Mousse au chocolat

Because I had fresh, free range eggs from my sister Corrine this week, and since it was a dreary and rainy day yesterday, the time was right to whip up a chocolate mousse. My rendition of this lovely dessert is based on my friend Beatrice Luttman's recipe which I modified a bit by using crême fraîche instead of milk and by folding in the eggs whites in two stages, the way Bittman does with his mousse in How to Cook Everything and the way Patricia Wells' does with her chocolate cake recipes in Bistro Cooking. According to Beatrice, the mousse is to be made the night before you plan to eat it. However, following Bittman's advice, I put the mousse in small ramekins and they were set and ready to eat within three hours. If you are going to make this recipe, be sure to use the freshest of eggs from free-range chickens.

• 150 grams of bittersweet chocolate
• 1 tbsp crême fraîche (cream will work just fine)
• 3 fresh eggs, separated
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp butter

In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate with the crême fraîche over very low heat. When it is melted and smooth, add the butter and stir until it is completely melted. Remove from heat.

In a small bowl, blend the sugar with the egg yolks. Stir in the chocolate and blend well.

Beat the egg whites until they form firm peaks. Fold half of the whites into the chocolate mixture, slowly and patiently until all the white disappears. Repeat the action with the rest of the egg whites.

Pour into four ramekin molds and place in the refridgerator to set. Serve cold.

Spinach and Cottage Cheese Omelette

When I went home to Maine this past week, my sister Corrine gave me a dozen fresh eggs from her free-ranging chickens (hence the bright yellow color of the omelette seen in the photo) and I picked up some homemade cottage cheese from my cousin Gloria's and her husband Greg's farm store at Nezinscot Farm on Route 117 in Turner. I also picked up a loaf each of anadama (seen in the photo), wheat and seven grain bread. If you are ever in the area, you must absolutely stop! The farm is excellent, Greg and Gloria are real and the food is fantastic. I highly recommend the cookies, especially the chocolate chip cookies!

You might think it weird to add cottage cheese to an omelette. Of course, you aren't wrong to think so if your notion of cottage cheese is that watery, chemically-tasting stuff you buy at the grocery store. My cousin Gloria's cottage cheese is drier and crumblier. It has the texture of feta, so if you can't get your hands on some homemade cottage cheese, use feta in this recipe instead. It will change the taste, however, as feta is much more salty than cottage cheese.

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Half a small onion, sliced thinly
• A few generous handfuls of fresh spinach
• 2 - 3 eggs per omelette, lightly beaten and generously salted and peppered
• Cottage cheese (or feta)
• Butter

In a non-stick pan, melt a few tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. Sautee the garlic and onion until translucent. Add the spinach and cook until it wilts without losing it's dark green color. Remove the spinach, onion and garlic mix from the pan and reserve in a bowl. Melt a few more tablespoons of butter in the same pan and raise the heat. The butter should sizzle but not brown. Add the beaten eggs. Lift the pan a bit from the stove and shake it as though you were making popcorn. Place it back on the heat and cook, lifting it to shake every once in a while to keep the eggs from sticking to the pan. This will also help move the uncooked liquidy eggs to the edges of the pan to cook. Right before the eggs are set, remove from the heat and add some spinach and cottage cheese to one side of the circle. Using a plastic spatula, flip the other side of the circle over the part that has the spinach and cottage cheese. If you like your eggs runny, serve it up just like this. If you want them a little more cooked, place the pan back on the heat and cook until your desired consistency.

Enjoy with a light green salad and a thick slice of homemade bread. This is dinner in 5 minutes! This is heaven on your plate! Enjoy!

Fiddlehead casserole

When Adele was in Maine last week her sister Corrine gave her a whopping bag of fiddleheads that she had harvested along a stream in Weld. We got right to work using them up, and fiddlehead casserole was the first thing we made.

Here's what you need:
1/2 onion, chopped
a few cloves of garlic
8 eggs
feta cheese
butter
(no salt, the feta takes care of that)

The first step is to fry the onions in butter until translucent.

Butter the bottom and sides of an 8 x 11 1/2" glass dish and spread the onions evenly over the bottom. Then spread a generous layer of fiddleheads over the onions.

Now spread a generous layer of feta cheese over the fiddleheads.

Beat the eggs in a bowl (add milk if you'd like it to be more like a quiche) and pour evenly over the other ingredients. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until eggs have set.

Serve with a side salad or any other veggie.

No grain, no pain

Adele and I are beginning to commit more and more acts of blasphemy with regard to the USDA food pyramid. Namely, we're undermining the entire grain-based foundation of the pyramid and substituting squash and tubers - mostly sweet potatoes - for grains like rice and pasta. We're not on some anti-grain crusade (Adele would probably trade in our obese cat for a perfect baguette), but squash or sweet potato is a wonderfully delicious and filling substitute for our typical grains. Squash or tubers are the staple foods of many cultures across the world and are fundamental to traditional peasant cuisine. No need to stick with rice or pasta every night when there's so much variety out there that still fills us up and serves our carbo needs. And bonus: we also get pretty colors on the plate!


This is what tonight's meal looked like in it's original state: dandelion greens, onion, garlic, butternet squash and eggs.

Start with the squash by cutting it in half lengthwise and spooning out the seeds. Place them flesh-side-down in an oven-safe dish with perhaps an inch of water, cover and bake until soft, about 40 minutes. Start checking for done-ness after about 30 minutes by poking the squash with a sharp knife. If the knife slides through with no effort, it's ready to serve.



While the squash is baking, think about the dandelion greens and the egg. The greens are longer to cook than the egg, so think about that first. But at some point during the process, crack an egg per person into a ramekin. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, place in a skillet or pot and add enough water to come halfway up the ramekin. Bring the water to a boil and cook the eggs until the whites set to your liking. (It doesn't take long...)

For the dandelion greens, slice the onion and roughly mince the garlic. In a skillet, heat a bit of finely cut up bacon (I highly recommend it for the taste, but feel free to use olive oil or butter) until the bacon shrivels and crusts, leaving a hot layer of bacon fat. Remove the rinds with a slatted spoon and preserve. Sautee the onions and garlic in the bacon fat until soft. Add the dandelion greens and stir to cover with the oil. Add salt and pepper and a teaspoon or two of sugar and cook until the greens are as crisp or as soft as you like them.

Remove from heat, return the bacon rinds to the greens and stir.

Serve everything piping hot, adding a generous pat of butter to the squash and toasted wheat bread to sop up the egg if you want.

Prep & cook time : about an hour

Price : approximately 4$ for two people