Le Retour

Inspired by the Restaurant des Arcenaulx's

"menu léger" on Holy Saturday in Marseille. And by the contents of our walk-in.

Green Salad

with red peppers, white mushrooms, and blood orange vinaigrette. Simple, but excellent. The dressing was about one to one blood orange juice and olive oil, with one red onion, a tiny bit of mustard, zest from the oranges, and a little salt. This went really well with the veggies that Megan Williams chopped. Plus bacon on the side.

Celery Salad

Celery and carrots, chopped small and mixed with raisins, lemon juice, and yogurt. Tim asked us to use some celery, and this is what we came up with - a hybrid of a couple of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone recipes and Ida's good sense. Much, much better than I expected. I would happily eat this again. Almonds on the side.

Tilapia

à la Meunière et sans farine avec moutarde. The original plan had been to do fish packets with a nicer white fish, but CK shorted us the fish. So we went with tilapia. I thought that the gluten free version was disgusting, but this was a quality of the fish and not the preparation (although, to be fair, maybe I could have done a better job in masking it). The bit I tasted was so awful that I couldn't bring myself to even try the flour and butter one, but I hear that it wasn't nearly as bad. Red pepper white wine sauce on the side.

Tofu

Fairly large chunks, baked in a chaffing dish with red peppers, onions, lemon, and soy sauce. it was in a very hot oven for a very long time, but I kept an eye one it. Not bad. Would have been better cut into smaller pieces and with a lot more vegetables.

Eggs Baked with Mushrooms and Gorgonzola

This wasn't done on time, and then I started talking at dinner and forgot about it, and it got a little over done. The flavors were all exactly right: lightly sauteed onions and mushrooms with just a little garlic, gorgonzola sauce made with milk and butter, salt and pepper on the eggs before going in the over, green onions when they came out. However, next time I would use fewer eggs, so that it will cook more quickly and evenly. This might be better for a dinner party than for the house, and in that case I might just do soft boiled or poached eggs served instead. Extra gorgonzola sauce on the side.

White Beans and Mushrooms

Vegan, lower fat alternative to the above. Unremarkable, but tasty.

Quinoa

Sweet Potatoes

I heart sweet potatoes.

Asparagus

Steamed. Plain, not overdone, for Megan. I heart these, too.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Blood Orange

Megan did this, and it was very, very, very good. This recipe, with a little less crumble and a lot less sugar. I picked up some heavy cream to have whipped cream on the side, but forgot all about it.