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Editorial: rice for dummies
If French home cooking traditionally pays little attention to rice, which it considers a simple accompaniment, this dish is treated much more seriously in other gastronomic cultures, especially Asian (biryani, bibimbap, nasi goreng, etc.), African (rice Wolof). , tie…) or Southern Europe (risotto, arancini, paella…). In France, some celebrities are more interested in her than their fellow citizens: Pascal Barbot (Astrance, currently closed – but you can see her formalizing in Cèna, Paris) is a fan of hers, as is Nadia Sammut (Auberge La Fenière, in Cadenet). This last gluten-free kitchen – his house, created by his grandmother and later taken over by his mother, Reine Sammut – is even the only star that offers no dishes containing wheat.
Rotation Hot (ed. Hachette Cuisine and Human Humans, 2021), we came across a recipe that the latter handed over to culinary author Victoire Loup, who reminded us how much rice deserved to be treated with more consideration. . It only takes a few basic gestures and a few extra minutes of preparation – but, we promise, it will not require more washing – to improve your rice dish. Start by rinsing 250 g of rice to get rid of its starch and prevent it from sticking. Chop an onion, peel a clove of garlic. Sweat the onion in 15 cl of olive oil until it becomes translucent, add the rice, stir and heat on low heat for a few minutes, without coloring. Wet with 35 cl of chicken broth. Salt, pepper. Stir again and bring to a boil. Add the garlic clove and a thyme sprig. Cover, cook over low heat, until the liquid is completely absorbed (about fifteen minutes). Enjoy, we are (occupied): we will never again be content to throw careless rice grains into a pot of boiling water and wait (ten to twenty minutes, depending on what the box says).
Napkin rings: in Belleville, a whim
Headbutt is aptly named. It is an ideal restaurant, nice, good, not too expensive, where you can always find a small table for two at the last minute, even at the bottom of the counter. This is because you eat well, drink wonderfully and Lorraine, the owner, is always attentive. There, is the neighbors feast: there are often children, big dogs and many actors playing in Almonds. There we ate simple and delicious things, orecchiette with lemon and sweetened olives, grilled octopus salads or very simple and very straight jars. We drink hectoliters of wine there, especially Livia Sous le Végétal by Patrick Bouju and Jason Ligas: a Muscat à petit grain from Samos, full of minerality and energy. What a comforting good address, in the rotated Haut-Belleville!
Headshot, 107 Rue de Belleville, 75019 Paris. Metro Pyrenees. Lunch menu € 16.50 for E + P or P + D, drinks between € 6 and € 10.
Recipe for the weekend: smoked fish with an apache from rue de Crimee
This week, we went to see Ivan, a kind of Indian in the city, who on the side of the street of Crimée (19th century Paris), cooks us in his small apartment a fish fillet stuffed with dried plant smoke and roasted vegetables. We put the nose in the fridge, take a look at the contents of the cupboards, filled with jars of wild garlic pesto, mushroom vinegar, ginger with coarse salt, oranges with honey and vanilla, bottles of perfumed oils with herbs collected in the lanes the sunken and the gardens of Yonne … If Vladimir were to attempt to annex the street de Crimee, sure Ivan could maintain a perpetual siege. This is because Apache has always cooked like some people draw.
We watch him extract water from a small beet by putting it in the oven in his shirt for two hours. Thirty minutes before the end of cooking, add a small leek, the roots of which he has reserved, and an onion. A ball in one hand, a knife in the other, he prepares as he completes the boiling of the pesto sauce, the chopping of the mint, the chopping of a small piece of ginger, the crushing of a few handfuls of nuts and a little pepper. All this, mixed well with soy sauce and olive oil as desired. He finally removes the skin from a beautiful salmon fillet, which he scratches to remove the scales. And we pass it on the oiled grill to make it crispy. Boil the vegetables, peel them and fry the leek beard in a pan with sesame oil.
Ivan cut the fish into 5 cm cubes, close them with fresh thyme in an airtight bag, place the latter in a large salad bowl and pour boiling water over it, it will be cooked at low temperature. Shortly before it is ready to eat, he collects the fish cubes, grinds them and prepares their smoking: in a hollow pot he puts dried herbs (sage, thyme, laurel, juniper). Light the fire, cover the container in which he placed the helat. After mixing with roasted vegetables, fish chips and pesto, these skewers, scented with burnt herbs, cause a wonderful sensation in the mouth.
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