HACHIS PARMENTIER

Hachis Parmentier is a meat and potatoes meal, popular in France, reminiscent of shepherd's pie but much better. It's made with layers of leftover beef and mashed potatoes, it's covered with cheese, and then it's baked, coming out of the oven looking rather decadent, and tasting delicious. I made some at the beginning of this month, and we enjoyed having it for dinner. At the time I didn't have any leftover beef to work with, but I had a small quantity of frozen chuck meat which I defrosted,  cooked low and slow, then turned into hachis Parmentier. 

A few words about the name for this dish:  hachis means chopped up, and it derives from the word hatchet. I find the etymological history of the word fascinating. The online dictionary, one of my favourite sites on the Internet has this to say: "Middle English hachet, from Old French hachete, diminutive of hache, ax, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German happa, sickle."  Yes, I do get excited over words and their history, but look: our word axe derives from the French hache, and it came to exist by dropping the letter "h," which the French almost always drop when speaking, and which some English speakers also drop, although they shouldn't. So axe up some cooked meat, season it, and you'll be one step closer to creating hachis Parmentier.

As for "Parmentier," the word is applied to dishes cooked with or accompanied by potatoes. The name "Parmentier" refers to Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, an 18th-century French pharmacist who promoted the potato as a food source, and who was responsible for having the French government declare potatoes an edible crop. He used all sorts of methods to do this, including serving potatoes to such luminaries as the visiting Benjamin Franklin. My favourite of Parmentier's stunts was this: he surrounded his potato fields with armed guards to suggest that valuable goods were being guarded there. His guards were instructed to accept bribes from the passing crowds and to withdraw during the night so that the crowds could gain access to the fields and steal the "valuable" potatoes. That's what I call a promoter; the man was way ahead of his time! I love potatoes, and so I thank Monsieur Parmentier for his efforts, yes, I thank him wholeheartedly.

Now let me put the dictionary aside so I can describe how I cooked the hachis Parmentier.

Method:

Beef:  Use leftover cooked beef if you have it. If not, use about a pound of chuck beef cut into small pieces. You will need to boil the beef so that you can have the bouillon needed for the recipe.

For the bouillon: 

• 1  to 1 ½ pounds of chuck beef cut into pieces (you'll be cutting it up even further once it's cooked).
• About 4 cups of water
• 1 onion, quartered
• 2 carrots peeled and chopped in half
• 3 celery stalks, cut in half, leaves included
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf, a teaspoon of peppercorns, some salt, a few sprigs of thyme, and some spigs of parsley.

1. Place all the ingredients into a soup pot. Bring to a boil and skim off the foam that comes to the surface. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 2 hours until the meat is soft. 
2. Strain the broth and reserve it. 
3. Shred the meat into small pieces and reserve it.

For the filling:

• 3 or 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 carrot, chopped into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tomato peeled seeded and chopped3 mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 leek, thinly sliced, white and light green parts only
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon of thyme leaves  

1. Add the oil to the pan and heat. Sauté the onions, tomato, carrot, mushrooms, and leeks until they are soft. Mix in the reserved meat then sprinkle the flour over and combine it well.
2. Add enough of the reserved bouillon to moisten the filling. You want to have a filling that is nice and juicy, but not one that is swimming in broth.
3. Add the thyme and parsley
4. Place the filling in a greased oven-safe casserole.

For the topping:

• Use 2 pounds of Yukon gold potatoes to make mashed potatoes just the way you like them. I cook them in boiling water, peel them, chop them, then mash them. While mashing, I add 1/2 cup milk, 3 tablespoons butter, and a seasoning of salt and pepper.
• Layer the mashed potatoes over the filling.  
• Sprinkle 1/2 cup grated Gruyère and one tablespoon grated Pecorino Romano cheese over the potatoes. Using a fork or a spoon, create an interesting pattern on the surface of the potatoes.
• Bake the dish in a preheated 400° F oven for about 20 minutes.  It's done when you are able to see the filling bubbling and when the potato topping is a nice, light golden brown. If you like, decorate the top with chopped chives.

Bring to the table and serve.  This will make a really delicious and warming meal, especially when it's cold outside. I hope you enjoy it!

CHICKPEA SOUP or GREEK REVITHOSOUPA (Ρεβιθόσουπα)

Revithia is the Greek word for chickpeas or garbanzo beans. I made revithosoupa for dinner today, and it was about time! We hadn't had it in a while; it was good to eat a simple, meatless, warm bowl of soup. Revithosoupa is a filling Greek soup that is a standard in the Greek cooking repertoire. Some versions are kind of plain, others like mine are well flavoured because I like to mix in spices and vegetables. Plain or spiced up this soup is good. It's the chickpeas that give it a lot of favour. Ideally, it should be made with dried chickpeas that have been soaked overnight in water and a little bit of salt. However, cooking it that way requires prior planning ... To make a quick revithosoupa, go ahead and use canned chickpeas. 


Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cans of 15-ounce canned chickpeas rinsed and drained.
• 1 large onion chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 leek, white and light green part only, chopped
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon dried mint or 1 teaspoon fresh
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 quart vegetable broth
• 2 cups water

Directions:

• Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Add the onion, leek, garlic, celery and carrots. Sauté until the onions are soft.
• Add the chickpeas, and stir them around for about two minutes or so and then season them with salt and pepper.
• Add the liquid, oregano, rosemary and mint. Bring to a boil and cover, then lower the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes.
• Add the parsley and lemon juice during the last 15 minutes of cooking. Serve while hot and enjoy!

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE WITH BEETS

Novel Food hosted by Simona from Briciole is an online book club with the following concept: Cook something that has been inspired by a published literary work you've read, then create a post about it. I love to read and I love to cook so there was no doubt that I would join Novel Food as soon as I found out about it! 

I had a month until the posting deadline, plenty of time to prepare, or so I thought. Here I am, rushing to finish. Anyway, I've been reading "Cleopatra, A Life," by Stacy Schiff. Although I am charmed by this book, thinking about it does not give me any culinary inspiration. But which book and which author should I tackle for Novel Food? James Joyce came to mind, and in particular Joyce's "Dubliners," which holds a special place in my heart. Published in 1914, "Dubliners," is a collection of 15 short stories written in realistic detail and filled with everyday scenes of middle-class Dublin, Ireland. The characters live ordinary lives, but as their stories unfold the reader becomes aware of intensely personal and often tragic revelations about them. It’s the glimpse into their emotional lives courtesy of Joyce and his poignant narrative that has always had a profound effect on me. One of the short stories, in particular, moves me to tears every time I read it. The title of that story is “A Painful Case.”

James Joyce as photographed by Berenice Abbott in 1926 (National Portrait Gallery, London). The author had problems with his eyesight throughout his life.

“A Painful Case,” is a story about isolation. It concerns the brief intermingling of the lives of Mrs Sinico, a married woman who feels unfulfilled, and Mr Duffy, a bank cashier who leads a solitary and meticulously orderly life. The two are acquaintances who eventually grow close and develop a deep friendship. One day Mrs Sinico impulsively takes Mr Duffy’s hand and places it on her cheek. He is taken aback by her action and ends their relationship. At a farewell meeting, Mrs Sinico seems distraught and unwilling to say goodbye. Four years go by, during which Mr Duffy resumes his previous orderly routine. One evening, while eating a dinner of corned beef and cabbage at his usual restaurant, he reads a newspaper article entitled “A Painful Case.” The article details the death of Mrs Sinico, who was hit by a train at a Dublin station. A coroner’s inquest revealed that Mrs Sinico had taken to drinking during her last years, and it is inferred from the narrative that her death may have been a suicide. Slowly, Mr Duffy begins to feel remorse. He believes that by having rejected her he condemned her to loneliness and eventual death. He reflects on his own solitary life which has been devoid of her companionship and realises that he has lost his only chance for happiness. He will remain isolated from "life’s feast" because he lacks the courage to pursue happiness. 

Corned beef and cabbage—plain food, not something served at a feast—is briefly mentioned in "A Painful Case," but it's mentioned at the moment when Mr Duffy is about to undergo a significant psychological change. It's the moment when his epiphany begins, that moment when he begins to realise how emotionally paralysed he has become. Joyce's epiphanies are rare and momentous occasions during which an awareness floods a character's conscience and he or she gains a profound understanding of a particular situation. Epiphanies are recurrent themes in the "Dubliners." In part, Joyce uses them to symbolise the colonisation of Ireland: A defeated and powerless nation as Ireland was at the time, is juxtaposed with defeated and powerless individuals. Not much ever changes in Joyce's Dublin, something which has a devastating effect on the human spirit.

Well, we've covered food, literature, politics, emotional isolation ... What should we tackle next? How about if we read some of Joyce's astonishingly beautiful and incisive language in the form of quotes from "A Painful Case?" Here are Mr Duffy and Mrs Sinico together:

"Her companionship was like a warm soil about an exotic. Many times she allowed the dark to fall upon them, refraining from lighting the lamp. The dark discreet room, their isolation, the music that still vibrated in their ears united them. This union exalted him, wore away the rough edges of his character, emotionalised his mental life."

Mr Duffy reads of Mrs Sinico's Death:

"One evening as he was about to put a morsel of corned beef and cabbage into his mouth his hand stopped. His eyes fixed themselves on a paragraph in the evening paper which he had propped against the water-carafe. He replaced the morsel of food on his plate and read the paragraph attentively. Then he drank a glass of water, pushed his plate to one side, doubled the paper down before him between his elbows and read the paragraph over and over again. The cabbage began to deposit a cold white grease on his plate. The girl came over to him to ask was his dinner not properly cooked. He said it was very good and ate a few mouthfuls of it with difficulty. Then he paid his bill and went out."

The phrase "the cabbage began to deposit a cold grease on his plate." is rather startling. It prepares one for the upcoming chilling events. Here is the quote where Mr Duffy realizes what Mrs Sinico's death means for him:

"Why had he withheld life from her? Why had he sentenced her to death? He felt his moral nature falling to pieces... He gnawed the rectitude of his life; he felt that he had been outcast from life's feast. One human being had seemed to love him and he had denied her life and happiness: he had sentenced her to ignominy, a death of shame... No one wanted him; he was outcast from life's feast. He turned his eyes to the grey gleaming river, winding along towards Dublin ... He waited for some minutes listening. He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone."

Chilling. Insightful. Powerful. Masterful. James Joyce!

Besides the connection with Joyce, why did I decide on corned beef and cabbage? Well, St. Patrick's Day is around the corner, and I have lots of Irish neighbours. Corned beef and cabbage will be on many dinner tables around here. I've never made it, but I have always wanted to. This way I can brag about it to my Irish friends, and especially to Leslie, who lives across the street. No doubt about it, corned beef and cabbage is comfort food and like all such food, it's delicious!  

I made corned beef and cabbage with a recipe based on one I found on the Food Network website. It includes beets served alongside the corned beef, and because I am Greek, and considering that beets are kind of popular in Greek cooking, I thought the beets would introduce a Greek twist to an Irish dish! 

Ingredients:

• A 3-pound piece of corned beef
• 4 bay leaves
• 25 black peppercorns
• 9 garlic cloves peeled
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1-quart chicken broth
• 5 carrots, peeled and cut into 3" pieces
• 2 small turnips peeled and quartered
• 4 shallots peeled and left whole. Ouch! We are having such a bad winter here that shallots cost one shallot for $1.99!
• 4 potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1/2 head cabbage, cut into wedges
• 3 beets, peeled and sliced
• chopped parsley for garnish
• a little salt and pepper, a little lemon juice, a little olive oil and a negligible amount of oregano and garlic powder

Directions:

• Corned beef is made by brining beef brisket in a mixture of spices. It comes with a thick fat layer that should be trimmed and discarded. Once that job is done, the corned beef should be washed really well so as to remove some of the brine. For this recipe, discard the spice packet that comes with the corned beef.
• In a large heavy pot, combine the corned beef, 2 bay leaves, 15 peppercorns, 6 garlic cloves cut in half, and a pinch of ground cloves.
• Add water to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 hours, low and slow as they say. Remove the meat from the pot and reserve it on a plate, keeping it warm. 
• While the meat is cooking, prepare the beets: Line an ovenproof pot with aluminium foil and place the beets inside. Season them with salt and pepper, a slight amount of olive oil, some lemon juice and just a bit of garlic powder and oregano. Close the aluminium foil around the beets and bake them in a 350° F oven for about 45 minutes, until they are soft.
• You can also boil the beets, but remember not to add them in with the corned beef or vegetables, because they will turn everything red.
• Let's get back to the pot where the meat was cooked: I tasted the liquid and I found that it was very salty. Extremely salty. Now, most recipes call for boiling the vegetables in that liquid, but I couldn't in good conscience submerge my vegetables in what was essentially a brine. So I discarded the liquid, washed the pot and started over. I added a quart of low sodium chicken broth. I added seasonings: 3 garlic cloves cut in half, about 10 peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, and a pinch of ground cloves.
• When the broth came to a boil I added the turnips and carrots, lowered the heat and simmered for 20 minutes.
• Then I added the onions and potatoes. By now I had a layer of vegetables covering the whole surface of the pot. I placed the cabbage on top of the vegetables, covered the pot and cooked for an additional 30 minutes.
• The cabbage was steamed by the aromatic broth, and the turnips absorbed so much flavour that they were the best turnips I had ever tasted. That's saying a lot, because I am not the world's greatest turnip fan!
• If the meat is cold, put it back in the pot next to the cabbage and give it a steam bath until it warms up.
• And that's it. Mission accomplished. Slice the meat and serve warm, accompanied by the broth which is really tasty, and the vegetables.
• You can serve the beets alongside the other vegetables, or better yet, you can present them separately as a salad.

This post is my contribution to the 12th edition of Novel Food.

THE WORLD'S HEALTHIEST FOOD

This is the MOST IMPORTANT POST ON THIS BLOG!!! 

A very close and beloved friend who is a biophysicist always reminds me and is very insistent that I take a folic acid supplement daily. I've known about the importance of taking folic acid while pregnant, and of its importance in DNA synthesis. Recently, I pulled some books off the shelf, I visited some Internet sites, and I did my own "in-depth" study of folic acid.

An article in the New York Times which I include below, referred to folic acid (and other micronutrients) as "the world's healthiest food." Since Sweet Almond Tree is a food blog, I decided to post something about this healthy and all important food!  

I kindly ask you to remember to take folic acid daily, and also to take micronutrient (multivitamin) supplements. Micronutrients are a range of crucial vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin A, vitamin C, the B vitamins (which include folic acid), iodine, iron, zinc and calcium.

Micronutrients from food sources:

World's Healthiest Food

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

January 3, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras

So what’s the most scrumptious, wholesome, exquisite, healthful, gratifying food in the world?It’s not ambrosia, and it’s not even pepperoni pizza. Hint: It’s far cheaper. A year’s supply costs less than the cheapest hamburger.

Give up? Here’s another hint: It’s lifesaving for children, also lifesaving for women who may become pregnant. If you know of a woman who may become pregnant, make sure she gets this miracle substance.
A final hint: It was a lack of this substance that led to a tragedy that I encountered the other day at a hospital here in the Honduran capital. Three babies lay in cots next to one another with birth defects of the brain and spinal cord.

In the first cot was Rosa Álvarez, 18 days old and recovering from surgery to repair a hole in her spine. She also suffers from a brain deformity.
In the next cot was Ángel Flores, soft tissue protruding from his back.
Closest to the door was José Tercera. His mother unwrapped a bandage on his head, and I saw a golf-ball-size chunk of his brain spilling out a hole in his forehead.

The doctors believe the reason for these deformities, called neural tube defects, was that their mothers did not have enough micronutrients, and particularly didn't take folic acid while pregnat. (Click here to go to: United Call to Action on Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies /World’s best investment for development)  These micronutrients are the miracle substance I’m talking about, and there’s scarcely a form of foreign aid more cost-effective than getting them into the food supply.

“It’s unnecessary to have these kinds of problems,” Dr. Ali Flores, a pediatrician and expert on these defects, said as he looked over the three babies.
If a pregnant woman does not have enough folic acid (also known as vitamin B9) in her body at the very beginning of her pregnancy, then her fetus may suffer these neural tube defects. That’s why doctors give folic acid to women who plan to become pregnant.

Equally important is another micronutrient, iodine. The worst consequence of iodine deficiency isn’t goiters, but malformation of fetuses’ brains, so they have 10 to 15 points permanently shaved off their I.Q.’s.

Then there’s zinc, which reduces child deaths from diarrhea and infections. There’s iron, lack of which causes widespread anemia. And there’s vitamin A: some 670,000 children die each year because they don’t get enough vitamin A, and lack of the vitamin remains the world’s leading cause of childhood blindness.

“In the early stages of life, the die is cast,” said David Dodson, the founder of Project Healthy Children, an aid group that fights micronutrient deficiencies in Honduras and other poor countries. “If a child is not getting the right micronutrients, the effect is permanent.”

Nine years ago, Mr. Dodson was simply an American businessman running a 300-employee waste company that he had founded. Then he happened to visit Honduras and, in a hospital, encountered a mother whose newborn baby had a hole in the skull. He learned that negligible amounts of folic acid would prevent such heartbreaking defects — and his life was transformed.

“I had never seen anything in my life that could have so much impact for so little money and be sustainable,” Mr. Dodson said. He and his wife, Stephanie, sold their company and used some of the proceeds to start Project Healthy Children.

The most cost-effective way to distribute micronutrients isn’t to hand them out. Mary Flores, a former Honduran first lady who is active in nutrition, notes that impoverished women can be hard to reach, and even if they are given folic acid pills they sometimes won’t take them for fear that they actually are birth control pills. So micronutrients instead are often added to such common foods as salt, sugar, flour or cooking oil.
Adding iodine, iron, vitamin A, zinc and various B-complex vitamins including folic acid to a range of foods costs about 30 cents per person reached per year. Groups focusing on micronutrients also include Helen Keller International and Vitamin Angels. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has required that flour be fortified with folic acid since 1998. Even in America, with better diets, medical care and widespread fortification, not all women get enough micronutrients, but the problem is far worse in poor countries.

Mr. Dodson notes that it is much cheaper to prevent birth defects than to treat them.
“It’s not a sexy world health issue, but it’s about the nuts and bolts of putting together a healthy population,” Mr. Dodson said. “Putting small amounts of iron, iodine and folic acid in the food supply hasn’t drawn attention the way it does when you treat someone who is sick or in a refugee camp. Until recently, this has been off everybody’s radar screen.”

As the United States reorganizes its chaotic aid program, it might try promoting what just may be the world’s most luscious food: micronutrients.

**********************************

Folic acid food sources:

Here is another helpful article: http://www.womentribe.com/health/folic-acid-information-benefits.html

More on Micronutrients: 

To maintain your brain, muscle, bone, nerves, skin, blood circulation, and immune system, your body requires a steady supply of many different raw materials—both macronutrients and micronutrients. You need large amounts of macronutrients—proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. And while you only need a small number of micronutrients—vitamins and minerals—failing to get even those small quantities virtually guarantees disease.

(All the photographs and charts in this post have been "borrowed" from the Internet.  I did a Google image search, and there they were, just begging to be borrowed).

ARTICHOKE, CRAB, and PARMESAN CROSTINI

These crostini would make nice appetizers or even a delicious first course.

Ingredients:

8 slices (1/4 inch thick) of a nice, flavourful bread (I used garlic and rosemary bread)
olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

lemon zest

6 oz marinated artichoke hearts, drained and patted dry

1 (4-ounce) can lump crab meat, drained
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (save a little to use as a garnish)

3 tablespoon mayonaise

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill (plus more dill for decoration)

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

juice and zest of half a lemon 

Directions :

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Brush the bread slices on both sides with olive oil and season them with black pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. You'll need to turn them over during baking so that they can toast on both sides. Once they are done, set them aside to cool.
• Meanwhile, make the topping. Chop the artichokes finely, and place them in a bowl. Add the Parmesan cheese, the dill and parsley, the black pepper, the crab meat, the mayonaise and the lemon juice. 
• Dividing evenly, spoon the topping onto the crostini, and if desired garnish with additional Parmesan. 
• Place the assembled crostini back in the oven for about 2 minutes, just to warm the topping and to give the cheese a chance to melt slightly.
• Take out of the oven and top lightly with the lemon zest and a tiny sprig of dill. 

These little guys are easy to make and very easy to eat!

JACQUES PEPIN'S THIRTY MINUTE CASSOULET

Old recipes can and should be adapted to suit today’s lifestyle. Here is a new and healthier version of cassoulet, the countryside classic dish from France: Thirty-Minute Cassoulet, adapted from Jacques Pépin's Fast Food My Way

I draw the line when it comes to making a traditional cassoulet. For one thing, the traditional version takes something like three days to prepare, and for another, it includes a liberal amount of duck fat plus the rind of almost a whole pig ... I'll pass.

Duck fat and pork rind were used in kitchens of centuries past. Caloric intake during those times was high, but people burned calories faster than we do because they were highly mobile and engaged in significant labour. The country folk who prepared cassoulet used fat as a method of preserving food plus they were careful to use all parts of any animal they slaughtered.    
Today’s lifestyle is different and comparatively more sedentary. Additionally, we are all of us aware of the health risks associated with eating foods high in fat content. There's just no need to cook like that anymore. 

Jaques Pépin, gentleman chef extraordinaire, offers us a recipe for a cassoulet that can be cooked in less than one hour. Convenient, tasty, and healthier. Thank you, Chef Pépin.

JACQUES PEPIN'S THIRTY MINUTE CASSOULET:

                                     

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound rolled shoulder ham (also called a daisy ham or Boston Butt), tough outer skin removed, cut into four pieces

1 pound Italian sausages, cut into 3-inch pieces

1 pound skinless chicken thighs

1 cup sliced button mushrooms

1 cup sliced carrots

1 diced onion
1 can (14.5 ounces/400 grams) whole peeled tomatoes, chopped

4 cloves garlic crushed

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

2 bay leaves

2 cans (15½ ounces/450 grams each) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed 

black pepper

coarsely chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit /180 degrees Celsius.   
• Heat the oil in a large skillet and add the ham, chicken and Italian sausage.
• Cover and cook over high heat for 10 minutes, turning occasionally.
• Add the mushrooms, carrots, onion, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves. Mix well and cook for another 10 minutes.
• Add the beans, tomatoes and pepper 
• Bring back to the boil, cover, and cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
• At serving time, discard the bay leaves, cut the ham into slices and the sausage pieces in half, and arrange the meat on a platter with the beans.
• Sprinkle the parsley on top.