Posts tagged vanilla
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.
Peach folie – Peach-mint soup and peach-rosemary bouchées
Jul 7th
Folie de pêches – Soupe pêches-menthe et bouchées pêches-romarin
This is only for those days you have a lot of peaches in your kitchen, lots of mint in your garden and a huge desire to eat peaches…berries and peaches are some of the fruits I don’t get tired of eating. When my Greek grocer next door saw me with all those peaches in my basket, he asked me if I was going to kill myself with them. I told him that’s what was probably going to happen…that would be a great way to die, if you ask for my opinion. Death by peaches. As much as I am not a sweet tooth, I adore fruits and fruit-based desserts, they’re refreshing, light, put me in a great mood and energizing me for the day. Alors voilà, encore des pêches!
The peach syrup has been infused with mint and vanilla, then enhanced by a a dollop of yogurt and light touch of cayenne pepper. The bouchées which are really tiny (1.5 inch diameter) look like muffins but they’re really not, have a subtle rosemary flavor, since the peaches have been caramelized in a butter, honey and fresh rosemary blend. This makes a light and refreshing dessert. I served this as a dessert to a dinner and it’s always so pleasant to have a fruity bite when people are no longer hungry. It cleans your palate and the herbal touch tells you: This is the end.
Ingredients for 5-6
For the peach soup
- 2 white peaches, peeled and cut
- 2 yellow peaches, peeled and cut
- 1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise
- 10 mint leaves
- 2 tbs agave syrup
- 1.2 cups water
- 6 tbs plain yogurt
- 6 pinches cayenne pepper
For 12 rosemary bouchées
- 2 eggs
- 60 g butter, melted (+ a tsp extra)
- 20 g kamut flour
- 30 g chestnut flour
- 20 g white flour
- 3 tbs almond flour
- 40 g agave syrup
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 rosemary sprig, chopped
- 1 tbs honey
- 2 peaches, peeled and diced
Preparation
For the peach soup
Mix water, agave syrup, mint, vanilla beans and bring to a boil for about 5 minutes, then let it cool and infuse the syrup. Drain and set aside. When syrup is cool, place some of it in a blender with peaches and mix into a smooth consistency. Refrigerate for at least one hour. When ready to serve add one 1 tsp of yogurt in the middle and a pinch of cayenne.
For the peach rosemary bouchées
Melt butter in a pan, add honey, then when the mixture turns thick, add peaches. Coat peaches with mixture for about 3 minutes, then add rosemary, cook for an additional 2 minutes, then remove from heat. In a mixing container, beat eggs with butter, agave syrup and the different flours. Add baking powder and mix well. Fill up individual mini molds such as silicon molds with the batter. Add 1/2 tsp of the peach mixture in the middle with some rosemary. Bake in pre-heated oven at 360F for about 20 minutes. Let them cool and serve with peach soup.
As chic as a Chanel dress – Sea scallop on green apple with vanilla oil
May 5th
Aussi chic qu’une robe Chanel – St jacques à la pomme verte et huile de vanille
I have been obsessing about this green apple/scallop combination for weeks, and could not come up with something that I would be excited about. Raw apple? cooked apple? diced? sliced? not sure how I wanted to make it work. I have seen many recipes with scallop and green apple but it was not what I wanted, I just wanted something fresh and not to have some kind of apple sauce. I needed to have my favorite ingredient vanilla in it. So I knew there would be vanilla oil. Sometimes when developing a recipe, you have to think about it for weeks and think about it progressively, like it needs to mature in your mind. The key ingredients here are the green apple and vanilla oil.
Granny smith and sea scallop are becoming somehow a trendy combination in French cuisine and more chefs are serving this beautiful and elegant concoction….and this for a good reason, it’s a magnificent combination of flavors. The acidity of the granny smith marries to perfection with fish. When I started to cook, I was more traditional in my cuisine but with time going by, it evolved into a more eclectic fusion of tastes. I still enjoy traditional cuisine, but love to explore new flavors, and this one is a perfect example of this new exploration.
In new contemporary French cuisine, you are starting to see more fruits combined with fish, everything tastes extremely fresh, has a very low cooking time, and is an exuberance of wonderful flavors. I think with the weather getting warmer, and more wonderful summer fruits coming on the shelves, I will do more exploration.
I simply adore this recipe, I adore the granny smith acidity combined with a little honey and lime, I adore the vanilla oil, the moist sea scallops, the Szechuan pepper, I love just about every little aspect of this dish. The absolute winning part of it, is that it’s ready in 10 minutes (of course you need to infuse vanilla in olive oil overnight), and the rest happens magically.
Sea scallop is such a wonderful ingredient, you don’t need to dress it up with spices, or a lot of add on. Nature did a wonderful job in making them naturally delicious, their natural sweetness is simply a pure delight.
Ingredients for 4 (as a small bite)
- 4 large scallops
- 2 medium size granny smith apples, peeled and grated
- 1 tsp butter + 1 tbs butter
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped and infused in olive oil overnight
- 4 tbs olive oil
- 1/2 tsp honey
- 1 lime juice
- 1 lime zest
- Szechuan pepper
- salt
Preparation
First start preparing the vanilla oil by scraping the beans and adding it along with the rest of the pod to the olive oil. Place in a airtight container and let it infuse overnight.
Grate the apple and remove extra juice. Add 1 tsp of lime juice to prevent the pulp from staining. Add honey and salt.
Pat dry scallops on high heat and saute in 1 tbs butter until both sides turn golden brown, but still moist in the middle.
Melt 1 tsp butter in a small pan, then add apple for 30 seconds, just to warm it up.
Remove scallops, adjust with salt and Szechuan pepper. Place 2 tbs of apple mixture in small individual plates, add one scallop on top and drizzle with vanilla oil. Decorate with lime zests.
White smoothness in a jar – Fig-Vanilla and Apple-Kiwi yogurts
Jan 28th
Douceurs blanches dans un pot – Yaourts Figues-Vanille et Pomme-Kiwi
I have been back to the US since last Friday and one thing that I already start missing is the yogurt. If you haven’t tried homemade yogurts, you haven’t tasted the goodness of what a real yogurt can be. I have always been nostalgic about the wonderful yogurts you can find in France in the yogurt/dairy section in any supermarket area. There are about four full aisles of yogurts and dairy specialties of dairy and non dairy fresh desserts. I am in heaven. Yogurts in the US tend to be on the boring side and quite frankly not very good. I tasted all of the brands, and I always remain faithful to Strauss, their European called yogurt. It seems like all yogurts contain gelatin and taste artificial especially the flavored ones, so I stick to the plain kind.
Yogurt making is like bread making in France right now, two nationwide spread trends. So after going to FNAC, a bookstore/electronics store, and spending hours on the cook book section, I run into an intriguing book on making yogurts, and I decided to buy it.
After landing in the U S of A and going through customs with half a supermarket in my suitcase, I realized that I had no yogurt maker. Yogurts can be made in many other ways if you don’t have a yogurt maker, like using a pressure cooker, an oven, etc…but I just wanted a yogurt maker and not go through a few times of failing the yogurts, like it happened before. So on day 2, I went to buy a yogurt maker and if you are a yogurt “freak” like me, it’s a good investment. In a next post, I will explain how to make yogurts without a yogurt maker, in case you don’t have one since I suspect many people don’t have one. It’s a little more tricky but it does work.
I used approximately the recommended proportions I found on the book called “Yaourts” from Solar Editions, then I somehow flavored them according to my tastes. You can use any fruit you like.
The great thing about making yogurt is that you can play around with different milks, spices and fruits. For this first attempt, I used fat free milk, but next time I will use the 2% fat and see the difference. The only inconvenient is that it takes about 10 hours to have your yogurts ready, but then you get seven of them. You can use either a plain yogurt or yogurt ferments for your mixture.
Ingredients for 7 yogurts
- 2 kiwis, peeled and cut in small cubes
- 1/2 granny smith apple, peeled and cut in small cubes
- 4.4 oz (or 125 g) black figs, peeled and well ripe
- vanilla powder
- 2 tbs sugar
- 3.38 cups milk (or 800 ml) whole, skim or half-skimmed
- 6 tps evaporated milk (canned or in powder)
- 1 regular plain yogurt
Preparation
If you are using fruits at the bottom, I suggest to start preparing them beforehand. Peel figs and cut in small cubes, add sugar and let it cook until it becomes into a smooth consistency. Add vanilla and let it cool. Proceed the same way with the apples and kiwis (without the use of vanilla).
Remove milk from the refrigerator and keep it room temperature for a while. In a mixing container, mix milk and yogurt. Add evaporated milk. Mix well.
Place 2 tbs of fruit sauce in each jar, add milk mixture and place in yogurt maker as per instructions. Do not close jars with lids. I kept those for 9 hours in the machine since I used non-fat milk. If you are using regular milk, or half-skimmed milk, you need to leave the yogurts about 7-8 hours. When the machine has stopped, put lids on and place in the refirgerator for 3 hours.
A simple apple story – Vanilla apple flan
Dec 19th
Une simple histoire de pommes – Flan vanillé aux pommes
Not sure what I like best, vegetable flans or fruit flans…
The French love flans, for the simple reason that they’re just too good. I bought too many apples and needed to do something with them. The thought of more apple cakes, apple tarts, baked apples, and last night apple papillotes, did not inspire me at all. When I am in that particular mood, I cannot put my mind to rest until I start coming up with something, just like an obsession. I am sometimes possessed by the cooking devil, that’s what I like to call it.
Nothing complicated in these flans, simple ingredients for irresistible little bites. Their particularity is that apples are reduced in a “compote” then mashed in a purée type of texture. I did not use sliced apples, so the apple flavors are well blended in the flan and adds great texture to it. As any fruit based dessert, they’re very light and are guilt-free desserts, so no need to worry about calories. Maybe some of you guys don’t worry about it but I do, so winner desserts for me are the ones that are light, un-greasy that satisfy sweet cravings. I hate to feel stuffed at the end of a meal, such an unpleasant and unsexy feeling. After eating the five of them, I felt as light as a feather. So for those who are somehow health conscious, I would recommend those apple flans.
Ingredients for 5 flans
- 2 eggs
- 2 medium size apples or 4 small ones, peeled and sliced
- 100 ml milk
- 2 tbs sugar
- 2 tbs flour
- 2 tbs crème fraîche or heavy cream
- vanilla extract
- vanilla powder
Preparation
Place apple in a pot, add one tbs water and cook at low heat until the apples are cooked and reduced into a compote. Then mash with a potato masher to make it into a puree. Let them cool down.
In a mixing bowl, add apple compote, sugar, eggs, milk, cream, vanilla extract and powder and flour. Mix well to obtain an homogenous batter.
In individual silicon molds, pour batter in each mold and cook in a pre-heated oven for about 20-30 minutes until the flan are cooked. Let them cool and refrigerate for a couple of hours.
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.
A treat, because we're worth it – Crème caramel with pears, vanilla and orange blossom water
Sep 24th
Une gourmandise, car nous le valons bien – Crème caramel aux poires, vanille et eau de fleur d’oranger
That goes not only for hair products, but for food too!
Crème caramel or flan aux oeufs, or crème renversée, they’re all the same things. I think the English translation would be custard, but I am not going to use it, because it sounds weird to me, not a name for a dessert but more so for a gardening tool.
Please don’t think that I am pretentious, but it is true that I have never failed making a caramel. I did fail in many other cooking experiments, but caramel was not the one, it always worked fine for me…until last year in France. I wanted to make a crème caramel for a friend’s party, and it turned out a complete disaster. I used all my mom’s sugar, tried four times in a row, and that darn sugar would crystallize. I had to run to the supermarket, bought tons of the top sugar, (I was convinced there was something wrong with her sugar), came back, tried again twice and it did not work either, so I was convinced there was something wrong with her pans. Obviously there was something wrong with me and still cannot figure out what. I was just so irritated that I threw everything away the egg mixture, milk, everything went in the sink. That was unbelievable that after six tries, it would not work.
The first time I made caramel after that disaster was today. Now I get the caramel phobia, and thinking, OK it will crystallize again, so I was ready for it. I was staring at the sugar in the pan, waiting to see formation of crystals. The sugar started to melt and colored beautifully, I could not believe it. I have absolutely no idea why when in France I just could not manage to make a caramel. That is a mystery, since I proceeded exactly the same way as I usually do. Everyone gave me all kinds of explanations and reasons…but since I did exactly the same thing, I don’t understand it. My theory is that since cooking is somehow like chemistry, I assume there were some chemical reactions involved which I was not aware of.
This crème caramel has a little twist, the pears and the orange blossom water which gives it a very nice kick. It’s a very easy dessert to make (of course if your sugar does not crystallize) and very light sweet touch after a multiple course meal.
As you can see, my crème caramel is overcooked because of the holes around it. If the water boils, it will create those holes. It does not affect the taste of the crème though, but it gives it some weird-looking aspect. To avoid this, you might want to check and make sure the water is not boiling and decrease the temperature accordingly.
Ingredients for 4-6 individual crèmes caramel (depending on the size of your ramequins)
For the crème caramel
- 1 pint (or about 500 ml) milk
- 3 eggs
- 2 yolks
- 1.41 oz (or 40 g) sugar
- 1 large pear, peeled and sliced
- 1 vanilla bean cut lengthwise
- 1 1/2 tsp. Orange blossom water
For the caramel
- 200 g sugar
- 1 tbs water
Preparation
For the caramel, place sugar in a pan with 1 tbs of water and let it melt slowly without stirring. When it has reached a nice dark golden color, distribute caramel evenly in ramequins. Place pear slices in caramel and set aside.
Place milk, in a pot, grate beans from vanilla beans and add to the milk, add sugar and heat for about 2-3 minutes until the sugar has melted. Do not let milk boil, it just needs to be lukewarm.
In a container, mix eggs thoroughly and add milk, keep stirring until the mixture gets homogenous and smooth. Add orange blossom water.
Fill the ramequin with milk/egg mixture. Place ramequins in a large tray filled with water and cook in a pre-heated oven at 370-375F for about 50 minutes. Let it cool and place in the refrigerator for about 3-4 hours.
Serve upside down. You might have to use a knife to enable the crème caramel to detach itself from the sides of the ramequins.
A thought for my best friend – Cake of the crumb fairy for Chantal
Sep 18th
Pensée pour ma meilleure amie – Gâteau de la fée aux miettes pour Chantal
I woke up this morning with a text message from my best friend in France, Chantal. Her message was “Impossible de t’appeler pour l’instant – Pense a toi – Ta Bichette qui t’aime” literally translated by “Cannot call you right now – Think of you – Your bichette who loves you”. I think I am giving quite a lot of private info here (I tend to be somehow reserved to talk about that kind of stuff) but I really miss her, especially all the girlfriend stuff we use to do while in France. So I figured I would make something that reminds me of her and just for her. She never checks out my blog because she does not understand English even though she is a great cook and loves to eat. Whenever I go home, we always keep a night out to try a new restaurant. Our two last picks were bad ones, so it ended up as a laughing party. The chef came out of the kitchen to talk to the guests and was all dirty, looked like he had a mud fight with a cow, beside the food was lukewarm borderline cold but still served with a bell-shaped cover “cloche” (usually to keep the heat). That was kind of the joke of the evening. I think it was the first time I wrote a bad review, especially for a restaurant that calls itself a “restaurant gastronomique”.
Chantal and I met when we were 15 and in high school together. We had the worst laughing “Crisis” in German class, our teacher was just very uptight, not friendly and had no sense of humor…and Chantal and I were always kicked out of the class due to our non-stop laughing fits (crises de fou rire). She kicked us out once because my shell earrings were making noise when I would move my head. How silly is that? I think some teacher really lack pedagogy and should be more friendly, that would motivate kids to learn. Besides, when not very appealing and pleasant to look at, a double dose of pedagogy is a MUST.
Chantal offered me last December a wonderful dessert book (she knows I am not a pastry chef) “Desserts et Délices de Lorraine” “Desserts and Delights from Lorraine”, It’s a very unusual book, most of the recipes don’t have quantities, they say “same amount of this, or double the amount of that”. The recipes are traditional, peasant and very very ancient rustic recipes from Lorraine dating from before 1700 when we still had a king (not that I care). No pictures, just cute cartoons. she knows I love unusual books and she could not have found a better one. I have a friend Ute from Germany coming for dinner and since Lorraine is bordering Germany, that will make her feel somehow home, well thinking about it, I hope not since she hates Germany very much, and home is not the place she wants to be.
This dessert has a brioche taste, since the ingredients are similar to a brioche and made with compressed yeast, but the twist is that there are poached plums in it (I had to substitute poached plums to preserved mirabelles, local Lorraine plums since I had none) and the cake is topped with a crumbly mixture. So technically it’s not really a brioche. I love it, and guess what? It is easy and on ne peut pas le rater (you cannot spoil this cake). So I will certainly make this again.
I used compressed yeast instead of the granulated one, never saw that before I came to the US. In France or Italy we all use the compressed yeast (levure de boulanger or levure de bière) which is fresh yeast, we call it “Baker’s yeast” or “Beer yeast”, because bakers (boulangers) and beer brewers (brasseurs) use it in either bread making or brewing. I love its soft texture, its smell and you’ll get top results for bread making or other types of dough. If you can’t find this yeast, I would use the dry kind.
Also the original recipe calls for 1 tsp cinnamon, but considering my relationship with cinnamon, I used vanilla powder instead. I’m sure cinnamon lovers will enjoy that addition.
Ingredients for 6-8
For the cake
- 8.8 oz (or 250 g) white flour
- 1 egg
- 0.88 oz (or 25 g) granulated sugar
- 2.26 oz (or 70 g) melted butter
- 2.36 fl oz (or 70 ml) milk
- 0.5 oz (or 15 g) compressed yeast or 1 dose of dry yeast
- poached fruits such as plums, peaches, etc…
- vanilla extract
For the crumbs
- 1.76 oz (or 50 g) flour
- 0.88 oz (or 25 g) almond meal
- 0.88 oz (or 25 g) granulated sugar
- 1 oz (or 30 g) soft butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla powder or cinnamon
Preparation
Dissolve yeast in a little milk. In a mixing bowl, mix flour, egg, sugar, milk, melted butter, vanilla and yeast. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it turns into a nie a smooth consistency. Place in a container, cover with a towel, and let it rise in a warm area for about 30 minutes.
Bring a 2 cups of water to a boil with 2 tbs honey and add diced plums (1 1/2 inch pieces) for about 3 minutes. Drain.
In the meantime, mix all the crumb mixture together with your hands. Don’t make thick crumb like you would for a crumble, but thin instead.
Work the dough again, removing all the fermentation. Butter a deep dish pan, and spread dough with your hands in it. Add plums to the dough, making sure to press them down into dough and not leaving them on the surface. Add crumb mixture and let the cake rise again for an additional 30 minutes.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375f for 30 min.
Let it cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve lukewarm.
A taste from far away – Shrimps in a coconut colombo sauce on spiced vanilla basmati rice
Sep 15th
A goût qui vient de loin – Crevettes sauce colombo et noix de coco sur riz Basmati épicé à la vanille
The first interesting part of this dish is the rice…yes indeed. An Indian friend of mine who arrived straight from Cochin used to prepare this type of rice and I loved its subtle fragrance. So now anytime I cook something with an exotic flair, I always prepare rice this way. Rice is steamed in a water that had been infused with lots of spices, so when the rice cooks, it absorbs a distinct and very unique flavor.
I substituted cinnamon with vanilla in my recipe. I am not a huge cinnamon fan, I liked cinnamon when I lived in France, but since I moved to the US, I think I got a little turned off by it, just because, almost all desserts and sweets have cinnamon in it, and I even got served many times cinnamon on my cappuccino which I was unable to drink. What is it with cinnamon? A little discreet touch once in a while is fine, but not all over the place. The funny thing is I have such a cinnamon phobia that when I order desserts in restaurants, I always ask the waiter if the dessert contains cinnamon. Then I get the weird stare as if something is wrong with me. Oh well.
The second interesting part of this dish are the shrimps. Well, the shrimps are cooked with a colombo spice mixture, colombo is a typical creole spice mixture made out of turmeric, cumin, cloves, black pepper, coriander, fenugreek, mustard and ginger. What we call DOM TOM (Département et Territoires d’Outre Mer) in France are the Antilles Islands such as Martinique, Guadeloupe, La Reunion, etc…therefore territories and districts that belong to France and who do have a créole cuisine, so yes many French go on vacation on those islands and they do come back with some new exotic recipes. Colombo is somehow the créole curry.
Since there is no perfect meal if there are no vegetables, I served a simple side dish of grilled zucchini…no spices, since the rice and shrimps do have lots of flavors, the zucchini balance the whole dish by being simple and neutral but nonetheless tasty.
So here we have a quite spicy and flavorful dish, you will be in Martinique and in Kerala at the same time, isn’t it a great trip? Oh let’s not forget Tahiti for the vanilla flavor.
Ingredients for 4
For the shrimps
- 24 large jumbo shrimps, deveined
- 1 small yellow onion chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 small piece of ginger, grated
- 1/2 tsp colombo powder
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
For the rice
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 1 vanilla pod
- 3 cloves
- 4 cardamom pods, cut lengthwise
- 1/3 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/3 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/3 tsp coriander seeds
- 2 cups water
For the zucchini
- 4 zucchini
- 1 tbs olive oil
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- salt and pepper
- 1 tbs cilantro, chopped
Preparation
First prepare the “spiced water” for the rice. Add water to a pot, then add cloves, cumin, cardamom, fennel and vanilla bean split in two. Scrape the beans. Bring the water to a boil and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes to infuse the spices. Remove from pot and let it cool.
Place rice in a pot and add “spiced water”. To steam my rice I never measure quantity of water. I always add enough water so that 0.4 inches are above the rice level and I get a perfectly cooked rice. If the quantity of water has reduced (it certainly did) while boiling you might want to add some in order that rice gets 0.4 inches extra on top of its surface. Bring to a boil, then cover with lid and reduce heat to a minimum. Cook for about 20 minutes at very low heat. Remove from heat and let it sit for about 10 minutes before fluffing with a fork.
Heat olive oil in a pan. Add onions and ginger, brown them, then add garlic. Add colombo powder. Stir well then add coconut milk, let reduce a little then add shrimps.
Grill zucchini in a grill pan or regular grill, add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and sprinkle with cilantro.
Serve spooning 3 tbs rice in a plate, top with shrimps and serve zucchini on the side.
A little snow and sun in a glass – Yogurt mousse with mango vanilla compote
Jun 4th
Un peu de neige et de soleil dans un verre – Mousse de yaourt à la compote de mangue et vanille
Did it ever happen to you to really want a dessert but just something light, refreshing and fruity? no chocolate, no cake, no cream, just a light dessert? Well today that’s what I really wanted. I had two beautiful mangos that I would have preferred to eat fresh, sliced and not cook it, but I needed a nice fleshy and sweet fruit for my mousse, so I killed those two mangos with a lot of regrets. They were so sweet that I did not add any sugar.
I love fruit based dessert and this one is a winner. If you are trying to watch your weight, but still have a little craving for something sweet, this is perfect for you. It has very low calories, I used the non fat Greek yogurt “Page”, you could use the 2% fat also.
Ingredients for 4 verrines (glass cups)
- 1/2 lb Greek-style yogurt (non fat or regular)
- 2 tbs powder sugar
- 2 egg whites
- 2 tbs almond milk
- 2 gelatin sheet
- 2 ripe mangos
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 vanilla bean
Preparation
Mix yogurt with sugar, beat well. Heat almond milk and soak gelatin sheet in it and add to the yogurt. Mix well. Beat egg whites and add to the yogurt mixture. Place in the refrigerator
Peel the mango and cook at low heat. Cut vanilla bean and scrape beans, add to the mango, add lemon juice. Cook until the mango are cooked and make a jam-like mixture. Let it cool, then add on top of the yogurt mousse. Place in refrigerator overnight or at least for 6 hours to enable the mousse to thicken.
