Zucchini fun

Focusing on terrines. Cold, hot, any and all. I think they offer a wonderful departure from the splot, or spoon-full, or pile of vegetables on the plate. Artistic, delightful, and usually a unique taste. I can't help but admit to being inspired by my first visit to Fauchon. Disneyland for the adult cook. Eye-popping  everything: terrines, pates, offerings of canned, fresh, bottled, and bagged food. I just wanted to move into a space above the store so I could walk past 2 or 3 or 4 times a day.

However, more on simpler efforts. This was a summer terrine. Yet, a big bunch of basil leaves were surely dried or from a long way away. Being ramp season, among others, I opted to saute chopped ramps and use here. Very subtle, delicate flavor. Now I have to make it with basil for comparison. Stay tuned.

Zucchini Terrine with ramps

Winter food

I'm not eating raspberries from Peru, nor weirdly early asparagus. Too much fuel. You know when you pick a fresh tomato, sometimes there are soft spots. That's OK, you don't notice or cut them out. Well, canned tomatos are available whole, peeled and really smelling and tasting wonderful in the winter. If you drain and seed them and remove any stem parts they are really very sweet flesh. Mushrooms are either your frozen or dried morels from springs past or you live in a different winter climate than New England. We can get the portabello easily. When sauteed in oil or butter they turn rich walnut brown and taste of the earth.

Well, I would like to thank Jake Levin and Stephan Reynard for pointing me in the right direction. Both the terrine (tomato, artichoke, and mushroom) and the leeks (browned then braised until meltingly soft) were part of dinner Sunday.

The terrines of Stephan Reynard are just worthy of Fauchon (for which you must travel very far to visit), or ecstasy (which requires little travel but a smattering of consciousness). Really inspirational and simple terrines. Really outside of the conventional terrine and pate. They're good too, but the others are just magnificent. People really love looking at the too so a double bounce when it's served.