Thursday, November 27, 2008

Today's cooking - ma cuisine du jour

I had another urge to cook today. With our friends arriving from Montreal for the week end, I figured it would be a good thing to have bread and a few other things ready before the week end. So here I am trying a new recipe for bread. I usually use this one but because I wanted to make walnut bread, I basically replaced the milk with red wine, as suggested in other recipes, and added some walnuts to the flour! We'll see how it goes!

And to continue in my comfort food series decides to roast a load of veggies in the oven, for over an hour until they are all soft and caramelized. So for this time, here are the veggies I had but you can most definitly create your own mix: Purple carrots, sweet potatoe, red peppers, eggplant, zucchinis and tomatoes. It's still in the oven, and will likely be served for dinner tonight.

And since one exciting cooking hour wouldn't be complete without desert, I just made a super simple chestnut ice cream. I found the recipe on marmiton.org, you simply need to mix a small can of chestnut puree with 200grams of whipping cream, then add the egg yolk, and finally add the egg white beaten till solid. Then transfer to the ice cream maker and churn until desired consistency is reached. Store in the freezer. Enjoy:)

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Comfort food

With the snow starting to really be a daily fact that you need to count with, it was high time to start thinking about some comforting recipes.
L keeps asking for some childhood deserts, like rice or couscous pudding.

So tonight, we are going to have a gratin dauphinois, or "potato gratin" with a twist, since I added some truffle paste in the milk before cooking. And for desert, rice pudding! Might need to add some greens in there at sme point, so I'll serve the gratin with a side salad, and I did buy some veggies for tomorrow, you'll find out about that soon.
After that we are off to see a play, which I hope will be good, as we truly need to keep busy. It's dark at 4.30 and not really an invitation to go out. Looking forward to a week end of cooking and baking with my friend S from Montreal!

Potatoe gratin recipe for 4 people
5 potatoes, the regular kind, but not the baking ones, Yukon potatoes is what I used, but that's just because it's what I had. Any type can do here
Milk
Truffle paste or oil
Grated cheese
Salt and pepper

Peel and slice your potatoes, in reasonably thin slices. (5 mm) Place them nicely in a buttered oven dish, cover with milk and truffle paste. Top that with grated cheese and bake for 40 min at 180C.
Eat warm with a side of salad.

Bon appetit.

La neige faisant partie du quotidien, la nourriture qui réchauffe s'impose comme une évidence. L réclame des desserts régressifs type riz au lait ou gâteau de semoule.
Alors pour diner, j'ai fait un gratin dauphinois revisite a la pate de truffe et ....du riz au lait!

Pour le gratin dauphinois, pou 4 personnes:
5 pommes de terre normales
Lait (environ 1/3 litre)
Pate de truffe
Sel et poivre
Fromage rape

Eplucher et trancher les pommes de terre en tranches de 5 mm d’épaisseur environ.
Les disposer dans un plat a four beurré. Recouvrir de lait mélangé à la pâte de truffes, ajouter sel et poivre et couvrir de fromage râpé. Enfourner à 180C pendant 40 minutes.
Déguster chaud avec une salade.

Enjoy!