langoustine & asparagus pasta
Langoustines. Dublin Bay Prawns. Scampi. They're known by many different names, but they're all one and the same. The first time I encountered this tiny critter was with Sylvain's parents, when my mother-in-law placed a giant platter of quick-boiled langoustines on the table, along with bowls of freshly made mayonnaise. Everyone started reaching across the table to grab one, two, three langoustines, and the conversation got louder over the crack, crack, crack of the shells being opened and the occasional slurp as the soft flesh was sucked out of the claws. I reached over for my own and quietly set to work. One langoustine and a couple of cuts on my poor fingers later, I dipped the tail into my own dollop of mayonnaise and bit it in half. And I reached for another one before I'd even finished the first.
Eating langoustines like this is work. They're spikier than prawns, and the shell is a lot harder, but they taste much more delicate, and it's well worth the extra effort. Especially for the little bit of sweet flesh in each of the claws. Sylvain and his father are particularly good langoustine-eaters, and there is a point in every meal when I glance over and am amazed at their overflowing plates of shells against my pathetic two or three carcasses. Sylvain reassured me at the beginning that I would get better, but over ten years later and I'm still not as fast as them - I think it's one of those skills you master when you're really young! Or very hungry!
We don't buy langoustines that often because they do tend to be pricey, but like anything, the occasional craving needs to be satisfied. We always buy them uncooked. If we're just serving them as described above, nature with mayonnaise, it's easy to boil them quickly ourselves and let them cool on the windowsill. My in-laws only ever serve them this way, and whilst it was a challenge to get Sylvain to even consider eating them any other way, once he started there was no going back... There are so many things that can be done with langoustines - sautéed in the pan until just pink enough, threaded onto skewers and grilled quickly with a delicate marinade, or baked for a few minutes in the oven, drizzled with olive oil and garlic.
Anything you can do with prawns can be done with langoustines, just don't drown them in complicated sauces or with complex flavours. With Spring upon us, I'm all about asparagus, so I couldn't help but toss some fresh, crispy spears with the langoustines and a little garlic, chilli and olive oil. It made a perfectly fresh, delicious and quick Sunday lunch.
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By Katia - 19 May 2012 - 0 
bear's garlic spring chicken burger
At our favourite market greengrocer this weekend I was rather excited to notice something new - at least, it was something I hadn't seen before. In the corner of a large box was small pile of dark green leaves, long and pointy. Of course, I immediately asked what they were.
"C'est l'ail des ours," was the reply. My brain immediately went into translation mode : "It's bear's garlic". With a name like that, how could I NOT take a handful? Especially since the greengrocer went on to tell me it's usually only available for a couple of weeks per year.
I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, so I looked up my favourite sources, Jekka's Complete Herb Book and the RHS Encyclopedia of Herbs, who told me that Allium Ursinum is known as both wild garlic and bear's garlic in English (how cool is that?). And that it's good for high blood pressure. Wikipedia tells me that it's also apparently a favourite of brown bears in the spring. Bear food! But this member of the onion family is also called ramsons, and amongst other things I could apparently turn it into a pesto.
So I did. I served dollops of it on top of grilled halloumi and lemon paprika chicken (a long-time favourite barbecue recipe of ours), with a little salad and sandwiched between toasted ciabatta.
And it was darn good.
So darn good that after the first taste, Sylvain started slathering the pesto all over his ciabatta. I took a bite, then followed suit. There was something quite unique about the taste - yes, it was exceptionally, exquisitely garlicky, stronger than a garlic chive, but it was also grassy and fresh, and a tiny little bit nutty. I imagine it would be absolutely delicious stir-fried with a little oyster sauce, or included in a korean pancake, or perhaps even in a frittata.
I didn't take any preparation pictures - you can't see the leafy goodness that is ramsons, or how I pounded out the chicken for the burger - because I didn't expect to be putting this recipe up today. I would typically test a recipe at least a few times before putting it up, but the season is SO short I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to do it again, so I want to get it up here before I forget. Perhaps next year I'll be patient enough to take "before" shots. Because you can bet I'll be keeping an eye out for ramsons to appear in the market again!
How did I live this long without knowing about this fascinating ingredient? And what else is there out there that I don't know about? Isn't life exciting?!
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By Katia - 8 May 2012 - 2
salmon & herb wraps
For a variety of reasons I've been working really hard over the last year to eat better. Much better. This means I'm not eating out with my colleagues and I'm bringing lunch to work most days. But soups and sandwiches get old really quickly, and I've been looking for ways to innovate my lunchbox.
I've been considering it as a challenge, actually. It's been tricky to find tasteful yet light and healthy meals that don't make me sleepy at 2pm, but which also give me enough energy to get through the afternoon, as well as through my routine exercise after work.
My mother-in-law poaches an entire salmon during the Christmas season, which we eat cold for lunch, with dollops of mayonnaise and crusty bread (she says it's light, and I suppose compared to everything else we eat during this time of the year, she's right). It is a dish that made me fall in love with poached salmon (and I must post the recipe one day), but we hardly have the space to be poaching an entire salmon and the dollops of mayonnaise and baguette are not exactly part of the light and healthful diet I'm going for. But I decided to take the idea of the poached salmon mixed with something creamy and delicious, then veered in a slightly different direction, thanks to a surplus of coriander and chives from a weekend of Mexican food.
This recipe makes me happy in it's deliciousness, and I always feel like I'm having a real treat when I make it. When bringing this to work, I pack all the ingredients separately in my lunchbox, then build the wrap at lunchtime. This prevents it from getting soggy and I've convinced myself that it's extra tasty because it's freshly made! And when I tuck a handful of cherry tomatoes and an apple or clementine in my lunchbox too, I find it's really a complete meal that manages to pull me through the whole afternoon without a carb overload that makes me want to curl up under my desk and take a nap!
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By Katia - 22 Apr 2012 - 3