other sides to this life | Robin Ellis

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A baby gem lettuce salad for lunch today

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged baby gem(sucrine)lettuce, costa brava, extra virgin olive oil, lloret del mar on July 26, 2013| 9 Comments »

It’s hot here and there’s not much incentive to go anywhere, even to the Friday market in Lautrec–to pick up a fish.

There are two left over stuffed peppers in the fridge that are ageing well!

And three little gem lettuces under wraps.

So–stay home and…

Gently heat through the peppers and free-up the crisp baby gem (sucrine) lettuces.

Discard the outer layers–quarter, wash and spin them and spread them on a pretty plate.

Scatter over slivers of red onion, some juicy black olives (optional) and a few anchovy pieces.

Dress with a swirl or two of best olive oil–our friend Keith’s wonderful Tuscan oil (http://www.boggioli.com/)–a couple of pinches of sea salt and a shake of the red wine vinegar bottle.

To continue the olive oil theme and with fond memories of my first taste of food cooked in extra virgin–for that’s what it must have been back then in 1953 in Lloret del Mar

–I fry an egg each, in more of Keith’s oil.

Please, nobody tell him I used it for cooking though!

We sit outside in the heat, cooled by a breeze, with a glass of crisp pink toasting my parents–intrepid Molly and Tony–for bravely taking me and brother Peter to Spain’s Brava coast, an amazing sixty years ago.

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Grilled aubergine rounds with two cheeses and a tomato topping

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged antonio carluccio, aubergine rounds with tomato and two cheeses, aubergine/eggplant on July 24, 2013| 11 Comments »

Scrabbling around for a starter to serve Friday week at the Garlic Festival lunch–and with three aubergines sitting looking at me expectantly, I got to flicking through some well-thumbed pages.

The idea for rounds came from Antonio Carluccio’s Vegetables cook book.

The key ingredients, doubling as casino counters!

So…

for 2 (on the 2nd, I’m upping the ante and cooking for 22!)

1 largish aubergine–cut across in half inch slices, salted and left to drain for at least an hour

2 ripe tomatoes of similar circumference–sliced a little finer

6oz/150gms feta cheese–crumbled

a few fresh leaves of basil, parsley and mint–chopped together

parmesan cheese–grated

olive oil

salt and pepper

heat the oven to 220C/430F

Cover an oven tray with foil and brush it with oil.

Brush both sides of the aubergine rounds with olive olive and lay them out on the foiled tray.

Place the tray in the uppermost part of the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until they are thoroughly cooked through and soft.

Add the chopped herbs to the feta and using a teaspoon, spread a little on each cooked aubergine round.

Sprinkle the tomato slices with a pinch of salt and little olive oil.

Lay one on each aubergine round and top them off with a pinch of the grated parmesan.

Return the tray to the top of the oven and cook for a further 15 to 20 minutes.

Take them out when the tomato has a melted look and the parmesan has browned a little.

Serve them straight away or at room temperature.

Increase the odds of a wow–with a leaf of basil or other herb–if you have any.

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Cooking workshop cancellations…

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Robin Ellis, tagged cooking workshop in south west France on July 17, 2013| 4 Comments »

We just got news of cancellations for the October 2013 workshop–freeing up several places.

Below are some impressions from Bravehearts (my name for those intrepid souls who’ve been brave enough–crossing continents in some cases–to take a risk and sign up!) who came to the previous workshops (October 2012 and May this year).

I liked the small, hands-on nature of it. Robin made the whole thing feel very informal and yet everything was very well organized.

I also like that there were breaks. I never felt overwhelmed. Indeed, the whole thing felt like the most amazing multi-day dinner party at which no one ever was tired or bored!

–Christopher Lupone

————–

Robin’s teaching method: his ability to present his recipes and ingredients to a group of total strangers in a way that put everyone at ease. That naturalness of manner helped everyone work very well together. It was fun!

Excellent kitchen workspace worked very well for this size group. Well-lit, squeaky clean, not too industrial, new appliances…Much like a well-appointed home kitchen which enhanced the feeling of camaraderie among the participants.

–Dan and Jane Berical

—————–

I enjoyed cooking and dining with the group–Robin’s happy approach to cooking – not fussy or dogmatic – and his relaxed approach to the class. This workshop succeeded because of Robin and Meredith (and Daisy and Valerie and Dominique and Philippe)! Their charm, encouragement and enthusiasm for cooking and living well was contagious! The wine cellar was amazing! Our final lunch on the terrace was memorable. Wine at Robin and Meredith’s house at the end of the class was the icing on the cake.

–Betsy Weber

————

I have always loved olive oil but we are constantly being bombarded that we should cook and eat as fat free. After attending your workshop I started cooking with olive oil on a regular basis. I eat it almost every day now. I had my annual physical last week and I was very curious to hear my cholesterol levels as I was so afraid ingesting the olive oil would drive up my numbers. This was going to be the moment of truth…… My cholesterol was 166 down three points from last year’s 169! Not bad at all. I have even dropped a few pounds. So what is with this fat free hype?

–Mary Pirog

Come be a Braveheart this October–3rd-6th!

For details–here’s the link!

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Lifting the garlic–l’ail rose de Lautrec

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, tagged fete de l'ail, l'ail rose de lautrec, lifting garlic on July 13, 2013| 16 Comments »

I wrote this haiku a couple of years ago in the last week of June:

Garlic gath’rers pass,

Leaving the scent in the air;

It’s that time again.

It’s that time–again; but three weeks later than normal (due aux mauvais temps [bad weather] in May and June).

The question now hanging in the air (with the whiff of garlic!): will there be enough of the lovely stuff ready for the Garlic Festival–always held in our village on the first Friday of August?

Alice Frezouls, our neighbour, called in at noon yesterday with bunch just lifted–a gift! She was hot from the field and called the work travail bagnard, which translates as hard labour–in the sense of a prison sentence. (What must it have been like before the machine above took over the lifting?!)

She was making light of it though.

The fields are still unseasonably sodden and the clumps of garlic are coated with earth–adding irksomeness to the lifting and cleaning process.

The garlic must spend weeks drying out before being hand cleaned, plaited and sold.

This was done in barns open to the heat of summer air passing naturally through them.

Now with garlic production increased, noisy drying machines–great ventilator fans–are used more and more.

The first year this happened we complained to Pierre-Louis–our young farming neighbor. He came over and agreed that we were in a noise corridor where the sound of his industrial dryer was penible–difficult. He improvised with stacks of hay bales to blanket the racket and we lived with it.

He has refined the process and for the next month we are resigned to eating dinner on the terrace to the accompaniment of a low, single-noted wind machine–not a woodwind quartet–that drifts in and out of our consciousness.

The reports that the Garlic Festival risks being like Hamlet–but without the Prince–are exaggerated, or so we have been reassured.

If they’re desperate I’ll offer mine!

On verra!

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Sardines–to go with the cucumber salad!

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged oven baked stuffed sardines on July 11, 2013| 2 Comments »

We had these again yesterday for lunch with a reprise of the cucumber salad.

Filleted fresh sardines, sometimes available at the fishmonger, make life easier–though I remember feeling very virtuous after filleting sixty sardines with my cooking partner for a workshop Meredith ran a few years back.

We were rewarded with a loud exclamation of “LOOK at THAT!” from one of the participants, when he saw the wide sardine-laden platter.

Butterflied sardines for 2 takes less time!!

10 firm and fresh sardines–butterflied (see below)

100gms/4 oz wholewheat breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon parsley–chopped

2 garlic cloves–chopped fine

1 tablespoon of capers–chopped

a pinch of dried oregano

3 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

Butterfly filleting is a bit of a business–but rewarding.

You’ll need a chopping board and plenty of kitchen paper. Have a pair of scissors to hand and a plate to receive the fillets.

Ensure there are no scales left on the fish, then (for right-handed cooks) hold the the fish in your left hand belly up and with a pair of scissors snip along the belly from the tail end cutting off the head when you reach it.

Then with your right thumb, coax out the rest of the innards. Place the fish, belly side down on the board and press gently up and down the backbone with both thumbs–to open it up and out.

Flatten the fish as much as you can with three fingers of both hands.

Lift the small fin and and snip it off, then cut the backbone at the tail end and draw it carefully away from the body, taking care not to take too much of the flesh with it.

Voila! You have a butterflied fillet.

Heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4

Wash and dry the fillets.
Place a sheet of foil on a shallow baking tray (makes clean-up easier!).
Using a basting brush, spread a tablespoon of oil on the foil.
Place the fillets on the tray.
In a bowl combine the breadcrumbs, parsley, garlic, capers, oregano.
Season with salt and pepper.

Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the mixture and turn it over thoroughly.
Spread the breadcrumb mix evenly over the fillets–using a teaspoon.

Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the fillets, adding a little extra if needed.
Sardines before going into the oven
Bake for 15 minutes.
Sardines post oven

Finish off by a short burst (under 30 seconds) under a hot grill.

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Heard it on the Snakevine…

Posted in other sides to this life, tagged couleuvre, heard it on the grapevine, Northfield, rattlesnakes, Stand by me, western whip snake on July 7, 2013| 32 Comments »

On the journey home from an al fresco lunch to celebrate the Fourth of July with a group of like-minded friends, the theme music to the film Stand By Me was playing.

Meredith often mentions this rite of passage movie about four boys setting out on an adventure that will change their lives ; it reminds her of her childhood growing up in Northfield, a northern suburb of Chicago.

In the Hollywood film, four young boys find a dead body–which propels the story.

Animal lover who drew the line at rattlers!

In the car yesterday, the music reminded her of the day she and her three young friends (all boys and she was an enthusiastic tomboy) suddenly found themselves confronting an aggressive rattlesnake in a vacant lot.

A rattlesnake?

Yes, a rattlesnake!

But you lived in suburban Chicago!

I remembered my Dad telling me about seeing rattlers in Arizona when he was there in ’44, training to be an RAF fighter pilot.

Arizona: dry, arid, hot, rattlesnake country for sure!

Chicago: cold, windy, wet, rattlesnake country?

Our property backed onto farmland in those days.

What did you do?

We squealed, reeled backwards and ran for a Dad–but there were no Dads to be had at home that afternoon.

By the time we got back armed with a rake and a hoe, the snake would have high-tailed outta Cook County –if it’d had any sense! I don’t remember ever playing around that piece of prairie again!

Soon after we arrived home last night, I went out to pick up the post from the box.

On the ground a couple of feet away from me, stretching itself full length across the driveway–was a snake.

Not a rattler–lucky for me–a western whip snake or couleuvre, a non poisonous snake that eats small rodents.

Clearly it had HEARD IT ON THE SNAKEVINE and decided to make contact.

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Short walks–post prandials–after meals

Posted in Diabetes, other sides to this life, tagged lowering sugar levels, post prandials, short walks, sleeping more deeply on July 4, 2013| 16 Comments »

Short walks after meals–15 minutes (’round the block’)–help with digestion and lowering sugar levels.

So says Diabetics UK, reporting on a study carried out at George Washington University. It found these walks particularly beneficial to older adults at a high risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

The report recommends a walk after every meal–i.e. three a day–ambitious!

Nonetheless we took the hint and made a start.

We set out on a short walk with the two “rascals”, Beau and Ben, after supper—

though with is pushing it a bit….

(A post-prandial it used to be called when I was growing up.)

After a bouncy start Beau developed a lumpen plod, tail down “wish I hadn’t come on this stupid walk” attitude, like a recalcitrant teenager–every step taken under protest.

Ben played the game and entertained with moments of sleek black speed running–effortless elegance.

They both made it to the turn-around point–the entrance to our neighbors’ property–and were visibly bucked when they clocked that the return journey was downhill all the way.

OK not so bad this post prandialating!

The next night we took a different route.

Down the field opposite–late sunflower plants just breaking the surface and garlic high–about to be harvested.

Both cats were happier with the new downward trajectory.

They reached the stream at the bottom of the field in leaps and bounds–downhill racers.

Then a right turn, following the line of the stream towards the road–on the flat. Oh so happy cats!

OK not so bad this post prandialating!

Ben on safari stalking through the garlic shoots–Beau rear–guarding, not sure what the game is.

Then they hit the road again–going uphill.

Oh dear–what goes down has to climb up–end of frolic–might give it a miss tomorrow–all very well this post prandialating; might be good for those old folks….

Well the old folks are profiting nicely from these short perambulations–thanks very much my beauties. Sleeping more deeply for one thing!

Last night the rascals made an appearance in the driveway as we set off, but it’s clear that their reluctance to go the distance is growing in the same proportion as our enthusiasm for it.

Beau was lying in the road waiting for us as we came back and Ben was doing mini streaks along the cemetery wall.

Each to their own!

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Tuna salad–a reprise

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes on July 2, 2013| 12 Comments »

Meredith brought a cucumber home yesterday and requested the cucumber salad that’s included in my new book–Healthy Eating for Life due out next January.

I’m thinking to save it ’til tomorrow to go with some sardines from Realmont market.

We’ll have her cucumber for lunch though in this simple, quick-to-do tuna salad below from Delicious Dishes for Diabetics.

Tuna Salad

Adapted from an early Nigel Slater recipe, this is very handy as a quick standby when you feel at a loss for something to serve as a light lunch.

for 2 (in the book the amounts are for 4)

1 x 200 g/7 oz tins of tuna–drained and flaked

2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp tarragon vinegar (plain white vinegar will do but the tarragon flavour is a nice touch)
4 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp low-fat yogurt–put in a fine sieve and drained a little to thicken it

1⁄2 cucumber–peeled, quartered, deseeded and diced. Then sprinkled with salt and left to drain for half an hour

1 tbsp parsley–finely chopped

1 tbsp chives–finely chopped

salt and pepper

2 spring onions–cleaned and finely chopped
1 tbsp sunflower seeds–lightly toasted
a little extra parsley–finely chopped

Put the tuna into a favourite serving bowl and add a couple of twists of the pepper mill.

Whisk the mustard, vinegar, olive oil, yogurt

add the parsley, chives, salt and pepper together into a thick sauce.

Add the cucumber, onions and seeds.
Pour the sauce over the tuna and turn over all the ingredients carefully.
Sprinkle over the remaining parsley and serve with a crisp green lettuce.

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Aubergine Tortino

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged aubergine, aubergine tortino, eggplant, melazine, quick tomato sauce on June 30, 2013| 18 Comments »

The aubergine–eggplant–melanzane–enigmatic gentle giant of a vegetable.

Lovely conceit from Mark Bitman in The New York Times demonstrating its versatility.

Not included in the diagram but a useful addition to the repetoire, this tortino recipe is adapted from Paola Gavin’s Italian Vegetarian Cookery.

A tortino is a sort of soufflé crossed with a no-pastry pie–handy for those who need to watch their intake of refined carbohydrates.

It’s a little labour intensive but pays off.

600/700 gms aubergine [eggplant]–peeled and sliced thin

olive oil for brushing

2 1/2 oz tomato sauce–see below

2 oz grated parmesan

5 eggs

salt and pepper

Lightly salt the aubergine slices and leave them to drain for at least an hour.

Set the oven to 190C

Dry the slices in between sheets of kitchen paper.

Oil a couple of shallow oven trays.

Lightly brush the slices with olive oil and lay them out on the trays.

Bake for 5 minutes each side on the top shelf of the oven–one tray at a time.

Heat a cast iron grill pad to hot.

Transfer the slices onto the grill pad and char them for a couple of minutes each side.

(The grilling adds a smokey taste; you could fry the slices or just leave the slices in the oven longer but they must cook to tender.)

Oil a shallow oven dish and layer the cooked slices in the bottom.

Whisk the cheese and the tomato sauce together and season with salt and pepper.

Whisk the eggs and stir them well into the mixture.

Pour this over the aubergines.

Make sure the mix covers the aubergine slices.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

Quick Tomato sauce

A handy standby sauce.

I made this in a jiffy this morning and used 2 1/2 oz of it for the tortino leaving easily enough for our pasta tonight–giving me time to follow some of today’s stage in the Tour de France!

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large tin of tomatoes–drained of their juice and roughly chopped.

2 garlic cloves–peeled and thinly sliced.

salt and pepper.

2 sprigs of rosemary–chopped.

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the garlic and the rosemary.

Soften the garlic, being careful not to let it burn–a few seconds.

Add the tomatoes

and cook over a high heat–stirring often–until the loose liquid has evaporated and little pockmarks appear on the surface.

If you can part the Red Sea—running a spoon through it–it’s done.

Season with salt and pepper.

Voila!

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Spicy puy lentil and basmati rice

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged brown basmati rice, Donald Douglas, puy/green lentils on June 28, 2013| 8 Comments »

We first had this dish at Donald Douglas’s birthday lunch. (Donald played the dourly determined Captain MacNeil in Poldark and has been a cherished friend and neighbour of ours here in France for years.) It was his step-daughter Daisy’s birthday contribution to the celebratory feast…

…together with a magnificent cream sponge with lighted candles!

It’s versatile and can be served in a number of ways–as a salad or a vegetarian main course or a side dish–it has a pleasing depth of taste.

Soaking the brown rice beforehand helps it to cook more easily in time with the lentils.

100gms basmati brown rice

175 gms puy/green/brown lentils

1 tblsp cumin seeds

1 tblsp coriander seeds

2 tblsps olive oil

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp each ground allspice and cinnamon

salt and pepper

300 ml hot water

1 large onion–peeled, halved and sliced

2 tblsps olive oil

Small bunch parsley or coriander–chopped

Wash the rice and soak it in a bowl of cold water for twenty minutes.

Dry roast the cumin and coriander seeds in a small pan until they begin to colour.

Then pop them in a mortar and pestle them to break them up a bit.

Wash and drain the lentils, bring them to the boil in plenty of water and cook them until they begin to soften–about twenty minutes–they should not become mushy.
Drain the lentils and return them to the pan.
Mix all the spices with the two tablespoons of olive oil.
Drain the rice and add it to the lentils in the pan.
Mix in the spices and turn over everything together.