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La petite cuisine à Paris. Paris private dining for two chez Rachel Khoo

I love meeting cool people doing cool new things. Recently I was a guest at the first of many private dining experiences to come at ‘La petite cuisine à Paris’ (literally ‘The little Paris kitchen’) a unique new project by the talented British, now Paris-based culinary creative Rachel Khoo.

After packing up and leaving a fashion career in London to study Pâtisserie at the world-renown Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, Rachel began by baking sweet treats at Paris’ specialty cookery bookstore, La Cocotte. Four years on, she now jets around Europe cooking and catering for prestigious events, launches and private parties. In between all of this, she has also found the time to knock out 2 wonderful cookbooks in French: Pâtes à tartiner and Barres de céréales: Muesli & granola.

‘The little Paris kitchen’ is the now the delicious testing ground for her next recipe book where she will be developing and perfecting all her recipes to go in the publication. “La Petite Cuisine” is her first English publication and is due for release in Spring 2012. The concept is simple and is sure to fill a growing craving for simple, modern, uncomplicated recipes that reinterpret traditional cooking techniques and traditions from the godmothers of French cuisine such as Elizabeth David and Julia Child. Rachel Khoo’s goal is to “Make French food fun.”

What better way to start than to invite people, two at a time for a memorable, delectable experience as taste-testers in her private kitchen where all her culinary creations are made with the ingredients sources at her local produce markets, fromagerie and favorite specialty stores and boulangeries.

Update as of March 19th, 2012. Rachel Khoo now appears on BBC two at 8.30pm Monday evenings UK time. The Paris “Test Kitchen” is therefore no longer open but you can get your fix of Rachel Khoo and her delightful recipes and tiny kithen on TV and through her new book. Enjoy!

So… back to LE FOOD! Well Rachel cooked up a delicious storm in a teacup in her tiny Paris kitchen for myself and other lucky guest- the fabulous Amy Thomas from the super godiloveparis blog.

Le Menu:

Entrees:
Creamy bèchamel cauliflower gratin with a hazelnut crumbs

Mains:
Sticky lemon & lavender roast chicken

Dessert:
Baked apples with a sweet spiced bèchamel sauce

Bread: From Du Pain et des idées in Paris’ 10eme. This stuff is dangerously good bread by the way- still warm and fresh out of the oven when it landed on the table- it took some serious restraint for me to stop eating it! Oh the simple pleasures…

Now of course, this post would not be complete without a recipe! Rachel’s menu was based around making the perfect béchamel, and what I loved about her approach was that the same base for this sauce called the “Roux” can be used to make both a sweet or savory sauce- depending on the seasonings and aromatics you use.

For a savoury sauce– follow the standard Bèchamel formula (here is a good recipe for a classic béchamel sauce) and add a combination of classic aromatics such as:

Onion
Bayleaf
Clove
Nutmeg

Rachel also suggests:

Saffron, orange zest, turmeric or cumin

For a sweet sauce or alternative to crème anglaise:

Simply leave out the salt and savoury additions above, and sweeten with sugar to taste, adding fresh vanilla seeds and optional spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg.

Here are Rachel’s top three tips for the perfect bèchamel:

1. Use whole milk. Semi or skimmed just won’t give you that rich creamy taste.

2. When you add your milk to the roux (flour and butter thickener) make sure to do it a slow, gradual stream and then whisk, whisk and whisk!

3. Classic bèchamel aromatics are: onion, bayleaf and clove but feel free to experiment with non traditional flavours such as saffron and orange zest or tumeric and cumin.

Bonne Bèchamel!

Inspiration at the table- modernising old school classics

Published success. Recipe books by Rachel Khoo

Tags: amy thomas, baked apples cinnamon, baked cauliflower gratin, Bechamel sauce, creamy cheese cauliflower, creme anglaise, exclusive dining paris, Food & Wine Photography, food trends, how to make bechamel sauce, lavender chicken, lemon glaze chicken, modern easy french cookbooks, paris private dining, private chef paris, rachel bajada, Rachel Khoo, underground kitchen paris

Comments 22 Comments
Categories France Culture, Paris, Reviews

Cherry on top. Gontran Cherrier opens his first boulangerie in Paris

19 Dec

Gontran Cherrier, the new shopfront, braided brioche. Image of Gontran Supplied/©Marie Taillefer

Yesterday I went to the opening of the next big thing in the world of the bread and baked goodness. Gontran Cherrier: the 31-year-old Parisian, 3^rd generation baker, hit author of 8 cookbooks and passionate, innovative entrepreneur has just opened his first shop front on the chic Rue Caulaincourt in the buzzing quartier of Montmarte. Gontran is onto a seriously good thing with his unique way of reinventing classics, successfully striking a balance between tradition and innovation, and taking the art of artisian boulangier into the future.

Talking about the future, the French are not big fans of change. If you relocate the office coffee machine, they will strike about it. If you swap the gruyere for goats cheese, they might not eat it. So… it takes one brave, clever and creative cookie to introduce change into something as sacred and intrinsic to every day French life as bread.

I never used to eat much bread before I lived in France, now I just cannot escape it, let alone imagine not eating it. Not only is it served with every meal by default- but it’s always so darn good! Parisians will queue outside a boulangerie on a Sunday morning for 20 minutes while it’s snowing a blizzard and minus 4 degrees- just to get good bread, and on that note, I have a feeling my next busy chez Gontran will be greeted by a massive queue. A queue of enthusiastic Parisians, tourists and expats who appreciate his innovative menu of French classics with a twist, friendly international staff, totally reasonable prices and the buzzing ambience in the beautifully designed, gorgeous hausmannien shop itself (designed by Franz Potisek) where you will find his daily selection of gorgeous breads and pastries such as:

Green rocket juice, red paprika or black squid-ink bagel buns
Baguettes- traditional or wholegrain
Country bread- cut and ordered by weight/kg
Bread with black molasses, ginger and coriander seeds
Bread with chick pea flour, black olives, candied lemon and herbs of Provence
Red miso rye bread
Savoury tart of celeriac puree, broccoli, chestnut, endive and almond oil
Savoury tart of fennel, broccoli, chicken, pepper crème de comté, olive oil
Savoury cheese tart of parmesan, Comté, red onion, lemon, pepper, and thyme
Tartine baguette with pâte à tartiner- chocolate caramel or caramel vanilla
Brioche infused with fleur d’oranger

Bakery buzz- friendly staff and eager customers

Gontran Cherrier Focaccia and Red onion, cheese and thyme tart

Loaf of freshly baked Brioche

Le Menu

Chou chou’s and Pear and Almond Tart

Country bread- cut and sold by weight

Squid ink and red paprika bagels

Freshly baked croissants

Brioche of vanilla crème, butter, almond marzipan, cardamom, cinnamon, rum soaked almonds and sweet orange

Brioche of vanilla crème, butter, almond marzipan, cardamom, cinnamon, rum soaked raisins and sweet candied orange

Seasonal (for Christmas):

“La couronne de pain”- a wreath of 8 combined buns with 4 flavours- wholegrain curry (for foie gras), chick pea and lemon (for oysters and seafood), nature/traditional (for meats and charcuterie) and of course chestnut for the cheese board!

Made for sharing. 8 buns, 4 flavours. The perfect bread for a complete Christmas feast

Coming up (À l’Épiphanie):

Gontran will share the recipe with me for his signature ‘Galette des Rois’ – a Traditional french sweet pastry eaten after Christmas and in the month of January- made with almonds, pistachio and cadied lemon. Yum!

Coming soon- Gontran’s signature “Galette des Rois”. Image supplied/©Marie Taillefer

If you’re in Paris- here’s where to find the shop. Anywhere else in the world, don’t despair- I have no doubt that a Gontran Cherrier Boulangerie will be opening in your city in the near future!

Gontran Cherrier Artisan Boulanger
22, rue Caulaincourt
75018 Paris
Tèl : +33 (0)1 46 06 82 66
http://www.gontrancherrierboulanger.com

Tags: artisan boulanger, baguette, bakery, best bread paris, boulanger, brioche, du pain, Food & Wine Photography, galette des rois, Gontran Cherrier, modern french bakery, paris bakeries, tartes

Comments 8 Comments
Categories France Culture, Paris, Reviews, Seasonal food recipes

Libido-lovin ‘Lebkuchen’. A very special Swiss gingerbread recipe to celebrate a white Christmas in Paris.

5 Dec

Libido-Lovin Lebkuchen

It’s snowing in Paris. Very unusual for November, I am told.

Paris is truly magical this time of year, especially with all the Christmas lights illuminating the whole city and Champs-Élysées- and now the recent addition of fresh white snow is literally the icing on the cake.

Here is a picture of the back garden in my apartment building in Paris- the two pics taken just 2 months apart.

Sudden seasonal change in Paris- the garden in my apartment building

Saying that, it’s bittersweet really- I mean the snow is beautiful, but the -4 degree temperatures can really take its toll. You can see how European traditions have developed over time to compensate for the long, hard winters, with simple pleasures in winter like copious amounts of cheese consumed in raclettes and fondues, warm spiced red wine, hearty soups and casseroles, and ‘Pain d’epice’ a sweet spiced bread served with traditional hot chocolate.

So, to celebrate my first white Christmas, keep the circulation going and prepare simple Christmas treats for friends and family, I am baking a big batch of Lebkuchen- it’s a kind of gingerbread, which originates from Switzerland and Germany with variations between regions. It’s made of molasses, brown sugar, honey, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Sometimes it has candied citrus, nuts and chocolate coating. Yum.

Now, you’re probably eager to hear what it has to do with Libido? Well ginger has a long-standing reputation for its powerful aphrodisiac qualities. A warm, pungent spice, that when combined with cloves (which has similar qualities), it warms the blood to increase circulation, aid digestion and increase metabolism. Perfect for the winter chill! Gingerbread’s popularity as a gift and aphrodisiac even dates back to medieval era when Knights would present shield-shaped pieces of gingerbread as love gifts to their ladies during jousting contests and tournaments. Embossed with cloves to resemble studs and painted with egg white to represent a polished shield, these love gifts were treasured and highly valuable possessions.

Anyway, I love this stuff and I make a huge batch of it every year with a recipe I’ve adapted over the years originally given to me by a German friend’s mother. It’s a one pot, one-bowl recipe so its quite simple to prepare, it’s completely fat free (of course the sugar content makes up for this) and it keeps for a few weeks in an airtight container so it makes a great Christmas gift when packaged and wrapped up nicely. You can add more or less spice depending on your preference- this version is quite strong.

You can cut the cookie dough into star, heart, Christmas tree, or round shapes- however you like. Or simply bake it in a flat, lipped tray, top it with the lemon glaze and slice it into squares. Sooooo good with a big cup of hot chai tea.

Happy (libido) baking!

Recipe: Lebkuchen (Swiss/German Gingerbread)
Makes approx 50-60 biscuits depending on size of moulds

INGREDIENTS

1 cup honey
1 cup molasses/treacle
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tbsps candied orange finely chopped (optional)
5 1/2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 teaspoon ground ginger

Royal icing (for piping and decoration)

1 1/2 cups (230g) pure icing sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 eggwhite, lightly whisked

Hard white icing/glaze

Prepare as instructed above for royal icing, but gradually add additional fresh lemon juice until it forms a smooth, spreadable paste for application with a plastic spatula or knife.

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium saucepan, stir together the honey and molasses. Bring the mixture to a boil, remove from heat for 10 mins and stir in the brown sugar, egg, lemon juice and candied citron. In a large bowl, sift and stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger.

Caramelising the sugars

Cloves, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon

Add the molasses mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. You may need to gradually add extra flour until it makes a moist cookie dough as the consistency will depend on the flour, humidity etc.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or baking trays.

Adding the molasses mixture and candied orange to the spiced flour

The mix should look something like this

Once combined, put bowl of cookie mix in the refrigerator until it has cooled to room temperature or lower.

Knead a few handfuls of dough at a time on a floured flat surface/bench and roll out the dough ready for the cookie cutters. Alternatively, Using a small amount of dough at a time, roll into small balls and press down to about 4cm diameter, OR roll out dough and place the mix into a rectangular baking tray with dough at approx 1 cm depth.

Knead the dough on a floured surface then roll it out flat

Cut out cookies using desired shapes and moulds and place onto greased trays.

Cutting out shapes

Cookies cut with moulds

Cookies on greased baking tray

Bake for 10-15 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown and fragrant. Be careful not to overcook the lebkuchen as the sugars will go too hard when they cool and the biscuits will lose the desired soft center.

Allow to cool completely before icing and decorating.

To make the icing hard (piping):

Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl. Add the lemon juice and enough of the eggwhite to form a firm paste. Place in a piping bag fitted with a 1mm nozzle. Pipe royal icing onto the biscuits. Allow to set for at least one hour.

For the spreadable hard icing glaze, simply add more lemon juice and apply with a knife or spatula.

Enjoy!

Lebkuchen, chai tea, cinnamon and ground ginger

Afteroon tea on a snowy winter day

Tags: aphrodesiac recipe, christmas baking, christmas baking recipe, christmas cookies recipe, christmas gift ideas, Food & Wine Photography, french christmas recipes, german gingerbread, ginger, gingerbread, gingerbread recipe, how to make lebkuchen, lebkuchen recipe, paris christmas, rachel bajada recipe, royal icing, spicy cookies, spicy sweet bread, swiss gingerbread

Comments 12 Comments
Categories France Culture, Paris, Seasonal food recipes

How to stay thin in France: The gourmet Dukan recipe edition!

1 Nov

Ok, I admit- I have been quiet these last few weeks, but there is a good reason- I have been on the dreaded D word. Yes, a DIET- but not just any diet… the Dukan Diet.

If you’re not already familiar, it’s the diet developed by a French Doctor by the name of Pierre Dukan which until early this year was well known to the French but only available in the French language. Now that the book, and his online program have been published in English, the diet’s popularity has exploded. All four of Dukan’s print titles are currently in Amazon’s France’s top 100 bestsellers, and the Dukan regime even has it’s own product line in French supermarkets.

In Paris, I’m surprised that café’s haven’t already started offering an entire Dukan menu since it’s becoming hard walk into a café without noticing someone ordering a plain steak or piece of grilled fish- no sauce, no oil, no accompaniments. Sounds boring? Only if you let it be. Bottom line is, this diet is becoming super popular because it actually works. Firstly, you will never feel deprived or hungry since portions are not limited on a key range of protein-based foods, and if you can get creative in the kitchen, it’s possible to eat deliciously well on Dukan.

So, in tribute to the Dukan diet, this post is dedicated to sharing the best six recipes I developed or adapted from the program, all of them based on Pure Proteins since these are by far the most difficult to adapt. All the recipes are one-bowl wonders (except the tiramisu and scallops), easy to prepare, and will keep in the fridge for up to a week. And for the non Dukanese among you, a Baked New York Lemon Cheesecake with 1% fat, next to no carbs and zero sugar that tastes just as good as the real thing can’t really do any harm!

… Note that the title of this post is not “How the French stay thin”- (that I am still trying to work out), because by no means am I suggesting this diet is a key reason for the visibly svelte and seemingly effortlessly slim French population. Oh and by the way- the belief that French woman do not diet, I can assure you, is also a complete myth!

A Savourer!

*A few things to note on ingredients

Sugar substitutes

All the dessert recipes require a non-caloric sugar substitute. Depending on what country you’re in, there are numerous options, some better than others. Ideally, if you can get it, Stevia is the way to go since it’s a natural plant extract and you can consume it with the confidence that it won’t contribute to cancer or memory loss somewhere down the line (which is a potential and debatable risk factor with aspartame, and saccharin based sweeteners).

If you are baking, the trick will be to find a product that keeps its molecular structure and thus sweetening properties above 100 degrees celsius. In Australia there is a great product called Natvia – anything Erythritol and/or stevia based is ideal.

Fromage Blanc

Widely available in France, and a few other European countries, this dairy product is indispensable for Dukan recipes. The 0% version is what I use in all of the recipes. If you can’t source this product, you can try 0% natural or Greek yoghurt, however the or Fromage Blanc or Fromage Frais has the benefit of being much thicker, heavier and creamier thus making a great substitute for mascarpone or sour cream. Bio/organic brands or dairy products are always preferable if you can find them and of course don’t mind paying a bit extra.

Low fat cheeses:

Cottage Cheese. A traditional English cheese which has a creamy, curd-like texture. If you can’t find it, any textured low fat curd cheese like farm cheese is a good substitute for the rice pudding recipe.

Ricotta. In France, low fat ricotta is non-existent. If you can source this, it’s a much better option to replace the whipped cottage cheese in the New York baked cheesecake recipe.

0% cream cheese. In France you can use Carre Nature by Elle & Vire 0% fromage frais which is a delicious fat free spreadable cream cheese. Otherwise, Philadelphia brand is widely available

Recipe

Mimosa Egg Verrines / Dukan œufs mimosa en verrine

Curry, Mustard and chives egg verrines- delicious!

(Makes 2 verrines)

Cooking time: 10 mins. Total preparation time: 20 mins.

This recipe is an adaptation of œufs mimosa en verrine from the September issue No, 135 from Cuisine et Vins de France Magazine

Ingredients:

3 large free range eggs
½ tsp curry powder
1 heaped teaspoon medium Dijon mustard
1 tbsp fromage blanc/frais
½ tsp wholegrain seeded mustard
1 tsp lemon juice
3 tsp finely diced chives
Sea salt
Fresh cracked black pepper

Directions:

Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil. Hard boil whole eggs (in shell) for ten minutes and then remove from boiling water. Place eggs into a bowl of iced water and leave for 10 minutes. Drain water then gently peel away and discard the egg shells.

Delicately slice open the 3 eggs and separate the yolks, placing the yolks in a small separate bowl. Finely chop the egg whites into small, even squares using an egg slicer if you have one. Separate the chopped egg whites into two small bowls. In one bowl, add to the egg whites the chopped chives. To the other whites mix in the seeded mustard, fromage blanc, lemon juice, sea salt to taste. Gently crush the egg yolks with a fork and mix in the curry powder and Dijon mustard.

Arrange evenly in a verrine starting with the chive mix, then the egg yolk, then the egg white with mustard. Top with cracked pepper and chives to serve.

Mimosa egg verrines

Recipe

Smoked cod, green pepper and dill terrine / Terrine de cabillaud fumé, à l’aneth et au poivre vert (façon Dukan)

Smoked cod terrine with green peppers and dill

Preparation time: 15 mins. Cooking Time: approx 45 mins.

This dish is really easy to throw together and will keep for up to a week in the fridge. No bowls, minimal mess. All you need is blender/food processor and a bread loaf tin or pyrex baking dish.

(Makes 1 large terrine loaf)

Ingredients:

1 whole side fillet smoked cod (approx 500 g). You could also substitute for smoked mackrel, trout or herring
6 medium free range eggs (5 large)
3 tbsp fresh dill
2 tsp green peppers (preserved in brine)
½ tsp grated lemon zest
250 grams firm tofu
250 grams silken tofu
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tranches sliced smoked salmon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180 C. Remove skin from cod fillet and slice fillet width ways into 1 cm slices. Put aside. Put off-cuts of fish into food processor. Into processor bowl, add eggs, tofu, lemon, 2 tbsp dill, 1 tsp green peppers and cornflour. Pulse all ingredients until just combined.

Pour mixture to 3 cm depth in tin and then arrange a layer of smoked cod slices. Add another 3 cm layer of mixture and layer on top with remaining smoked cod slices. Add remaining mixture to tin until 3 cm from rim. Arrange smoked cod slices, remaining fresh dill and green peppers on top. Bake in preheated fan-forced oven for approx 45 mins or until browned and cooked through. Cover with foil if necessary to protect top from over-browning. Serve with lemon wedges, cornichons and Dijon mustard.

Smoked cod terrine served with fresh dill, cornichons and smoked salmon

Recipe

Soy Seared Scallops with wasabi sour cream / Noix de Saint-Jacques à la plancha, à la sauce soja et à la crème de wasabi (façon Dukan)

Seared soy scallops with wasabi sour cream

Super simple. Super delicious. You need a good quality non-stick frying pan for this to work as there is no oil used.
Preparation time: 10 mins Cooking time: 10 mins

(Serves 1)

Ingredients

5 fresh scallops
1.5 tsp low salt soy sauce
2 tbsp 0% fromage blanc*
1 pea sized portion wasabi paste

To serve:

Sea salt
Fresh black pepper
1/4 lemon
1 tsp fresh coriander leaves
Finely diced red pepper/capsicum
½ tsp fish eggs/salmon roe to garnish

Directions

Pour soy sauce over fresh scallops and leave to marinate refrigerated for 30 mins. In a small ramekin, mix fromage blanc, wasabi and a squeeze of lemon juice. Finely dice red capsicum to prepare garnish.

On a heated non stick frying pan or bbq plate, place scallops and soy sauce and sear until browned on each side. Spread wasabi cream on platter and arrange scallops in a row with coriander between pieces. Top with fish eggs, sea salt and black pepper and garnish plate with lemon wedges and red pepper to serve.

Recipe

Dukan Tiramisu / Tiramisu (façon Dukan)

The Dukan Tiramisu- didn't last long!

This recipe is made in two parts. The sponge cake base is an original Dukan recipe which is then layered with espresso coffee, low fat cocoa powder and sweetened fromage blanc.

Serves 4-5 (can be portioned individually or arranged in one large dish)

Ingredients: Sponge cake base

3 eggs- separated
4 tbsp natural sugar substitute (e.g Natvia)
2/3 cup cornflour
2 tsp baking powder
400 grams fromage frais/blanc*
Dash of vanilla essence

Combine egg yolks, splenda, baking powder, fromage blanc and vanilla in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff and gradually beat in the cornflour. Fold the egg white mix into the other mixing bowl gently to combine.

Line a flat, lipped tray (round or rectangular) with baking paper, keeping an overhand on the edges. Pour the mix into the tray and spread out evenly. Bake at 180 degrees until cooked through and golden brown on top. Allow cake to cool in tray.

The Dukan sponge roll cake base for Tiramisu recipe

Ingredients: Tiramisu layers

3 tbsp low fat cocoa powder
Approx 400 g 0% fromage blanc
Stevia powder or liquid, to taste
300 mls (or to taste) brewed espresso coffee

Brew espresso coffee and sweeten with stevia. Mix in 1 tbsp low fat cocoa powder whilst coffee is hot (optional).

Pour a layer of coffee in dish of choice. Arrange a layer of cake on top of the coffee. Coat cake with coffee, sprinkle with cocoa powder and then add a layer of fromage blanc- sweetened with stevia to taste.

Arrange remaining layers in the same order until serving dish is full, with the top layer being fromage blanc. Dust top with a thick layer of cocoa powder.

Place and leave to sit in refrigerator for at least 3 hours before serving. The dukan cake is not as moist as a normal cake so the result is better when the coffee has soaked through.

Dukan Tiramisu

Dukan Tiramisu and coffee

Recipe

No rice vanilla rice pudding / Pudding au riz à la vanille (sans riz, façon Dukan)

The Dukan vanilla Rice Pudding ( New York baked lemon cheesecake variation available)

This recipe was a happy accident. It’s a slight variation on the Dukan “Corsican Cheesecake” recipe and the great thing is that when you bake with cottage cheese, the curd of the cheese hardens and forms slightly in the oven giving the same texture as soft rice in a rice pudding. To serve it as rice pudding just put this in a bowl and top with sweetened fromage frais or custard. Otherwise serve sliced like a cheesecake.

Prep time: 15 mins. Cooking time: Approx 40 mins

Ingredients:

5 eggs
600 grams low fat cottage cheese*
fresh vanilla bean powder or vanilla essence
25 grams natural sugar substitute (e.g Natvia)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 160 C. Beat the eggs with a hand held whisk. Add the cottage cheese, Splenda and vanilla. Carefully stir to combine. Transfer to a flan style baking tin and bake for approx 45 minutes. Keep a close eye on the cake while it is in the oven, making sure it does not over cook or brown too quickly- cover top with foil if necessary. Remove from oven when cooked and allow to cool. Serve with custard, yoghurt or sweetened fromage blanc topped with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Dukan vanilla rice pudding or lemon cheesecake

Recipe

New York Baked Lemon Cheesecake / Dukan New York Cheesecake au citron

This is a further variation on the above which really turns out like a Classic Baked New York Lemon Cheesecake- this one literally takes the cake as my favorite.

Prep time: 15 mins. Cooking time: Approx 40 mins

Ingredients:

2 eggs- separated
4 heaped tbsp fromage blanc*
200 grams low fat ricotta or cottage cheese*
300 gms fat free spreadable cream cheese*
2 tbsp cornflour
½ cup natural sugar substitute (e.g Natvia)
Finely grated zest 1 lemon

Directions

Preheat oven to 160 C. Combine all ingredients except egg whites in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand blender until smooth, thick and silky in appearance. If using cottage cheese, beat mixture until the texture smooths out. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff, then beat in cornflour. Slowly fold in egg white mixture to large bowl until combined. Transfer mixture to a ceramic baking dish (as pictured or similar) ans bake for approximately 40 mins or until risen and golden brown. Allow to cool completely in fridge before serving.

Tags: attack phase recipes, baking, baking sugar substitutes, cooking, cruise phase recipes, dukan, dukan dessert, dukan recipes, food, Food & Wine Photography, food photography, food trends, fromage frais recipes, gourmet dukan, low fat cheesecake, pure protein recipes, recette dukan, recipes, sugar free desserts

Comments 52 Comments
Categories Food Trends, France Culture, Paris

Mushroom Magic. C’est la saison des champignons! Mille-feuille croustillant aux champignons et crème de noisette

26 Sep

Mushroom mille-feuille with hazelnut creme

Mille-feuille croustillant aux champignons avec oignons caramélisé, chèvre et crème de noisette

This week browsing the Parisian growers market I was so excited to discover almost 10 different varieties of French mushrooms are now in season that I decided to dedicate an entire post and recipe all to the humble, versatile mushroom. My first ever sighting of the remarkable giant cèpe conjured up magical, childhood memories of fairy-tales and illustrated story books- not to mention left me wondering how and what you cook with a 2kg cèpe mushroom which is bigger than the average Parisien chiwawa!

As a sure sign that winter is approaching- the varying damp and rain cultivates very specific mushrooms in regions with specific seasons- some varieties make very brief appearances and you will only see them on sale for a week or two a year. The different varieties open up so many new possibilities for pairing flavors, textures and ingredients with a seasonal ingredient that is both a star on it’s own, and equally as brilliant as an accompaniment.

For this blog post I wanted to create a recipe with the mushroom as the star of the dish. Since the choice was so overwhelming I found it hard to follow a minimalist approach and ended up buying 3 varieties in one go (not to mention burning a neat 15 € sized hole in my wallet). Thanks to my over enthusiasm for pricey, fancy fungi, the following recipe is made with a combination of seasonal varieties but would of course be equally as good, if not better with just one variety alone, left to shine as the hero of the dish.

Before I start on the recipe, here’s some pics of the markets this weekend showing a few different varieties from the farmers markets. Some of these are certified bio/organic so the prices on display are obviously much higher.

Champignons de paris

Chanterelle mushrooms

Baby Cèpe mushrooms

Porto bello mushrooms

Pleurote (oyster) mushrooms

Mushroom-eating munchkins! Too cute to leave this one out. The potato, mushroom and gruyere fritters they were eating looked pretty good too!

Hungry yet?

Hope so! Here’s the recipe for a delicious seasonal dish with typical French flavor profile made with market fresh mushrooms and Mille-feuille (flaky layered pastry). It’s not difficult to make, but can be a bit fiddly and certainly not achieved in a hurry. Use whatever mushrooms are in season (picured example includes girolle, cèpe and chanterelles), a mild goats cheese that’s soft enough to spread on the flaky pastry, a good quality ready-to bake Pâte feuilletée and fresh thyme if possible.

Mille-feuille croustillant aux champignons avec oignons caramélisé, chèvre et crème de noisette
(Wild mushroom mille-feuille with caramelized onlion, goats cheese and roast hazelnut crème)

Ingredients (serves 2):

I sheet flaky savoury pastry (Pâte feuilletée) cut into 4 x 10×6 cm rectangles
100 ml crème fraîche épaisse or equivalent (fat content is not important)
3 tbsp fresh, diced parsely
2 tbsp fresh or dry thyme leaves
450 grams fresh seasonal mushrooms
50 grams soft mild (spreadable) goats cheese
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or organic, demi-salted butter
3 tbsp hazelnut oil
1.5 medium-large brown onions
1 tsp balsamic vinegar or red wine
1 tsp brown sugar
2 hand-fulls whole hazelnuts
White pepper
Sea salt

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celsius. On a lightly greased tray lay out the rectangles of cut pastry and put hazelnuts in an oven-proof dish. Bake for 20 mins or until the pastry has puffed and turned golden brown, remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

cepes, girolles, chanterelle

Begin preparing the caramelized onion. Dice onion finely length-ways and add into a heavy-based saucepan with olive oil, balsamic or red wine and brown sugar. Keep stirring and cooking the onions slowly on low heat until they are translucent, soft and toffee brown, whilst preparing the mushrooms.

Rinse all mushrooms well and pat dry immediately to remove excess water with a clean tea towel or kitchen paper. Slice cèpes (or similar bigger meaty varieties) length-ways and leave other smaller mushrooms whole.

Heat olive oil and 2 tbsp hazelnut oil in a frying pan and add parsely, thyme and sea salt. Add all mushrooms, starting with the bigger ones. Add white pepper and cook the mushrooms, continually stirring, until they have reduced in size and start releasing their juice. Remove from heat and slowly separate the liquid away from the mushrooms, collecting all the juice into a separate bowl.

Thyme and parsely

Cooking mushrooms

Mushroom Juice- becomes the flavoursome basis of the hazelnut creme

In a blender or coffee grinder, combine 2/3rds of the roasted hazelnuts, 100 mls creme fraiche, mushroom juice , 1.5 tbsp hazelnut oil, and 15 mls warm water. Whizz until smooth and pourable, adding sea salt to taste.

Making the roast hazelnut creme in blender

Roast hazelnut creme for serving

Prepare Pastry layers by gently separating each rectangle of cooked pastry into two layers. The base becomes the centre layer and the top is used as the first layer or top of the mille-feuille.

Return mushrooms in pan to the heat and re-cook them to heat and remove any excess moisture. Add more fresh herbs if desired.

Place pastry bases on a serving dish and gently layer the caramelized onion to the base, then sprinkle roughly chopped roast hazelnuts over the onion. The nuts are an important textural elemetn to this dish so avoid omitting them.

Mille-feuille base with caramelized onion and hazelnuts

Add a 1.5 cm high layer of mushrooms over the top.

Spread a fine layer of goats cheese over both sides of the middle pastry layer then add this to the base.

On top of the mid section add another layer of mushrooms

The base layer

Spreadable fromage de chevre

Mille-feuille before adding top layer

Finally, add one of the top layers from the baked pastry to the mille-feuille. Drizzle the hazelnut creme over the top and finish with chopped hazelnuts.

Serve immediately.

Take picures.

Enjoy every morsel and…

Tell me what you thought!

À savourer!

🙂

Tags: Cèpe, champignons, Chanterelle, chevre, creme, Food & Wine Photography, french recipe mushrooms, girolles, markets, mille-feuille, mushrooms, noisette, paris, recette, recipe, seasonal food

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Categories Paris, Seasonal food recipes

L’art du saumon par L’atelier des Chefs The art of salmon by Atelier des Chefs

8 Aug

Demonstration of salmon preparation techniques

This week I satisfyingly ticked off one line on my very long and ever-growing bucket list: “Take cooking classes at a French cooking school!”

The options for French cooking classes in France, and Paris in particular are varied and suitably pleasing- catering to all tastes, budgets and availability. From week-long stays in lush Normadie Château’s to day-classes with market field trips or compact two-hour studio-style classes, France is certainly a country which obligingly shares and flaunts the many secrets and attributes of her cuisine.

For my purposes, with a limited schedule, and of course through recommendation, I booked a two-hour afternoon class at one of the more well known French Schools- Atlelier des Chefs. With classes in all major regions across France and a huge selection of menus and techniques to choose from packed into 2.5 hours for €70, a friend I booked ourselves into the last 2 spots for a specialised class in techniques for selecting, preparing and cooking salmon demonstrated over three different dishes.

The French are huge consumers of salmon. Salmon is the No 1 most consumed fish in France generally, with France being the No 1 smoked salmon consumer in the EU, ahead of Germany. Salmon features frequently in French dishes both classic and modern and is a delicious, versatile and readily available staple. Farmed fresh salmon was used in our cooking class, since wild salmon is more difficult to source, and generally much more expensive.

Whilst on the topic, it’s worthwhile touching on a growing concern and hot topic right now making waves not only in France but globally- the sustainability and health implications of the farmed salmon industry.

Today, over 50 per cent of the world’s salmon supply is farmed salmon. There are huge ramifications of mass fish farming environmentally and to our health- with some studies reporting that farmed fish contains 8-10 x the toxicity levels of wild salmon, meaning that just one portion of this fish per month can be consumed in order to remain under healthy levels.

Aside from health considerations, the world’s oceans are really feeling the effect of increasing global demand. Farmed salmon produced just in British Columbia’s 100 plus open-net-cage salmon farms produces waste roughly the same as the raw sewage from a city of half a million people. Sadly I’m finding it harder and harder to eat these days without feeling guilty about where my food came from!

This is no small topic and really requires an article all to itself, so instead here’s some good food for thought on the topic since it’s definitely worthwhile reading up on.

Gourmet.com article on Obama’s move to open the Gulf of Mexico to unregulated, industrial-scale open-water fish farms
Download the “End of the Line” Widget to check whether the fish you are planning to buy or eat is caught or farmed in a way that is sustainable
Advice from the World Health Organisation on PCBs and dioxins in salmon
Greenpeace’s take on the debate
What the farmed fish industry says

Now, before you download that sustainable fish iphone app or book in a panicked blood test to check your mercury levels, sit back and enjoy a visual snapshot of The Atelelier chef’s experience – including the recipe for my favorite dish from the day- Green tea infusion-steamed salmon with seasonal wok vegetables (Saumon à la vapeur de thé, wok de légumes croquants)!

How to select and prepare fresh salmon

Our host chef and teacher for the class- “Matthieu” enthusiastically explained (in French) the key points to look for to ensure freshness and quality- here is my best shot at the translation:

Smell: if it smells like fish- move on! The odor indicates that the fish is old and hasn’t been kept at appropriate temperatures.

Flesh: should be in firm shape and should bounce back when pressed gently.

Skin: Should be clean and shiny- never not slimy.

Eyes: The eyes should be clear, bright and well rounded.

Colour: Apparently the best way to gauge the freshness of a whole fish is by looking inside/behind the gills. “Les ouïes” should be bright pink to deep red in colour- signifying a high level of oxygen still present and a suitable state of freshness.

Preparing Salmon:

Demonstration of deboning process with pincers

Matthieu gave a detailed demonstration of the de-boning process or removal of ‘les arêtes.’ Working down the spine from the tail end to the head, each bone must be removed one at a time using a pincer- taking care to pull gently in the same direction as the bone sits- as to ensure the flesh is not bruised in the process. There is one smaller bone at the head-end which takes some fiddling to find but should obviously not be missed.

Cutting salmon into steaks

Cutting the fillet

The tail end is typically used for raw dishes- sushi, maki, sashimi, and the meatier, thicker sections cut in 150 gram portions for cooking.

Personally, I am never quite sure if my vegetable-cutting technique is cuts it… Thankfully, preparation methods were covered thoroughly in our class with special techniques and cuts detailed for each vegetable. Some vegetables shown here were used in the Provençal vegetable ratatouille, the remainder were used for the wok veggies in the following recipe steamed salmon infused with green tea.

Our chef demonstrated 3 dishes in the class, but for this post I will just focus on the detail for the provided recipe:

Green tea infusion-steamed salmon with seasonal wok vegetables
A simple, healthy and original way to serve salmon with an asian infusion- enjoy!

Ingredients:

Serves 6

6 Salmon steaks (150 grams each)
Green tea powder: 10 grams
2 x quality earl grey tea bags or spiced tea such as cardamom or chai
Fine sea salt: 5 grams
Fleur de sel: 6 pinches
Carrots: 2 (med-large)
Green onions: 1 bunch
Red Radishes: 1 bunch
Shitake Mushrooms: approx 1 dozen
Peanut oil
Filtered water

Instructions:

Peel the carrots and onion, cut carrots in half lengthways then again in fine strips on 45 degree angles (as pictured). Finely dice onion chives. Clean and slice the radishes into 4 lengthways leaving 1cm of green shoot attached at stem. Remove stems and dice Shitake mushrooms.

Dicing courgette/zucchini for Provencal vegetables

Green onion dicing technique

Dicing fresh shitake mushrooms

Preparing red radish for wok vegetables

Dicing cucumber for tzatziki accompaniment

Dicing onions and peeling red peppers

Deomonstration of shallot dicing technique

Angle-dicing carrots for wok vegetables

Preparing tomatoes

Knife-shredded fresh mint for tzatziki accompaniment

Claire and other students, wok-frying onions

In a wok, add a drizzle of peanut oil and sweat the onions with a pinch of salt. Add the carrots with another pinch of salt and a glass of water. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the radishes and shitake mushrooms. Adjust seasoning. Add a glass of water and add teabags to wok.

Cooking wok vegetables before tea-infusion

Hamasa Shoten green tea powder

Wok vegetables with tea infusion

In the same wok, insert a wire rack and place salmon steaks seasoned with salt and green tea. Cover wok with lid cook for 8 minutes allowing steam vapour to infuse through salmon and the vegetables.

Arrange the vegetables onto plates and arrange the salmon steaks on top. Finish with a pinch of fleur de sel and serve.