A few weeks ago we were lucky to receive a serious amount of free cheese from Ile de France. You’ve most likely seen their brie, goat cheese or St. André (which I could rub all over my body it’s that good) in your supermarket but they have so much more to offer. I only wish my grocery store carried all their cheeses. They also just redid their website and it’s an excellent way to get over 500 cheese recipes or just peruse the various cheeses they offer. After chomping down on the many cheese samples Ile de France mailed us (a vast variety including Chaumes, St. Albray, Goat and Brie) , we had alot left over. We’re kinda cheese fiends and when we’re feeling in the mood to eat cheese, we’ll go to our local shop and go a bit overboard. The cheese drawer will pile up until I can barely close it. This is never a good thing. Weeks later I’ll check out what’s at the bottom of the drawer to find shriveled bits of piave, way over-ripe, acidic smelling camembert or moldy tomme. I’ll often chop off mold or use the shriveled bitsto grate as pasta toppings, but often I’ll say a prayer, shed a tear and throw them into the garbage. It burns a hole in my heart every time!

But this time I just couldn’t see all that cheese go to waste, even if much of it was free. What about all the starving kids in China (Will that one work on my future child? Sure as hell didn’t work on me!)?! So I scratched my head and thought about what I could do. Mac and Cheese? No. Cheese Log? It ain’t Christmas. Mixed Cheese Tart? But I’ll have to use my oven and it’s so damn hot! Ok, let’s to a cheese tart. I am very glad I did and I highly reccommend you doing the same with all your leftover chese bits. Hard cheese, soft cheese, triple creams, stinky cheese – they’ll all go great in a cheese tart. Not to mention you won’t have to worry anymore about the starving kids in China.

Picture this, if you will: A warm, humid day in Argentina’s early autumn; the last rays of sun slanting sharply through the browning leaves of mature plane trees; myriad dog-walkers rustling quietly by in the litter of those already fallen. In the lee of a giant ficus planted for sidewalk shade, two travelers recline in the canvas-backed chairs of a cafe, unwinding the combined corporeal kinks of a 10 hour overnight flight and a 6 hour stroll around Buenos Aires. As they sit, calm descends over our road-weary protagonists – of the kind unknown and almost unfathomable in their highly caffeinated daily lives up North, yes, a beautiful serenity indeed, interrupted only by a raging thirst.

To repeat the lunchtime libation of a world-class Malbec/Syrah blend seems somehow tyrannous to our relaxed travelers, and the option of the Argentine national drink, the Fernet-Coca, somehow dischordant with the peaceful ambiance. Instead, the distinctly un-Argentine, yet surely appropriate, and broadly contextual, selection of a pair of chilled pisco sours has great appeal.

Made from a tangy combination of lemon or lime juice, pisco, simple syrup, regional bitters, and egg whites, the pisco sour is the national drink of both Peru and Chile, and its origins lie in 16th century Peru, where grapes first planted by Spanish colonialists were distilled into brandy because the Crown, seeking to protect it’s export trade, banned local wine production.

Although it shares its name with a Peruvian coastal town – a title derived from the Quechua word “pisqu”, meaning a variety of “little bird” native to the towns’ surrounding region of Ica – it wasn’t until the 18th century that brandy from Pisco, – having been known previously as simply aguardiente (firewater) or orujo, became synonymous with its home port, as sailors transporting it between the colonies and Spain began to refer to it in that way.

Indeed, it was among sailors and other “ruffians” well-known for being partial to strong liquor that pisco first gained popularity, with the loftier classes generally shunning it as the drink of the unstable and unsavory. And, even when the ban on wine exporting from the colonies was repealed, this down-at-heel reputation did not stop it far exceeding wine in quantity sold.

Today, pisco is still widely exported from both Peru and Chile, and is drunk by all classes both within those countries and across the world. In it’s native lands it is often sipped neat, and aged varieties – in the same way as aged brandies the world over – command high prices due to their complexity and mellow flavors. The “Quebranta” on the front of our bottle of pisco refers to the typical Peruvian grape varietal it’s made from, which is but one of many used in the distillation of pisco. [For more on these grape varieties and distillation techniques click here.] However, the bulk of exported pisco is clear, aged for only the minimum three months (usually in stainless steel), and destined for the cocktail shaker.

The most famous of these cocktails is, of course, the pisco sour. As with many mixed drinks, it’s unclear exactly where and when it was first “invented”, as records of drinks named “punche” containing pisco diluted with lemon or lime juice date from the 18th century, and at the turn of the 20th century the Bank Exchange Bar in San Francisco became famous for its Pisco punch which contained pisco, lemon and pineapple juices. The consensus is though, that in the 1870s an English sailor by the name of Eliot Stubb opened a bar in the Peruvian city of Iquique where he began to experiment with a Latin American version of his favorite cocktail the, then very new, whiskey sour. Quite why he included the egg white in his recipe has been lost in the hazy annals of alcoholic history, but as these pictures amply demonstrate, it gives the otherwise rather ordinary-looking drink a real sense of drama.

Now, rejoining our two travelers, who, having been served, now sip contentedly on their pisco sours over frothy upper-lips as the sun, as if sharing their relaxed ambiance, slips lazily below the horizon giving-up a magnificently pink dusk sky…

Why not make yourself a couple of pisco sours this evening and raise a toast to (arguably) the most famous of Argentines, Eva Peron, aka Evita, who would be 90 years old today.

I tweaked the original Bon Appetit recipe a bit and only had a piece of puff pastry in the freezer and some pie crusts. I will write the recipe asking you to use only puff pastry, but feel free to do what we did and roll out defrosted pie crusts, shape into a rectangle and line the outside of the tart with strips of puff pastry. It works just as well!

The taste of this tart was light and chewy. Using various different veggies and ricotta over all eggs helped me convince myself that I was eating healthy. Even after a few helpings, I knew I was kidding myself but I’ve never been one of those fools that really believed that “a moment on the lips is a lifetime on the hips”. If I did I’d be much thinner and this blog would not exist, clearly!

Btw… thanks to our friend at Serious Eats who featured this post in their “Blogwatch” section recently.   Gracias!

ASPARAGUS, CREMINI AND TOMATO TART WITH RICOTTA AND PETITE JURASSIC CHEESE

Ingredients:

• 2 sheet of thawed puff pastry (1/2 of a 17.3 oz. package)
• 1 egg, beaten
• about 10 to 12 asparagus spears
• 6-8 grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 6-8 cremini mushrooms (or white/brown mushrooms), sliced in half
• 1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 6 slices of thinly-sliced genoa salami, soppressata or other sliced cured meat of your choice
• 2/3 cup grated Petite Jurassic cheese (or Gruyere, Swiss or Comte cheese)

What to do:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out puff pastry on floured surface and roll into a large rectangle (about the size of a long baking sheet). Cut 1/2 inch of puff pastry from each side and brush the sides with a bit of the beaten egg. Place 1/2 inch pieces all along the edges of the puff pastry tart so that the egg is the binding ingredient. Transfer to a baking sheet.
• Steam asparagus until so it’s crisp-tender – about 2 to 3 minutes. Shock in an ice bath to keep color and texture. Chop the bottom 2 inches of the asparagus off and puree these in a food processor along with the rest of the beaten egg, ricotta, the olive oil and pinch of salt. Transfer to bowl.
• Spread the asparagus puree on the bottom of your tart, reserving a few tablespoons. It will fill up to about 1/8 of an inch high. Make sure it is coated evenly. Nestle the pieces of salami into the puree in random places around the tart. Sprinkle your cheese around the tart as well and put your remaining tablespoons of asparagus puree over the pieces of salami (so to cover them).
• Add your sliced grape tomatoes, asparagus spears and mushrooms to the top of the tart – make it look pretty, why not.
• Drizzle some olive oil over the top and bake about 25 to 30 minutes or until the filling is set. Serve warm or cold along with a salad or for breakfast with a runny egg.

Check out some other posts you may enjoy:

• Lemongrass Beef Shortribs
  
• Watercress & Ricotta Ravioli with Radicchio Butter Sauce
• Ensalada de Cabrales (Thin Sliced Apple Salad with Cabrales Cheese & Chive)
• Parsley, Parmigiano and Garlic Roasted Artichokes

It’s always fun to be with my British husband and celebrate the 4th of July. Some of his favorite questions he been asked many times since moving to America to be with moi is, “So, Jonny, what’s Thanksgiving like in England!?” or “How do you guys celebrate the 4th of July in England!?”. Such silly questions – some of us need to be reminded of our history sometimes! But every year around this time my family loves to wave flags (nobody waves a flag better than an upstanding American citizen!), laugh and say “nanny-nanny-boo-boo” in my poor British husbands face. It’s a real sweet, bonding moment and Jonny hasn’t gone postal on our a$$es yet!

Just to remind all of you US-history-challenged readers, Americans celebrate the 4th of July each year commemorating the final f-you to the British in declaring our independence from them. So, celebrate the day with a cook out, some bunting, fireworks, sparklers, a Brit to make fun of and this delightfully delicious Nectarine Tart. The reason why this is so delicious and weirdly light is because the filling isn’t made with custard, it’s actually made with simple whipped cream mixed with Cointreau and topped with poached nectarines. Maybe you can swap the nectarines out for some raspberries, cherries or strawberries and really make this a 4th of July spectacular! Super easy and very, very, very tasty, we cheated and used some frozen pastry (gasp!!! Y’all know i’m a cruddy baker!), but feel free to use your favorite pastry recipe. We took this straight from a wonderful book, “When French Women Cook: A Gastronomic Memoir” by, Madeline Kamman. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY – HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

TARTE AUX BRUGNONS (NECTARINE TART)

Ingredients:

• Your favorite pastry recipe or thawed ready-made pastry
• 8 nectarines
• handfull of berries (we used blackberries)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp. confectioners sugar
• 4 tbsp. Cointreau, triple sec or Kirsch

What to do:

1. Roll our your pastry to fit a 9-inch pan. Blind bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil and immerse nectarines in for 1 to 2 minutes, allowing you to peel the skin off more easily. Peel and cut in quarters to remove the stone then slice into thin pieces.
3. Make a syrup with 1/2 a cup of water and the sugar and poach the nectarine pieces all together. Allow to cool.
4. Whip the cream gradually adding the sugar and 1 tablespoon of the liquor at a time. When the cream is stiff, fill the pastry shell with it.
5. Top with cooled nectarine syrup and then the blackberries. ENJOY!

Check out these other posts you may enjoy:

• AUTHENTIC CARNE ASADA TACOS
• CRANBERRY FLAPJACKS
• BLOOD ORANGE MARGARITAS
• LIDIA’S LAMB CHOPS (Lamb Chops with A Mustard Anchovy Sauce)
• LEBANESE-SPICED LAMB OVER CRISPY PITA WITH CHICKPEAS, PINENUTS, POMEGRANATE SEEDS SMOTHERED IN GARLIC YOGURT SAUCE
• GNOCCHI DI PATATE WITH A BROWN BUTTER, SAGE, BREADCRUMB SAUCE