Category Archives: my paris kitchen
Spiced Meatballs and Tomato Crostini {CtBF}
This week’s recipe for Cook the Book Fridays is Spiced Meatballs with Sriracha Sauce. The meatballs are made from a highly-spiced mixture supposedly similar to merguez sausage. I don’t think I’ve ever had merguez so can’t compare. When I described the recipe to my sister Jane, she said “It sounds like it uses everything in the pantry!”
Lots from the pantry, but not everything
It didn’t need everything in the pantry, but the ingredient list is long indeed. Coriander seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, paprika, cinnamon, allspice, and sumac from the pantry plus garlic, cilantro, and Sriracha. All these seasonings are mixed together with ground meat. I opted to use ground lamb. We had a beef-heavy week, and my palette longed for something different.
This recipe is intended as an appetizer, but I decided to turn it into a meal. For carefree cooking, I ended up baking the meatballs while I prepared the rest of the menu. The North African meatballs with the two sauces were delicious with couscous and sautéed greens on the side. All the different flavors came through. The meatballs were moist and complex with a bit of a kick, but not too spicy.
I thought the Sriracha sauce might be too spicy for Howard so I also made the Yogurt-Tahini Sauce. I don’t know whether this is true at all grocery stores, but when I tried to buy a small (individual) sized tub of plain yogurt, I discovered that the yogurt section at my local store is at least 90% Greek yogurt. Any available tubs of the thinner “regular” (non-Greek) yogurt I was trying to buy were fruit-flavored. No worries: Greek yogurt works just fine. And, much to my surprise, Howard preferred the Sriracha sauce while I was on Team Yogurt-Tahini Sauce.
I was away the week of our last CtBF post. Howard and I spent a fun-filled week in Québec. We enjoyed wandering in both Montreal and Quebec City. The food we ate everywhere, highbrow and low, was amazing. In Quebec City, we ate at Restauarant Toast! whose tagline is the name of my blog, in French!
A Plateful of Happiness
I didn’t get a chance to make the Cherry Tomato Crostini with Herbed Cheese until after our return. I’m sorry that I procrastinated. I loved every part of the crostini, separately and together.
For the herbed cheese, I already had Greek yogurt (cow’s milk) so I didn’t bother to seek out goat’s milk yogurt. And I skipped the straining step since the Greek yogurt has already been strained. The yogurt is flavored with garlic and assorted fresh herbs which is a delicious spread, not only on the crostinis, but also alone on crackers.
The cherry tomato topping was also fabulous. My cherry tomato has been slow to ripen, but I found a colorful assortment at a local farm. The sweetness of the cherry tomatoes concentrated during roasting and melded with the fragrant herb sprigs for a meltingly wonderful mélange.
Toasted rustic bread (I used ciabatta) is the base for a layer of herby cheese crowned with roasted cherry tomatoes. It’s summer on toast.
I liked the topping so much that I have plans this weekend to make another batch for a savory tart. Can’t wait.
Click these links, if you’d like to read about others’ experiences with spiced meatballs or tomato crostini. To make them yourself (which I highly recommend), you can find the meatball recipe on page 74 and the crostini recipe on page 110 of David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen.
Apricot Crumble Tart {CtBF}
Sweet or savory, I love tarts! I love the making and the eating. It’s probably one of the things I make most often when I want to wing it with whatever’s in the kitchen. I was delighted to try a new dessert tart, David Lebovitz’s Apricot Crumble Tart, the selection from My Paris Kitchen for this week’s Cook the Book Fridays.
Starting with the crust, this one hooked me in. I’m a huge fan of Dorie Greenspan’s Sweet Tart Crust, but this one was even better. It came together almost instantly in the stand mixer, then pressed easily into the pan. The high sides of a springform pan provides space for lots of sweet fruit filling.
This tart can also be done in stages. I made and prebaked the crust and prepped the cinnamon crumble topping one day, then prepared the filling and baked it the next.
I’m not sure that apricots are grown locally in New England. I haven’t seen them at the farmer’s market. At the largest produce market around, the apricots were from Washington State. They were also HUGE, almost the same size as a peach or nectarine. I was expecting to buy 15-20 apricots, but just 8 giant apricots weighed in at slightly over two pounds. Rather than quarter the fruit, I cut them in eighths which seemed to approximate the size that quarters of a normal-sized apricot would be.
2 pounds of giant apricots
The fruit filling generously filled the crust. Then the crumble was sprinkled on top before baking.
The visual cue for the tart’s doneness was nicely browned crumbs on top. That took a long time to happen. After the initial 50 minutes, the crumble seemed uncooked and the fruit was still firm. I ended up baking the tart for an additional 50 minutes, and even turned up the oven heat for the last half hour. I recall having a similar issue when we made David’s quiche. I recently calibrated my oven, so it wasn’t that. Hopefully next time I make one of his tarts, I’ll remember to start at 375F instead of 350F to reduce the baking time.
As a whole, this tart was good, but I’m not likely to seek out apricots just to make it again. I will definitely use the crust again, being sure to grease the pan a little more than I did because I experienced some stubbornness when serving slices. The crumble might reappear as well. I’m curious how this would be with the more plentiful peaches or nectarines. That might be worth a try.
A suggested accompaniment to the tart is Apricot Kernel Ice Cream made from the pits of the apricots. I didn’t try that this time around because I didn’t have enough of them. A full recipe calls for 50 apricot kernels. Had I used 15-20 apricots, I would have made a half-batch but I wasn’t going to get very far with just 8. I’ll save that one for another day.
The tart recipe can be found on-line here at Leite’s Culinaria or on page 309 in David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen. To read about the other Cook the Book Fridays bloggers’ tarts, check out their links here. Happy Friday All!
A Plateful of Happiness 