Boeuf strogonoff

     Okay, so this dish doesn't look like much, but believe me, it's AMAZING! Definitely one of my favorite comfort food dishes alongside famous mr lasagna ! 

It's one of those things that doesn't take much effort, just a few ingredients and a long simmering time, but becomes this wonderful warm and flavorsome meal that fills your insides with happiness, so I would recommend you try this at one, either to please your friends and family (and impress them with a traditional recipe) or in a bowl on the sofa in front of a good movie!

Ingredients:

- Cut of beef (either filet if you like to eat meat rare or medium rare, if you like it more cooked than go for a cut like beef chuck or other braising cuts)

- Tomatoes ( 5 or 6)

- Onion

- A few cloves of garlic

- A bay leaf

- Parsley stems

- White wine

- Tomato concentrate

- Veal stock

- Paprika

- Cream

- Rice

- Courgettes (1 or 2 )

- A carrot 

Recipe : 

1) Start off by searing the beaf in a saucepan, you want to color both sides in hot oil, than put it away on a plate.

2) In the same pan, sweat out some diced onion, than add about half a glass of white wine. Add some chopped garlic and let the wine reduce.

3) add a table spoon of tomato concentrate and the same amount of flour, than cook it for a bit still stirring.

3) Add the peeled and chopped tomatoes (if you put the tomato in boiling water for a few seconds, they'll be easier to peel), one cube of veal stock, the bay leaf, parsley stems and cover with water.

4) Cover the pot and let it simmer until you have a tomato sauce consistency. 

P.S. : This is when you would add your braising beef if you like it well cooked and let it simmer until the meat is tender and delicious.

5) In the mean time dice the courgette and carrot (or you could make tiny carrot balls using a small melon baller) and cook them in some salted boiling water.

6) Cook the rice according to the instructions on the packet ;) ! 

7) When the sauce is ready, add cream and paprika to taste, and put the meat back in (if you've gone for the rare option).

8) Mix the rice and the vegetables together in butter.

And voilà ! 

Chocolate tartlets

       I just started working at the hot section in the restaurant which is great since it means a lot more responsibilities and excitement, but it also means a lot more work and stress. I've found that chocolate is the ultimate remedy and have been indulging in quite a few chocolate items, well i say few…

       Anyway, a while ago i was given a small bag of patisserie chocolate and was wondering what to do with it, when it hit me : Chocolate tartlets ! They are just the ultimate comfort food, with a nice thin crispy base, filled with lovely decadent chocolate ganache. 

       This recipe was also a trip down memory lane because it came from a restaurant i used to go to all the time with my dad, and i must share it with all the other chocolate lovers out there !

• Pastry : 

- 1 egg

- 50g flour

- 15g ground almonds

- 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder

- 40g butter (I use salted butter, it goes wonderfully with the chocolate)

- 10g sugar

1) Cream together the butter and sugar.

2) Add the dry ingredients and rub together with your hands.

3) Add the egg and mix with a spoon.

4) Add more flour if necessary in order to form a ball, don't worry about the consistency, it's meant to be quite runny. Flatten the ball and put in the fridge until hard.

4) Roll out thinly, this dough can be worked again without any consequences. Put in cases and bake for 6 minutes at 180°C

• Ganache :

- 375g chocolate (any mixture you want, i went for dark patisserie chocolate and some milk chocolate they was lying around)

- 3 egg yolks

- 25cL milk

- 25cL creme

- 80g caster sugar

1) Whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar until the color is more pale.

2) Boil the milk and the creme, pour over the eggs and stir, then put it back in the pan and stir over a medium heat until it thickens. 

3) Pour the hot custard over the chocolate and let it sit for 10 seconds, then stir.

4) Pour the chocolaty custard ganache mixture in the tartlets and leave it in the fridge until it sets.

And voilà ! I must say, even if I do say so myself, they are soooooooooooo good, you HAVE to try these !

Update

Wow, I can't believe how time flies, and how long it's been since i posted anything ! For that i am sorry to whoever might have been reading my posts before, if there even was anyone. But i'm back, I got my diploma from the Cordon Bleu, what a wonderful experience that was. I learned so many new techniques and met a lot of marvelous people from all around the world, i definitely recommend the Base semester to anyone who wishes to learn the basic techniques of french cuisine and get a proper knife kit, i thought it was worth it !
So anyway, I have now started an internship in a restaurant, which i won't name so i'm free to say what i really think :p !
It's a nice restaurant with one Michelin star so i feel very lucky, the kitchen is small, there are only 3 payed members of staff, and 3 interns including me, one has been there for a few months already and she's very nice and talented, she works on all the hot dishes and is doing very well. I work on cold starters and patisserie and i'm learning a lot, especially about organizing one's time and what's really important. I'm trying to work faster but it's hard, really hard ! Also, I'm only working for evening shifts at the moment, so 17H00-23H00, which i prefer since i like to sleep late and that way i see more of the à la carte menu then you do at lunch, i did one full day and it was EXHAUSTING !

The cold autumn air is a great excuse to stay in and eat !

I went back to Bordeaux last friday for my first full week-end since september. I love going there in the fall, it always reminds me of christmas ! We had some guests over so I decided to try out my new cooking skills and made a 3 course meal : porcini mushrooms with chestnuts, parsley and a white wine sabayon, then a roasted canette ith glazed carrots and turnips, and finally for desert a fruit salad.
I enjoyed being creative and using all the skills I've learned. My first semester is over, I have my exams this saturday, which is stressing me out a little bit but hopefully it will all go well.
Anyway here's how I made the dessert :

- I cut the suprêmes (skinless slices) of grapefruit and oranges, and i peeled the clementines and simply sliced them. For the figures, i just cut a cross on the top to open them.
- I also made some orange blossom madeleines : you mix in a bowl 150 g of sugar and 150 g of melted butter, then add 3 eggs, and 150 g of self-raising flour, and a table spoon of orange blossom water.
- I candied orange and lemon peel : you put julienne zests in water and bring it to boil, since out and repeat a second time. Then cook the peel in water and sugar until you have a syrup, take the peel out and cover them with caster sugar.
- I also made a syrup to put on top of the fruit by cooking orange and grapefruit juice with brown sugar.
- I zested a lime on top, and added mint leaves for decoration.

And voilà !
I love citrus, they feel like christmas to me, when clementines are in season I could easily eat 3 kg of them everyday ! This dessert is truly one of my favorite that I've made and it's super simple ! I truly recommend it :) !

My life has changed for the better !

It's high time I confessed something to you all !
I haven't written a blog post in a while and there is a reason, I have started my school year. You might be thinking that I have started the second year of prepa torture, learning all about biology and agriculture, however that is not the case, I quit. That's right I put my foot down and decided never to go back to that hell hole !
What am I going to do with my life now ? Well I'm still not sure about that, still I do know what I'll be doing till next year : I'm learning about cooking !
I started classes at The Ecole Cordon Bleu Paris on the first of september and it was the best decision I've ever made, I'm loving it.
I'm not allowed to show you pictures of the school or what food we make there but I'm still going to tell you all about it !
Up to now, we've cut learned how to cut vegetables, and I had to practice :

A lot...

So much it made me cry...

We also learned how to make stocks, sauces, pastries and today I'm going to make a puff pastry from scratch, how exciting !
I'm living the Julia Child dream !

Chard gratin and chicken for supper.

I love chard, I honestly do, my father grows it every year in our garden ! The thing is I like chard only one way : in a gratin ! So since we have to use up all this chard from the garden we end up eating many, many, many chard gratins !

Here's how I make it :

 First you start by preparing the chard, separate the leaves and the stalks, wash it all (dah...of course), then you want to remove the stringy bits of the stalk the same way that you do with celery !

You then cook the stalks for about 10 minutes and the leaves for about 2 .

Then you have to make a white sauce :
 Melt 50g of butter in a pan, than stir in 50g of flour.
You end up with a roux.

 Slowly stir in 50cL of milk.

Whisk until it becomes thick.

Add salt pepper and a bit of grated nutmeg.

 Cover a pan with oil and butter.

Then alternate chard stalk, leaves and white sauce.

 And this time I also added tomatoes on the second to last layer.
Finish with white sauce, and top it off with grated Emmental cheese.

Put it in the oven at 180°C until gold and crispy on the top.

I also cooked a chicken to go with the gratin.
I simply covered it in olive oil and butter , I also put butter between the meat and the skin on the top of the chicken (so the skin gets very crispy) and stuffed it with peaces of garlic bread (just peaces of baguette that you rub a bit of garlic on).
Then I put it in the oven at 190°C at first and then 180°C after 10 minutes. A normal chicken takes about 45 minutes to cook.

The tricky carving session (curtesy of my father).

And voilà, yumsters ! 

Tomato risotto per favor !

Risotto is definitely one of my favorite meals ! Not to brag but my mother makes the all time best risotto in the entire universe and no other risotto can compare ! However she was not here with me during the holidays so I attempted to make one myself and it was quite delicious !
You start by letting chopped onions sweat out in the pan with olive oil and then you had the risotto rice and let it cook till translucent!
You then turn the heat down a little bit and add wine then stir until it's been absorbed, then add some stock and stir until absorbed and then do the same with water. The key is to never stop stirring, it takes about 25 minutes.

I also added beef and lardons.

Start with one glass of white wine and then 1L of any broth you like.

I added a can of tinned tomatoes.

 And one or two cans of water (whatever it takes to get the rice perfectly cooked i.e. still slightly crunchy)

I topped it off with buffalo mozzarella and parmesan, a few basil leaves would be nice as well.