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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Save the date : "Sweet book exhibition"

What is that?
If you are in France end of March or beginning of April, the 1st of April to be exact, in the Yveline county, close to Paris, you could visit the "Sweet book exhibition"
All informations are here:
http://salonlivregourmandmaurecourt.e-monsite.com/
It is not in English but if you need any help, let me know.
Enjoy your visit and come to tell me if it was great!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Chocolate-coco Tart


And for that chocolate-coco tart you will need a little shortcrust pastry and a chocolate ganache.

My ganache recipe is based on 100 gr of chopped dark chocolate and 10 cl of heavy cream. I place all the ingredients in a double boiler. When it is melted, I put the ganache in the tart dough that were previously cooked in the oven at 350 F during 20 minutes.
Chill it for 2 to 4 hours, during that time you can toast some shredded coconut in a dry pan and you will put it on top of the tart right before serving.

Advices:
- The tart can be done the day before and saved in the fridge.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Seasonal market : January

You're right, we should know what we could find to eat in January because we shouldn't find everything everywhere all along the year! The interest is to have some fun switching with the products, playing with the prices, leaving them to grow or raise until they will be able to be eaten.
Are you ready?...

Picking:
Truffle

Vegetables:
Avocado; beets; carrot; chervil; mushroom; endive; cabbage; cucumber; chicory; soya beansprouts; lettuce; watercress; turnip; parsnip; parsley; oyster mushroom; leek; pumpkin; horseradish; salsify; Jerusalem artichoke.

Diaries:
Vacherin; munster; tomme d'abondance; ossau-iraty; laguiole; salers.

Fruits:
Citrus fruits; pineapples; banana; kiwi; cumquat; tangerine; pear; apple.

Seafood/Fish:
Haddock; bass; calmar; hake; scallop; sea bream; oyster; whiting; oursin; skatefish; red mullet; gurnard; sole.

Meat/Poultry:
Beef; farmer pork.

Now it's time to play with that...

Monday, January 16, 2012

Shortcrust pastry

The shortcrust pastry is a member of the family dough called "firm doughs", same as the sweetened short pastry (crumbled or creamed), the pasta, the noodle dough and the puff pastry.
But today, I am going to work on the shortcrust pastry known as pâte brisée.

Shortcrust pastry :
2 1/4 lb flour
1 oz salt
2 oz sugar
6 1/2 fl oz water
4 egg yolks
17 1/2 oz butter

Sift the flour and add the salt and sugar if using.
Blend the butter and the flour together.
Incorporate the egg yolks and water, working lightly with your hands.
Form the dough into a ball, covered in plastic wrap, and chill it for about 30 minutes.

Advices :
- You do not have to make that quantity of dough, because that recipe is for 5 to 6 quiches/tarts depending on your pan. Divided the dough by 5 to 6 and wrap them separately and if you want: freeze them up to 3 months.
- You can also divided the recipe by 5 and get the dough for one quiche/tart.
- I use to add only 1 oz of sugar like that I can use the dough as a shortcrust pastry or as a sweetened short pastry (crumbled).
- The firm dough always need to be in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes before using it.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

King's cake


That tradition should be just the 6th of January every year but usually you can eat the Epiphany pastry cake or king's cake through January.
You need to buy a puff pastry at your grocery store for that dessert. I will make a post for the puff pastry soon but right now I am interested in the stuffing called frangipane.

So for 8 servings

Frangipane recipe:
1 cup almond powder
2/3 cup icing sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup butter
FM almond extract
1 egg yolk

Put the butter at room temperature.
In a large bowl, mix the almond powder, the sugar, the eggs, the butter and the almond extract.
In the puff pastry, cut two circles of dough (1 foot diameter) and spread the stuffing on one of them. Leave 1/3in free of frangipane and cover it with egg yolk. Place the second dough on top and make the two circles adhere at the level of the egg yolk.
Brush the cake with the egg yolk and put in the oven for 30 minutes at 350°F.

Advices:
- You can put the cake back in the fridge before cooking it in order to let the frangipane harden a bit.
- Brush the King's cake again before putting it in the oven . You can draw something on the cake with a pairing knife.
- I used to add some rum to flavor the stuffing, it match very well.

You are ready to make one this week-end!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Culinary rhyme

What's that?
Do not be scared, I will not show you the poors poems that I write sometimes. But I will propose you some  gustative assemblies which work together.

To start our collection of rhymes, let me show you two exemples of three flavors which, once mixed, will give you a really good dish:
Lamb-Garlic-Rosemary
Carrot-Cumin-Orange

In Winter time, why not to do mashed carrots cooked in the orange juice seasoned with salt and cumin powder. Pair it with a leg or a rack of lamb pricked with some garlic and a rosemary sauce.
In Summer time, you can take the same ingredients, the same flavors of course but you could work on them differently and play with the presentation. So I suggest a garlic-rosemary butter that could be served on a lamb cutlet grilled on the barbecue, served with a shredded carrot salad with an orange juice-olive oil dressing spiced with cumin powder.

What is nice with the culinary rhyme is that you can play to the infiny with the products.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

2012

I would love to wish an happy new year 2012 to you all. A year full of joy and with plenty of recipes to share.

I will be back soon with some new recipes.