a taste of fall

Time keeps sprinting by.  It is October already, and Toulouse keeps trying to hold on to the last bits of warmth from our Indian summer, interspersed with days like yesterday, over cast and blustery, hinting at the autumn to come.  In perhaps my perfect Sunday, I got up late and biked over to the market.  Elizabeth, the American who is living with the de Saint-Exupery family this year, was waiting for me, and we got to know each other over veggie-shopping and lunch, full of discussions with topic headings such as "Philippe being adorable" and "where to find the best chocolatine in Toulouse".  She studied here two years ago, and is back now to be an assistant teacher at local elementary schools, in English.  The rest of the afternoon was full of cleaning and slowly caramelizing onions while I worked my way through my latest book, The Tale of the Roes: The Passion That Inspired The Little Prince, the memoir of Consuelo De Saint-Exupery, Antoine's wife.  Romantic, real, and beautifully written, she gives insight into the world and life of one of the most effective and curious writers of last century.

But in the true spirit of fall, we started the season off with many good friends gathered around my table.  My decorated apartment was having its debut, and the dirty dishes and empty wine bottles staring at me in the morning light speak to the fact that it went well.  So because recipes are more fun than stories full of inside jokes, the summary of last night is as follows:

Roasted Tomato, Avocado and Caramelized Onion Salad
serves 5-6

The title says most of what you need to know.  This is the perfect liaison between summer and fall, making use of the last great summer tomatoes while still warming you up with a roasted sweetness.

The most time consuming part is to caramelize the onions, but they are so so good.  I made them while I was still coming up with the rest of the evening's menu, and they are incredibly easy for all that they take a long time to do right.

2 medium onions
3 large summer tomatoes or a few cup of cherry tomatoes
2 avocado
1 large head of fresh lettuce

Dressing:
Dijon mustard
lemon juice
salt
pineapple juice (or what you have on hand, orange or apple would also be fine)
honey
olive oil

Chop the onions into small pieces and heat a fair amount of olive oil in the pan before adding them, over low heat.  Cook 30-40 minutes, keeping the heat low and stirring every few minutes, until they are a lovely translucent with hints of amber.  There are lots of ways to caramelize onions -- with a lid, without, adding sugar towards the end, etc -- so as long as you are patient and they aren't burnt, it's pretty hard to go wrong.  I then stored them for a few hours while I made everything else, and used the leftover oil in the pan to flavor the broth for the risotto -- the benefit of not having many pans....

The rest of the salad is simple, but oh so good, and also easy to prepare just as guests are arriving.  Once the tomatoes are in the oven, they take care of themselves, and slicing avocado or tossing salad are tasks easily delegated to sous-chefs.

Roast some market tomatoes (cherry tomatoes would be especially cute) sliced into wedges with a little olive oil and sea salt, in the oven on high heat for 20 minutes or so.

While they're cooking, wash some lettuce and slice wedges of avocado -- I used 2 avocados for 5 people, but I love avocado.

Mix all of the dressing ingredients together.

I tossed the lettuce in the dressing and then constructed each salad on the plate -- lettuce, a few slices of the roasted tomatoes, a spray of avocado, and some beautiful pearly caramelized onions.


Leek, Mushroom, and Courgette Risotto
serves 5-6, approximately 1 hr cooking time

a large pot -- 5-8 cups -- of broth, I boiled the middle third of the leek stalks (above the truly edible part but below the enormous leafy unruly part) in vegetable bullion with a little bit of leftover broth from making lentils during the week, and the water from rehydrating the dried mushrooms

olive oil
2 large leeks
2-3 cups fresh mushrooms
1 cup dried mushrooms, optional, conserving the water for the broth
1 fresh zucchini (courgette)
spices

2 cups arborio rice
white wine, or a tablespoon of lemon juice with water (about 1/2 c liquid)
parmesan cheese
coarse sea salt

Chop up all your veggies, fairly finely, and heat the oil in a big pasta pot.  Saute the leeks and fresh mushrooms over medium heat until the mushrooms lose their liquid, and then add the zucchini and rehydrated mushrooms.  I added some dried rosemary and thyme for a little flavor, oregano would also work well, or some garlic.

Add the arborio rice and stir to coat with oil.  Add 1/2 cup of white wine, or a tablespoon of lemon juice with a little less than 1/2 cup of water, and stir.

Add 2 cups of hot broth and stir.  This first time you can let it sit and cook for a few minutes.  For the next 30-40 minutes, add a ladleful of broth every few minutes and stir continuously.  The point is for the risotto to get to the right consistency, so add extra broth or feel free to leave some out at the end -- just continue adding broth each time what is already present is absorbed, until the rice is cooked to creamy goodness.

After about 30 minutes, add half the parmesan cheese and let it melt in.  Serve hot, with the rest of the cheese to sprinkle on top, and salt and pepper to taste.


Butternut Squash Tart
serves 5-6 (or leaves you one extra piece for breakfast)

Fall for me really lies somewhere between warm risotto and pie just out of the oven, so when I saw the beautiful bright orange squash at the market, I knew what I had to do...

a big hunk of squash. er. 2 cups of it sliced up or so?
cinnamon
nutmeg
a pat of butter

1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg
1/2 cup condensed milk, skim if you like
salt

pie crust
water
coarse sugar

Peel and chop the squash into fairly small pieces, and put in a tin foil makeshift pouch in an oven-proof dish.
Chop the butter up into small little squares and sprinkle around, and add a little cinnamon and nutmeg.
Fold the tin foil over to enclose the squash (ish) or cook in a dish with a cover, I'm sure that would also work nicely.
Roast in the oven on fairly high heat for 35 minutes or so -- until the squash is soft and fork-pierce-able.

Mash the squash in the dish (now minus the tin foil) or a bowl, and add the beaten egg, maple syrup, salt and condensed milk.  If your mixture is too watery, you can always add a little flour, but it should be fairly wet.

Lay out your pastry crust (in it's parchment paper if you like) in a pie tin and pierce it with a fork a few times. Pour in the filling and fold over the edges to wrap it up nicely.  If you brush the crust with a little water and sprinkle it with some sugar, it makes it all crystally and finished when you take it out of the oven.

Bake on medium heat for 20-30 minutes or until it is cooked.  You don't want it to be watery or the dough to be raw, and you don't want it to be burnt, so find a time to pull it out of the oven sometime between those two points.  :)

Enjoy.  If you have whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, there are probably worse things in the world you could do than serve them as an accompaniment.