Tag: easy

Oeufs Cocotte (eggs on bed of leek fondue)

Oeuf cocottes, what a classic! But you kow what, it is part of these classic dish you forget for quite some times, even possibly some years and then somehow you think of them and they are so good! No nostalgia here, just simple ingredients put together. Beautiful. Healthy. Vegetarian and full of protein. Gluten free. What else? Ah! Easy to make!

oeufs cocotte ready for baking

Ingredients:
  • You will need one leek for 2 persons for the size of the ramequin dish
    ramequins you can use
    Left one for a main, right one for an entree

    on the photo.  Don’t worry if you cook too much leek, you can always use them in another serie of oeuf cocotte or in a quiche, in a vegetable tarte or served with a nice fish fillet.

  • About 15 g of butter for 2 person, up to 40 g if doing for 6 people.
  • 1 egg per peron (freerange)
  • 2 tablespoons of cream /person
  • salt, pepper, pinch of nutmeg or of cumin
  • Optional: 1 baby boccocini per person or a little grated parmesan
  • Sourdough bread to serve
Method:
  1. Remove any external leaf of the leek if old and brown. You may not have to remove any, up to 2  leaves maximum. Trim the top end bit if not from your garden.leek preparation
  2. On a chopping board, using a large knive to cut 2 cm pieces using the whole leek.  The darker part of the leek will need cleaning, it is not necessary for the lower hite part. Once the pieces are cut, place in water then in a salad spinner and drain of its water.
  3. In a heavy bottom fry-pan, melt the butter and add the leek. Cover and allow to cook slowly until melted and cooked. Add salt and pepper.  if it sticks or tends to burn, bring the heat further down and add 1/4 cup of water maximum just to rehydrate the whole mix.
  4. Fill each ramequin 2/3 full with leek. Add 2 tablespoon of cream to each, the pinch of nutmeg or ground cumin if using. Gently break the egg over the leek and add the cheese.
  5. Bake in the oven on 180°C for 5 minutes or until the egg white is just cooked (it will be all white and no longer transparent). The yolk should then still be runny. Remove from the oven and serve with fresh or toasted sourdough bread.

oeufs cocotte ready for baking

Quick and beautiful

Did I find that camera again?

Some photos!! Finally!  Some photos means something to put on the blog.  There is plenty cooking going on but often no photos being taken. The reason is not always not finding the camera. It ranges from making time to not having anything to photograph any more because somebody ate it!

Some quick dishes

Sometimes I decide to bake something at the last minute, or I push the boundary of getting a dish done while doing many other things or having to leave the house soon. At other times, I am just coming home and need to cook something for dinner. Inspiration is not forthcoming until some ideas just pop up. Today, I am sharing some of these ideas with you.

Comfort food for an easy lunch or dinner

boulettes viande sauce tomate

Last weekend, I did not feel like sausages for dinner. I am not fan of sausages I must say. We had some mince and while the sausages were cooking (for the children who normally are sausages bug fans!) I just went on making meat balls.  The thing with meat balls is you can really put a variety of ingredients in them.  Some corn on the cob I was boiling because it had to be used ended up in the meat balls, so did some parsley, onion, garlic and more good things.

I simply served it with a green salad (as in lettuce dressed with olive oil&balsamic vinaigar).

Recipe HERE.

Chocolate fondant for a neighbourhood party

We got that invitation for a party which we weren’t sure what to bring or if to bring anything. I decided the children – there were bound to be quite a few – would always appreciate a little chocolate cake.

That recipe was found online a few days before I did it, I just gave it a try. Making:  5-10 minutes.  Cooking time: 8 minutes. It is a bit like a brownies but not so heavy.  The fun bit was for the children to decorate it using tagliatelle and icing sugar.

The recipe can be found where I found it, on ELLE website.

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A recent encounter with Alain Ducasse chocolate cream

I am on this home cooking facebook page where one day I saw and wrote down this recipe from a french chef for some “petits pots de creme au chocolat”.  These are little ramequins of chocolate cream.  This dessert does not contain any cream nor flour or cornflour. It is a creme anglaise with chocolate, good chocolate, and a fair bit of it!

I have now done them quite a few times in the last three month, they are easy to make and so pleasing.  This is the first time I manage to snap a photo of them. Recipe HERE.

petits pots au chocolat petits pots au chocolat

And I had not made these for a while….

These is my tke on the protuguese custard tartlets. All you need is a good puff pastry, a vanilla custard and a little extra butter and sugar!  The recipe is already on the blog HERE. The photos here are the last batch. They smelled so good when we were taking the photos, it was hard to resist!

potuguese style tartlets potuguese style tartlets potuguese style tartlets

Meatballs in tomato sauce

Use this recipe of meatballs in tomato sauce as a base for meatballs recipes.  What is important is to bring up the flavours with the meat. This recipe is easy and can be done with children.

Serve it with pasta or rice or a green salad.

Serves 4.

Ingredients
  • 500 g mince meat (beef, you can use a combination or other meats)
  • 3 large garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1/2 onion passed through the food processor (alternatively dice very thinly)
  • 1/2 cup of mozzarella
  • 1 teaspoon of chermoula mix spices (or other meat seasoning spice mix)
  • corn from 2 corns on the cob, boiled and separated.
  • 1 egg (this is to help making it stick together, if you have small eggs, 2 may be better)
  • salt & pepper, oil
  • Passata – about 2 cups
  • 1/2 cup of parmesan or similar
  • about 2/3 cup of plain flour (use corn flour is gluten is an issue)
  • garden herbs: thyme, rosemary or parsley
Method:
  1. In a big bowl, mix together the mince, garlic, spices, onion, mozzarella, corn, egg, and if using some thyme or rosemary.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
  2. Place the flour in a deep plate.
  3. Make balls with the meat the size of a lime then roll in the flour. Set aside until all are prepared.
  4. Heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frypan, once hot, place the meat balls and slightly flatten them.  Allow to grill on each side (turning once only as they are fragile). Reduce the heat to medium.  Once grilled, add the passata and cover for 10-15 minutes while the meat finishes to cook. If you find the sauce is too thick or too little you can add 1/2 cup of water.
  5. Uncover, add the parmesan and fresh parsley. Serve.

 

You will never fail your tarte Tatin again

Tarte Tatin or the upside down tarte.

Tarte Tatin is a French dessert,  with lots of butter, caramel and a beautiful pastry.  It is cooked with the pastry on top, not underneath like a usual tarte.  After cooling down a little, it is turned upside down on a serving plate.

Until now, mine resembled a gooey gathering of fruits and caramel.  I must say, since I tried this tip maybe three-month ago, I have found a new “Waho” dessert that is simple to make.  I know, some will say, I always say so (which is not true!)… Try, this will become your dinner party dessert. And you know what:  it is not a chocolate – even though we love it – recipe!

So, what results do you get?

I made the same recipe with apple and with pears.  For the later, make sure they are not too soft. By now at least two to three-time each. The last one was a large size one on Monday. Yes a week day! I have taken a few photos. I realise the best apple tarte Tatin were not photographed.  Check out the fruits sitting!  I can’t believe it every time I unmold one these days.

Tatin poires tatin pommes

And what is that tip?

A classic tarte Tatin recipe will call for you to either cook the fruits with butter and sugar in a thick based frypan and somehow avoid a puree or place the uncooked fruits directly in the baking tin and pray that they be cooked by the time the pastry is ready. I never fancied either techniques (I guess you got that by now).

The tip comes from Christophe Michalak, a French pastry chef very followed at the moment.  To be frank, he is a Master Patissier. I made some of his recipes (I made this amazing strawberry tarte of his a couple weeks ago for a birthday, delicious!!) and they are pretty good and very practical. All are not necessarily that easy.

Ok, the tip! Let us come back to our topic.  All right, swap the frypan for a good size saucepan. Butter, sugar, vanilla and peeled quartered fruits all get in and relax in there for a bit in their little jacuzzi until they are soft. That is the tip! No pureed fruits! Plenty space for them to move and cook slowly without coming to pieces. You are left with an interesting juice, which can be used for another Tatin or something else.  I have one on the corner of the stove right now and am getting ideas…

Back to our tarte Tatin again.  Then, you place the fruits over a caramel (you didn’t think you are going to stay idle all that time, did you?) you have previously  covered the base and side of the metal tin with.  Your job there is to ensure the pieces are fruits are cosy side by side.  Then the pastry comes on top, and all is sent for a little bit more warmth in Mr Oven for a little bit.

Conclusion: You will never fail your tarte Tatin again!

If you want the recipe, click HERE.

tatin pomme

Baked Salmon Fillet

Find a nice piece of salmon fillet for the number of people you want to feed (ask your fishmonger) for this baked salmon fillet dish and prepare it in a gratin ceramic dish. This recipe is very easy.

Serve this with a green salad or blanched french beans. If you would like a meal a little more consistent add couscous semolina or rice.

Ingredients:

For 4 people.

  • 1 large piece of salmon fillet (bones out if possible)
  • 1 tbsp of capers
  • 1/2 red onion
  • fresh thyme,  fresh rosemary or fresh sage (your choice, if you don’t know choose what you have at home or some thyme – my favourite)
  • 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes (10-15 cherry tomatoes, if you only have normal size tomato, go for two of them but in eight pieces each.
  • Olive oil
  • Rock salt (1 tsp)
  • Cracked pepper
  • in the photo above I had some chestnuts to use.  If you want to use some, incise each of them, place them one minute in boiling water, then peel and put in the bake.
Method:
  1. Heat Up the oven to 180ºC.
  2. Place a dash of oil at the bottom of your gratin ceramic dish.
  3. Place your piece of salon in the middle, the tomatoes on the side, the apers and oinion scatred all over.
  4. Put a fillet of olive oil over the dish, add the salt and cracked pepper, then herbs.
  5. Cook for about 20 minutes. The time will vary depending on the thickness of your piece and your oven. To check for doneness, use a small pointy knife and pull apart the flesh of the fish. If it pulls apart, it is ready. Salmon is beautiful when just done, that is when there is still a little pinkness in the flesh (just cooked).
  6. Remove from the oven and serve with blanches greens or a salad. Add some couscous or jasmine rice if you want something a bit more nutricious.

salmon fish cappers red onion

Lemon curd addiction!

Lemon curd addiction

Lemons seem to be in full season again at the moment. I must have ten of them laying around either the fruit bowl and the fridge.  The season for lemonade has passed somehow and I have yet to learn to preserve lemons. So for now, one use of the lemons is in lemon curd desserts.

Lemon curd is not hard to make, you need to go slowly but you don’t necessarily need a bain marie to make it, that means it takes 10 minutes maximum!  Also once made, it keep for a few weeks in the fridge!

Lemon curd addiction is easy to catch, except if you do not have much of a sweet tooth. Since lemon curd can be quite overpowering, best is to counter balance the sugar and acidity or have it in small quantities only.

Our biggest family lemon curd addiction: the lemon curd pudding

I have finally shared this one with you. Looking back in my photos, I have many versions of it: family size, individual in ramequin and steamed and turn over versions! Yum.

This has been one of Ambrine’s favourite dessert for a few years now. Lemon curd at the bottom nd cake top over it.  It is rapid to make and is always beautiful.

Check out the recipe and its versions HERE.

ramequin lemon curd pudding

Lemon curd tiramisu

I posted this one some time ago, but it is well worth a reminder. Again use as family size of build in individual dishes!  Recipe HERE.

lemon curd tiramisu

Lemon curd tartlets

What an endless classic. They key here is to have them not too large.   The dough is a short pastry.  Other versions that the one proposed here can be used. You will need to precook them. As my Bonne Maman (the name we gave to my grandma) used to say, we are making “tartes aux cailloux” or pebble pie.

lemon curd tartlets

Lemon and lime tart

This is a little bit more involved and the pastry is a little delicate to make. That said it is well worth it.  The lemon curd cooks in the oven, a  little bit as a sweet quiche. Recipe HERE.

lemon curd

Lemon curd puddings

This lemon curd pudding is one of our favourite. It is quick to make and really easy. I either make it as individual portions as here on the photos or family version in a larger souffle dish.  The pudding consists in a lemon curd (don’t be afraid, read on, you can’t get it wrong) and a cake batter.

ramequin lemon curd pudding

Ingredients:

This makes 8 serves.

For the lemon curd
  • 120 g of butter
  • 170 g of white sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 175 g of lemon juice (about 2 good lemons)

Tip: the bright yellow colour  is linked to the egg yolks, the brighter your eggs, the more vibrant the lemon curd.

For the biscuit

160 g of butter
160 g of castor sugar
3 eggs
160 g of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp grated lemon zest

Method
Lemon curd:
  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan with the lemon juice and sugar.
  2. In a medium bowl, break the eggs and beat them well with a whisk (to homogeneise them). Bring the warm liquid to boiling point.
  3. As soon as bubbles appear on the sides, pur it over the eggs while whisking.  It is very important you whisk all the time to disperse the heat and avoid omelette pieces in your curd.  It is possible the curd will be thickening on its own at this stage, if that is the case, no need to transfer back in the pan and cook further, keep whisking at low pace until the curd cools down a bit more (30 second to 1 minute).  If the curd has not thickened yet, then pour it back to the saucepan, always whisking and place it on medium heat. Keep mixing until the curd thickens then transfer to a clean bowl.

Tip: Want to know when your curd is at the right thickness? If the curd coats the back of a clean spoon (it doesn’t all run away), then it is ready.

Tip: Your lemon curd will further thicken when cooling down.

The pudding

Tip: If you are choosing the turn over steamed version , you will need to line bottoms with greaseproof paper circles. This would not be necessary if you are using silicone moulds. You will also need to cover the ramequins in foil and cook in a large roasting dish with water coming to 1/2 height. 

  1. Heat up the oven to 170ºC
  2. Grease eight small 150 mL ramequins or pudding bowls.
  3. Cream butter and sugar.
  4. Add the eggs on at a time, mix.
  5. Add the flour, baking powder and lemon zest. Mix well.
  6. Spoon two generous tablespoons of lemon curd into each ramequin.
  7. Spoon the biscuit dough over the lemon curd trying to cover it fully.
  8. Bake for about 20 minutes until well golden.  (for the steam version allow 30 min).
  9. Serve warm. Careful it is very hot when just out off the oven.   If unmoulding the steamed pudding, run a gentle knive around the outside of each pudding before turning out.
Other versions
The turn-over lemon curd pudding
The family  version lemon curd pudding
family lemon curd pudding
Yellow lava coming through the top! Yum!

 

Pain perdu

Pain perdu means “lost bread” in French.  In France, it is traditionally done with bread from the day before and often served as a dessert.  This is a way not to waste bread as families would buy fresh bread each day.  In Australia, we follow the American trend of doing pain perdu as a breakfast staple.  This recipe uses pre-cut commercial brioche which I buy from time to time.

Count one slice per person, two for bigger eaters.  I like to add yoghurt and fruits.  I do not necessarily add sugar over the pain perdu as the brioche is already quite sweet.  If you do it with left-over bread, adding brown sugar, honey or maple syrup is then quite justified.

brioche pain perdu breakfast

Ingredients:

For 5 slices

  • 5 slices of brioche
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup of mil
  • a nut of butter
Preparation:
  1. Beat the eggs and milk together in a large bowl
  2. Heat up a nut of butter in a non-stick pan.  When melted reduce the heat to 2/3 of full power.
  3. Take a slice of brioche, place it in the egg mixture (for 5 seconds) if the top of the slide was not submerged turn over and repeat, then transfer to the fry-pan.  You may be able to fit 2 or 3 slices in the pan.
  1. After 30 seconds to 1 minute (depending on the heat) turn over, it should be golden brown.
  2. Once the bottom is also golden brown transfer to a plate and serve.
  3. Eat warm with fruits, yogurt and honey or brown sugar as wished.

Yum!

brioche pain perdu breakfast

brioche pain perdu breakfast

Poached deep seabream with carrots

This poached deep seabream with carrots dish is simply easy and delicious. The key: very few ingredients! The fish cooks very quick (a couple minutes) so best to do it last.

I like serving with a side salad which again is rather simple and does have very few ingredients, here lettuce mostly and one tomato or two.

The whole is ready in half an hour.

Deep seabream can be found at your local fishmongers or at Sydney Fish Market. Check out the sea bream ID sheet (Sydney Fish Market).

 

Ingredients:

For 4 people

  • 1 fillet per person of seabream (they are generally quite small, if you have some larger one, decrease the number)
  • one bunch of dutch carrots (about 12 of them)
  • 3 carrots
  • 15 g of butter
  • 1 tsp of fennel seeds
  • Parsley to garnish
  • Side salad (lettuce and tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette)
Method:
  1. Peel the dutch carrots. For this use a vegetable peeler and try to keep the peel as thin as possible or you won’t have much left of your carrots. Cut the leaves about half a centimetre above the collar and cut the end bit of the root if it has not yet come off while peeling.
  2. Peel the “normal” carrots and slice about half a centimetre thick.
  3. In a large thick bottom fry-pan, place 15 g of butter, allow to melt, add the carrots, a sprinkle of salt and a ladle of water. Cover and leave to cook on gentle heat (half heat). From time to time, shake the fry-pan.  The carrots  should not stick , nor burn.  It will take about 10-15 minutes to cook.  If you like them still a little crunchy, it will be closer to 10 minutes than 15 minutes.  You can heck for doneness with the point of a knife, it should not meet much resistance going through a piece of carrot.
  4. For the fish, use another frypan, place in it two centimetre of water, a fillet of olive oil, a teaspoon of rock salt and the fennel seeds. Bring to the boil. Then place the fish and reduce the heat to a simmer. The fish will cook in 2-3 minutes (it will be white and no longer translucent).
  5. PLace the fish and the carrots in a serving dish. Garnish with parsley and serve warm.

Apricot and rosemary jam

This apricot and rosemary jam is a slight twist from the plain apricot jam.  The best time to do it is  in summer at the peak of the apricot season. If you can – I know this is not always the case – get them quite ripe as they then have more flavour.

This recipe makes six to eight jars of jam. The final number will depend of the volumes of your jars.  I imagine you may be reusing any jars that come through the pantry!

Ingredients:
  • 2.5 kilos of apricots (aim at 2 kg of fruits oncapricot and rosemary jame the stone is removed, you will likely have a few extras)
  • 1.8 g of white sugar
  • 2 long sprigs of rosemary
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 6-8 jars sterilised (you can do that when the jam is cooking)
Method:
  1. Open the apricots (just with your fingers, no need for a knife), remove the stone and the remaining of the stem.rosemary abricot jam
  2. Place all the ingredients in a large pot (twice the volume of your ingredients), heat up slowly. Once it is boiling, reduce to a very slow boil and allow to boil for 30 to  45 minutes until the fruits are cooked and start to break apart.
  3. Here you can choose to have big chunks of fruits and parts of jam without pieces or smaller chunks. For that use a soup stick blender and blend in short burst making sure you leave some apricots pieces in the mix!
  4. The jam would have started to thicken (would coat the back of a wooden spoon and a few drops placed on a cold plate will not be runny).  Remove the sprigs of rosemary.  If the leaves are still attached to the sprigs, peel them off and leave them in the jam.
  5. Stop the cooking and immediately transfer into the jam jars using a ladle and funnel with a large nozzle. Fill to a half a centimetre from the top.
  6. Close with the lids and clean the sides of the jars if necessary. Allow to cool before labelling and storing away.

The jam does not need to be kept in the fridge.  Opened jars can be kept in the pantry or the fridge, it is a matter of personnal preferences and time you take to go through the jar.  If you need a couple month per jar, I would recommend storing in the fridge.

I love that jam on fresh baguette and cream cheese!

Reine de Saba

La Reine de Saba or The Queen of Sheba is a beautiful chocolate cake.  It is great for many occasions: morning and afternoon tea, accompaniment of a dessert cream, lunch box or parties birthday cake. I have also used it as a basis for a birthday cake (a crocodile chocolate cake).

You will find some versions of this cake which have almond meal instead of flour. It is also delicious, not as light though. I liked this one from the goodfood magasine.

Ingredients
  • 150 g of white or caster sugar
  • 100 g of plain flour
  • 2/3 sachet of raising powder or 2/3 teaspoon if using it from the box
  • 150 g of dark cooking chocolate (if you are using a 70% cocoa chocolate, decrease the chocolate quantity to 120 g, it would be too strong for children).
  • 120 g of butter
  • 4 egg yolks and 4 egg white beaten to snow.
Method
  1. Heat the oven to 180 °Celsius.
  2. Butter and flour a tin, or butter and line.
  3. Melt the butter and chocolate together.
  4. Mix in the sugar, then the egg yolks one at the time.
  5. Add the flour and raising powder together, being careful not to create any lumps.
  6. Fold in the egg whites (in snow) gently.
  7. Transfer to the baking tin and insert in the oven.
  8. Cook until dry in the center (20 to 30 min depending on ovens and thickness of the cake in the tin)

 

 

 

Shortbread cookies

Shortbread cookies use the sweet short crust pastry as a base.  After it is just a matter of having a few cookie cutters at home.  Children can decorate them with coloured sugar balls, sultanas, nuts or fondant.

Ingredients:
  • 250 g plain flour
  • 125 g softened butter
  • 125 g white sugar
  • 1 egg
Method:
  1. In a large bowl, mix all ingredient together and form a ball.  Over a few movements, knead it on the kitchen bench to ensure cohesion (20 seconds max). Rest for 15-20 minutes.
  2. Dust the kitchen bench with flour to prevent sticking. Place the dough on the kitchen bench.  Dust the top similarly. Roll with the rolling-pin to 6 to 8 mm thick. Ensure the bottom is not stuck by lifting the pastry gently. Add more flour underneath of necessary.
  3. Using cookie cutters make the shapes and transfer them onto a baking sheet covered with baking paper.
  4. If the children want to decorate, use sultanas or pieces of nuts or sugar balls. Smarties work well too.
  5. Bake 10-15 minutes on 160 degrees Celsius until light blonde. Remove from the oven and slide the base on a cooling rack using the baking paper.  Allow to cool.