Friday, October 15, 2010

Lahmacun

So now I work at a cooking store.  My coworkers own every cool cooking tool that exists, and one was nice enough to lend me their Emile Henri pizza stone.  After baking a bunch of wonderful soda bread, I decided to try to reproduce a delicious flatbread pizza I'd eaten in Istanbul last summer.


I doctored the topping, adding more chili pepper flakes, cumin, and red bell pepper with the tomatoes.
Then I baked it on the pizza stone, making a really crispy crust.
It was delicious.

I will add the recipe soon.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Hubby's birthday!

In honor of Paul's birthday, I baked him America's Test Kitchen's Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake (via Annie's Eats).

Yum. 

It was so good I forgot to take a picture of a slice showing all the layers (you can almost see them in the second picture.)





Delicious.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

AF's Fabulous Chicken Salad

As promised in my previous post, here is my favorite chicken salad recipe, courtesy of my good friend, AF. 

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts
honey
2 granny smith apples
2 small cucumbers
1 shallot
1 red bell pepper (optional, can be roasted too)
dijon mustard
mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste
turmeric and cumin to taste


Coat chicken in honey.  Broil 4-5 minutes on each side, until done.  Let cool. Shred into bowl.  Meanwhile, dice apple, cucumber, shallot, and red pepper if using. Add to bowl with chicken.  Season with mustard, mayo, and spices to taste.  Chill and enjoy!

Monday, September 20, 2010

The High Holidays!

Since it was just me and the hubby this Rosh Hashanah, I decided to go all out.

Two kinds of challah.

Apple:

And my regular challah recipe, but made roll-sized and round!
[The leftover apple stuffed challah makes fantastic bread pudding!]

For the first night, I made a persian chicken, apple and cherry stew, a khoresh.  It was a bit too sweet, and a bit too watery, but the chicken was melt-in-your-mouth tender.

The persian rice with crispy topping [tahdig] was more successful.


We had a really nice Riesling to go with the meal.

Since I was trying to be economical, lunch consisted of my friend AF's fabulous chicken and apple salad (recipe will follow in another post!)



Night two started out with the traditional apples and honey with an unusual fruit (starfruit in this case, I couldn't find pomegranate):


There is a Jewish tradition to eat a "new" fruit on the second night of any holiday.  Some popular ones are pomegranate, star fruit, kumquat, etc.

We had a traditional brisket for dinner.




All in all a delicious holiday with lots of leftovers!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Brudder's Birthday!

In honor of my baby brother's birthday, I cooked his favorite dinner:

Baked potatoes, Steak, and Asparagus:
And when I say cooked, I mean my dad grilled.

But I did make an amazing birthday cake! 



Since Brudder is an incorrigible chocoholic who eats gallons of Cookies and Cream ice cream every summer, I decided to combine his loves, to delicious result.
Despite trying to frost with warm frosting and almost pulling the cake apart in the process, a quick trip to the fridge to solidify and some careful doctoring resulted in this:



Which my brother seemed to enjoy:

Cut yourself a slice!



Sunday, July 25, 2010

Sometime in July

Eager to relieve the glories of Dad's kitchen, and to live down past kitchen disasters once and for all, to save face in front of my brother and his friend A, I borrowed my Dad's girlfriend's Syrian Jewish cookbook and went to town.  On the menu:

Phyllo triangles stuffed with spinach [Im'warah b'Sbanech]


Rice with crispy bottom [Riz]

Meatballs in tomato cumin sauce [Kibbe m'Kamuneh b'Bandoorah]

Jewish Sabbath bread [Challah]


Pistachio rosewater cornstarch pudding [El Mazeeyah]  {Least successful dish, tasted more like a palate cleanser than a proper dessert}
Phyllo nut pastry [Baklawa]


And no dinner party would be complete without a Menage a Trois!
Just kidding...

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Simple, Classic French "Gateau au Yaort" (Yogurt Cake)

It seems everyone has a family recipe for "Gateau au Yaourt" (pronounced gah-toe oh yah-oor).  You might ask what is so special about a yogurt cake?  It is a recipe, whose measurements are proportional by volume, so it is easy to remember and even simpler to make. 

Ingredients
1 single-portion container of plain yogurt
2 eggs
vegetable oil
sugar
flour
1 sachet baking powder (11g, or appx. .5 oz or 1T)
pinch of salt
vanilla extract
grease or spray for pan

Supplies
Baking dish
mixing bowl
spoon
 
Flavoring options: rum, diced apple, sliced banana, pineapple, cinnamon, cocoa, nutella, nuts, extracts, etc...

Directions


Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160C).

Crack two eggs into the bowl, gently beat.
Empty yogurt container into bowl, stir into eggs.
Fill yogurt container halfway with oil, stir into eggs.
Splash in some vanilla extract.

Rinse and dry yogurt container.

Measure 2 yogurt containers of sugar and stir into liquids.
Measure 3 yogurt containers of flour and stir into batter.
Add sachet of baking powder and pinch of salt, stir into batter.

Add your desired "extras".

Pour smooth batter into greased baking dish.  Bake for 1 hour.
Enjoy!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Adventures in Cheeses!

A week ago Tuesday, I made homeade macaroni and cheese from a blend of Emmental and Jeune Cantal.  Big success!  Eventually, I will make it again, remember to take pictures, and post it on the blog.  Unlike in the U.S. where I usually buy a can of pumpkin puree to thicken the bechemel sauce and add some healthy veggie-ness, in France, I would have had to buy my own pumpkin, roast it, and puree it.  Since I was busy earning my Master's degree via Skype defense, I did not have time to do that.  But I do have a Master's degree now!

Last Tuesday, I bought supermarket Brie de Meaux.  Big mistake.  Ate a bit that day for lunch, and while the cheese is characteristically fort, strong tasting, this particular slice was pushing it.  Badly overripe, my husband said it made the whole apartment smell like fart.  The smell intensified overnight to where even I couldn't eat it, and the remainder made its way into the trash.
 A typical, casual,ch lunch spread--I love Paris!

Yesterday, at the market near Metro Bastille, I bought an aged Cantal and a Trou du Cru, both cow's milk cheeses, for a picnic.  Delicious!  Despite having a name one-letter removed from the French word for "asshole" (honestly, that amused me enough that that is why I picked the cheese), it was creamy, complex, a bit tangy and just plain delicious.
And a picture of our market picnic: those aren't ordinary strawberries, they are gariguettes.

Monday, April 5, 2010

One-pan Chicken dinner in the Oven

So I discovered this chicken recipe by accident, and have tried it successfully in three different variations, whose descriptions I will include.

Ingredients
boneless skinless chicken breasts
olive oil

Version 1: 1 large zucchini, 3 tomatoes, 2 small onions, fennel, garlic, lemon, cumin, coriander, tumeric, paprika, salt and pepper

Version 2: 3 small potatoes, 2 small onions, cherry tomatoes (cut in half), curry powder, cumin, coriander, tumeric, paprika, salt and pepper, a little bit of liquid in the bottom of the baking dish.

Version 3: 3 small potatoes, 2 small onions, 1 zucchini, 2 small tomatoes, lemon, curry powder, cumin, tumeric, paprika, salt and pepper

Supplies
Knife and cutting board
Baking dish
Oven

Directions (for Version 3, which I have pictures for)


Slice the potatoes and layer them in the bottom of the baking dish.
Slice the onion and add it to the pan.
 Chop the zucchini and tomato and add them.  

 Season with salt, pepper, and turmeric. Drizzle on some olive oil.

Pull out your seasoning for the chicken breast.  In this case I used curry powder, paprika, cumin, turmeric, salt and pepper.  Slice the lemon.
Rub olive oil on the chicken breasts and season on both sides with spices.
 Layer lemon slices on chicken breasts to keep it moist.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until cooked through.


If lemons start to burn, tent with tinfoil.
Enjoy!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Le Grand Prix de la baguette 2010

Since Passover is quickly approaching (it starts Monday at sundown!)  The husband and I decided to end on a positive note-with Paris' best baguette, the winner of "le Grand Prix de la baguette" 2010.  We took the train 20 minutes early Sunday morning to Le Grenier à Pain near Métro Abesses (near Montmartre) which happens to be the stop deepest underground in the Paris transport system.  Many stairs later and a few blocks walk past throngs of people selling laurel/palm for Palm Sunday, we reached the promissed land, also known as 38, rue des Abesses in the 18e.  We bought two of boulanger Djibril Bodian's delicious baguettes, only 1.5 of which made it home ;)  We couldn't let a warm baguette go to waste, now could we?


Crunchy on the outside, doughy on the inside, excellent texture, a faint taste of nutty yeastiness, these are by far the best baguettes I have tasted so far.

We tried it with nutella, fresh goat cheese (the mild, sweet kind, not the aged, sharp kind, more akin to fromage frais), and raspberry jam.  Winner.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Adventures in Cheeses!

So, with Passover approaching, I went to the local market (right outside my door) to buy a cheese that would be spreadable-matza friendly but not boring and not too strong for the husband's sake.  The fromagier recommended "Le Cabri d'Antan" a pasteurized goat cheese from the Poitou region.  Light, like fromage frais, but with the mild tang of fresh goat cheese, delicious.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Gotta catch 'em all!

Every year on March 20, world-renowned pastry chefs celebrate the jour du macaron.  A macaron is a delightful cakey cookie related more closely to the meringue, and though linguistically similar, not-to-be-confused with Passover staple, the macaroon.

On this day, all over the world, at select shops, macarons are given away for free!
This year, my husband and I made the tour of four of the six Pierre Herme Paris shops, discovering too-late that there was a special gift involved in going to all 6 (a free box of 35 macarons!).  Nevertheless, our careful strategy (and the purchase of 1 macaron) allowed us to taste all 25 flavors being offered that day.
Here is a photo of (almost) all of them.  Three were eaten en-route home.

The flavors are:
Arabesque (apricot and pistachio)
Cafe (coffee)
Chocolat au lau & the Earl Grey (milk chocolate and Earl Grey tea)
Chocolat & foie gras
Chuao (chocolat and black currant)
Citron (lemon)
Coing & Rose (quince and rose)
Eden (peach, apricot and saffron)
Fragola (strawberry and balsamic vinegar)
Huile d'olive & vanille (olive oil and vanilla)
Imagine (Matcha green tea, crunchy black sesame)
Infiniment Vanille (Tahitian vanilla, Madagascan vanilla, Mexican vanilla)
Infiniment caramel (salted-butter caramel)
Ispahan (rose, litchi, raspberry)
Jasmin (jasmin flower and jasmin tea)
Magnifique (strawberry and wasabi)
Marron & the vert Matcha (chestnut and Matcha green tea)
Medelice (lemon, hazelnut praline)
Mosaic (pistachio and wild cherry)
Mutine (milk chocolat and coconut)
Mogador (milk chocolate and passionfruit)
Pistache (pistachio)
Rose (rose and rose petals)
Truffe blanche & noisette (white truffle, grilled Piemont hazelnut sprinkles)

They lasted all week and they were delicious.


Thursday, March 18, 2010

Return of the Blog!

Since November, I have not stopped cooking, but mostly forgot to take pictures.

I also moved to Paris.

For the past month, I have been cooking on two finicky electric burners with moderate success.  This weekend I will be buying a small toaster oven.  Expect updated blog entries soon as I explore French produce and experiment on a tight budget!