ce mercredi je mange ... a rhubarb fool

My potager is groaning under weight of the rhubarb  at the moment. A few years back, in a moment of unbridled enthusiasm  I unreasonably planted 6 crowns of rhubarb, and ever since we have become one of Normandy's main producers !!

 Luckily we love the stuff.  In tarts, in crumbles and most delectably in a rhubarb fool. A good family dessert, which seems to teeter between traditional nursery fare and sophisticated dinner party.

 

You can use just the rhubarb for a fool, personally I like to stew a few strawberries with the rhubarb, the two fruit are wonderful together. 

So to make a delicious, spring time dessert you will need

700g / 5 cups rhubarb

250g  /  2 cups strawberries

225g sugar / 1 cup

couple of spoons of water

150g / 5 oz creme fraiche

150g  / 5 oz mascarpone

150g /  3/4 cup sugar

Cut the rhubarb into small pieces , hull the strawberries and cook gently in a pan with the water and 2 cups of sugar.  Cook until really soft, leave to cool.

In a bowl, mix the 150g sugar to the mascarpone, then beat the cream until thick.  Gently blend the two together.

Take a look at the cooled fruit.  If there is too much juice then strain some away and reserve it in a small jug.

In a glass simply layer the cream and the fruit compote, so that the pink and white stripes are clearly visible.  Sprinkle a little cinnamon on the top layer of cream and place the glasses in the fridge.  This mixture should be enough to  fill about 6 glasses.  Your diners will appreciate a couple of small almond tuile biscuits with these creamy fools!

Bon appetit!

Paris bar snack

Few edibles can be more traditionally Parisian than an "oeuf mayo", - hard boiled egg served with a dollop of mayonnaise.  So easy, so straight forward but divine when it's just right.

For ever, Paris bars have a had a little 'presentoir'of eggs, complete with the salt.  Clients take an egg, roll it on the zinc-topped bar counter and peel directly, sprinkle with a little salt and in two gulps it's gone!  In today's super-safe, ûber-worried world, health and safety experts fret about salmonella and bacteria, but I think life is too short for that!

So here is my ode to a good oeuf mayo, along with the simplest recipe for a proper home made mayonnaise, which of course is so much better than shop bought.

If you want to be parisian, then put a few eggs on to boil, and while they are cooking ...

 make your mayonnaise ... simply take the yolk of an egg, 

mix it in a bowl with a teaspoon of Dijon  mustard , some salt and pepper

 start drizzling oil into the bowl, mixing it well after each dose

(sunflower seed, vegetable oil,  whatever, best not olive oil though, the flavour will be too strong)

as you put more and more oil into the mixture it will become paler and firmer.

Keep beating all the time.  You can use a whisk for this, I just use a spoon

When your eggs are hard boiled, cool them in water and peel

serve your eggs with the mayonnaise, fresh bread and a little parsley

A Parisian snack - bon appetit!

Photo 1 thanks to le pieton de Charonne, others me

ce mercredi je mange ... une tarte aux fraises

We like to eat seasonal and regional food here.  Grapes in the fall, asparagus in May, plums in October and French strawberries as from now!

Strawberries are a wonderful dessert fruit, most delicious of course when plucked from the garden, still warm in the sunshine, but we'll have to wait a few months for those.   The first French strawberries to appear on fruit stands are large and firm and ideal for using in tarts.  

Here is my favourite recipe: an almond rich pastry, amaretto flavoured creme patissiere, fresh strawberries and a light glaze.  Serving this at dinner generally provokes a moment of silence, as guests take their first spoonful of the pastry/cream/fruit combination.

Because I don't like the creme patissiere too firm,  this is not the best behaved tart to slice and serve.  To avoid extra difficulty, I make the cream and the pastry ahead of time then assemble at the last minute.

The pastry is dead easy, just throw the following into our mixer and whizz until  it has formed a round  ball.  Leave in the fridge for a short while, roll out to fit your tart mould, then back blind  at 190 until golden brown.

6 oz or 1 1/2  cups of flour

1 oz or 1/4 cup of ground almonds

3 oz or 1/2 cup sugar

 pinch of salt

3 egg yolks

3 oz or 1/.2 cup butter

To make the creme patissiere you will heat 1 litre of milk in a pan with a split vanilla pod.  While it's heating mix in a bowl 6 egg yolks, 1/3 cup flour and 1/2 cup sugar.  Pour the hot milk over the eggs and sugar mix then pour back into the pan and stir gently until the cream starts to thicken.  Watch this carefully, it doesn't take long.   Pour back into the bowl and leave to cool.

Once this is cool I beat up some fresh cream until fairly thick and mix the cream into the creme patissiere, along with a good tablespoonful of amaretto liqueur.  Leave in the fridge until ready to assembly the tart.

You only need to make the glaze now.   Simply cook a small handful of strawberries in a pan with orange juice and sugar to taste.  When thoroughly cooked press through a sieve and mix in 1/2 teaspoon powdered gelatine.

To assemble your tart, remove the pastry case from the tart mould (this isn't obligatory but it looks so much prettier), cover the pastry base with the cream then carefully lay the strawberries all over in neat circles.  If the strawberries are enormous you may want to cut them in half.

Pour the glaze over the strawberries and smile graciously as you bring the tart to the table amidst applause from a deliriously happy crowd! 

And,  if you enjoy this recipe and one day you're feeling saintlike, you might like to make up small individual tarts and .... prepare yourself for instant stardom!

photos all found at Google images

le French tea time

 The presence of some charming little girls during our weekend away reminded me of just how much time must be spent feeding tiny ones.  In France, when it comes to children's tea time or goûter, old traditions die hard, and the most popular end of school-day treat is still the pain au chocolat.  Puff pastry rolled up around two sticks of dark chocolate.

Bakers make sure that  the  pains au chocolat emerge hot from the oven at the same time as children get out of school.  The fragrance wafts down the street and is hard to resist.  80 centimes will buy you a warm pain au chocolat wrapped in a simple square of thin paper.

Mothers who don't manage to get to a bakers before picking up their children, often make it even more simple: a couple of squares of good quality chocolate folded inside a piece of baguette.  A delicious goûter, with no unhealthy additives.

ce mercredi je mange ... une quiche lorraine

When I told you about my improvised lunch over the weekend, several people were kind enough to ask for recipes.  So here is my recipe for quiche lorraine.  Easy to put together, child's play actually, and everyone loves it for a quick lunch or snack.

My ingredients tend to be fairly haphazard according to what is in the fridge.  However the quantities that are important for a 10" tart mould are the pastry, 5 eggs and about 2 cups of cream.  Sorry about the calories, but milk simply doesn't give the same result.

I preheat my oven to 425°F or 220°C.  Line a tart mould with home made or shop bought pastry dough.  I pre-bake the pastry using beans to keep it flat.

While the pastry is browning slightly cook about 10 slices of bacon or 200 g of bacon cubes in a pan.  In a bowl mix the cream and eggs along with some salf and peopper.

Remove the pastry case from the oven, scatter the bacon pieces, a good cup of grated cheese, then pour in the cream and egg mix.

Bake until the filling is risen and golden brown, check with a clean knife that it is cooked through.

A popular alternative in this house is when I add some cooked spinach  to the cream and eggs, and top the quiche with slices of goat cheese.  Leeks are a winner too.

Whatever the combination, little more needs to be added than a good side salad.

Bon appetit!

le fromage normand

Some of you may know that I live in cheese country.  Not far from us in Normandy there are towns with evocative names like  Pont l'Eveque, Livarot, Brillat Savarin or  Camembert.

Besides their delicious flavour I always enjoy their packaging.  Bright labels stuck on the lids of small  wooden boxes, some round, some square.  Many of the designs haven't changed for years - why should they?

an improvised lunch

When two of my favourite girlfriends asked themselves to lunch here yesterday, I was very happy until I realised that my fridge was empty, I had no time to shop, and I didn't even have any flowers to stick in a vase!!

A closer inspection of the fridge revealed the presence of eggs, cream, bacon and cheese.  In my books that makes a quiche lorraine and lurking in the bottom drawer I found a suitable salad, to accompany.

A check through the deep freeze produced a bag of plum halves from last autumn, easily transformed in to a plum tart.

Still no flowers to put on the table or in the sitting room.  When all else fails turn to the garden!  No cutting flowers to speak of at this time of year but  I do have an abundance of snowdrops - or galanthus nivalis as a kind friend in Baltimore calls them.  Trowel in hand, I dug up a few small clumps from where the snowdrops shouldn't have been in the first place,  and grabbed some equally illicit moss.

Searching for  a way to bring my outdoors indoors, I avoided the traditional pots and planters and used some old cake moulds I had in the back of a cupboard.  What my arrangement lacked in professional finish it made up for as a talking point!

What's your favourite flower container?

ce mercredi je mange ... une tarte au citron

LEMON TART - most people like it, I love it.  Preferably not too sweet, preferably without a meringue topping,  Just good pastry, and a VERY lemony filling.  For years I made my friend Martha's (not that Martha, my Martha!) great lime tart with  simple lime curd filling, no baking required,  great for parties because the curd could be made a couple of days ahead.

This winter I've been experimenting with different baked lemon tarts.  I wanted a lot of flavour and a quick easy recipe.  Here is the one I prefer, no grating of rind ( I hate that job!), no eggs to be separated, child's play!  In fact my daughter loves to make this herself.

To make the tart you will need  a pre-baked pastry case, using your favourite recipe, or using store-bought pastry (I won't tell!).  Pre heat your oven to  350°F (165´C.

For the filling:

1 good-sized lemon, rinsed and dried (I try to use organic because the rind is eaten here)
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar
1 stick (4 ounces or 115 grams)  butter, cut into small  pieces
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons (14 grams) cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon table salt

 Slice the lemons into fairly thin rounds, this is just to remove any pips.  Pop all of the lemon except for the pips, into a food processor along with the butter and sugar.  Pulse and mix until all of this is really smooth and totally mixed together.  Now simply add the eggs , starch and salt and mix again.

Pour into the pastry shell and bake for about 40 minutes.  It will still move a little when you take it out, and will just begin to turn golden brown on top.  Let the tart cool then remove from the mould.  I forgot to say that I prefer to use a loose bottomed tart mould for this recipe, the tart looks so pretty on a plate.

You can eat this one warm, but I prefer cold, sprinkled with a little icing sugar.  This of course means it can be made ahead, Yay!

Bon appetit!

Recipe thanks to Smitten Kitchen

Dinner for French men - a rum baba

Yesterday evening, for reasons that you don't need to worry about, I found myself preparing supper for four of my favourite men.  My husband was present (don't get concerned) , along with three other good friends.

When deciding on my man's menu, the course that gave me the most thought was dessert.   What is a man's dessert?  I finally opted for a great French classic that everyone loves, but not many make at home Le Baba au Rhum.

I used to make babas quite often, so I dug out my recipe and was relieved to see that it's really pretty easy.

 what you'll need

For the dough
2 x7g sachets dried quick acting yeast
1 1/4 cups / 125g ‘00’ flour
1 1/4 cups / 125g plain flour
pinch salt
3 tsp castor sugar
4 medium eggs, room temp, very important
50mls warm milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
75g melted butter

For the syrup
120g sugar
190g water
50g dark rum

To serve
very lightly whipped double cream
vanilla extract
icing sugar

I made it easy for myself by using an electric mixer, the oven was pre-heated to 190°C, gas 5.

I put the yeast, flours, salt, sugar, eggs, milk into the mixer and  beat well for several minutes until very soft and sloppy.  Added the melted butter and mixed again.  At this stage I unscrewed my mixer bowl from the machine and sat it on top of a radiator until the mix had doubled in size.  Yesterday this took about 30 minutes.

I beat the proved mixture really well again then poured it into the mould.  Purists will use 8 - 10  individual brioche or dariole moulds.  I don't have those, so I poured my mix into a well buttered long rectangular cake mould that I lined with greaseproof or wax paper.  I covered with  foil and placed back on the radiator until it doubled in size again.

Once it had risen I uncovered the dough and carefully put it bake for about 15-20 minutes (this cooks faster in the smaller moulds).  Once the brioche was lightly browned on the top I gently eased it out of the mould and lay it on the wax paper on the baking shelf of the oven for another 10 minutes, so the sides could colour too.

While the cake was baking I had time to make the rum syrup.  Easy!  Simply put the rum, sugar and water into a small saucepan and gently warm on the cooking hob.  Once all the sugar is melted turn up the heat and simmer for a few minutes without letting the syrup thicken.  Put to one side.

The brioche or cake must be nice and dry and well coloured.  While it is still warm but not really hot, I poked holes all over with a large skewer, then poured the rum and sugar syrup in little by little until all the syrup has been absorbed by the cake.  Don't get nervous about this, it's amazing how the cake absorbs this quid, yet doesn't become soggy.  In fact when making individual babas you can even lay them into the syrup and let them soak it in!

You can make this dessert hours ahead of the meal, some people even pop theirs in the fridge - warm or cold is a matter of preference, either way it's delicious.

To serve I like to offer some sweetened whipped cream, along with a jug of extra and slightly thicker sugar syrup and another jug of rum.

The top photo I borrowed to show you the individual babas, here is a picture of mine, served in slices.

Bon appetit

ce mercredi je mange ... du pain perdu

If you wanted to make a delicious, easy and ultra traditionally French snack for tea time or for a dessert then you could whip this one up in just a few minutes, and I bet you already have the ingredients in your kitchen!  

Those of you in America may often eat this for breakfast, under the name French Toast, but here in France it is the most traditional snack for children at tea time, and is now often found on restaurant menus, served as dessert accompanied by a delicious fruit compote.  I think it's best with cherries.

Le Pain Perdu is quite simply slices of slightly stale soft white bread or brioche, soaked in egg, sugar and milk mix, then lightly fried in butter.  I like mine sprinkled with a little cinnamon.

2 cups / 1/2 litre milk

2 eggs

1/4 cup / 50g sugar

2 soup spoons vanilla sugar

1/2 cup / 100g butter

6 slices of soft white bread or brioche

nutmeg/cinnamon optional

icing sugar

To make this family favourite,  simply slice your bread or brioche into thick slices and lay them in a shallow dish.  In a bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla sugar.  Pour the mix over the slices of bread and wait for a few minutes while the liquid is soaking in.

When you're ready, heat the butter gently in a wide skillet.  Gently lift the bread out of the bowl, let it drain a few seconds then lie in the foaming butter.  At this point you can sprinkle some spices if you wish.

When your slices are golden on each side, remove from the pan, layout onto a serving plate and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Totally yummy with a hot chocolate, an old time treat for tea!

Bon appetit!

Galette des rois - the recipe

When I told you about the traditional Galette des rois last weekend, several people were kind enough to ask for the recipe.  Nothing easier .... You'll need

2 blocks ready made puff pastry 

2 eggs

2/3 cup/100g ground almonds

1/3 cup/70g softened butter

1/2 cup/100g sugar

1 soup spoon plain four

       I soup spoon rum

Pre-heat the oven to 200 deg C.

Roll out the puff pastry into two large identical rounds. Place one onto the baking sheet.  Mix together all the other ingredients except for one egg yolk, this will be used for brushing the pastry case.  Spread the almond mixture onto the first round, being careful to go no closer than half an inch to the edge.

Carefully lay the second round of pastry over the top and seal the edges with a little water.  Brush the top piece of pastry and round the sides with the remaining egg yolk.  Bake in the oven till golden, for about 25 minutes.

The galette can be eaten cold but is best slightly warm.
Have a yummy weekend!

ce mercredi je mange ... une buche de Noel

The traditional French dessert for this time of year is the Buche de Noel.  Served of course at Christmas, but also at New Year's Eve dinners such as we'll be having at the end of this week.

The beauty of this dessert is that it's rich without being heavy, and - most brilliantly - can be prepared ahead of time.

Behind the fancy French name, which only means Christmas log, there hides nothing more than a  chocolate flour-free cake, rolled with a chestnut and cream filling.

The ingredients I use are

FOR THE CAKE

9 eggs separated

225g / 1.13 cups sugar

75g / 0.375 cup cocoa powder

FOR THE FILLING

350g / 1.75 cups chestnut purée

2 spoons cream

FOR THE DECORATION

10fl oz cream

50g dark chocolate

First preheat your oven to 180 C and line a baking sheet with waxed or greaseproof paper.

Separate the eggs, and beat up the yolks with the sugar, until they pale slightly.

Add the cocoa powder to the egg and sugar.  Mix well.

Beat up the egg whites until stiff, add a large spoonful of egg white to the cocoa/egg mixture This will loosen up the mixture and make it possible to fold in the rest of the egg whites gently.

Pour the mixture into the lined baking tin and bake until firm and springy.

This takes about 25 minutes.

Sprinkle another piece of waxed paper with icing sugar or cocoa powder 

and turn the slightly cooled cake out upside down.

Gently peel the paper off the back of the cake and leave to cool.

Soften the chestnut purée in a bowl, then blend in the whipped cream.  Spread ths mix over the cooled cake, then using the paper roll the cake up.  At this stage I tuck the paper firmly in all around the cake and leave it to set for a while in the fridge.  Even overnight, no harm can come.

 When you're ready to decorate, then unwrap, cut a piece off each end of the 

roll and position to resemble cut branches on a log!! 

 Gently cover with whipped cream, and draw lines of melted
chocolate to look like lines on the bark. 

Carry to the table and prepare yourself for applause and gasps of amazement, 

this one is  guaranteed to impress!!