Quick "Bolognese" sauce

  Hi, it's been a while since I posted something, I guess my "I'm going to post what I cook every night, however boring it may be" didn't really go as planned !

  Anyway, in need for a nice easy meal using the sunday beef leftovers ( I did this last monday night, just to reassure you on the freshness of the meat) I decided to make it into a pasta sauce.
It started out with some chopped up onions cooking in the pan, to which I added the beef cut into small pieces. I then added a glass of wine, and some tomato concentrate, and I let it simmer while the pasta was cooking.
I prepared a little side salad, and voilà that was it! Easy peasy ... and delicious !

You should always add some of the water the pasta is cooking in to your sauce, it helps link all the ingredients together ;)

YUMSTERS !

My Philosophy

Never say no to Froyo

  The time has come to talk about one of my favorite things in this world : Frozen yogurt !
The sun is finally out in France, and that means one thing, it's time to head to the ice cream stands !
 Now ice cream is very good, whether it's the forbidden chocolate one with bits of brownie and cookie dough, or the really good vanilla one you get from the chocolatiers, but for me, the nicest one if frozen yogurt.
 You get to these cute stands, or in my case a caravan (yes it's a caravan stand right in the middle of Paris), where you choose you're flavor of yogurt, and then you can add your choice of toppings.
Most of the time the yogurt is 0% fat which means you can choose your toppings guilt free, and it is super tasty. The perfect healthy summer snack.

 The problem is how to get it at home?
Well I've tried my fair share of frozen yogurts, The Ben&Jerry's was disappointing I have to say, and you can find yogurt ice cream in some supermarkets, they are delicious, except you loose that healthy feeling.
For me, the best one is Lick.
 Now Lick is actually a small shop in Brighton where they sell delicious flavored frozen yogurts, but they have know managed to sell them around the UK, you can find them in Sainsbury's for example.
I was surprised at how much i liked the banana and honey one, it didn't taste of artificial banana at all!

 I haven't tried their ordinary one yet or the strawberry and elderflower one which I am looking forward to a lot !
 I hope i won't get too many brain freezes, since I still need to finish the school year ;) !

One Nougat, no nuts please

 This week is turning out to be quite hectic, work just keeps piling on, unlike food on my plate. Don't get me wrong we're still eating (don't call an ambulance or anything ;) ), but there's been no time for exciting cooking.
 So I thought I would look back on some of my holiday dishes, starting with nougat.
I absolutely love nougat, the chewy kind. That sweet honey taste with the texture resembling melted marshmallows...and then suddenly you get the hit of an acidic dried fruit...YUM !
 However I'm allergic to nuts (I know, how do I even keep on living?) which forces me to put most nougat out there back on its shelf. In order to satisfy my craving for this delicious treat, I decided to make it myself.
It's actually quite simple :
 - You make a syrup out of water, sugar  and honey (I used orange blossom honey because I love the unique taste).
 - In a different bowl you beat the egg whites until they are very thick.
 - Then you slowly stir the syrup into the whites with a wooden spoon over a bain marie (this may take a long time and I'll warn you, it's quite the upper body work out).
 - You then add your choice off nuts (that's where I put dried cranberries and chopped apricots).
 - Once that is done, you keep stirring them over the bain marie until you get the right consistency, and then you put into containers to cool.
Here's the result:

 Nougat was created in the 10th century in Bagdad under the name natif, but now many countries have their own, wether it is the Nougat de Montélimar in France, the Turron in Spain, or the mandorlato in Italy. All of these recipes are based around honey and nuts, so I guess my interpretation was quite the rule breaker, but never mind, it was DELICIOUS !

Voulez-vous Soufflé avec moi ce soir ?

 Soufflés are such a mystery to me, I've never tried to make one, but I definitely shall (and will keep you posted).

 Yesterday, I had lunch in a french brasserie known for it's soufflés, that's practically all they had on the menu, a magnificent range of savory and sweet ones. 

This restaurant was very "typique et charmant" (#JulieAndJulia) with it's typical waiters and it's peaceful retrieved setting. Although, it was obviously quite the "place to be".

it's called Le Récamier, if you're ever in Paris.

 I thought it was brilliant how they managed to make them exciting with flavors such as Rasberry and basil (which is what I had for desert).

 

My mother tried the Chocolate (it's a classic for a reason ;) )!

 Basically, a soufflé is a combination of white sauce, egg yolks and beaten egg whites. It's thanks to the air trapped in the whites but also the water evaporating onto the dish that the soufflé rises so much. But unfortunately it's also the reason why : You can wait for a soufflé, but a soufflé can't wait for you !

 Apparently, this dish was invented by Antonin Carême ( also inventor of the Tournedos Rossini and the toque (the chef's hat)) around 1823 when he started working in Paris for James de Rothschild.

All I have to say is : well done Mr Carême ! Soufflés were a great invention, and they are at the top of my to do list !

Some comforting chops

  During the holidays my mother and I went to England, unfortunately, she had to go back to work for a little while. So in order to cheer her up when she returned, i decided to make her dinner.
 I spent about 2 hours going around the supermarket picking out different things and trying to figure out what i felt like making...this is what i ended up getting :

- a box of shitake mushrooms (they are a bit expensive, but very tasty and meaty)
- baby carrots
- a bunch of asparagus
- some parsley
- a couple of clementines
- rasberries
- pea shoots
- lettuce gems
- a lemon
- 2 pork chops
- a pink lady apple
- butter

 I started by making a salad using the pea shoots, raspberries, and quartered lettuce gems.
 I then made the vinaigrette by mixing together the juice of a clementine, 2 table spoons of olive oil, a table spoon of lemon juice, a few crushed raspberries, salt, pepper, and the zest of half a clementine and quarter of a lemon.

 I then moved on to the making of the Pièce de résistance...

 I started by cleaning the mushrooms and the other vegetables. After having peeled the end of the asparagus (that nasty bit that you usually can't eat is actually really nice if you peel it), i put them to steam with the carrots.

 I chopped the mushrooms, and peeled the apple which i then chopped into fairly thin sticks, sort of like matches (don't forget to squeeze lemon juice on the apple so it doesn't turn brown). I than put the pork chops in a pan with butter, and did the same for the mushrooms. Pork takes quite a long time to cook, about 10 minutes, but it all depends on the thickness of the chop...

 Once the vegetables had steamed up nicely, i put them in some iced water to stop the cooking and then added them to the pan with the mushrooms, extra butter (of course, after all I am French) and some chopped parsley. As soon as the pork chops were ready (the juices should be clear, with no blood), I deglazed the pan with clementine juice.

 And that was it, my mother arrived, i plated everything up (the presentation wasn't the best), and we just tucked in !

Quick lamb couscous

Let's get right to it shall we...
So a couple of night's ago, I decided that the ultimate comfort after a long hard day at work, for both me and my mother, was the warmth of oriental food.
In my cupboard lies the biggest cheat for a quick flavorsome couscous...this bad boy :

  Basically you just add some boiling water to it, let it rest for 5 minutes and Voilà !

                                 

With this i cooked a rack of lamb ribs by seizing them in a pan for about 2 minutes and then putting then in the oven at 200°C for about 7-8 minutes. I then cooked some vine tomatoes in the juices (this is when i would have added dried fruit such as raisins, apricots and prunes, if i had found any in my house...)

When the tomatoes are nice and soft with juices ready to pop out onto your couscous then that's it, you're done and ready to tuck in !

I have to admit, that this dish brought me a lot of joy, it truly it the spot !

Still there was a lot of that couscous left, so i added a chopped avocado, 2 chopped tomatoes, a drizzle of lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt, and packed it away to have for my lunch at school the next day (and share it a bit, since you have to admit, i made way to much of it ;) )

Let me introduce myself

  So this is it, my first ever post...I'll start from the very beginning, a very good place to start (yes that was quoted from The sound of music, and yes I did sing it in my head as I was writing it.). I've always been passionate about cooking, since i was in my mother's tummy and she decided to do a tour of all the good restaurants near Bordeaux (by the way, I actually live in France). So don't ask me why I am currently studying biology... 

  I'm doing Prépa, which is a french course where they torture students for 2 years preparing them for the entry exams to the high-standard, sort of Oxbridge equivalent, universities. This means in order to revise, I've had to cut down on my cooking time, and only really get creative during the holidays! 

  However I've decided to change that and keep you updated as I try to cook a decent, relatively healthy, quick meal every night.