Garden Kitchen

Tabbouleh

(Photo LOF- Tabbouleh with lemon in brine)

An excellent recipe of Michelle's for a summer salad for 7/8 people :
Soak  1kg of bulgur in the juice of 6 lemons for about 2 hours.
Gently use a fork to separate the grains of bulgur a few times during the 2 hours.
Add :
 5 big tomatoes skinned and seeded and diced.
 1or 2 small cucumbers peeled, seeded & diced.
 1 finely diced onion
 and a good sized bunch of chopped leaf parsley.
 1/4 of a lemon in brine cut into small pieces.(This is the secret ingredient that makes all the difference)
Don't add salt as the lemon in brine is salty enough. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil toss, cool before serving.

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Harvest omelette (crespéou)

(Photo LOF - crespéou or harvest omelette)

When we have lots of friends coming for lunch at LOF we prefer to spend our time with them and not in the kitchen.
So here is a recipe that you can make the day before and serve cold. 
The crespéou is a dish made of omelettes stacked in layers with herbs and vegetables served with or without a tomaoe sauce. It originated in provence and was often made at harvest time for eating in the fields.

(For 15-20)

The day before make 9  omelettes (4 eggs, salt, pepper,  finely chopped parsley, chives, tarragon 1 teaspoon of water beat vigorously with a fork, lifting to air the mixture, then pour into a hot frying pan) and put them on 9 separate plates , on each one spread one of the following :
finely chopped sorrel cooked in butter,
crushed tomatoes cooked with thyme,
cooked spinach with cream,
sweet pepper compote,
simmered thinly sliced onions,
finely chopped mushrooms with chives,
grated emmenthal cheese,
diced black olives with capers,
the 9th omelette is the hat.

(Photo LOF - this is not a geological cross section but a Harvest omelette. On the 8th floor we have the olive -caper family, the 7th is the grated cheese and on the 6th floor Mr & Mrs diced mushrooms etc)

Now in a large buttered oven proof dish (the diameter of your omelettes), pour a raw 4 egg omelette and place the cooked omelettes on top one after another.
In between each omelette as glue spread a thin layer of tuna paste made with 6 anchovies and 400g of tuna preserved in oil mixed into a base made of finely chopped shallots, butter and a half a glass of white wine heated for about 3 minutes.
When your pile of omelettes, glued with tuna paste are all stacked, pour a final raw 4 egg omelette on top to fill the dish. Cook for 20 minutes in the oven at 165°C, serve cold the next day.
So thats 35 eggs.

Everyone enjoyed the taste they were most  attuned to and it was suprisingly light.

In the evening we ate the leftovers warm. Its better.
(Photo LOF - the harvest omelette is abig stack of omelettes for at least 10 people - count at least 3 hours of preparation - phew!)

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Horseradish salad

(Photo LOF - horseradish salad)

Its August and the horseradish is ready. Horseradish produces more than we can ever use in "pot au feu" or "boeuf en gelée".
So with the rest we grate and then let it soak in warm beef stock for about 10 minutes, drain it and let it cool.
The sauce is best with a kaffir lime vinegar (soak  zests in vinegar for a few weeks), olive oil and light cream.
The recipe is also good with winter radishs.

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Watermelon : fact or fiction

(Photo LOF - watermelon harvest)

The portuguese - and the brasilians both say that you should never, ever drink wine when eating  watermelon.
Odd.
And what happens if you do ? Well in the Alentejo everyone and I mean everyone knows that the walls of your intenstines turn into... into? - cork !
You often hear "No thanks no  watermelon I have just had wine" So much for serving watermelon as desert. 
It seems to be especially serious with red wine but then again no one in the Aletejo considers white wine - wine.
Yet in French you can find recipes for watermelon sangria or watermelon soups with red wine.
And as to the famous watermelon.org – THE reference when it comes to watermelon info, they mix watermelon with red wine from Spain, or Port, there is even a list of watermelon wines.
No nutrition expert would think of commenting on this serious subject that divides lusophones and the rest of the world.
Last night we really floated in the pool.

 (Photo LOF - a cross section of an alentejans intestines after drinking red wine and eating watermelon)

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