A Riveting Return to Rive Droite!

It was a real pleasure to return last week to Rive Droite, the restaurant of my dear friends, Charles-Henry and Ségolene de Valbray in Alençon. Not only was I to meet their new chef, Christophe Renou, but he was going to give my group of friends a cooking class in the restaurant kitchen for the first time. Christophe worked as head chef in London at Gordon Ramsey’s Michelin 3-star restaurant, L'Aubergine and with Gilles Goujon, another 3-star chef, at L’Auberge du Vieux Puits before coming home this past summer to his native Normandy to take over the kitchen at Rive Droite. As you can imagine, Charles-Henry and Ségolene are thrilled to have him.

We were invited into the kitchen for coffee.  Then Christophe gave us each an apron and a work station with a cutting board and sharp knives. This class was definitely hands-on. The first dish we were to tackle was a Roquefort Cheese Soufflé, one of his signature dishes in London. The recipe is really quite simple, but amazing. These individual little soufflés can be made up any time, cooked and kept in the refrigerator for up to a week. When the guests appear and the time arrives for the first course, all you have to do is pop them back in the oven on a cookie sheet and poof, they rise and are ready!!  They are delicious and hold their shape.

Then we moved on to the main course, a Confit of Lamb Shoulder with Pommes Boulangere (baker’s potatoes). We all got busy chopping onions and carrots and slicing potatoes. We helped roast the lamb in very hot pans until caramelized and then everything went into a large roasting pan to cook for 3 hours. As we relaxed, Christophe told us a story about about Pommes Boulangere.

They were a traditional specialty for Sundays because housewives would put the dish together before church, dropping it off at the baker’s on the way. He was finished making his bread and croissants, but his oven was still pipping hot, so he would slip everyone’s potato dish into his oven while the family was in church, ready to be picked up after service. Hence, Pommes Boulangere!

We ended our class by cooking Christophe’s Chocolate Fondant, an individual chocolate cake with a runny center. This was served with homemade mint sorbet.

When our work was done, we took off our aprons and sat down in the beautiful dining room overlooking the river for our feast. Christophe had actually cooked our lamb confit the day before because of the long cooking time. Every dish was remarkably delicious and we had the translated adapted recipes to recreate them for our friends and family at home. It helped to have an eager young english-speaking chef who loved to do his homework for the class.

Roquefort Cheese Soufflé

For 8 people

Butter: 40 gr

Flour: 40 gr

Milk: 260 gr

Roquefort cheese: 160 gr

Egg yolks: 4

Egg whites: 5 

Salt and pepper

Butter and flour dust 8 molds and put in fridge

Put the butter in the pan and let it melt but not burn

Add the flour to make a roux, stir well

Add the milk to it, and boil three minutes

Then add the Roquefort, stir it in and it cool down

Add the yolks, mix, and set aside

Whisk 150gr of egg whites with a pinch of salt and sugar

Add the two mixes together slowly and fold them gently

Take the 8 molds and fill them with the mix

Cook in a bain-marie (gas mark 7/180 degrees C) for 20 minutes

Take them out of the oven in the bain-marie and let cool in it

Remove from bain-marie and refrigerate up to one week

When ready to serve, put them back in the oven, heat for 5-10 minutes at 180 degrees C. until they puff up

Can be served with a green salad, sprinkled with a few walnuts, and drizzled with walnut vinaigrette

Enjoy

Restaurant Atao - A bit of Brittany in Paris

We’re finally back in Paris after almost six months in the States and Italy and I am ready to dive back into the restaurant scene to share my discoveries with you!

Last night my husband Kent and I tried a neighborhood restaurant in Batignolles that changed hands over the summer. Formerly a simple but good seafood restaurant offering oysters, mussels, etc, Atao, which means eternity in Breton, was opened by Laurence Maheo, an oysterman from the Golfe du Morbihan off the south coast of Brittany. All of the fish and seafood come daily from Brittany and the oysters are cultivated by Laurence and his family.

The dining room is blue and white, like the sea and the sand in Brittany. All 20 seats were taken which is always a good sign. We did not try the oysters this time but started instead with a creamy oyster soup and a dish of girolles with an oyster emulsion. The oyster soup was very flavorful but had only 2 little oysters floating around

in it, a far cry from the delicious oyster stews we Americans are used to. The girolles with a splash of oyster flavor were however quite delicious..

For our main courses we both had fish, which was fresh as could be and perfectly cooked. Kent selected Filets de Maquereau Laqué, 2 generous filets of mackeral lacquered with a soy sauce glaze and served on a bed of spinach with mashed potatoes and an array of root vegetables, grown by Michelin 3-star chef Alain Passard.

The white beets, yellow carrots, and turnips were crunchy and bursting with flavor, a nice contrast to the moist, succulent fish. My Filet of Daurade (sea bream) came with the same wonderful vegetables and an emulsion of basel.

We drank a bottle of Cheverny Blanc 2010, Villemade and were perfectly satisfied, so we skipped the house made crèpes offered for dessert.

We however made up for that today at lunch when we feasted on a Kouign Amann, a super rich Breton butter cake a friend brought from San Malo. One of my favorite chefs in Brittany, Patrick Jeffroy makes a superb Kouign Amann and I have his recipe which I am giving you below. If you can’t get to Brittany, this cake is well worth the effort.

Kouign Amann

(Breton Butter Cake)

Patrick Jeffroy (Restaurant Patrick Jeffroy)

(Serves 8)

Ingredients:

2 c. flour

1-1/4 c. sugar

2 7-g packets of dry active yeast

11 T. butter (keep one stick in refrigerator (8 T.) until called for.

1 t. salt

Preparation:

· In large bowl dissolve yeast in 1/3 cup lukewarm water.

· Set aside until yeast begins to activate and foam, in about 10 minutes

· Add salt and 1 cup flour.

· Stir with a wooden spoon

· Add 1/3 cup of water

· Blend well.

· Add remaining 1 cup of flour.

· Add another 2/3 cups of water.

· Stir until dough forms into a ball.

· Transfer to a lightly floured work surface.

· Knead with heels of your palms until smooth and elastic

· Coat the inside of a large bowl with butter.

· Place dough in bowl, cover with damp cloth or plastic wrap.

· Set aside to rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour.

· Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

· Grease a 9-inch pie pan with butter.

· Dust it with flour.

· On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to form a large 12x18 rectangle, with shortest side closest to you.

· Cut the chilled stick of butter into 12 pats.

· Place the pats around the center portion of the dough.

· Sprinkle with ¾ cup of sugar.

· Fold short sides toward center over butter and sugar, moving quickly

· Sprinkle dough with sugar.

· Roll over the seems to form a seam.

· Turn dough around so shorter side is closest to you.

· Fold into thirds, as if a letter going in an envelope.

· Place dough in refrigerator to rest 15 minutes.

· Sprinkle sugar over work surface.

· Roll out dough into a large rectangle, dusting as you go with ¼ cup of sugar.

· Folding in thirds again, place in fefrigerator to rest.

· Sugar work station lightly again.

· Roll out dough into a square, slightly larger than the pie pan, dusting as you go with remaining ¼ cup of sugar.

· Press dough gently into pie pan.

· Melt and drizzle remaining 3 tablespoons butter over dough.

· Sprinkle with sugar, baking 35-40 minutes until golden.

· While still hot, remove from pan and serve warm.

Restaurant Le Verre Vole - 75010, Paris

You know that you are eating at a very good place when you see chefs on their day off eating beside you!

Le Dauphin staff enjoying their day off

Such was the case last Sunday, when we had lunch at Le Verre Vole, a fabulous little wine shop and bistrot near the Canal Saint Martin. Franck (chef), Sebastian (sommelier) and Aaron from the new restaurant Le Dauphin were at the next table tasting several different bottles of wine, which they shared with us! And, they tried nearly every first course on the menu critiquing positively as they tasted each delectable morsel.

The walls in the shop are shelves filled with an amazing selection of vins natures, which you can select to accompany your meal for a corkage charge of 7 euros. We learned that for these wines, the process is natural from start to finish with no preservatives or additives ever. Whereas organic wines are grown without pesticides but are not controlled at all during the vinification process. We selected a red Minervois 2008, Les Bois des Merveilles, Domaine Jean Baptiste Senat, and at 18 euros plus the corkage, it was perfect. It had a very deep, dense red color and was rich and velvety with hints of wood and spice.

A fantastic selection of wines line the walls

For the first course, two of us enjoyed the first green asparagus of the season in France from the Vauclause in Provence.

Premieres Asperges Vertes

They were lightly cooked, still a bit crunchy and bursting with flavor. An herb vinaigrette and an egg yolk on top added to our pleasure. My husband Kent dared to have a Cheval Tartare aux Champignons (which for those of you who don’t know, is horse!) 

Cheval Tartare

The sizable, tender chunks of meat were mixed with cornichons and herbs and topped with thinly sliced raw mushrooms, all of which worked perfectly together and it was surprisingly delicious. Our fourth dish was Saint Jacques Poelees aux Agrumes.

Saint Jacques

The scallops were sautéed with citrus and served with caramelized endives. This dish was fresh, light and the acidity of the blood oranges was a superb complement.

We moved on to two different main courses. Two of us had the Lotte de l’Ile de Yeu (monkfish) served with sauteed cabbage and citrus butter.

Lotte de l'Ile de Yeu

The lotte was cooked through but still moist and the caramelized cabbage and julienned orange and lemon peel made the dish a standout! The second main course was a Saucisse au Couteau d’Auvergne.

Saucisse

This beautiful sausage from the center of France was tender and brimming with flavor. It was served with mashed potatoes and a nicely dressed green salad.

After all this most delicious food, we were quite full but we shared two desserts.  A Crème Brulee au Zestes de Kumquat.

Creme Brulee

It was creamy with just a hint of kumquat and melted in our mouths.  In one word, yum!  The Gateau Breton St Pierre was a buttery slice of pastry on a bed of apples, topped with whipped cream and sprinkled with orange zest and specks of vanilla beans. 

Gateau Breton

All of this marvelous food is created in a tiny open kitchen by a team of 3 chefs who rotate, since the restaurant is open 7 days a week for both lunch and dinner. 

The Sunday team with chef Ryotaro

We were completely satisfied and enjoyed the company of our chef neighbors enormously.  A must address!

Le Verre Vole, 67 rue de Lancry, 75010 Paris.  Tel 01 48 03 17 34.

Restaurant Ripaille - Batignoles, 75017 Paris

Well today is the day!  I am dropping my whisk and hitting the keyboard to begin sharing with you my culinary discoveries in Paris (and other places where my travels will take me), where I have lived between October and May every year since 2007.  We live in a wonderful old French neighborhood, Le Village des Batignolles, at the foot of Montmartre.  The streets are filled with ateliers (artist studios) as many artists from the Impressionists on have relocated here.  A lively mix of restaurants, traiteurs (cheese, wine, ready-made meals, chocolate) and boutiques are around every corner, and I am going to focus today on a restaurant I discovered within a week of moving here, and continue to frequent with great pleasure. 

I always pay attention to crowded dining rooms, as I believe it is a very good indication of delicious things to come.  Such is the case with Restaurant Ripaille, a small simple bistrot, which is on my way to the metro so I pass by it every day.  And every day, at lunch and dinner, the dining room is packed with people who are clearly enjoying the food and wine.  The owner, Philippe Favre, warmly welcomes all the diners, most of whom he knows by name, as the restaurant has a great many regulars.  The dining room is intimate and cosy, and Philippe, who is also one of two servers and the sommelier, moves between the tables and guests with ease and grace.  Philippe is a sommelier by training, having worked at Chez Laurent and Chez G Faucher in Paris before opening Ripaille in 2005.  Chef Brendan Labarre is from Brittany (and Philippe from Normandy), so fish takes center stage at Ripaille.

Owner of Restaurant Ripaille, Philippe Favre 

At lunch today, both my husband and I ordered the formule dejeuner, which is an excellent value at 15 Euros for two courses and 20 Euros for three.  I had the Pate de Foie de Lapin with a salad, which was delightfully warm and melt-in-your-mouth delicious.  Kent had the Risotto de Anchoiade, which was perfectly cooked, creamy and had just the right amount of anchovy.

Pate de Foie de Lapin

Risotto de Anchoiade

I moved onto a Blanc de Poulet, Epinards avec Sauce Supreme, with a generous amount of spinach covered with the rich, creamy sauce supreme, while Kent had a Bavette de Flanchet (flank steak) with the most delectable Pommes Mitrailles we have ever eaten.  These tiny little potatoes come from the island of Noirmoutier, off the southern coast of Brittany, and they were delicious – I talked Kent into more than a few bites!  Neither of us felt like sweets, so we shared a Carpaccio de Elivaz, Tomates Confits, et Jambon d’Auverne.  The Comte-like cheese was sliced thinly and served with thin slices of delicious ham sprinkled with a little sherry vinegar and dots of sundried tomatoes.  It was really very tasty.  We each had a glass of Philippe’s red selection of the day, Domaine de L’Aigle, Pinot Noir, 2009 from Languedoc, which went perfectly with both the beef and the chicken.  We left completely satisfied and felt that we had been wonderfully taken care of by Philippe and his team.

Blanc de Poulet, Epinards avec Sauce Supreme

Bavette de Flanchet

Carpaccio de Elivaz, Tomates Confit et Jambon d'Auvergne

Ripaille, our little gem, is located at 69 Rue des Dames, 75017 Paris; tel 01 45 22 03 03.