Monday, June 30, 2008

Introducing agar agar


When Anelore gave me this set of spoon I was a bit surprised by the 1/4 of teaspoon that came with it. I never saw a recipe using so few ingredient. Yesterday evening was the 1st time I used it.

On my way from lab to home are a few "organic shops" and I sometimes stop bye to buy some thing I cannot find easily elsewhere like tahina (to make hummus) and I usually use my visit to the shop to try some "exotic" things.

Last time I went there I bought 2 individual drinks : one made of rice, the second made of hazelnuts. I also took some agar-agar because I heard about it...

The idea to cook with agar-agar was strange since the only time I ever used it was in biology courses... For this second experimentation with agar-agar I thought I should use it to prepare a dessert in combination with the hazelnut drink.


Hazelnut surprise cream

Ingredients (for 2 desserts - yogourt size)

-20cl hazelnut drink
-1/4 teaspoon of agar agar (~1g)

The recipe was very simple : open the drink box, put it in a saucepan, add the agar and boil for 30s... that cannot be easier!

That wouldn't have been a real dessert : too pale, no surprises... so let's add a little fun to that cream.
I made 2 versions:

Apricot : cut into small squares 3 dryed apricot. Pour the liquid over it. Cool down for 2 hours.

Dulce de leche : spread 2 teaspoons of dulce de leche in a little pot, pour the hazelnut cream over it. Cool down for 2 hours.

As a toping I used grated almonds...

Friday, June 13, 2008

Easy strawberries




For few weeks we can find beautiful tasty strawberries on the market... And that's hard to resist sometimes... Last 2 sunday I came back home with 500g wonderful strawberries.
The easiest and best way to eat them according to my taste is to alternatively dip them in cream and sugar (not that they need more sugar). But after eating some for lunch dessert, "gouter", diner dessert, and breakfast the day after... I still had some leftover.

Unfortunately this is not a kind of fruit that can be kept easily and I find 2 ways of using them the second day.

A chemist friend (whom cooking blog has disapeared) told me I should try with Balsamic vinegar...


Strawberries with Balsamic syrup

- just put 2 spoons of balsamic vinegar in a pan an let it reduce until it look like a syrup
- during that time, cut the strawberries in pieces
- whip 2 spoons of cream with a little sugar

Put the whiped cream in a plate, add pieces of strawberries and top with balsamic syrup...


Strawberries soup

Take the juice of a grapefruit. Warm the juice until boiling, and add strawberries cut in pieces. and cook for 5 min.
Sweeten with liquid honey. Once you take it out of the fire, you can add some mint leafs.
Serve cold