Crepes

Here's the secret: Crepes are really easy to make if you have a blender and a teflon pan.

I used Alton Brown's crepe recipe of 2 eggs, 3/4 cup whole milk, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup water, 3 tbsp of melted butter.

For savory crepes, I add 1/4 tsp of salt to the batter mix. If I'm in the mood for sweet, I add 1 tsp of vanilla essence and 2-1/2 tbsp of sugar.

Either way, you want to incorporate all of these ingredients into a blender and blend smooth for about 10-15 seconds. Any more, and the wheat gluten in the flour will make your crepes have the texture of rubber floor mats.

The key is to let your batter rest in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes. This way, the bubbles release and the gluten relaxes.

On medium or medium low heat, put some butter in the pan and wait until it starts to sizzle. Pour a little less than 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and swirl it around so there's an even coating on the bottom.

Carefully lift one of the edges (I like to use my fingers), and flip to other side depending on how well you like your crepes. You might like them browner or crisper. You might like them more on the pliable and soft side.

This will make about 16 8" crepes. Fill them to your heart's content. I stuffed my savory ones with mushrooms and garlic, and the sweet ones with bananas, cream cheese and honey.

Chicken and Dumpling Pot Pie

I had some leftover chicken and dumplings so I spooned the stew into a 6-muffin baking tray, in equal portions. I then crumpled some phyllo pastry on top, sprayed some butter on top, baked in the oven at 150C for about 15 minutes and served with some salad. It made for a nice, comforting meal for 2.

Basic Chicken Stock

I'm not knocking the pre-made stuff or bouillon cubes at all. They're great when you're in a pinch for broth and don't have half a day to watch over a simmering vat of bones, all the while skimming every few minutes to get rid of the nasty froth that rises from the bowels of an animal to the top of your pot.

I do recommend making a good homemade stock once in a while to familiarize yourself with the taste of an old fashioned broth made from a chicken, bones-skin-meat-fat and all. It's pure heaven.

One important note: ALWAYS use free-range/organic chicken. I have found the flavor to be more profound than the run-of-the-mill, supermarket variety.

Basic Chicken Stock

1 bouquet garni (roll up a couple stems of thyme, a bay leaf, a few parsley stems inside a couple flat pieces of light green leek leaves and tie tightly with kitchen twine)
1 chicken, around 3-4 lbs and free-range/organic
water
1 carrot, big dice
1 leek or 2 celery stalks, big dice
1 onion, quartered
sea salt

You'll need your biggest stock pot so bring out the big guns. Rinse the chicken, making sure all errant feathers have been plucked and any giblets are removed from the cavity. Place chicken in pot and cover with water, with at least 2 inches of water above the chicken. Place on stove on high heat until water starts boiling. Once the water boils, turn heat to medium and start skimming. The skimming will take roughly 15-20 minutes to remove ALL impurities and for an extremely clear broth. Make sure your water is not at rolling boil, but at a gentle simmer/boil with small bubbles rising to top to carry the impurities to the surface.

Once skimmed, add bouquet garni and vegetables and cover. Cook for 30 minutes. Remove the chicken and let it cool while your stock is bubbling away. Remove meat from bones to be used later in other recipes. Return bones back to pot to simmer for another 2-3 hours with vegetables and herbs.

Add salt to taste and turn off heat. Remove all solid contents from broth, and trash the bones and bouquet. You can either throw the vegetables away or puree them and make a hearty/creamy soup later with the pieces.

You should have an exceptionally clear and nicely concentrated chicken stock. Freeze if not using right away.

Chicken and Dumplings

It's a blustery Easter Sunday in Wellington. Gale force winds, slightly wet, and totally cloudy. Our cat Pushkin spent the day next to the window, twisted in a pretzel, looking up occasionally to see if there's anything going on outside except for leaves swishing about with the raindrops.

I fashioned some chicken and dumplings from scratch, making my own chicken stock from a whole stewing hen since there's very little else to do today except listen to Nick Cave, write and eat. Most retail outlets are closed and the weather hasn't cooperated at all for outdoor activities.

The dumplings were light and fluffy, and it's really good with homemade broth as the base. I'm using the leftovers tonight to make a pot pie, covering the creamy stew with a phyllo pastry "crown."

Chicken and Dumpling Recipe

Stew Base:
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
4 cups of chicken stock (see homemade chicken stock recipe)
1/2 tsp dried mixed Italian herbs
1 cooked chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces
3 tbsp finely chopped green onions
1/2 large carrot, chopped into bite-sized coins or half coins
1 large leek, white part only, cut into bite-sized coins
sea salt
fine white pepper

Dumplings:
5 tbsp of polenta
6 tbsp of all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp cold unsalted butter, small dice
1/4 cup whole milk
1 egg
2 tbsp minced flat-leaf parsley

Make the stew first. Make roux with melted butter, dried spices and flour on low-medium heat. Using a metal whisk, stir constantly until flour and butter bubble and cook to a golden brown. Gently pour in your chicken stock, one cup at a time as you keep whisking to make the sauce smooth. Boil gently until sauce is thick like pancake syrup. Add chicken and vegetables, including the green onions, and stir until mixed through. Salt and pepper to your taste, although make sure your stew isn't too salty as you'll be adding the dumplings later and can adjust the salt to taste at the end. Turn heat to low and simmer (very little bubbles) while you make the dumplings.

Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Throw the butter pieces into the dry mix and incorporate loosely. It should look somewhat chunky. In separate bowl, whisk egg, milk and parsley together until blended thoroughly and pour into dry mixture, stirring until you get a wet dough. Using a soup spoon, make rounded dumplings and drop into stew. Cook until dumplings are done, about 15-20 minutes. You can check by cutting one of the dumplings in half. If the middle looks like a corn muffin, it's done. Taste and add salt or pepper if desired.

Spoon a few dumplings, chicken and vegetables into a bowl and serve hot. It's delicious with a simple arugula salad with vinaigrette or crusty french bread on the side.

Leek, Potato, Bacon, Feta Pie

It is exactly what it sounds like, with tons of butter and phyllo pastry.

Feijoas

I tasted a fresh, ripe feijoa for the first time today. It's a beautifully fragrant fruit with the texture of guava, but with a floral aroma and wonderfully tasty pulp. Do not eat the skin, but scoop the pulp and soft flesh out with a spoon. Feijoas make wonderful jams and chutney, but the naked fruit is delicious on its own. It is also known as pineapple guava or guavasteen and is in season during the Fall months.

Baba Ghanoush

I love a good Mediterranean platter full of dips, toasty pita and savory bites. Pickled radishes, briny olives, tapenade and roasted peppers. Creamy hummus and smooth baba ghanoush. Oh man, there is nothing better than a freshly ground roasted eggplant with the bite of raw garlic and zingy lemon juice.

I lived with a girl in university with Armenian roots, and her father Pierre made the best baba ghanoush I have ever eaten. Pierre won't give up his secret recipe, but I think I have come close.

Interestingly enough, the eggplant originated in South Asia. It's a nightshade that is closely related to the tomato and potato plant. It's also not surprising that one of my favorite Indian dishes is bhengan bartha, another smooth dip-like eggplant dish eaten with naan, an Indian flatbread. I wonder if traders along the Spice Route during the first century AD brought back the eggplant and showed the people in the Parthan and Roman empires how to eat it, and the baba ghanoush is actually a derivation of the Indian dish? Who knows. All I know is that I love it in all of its wonderful incarnations.

Baba Ghanoush

Ingredients

2 large eggplants
1/4 cup your best extra virgin olive oil
garlic salt
2 large cloves of raw garlic, chopped and smashed
sea salt
finely ground black pepper
2-3 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp of lemon juice
1 tsp of chopped flat-leaf parsley (or cilantro or green onions)

Preheat oven to 200C

Split your eggplant in half and rub the flesh side with olive oil. Sprinkle some garlic salt onto the flesh-side of the eggplant, no need to get it on skin since we won't be using it later. Roast the eggplant in the oven for 15 minutes, until browned and soft. Let it sit out for 15-20 minutes until cool and then peel the skin off. Chop into large chunks and toss in food processor along with garlic, sea salt, pepper, tahini, lemon juice and half of the olive oil.

Process until smooth paste forms.

Place in bowl or large ramekin. Drizzle olive oil over and top with garnish of your choice. Sprinkle some more sea salt and pepper. Eat with warm pita, your favorite flat bread or vegetable crudites.

Kumara and Root Vegetable Roast

2 large carrots
2 medium parsnips
1/2 large white Korean radish (daikon)
1/2 large kumara
2 medium boiling potatoes
2 tbsp melted unsalted butter
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

Cut vegetables (except the potatoes) into medium bite-sized pieces, around the same size so they cook evenly in the roasting pan. Set aside in roasting pan.

Set oven to 325F or 163C

Put whole potatoes in medium pot and fill with water, with enough water to cover the potatoes with at least 3 cm over the top. Throw some salt into the water, cover and bring to boil. Once the water is at rolling boil, uncover and set heat at low for another 10 minutes, making sure the potato does not cook down too softly. Remove potatoes from water, set in cold water to stop cooking and remove skin. Cut potatoes into same sizes as other vegetables and throw into roasting pan.

Take olive oil and pour over the vegetables, using hands to toss and evenly coat each piece. Throw in salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and rosemary. Toss until ingredients are evenly coated with spices and cheese. Put in oven and roast until golden brown and soft, which will take about 30 minutes.

Remove vegetables and place in serving bowl or plate. Finely chop flat leaf parsley and sprinkly over top, then drizzle with butter. Enjoy!

Kumara (New Zealand Sweet Potato)

I've been fascinated with kumara ever since my first trip here to New Zealand. Its sweet, delicate flavor is not as rich as the American variety, but is just as hearty and packs lots of flavor as a roast or mash.

On the Kaipara Kumara website, they talk a little bit about the history of the kumara and how Maori first cultivated and used the root vegetable:

"The kumara has a long history of cultivation in New Zealand. Brought here by the early Maori settlers over one thousand years ago from Pacific Islands, they were widely grown especially in the semi-tropical regions of the North Island.

The Maori managed kumara growing with great horticultural skill, making use of the ideal growing climate and controlling kumara caterpillar with the use of tamed black-backed seagulls. Kumara caterpillar could devastate a crop almost overnight, hatching in their thousands. Pre-European Maori grew several different varieties of 'bush' kumara, but compared to the varieties we eat today they were very small in size, being no bigger than a finger.

The kumara we eat today has evolved from a larger American variety. It was imported in the early 1850's, and quickly adopted for its superior size and taste."

That said, our American sweet potato is only distantly related to the potato. The softer, orange variety is often called a yam in parts of North America, a practice intended to differentiate it from the firmer, white variety. The sweet potato is botanically very distinct from the other vegetable called a yam, which is native to Africa and Asia. To prevent confusion, the United States Department of Agriculture requires that sweet potatoes labeled as "yams" also be labeled as "sweet potatoes."

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Welcome to American Saveur

Hello Readers!

Welcome to "American Saveur" about my cooking and eating adventures while living abroad and traveling the world. I'll have book recommendations in each of my posts for all of you who want to dive deeper into topics.

Life is full of flavor. Eat and be well!