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March 22, 2005

Shallots

While trying to remember how we spell échalote in English, I noticed Shallot.com, an entire site devoted to shallots. If I ever had to move away from France for a while, shallots would definitely be one of the things I would miss quickly.

Their recipe of the week at Shallot.com is a pâté. But another nice recipe with shallots is fried shallot vinaigrette which you cool and pour over mâche. I don't know what mâche is in English, but it looks like this:

mache

1-2 finely chopped shallots
Salad oil
Wine vinegar
Salt, fresh pepper

First you heat the oil until it starts to smell, then you take that off the heat and drop in the shallots. You need a deeper pan than you think because otherwise the oil splatters. The shallots should brown. You may even need to heat the oil a little more, depending on how much you use.

Next you grind on the pepper while the oil is still hot to get the flavor of the pepper. Finally you add the vinegar and salt. The vinegar will evaporate a bit in the hot oil, so be careful not to add too much.

Posted by Mark at March 22, 2005 09:32 PM