[Recipe] Sautéed Vegetables à la "dijonnaise"

Right.

Sorry about the title, I didn't know what to name the dish (if it has a name, do tell me!).

So... I was visiting my freezer when I found Brussels sprouts and decided to cook them, but not alone.

You'll need:

* 500 gr of Brussels sprouts

* 4 or 5 potatoes

* 2 onions

* salt

* Dijon mustard

* oil

* some kind of meat (minced meat, bits of chicken, bacon...)

1 - Slice the onions and put them in a big frying pan.

2 - Add the meat you chose to the pan.

3 - In a pot of salted, boiling water, add the Brussels sprouts and peeled and diced potatoes. Cook for about ten minutes.

4 - Drain the sprouts and potatoes. Cut the Brussels sprouts in four (it takes time, but it's worth it) and add them and the potatoes to the frying pan.

5 - Add some oil in the frying pan and sauté the meat and vegetables (I tend to turn the heat to high to have a crispy result).

6 - Add some salt and then some mustard (I added three dessert spoons of Dijon mustard).

7 - Enjoy!

[Recipe] Blueberry Pie

I've found a blueberry provider, so there you go... A first recipe that needs blueberries.

You'll need:

- For the pastry (28cm pie tin):

* 250 g all-purpose flour

* 125 g (room temperature) butter

* 1 pinch of salt

* 50 g caster sugar

* 1 egg

* some water

* some extra flour

- For the fruit filling:

* 450 g blueberries (all riiiiight, I've "just" found a store that sells the frozen variety; they work perfectly)

* 20 cl crème fraiche

* 125 g caster sugar

* 2 tablespoon of all-purpose flour

* 2 eggs

* 1 pinch of salt

*some icing sugar

Pastry:

1 - Put the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl.

2 - Dice the butter and add it to the dry mix. Either use your fingers or a fork to make the butter and flour mix form a crumble-like dough.

3 - Beat the egg with some water, and add it to the mix. You should get a sticky dough that you'll have to work to get a smooth ball.

4 - Roll the dough onto some parchment paper with flour; it mustn't stick at all. You need a circle big enough for your tin, and the dough should be about 1 centimetre thick at the bottom.

[If you don't have a tin that can be opened, don't forget to place a large band of folded-in-two parchment paper under the paper with your dough so you can get your pie out, and you don't have to cut it in the tin.]

Filling:

1 - Put the crème fraiche, the salt, the sugar, and the sieved flour into a bowl and mix them together.

2 - Beat the eggs, and add them to the bowl, and keep mixing.

3 - Add the blueberries (if you bought them frozen, don't bother defrosting them) and mix.

4 - Pour the filling into the pastry.

Baking:

Put the tin in the (cold, yes) oven, and turn it on (Th. 7, 180° C). Bake for 30 minutes, and lower it to Th. 5 for about five more minutes.

Take the pie out of the oven.

When it's no longer hot, sprinkle icing sugar on top.

Add some vanilla ice-cream and... Tadaaaaa!

[Recipe] Commander Pie (A Fish Pie)

I didn't want to make a Fisherman or an Admiral pie, and so I came up with this idea.

You'll need:

* 200 g fish (I used cod, but adding shrimp or salmon sounds like fun)

* fish stock powder (that's sooo quick)

* a handful of shredded carrots

* a leek, cut thinly

* 2 big mushrooms, cut thinly

* 285 g sweetcorn (medium size tin)

* 3 tablespoon flour

* 1 tablespoon cornflour

* potatoes

* cheese

1 - In 3/4 litre of water put about three or four teaspoon of fish stock powder, and bring that to a boil. Turn the heat to medium-high then.

2 - Add the fish cut into small bits (I use frozen cod that I cut into cubes whilst it's still mostly frozen), and cook it for about five minutes. 

3 - Fish the fish out, and add the leek, carrots, and mushrooms. cook them for about five minutes, as well.

4 - Put the fish back in, and add the corn.

5 - Sieve the flour, and then the cornflour, in, one spoonful at a time. Add some if the sauce doesn't look thick enough.

6 - Put that mix into a dish, and fill half of it. Let it cool (otherwise it's going to react with your mashed potatoes - for the leaky, watery worst).

7 - Peel, cut, and boil enough potatoes to cover the top half of your dish. As you make your mashed potatoes [by the way, feel free to add some butter - I don't, because I don't like the smell of butter with potatoes], add some grated cheese.

8 - Cover the fish/veggie mix with mashed potatoes.

9 - Cover with grated cheese, and put in the oven (Th. 7, about 180°C) for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is grilled.

10 - Enjoy!

[Recipe] De Lanor Asian-inspired Soup

My adorable brother gave me a nice recipe for an actual Asian soup. Since I couldn't find all the ingredients, I adapted it, and the new version is so nice that I'm sharing it with you...

For my de Lanor Asian-inspired soup, you'll need:
* some veal stock (I used a brand that comes in 4 doses packs, and I used 2 doses)
* 1 onion
* 3 or 4 shiitake mushrooms
* 4 or 5 black mushrooms
* 100 gr enoki mushrooms
* 3 or 4 baby pak choi
* 2 or 3 chives
* some olive oil
* soy sauce
* salt
* some dried Asian noodles
* some tofu
* hoisin sauce

Prep & cooking time: about 30 minutes

Here's some of the "cast": baby pak choi, enoki, and chives

1 - Cut the pak choi approximately in two (mostly white and mostly green), and wash them.

2 - Cut the white part of the pak choi in thin slices.

3 - Wash and cut the white part of the chive.

4 - Cut the onion in thin slices.

Here's a plate of (mostly) white:

5 - Put some olive oil in a big pot, and sauté the onion, pak choi, and chive on medium-high heat. Add a spot of salt.
When they look tender, add one litre of water, the veal stock, and a few drops of soy sauce:

Let it simmer gently.

6 - Slice the black and shiitake mushrooms, and cut off the roots of the enoki mushrooms:

7 - Add the mushrooms to the soup:

8 - Cut the pak choi green leaves into smallish bits:

9 - Cut the green parts of the chives, and have them ready to be added when you'll serve the soup.

10 - Add the pak choi leaves and the noddles (the ones I chose are very thin and cook in about three minutes)

11 - [aka confession time: I bought the wrong kind of tofu, but my mistake ended up being delicious] I wanted to fry cubes of tofu, but the one I bought was too soft, and I ended up with scrambled tofu, which I generously coated with hoisin sauce.

12 - Pour a bit of everything from the pot into a bowl or plate; sprinkle with the cut chives, and add some scrambled, hoisin'ed tofu to the side.
There you go:

戴きます!

Ukrainian Dinner (Training for Christmas)

The family's planning "unusual" (for us) dishes for the Christmas break.

I've found an old article about Ukrainian borscht, and I've decided to make that (I'm also in charge of the Christmas cake, and I'll look towards Japan then).

Since I'd never made borscht, I thought it'd be wise to train.

Here's my first borscht:

It needs a tad more pepper than the recipe said, but it works nicely. I'll just have to add onion and mushroom dumplings next months... ^_~

Interested in the full recipes and a step by step photo entry?

ケーキ！

All right.

I can (and will) entirely blame this post on the anime I've been watching recently... The "strawberries war" in series 2 of Junjou romantica is mostly to blame:

My very first attempt at making Japanese strawberry shortcake isn't as perfect as I'd have liked, but I had the "wrong" kind of cream, and my oven wasn't hot enough when I baked the cake...

And yet:

It was [*cough* Yea, poor thing was eaten pretty quickly] very good, and I'll keep training...

I'll have to find a good source for strawberries or I'll have to start growing them in my flat (that could be an idea).

Next... Kasutera. ^_^

PS: Happy Tanabata!! 幸せな七夕！

[Recipe] De Lanor Pie

If this looks like something you know (because you're Italian or from the south of France), you probably know it.

Someone (who deserves to fade into oblivion) gave me the recipe, and I added a few things, making it my own. And so, this is a de Lanor pie. 

You'll need:

* 2 (big, but not giant) courgettes

* 1 big leek

* 5 small-ish potatoes

* 1 onion

* 200gr pâte brisée (or shortcrust pastry)

* oil

* salt

* freshly ground pepper

* Cayenne pepper

* Worcestershire sauce

These proportions are for my (23x23cm) square glazed clay dish. You might have to adapt a few things.

1 - Peel the potatoes, cut them into small cubes, put them into a pot with water on the stove and when they boil, add some salt. Softly boil until cooked, but make sure they're not too soft. Don't drain them just yet.

2 - Cut and slice the onion. Add to a pan, pour some oil (just a little bit) and sauté the onion on medium-high heat.

3 - Cut the leek in two (use as much green as possible) and slice it as thinly as possible. Add to the pan and stir.

4 - Cut the courgettes lengthwise in four or six without peeling them, and slice them as thinly as possible. Add them to the pan and stir. Add salt, pepper, Cayenne pepper and Worcestershire sauce to taste. When the courgettes are soft, drain the potatoes, add them to the pan and stir for a couple of minutes.

5 - Cover the clay dish with a thin layer of pâte brisée. Add the vegetables (be careful: if the courgettes give out too much water during cooking, get rid of the liquid with a spoon before adding the vegetables onto the dough).

6 - Roll out the remaining pâte brisée to the same thickness and cut it to fit as lid on the pie. You'll have extra bits of dough; use that to decorate the lid. Use a fork to make small holes (and a few pretty patterns, as well).

7 - Put the dish in the oven (mine goes from 1 to 10, and I set it to 7 for this).
In 20 to 30 minutes, when you get a nice golden crust, your pie is ready.

Bon appétit !

[Recipe] De Lanor Pasta Sauce #3

Here's another recipe. It makes enough sauce for three servings  - but I don't like my pasta drowned in sauce (freezes well).

You'll need:

* 3 big tomatoes

* 2 small sweet peppers (different colours are fun on a plate; you could even use green, red, yellow and orange sweet peppers and freeze the sweet peppers you won't use, or use more tomatoes and make more sauce)

* 2 small, very fresh peppers (one hot red, the other green - for fun)

* salt

1 - Dice the tomatoes and put them into a pan over medium-high heat.

2 - Cut and deseed the sweet peppers. Thinly dice them, and add them into the pan. Stir regularly.

3 - Cut and deseed the peppers (friendly note: even after washing your hands thoroughly, you'll have the "pepper fire" on your fingers - do not lick your fingers or touch your eyes). Thinly dice them, and add them into the pan. Stir regularly and add some salt.

When the tomatoes have mostly melted, your sauce is ready:

A Form of Quick Curry

Awful mediaeval pun? Check.

 When I say quick, I mean quick, but then again, I admit that I use Japanese curry cubes (Viva Chinatown!).

You'll need:
* 800gr cooked potatoes
* 1 big onion
* 250 gr chicken breast
* oil
* 120gr curry cubes. I use this:

* water

1 - Cut the chicken into cubes. Cut the onion in two and slice it. Cut the potatoes in four or six.

2 - Put some oil in a pan, and lightly brown the onion. Add the chicken and cook it thoroughly. Add the potatoes when that's done.

3 - Cover the mix with water and add the curry cubes. Stir constantly, and add water if needed. When the curry's fully melted, dinner's ready:

[Recipe] De Lanor Pasta Sauce #1 (and #2)

I've decided to share a few sauce recipes with you... ;)

I turned this into pasta sauce, but it was initially supposed to be a dish on its own.

It works extremely well as a sauce.

Pasta sauce #1:

You'll need:

* 3 turkey (or chicken) breasts

* 150gr small smoked bacon dice

* 50 cl crème fraiche

* 1 small yellow onion

* 20gr green peppers in vinegar

* some oil

1 - Cut the breasts in long, thin slices. Cut the onion in two and slice it as thinly as possible.

2 - In a pan, pour some oil and fry the onion a bit, then add the turkey. When the turkey's fried nicely, add the bacon until it's crisp. Add the cream, and then the drained peppers. The sauce is ready in about two minutes.

Make some pasta, and... Enjoy!

Pasta sauce #2:

Do exactly the same, but cut the turkey into small cubes and do not add green pepper.

[Recipe] Sweetcorn Soup

Yes, it's not winter yet, but since the temps dropped so much, I'm sharing one of my favourite soups with you (and it doesn't take too long to make, which is a bonus).

You'll need:

* 400 g potatoes (confession time, I can't be bothered to weigh my ingredients these days, so I just choose four really big potatoes - the pink ones, they're fantastic in this)

* 150 g sweetcorn (I usually snatch a medium-size can)

* 1 small(ish) red sweet pepper 

* 1 leek (a big one)

* 1 big onion

* 2 cloves of garlic

* some oil

* 20 cl of crème fraiche

* 1 bay leaf

* salt & pepper

* 3/4 l water

1 - Finely cut the cloves, onion and leek and put them into a big pot. Add some oil (I favour olive oil, but use whatever you prefer to gently brown that kind of vegetables) and put the pot on medium heat.

If you can work on the other vegetables near your stove, you can add them the one after the other and it saves up to ten minutes (yes, I usually do this soup when I'm super hungry, and time is important. Why?).

2 - Whilst the first vegetables are very gently browning, cut the sweet pepper into small cubes (or whatever shape you'd like in your plate in the end; there's no rule, just suggestions).

You've got to stir that a bit. I like my onion and leek soft, but my sweet pepper still a tad crunchy. Add some salt.

3 - Next, peel (or not!) the potatoes and cut them into small cubes (or close enough), and add them to the mix.

4 - Stir the mix a bit, and then add the water. Add some more salt if need be, add pepper and the bay leaf.

Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat to a simmer for thirty minutes.

5 - Drain the sweetcorn, and add it to the mix:

Stir for 3 or 4 minutes:

(we could play "where's the bay leaf?" with these photos...)

6 - Last step, add the crème fraiche and stir:

(Houston, I can see the leaf!)

7 - Enjoy!

One Version of Ratatouille

I think that, on one side of my family, we know that each family has got a different version of ratatouille: olives or no olives? Aubergine or no aubergine?

So, I'm going to give you one version (not the one from my Provençal [h]ex, the one my mamma got during a stay in the south with friends).

First, the cast:

So, you'll need:

1 onion

1 aubergine

1 big sweet pepper (or 2 small ones of different colours)

2 or 3 courgettes (it all depends on the size - I usually take the weight of the aubergine as a reference and double it)

2 or 3 tomatoes

salt

pepper

black olives - optional

1- Cut the onion (small bits, thin slices, I never do the same thing twice, so just do what you prefer when it comes to onions) and put it in a big pot with olive oil.

Cook over a low heat.

 

2- Cut the sweet pepper in small bits (once more, cut as you like your sweet peppers on your plate) and add them to the onion.

You'll probably have to add some oil.

3- Cut the aubergine (guess what? Yes! Cut it the way you like it best).

What I started doing is cutting a few round slices, for fun, and then I cut the aubergine in two and cut it in rather small bits.

Add it to the pot.

Stir a bit, and add salt and pepper then.

4- Now, it's time to turn to the courgettes.

For fun, I cut one in full, round slices:

and the rest in small bits:

Let them join their friends in the pot.

You may have to add some salt (and pepper). Check that.

5- Cut the tomatoes in somewhat smallish bits, and add them:

This is here that you should add olives if you want.

Since the moment you started with the onion, about twenty/twenty-five minutes have passed. Can I give you a cooking time? Approximately. According to the vegetables you did pick, you'll have to keep cooking your ratatouille for fifteen to twenty minutes more. Courgettes and aubergine should be your guides in this; they should be soft (and almost translucent for the round slices - they're hidden testing devices in the pot!).

It should vaguely look like this:

Bon appétit !

ps: if you're feeling bold, you can add grounded hot pepper. Yum (totally unconventional, but if one cannot experiment in the kitchen...).

[Recipe] Regency Spiced Biscuits

Our beloved Auntie Beeb recently broadcast a beautiful documentary about the planning and full reconstitution of a Regency ball: Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball.

I love Jane Austen, dancing, costumes and cooking and baking, so that was more than a treat.

At the end of the documentary, we were informed that more information could be found on their page on the BBC website, and I clicked there.

I discovered three extra clips... and one was about Regency spiced biscuits.

If you have access to the videos on that website, hop there:

 

because Mr Ivan Day's explanations are better than what I'm going to do here, but... it's so cool and so good that I've decided to put the recipe here to share with the world.

You'll need:

125 gr plain white flour

125 gr blanched almonds

40 gr icing sugar

a teaspoon each: powdered mace (or mixed spice) and powdered cinnamon

~~~~~~

100 ml water

125 gr caster sugar

First, put together flour, almonds, icing sugar and spices in a mixing bowl and blend them together.

Then, put the water in a small pan and boil it; add the sugar and swirl it around until every crystal melts. Keep it boiling for about one minute: you'll have a sugar syrup.

Stir the syrup into the mixture, a bit at a time (this is extremely important!) [Read: I didn't do it, and my mixture was momentarily messy].

Once all the syrup is in, your dough should look a tad like a big, wet crumble. When it's cool enough to handle, put it together in a big ball that you'll put into the shape of a small rolling pin. Once you've done that, flatten it and place it on a papered baking tray.

Put the tray into the oven (160°C) for about 40 minutes. [Tip: keep an eye on it in the last minutes - mine was almost too baked in the last four minutes]

Slice the giant biscuit diagonally with the sharpest and biggest knife you've got; cut the thinnest slices you can.
Place them back onto a tray (or some paper, which was what I did) and back into the oven (switched off and cooled down) to dry out: biscuit is Latin for cooked twice.

They look great in a tin box:

Now, for the love of your teeth, dunk! In dessert wine, in coffee, in tea... in water or... whatever, but if you don't want to mourn a molar, do dunk.
They may be a lot thinner than croquets from Provence, but they're fierce - and absolutely delicious (and I usually hate cinnamon, which says a lot about these lovely biscuits!)