Birthday treat – Verrines of pain d’épices, peach compote and fromage blanc mousse
Oct 15th
Gourmandise pour un anniversaire – Verrines de pain d’épices, compote de pêches et mousse au fromage blanc
Another year is going by, who likes getting older? I don’t and people who say they do, I am not sure they really mean it…yesterday was my birthday and I got up with a massive headache! So I still decided to treat myself thinking that one of those mini desserts, will make me feel better. When and if you make pain d’épices, you open the door to many preparations. I could not resist to make those mini desserts after I made pain d’épices. They’re not sweet, but very light and terribly delicious. Of course, they’re tiny so you can easily eat a few. That glass is actually about 2 inches tall, or a bit smaller, so with a few spoonful, you can finish it up.
Mini desserts are great for parties, you eat one and it’s not stuffy, no one likes the feeling of being stuffed (I don’t), the feeling of being satisfied is much more pleasant in my opinion. The mousse is so light and the fruity compote combined with spicy cake makes it the perfect trio.
Ingredients for 6 small verrines
For the Fromage blanc mousse
- 1 egg
- 1 tbs sugar
- 4 tbs fromage blanc or Fage Greek yogurt
For the peach compote
- 2 yellow peaches, peeled and cut in small cubes
- 1 tsp brown sugar (or to taste)
- a few drops of vanilla extract
For the pain d’épices – see recipe here
Preparation
For the mousse
Separate yolk from white and place in different containers. Add sugar to the yolks and beat until the mixture turns white and creamy and doubles volume. Beat the whites in a stiff consistency. Carefully add the whites to the yolk/fromage blanc mixture.
For the peach compote
Cook peaches with sugar and vanilla for about 15 min or until they turn soft and mushy. Let it cool down.
In a small glass, place one tbs or tsp (depending on the size of the glass) of crumbled pain d’épices, add 1 tps or tsp of peach compote, then add fromage blanc mousse. Repeat process twice until you reach top of the glass. Eat at room temperature or cold.
Life is full of contrasts – Lentil and marinated smoked salmon salad
Sep 25th
La vie est pleine de contrastes – Salade de lentilles et saumon fumé
It’s quite a fun way to eat lentils…lentils are very versatile and I think not popular enough especially since they’re highly nutritious. I have rarely seen them in restaurants other than in soups. In France they’re considered rustic, something you would eat during winter and with smoked sausage or meat. I like them with smoked fish like salmon or trout, it tones down the smokiness of the fish (if the fish is too smokey like my salmon, actually this salmon was too smokey and salty). Here I like the combination of a hearty rustic ingredient with a more elegant and refined one. I have always loved contrasts. They’re unexpected, interesting and always leave you a feeling of wanting more.
Lentils and spinach are among the ingredients French kids have a hard time eating, if you ask any kid in France what they don’t like to eat, they’ll probably say, j’aime pas les lentiles et j’aime pas les épinards! but obviously I don’t want to make this a generality.
You can also combine fresh salmon with smoked salmon, then you would need to cut both salmon in cubes. Here I striped the salmon since I only used the smoked kind.
Ingredients for 4
For the lentils
- 200 g lentils du Puy
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 carrot
- 1/2 onion
- 1 celery stick
- 1 clove
- salt
For the lentil vinaigrette
- 1 tbs hazelnut or walnut oil
- 1 tsp cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp whole grain mustard
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 1 tbs parsley, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
For the salmon marinade
- 4 large slices of good quality smoked salmon, cut in strips
- 1 orange
- zest of 1/2 orange
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp dill, chopped
- 1/4 tsp fennel pollen
- 1 tsp capers, chopped
- Piment d’Espelette
- Pepper
Preparation
In a pot of water cook lentils with clove, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf and salt and cook until lentil are tender but not mushy. Drain and remove the cooked vegetables from the lentils and set aside. In a mixing bowl, prepare vinaigrette mixing all ingredients together.
Cut salmon in stripes, mix all ingredients of the marinade and pour over the salmon. Mix well to coat the salmon. Let it marinade in the refrigerator for about one to two hours.
Place a small amount of lentil salad in the middle of a plate (you can use a rind to mount the salad) and top with some salmon stripes. Drizzle some extra marinade on top.
What a nouille! – Soba noodles with edamame, grilled zucchini and Chinese cabbage – lemon basil pesto
Sep 1st
Quelle nouille!!! – Nouilles soba, edamame, courgettes grillées, chou chinois, sauce basilic et citron
Nouille in French means noodle of course, but if you call someone a “nouille“it’s not really a compliment and means you are calling this person an idiot. So today, I do feel like a nouille, because I keep buying soba noodles and never eat them. Actually, I rarely think of preparing or eating soba noodles, probably due to my Italian upbringing…even though my pantry is filled with all kinds of soba.
I see them every day, but no… the idea of eating them, does not even cross my mind. I look at them and think, oh wow! I have so many soba in there. That’s it…the thought stops there. Isn’t that strange? It’s funny how we get stuck into habits. Well, today I decided to make a change, free some space in the cabinets = EAT SOBA. Of course, soba being Japanese, I didn’t want to prepare them the Italian way, and offend them. I tried to be faithful to their essence. For whatever reason, soba reminds me of Geisha, something delicate, and complex at the same time.
Since I have been cooking a lot of vegan meals lately, I can assure you that this dish would please any vegan out there. I combined some Eastern-Western flavors and everything made sense in this dish, from the textures, to the flavors, the colors. Yes, everything. The herbs make it fragrant, taste fresh, the lemon gives it a clean aftertaste, and all combined with the natural nuttiness and sweetness of the buckwheat make it a perfectly balanced and delightful dish. As we say in French “Essayer, c’est l’adopter“, to try it, is to adopt it…so just try it.
Ingredients for 2
- 220 g buckwheat soba
- 1 cup edamame, frozen
- 2 zucchini, sliced
- 4 Chinese cabbage leaves, thinly chopped
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1.5 cups basil leaves
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a blender mix garlic, basil, salt and pepper. Blend to a fine consistency. Add lemon zest. Set aside.
Grill zucchini on both sides using a grill pan. Cut in 4 pieces. Boil edamame in boiling water for a few minutes or place in microwave to defrost. Saute cabbage in 1 tsp olive oil.
Cook soba for about 5 minutes in a slightly salted boiling water. Rinse in cold water. Combine all ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add pesto and toss well. Eat cold or at room temperature.
The sweet taste of childhood – Pain d’épices or Spicy bread
Aug 26th
Douce sensation d’enfance – Pain d’épices
I decided out of the blue one day to make pain d’épices…I think last time I had one slice I must have been 10 years old. What is pain d’épices? Well it’s another one of those traditional French breads or cake that is popular in Alsace region. It’s literally translated into “spice bread”, simply because it has many spices. It could be an distant ancestor of the Ginger bread, but the French one has no ginger so, I would not even try to compare it to ginger bread.
Pain d’épices is made with honey and rye flour, and no sugar even though some recipes include brown sugar. Of course some recipes vary slightly from one to another; this version has no butter nor oil, so no fat and no eggs. Its consistency is very similar to the one I am used to eating in France…chewy, dense and very flavorful.
The origin of pain d’épices is traced back to ancient times (as far as the Egyptians) and was brought to Europe from China by the Crusades. They brought back the recipe and the spices, It was then spread over Europe during the middle ages, and the first Pain d’Epices called Lebkuchen was found in Germany in 1296. But it’s in Reims in XVII century that the Masters of Pain d’épiciers (Maîtres de pain d’épiciers) were officially recognized by King Henri IV as a specialty company. Reims remained one historical city linked to this bread. Nowadays there are two different kinds of Pain d’épices, the one from Reims made with mainly rye flour and the one from Dijon made with mainly wheat flour. Think that that we have a Museum on Pain d’épices in Alsace, called Musée du Pain d’épice et de l’art populaire Alsacien so that’s a serious deal!
In this recipe I use already packaged spices “épices pour pain d’épices” I bought during my last trip to France, but you can use loose ones, so I will give you the quantities for regular loose spices.
Pain d’épices can be served with savory dishes such as foie gras, or salmon…it can be eaten as is with a cup of hot chocolate, or as a toast with butter and jam, even prepared as a French toast, or combined with fruits in verrines (this will be on my next post). So as you can see its use is quite wide.
I was thinking that for someone with a savory tooth like mine, I did quite a good job with the sweets lately. The beauty of it is that I always share half of my sweet concoctions with my neighbor…otherwise I would break the poor scale. Unfortunately I am not among the lucky ones who can eat anything and remain thin…I have to work at it!! Oh well, maybe in my next life!
Ingredients for one loaf
- 4.4 oz (or 125 g) wholewheat flour
- 4.4 oz (or 125 g) rye flour (you can also use 250 g rye only)
- 7 oz (or 200 g) honey
- 1.7 oz (or 50 g) agave nectar
- 6.7 fl oz (or 200 ml) milk
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp star anise powder
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/4 tsp clove powder
- 1 tsp orange peel powder (see picture above)
Preparation
In a mixing bowl combine honey, agave nectar and lukewarm milk. Mix well to dissolve the honey. Add flours gradually whisking well to obtain a smooth and homogenous mixture. Add the rest of the ingredients. Place in a bread pan previously buttered and floured to prevent from sticking. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 365-370F for about one hour. Let it cool and serve warm or cold.
Pâte à Choux, part II – Divine Chouquettes
Aug 19th
Pâte à Choux, 2ème partie – Divines Chouquettes
After gougères, I thought to continue with pâte à choux and make something special for the sweet tooth crowd: Des Chouquettes! It’s basically the sweet version of gougères with a sweet dough and sprinkled with pearl sugar. Chouqettes in France are as famous as the Eiffel Tower. They had a contest last year in Paris about which bakery would make the best chouquettes. So if you’re in Paris and decide to try the best chouquettes in the city, check this article. Sorry it’s in French but they give you the address! I added some orange blossom water for a little twist, but traditional chouquettes are plain, with no flavoring. I recommend trying the traditional ones the first time you make them, then you can play around with the flavors.
You have to get a specific texture, inside and outside, right color, etc…so making great chouquettes is not always that easy. Every boulangerie in France sells them, by the 100 g, but of course, hard to leave with only a 100 grams!
I can assure you that those are always a crowd pleaser…bring them at any party or dinner, you will be the star of the evening. Besides what’s a cuter name than chouquette???
Ingredients for about 24 chouquettes
- 4.20 fl oz (or 125 ml) water
- 4.4 oz (or 125 g) white flour
- 1 tbs orange blossom water (optional)
- 2.4 oz (or 70 g) butter
- one pinch salt
- 1.9 oz (or 55 g) sugar
- 4 eggs (+1 one for brushing)
- pearl sugar
Preparation
Place water, sugar, butter and orange blossom water in a pot. Bring to a boil and remove from stove. Add flour gradually and whisk well to obtain a smooth dough. At this point the dough will thicken. Put the pot back on the stove and keep stirring until the dough detaches from the sides of the pot and dies out a bit. Remove from stove. Let it cool for a few minutes.
Add eggs one at a time and incorporate into the dough, to obtain a smooth dough/batter.
Place dough in a piping bag, and on a cookie tray, form small balls the size of a walnut. Brush the top with a yolk, and decorate with pearl sugar.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 380F for about 20-25 minutes.
So French – Gougères with comté cheese and thyme
Aug 10th
Si Français – Gougères au comté et thym
These are one of those delicious appetizers that are so good, so easy to make, that everyone loves, but yet, I never think of making them. So I figure by posting them on my blog, it will make me remember that they shall not be forgotten!
Gougères are a specialty from Bourgogne region (you know that region where are produced many great French wines such as Chablis, Côtes de Beaunes, Bourgogne Aligoté, etc…); they’re made with a base of a pâte à choux and cheese. Gougères are either made in individual small balls or even in a large pan like a pie. They can also be stuffed with a béchamel sauce and ham. Either way, they’re always delightful. They make wonderful appetizers, you can also serve them as a side cute addition to a soup, preferably a velouté. They will immediately make your soup very elegant.
Now if we are going further into who invented Pâte à choux…well it seems that an Italian baker called Panterelli brought it over to France when Catherine de Medici arrived around 1540. Then of course, the French contributed to its evolution, and started making profiterolles and other pâte à choux based pastries.
Usually, gougères are made with hard cheeses like gruyère, parmesan or comté, but you can use roquefort, or other strong cheeses. I stayed with a traditional base of comté, but you can play around with the pâte à choux and make it your own.
Ingredients for about 25 medium size gougères
- 1 cup (or 250 ml) water
- 4 eggs (+ 1 yolk)
- 5.30 oz (or 150 g) comté cheese, grated
- 5.30 oz (or 150 g) white flour
- 2.65 oz (or 75 g) butter
- 1 tbs thyme, finely chopped
- nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- pepper
Preparation
Mix water and butter in a pot and bring to a boil, add salt. Remove from stove and add flour all at once. Mix well to obtain a smooth batter, then place back on low temperature while stirring vigorously until the dough detaches from the sides of the pot and turns into a consistent ball. Remove from heat, and let it cool for a few minutes. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix well until the batter becomes smooth. Add cheese, thyme, nutmeg and pepper.
Butter a tray to prevent sticking. Using two teaspoons or a douille, divide all the dough into big walnuts size little piles.
Brush each gougère with beaten yolk and cook in a pre-heated oven at 390F for about 20-30 minutes, until the gougères are golden brown and have risen. Serve hot or at room temperature as apéritif.
Pause-café – Matcha tea financier with grilled peaches and strawberry coulis
Aug 5th
Financier au thé vert, pêches grillées et coulis de fraises
Financiers are a traditional individual little French cakes made with almond powder and brown butter. Usually they’re rectangular but I gave them their original round shape. They’re sometimes called Visitandines, due to their original fabrication by Visitandines nuns. They used to be round like these ones but became rectangular over the years and especially after arriving in Switzerland where the Swiss decided to make them rectangular.
Financier in French also refers to people working in the finance field. It’s been said that these tiny cakes were created by a pastry chef or what we call pâtissier so that finance people would not make their fingers dirty while eating them. I don’t know if it’s true, but I think that there is always something true in popular ear-say.
After surfing the wonderful site called l’Atelier des Chefs, I saw this little dessert that tempted me and I decided to try it out. Do not hesitate to make these financiers, they’re delightful. I only substituted agave nectar to powdered sugar in the coulis which adds a more natural and flavorful touch, other than that the recipe remained the same.
Since peaches are in season, it’s the perfect time to grill them and eat them warm with these green tea cakes…and what’s better than a strawberry coulis to add the final touch? nothing. These mini cakes are very moist and absolutely perfect for any occasion.
Ingredients for about 10 financiers
For the Financiers
- 2.82 oz (or 80 g) almond flour or powder
- 1.76 oz (or 50 g) white flour
- 0.35 oz (or 10 g) matcha green tea powder
- 6.17 oz (or 175 g) powder sugar
- 5.29 oz (or 150 g) egg whites (about 3)
- 5.29 oz (or 150 g) butter
For the coulis and peaches
- 6 peaches
- 1/2 lb (or 250 g) strawberries
- agave nectar
Preparation
For the financiers
In a mixing container combine all ingredients except butter. Melt butter in a pan and let it brown. Do not let if cook too long until it becomes too dark. It needs to have a nice nutty color. Let it cool and add to the other ingredients. Divide the batter in muffin molds (fill in the molds to half). Cook in a pre heated oven at 180C.
For the coulis, blend strawberries with agave nectar.
Cut peaches in slices and grill on a skillet on both sides.
Serve financiers with grilled peaches and strawberry coulis.
Cocotte of rainy days – Oeuf cocotte with endives and morbier cheese
Jul 28th
La cocotte des jours pluvieux – Oeuf cocotte aux endives et morbier
I made these oeufs cocotte while I was back in France last June, the days were long, day light lasted until 10:30 pm. I love the month of June, it’s the longest and the most exciting of all the months where people have not left on vacation yet, unlike July or August when most large Northern cities are empty, everyone goes dans le midi! and we celebrate summer with Music Festival, music bands play all over the country on June 21, the streets are filled with happiness and excitement. June is always so vibrant and colorful with such a special ambiance.
June is over now, and August is around the corner…so it’s about time for another oeuf cocotte!
When I feel like eating eggs, most of the time they come in this cocotte form. You break the yolk and you dig further down the little cocotte to find more exciting bites. In France we call those containers cocotte, in this case, it’s a mini cocotte.
I used morbier cheese, made with raw milk and has a line of black ashes in the center of the cheese, it has a sweet taste and somehow a creamy texture. Its fabrication has been traced back to 1795 where documents found describe a round cheese from 8 kilos to 10 kilos and called “Petit Morbier“. The great news is that you can find Morbier in the US!
The combination of the bitterness of endives and sweetness of Morbier complement each other to perfection. I also used crème allégée, which is a “light” heavy cream with 5% fat. I haven’t found anything similar in the US, so just use heavy cream or regular crème fraîche.
Not only oeufs cocotte are delicious but they’re fun to eat, so just play with ingredients and have fun! But do not overcook the yolks or they’ll be ruined.
Ingredients for 4 cocottes
- 2 shallots, chopped
- 3 small endives, finely sliced crosswise
- 4 tbs crème fraîche, or heavy cream
- 1 tbs olive oil or butter
- 150 g morbier cheese sliced
- 4 eggs
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a pan and brown shallots. Add endives, salt and pepper and cover with a lid. Cook at medium heat until the endives are soft. Divide the endives in mini cocottes or ramequins. Add 1 tbs crème fraîche on each ramequin and top with a few pieces of morbier cheese. Break the egg, adjust with salt and pepper and add the rest of the cheese.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 7 minutes. The egg whites need the be slightly runny when you remove the eggs from the oven, they will keep cooking when outside of the oven. Serve immediately.
In season – Roasted white peaches with Grand Marnier, honey and rosemary
Jul 12th
De saison – Pêches blanches rôties au Grand Marnier, miel et romarin
My favorite fruit is finally back in season! Cannot get tired of eating peaches…Of course, we don’t need to do anything to the fruit to enjoy a juicy and sweet peach, but sometimes we can turn them into an elegant and delightful little dessert by roasting them. I love to grill roast, saute, poach, or anything you can think of, just like a vegetable.
I haven’t been able to blog nor read anyone’s blog as much as I would like simply because I am too busy at the moment, cooking and preparing menus, and I thought summer would slow down, which seems to be just the opposite. I still think with my French mind, where in France everything slows down during summer, because everyone goes on vacation, so July and August are dead.
When I have a little time, I always enjoy posting some new recipe, even if it’s something as simple as that. Sometimes, a warm roasted peach enhanced with honey and Grand Marnier is all you need to make your day perfect. It did it for me today, despite the same old San Francisco gloomy summer weather. I haven’t used Grand Marnier in desserts for years, and I remember when I was growing up in France, they sold Grand Marnier flavored yogurts from Yoplait, and my aunt was going crazy about them. Doesn’t this sound funny to have a yogurt with a liquor flavor? I guess in the US, you’ll need to show an ID to get those yogurts!
If you buy the kind of peaches that are hard to peel, cut the in half and place them in boiling water for 30 seconds. They’ll peel very easily.
You can serve this with vanilla ice cream and butter cookies and it will make truly a wonderful dessert.
Ingredients for 4
- 4 white peaches
- 1 tbs salted butter
- 2 tbs lavender honey
- 1/3 tsp vanilla powder
- 2 tbs Grand Marnier
- 1 sprig rosemary, chopped
Preparation
Peel peaches, and cut in half. Melt butter in a pan and brown peaches on both sides at high temperature. Don’t let the peaches overcook or they’ll get mushy. Add honey and decrease temperature. Sprinkle with vanilla powder. Add rosemary, and stir for one 30 seconds or so. Pour Grand Marnier, and flame. Divide in bowls and eat warm. How simple is that? Almost as simple as eating it!
The great seaweed – Spirulina tagliatelle with vegetables, shiitake, shrimps and sea spaghetti
Jun 30th
Tagliatelles à la spiruline aux légumes, shiitake, spaghetti de mer et crevettes
I have been quite excited today, I managed to prepare this colorful pasta dish and my parents really liked it. I was not expecting such a reaction from two traditional Italians eating a pasta dish that has nothing to do with Italian flavors. I went shopping to La Vie Saine which is a healthy and organic supermarket with lots of unusual products, and I just wanted to see what those green tagliatelle tasted like. Their color comes from the Spirulina which, in the US is mainly a seaweed used as a dietary tablet supplement. Spirulina is very high in protein much more than any type of legume.
In addition to the spirulina tagliatelle, I used a specific seaweed, mainly found in Brittany coast (Roscoff area) called Himanthalia Elongata and has a very high vitamin C content. Unlike most other seaweed, it’s not produced in Japan. It’s basically a brown seaweed that has the form of big button where long stems start their ramification.
I really loved this pasta, it’s colorful and absolutely delicious. Now I am curious to see if it’s available in the US. Upon my return, I will start my spirulina pasta hunting! I am always excited to see the new trends in France, even though you still have a traditional cuisine, new trends are arising and I noticed that la cuisine aux algues (seaweed cooking) is getting quite popular. Of course, not among the traditional eaters, but among adventurous eaters, interested in a new and healthy cuisine.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 tsp ginger, grated
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 350 g spirulina tagliatelle
- 2 carrots, sliced lengthwise in a ribbon
- 1 zucchini, sliced lengthwise in ribbons
- 1 cup shiitake mushrooms, diced
- Sea spaghetti seaweed
- 1/3 cup vegetable broth
- 1 cup shrimps
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a pan, heat olive oil. Add garlic and ginger. Stir and add shiitake, cook for about minutes, then add the rest of vegetables. Let the zucchini soften but do not overcook or they’ll break.
Soak sea spaghetti in cold water for about 15 minutes, then boil them in water for another 15 minutes or until they get soft. Drain and set aside.
Add sea spaghetti to the vegetables and stir. Add shrimps and broth, salt and pepper.
Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain and add to the pan of vegetables. Stir well and serve.
