Simple Starter - No Argy-Bhaji

The Girl is, at the ripe old age of 18, finally coming to appreciate spicy food, and actually requested curry last weekend. Indian food is not something that has a strong presence here in France, so the ingredients available can be somewhat limited. To produce a simple curry was not an issue, but I wanted an appropriate starter that wasn't samosas from the frozen section of the 'Asian' shop. Turns out, I had no idea how simple onion bhajis are to make! They are just onions, flour, egg and spices, shallow fried for about 45 seconds on each side. Deliciously simple recipe here.
I like the idea of making our own poppadoms from scratch, but I think that's one to save for when the whole family is pitching in to make the meal. Intricate meals can have a great pay-off, but there is a limit to how many hours one wants to spend alone in the kitchen...

Easy Onion Bhajis

3 medium onions, finely sliced (you may wish to use a mix of varieties)
2 free-range eggs
125g flour
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp salt
Vegetable/sunflower/peanut oil for frying


Stir everything (except oil!) up together into one, gloopy mass.
Heat enough oil in a frying pan so that it's about three-quarters of a centimetre deep.
Place dollops of the mixture (I did about a soup spoon at a time) in the oil, and fry for about 45 seconds on each side.
Drain and serve.
Eat with your fingers - it's what they're for!

Know Your Onions

I'm sure the internet will be relieved to know that the second batch of falafel was much more successful in terms of keeping its s*** together. It is hard to say exactly what was the definitive factor, as a number of things changed; the mixture had been in the fridge overnight, we added finely chopped onion, and we made the oil hotter. Based on this, We think we have figured out what to do next time. Recipe here.

Quick & Easy Falafel

1 large can of chick peas, drained
1 large clove of garlic
1 medium onion
5 tablespoons flour (I used semolina flour, but plain is fine)
Salt, pepper, cumin, coriander & other spices to taste.

Throw everything except the flour into a food processor and chop finely, but don't purée.
Add flour and work into moist dough.
Form into balls around about the size of a ping pong ball.
Deep fry with the oil at 180° for about 1 minute.
Drain and serve with pita breads, salad and sauces.
Warning: can cause extreme winds!

Notes: If time allows, chill the mixture before use. This also means that it's a handy one to prep in advance when expecting guests, or you want to leave something good in the fridge to have at the end of a long day!

A Falafel Lot Of Mess

Looking for a cheap but delicious way to stretch the contents of the store cupboards until pay day (<3), we thought we'd have a go at bunging together some falafel. Chick peas, onion, a little flour, some spices. No problem.
However..... at the last minute we realised we didn't have any onions left (it being the day before market) but we decided to plunge ahead anyway. Oops.
The first balls we tried in the deep fryer and they disintegrated completely. We then flattened the balls and tried them in a frying pan. Better, but not great.
It would seem that onions are essential for binding the balls! We will be retrying tonight, having bought some onions. Despite their dubious texture, they tasted great and will be even better, I am sure, with onions.
Now to find a 'volunteer' to clean the goop out of the fryer.........

Please Root For Me

Regardless of my origins, I have nurtured a life-long love of root beer. I know it's not to everyone's taste, but I can't get enough of the stuff. Literally. Root beer is not a thing here in France.
So imagine my delight when I stumbled across six cans of A&W in the 'foreign foods' section at the supermarket yesterday! It would seem that the tourist season has some benefits after all.
Coincidentally, I was participating in a discussion on junk food in one of my online study groups, and a friend posted this: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/08/diy-root-beer-how-to-brew-your-own-root-beer-recipe.html
Finding the ingredients may prove to be a challenge, but I'm willing to give it a go. I'll let you know how I get on, Internet.
Love,
bob

TIL: SOS - Save Our Sponges

Today I Learnt that re-purposing sponge cake is a thing. These days we are only three at home, and one sponge cake goes a long way. I have followed internet advice and taken to freezing uneaten cake for later use (it is hard to reduce ingredient quantities below a certain point). Today I have defrosted a wedge of Strawberry/Vanilla Sponge and used it as the base of a trifle/tiramisu hybrid. I lined the dessert bowl with slices of sponge cake, then filled it with a marscapone/crème fraîche/vanilla sugar mix (250g marscapone, tablespoon crème fraîche, sachet of sugar). Topped it off with fresh strawberries and icing sugar. Nom.

Hazelnut & Maple Crumbly Cake

Ingredients:

100g ground hazelnuts
200g flour
190g white caster sugar
60g golden cane sugar
250g butter
2 large free range eggs
1 sachet (or one heaped teaspoon) baking powder
3 tablespoons maple syrup
splash of milk

Method:

Cream together the sugars and butter, add the eggs and beat until smooth
Sift together the dry ingredients, then gradually add to the butter mix
Add a splash of milk as necessary to get a smooth, even cake batter
Mix in the maple syrup, stirring until blended
Pour into cake mould and bake at 190°C for approximately 30 minutes

Note:
You can expect the cake to be slightly crispy on top and very crumbly on the inside (hence the name). Allow to cool thoroughly before turning out.

Cup Cakes

[caption id="attachment_1273" align="alignnone" width="1880"] New house Cup Cakes[/caption]

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.