Foodie Vocabulary: Bouquet Garni

As the cooler temperatures settle in, there's nothing like hearty, warming dishes to knock off the chill and bring on the comfort.  Soups, chili, stews, oven-roasted fare, and the like, make the kitchen a warm and cozy place to be--not to mention a delicious one.  I love that these dishes also lend themselves well to the flavor explosions that herbs (dried and fresh) impart.  In fact, when you're looking to up the savory quotient of a dish with the least amount of effort, herbs are a game changer.  Here enters the bouquet garni.

A bouquet garni (French for "garnished bouquet") is a bundle of herbs used to flavor soups, stews, sauces, stocks, meats, vegetables--you name it!  Selected herbs are gathered together--in a sachet of cheesecloth or similar fabric for dried herbs and bundled with kitchen twine for fresh herbs--to form the "bouquet".  The bouquet is placed in the dish during the cooking process to infuse flavor and removed, as a whole, once the cooking process is complete.  And the mission of flavorful, hearty fare is accomplished.

So the next time you're looking to infuse some herbaceous goodness into your eats, consider a fresh or dried bouquet garni--and let it do all the work for you.  I purchased my first bouquet garni (multiple jars in fact) during my last trip to Paris a few years ago, and I haven't stopped using them since, although today I definitely make my own!  To help you indulge, below are two recipes perfectly suited for this special touch.

Lentil Soup 

Roasted Chicken and Vegetables 

Enjoy & Happy Eating!

Foodie Vocabulary: Compound Butter

Compound butter is a treasure to me.  Reason being: it can single-handedly elevate a dish's flavor quotient and scrumptiousness, and all that with the same minimal effort it takes to add plain butter to a dish.  Well almost.  But trust me, the additional effort is so slight, you'll have no qualms about "compounding away".

As the name implies, compound butter is plain butter (I typically use unsalted) compounded with additional flavors.  And there's virtually no end to the flavors the creative cook can create.  From blue cheese to herbs and garlic to orange marmalade to chili spices and lime zest, the compound butter frontier knows no bounds.  And it stores like regular butter, so once you make it, you'll have a little treasure awaiting in your fridge whenever you want it--or until you run out.

So the next time you want to spice up that pasta dish or add a zing to some steamed fish or wake up that piece of toast, consider substituting your plain butter allotment for a kicked-up compound butter.  Since you're planning to use the butter anyway, you might as well get the most bang for your foodie buck.

To get you started with this most delectable foodie delight, I want to share my recipe for Herb-Garlic Butter.  I can't make garlic bread without it, and I also love it on my Fish en Papillote.  Making that simple tweak to my dish was a mouth-watering revelation!  And once you try it, I trust you'll agree.

Happy Eating!

Herb-Garlic Butter
Ingredients: 
1/2 cup (4 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Italian parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine butter, herbs, garlic and salt.  Refrigerate (or freeze) until butter has become firm again.  Remove from refrigerator, serve and enjoy!

Foodie Vocabulary: Flexitarian

Flexitarian.  I stumbled upon this interesting word used to describe, in my own words, a more well-rounded eater, while recently reading through a Bon Appetit issue.  So strangely odd, yet somehow familiar, I had an intuition about what it could mean, but needed to read more to be sure.  And so I did.

A flexitarian is one who embraces the vegetarian, omnivore and vegan diets combined into one all its own.  And according to Bon Appetit, it is touted as the diet of the moment.  As the name implies, it is likely the easiest, most sensible--and flexible--diet around, focusing mostly on plant-based foods, but also including meat, poultry and fish in smaller amounts than typical. 

Bowl of Roasted Vegetables--A Great Base for the Flexitarian Meal

As a flexitarian, one also benefits health-wise, as the diet proclaims to be one that is high in vitamins, nutrients and fiber.  Ultimately, I see this genre of eating as a perfect depiction of "less is more" when it comes to those things, like meat and dairy, that we can sometimes, no often, overdo.  It's not deprivation, but a rearranging of sorts, of what and how much we eat.

So now that you have the 411, will you give the flexitarian way of life a try?  If you answered "yes", here are a few recipes from the DMRFF archives that will cover your ominvore, vegetarian and vegan bases--and quite deliciously so:

Roasted Chicken and Vegetables (Omnivore)
Potato and Kale Cakes (Vegetarian)
Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette (Vegan-simply omit the cheese).

Happy-Flexi-Healthy Eating!

Foodie Vocabulary: Mise en Place

Mise en Place (pronounced meez ahn plahs) is a french culinary term for "everything in its place".  A  culinary technique of sorts used in professional restaurants and kitchens where efficiency and time management are essential, it should also be embraced in the kitchens of home cooks alike.

At the heart, mise en place involves organizing and preparing ingredients, tools and whatever essentials are used to prepare a dish or meal.   From pre-measuring and setting aside ingredients, to preheating an oven, to making sure all needed utensils, appliances, etc., are clean and ready for use, to reading a recipe through from start to finish to make sure nothing is overlooked--and everything in between--mise en place brings an order and reliability to the cooking process that is worthwhile.  I like to think of it as an investment of pre-labor that will yield the dividends of a successful--and enjoyable--cooking experience. 

Example of Mise en Place

I know first hand how valuable mise en place is because I've experienced, among other things, the upset of omitting an ingredient as I went along in preparing a dish.  In particular, once when baking a cake, I sifted together all of my dry ingredients EXCEPT one:  the salt!  Although most wouldn't notice the overly sweet end result, I missed that extra balance and brightness of flavor that my cake lacked from that error.  And you better believe I didn't make that mistake twice. 

So the next time you set out to prepare a delicious bite, take a moment to make sure that "everything's in its place" and let the joy of cooking begin.

Happy Eating!