pardon my french

Happy Mothers’ Day

Wow…my apologies, it’s been a long while since I’ve checked in! But as I sit here studying for my pastry written exam (which, yes, is TOMORROW!) I can’t help but think of all the wonderful mothers I have been blessed to know. Starting, of course with Grandma Alice. She is the first person I remember being in the kitchen with, and probably a big reason of why I want to become a chef. All you have to do is tell her once you like a dish she makes, for me it’s her chicken & dumplings, and you’re set for life. I can almost tell where she’s going when she walks out the door by what food she’s carrying: jelly roll for Ben & Alex; spaghetti for Kristen, pumpkin pie for little Joe, sour cream cakes for the Lieblang cousins, banana bread for Molly…and the list goes on. It would always warm my heart coming home from college to open the fridge and see soy milk—knowing full well they hadn’t taken up the habit!—it was waiting there just for me.

My mother loves to cook and entertain. My friends at school always know when she’s in Paris because she’ll likely be at LCB taking classes and learning new recipes to take home and share. She makes mean twice-baked potatoes and the best chocolate chip cookies this side of the Mississippi. (Western conference title holder is my sister, who I will get to…) I always joke that one of mom’s favorite phrases is “somethin’ different.” Throwing a splash of color in a neutral room or adding a different ingredient to a recipe just to add, well, something different is her M.O. She’s never afraid to try new recipes and is intimidated by very little, in the kitchen or in life. A great lesson she keeps reminding me: you can’t be afraid!

Aunt Marie, my godmother, is a great cook (though she’d probably roll her eyes at my saying it). I remember having lunch with to her son, Kyle, who commented, “I mean, I guess I never noticed it, but my friends always say how my mom is a really good cook. It was always just normal to me, but yeah, she’s really good.” High praise from an 18-year-old, right? I spent many a night at their house growing up, and I remember watching Marie prepare food and wanting it to look just like the picture in the cookbook. She would take double the time to cut a green pepper, but they would all be the same exact size, not a seed in sight. Because of her, I rarely will buy a cookbook that doesn’t have beautiful photographs and learned to slow down in the kitchen.

Sister Kristin, mother to my darling godson Evan, is expecting another little boy this September! Krissy is 7 years older than me, so I remember her practicing teaching me how to puff my bangs and that I was the only kid in kindergarten that knew who Whitesnake was. I also remember about the only thing the two of us could manage to make in the kitchen, aside from a mess, were chocolate chip cookies. She loved lots of chocolate chips, I liked the dough…surprise! Of course, she has become a fantastic cook and introduced me to some great things like Sam the Cooking Guy. I still use his recipe for ahi tacos, and I will share a fish recipe we just made this week in Kristin’s honor. (The first thing we’ve made in a long time that’s worth reporting!) Kris, since you're preggers no raw fish...but we will have this when I'm back in Cali & we can both have a glass of wine : )

Thon Marine Pour Ma Soeur
*1.5 lbs. sushi grade ahi tuna

Confit tomatoes:
4 tomatoes peeled, seeded and cut into petals
olive oil
10 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves
salt & fresh ground pepper

Marinade:
100 ml olive oil
4 garlic cloves
juice of 2 lemons (zest optional)
1/2 bunch of basil
salt & fresh ground pepper
cholula or your favorite hot sauce
reduced balsamic vinegar



Veg garnish:
1 onion
1 green bell pepper
Nicoise olives
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Serve on crostini or with baguette.

Preheat your oven to 300-degrees.
Prep tomatoes: to peel your tomatoes, you can either use a serrated peeler or plunge them in boiling water. For the water method, remove the stem and cut a small cross in the skin at the bottom pole. Drop the tomatoes into boiling water for 30 seconds or minute or until you see the skin start to separate. Then plunge them in an ice bath to stop the cooking. The skin should come off easily. Then cut the tomatoes into quarters, remove the ribs and seeds. Prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle over olive oil, add whole sprigs of fresh thyme and bay. Leave the skin on the garlic cloves, just smash them and add to the baking sheet. Then arrange the tomato petals skin-side up on the sheet. Top with a sprinkling of S&P, bake in the low oven for about an hour.

Put on small saucepan with balsamic vinegar over med-high heat, so there’s a good amount of bubbling, and begin to reduce. It should be reduce by about half, until it becomes a syrup.

Marinade: Peel and remove the green germ inside the garlic cloves. Put the garlic in a small saucepan with cold water, bring the water to a boil. Strain and repeat two more times. Transfer the garlic to paper towel to dry well. Transfer the garlic to a saucepan of olive oil and simmer on low heat until the garlic is soft and tender. (Careful not to give it color). While it’s cooking, chiffonade the basil leaves. Take the confit garlic and smoosh it on the cutting board using the flat side of your knife. Then chop it together with the basil. Transfer it to a small mixing bowl, add the lemon juice and cholula. Pass the olive oil that has been flavored with the garlic through a fine mesh strainer. Then add it to the mixing bowl along with a dash of the balsamic reduction. Lightly whisk together, add S&P to taste. Then, prepare a baking sheet or large dish lined with parchment paper. Spread a layer of marinade over and set aside.

Prep fish: take your ahi or whatever fish you’d like to use, and cut into thin slices. You should be able to see your knife through the fish while you’re slicing, about  2mm thick. Lay them in a single layer over the marinade. Drizzle the marinade over the top, add another layer of parchment and let rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, but no more than an hour.

Veg garnish: finely dice the onion and green pepper. I would remove the skin from the green pepper, takes away the bitterness, but that’s up to you. Saute them in olive oil, add some S&P and set aside.

Once your tomatoes are dried and cooled a bit and everything is ready, you can arrange this several different ways. You can plate the fish layered with the tomatoes on a plate, over a bed of the veg garnish, sprinkle over the olives and have bread on the side. You could also toast little crostini, top with a small spoon of the veg, lay over a confit tomato, a twist of fish, half an olive, a sprig of basil for garnish and maybe a bit of zest for brightness. Honestly, we all devoured our own plates in class the day we made it...so anyway you dress it up, it will probably be perfect.

It’s a great recipe hailing French Riviera sent with love all the way to the Pacific coast <3

So, happy mothers’ day to all the mothers in my life: Alice, AB, Karen, Cathy, Marie, Kelly, Kristen…even Olive & Lulu.

*For this recipe, you can use a variety of fish: sea bass, john dory, salmon would all work.