Re-Post from Paris: Farmhouse Culture, Schwartz's Deli, Sauerkraut and Hot Dogs

My friend Aviva gave me three wonderful sauerkrauts made by Farmhouse Culture. If you are local to SF and the Bay Area, you can get some at the Farmer's Market in the Castro on Wednesday nights. If not, click here to order from their website. I love the smoked jalapeño sauerkraut the best.

The sauerkraut reminded me of a great hot dog I had in Paris at Schwartz's Deli. Here is my post from July, 2010.

Not everything is open on Sunday in Paris. We knew this and planned on another round of tea at Mariage Freres later in the day, but wanted to get out and do something with our morning.

We headed out to an area we had discovered the night before. It was literally only one block further away from our house than we had been walking, and there was some nice window shopping to do.

Some stores did end up being open, best of which was the soap store, La Maison du Savon.  There were over 100 varieties of Marseilles soap, all reasonably priced and smelling divine. They have every scent from sweet to spicy, including pine, rose, tilleul (which I think is Linden) and rosemary. We bought 5 bars of soap and Isabella got some special rose and angel shaped ones for herself.

Realizing that tea wasn’t until after 3pm, we decided to eat. Yes, as the picture denotes, hot dogs. It being Sunday, all of the kosher restaurants were open. We chose Schwartz’s since they seemed to have a nice looking deli counter and a good NY deli menu.

It did not disappoint. Isabella got hers plain on a bun. I got the sauerkraut and relish on mine. They also brought some house-made dill pickles to the table, which were not too salty and just tart enough. Isabella was a fan of the onion rings, too.

We thoroughly enjoyed out American hot dogs, and thought it would have been nice to have celebrated Fourth of July at Schwartz’s as well.

This post was originally posted on Summer Jetsetter, my notes on our month in Paris, 2010.

Roast Pork: Greek Style

It's no secret that I love a good pork roast. The fat. The meat. The flavor.

Recently, I reposted a post from my trip to Paris in 2010. It covered my feeling towards my first (and only) Parisian-style Greek sandwich. It was great. Check out the picture of it (and me) here.

I decided to make a roast that would mimic the flavors of the meat in the Greek sandwich, while still being not too much work. The recipes I found all involved cutting the raw meat into thin slices, marinating them and then quickly panfrying or grilling them. I didn't want to take the time, nor did I have any interest in cutting up raw meat.

My method uses all the same spices, but with way less effort. I simply marinated the whole pork roast in a mix of herbs, spices and vinegar. The end result tasted very close to the real thing, though I know if I'd taken the time to actually slice up the meat and marinate thin slices, they would absorb even more of the great flavor.

I ended up making a Greek Sandwich Salad (read: no bread, but all the other great stuff that was in the original sandwich) with the cooked roast. Using my handy electric knife, I was able to slice the pieces nice and thin, which let the with plenty of delicious pork roast for the week to come.

Greek Spiced Roast Pork

Ingredients:

• 2 pound pork loin roast
• 2 tablespoons crushed oregano
• 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a bowl large enough to hold the roast, mix together all the spices and cider vinegar.
3. Put the roast in the bowl with the spice mixture, turning to coat all sides.
4. Leave in the marinade for at least thirty minutes and up to overnight. If you are doing a longer marinade time, cover and refrigerate the bowl.
5. Once the roast is marinated, remove it from the bowl and place on a rack on top of a roasting pan.
6. Roast for 20 minutes then lower the temperature to 375 degrees and roast for an additional 30 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and let sit for ten minutes before slicing.
8. Slice thinly (I love to use an electric knife here) and serve!

Repost From Paris: Gnomes Caged

This post is one of my favorites. I love the area where all of the garden supply stores are. Original post was shown here.

OK, so I love gnomes.

I only keep one in the house, since my fear of becoming That Crazy Gnome Woman who the kids fear on Halloween is always quite high.

It is unclear to me what these gnomes did to deserve being caged.

Could be the creepy one with the lantern was peeping into people’s windows at night.

Or, maybe it’s the half-nude who was pulled inside for drunk and disorderly behavior.

Whatever happened, I may need to go spring them.

That day, Isabella and I enjoyed a plate of escargot. Two years later, she ordered escargot and ate the whole dish. It's a winning taste.

Click here to make Escargots à la Bourguignonne yourself, from a recipe originally published in Gourmet in 1949.

Back from Paris

It has been a good four months since I've posted, and I apologize for my absence. But, little Ms. Iz and I went to Paris for five wonderful weeks this summer which took a lot of prep beforehand and a bunch of reorientation afterward. And, so, now that back-to-school mania has calmed down, I am back.

I did chronicle our trip on a separate blog, which you can access here  at Summer Jet Setter. There are a few days missing on the end of the trip, but all of Paris is there in all it's glory.

To the left, you will see the most amazing Baked Egg dish I have ever experienced.  We managed a lot of eating in Paris, but this was the best for me. Half a dozen eggs, half a pound of bacon, some cream and lots of potatoes, and you have yourself a fabulous dish. The pan it was cooked in was brought to the table. I managed to eat almost the whole thing myself, but in hindsight, I wonder if this was meant for more than one person.

My good friend Fred went to Paris a few weeks after me. Before he left, he asked for explicit instructions on how to find the holy grail of baked eggs. I gave him the info, he missed the restaurant several times, finally found it, and sent me a lovely picture of his meal. Worth going half way around the world for these eggs, we both agreed.

Here is a recipe from Epicurious for baked eggs in ham crisps. I have not made it, but wanted to include at least a guide for how it's done.

Paris was extraordinary and I am very much prepared for the new school year and all that lay ahead!!