Julia and Alex

I was inspired by the movie “Julia and Julie”, but also encouraged by my friend Katharine to document not only the places I saw, people I met, and events I attended, but also the food I ate.

Weekly, I have a 25-Euro budget on groceries—this is roughly $35 to spend on all the ingredients and food I need to feed myself for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For some, this might not be a challenge at all, but for me (coming from a family that appreciates food and frequently dines-out) this is, in fact, a true challenge.

My first trip to the grocery store (Carrefour) was quite pricey; I purchased the basics, the necessities, and the “everydays”. I knew that I would not be able to cook without (1) herbs/spices, so I purchased salt, pepper, basil, thyme, oregano, dried garlic, dried onion, and cinnamon, (2) oil and vinegar, (3) potatoes and onions, (4) sugar, and (5) Dijon mustard. With these items, I believed that I had the “bones” for preparing a wide range of meals.

This week’s menu featured four “star” dishes: (1) duck confit with navy beans, (2) pork chops with cinnamon apples, (3) potato and leek soup, and (4) spinach, mushroom, and goat cheese crepes. But, it also featured some salads, other soups, sandwiches, omelets, and pasta.

Sunday night I made my first “stock”…if I can truly call it that! Earlier in the day I had purchased fresh leeks and celery from a local market. I was going to use them in the duck confit and the potato and leek soup, but I did not want to waste the tops of either of these vegetables. So I thought to myself, what can I make with celery leaves and the hard green part of leeks? I had onions, I had carrots, I had fresh garlic, and I had plenty of dried herbs to make a “stock”. I filled a pot with water and all the above ingredients; I hoped that after an hour or so of simmering on the stove I would have a decent “stock”. Well, it wasn’t bad, but it didn’t have that chicken flavor (since I did not have bones to add)…so, naturally, I add two bouillon cubes. This stock became the base for chicken noodle soup and would later be used in the duck confit and the potato and leek soup. My next stock will have duck bones in it, so I, hopefully, will not have to add any bouillon cubes!

On Monday, I had chicken noodle soup for lunch and made dinner with Jenna (another assistant who is becoming my dinner buddy (since we both live by ourselves and close to each other, we thought this would be a fun idea). Jenna came over for dinner and we made a salad with grilled chicken, tomatoes, chickpeas, onions, celery, and homemade croutons. This was all tossed in a homemade dressing—which was a little too mustardy. Next time we will not add as much Dijon…it’s not like the Dijon in the states! For dessert, Jenna made amazing hot chocolate! It was as simple as heating milk over the stove and adding powdered hot chocolate mix and a bar of milk chocolate.

Tuesday’s lunch was leftover salad and a ham, cheese, and onion omelet. I have truly started to appreciate leftovers…not that I did not love them back home, but I am growing more accustomed to eating the same thing 2-3 meals in a row! For dinner I made pasta and topped it with grilled chicken and broccoli. With dinner I made some homemade garlic bread…without an oven! It was very good! I heated up a pan with olive oil and melted some butter and dried garlic in a bowl in the microwave. I then slathered some day old bread with the garlicky mixture and toasted it in a hot pan!  I will be making this garlic bread again. And, this just goes to show you do not really need an oven to cook…though I wish I had one to make tarts.

Wednesday’s meals consisted of chicken noodle soup for lunch and duck confit over navy beans with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner. The duck confit over navy beans was very good, with the exception that it was on the salty side (but I usually do not add salt to my dishes…and duck is on the saltier side). I am going to work on a way to fix this. The problem, I think, was that I purchased canned navy beans….so they had been sitting (for God knows how long) in a salty brine. I opted for the canned beans because they cost me 0,56 Euros, while the hard beans cost 3,50 Euros. I said to myself, “Alex you will make this work”.  I ended up not soaking the beans overnight since they were already soft and went right to the second step of the recipe.  I started by adding the canned beans, carrots, onions, celery and some stock to a pot. I brought it to a boil, reduced it and let it simmer for about 45 minutes. I then added two legs of duck, allowing their fat to melt into the navy bean mixture. Cooking the duck took about 10-12 minutes. However, the interesting part of preparing the meal was peeling the potatoes without a ”normal” peeler….I used a knife-like peeler and thought I was going to cut my fingers off the entire time! In the end, I successfully peeled 6-7 potatoes and had all ten fingers. The green beans were easy to make and at the end I added some fresh parsley, garlic, and butter.

On Wednesday night I also made the potato and leek soup. Since I was in “the groove” of peeling potatoes…I thought why not peel a handful more for the soup. The soup was easy to make and involved sautéing onions and leeks in butter, then adding chicken broth, and then the potatoes. The soup then simmers until the potatoes are velvety-soft and easy to mash. I mashed the potatoes into the broth with a slotted metal spoon….no food processor to blend it all up, but still delicious!

Thursday’s lunch was potato and leek soup…and dinner was crepes! I invited Jenna, Jenny, and Miriam over to my place to make crepes (and do laundry…I am the only one that has a washing machine…so naturally they wanted to use it!). I invested in a crepe pan at Carrefour…at a cost of 9,20 Euros; I thought that I would use it enough…so it was a worthy investment!  We made spinach, ham, onion, mushroom, and goat cheese crepes. They were very good, but my crepe batter needed to be tweaked after the first one.  But, now, I have the recipe down and it is SO EASY! I can make crepes for snacks in a jiffy! For the crepes’ filling, we sautéed garlic, mushrooms, onions, and ham in a pan and then added this mixture to the actually crepes with raw spinach and goat cheese. We then put the crepes back on the stove to melt the cheese and wilt the spinach. Nevertheless, the best was dessert! We made dessert crepes and had so many options to choose from! I brought out all of the potential toppings/fillings and set them on the table and we all went at it. I had peanut butter, nutella, raspberry jam, honey, sugar, lemon juice, and bananas on the table. Jenna made a (1) raspberry-nutella and (2) peanut butter crepe…Jenny made a (1) sugar-lemon and (2) raspberry-nutella crepe…Miriam made a (1) sugar-lemon and (2) nutella crepe…and I made a (1) peanut butter-honey-banana crepe and (2) nutella crepe. THEY WERE ALL DELICIOUS and enjoyed with a pot of tea.

Friday I had potato and leek soup for lunch and a cinnamon apple crepe (INCRDIBLE!)…for dinner I had leftover duck confit. Friday was not that exciting of a day. On Saturday, I went out for lunch…so I cheated! I went to a place called Mezzo di Pasta and got some pasta with an Indian-like curry sauce. For dinner I had more leftovers…duck confit.

Sunday I made thyme covered pork chops over cinnamon apples with green beans and mashed potatoes. This is another “keep dish”…but, again, I don’t know if any of these dishes were not! I coated a pork chop with dried thyme, pepper, and salt…I then cooked it in a pan until tender. I removed the pork chop and then added apples, lemon juice, sugar, and cinnamon to the pan…this mixture cooked for about 2-3 minutes (until the apples were tender and a caramel-like sauce was made).

Well, those were all my meals for the past week. It was really fun to document them and I know that it will not be my last. This week’s meals include: (1) chicken curry with red peppers, onions, potatoes, and green beans over basmati rice, (2) avgolemono soup (a velvety-chicken based-lemony soup), (3) lemon scaloppini of pork, (4) chicken marsala over pasta, and (5) Swedish pancakes (Jenna will be making).

Enjoy reading (as always…I hope)! And, if you want more details on a dish…don’t hesitate to ask!

Cheers from France…Chef Alexander!