Cowgirl Chef: Crepes, Part I

There's no shortage of creperies in Paris, as y'all know, but there are only a few places around here that really know how to make the thin French pancake right -- supple, yet crispy around the edges.

I've been eating at Creperie de Josselin in Montparnasse for years -- and know to show up early to avoid the daily lines, since it's one of the most well-known creperies in town -- and I recently asked Marie-Therese, the owner, if she'd give me a crepe-making lesson.

She was happy to oblige, as you'll see, but she moves -- and talks -- so fast, I could hardly keep up with her. But I did learn the secret to her super-delish crepes.

Enjoy the show.

Zucchini-Lime Muffins with Pine Nuts

The French really have a thing for zucchini. Huge amounts of real estate in any grocer or market are devoted to the long, green squash, and nearly every basket I see at the checkout counter has a plastic sack of zucchini in there, sandwiched between the 24-packs of yogurt and bottles of red wine.

What was everyone making with the zucchini, I wondered? Enormous vats of ratatouille? Stuffing them with the strange-looking prepared veal mixture at the butcher's? Putting them in quiches?

Probably all three, I figured, since these seem to be the things that I often see in the French cooking magazines.

I love my zucchini grilled, but alas…that cannot be, as I've mentioned a hundred times before. So, I started thinking about what I could do with zucchini, since it’s so abundant, and relatively inexpensive.

It wasn’t long until muffins popped into my head.

I found a recipe on Elise Bauer’s Simply Recipes blog and decided to Cowgirl-ify it a bit, by adding lime and lime zest and my favorite little nut, the pinon, which I toasted. I cut back on the cinnamon and nutmeg, too, so the lime flavor could come through.

See what you think. I’m off to the store to buy some more zucchini.

Zucchini-Lime Muffins with Pine Nuts
adapted from Simply Recipes

INGREDIENTS

2 large eggs
1 ⅓ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup pine nuts, toasted
2 limes
⅔ cup butter, melted
3 cups zucchini, grated
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

WHAT YOU DO

Preheat oven to 350.

1. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla.

2. Add the juice of two limes, plus the zest, along with the zucchini and melted butter, and mix well.

3. Add dry ingredients -- flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon -- and stir to combine. Fold in pine nuts.

4. Scoop into lined muffin pans; bake for 10-12 minutes.

Makes 2 dozen muffins.

Texas Pickup Chili-Cheese Salad

Conveniently located across the street from the North Texas State University tennis courts in Denton, Texas Pickup was my favorite local spot to grab a burger or a salad after a few hours of playing tennis with my best friend Melanie.

Texas Pickup was a small place, with lots of dark wood panels, and the vibe was more backcountry bar than restaurant, but I just loved it here. Deciding between the burger and the salad was always a hard decision, but more often than not, the salad won, and I’d usually have a basket of home cut fries along with it, because why not?

Sadly, Texas Pickup closed sometime in the 80s, but I’ve never forgotten its Texas-style salad– heaps of warm chili poured over crisp pieces of iceberg lettuce, then covered with a mountain of shredded cheddar cheese and Fritos. That new white dressing, Ranch, was served on the side, which we’d drown the whole thing in.

The key to this is to wait until the cheese gets a bit melty on the chili before you dump the dressing on top -- but you'd figure that, right?

Here’s my version of this salad, which uses turkey chili (but obviously you can use whatever you’d like), shredded cheddar, Fritos, and Romaine (because I can’t find iceberg around here). I make buttermilk dressing – a Cowgirlified version with cilantro and jalapenos – and serve it on the side, too.

Don’t you just love those big ‘ol tomato wedges?

All you do is put some lettuce on a plate or a really big bowl, heap some warmed-up chili on top, add a handful or two of shredded cheese, and some Fritos -- and voila!

Since it’s now officially chili season, I thought that this would be the purrfect fall salad for our Friday round-the-world Twitter lunch bunch--- New York-based Cheryl, Nicole in San Diego, and Karen in Atlanta -- along with all the others.

See the other great fall salad posts by clicking on over to Twitter and typing in the hashtag, #letslunch.

Bon appetit, y'all!

Turkey Chili

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds turkey, ground
1 large white onion, 1/4-inch dice
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
½ green bell pepper, 1/4-inch dice
¼ red bell pepper, 1/4-inch dice
3 16-oz. cans kidney beans, black beans, or a mixture, drained
2 32-oz. cans diced tomatoes
1 8-oz. can tomato paste
5 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cayenne
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon paprika (smoky)
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 cups water
olive oil

WHAT YOU DO

1. Drizzle a bit of olive oil in a heavy, deep stockpot and add the onions and garlic. Turn the heat on medium and cook until the onions become translucent, 5-10 minutes.

2. Add the ground turkey and cook until cooked through.

3. Now, add the red and green bell peppers, tomatoes, tomato paste, beans and spices.

4. Turn heat down to low and cook for a couple of hours, adjusting seasonings if you need to along the way.




Jalapeno-Cilantro Buttermilk Dressing

INGREDIENTS

1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream
1 lime, squeezed
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon shallot, diced
3-4 jalapenos (pickled)
1 handful cilantro
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
sea salt

WHAT YOU DO

1. Put shallot, cilantro, jalapenos in food processor and give it a whiz until these things are well combined.

2. Add lime juice, honey, buttermilk, and creme fraiche or sour cream and pulse a time or two.

3. Now, with the motor running, drizzle in the grapeseed oil. Add salt.

E-Z Salsa

Few things make me happier than sitting down to a basket of warm, salty tortilla chips and a bowl of freshly made salsa.

It’s funny, too, how much salsas vary from one Mexican restaurant to another, when they’re all made from the same basic ingredients – there’s a tomato or tomatillo base, and then, onion, garlic, cilantro, and some sort of chile.

This is a recipe for salsa based on my favorite hometown Tex-Mex joint, Mazatlan, which, by the way, is located in an old Dairy Queen, next to the Holiday Lanes bowling alley. You gotta love that.

This salsa is about as basic as it can get, but wait until you scoop your tortilla chip into a bowl of this -- you’ll hear mariachis playing in your head.

Enjoy the show.



Mazatlan's Salsa

INGREDIENTS

1 32 oz can diced tomatoes
1 small white onion
½ bunch cilantro (appx 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper (to taste)
3 jalapenos (fresh is best but in Paris, I use pickled)
vegetable oil

WHAT YOU DO

1. Drizzle a bit of vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and add the onions, then the garlic. Turn on medium heat and cook until the onions become translucent, 5-10 minutes.

2. Add tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro, salt and freshly ground pepper. Let cook for about 5 minutes, and with a hand blender, puree.

Serve immediately.

Cowgirl Raita

As my throw-together Greekish dinner was coming together the other night (and I noticed that I had two small cucumbers to use before they’d quickly go south), I decided to make some raita to go along with it all, but with a slightly cowgirl twist.

This is so simple, I don’t know why I don’t make it all the time, and just dollop it on all sorts of stuff.

Actually, I think that I’m going to start, because it’s really quite lovely on so many simple things, whether pitas and the whole mezze thing is going on or not. It would be great on top of Brian Hofeldt's Green Chile Stew, now that I think about it.

By the way, I thought about using smoky paprika instead of chipotle powder, but opted for the chipotle, because as you know, I’m quite fond of the little smoked jalapeno. Play with this if you want. It’s meant to be cooling, but a little heat seems to make the cool part of this even more so, sort of like the salty-sweet combo.

Cowgirl Raita

INGREDIENTS

2 cups whole-milk or Greek yogurt
1 large cucumber, seeded and shredded
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon chipotle powder
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
sea salt

WHAT YOU DO

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Refrigerate for an hour.