David Lebovitz Recipes – Paris Aperitif Hour – New York Culinary Experience 2015

The NYCE 2015 held April 11 – 12, 2015 at The International Culinary Center brought top chefs, bakers, and food enthusiasts together to celebrate the goodness of food. As a dedicated practitioner of the cocktail hour, I was especially pleased to be able to take a class with, and cook alongside, David Lebovitz.

He has the impressive pedigree of having worked for 13 years with the renowned Alice Waters and co-owner, Executive Pastry Chef Lindsey Shere at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, he honed his skills at the Callebaut College (for chocolate-making) in Belgium, and at the Valhrona Chocolate School in France, was named one of the Top Five Pastry Chefs in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Chronicle, and has been featured in numerous magazine. He left the restaurant world in 1999 to focus his career writing about food, and has written seven cookbooks.

 
Chef David Lebovitz and Debra Argen 

The Apero or Apéritif Hour is the cocktail hour, a lovely segue from the end of the day to the beginning of the evening, and is light fare for you and your guests to enjoy before dinner. Having lived in Paris for more than a decade, David Lebovitz taught us the art of the Paris Apero hour with his tasty and delicious recipes.

During the course of the 2-hour 15-minute class, we made Gougères with Chives, which are lovely little crisp cheese pastries, and Moutabal made with eggplant, tahini, spices, herbs, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil, and topped with Dukkah a toasted and ground seed, spice, and nut mixture served over grilled baguette slices, which I have already made at home since taking David’s class.

We also learned to make Fig and Black Olive Tapenade, which had a rich sweetness that contrasted wonderfully with the Niçoise olives, lemon juice, whole grain mustard, garlic, capers, fresh rosemary, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Served on a bed of fromage frais, it was delicious spread on baked baguette slices. Also nice was the Glazed Salted Almonds which David likes to make and put in a cellophane bag and bring as a gift to dinner parties.

Throughout the course David enchanted the class with tidbits of life in Paris interspersed with teaching us techniques, about working at Chez Panisse, and about life in general. Our recipes finished, our efforts beautifully plated, we toasted David and each other with glasses of Banfi Centine Rose. As they say in France, Santé! (To your health!)

Chef David Lebovitz graciously shares his recipe for Moutabal with Dukkah for you to create and enjoy a delicious taste of The Apero Hour in Paris wherever you are.

David Lebovitz: Paris Apéritif Hour Class Menu

Gougères with Chives
Moutabal with Dukkah
Fig and Black Olive Tapenade with Fromage Frais
Glazed Salted Almonds

Suggested wine pairing: Banfi Centine Rose

Moutabal with Dukkah
Yield: About 2 Cups

Moutabal Ingredients:

Method: Preheat the oven to 375° F (190° C). Line a baking sheet with parchment, brush it with olive oil, and sprinkle it with salt.

Use a sharp knife to prick each eggplant a few times. Place each eggplant directly over the flame of a gas burner or grill, turning them as you go, to char the outside evenly. Depending on how smoky you want them to taste, cook them, rotating them, between 5 and 10 minutes.

Eggplant

When cool enough to handle, trim off the stems of the eggplants and split them lengthwise. Lay the eggplants cut side down on the baking sheet and roast in the oven until they feel completely soft, 30 to 40 minutes.

Remove the eggplants from the oven and when cool enough to handle, scrape the pulp from the skins into the bowl of a food processor. (You can also mash them by hand with a fork in a large bowl with the other ingredients.)

Add the tahini, salt, lemon juice, garlic, chili powder, olive oil, and parsley and puree until smooth. Spread in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and dukkah, and serve with crackers or toasted rounds of baguettes.

Storage: Moutabal will keep for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.

Dukkah

Dukkah Ingredients:

Method: Heat a skillet on the stovetop over medium heat.

Working successively, start with the sesame seeds, spreading them in an even layer in the pan and shaking or stirring them frequently, until they crackle and become lightly browned.

Scrape them into the bowl with the hazelnuts or peanuts. Toast the pumpkin, coriander, and fennel seeds in the same way, adding them to the bowl as they are done.

Finally, toast the peppercorns. Most will take less than a minute. Add the salt.

Grind the nuts, seeds, and spices together in a mortar and pestle, with a spice grinder, or in the bowl of a mini-food processor until well ground, but not too fine.

Dukkah will keep in a jar, at room temperature for up to one month, but tastes best closest to the when it is made. Santé!

Lindsay Busaniche, Debra Argen, and Chef Lebovitz

Read about the NYCE 2015 in the Gastronomy section and interviews and recipes from the chefs in the Chefs’ Recipes section.

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For information on attending The New York Culinary Experience 2016, please visit the New York magazine website: www.NYmag.com.

For information on The New York Culinary Experience 2016 as well as information on taking classes throughout the year with the excellent chef instructors at The International Culinary Center at their New York, California, or Italian Campuses, please visit the website: www.InternationalCulinaryCenter.com

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