Hachis parmentier a ‘comfort food’ dish!

We had a roast beef dinner with friends and lots of leftover. Not a big beef eater, what better than acomodate the left over to make an ‘Hachis parmentier’, this is how traditionally hachis parmentier was made. Of course you can make it with dedicated minced beef or any small piece of beef in tomatoe sauce.

As usual, my way is the easy way. Just cut the beef in small piece, trying to follow the beef cut. Add some sauce. It could be tomatoes sauce. I had made some mushroom sauce to go with. I just added more red wine, crushed the garlic and some herbs.

I bring my Puree Mousline from France. Again, you can make you own mash potatoes. A layer at bottom, the meat in the middle, a top layer of potatoes, covered with butter and grated cheese (my favorite one is the Gruyere President). in the oven for 20′ and here you are. Ready to eat.

Served with row mushroom and cauliflower salad with coriander and shallots. seasoning: lime and and olive oil, pinch of salt and paprika.

`~Enjoy with a glass of Gamay. A fruity wine from Pays du Tarn, I purchased a to make my Mulled wine for Christmas.

For desert: fruit salad made with pinapple, blueberries and Grapefruit. As I had some in the fridge, I added a it of vanilla custard and the best part, some Cointreau.

Rcette du Hachis Parmentier 750Grammes http://www.750g.com/fiche_de_cuisine.2.123.7666.htm

Or from Easy French Food ‘Mashed Potato Casserole‘

While cooking, I prepared the took pack of minced beef. Half to become pasta bolognese and/or/ lasagna. The other half will be a chili corn carne. You can find the recipes on my earlier posts.

Winter warm recipies

After the holidays and lots of heavy meals, time for simple warm dishes.

Since I left France, there is one vegetable I miss, apart from the artichoke and fennel, is endive. Not that you can’t find any, just that they are not popular and can be expensive.

They call them chicory in the UK. I used to love them in salad. Try an endive salad with apple and raisin and/or grapefruit or Endive salad with blue cheese and/or walnuts or endive salad with fennel and/or grapefruit. ‘Un regal’ !

Endives or chicory are also delicious cooked. you can either boil them, or ‘braise’ them, slightly grilled in a pan with vegetable oil. They can be served to accommodate meat or fish.

One dish I really love is ‘endives au jambon’. I braise the endives, then role them with ham, make a Bechamel, or white sauce, top with grated cheese, 20-25′ in the oven/grill and it’s so delicious. The good thing is you can prepare it in advance and put it in the oven last minute before serving.

They are different ways of preparing the white sauce or bechamel. My simple recipe :
- butter (20gr) + vegetable oil (1/2 spoon oil), it’s important to mix the two to obtain a smooth sauce
- gradually add flour (30 gr)
- same for the milk (1/4 l), if you are brave, you can boil the milk then add it.
- salt and pepper
- bay leave if you like but not necessary
- you can add a pinch of nutmeg.

The whole thing is to use patience and energy to mix it well.

If you want to make it faster, if you can find some, use the ready made Maizena Bechamel sauce or powder.

Another option is the Dolmio White sauce. I find it more fat but if you don’t have time, it’s always good to keep some in your kitchen.

This bechamel is also delicious for lasagna with minced beef or salmon.

Yesterday, I had a last minute guests. Very quick, I made some salmon lasagna with smoked salmon.
Just make layers of white sauce, lasagna, grated cheese (emmental or cheddar plus grated parmigiani), add small pieces of salmon, two other layers of lasagna, white sauce, salmon and cheese, top with white sauce and cheese, grill in the oven for 15′ and it’s done. served with salad and enjoy it with a glace of white wine.

Here you have the option of summer vegetable lasagna.

Watch here a video for an easy lasagna recipe :

What you can also make with the white sauce is a variety of vegetable ‘gratins’.
My favorites: gratin of cauliflower and/or leek, you can add mushroom, potatoes, carrots, peas, turnip, asparagus, artichoke, Brussels sprout, broccoli, sweet potatoes, courgettes, aubergines, or what ever vegetable you like. Just cook first the vegetables, poor the white sauce, add cheese, in the oven grill 15′ and it’s done ! You have the option of adding eggs and cream on the white sauce but I personally think they are not necessary.

Enjoy !

Boston Butt Façon Korean BBQ

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Looks pritty good.

Happy Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Happy Holidays!

Mini Pizzas, rapid, yummy and easy

Today is the end of school exams. My older daughter has finished the first half of the year. After some hard working, a small treat is well deserved.
She doesn’t like meat so much. One of her favorite meals is the mini pizza. I first had them, years ago, during my first trip to the US as student from my favorite cousin of Boston, my favorite City in the US. I went with a small budget from Paris to New-York, then Boston, Washington and San Francisco. One of my best holidays ever. At the time, when you purchased a transatlantic ticket, you could purchase a one month unlimited Delta Airlines ticket for all your internal flights. I could have used it much more if I wasn’t so lucky to be hosted by family and friends every where I stopped. A great trip it was. I visited so many nice places around San Francisco, Carmel, Half Moon Bay, the Wineries, etc… No TSA at that time. Yep, lots of good souvenirs. Such great time !

Lets come back to the lunch.
It’s hard to believe something so easy and quick can be so delicious. You can make many different versions with your favorite ingredients.

Here are the basic ingredients :
Use half English Muffin as pizza base, preferably brown ones or even better, olive ciabatta if you don’t want to go to the hassle of making your own pizza base.
A small bottle of tomato sauce, pizza topping or if you are brave enough, you can make your own tomato paste. I am not good at, although surely Fresh tomato sauce would be much better. Remember, this is not a big meal, just a home made snack, still much better than a supermarket pizza.
I add red onions, small tomatoes, red pepper, mushroom, olives or why not salami, chorizzo or whatever you like to see on top of your pizza.

If you like your bread more crispy, you can toast it a bit before adding the toppings, in which case, you can also grill the onions at the same time for 10′.
I like to add some Italian spices. I buy mine ready mixed, if you don’t have, you can add, dry garlic, oregano and pimento if you like.
You cover the paste with the tomato sauce, something like one big table spoon, add the mozzarella cheese, then onions, red peppers and what ever you like, a spoon of grated cheese (it can be grated Cheddar or even better, grated gruyere), sprinkle with herbs and grill in the oven for 10′. it ready !
I serve it with green leaves salad, today it was iceberg salad with rockets, avocado, onions, tomato, red pepper and some seeds. I like to leave the sliced onions with balsamic vinegar before mixing with the rest of the salad and olive oil.

Black Cherry rice and lamb meatballs

lamb meatballs

Persian cuisine is one very fine cuisine based on series of rice dishes, cooked together with veggies and meat or white Basmati rice served with Khoresht, sort of stew with veggies and meat. Persian make a extensive use of fine herbs and spices but no chili unless in the North West border of Russia, Azerbaidjan.

They have big theories of balance of hot and cold foods. Basically, some aliments would take more energy than they give, these would be cold, some will bring more calories and they would be hot. They are many recipes of natural drugs and many minor health illnesses are cured based on these concepts.

Tehran By Night - Wikipedia commons

The black cheery is a cousin of cherry, as you would have guessed, with a sour taste. It can be eaten as a fruit, as a dry fruit or jam. This rice is origninally made with fresh cherries cooked with sugar. I could find frozen black berry at Picard Surgeles in France. Haven’t seen any in the UK. I just use the black cherry jam. The best is the ones with whole cherries. M&S used to have good ones they discontinued. I know find them at ALDI.

Cook some rice, 3 cups of Basmati rice for 4 people. Wash 3-4 times the rice with warm water, cook it covered with 1cm of water on top of the rice, salt and add a spoon of vegetable oil. Bring to boil, leave it to cook just enough for the rice to get longer (5′). took the water off, leave the rice in a passoir. get your black cherry jam and add layers of rice with layers of jam. you can add some butter to give it a better taste, salt and cover to cook 15′. The rice is nearly ready. You can add safran, pistashes, almonds and dry orange skin on top.

While the rice is cooking, fry your lamb meatballs with onions in vegetable oil. I quite like Waitrose’s meat balls. Recently they had some with red pepper. You can have lamb meatballs, Aberden Agnus meatballs or veal meatballs. Each has different taste all depends on what you prefer. I add tumerick and cinammon. A little secret, if you want the bottom to be crunchy and nice, add some yoghourt before the rice. That crust of the rice is called a ‘Tadigh’ and is the best part of it. Don’t forget to use a non stick pot or a rice cooker.

It’s at simple as that. I can tell you, kids love this rice.

Black Cherry Rice

Here is the more complicated full recipe from ‘My Persian kitchen‘

Enjoy !

Simply delicious Burger

In this period of exams with cold winter starting, kids need a bit of something special.

When we eat burgers, it’s with all the forbidden ingredients, including ketchup and our favorite Ikea Mustard.
The only meat that worth it, Aberden Agnus M&S minced beef. Their very special bread or even better the olive Ciabatta. A slice of Gruyere President and my special home made french fries.

We rarely eat fries, because of the oil etc…
One exception is when I made them with baby potatoes, sliced like fries with their skin, fried in vegetable oil, with garlic in skin and tick slices of red onion.
The secret, to make the fries more crunchy, crispy, add coarse sea salt and Piment de Cayenne.
I fry the baby potatoes with the red onions and garlic cloves in their skin. It develops delicious flavors.

We would even allow a glass of Coca Cola to go with. Today, we replaced the Coca by a fresh Orange and Raspberry Tesco Juice. You must try it!
So easy. Enjoy and let me know if you liked it.

Blanquette de veau

Blanquette de veau

A very simple recipe. The hardest part is to find veal which is rare in the UK. In France, you would just asked some ‘veau pour une blanquette’ and they would know exactly which part of the veal you need, ideally some parts with bone.

I was lucky to find some at Marks & Spencer today, but no bone. I cut them in smaller pieces, added pepper and flour, heated the oil, added the challottes or small onion, two with cloves, small mushrooms, two carrots, two bay leaf, thyme, white wine, small garlic, once cooked, add some double cream, 3-4 table spoon, and that’s it. served with rice and sprinkle of parsley.

Believe me, it’s at easy as ordering meal delivery and so much nicer,

You can also follow the recipe from ‘ChubbyHubby’ for the veau a l’ancienne. A slightly more complicated recipe :

Blanquette de veau à l’ancienne
Adapted from Chef David Lemee’s recipe

Serves 6

3 cloves
2 onions, peeled
2 carrots, peeled
1 leek
1.5 kilograms boneless veal shoulder cut into 4cm cubes
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
1 litre veal stock
200 millilitres white wine
100 grams unsalted butter
500 grams champignons, quartered
lemon juice to taste
280 grams small white onions, peeled
1 tablespoon sugar
60 grams all-purpose flour
250 millilitres crème fraiche
250 millilitres heavy cream
salt, pepper and sugar to taste

Stick the cloves into one of the onions. Cut the carrots and leek into 5 centimetre chunks and set them aside. Place the veal in a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil on high heat. Simmer for 4 minutes then drain and rinse thoroughly in cold water.

Clean the pot. Place the meat, onions, carrots, leek, thyme and bay leaf in the pot. Cover with veal stock and white wine. Bring to a boil and remove any scum that rises to the surface. You can lower the fire down and leave the veal to simmer over the fire, or place the pot in an oven preheated to 100 degrees Celsius, for about 2 hours (or until the veal is tender; if using breast, cook for much less time).

Meanwhile, melt 15 grams of butter in a frying pan. Gently brown the mushrooms and add a drizzle of lemon juice (to taste). Cover and leave to cook over gentle heat for 10 minutes before seasoning with salt and pepper.

In a separate frying pan, melt another 15 grams of butter. Fry the small onions with the sugar and 1 teaspoon of water for 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

When the veal is tender, remove it from the pan. Strain the stock and discard the vegetables and aromatics. Place the stock in a saucepan and reduce it until about 1 litre remains.

Melt the remaining butter in a pan and gradually add the flour while mixing with a wooden spoon. When you have a roux, cook over medium-low heat for 3 minutes. Then add the hot stock, ladle by ladle. Keep stirring the sauce, ensuring it stays smooth. Then add the creme fraiche and heavy cream, still stirring. Add the veal, the onions and mushrooms. Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste. When the veal has been heated through, you can serve. It’s best with buttered basmati rice.”

Wine to serve with the Blanquette:

VIN BLANC
- Alsace Pinot gris
- Givry
- Mâcon Villages
- Meursault
- Mercurey
- Pouilly-Fuissé
- Quincy
- Rully
- Sancerre

VIN ROUGE
- Beaujolais Villages
- Brouilly
- Chiroubles
- Menetou-Salon
- Saint Joseph
- Saint Pourçain
- Sancerre

VIN ROSE
- Côtes de Provence
- Sancerre

ENJOY !

Little story about the blanquette de veau.

First, why is it called ‘blanquette’ ? because in the past, bourgeois who could afford veal, accomodated the rest of the Roti de veau, veal roast, in blanquette. Blanquette comes from blanc, which means white. White is the color of the sauce.  You can read Jean-Louis Flandrin, ‘La blanquette de veau. Histoire d’un plat bourgeois‘

If you don’t want to read the whole book, you can have a look at Patrick Chazallet ‘La blanquette de veau : Histoire d’un plat bourgeois’

Oriental Vegetarian Nibbles

cooking ingredients

Friday is a god day for shopping, cooking and celebrating the end of the week.
My Waitrose visit sent me home with two packs of Feather beef and a pack of lamb meatballs. I prefer to make my menus from what is available/fresh/in promotion in the shop instead of making my own shopping list.

With the vegetables in the fridge, I started cooking the meat for two dishes to be served later this week-end.

This evening, we opted for an oriental ‘nibbles night’ with vegetarian dishes. Easy home made houmous, Taboulet maison and Waitrose tarama, with Italian procietto and olives. Served with home made brown bread, cheese nuts and dates.

While I prepared the meat for future dishes, I mixed up a can of chick peas with a spoon of Tahina, two garlic cloves, the juice of a lime, olive oil, salt and paprika, mixed together with the blender. Of course home cooked chick peas would have been much better. This was an improvised dinner and therefore, I could not have left the peas in water overnight. Still it’s better and fresher than the ready made ones. I have never tried to make the tarama at home. I had a friend who used to do it. Not sure where to find the ingredients around here (egg of hearing). My kids love procetto and olives. We were not very hungry tonight or otherwise we could have had artichokes, herbs omelet or my special yoghourt dip with garlic, served with all sorts of vegetables to dip in (cucumber, carrots, celery, cauliflower, red pepper,…) , some red radish, green salad or cucumber, tomatoes and red pepper salad, or tomato mozzarella salad. So many easy choice for a light vegetarian (or mainly vegetarian) dinner. Of course smoked salmon, potatoes and prawns are other options.

The Yin and the Yang

They are many recipes for taboulet. The way I like it is a little bit of couscous, lots of herbs (this time mint and coriander, parsley is well recommended), cucumber, tomatoes, red and orange pepper, a spoon of chick peas from the can I used for the Houmous, 6/7 small spring onions, two spoons of raisins, one lime and olive oil, salt and paprika.

Middle East cuisine has a wide variety of vegetarian dishes, all rather healthy based on vegetables, olive oil and herbs.

Table set

Dinner served

One little trick, when using lime or lemon, don’t throw them away. Keep them for your dish washing or use them in a small bowl in the fridge as an air freshner.

 One of my favorite cuisine in the Middle East is the Persian cuisine. Based on lots of herbs but rarely spices chili. Tomorrow, I will prepare two Persian rice : my kids favorite Black Cherry rice and green beans and meat. Head up soon if you want the recipes.

One of our favorite places to eat in London is Ev in Southwark Lovely spot with all the plants on this cul de sac where you can seat outside and the inside is big enough to find a table without need to book. We love their menu of vegetarian dishes with the lovely bread. They advertise th be ‘organic’. One of my personal criteria to check the hygiene of a restaurant is to look at the ladies. So far, we have always been satisfied by the quality of the food.

Enjoy the meals and come back soon for the rice recipes : black cherry rice  (suitable for vegetarian) and Beef and green beans rice.

Rack of lamb and potatoes en robe

Another easy recipe, rack of lamb cooked in the oven ‘badigeonne de moutarde a l’ancienne, ail et herbes de provence’. Which means you cover the lamb with French mustard mixed with olive oil, crunched garlic and herbs of Provence. I like it pritty rare. Therefore, cook in oven for 20′ and leave it for another 20′. What makes a good meal is the good ingredients and the cooking timing. I use the Dijon mustard with some gros sel de guerande brought from France. It’s a sea salt rich in minerals such as Iron, Calcium, magnesium, zinc, etc.. Guérande is well know for its marais salants. Many good recipes use this special salt and one that I haven’t tried yet but tastes fantastic, is the Chicken ‘en croute’ Have a look at this website, Les Saveurs du Monde. You can ask Google to translate it for you if you don’t read French. In any case, the pictures explain by themselves.

Wine recommendations with the ‘carré d’agneau’ :
Basically, red wine : Haut-Médoc, Pauillac, Saint-Estèphe, Saint-Julien, Listrac, Moulis, Fronsac, Pessac-Léognan, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, Cahors, Montravel, Côtes de Provence, Coteaux d’Aix, Bandol, Corse, Patrimonio, Faugères, Saint-Chinian, Minervois, Coteaux du Languedoc, Saint-Joseph, Cornas, Côte-Rôtie, Côtes du Rhône Villages, Lirac, Vacqueyras, Gigondas, Costières de Nîmes.
I opened a Chateau le Calet 2004. Drink little but best quality is my choice.
If you go to this part of France, in the Finistere, try to pass by Le Pouliguen, next to La Baule but so much more authentic. Let me share a secret with you, one of the best Muscles can be found at ‘La Creperie du Dervin‘, in a best spot with a view over the ocean, on the ‘falaises’ in this Cote d’Amour. My favorites: muscles ‘au fromage’ (with cheese) and don’t miss ou their soupe de poisson or fish soup.

Terrasse de la Creperie du Dervin- Le Pouliguen - France

Le Port du Pouliguen

La charmante ville de Pouliguen