Chèvre chaud (French vinaigrette salad with melted aged goat cheese)

                                                            Prep time: 15 minutes

                                                            Cook time: 5 minutes

                                                            Serves: 2

           

I just returned from Provence (France), where goat cheese is a way of life. We enjoyed this salad while looking out on tall cypress trees and linear rows of lavender with purple just beginning to peek out from tight buds.

Chèvre chaud (which translates literally from the French, to hot goat cheese), is a salad, best served as a starter before dinner, or as a light lunch. This salad is one my family’s all time favorites. The inspiration comes from David Simpson and Noёlle Spieth, friends, gourmet cooks, and musicians from Paris who first made it for us (with unpasteurized cheese of course). We flipped, and have made it regularly ever since. See the commentary on goat cheese and lettuce, below.

MUSIC: David Simpson has a beautiful CD of Barriere’s sonatas for cello, but you might have trouble finding it. Next, try Bach unaccompanied cello suites. Not in the mood for Bach? Try any Chet Baker or Miles’s KIND OF BLUE.

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED:

FOR THE SALAD:

1. Goat cheese (the ‘chèvre’): this is the important part (see about goat cheese, below).  Rounds ¼ inch thick of 'Chabichou du poiton', placed on a small pan for melting under a broiler.
2. Lettuce, one small head or half a large head, soft leaves only.
3. Green onions, thinly sliced, white part or green part, 1 tsp per serving, approx. (don’t over do the onions)

FOR THE DRESSING: Any oil and vinegar dressing will work except those that come from a bottle—they have too many extra flavors. I prefer a French style white vinegar-Dijon vinaigrette. In a jar, mix:

1. Olive oil, ½ Cup
2. White wine vinegar (or red wine vinegar) (1 part for 5 or 6 parts oil, about 1/8 Cup)
3. Garlic, 1 clove peeled, cut in half (to stay in the jar)
4. Dijon mustard, ½ tsp
5. Salt, about ½ tsp or less (remember, mustard is salty also)
6. Black pepper

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

• Add all the dressing ingredients, shake and let sit for 2 hours, shaking periodically, to bring out the garlic flavor
• Tear the fine lettuce leaves (washed and dried well) into bite sized pieces and place in salad bowl.
• Add sliced green onions.
• Turn on broiler (a broiler in a toaster oven works just fine).
• Add some dressing to the greens and combine gently. Add more dressing if too dry.
• Plate the salad on separate plates and wait for the cheese to melt.
• Broil chèvre and watch until it is bubbling and soft, maybe even some liquefaction. A little brown is okay, but not too much.
• Scoop pieces of melted chèvre with spatula directly onto each salad and serve immediately. One or two pieces per serving is usually plenty.
• Serve with fresh baguette and butter.

WINE: Generally, wine does not accompany dressed salads well. Water is better. If it is the main course, then a Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc, or Beaujolais would do nicely.

About goat cheese (Chèvre). Goat cheese starts out soft and white when it’s fresh. Mounds are shaped into the size of a child’s fist and put aside for aging. When Chèvre ages, it develops a slight rind, dries somewhat, and becomes more firm the more aged it is. The flavor gets stronger as it ages.

            For the right ‘melt’ in this recipe, use a medium aged cheese. Too fresh, it remains tangy white goat cheese like it started out. Too aged (firm), it never melts enough to soften.

            Look for Chabichou du Poiton. Ask simply for “Chabichou” (pronounced: shabby-shoe). It is a firm but squeezable medium aged goat cheese perfect for this salad. Slightly firmer and smaller is the Pelardon, also good. Any serious cheese store should carry some aged goat cheese

About lettuce. It has become harder and harder over recent years to consistently find lettuce with nice delicate leaves. Lettuce seems to be bred these days for durability, and the leaves are too thick, too stiff. And the bitter lettuce, though fashionable, doesn’t work at all. For this recipe you want soft, sweet leaves. Boston butter lettuce is the best when the leaves are soft. Directly out of your garden, or the hydroponic varieties are usually best. Green or red leaf lettuce can also be delicate. Romaine, while crisp and great for Caesar salad, doesn’t work well. Wild bitter greens should be avoided. If you happen to be in France, several butter lettuce varieties are grown. The Chinois variety is spectacular: a broad head of light green small soft leaves.

One other thing. Many recipes exist for Chevre chaud, and many suggest melting a piece of fresh (not aged) cheese onto a piece of thin toast (with olive oil) before placing it on top of the salad. This is fine, especially if the quality of the melt is less amenable to placing cheese directly on the salad.

PORTIFICATION© of red wine

Red wine lovers! Try these two unconventional approaches to preserving your wine. Purists, don't scoff just yet. These methods, I admit, are heretical. But your palate does not lie. If you detect good flavors where once there were bad ones, that’s the name of the game.

1. Portification. How many times have you opened a not-so-inexpensive bottle of red and been disappointed? You wouldn’t serve it to guests, but are reluctant to pour it down the drain. And how many times have you wished you could resurrect a two-day-old bottle of Bordeaux that has lost its mojo? 

There is hope. PORTIFY© your wine. Add Port to a glass of wine, about ¼ Port, ¾ wine. It makes all the difference in the world. Cheap $10 Port is fine for the job. Ruby Port is better than Tawny Port. Works best with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Malbec and Italian wines, and less well with Pinot Noir.

2. Refrigeration. The second approach is a no-brainer. Personally, I’ve been disappointed with the evacuation method of preservation, but white wine can sit around in the refrigerator for days until the bottle is gone. Red wine is the same: put leftover red wine in the fridge; when you pour a glass, microwave it for about twelve seconds and, Voila!, you are back in business with a surprisingly good reconstitution. Red wine can last for days that way.

Enjoy. 

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Tilapia with mango salsa

   

                                                Prep time: 30 minutes

                                                Cook time: 15 minutes

                                                Serves: 2

          

Tilapia is a beautiful little fresh water fish, farmed sustainably, firm enough to barbeque or to fry hot; it won’t fall apart easily. My personal favorite is lightly floured and fried in olive oil, with either a Latino mango sauce or a Mediterranean tomato sauce. Both are in this collection. We start with the mango salsa recipe.

MUSIC: This calls for something with some rhythm. Classical won’t do. Latin music, while cliché, is perfect here. The Brazilian bossa nova  works of Carlos Antonio Jobim, with vocals by Astrud Gilberto or Elis Regina (Girl From Ipanema, etc.) are always appropriate. Or, tangos by the great Astor Piazzolla (Kronos Quartet: FIVE TANGO SENSATIONS), or, if you can find the original album, Gato Barbieri’s LAST TANGO IN PARIS soundtrack.

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED:

1. Tilapia whole filets, 2 or 3 (approx 1 pound in total), brought to room temperature
2. Olive oil, extra virgin, 3 Tablespoons
3. Flour, about ½ Cup for dusting the fish
4. Kosher salt to sprinkle after cooking

For the salsa:

1. 1 Mango, diced into small chunks (may use 2 mangos, especially if small)
2. ½ large sweet red pepper or 1 smaller pepper, also diced into small chunks
3. Cilantro, one bunch, chopped finely



** Scotch bonnet peppers

4. Hot peppers (jalapeño or Scotch bonnet**), chopped finely, 1 tablespoon or less, depending on how hot they are. ( or a few splashes of hot pepper sauce if you don’t have fresh peppers)
5. Juice of ½ lemon (without seeds!)
6. Juice of ½ lime
7. Kosher salt, 1 large pinch (about ¼ teaspoon)   

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

Prepare salsa first.

• Combine salsa ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate 30 to 60 minutes for flavors to meld. This salsa is fine at room temperature, but when chilled, it produces a wonderful temperature contrast of cool and fresh in your mouth with the warm fish. While it chills, have a glass of champagne, dance, whatever. Do not pay bills or work on your taxes.

           

To cook the fish:

·        In a 10 or 12-inch skillet, heat olive oil to medium heat.

·        Lightly flour the fish and fry in olive oil until golden brown on both sides.

·        When almost done, squirt some of the remaining lemon juice on top, and sprinkle with Kosher salt. You almost cannot overcook Tilapia- it retains its flaky texture quite well.

CADENZA: Serve right out of the pan onto plates, with sticky (Sushi) rice, and salsa on top. Excellent with cooked carrots, black beans, bok choy, broccoli or green beans.

VARIATIONS ON THE THEME: Try barbecuing instead of pan-frying. Lightly brush the fish filets with olive oil before placing on the hot grill. Turn once or twice as needed.

WINE: Un-oaked chardonnay or sauvignon blanc go very well.

About sweet peppers. If you cannot find dark red sweet peppers, use yellow or orange. Light colored red peppers often have a chemical taste that upsets the entire balance of the salsa, if not life itself.

About hot peppers. The heat has been bred out of jalapenos, so I prefer Scotch bonnet peppers, originally a Jamaican pepper, full of great taste and plenty of fire.

About chopping cilantro. Wash the whole bunch and shake dry. Holding the cilantro by the stems, sweep away the leaves with one swipe of either a French or Asian knife, and chop accordingly in the French style with one hand on top of the blade, or rapid fire Asian style like playing a drum (or with two knives like playing tympani). Takes about thirty seconds.