Autumnal treat... Plum and almond tart

My post today is about one of my favourite desserts, plum and almond tart. I have always loved desserts with fruits in them. They are usually very moist, most of them are easy to make and they take the guilt away from eating dessert! After all, eating a fruit tart is a way of getting one of your 5 a day!
The thing about this particular plum tart is that it's very easy to make, takes little time and is really succulent. The only problem about it is that it usually disappears fast enough. That is just an excuse to make another one then!
The great thing about making this tart now is that all-butter puff pastry has finally reached Ireland, so it's even easier to make. I used to make my own puff pastry before that. Obviously, I did not make plum tarts that often then as it is rather time consuming to make puff pastry from scratch. The thing though, is that puff pastry made out of anything else but better is rather horrible and insipid. So you really need to get an all-butter puff pastry. In most Irish shops, this is now stored in the frozen food section. That way, I always pick a few spare packs of frozen puff pastry in my freezer. They do come in handy for any type of pies, tarts...etc. So here is my recipe for plum and almond tart.

Plum and almond tart

Ingredients:
- A pack of frozen or even better fresh all-butter puff pastry
- About 8-10 plums (the dark ones are nicer), stoned and cut in half
- About 100gr of ground almonds
- One egg
- The juice of half a lemon
- About 100gr of sugar + a little extra
- Some flaked almonds

Method:
1. Preheat the oven at 180°C. Roll out the puff pastry on a tray or tart dish. Prick the inside with a fork to stop it from rising in the oven.
2. In a bowl, mix the egg, ground almonds, sugar and lemon juice. Spread that mix evenly on the pastry.
3. Put the plum halves on the tart.
4. Sprinkle a little more sugar on the plums and some flaked almonds.
5. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the edges of the pastry are golden and the plums are soft.

Et voilà!

Another cheesy night in!

It's this time of the year again, we can feel the winter coming already. Although, to be honest, it's felt like winter all summer long... Still, the days are getting shorter, the trees are losing their leaves and it's time to light the fire again.
I subscribe to a veg basket. And recently I have received one cauliflower a week. I have to admit that cauliflower is not on my favourite veg list. So for the past few weeks, the cauliflowers have been piling up in my fridge. I mean I took four of them and a romanesco (mix between broccoli and cauliflower) out of the fridge this evening! How ridiculous is that. So I decided to tackle my cauliflower problem.
The thing about cauliflower is that I couldn't think of any recipes apart from the obvious cauliflower cheese. So, I set upon making the cauliflower cheese dish.
I remembered that a while back, in the same way, I had attempted to get rid of a glut of cauliflowers already. I made cauliflower cheese but with some really pungent French cheese, freshly brought back from France. And to my surprise, it was beautiful. The pungent cheese, once melted, was actually a little nutty and sweet and was perfect to counterbalance the bitterness of cauliflowers. It reminded me of lovely days spent in the Alps skiing... and eating melted cheese dishes!
So, I decided to try that recipe again, just to be sure my finding wasn't just a one off chance. And guess what, it was absolutely delicious, I think I ate the equivalent of a full cauliflower by myself this evening. That and a slice of crusty sourdough bread and a nice tangy salad... Cheesy heaven!!!

So here is my recipe for  Cauliflower cheese.

Cauliflower Cheese

Ingredients:
- 4 medium cauliflowers
- 1 romanesco
- 500 ml of milk
- 50 gr of butter
- 50 gr of plain flour
- 100 gr of grated Swiss Gruyère or other pungent cheese (don't worry, once melted it doesn't smell any more!), ask your cheesemonger's. Be brave, it really is worth it!
- Pinch of nutmeg
- Good pinch of salt
- Some black pepper

1. Preheat the oven at 200°C.
2. Remove the outer leaves of the cauliflowers and the romanesco, keep them whole though and steam them for 8-10 minutes.
3. In the meantime, melt the butter in a saucepan, once melted, add the flour and whisk until you get a kind of paste.
4. Then, add the milk, salt, nutmeg and black pepper. Keep whisking on the heat until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat once thickened.
5. By now, your cauliflower and romanesco should be ready. Remove them from the pan and carefully cut them into florets (use a tea-towel to protect your fingers from the heat) into a baking dish.
6. Cover with the sauce, add the grated cheese on top. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden.

I served mine with a green salad with a mustard dressing and crusty sourdough bread to mop up that cheesy sauce!

Bon appétit!

Answer to the previous poll... at last

Hello all,

I have been quite busy recently and unable to blog as much as I wanted. The good thing, though, is that I am now going to be able to blog again! Not sure whether this is such a good thing or not.
Anyway, the other reason I have not been able to blog is that the last poll I posted was about dessert and I was asked to post an easy and/or chocolate recipe. The problem is that, as I am mostly on my own, I tend not to cook desserts and especially chocolate dessert. If I do, I end up eating chocolate for the rest of the week. Now that the winter is on our doorstep again, I don't mind so much. I need the calories! And on top of that, I thought of an idea to make a dessert that lasts for a while. I decided to make ice-cream!
So, I did make that easy chocolate dessert two days ago: I made white chocolate ice-cream.

White chocolate ice-cream

Ingredients:
- 250 ml of cream
- 250 ml of full-fat milk
- 6 egg yolks
- 75 gr caster sugar
- The seeds of a vanilla pod

- 100 gr of good quality white chocolate, cut into squares
- White chocolate drops


Procedure:
1. Heat up the milk and the cream in a saucepan until very hot (do not boil).
2. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar together.
3. Pour the milk-cream mixture into the egg-sugar mix whisking.
4. Pour the mixture into a saucepan with the vanilla and heat up slowly until the mix coats the back of a wooden spoon.
5. Take the mixture off the heat when it's reached the proper consistency. Put the white chocolate squares into it and mix well until melted. Let the mixture cool. Once cooled, add the white chocolate drops into it.
6. Pour into an ice-cream maker or a plastic box and freeze.

Et voilà!


Serving suggestions:
As you can see on the picture, I served the white chocolate ice-cream with praline crumbs and dark chocolate sauce.
This evening, we had some of the ice-cream with fresh strawberries, strawberry coulis and meringue. It was gorgeous!

Next poll

Hey all,

I am not sure whether many people follow this blog but I will post a dessert recipe next and I need help choosing. Please vote in the poll section of the blog!

Chinese inspired meatballs

I could not "not post" a Chinese inspired recipe. I was fortunate enough to spend about 3 weeks out there and to attend an afternoon cooking lesson. It was interesting seeing what their staple cooking station looks like. As you'd imagine, they rely on woks a lot. The main seasoning ingredients lined up beside the wok were salt, sugar, corn flour, chicken stock, oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine and toasted sesame oil. Quite a change from our vinegar and olive oil!
A friend suggested earlier I should post a Chinese recipe but with the lovely weather outside (rain and 10°C), I felt more like a Western dish. After thinking for a while, I decided to make a Chinese inspired broth/soup with veggies, meatballs and some rice on the side. You could easily served this dish with boiled noodles. I didn't have any so I had rice. Clearly a warming up dish for the winter we are having in the middle of the summer!

Ingredients:

For the meatballs (makes about 20 meatballs):
- a pound of minced beef
- 1cm piece of ginger chopped
- 1 tbsp of toasted sesame oil
- 2 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of black bean sauce
- pepper
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs (no need to buy breadcrumbs, just put your stale white bread into a food processor)

For the veggies:
- 1 tsp of chilli paste
- 2 cloves of garlic, thinly chopped
- 1 cm piece of ginger thinly chopped
- 1 celery stick cut into thin cubes
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin batons
- 1 small courgette, cut into thin batons
- 1 bunch of sugar snap peas
- 3 spring onions cut into 2 cm pieces
- a pint of stock
- 2 tbsp of soy sauce
- 2 to 3 tbsp of vegetable oil

Some boiled or steamed rice/noodles.

Procedure:

1. Prepare the meatballs: mix the meat, ginger, soy sauce, black bean sauce, pepper, sesame oil, egg and breadcrumbs. Shape into meatballs and leave aside for about 30 min.

 Once rested:


2. Start cooking your rice or noodles.
3. In a wok or large and high frying pan, heat up about 1 tbsp of oil on medium to high heat. Brown the meatballs. Remove the meatballs and set aside.
4. Add the rest of the vegetable oil, about 1 to 2 tbsp. Add the chilli paste, garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the celery and carrots, stir fry for about 4 min.
5. Then, add the courgettes, stir fry for 2 min. Add the stock and the soy sauce. Bring to the boil. Add the meatballs. Reduce the heat, put a lid on and simmer for about 10 minutes.
6. Remove the lid, add the sugar snap peas, cook for another 2 minutes.
7. Serve sprinkled with the spring onions.

-

Pain brun pour les Français

Pour les Français, les ingrédients sont les suivants:
- 1 tasse/mug de farine complète
- 1 tasse/mug de farine type 80
- 1/2 tasse de son de blé
- 1 cuillère à café rase de sel
- 1 cuillère à café bombée de bicarbonate de soude
- 450/500ml de lait ribot ou babeurre (si vous n'en trouvez pas, vous pouvez en faire vous-même en mettant 1 litre de lait dans un saladier avec 1 cuillère à soupe de jus de citron frais, laissez le lait se séparer 15 minutes. C'est prêt!)
- 2 cuillères à café de molasses (du miel marche aussi), c'est facultatif
- des graines

1. Préchauffer le four à 220°C. 
2. Bien mélanger les farines, le son, le bicarbonate et le sel. Vous pouvez y ajouter des graines de citrouille si vous le souhaitez.
3. Ajouter le lait ribot/babeurre jusqu'à obtenir une consistance assez liquide (mais épaisse quand même).
4. Ajouter la molasse. Bien mélanger.
5. Verser dans un moule à pain. Saupoudrer de graines si vous le souhaitez, d'habitude j'utilise des graines de sésame et de pavot.
6. Cuire pendant 35 minutes puis sortir le pain du four, le retourner dans le moule de façon à ce que le dessous du pain soit à la chaleur vive. Remettre au four 10 minutes.
7. Sortir du moule à la sortie du four et laisser refroidir.
Voilà c'est tout!

Answer to Alicia's request - Brown bread

While I was away in China, a friend of mine got in touch via Facebook to ask me whether I had a recipe for Irish brown bread. The thing about China is that Facebook is censored so you cannot get access to it at all. So, although I am back from China and should be posting Asian recipes, well I am starting back with an Irish recipe to answer my friend's request.

I really like Irish brown bread. Despite this, it actually took me years before I attempted to make it. I had presumed that, like French bread and most white breads, it needed a lot of work and attention. I was quite surprised to find out that brown bread is made in 5 min, cooked in 45 min and is pretty much ready to eat in less than an hour. Needless to say, I have now caught up with all those years without making it. I now make it regurlarly.
When I know the bread loaf is not going to be eaten in the next two days, I usually bake the dough in muffin trays, that way I have mini brown bread muffins/loaves that can be used as needed. They can also be frozen that way and it is a lot easier to thaw them than to defrost a whole loaf of bread.

I think my favourite accompaniment to brown bread is probably home cooked ham, boiled eggs, cheese and an assortiment of salads... Great for picnics, rushed lunches and snacking!

Enjoy!


Ingredients:

- 1 mug (cup or other implement) of coarse white flour
- 1 mug of wholemeal flour
- 1/2 mug of wheat bran
- 1 teaspoon (not heaped) of salt
- 1 heaped teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
- About 450-500 ml of buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons of treacle
- various seeds

Procedure
1. Preheat your oven at 220°C.
2. Mix the coarse white flour, wholemeal flour, bran, salt, bicarbonate soda (you can add pumpkin seeds or any other seeds at this stage if you wish) and stir well.

3. Pour in the buttermilk until you obtain a fairly wet dough. The dough should be easy to stir. Stir well.
4. Add the treacle to the mixture, stir well.

5. Pour the mixture into a bread baking tin (I use a silicone one so I don't need to oil it, but if you use a metal one, make sure you oil it and flour it). Sprinkle some seeds on top of the bread.

6. Bake in the oven for about 35 min. Then take the bread loaf out of the tin, turn in upside down and bake for a further 10 min. If you are using muffin trays, your bread will be baked in about 20 min and you won't need to turn the muffins over during the baking process.
7. Take the bread out of the tin or muffin trays and leave to cool on a rack.

Spring/summer vegetarian dinner

Today was a quiet day for me. I took it easy enough and decided to cook to relax. I know it might sound strange but to be honest, running is my idea of hell so cooking actually does the job for me.
The thing is that when I cook, I can never cook for one. So I always end up with enough food to feed at least four people. This, in a way, is great, because I can pack some of the leftovers into my lunch box. The only problem is I am not one for eating the same thing two days in a row, never mind all week long.
This week, I made a big dish of spag bol and of Indian lamb meatballs. To make up for eating red meat, I decided to cook a vegetarian dinner for myself.
Now, there is one vegetable I really love in the spring/summer, it's asparagus. Not the green ones mind you, but the white ones. Unless, of course, I get my hand on some wild asparagus. I used to go picking them in France. I have looked for some in Ireland, unsuccessfully. If anyone of ye who might be reading this blog knows whether wild asparagus grow in Ireland, please let me know! I love them.
Anyway, I had a bunch of white asparagus and decided to have them for starter with some strong vinaigrette, or dressing. It's a really nice starter because asparagus are really light and don't fill you up too much.
Then, for main course, I have bookmarked a recipe for a while and I decided to try it out tonight, it is a take on paella with vegetables. Once again, this recipe involves cooking with vegetables in season in the summer, so it was perfect for our sunny day.
Lastly, for dessert, I made something as well, but you'll have to wait for my next post to discover what it is!


Here is a quick recipe for asparagus vinaigrette

Ingredients:
A bunch of big white asparagus
1 shallots diced
One handfull of chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp of Cider vinegar
2 tbsp of sunflower oil
2 tbsp of rapeseed oil

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil. I used a steamer in mine but you can also simply boil the asparagus. Remove one inch at the bottom of the asparagus and with a peeler, peel them up to 7 cm from the tip. Once peeled, steam them (or boil them) in the saucepan for about 7-10 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the water and cool down in cold water. Once cooled, drain well.

2. Make the dressing: put the salt, pepper, vinegar into a bowl. Stir. Add the oil, mustard, parsley and shallot and stir again until the dressing is homogenous.

3. Put the asparagus in a dish and pour the dressing over. Serve with some crusty bread. Yummy!

Vegetable paella:

Ingredients:
16 cherry tomatoes
2 handfulls of green beans
1 cup of fresh peas
1 courgette cut into 4 cm pieces
2 garlic cloves sliced
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 pinch of saffron
320gr of arborio rice
60 ml of boiling water
800 ml of stock
3 tbsp of vegetable oil
Toasted almond flakes

1. Put the pinch of saffron into the boiling water and let it infuse.

2. Put 2 tbsp of oil into a deep frying pan. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for a few minutes until the skin starts to split. Remove from the pan and add the courgette, green beans and peas. Stir fry for a few minutes until the courgette starts to golden. Remove them from the pan too.

3. Add the last table spoon of oil, the garlic and rosemary. Cook for 2 minutes. Then add the rice. Stir the rice into the oil for 2 minutes. Add the saffron and boiling water. Add the stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the head and simmer until all the water is absorbed. Season.

4. Check whether the rice is cooked. If not, add another bit of water. Add the reserved vegetables to the rice and leave on the heat for another few minutes until the vegetables are heated through. Serve with scattered toasted almonds.

Easy peasy!

Back from hols to sunny Ireland... or am I?

Hello all,


I have been back from holidays for a few days now and readjusting to living in Ireland. I was delighted when I got back because a heatwave was on the forecast for the next few days. Sadly, the heatwave barely lasted 24 hours and disappeared as fast as it came. Now, it's back to a showery and rather cool Ireland. The thing is though, when I heard about the heatwave, I went to the market on Saturday and bought lots of "summery" food, thinking I would rather enjoy them this week. 
Now, don't get me wrong, I am still enjoying the summery food I bought on Saturday, but I have also had to readapt my weekly menu to suit the climate of the week.
Yet, one of the dishes I did not really have to modify is my beetroot, fennel and rocket salad with homemade goat's cottage cheese and sour dough bread.
So here is how it's made:

Beetroot, Fennel and Rocket Salad & Sour Dough Tartine with Homemade Goat's Cottage Cheese

Ingredients:

1 ltr of Goat's milk
1 teaspoon of vegetarian rennet
1 spring onion
A few sprigs of thyme
Cheese cloth
1 bunch of rocket
2 beetroots
1/2 bulb of fennel
Juice of half a lemon
A few glugs of olive oil
Salt, pepper
A few slices of sour dough bread


1. Make the cheese, two hours in advance + cooking the beetroot
Heat the milk to about 37°C, i.e. luke warm temperature. Make sure it does not get hotter or you won't be able to make the cheese. Then, add the teaspoon of rennet. Leave in the pan for 10 minutes to cool down. Once cooled down, transfer the mixture into two overlapping cheese cloths and leave to drain for two hours.
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, add the two beetroots and boil for 45 minutes or until you can pierce them easily with a pointy stick. Once cooked, transfer into cold water to cool them down.


2. Finish making the cheese + peel the beetroots
After two hours, you should have in the cheese cloths a fair amount of goat's cheese with the consistency of cottage cheese. Transfer that into a bowl. Add the sliced spring onion, the bit of thyme, season well.
Peel the beetroots and cut them into cubes.


3. Make the salad + Prepare the bread tartines
Put the cubed beetroot into a bowl, add the sliced fennel and the rocket. Add some salt, some pepper, the lemon juice and the olive oil. Stir everything.
Spread some of the cheese on the sourdough slices.



Et Voilà!!!
Bon appétit!

Time off

I am lucky enough to be going away for a few days so I won't be posting much. Now that Blogger is fixed though, you can leave comments and suggestions for anything you'd like me to post about!
See you soon with lots of new ideas!

An easy three course dinner... How to eat your 5 a day in one meal

They were two votes for an easy three course dinner on the latest poll I posted. So, here we go, here is an easy three course dinner that will feed four people and will make the most reluctant of them eat their 5 a day in one meal. 

I have subscribed to a veg box scheme for the past couple of months. I have to say that I have always got top quality products for a fair price. The basket is also great for pushing me out of my comfort zone and making me cook dishes I would not have cooked otherwise. I think things have changed in France now but there was some "vegetable" snobbery going around when I was growing up. Even now, I am sure you can still hear people say "Parsnips are for rabbits", "Corn is for chickens" or "Oats are for horses"... I don't even need to tell you what the French would say about eating sprouting alfalfa! 

Anyway, I have learnt to cook swede over the winter. But for the veg basket, I would not have bought swede to be honest. The thing about swede is that the taste is not strong enough and the consistency nice enough so you can eat it by itself, so I usually cook it along with something else. The problem is then that swedes do not usually come in small sizes so then you are stuck with eating swede for the rest of the week. So, thanks to my cast-iron casserole dish, I have become quite good at mixing ingredients and getting pretty good results! I usually end up bringing some of the food I have made into work in my lunch box. I also freeze some for emergencies. And I have discovered that it's a great way to disguising vegetables so that even the most reluctant eaters do get their veg in!

So, here is the menu for my easy three course meal that will feed four and will take 30-40 minutes to make:

Apple, cheddar and mixed leaves salad

Roast chicken with a swede, mushroom, broccoli and spinach casserole

Mini strawberry Eton mess

Ingredients:

The salad:

1 apple, sliced

3 slices of mature cheddar 1/4 inch thick cut into cubes

mixed leaves

1tbsp of cider vinegar

1 1/2 tbsp of rapeseed oil

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

Salt and pepper

The Chicken + Veg casserole:

1 chicken cut into 4 pieces (ask the butcher to do that for you + ask him to give you the leftover bones from the cut, you will need them for the veg casserole)

1/2 a swede cut into small cubes (1 cm)

1 onion, sliced

4 smoked streaky rashers cut into thin strips

250 ml of cooking white wine (anything dry)

125 ml of single cream

A few sprigs of thyme

1 medium head of broccoli

200 gr of spinach

Salt, pepper

A few tbsp of olive oil

For the strawberry mess:

A small punnet of strawberries: all cut into thin strips but for 4 of them. You will need them for decoration

Some meringues

125 ml of single cream

Vanilla extract

(2 tbsp of sugar if you want)

1. First, preheat your oven at 200°C.

2. Take the chicken pieces, rub them with some olive oil, season them. Put them in the oven, bake for 1hr ish, turn them over after 30 minutes of baking. 

3. While the chicken is cooking, take a cast-iron pot, put 1tbsp of oil in it. Brown the onion, rashers bits, bones left over from the chicken and the swede bits over medium to high heat. 

4. Once browned, after about 8 minutes, pour over the wine, cream, season a little (not too much there are rashers in there already), and add the thyme. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Turn it off after that and leave the lid on.

5. Prepare the dessert: 

whip the cream with the vanilla extract, add sugar if you want. Crush the meringues (Here I used the meringues I made while baking the vanilla bavarois, see the previous post on that topic for a recipe for meringues), add slices of strawberries, add a heaped tablespoon of cream and decorate with a strawberry.

6. Prepare the starter: 

Make the dressing first. Add the salt, pepper, the vinegar, the sliced apples. Stir. Then add the oil, the mustard, mix again. Then add the diced cheese and the leaves. Do not stir the leaves until you are about to eat as the salad will wilt otherwise.

7. Have a glass of wine and chill.

8. When the chicken is cooked, add the spinach and the broccoli to the casserole, stir. 

9. Have your starter, the green veggies will be cooked by the time you are finished with the salad. 

10. Have another glass of wine and chill!

Sláinte!

Mama Mia... my pizza!

Hello!

Well, for those of ye who did not read my last post, I made some tomato sauce yesterday I mixed with pasta and I left some to be used for making pizza!
And tonight was pizza night!
I love pizza night because you can pretty much put whatever you want on them, cooking them makes the house smell lovely and given the way it's raining outside, it's great to have the oven on.
Making pizza sounds long and complicated but really, once you have the tomato sauce prepared, making the dough is quite easy, it needs enough time to rise (about 30 min to 1 hour) and then it's just a matter of putting toppings on top. Nothing could be simpler!

So here is my recipe for pizza dough and a few topping ideas! (For the tomato sauce, see the previous post)

For the pizza dough:
- 300 gr of strong white flour
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon of dried yeast
- between 175ml and 200ml of warm water
- 1 tbsp of olive oil

For the toppings:
- Grated mozzarella, or even better, fresh mozzarella
- Parma ham
- Rocket
- Fresh goats' cheese
- Honey and black pepper

1. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt and dried yeast. Then, add some of the warm water while mixing with your fingers. Add enough water so that the mix turns into a ball of dough that does not stick to your fingers too much. Once you have reached the right consistency, add the olive oil.

2. Cover with tea towel and leave to rest for 30 minutes to an hour, until it has doubled size. If you need a little help with the rising, leave the dough somewhere warm like a hot press.

3. Preheat the oven at 220°C. Once your dough has doubled size, divide it into three balls. Use one ball per pizza. Put one of the balls onto a sheet of baking paper, flour your rolling pin and spread the dough thinly. One ball should be enough for a 12" pizza.

4. Put about three table spoons of tomato sauce on the pizza, spread thinly. Put the grated mozzarella or fresh mozzarella on top. Bake in the oven for 7-10 minutes depending on how you like it.

5. Once out of the oven, put some slices of parma ham, some fresh goats' cheese, some rocket leaves and a few teaspoons of honey.

And hey presto, the nicest pizza ever is ready!!!

When there's nothing in the fridge to be eaten...

I came home from work rather later than usual today. I'd say I was home at around 8 ish. The thing about being home at that time is that if you are going to cook, well it means that by the time you are finished cooking, you won't be having your dinner until 9 if you are lucky. I don't particularly like eating late because then I don't sleep that well.
So today when I opened the fridge I cursed myself for not planning my evening dinner any better.
Then again, it's not like there was no food around the house either. It's just there seemed to be nothing that could be cooked together: parsnips, carrots, pasta, rice, eggs, etc. You get the jist.
There were a few slices of parma ham hidden at the bottom of the fridge and I decided to use some of these. I had initially bought them to make pizza but making pizza from scratch at 8 would have meant dinner at around 10. Way too late for me although I am a bit of a night-owl. So I decided to kill two birds with the one stone. I will have pizza tomorrow evening because I prepared the tomato sauce tonight.
And I used the tomato sauce with pasta, celery and carrots, a few slices of parma ham along with a green salad. The beauty of it is that not only dinner for tomorrow evening is already of the way, but tonight's dinner only took me 20 minutes to prepare!
So here is an idea for a quick dinner:

Will feed three people and you will have tomato sauce left (you can freeze it or use it on pizza the following day for instance)

Tomato sauce:
- One carton of tomato passata
- One onion sliced
- Two cloves of garlic sliced
- One good pinch of sugar
- One good pinch of salt and some pepper
- A few leaves of basil chopped
- 1 tbsp of oil

Sauce for the pasta:
- Three carrots, sliced thinly if possible
- 1 celery stick thinly sliced
- 1 chilli sliced (deseeded if you don't like the heat, I kept the seeds though)
- 1 tbsp of oil

Other ingredients:
- 300 gr of pasta (I used short pasta)
- About 9 slices of parma ham

1. First, start with the tomato sauce: Slice the onion, the garlic, gently fry on medium-hot heat in a saucepan with a tablespoon of oil.
2. When slightly brown, add the passata, the basil, sugar, salt and pepper. Add half a glass of water and simmer gently for 7 minutes.

3. Start cooking your pasta in salted boiling water.

4. Slice your carrots, your celery stick. Gently fry on medium-hot heat in a frying pan for 5 minutes. When brown, add the sliced chilli and a little salt and pepper. After two minutes, put two laddles of the above tomato sauce into the frying pan and cook for 8 minutes. You might need to add a glass of water to it as you don't want your sauce to reduce too much, you just want to cook the carrots and celery a bit. (While this is happening, you can prepare a green salad to accompany your dish.)

5. Drain your pasta, pour them into the frying pan and mix well. Serve with slices of parma ham spread over the pasta on a plate.

Et voilà, nearly two dinners in one!
Tomorrow night, I will publish a post on my pizzas... See you then I guess!

New Poll

Hey all,

I have posted a new poll on my blog to get an idea of what you would like to see next. The poll ends in 6 days so don't be shy and vote away!

Et voilà un dessert français!

As promised from the last poll, here is a French recipe. To answer another request, I decided to make it a dessert recipe. So that way, more than half the people who voted in the poll will be happy! Well hopefully...
First, although I do eat desserts and cakes, I have to admit that dessert is not my favourite course. When I was a child of about 7 and when we went out for dinner with my family, which was usually on a rare occasion, I remember the waiters coming over, looking at me and saying "So, you will have the chocolate cake, won't you?" My usual answer was "No thanks, I'll have the cheese plate."As you do...
Yes, I love cheese and I usually love dairy products, specially the soft ones. So I prefer soft cheeses to hard cheeses, I adore yoghurts, custards, baked custards...etc. That is the reason why I decided to make a "Bavarois". I tend to like plain flavours in desserts like that, so I made a vanilla bavarois. Because I had egg whites left over, I also had time to make meringues. The crunchy texture is quite nice with the smoothness of the bavarois.
Second, I am lucky enough to have people give me products they harvest from their garden. Joe gave me a big bunch of fresh rhubarb last week. I really like tart flavours and today I thought that poached rhubarb would be a lovely accompaniment to a rather rich bavarois.
So today's recipe really is Vanilla bavarois with poached rhubarb and crushed meringue.

For the bavarois: (Enough for 4-6 people)

- 1/4 litre of milk

- 1/4 litre of cream

- 1 vanilla pod

- 2 egg yolks

- 75 gr of caster sugar

- 2 leafs of gelatine or 1 heaped teaspoon of agar-agar for my vegetarian friends!

For the meringues: (Makes quite a few!)

- The 2 egg whites from the bavarois above

- 1 pinch of salt

- 125 gr of caster sugar

For the poached rhubarb:

- About 3 or 4 stalks of rhubarb

- 6 tbsp of water

- 6 tbsp of sugar

- 1 slice of fresh ginger

- 1 tsp of ground cardamon

1. First, preheat your oven at 120°C. Put the leaves of gelatine into a bowl of cold water.

2. Then split the vanilla pod in half, scrape the seeds and put them with the milk in a saucepan. Heat up the milk. 

3. In the meantime, whisk the two egg yolks with the sugar until the mix turns white. Take the milk off the heat, it shouldn't boil. Then little by littke pour the milk into the egg-sugar mix. 

4. Pour the whole liquid back into your sauce pan, heat it up again while continously whisking it until the liquid coats the back of your wooden spoon. Do not boil. As soon as you reach this consistency, take it off the heat.

5. After taking your pan off the heat, add the two leaves of gelatine or the agar-agar and mix well. Let the mixture cool down. Make the meringues while you are waiting.

6. To make the meringue, simply whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until hard. Then add the sugar little by little while whisking. Once you have added all the sugar, put the mixture into a piping bag or spoon over baking paper. Bake for 30 minutes if you want to get white meringues, for 1 hour if you wish to get meringues that are gooey inside.

7. Now, whip the cream for the bavarois. Once whipped, add it to the cool liquid. Transfer the whole mixture into a dish lined with cling film. It will make it easier to unmold. 

8. For the rhubard, clean the stalks and cut them into 3cm pieces. Put the water, sugar and spices into a saucepan. Heat up the liquid so that the sugar dissolves. Add the rhubarb pieces in a single layer. Cook them in several batches if necessary. Cook them for roughly 4 minutes.

9. After cooking the rhubarb, keep the syrup and reduce it. 

10. To serve: unmold the bavarois, arrange some crushed meringue on top of the bavarois, arrange some rhubarb pieces beside it and pour some syrup over the fruit.  

Next recipe: French

Ok, well the results of the poll mean I will post a French recipe within the next few days!

More fish! Herb stuffed sea bream with steamed potatoes and a herb and garlic yoghurt dip

I think it must be the weather these days but I have been eating a lot of fish and seafood recently. And usually, as a good French person, I tend to eat way more meat than fish.
Yet, I do really like fish, specially the fish that tend to be ignored by restaurateurs. You know, fish like sardines, mackerel, sea bream on the bone...etc.
And what I love with fish is actually steamed potatoes. As much as I find boiled potatoes boring. I mean they don't taste of anything unless you put a good bit of butter on them, I absolutely adore steamed potatoes. I find the texture so enjoyable: they seem to melt and be buttery and yet hold their shape! Surprisingly, despite the fact that I love steamed potatoes, I never seem to remember to cook them. Today though, I did!
So, anyway, D bought some sea bream on the bone from Deacy's on Shop Street and I remembered to make steamed potatoes with it!
And as we picked some wild garlic near the Corrib yesterday, I thought it would compliment the fish greatly in a yoghurt dip. I cooked the fish very simply, I stuffed it with herbs and roasted it with a little oil and seasoning in the oven. Yum! Nothing simpler.
So here is the quick, simple and healthy recipe!

For the fish:

- A sea bream, gutted

- A few slices of lemon

- A handful of herbs, here I used fennel and parsley

- Some olive oil and seasoning

For the potatoes:

- A few waxy potatoes

For the dip:

- A small pot of natural yoghurt

- Wild garlic (one or two leaves max. Wild garlic is very strong!)

- Parsley

- Seasoning

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C.

2. Peel the potatoes and cut into even pieces. Put them in the steamer for about 10-15 minutes.

3. Rub the fish with olive oil, season and stuff with the herbs and lemon slices. Bake at 180°C for about 10-15 minutes depending on the size of the fish.

4. Chop the parsley and the wild garlic for the dip, add them to the yoghurt along with a good bit of seasoning. 

Et voilà! That is all! 

Poll...

I have just checked the answers to the poll I posted a few days ago. Here are the results so far:
3 people voted for a French recipe, 1 for an Irish one, 1 for an Indian one, 1 for a dessert one...
You have until tomorrow to vote and change the results!

What to do with leftovers or Crab meat salad with beurre blanc

Yesterday's post was about John Dory with a lime, coconut and coriander beurre blanc. Well, tonight felt a bit like a Sunday night and I usually take it easy in the kitchen on Sundays. I tend to look at what's left from the week in the fridge and try to come up with some recipe to use the leftovers. So tonight, when I saw I had some of the beurre blanc left, and I had a pack of fresh crab meat... well it all made sense to me to make a crab meat salad with the leftover beurre blanc.

So here is what I added to it:
- 100 gr of Fresh crab meat
- the leftover beurre blanc (about half of the recipe from the John Dory)
- a diced ripe avocado
- some fresh chopped parsley
- some lettuce leaves
- some pink peppercorn sprinklings

1. Just mix the crabmeat, the beurre blanc, the avocado and the parsley.
2. Scatter some lettuce leaves on a plate, shape some of the crabmeat mix into quenelles and place them on the lettuce. Sprinkle with the pink peppercorn sprinkings.
Et voilà!

Pan-fried fillets of John Dory with a lime, coconut and coriander beurre blanc

I was at the market in Galway yesterday and I had a craving for fish. I called up to the fish stall and I saw some John Dory. I couldn't resist. I love that fish, the flesh is quite firm but yet delicate. I wasn't sure what to make with it. I was thinking about something French but I did not want anything too heavy. So I decided on doing an "Asian thing" with a French classic: I decided on trying out an Asian "Beurre blanc". For those of ye who have never had a beurre blanc, it is one of the nicest sauces to serve with fish.  However, because it contains quite a bit of butter, it can be quite rich. So by adding some coconut milk instead of some of the butter, by adding extra flavours, the sauce becomes much lighter and reminds me of holidays!

For 2 people:
For the fish:
- About 350gr of John Dory filleted (ask your fishmonger and keep the bones for stock or chowder)
- 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
- salt and pepper

For the sauce:
- 2 big shallots, thinly chopped
- 1 stick of dried lemongrass
- 1 kaffir lime leaf
- juice of 2 limes
- 10cl of white wine
- 10cl of coconut milk
- 50gr of unsalted butter cut into small cubes
- a small bunch of coriander leaves, chopped

Accompaniment:
- 2 medium courgettes, cut into shavings with a peeler
- 75 gr of basmati rice

1. Start by putting the chopped shallots with the lemongrass and the lime leaf into a saucepan with the white wine and the lime juice. Put on medium to high heat and reduce until the liquid is nearly gone. There should be about 1 to 2 table spoons of liquid left. (While this is reducing, cook the rice in salted boiling water).
2. Once reduced (this will take about 8 minutes), add the coconut milk. Bring to the boil. (Now you can cook the courgettes in salted boiling water for 3-4 min).
3. Take the saucepan off the head, now add the butter cubes one at a time while whisking energetically.
4. Put a heavy frying pan on full heat. Put the tablespoon of oil in it. Once hot, put your seasoned fillets of fish skin down. Cook about 3 mins on each side.
4. After you have added all the butter to your sauce, add the coriander leaves. Take the lemongrass stalk and the lime leaf out of the sauce.
5. By now, your courgettes, your rice should also be ready!
6. ENJOY!

My first tomato of the year!

Today was market day. I bought some delicious and organic bread from Layla of Coolfin Gardens Bakery. I also bought some fish which I will be cooking later. For the moment, I am delighted to report that I saw my first tomato this afternoon (see pic)! I only live in an apartment but it seems that this year will be good for tomatoes given the amount of flowers on my two plants! I can't wait...

And here is the second post already!

I could not really leave this blog without trying to post a recipe... And my first recipe is going to be about baking scones. I discovered scones in Ireland and I absolutely love them! They are such a treat: they are soft inside but crusty on the outside, they are sweet enough but not so much that you cannot put a good dollop of jam on them, and they are much lighter than most French pastries! Last but not least, they are super easy and fast to make as long as you don't overwork the dough.

So here is a recipe for fruit scones. Makes about 12-15 scones depending on how you cut them out.
450 gr of self-raising flour
50 gr of caster sugar
110 gr of unsalted butter
50 gr of raisins
50 ml of cream (single or double if you don't mind the extra richness)
200 ml of milk
1 pinch of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 egg beaten lightly
a little extra milk

1. Preheat your oven at 180°C. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl. Stir in the sugar and the raisins.
2. Work in the butter with your fingers until you have breadcrumbs.
3. Add the beaten egg, the cream and the milk.
4. Roll the dough into a sheet about 1 inch thick, use a cookie cutter or oil the rim of a glass and cut scones.
5. Put them on a baking sheet. Put a little milk in the bowl you used to beat the egg, glaze the scones.
6. Bake the scones for 15-20 min.

My first post!

Hello all,

I am quite excited as this is my first post. I have decided to share my food experiments and experience. I hope you will have as much fun reading my blog and maybe following my recipes as I do. I am looking forward to reading comments!