I love, love, love all types of pâté, but j'adore foie gras. Mmmm, that extra fattiness makes all the difference, and I am fortunate to have friends that understand my love and bring some back for me on each trip to France. Somehow, it seems you can always tell the difference in quality between what I have tasted that's been produced here and the original. Also, since I seem to be one of the few people I know that enjoy it, it means I get most of the tin to myself!
Showing posts with label cuisine: french. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cuisine: french. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Pâté de foie gras
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Quince Clafoutis
Quince is not something I'd ever cooked with, or even tasted, before. Naturally that meant that when I saw some at Sobey's I had to purchase it. And then it sat for ages in my fruit bowl until finally I figured they would need to be used before they starting going off. I decided to poach these (as they cannot be eaten raw) and use them in an adapted clafoutis. It's a French recipe that's a little bit asian, with star anise in the poached quince and Zen Green Tea liqueur in the clafoutis.
Step 1: Poaching the quince.
4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
a couple of star anise or stick of cinnamon
3 quince
I tried to peel these, then got lazy and gave up. They were simply chopped and cored and dropped in the poaching liquid, then simmered for an hour plus. These need to be drained very well, as they retain a lot of liquid. I let them sit overnight in the fridge to get as much liquid out as I could. They have a lovely fragrant flavour and would be delicious on their own just after poaching, but I didn't want the extra liquid to ruin the clafoutis.
Step 2: Making the clafoutis.
3 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
6 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp Zen Green Tea Liqueur
3 quince, poached
Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Butter a 1 quart/1 litre dish and sprinkle the bottom and sides with sugar. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in the flour, cream, zest, salt, and liqueur. Set that aside and line the dish with your poached quince. Pour the batter over the quince and bake around 40-45 minutes until the custard is firm and golden.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Crème Brûlée
This recipe is from John Burton Race's book, French Leave. It was my first crack at making Crème brûlée, and I expected it to be difficult, but it was surprisingly easy! Seriously, I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true. It amazes me that I have had so many bad brûlées at restaurants in the past (seriously - scrambled egg consistency at a high end restaurant that I won't name!). This is going to be a bad bad thing for me, as I will likely start keeping full cream in my fridge at all times and make this very regularly. Methinks that will not help me on the road to losing the baby weight...
Crème Brûlée (Serves 4):
2 egg yolks
90 grams caster sugar (seeing as we are in North America I used fine berry sugar)
1 vanilla pod (I used vanilla extract about a teaspoon)
70 mL milk
175 mL double cream
Put the egg yolks and 40g of the sugar into a bowl with the vanilla and whisk to a smooth paste. Add the milk, whisk in the cream (thicken a bit, but it won't be like whipped cream), pour into four ramekins and refrigerate for an hour before cooking.
Preheat the oven to 300F/150C and put the ramekins in a shallow pan filled with water to a depth of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) as shown. The brûlées will take about an hour in the oven to set. When cooked, remove from the oven and let the brûlées cool to room temperature.
When you are about ready to serve, sprinkle the tops with the remaining sugar and put them either under a very hot broiler or use a torch to caramelize the sugar. Using high heat is important because you want to create the sugar crust on top, but not warm the custard through and make it runny. Serve right away.
This is so good I am thinking about making it for breakfast now, thank goodness I don't have any cream on hand and I have a baby that will be back up to eat again any second!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Pear Clafoutis
Court and I invited the family over for a spur of the moment french dinner, featuring rabbit stew and this clafoutis for dessert. When we were deciding on what to make, we wanted something relatively simple since we were putting most of our effort into cooking rabbit for the first time. We remembered Chris' experiments in clafoutis back in June and decided to try our own.
Pear Clafoutis (adapted from Ina Garten):
1 tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar, plus enough to line dish
3 eggs
6 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
seeds from 1 vanilla pod
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp cognac
2-3 ripe Bartlett pears
Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Butter a 1 quart/1 litre dish and sprinkle the bottom and sides with sugar. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in the flour, cream, vanilla seeds, zest, salt, and cognac. Set that aside and peel and slice the pears to line the dish. Pour the batter over the pears and bake around 30-40 minutes until the custard is firm and golden.
We used vanilla seeds instead of extract and added the cognac, and then tried to convince ourselves that fruit desserts are always healthy.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Ratatouille Nicoise
I swear that Monday morning after the long weekend I woke up and it was dark in the morning. I know it makes no sense that this would suddenly be the case, but it was like fall arrived that very day. This weekend is supposed to be warm enough to make it feel like summer still, but the cool nights will not allow us to be tricked like that. It is fall, winter is on the way, let the mourning begin. On the bright side, I have some fall "crops" that are performing well. As is always the case, all of a sudden I have a zillion zucchini. What to do? Of course I have shredded and frozen many baggies full (pre-measured) so that I can make zucchini bread through the winter, but when I say I have zillions, I mean I have zillions. Last year I spent a couple weeks of the summer in France (along the Basque coast), and while there I picked up a lovely little cookbook that appears to be the equivalent of the Betty Crocker one here. By that I mean it was the one everyone was given back in the 70s when they got married. It has a great recipe for Ratatouille Nicoise that I whipped up, and then used to make a ratatouille and chevre tarte (to be posted next week) based on one I ate there. It wasn't quite like being there, but it was the best I could do without the expensive plane ticket.
Ratatouille Nicoise (translated from French, probably badly):
3 onions
4 eggplants
4 zucchini
500g tomatoes
2 peppers (I used red)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
Bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, bay leaf)
salt and pepper
Peel onions and then cut all the veggies into strips. Heat the olive oil in a casserole dish - I can just see all the French ladies using their le cruesets - and then saute the onions for a minute. Add the other veggies, the salt and pepper and the bouquet garni and cover to simmer in the oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes. The recipe doesn't give a temperature, so I went with the ever popular 350 F. Don't forget to take out the bouquet before serving (or at least don't scoop it out into someone's bowl, they will be confused).
Nothing feels more french to me than using a bouquet garni. When I was staying there, the woman who was hosting us seemed to use a bouquet of fresh herbs in every dish she cooked and I swear it made everything seem twice as delicious. If I don't have string with which to tie the herbs up together I often use non flavoured dental floss.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Creamy Courgette and Brie Soup
With the horrible weather over the weekend, and the fact that my apartment was freeeezing, I decided to make soup for lunch. We have mentioned the Fresh Food Fast cookbook before, and this is another recipe from that book. This was my first go at making it after hearing Court rave about it a couple of years ago, and it definitely lived up to the hype. The creaminess comes from delicious melted brie - so I'm pretty happy I made a full pot and have the leftovers all to myself.
Courgette & Brie Soup (serves 4-5):
2 knobs/25g butter
1 medium/250g onion
3 smallish/200g potatoes
1 garlic clove
1/8-1/4 cup white wine
300ml vegetable stock
2 medium/500g zucchini
200ml milk or cream
125-200g brie
1 tbsp fresh basil, or to taste
salt & pepper
Melt the butter and then add the finely chopped onion. Soften for 5-7 minutes, then add the cubed potato, minced garlic, and wine and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the stock and zucchini and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the potato is cooked (around 25 minutes). Add in the milk and brie and heat until the cheese has melted, then add the basil and heat through.
If you want to reduce the calories, this was actually quite good even without the milk and brie - just as a broth with vegetables.
Friday, March 13, 2009
A Seriously Easy Quiche
More asparagus... but this is the last of it for this week. I have never tried making a quiche before, but I was certain it couldn't be too difficult - and I was right! I was feeling pretty impressed with myself as I ate this.
Because Boursin (I used the regular garlic & herb, but I am sure the others would be tasty as well) has so much flavour, I literally did not add anything else to this. Just the asparagus, cheese and eggs, and bam! Instant quiche. Next time I'm entertaining, this will be making a reappearance in appetizer form, possibly with courgettes instead of asparagus.
Asparagus & Boursin Quiche (2 x 4.5"):
65g asparagus, chopped
1/2 pack/75g Boursin cheese
2 eggs
splash of milk
I won't post the recipe I used for the pastry, as it didn't turn out at all and I ended up having to just push pieces of it around the cases and squish them together. Just use your favourite savoury shortcrust pastry recipe, or store bought.
Oh, okay... here's 
the pastry recipe:
150g flour
90g cold butter, cubed
1 egg yolk
pinch salt
water
It may work for you. I only had 2 regular eggs left and I had used them up for the filling, so instead of an egg yolk I used 1 quail egg. Haha, perhaps that had something to do with my failure? Bring the flour and butter together until they reach the breadcrumb stage, then add the egg yolk and salt. If you need to, you can add some water to help the dough combine.
Brush the cases with oil, lay the pastry in and all the way up the sides. Line the pastry with parchment paper and weigh it down (I used pennies as I don't have baking beans). Bake at 375F/190C for 15 minutes until pale golden.
In a bowl, whisk together the boursin and eggs and add some milk if you need to pad out the filling. I added enough milk to ensure that both quiches would be full to the top of the pastry - probably less than a quarter cup. While the pastry is baking, bring some water to the boil and cook the asparagus for around 3 minutes. Remove pastry from oven, add the asparagus and pour over the cheese & egg mixture. Bake at 400F/200C for 15-20 minutes.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Valentine's Temptation
This is a perfect Valentine's Day cake, as one would have to be in love to want to make this. Me? I'm just crazy. This is not for the faint of heart - it is both expensive to make and extremely labour intensive. The results are worth it though; the chestnut cream gives it a unique twist and it is so chocolate-y I think it's fulfilled my cravings for the next several months.
Base Brownie Layer:
1 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
4 tbsp/2 oz butter
1 egg2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup chopped roast chestnuts
Score the chestnuts and roast in a 400F/200C oven for 30 minutes, then peel and chop. Melt the chocolate in a bain marie then remove from the heat. Add the butter and whisk until smooth, then whisk in the egg and both sugars. Stir in the flour, followed by the chestnuts. Bake in a 6" greased springform pan or cake ring for 15 minutes in a 350F/180C oven. I used a strip of folded foil around the base to help seal the ring and prevent the edges of the brownie from baking faster than the middle. When the middle springs back when touched, remove & cool on a wire rack.
Centre Chestnut Cream Layer:
1 tsp powdered gelatin
1 tbps water
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup chestnut puree
In a cup or small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin powder over the water and let it absorb for 5 minutes. In a bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar together until it turns a pale yellow. Bring the cream to a boil, and whisk in the yolk mixture. Add the soaked gelatin, stirring over a low heat until the mixture thickens (around 10 minutes). Whisk in the chestnut puree. Pour through a sieve and refridgerate until partially
set. With the Brownie Base still in the pan, pour over the Chestnut Cream. Freeze for 2 hours.
Top Chocolate Mousse Layer:
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water
3 egg yolks
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted & cooled to tepid
3/4 cup heavy cream
Bring the sugar and water to a full boil. Beat the yolks with an electric mixer, and pour over the hot syrup. Keep beating to prevent the eggs from cooking, and continue until the mixture is cool and has doubled in volume. In a separate bowl whip the cream to soft peaks, then take 1/3 of the whipped cream and whisk it into the tepid chocolate. Make sure the chocolate has not fully cooled! I was distracted by dinner while making this layer, and the cooled chocolate ended up not fully mixing into the mousse. Fold the yolk mixture into the cream/chocolate, then fold in the remaining whipped cream. Spread the mousse over the Chestnut Layer and freeze for 4 hours.
Chocolate Icing (optional):
1 1/2 tsp powdered gelatin
1 tbsp water1 cup sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup water
In a cup or small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin powder over the water and let it absorb for 5 minutes. Add the sugar, cocoa, cream, and water to a saucepan and bring to a boil stirring continually. Reduce the heat to med-low and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the soaked gelatin; to ensure this dissolves properly I found it easiest to add the hot chocolate mixture to the gelatin bowl bit by bit and then added it to the pan. Let stand until the icing is tepid but still fluid.
Place the cake on a wire rack and remove the ring/remove from the pan. I used a hot knife (ice cream cake-style) to get it out of the ring, then used my hands dipped in hot water to smooth the sides. Because the icing is similar to a ganache, you need to make sure the cake has a smooth base for it. If you decide not to ice the cake 
(it's really not needed, as the cake is chocolate-y enough), sprinking cocoa on top and decorating would look good as well. This can be frozen for up to 3 days, and defrosted for 8 hours in the fridge prior to serving. 
P.S. Make sure you keep all those egg whites!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Duck, Brie and Pesto Sandwhich
The other day, I made duck confit (again!), and had leftovers to work with the next day. I looked around on Tastespotting, and found myself a great sandwich idea on the Echronicles. It's a simple one to put together, as long as you have the duck ready, but it seems sophisticated and Frenchy. It really brightened up an otherwise boring day.
Duck Sandwich:
Bread of your choice
Duck confit
Brie
Pesto
Throw them all together, easy peasy, and chow down. Nice!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
A Duck Showstopper - Plum and Fig Glazed
I have been going through a duck phase lately. It's gotten so bad that I have actually used the term "ducklicious" more than once in the past week. Clearly, I was thrilled to discover that Sobey's has duck products! I assume it is just for the holiday season, but in the freezer section, whole duck and duck breasts were available this past weekend (and possibly still) at the Sobey's in St. Albert. Usually I have to head down to the Sobey's Urban Fresh to get the duck breasts they bring in from Green Eggs and Ham, and that is a bit of a trek for me. Not only did I find these nearby, but the price ($4-7 depending on the size) was pretty reasonable. The ones shown in the pictures below were the $4 ones, so plenty large in size.
I served the duck with duck fat roasted potatoes (instructions in the previous duck post), and green beans in a dressing that I will post about in the future.
The first step in preparing the meal is to sear the skin side of the breasts. Start by scoring the skin so that when you sear it, the heat can get in and reduce the layer of fat between the skin and the meat. Heat up a skillet until it is very hot, and put the duck breasts in skin side down. Be very careful during this step not to burn yourself with splattering fat. It is like 
cooking bacon that way. Leave the breasts on the heat until they look crisp and golden. Take off the heat and place in a baking dish until you are about 10 minutes away from being finished dinner. Leave the fat in the skillet to roast the potatoes.
Prepare all your side dishes, and start on the glaze. The glaze is very quick seeing as it is thick enough that it does not require reduc
tion. Thinly slice some shallots and caramelize them. You will need to combine equal parts plum jam, fig jam, whole grain mustard and the onions that you have caramelized. Once the shallots are done, add in the remaining parts and warm until it just barely simmers.
When you are 10 minutes from being ready to go with the rest of the dinner, throw the duck breast in to the oven at 400 F for 10 minutes. When it is ready, slice it into medallions, and top with the glaze. If you have left over glaze, it is also very nice on pork. As with a number of good pairings, the key here is having the sweet elements - caramelized onions, fig and plum - balanced by the tart mustard.
This dish is easy and fast, but it seems so sophisticated that people will think you slaved over it. For me, the best part is that you can prep it with the searing, and then just finish it later that day when the rest of your meal is almost done. It also looks great plated, so it is a good choice when you want to be fancy and plate dinner instead of serving it family style.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Sunday Duck Confit
I have been reading French Leave by John Burton Race. It is a book based on his experience of moving to Montferrand, France for a year with his family to learn about rural French cooking, and was also done as a TV show on the Food Network. Seeing as I love French food (what's not to love about a culture that worships food and never uses the low fat version of anything), reading it is making me salivate almost to the point of choking. The book is divided up by season, and then the second half has all the recipes for the food he has been writing about. Yay! I too can eat duck now in at least three different ways. This past Sunday I decided to give the Duck Confit a go. The recipe is very simple, the only hitch is that the cooking time is 2 hours, which would make it a no go for me on a week night. It definitely fit the bill though for a Sunday afternoon when I didn't want to leave the house.
This dish did take some planning, because I don't keep duck in my freezer, and none of the local grocery stores carry it regularly enough for me to look close by. Off I went on Saturday morning to T&T Asian grocery in West Edmonton Mall. I know that they almost always have duck legs, and indeed they did.
Duck Confit (for two):
2 duck leg and thigh quarters
Salt
Pepper
1 clove of garlic, sliced
1 bay leaf
2 juniper berries
I never have juniper berries, but I do usually have gin, and since gin is flavored with juniper berries, a splash of it is a fine substitute. Saturday afternoon I rubbed the duck with all of the aromatics, and left it overnight to marinade. Burton Race indicates that even he will just marinate for a few hours if he doesn't think of it the night before, so do the best you can.
Two hours before eating time, rinse off all the rub by running the duck under cold water, then toss it in a baking pan or roaster for two hours. That is seriously the end of the instructions. I told you it is not as hard as it sounds.
I also made potatoes roasted in duck fat to accompany it, since I rarely have the duck fat to work with. I sliced up potatoes (about a centimeter thick), and then about 20 minutes before the duck was done, took out the roaster and ladelled some of the fat into a skillet.
The potatoes take about 8-10 minutes a side on medium heat to get nice and brown and crispy. If you do not like them quite so crispy, just keep an eye on them and turn them when they are brown enough for your liking. They should all be arranged in a single layer, and I rinsed them before putting them in the fat so that with the lid on, there would be some steam created.
You can serve the duck legs just roasted, but I shredded the meat off seeing as duck confit is frequently served this way, and I preserved the leftover meat by packing it in it's own fat.
Duck cooked in it's own fat served with potatoes cooked in duck fat may seem a bit on the unhealthy side, but as Burton Race states, this is all part of the French paradox of fatty foods, and a low incidence of heart disease. It is thought that the type of fat present in most French foods is better because it is natural saturated fat as opposed to hydrogenated and trans fats. I will leave that to you to decide, but when it comes to duck, there is no arguing that the fat is delicious! None the less, I do like serving the above with a side salad.
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