The new "Faitout" Shallow Casserole from Emile Henry

A few days ago, Emile Henry introduced a new Shallow Casserole. It's called "Faitout", and in English it has been translated as "One Pot". It has been named that to sum up everything it means: it is designed to cook the entire recipe you are going to prepare in it. It's fabulous!

Truth be told: I fell in love with it at first sight, because it has a beautiful design: elegant, traditional, with rounded lines that give it warmth... But when I discovered how it works I loved it even more. You'll see how it hooks you too! (and at the end I leave you a recipe with it that you'll love).

To design the Faitout Shallow Casserole, Emile Henry was inspired by traditional cooking of grains (rice, couscous, millet...), legumes, and pasta. Emile Henry also suggests using the Faitout technique with this Shallow Casserole, hence its name.

The Faitout technique consists of cooking your recipes entirely in the Shallow Casserole, avoiding the use of other utensils in parallel (which would be the traditional way of doing it), maximizing flavor and in record time.

To be more explicit I can say that there are many recipes that, using the traditional technique, you would prepare using a bunch of utensils: a pot to boil rice, pasta or legumes, a frying pan to sauté the vegetables, another to heat the sauce, a saucepan to boil the stock... The idea of the Faitout technique is to cook all the ingredients together (yes, even the water used to boil the rice).

What is the Faitout?

The main objective of the Faitout Shallow Casserole is to maximize flavor using a single utensil and minimize recipe prep time. To do this, there are some important tips for using it that will surely come in handy:

• Choose the base ingredient: rice, lentils, quinoa, bulgur, beans, pasta... Choose the base ingredient of your recipe and add the amount of water that ingredient requires to be cooked.
• Within the cooking time required by the main ingredient, we should have incorporated the rest of the ingredients. I'm sure you already know where this is going now, right?
• If you want, you can replace the water you need (or part of it) with meat or vegetable stock, to maximize the flavor.
• Next, prepare and add the vegetables you want in the recipe: zucchini, pumpkin, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, sweet potato, carrot, asparagus... Be creative! Think about the color, flavor, the contrast or the harmony you want in your dish.
• When choosing foods it is important to bear in mind that the faster the main ingredient cooks, the more quick-cooking vegetables you should choose, and vice versa.
• You can also play with the way you cut them: you can cut the vegetables into large cubes so they take longer to cook, or into small pieces to ensure they cook well if you have less time.
• You can also add small pieces of chicken, chorizo or other ingredients, such as fish and shellfish. Everything depends on your cravings!
• Spices are welcome too! If you sauté onion in the Faitout before adding the rest of the ingredients, you can also add the spices at that point, and they will play their role throughout the cooking. Or you can choose to add them at the end.
• You can also add aromatic herbs: basil, chives or cilantro to season the dish in no time.
• Seeds and nuts can also work wonderfully: cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds... They will add some crunch to your recipes.
• If you plan to add cheese, cream or another sauce, wait until all the ingredients are cooked before adding it.
• One warning: be careful with ingredients that absorb water, such as raisins, dried apricots, sun-dried tomatoes and other dried fruits. You can certainly add them, but the recommendation is to add a little more water than the main ingredient requires, because these ingredients will soak up some of it.

A Faitout recipe to inspire you!

Pasta with salmon and spinach

Preparation: 5 min
Cooking time: approx. 20 min.

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 350g linguine pasta
• 125g fresh spinach
• 150g smoked salmon
• 8 prawns
• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 200g Crème fraîche or cooking cream
• 4 sprigs of dill
• 750ml water
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Parmesan for garnish

Preparation:

1. Peel and chop the onion and garlic cloves into small pieces.
2. Wash the spinach and chop the dill.
3. Cut the salmon into strips.
4. Place all the ingredients (except the cream) in the Faitout and season to taste.
5. Add the water.
6. Cover and let cook over low/medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the prawns 10 minutes before the end of cooking and the cream 5 minutes before. Stir well.
7. Serve hot with some flakes of Parmesan.

** You can also use less cream (150 g) and replace it with 3 tablespoons of olive oil.
** For a more exotic flavor, add a little piece of ginger at the beginning of cooking and lime juice to taste. Garnish with finely chopped cilantro.
** Smoked salmon can be replaced with chicken or pork. Put the meat in the freezer for half an hour to harden it and be able to slice it thinly.

Advantages of the Faitout Shallow Casserole

1. You cook the entire recipe in a single utensil.
2. It is perfect for all kinds of grains, legumes and pasta (Do you know how many recipes you can make with it?).
3. You save time.
4. It is very clean, since one utensil is enough (and it is also easy to clean).
5. It is perfect for everyday use.
6. It is suitable for stovetops (gas and glass-ceramic) and can also go in the oven.
7. It is made with Emile Henry's high-quality ceramic which, besides not scratching and offering a 10-year warranty, provides excellent heat distribution for good cooking of recipes.
8. Its design is absolutely charming (Come on, don't tell me otherwise!)