The Madwoman of Eschalote (shallot)

Okay, maybe no one will get this but what the heck; shallots are so underused...

Ask anyone in France about shallots and you’ll have a long wait while these little jewels are given their due, along with sweet ciboulettes, Cevenne and Rostoff onions and the fact that a shallot stands in for an onion in almost any dish.

I love them because they are so lovely to look at! And one day in our open market after I had succumbed to their beauty, I found myself with 6 perfect shallots and two enormous zucchine, from my garden guru next door, and sliced all of vegetables up to roast, brushed with olive oil, in a hot oven for 25 minutes or until crispy.

I then tossed the roasted shallots and squash into the food processor with a small carton of Greek yogurt, mixed with summer’s fresh garlic for a curry and sitting, unused as yet, in the fridge. A squeeze of lemon and a spoon of parmesan, a whiz in the magic machine and voilà, a lovely summer pasta sauce!

But for me, shallots are indispensable when making a beurre blanc, which is the classic basis for a perfect and easy sauce Bernaise for meat, chicken, fish or vegetables. Shallots, in fact, permeate the recipes in a marvelous little book by Raymond Socolov (a good French name, non?) called The Saucier’s Apprentice, which I acquired years and years ago and worked through with joy, putting sauces on everything except the phone book to learn his tricks. Lovely writing and a practical textbook for making almost any sauce in a good French repertoire.

My easy pasta sauce:

2 medium zucchine, sliced thin

6-8 small shallots, peeled and sliced thin

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 cup Greek yogurt

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons parmesan

Juice of a small lemon

Toss the vegetables with the olive oil and place them on a baking sheet in a hot oven, 375F/200C and roast until the edges are crisp, about 25 minutes, or until they look good to you. In the bowl of a food processor, place the roast vegetables and the rest of the ingredients and whiz it up into a sauce. You may add a bit of broth if you wish to have it more liquid.

Shallots ROCK!

OOPS forgot the beure blanc:

2 small shallots, chopped fine

1/2 cup white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons white wine

Pinch of salt and pepper

250 g room temp butter

Simmer the shallots and wine vinegar with salt and pepper until you have only about 2-3 tablespoons left. Do not evaporate all of the liquid or disaster will happen. With the sauce off the heat, quickly whisk in the soft butter and as as the sauce emulses, watch to make sure it does not separate. Serve immediately with poached fish, rare filet mignon, or on just about anything on which to put this amazing sauce. Poached eggs? Poached fish of any kind? Breakfast toast, haha?