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I love where I live and always look forward to writing about what’s going on here in Portland. In the next few months I’m planning posts about some of the great things to see and do here. I’m kicking off this series with some big news for aspiring local cooks (like me). We have a fantastic, well established cooking school here in Portland, In Good Taste,  and I read in the food section of our local paper that they are offering cooking classes this month taught by two renowned cookbook authors and chefs, Nick Malgieri and Pamela Sheldon Johns. Chef Malgieri’s class on Italian Baking will be held February 9th, and Chef Johns’ class, Tuscan Farmhouse Cooking, will be held at the school on February 27th.  If you live in the greater Portland area or will be visiting anytime soon you should take a look at the great classes that In Good Taste has to offer. They are located in Lake Oswego, just a short drive from downtown Portland.

Chef Malgieri is the former Executive Pastry Chef at Windows on the World and 1996 inductee into Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. He is currently director of the baking program at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. His most recent cookbooks include Bake: Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking and The Modern Baker. He will be teaching a class on Italian baking that will include Torta di Zucchine e Ricotta (zucchini and ricotta pie sceented with parmigiano reggiano), Torta Caprese (Neapolitan chocolate walnut cake) and Amaretti ai Pignoli (chewy macaroons covered with pine nuts).

Chef Johns will share tales of her life on Poggio Etrusco, her organic Farm in Montepulciano, Italy,  where she produces her own extra-virgin olive oil. She is the author of 16 cookbooks including her latest, Cucina Povera: Tuscan Peasant Cooking. Pamela, her farm in Tuscany, and her cooking school have been featured by CNN Travel, Cooking Light, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, BBC.com and Canadian Geographic. She lives in Tuscany with her family.  Among the recipes she will demonstrate in her class are Crostini dello Cortile (crostini from the Farm Courtyard topped with organic chicken livers, Pici Aglione con le Briciole (hand rolled pasta with spicy tomato garlic sauce and toasted bread crumbs) and Mele al Forno (amaretti stuffed baked apples). If you would like to visit Pamela’s website you can find it here.

Don’t both of these classes sound wonderful!  The more I learn about cooking the more I want to know.  If the dates of these classes don’t work for you (the Italian baking class is this week!!!!) just check out In Good Taste’s calendar and I know you will find a class at a time that fits into your schedule.  I’ve even given their cooking classes as gifts to my family and friends.  Who wouldn’t love to receive that on a special occasion? Both chefs gave me a recipe to share with you in this post.  I haven’t tried them yet and will write about them just as soon as I do.

This recipe is on the cover of Pamela’s latest book, Cucina Povera: Tuscan Peasant Cooking.

Pomodori, Fagioli, e Cipolline
Roasted Tomatoes, Beans, and Little Onions

2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 pounds cipolline onions, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, trimmed and peeled
1 bulb fennel, cored and cut lengthwise into eighths
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 pint cherry tomatoes
3 cups cooked cannellini beans (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place the potatoes, cipolline, and fennel in a roasting pan. Add the olive oil and toss well to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Roast, turning occasionally, for 20 minutes. Add the tomatoes and roast another 10 to 15 minutes, or until the potatoes and cipolline are fork-tender and golden brown. Add the beans and serve at once.

Cooked Cannellini Beans
1 cup dried cannellini beans, rinsed and picked over
2 cloves garlic, gently smashed
3 fresh sage leaves
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

In a medium saucepan, combine the beans, garlic, and sage. Add water to cover by 2 inches and soak overnight.

Drain the beans and place them in a large stockpot with the garlic and sage. Add water to cover by 1 inch. Add 1/4 cup of the olive oil and the 1/2 teaspoon salt, cover, and bring to a boil. Skim any foam and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 2 hours, or until tender, adding water as needed to keep the beans moist as they cook.

Chef Malgieri generously gave me permission to select a recipe from his blog to share with you. In just a few months we will see fresh strawberries in the market, and there are even some decent berries available now, so I chose this mouthwatering tart.

 STRAWBERY CREAM CHEESE CRUMBLE TART

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I love a good sandwich. They are easy to assemble with endless variations of ingredients and are good any time of day.  Even if I weren’t counting calories right now this would be my lunch time choice at least once a week.  It starts with a really good bagel, Panera Bread’s are the best where I live and plain is my favorite.  A good smear of cream cheese goes onto each toasted bagel half, followed by a thin slice of red onion, sliced tomato, salt and pepper, then a good handful of clover sprouts.  A sprinkling of sunflower seeds finishes it off.

A little drizzle of vinaigrette, a slice of Black Forest ham or a bit of lox are delicious additions  to this wonderful sandwich. I haven’t figured out the calories here, but I know there aren’t a lot.   What’s your favorite sandwich?  Find more  recipes on the Reader’s Digest website.

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Have you ever heard of the VAT tax and wondered what it is? Several friends who are planning trips to Europe this spring and summer asked me about it and I thought the topic would make a good post. I hope this information will be useful and will give you confidence to claim your refunds if you are entitled to them.  Rick Steves is right – Tourists leave millions of dollars in Europe every year by not claiming their refunds.

A value added tax or VAT is a form of consumption tax. From the perspective of the buyer, it is a tax on the purchase price. From that of the seller, it is a tax only on the “value added” to a product, material or service. The “value added” to a product by a business is the sale price charged to its customer, minus the cost of materials and other taxable inputs. A VAT is like a sales tax in that ultimately only the end consumer is taxed.  - Wikipedia

 Rick Steves writes about it this way:

” Every year, tourists visiting Europe leave behind millions of dollars of refundable sales taxes. For some, the headache of collecting the refund is not worth the few dollars at stake. But if you do any serious shopping, it’s hard cash — free and fairly easy to claim.

You just have to bring your passport along on your shopping trip, get the necessary documents from the retailer, and track down the right folks at the airport, port, or border when you leave. (This will give you something to do while you’re hanging around waiting for your flight or ferry.)

The standard European Union Value-Added Tax ranges from 15 to 25 percent per country, averaging about 20 percent overall. Rates change; you can double-check with merchants when you’re there.

Unlike business travelers, tourists aren’t entitled to refunds on the tax they spend on hotels and meals. Still, you can get back most of the tax you paid on merchandise such as clothes, cuckoos, and crystal.

To get any refund, your purchase has to be above a certain amount — ranging from about $30 to several hundred dollars, depending on the country (except in Ireland, which has no minimum). Typically, you must ring up the minimum at a single retailer — you can’t add up your purchases from various shops to reach the required amount — so if you’re doing a lot of shopping, you’ll benefit from finding one spot where you can buy big. If you’ll be in Europe for a long time, shop near the end of your trip. You need to collect your refund within three months of your purchase.”

European Union Member States

If you would like to know more about the European Union you can find the information here.

I have received VAT tax refunds in Denmark, Germany, Italy and France and the procedure is basically the same in each country. If you plan to do any serious shopping the amount necessary to qualify for the tax is easy to reach.  If you are thinking about cookware in Paris I recommend E. Dehillerin  because they have the best of everything at the most reasonable prices we found anywhere.  For example, if you love copper cookware and find a beautiful saute or sauce pan with the price tag of 175€ the actual price after the 19.6% refund is 140.70€, a big difference in my book.

The VAT tax can really add up on big ticket items.

The VAT Tax in France is 19.6% and purchases of over 175€ are eligible for reimbursement of the tax. This minimum must be met with each retailer – you can’t add up your purchases from various shops.  That is one reason selecting a large retailer like E. Dehillerin can be a good choice.  It’s very easy to reach the €175 mark and an almost 20% refund is significant.  For a serious shopper, a family, or even several friends, pooling your purchases usually won’t make this a difficult limit to reach.

Getting a refund is easy (or more accurately worth the effort) if you just follow a few steps and make sure you have the correct paperwork. Ask retailers if they participate in the VAT program.  Be sure to have your passport with you when you make your purchases.  Ask the merchant to fill out the necessary paperwork and be sure it is completed BEFORE you leave the store.  Attach your receipt to the form. We purchased cookware at E. Dehillerin and they filled out all the paperwork and gave us a stamped return envelope so we could mail it from the airport, so that part of the process was easy.

When you arrive at the airport go to the Customs Desk BEFORE (very, very, very important) checking in (look for the Detaxe sign) .   They will want to see your passport, the paperwork from the merchant, your receipt and the purchased goods.  They will stamp your papers and you can mail them right there at the airport.  We had our refunds on our first credit card statement after the trip.

Make sure you allow enough time (at least an additional hour before the time required for checking in at the airport) for Customs. At CDG and Orly airports, you may find long lines of other travelers at the customs counter, especially during the tourist season. (Pray that you are not in line behind a tour group).  We had no problems with lines and got through the process very quickly.

A bit of a Catch 22 – You also want to make sure you don’t arrive too early. Customs at CDG will not process a claim more than 3 hours prior to your flight. Your flight must appear on the Departure board for customs to endorse your forms.

If all this sounds complicated and time consuming it really isn’t. There are just a few simple steps that you must take and it’s very important that these are done right (or forget it!!!!)  If you don’t get it right the first time just consider it a learning experience and you will know better next time.  You won’t be out anything except a little time and you may have a nice refund on your next credit card statement.

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I met my fellow farmers’ market vendor friend, Sue, at Panera Bread last Saturday for early morning coffee and as I was placing my order a tray of warm sour dough boules that Panera uses for soup bowls was brought out of the kitchen and placed on a rack right in front of me.  There was no way I could resist those golden brown little balls with their heavenly aroma so I bought several for the chowder I was planning to make for Sunday dinner.  These little bowls hold just the right amount of soup, soak up the perfect amount of liquid and are heavenly delicious with whatever you fill them with. Tear off little pieces of the crusty sour dough as you eat the filling  - a scrumptious meal all in one.

I prepared the bread bowls by cutting a slice off the top and hollowing out the boules to hold the amount of filling I wanted to use.  I brushed the insides with a little olive oil  and put them into a hot oven (400°) for about 6-8 minutes to toast them a little bit.  Fill the bread with hot soup (right to the top) and return to the oven for another 5-7 minutes. Depending on the filling turn the broiler on for a couple of minutes if you want the tops to crisp up and brown. I love quick and easy meals like this, don’t you?

I have filled these little bowls with so many different things: stews, chili, soups, veggies, the possibilities are endless. Just be sure  there is plenty of broth or gravy in the filling because the bread absorbs some (that’s what make it yummy) and you don’t want the filling to be dry.   This is a great dish to serve for Sunday brunch because  after the filling is gone the bread can be leisurely enjoyed with another cup of coffee or glass of juice (or another Mimosa).  Here are some suggestions for fillings that are perfect for these little bread bowls:

Fisherman’s Chowder

Pacific Coast Clam Chowder

Broccoli Cheddar Soup – very similar to Panera’s famous soup

Ribollita -  a classic bread and soup combo

Chili Molé – top with grated cheese, chopped tomato, avocado and cilantro

Hungarian Goulash 

This post is linked to Foodie Friday  at Designs by Gollum.  I hope you will stop by for a visit.

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It’s been an unusual week in my kitchen.  Three new recipes in a row were flops. I can’t remember the last time that happened.  The last one went directly from my oven to the trash.  What should have been tall, airy popovers were little hockey puck like blobs that hadn’t risen an inch.  By the time I fussed with this failure it was late afternoon and I needed something quick and simple for dinner. I had a chicken breast in the fridge, plus a few veggies and a box of puff pastry in the freezer and I decided on a recipe I knew wouldn’t let me down – chicken pot pies.

This is such a simple dish that a recipe really isn’t needed.   I poached the chicken breast in  3 cups chicken stock for about 20 minutes.   While it was cooking I sauteed diced carrots in butter until almost tender and then added diced onion and a little celery.  When this mixture was almost done I added a few peas and some chopped parsley. I then diced the chicken breast and divided it among 4 ramekins along with the veggie mixture.

I thickened the chicken stock to the consistency I like, not too thick, and poured it over the chicken and veggie mixture. I added plenty of gravy because the pastry top absorbs some of it while the pies bake.  I then cut a sheet of puff pastry into 4 oval shapes, decorated them with a few little heart cutouts and placed them on top of the chicken mixture.   I brushed the tops with a little beaten egg  and put them into a 400° oven for about 30 minutes or until bubbly and nicely browned. As Ina would say “how easy is that!”

I love trying new recipes and I hope I have better luck with what’s on the menu the rest of this week.  I may stick with the tried-and-trues for a few days until I feel adventurous again.  No snow today but it’s raining cats and dogs and blowing like crazy out there so I’m thinking a pot of goulash and some split pea and ham soup. I know these recipes won’t let me down.