foodbeam

foodbeam has moved!

2007-03-25T04:30:00.000+02:00

After a little more than a year and a half it was time for foodbeam to have its own domain.
From now, new posts will be published on www.foodbeam.com

Please update your links and bookmarks!

You'll see that the new design is very... different; but the content remains the same (though i still have to upload pictures for old posts).

Hope to see you at www.foodbeam.com

PS. to answer some emails i've received: yes, the comments have been closed here. I thought it would be more convenient.

Love
- fanny

Une robe couleur de soleil - Sorbet au melon et au champagne

2007-03-20T07:21:00.000+01:00

[A dress as bright as the sun - Melon and champagne sorbet]

It seems I've always been what you would call a summer lover. Forget ski bunnies; for me everything is about sun, heat, sea, sand and ice cream. Oh and I forget: sunglasses.
I am truly inspired by summer and I think it shows.

In fact I *so* love summer that I can remember every single one of them: from 1989 to now. Most of my summers were spent at my grand-parents' house on the Atlantic coast and I would have my lovely cousin as a companion de jeu.

We would build des châteaux de sables immenses [sand castles], pretend we were selling ice cream (which was indeed made of a mix of sand and sea water), make rose water (that smelled like anything but actual rose water) and eventually, we would watch Peau d'Ane over and over again.
It had to be our favourite movie. Actually we knew every single song from it. But we were, first and foremost, fascinated by Peau d'Ane's dresses.
Une robe couleur du temps [a dress the colour of the sky]
Une robe couleur de lune [a dress the colour of the moon]
Une robe couleur de soleil [a dress as bright as the sun]

We would inevitably end up arguing about which dress was the most beautiful; for me it definitely was the robe couleur du temps. Though, I also really liked the dress as bright as the sun; a tough decision for sure.

However, no matter how pleasant these recollections are, my greatest memory has to be les melons charentais [melons from Charente] that my grandmother used to take back from the market every Saturday morning.
They were juicy and sweet; actually they were exactly what you expect from a melon.

Melon and champagne sorbet
Today I'm still considering melon as a favourite because it offers endless combinations.
I think it does work really well as a sorbet; it's fragrant and the bitterness of the champagne counterbalances the sweetness of the melon.
The resulting sorbet was really smooth and not icy at all. A real keeper.

Just a short note about how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker - although using an ice cream maker is more convinient and will give better results, you can try the freeze and mix method:
"Pour the ice cream mixture into a wide freezer-proof container. Cover with a sheet of greaseproof paper to avoid ice crystals forming on the surface. Cover with a lid and place on a level surface in the coldest part of the freezer.
After between ½-1½ hours, the sides of the ice cream will be solid, and the middle will remain a wet slush. Transfer it to a bowl and whisk with an electric beater, or by hand, until uniformly thick.
You could also pulse it in a food processor. When smooth, replace it in the freezer. Repeat 3 times, every ½-1 hour, or until the ice cream is uniformly thick. Freeze for another hour." (adapted from Waitrose)

Melon and champagne sorbet

serves 4

200g caster sugar
200ml oz water
1 ripe melon
150ml champagne

In a pan boil the water and caster sugar together until it reaches the short thread stage.
De-seed and skin the melon. Chop it into chunks and process until smooth. Add the cooled sugar syrup and champagne to the puréed melon, churn until frozen and place into the freezer.

Je crois que je suis amoureuse de quelqu'un - Un été en Nouvelle Zélande

2007-03-06T06:53:00.000+01:00

[I think I might be in love with someone - A summer in New Zealand]

Indeed in love I am.
I just love New Zeland summer. Actually I love it so much that I don't even have time to bake nor cook. And I do really miss it. So, promise, as soon as I get baking scales, it will smell of chocolate and sugar all over the campus.
Baking in progress...

Stepping into summer – Bill Granger’s peach, almond and yoghurt cake

2007-02-12T08:24:00.000+01:00

As you now, already know, I’ve arrived in New Zealand last Saturday; pretty jetlagged - to tell the truth - but still immensely happy.
There was just this thing that kept me slightly disappointed.
I had dreamt of beautiful sand beaches and a sun so bright you could hardly see. Well, what I found arriving here was – let’s say – far from my expectations.
Imagine England during autumn. Then you’ve got it: a cloudy, freezing cold weather; nothing less, nothing more.
Not really what you would call summer, wouldn’t you?

Though, today something happened. After the rain - so cold I thought it was snow -, the clouds disappeared leaving place to a harsh and hot sun.
I immediately switched my Converses for KJacques (lovely leather flip flops from St Tropez) and although my feet are now begging for thick wool socks, I can’t help but smile. Smile from happiness: summer is finally here.

Peach, almond and yoghurt cake
adapted from Bill Granger’s simply bill

While I didn’t make this cake today (actually made it last week with the New Zealander summer in mind) it makes a beautiful summer cake.
Think a moist, light yet dense and deliciously scented cake.
Again this cake comes from Bill Granger, who’s now become my reference for no-fuss cakes.
Indeed, I always loved his way to cook and enhance clean, simple flavours; but I seemed to have forgotten him a little - in favour of my ultimate food-hero: Pierre Hermé.
Luckily when I decided to go for a bake-lots-of-cakes day, I stumbled across this and this. The gorgeous pictures and appealing flavours had my name written all over.
I couldn’t resist and I’m glad I didn’t. This day, although exhausting, resulted in two stunning cakes – one that help me face my disgust for the chocolate-orange combination and one that was perfect to turn me on to summer.

The latter is a really straight forward cake that is perfect for breakfast, lunch, tea; or indeed for anytime of the day. A real keeper!
The yoghurt makes for a wonderfully most cake, while the peach and good dose of vanilla provided a subtle and stylish flavour.
And the almonds! What a nice touch: they give both a lovely aroma and a beautiful look.

Peach, almond and yoghurt cake

serves 8

220 g unsalted butter, softened
250 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
225g self-raising flour, sifted
50 ml milk
250 ml plain yoghurt
450g peach, skinned and cut into dices
50 g flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 170°C.
Grease and line the base of a 23cm springform cake pan.

Place the butter and sugar in a bowl mix until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, then the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
Fold in the flour, milk and yoghurt and mix until barely combined.
Gently add the peach chunks.

Pour the mixture into a pan and sprinkle with the almonds.
Bake for 1 hour and 20 min or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. If browning too quickly, cover top of the cake with foil for the last 20 min of cooking. Remove and cool.

Dessine moi un mouton - quand foodbeam part en Nouvelle Zelande

2007-02-10T07:49:00.000+01:00

[Draw me a sheep - when foodbeam goes to New Zealand]

I finally arrived in New Zealand this morning (or was it this afternoon?) after a lovely journey (have a just said lovely? - huml, weird how long flights affect your brain).

When I arrived into my flat, the first thing I checked was the kitchen and I'm pleased to say that it does have a true oven. How great is that?
So that doesn't mean foodbeam will be updated as often as it used to be, but I'll try to do my best (who am I kidding? I could *never* stop baking).

Love
- fanny

Thank you all for the sweet comments. They really cheered me up!

Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir, says the bitter orange – Sexiest marmalade

2007-02-05T16:09:00.000+01:00

Sometimes seducing a guy is a very easy task: you think, you wink, you double blink - dans la poche [easy peasy].
And other times it just isn’t; no matter how hard a girl tries, nothing happens.

Back in 1998, I remember this boy in my class whose hair definitely recalled Son Gohan’s (as a Super Saiyan – c’est evident).
It seemed he fancied anything but me; well he must have changed his mind.
Two years later, when I brought him a jar of some marmalade I had made I saw sparkles in his eyes.
I will never forget that day, the day he fell in love with me.
See! All it needs to win a guy’s heart is a jar of marmalade.

That day was now more than six years ago; though, whenever I try to play the lovely-and-adoring-girlfriend and bring breakfast to bed, I can get two different faces: either the as – grumpy – as – usual or the I – love - ~~you~~ marmalade – so – much.
You’ll guess the latter is only found when a fat pot of marmalade is sitting on the tray.
Hopefully I can never run out of it. Indeed I’m a very lucky girl and have a beautiful bitter orange tree in my garden, which gives dozens of oranges every other year.

Bitter oranges
The oranges from my garden are slightly smaller than regular oranges and thus are perfect for jam making as the pith isn’t too big.
If making marmalade, you must use organic non treated oranges.
Even though my oranges are 100% organic I wash them to get rid of bugs or earth/sand traces.

How does marmalade solidify? – Pip is the word
What I really like about this marmalade is that you don’t have to use any extra pectin as the pips provide enough of this gelling substance.
Pectin is a molecule made of different groupings of polysaccharides (complex sugars) and allows the formation of a gel.
There are two types of pectins: HM and LM which indicates the degree of etherification of the molecule. The higher the etherification, the faster the gel will set.

Bitter orange’s pectin and more generally, citrus fruits’ pectin, is HM (High Methoxyl) and can only form a gel in presence of acid (orange) and sugar. What a lucky (and delicious) coincidence!

Here we enclose the pips in muslin bags and soak them in the orange/water mixture so they release their pectin.

Bitter orange marmalade
This is not really a recipe as the quantities of water and sugar are utterly dependent upon how many oranges you have.
What you have to remember is that you’ll need:
1,8kg of water for each kg of orange
1,3kg of caster sugar for each kg of the orange/water mixture
Then you all you have to do is follow the steps. Easy!

Note - the marmalade will look runny at first but will solidify when resting.
It’s quite unusual to let the jars sit, open until the jam is set, but it allows the gel to form evenly.

Note bis - I just love this marmalade spread on hot crusty bread!

Note ter - Take in consideration the fact that this marmalade is made over three consecutive days.

Sexiest bitter orange marmalade

organic bitter oranges
water
caster sugar

Wash the oranges, slice them as finely as possible and save the pips.
Enclose the pips in some muslin squares (fanny: I used 10x10cm squares and made three bags for 1,5kg of oranges) and tie securely.

Weigh the oranges and write down the weight.
You’ll need orange weight x 1,8 = water weight in kg.
Place the orange slices, water and muslin bags in a large plastic bowl, cover and refrigerate for 24h

Boil the mixture for an hour and transfer back into the bowl. Let in a cool place for another 24h.

Weigh the mixture and write down the weight.
You’ll need mixture weight x 1,2 = sugar weight in kg.
Ok it sounds a lot, but hey, you’re making jam out of bitter oranges.
Discard the pips bags and mix in the sugar.
Boil for an hour and pour into sterilized jars.

Allow to set at room temperature. Close the jars and keep in a cool place.

Hate turned love – Gâteau au chocolat et à la mandarine

2007-02-02T20:25:00.000+01:00

[Mandarin chocolate cake]

When I was younger – and by younger I mean a lot more younger -, my father who worked at home used to take me to Cannes where we would go to Rohr, a posh salon de thé for tea.

He always had orangettes: candied orange peels dipped in bitter chocolate.
That was the kind of love me, feed me and hug me moments; except that I secretly loathed orangettes.
C’est amer et dégoutant! [it’s bitter and horrid], I would think hard (penser fort).

From then, I happily declined every chocolate/citrus treat I have been offered.
This combination is just not appealing to me. Well, I should say was, because I’m now happily and officially converted.

Gâteau au chocolat et à la mandarine
adapted from Bill Granger’s open kitchen

This cake combines the deep flavour of dark chocolate and the subtle sweetness of mandarin.
I think it works particularly well because mandarin is both fragrant and sweet; definitely not too sharp and it gives a satisfying intensity to the flourless chocolate base.

Serve the cake with mandarin slices to enhance the citrus taste and provide lovely juices.

Mandarin chocolate cake

serves 8-10

250g quality dark chocolate
250g unsalted butter, diced
6 eggs, separated
1tbsp mandarin zest
115g caster sugar
3 tbsp plain flour
25g almond meal
a pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 190°C and line a 23cm spring form pan with baking paper.
Place the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until just melted. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Place the egg yolk, mandarin zest and sugar in a bowl and mix until combined.
Gradually add the melted chocolate-butter, stirring.
Mix in the flour, almond meal and salt.

In a clean, dry bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff and fold gently into the chocolate mixture until barely combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes. The cake might look wet in the centre, but don’t worry, it’ll firm up while cooling.
Allow to cool completely in the tin and transfer to a serving platter.
Serve with mandarin slices.

Mastering the art of perfection – Riz au lait parfumé à la vanille

2007-01-20T18:39:00.000+01:00

I am a real perfectionist; the kind that would throw away a sheet of paper whenever something looks wrong: either the writing, the colours... just about anything in fact.
I’ve been known to remake things entirely for un petit rien [barely anything] from school notebooks to cakes; from paintings to recipes.

Indeed when it comes to recipes I’m rarely satisfied. It has to and it needs to be P-E-R-F-E-C-T.
Though, sometimes it clearly isn’t. But in this case, I could do anything to achieve perfection; and if it involves staying, covered with chocolate, flour and sugar, in a kitchen all night, then I don’t mind.

Riz au lait perfume à la vanille
It took me a long time to find the perfect recipe for riz au lait à la vanille.
Indeed, I did find my redemption in riz au lait au chocolat, but really wasn’t satisfied with the white kind of riz au lait.

It’s something quite tricky: too much rice and it’ll end up rock-hard; too much milk and what you’ll get will be looked over as a soup.

This riz au lait is just as it should be: creamy, beautifully flavoured and very comforting.
What makes it special is its cooking technique inspired by the lovely Dorie Greenspan. Parboiling the rice in water makes for an almost starchless grain which is unlikely to get sticky resulting in a perfectly balanced ratio of 'rice grains' and 'vanilla cream'.

For extra comfort, you can have it while it’s still warm. And then, you’ll understand what perfection really means.

Riz au lait parfumé à la vanille

serves 2

75 g arborio rice
400ml water
350 ml milk
1/2 vanilla pod, scraped
60 g caster sugar

Put the rice and water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Lower the temperature and cook the rice, uncovered for 10 minutes.
Drain the rice in a strainer and rinse it; set aside.
Rinse out the saucepan, then pour in the milk, sugar and the scraped vanilla bean. When it boils, stir in the cooked rice. Reduce the heat and let the mixture bubble away for about 30 minutes, stirring from time to time.
Remove the pan from the heat and transfer either into a large bowl or two small ramekins.
You can eat it warm or cold from the refrigerator.

Rage syndrome inducing – Pierre Hermé’s sablés au chocolat et à la fleur de sel

2007-01-14T14:19:00.000+01:00

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you utterly fail.
I did try, in fact, to resist to Pierre Hermé’s sablés au chocolat et à la fleur de sel.
But then, from the photo above you can tell I’ve given in – and what a defeat; because although I easily concede that, ‘yes, I’ve been weak and lacking of will-power’, now my current and unique obsession is to remake these as soon as possible (still I will make an effort and wait for at least a day or two).

Nevertheless, it is not my fault. It seems that every single person on this planet s’est donnée le mot [has been conspiring].
I was already, at the beginning, vulnerable and very receptive to the charms of these cookies: intensely chocolaty and beautifully salty. And the worldwide conspiracy didn’t help – at all.

By September I had developed weird symptoms of what might have looked like the ‘rage syndrome’: sudden attacks for no apparent reason; ~~the dog~~ fanny will often be sleeping and then attacks without warning. ~~Its~~ her eyes become dilated and sometimes change colour during and after an attack.
Beware because ~~the dog~~ fanny is totally confused when attacking and will not respond to any attempts to stop it her. The attacks are very unpredictable and ~~the dog~~ fanny will appear disorientated afterward and unaware of its actions, then return to ~~its~~ her normal self shortly after.
Victims are usually members of the family who have one or more chocolate and fleur de sel sablés in their hands.

However, and from what I remember, the climax of the strange behaviour I had was reached on the 5th January; when Deb posted, not one but, three pictures of the coveted little - rounds - of - pure - chocolate.
It was too much! Definitely too much!
I started panicking, fell petrified onto the floor and begun to sway, moving quickly from one position to another.
That’s all I can recall from that day; because, when I woke up the next day everything seemed back to normal. Back to normal except that now sitting on my bed table laid a plate of Pierre Hermé’s cookies instead of the usual pile of cookbooks.

* All you’ve read above is pure fiction :) Well, who am I kidding? Let’s say it is only ~~very~~ close to what really happened!

Sablés au chocolat et à la fleur de sel
adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from my home to yours

In French, sablés litteraly means ‘sandy’. And these are indeed deliciously sandy.
I love the contrast between the melting chocolate chunks and the texture of the sable itself.
The addition of salt is a brilliant idea: it doesn’t only enhance the profound chocolate taste but it also makes these cookies particularly desirable.
Dorie says you can keep them for three days – stored in an airtight container; though, I highly doubt you’ll be enough strong-minded to resist!

Note - The dough can be kept in the fridge for three days or frozen for two months (in which case you needn’t defrost it before baking; just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer).

Sablés au chocolat et à la fleur de sel

makes about 35 cookies

175g all-purpose flour
30g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
120g cup (packed) light brown sugar
50g cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g dark chocolate (fanny: I used 70% cocoa), chopped into chips

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.
Cream the butter on medium speed until soft. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and continue beating for another minute or two.
Pour in the flour and mix just until combined - work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly.
Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 4cm in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours (fanny : for me, overnight).

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Working with a sharp knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1cm thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 2cm between them.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature. But to be completely honest, I can't say what they taste like at room temperature as I couldn't help but eat them straight from the oven.

What happens next?

2007-01-01T09:54:00.000+01:00

I first intented not to write about the year to come. But then I thought twice; if 2006 has been an incredibly rich year, 2007 will even more exciting:

I couldn't imagine a best start: view on the beautiful fireworks from our suite :) at the Sheraton Park Tower Hotel.

I'm working on a new graphic design for foodbeam. Again? Yes, but it will be even sweeter.

I will study in New Zealand from February.

I will do a 10-week training period in ,what is probably know as, the best pâtisserie in France (but shhh... that's a secret).

Enough things to please a girl, hey!
Meanwhile, I wish you all a lovely year and thank you for all you've brought to me this year.

Une délicieuse bûche de Noël – Vanille, marron glacé et macaron moelleux à la châtaigne

2006-12-26T17:52:00.000+01:00

[A delicious Christmas log – Vanilla, candied chestnuts and fluffy chestnut macaron]

We all know one of those people who dream about Christmas all year long and when it’s finally time to celebrate - around mid-October (because, yes, these people start to act much earlier than others) -, spend days and nights thinking about the dinner, the presents, the decoration...

Well, I am one of these people.
Hi, my name is Fanny and I am a Christmasholic.

It usually starts from the 26th of December, occasionally from the 27th.
I know and feel it’s not sensible, but can’t help.
Without I even notice it, I’m already in the mood for next Christmas.
Whether it’s about the tree ornaments, the Christmas cards or the menu, I can’t stop my brain coming up with tons of ideas.
Thus, I keep hundreds (and I’m only slightly exaggerating) of Moleskine notebooks to write down every single one of these ideas.

When Christmas finally - and actually – arrives, I just have to leaf through these paper treasures to set all the variables of the equation:
ax + by + cz = BCPE
(BCPE standing for Best Christmas Party Ever)

A week ago, while searching for some inspiration for la bûche I remembered les petites notes griffonées sur un coin de feuille.
It reads - une délicieuse bûche de Noël: vanille, marron glacé et macaron à la châtaigne.

PS – I would understand now if you consider me a chestnut aficionado.

Bûche à la vanille et au marron glacé sur un macaron à la châtaigne
This bûche is made of a candied chestnut mousse encased in a vanilla mousse and wrapped in a stripped joconde.

Regarding the joconde biscuit, the result didn’t turn out as beautiful as expected. I guess the use of my father’s glue comb (self-note: buy a set of decorating combs!) has something to do with the almost disaster.

Both the mousses are delicious and complementary: the chestnut mousse is rich and sweet while the vanilla one is slightly tangy and more firm making for a balanced and delicate pudding.

The macaron is probably the best part of the bûche: satisfyingly sweet with caramel undertones and a pleasant chestnut flavour; definitely the real winner of the unforgettable Christmas Eve dinner.
Culinary speaking I’m not sure it would qualify as macaron though. Dacquoise would probably be more accurate, but the chewy texture, shiny crust and little ‘feet’ exude the macaron-attitude.

Macaron à la châtaigne

170g ground almonds
140g icing sugar
60g flour
4 large egg whites
100g light muscovado sugar
60g caster sugar
70g cooked chestnuts, in small pieces

Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Line a 30 x 40cm pan with baking paper.
Blitz the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor. Mix in the flour.
Whip the egg whites until stiff, add the sugars and continue whipping until they form firm peaks.
Pour over the almond mixture and incorporate gently. Mix in the cooked chestnut bits and pour the batter into the lined pan.
Bake for 18 minutes and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Note – you could also pipe the batter into small rounds for a macaron-look.

Happy Christmas

2006-12-25T08:39:00.000+01:00

Just in time to wish you a lovely christmas; may all your dreams come true.
I think mine have been fulfilled already: a beautiful family, delicious good news and a scrumptious Christmas eve dinner.

The dinner was indeed a delight.
toast de pomme de terre à la crème fraiche d’Isigny et aux œufs de lompes [fried potato slices topped with crème fraiche and lump eggs]
bubble and squeek in a spoon with alumettes de bacon
fourchettes de saumon et concombre avec crème fraiche citronnée [salmon and cucumber topped with a lemony crème fraiche]

dinde aux chanterelles avec une timbale de riz [turkey with chanterelles]

bûche au marron glacé et à la vanille [chesnut and vanilla bûche]

Fétichiste, moi? – Emotion infiniment vanille

2006-12-18T23:06:00.000+01:00

[Fetishist, me? – Emotion infiniment vanille]

Inspired by Pierre Hermé and adapted from:
Lisa Yockelson’s babas, Damien Pignolet’s chiboust and Bill Granger’s panacotta

Since I saw a television program about vanilla the other day, my dormant love for this delicate spice has been stimulated and definitely awaken.

There must be something unique about this plump, dark and oily pod; which makes it a fetish for every food lover.
Pierre Hermé says nothing less than ‘j’aime la vanille pour la pureté de son goût’ and it shows: November’s fetish collection was all about vanilla; from macarons to tartes, from éclairs to émotions.
Mais pourquoi faire simple quand on peut atteindre la perfection?
Because perfection there is: Pierre Hermé created a blend of three different vanilla types to achieve the perfect ‘goût vanille maison’.

Les vanilles

beloved Bourbon vanilla beans

La vanille du Mexique – Vanilla planifolia
It seems logical to start with mexican vanilla as it’s considered to be the ‘mother of all vanillas’.
Indeed, the first vanilla crops were found in Mexico where the Aztec would call it tlixochtitl - black flower.
Back to the kitchen, Mexican vanilla is creamy and sweet with woody undertones and has lots of seeds; which makes it perfect for uncooked puddings: from blanc-manger to ice creams.

La vanille de Madagascar – Vanilla bourbon (though, scientifically Vanilla bourbon is the same specie as Vanilla planifolia)
This one is perhaps the most sold over the world.
I guess its strong and rich vanilla flavour and its fat pod are the reasons for this success.
I am myself a self-proclaimed addict of bourbon vanilla – I throw it in nearly everything and the results are always lovely. Especially with baked goods; while with other vanillas the flavours can be altered by high temperatures, the strength of bourbon beans makes for a beautifully perfumed cake/bread...

La vanille de Tahiti - Vanilla tahitensis
I have a strange relationship with Tahitian vanilla – although it’s very different from the two species mentioned above I really like it.
Do you think the fact that my mother was born in Papeete has got something to do with it?
The pods are short and very plump (due to high water content – almost 35%) and have a pleasing floral and fruity fragrance. In few words: perfect with fruits – as part of a glaze brushed over the juicy berries of a tart or in syrup poured over a freshly-baked baba to serve with a dollop of whipped cream and caramelised pineapple slices.

Emotion infiniment vanille
This recipe is inspired by Pierre Hermé’s Emotion created for the Fetish Infiniment Vanille collection (14-26 nov. 2006).
As I had no recipe for it, I went ‘par-ci et par-là’ and came up with somewhat a recipe.
Yes, I know the actual Emotion has mascarpone in it – but I ran out of mascarpone so I went for the chiboust option and I’m glad I did as it brings creaminess to the whole thing.

It entremet is basically made of three layers (from top):
- Bourbon vanilla chiboust
- Bourbon vanilla baba infused with Tahitian vanilla syrup
- light Mexican vanilla 'gelée'

It’s not as time-consuming as the lengthy recipe suggests. You just need to prep up the things:
1. make the babas
2. while the babas are baking, make the vanilla syrup
3. make the vanilla gelée
4. make the crème patissière
5. make the Italian meringue and fold into the crème pâtissière to get a light yet creamy chiboust
6. ‘montage de l’Emotion’ = place each baba over the light vanilla gelée and top witn pipped chiboust

Emotion infiniment vanille

serves 6 (makes 6 x 170ml glasses)

1. for the baba
5g dried yeast
30ml tepid water (35°C)
1/4 tsp + 40g sugar extra
40g butter, melted and cooled down a little
1 egg
25g sugar
seeds from half a Bourbon vanilla pod
250g flour

Mix the yeast, water and 1/4 tsp of sugar. Stir well and let stand until the yeast swells.
In a large bowl, whisk the egg with the remaining sugar and vanilla. Mix in the melted butter. Combine the flour, a little at a time (fanny: more flour can be added if necessary) until you get a soft dough (fanny: it shouldn’t be sticky though).
Knead for 5 minutes and transfer to a well buttered bowl; loosely cover with foil and let the dough to rise at room temperature for an hour.
When doubled in size, lightly press the dough with the palm of your hand.
Butter and flour the inside of six cooking rings (of the same diameter as the glasses in which you’re going to serve your Emotions) or line them with baking paper.
Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and form each piece into a ball. Place a ball of dough at the bottom of each cooking ring; repeat with the remaining balls.
Allow to rise for another hour and preheat the oven to 180°C.
Bake the babas into preheated oven for 20 minutes or until puffy and golden. Transfer to a wire rack, unmould and place them in a deep baking dish and drench with vanilla syrup (fanny: try to coat them evenly).

2. for the vanilla syrup
240ml water
200g sugar
half a Tahitian vanilla pod

Place the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Slice the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape the seeds. Mix both the sliced pod and the seed to the syrup and simmer for 3 minutes until thickened but not coloured.

3. for the vanilla gelée
250ml semi-skimmed milk
40g sugar
2 leaves gelatine
seeds from half a Mexican vanilla pod
180ml single cream

Place the milk, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan over a medium heat, then bring to the boil before removing from the heat.
Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water until soft. Squeeze out the excess water and drop the gelatine into the hot milk mixture and whisk until dissolved.
Add the cream and whisk until smooth.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and divide between six glasses (capacity of 170ml) and chill for at least three hours.

4. for the crème pâtissière
250ml milk
half a Bourbon vanilla bean
3 egg yolks
40g sugar
20g cornflour

Put the milk into a saucepan, scrape out the seeds from the vanilla bean and ass to the pan along with the pod. Bring to the boil and set aside.
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until white and fluffy; mix in the corn flour.
Return the milk to the boil and beat into the egg mixture. Put this back into the pan and place over moderate heat.
Bring it to the boil, stirring constantly – until thick.
Place the crème into a bowl and mixing from time to time, bring it to room temperature.

5. for the vanilla chiboust
100g + 20g white sugar
50ml water
120ml egg whites (fanny: I used the three whites left after having made the crème pâtissière)
pinch of salt
1 quantity of crème pâtissière (see above)

In a sauce pan, place 100g of the sugar and water and bring to the boil.
When the temperature of the sugar syrup reached 110°C begin to beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff then add the remaining sugar.
As soon as the sugar syrup reaches 120°C (fanny: I usually spot this stage without a thermometer – the bubbles are smaller and the steam has disappeared), immediately add it to the meringue while beating continuously until the mixture cools down to room temperature.
Fold into the crème pâtissière and refrigerate for half an hour.

6. Montage des Emotions
For each glass, place a disk of soaked baba over the vanilla gelée, pressing down slightly in order to make it fit.
Place the chiboust in a piping bag (with a 1cm nozzle) and pipe it to cover the baba.
Chill for at least an hour.

Un trésor de pâtisserie - La Bonbonnière by Enri Lopez

2006-12-16T17:13:00.000+01:00

[A treasured pâtisserie - La Bonbonnière by Enri Lopez]

Corsica

Toulouse is a lovely city with hundreds of tiny streets you discover one day after another.
It’s like walking in a labyrinthe [labyrinth].

Last year, as I was discovering the hidden treasures my new ~~student~~ hometown, I spotted a lovely boutique which had the most beautiful and attractive front-window you could ever dream of – colourful, elegant and very delicious.
To tell the truth, the real thing that caught my eyes was a gigantic macarons croquenbouche.
I had to enter. And I did.

I will always remember that day. There were so many different patisseries I stayed in the shop - unsure about what to choose – for more than half an hour.
From that special day, I’ve been visiting La Bonbonnière every other week and always have a nice talk with the lovely lady that sells heaven in a box.

Corsica

This is a ‘Christmas special’. Every year, from November, the pastry chef makes this delicate entremet:
- mousse aux marrons avec des éclats de marron confits [chestnut mousse with candied chestnut chunks]
- bavaroise au whisky [whisky bavaroise]
- dacquoise aux amandes [almond dacquoise]

Macarons à la vanille

These macarons have a fine vanilla flavour and are speckled with loads of vanilla seeds from Mexico.

Gauguin

This is the first entremet I tried from La Bonbonnière and I am SO in love with it.
It might be the nostalgia of the first bite or the delicious combination of Manjari milk chocolate and cinnamon, but Gauguin embodies paradise – if paradise there is.

Provence

I was first attracted by this entremet because of its beauty. Imagine a shiny white glaze freckled with vanilla seeds.
Inside that stunning carapace sit:
- almond bavaroise
- diced pear
- pear bavaroise
- almond dacquoise

La Bonbonnière
41 r Tourneurs
31000 Toulouse
Tel.: 00 335 61 21 66 04

Menu for Hope III

2006-12-14T22:39:00.000+01:00

It seems time has been going faster than I expected and before I even got a chance to say 'I'm late', I was actually running late.
Such a shame I haven't been able to participate to Menu For Hope.

Menu For Hope is a wonderful event - created by the lovely Pim over at Chez Pim - and enables food (and wine) bloggers to raise money for a great cause.
Last year, 17 000$ were raised and given to UNICEF.

"This year, Menu for Hope III raises funds to support the UN World Food Programme, which provides hunger relief for needy people worldwide. To us Food Bloggers, food is a joy. On our blogs, we celebrate food as a delight or even an indulgence. Unfortunately, for many others who share our world do not share that privilege. For them, food is a matter of survival. This "Menu for Hope" is our small way to help." says Pim.

To tell the truth I have high expectations about 2006 fundraising as the raised sum reaches 15 000$ at the moment I write this post but also because this year prizes look wonderful.

I did spot a few favourites:
- a photography lesson with Heidi of 101 cookbooks [UW 10]
- lovely amai tea sweet cookies [EU 31]
- a dinner for four at Iggy's in Singapore [AP 01]
- a cute tea set [AP 42]
- the chance to visit Paris sweetest places with the ~~funniest guy~~ best chocolate expert you could ever dream of [EU 08]

How can you get a chance to win one of these fabulous prizes?

1. Go to the donation page at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhopeIII

2. Make a donation, each $10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Do tell us how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code.

3. If your company matches your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

5. Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 for the result of the raffle.

food - menu for hope III - fundraising

Smooth and grainy - Le paradoxe de la confiture de châtaigne à la vanille

2006-12-13T09:49:00.000+01:00

[Smooth and grainy - The paradox of chesnut and vanilla jam]

From Christine Ferber's Mes confitures (page 161)

Some weeks ago I decided to have a ‘jam-making’ weekend to celebrate my new cookbook from Christine Ferber.

I had heard lots of positive reviews about Mes confitures and couldn’t resist getting my hands at it.
Thus I randomly picked three recipes – all very vanilla-ish:
- confiture de châtaigne à la vanille [chesnut and vanilla jam]
- confiture de potimarron à la vanille [pumpkin and vanilla jam]
- confiture de tomate rouge à la vanille [tomato and vanilla jam]

Les châtaignes
I love chestnuts and their earthy smell.
They remind me of Christmas; especially of fairs where you would get piping hot chestnuts served in newspaper cones.
And while I’m on a confessional mood I should tell you that I am a severe crème de marron addict.
I can eat it straight from the pot – with a spoon.

Confiture de châtaigne à la vanille
I first thought it was supposed to be like a spread but after having read the recipe twice, I notice Christine doesn't call for a food mill. She just say 'crush any big bits with a wooden spoon'.
I find it quite original - chunky crème de marron.

Hence I was slightly disappointed when a lovely lady from Christine Ferber’s shop in Alsace told me it was a smooth jam.
I had had high expectations about a deconstructed crème de marron.

Anyway, it didn’t stop me from boiling the chestnuts and peeling them.
It actually took a lot of time ~~and nerve~~ to peel the chestnuts. I burnt my finger almost a billion times resulting in my poor thumbs being really sore and red!
Hopefully the nearly ready jam will ease my pain. Comfort food, they call it!

Indeed I wasn’t disappointed: the jam turned out as excellent as I expected it to be.
Sweet, but not overly so.
A perfect texture - smooth and grainy, but in a good way.
A delicious nutty taste you don’t get in bought-crème de marron (even the Faugier one).

Confiture de châtaigne à la vanille

1,2 kg chestnuts (= 800g peeled chestnuts)
1kg sugar (fanny: 800g would be enough)
400ml water (fanny: I had to add another 400ml of water)
1 vanilla pod

Start by cutting a little ‘x’ on each chestnut, add them to boiling water and boil them for 3 minutes.
Peel them; while you’re doing it don’t think about the pain but about the luscious jam you’re making (it really helps).
In a large pan, mix the peeled chestnuts, sugar water and seeds from the vanilla pod. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until the chestnuts are tender.
Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next morning, put the mixture back into a pan and bring to the boil stirring continuously.
Pass through a food mill and cook the resulting smooth paste on low heat for 10 minutes.
Ladle the jam into sterilized jars immediately and seal.

Le hasard fait bien les choses – Truffes à la cannelle, au caramel au beurre salé, au gingembre et à la vanille

2006-11-27T17:07:00.000+01:00

[Cinnamon, salted caramel, ginger and vanilla truffles]

I am currently working on the impact of colour - and more generally vision – on perceived flavour.
Many studies have shown that the colour of food has an influence on flavour.
what happens when one gets no visual hints? When the food eaten has the same exact form but different flavours?

Sugar High Friday was the perfect occasion for me to experiment.
I would make four different truffles but instead of shaping the ganaches into different forms and them dipping them into different tempered chocolate (for example, white chocolate speckled with vanilla seeds for the vanilla truffles), I would roll them in cocoa powder to get the same look and avoid a ~~fashion~~ kitchen faux-pas (it seems the current rule is to wear skinny jeans – preferably grey – with flats and a long sweater).

The results were astonishing – though predictable.
With visual clue (i.e. ganaches dipped in different chocolate)
The people detected the flavour almost immediately and the resulting perceived flavour was stronger.

Without visual clue (i.e. plain truffles rolled in cocoa powder)
It took a longer time for the people to guess the flavours which are now considered more subtle.

Apart from the experiment I am glad to say that these truffles - from Pierre Hermé's PH 10 - are a pure delight.
The invert sugar and good amount of butter make them smooth, sweet and strong.

- Balthazar or cinnamon truffles
This is always a winner combination. The cinnamon adds warmness to the already rich ganache.

- Makassar or salted caramel truffles
These were very mellow and had a great caramel au beurre salé flavour. They definitely were a favourite.

- Lou or ginger truffles
These had the most robust flavour; tangy and powerful. I really liked it at first but quickly got bored.

- Barbade or vanilla truffles
Probably the most difficult flavour to detect – very delicate at first but then you get a burst of banana/vanilla taste which is due to the vanilla-enriched ganaches.

It was very funny and exciting to pick a truffle, not knowing what taste it would have.
As we say in French: 'le hasard fait bien les choses'.

food - truffles - chocolate - pierre hermé - sugar high friday

Truffles in the making...

2006-11-21T00:31:00.000+01:00

Johanna of the Pasionnate Cook is the current host of Sugar High Friday. And this month theme is 'truffles'. Chocolate truffles.
I plan to make four truffles from my ultimate role-model - Pierre Hermé - recipes:
- Lou or ginger and milk chocolate truffles
- Makassar or salted caramel truffles
- Balthazar or cinnamon truffles
- Barbade or vanilla truffles (hence the picture)

Sadly i won't be able to write about these ganaches lusciously wrapped in chocolate till next monday.
'Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre...'

Un orage, deux voitures et un millionaire’s shortbread – Petits carrés au caramel et au chocolat

2006-11-11T19:17:00.000+01:00

[A storm, two cars and a millionaire’s shortbread]

Millionaire's shortbread; from Donna Hay's Gourmandises

Ivonne and Orchidea, asked us to share a special dish both comforting and full of memories. Here is my little story:

There are some days that are unforgettable; I mean, not willingly unforgettable. Those kinds of days you'd prefer not to remember or actually, days that end up making great stories for long winters' nights.
Indeed, if I knew an effective mean to reprogram my brain in order to dismiss memories from these days, I'm not sure I would go for it (though, I certainly would if asked right after 'la catastrophe' [the disaster]).
Looking back, I - now - remember those times with a hint of emotion because of all the lessons they taught me and all the benefits I've retained over the years.
Funnily enough, it seems that the benefits in question are mainly food-related. As if I was more keen to cook (or more possibly to eat) when utterly shocked.

Last July - the 29th to be accurate, my home-town was hit by a violent storm. My parents had left the house a few days before for a three-week journey.
The thunder started rumbling.
Without being aware of it, I started counting the seconds to get a rough idea of the location of the storm.
1, 2... Still far!
The minute after I felt what was unknown for me before - a loud crashing noise echoed and a bright light made me blind for a short moment. All this at the same exact time. The lighting had just hit the small road in front of my house.
I rushed to the kitchen and turned off all the electric appliances - including the oven, where a cake was being baked for 'le goûter'. Then, without thinking, I grabbed my father's car keys and jumped into the car, heading towards the south to escape to the storm.
When I finally got to my boyfriend's house I felt relieved yet shocked.

That night I received a text from my parents saying they would not be reachable for the next three days.
It was ok. I was in a safe place now.
But as the saying goes, 'il ne faut pas mettre la charue avant les boeufs'.

The next day, I was waited for in Cannes. But before going there, I had to go home to change clothes.
Just four kilometres away from home, the car stopped and wouldn't start again. I tried to reach my dad with no success - then I remembered the text and wondered why such a thing happened while I was alone. Alone. I must have prayed really hard because a few moments later I could finally hear the motor.
I was more than happy to be home again.
When ready to leave, I decided to take the other car - my mother's. I didn't want to risk to stay stuck in Cannes.

I went to the party. Everything went well. But then, later that night, when I got into the car and tried to start it, everything went from 'well' to 'dark'.
The battery was dead*.

Can you believe that in two days I faced a storm and the loss of two cars?

I was devastated. Devastated yet willing to bake. I picked up the first book on the shelf and decided I would make the first recipe I would spot. Millionaire's shortbread, it was; sounded good and comforting. Just what I needed. That THE benefit from this experience. Indeed I've made this recipe at least twice since that day of July.
And everytime I make these shortbreads, I still feel the same comfort they brought me after this awful day, which obviously make them taste even better (if possible!).

Hopefully, incidents do not happen that often. That would be too exhausting a life (even if you got a keeper-recipe each time)!

* Apparently the magnetic vibes of the storm had emptied the battery.

Millionaire’s shortbread
Apart from the fact that these squares brought me all the comfort I needed after that tiring event, they are very good.
The base calls for coconut, which is a great twist for the regular shortbread. The caramel mixture is so yummy I could eat it straight from the pan with ‘une petite cuillère’ and the use of oil (I prefer to use cocoa butter, but you can easily substitute it with sunflower oil) in the chocolate layer help getting a glossy look without having to temper the chocolate.
Note – I couldn’t help but use salted butter in the caramel mixture. I am such a ‘caramel au beurre salé’ lover!

Milionnaire's shortbread

for the base
135g flour
45g dried coconut
100g brown sugar
125g butter, melted

for the caramel layer
130g golden syrup
125g salted butter (see note above), melted butter
800g sweetened condensed milk

for the chocolate layer
185g best dark chocolate
3 tsp cocoa butter (use sunflower oil if not available)

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 20cm x 30 cm pan with baking parchment.
Make the base by mixing the flour, coconut, sugar and melted butter. Spoon this mixture into the tin and press to make an even layer. Bake for 10 minutes and transfer to a wire rack.
Place the golden syrup, butter and concentrated milk in a large pan and cook over low heat for 7 minutes. The mixture should be thick and caramel-brown in colour. Pour this over the base and bake for 20 minutes into the preheated oven. Allow to cool completely at room temperature, and then go on with the chocolate.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Mix in the cocoa butter and pour over the caramel. Chill until set.
Cut into small squares and eat!

Je suis en retard, en retard; ou peut-être au pays des merveilleuses tartes – Riz au lait au chocolat

2006-11-09T18:55:00.000+01:00

[I’m late, very late; or maybe I’m just in wonder(tart)land – Chocolate riz au lait]

A mad tea party, by Arthur Rackham

Time goes by and I suddenly realise that all I’ve been writting about last month are a pie, a tarte and a crostata.
Have I missed something? Was October the month of tart?

There must be something comforting in baking tarts.
The reward of turning simple ingredients such as butter, flour and sugar into a delicious dough, the calmness of kneading it and the reassuring fragrance that fills the entire house.
And indeed, there are – at least for me - few things that make me feel as comfy as tarts do.

A tart seems to be perfect to warm up the cold days autumn is now bringing us.
I guess my current passion for tarts will not stop anytime soon: I can’t wait to recreate the lovely pecan tart I had in Toronto and the pasteis de Belem a sweet friend brought me back from Portugal.
A never-ending ~~tea~~ tart party!

Though, I feel like something will – for a short moment – sooth my tart cravings.

Riz au lait au chocolat
Riz au lait, litteraly milk rice, is the French name for a pudding made of rice cooked in sweetened milk.
It is usually flavoured with vanilla or even cinnamon if one wants to feel warm and cosy.
But I like my riz au lait best when very chocolaty. But then I am the ultimate chocolate lover!
This quite unusual twist brings out – in my humble opinion – the creaminess of the pudding and transforms the rather homely dessert into a luxurious treat.

Riz au lait au chocolat au lait

serves 4

300g milk
60g arborio rice
25g sugar
seeds from 1 vanilla pod
15g butter
100g milk chocolate

Put the milk, rice, sugar and vanilla seeds in a pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to the lowest possible and simmer for 30 minutes or until almost all the milk has been absorbed.
Off the heat, mix in the butter and milk chocolate until melted and combined.
Divide the riz au lait between four ramekins and chill until set (at least 4 hours).

Quand j'étais petite... - Tarte à la figue et aux amandes

2006-10-28T15:12:00.000+02:00

[When i was a child... - Figs and almonds tarts]

From Jamie's Italy

Indian summer they call it.
I would rather say ‘opportunity to still get figs at the end of October’.
In fact, France is being blessed with summer-like temperatures and I am, on the other hand, blessed with plump figues noires [black figs].

I am a devoted lover of figs. When I was a child, I used stand up on my balançoire [swing] to reach the higher branches of the fig tree of our backyard, and then eat the result of my harvest in less than ten minutes. But I was fooling no one, my stained fingers and lips spoke for themselves!

Crostata di fichi
This is the perfect way to use ripe figs. It makes a well balanced pudding – the tartness of the figs complements the sweet frangipane in such a delicious way.

I think it tastes even better the next day, just chilled. I even had it for breakfast with a generous dollop of yoghurt.

Just a short note - althought the tins i used are *supercute* i really advise you to bake the tart in a 28cm tart tin as the frangipane/fig ratio is slightly too high when using two small tins instead of a large one.
It does improve the taste and balance to have less frangipane per slice and thus to use a 28cm tin.

Crostata di fichi

serves 8

15 whole figs, washed
30g caster sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
zest of 1 orange

for the shortcrust pastry:
125g butter
100g icing sugar
a small pinch of salt
255g plain flour
1 vanilla pod, scored lengthways and seeds removed
zest of a lemon
2 large egg yolks, preferably organic
2 tablespoons cold milk or water

for the frangipane:
285g blanched whole almonds
55g plain flour
255g unsalted butter
255g caster sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 vanilla pod, scored lengthways and seeds removed

First you will need to grease a loose-bottomed 28cm tart tin with a little of your butter.

To make your pastry, cream together the butter, icing sugar and salt and rub in the flour, vanilla seeds, lemon zest and egg yolks - you can do all this by hand or in a food processor. When the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs, add the cold milk or water. Pat and gently work the mixture together until you have a ball of dough, then flour it lightly. Don't work the pastry too much, otherwise it will become elastic and chewy, not flaky and short as you want it to be. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and place in the fridge for at least an hour. Remove it from the fridge, roll it out and line your tart tin. Place in the freezer for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake the pastry case for around 12 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and turn the heat down to 170°C.

To make the frangipane, blitz 255g of the whole almonds in a food processor until you have a fine powder and transfer this to a bowl with the flour. Now blitz the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add this to the almonds with the lightly beaten eggs, the vanilla seeds and the grappa and fold in until completely mixed and smooth. Place in the fridge for at least half an hour to firm up. Remove the stems from the figs, score each one on the top in the shape of a cross, then using your thumb push up from the base to open them out.

Spoon the chilled frangipane mixture into the pastry case, then lightly push the figs into the frangipane with the scored side up. Heat the sugar with the water and drizzle this syrup over the figs. Roughly chop the remaining almonds and sprinkle over the top with the thyme leaves and orange zest. Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes, or until the frangipane mixture has become firm and golden on the outside but is still soft in the middle. Allow to cool for about 30 to 40 minutes. Lovely served with a dollop of mascarpone or crème fraîche.

Une feuille morte en automne et une délicieuse tarte au nutella

2006-10-20T20:57:00.000+02:00

[A dead autumn leaf and a delicious nutella tart]

I am deeply in love with my origins.
Each year, around mid-October I remember the enchanting autumn I spent years and years ago in Unchio di Verbania, a small village just 4 kilometres north to the beautiful lago Maggiore, where my paternal grand parents were from.

There, in Piemonte, autumns are like golden ice – I walk on this small path. The dark-brown hearth, enriched with organic matter, is covered with dead leaves. The cold wind that comes from the montagna hits my face with such violence I almost faint.
This place exudes death and mystery. But at the same time it makes me alive and aware of every centimetre of my body.
This very unusual feeling haunts me.
Golden ice. Ghiaccio dorato.
Vibrant colours. Colori luminosi.

After a short moment, it’s difficult for the light to pierce the dense leafage of the hazelnut trees.
I suddenly remember my mother gave me a small basket to pick these small and perfectly round nuts. She wants to make a torta di nocciole – a fragrant hazelnut cake, cherished by every mamma italiana.
I accelerate my moves. Soon my wicker basket lined with a striped red tea towel is full.

Then, filled with the prospect of inhaling the aromatic fumes of the cake, fresh from the oven, I hasten.
I run as fast as possible. The leaves flutter under my steps. The wind, which seemed hostile a few moments ago, is now carrying me.
I arrive to the village, relieved to finally see the pale-blue shutters. I rush inside the house and immediately feel the warmth growing on my cheeks – both from heat and excitement!

Nutella tart
These sweet memories exalt the lusciousness of hazelnuts.
But though I love hazelnuts, I love even more hazelnuts with chocolate.

The pastry and filling are straightforward and turned out perfectly.
I made a 20cm tart, so there definitely was some ganache (can you really call a mix of butter/chocolate a ganache?) left.
I also used less hazelnut and didn't toast them before baking as I reckon 11 minutes in the oven would allow them to develop the nice nutty flavour you look after when roasting them first.
And as it was for my little sister - who doesn't like the bitterness of high cocoa percentage chocolate - I used a 60% cocoa solid chocolate for the ganache.

I could have made my proper gianduja but as Patrick said: “I, on the other hand, find Nutella to be completely delicious, far better than any homemade hazelnut chocolate spread I've made.” While I’m feeling confessional I have to admit that I do too.

Fernand et le potimarron magique - Pumpkin pie et autres délices d'automne

2006-10-08T19:07:00.000+02:00

[Fernand and the magic potimarron - Pumpkin pie and other autumn treats]

It happens once a week, sometimes even twice.
While I’m drinking my ever-favourite matcha soy latte on the stairs just in front of the main door of my house, I spot a paper bag, hanging on the gate.

I remember the first time; me, leaving the cup of tea on the higher step and walking down - slightly hesitant. I grab the vintage brown paper bag suspended on the faded gold gate.
The corners of the bag are stained.
I carefully open it while going up the stairs and to my greatest delight I discover its content: bright-orange carrots, gorgeous potimarron, shiny shallots and delicious coings [quinces].

Then I see a small paper - maintained pleated by a fine raffia ribbon - at the bottom of the bag. I carefully untie the bow and read the sweet note:
‘J’espère que ça vous plaira, ce ne sont que de modestes légumes de mon jardin mais qui sentent délicieusement bon l’automne.
Si vous avez un peu de temps, je serai ravi de vous faire visiter mon potager.
Fernand’
[I hope you’ll like it. Only humble vegetables from my garden, but they deliciously smell like autumn.
If you’ve got a little spare time, I’ll be glad to show you my kitchen garden.]

What a kind person! From then, I’ve been waiting for that old paper bag and literally craving for it.
And when it’s finally time for the sweet delivery I can’t refrain that smile on my face.

I smile. Sheer joy. But also because I can’t help but imagine Fernand picking his most beautiful vegetables, packing them with love and quietly hanging the bag on the gate without I even notice.

Pumpkin pie

Pumpkin pie has always been on of my favourites. It reminds me of the warmth and treasures of autumn.
I remember making this exact pumpkin pie years ago and I sincerely can't remember who gave me the recipe. All I know is that's it's both a keeper and a crowd-pleaser.
ps. I’m not giving exact cooking times because I didn't write them down.
As you can see on the picture the edges of the pie crust are slightly burnt: I tried to bake blind the pastry first and then bake the whole pie, which obviously didn't turn out as expected. Thus I can only advise you to check the pie now and then. It is cooked when set but still a little soft in the centre.

Pumpkin pie

serves 8

one sweet short crust pastry (I used Pierre Hermé’s recipe)
600g pumpkin, skinned and cut into 2cm chunks
2 eggs, lightly beaten
100g light muscovado sugar
350g condensed milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Place the pumpkin chunks into a roasting pan, loosely cover with foil and bake until soft (it should be easy to cut with a fork). Blend in a food processor, move to a sieve and allow to cool for at least an hour.
In a large bowl, mix the eggs, condensed milk, sugar, salt and spices. Add the pumpkin purée and stir well until smooth.
Line a 24cm tart tin with baking paper and drape the pastry into the tin.
Fill with the pumpkin mixture and bake at 180°C until cooked (see note above).
Cool completely before eating.

Pierre Hermé, je t'aime – History of a Cœur Velours

2006-09-04T17:03:00.000+02:00

Did I really need to write another post about Pierre Hermé? No, not really if we consider I've already spoken about this genius at least six times before.
I'm sorry but I can't help.

Pierre Hermé, je t'aime.
I love every single thing you make. Who can deny that you are the most creative pâtissier of the world.
Avocat banane chocolat
Pêche abricot safran
Chocolat au lait banane passion
Just to say three of them.

Pierre Hermé, je t'aime.
Though I already secretly knew I had to be a pâtissier, you gave me the courage to finally face the truth. Now I'm brave enough to say that as soon as I'll graduate and save enough money I will attend the pastry course at le Cordon Bleu to, one day, open my own patisserie.
Maybe it was my fate. I am a Lenoir's mascotte afterall.

Pierre Hermé, je t'aime.
By publishing a book collecting all your recipes you couldn't make me happier. At the second I had PH10 in my arms, I knew we would love each others.
This book is more than a cookbook. It's my bible. Whenever I feel like making something special I only have to open the book and choose (and there you don't have to be fiddly about the choosing time – it is long but every second is worth it).

After that love delclaration you may think I'm insane and though I pretend I'm not, I am, well almost!
I simply love Pierre Hermé's work to the point of no-return.
So when I say Pierre Hermé, I love you; I do mean, in fact, I love what you do, but isn't I love you more poetic than I love what you do?

This was just an introduction to a dessert I made the other ~~three~~ days.
- Did I already say how much I loved Plaisir Sucré?
- Everyone says YES!
So I pass this part.
Anyway this is, for me and for most of the people I know, milk chocolate heaven.
It was then a quick decision to make one for my dad's birthday. Though, I wanted it to look more like a birthday cake; thus when I found the recipe for Coeur Velours (otherwise know as Coeur Plaisir Sucré) I knew it was the ONE.

It takes quite a long time to make – I started Friday whereas the birthday party was on Sunday.
But although it's really time-consuming I simply don't mind because, for me, making of of Pierre Hermé's creation is like choosing the perfect wedding dress or to grow the perfect orchid. It needs time, love and devotion.

Here is its history.

Coeur Velours
This entremet de fête, as Pierre Hermé calls it, is another form of the famous Cerise sur le Gâteau.
It makes a lovely birthday cake and would be perfect in fact for every occasion (have you ever thought of self-inflicted parties – think 'I have a new car, why not make a party', or 'it's raining, why not…').
Pierre Hermé suggests that it should be eaten alone to underline the different tastes and textures and I can only agree with my maître-à-penser.

Coeur Velours

serves 8

Friday
make a list of all the ingredients needed
go food-shopping
write down a retro-planning

6pm – make the dacquoise aux noisettes
Preheat the oven to 170°C and line a large baking sheet.
Sieve the hazelnut powder (135g) and icing sugar (150g). Whip the egg whites (150g) with the caster sugar (50g) until stiff. Fold into the nutty mixture.
Pipe two 19cm disks on the lined baking sheet and sprinkle with roasted and crushed hazelnuts (125g).
Bake at 170°C for 25 minutes. Unmould and allow to cool on a wire rack until completely cold.

6.20pm – make the milk chocolate chantilly
Bring the cream (300g) to the boil and pour over the milk chocolate (210g), mix until smooth and place into an airtight container with some clingfilm on the surface to prevent the formation of a skin. Refrigerate overnight.

6.30pm – make the milk chocolate ganache
Bring the cream (115g) to the boil and pour over the milk chocolate (125g). Mix until smooth and allow to cool at room temperature. And don't forget to set 1/4 of the ganache aside.

6.45pm – check if your water pulveriser can actually pulverise chocolate
Now you know it doesn't work so you have to find a solution before Sunday.

7pm – make the praline feuilleté
After having read the PH10 recipe you finally decide you should (to preserve yourself from the nervous breakdown) use the fully approved one from My chocolate desserts
In a bowl mix the Nutella (200g), melted milk chocolate (50g), broken crêpes gavottes or rice krispies (30g) and melted butter (15g)

7.15pm – go back to your work; you still have a 50-page paper due in five weeks

8pm – spread the praline feuilleté over one of the dacquoise disks
Then freeze both disks

Saturday
9.15am – make the fines feuilles de chocolat au lait
Temper the milk chocolate (160g) and spread onto a rhodoïd sheet or two. As soon as it starts getting set, draw three 18,5cm circles. Keep in the fridge.

9.30am – spread the half of the chocolate ganache onto one chocolate disk, then top with the other chocolate disk, spread with the remaining ganache and top with the last chocolate sheet. Freeze.

10am – work, work, work!

12pm – line the side of a 19cm cercle à pâtisserie with the reserved ganache
Place the dacquoise, then the chocolate sheets/ganache then top with the whipped chocolate chantilly and cover with the upside-down dacquoise. Smooth the top with some remaining chantilly and freeze overnight.

Sunday
6.45am – melt 100g of milk chocolate with 50g of butter

7am – release the entremet from the cercle and ice it with the prepared mixture
After I discovered the pulvériser wouldn't pulverise chocolate, I decided to simply chill the milk chocolate/butter mixture then spread it on the entrement as you would for any icing/frosting.

7.20am – after having struggled against the ~~pulvérisateur~~ spatula, place the entremet on a nice cake stand, pop into the fridge and go back to bed

2pm – finally enjoy the delicious entremet and don't worry if it's not as good-looking as it was on the book

Now 100% sweet

2006-09-03T12:15:00.000+02:00

Something happened friday night.
Even though I've had already tried to create a new template for foodbeam countless times (without success - do I need to say that!) I started coding again and again and I finally managed to produce something I actually like.
foodbeam is now sweet and pink - just like me :)

I know there still are some problems and that it's best viewed with a 1024x768 resolution (actually if anyone can fix that white band on the right, it would be more than fantastic), but you know, foodbeam looks finally as I wanted it to do.

Thanks to Philippe for the background and to Girliebits design (for the templates that helped me to understand the categories)/CSS zen garden (for the inspiration) /CSS intro (for the tec' bits) for the great support throughout my labour.

food - blog - css - html

Ma France à manger - 5 things to eat before you die

2006-08-30T20:27:00.000+02:00

[My France to eat]

Be conscious that after having read this post you might develop severe addictions.

Two weeks ago, when I received an email from Melissa, writer of the gorgeous Traveler's lunchbox, I was –let's say- more than excited.
Firstly because she's my ultimate role-model and secondly because what she was planning was brilliant.
She wanted me and four other bloggers to come up with a list of 'five food recommendations, which can be dishes, ingredients, restaurants, recent infatuations, etc'.

PS Thank you Mae for tagging me as well, i was really honoured.

It took me a whole week to narrow my thirty-something list to just five things.
I would have never thought it would be so hard. But here is what I came up with:

le meilleur fromage de chèvre du monde [the best goat cheese in the world]
Once you'll have tried the goat cheese made by Bruno on La ferme des Courmettes, every other goat cheeses will be tasteless and rough.
Bruno probably makes the best organic goat cheese on earth. It's very fine and tasty.
I love the soft cheese covered with ground black pepper, the buche cendrée and the tapenade [black olive paste] soft goat cheese; though the tomes are also delicious.
Bruno is passionate about his work and it shows. Some of the best restaurants of the Côte d'Azur crave his cheeses.
But more than that, Bruno shared his knowledge and enthusiasm with me and now it's difficult for me to realize I won't work on la ferme again.
Thank you so much Bruno for all you've done for me. I've loved every single minute of the six weeks I spent on your farm.
PS. Merci Françoise pour tous ces bons moments.

la jonchée
Coming-up with this list I realised I might have an obsession I didn't suspect: cheese (OK I knew it but wouldn't admit the truth to myself).
Indeed three things on the list are cheese-related.
Jonchée is a local produce you can only find in Poitou-Charentes and in my case, in Fouras - the small town where my grandparents live.
Every day I would go to the marché and buy one or two jonchées.
It's definitely not easy to come up with a definition for jonchée.
I should tell you first that it is a kind of cheese flavoured with almond-oil, eaten with sugar or honey and shaped with a mat made of reed grass (a bit like a sushi mat).
Reed grass is called jonc in French, hence the name jonchée.
The jonc gives a peculiar, slightly bitter flavour so specific to the jonchée. And its texture is unique: a fairly dense exterior and a soft/very-fine interior.

le plaisir sucré
Plaisir Sucré is the easy-form of the famous Cerise sur le gateau Hermé created in 1994 (then he was only 24) pour redorer le blason de Fauchon.
I bought Pierre Hermé's Mes desserts au chocolat only for this and the least I can say is that I have not been disappointed.
The Plaisir Sucré I made might not be the better-looking one but it's the best thing I've ever eaten.
I'd love to give it another go to finally get the picture-perfect version but my memories are intact: the crunch of a quality milk chocolate sheet, the creaminess of a delicious chocolate Chantilly, the mellow of a milk chocolate ganache and the exquisite nuttiness of a hazelnut dacquoise base.

le fromage de brebis corse avec la confiture de figue de ma grand-mère [Corsican sheep's milk hard cheese with my grandmother fig's jam]
We all know that cheese and fruit (either fresh or in jam) make a great pairing. But the association of a hard sheep's milk cheese and a sweet fig's jam is pure heaven.
Each year my grandmother makes tons of jam (sad she doesn't have a blog I'm sure it would be SO popular + she could have been able participated to Nicky and Oliver's Can you can SHF) – including this great confiture de fig delicious alone, simply spread on toast but even more luscious when paired with Corsican cheese.

les artichaut au barbecue de Peter
Take baby provençal artichokes called poivrade, drench them in good quality olive oil and barbecue them and you'll end up with delicious caramelised yet crispy delights à la Peter – my boyfriend"s father.
These are a THE crowd-pleaser and my own weak spot!

OK so now i've got to tag 5 bloggers:
Marieke of Maison Dorré Trifles
Ooishi of Sooishi
Cathy of A blithe Palate
Joycelyn of Kuidaore
Keiko of Nordljus

food - list - to eat - foodbloggers guide to the globe

Mirror mirror on the wall ... who is the winner of them all?

2006-08-28T00:00:00.000+02:00

Seventy-two contestants! Hours of work! But gosh, this was worth the effort. Not only I discovered talented foodbloggers I didn't know before but I'm also cheerful to have participated to such an event involving the whole foodblogging community, which I'm proud to be part of.
So thank you everybody for participating, 'de près ou de loin'.
You'll notice the judges and myself have decided to add a couple (OK, a little more than that) of categories because some pictures really stood out and we wanted to congratulate the brilliant photographers (which is, in my opinion, the aim of Does my blog look good in this? -- Andrew, I hope you won't mind :*)

I can't make you wait any longer. Here are the results. Roulement de tambour...

It may be due to the heat or to the icy-licious pictures, but ice-cream is certainly THE big winner of this month challenge. Either in sandwich, in handmade buckets or in lovely cones... We are all melting for these beautiful iced delights.
Haalo from Melbourne gratifies us with a gorgeous blackberry semifreddo sandwhich.
We really liked the vitality of the bright pink and the cute heart details.
eatability – 9/10
originality – 9,75/10
aesthetics – 8,5/10
total – 27,25/30

This beautiful blueberry ice-cream picture hit us because of the wonderful composition and styling (Mae painted the buckets herself!) but also because of its quality.
eatability – 9,03/10
originality – 8,35/10
aesthetics – 9,83/10
total – 27,20

This sexy picture comes from Aun/S. We loved its sensuality – two ice-cream cones, a bottle of wine (is it wine/champagne Aun?)... Lighting and focus are also excellent making this picture a professional look-a-like.
eatability – 8,85/10
originality – 8,55/10
aesthetics – 9,60/10
total – 27/30

What is yummier than pancakes drenched in a melted-golden-like maple syrup? Nothing.
Kit proves us that simpler is better. A stack of fat pancakes and a drizzle of maple syrup and our judges are in heaven.
eatability – 8,85/10

Aesthetics is one of the main factors in food photography. With good lighting, sharpness and great composition you can make almost everything look luscious.
Lara's picture – aesthetically perfect exudes her love for good and fresh food and you can't deny she's one of the most talented photographs out there.
aesthetics – 8,65/10

Frozen yogurt is already original. But star-shaped frozen yoghurt is even more unusual.
This creation, by Nemisbéka, nicely astonished us by its ingenuity and its great focus, colour and perfect exposure.
originality – 8,73/10

A food picture always benefits from a sharp focus and thus from a great depth of field.
This picture taken by Andrew is a good example of terrific use of depth of field which results in a yummy yet stylish photo.

Although we tend to think that best food pictures are taken under natural light we really liked this one, taken by Bron.
The light might be slightly too bright but its use seems under control – we love the way the beam reflects on the tomatoes creating a great sparkling effect and revealing the top-freshness of the tomatoes.

Ribbons, placemats, napkins... are to food photography what hats, scarves and bags are to fashion – fundamental accessories.
Bea proves that a simple ribbon bow can have a great impact. Again simplicity is the key-word as we think that a crowded picture distracts the viewer from the central element (that accessories are supposed to highlight and not to hide): food!

Composition is –at least in my mind- the way the elements of a picture are positioned. In this case we wanted to highlight how a great arrangement could bring to light the food.
This minimal croissant picture by Bonnie is a good model: a stack of two croissants and another one in the background make the things clear – it's all about croissant!

This picture from Nicole has the cute factor that brings everyone into childhood again. The tiny cheesecakes, the glossy cherries... 'Hey, are we in Wonderland?' asks the rabbit.

Congratulations to all the participants and winners.
Here are some lovely badges created by Matt. Winners - feel free to use them on your blog.

And if you're interested in participating to next month's challenge, head over ToastPoint...

Mirror mirror on the wall ... does my blog look good in this? - The judges

2006-08-27T18:49:00.000+02:00

72 entries!
Wow that's a lot. But who is going to spend endless nights now?
The judges of course!

I choose a friendly panel of 4 judges + me. Some are foodbloggers, other aren't, but i think it's a quite a good thing since they have a food-virgin eye and can only be objective.

Anne-So is a french blogger. Her blog Cachemire et Soie is beautiful and explores design and girly stuff. She also loves her food. She recently made a lovely (and rock-and-roll!) Ispahan cake and you really shouldn't miss her post about eating a Ladurée religieuse - pure extasy!

Marieke is a Holland-based foodblogger i discovered quite late this year and now i wonder how i managed to live without knowing Maison Dorré Trifles before.
The pictures taken by Edwin (Marieke's husband) are a delight for the eyes and Marieke's writing is great.
I'm so happy she accepted to join the team because i really wanted to share with you this treasure-blog.
Look at this and i'm sure you'll all want to make a good-old trifle afterwards!

Ooishi, of So Ooishi, is one of the most talented foodblogger i know. I simply love her recipes and gorgeous pictures.
She's also a big fan of Japan -a passion which i share with her-; thus she likes her food to be cute. Have a look at this delicious post and you'll understand what i'm talking about.

David isn't a foodblogger, not even a blogger but he's a film student and my lovely ~~assistant~~ boyfriend.
He's been holding wooden boards (to make the pictures background), choosing between tons of pictures THE one i should blog about... ever since the birth of foodbeam. Hence, i ask you to give him your full confidence; this guy knows what he does.

And eventually, me.

food - photography - dmblgit

F is for... Fleur de Courgette

2006-08-26T11:23:00.000+02:00

When something is available for only few months you should rush for it; especially if it's fleur de courgette.
Fleurs de courgette, or courgette flowers are associated with provençal cooking in my mind because I don't know other ways to cook them that the way old grand-mères niçoises do.
But they're also linked with a memory of mine. The kind of memory you'd prefer to have forgotten. Though, this memory is thankfully soothed by the gorgeous courgette flowers. I suppose I'm not being very clear, so let me develop.

It is a hot summer day during the late eighties. My parents brought me on holiday along them and I am eager to discover the wonderful city of Marseille.
We go to the gorgeous beaches; we walk through attractive fruit/vegetable stalls at the farmers market...
It was all perfect. Perfect until the day my dad decided we should go at the grand place where the boule pétanque challenge takes place.
We sit here on a wooden faded-green bench and we watch.
It is so hot! But the high trees provide an enjoyable shadow, making the heat more bearable.
As usual, my chatty dad starts talking with the players and my name comes to the conversation.
'Fanny'
'In Provence there is a tradition. When a pétanque player looses 'il est fanny' [he's fanny]; meaning that he has to kiss the bottom of a girl called Fanny.'
I am there, sitting and unable to face my destiny. I am scared: I think the looser will actually try to kiss my bum (which is by the way prettily draped in a new-bought dress).
So as soon as the game reaches its near-end I press my parents.
'Maman, Papa! Allez on y va!' [Mum, Dad! Come on! Hurry up!]
Few minutes later we are – to my relief – quitting the grand place and heading towards a crique [creek] where friends of my parents are waiting for us.
As we are walking the air is getting packed with aromatic perfumes. 'On arrive bientôt!' [We're approaching!].
I can see the creek. A tiny little creek and a giant wooden tent! I rush inside the tent where Marcel is preparing the dinner.
I immediately spot the small basket filled with gorgeous yellow flowers. I ask Marcel what there are.
'Fleurs de courgette' 'J'aime pas les courgettes' [I don't like courgettes]
'Mais là, je suis sûr que tu vas adoré' [Maybe, but i can tell you that you're going to love this]
Indeed he was right. I loved it: a delicious combination of crispy batter and soft flower.
That night, Marcel also delighted us with a luscious bouillabaisse [fish soup].

Beignets de fleur de courgettes
These are, as suggested above, a pure treat: almost melting inside and dead-crispy outside.
Use male flowers for this and if you can, remove the stamens.
The batter I used here is a tempura wannabe though it's a little more thick.

Beignets de fleur de courgettes

serves 2 as a starter

6 fleurs de courgettes
1 egg yolk
100g flour
100ml ice-cold water
seasoning to taste
olive oil, to deep-fry

Fill a high pot with 4cm of olive oil and bring to the boil.
Mix the egg yolk, flour and water in a bowl. Season.
Dip the flowers in the batter and deep-fry until golden and crispy on both sides.
Eat as soon as ready.

Mirror mirror on the wall ... does my blog look good in this? - The last hours...

2006-08-24T10:48:00.000+02:00

Only few hours remaining till the end of this month Does my blog look good in this?
In case you've missed the last two episodes, Does my blog look good in this? is a food photography challenge and the submissions will be accepted until midnight.
So if you haven't submitted your best picture yet, it's still time to do so.

How to participate?
Read the submission guidelines.

Com'on! 70 bloggers from around the world have already submitted their picture. It's your turn NOW!
Grab the best food/drink picture posted on your blog during July and send me an email with your name and location, picture and camera used, permalink.

Where can I see the entries?
Check the gallery.

food - photography - dmblgit

Chili Prawn linguine and vintage cookbooks

2006-08-20T23:02:00.000+02:00

This summer, it seems that I cook more than I can reasonably eat and write about.
But this matter fact has shown me something: food and cooking hold a major place in my life.
I can't spend a day without:
1) cooking
2) thinking of interesting food / combination / recipe
3) buying things related to food (read: cookbooks, plates, placemats...)

However something quite strange is happening. I am literally bored of cookbooks. It seems I can't find one that really stands out.
For example, I love the design of Apples for Jam, but do I really need another recipe for beef pasta? I know I'll end buying this book because Tessa Kiros is such a great writer and inspiration, but what a strange feeling!
I tend to lean towards pastry chef cookbooks – such as my new favourite PH10.

Though, when I cook for myself I like to keep it simple and fresh. I love clean Asian flavours: lemongrass, soy sauce, coriander are high among my everyday favourites.
This was the simple comfort dish that I made at least once - if not twice - a week during the last few weeks.
It's pretty straightforward (as most of Bill Granger's recipes) but has that wow-factor that makes everyone sited at the table go wild.
I like to replace the linguine by egg-noodles, which adds a nice touch.

Anyway, I'd love to hear how you feel about recent cookbooks? What are your favourites and why?
Just a little parenthèse [parenthesis]: I'd like to buy some vintage cookbooks but I don't know where to start. So any suggestions would be appreciated!

food - prawn chili linguine - bill granger - cookbooks

Un diner à la Colombe d'Or

2006-08-13T16:18:00.000+02:00

[A dinner at la Colombe d'Or]
When I was offered a dinner at La Colombe d'Or I could help but accept. I mean, who would have preferred to stay at home with a bowl of pasta when you can visit one of the most beautiful restaurants of the French Riviera.
La Colombe d'Or is an auberge created in 1932 by a lovely couple that made it famous for both the art and the food.
And indeed, the place is gorgeous: from the beautiful white and blue themed terrace to the house - filled with thousands of stunning pieces of art.But the greatest surprise was certainly what you could find behind the door at the back: the swimming pool, a hidden treasure somewhere between relaxation and luxury. There, I fell in love with the coloured tiles.
The food was unpretentious yet excellent. It was certainly no Ferran Adria or Hervé This but the simplicity made it spectacular.
What you could call cuisine provençale et familiale in French.I had a lovely starter called Hors d'oeuvre – an assortment of dozens of ramequins: haricots, marinated red peppers, garlic beetroots, herring, couscous, Puy lentil salad, sardines... My favourites being: the delicious boudin noir [black pudding], the saffron rice and the tian de légumes.
The main course menu is well furnished - from lamb racks to quenelles de saumon. Simple and scrumptious!
A great selection of lovely dessert will please everyone; my little guilty pleasure being crème caramel. Yum, so good!
La Colombe d'Or is a great place to visit either to discover a haut-lieu of the post-world-war French art or simply to enjoy a glass of good wine, delicious provençal food and the beauty of the house and have an innoubliable [unforgettable] time.

food - st paul de vence - colombe d'or - restaurant

Mirror mirror on the wall ... does my blog look good in this? - The gallery

2006-08-07T13:50:00.000+02:00

One thing I love about Does my blog look good in this? is discovering new blogs and lots of talented people.
So if you feel the same as I do, check the gallery.
You can leave comments - I am sure both the judges and participants will appreciate it.

If you wish to participate it's not too late.
Please check the guidelines before submitting your entry.

food - photography - dmblgit

Il fait chaud! - Brioches au coeur de chocolat

2006-08-06T12:34:00.000+02:00

[It's hot! - Chocolate-hearted brioches]
Despite allowing you to go to the swimming pool/beach instead of doing the really-urgent-things-to-do, the heat wave that hit the south of France has few advantages.
Though, I try to remain as optimistic as possible.
OK it's deadly hot. But yeast is active at high temperatures, isn't it?

I really love to work with fresh yeast: its strong peppery smell; its lovely soft-rubber texture that's transformed in an airy mousse with hydration-warming.
However I always find it a bit difficult to get dough to rise properly during cold winters. Thus summer is, for me, the perfect time for a bit of yeast action: from chocolate soft rolls to bread; from cinnamon rolls to foccacia.

I do think that yeasted goods are highly rewarding for some reasons. One of them might be the scrumptious smell of freshly baked bread/rolls that fills the entire house or the delightful relation between the dough and you during the kneading-part of the job (once I start kneading the dough and feel it becoming warmer and softer it would be hard to stop me).

La brioche
Brioches are the typical pastry French children are served for breakfast or for le goûter and I was no exception.
I remember waiting endlessly for my dad to bring me to the boulangerie les mercredis [Wednesdays] where I would always have une brioche au sucre s'il-vous-plait [a sugar brioche, please]. These brioches were special in two ways, the first one being the ritual and the second one being the hidden surprise inside the brioche.
Because surprise there was! The first bite wouldn't tell you anything, but from the second bite you'd discover a melting chocolate heart.

Brioches au coeur de chocolat

makes 24 small brioches

500ml warm milk + extra milk
42g fresh yeast
1kg flour
200g caster sugar
a pinch of salt
2 large eggs
160g melted butter
24 milk or dark chocolate squares

Combine the milk, yeast and a teaspoon of the sugar in a bowl. Stir once or twice and allow rising for at least 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, remaining sugar and salt. Make a well in the centre and pour the yeast mixture on top of it.
Add the eggs and melted butter and mix, first with a round knife and then with your hands – until it forms a ball.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes. It should be soft and not sticky.
Butter generously a large bowl. Place the dough in the buttered bowl and let rise overnight in the fridge.
The next morning, allow the dough to come at room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Knead the dough and form small 90g balls and insert a chocolate square in the centre of each ball.
Fill two 12-bun muffin tin with the dough balls and let rise for 20 minutes. Brush with a little milk, then bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
If the tops get too brown loosely cover with foil.

Mirror mirror on the wall ... does my blog look good in this? - Call for entries

2006-08-03T11:42:00.000+02:00

foodbeam is the proud host for this month 'Does my blog look good in this?'.
This event, created by Ronald from LoveSicily, is a food photography challenge.

Who can participate?
Anyone with a blog (at least one month-old as you have to choose a picture posted during July), a camera and good food to be photographed.

How can I participate?
It is simple, just:
- choose a gorgeous food/drink picture posted on your blog during July
- email it to foodbeam with the subject heading DMBLGIT
+ tell me about you (name, location, name)
+ about your picture (what is it, which camera, permalink)
But do all this before the 24th of August!

Hey! It's bloody hard to choose THE picture, could you help me?
1. It must have been taken by you.
2. It must have been posted on your blog during July.
3. It must be food/drink related.
4. A panel of five judges will rate the pictures on:
eatability - do i want to stuff my face with it?
originality - is it out of the ordinary (composition, styling)?
aesthetics - is the focus/light/set-up gorgeous?
5. Want to make sure you're picture should be sent or not? Just check last month's DMBLGIT entries and winners.

I'm completely lost... Je suis perdu(e)...
You need help? I'm here to rescue you. Just send me an email and I'll do my best to answer all your questions.
Besoin d'aide? Je suis là pour ça. Envoyez moi un email et je ferais de mon mieux pour répondre à toutes vos questions.

Only one entry per person is allowed.
Judges can't enter the challenge.

Good luck to everyone!

food - photography - dmblgit

Mmm, c'est trop bon - Muffins aux pépites de chocolat

2006-07-30T17:40:00.000+02:00

[Yum, it's so delicious - Chocolate chip muffins]

From Lisa Yockelson's Chocolate Chocolate (page 156)

Today I have a confession to make.
I did say that ChocolateChocolate wasn't that good because
I did think that there were too many similar recipes; making the reading a bit confusing but
I did buy it and
I did like the cover, design, writing and pictures but
I did still think there were far too many junk chocolate added to the cakes and bars then
I did make one recipe and another
And now I do love this book.

The recipes are trustful. You can't go wrong: well explained, accurate measurements (even if it's in cups and spoons).
This book is now a favourite although I won't try all the recipes (especially the ones with chopped chocolate bars added or the ones loaded with shredded coconut).

To tell the truth, I was still unsure about my book choice when I received the book from amazon, but when I made the flourless bittersweet chocolate cake I slightly changed my mind. Maybe it wasn't as bad.
Though the true révélation was when I made the chocolate chip muffins. A pure killer recipe.

Chocolate chip muffins are the type of food I wouldn't eat as a child. I would always go for madeleines and sablés, but certainly not for muffins – not enough fashionable at that time to be sold in France.
Now I crave muffins – not as big as a piece of cake but equally delicious (to say the least).
Though I'm always scared when buying a muffin – it is going to be too dry or too cakey?
With Lisa's muffins, you really don't have to worry. They're perfect.

Giant chocolate chip muffins
These muffins are just delicious. The crumb is fine and light and you have chocolate chips at each bite.
They keep well for 3 days – though I love them still warm from the oven, but the big bonus is that you can freeze them baked for up to a month!

Chocolate chip muffins

makes 14

2 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chip (or a mixture of dark chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips)
160g butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
250ml milk

Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, toss the chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture.
Cream the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add the granulate sugar and beat for 2 minutes; add the light brown sugar and beat for a further 2 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract and beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Still beating – on low speed – alternately add the flour mixture (in 3 times) and the milk (in 2 times).
Stir in the chocolate chip and divide the batter between 14 muffin cups.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.
Place the muffin pan onto a wire rack and allow to cool for 20 minutes. Then remove the muffins from the pan and serve.

PS. Congrats to Sam that got oven 2000$ of pledges!
'Now Sam you can relax and have bite' says Lapinou...

Lapinou fait des muffins aux pépites de chocolat pour Sam

2006-07-28T22:08:00.000+02:00

[Lapinou makes chocolate chips muffins to support Sam]

In a little more than 16 hours, Sam will be blogging NON STOP for 24 hours!

Why?
By participating actively to the Blogathon, Sam will help a San Francisco charity: Food Runners.

What about Food Runners?
"The mission of Food Runners is to help alleviate hunger in San Francisco to help prevent waste and to help create community."
And what a mission!

How I can help?
You can donate here (you could even win a box of SF food goodies!) or show your support on your own blog.

Sam I wanted you to know Lapinou is fully supporting you by making delicious chocolate chip muffins to keep you awake for your audacious challenge.

Recipe to be posted tomorrow, because ~~I am~~ Lapinou is not as brave as Sam!

food - blogging - blogathon - san francisco - Food Runners - chocolate chip muffins - Lisa Yockelson

Il y a un an..

2006-07-24T13:07:00.000+02:00

[One year ago...]
...just back from Paris where I had exams, I decided to start a foodblog. After 48h spent on both nordljus and the traveler's lunchbox, I was ready (I'd really like to thank Keiko and Melissa for being such an inspiration).
I wasn't very confident with blogs nor I was with photography, but I though 'never mind, you love food, that should make it!'.

One year later, I realize how many things I've learnt: from making wine to macaroner; from whipping up the best chocolate chip cookie ever to taking care of goats… It's been a year full of experiences and I think I won't be wrong by saying that lots of these experiences have been motivated by foodbeam.

Foodbeam's been acting like someone who pushes you to make things. Everyday I would think of subjects on which I could write.
Before creating foodbeam, I would have never enjoyed visiting an ice-cream factory as much I did; because this year, I knew I'd be able to share my experience with you.
I do think sharing is the key-word of foodblogging. So I'd like to thank all of you who stopped by to share their own experience, making my food life a little more interesting everyday. I'd also like to thank all the great foodbloggers who have been and remain a daily inspiration, turning life into something yummy and blog-y-licious.
Here are some of my favourite articles among the tons of well-written blogs:
Melissa's sweet story. Jocelyn's brilliant write-up on macarons. Nicky and Oliver's pink pasta – creative, beautiful and tasty. Matt's funny articles. All of Keiko's pictures - she's so talented.

I've literally been overwhelmed by this food world and I'm not trying to escape yet. My love for food has been growing constantly from my childhood and even faster from last July.
I do love food in every single way. I love to shop for it, to prepare it, to grow/breed it...

To round up this 90th post, below is my top-ten:
Chocolate espresso cake with caffe-latte cream
August 12
This cake is one of the best chocolate-coffee cake I've ever had. As I admitted on the article, I'm not so much into coffee (drink), but I love it in sweets.
The cake itself is light. So the combo with the caffe-latte cream is a real winner: you end up with a fluffy as heaven cake.

Aubergine, yogurt and mint dip
October 15
I am fond of dips, salsas... And especially of a caviar d'aubergine my mother is used to make.
But this dip is quite special: creamy yet very fresh. I love the combinaison of aubergines and mint.
And the pinenuts really set the final touch, adding a nutty taste to make a perfectly balanced dip.

La pissaladiera
October 19
I was born in the Mediterranean and Mediterranean dishes hold a special place in my heart. I don't know about you, but when eating un pan bagna, une salade niçoise or du poisson délicieux péché en Méditerranée, I can feel the sun in my mouth. That may sound a bit odd, but that's the way it is.
This pissaladiera is a onion confit tart and is so full of sun.

Chocolate puff pastry
December 29
This is definitely one of my greatest discoveries of the year. Mostly because it was the first time I made puff pastry but also because of the chocolate-twist that really magnifies the feathery nature of puff-pastry.

Honey semifreddo
January 22
I love semifreddos because of their texture: between an ice-cream and a soufflé, in one word, dreamy!
This honey semifreddo is luscious and has a real melt-in-your-mouth consistency, which makes it the perfect treat to end a light summer lunch.

Macarons Plénitude
March 7
These are so special to me because this is the first recipe I made from one of my favourite cookbooks: PH10.
In this book, Pierre Hermé reveals the recipes for all his dazling creations.
The macaron plenitude is a caramel/chocolate macaron with a chocolate-caramel à la fleur de sel ganache. Really, what's not to love?

Choux et éclairs à la vanille
March 28
In France, you find vanilla éclairs in every single bakery. They're just part of French cuisine. When I was a child, I used to love them and I still do.
So making them at home is a good way to feed your cravings.
The choux pastry is from Pierre Hermé and the crème pâtissière is from Christophe Felder, a favourite pastry chef of mine.

Fanny and the Ice Cream Factory
April 7
Are you an ice-cream lover? Then you should read this post.
I'm lucky enough to be an engineering student and hence I can visit food factories.
This article sums up my visit of one of the leading ice-cream factories in France. Lots of behind-the-scene pictures!

Charlotte aux framboises et au fromage blanc
April 25
A charlotte is a pudding made of a savoiardi crust filled with a fruit mousse. It's fresh and frutty: the ultimate spring treat.
Everyone loves it, from 1-year-old to grow-ups.
PS. The picture was voted 'grand winner' for May DMBLGIT.

And because i can't resolve myself to choose only ten things, the last one:

Pistachio cake with orange blossom syrup
April 13
Using pistachios results in a highly fragrant and moist cake that will send you straight on the Moroccan coast. So delicious!

I am a 'mango chick' or should I say 'cheek'

2006-07-20T17:06:00.000+02:00

From Bill Granger's Sydney Food

I've always been in love with mangoes. But when I spotted this mango on the farmer's stall I couldn’t help but imagine myself walking through a mango orchard in India.
In my dream, the trees were beautiful. The air smelled like orange and lime tree flowers with just a hint of vanilla.
The mangoes were so red they looked like rubies suspended in a mass of green feathers. I picked one of these plump jewels. My fingers closed around something as smooth as a silk ribbon.
The farmer, who was looking at me with sympathy, gave me his small knife so I could peel off the divine skin of the fruit. He knew I couldn’t resist for another minute.
I carefully skinned the mango, revealing its golden flesh.
I closed my eyes and took it to my mouth. It was firm and juicy and tasted just like I had imagined.
Then I woke up. It was anything but India. But I still had that mango in my hand.

Mangoes are the sort of fruit I can never have enough of. Even though I buy almost a dozen of mangoes per week, they seem to disappear faster than it takes to say 'good bye'.
Before I even realize how good they are I've already devoured at least three of them! Can you believe this?
Finally, only one –out of twelve- was left. I had to keep it in a safe place by making this extraordinary tart.

Mango tart
This tart is an elegant way to use mangoes. The custard – bursting with vanilla flavours – is balanced by adding whipped crème fraiche and nicely enhances the vanilla hint of the mango.
The pastry is quite difficult to work with but patches beautifully, so don't be scared.

Mango tart

serves 8

1 quantity of sweet shortcrust pastry (see below)
250ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
25g butter
125ml cream, lightly whipped
1 big mango, peeled and sliced

On a lightly floured surface roll out the pastry. Lightly press the pastry into a 23cm tart tin and freeze for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Remove pastry shell from the freezer and line with baking paper. Fill with baking weights or rice and bake the shell for 10 minutes. Remove paper and weights. Bake for a further 10 minutes, until dry, golden and crisp. Leave to cool.
Place milk in a saucepan over medium heat and heat until just before boiling point. Add vanilla. Remove from heat.
Place egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and beat until thick. Add the cornstarch and hot milk and stir until smooth.
Return mixture to a clean saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until thickened.
Bring the custard to the boil, turn the heat down and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add butter, stirring to combine. Strain mixture into a bowl, lay plastic wrap on the surface and refrigerate until cold. Fold through cream.
Remove tart shell from the tin and place on a serving platter. Pour in custard and arrange mango slices decoratively on top.

for the sweet shortcrust pastry
260g plain flour
35g icing sugar
a pinch of salt
180g unsalted butter

Place the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and rub trough with fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Add 30ml of ice cold water and cut in with a knife until the dough comes together in a ball.
Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Willy Wonka's ever lasting chocolate gelato

2006-07-16T18:57:00.000+02:00

A little more than a year ago, the movie Charlie and the Chocolate factory was finally released on screen.
As a foodie and chocolate-addict I had to see it. I was sure I would enjoy and I did.
The story is great. But my favourite part of the movie is the behind-the-scene stuff: the luscious chocolate river, the whipped cream, the back-shop… A pure delight for both the eyes and mind.

Ever since I’ve been obsessed with chocolate (ok I admit I am finding a reason to my ever-chocolate-obsession); but how one can’t be obsessed with chocolate once one discovers the creativity and yumminess of Willy Wonka’s chocolates.

Sometimes I like to think that the WW chocolate factory does exist and that I am able to buy its delicious treats.
Sadly I can’t.
But by making this gelato I found the true essence of Willy Wonka’s ever lasting chocolate gelato: creamy, intense, delicious.

To tell the truth I came across gelato quite late in life. All I knew was crème glacée [ice cream] and sorbet.
I’ve always find ice cream a bit too creamy and sorbets a bit too icy; so the discovery of gelatos (or gelati) has changed my whole perception of iced delights.
I don’t really know how gelato should be defined, but in my approach a gelato (which is by the way the Italian name for ice cream) is an ice cream made without cream, but still containing eggs and dairy products.

I love gelato for many reasons:
it is creamy but not heavy
it is soft and not icy
in one word: THE ice cream luxury
As Willy Wonka could have said!

From Gourmet magazine July 99

Intense chocolate gelato
This gelato is very intense. I love its deep chocolate-flavour, its creamy texture and the fact that it holds its shape well even by hot summer weather.

Intense chocolate gelato

makes 1L

60g high-quality dark chocolate
375ml whole milk (fanny: I used semi-skimmed milk)
250ml condensed milk
160g white caster granulated sugar
100g Van Houten cocoa powder, sifted
4 large egg yolks
pinch salt

Coarsely chop the chocolate.
In a heavy saucepan bring the milk, condensed milk, and about half of sugar just to a simmer, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the cocoa powder and chocolate, whisking until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
In a bowl beat the egg yolks, remaining sugar and salt until thick and pale. Add the hot chocolate mixture in a slow stream, whisking, and pour into saucepan. Cook the custard over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Pour the custard through a sieve into a metal bowl set in ice and cold water and cool. Chill the custard, covered, until cold. Churn the custard in an ice-cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden for several hours.

Joyeux 14 Juillet!

2006-07-14T11:45:00.001+02:00

I wish you all the best:
good evening
good food
good drinks
good fireworks (i love fireworks!)

bastille day - fire works

An afternoon in Casablanca - Pistachio cake with orange blossom syrup

2006-07-13T11:55:00.000+02:00

From Bill Granger's Simply bill (page 221)

Remember, a few days ago I was wondering about how to use the tons of apricots from my backyard.
I got some lovely ideas from Joycelyn: slow roasted apricots in orange caramel; from Melissa: chilled apricot soup with Muscat and from Estelle: tarte renversée aux abricots et au sucre muscovado.
These recipes sound good for sure, but I didn't have le coup de foudre you need to have when discovering a recipe for the first time.

Then I completely forgot about apricots and decided to just have them fresh from the tree or in a chilled drink.
That's only when I started browsing for a pistachio cake recipe through my cookbooks that I found the best way to use these apricots for a sophisticated dessert – pistachio cake with orange blossom syrup.

The recipe originally calls for fresh figs. But figs aren't available yet here. Though, I was determined to make this cake with or without the figs.

Aren't pistachio and apricots known for being a winner combination? I had find: 1) a recipe to use the apricots I had been stocking and 2) a substitute for the figs.

Pistachio cake with orange blossom syrup
This cake reminds me of lazy afternoon spent on a charming terrace in Rabat, drinking delicious thé à la menthe and tons of homemade patisseries.
The breeze, the sea, the perfumes... are set back in my mind at each bite. These days are one of the best I've had and thus this cake is high-placed on my top-ten favourites.
It's definitely airy and all the flavours go so well together: pistachio, apricot and orange blossom. In one word, the Moroccan essence!

Pistachio cake with orange blossom syrup

serves 10

140g shelled pistachios
6 eggs, separated
225g caster sugar
185g yoghurt
125ml light-flavoured oil (fanny: i used 100ml canola oil and 25ml extra virgin olive oil)
150g flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 23cm springform tin with baking paper.
Finely grind the pistachios in a food processor.
Beat the egg yolks and half of the sugar until pale and frothy. Fold in the yogurt and oil. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and fold. Add the ground pistachios.
In a clean metal bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and gradually add the remaining sugar until very firm and glossy. Gently fold into the cake mixture.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes. Then loosely cover with foil and bake for another 15 minutes.
Leave to cool completely in the tin and unmould. Serve with the orange blossom syrup and the roasted apricots.

for the orange blossom syrup
225g caster sugar
125ml freshly squeezed orange juice
125ml water
1 tsp orange blossom water

Place all the ingredients into a large pan and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes until syrupy.

for the roasted apricots (adapted from Claudia Fleming's Roasted apricots with camomile)
10 apricots, halved and pitted
orange blossom syrup

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Sieve the syrup into a roasting tray. Place the apricots in the syrup, cut side down, then roast for about 10 minutes. Turn them over, baste with the syrup and roast for another 5 minutes. Keep aside both the apricots and the syrup.

Mousse au chocolat au lait et au caramel au beurre salé

2006-07-12T09:35:00.000+02:00

[Caramel au beurre salé and milk chocolate mousse]

From Trish Deseine's Du caramel plein la bouche (page 76)

On caramel au beurre salé
Caramel au beurre salé [salted butted caramel] might sound strange but it is a classic combination. The beurre salé [salted butter] enhance the caramel flavour, resulting in a delicious treat.
Caramel au beurre salé comes from the north-west of france, from somewhere between Bretagne and Normandie. In these places, it's a common statment to produce milk and thus cream and butter. And because of the proximity of the ocean/sea, salt is also produced for our greatest pleasure, leading to the confection of the famous caramels.

On chocolate and caramel
The association of caramel and chocolate is also un classique these days; from Pierre Hermé's macarons Plénitude to Michael Recchiuti's Burnt Caramel ganache.
This pair is also a favourite of mine.
It seems the caramel boosts the chocolate aroma. And to tell the truth it's nothing but science.
Chocolate = fermented + roasted + ground cocoa beans = Maillard reaction
Caramel = caramelised sugar = caramelisation

Maillard reaction and caramelisation are both non-enzymatic browning.
Non-enzymatic browning is responsible for colours (brown tones) and flavours (subtly burnt).
As a result, chocolate and caramel are made to go together, highlighting each others.

On chocolate, caramel AND salt
Salt is an effective taste-enhancer and adding salt to a confection enable to develop its flavours. Nothing less, nothing more!

Mousse au chocolat au lait et au caramel au beurre salé
This mousse is a delight. Chocolaty, caramely!
I love the way the chocolate and the caramel complement each others to form a perfect after-dinner pudding.
I like serving this mousse (and any other chocolate mousse) in espresso cups.
Let me think... Everything's been said! Enjoy.

Just a short note - The NY times recipe says 'deglaze with the cream and butter', while the butter should be added first until melted, then the boiling hot cream should be poured over. If you follow these two steps, seizing should not occur.

Mousse au chocolat au lait et au caramel au beurre salé

serves 6

100g granulated sugar
2 tbsp water
30g good-quality salted butter
200ml double cream or crème fleurette, heated to the boiling point
200g milk chocolate (38% cocoa solid)
3 eggs, separated

Make a caramel with the sugar and water.
Off the heat, mix in the butter until melted.
Then pour over the boiling hot cream and continue mixing til smooth.
Add the milk chocolate and wait for a minute or two for the chocolate to melt. Homogenise by mixing.
Mix in the egg yolks. Whisk the egg whites until they form firm peaks and fold into the chocolate mixture.
Divide between six ramekins and chill for at least 6 hours.

Une soupe couleur rubis - Gazpacho Andaluz

2006-07-09T11:44:00.000+02:00

[A ruby-red soup - Gazpacho Andaluz]

From Neil Perry's The food I love (page 94)

It seems i am into colours at the moment. Pink, bleu-blanc-rouge, orange, green...
I reckon it might be because of the summer; I don't know about you, but when in summer i agree eating is only brightly coloured food.

This gazpacho andaluz is a great example = intense red soup sprinkled with emeralds, rubies, gold chunks and diamonds.
What a paradox for a soup that was originally made of stale bread, garlic, olive oil, salt and vinegar!
Though, a soup known as ajo blanco [white garlic] is still eaten in Andalusia.
Ajo blanco is a bread, almond and garlic soup served sprinkled with green grapes and drizzled of olive oil
This soup appears to be quite close from the original gazpacho and sounds very interesting.
I can't wait to try it so I can finally sample this intriguing taste!
But this is another story...

Gazpacho is a good hint of what summer food should be: straightforward, refreshing and stunning-looking.
I think that in general, Mediterranean food offers the greastest possibilities regarding summer food.
Rich in vegetables, fruits, nuts and fish. It doesn't only sounds good but is good in taste and for your body.

Straightforward – isn't Mediterranean food based on simple flavours combined in the easiest way and just relying on the quality of the produce?
Refreshing – vegetables and fruits are packed with water and vitamins.
Stunning-looking – beautiful vibrant colours. Think olive oil, peppers, red onions, fresh herbs...

Gazpacho andaluz
This soup is so easy to make and a real delight to eat. Very fresh it makes a great entrée but could also make a lovely light lunch if you add freshly cooked seafood to it just before serving.
I love the way Neil Perry makes it: instead of grinding the vegetables in a mortar and pestle to get a nice texture, he suggests making a smooth soup and then sprinkling over diced tomatoes and peppers.

Gazpacho andaluz

serves 4

400g vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled, desseded and roughly diced
1 small cucumber, peeled and roughly diced
2 red peppers, peeled and roughly diced
1/2 green pepper, peeled and roughly diced
2 large red chillies, split, deseeded and chopped
1 fat garlic clove, finely chopped
1 brown onion, chopped
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
60ml extra virgin olive oil (fanny: I only used 30ml)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Tabasco sauce

for the confetti
1 vine-ripened tomato, peeled deseeded and very finely diced
1/2 small cucumber, peeled deseeded and very finely diced
1 red pepper, very finely diced (fanny: I used a yellow pepper instead)
1/2 green pepper, very finely diced
1 small red onion, very finely diced
olive oil

Put all the ingredients, except the extra virgin olive oil and seasoning in a blencer and add 125ml water. Blitz for at least 1 minute, until the mixture is smooth.
Sieve into a bowl and stir in the olive oil. Season to taste.
Chill for at least 2 hours.
In another bowl, mix all the confetti ingredients together and set aside.
Divide the soup between four glasses, sprinkle with the confetti and drizzle with olive oil.
If you like a bit of heat, add some Tabasco.
Serve immediately.

When Thierry Henry scores a goal... - Blueberry, raspberry and vanilla cake

2006-07-04T15:12:00.000+02:00

It all started last Saturday when France won 1-0 against the Brazilian team.
I'm not usually a football lover, but i have to admit i appreciate big events such as the world cup or the euro.
And as the saying goes, if you're going to get wet... you may as well ~~go swimming~~ make a tricolour dessert.
Then from Saturday, ideas started to pop in my head. One thing was clear: it had to be bleu-blanc-rouge [blue-white-red].
Let think...
Blue food? Hum... Ten minutes after = eureka, les blueberries c'est bleu non? [Blueberries are blue, aren't they?]
Red food? Big choice: lots of berries = strawberries, raspberries, red gooseberries, red currant etc.
I started with a blueberry, raspberry and vanilla pannacotta, but i really wanted to make something that resembled the French flag.
Then i remembered a beautiful blueberry layer cake in the 21st issue of Donna Hay Magazine. Though the recipe didn't sound that good.
I had to find a good and simple butter cake.
At that exact moment, Bill (read Granger) came to help me with his delicious butter cake from Sydney Food.
I finally had my French glory cake!

Bluebbery, raspberry and vanilla cake
The cake itself is adapted from Bill Granger's Sydney food. I reduced the the amount of baking powder used because i wanted the cake to be dense.
The icing is made of fresh ricotta mixed with a little fromage blanc or yogurt, icing sugar and vanilla seeds. It goes so well with the dense-almost-almondy cake.
As for the fruit topping use whatever fruits you've got on hand - just remember that tangy fruits like blueberries, raspberries or redcurrant help balancing the lusciousness of the cake + ricotta icing.

Bluebbery, raspberry and vanilla cake

serves 8-12

for the cake
160g flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
83g butter, softened
130g caster sugar
2 eggs
seeds from half a vanilla pod
160ml sour cream

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl.
Place the butter and sugar in a bowl an cream together.
Add the eggs and vanilla seeds and mix. Add the dry ingredients, alternating with sour cream, mixing well after each addition.
Pour the cake batter into a lined 18x22cm rectangle cake tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn onto a wire rack until completely cold.

for the ricotta icing and the fruit topping
250g ricotta
2 tbsp fromage blanc
seeds from half a vanilla pod
30g icing sugar
a big handful of blueberries
a big handful of raspberries

Combine the ricotta, fromage blanc, vanilla seeds and icing sugar and mix until smooth. Spread the top of the cake with this icing. Arrange the berries on top.

Note - this cake offers many possibilities from laid-back after-barbecue cake to posh summer dinner cake.

For the latter one, i reckon using only blueberries gives a sophisticated touche.

Le temps des abricots

2006-07-02T19:42:00.000+02:00

[Apricots' time]

Apricots... What to say about apricots?
A golden velvety skin.
A sweet tender flesh.
Really you must love them!

I'm lucky to have an apricot tree in the back of my garden and though the tree is really old, it still produces the best apricots one can have. Juicy, sweet and soft... In one word: the perfect apricot.
It seems the combinations are endless. But with apricots i usually prefer to keep it simple.
Bite in a luscious apricot just picked from the tree.
Or cook them into a compote.
Or mix them with ice, as below, to get a fresh summer drink.
Or slice them finely and sprinkle over a goat's milk faiselle with a drizzle of honey.

Today i'd like to discover something new and i am interested in the ways YOU use apricots.
Do you have a favourite recipe using apricots?
I am looking for a sophisticated dessert that highlights the freshness of apricots.
Any suggestion welcome!

Summer apricot iced drink

This drink embodies the fruit at its purest form. No added sugar, just ice and water.
It is very refreshing, as you may have already guessed.
I love to have this after a hot summer day or even in the morning, for breakfast.

Summer apricot iced drink

serves 2

4 apricots
2 cups ice cubes
1/4 cup iced water
a handful of icecubes, extra

Put everything into a food processor and blitz for at least 40 seconds.
Pour in tall glasses and add extra icecubes.
Serve and chill your mouth!

La vie en rose - Macarons à la rose de Pierre Hermé

2006-06-28T15:41:00.001+02:00

[Life in pink - Pierre Hermé's Rose macarons]

I think one of the best secrets for incredible food is bright and eye-catching colours; at least in the patisserie realm.
You're not so sure?
Check Ladurée's religieuse, Fauchon's éclairs or Hermé's truffles. Don't they look yummy?

I do love black and white photos but I believe that colour photography enhances the deliciousness of food.
However some people can even make food look scrumptious in b&w.
But to tell the truth, when I look at black and white food pictures, my eyes do their best to retrieve the colours.
Though, it seems that simple objects (like vegetables or fruits) benefits from black and white; in contrast elaborated dishes can't go without colour (at least in my mind). I'm afraid to say that even if this quiche looks mouth-watering, a colour picture would have made it twice as good.

There is something I particularly fancy about colour in food: when the colour leads your senses somewhere the taste definitely isn't. Imagine a red religieuse. You think strawberry. I say tomato. Another good example is the crème brûlée I recently made. Green! You think Matcha. I say Guimauve.
Here are the consequences of the trendy cuisine.
But sometimes it can be a disappointment; the reality being far from what you expected.
That's why I have to admit I also like colours to be more classic: chocolate brown for chocolat or purple for violette.

I love to describe a colour tone by adding a food adjective (like pistache for pistachio green) because it shows how much food and colour are related.
One of the best example remains rose.
Rose is both a colour [pink] and a flower [rose].

You might have noticed I am a big pink lover: from life in general to food (one of my pictures was even said to have an Alice in Wonderland look).
So when I saw this recipe for Rose Macarons in my favourite Pâtisserie cookbook, I had to make it.

Macarons à la rose
Macarons are quite tricky. When making them you should really take care to the following few points:
1. Blitz in a food processor the almonds and icing sugar for a good minute.
2. Sieve the almond/icing sugar powder twice.
3. Bring the syrup (used for the Italian meringue) to at least 120°C.
4. Continue whisking the meringue until it's almost cold.
5. Watch the oven temperature – too hot and the macarons will crack (I recommend 160°C).
I followed all these steps and after two disasters, I finally came up with my almost perfect macarons.
You should have seen me, jumping, shouting and singing in the kitchen. Anyway it's been one of the best food moments of my life.

These macarons are luscious. I love the combination of almond and rose, filling the house and hearts with a delicious Mediterranean scent.

I didn't have any rose syrup and essence on hand so I used a 50g of
Confit de Rose instead.
A great add-on would be to sprinkle the ganache with bits of Rose Nougat.

Macarons à la rose

makes 500g

for la crème à la rose
100g couverture white chocolate, melted
100g double cream
10g rose syrup
1g rose essence

Bring the cream to the boil and mix in the melted white chocolate, rose syrup and essence.
Pour the mixture into an airtight tin and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

for le tant-pour-tant
125g almond powder
125g icing sugar

Blitz in a food processor and sieve.

for le macaron à la rose
125g caster sugar
31g water
47g "aged" egg whites
pink food colouring (fanny: I felt I was cheating here but I do so wanted to get the Alice in Wonderland look)
250g tant-pour-tant
43g fresh egg whites

Preheat the oven to 160°C.
In a sauce pan, put the sugar and water and bring to 120°C.
When the syrup reaches 114°C, start whisking the aged egg whites and when the syrup is ready (=120°C), pour it over the egg whites and continu whisking until cold.
The meringue should be thick and glossy.
Add the food colouring until it reaches the colour you want (fanny: I find that once baked, the macarons were paler, so if you want a brighter colour you should add a little extra food colouring).
Mix in the tant-pour-tant and the fresh egg whites.
The mixture should be still firm, but softer and very glossy.
Pipe the batter small rounds (2cm) onto a lined baking sheet and bake for 9 minutes (oven door maintained open with a wooden spoon).
Let cool for 2 minutes then carefully detach the macarons from the baking mat and set aside.
Continue until there is no mixture left.

for le montage des macarons
Pair the macarons of the same size and pipe the ganache onto one the macarons.
Sandwich and refrigerate for at least 24h before eating.

Bonne fête Papa! - Tarte aux pommes délicieuse

2006-06-18T10:24:00.000+02:00

[Happy father's day, Daddy - Delicious apple tart]

J'espère que tu vas passer une bonne journée.
Je te fais plein de bisous.
Fanny
PS: Maman, j'en profite pour te souhaiter une bonne fête aussi (avec un peu de retard!).

An apple tart is something nobody can resist. It's the never-fail dessert.
People coming? Just quickly make the shortcrust pastry, cut the apples and you're ready to provide something simple yet delicious.
If you ask different people how they make their apple pie, you'll end up collecting tons of different recipes that'll span every realm, from tarte fine aux pommes to butterscotch apple tart; from double apple pie to tarte tatin.

I like my apple tart to have some custard on top. I reckon it adds a creaminess the apples alone can't bring.
Or maybe you'll prefer picking a nice red apple directly from the tree?
Tarte aux pommes délicieuse
This tart is a good way to use late apples. I love it still warm with a scoop of vanilla icecream.
Note - The shorcust pastry is adapted from Nigella Lawson's How to Eat (page 41).

Tarte aux pommes délicieuse

serves 8

for the shortcrust pastry
150g plain flour
a pinch of salt
75g butter, cold and diced
1 egg
iced water

for the filling
3 big apples, peeled and sliced
125ml double cream
2 eggs
20g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a 26cm tart mould with baking paper.
To make the pastry, mix the flour, salt and butter and rub the fat in with your fingertips until you have a bowl of floury breadcrumbs.
Mis in the egg. And then, add iced water, a teaspoon at a time, until the flour/fat/egg turn into a ball of dough.
Place in the fridge while you get on with the rest.
In a bowl, mix the cream, eggs and sugar, set aside.
Roll the cold dough onto a floured surface and place in the prepared mould.
Arrange the apple slices on the pastry case and pour the cream mixture on top.
Bake for 10 minutes and then lower the heat to 180°C and cook for another 20 minutes or until golden.

Voyage dans le temps - Chewy peanut butter cookies

2006-06-17T15:27:00.000+02:00

[Travel through time - Chewy peanut butter cookies]

American and British cuisines are becoming a big phenomenon, here in France. Everyone wants his piece of cheesecake, his fairycake or his pancakes.
Indeed I reckon it is a good thing that British food finally meets the glory it deserves.

I discovered AmerEnglish food quite early in life. At that time, I would only swear by carrot cakes, London cheesecakes and muffins.
These were so easy to make for a 10-year-old but were also very rewarding: tasty, moist and delicious.

When I went through this 'I love American and British food' phase, one of my favourite ingredients was peanut butter.
I guess I won't be wrong by saying that, in France, we have some wonderful butter. Thus, I was a bit unsure of the combinaison of cachuète and beurre. Was it butter with peanut chunks?
The answer finally came when my mother agreed to buy me a jar of peanut butter. Tout ça pour ça? C'est juste une crème marron [All that mess, just for a brownish paste?].

But when I opened the jar, an irresistible smell came out of it: peanuty yet very sweet.
I could here the crushed peanut shouting 'Eat me, please'. I grabbed the nearest spoon and delighted myself with that sticky paste.

Today, I still love peanut butter, though I buy it less often because of its processed nature.
I have to admit peanut butter isn't that good. But to be honest, I think the only reason I find it so yummy is nostalgia. I might be a bit of a bore with that, but you know how much I believe of the power of the food you've eaten as a child.
Some people have to invent complex machines to travel through time. My solution is far easier. I just open a jar of peanut butter and its smell sends me ten years back.

Chewy peanut butter cookies
I love these cookies: chewy inside and crispy outside.
And the big bonus is the wonderful taste of peanut.
Really, what's not to love? Chewy cookies + delicious peanut-ish taste!

Chewy peanut butter cookies

makes 30 cookies

4 1/2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 cups light muscovado sugar
1 cup caster sugar
seeds from 1 vanilla pod
100g butter, cold and cut in cubes
350g crunchy peanut butter, cold
3 eggs

Preheat the oven to 160°C.
In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Rub in the butter and peanut butter until you've got a crumbly texture.
Add the eggs, one at a time and mix until smooth (fanny: the dough should be very crumbly).
Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Form small balls of dough and arrange them on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until slightly golden (fanny: the interior should almost raw; take care because the hot cookies are very difficult to handle with).

Comment ça y'en a marre des fraises? - Strawberry (soy)milkshake

2006-06-12T22:24:00.000+02:00

[How come you're bored of eating strawberries]

Sometimes, you've got to face the truth: you're addicted.
I don't know about you, but the less time a product is available, the more I become obsessed with it.
Strawberries are a good example.
They start pointing their nose out around mid-may and disappear by the end of July. Almost three months, you tell me. Yes sure, but I'll answer: only three months!
But I should consider myself pretty lucky to have real-ruby-red-home-grown strawberries as soon as the beginning of May.

It's now accurate that I do love strawberries. Indeed I love them in every single way.
As a fruit, they're just perfect: juicy, tangy, tasty and gorgeous looking.

Strawberries are so versatile: the real food chameleon.
Fresh, I like them dipped in sugar or in melted chocolate, cut into cubes and drizzled with balsamic vinegar…
Other great options are countless: from a mousse to a soup, from a compote to a posh entremet.
Two problems remain:
- too little time
- too many ways to use strawberries

So basically what happens is that you end up making a new strawberry thing everyday and everyone -- except you -- gets bored with strawberries.

Strawberry (soy)milkshake
I love the way the soymilk outlines the natural freshness and creaminess of the strawberries.
This drink is very refreshing and makes a great snack for hot summer days.

Strawberry 'soy)milkshake

serves 2

500g fresh strawberries (I used Mara des bois, which are very tasty and rather sweet)
400ml soy milk, ice cold

Wash the strawberries and put the in a food mixer. Add the soymilk and blitz for a minute or so.
Put in glasses and top with fresh strawberries.
Drink as soon as it's ready.

Gâteau Craque

2006-06-10T16:48:00.000+02:00

I can't even remember the countless hours i spent on the kitchen counter at my grandparents house. I loved to listen to my grandmother while she was cooking.
She always explained me everything in detail: why she should add this or mix that way...
But the part i prefered was the one about 'le gâteau Craque' [the Craque Cake].
This cake was of my biggest food fantasy. I litteraly dreamt about it several times.
Maybe because i had never seen my grandma making it and thus i couldn't know how it looks like, how it taste like.
I know i've said this before, but food you're never eaten can become such a fantasy, a goal to achieve.
Therefore, i tried hard to imagine how the gâteau Craque could be. The only thing i knew about it was its name: gâteau Craque; it sounded so yummy.
Craque is an adjective derived from craquer.
Craquer can mean both to crumble or to fall in love with something/someone. So, when i heard its name, i couldn't help.
My grandmother was teasing me: she would say how good it was, but woudn't give me a clue about its taste or texture.

I recently spent a week at my grandparents'. And when my grandmother asked me if i wanted to make the gâteau craque, the only thing i could answer was YES.
Actually it's a chocolate cake covered with a chocolate-almond meringue icing.

Though, it's not your usual chocolate cake. I was pretty astonished because it contains:
- no butter
- just 50g of flour and 50g of potato starch
The cake itself was very moist and not very sweet, so the meringue icing is a good option.

Gâteau Craque
This is a nice little cake that has a great texture.
Note that it's best served in small portions (hence the 10-12 servings) because of the richness of the luscious icecream.
I think i would have prefered the icing without butter -- but it's personal: i don't like buttercream.

Gâteau Craque

serves 10-12

for the icing
125g icing sugar
2 egg whites
20g dark chocolate
20g butter
few drops of almond essence
150g butter, at room temperature

Put the egg whites and icing sugar in a metal bowl.
Place the bowl in a large pan filled with cold water and turn on the heat. Start whisking the egg whites and icing sugar and stop when the water starts boiling.
Melt the chocolate and the butter in a pan and mix into the meringue. Add the almond essence and the creamed butter.
Keep in thye fridge for at least an hour before icing the cake.

for the cake
4 eggs, separated
2 tbsp hot water from a recently boiled kettle
130g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g flour
50g potato starch
30g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Line a 25cm springform tin with parchemnt paper.
Whisk the egg yolks and the water. While whsking, add the sugar and vanilla extract and continue whisking until light and frothy.
Mix in the flour, potato starch, cocoa powder and baking powder.
Whisk the egg whites until firm and fold them into the previous mix.
Pour this mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Once cold, slice the cake in two layers. Put on layer on a plate, spread with the icing, sit the other cake on top and ice the top and sides of the cake with the remaining icing.

My secret love affair with Mr Cheese

2006-06-02T11:19:00.000+02:00

Same dessert, different presentation

I have a great love affair with cheese. I love to eat it and even more, to make it.
So when Itay from Recipe asked me to write an article about cheese i couldn't help but say YES. I'm French after all and who can ignore that France is one of the leading countries regarding cheese produce.
Indeed more than 400 different cheeses are produced in France, 42 of these having a quality label called AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) and lots being made under the AB (Agriculture Biologique) laws.
This doesn't mean that all French cheese are necessarily good -- both in taste and quality.
But when you buy your cheese, try to know where it comes from: a farm or an industry.
And if you ever come to France, i deeply advise you to visit local farmers, to talk with them and eventually to buy their produce. That way you can't be wrong.

The best surprise on a farm: babies!

I have no idea on how people from other countries eat their cheese, but as a French, i can't imagine a weekend lunch without a well-furnished cheese platter.
Usually i like to keep it simple with 3 or 4 different cheeses. I try to serve big portions so the people don't get afraid to have a piece and i like to combine strong and mild flavours:
- a blue cheese (like Roquefort or Bleu d'Auvergne)

Bleu d'Auvergne cheese

- a fresh goat cheese (now I've worked on a farm, making goat cheese, i can't live without this cheese. It is so versatile and delicious)
- a Corsican sheep's milk hard cheese served either with some fig jam or chestnut honey.
- a piece of Brie de Meaux: a soft mild-in-taste cheese

But a full cheese lunch could be a good idea as well if the flavours are well combined. That's what i tried to put together for this 4-course lunch. No main course! Just 4 small dishes, high in taste yet subtle.

Tarte fine aux asperges et au chèvre frais
[Asparagus and fresh goat cheese tart]
I made this for my birthday a month ago and everyone loved it. Three simple flavours: green asparagus, fresh goat cheese and fine puff pastry.
Actually this is far better if you make your own puff pastry -- i know it's time-consuming, but the difference is real: homemade puff pastry is so delicious.
The goat cheese should be 2-3 days old, as i think a fresher cheese would had more creaminess than taste.
(Recipe)

Soufflé au bleu d'Auvergne
[Bleu d'Auvergne soufflé]
I love soufflés because they're light and tasty at the same time. Don't be afraid to make them -- it's so easy. The only thing you have to keep in mind is: soufflés must be eaten straight away from the oven or they'll just fall.
An easy way to make soufflés without having to be in the kitchen during the lunch is to prepare the batter up to an hour before you start eating and to pop the small filled soufflé tins in the oven when you get the tart out of the oven.

These soufflés are nice served with some bitter leaves like rockets and a vinaigrette made with a nutty oil (like walnut oil).

Individual soufflés make for a highly rewarding treat!

Soufflé au bleu d'Auvergne

serves 4

200g bleu d'auvergne
4 eggs, separated
salt and pepper
50g butter
50g flour
150ml milk

The oven should be preheated to 200°C.
In a bowl, mash the cheese with the egg yolks and season to taste.
Melt the butter over low heat in a saucepan and add the flour. Mix well until all the flour is incorporated. Whisk in all of the cold milk at once and pour this mixture over the cheese-egg paste. Put back into the pan and bring to the boil over low heat. You should mix all the time to prevent the egg whites from cooking.
In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the previous mixture.
Fill four small soufflé tins and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and well-risen. Eat straight from the oven.

Camembert aux fruits secs, aux noix et au miel
[Camembert with dried fruits, nuts and honey]
This is hardly a recipe. You should consider it as a reminder: camembert goes well with dried fruits and nuts which go well with runny honey.
For this 'recipe' you should choose a mild camembert: if it's too strong it will be overpowering and you won't get that soft 'longueur en bouche' (literally - length in mouth, which means great after taste).

Yum, runny honey. I love the contrast between the tenderness of the camembert and the crunch of the nuts.

Camembert aux fruits secs, aux noix et au miel

serves 4

a camembert
almonds
raisins, golden sultanas…
dried apricots
and any other dried fruits or nuts: think dates, figs, walnuts!

Entremet mousseux au Manslois et fraises au vinaigre balsamique
[Manslois mousse with balsamic vinegar strawberries]

Manslois is a strange little cheese. It's cow's milk fresh cheese from Charentes, where it's used to make a delicious cheese tart called 'tourteau au fromage frais'. I could have taken the easy way and make this tart but i reckon it would have been a bit too heavy after that 100% cheese lunch, so i went for the cold mousse.
I think you might have troubles getting Manslois cheese. Anyway, you can replace it by any fresh cheese -- goat cheese would be a good option.

The weird Manslois cheese!

The mousse is served with balsamic vinegar strawberries. So refreshing!

Entremet mousseux au Manslois et fraises au vinaigre balsamique

serves 4

3 sheets of gelatine
250g Manslois cheese
250g fromage blanc (thick yogurt)
100g sugar
seeds from 2 vanilla pods
50ml milk

500g strawberries
50g sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes.
Beat the cheese with the fromage blanc. Add the sugar and vanilla seeds and mix well.
Bring the milk to the boil. Squeeze the gelatine leaves to get rid of any excess water and mix into the milk until dissolved. Add to the cheese mixture and mix well for 1 minute.
Fill four small ramequins with the mixture and refrigerate overnight.

For the balsamic vinegar strawberries
Rinse the strawberries and cut them into small pieces. Put into a large bowl and add the sugar and balsamic vinegar. Mix well and set aside for 2 hours.

Before the lunch
Unmould the mousses into small plates and arrange the strawberries on top. Serve.

In my garden

2006-05-30T18:34:00.000+02:00

Tête de chat artichoke

I reckon i wouldn't lie by saying that June is my favourite month of the year. Lots of delicious fresh produce. Think lobster, apricots, melons, peas...
For me June is THE month of Artichokes.
I am lucky enough to live in the souce of France, so artichokes are avalaible in my garden as soon as the start of May, but in June, they really reach their best point -- both in taste, texture and size.

We grow two kinds of artichokes at home:
- the 'tête de chat' [cat's head].
Though it is delicious raw, i like it steamed. Basically you just steam the artichoke and wait for it to cool down.
- the Violet de Provence [Provence purple artichoke] also called 'poivrade'.
I love this one raw and served with a citrus vinaigrette.

Recipes ideas and ressources:
- How to trim an artichoke. The best step by step you could ever imagine.
- Artichoke panzanella
- Deep fried artichokes. My personal favourite!!!

Bon Anniversaire - Tarte fine aux Asperges et aux Meilleur Chèvre Frais du Monde

2006-05-13T19:55:00.000+02:00

[Happy Birthday - Fine Asparagus and Best-Goat-Cheese-in-the-World Tart]

My birthday was few weeks ago and as a foodie, i couldn't help but prepare the dinner myself.
Anyone would have been going to the caterer to order a 5-courses dinner. Or they would have bought a nice entremet from the finest pâtisserie.
But i had to make it. The starter, the main course and the dessert.
The most difficult part was to choose what to make.

Tarte fine aux Asperges et aux Meilleur Chèvre Frais du Monde

The choice of the starter has been quite simple: i knew i wanted to use both asparagus (May = lots of lovely asparagus) and fresh goat cheese.
I really had to use goat cheese simply because i did my second training period on a farm -- milking goats and making cheese.
Actually the cheese from this farm are said to be the best of the French Riviera and i can only agree with this.
Bruno, the nicest farmer in the world, takes care of his goats with love. He deeply loves nature and developped a great range of fresh and 'affinés' organic cheese. Indeed most of the best restaurants of Vence, St Paul... buy their cheese from la Ferme des Courmettes.
I mean, look at this cute goat baby. What's not to love?

La Ferme des Courmettes
Bruno GABELIER
06140 Tourettes sur Loup
Tel: 00.33.(0)4.93.59.39.93

So you'll understand why i really wanted to use goat cheese -- i love good organic produce.

Tarte fine aux Asperges et aux Meilleur Chèvre Frais du Monde
Source: adapted from Martha Stewart's Asparagus Gruyère Tart
This tart is very easy to make and taste so good especially if you make your own puff pastry - which i always make, now.
Try to buy nice goat cheese from a local farmer instead of buying it from your local supermarket (though some good supermarket that have a great cheese counter, sell cheese from local farms).
The goat cheese should be 2-3 days old, as i think a fresher cheese would had more creaminess than taste.

Tarte fine aux Asperges et aux Meilleur Chèvre Frais du Monde

serves 6

15 green aspargus
400g puff-pastry (preferably homemade -- go on it's a doodle to make and highly rewarding)
a medium fresh cheese (around 6-7 cm in diameter + fanny: see note above)*
extra virgin oilve oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Trim the bottoms of the asparagus so they are about 20cm long and steam them for 10 minutes or until just tender.
Roll the puff pastry into a 25 x 40 cm square (4mm thick) and lightly score the pastry dough 3 cm in from the edges to mark a rectangle.
Using a fork, pierce dough inside the markings.
Bake until golden, about 15 minutes.
Remove the pastry shell from oven.
Arrange the asparagus inside the tart shell, alternating ends and tips. Crumble the goat cheese over and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes and heat while still hot.

The main course was - Marinated scallops with Citrus Risotto, but sadly i wasn't able to take some pictures.

Symphonie

The choice of the dessert has been quite a pain actually. Ever since i bought my-now-favourite-cookbook-ever PH 10 i decided it was THE book i had to make a recipe from for my birthday.
I read it again and again and said to myself i should make something simple -- who loves to fall in tears on her/his birthday? -- yet delicate and tasty.

As May was called the official strawberry month by Bea, i thought it would be great to use them. And suddenly i stumbled across the perfect recipe: Symphonie.

Symphonie is basically:
- an almond dacquoise
- a cream cheese mousse
- a strawberry 'compote'
- some cream cheese mousse again
All of this being surrounded by a raspberry 'biscuit joconde' and topped with some fresh strawberries and 'miettes de streusel'.

I was very excited about the joconde biscuit as it was the first time i had to make it. It's amazing how many eggs are in this biscuit, but it's so good and looks rather good.
When i tasted the cream cheese mousse, i was quite scared that it would be a little too heavy, but i was wrong. The whole cake was delicious. Very classy and subtle and not too sweet.
Symphonie was very easy to make though a bit time consuming, but i think it was worth the try.

A little feeling of summer- Banana and muscovado sugar cake

2006-05-05T08:23:00.000+02:00

It's getting really hot, here in the Côte d'Azur and now all the tourists are gone, it feels so good to go hiking in the mountains to discover beautiful places.
And even better, to lay down in the sun and share a great picnic with some of your friends.

Some pictures of the 'Loup' in 'les gorges du loup'

Few weels ago, i was talking about the power of simple food you had as a child and said that, for me, the best cake in the world would be a 'gateau au yaourt'.
This banana and muscovado sugar is no less than a twist on the original yogurt cake.

Banana and muscovado sugar cake
This cake is extra moist yet light. It's very handy and thus makes the perfect picnic cake.
If you want to make the cake ever more moist you could drench it with a syrup made of 1 cup of hot water + 1 cup of icing sugar.
I recommend using very ripe bananas otherwise the banana taste will be too subtle.

Banana and muscovado sugar cake

serves 8

1 pot of yogurt (125g) = keep the pot as you'll use it later to measure the other ingredients
3 pots of plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 pots of light muscovado sugar
3/4 pot of vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Line a 23cm springform tin with baking parchement.
Put the yogurt, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Mix in the oil and the eggs and add the bananas.
Put the mixture in the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes.

Charlotte aux framboises et au fromage blanc

2006-04-25T12:42:00.000+02:00

[Fromage blanc and raspberry Charlotte]

Charlotte is one of those desserts -- so easy to put together -- that is usually made by the children, but loved by both kids and grown-ups.
And because i own a copy PH10 by Pierre Hermé, in which he explores lots of different and unusual combinations, that doesn't mean that i don't like simple things.
Indeed, I have a weakness for all the cakes and biscuits i used to make as a child: gateau au yaourt, charlotte, baba au rhum... And i still adore to make them and eat them on a regular basis. Actually, le gateau au yaourt may be the best plain cake ever; at least for me.

I don't know why the food you made and ate as a child has such a power on the grown-up you've become; but this is more than accurate -- lots of my favourites are as old as i am and eating them reminds me all the great moments i spent when making them years and years ago.

I think that my love for food - a great treasure - was given to me by my grandmother. She's the best cook i've ever known; able to make everything and always curious about new ways of doing things. She's even addicted to 'cuisineTV' (the French cooking TV channel) and watch the Naked Chef as often as possible, although she can't understand everything he makes because 'il parle et fait tout trop vite' [he speaks and cooks too fast].
I remember spending hours on the kitchen counter watching her.

Now it's my turn to show her my skills with more or less success. So each time i visit my grandparents, we first go to the market to buy the freshest produce, then we cook all day, learning from each others.
But i feel i am digressing here.

As i've said above, everyone love his Charlotte. I mean it's fresh, light and fruity! What's not to love?
So for the 5th birthday of my little cousin Sindri (pictured on the previous post) i made a charlotte using the frozen rapsberries i had picked last summer.
I made a big Charlotte for the birthday and a couple of more sophisticated individual Charlottes (see note below), which would perfectly fit for a dinner party.

Charlotte aux framboises
This is so easy to make, but highly rewarding too. It's very subtle and fresh.
If like me, you're using frozen raspberries, you should defrost them before mashing them.
By any mean replace the raspberries by strawberries, pears, bananas, or a mixture of berries.
You can also make your own savoiardi using this recipe, but i was in a rush so wasn't able to make mine.
As for the fromage blanc, you can use thick greek yogurt instead.
This recipe gave me 1 big Chalotte + 2 small ones.
Tips given -- 3, 2, 1, go!

Charlotte aux framboises

serves 8

250ml water
150g caster sugar
red food colouring paste (i used the end of a toothpick)

enough biscuits à la cuillère [savoiardi lady fingers] (i bought 72 savoiardi and almost finished the packet - i'd say 50 savoiardi)

5 sheets gelatine
300g fresh rapsberries
70g caster sugar
500g fromage blanc (thick french yogurt)

Line a 20cm charlotte mould with clingfilm.

Bring the sugar and water to the boil and simmer for 1 minute.
Add the food colouring and put in a soup plate.

Soak two thirds of the savoiardi in the syrup and arrange them on the side and bottom of the lined dish.

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold waterfor 5 minutes or so. Drain the gelatine and melt it either in the microwave or over a double boiler.
Mash the raspberries and sugar with a fork. And mix in the melted gelatine.
Add the fromage blanc and mix well.

Fill the prepared dish with half the mixture. Soak another 5 savoiardi in the syrup and arrange them.
Add the remaining mixture and "close" the charlotte with enough soaked savoiardi.
Cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge overnight.
Unmould and eat!

Note on the individual Charlottes:
Line the exterior of two 7cm cooking rings with cling film and the interior with rodoid.
Soak the biscuits as above and line the cooking ring with them.
Fill with the remaining mixture and leave in the fridge overnight.
Unmould and eat!

Les cloches sonnent...

2006-04-17T10:19:00.000+02:00

I am not familiar with Easter traditions in other countries, but in France the Bells from Roma bring the chocolate eggs. So when we ear the bells ring, we jump into the garden looking for all the chocolate goodies hidden in the grass...
It's always a great moment for the children and actually for the parents as well.

This year i decided to make the chocolate eggs. I bought the moulds and Barry Callebaud high quality chocolate: both dark and milk.
It was quite fun as when you start making chocolate eggs: 1) you can't stop - tempering the chocolate is highly addictive and 2) all your kitchen will be covered in chocolate by the end of the day.
It is very time consuming too; though it may be because i have only one mould which allows me to make only two eggs at a time.

How to make chocolate eggs?
for 2 medium sized eggs

enough chocolate to fill the mould - 450g for mine
a chocolate thermometer

Melt the chocolate on a double boiler until it reaches 50-55°C. Then allow to cool to 27°C (milk chocolate) or 28°C (dark chocolate).
Finally heat again on a double boiler until it reaches 29°C (milk choc.) or 30-32°C (dark choc.).The chocolate is ready to use.

Fill the moulds to the top and tap the filled moulds on the countertop to release any air bubbles.
Wait for a few minutes and tap out the excess chocolate into a lined baking sheet (you'll re-use this chocolate).
Now, using a flat spatula, scrape across the mould, removing the excess chocolate. Allow to cool until completely set and repeat once or twice.

When the chocolate is finally set, carefully unmould the eggs.

What is more rewarding than a happy face when discovering the hidden chocolate treasures?
HAPPY EASTER!!!

food - easter - chocolate eggs - recipe

Orange Spring Glow

2006-04-13T17:55:00.000+02:00

I just love Spring.
And i am getting so very excited because Easter is coming faster than i would have imagined. Blossoms are everywhere and it is so delicious to see the sun shining after months of desperate grey fog.

Anyway, today i feel like i am "montée sur ressort" [springy]. And wanted to play a little.

Can you guess what's on the picture???
UPDATE - as Chanelle guessed it is Orange Granita.

Orange Granita
What i did is so simple i am ashamed to pass on the recipe to you. But sometimes the simpler the better.

Orange granita

serves 6-8

250ml water
100g caster sugar
juice from 6 oranges or 400ml fresh orange juice
1 tbsp grated orange zest

Place the sugar and water in au saucepan and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Mix in the orange juice abd zest and pour the mixture in a shallow and freeze for an hour.
Stir the mixture with a fork to break the ice and freeze for a further hour, mix every 20 minutes.
Repeat until completely set.

Nella mia cucina Semplicità è la regina

2006-04-12T14:03:00.000+02:00

[In my kitchen, Simplicity rules]

Ever since i was a child, i've been deeply in love with Italy and all the wonderful thing that this country offers.
Not only the Italian language is beautiful, but Italy is full of gorgeous things that deserve to be known.

My passion for Italy was born because my grand parents were from Italy and because my dad is always reminding us our origins - which is a great thing in my opinion.

The first thing i discovered about Italy was its stunning landscapes: laghi, montagne, valli...
I remember every single passegiata [walk] i made with my parents.

Then is started studying Italian at school (9h a week) for 7 years. There i was shown how beautiful was the Italian litterature. I fall in love with Giovanni Pascoli, the most divine poet.

And now, though i remain highly interested in letteratura, my interest in Italy has slightly changed from romanzi e poesie to cookbooks.
Indeed the last time i went to San Remo, we stopped in a bookshop where i bought a great book on all the greatest Italian food treasures: L'Italia da gustare, 101 città del cibo e del vino [Italy to taste, 101 cities of food and wine].

From the Italian cuisine, i keep the simplicity. I like the fact you use the best products available.
What is better that feeling every single taste in a dinstictive way? Good olive oil, good bread, good cheese... That totally does it for me.

So when i spotted this gorgeous ball of mozzarella di bufala, i knew i had to have it.
True mozzarella di bufala is divina in the simplest way; and though it is quite expensive, i would never buy the supermarket sort, even for a pizza.

Best mozzarella salad
This "salad" is for mozzarella lovers only. I won't say this is a recipe, but more a reminder: olive oil goes well with mozzarella goes well with pepper.
Have a good, preferably homemade, country-style crusty bread along this salad.

Just a short note on mozzarella: history and fabrication process (in Italian!)
"La mozzarella di bufala veniva prodotta già nel Duecento dai monaci di San Lorenzo di Capua, che la offrivano ai canonici giunti in processione al convento, e in Campania viene prodotta intensivamente dal Seicento. E un formaggio fresco di pasta filata che deve il nome al fatto che la pasta viene "mozzata", fatta a pezzi con un operazione molto delicata. Dopo la bollitura del latte infatti la pasta che si forma viene passata in un recipiente dove vienfatta fondere, viene spezzettata minutamente e poi lavorata per darle la carrateristica forma a treccia, o di sfera o bocconcino." (L'Italia da gustare, p.194)

Best mozzarella salad

serves 2

one ball of mozzarella di bufala
1 tbsp extra virgin oilve oil
a couple of pinches of your favourites bays (i used: black and white peppers, Jamaican chili and pink bays)

Tear the mozzarella in a plate, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the bays. Tada tada! You're a chef!

Me and the Ice Cream Factory

2006-04-07T17:40:00.000+02:00

Les petits soldats de bois [Thousands of small little wooden soldiers]

One of the good points of being an ingeneering student is to visit industrial food factories.
Today, i visited a fabulous ice cream factory in Carcasonne (an old fortified city an hour away from Toulouse): Boncolac [which may mean something like "great milk", but i would be so sure about it].

We discovered how the cream, milk... were processed to make yummy ice creams.
It was very impressive to see all the machines working and the thousands of popsicles going out from them.

First we went outdoors to see how all the ingredients were brought in. Tons of barels containing fruit pulp...

Then we entered the most delicious room ever to be seen: the chocolate stocking room. Imagine 7 meters of chocolate all around you... What would you do? Seriously, i thought i was going to turn mad and steal a 25kg bag of extra bitter chocolate; but obsviously, i didn't for the reasons you all know: i would have made too much chocolate goodies and wouldn't have had any time left to go to school.

Now let me introduce you to the most exciting room: the one where the ice creams are made.
The first assemblage chain we discovered, was the one that makes vanilla and coffee ice cream cones. It was so funny to see how the machines fill the cone waffles. Very impressive too.

After that we were shown the fabrication process of caramel popsicles coated with a delicious shiny chocolate glaze.

We were also taken to the room where the ice cream tubs were filled and sealed. I especially loved the blackcurrant sorbet as it has a bright pink colour (i had prepared a nice animated gif on that stunning sorbet, but sadly you can't upload animations on blogger!!!).

But i remain addicted to the vanilla sort; maybe the most luscious ice cream on earth.

We ended our visit with the vanilla popsicles and this may be my favourite part of all. I adore the small wooden stick holding the posicles and reckon they look like thousands of little soldiers, hence the subtitle.

food - ice cream

Just a short note: thanx Sam for mentionning this post in the Food and Drink section of BlogHer. I was happily surprised and very touched.

Eclairs et choux a la vanille

2006-03-28T10:29:00.000+02:00

[Vanilla eclairs and choux buns]
Adapted from Feast (Nigella Lawson), Mes 100 recettes de gateaux (Christophe Felder) and Mes desserts au chocolat (Pierre Herme)

I hate to fail with something - especially when it comes to the cooking realm.
I remember my vain attempt at making a piece montee for my sister's birthday. I had to face the truth - i utterly failed. I tried again and again (making pate a choux at least twice in one afternoon), but the result was always the same: the choux rose in the oven then fell flat. It was what i can now call a disaster.

Something like a month ago i decided i should try again. So i did. And though it wasn't as successful as i expected, the choux weren't flat at all and tasted great.

But this time, the problem was the icing; can you imagine i used cold water to bind the icing sugar? This resulted in an awful grainy icing.

Eclairs a la vanille
makes 12 eclairs
I like the way Pierre Herme cooks his eclairs - with the open oven door so that they don't get soggy or flat at all.
As for the creme patissiere, i must say i am addicted to Christophe Felder's. It's so light and creamy.

For the pate a choux
125g water
125g milk
5g salt
2 pinches of caster sugar
125g butter
4 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 200C and line two baking sheets with parchement paper or better still silicon baking mat.
Put the water, milk, salt, sugar and butter in a large sauce pan and heat until the butter is melted and the water has just begun to boil. Take the pan off the heat and add all the flour in one go.
Beat with a wooden spoon and put the pan back to the heat for 2-3 minutes; you should get a smooth ball. Turn off the heat.
Now beat in the eggs, one at a time. The dough should be stiff enough to hold its shape.

Pipe 10cm long tubes leaving a space of 5cm between each tube.
Turn down the oven to 180C. And bake for 15 minutes. Then, to let the steam out, maintain your oven's door open with a wooden spoon and bake for a further 8 minutes.
Remove to a cooling rack.

For the creme patissiere
500ml milk
20g butter
2 vanilla pods
100g caster sugar
40g cornflour
40g flour (preferably tipo 00)
4 egg yolks

In a large pan, put the milk, butter, vanilla seeds, split vanilla pods and half of the sugar. Bring to the boil.
In a large bowl, sieve the flours and beat in the egg yolks. Add the sugar and whisk until light-yellow.
Remove the vanilla pods from the pan and pour a laddle of milk over the eggy mixture. Whisk well and put back into the pan.
On a medium heat, bring this mixture to the boil while stirring constantly.
When thick, remove from the heat and put the creme patissiere into a bowl. Allow to cool and keep in the frigde until ready.

Now you can fill the eclairs with the creme patissiere and top them with a simple icing made of icing sugar and water.

food - vanilla eclairs

Une boite avec les ingredients pour "afternoon tea" - EBBP # 4

2006-03-27T14:07:00.000+02:00

After few days off, i was happily suprised to see spring back again. But i was even more happy when i opened my mail box - a beautiful parcel from England was waiting here for me.
I just ran to my room, opened the parcel and discovered with delight all the great goodies Anna from Baking for Britain sent me.
It was 'une boite avec les ingredients pour "afternoon tea"' [a box filled with all the necessary ingredients for a successfull afternoon tea] as said the little card she gracefully wrote in French.

A letter accompanied the parcel - describing all the items it contained.
I love the way Anna feels about afternoon tea. For her, afternoon tea is what you make it. And i especially loved that part : "The same sentiment of genteel indulgence can be experienced by pouring a cup of your favourite tea variety, and taking a single slice of home-made sponge cake, or the largest of the biscuits from the biscuit jar".

To start an afternoon tea you must have something savoury, such as:
- Patum Peperium (or Gentleman's relish): a spiced anchovy relish, which makes a delicious spread on buttered toasts.
- Bath Oliver biscuits. Anna likes them "as a basis for membrillo and manchego", even if it's not very conventional.

Then you should have something sweet:
- Cornish saffron buns: so good when toasted, split and spread with butter (or even with some lemon curd)

- Lemon curd: Anna says it's a doodle to make, but truth to be told, i am always happy with a jar in my cupboard.

And finally, if afternoon tea is called that way it may be because you drink ... tea!
- Twinings afternoon tea: a nice fragrant English tea.
- the cutest tea pot on earth to infuse your favourite tea

Thank you so much Anna.
Thanx to Andrew as well for this wonderful event.

food - afternoon tea - EBBP

Update - as you may have noticed FOOD BEAM is going under mega relooking.
I shall tell you that this blog is better viewed with Internet Explorer and i am really sorry for all of you who use Firefox or any other web browser.
But i can proudly say that the comment section is back in order (thanx again to Andrew). OK, OK, there might still be some weird codes... But the comments are appearing!

Macaron Plénitude - or using one of the most beautiful book: PH10 Patisserie Pierre Herme

2006-03-07T20:37:00.000+01:00

Do you remember my attempt at winning the most beautiful cookbook of all the time?
I didn't win, that's a fact, but getting this peculiar book has been on the top of my to-buy-list since this day.
Anyway, I had a good time creating Divine Cannelle and have been very flattered to see it ending up among the five finalists.

But after weeks and weeks of deep-thinking, I decided I should go for the book; whatever the price tag shows up.
The (expensive) book is called PH10 in honour of the ten-year long work of one of the greatest pâtisserie chef: Pierre Herme.

In this book, Pierre Hermé reveals the recipes for all his magnificent creations such as the famous Ispahan (flavours: rose, letchi and raspberry) or the celebrated Mogador (flavours: milk chocolate, passion fruit, pineapple, spices).

Actually "ouvrir PH10 c'est un peu comme etre soudain en possession d'un vieux grimoire revelant la formule magique du bonheur" [opening PH10 is like being in possession of an ancient grimoire that gives us the jinx for happiness].
And indeed this is true; when you immerse yourself in that 600 pages book you realise how much work and love as been put into it. 300 recipes, 200 (lovely) pictures.
I love the professional layout and the useful "composition" of the pastry.

Besides that, I can only admire Pierre Herme: his ability, his creativity and his deep love for the beautiful.
I love the way he created "collections" of pastries; I mean you can find your favourite pastry in various forms: entremets, chocolates, small cake, tarts, ice creams, macarons, confiseries…

I think he really brings out the glorious nature of patisserie.

The first recipe I tried from this book was the Macarons Plenitude as I didn't have much time to make a complexe entremets and because I had all the ingredients in my cupboards.

These macarons are delicious. The slightly salted ganache really enhance the delicate chocolate flavour.
From top:
- chocolate macaron
- eclats de chocolat à la fleur de sel [finely chopped fleur de sel-flavoured chocolate]
- chocolate and caramel ganache
- caramel macaron

How to make them?

First you've got to make the fleur de sel (a slightly coarse salt with a delicate taste) chocolate "eclats".
So what you do is basically – temper the chocolate (70% solid cocoa = Guarana) and make a thin layer of chocolate on which you sprinkle some fleur de sel.

Then comes the ganache; which is maybe my favourite part of the game. This delicious ganache is composed of a:
- toffee-ish caramel made by adding salted butter (here Pierre Hermé suggests La Viette Demi-Sel butter) and cream.
- melted chocolates (56% solid cocoa = Caraque, 40% solid cocoa = Jivara).
This ganache is so luscious I used the leftover to make one of the most delightful truffles I've ever managed to produce.

Finally, you've got to make the macaron biscuits.
These are made by mixing a meringue italienne [Italian meringue] and a "tant-pour-tant" (a mix of equal quantities of almond powder and icing sugar) + fresh egg whites.
Adding melted chocolate (for the chocolate macarons).
Actually my mix was still too liquid (but neatly better that the last time I tried to make macarons) but I think it was because my syrup was hot enough (it must reach 117 C) and I didn't have a good thermometer to check that.
I will go to my, now, favourite shop in Cannes where it will be a doodle to find such a thermometer.
My other problem is that I baked the second batch for too long which resulted in crispy-rather-than-chewy-but-still-delicious macarons. So I will suggest respecting the cooking times next time!

food - Pierre Herme - ph10 - macarons - chocolate - caramel

Quiche Lorraine - my way

2006-02-24T19:39:00.000+01:00

I love having people round the house. But sometimes i don't have anything to make some fancy nibble food and this quiche lorraine is just perfect.
It is a doodle to make and everyone loves it.

A quiche is a tart made of eggs and cream in a pastry crust. And quiche lorraine might be the most famous qhiche in the world.
It comes from the North East of France where the wind and the snow makes the people eat comforting dishes.

One of my first souvenir about quiche is me helping my mother to beat the eggs. So you can see here there is no reasons why a grown up couldn't whip up the best quiche in the world.
And really, it's up to you to decide how you want your quiche to turn out.

I like mine quite simple: the filling is just made by beating the eggs and cream together, then by adding lots of cheese and diced ham.
But you could add some tomatoes or other veggies. Indeed i love a quiche made of goat cheese and asparagus. But here we're not in the quiche lorraine's realm anymore.

Quiche Lorraine
serves 8 as a starter, or as part as a buffet

I am sorry i'm not very precise with the quantities but i always make my quiche trusting my instinct. You may find you have too much pastry, or filling; but again, i'm sorry i forgot to note down the quantities i use.
Anyway, i love to make these in small tart tins as i think they look so cute that way.
Although this quiche is delicious, i really encourage you to get off the line and experiment with other ingredients such as salmon, aneth and potato, or courgette, gruyere and bacon... Actually the combiantions are enless. Have fun! Listen to your heart and taste.

For the pastry
200g flour
100g butter
salt
ice cold water to bind

For the filling
5 eggs
200ml double cream
4 tbsp best creme fraiche
salt & pepper
200g diced ham (or lardons [diced bacon])
250g freshly grated emmental

Sift the flour together with a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter until you have a soft breadcrumb texture. Add enough cold water to make the crumb mixture come together to form a firm dough, and then rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out the pastry on a light floured surface and line 8 well buttered small tart tins (about 10cm diameter). Chill again.

Preheat the oven to 180 C.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, cream and creme fraiche and season.
Mix in the cheese and ham and pour over the pastry bases.

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden.

food - quiche lorraine - recipe

Seven's heaven - Meme

2006-02-10T21:15:00.000+01:00

Another recipe i must ask - Maud's never-fail chocolate cakies (between a cake and a cookie)

I was tagged by Bea from La tartine gourmande for this 7 meme. All I have to do is make lists of 7 things. If it does not seems very clear to you, just look below...

Actually I decided to change it slightly - the main topic here will be food, cooking and baking! So let's call this the 7 food meme.

7 things to do/buy/cook/bake/eat before I die
- buy PH10 by Pierre Herme
- attend pastry and cooking courses at Le Cordon Bleu
- open a 'salon de the' [tea room] in London
- take classes in food photography
- go to NYC's foodies places like Dean and Deluca, Sur la table, Magnolia Bakery… preferably at Christmas time
- learn to make sushi
- have all the Rosle kitchen tools

7 things I cannot do/eat/make
- eat lamb - just the smell of it makes me sick
- unmould panna cottas
- 'pate brisee' [plain pastry] without farina tipo 00
- not thinking about food everyday
- not buying a cookbook every fortnight
- wait for the cake to be completely cold before icing it
- restrain myself from buying less than 5 packs of instant-action yeast when going to Waitrose

7 things that attract me to blogging
- improve my english
- improve my photography
- improve my culinary skills - like how to unmould pretty mousses from cooking rings
- discover the cookbooks I already own
- share a passion with foodies around the world
- discover new ways of cooking things
- great inspiration

7 things I say most often when I'm in a kitchen
- 'maman il est ou le beurre/le lait...' [mum, where is the butter/the milk...]
- 'tu peux me donner la recette' [can you give the recipe?]
- 'MoWmAwE' (full mouth)
- 'hum, c'est quoi?' [yum, what's that?]
- 'beurk, c'est quoi!' [ugh, what's that!]
- do you think it looks good? "t'es u" [are you sure?]
- 'comment on dit "parsley" en francais, mais oui tu sais le petit herbe verte...' [what's the french word for 'parsley', you know the little green herb...]

7 cookbooks I love
- How to be a domestic goddess from Nigella Lawson
- bills Sydney food from Bill Granger
- Mes desserts au chocolat from Pierre Herme
- Feast from Nigella Lawson
- The naked chef from Jamie Oliver
- Mes 100 recettes de gateaux from Christophe Felder
- Hope I will get it soon - PH 10 from Pierre Herme

7 food DVDs I watch over and over again
- Jamie's kitchen
- Nigella bites
- all the tapes I recorded from UKTV FOOD

PS - You may have noticed the new icon in the sidebar.

FOOD BEAM you are what you eat is my new food blog exploring natural foods, organic ingredients and whole grains.

Hope you'll enjoy it and have a good read.

(Read more...)

food - meme

Soothing London - the last days - Cupcakes and roast chicken

2006-02-07T13:10:00.000+01:00

Back from London, I can't remember much of the last few days apart from the fact that they might have been the most relaxing and enjoyable days in my life.
D. and I just stayed in Kingston and went to London once again. It was so cosy.
I baked my (not really) first ever cupcakes from the book I had recently purchased and they were a hit.
And we really enjoyed the German chocolate cupcakes along with a cup a hot chocolate (for me) or strong espresso (for D.).

Easy-mix yellow cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
Makes 12 cupcakes

This recipe you can achieve the perfect-simple cupcake in a minute. All you have to do is mix the liquid ingredients into the dry ones.
So easy but oh so good!
The cream cheese frosting has the right consistency to be piped and is delicious (you must lick the spoon…).

For the cupcakes
1 ¼ cups plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup corn oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup sour cream

For the frosting
½ cup (100g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 ounces (170g) cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups icing sugar

To make the cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350°F-180°C.
Line a 12-bun muffin tin with muffin cases.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the egg and yolk and sugar until thickened and lightened to a cream colour (fanny : I did that by hand and it took only 5 minutes, maybe even less).
Mix in the oil and vanilla until blended. Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain. Mix in the flour mixture until it is incorporated and the batter is smooth.
Fill the tins with the batter and bake for 23 minutes.
Allow the cupcakes to cool on their tin for 10 minutes, then unmould and place the cupcakes on a wire rack until completely cooled.

To make the frosting
In a large bowl, beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract until smooth and thoroughly blended. Add the icing sugar, mixing until smooth.
The frosting is ready to use.

German chocolate cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

Ever since I saw German chocolate cupcakes on the cupcake bake shop, I have been desperate to make some myself.
So when I spotted this recipe I could only make it.
The cupcakes are moist and delicious.
Though, I didn't make the frosting that was given in the recipe but simply made a chocolate cream cheese frosting by replacing some of the icing sugar by cocoa powder.

easy-mix yellow cupcake batter (above)
¼ cup heavy cream
2/3 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
3 ounces (85g) semisweet chocolate
1/6 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°F-180°C.
Line a 12-bun muffin tin with muffin cases.
In a medium sauce pan heat the cream and butter over low heat until the butter has melted.
Remove the pan from the heat; add the chopped chocolate and let sit for 30 seconds to soften.
Add the vanilla and whisk the sauce until it is smooth and all the chocolate has melted.
Pour this sauce over the easy-mix yellow cupcake batter and mix until no light streaks remain.
Fill each paper liner with the batter and bake for 23 minutes.
Allow the cupcakes to cool on their tin for 10 minutes, then unmould and place the cupcakes on a wire rack until completely cooled.

I also remember making a roast chicken with all the trimmings for supper. It was so delicious. Actually I have a great and unique way to cook the chicken that makes it tender and tasty.
With it we had the best roast potatoes ever; which I make using new potatoes. I know it's not usual, but I love the way the potatoes get so crispy outside and so soft-mashed inside. A pure delight! And I must talk about the Yorkshire puddings, my favourite dish ever. I love them big and golden; served just out from the oven with a good splash of gravy.
This is the end of my (short) trip to the UK. I hope I will be able to go back there soon.

food - london - cupackes - recipe - roast chicken - Yorkshire pudding

Soothing London - DAY FOUR - Sushi and doughnuts

2006-02-02T13:57:00.000+01:00

Today we're going to London, one of the busiest cities of the world. We have to be prepared – have a good full breakfast.
So we had breakfast on a bun, a great thing D. and I used to have in the St Lawrence market in Toronto and a banana smoothie.

OK we're ready. Our mission if we accept it is to reach Jane Asher's sugarcraft shop.

We arrived in London Waterloo just 30 minutes after we left Kingston.
Then we took the Northern and Piccadilly lines to reach Knightsbridge.
By the time we were in Harvey Nix and Harrods it was already 3PM. Time for lunch.
For me London lunch means Sushi.

I had my first sushi in London (YO! At the fifth floor) but now we discovered a new place where the sushi are even better. I always have the salmon sushi with chili ('salmon nigiri') and D., the ebi prawn nigiri with herb pesto. I also love the duck crystal rolls served with a hoisin sauce. But my greatest addiction is Edamame beans. I love the hot spicy ones.

Itsu
118 Draycott Avenue, Chelsea
London SW3 3AE
Mon to Sat: Noon to 11pm
Sunday: Noon to 10pm
Price (for 2 – light lunch) – 20/30£

Then we went to Jane Asher's, the prettiest shop in the world. You can find hundreds of things to make and decorate cakes.
Here is a list of my absolute favourites:
- paste colourings (I own more than 15 of them); I love the gooseberry which gives the most beautiful pistachio colour and the two I recently purchased are Wine and Eucalyptus.
- Belgian chocolate buttons
- coconut extract
- cookie cutters
- edible glitters
- chocolate moulds (I got the one with hearts)
- chocolate thermometer
- muffin cases
- sprinkles…

Jane Asher's
24 Cale street
London

Back from Chelsea we stopped at a petrol station to get something to drink and I found the most delicious crappy drink in the whole world – Bounty drink 'made with real coconut'.

Then we went to Harrods to get some Krispy Kreme – as the saying goes if you going to get wet you may as well go swimming. Today was really the day of junk style food.
We headed towards the Sheraton Park Tower where we enjoyed our doughnuts and ordered hot chocolate.
We had an amazing view from our room.

We finished our day at San Lorenzo, a great Italian restaurant where we saw the famous photographer David Bailey.
P. had a pollo alla mattone (grilled chicken), D. had a scallopina alla Milanese and I had a scallopina alla romana. It was very good. The meat was so tender.
For pudding we shared the most delicious sorbet I ever had. It was a berry sorbet but tasted like a raspberry and lime-lemon sorbet. It was very smooth and so fresh.

San Lorenzo
22 Beauchamp place
London

food - london - sushi - sugar craft - Italian restaurant

Soothing London - Day THREE - Brownies and cheesecake bar

2006-02-01T10:59:00.000+01:00

Now that I've got my book about cupcakes and all the professional tools to ice them (except for the 1M nozzle, but I am going to London tomorrow; which obviously means I am going to Jane Asher's sugarcraft shop) I have to buy a muffin tin. I already own one, but here in Kingston there is none. So I headed towards John Lewis which has a great cook's tool shop.
I love the John Lewis products – they're cheap and with a professional quality.
So I bought a small 6-bun tin and couldn't resist to get some nice brown muffin cases.

Then I went to a great health shop called food for thoughts, where you can find a great range of organic grains, cereals and products.
I was so happy when I saw that little pot of tahini (sesame paste), because it seems it's not available in France and I've been craving to make some hummus lately.
I also love their organic jumbo oat and barley with which I make the most delicious muesli.

Food for thoughts
38 market place
Kingston

In front of that little shop there is a great Borders. I love Borders as its cookbooks collection is updated regularly and also because you can sit in a comfortable sofa with a Starbucks while reading your favourite cookbook.
This time I had a tall white chocolate mocha (which is so good associated with a banana and caramel muffin) and read Chocolate chocolate by Lisa Yockelson. The cover certainly looks good but the content is a little disappointing – in my taste.

I think it was a little TOO MUCH. I mean I love chocolate, as a lot of people do, but I have the feeling that the writer forced herself to like it. There are way too many chocolate chips – it seems she didn't know what to put in her cake so 'why not chocolate chips, as I am a chocolate lover and can never have enough of it!'. This is my very own personal feeling and I clearly understand that the book is called Chocolate chocolate so that's normal to find so many chocolate chips in its recipes.
But I also think there are too many variations of one recipe which makes the reading a bit confusing.
However I think the recipes are sound great and creative and I loved the first part of the book in which the writer makes a complete list of the best chocolates to use and how to reveal their flavours.
So I'd encourage you to buy this book if you're a chocolate supermegafan.
Anyway, i think the book is worth it only for its beautiful the pictures were and I am considering buying the book and using it when in absolute chocolate crave.
And indeed D. and I had chocolate cravings later that day. So inspired by the pot of Milkyway spread I spotted at Sainsbury's, I made a brownies and cheesecake bar.

Brownies and cheesecake bar
Serves 10 as part of a tea

Milkyway is a spread combining two different flavours – hazelnut chocolate and milk.
My brownies and cheesecake bar does exactly the same. The base is a rich brownies and the topping is a slightly sour cheesecake.
I love the balance between these two layers.
And I love how the bar melts in your mouth.
This is better eaten the day after it is made. For the (one-pan) brownies
175g best dark chocolate
175g butter
150g caster sugar
3 eggs
110g flour

For the cheesecake
200g cream cheese
1 egg
50g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp flour

Preheat the oven to 180°C. And line a 33cm x 23cm x 5.5cm tin.
Melt the butter and chocolate over low heat. Turn off the heat and mix in the sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time and finally sieve in the flour and mix well.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and set aside while making the cheesecake mixture.
In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together until you've got a smooth mixture.
Spoon this over the brownies base and with a rounded knife swirl the batter so that the brownies form lines across the cheesecake layer.
Bake for 45 minutes and turn the heat off leaving the tin in the oven until completely cooled.
Keep in a cool and dry place overnight.

food - kingston - cookbook - brownies and cheesecake bar - tea - recipe

Soothing London - Day TWO - Chinese New Year and cottage pie

2006-01-30T14:49:00.000+01:00

Today we woke up very early and decided to have lunch in town. But what we did not realize is that D.'s laptop watch was still set on French time so we had ~~breakfast~~ lunch at 10.30PM!
When it comes to a light lunch I always enjoy a wrap from Caffè Castello, a small place located on a side alley.
The owner is quite funny – he can speak English, French, Italian, Turkish…
I always have either a Haloumi cheese and tomato wrap or a hummus and salad wrap.
Price – 2£70
Caffè Castello
19 castle street
Kingston

After this early lunch we went to the new Sainsbury's where we bought plenty of things – to bake, to cook, to simmer…

Then we headed off to London to see the Chinese New Year celebrations. China town was packed and I was only able to see the head of the dragon.
There were stands selling food and it must have been quite good because everyone had a something in the hands and eventually I the mouth.

As we were close to Tottenham court road we went to Foyles the greatest book shop in London.
The food section provides nearly as much cookbooks as in Books for Cooks (where I don't want to go anymore because you can't make a single step as it's always full of people).
There I bought a nice ring book simply called cupcakes! and written by Elinor Klivans.
My eyes have immediately been caught by the nice cover.
Foyles
113-119 charing cross road
London

Then we went to our favourite place ever in London – Knightsbridge.
It's so cosy.
I wanted to find a professional piping bag with fitted nozzles. So though that Divertimenti would be the great place but decided to have a look at Harrods first.
I love the cook shop in Harrods. There are so many items from Rosle tool range to Le Creuset cookware.
I finally found great piping bags and nozzles: a 14-inches and a 16-inches piping bags and n°1, 3, 5 and 22-star-shaped nozzles.
I think I might have to go to Jane Asher to find a bigger nozzle used for icing cupcakes.

After so much excitement we were happy to be back home and I prepared a comforting dinner – best cottage pie and pecan and milk chocolate chunks cookies.

Cottage pie
Serves 4

I made a small cottage pie for just the two of us and reserved the prepared meat to make some delicious meat fritters tomorrow)
This cottage pie is adapted from Just like my mother used to make by Tom Norrington-Davies.
We didn't have any vegetables at home so I made a very simple preparation for the meat.

1tsp oil
750g minced meat
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 OXO cubes
200ml water from a recently boiled kettle
1tsp tomato purée
750g potatoes boiled and then mashed with 4tbsp milk and 2tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200°C.
First, heat a wide-bottomed pan with the oil. Fry the mince hard in this – it will seem very dry at first, but the meat will let go plenty of fat and juices, which will be used to cook the onion in a minute. When it has browned well, rain the meat over a large bowl trough a colander, catching all the juices.

Keep the meat to one side, but return the juices to the pan. Bubble them fiercely for about a minute before throwing in the onion. Crumble two OXO cubes over the onion and when it begins to get brown, add 100ml of water. When it has softened (10 minutes), return the beef to the pan with the tomato purée and the remaining 100ml water in which you have dissolved the last OXO cube. Now simmer for 10 minutes or so.
Season to taste.

Transfer to a baking dish and over with the puréed potatoes. Cook for 20 minutes and eat. Make sure you allow the cottage pie to cool a little when out of the oven or you'll burn your tongue.

food - london - Chinese new year - Harrods - cottage pie - pecan cookies - recipe

Soothing London - Day ONE - Wagamama experience

2006-01-28T22:52:00.000+01:00

London can be quite a stressful city. Lots of people, lots of colors, lots of stimulations…
But on the other hand, you can find whatever you want and have a really good time.

Usually when I go to England, I stay in Kingston, a small –but ravishing- town that lays upon the Thames River.
David has a great apartment from which you can see the actual river, its swans and its rowing men.
The town is just a ten-minute walk far and has all the greatest shop you can imagine.

I'll make a daily report of what I did – so that you can discover new and cherished places in Kingston and London. Any suggestion will be well received!

I arrived on Saturday completely exhausted by the several-hour delays due to the bad weather in Toulouse (it was snowing!!!).

On the evening we went to Wagamama noodle bar in Kingston. I remembered not having a good experience the first time I went there – but I guessed it was because of my choice: I don't like ramens (kind of soup with noodles). But anyway I decided I could give it another go.
Wagamama is a food chain who offers quality dishes of noodles and great drinks.
Sadly I forgot my camera – so there won't be any picture of what D. and I had.
D. took a fruit juice made with orange, passion fruit and apple and a chicken katsu curry – chicken fillet deep-fried in crispy breadcrumbs, served with a light curry sauce and Japanese-style rice garnished with a combination of mixed leaves and red pickles.
I took an apple and lime juice; which was excellent and then a yaki udon – tepan-fried udon noodles with shiitake mushrooms, egg, leeks, prawns, chicken, red pepper, beansprouts and Japanese fishcake in curry oil; garnished with spicy ground fish powder, fried shallots and red ginger.
And we also shared a ebi gyoza – five deep-fried dumplings filled with finely chopped king prawns, water chestnut and spinach and served with a chilli, garlic and soy sauce.
We were both really happy with our choices.
Price – 25 £

Wagamama
16-18 high street
Kingston upon thames
London
KT1 1EY
tel: + 44 (0) 208 546 1117

Opening hours
mon-sat 12/11PM
sun 12/10PM

I also made my favourite cookies recipe using Lurpac butter and now we have plenty of leftover cookie dough to be able to bake some cookies whenever we want.

food - london - wagamama - noodles - trip

Sunshine Pasta - IMBB # 22

2006-01-27T15:35:00.000+01:00

From COOK 1.0 by Heidi Swanson (p. 83)

As you can see from the last few posts I'm focusing on good healthy food. Actually I think that lots of people are getting aware of what is filling their plate.
By saying that I don't mean that I don't like a bite of junky food sometimes (come here Mr Krispy Kreme(s!!!)), but that it's worth considering that healthy food can be good in taste as well as good for your body.
However this movement is not new. But I have some reasons to make me think that healthy food is back in our plates and that it can be delicious.

For me, the goddess of yummy healthy food is Heidi from 101cookbooks.
Not only she's a vegetarian – which I tend to be as well from times to times (actually I haven't eaten meat since Christmas), but she claim herself as a food lover and what she cooks demonstrate it.
What's more to say?
Though I'm not a 100% vegetarian I agree with her when she writes: "For me, being vegetarian is just part of an overall awareness of where my food comes from and how its production affects the world around me".
And actually she is right. We want to know the origin of our food. Truth to be told, I don't understand all the people that can eat meat without knowing its provenance. I couldn't and indeed the last time I had veal for lunch it was at my grand mother's house because I trust her and know she would never buy meat from a supermarket.
Furthermore, I think it's interesting to discover new flavours such as grains, pastas, fruits, beans and spices – which flavours we don't think about when cooking a roast.

So my challenge for this month's IMBB hosted by Amy was to make something unexpected with noodles.
As I know that COOK 1.0 is a stock of yummy and original recipes, I decided to go for Heidi's Whole wheat penne with wilted spinach; but leaving out the spinach (when I was food shopping I totally forgot the spinach factor) and replacing the penne by broken whole wheat spaghettis.
So see it couldn't be called anymore like that so I decided it would be Heidi's sunshine pasta.

Sunshine Pasta
serves 4

This pasta dish is simply delicious. The flavours really work together. It's sweet, it's warm, and it's salty. Very, very, very comforting.
Anyway I can only advise you to buy Heidi's book. I love the pictures (check out her blog and you'll see I'm not lying), the recipes and the great layout.

Prep and set aside:
3 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
½ cup plump died apricots (try to find Californian ones if you can – read here why)
½ cup toasted pine nuts
1 cup shredded parmesan
¾ crumbled feta

Boil 1 lb. whole wheat penne (or broken whole wheat spaghettis as I did) in a large pot of salted water according to the package instructions or until just tender.
Drain and immediately return the pasta to the pot over medium heat.

Stir in the butter and apricots. Cook over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
Stir in the pine nuts, parmesan and a couple pinches of salt.
Gently stir in the feta and serve immediately.

food - noodles - IMBB#22 - Heidi Swanson - apricot - feta - pine nuts

Le colis magique

2006-01-24T18:50:00.000+01:00

[The magical package]

As far as I can remember I've always been into food shopping. I went with my mother to the supermarket, farmers market… and always loved to go to the 'boulanger' to buy one or two 'baguettes pas trop cuites'. And while I was waiting in the queue at the bakery, I remember myself looking at the beautiful 'religieuses, éclairs' and other pastries. This was heaven for me, really!

Now I'm still up for some food shopping: from Toulouse farmers market to my local supermarket, from Harrods food hall to Waitrose, from Toronto's St Lawrence market to Jeffrey's (English deli in Antibes)… and so on.
I love to discover new products, new places… Basically I'm always looking for the freshest, yummiest products available, but sometimes a bit of junk makes me feel good: Crunchies, Cadbury's bars, cake mixes, vinegar crisps…
When go to English supermarket I'm always astonished with all the goodies on the shelf, things we can't find (at a normal price) here in France. But this seems to be applicable in the other way: I once found a tube of Nestle concentrated milk at 5£ in Harvey Nichols' fifth floor (while it costs around 1€ in French delis).
Anyway, when I go to England I always come back with a suitcase full of muffin cases, crunchies, cranberries, streaky bacon, oat, barley, dried fruits… and full of cookbooks (but this may not be the right place to discuss such a thing).

So you'll understand my reaction when I received two food 'colis' [packages] from my grand parents. Actually my dad had to go to Fouras (the city where my grand parents live) and when he went back home he stopped in Toulouse to say hello and to drop these two gorgeous packages packed with food goodies!

- 2 homemade compotes
- apricot jam
- 3 chicories salads
- 2 apples
- 'miel de forêt' [forest honey]
- coffee
- galette de Pont-Aven [butter biscuits from Britany]
- whole wheat bread
- fine milk chocolate
- organic canned peas
- kidney beans
- organic green beans
- canned sweet corn
- tuna
- beautiful small red potatoes
- a lemon
- shallots, onion and garlic
- tomato sauce
- pasta
- rice
- fast potato puree mix
- instant soups
- breakfast bread
- 2 soles
- homemade choucroute
- milk and water

I'm now feeling completely satisfied with my full cupboards and feel like I've received a great present. You may think "it's just food", yes I agree with you but I'd say "it is food packed with love and affection" (which has two meanings: the more evident one and the subtle one – if I'm passionate about food it's because of all the hours I spent in the kitchen looking at my grand mother cooking. When she cooks she put all her love in the food she cooks and I hope that one day I'll be able to do the same).
Je vous aime Grand-Père et Grand-Mère…

food - shopping - gift

Honey Semifreddo - SHF # 15

2006-01-22T13:48:00.000+01:00

Though I love to bake, I also like to cook from the most fresh and unprocessed produces with a preference for organic.
But are these two notions incompatible? I mean is it possible to make a delicious mouth watering dessert using only organic unprocessed and homemade produces?
This is the challenge for this month's Sugar High (Low) Friday hosted by Sam from Becks and Posh.

Nowadays, it's very difficult to come across good organic produces. It's accurate that now most of the supermarket stock them but I prefer to get my produces from local farmers and this is a hard task.
First you've got to find the farm – which is not easy.
Then you've got to immerse into the farm's world – not easy either (see here – my immersion into a goat cheese making farm).
But once you've achieved that you can access to a new world – the world of true taste!

Have you ever tasted homemade butter? Or homemade cream? Can you taste the difference? I definitely can.
Homemade organic produces may cost a little more than regular products, but by buying them you know:
- the origin of what you get
- that it's going to be good
- that the animals are happy (and this is very important for me – could you stand buying eggs when you know the hens are like sardines in a tin? I can't. I want my chicken to be bred outside and I want him to eat good cereals… You may think it's a 'cliché' but that's the way I feel.)

For this month's Sugar High Friday I decided to make a honey semifreddo.
I already know what you're thinking: 'Ice-cream? Full of fat!'. OK I'm not going to lie to you, this recipe calls for double cream; but actually I feel far less guilty when eating homemade organic cream than when eating industrial cream. And I suspect I am not the only one…
This recipe is from –guess who?- Nigella Lawson.

Indeed as soon as I saw SHF theme I remembered the nice honey semifreddo Nigella made for one of her TV series. I mean this has no bad ingredients – cream (see above), honey, eggs and pinenuts.
A semifreddo is an Italian dessert between a mousse and an ice-cream. I think Neil Perry describes it very well in The food i love: "Semifreddo is a flavoured mousse that sets in the freezer. It has a texture that is icier than ice cream or sorbet, but is at the same time very light."
The peculiar thing about semifreddo is 'la panna che lo rende spumoso e soffice' [the cream that makes it moussy and soft].

Semifreddo al miele [Honey Semifreddo]
serves 6

Note: all the produces I used to make this semifreddo were organic. The eggs were from a small farm 'de Fouras' (where my grand parents live), the honey is from Les ruchers du Freussin in Beurlay (a small town of Charentes Maritimes) –it is not your usual runny honey but more a golden paste with a charming smell- and the cream and the pinenuts are organic.

1 egg
4 egg yolks
100g best quality honey + few tbsp to drizzle
300ml double cream
½ cup pinenuts

Line a 1 litre loaf tin (fanny: I used 6 cooking rings) with clingfilm.
Beat the egg and egg yolks with the honey in a bowl, over a saucepan of gently simmering water, until the mixture is pale and thick. I use a wire balloon whisk for this, but if you feel like a bit of culinarily aided whirring, it will certainly be quicker with a hand-held electric whisk (fanny: and indeed it was).
Whip the double cream until thick, and then gently fold in the egg and honey mixture.
Pour into the prepared loaf tin, and cover carefully with cling film before putting it in the freezer for about 2-3 hours.
When it is ready to serve, turn out the semifreddo onto a suitably sized plate and drizzle this manilla-coloured log with honey, and sprinkle with the toasted pine nuts, before slicing.
It thaws quickly as it stands, but that is part of its heavenly-textured charm.

food - recipe - Nigella Lawson - honey semifreddo - organic - unprocessed produce - SHF # 15 - Low Sugar

The crafty weekend of a foodie

2006-01-15T12:05:00.000+01:00

Do know that kind of people that prefer doing some silly non-necessary things instead of doing the urgent things? I am one of those.
See, my exams are coming faster and faster and what do I find myself doing? Making some fake doughnuts and wonderful wine charms!

Fake donuts
I have been lurking at these fantastic fabric donuts for months now and wanted to make some as soon as I saw them. So last week when I went to a nice bead shop and found the perfect 'sprinkles' beads, I just couldn't resist anymore. I had to make doughnuts but knew it wasn't going to be easy.
As a scientific I started making plans and maquettes, my doughnuts were going to be perfect.
Yesterday afternoon I went in the city centre in the aim to find a present for a friend's birthday but stopped at a fabric shop and bought all the needed fabrics to make the perfect donut. I chose some cream cotton and baby pink wool baize for the creamy icing.

I also bought some ribbon to stamp out my soon to be brand as I consider starting a very small business among my friends.
I am very proud of how my first ever doughnut turned out and I have thousands of ideas for my next creations. I can't wait to buy some more fabric to give them birth.
Actually I have never made true doughnuts and now I can make the fake ones nothing is going to stop me from achieving the perfect chewy 'krispy-kreme-like' doughnuts.

Wine charms
I remember the first time I discovered what wine charms were. I thought it was a clever idea and that they looked so pretty on wine glasses. A kind of bijou de verre [glass jewellery].
Ever since, I have been desperate to find the most wonderful wine charms – sadly with no success.
But when I saw Clotilde's post about making wine charms I told myself – you can make them too.

So I rushed to la Droguerie, another bead shop (and eventually my paradise on earth) to buy the appropriate beads, rings and headpins. I did buy the same bid beads as Clotilde as I already spotted them when making my mother a bracelet a year ago. And because they were the only chic ones I could find in six different colours – though I would have preferred twelve.
These were not cheap to make but would do a nice present for a birthday or any other event.
Sadly I don't have wine glasses over here in Toulouse so the picture is alcohol-free !

doughnut - wine glass charms - food - pink icing - craft - handmade

Coconut macaroons - reading a good old favourite

2006-01-12T18:05:00.000+01:00

From Nigella Lawson's How to be a domestic goddess
p.50

I love cookbooks, that's a fact.
I love to read them again and again and sometimes -when i'm feeling like- cook from them. Indeed i don't cook that often from cookbooks as i tend to go off-shore and add a pinch of this, a dash of that...
But one of the cookbooks i cook most from is How to be a Domestic Goddess writen by Nigella Lawson. This book is a compilation of delicious sweet treats and yummy salty things.
I might have made something like 5 recipes from this book and maybe even more.

But this much cherished book of mine was sadly forgotten of the shelf. I got it from my fiance last Christmas. One of my first english cookbooks. And the beginning of an addiction - i can't buy french cookbooks anymore, except Pierre Herme's. A month ago or so, i opened it again and decided it was one of my favourite baking cookbook. The recipes work perfectly, the pictures are great and i like the fact that Nigella clearly gives the source of the recipe. OK you might think she did no job on the book, but god this is Nigella. And the pictures are mouth watering...

I made a list of all the recipes i wanted to give a try. I warn you, it is long.

CAKES
- Flora's famous courgette cake p.18 (i must check on Clotilde's blog, she might have tried it before)
- butterscotch layer cake p.20
- Boston cream pie p.21
- cherry almond loaf p.28
- banana bread p.33
- fairy cakes p.39

BISCUITS
- coconut macaroons p.50
- pistachio macaroons p.53
- sweet and salty peanut biscuits p.55
- ricciarelli p.56
- hot discs p.64

PIES
- supper onion pie p.85
- courgette and chickpea filo pie p.93
- cornish pasties p.97
- black and white tart p.112
- blackberry galette p.115

PUDDINGS
- apple syrup upside down pie p.135
- Calvados syllabub p.139
- Om Ali p.140
- profiteroles, my way p.142
- pistachio souflés p.145
- cheese blintzes p.154
- New York cheese cake p.157
- Joe Dolce's Italian cheesecake p.161

CHOCOLATE
- torta alla ganduia p.172
- chocolate cheesecake p.175
- Chocolate coffee volcano p.181
- goey chocolate stack p.185
- chocolate raspberry tart p.187
- pain au chocolat pudding p.190
- white chocolate and macadamia brownies p.194
- cappucino cupcakes p.199
- banana cherry and white chocolate cupcakes p.200
- florentines p.203

CHILDREN
- Snickers and peanut butter muffins p.218
- peanut butter squares p.223
- dreams bars p.227
- cinder toffee p.229
- Roxanne's millionaire's shortbread p.240

CHRISTMAS
- Certosino p.255
- baklava p.273
- cranberry upside down cake p.284
- Christmas creme brulée p.287

BREAD AND YEAST
- potato bread p.298
- garlic and parsley hearthbreads p.306
- apple kutchen p.319
- almond danish p.328

THE DOMESTIC GODDESS'S LARDER
- passionfruit curd p.344
- spiced apple chutney p.357
- Edith Alif's lime pickles p.361

I hope i will be able to make all these soon.

Coconut macaroons
makes 8

These are what we call in French: rocher à la noix de coco ou congolais [coconut rock or Congolian]. But they seems to be know as macarrons over the Channel.
They are very easy to make and delicious, though a little dry but that may be because i hadn't any cream of tartar.

2 large eggs whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
100g caster sugar
30g ground almonds
1 tsp vanilla extract
250 shreded coconut (i only used 125g)

Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Beat the egg whites until frothy - no more - then add the cream of tartar and carry on beating, Missuss, until soft peaks are formed. Add the sugar a tsp at a time and whisk until the peaks can hold their shapre and are shiny. Fold in the almonds, salt, vanilla and coconut. The mixture will be sticky but should, all the same, hold its shape when clumped together.
Form inyo clementin-sized domes (i made 'quenelles').
Cook for 20 minutes or until they're just beginning to turn golden in parts.

Yum!

This recipe was featured in 101cookbooks daily links of the 13th of January!

food - Nigella Lawson - How to be a domestic goddess - coconut macaroons - recipe

Mille-feuille au chocolat et à la vanille

2005-12-29T16:20:00.000+01:00

[Chocolate and vanilla mille-feuille]

I have an obsession with puff pastry; actually even if i had never made it before today, i've always felt very confident about it.
But i thought it was time, now, to *really* make it. And if i wanted to make puff pastry i was not ready to make any kind of puff pastry, it had to be something special. Actually i think that if i am able to do a special kind of puff pastry i can make plain puff pastry as well.

As soon as i got Pierre Hermé's Mes desserts au chocolat, my eye has been caught by a wonderfull picture of chocolate puff pastry. It had to be THE one.

This puff pastry is made by a simple flour-butter-water dough and a butter-cocoa powder dough.
You have to give the dough 6 turns, leaving at least 2 hours between each turn.
I just advise you to roll the dough thinner than 4mm when ready to bake as it will rise a lot (see picture).
While making it, i wasn't sure how the pastry would turn out as i expected it to look like Pierre Herné's. But the white layers of mine disappeared quite quickly (after 3 turns). Thus i was reassured to see that Keiko's were much like mine. What a relief !

After making the pastry, i had to find a way to use it and the chocolate and vanilla millefeuille which the négatif du mille-feuille au chocolat [photographic negative of the chocolate filled millefeuille] looked so perfect.

All you make is a rich crème patissière [flour enriched custard]. And though i dind't use orange zest in it, i thought it would looked pretty as a decoration.

I had a little problem with the creme patissière as it was too liquid. I guess i should have add a little more starch than the 55g stipulated in the recipe.

Anyway, i'm very happy with how the puff pastry came out. And this dessert is wonderful. You can really feel the taste of cocoa.

food - chocolate - puff pastry - millefeuille - Pierre Hermé

Happy Christmas Holidays

2005-12-20T18:54:00.000+01:00

I'm going on holidays tomorrow and won't be able to post. But as soon as i'll be back home i'll give you news about what happened for xmas.

Have a merry christmas. I hope you'll get all you wanted for xmas.

Lots of love....

xoxo
Fanny

food - christmas - holidays - snowmen - white chocolate

Divine cannelle

2005-12-17T20:43:00.000+01:00

When i discovered that Laurent from epicurien.be organized a contest and that the prize was Pierre Hermé's new book ph 10, i just couldn't resist to participate.
My mind have been wondering about how to assemble an original chocolatey creation. And i finally came up with what i called 'divine cannelle' [divine cinnamon](nice name, no?). It's actually a milk chocolale and cinnamon mousse on an almond dacquoise and covered with a milk chocolate ganache. All i can say is that this dessert is already a DO-It-AGAIN in my list. It's so good. You can feel the mousse melting in your mouth and i love the cinnamon perfume along with the chocolate. The dacquoise is subtle here but add a great texture.

Je pense qu'il n'y a aucun doute sur le fait que le chocolat est un des ingrédients préférés des amoureux de cuisine et de pâtisserie. Sa couleur profonde, son goût unique, son parfum divin et sa texture si versatile font de lui le compagnon idéal du pâtissier.
Ses utilisations sont infinies: ganaches, gâteaux, biscuits sont autant de variations qui le mettent en valeur. Mais pour moi la forme permettant au chocolat d'exprimer toute sa finesse et sa volupté est la mousse. Cependant j'aime une mousse légère et délicatement parfumée au chocolat.
Pour cela, j'ai choisi d'utiliser du chocolat au lait afin de lui donner les lettres de noblesse qu'il mérite entièrement. En effet, s'il a souvent été sous-estimé, à tort, le chocolat au lait est doux, fondant et tout aussi délicieux que le classique chocolat noir. Comme le chocolat est l'élément central de la recette, je vous conseille d'employer le meilleur chocolat possible: du Valrhona Lacté ou du Lindt Lait Extra Fin.
J'ai ici choisi le chocolat au lait Lindt car je n'ai pas pu me procurer le Valrhona, et le résultat a été plus que satisfaisant.
Pour mettre en valeur la douceur du chocolat, une pointe de cannelle est idéale – c'est ce qui m'a été révélé par le délicieux "Gauguin" d'une petite pâtisserie de ma ville.
Ce dessert aurait été tout aussi parfait présenté dans de jolis verres, mais je n'ai pas pu résister à utiliser les cercles à pâtisserie que j'ai récemment acheté à Londres. Il fallait donc créer une base à cette douceur. Une dacquoise aux amandes se prête joliment à ce rôle en apportant un fondant irrésistible.

[I think it's accurate that chocolate is one of the favourite ingredients for cooks and food lovers. Its deep color, it's divine perfume and its versatile texture make him the perfect ingredient for any pastry maker.
You can find a thousand ways of using it : ganache, cakes, cookies. But for me mousse
is the best way to enable the chocolate to express its delicacy. Howewer i like my mousse to be light and subtle in flavour.
To achieve that i chose to use milk chocolate as i think it deserves a full attention. Indeed if it's been, wrongly, underestimated, milk chocolate is mild, 'fondant' and as delicious as the dark kind (or shall i say king ?).
As chocolate is the main ingredient of the recipe i advise you to use the best milk chocolate you can find : valrhona lacte or lindt extra fin.
I couldn't find valrhona, so i used lindt and the result was just breath-taking.
Cinnamon is ideal to highlight the mildness of milk chocolate - as i learned from a delicious pastry called 'gauguin' i find in town.
This dessert would be excellent served in nice martini glasses, but i could resist to use the new cooking rings i brought back from london. So i had to create a base for the mousse : an almond dacquoise does the job with great success.]

DIVINE CANNELLE
Pour 4 personnes
[serves 4]

Dacquoise aux amandes
[Almond dacquoise]

2 blancs d'œufs (environ 75g), à température ambiante [2 egg whites at room temperature]
85g de sucre blanc extra fin [85g caster sugar]
70g d'amandes moulues [70g ground almonds]

Préchauffez le four à 160°C.
Dans un bol en inox sec et propre, battez en neige ferme les blancs d'œufs. Puis ajoutez le sucre cuillérée après cuillérée, jusqu'à obtention d'une meringue brillante et ferme.
A l'aide d'une large cuillère en métal, incorporez délicatement les amandes moulues.
Chemisez une plaque à pâtisserie de papier sulfurisé et versez l'appareil à dacquoise sur cette plaque en formant un rectangle d'environ 15cm sur 20cm et d'une hauteur de 1 à 2cm.
Cuire dans le four préchauffé pendant 20 minutes ou jusqu'à ce que la dacquoise soit joliment dorée mais toujours souple.
Laissez refroidir complètement avant de continuer.
Découpez quatre disques de la taille des cercles à pâtisserie. Posez les disques de dacquoise sur une plaque à pâtisserie recouverte de papier sulfurisé et placez les cercles à pâtisserie sur les disques.

[Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line a baking sheet.
In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Add the sugar one spoonful at a time while you continue beating.
Then gently fold in the ground almonds with a metal spoon.
Pour the mixture over the baking sheet; it should be 2cm high.
Bake for 20min or until nicely golden but still soft.
Allow to cool completely before going on with the rest.
Cut out 4 disks out of the size of the cooking rings you're using and put these on another lined baking sheet. Place the cooking rings over the disks.]

Mousse au chocolat au lait et à la cannelle
[Cinnamon and milk chocolate mousse]

3 feuilles de gélatine [3 gelatin leaves]
150ml de lait entier [150ml full fat milk]
200g de chocolat au lait de qualité (voir la note ci-dessus) [200g high quality milk chocolate (see note above)]
1 cuillère à café bombée de cannelle en poudre [a teaspoon of ground cinnamon]
200ml de crème entière [200ml whipping cream]

Faites tremper les feuilles de gélatine dans un bol rempli d'eau froide.
Portez le lait à ébullition et retirez du feu. Ajoutez la gélatine égouttée, le chocolat, coupé en fins copeaux et la canelle. Puis mélangez à l'aide d'une spatule en silicone. Laissez refroidir pendant une dizaine de minutes.
Battez la crème en chantilly et incorporez-la délicatement à la ganache.
Remplissez les cercles à pâtisserie préparés de cet appareil.
Laissez au réfrigérateur au moins 6 heures, ou mieux la nuit entière.

Démoulez les mousses avec leur base de dacquoise et posez-les sur une grille afin de procéder au glaçage.

[Soak the gelatin leavs in cold water for 5 minutes.
Bring the milk to the boil and turn off the heat. Add the drained gelatine, chocolate (cut into small pieces) and cinnamon and mix with a spatula. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks and fold into the chocolate mixture.
Fill the dacquoise-based cooking rings with this mousse and chill for at least 6 hours or better overnight.

Unmould the mousses with their dcquoise bases and place them or a wire rack to cover them with the ganache (below).]

Ganache pour la couverture
[Icing ganche]

2 feuilles de gélatine [2 gelatin leaves]
200g de crème liquide [200g double cream]
200g de chocolat au lait de qualité [200g high quality milk chocolate]

Faites tremper les feuilles de gélatine dans un bol rempli d'eau froide.
Portez la crème à ébullition. Hors du feu, faites-y fondre les feuilles de gélatine préalablement égouttées et ajoutez le chocolat coupé en copeaux. Mélangez sans incorporer d'air. Laissez quelques minutes et recouvrez les gâteaux de cette ganache.
Mettez au frais pendant 2 heures au minimum.

[Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water.
Bring the cream to the boil and take off the heat. Add the gelatine and chocolate and mix until mooth. But take care not to incorporate air (as i did). Allow to cool for a couple of minutes and ice the mousses. Chill for at least 2 hours.]

Note : you can make some chocolate petals to decorate the iced mousses.

food - chocolate mousse - milk chocolate - cinnamon - dessert

Perfect chewy chocolate chip cookies, melting brownies and gingerbread snowflakes

2005-12-13T20:44:00.000+01:00

I love to cook. It's a fact. But when i meet someone that loves to cook as much as i do, guess what we do. WE COOK. For days, literally.
And we tend to use each occasion as an excuse to cook. Saturday we made a great dinner for our girlfriends and yesterday we baked.

This year i've got an awesome english teacher : he's fun and wants us to speak as much as possible. So whenever we want we can plan to talk about a topic; and this week Maud and i decided to plan a cookie swap for the english class.

We made :
- perfect chewy chocolate chip cookies (following MY recipe but with some changes - see below)
- melting brownies
- gingerbread snowflakes

Perfect milk chocolate chip cookies
Just a short note: thank you Maud for helping improving my cookie recipe.
Indeed this time the cookies were exactly what i wanted them to be; which means as chewy as mine were, but also *thick*.
They were a pure delight.
Slighty crispy outside and oozing inside. With big chunks of milk chocolate. Yum delicious !

You can find the recipe here, but i'll give you some good (and new) tips:
- we used 1 1/2 cup caster sugar and 1 1/2 cup light muscovado sugar: increasing the muscovado sugar ratio helps the cookies getting chewier and with a lovely golden colour.
- we replaced the butter by vegetable shortening as we did not have enough butter. I think it might have an influence on the texture but truth to be told i prefer my cookies with a great butter taste. So i think the kind of fat you use don't have much influence.
- but what's important is not to add the fat melted as my first recipe stipulated but cold and diced. So what i do now is: first put flour, baking powder, sugars and vanilla seeds in a bowl. Add the butter (cold and diced) and rub it into the flour mixture. Add the eggs. Add the chocolate chips (here we used milk chocolate chip only).
The dough won't be as smooth as the old one, it'll be more like a pate sablée [shortcrust pastry]. So you'll have to form small disks of 1/4 cup worth and 2cm thick.

Melting brownies
We used the recipe from Nigella Lawson's Feast : snowflaked brownies but leaving out the white chocolate chips.
We ended with delicious plain brownies, perfectly cooked.
Maud prefered to reduce the sugar to 300g, but i think that 350g (as stipulated in the recipe) wouldn't have been too much. Blame my sweet tooth for that.

Gingerbread cookies
Due to popular request (*Tiphaine*), i'll write down the recipe we used to make these wonderful gingerbread cookies.
Just remember these are better the day after they are made.

Festive gingerbread
From Delicious(december), page 178
makes 18 (but we made at least 36 - small shapes)

380g plain flour
1 tbsp ground ginger (we used cinnamon instead)
1 tsp mixed spice
125g unsalted butter (we used vegetable shortening - no flavour modifications)
175g dark muscovado sugar
1 medium egg, beaten
4 tbsp maple syrup (we used honey)

Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Sift the flour, ginger and spice into a bowl. Rub the butter and ugar, removing any sugar lumps. Stir in the egg and maple syrup and mix well.
Tip onto a floured surface and roll out to 5mm thick.
Cut out shapes using festive cookie cutters and place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack. Decorate with icing (see the recipe for royal icing here.
Keep on an airtight box until the next day.

food - chewy chocolate chip cookies - milk chocolate - brownies - gingerbread cookies

Cooking solutions for busy students - Delicious ONE minute molten chocolate muffins

2005-12-04T14:48:00.000+01:00

Adapted from Molten Chocolate Babycakes
From Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess (page 179)

I am a busy student, but i like to eat fresh food and not ready-made-full-of-fat food. Am i the only one? I guess not.
So here i am starting a new series for busy people who don't have time to cook but love to eat good food.

I had this idea about a month ago because of two people i deeply love :
1. David, my lovely boyfriend always asks me for some quick but good thing to cook. Recently he made super-easy vol-au-vent and the post is on its way.
2. Anna-Sarah, a great friend of mine that i can't see often anymore but still adores her. Last week or so she told me she was going to eat (shall i tell you or not?) canned chili con carne (i'm not blamming her at all as it really proves WE don't have time to cook - i even eat ready cooked chicken wings...).

So now let's come to today's solution.
I have been craving for moist chocolate cakes for weeks, but sadly i don't have an oven so i thought "no baking till xmas...".
But then i recalled that carrot cake recipe that must be made in a microwave. And thought : if a carrot cake can be made in a microwave, why other cakes couldn't.
And i thought of that recipe Nigella gave for a "seven minute steamed chocolate pudding" in How to Eat. I tried it and throw it to the bin. It was dry and not chocolatey enough.
But today i decided all cakes can be made in a microwave so i tried Nigella's Molten chocolate baby cakes from How to be a domestic goddess and the result was just stunning!

I baked them in muffin paper cases to prevent them from sticking as i noticed that microwave cooked cakes tends to stick.
Just a short note : don't bake the muffins in classic muffin tins as they rise (even if they don't have any baking powder in the dough).
I advise you to put the mufin liners in mugs and then to fill them to the top of the muffin cases.
Then cook for just ONE minute and that's it.

Delicious ONE minute molten chocolate muffins
makes 8 to 10 muffins

80g soft unsalted butter (fanny: the recipe uses 50g but as microwave ovens tends to dry the food, i think that a little more fat helps the muffins staying moist)
350g best dark chocolate
150g caster sugar
4 large eggs
50g plain flour (fanny: i used a little more - 70g)

Melt the chocolate in the microwave and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar (tip: if your butter isn't soft enough, a quick turn in the micrwave does miracles). Then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Now add the flour and when all is smoothly combined scrape in the cooled chocolate, blending it to a smooth batter.
Divide between the 8 muffin cases each in one mug and put in the microwave.
"Bake" for one minute on high.

food - chocolate - student cooking - Nigella Lawson - recipe - microwave - muffins