’t been misted by water, as was the case with mine, wash it and put it in a plastic bag or sealable salad spinner or saleable glass pyrex bowl, somewhat damp, so that it’ll spring back to life after a few hours in the fridge.

Bon Appetit!

@Bordeaux Kitchen - The "Goat and Egg" Salad

Salad of the Day: "The Goat and Egg" 

Like the salad from my last blog entry, this one's again a mix of baby greens (red chard, spinach, mâche – this, mind you, is store-bought, prepackaged, as I don’t really have room in the small fridge for all three greens in large quantities!), walnuts, flaxseed flakes, roasted sesame seeds, sel de Guérande. 

Organic/Bio Ingredients in "The Goat and Egg": Vine-ripened tomatoes, chunks of fresh goat cheese, two hard boiled eggs, freshly ground pepper, chia seeds (yes, the same you use to grow a chia pet!), and for the dressing: simply organic EVOO (extra virgin, cold expeller pressed olive oil!) 

Bon Appetit! 

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