Petit Menu: Cod with Rainbow Swiss Chard & Parsnip

Élie’s Mamette came to visit us this weekend and she came bearing gifts. His first set of Duplo blocks for Élie and a huge bundle of rainbow swiss chard for us – fresh from her garden. This is a rare treasure in France! I have seen rainbow swiss chard here but only a handful of times and it was planted among the flowers at traffic circles and in town centers in some of the composed plantings France sprinkles throughout its towns. I can’t deny its visual appeal but if they planted it in the big pots decorating our town’s center they might find themselves with a chard burglar problem.

I’m lucky though: I gained a mother-in-law through marriage who not only loves to garden, she loves to discover new-to-her fruit and vegetable varieties. So she grows many things I’ve asked her to try, things that are hard to find here like tomatillos, butternut and delicata squashes, and swiss chard. She’s had a lot of successes but we could argue that the latter has been the most generous. In this region of more temperate winters than I am used to in Maine, the chard reseeds itself season after season and is quite determined in the face of the little French critters that try to have it all to themselves. And so I am a very lucky girl with a lot of swiss chard.

It won’t come as any surprise that one of the things I adore about having a baby is introducing our little one to new tastes and foods. My philosophy is simple: I wouldn’t give him anything I wouldn’t like to eat. I don’t think babies are born with wildly different palettes from an adult’s and just like art, music, books, travel: the more you try, the more color your world has. So if he is interested in something on our plates, I don’t hesitate to give Élie a taste (of course, things that are beyond his chewing capacity have to wait a little longer). And I love how curious about food he is!

Over the months, I’ve come up with a couple different mixes that I’m really excited about and Élie enjoys. Just like for our plates, I cook pretty seasonally for the little one. So I’m looking forward to sharing some of the recipes I’ve come up with as well as some of the things I’ve learned along the way.

And here is where my mother-in-law’s bounty of swiss chard comes in, the first recipe I’m sharing for the Petit Menu created just yesterday when I spotted those green leaves: Cod with Rainbow Swiss Chard & Parsnips. With a splash of coconut milk and a sprinkle of lemon zest, it’s light, fresh, and a bit sweet. It has been disappearing from Élie’s little bowl pretty successfully, too.

Petit Menu

Cod with Rainbow Swiss Chard & Parsnips

– 80 g piece of fresh cod, cut into cubes

– 100 g rainbow swiss chard, leaves and stems roughly chopped

– 1 medium parsnip, peeled and roughly chopped

– 1 1/2  tbsp. coconut milk

– zest of 1/4 of an organic lemon

Steam the parsnips, chard, and cod together (level 3 of water if using a Babycook). When the parsnips are tender, blend the fish and vegetables with the coconut milk, lemon zest, and enough of the cooking water to get the consistency you prefer. Serve and enjoy!

xo,

A. & É.

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The Rain and Light, the In Between Season

I come from a place where the autumn season is full of vivid colors against a bright blue sky and crisp sea air. But Paris has a very different style when it comes to this season. The summer ends and the gray and rain begin. It sounds all doom and gloom but there are days of beautiful sun, days when we blink because our eyes had gotten used to the gray, we just have to survive days upon days of drizzle to enjoy them. It isn’t an easy change for me and sometimes I catch myself starting to dread what has always been my favorite season.

But there are graces. Vivid potimarron squashes and fresh hazelnuts and walnuts start to appear on marché tables. Figs and Muscat grapes and wild mushrooms. While I was making my shopping list for the week, I found myself finally getting excited about these flavors, the evidence that the season was changing, and I wanted some wild mushrooms. The days of rain sprinkled with beautiful clear days are surely good for their numbers. Something to get excited about.

The rain and our poor feet that were tired of getting soaked kept us from the market Sunday. Anyway, you know I have to work on emptying my fridge! But I was anxious to grab some mushrooms at the market on Wednesday because I knew just what I wanted to do with them. A galette with earthy chard and creamy goat’s cheese to accent the mushrooms. And a crust with hazelnut flour? It could only be good to have all these seasonal flavors together.

As I waited my turn at the marché, looking at every kind of mushroom on the table and trying to decide on the best ones, I spotted some heirloom tomatoes on the back table. Not many of them, but beautiful black ones and green zebras. They are the very last I thought. For this season in transition, mushrooms and heirloom tomatoes side-by-side. Just for a little while. So I couldn’t resist them. Who knows exactly how long until they are ready again next summer. So here is our dinner for a season fading into another. For getting excited for Autumn. Wild Mushroom, Swiss Chard, and Chevre Galette. Rather nice with a simple heirloom salad for a friend.

Wild Mushroom, Swiss Chard & Chevre Galette

for the pastry:

3/4 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. hazelnut flour (or replace with same of all-purpose)

8 tbsp / 115g cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1 tsp. sea salt

4 – 5 tbsp. ice water

for the galette:

1/2 pound swiss chard or spinach, well washed and stems removed

2 shallots, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 pound mixed wild mushrooms, brushed clean with a dry brush and large ones cut into thick slices

3 oz. / 90 g chevre (semi-aged, not the fresh creamy kind)

olive oil

butter

parsley to serve

1. To make the pastry, gather the butter, flours, and salt in a bowl or a food processor. Cut the butter into the flour until combined and the mixture resembles wet sand. Add the ice water, one tablespoon at a time, mixing just enough for the dough to come together and form a ball. Gently form the dough into a disk on a floured plate, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

2. In a sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat and add the shallots. Sauté until they are softened and becoming translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds until it is fragrant. Add the chard and cover the pan until the chard has wilted. Remove the cover and continue to sauté until the extra liquid in the pan has evaporated.  Transfer the chard mixture to a colander, press with the back of a spoon to squeeze out any excessive moisture and then leave to cool.

3. Wipe out the pan and heat again over medium-high heat. Add enough butter to just coat the bottom of the pan and add some of the mushrooms in a single layer. Don’t overcrowd the pan, you can cook the mushrooms in several batches. Resist the urge to move the mushrooms around and let them cook until golden, 3 – 4 minutes, then flip them to do the same to the other side. Remove the mushrooms to a dish and continue in this manner until all the mushrooms are sautéed and golden, adding a bit more butter as needed. Once they are finished, toss with a little salt and pepper to taste.

4. Remove the pastry dough from the fridge and, on a piece of baking parchment, roll into a roughly 12 inch circle. Spread the chard evenly around the center of the circle, leaving enough of a border to fold up. Crumble 2 oz. / 60 g of the chevre over the chard. Add the mushrooms on top, slightly heaped in the center. Crumble the last 1 oz. / 30 g of chevre around the top. Gently bring up the sides of the pastry, gently pinching to close where it overlaps itself.
Slide the galette onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180° C / 350° F.

5. Bake the galette until the crust and filling are starting to turn golden on the edges, 30 – 45 minutes.  Serve warm or room temperature, sprinkled with chopped parsley.

xo,

A.