Christmas cooking

I love living in Paris, the only problem there is that apartment are small and mine don't even have a proper kitchen. And the small place that's supposed to be a kitchen is so small that no oven can fit there.
Going back home for hols means means seeing all the family, and also having an unlimited access to a real kitchen !!! with more than 1 functional stove and an oven !

Needless to tell that I spent most of my holidays time in that wonderful room.

First thing I've done was testing a recipe of macarons. Wandering around the internet, I found a delicious website which is offering a lot of macaron recipes (in french). Marina, the author of this website also gave a lot of tricks that will help you cooking the perfect macaron.

I tested the "confiture de lait" (dulce de lece/ milk jam) and the raspberry recipes.
My attempt was almost a success but I think I need to practice more...

Fou rire

Once again a post in french... it was too difficult to write in english today. But if you want a translation of the recipe, you can for it in the comments...


Hé, oui, encore une fois je poste en français, en effet, je ne crois pas que j'aurais réussi à expliquer ce qui va suivre en anglais...

La réalisation de cette brioche fut épique.... Commencer à 21h une recette qui inclut 3-4h d'attente était un peu fou mais nous étions en week-end, une énorme buche flambait dans la cheminée et nous voulions des brioches fraîches pour le petit déjeuner.

La recette en elle -même n'a rien de drôle... seulement les personnes présentes étaient toutes fan du SAV d'Omar et Fred diffusé sur Canal+.
La fatigue et certaines intonnations de voix aidant, le pétrissage de la brioche a fini en pleurant (de rire).

La recette originale vient du livre "Le recette de Marie-Louise Cordillot"

Les brioche "d'Omar et Fred"

Ingredients pour 9 brioches individuelles environ :
200g de farine
160g de beurre (dans la recette originale, mais 100-150 devraient suffir)
10g de sucre
7-8g de levure de boulanger
2 oeufs

Préparer le paton:
Melanger du bout des doigts :1/4 de la farine (soit 50g) , la levure et 3 cuillières à soupe d'eauchaude.
Former une boule et inciser en croix sur 2cm. Recouvrir d'eau chaude (50°C) et l'aisser lever jusqu'à doublement du volume). Le notre a fini quasi dissolu dans l'eau... La technique doit pouvoir être améliorée.

Pate à brioche :
Disposer le reste de farine en couronne dans un grand saladier. Déposer les oeufs au centre et incorporer doucement la farine en tournant à la cuillière en bois. Pétrir jusqu'à ce que la pate soit homogène. Ensuite, il faut lever la pate à 30cm et la plaquer violemment dans le saladier. Répéter l'opération jusqu'à ce qu'elle soit élastique et non collante.
Ajouter ensuite le beurre ramolli mais non fondu.

Quand le paton a doublé de volume, incorporez-le à la pate avec les mains.

Ramassez au fond de la terrine, couvrir et faire lever dans une pièce à 20-25°C sans courant d'air pendant 3-4h.

Quand la pate a levé, la battre du bout des doigts pour la faire retomber. Et réserver dans un endroit froid jusqu'au lendemain.

Cuisson:
Former des boules de la taille d'un oeuf et les faire lever dans un endroit chaud pendant 25-30min. Cuire à four chaud (200°C/th7-8) pendant 8-10 min.


Et le sucre? Je n'avais pas noté quand l'ajouté, nous l'avons donc incorporé après les oeufs... mais peut-être aurait-il fallut le mettre dans le paton... Quoi qu'il en soit les brioches étaient bonnes et il n'en restait plus après le petit-déleuner!

Evil week-end and terrific chocolate cake

It was supposed to be a "playing and cooking" week-end at my grandmother country house. We were supposed to be 10 friends spending the week-end together and we had a long list a meals we wanted to taste. Well...

To make a long story short, destiny was against us and we were finally 3 remaining after the timetable/conference/car problems that happened. Not enough to play but some cooking was involved !

I will post the recipes we follow (or not!) in the forthcoming days... But the one I want to share first is the Chocolate and salty butter caramel cake we prepared for sunday lunch.

This recipe was inspired buy a recipe I saw on David Leovitz's blog. I had a big plan about preparing my own dulche de leche a week in advance, but was unable to find enough time... So I came with that new plan of using "caramel au beurre salé" (I found it "taste" better in french) instead.


That's very easy...

1/ Prepare a cup of salty butter caramel (recipe there)

2/Follow David's recipe and use caramel instead of dulche de leche... I also reduced the amount of sugar (100g) and didn't used any nuts.
You can also use your favorite browny's recipe...

Tip: put more caramel in the cake than at the top of it. But we all liked the caramel crust that appeared over the cake and on its sides...

Next time I'll tell you the story of our brioches.

Looking the best way to prepare hummos... and failing(!)

I have to confess : I looove Lebanese meals. So when I discovered that hummos (or hommos or hummus or houmos, I can't find wich one it the right) was so easy to make I was really pleased.

The first recipe I tried was from a cooking mag : Cuisine et vins de France (actually the recipe that was in the printed document seems a bit different). But there was a je ne sais quoi that needed to be added or removed to reach the hummus perfection.

Then I tried the recipe that David Lebovitz posted but I didn't had all the ingredients since my parsley died unexpectidly in my fridge and I was unable to find the chili powder on the spices shelf. But it was close enough from the taste I was looking for.

Today I'm going to P & C place for a post holidays friend's dinner and I said I would bring some home-made hummus. So yesterday I went to the supermarket, bought some chickpeas and olive oil (and forgot the parsley again).

At home I mixed together 2 cloves of garlic (because some people there don't like garlic as I do), the olive oil, the chickpeas, the lemon juice. The taste was strange but I thought it was because of the new brand of chickpeas. So I rectified the seasoning, added a little more of lemon, oil, again lemon and find a taste that was satisfying... but still there was something strange...

This morning I almost forgot to take it out of the fridge, but when I did I realized what was strange : I forgot to add the tahine, one of the more important ingredients!!! It was too late to arrange it, so I packed my "chickpeas purée" and the tahine and I will try to mix them tonight just before dinner (crossing finger, hoping it will be good).

And that's the end of my terrible week...

EDIT : I finally had 2 or 3 tablespoons of tahine and it was good...

The tiniest market ever

Last week-end I went to my grandmother's place with some gourmet friend.. While looking for things to do in the area I discovered there was a place where you can pick the fruit yourself at less than 15min walk from the house.
Some of us where excited by the idea of picking fresh raspberries and strawberries to prepare desserts. Unfortunately we were lazier than planned and woke up too late to be there in time...

So to have fresh fruit we had to go to the market on the Sunday. This was probably the tiniest market I ever been (4 stalls : fish, cheese, fruits and meat). We bought salmon, prawns and no fruit because I found them too expensive.

When we started preparing lunch, someone pointed out that we planned no dessert and that the tart I mentionned earlier should me tried... So V and S went back to the market to find raspberries... they came back with 3 cups of delicious fresh raspberries and I was forced to prepare the tart...



Chocolate and raspberries macaroon tart

This recipe is adapted from a book that Lilian offered me for my birthday. Original recipe is for individuals tarts, and I changed slightly the proportions.

Serves 6/8

Macaroon:
-3 eggs white
-125g grated coconut
-4 tablespoons sugar

Chocolate filling :
-3 eggs
-150g dark chocolate (I took nestlé dessert corsé)
-3 small (or 2 big) tablespoon cream
-4 tablespoon sugar
-2 tablespoon flour

-2 cups of raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Macaroon : mix all ingredients and spread the dough in a pan (the kind where you can remove the side, it makes things easier to take it out!)

Bake at 140°C for 30min (watch from time to time, you want it golden not burnt)

While the macaroon is baking, prepare the chocolate filing.
Melt the chocolate slowly with the cream. Beat eggs and sugar until white.
Pour melted chocolate in the egg+sugar, stir and add the flour.

Spread the chocolate filling over the macaroon, cover with raspberries.
Bake for 20 more minutes at 120°C.

Serve at room temperature.