Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Why I'll never be a double-zero...

After a week of eating stacks of charcuterie-- cheese by the wheel, slices of paté thicker than a Cracker Barrel serving of meatloaf, and enough baguettes to circle the globe-- I was feeling the burn (and by burn, I mean my jeans were feeling a little too snug... which is no small feat when you're already wearing skinny jeans) so when I read this "detox recipe" in the latest T Magazine, I thought "Okay. Time to eat the model food." It was going to be hard to convince John to chow down on frozen kleenex, so this seemed like the best possible alternative.


Pea, Mint and Broccoli Mash
According to the T Magazine, we're supposed to serve this lively green spread on multiseed loaf (find recipe in the same article), for a nutrient-dense, gluten-free bread packed with pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds. It also makes a fantastic dip. 
*However, I was up to my eyeballs in half-eaten french baguettes at our house in Bussy Le- Grand, so I wasn't about to bake a loaf of freaking bread. So-- right from the get-go, my aspirations for a model-bod were fading fast... It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that I realized jushow little food we actually had in our house, so I ended up making a fair amount of alterationsto the original recipe too... If you've ever visited France, you know that Sunday afternoon is a barren wasteland of closed stores and shuttered stands. If you don't already have it, plan on driving back to Paris if you really want it, 'cause it ain't gonna happen in the countryside... 
INGREDIENTS:
1 garlic clove, diced (I added 3 garlic cloves, because as my mother says, "Can you really ever use too much garlic?")
1 head of broccoli, about 10 ½ ounces, cut into florets, with stalks finely chopped
12 ounces frozen peas
Juice of half a lemon (Turns out we'd used the last of our lemon stash, so I substituted sherry vinegar for this and though different, it was still delish.)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (Yeah. This is where we really parted ways. I probably put 4 tablespoons in instead....)
1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives (skipped. Substituted with parsley.)
A small handful of fresh mint leaves (skipped. Seriously. Our fridge was empty.)
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS:
1. Steam the garlic and broccoli in a pan with 4 tablespoons of water, lid on, for 5 minutes until tender. Check to make sure there’s enough water to prevent the broccoli from sticking to the bottom of the pan — add more if needed. Remove from heat.
2. Drain and stir in peas. Cover and leave for 5 minutes for the peas to defrost in the hot mixture.
3. Add the garlic, broccoli and peas mixture and remaining ingredients to a food processor (except for a few chives to save for garnish later on), and blend until creamy.
4. Add salt and/or pepper to taste, and serve either hot or cooled on toasted bread, topped with remaining chives or even a drizzle of pesto.
It's at this point that things went completely off the rails... I happened to have a nice log of chèvre in the fridge, and I figured--- why wouldn't this luminous green spread be delicious on top of a lovely layer of goat cheese? Toasted, and then... at that rate, why not drizzle it with a little more olive oil too??? 
So we did that, and surprise, surprise! It was completely delicious. I'm not sure when this dinner left the category of "model food"... Around the third tablespoon of olive oil, the introduction of the baguette bread, or maybe it was the fact that we each ate five of them? 
Oh well. Nice try! 

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