Quite Fondant of Chocolate

Good news, everybody!  After another long gap I'm back. Possibly the most inconsistent blog in the world *sigh*.

Never mind.  In the time since my last post I have crossed the 'verse to Canada and sampled their cuisine (will write that up properly later) and have perfected(ish) my 'Fondant au Chocolat' recipe. Boyfriend Of Daughter adores it - the pic is of one I made for him to celebrate an exam result.

Barbecue season is here again.  In a distressing development, we have not been able to lay our hands on any vine wood thus far this year, meaning I have had to resort to using charcoal for the first time in six years. The horror!!  Usually we can pick up vine wood for free at the sides of the roads through the vineyards, but it would seem that nobody had any old vines to pull up this year.  It is possible to buy sacks of pre-prepared wood from some places, but it's expensive and burns quicker.  May have to resort to this for the Fête National, though, as I will be cooking very expensive meat and the difference in taste from using the different fuels is substantial.

Til next time, my imaginary friends!

bob

 

 

Pastry Of The Week 10/03/13: The Results

Ta-daaaaah! Quite straightforward to make, although I need to work on my piping technique to get them as even as the boulanger does. Will update with taste results and recipe on Monday.

bob xx

PASTRY OF THE WEEK: IT'S BACK, BABY!

This week: Chocolate eclairs.  Here they are filled with a chocolate cream rather than whipped cream.  Nom. Of course I had to buy a sample from the boulangerie because I really needed to check what they taste like (Hey - they could have changed in the last couple of weeks since I had one, no?). I shan't be recreating them until tomorrow as I promised to wait until The Husband was back from his business trip.  The thing that most concerns me at this point is piping good, even eclair shapes and not blobby phallic shapes.  We shall see......

Mrs Beeton Likes To Sweeten

I have been making apple crumble since I was a kid and can't remember the last time I actually measured the ingredients.  For the general edification of The Internet I thought I would take the time to work out a recipe that was clear to others, rather than "keep adding flour until it feels right..." etc.  As it's such an old-fashioned classic, I thought I'd turn to my trusty Mrs Beeton (1961) for a standard recipe and go from there.

Evidently old Missus B likes her puddings SWEET! 110g brown sugar plus 85g castor sugar, mixed with 90g butter and only 180g of flour, even when toned down with my personal addition of 2 handfuls of oats was far too sweet, even for The Daughter.  Back to the drawing board.

Tomorrow: I shall be purchasing a sample for the long-awaited return of......PASTRY OF THE WEEK!

Isn't it exciting?

bob

Cassoulet Fait Maison

This is very much a basic, easy version which I threw together to cook slowly as I nursed my Sunday hangover.

Ingredients: (4 people)

• 4 pieces of chicken (drumsticks/thighs)


• 4 pieces of belly pork


• Length of Toulouse or 'grosse' saucisse, or 1 thick, coarse sausage per person


• 2 tins tomato pulp


• 500g tin haricots blanc


• Herbes de Provence


• Salt, pepper


• 2 tomato tins of water

Method:

• Throw everything except the beans into a large casserole dish with a lid


• Bung in the oven for about 2.5 hours at around 120 degrees, until the chicken nearly done


• Turn up the oven to 220 and bung in the beans


• Cook for a further 20-30 minutes


• Serve with fresh, crusty bread

 

 

 

Bean There, Done That

Well the winter ennui is becoming rather stifling.  I have cooked so many stews and roasts etc that I have begun to actually dream about barbecue season.  Yesterday I made a Cassoulet, which has been off the menu the last couple of winters as I made it so often during our first winters in France.  To be honest, I was a little rusty as regards the recipe, and there are so many variations out there (one of those French dishes that everyone seems to have an opinion on) that I just got some appropriate meats and kept it very simple.  It's hot, tasty and filling and makes a change from Sunday roast.

Not much else has been up on the food front, as The Husband wanted certain favourite dishes for his (3 day) birthday celebrations, such as Côtes de Boeuf en Deux Cuissons and Mousse au Chocolat.  I do, however, have some grand plans for March, including the resurrection of Pastry of the Week, and our very own Big Night, when we will be attempting the colossal 'Timpano' from scratch. April/May will see me sampling the gastronomic offerings of Canada. It's always exciting to travel to countries you haven't been to before, especially when that country has MAPLE BACON.  Nuff said.

Tarte aux Pommes

Ingredients:

• 4 large apples


• 1 quantity sweet pastry


• 1 cinnamon stick


• Caster sugar

Method:

• Prep your pastry and place in fridge to chill until needed


• Peel and core the apples


• Dice two apples, slice the others nice and thinly


• Cook the diced apple down in a saucepan with a drop of water and the cinnamon stick until softened


• Remove cinnamon stick and any excess fluid (they want to be soft, not soggy)


• Line your tart case with the pastry


• Cover with the softened apple


• Starting at the outer edge, lay the slices of apple in a neat spiral until the whole surface is covered


• Sprinkle liberally with caster sugar


• Pop in a medium oven (about 180) until the edges of the apple slices start to brown

What An Old Tart

Tarte aux Pommes is an old standard around here and as such, subject to variations according to personal taste/tradition.  There are those who make it with crème patissière, those who glaze it etc etc. I have evolved a simple, straightforward recipe which we enjoy.  Pretty much all one looks for in an everyday dessert, I would say.  The main reason I made it the other day was because the apples in the fruit bowl needed using up.  I have a sneaking suspicion that my nearest and dearest are deliberately leaving the 'boring' frsh fruit until I give in and make a sugary dessert out of them. Well played, family, well played.

Crispy Peking Duck

 

Ingredients:

• Chinese Five Spice


• Soy Sauce


• Honey


• Whole duck (around 2 kg)

Method:

The day before:

• Wash duck inside and out, pat dry


• Put in a windy place or in front of a fan to thoroughly dry for a couple of hours


• Tip a tablespoon of five spice inside the duck and shake it around


• Mix a couple of tablespoons of five spice with a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce and thoroughly rub into the skin


• Place in fridge overnight

To Cook:

• Place on a rack in a large wok, or in a steamer and steam for one hour


• Place in pre-heated oven at 190 for 1 hour


• Remove from oven, turn heat up to 260


• Mix about a tablespoon of honey with the same of soy sauce and glaze the duck


• Blast in the oven at 260 for 10 minutes


• Shred the meat from the bone with a couple of forks


• Serve with Hoi-Sin sauce, Mandarin pancakes, julienne cucumber and spring onion or leek.

Give It A Good Rub And See What Happens

So we had this duck in the freezer. Nothing fancy - €10 from Lidl, truth be told.  We had had roast duck a couple of weeks previously, so I decided to challenge myself and attempt one of my all time favourites: Crispy Peking Duck.  I ducking love it.

I poked around looking at recipes and, as I usually do, took aspects from a number of them to make my own. A lot of the recipes I saw called for plum sauce as an accompaniment, but for my tastes you cannot beat Hoi-Sin sauce with cucumber, onion and pancakes. I really didn't want to make the pancakes, but the Chinese/Asian market did not have any ready-made, so I found an excellent recipe here. It's important to prep the duck the day before, so that it really takes on the flavours, and cook it longer than you perhaps would for a plain roast so that it shreds nicely.

Sihk faahn!

(I hope the internet was right about that translation and I haven't unintentionally said something incredibly rude.  I like to say incredibly rude things intentionally.)

 

Mousse au Chocolat

 

• Prep Time: 20 mins


• Chill Time: At least 2 hours

Ingredients:

• 200g dark dessert chocolate, at least 70% cocoa solids


• 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder


• 10 egg whites (preferably free range organic)


• 1 egg yolk


• 25g caster sugar

Method:

• Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a heat-proof bowl with the cocoa


• Place over a pan of hot water on a low heat, making sure the water does not boil and make the chocolate grainy


• Whisk the egg whites and sugar until stiff


• Add the egg yolk to the chocolate/cocoa mix, stirring thoroughly


• This will become quite stiff, so immediately add about a quarter of the egg whites and whisk to loosen it up


• At this point I like to move the chocolate mixture to a different, cold bowl so that the egg whites don't break down too much


• Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites (not whisk) until it is smooth, but try not to mix it too much or it will loose it's fluffy texture


• Place into serving dish(es)


• Refrigerate (at least a couple of hours) until required.

I Moussed Remember To Trust My Own Instincts

Some years ago back in Blighty I decided to master chocolate mousse, and settled on a Raymond Blanc recipe from his excellent 'Foolproof French Cookery' tome (although I later upped the chocolate content slightly).  Since moving to France I have eaten many chocolate mousses made by many people, and allowed their ideas to influence me.  To be honest, I lost confidence in my recipe, thinking that because they were French they must know better than me when it comes to food, even if they ad never tasted my mousse. (NOT ALWAYS TRUE.  I have met some terrible French cooks since living here.)

My chocolate mousses just weren't what they used to be.  So last Friday I dragged out my grubby, food-smeared cooking journal of yore and resurrected the old recipe. Best. Chocolate. Mousse. Ever. In A Very Long Time. I knew it was a good recipe, I just lost my way for a while.  Of course one should always be open to ideas from others, but when something it is good, it is good.

Get yourself some good ingredients, think hard about your technique and cook with confidence.  I bet it tastes amazing.

Love, bob x

Steak And Guinness Pie

• About a kilo of cheap beef (I use beef cheek)


• 2 cans Guinness


• 1 large onion


• Couple handfuls of lardons (diced, streaky thick bacon)


• A few diced mushrooms (optional)


• 1/2 litre beef stock (if using really cheap beef that needs very slow cooking)


• Tsp mustard, or sprinkling of mustard powder


• Dash of Worcestershire sauce


• Plenty of salt and pepper


• Vegetable oil


• Flour


• Puff pastry

Method:

• Roughly chop the onion, soften in hot vegetable oil in large oven-proof pan or dish


• Roll the beef in seasoned flour and add to pan, tossing around until it begins to brown


• Reduce to minimum flame, pour in Guinness


• Whilst stirring, add rest of ingredients except for lardons and mushrooms


• Season fearlessly (when adding salt I use a small handful of coarse crystals)


• Cover and place in oven at about 150 for 3.5 - 4 hours, checking liquid llevels and tenderness of meat


• A couple of hours into cooking time, add mushrooms and lardons


• Line pie dish with puff pastry, pour in the filling, bung on pastry lid


• Glaze with egg wash


• Oven for around 25mins at 220


• Serve with potatoes!

Who Doesn't Like A Bit O' Irish In Them?

Steak and Guinness pie. I have been making my own version for a while now and thought I'd have a quick poke around on the internet to see how it compared with other versions around.  Having seen a version involving cheese, and one involving garlic and shallots etc (albeit on a French site) I thought I'd just go ahead and bang out the version that my family loves.  It's not a very precise recipe, as I tend to just bung these things together, but then there's no harm in that.

Here’s to a long life and a merry one, A quick death and an easy one, A pretty girl and an honest one, A cold pint, and another one!

 

Bob's Butter Crust Pork Pie

Serves: makes around 18-24 slices for a buffet, or can serve as a cold main dish with salads.

Pastry:

• 450g flour


• 1 tsp salt


• 275g diced butter


• 2 whole eggs, 1 egg yolk


• 2 tablespoons cold water

Filling:

• 6 hard-boiled free-range eggs


• 1200g fairly course-ground (but goood quality) sausage meat


• Pepper, mustard, herbs to taste (I usually use a sprinkle of Colman's mustard powder, pepper and thyme as I've never seen the more traditional mace here)


• 500ml stock (I use pot-au-feu) thickened with gelatine to make the jelly between meat and crust

Prep time: approx 45mins

Oven time: 2 hours

Chill time: overnight

Method:

• Sift together the flour and salt


• Rub in the butter with fingertips (as for a crumble,keeping the mixture as cool as possible)


• Beat together eggs and water


• Add to dry ingredients and work into dough, keeping it as cool as possible (pie will be in oven for a long time, the longer it takes the fats to melt the better)


• Roll out half the mixture to line a pie dish.  I use a silicone mould, which makes it easy to remove the pie, which is a 'raised crust' pie and should stand unsupported after cooking.  Otherwise, i recommend you line your pie dish with greaseproof paper.


• Season the sausage meat with the herbs etc of choice, then push half of it into the pie, makking indents for the 6 eggs to be evenly spaced.


• Place in eggs, then cover with rest of sausagemeat, shaping into a smooth, gently sloping dome.


• Roll out rest of pastry and cover, crimping firmly aroung edges


• Glaze with a little beaten egg


• Make a hole in the centre and place either a 'pie flute' or a cone of tinfoil in to keep it open whilst baking (to allow jelly addition after cooling)


• Bake for 30mins at 200, then a further 1h30 at 180 degrees, covering with foil if it gets very brown.


• Allow to cool for around 2 hours


• Pour in the jelly throught the hole in the top


• When thoroughly cool, refrigerate overnight.

Total Pork Pies

'Pork Pie' is, as well as a delicious foodstuff, Cockney rhyming slang for 'lie'.  Today not only do I finally get around to publshing my recipe for pork pie for your gastronomic edification, but also correcting the porkies in the published version of my Balsamic Chicken (ok the inference of lies was a bit of a stretch, but I'm not sure if there is rhyming slang for 'omission' or 'error' and I wanted a pork pie pun anyway).

Traditional pork pies have a hot-water crust made with lard, but as I have mentioned before this is not something readily available here and it is BAD FOR YOU.  I have developed my own 'butter crust' pork pie which is, I believe, pretty much as close in taste and texture as one can get without lard. Good quality sausage meat means it's not the cheapest item on the menu, but it's delicious and always one of the star attractions of our buffet table amongst both French and English friends.

Tonight I'm doing pork chops, then tomorrow night we're going Irish and having Steak and Guinness Pie, followed by an old-fashioned steamed pudding (flavour tbc) and custard.  Recipes to follow next week.  After that I think it's high time we got a few more French winter dishes on here, so expect to see Tartiflette and Cassoulet soon, my legions of loyal readers.

A bientot, geezers.

Just Loafing Around

Well we did it: house full of relatives, a Christmas party and much, much more.  Utterly exhausted, liver on strike, and sleep pattern of a feckless student as a result.

All the food went down very well, especially the pork pie etc at the Christmas party (although Christmas lunch could have been better if I hadn't partaken so liberally of the Bucks Fizz before attempting the Smoked Duck Risotto.  Whoops.)  Wonderful meal (as usual) at La Broussaillande on Christmas Eve. (Their food is much better than their website!)  Hundreds of mince pies made and consumed, bread baked, cookies that seem to evaporate when The Girl's Boyfriend is around.....

Next week should see a return to form and I will get things written up, like the beef tortellini we made for New Year etc. For now I have promised myself a quiet weekend of good food, relaxation and just a drop or two of good wine.

Happy New Stuff.