OH! THE PLACES YOU’LL GO

Amuse-bouche : Crunchy toast spoons with tomato and basil

Summer is going by like a speedboat!  I’ve been too busy to do much cooking, but of course, not too busy to eat!

L’Auberge de Presbytère is one of my favorite restaurants.  Imagine driving through the valley of a small mountain. The road curves and climbs around the mountain. You spot at the top of the hill an ancient stone presbytery.  There is a terrace that looks over the valley studded with trees.  Six tables dot the terrace.  You arrive to a delightfully warm welcome.  It’s a beautiful day, warm with a cool breeze.  I love coming here.

A seafood spring roll served with roquette salade and white chocolate sauce

Seared tuna with octopus ink polenta and vanilla bean olive oil

Goat cheese with chocolate and pistachio

Strawberry mousse club sandwich

I didn’t get a photo of the coffee served with pistachio financiers (little almond cakes) and watermelon fruit jelly.

The menu changes constantly, so there are always new things to taste.

Bon appétit and happy tastings!

WINTER VEGETABLE REVIEW

Left:Black Radish   Right: A season ends and a season begins with radish, turnip, and tomato salad

Winter is wearing out its last weeks and I’m frantically trying to post my winter veggies before its too late.  What a rich winter it was with the variety of root vegetables that grow in the cold dirt of the north: black radish, turnip “boule d’or,” giant red radish, red beets, romanesco, celery root, parsnips, pumkins, “mash” salad, burdock, sweet potatoes, endives, leeks, not to mention a variety of onions, potatoes, carrots…

I love black radish in the winter. The taste and texture is different from summer radishes, so very much worth trying. I might describe them as somewhat peppery. Here’s a site explaining a few health benefits of the vegetable. Click to check it out.

We fell in love with eating many vegetables raw, sliced or diced to make simple colorful salads to start a meal or play companion to a light lunch.

Celery root, Fresh Herb Omelette with Steamed Celery Root and Carrot

Romanesco, Veal cooked in “croûte de sel” and spices with baked carrot and potato slices, steamed romanesco, and skillet baked cornbread

Celery root has a wonderful flavor if you’re a fan of celery stalks as I am. These ones were the first of the season, and tiny, so we steamed them whole and served with an omelette.  More often than not, we make soups and purées with celery root. It marries very well with roquefort or a strong bleu cheese.

Romanesco is much like cauliflower or broccoli and takes very well to steaming, in gratin, or raw as a crudité.

Giant red radish and turnip “Boule d’or”, crudité: raw red beet and giant red radish “flower”

This giant red radish, or perhaps it can be called a Chinese radish, is more delicate in flavor than summer radishes. They have a fresh slighty crunchy inside and are wonderful just sliced and eaten as is.

Boule d’or (ball of gold) turnips are slightly sweet, and we also enjoyed it only in salads, so I’m not sure how it cooks.

Butter-roasted parsnip and carrot strips

We discovered parsnip last year and are delighted every time we have it. A great way to cook it is to slice lenghwise, spread on a baking sheet, and cover with a few dabs of butter. Cook at 350°F for about 15-20 minutes until they caramelize. Here we cooked them with carrots to add some color. Mmmm!

Salad of pourpier, endive, and new red lettuce, pumpkin getting ready to be soup

Salad of cooked beets, cooked carrots, and raw radish served with trio of tartelettes: potimarron with hazelnut oil, carrot, and onion gratin, crudité of black radish, fresh cheese, and carrot

Spring is coming and Bastien is starting to come home with tiny heads of different varieties of lettuce. We make lovely little mixes. There was a little pourpier (or “purslane” in English), endives, and a red lettuce.

Pumpkins are fabulous in soupes, purées, grâtiné, and as pie. My favorite variety is called “potimarron.” It has a light chesnut flavor that more common pumkins don’t have.

Here’s a link to a site about root vegetables, with photos. Click here.

Cheers to good winter eating!

DECEMBER SWEETS: A PHOTO TOUR

Fondant-glazed Sugar Cookies

December is a busy month for a pastry chef… working odd hours, long hours, short hours (last night I worked from 10pm to 2am… and I pick up again tonight at 2am). I cook so much this month that I’ve started to feel like a real pâtissier and not just a silly imposter in a French kitchen. I can make a crème pâtissière in my sleep, a dough for a tart made from scratch takes about 5 minutes and I can have a lucsious jasmine-infused chocolate cream setting in the fridge in about 10 minutes. What a good feeling it is to start mastering something…I’m not tired of cooking, but I am a bit tired of eating sweets. At work, I only taste things that I have not yet tasted, and since we have many new cakes for the month of December, I have tasted my share. I’m thinking detox for January… perhaps a few apple tarts but nothing more!

The gray weather doesn’t make for very fantastic photos, but I try anyway. Here’s the December rundown. If you would like a recipe, feel free to contact me.

Bastien’s peaceful kitty and pacman cookies

I tested out Martha Stewarts “perfect sugar cookie” recipe and found the cookies a little dull in taste and texture, but the shapes held beautifully in the oven.

I made a fondant with a dose of fresh squeezed ginger juice which gave a delicate pique to the tongue. I’m liquidating the less natural ingredients in my cupoards, such as food coloring. Thus, the fondant is colored with food coloring, but in the future I hope to find natural colors to take the place of chemical ones. We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon cutting, cooking, and decorating.

Pâte de coing : quince membrillo

If you have never had a quince, you could be in for a nasty little trick. Bastien picked one from the farm where he “works” not knowing what it was, but seduced by its sweet aroma. We were both so excited to taste this new fruit that was scented like a honey nectar from some garden in a paradise somewhere. We sliced it open and each took a bite: yuck! We spit out the bitter cotton fruit, thoroughly disappointed and did a little research only to discover that the quince is no good raw, and to unlock its delicious flavors one must cook it with sugar!

Blonde caramel chocolates with fleur de sel

Take a bite…

I spent an afternoon after work trying to temper chocolate for the first time. Working with tiny quantities of chocolate is not easy, especially when you are trying to stabilize the temperature… but it worked out ok for a first try. My basic caramel recipe is coming along. One of these days I’ll get it perfect and post it. I just love salt with caramel, and it’s quite lovely with dark chocolate too.

Grand Marnier-spiked almond paste chocolates

Spiked almond paste in dark piment-spiced chocolate

My tempering wasn’t half bad for the second batch of chocolates, as you can see by their nice shiny gleam.

Foie gras on toasted pain d’épice triangles

We had this as an appetizer, but it could also have worked as a dessert or an amuse-bouche. The pain d’épice (honey ginger bread) was a nice compangon to foie gras. I topped with with a dab of homemade apricot jam and a dash of black pepper.

Jasmine-infused chocolate quenelles on a puddle of crème anglaise

Every other Sunday Bastien buys a few litres of raw Jersey cow milk from the organic market nearbye. Not only is it super rich and yummy to drink, but it is the best for dessert making. We have just learned that the milk changes quite a bit in the winter as the cows must eat hay rather than fresh grass from fields. It is richer in fat, but not as good in taste. Of course, it still beats any store-bought milk that I’ve tasted!

This dessert was so delicious and so quick to make (though you must let it set in the fridge for a few hours before serving). Jasmine and chocolate make for a surpisingly well-paired duo. My first crème anglaise (made at home and not at work) was just a bit too thick perhaps, but still soooo good.

Beet square salad

Beet salad doesn’t exactly make the catagory of “December Sweets” but they are sweet and I had to break the sugar fest with a little vegetable! We often have them raw, but here they were boiled, refrigerated, peeled, diced, and served cold in a very light vinaigrette.

Bon appétit!

BLACK RADISH & BASIL FLOWER CRUDITÉ

Black radish, basil flower, fromage frais, and truffle infused balsamic vinegar sprinkled with pepper

When I purchased a basil plant at the market this summer, I told the farmer that I had already killed two of these plants, so if he had any advice on keeping it in good health, I would be greatly appreciative. “Don’t let the flowers grow,” he told me. I think that they take energy from the plant, and in turn, the leaves don’t grow as nicely. For a few weeks there was no problem, just big tasty leaves that I plucked one by one and two by two to add to plates and recipes.

One day, I spotted the cutest little white flower bud opening up on the window sill. I was ready to pick it, but stopped. How sad to pick such a lovely little thing, scented so sweetly of basil! What a waste! After a moment’s contemplation, I decided that there was only one solution that could give justice to the little beauty, and save my plant too. I picked the bud and placed it on my tongue. Mmm… basil and flower.

So for the rest of the summer, little white flower buds of basil have garnished a number of dishes, and here is one of them. Are you familier with radis noir?

Black radish is crunchy and refreshing, just as red radish, but with a sporty prick to the tongue. The skin is thicker then that of red radish, so I peel it. I like to serve it as a crudité salad, with a bit of salt, olive oil, and whatnot.

Recipe for Black Radish and basil flower crudité:

black radish

balsamic vinegar

fromage frais or cottage cheese

fresh basil leaves and flowers

freshly ground pepper

….

Peel and thinly slice the radish. Place on tiny amuse-bouche plates. Place a spoonful of fromage frais next to it and pour a spoonful of balsamic vinegar on the fromage frais. Garnish with fresh basil, flowers, and pepper. Serve and enjoy!