Tango

Hey!

I just came back from a great evening! After a couple of drinks with my best friend Vincent, we decided to come have dinner in my neighbourhood - the Rue Mouffetard and we ended up eating in one of Paris's best argentinan restaurants called the Tango. Their meat is fantastic and for the price it is really worth it...a great red faux filet with a glass of Malbec always puts you in a good mood! It's definetely a place that I would recommend for a saturday night with friends.

Petits sablés au parmesan et au piment d'espelette

Forgive me, but I will be putting this recipe in french as a lot my french friends requested it. I am currently having a dilemna about this blog as my thoughts balance between french and english...I guess we will see..

Petits sablés au parmesan et au piment d'espelette - 

J'ai découvert ces petits sablés dans le commerce au départ car il s'agit d'une création des deux frères Michel et Augustin qui ont lancé leur gamme de biscuits salés et sucrés. Rapidement devenus mes sablés préférés (bien meilleurs que les classiques Monaco et autres croustilles..), je suis tombée par hasard sur une recette lorsque j'étais à Los Angeles et je les avais fait pour l'apéritif avec un certain succès. J'ai donc décidé de les refaire et je vous livre aujourd'hui la recette.

You will need - Pour 8 personnes

100 g de parmesan frais râpé

180 g de farine de blé bio

1 cuillère à café de piment d'espelette

125 g de beurre demi sel

Comment procéder...

Dans un bol, mélangez bien le beurre et le parmesan. Ajoutez ensuite la farine de blé, le piment et deux pincées de sel. Mélangez puis ajoutez deux jaunes d'oeufs.

Pétrissez rapidement mais sans trop travailler la pâte, qui à la fin doit être compacte et homogène.

Ensuite divisez la pâte en plusieurs morceaux et formez des "boudins" de 3cm de diamètre environ. Placez les individuellement dans un film plastique et laissez au réfrigérateur pendant 1h environ. Cela va permettre a beurre et à la pâte de se raffermir.

15 mn avant de cuire les sablés, préchauffez votre fours à 200°C. Retirez ensuite le film plastique et coupez les boudins de sorte à avoir de petites tranches de 8mm environ.

Disposez les sablés au four et laissez cuire 15mn. Les sablés doivent être dorés mais pas totalement cuits en fait. Ils finissent leur cuisson à l'air libre et seront encore chauds pour le plaisir de vos invités.

Enjoy!

An italian dinner

Hey everyone!

On thursday, my roommate and I hosted an "Italian dinner" with a couple of friends (we ended up being 9 actually!). I chose to pick the italian theme after reading another one of Jamie Oliver's books - my heroe - called "Jamie's Italy". Jamie went to Italy for almost a year and came back with hundreds of delicious italian recipes. 

The menu - a combination of Jamie's recipe, my classic -spaghetti bolognaise- and some homemade appetizers - was the following:

***Menu de notre diner Italien***

Petits sablés au parmesan et au piment d'espelette

Tarte tatin de tomates à la tapenade et au chèvre

Spaghettis Bolognaise

Tiramisu

It was delicious and we had a lot of fun!

Brunch!

Here is a little picture of last sunday's brunch..It was great! 

We did a lot of baking including a Fondant au Chocolat, an orange cake (delicious!), an apple crumble with walnuts, a rhum raisin cake and a banana nut bread. 

Of course, we had also prepared classical french baguettes with different types of jams and walnut spread, scrambled eggs with cream and parsley and an assortment of different cold meats and cheeses. As an extra treat, I had quickly prepared a "tuna guacamole" which was quite original.

I will be putting up all the recipes in the next couple of days.

Have a nice day!

My mom's rhum raisin cake

Hey everyone!

I'm very happy these days as I have started cooking again on a regular basis and I have several plans regarding future dinner parties! Dinner parties are what I prefer in cooking as it is the best feeling ever to see your friends thrilled and surprised when they discover the menu!

I organized a brunch with my best friend last sunday and will be putting the recipes online this week, but in the meantime I would really like to share a great cake recipe with you, which is a rhum raisin cake. It is a very easy to make but it has always been considered as my mom's best "creation" as my stepdad would literally die for a slice of this rhum raisin delight! 

After a few "tests"and a few modifications on the original recipe (it dates back from a famous 1965 french classic cookbook), here is the recipe unveiled...

You will need:

125g (0.3 lb)of sugar

175g (0.4lb)of butter

250g (0.55 lb)of flour

3 free range eggs

200g (0.5lb) raisins

1 cup of rhum

1 pinch of salt

2 teaspoons of baking powder

How to bake a delightful cake:

1. The night before, put the raisins and the rhum together in a bowl. Let the raisins absorb the rhum. If you are in a hurry, you can put the raisins with the rhum an hour before and then put in the microwave for 15 sec.

2. In a mixing bowl, mix together the softened butter and the sugar. Once the mixture has a creamy texture, add the three eggs one by one while mixing vigorously between each egg. 

Quickly incorporate the flour, the baking powder, the salt, the rhum and the raisins.

You should not mix too vigorously...

3. Butter the cake pan and pour the mixture.

4. Put the cake in the oven at high temperature (220° C). After 20 min approximately when the cake has "swollen", slightly cut the cake in two parts and lower the oven heat to 150°C. Let bake for another hour approximately.

When putting a knife to make sure the cake is perfect, it must come out dry.

Enjoy!

Confiture à l'onion

Hey everyone! Here I am back in France after a couple of weeks in the US ( NY, Philly and LA) and I am back in school till july. This means a lot of free time as I only classes three days a week...
Today, I felt very inspired as I hadn't cooked for a long time and I had nothing really special to do. Seeing that my roommate had just made crumbles for a dinner she's hosting, I decided to cook something too and I made something quite unusual: "confiture d'oignon" or onion jam if translated. It's really easy to make..except the part where we have to cut the onions..tears guaranteed!

This confiture d'oignon is great on toast briochéé as an appetizer or it can accompany poultry as a main course. Up to you!

You will need:
1 1/2 pounds onions (5 big onions approximately)
1 stick butter (or a little less)
Half a cup white sugar
1 cup dried grape
1 cup strong red wide - I would suggest a Cabernet
1/3 cup wine vinegar - I used a caramel wine vinegar from Corsica...
Salt, Pepper

How to prepare this delicious onion jam:

First, start by peeling the onions and slicing them in thin slices. Put the butter in a large saucepan and add the onions. Let them cook slightly. Pour the sugar, the raisins and add a bit of salt and lots of pepper.
Let cook - keeping it covered - for 30 min.

Then after 30 min, add the red wine and the wine vinegar, put the heat onto medium/low and let simmer for a little hour.

When there is practically no liquid left, the onion jam is ready!

To add to the french touch, pour the jam in French Bonne Maman jam jars (they can be found at Ralph's I think) and prepare a little homemade tag that you can attach to the jar. Your friends will be impressed and so will you!

Have a good day everyone!

Fooding - an interesting concept

Hi everyone,

I must say I haven't been very active these days in writing on this blog as things have been very very busy here in Paris, where I have been for the past month. No more sumptuous diners at home, but some interesting culinary discoveries.

Indeed, I went last week with my friend Vincent to an event called the "Fooding Week" in a magnificent historical monument in Paris XIII's arrondissement. For the very little sum of 10 euros, we were able to enjoy a four-course diner prepared by Michel Roth, the head chef of the Espadon, the Ritz's restaurant. Au menu: salmon in champagne sauce and pultry supreme with foie gras and truffles.

Not only was it delicious, but it was also very interesting as he opposed XVIII century meals (prepared by l'Escoffer) and today's vision of these same creations. It appeared that everyone preferred today's version, lighter and more surprising in termes of flavours compared to more dense and richer meals of the past;

Cooking is evolving and how glad were we to taste that evolution...