Posts tagged rum
Simplissime – Banana, caramel and rum pudding
Dec 10th
Simplissime – Pudding à la banane, caramel et rhum
If you are not a cook, nor a pastry chef, this would be for you…How a dessert can more simple? Besides, it’s quite light, so in my book all the attributes to be called a perfect dessert. I think as a “petite chose sucrée“, a little sweet thing to serve when you have unplanned guests and no time to prepare a more complex dessert. You can also eat this as a snack with tea, the cups are small, about 2 1/2 inches height so in a few spoonfuls, you’re done.
I believe that you should not skip on anything, not fat, not sugar, so obviously not dessert either but eat small portions. That is the key to maintain a healthy body, and keeping a weight down (and of course exercising). I don’t believe on those restrictive diets that will make you lose weight, make you moody and miserable, then gain all the weight back, due to uncontrollable cravings. Maybe that is my French background that is talking this way, but so far it has shown to be efficient.
Of course, there can be many variations, such as replacing the banana with pears, pineapple, or any other fruit you like. Also, instead of the caramel, you can use chocolate, since chocolate and banana have been made for each other. For the caramel, you can use the one you buy at the store, I found some delicious caramel à la fleur de sel in a small jar at the Rainbow Market, that added a nice touch to it.
This pudding will be classified in my “ à refaire souvent” (to be made often) category due to its easiness and deliciousness ratio. It’s creamy, flavorful and light…just the way I love my desserts.
Ingredients for 4
- 4 slices brioche
- 1 banana, peeled and sliced
- 4 tsp caramel
- 4 tbs raisins
- 3 eggs
- 3 tbs sugar
- 1/2 cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbs rum
Preparation
In a mixing container, combine eggs, sugar, milk, cream, rum and vanilla. Mix well to obtain a homogenous consistency. Using some small glasses (the ones than can be placed in the oven of course), start putting together the pudding. lay banana slices at the bottom of the glasses, then add raisins (previously soaked in rum), add brioche and proceed the same way with the other layer.
At the end of the process, you need to finish up with the brioche on top and not the banana. Pour the egg/milk mixture on top to cover the brioche.
Cook in a bain-marie (water bath) for about 25 minutes at 380F until the top is golden. Remove from the oven and let it cool, sprinkle with vanilla powder or powdered sugar and eat cold (not lukewarm) or at room temperature
A thief in the kitchen – Mini vanilla polenta cake with rum roasted peach
Sep 3rd
Un voleur dans la cuisine – Mini gâteaux de polenta à la vanille et pêches rôties au rhum
Who said that polenta only needs to be eaten in savory dishes? I was so excited about this dessert, that I have been thinking about it for days. Let’s also enjoy the peaches while they last, soon they’ll no longer be available. I cannot believe it’s already September.
In France, we have some semolina based desserts like this one (gâteau à la semoule) that the kids usually love (well adults too). So I somehow decided to play with polenta. You need a medium to fine grind. I don’t like to use the coarse kind that much. This polenta has such a fragrant vanilla and milky flavor, I could not stop eating it from the pot. The peach is roasted in honey and rum, which makes every bits a real delight. If you combine on your spoon some polenta cake, peach, mascarpone and run sauce, you might end up being addicted to it.
The peaches need to be ripe but still firm so they don’t overcook quickly while in the oven.
While I was playing with my dessert, I got caught on the phone for a short time, I did not realized that someone was stealing my crumbs. My dog Enzo is as obsessed with food as I am. Of course, a dog being a dog, his obsessions limit themselves too eating food rather than preparing it. I think if I were a dog, I would be just like him. While distracted on the phone, I did not see Enzo, open the kitchen cabinet, and steel the breadcrumbs jar. He opened the lid, left the lid laying on the kitchen floor, took the bread crumbs jar in “his room”, spreading the crumbs on the rug before eating them, and of destroying the jar in pieces. Then after his fight with the crumbs, he hid underneath the bed to hide, knowing he was in trouble.
When I saw his moustache I could not stop laughing, schnauzers have funky moustaches that get easily dirty.
Ingredients for 4
For the polenta cakes
- 200 ml milk
- 30 g heavy cream
- 1 vanilla bean cut lengthwise and beans scraped
- 50 g sugar
- 65 g polenta
- 2 tbs golden raisins
- 8 dried apricots, unsweetened and cut in small pieces
- 3 tbs rum
For the roasted peaches
- 2 large yellow peaches, peeled and cut in half and seed removed
- 1 tbs honey
- 2 tbs brown sugar
- 1 tbs sliced almonds, toasted
- 4 tbs mascarpone
Preparation
For the polenta cakes
In a pot, combine milk and cream, sugar and vanilla bean. Bring to a boil. Add polenta gradually while stirring. Keep stirring for about 20 minutes (you can also use express polenta). Add extra milk if the polenta gets too thick. Add raisins and apricots pieces. Mix well. Spread in a flat surface keeping the thickness to about 2 cm. Let it cool. Using cookie cutters, or rinds, cut 4 circles.
For the roasted peaches
Grease a baking dish with butter. Place peaches halves (flat part down). sprinkle with sugar and honey and cook in a pre-heated oven at 400F for about 15 minutes, then turn the peaches on the other side. Let them cook for another 10 minutes, then deglaze with rum (the soaking rum). Put peaches back in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven let them cool a little.
Place one polenta cake in a plate. Add half peach on top. Add mascarpone on the side and sprinkle with rum sauce.
The exotic panna cotta – Coconut panna cotta with pineapple, rum and mint chilled soup
Mar 22nd
Una panna cotta esotica – Panna cotta con noce di coco, e zuppa fredda di ananas, rum e menta
I have been on a strange coconut cravings lately, coconut and more coconut, if it was not as high in calories, I would eat it all day long and that goes the same for panna cotta which I absolutely adore. Vado pazza per la panna cotta! I realized that I do like desserts, as long as they’re fruit based. Maybe technically this cannot be called panna cotta, because it’s predominantly made with coconut milk, and a little cream, quindi la panna non c’è (there is not really panna).
Traditional panna cotta is delicious, but this one can be quite a pleasant surprise for your palate, as it’s lightly sweetened and creamy. I have been thinking and thinking and me creuser les méninges (litterally meaning to dig your meninges) to find a light dessert combining coconut and pineapple, and this one popped into my mind. Lately I have decided I will develop great recipes for entertaining which do not require the “host” to stay in the kitchen while everyone else is having fun next door. I do not like food that has been prepared too long in advance and re-heated at the time of serving. For some dishes, it could work, but for some others it doesn’t and taste like “réchauffé” (not only it means re-heated but also old and re-heated, with that unfresh after taste).
Pineapple has been crushed raw into a purée with an immersion blender, which is perfect for this kind of job. You get a perfect texture and do not need extra liquid. I used agar agar instead of regular gelatin sheets in the panna cotta since it’s a seaweed based gelatin and 100% natural and vegan. Agar agar has been used in Japan since centuries. It’s usually used to the proportions of 4 grams per 1 liter of liquid and needs to be dissolved in a small amount of cold liquid before adding it to the hot mixture.
This panna cotta is not too sweet, very light and so refreshing, so just THE little final note to a beautiful meal.
Ingredients for 4
For the panna cotta
- 10.14 fl oz (or 300 ml) coconut milk
- 3.38 fl oz (or 100 ml) milk
- 3.38 fl oz (or 100 ml) heavy cream
- 4 tbs sugar
- 1 tsp agar agar (or the equivalent of 2 grams)
For the pineapple soup
- 1/2 pineapple
- 3 tbs agava nectar
- 2 tbs rum
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ground vanilla beans powder
- 1 tbs mint, chopped
Preparation
In a pot, bring to a light boil milk, cream and coconut milk, add agar agar dissolved in a little milk, and let it cook stirring for a few minutes, then remove from heat. Add sugar and stir to get it dissolved.
Place in small ramequins, let it cool and refrigerate until it solidifies (at least a few hours).
For the pineapple purée, mix all ingredients together (except for the mint) and using an immersion blender, mix until it turns into a thick purée. Cut mint very finely and add to the purée. Refrigerate for about one hour.
Remove panna cotta from ramequins and spoon some pineapple purée all around.
Quick, light and refined – Pineapple carpaccio with a mint and rum marinade
Nov 22nd
Rapide, léger et raffiné – Carpaccio d’ananas à la marinade de rhum et menthe
I had this dessert at the Brasserie Lutèce in Paris after a huge plateau de fruits de mer (seafood platter), the carpaccio was served with a pineapple sorbet, and it was the perfect sweet touch to that wonderful dinner. I always kept it in the corner of my head, but there are so many things to try, experiment, that one year went by and I still haven’t made this carpaccio. I just didn’t want this to be left out. Now I have no idea how they made it, all I know is that it tasted like mint and rum. It is a simple way to serve pineapple but simplicity is sometimes worth a complicated and heavy dessert.
Of course, when I like a dish in a restaurant, I try to reproduce it from memory since I am not going to ask the chef for its recipe, I am wondering if they’ll think that is daring or if they’ll be pleased without disclosing the recipe. With time passing by, memory can play some tricks. Pineapple and rum are a match from heaven almost like banana and chocolate.
You need a well ripe pineapple and a great knife. The pineapple slices needs to be cut very thinly. Mine were sliced a little too thick for my taste. It has nothing to do with my knife but more so with my poor slicing skills. The slices are marinated in a light syrup infused with vanilla bean, mint and rum.
I did not remove the core of the pineapple, because I somehow like it. I like it’s fibrous texture. When thinly sliced, you won’t really notice its hard and fibrous texture, the slices are too thin.
For 3-4 people
- 1 large well ripe pineapple, very thinly sliced
- 2 tbs mint, finely chopped
- 1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise
- 2 tbs dark rum
- 3 tbs brown sugar
- 1/3 cup water
Preparation
Peel pineapple from top to bottom removing its skin. Cut pineapple crosswise in very thin slices and set aside.
In a pot, dissolve sugar with water and heat it up a low temperature, add vanilla bean and scrape beans. Let it infuse and boil for a little while until it infuses. When the syrup has reduced, let it cool. Add rum and mint.
Pour on top of pineapple and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours. Serve in cold plates with some coconut cookies or a slice of brioche.
Classic combination – Chocolate crêpes stuffed with caramelized pears – Almond whipped cream
Oct 7th
La combinaison classique – Crêpes au chocolat farcies de poires caramelisées et crème fouettée aux amandes
Don’t we all love crêpes? They’ re so easy to make and always a great pleasure to share with friends or just when you have a crêpe craving. You can flavor the dough and enhance them with fruits, jams, sugar, etc… I was stopped at the traffic light this morning just in front of Ti’Couz which is a popular crêperie Bretonne where they serve traditional galettes bretonnes made with buckwheat flour. This restaurant is packed from Monday through Sunday and most of the time, there is a line out the door since they don’t take reservations. If you ever end up in San Francisco one of those days, you might want to check it out, besides it’s not an expensive place.
So here we go again, I stop in front of this restaurant for 3 minutes, and I started to have a craving for crêpes…those days anything gives me a craving, I don’t know if this is a condition, but there should be a name for it.
Usually crêpes are served with cider. We drink some lightly alcoholic dry cider that is different from what you get in the US and not as sweet. It’s the perfect drink combination with crêpes and you can just smell the wonderful scents of Normandy and Britanny.
In France, everyone knows how to make crêpes but everyone has its own trick on how to make a perfect and light batter. Some people add beer to make them “airy”. I never quite managed to make them jump out of the pan, up in the air, and back in the pan…lacking practice.
What is better than pears and chocolate? maybe banana and chocolate…well if you want you can substitute pears with banana, it should work as well.
I caramelized the pears and flamed them with rum…chocolate, pears and rum go wonderfully together. Then the final touch is the whipped cream flavored with almond extract that gives this crêpe dessert a little twist. You can serve it with vanilla ice cream as well.
Ingredients for about 5-6 crêpes
For the crêpes
- 2.47 oz (or 70 g) flour
- 0.52 oz (or 15 g) sugar
- 1 egg
- 5 fl oz (or 15 cl) milk
- 1 tbs unsweetened cocoa
For the pear filling
- 3 bartlett pears
- 1 tbs sugar
- 1 tbs butter
- vanilla powder
- 1.5 tbs dark rum
For the almond whipped cream
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
Instructions
For the crêpes
In a mixing container, mix flour with egg and sugar then gradually add milk. Mix well to obtain a smooth consistency. Add cocoa powder. Mix well to obtain a smooth batter. Let it rest for one hour.
In the meantime, prepare the whipped cream. Add sugar and almond extract to the cream and whip it. Place in the refrigerator while the crêpes get ready.
Make crepes using a non stick pan. Slightly butter the surface of the pan and pour evenly batter to make a thin crêpe. Turn on the other side.
For the filling
Peel the pears and slice them into thin slices (about 5 mm slices). Melt butter in a non-stick pan, add pear slices and brown them on all sides, then sprinkle with sugar. Let them caramelized. Pour rum and flame.
Fill half of each crêpe with pears, fold the other half on top. Then fold in quarters. Place some whipped cream on top and serve.
