Tag: Mum’s recipe

Mum’s artichokes barigoule

Every time I go back to my parents’ place in Aix-en-Provence and the season allows for it, my mother would cook one of my favorite artichokes recipe (I love artichokes!! ), and that I cannot eat in Japan because finding the proper ingredients is very difficult or impossible. This recipe of artichokes barigoule is a classic recipe from Provence. Except that preparing the artichokes themselves is a bit time consuming, the recipe is extremely simple and can be a full meal. It is originally not a vegetarian or vegan dish but it can be made so by symply not using the bacon in the recipe.

Artichokes barigoule:

– 1kg of fresh tiny artichokes

 – 1 large ripe tomato or two smaller

– 1 onion or 1 leek

– 3 medium size potatoes

– a piece of bacon, thick is better

– 1 bouquet garni: thyme, laurel… 

– 1/2 lemon to prevent artichokes to oxyde. 

Prepare the raw artichokes by removing the hardest parts, please check there for more detail.

Dice the onion or the leek, the tomato and the bacon.

In a heated pan greased with olive oil,  start with the onion/leek, the bacon then the tomato at medium heat. It has to get soft but not golden. Stir often. Then adf the artichokes, cover with water and add the bouquet gatni, salt and pepper. Then add the potatoes. Cook under cover for 30minutes at low heat. And it’s ready to eat!!!

Tagliatelle

Being in Italy we eat fresh pasta quite often. And being with our mother we cook all together. This time it’s a recipe that our mother created. Very simple, taking advantage of the seasonal products and that can easily be prepared ahead and for large tables. This is tagliatelle with radicchio, spinach, speck and pine nuts. Served with fresh parmegiano. You need one radicchio, a few bundles of spinach, a few slices of speck, a handful of pine nuts, olive oil, fresh parmegiano. In a large pan, heat some olive oil, wash and cut in bite size the vegetables, cut in bite size the speck. Add all in the pan and stir until soft but still colorful. In a small pan, grill the pine nuts, when golden roughly crush them, add to the vegetables. Boil the tagliatelle (homemade, fresh or dry), when al dente, drain them and add them to the vegetables mix, add olive oil, stir well and serve. Top with parmegiano. 

Zucchini flowers tempura

After the bouillabaisse the second thing I really wanted to eat while in Provence was zucchini flowers. My mother is really good at preparing them.  She has several recipes for them and I gonna share three with you. Zucchini flowers are really hard to find in Japan and it’s a pity but it is not impossible and they are really easy to prepare. The first recipe is a Japanese inspired recipe it’s simply zucchini flowers tempura. The flowers are cut delicately into long strips and then dipped into tempura dough before being fried. This simple preparation is perfect for the flowers to enjoy their very subtle texture and taste. They are served here with little green bell peppers from Marseille, something that ressembles a lot the Japanese green bell peppers.

Brandade

This recipe is one of our mother recipe and is a traditional Provencal recipe using the leftovers of salted cod . After the cod has been unsalted and washed, just boiled it, then add milk and stir until the milk has been all absorbed by the fish. Add pepper and olive oil, stir again.  This mixture, called “brandade” is delicious on toasted bread, with boiled potatoes, as a spread or to stuff veggies. It’s good eaten either warm or cold. Here is a preparation of stuffed cherry tomatoes, perfect for a buffet or finger food.

Kingfish with fennels, olives and capers

Making of the bouillon
Making of the bouillon

A Sicilian stay wouldn’t be complete without a recipe involving capers and olives. The delicious Mediterranean olives and Sicilian cappers are perfect for many recipes. The market has decided for us that it will be a fish recipe: December is great for kingfish. So we first prepared a bouillon with one onion and two fennels (remember we’re still cooking for our whole family!). The onion and fennels are chopped finely and golden in a bit of olive oil, then covered in water, where we add three large spooned of pruned olives in salt anc vinegar (made by our maid and really delicious), and one table spoon of large Sicilian capers. Then the fish is slighlty grilled in a frypan before being added to the bouillon and cooked under cover. We served it inlayees with the veggies of the bouillon, the fish and with some fresh tagliatelle and a touch of spinaches. 

Artichokes

In Sicily it’s easy to find delicious artichokes in December and fields covered with artichokes can be seen everywhere. They are little purple artichokes perfect for raggu and hot pot preparations. Delicious with onions, tomatoes…

They are really easy to prepare, you just need to remove the outer leaves, cut the leaves at mid height or more (until tender), cut then the artichokes in halves or quarters, add a bit of lemon juice in water to prevent the oxydation. In a large pan, heat some olive oil, add a chopped onion, then the artichokes. Cover in water and cook until completely soft. Serve warm or cold. Perfect as a side dish. Variations include adding a peeled large tomato, white wine, bacon, salty cod…

Fennel soup

Still enjoying some local Sicilian products, the fennels are, just like the cauliflowers a must of the season. Fennels are also found everywhere and are beautiful. For me in particular it’s a feast because in Japan it’s not easy to find fennels and they are usually small and not too good eaten raw. So I’m really enjoying eating plenty, raw, cooked, braised… And since soups are a big favorite for dinner in our family, the fennel soup we prepared with our mother was a big success. For 8 people we used 2 onions, 2 little tomatoes, 2 big fennels, olive oil, salt and pepper. First we cut the onions, the tomatoes, and the fennels and slightly cook them in olive oil (no need to say, Sicilian olive oil is amazing) . Then cover with water and cook for 40min. Blend and add some olive oil and serve. Simple and so delicious, perfect before the Christmas feast! 

Cauliflower soup

With all these beautiful green cauliflowers everywhere in town, sold at every shop, seen at every street corner, and in the fields, they seem to be one of Sicilian winter must eat! So it was impossible not to buy some and prepare something with. Our mother is really good with preparing soup and we prepared a cauliflower soup. The cauliflower is just boiled in little water, then blended with a little cream, salt and pepper. Served with some freshly made croutons: just old bread cut in chunks and slightly pan fried in oil. Thanks Mum for this homy-yummy soup.

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