Delicacies from Various Traiteurs in Paris

Although it is uncommon to order food to-go at restaurants in Europe, there are plenty of of traiteurs in Paris to cater to your take-out needs.  In 2006, I indulged in trying different traiteur delicacies in my neighborhood in the 7th arrondissement and ate like a queen in the comforts of my broom-closet-sized apartment.

My wonderfully functional broom-closet studio:

(from left to right) View of my bathroom door, kitchen, and "dining/study room" from my bed

There were a plethora of Chinese traiteurs all over Paris, mostly run by Chinese immigrants from Wenzhou.  Unlike Panda Express in the U.S., these Chinese fast-food joints display cold prepared dishes and price by weight.  Then you can opt to have them heat your box of food in the microwave.  It doesn't sound appetizing, but I admit that I've visited these traiteurs a few times when I'm too lazy to transfer 3 times on the metro to go to Chinatown.  Many of these Chinese traiteurs offer Vietnamese fare, like rice noodles topped with beef balls and Vietnamese egg rolls.  My favorite item from any Chinese traiteur is the brochette de poulet.  Though, far from Taiwanese, it's super tasty and brings back memories of street food in Taiwan in the middle of Paris.  An interesting thing I observed in Paris is that you will be hard-pressed to find Taiwan-imported food products.  I couldn't find any Taiwanese soy sauce and other condiments, which I'm used to getting in the states, and thus I bought my first bottle of China-made soy sauce in Paris.  I apologize for going on about Chinese traiteurs without actually having photos to share!  Reember, I was in Paris before I cared about writing about food.

But I did take pictures of some other prepared foods from French traiteurs.  I first noticed prepared foods at my local fish monger's.  I wanted to get some pieces of cod, and I kept eyeing at the beautiful stained-glass looking seafood terrines against the wall and vowed to buy one everytime I came to the market on rue Cler (Here's also another list of stores on rue Cler).  A slice of seafood terrine with a piece of fresh bread and a small plate of salad make a delicious lunch.

Seafood Terrines

The most beautiful of these seafood delights was the salmon tower I got from the same fish monger on rue Cler.

(bottom up) Salmon tartare, sour cream and dill gelee, leeks, sour cream and dill, slice of smoked salmon, and topped with ground cherry, raspberry, and strawberry

I also love buying peel and eat shrimp while at the poissonerie for lunch.

Peel & Eat Shrimp

Just a few stores down from that fish monger, which I believe is La Sablaise Poissonerie, is Davoli-la Maison du Jambon, a popular Italian traiteur specializing in all sorts of dried and cured meats.  They also have an assortment of head cheeses.  I once got a trio to try out and liked them well enough to want to try and make some sometime this year.  Davoli is packed around lunch time and the late afternoons.  It's exciting having to make decisions quickly from an abundance of delicacies with a crowd waiting hungrily behind you, but I always end up leaving thinking "shucks, I should've also gotten this and that."

Davoli-Masion du Jambon sausages; Trio of head cheese

Like with many places where I've previously lived, I always end up regretting not visiting more places and trying more things.  Here are a few more photos of prepared foods I ate, and yes, I definitely wish I were wise enough to have explored more traiteurs.  When my mom came to visit me, I planned on buying some amazing traiteur foods for a picnic on the Champ de Mars (just a couple blocks away from my place), but alas that never happened because I was "too busy."  Next time, to hell with what I think I need to do;  I'm going to stop and smell the roses!  Mom and I did manage to have an impromptu picnic at the end of the Mouffetard market in the 5th arrondissement munching on crab meat potato salad and terrines and drinking from a bottle of rose flavored sparkling water while sitting on the curb of a pedestrian street.  Yeah, not very refined of us, but we were hungry, we couldn't resist the crab salad that would surely spoil by the time we arrive back to the 7th arrondissement, other people were sitting on the curb listening to a band play in the streets, and it was a gorgeous spring day in Paris.

Potato Salad with Crab Meat; Terrines

Zucchini and Shrimp Terrine from Le Notre

Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs from Scratch

I've never made spaghetti sauce from scratch, and I thought that now is the perfect time to take on this time-consuming task.  My friend, Tammy, is of Italian descent, and she kindly gave me Lynn's, her mother's, spaghetti sauce and meatballs recipe.  I saw that the recipe called for canned crushed tomatoes, and I really wanted to use fresh tomatoes.  After searching all over the web with most recipes calling for canned tomatoes, I became worried that I fresh tomatoes would be out of the question.  I found out that you can use fresh tomatoes afterall, but it means more work.  I also researched other ingredients that can make my sauce stand out.  I came across a wonderful article by Kim Severson of The New York Times about a personal journey in tracing the roots of her family's spaghetti sauce. 

I immediately took a liking to her family's recipe because of the addition of a pound pork spareribs and chuck roast.  That's bound to be an exciting spaghetti sauce!  The Zappa family served these meats, including meatballs, piled high on the spaghetti. 

I decided to combine Lynn's and the Kappa family's recipes and use a variety of fresh tomatoes to develop my own homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs.

Fresh Tomatoes and Pork Ribs Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients

1 rack of baby back pork ribs

3.4 lbs roma tomatoes

1.3 lbs orange cluster tomatoes

2 lbs vine ripened tomatoes

1 box of sliced button mushrooms (steamed to get rid of excess liquid)

2 (6 oz) cans of tomato paste

2 dried bay leaf

1 1/2 chopped onions

3 roasted bell peppers

The Following Can Be As Much As You Want

garlic (minced)

fresh basil (thinly sliced)

ground oregano

thyme

rosemary

red pepper flakes

fresh parsley (minced)

olive oil

salt

sugar

red wine

Dry Ingredients: Salt, Sugar, Red Wine, Tomato Paste, Olive Oil, Ground Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme, Red Pepper Flakes

Sauce Ingredients: Browned Pork Ribs, Seeded-Skined-and Chopped Tomatoes, Basil, Onions, Steamed Mushrooms, Garlic, Roasted Bell Peppers

If you want to use fresh tomatoes, be prepared to skin and squeeze a whole lot of them. 

Roma, Vine Ripened, and Orange Cluster Tomatoes (around 6.7 lbs!)

First, quickly bathe the tomatoes (5 at a time for 5-10 seconds) in boiling water, then immediately put them in ice water to remove the skin.

Tomatoes in Boiling Water; Skinned Tomatoes

After you have skinned all the tomatoes, cut the tomatoes in quarters and squeeze the water and juice out.  Then, roughly chop the tomatoes.

Squeezing the Tomatoes; Chopped Tomatoes

The entire sauce-cooking process involves one pot, so make sure you get a large enough pot.  The first thing you do in this pot is brown the pork ribs.  Heat the pot with some olive oil and lightly seasoned the ribs with salt before placing them in the pot to brown.  Turn the ribs so they brown evenly and don't stick to the pot.  After the ribs have brownd, take them out and pour out the fat from the pot.  The ribs should not be fully cooked.

Browning Baby Back Ribs

Heat the pan with olive oil again, and toss the onions and garlic into the pot.  Once the onion is half tender, Arrange the ribs in the onion and garlic so that the ribs are touching the bottom of the pan.  Pour in the red wine and let simmer for 5 minutes.  Then top the ribs and onions with the steamed mushrooms, roasted bell peppers, and tomatoes.  Mix the ingredients together and let the stuff set for 5 minutes. Then mix in 2 cans of tomato paste.  Season the pot with some of the salt, sugar, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and red pepper flakes.  Be careful not to over season the sauce.  It's safer to go light and season as you go.  Let the sauce sit for 10 minutes, then add half of fresh basil and parsley.  Allow the sauce to simmer on low heat for about an hour.

Ribs and onions simmering in red wine; Adding mushrooms and roasted bell peppers

Mixing the fresh ingredients together; Adding basil

In the meantime, prep the meatballs!

Meatballs

Ingredients

2 lbs extra lean ground beef

1 lb lean ground pork

2 cups mixture of Italian bread crumbs and regular bread crumbs (I didn't have enough of Italian bread crumbs)

4 eggs

1 cup milk

parsley

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1 tbls olive oil

garlic (minced)

1/2 onion (finely chopped)

1/2 cup raisins

Meatball Ingredients

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl by hand except the raisins.  Put the bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes then add the raisins and roll the mixture into balls.  Brown the meatballs in olive oil on medium heat.  Don't overcrowd the pan.  Brown the meatballs evenly but don't cook it completely.  Drain the browned meatballs on paper towels.

Mixing the meatball ingredients; Rolled meatballs ready for the pan

Browning the meatballs; Browned meatballs

Once all the meatballs are browned, extract all the pork ribs from the tomato sauce if you don't want to serve the ribs with the spaghetti, and gently put the meatballs in the pot of simmering tomato sauce and simmer for at least another hour.  Taste test the sauce every now and then for seasoning.  Then serve sauce and meatballs on spaghetti.

Meatballs on tomato sauce before being pushed to the bottom of the pot

Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Spaghetti and Meatballs

I was pretty happy with my homemade sauce and meatballs, but I think I under-seasoned everything. 

Starting 2010 on an Italian Note

My brother is visiting from Dallas, and we celebrated his birthday at Cannoli Joe's.  Eddie loves Italian food and filet mignon, and Cannoli Joe's is offering filet mignon in their buffet line up every evening in January! 

Entrance to the "Villagio"

Yes, the building is Las Vegas-style cheesy, but if the food here is delicious, filling, and affordable and the service is attentive and not intrusive.  I had a wonderful time exploring the various clearly categorized sections of the buffet line.

Pork Section

My brother and I went straight for the filet mignon, and we were not the least bit disappointed!  The filet was flavorful and tender, and served at the right temperature.  I love how they drizzled minced garlic, parsley, and melted butter over the meat. Although I took photos of mostly meat dishes, the buffet has a surprising amount of vegetarian dishes.  One vegetarian must is the Pizza Bianca with Feta and Spinach!

Filet Mignon

White Bean Bruschetta and Pesto Pomodoro Bruschetta

Meatballs

Pizza Bianca with Spinach and Feta

My favorite part about the dessert section is the big selection of ice cream flavors.  I had two large scoops of coffee and pistachio.  By the time I finished the ice creams, I was too full to try the cannoli and other sweet temptations.

Happy Birthday, Eddie!

Thai-style Cucumber Pineapple Mint Salad

While stalking creative recipes online, I came upon the Saveur recommended Closet Cooking's Thai Cucumber and Pineapple Salad.  I love refreshing, tart-sweet salads, and this was a perfect companion for my soft-shell crabs. 

I used sriracha instead of bird's eye chili, and left out the cilantro and peanuts for a smoother, simpler salad, though I'm sure the salad is much more exciting à la Closet Cooking.

cucumbers, pineapples, mint, green onions, and limes

Thai Cucumber Pineapple Mint Salad

Soft-shell Crab with Sparkling White Wine Butter Sauce

I bought a box of frozen softshell crabs without having actually cooked one before in early December.  I finally opened the box of goodies New Year's Eve and created one of the tastiest lunch I've ever made adapted from Emeril's Sauteed Soft-shell Crabs with Garlic and Butter. 

Here's my version. 

Ingredients

Soft-shell Crab:

6 soft-shell crabs (defrosted if frozen & trimmed of inedible parts (lungs, sacs, etc.)

1/2 cup flour

Cajun seasoning

salt & pepper

vegetable oil

Sauce:

1/2 cup sparkling white wine or champagne

juice of 1/2 a lime or lemon

capers

1 shallot (minced)

1 Tbsp melted butter

Heat a small pot (I didn't want oil to splatter all over the kitchen so I opted not to use a fry pan) on medium low heat with enough vegetable oil to cover the top of a soft-shell crab.  Mix the flour, Cajun seasoning, and pepper in a deep dish plate.  Wash the crabs and make sure to pat them dry.  Sprinkle the crabs with just a tiny bit of salt on both sides then dust each with the flour mixture. 

Washed soft-shell crabs; flour seasoned with Cajun seasoning and pepper

Dredging the crab in seasoned flour

Test the oil by throwing in a piece of minced shallot.  If the oil bubbles around it, then gently put in the first crab into the oil.  Fry for about 5 minutes on each side then put the crab on paper towel to rid the excess oil.  If you have a bigger pot, use medium high heat to cook multiple crabs together rather than one-by-one.

Frying a soft-shell crab on both sides

Heat a small sauce pan on medium low heat and pour in the melted butter.  Once the butter is heated, sauté the shallots until tender.  Add capers, stir, add wine, and cover and let simmer for 3-5 minutes.  Add lemon/lime juice and let it simmer uncovered for another 2 minutes.

Sautéing the shallots until tender; Capers added before pouring in wine

I served the soft-shell crabs on Thai mint rice (Archer Farms boxed rice from Target) and spooned the sauce over the crabs and rice with a side of Thai-style cucumber pineapple mint salad.

Soft-shell Crab with Sparkling White Wine Butter Sauce

Soft-shell Crab with Thai Mint Rice and Cucumber Pineapple Mint Salad