Savory tart with zucchini and bacon (Tarte à la courgette et aux lardons)

Savory tart

Christmas is around the corner. We like to take this occasion to get together to celebrate a whole year of friendship and accomplishment before leaving for the end of year holidays. Apart from the formal company dinner, there are other gatherings that are informal between friends or members of the same group. And some cooking will be required.

For the Christmas party of my daughter’s playgroup, there will be a spectacle for the children and a buffet – which will be made up of dishes that every family will bring along. I decided to a simple savory tart with zucchini and bacon for the event. This tart can be eaten warm or cool, thus is suitable for buffet style meal. To make a complete meal on its own, serve it with a salad and some white wine.

Savory tart with zucchini and bacon

Ingredients (for making 1 tart in a 23cm baking plate):
1 piece of puff pastry sheet
2 zucchini
200g bacons
20g whipping cream
2 eggs
1 onion
1/2 tea-spoon of cumin and 1 tea-spoon of coriander powder
(or replace both with 1 soup-spoon of curry powder)

How to make a savory tart with zucchini and bacon:
1. Pre-heat the oven at 220°C.

2. Finely chop the onion into small bits, and the zucchini into slices of round pieces. With middle heat, warm up some butter and oil to pre-cook the onion and bacons (both in small pieces). After a few mintues, add in the zucchini, and stir-fry for another 5 mins.

3. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, whipping cream and spice powder of your choice, and a pinch of salt and some pepper.

4. Thinly spread some oil or melted butter to a baking plate, so that the pastry will not be attached. Unfold the puff pastry sheet onto the baking plate. Use a fork to poke some small holes to the bottom of the pastry sheet. Spread out the pre-cooked onion, zuchhini and bacon onto the plate, and pour in the liquid egg mix.

5. Place the plate into the oven at mid-level, and cook for about 30 mins.

Enjoy!

Dreaming about aperitif white wine in the South-West of France

Once an American colleague asked us to bring him visiting the “wine country”. One of my French colleague then answered him “But you ARE already in the wine country!” Yes, France is a wine country as a whole. There are wine area everywhere (there are much more than Bordeaux in France!) As for the Toulousains, we appreciate especially the local wine: Fronton, Gaillac, Cahors, Juronçon,…these are all wine producing areas in the south-west of France – “vins de sud-ouest”

We always start a social gathering with an “aperitif”, where wine or other drinks are served with snacks, so people can chat freely and warm up the atmosphere. A good aperitif is therefore critical for a successful dinner party.

One of the aperitif wine that I’d like to highlight is Tariquet – premières grives. I dare say, 8 out of 10 time there is an aperitif, there is Tariquet. It’s a mildly sweet white wine from our region. It’s fruity, refreshing, it’s always served chilled. (It’s especially welcomed by women.)

It’s soon to be Christmas, where duck liver “foie gras” will be found on the tables in nearly all homes in France. It’d be a good idea to get a bottle of sweet white wine like Tariquet or Jurançon beforehand, to accompany the  gourmandise…yum

A little plus to the Blanquette de Veau/ French veal stew

My 2-years-old tried to taste the dish while I posted it for picture

Blanquette de veau is a dish that I often prepare for dinner with friends or in family. It always pleases my guests – probably because of the tenderness of the meat and its creamy white sauce.

The traditional recipe consists of simmering the stew meat with carrot, onion, leek, celeri, thyme and bay leaf for 1.5 hours. Thicken the sauce at the end by gradually introducing a mixture of egg yolk and whipping cream.

Today I’ve tried out a variety. I simmered the ingredients in coconut milk and chicken broth instead of water. The resulting sauce is more creamy and the coconut milk is so subtle that it only make the dish more delicious.

Serve this dish with plain rice and a fruity white wine. Enjoy!

Why marinate the fish filet

Tuna steak in marinate

Why marinate the fish filet? Objectively the marinate can only penetrate about 1cm of meat per day, so for a 2-hour preparation, it’s not going very far. But it can still tenderize and fragrance the surface of the fish before pan frying it.

I guess it is that subtle extra in taste and texture that distinguish one dish to another.

Ingredients (for 2 people):
40ml of olive oil
1 lemon
Pinch of thyme and bay leaf

How to marinate a fish filet:
1. Peel the lemon, and cut it into thin slides.  Pour the olive oil, lemon slides, thyme and bay leaf into a large flat plat.

2. Dry the fish filets with kitchen paper before placing them into the plat, and roll the filets over the marinate mix. Keep it cool in the refrigerator (1 hour for thin slides. 2 hours for thick slides) to prevent gems development.

Note: You do not need a lot of oil, just enough to cover partially the filet. Turn the fish filet to the other side every hour to ensure even coverage.

Duck with pineapples

The weather is cold and rainy today, I had absolutely no desire to go out for grocery. Luckily, I have a piece of duck breast and half a pineapple in the refrigerator. It recalls a dish that I had in a Chinese restaurant once: stir-fry duck breast with pineapples, that I have kept a good souvenir.

To make this dish delicious, we need good tastes as well as tender meat texture. Meat marinate is essential. I have also made extra sauce to bring taste to the rice. I have first cooked the surface of the duck to seal the juice inside, and then use small fire at the end to complete the cooking to keep the meat tender.

The pineapples are sweet and sour, they arouse appetite and you’d better prepare more rice than usual. (which I didn’t and my husband and kid went on eating extra cheese, bread and dessert to calm down their appetite)

Ingredients (for 2 adults and a 2.5 year old kid):
400g of duck
1/2 fresh pineapple

Marinate for duck:
2 soup spoon of soya sauce
1/2 tea-spoon of sugar
1 tea-spoon of cornstarch Maizena
1/2 tea-spoon of ginger powder

Sauce:
1 tea-spoon of sugar
1/2 tea-spoon of salt
3-4 soup-spoon of vinegar
1 soup-spoon of white porto
1-2 cup of chicken broth

How to make stir-fry duck with pineapple:

1. First chop the duck into bite-size slides, and marinate them briefly. Stir-fry in high heat with oil for a couple of minutes, just enough for the surface to be cooked. Remove the meat and store it on a separately.

2. Remove the hard parts of the pineapple and cut it into bite-size pieces. Pour them into the same saucepan. Stir-fry them with the sauce mix in high heat. When the sauce is evaporated and reduced into a sauce-like, thicker texture, bring back the duck into the pan. Cover the saucepan and turn down the heat to medium-small fire, cook the whole thing for a few more minutes until the duck is tenderly cooked.

Served with plain steam rice.

Bon appétit!

How to make Pilaf (rice)

Pilaf is rice pre-cooked in oil or butter, then steam cooked in a liquid like chicken broth. By heating the rice briefly in oil, it reduces the sticky nature of the starch. As a result, the rice grains will be firm and non-sticky. The pilaf is coming from the middle and central Asia. It tastier than plain rice and can accompany dishes like curry.

I have made the pilaf with only coconut milk, and served it with a marinated tuna filet and pineapple. The result is astronishing, the acidity of the pineapple matches well the creaminess of pilaf. I’ll share this experience in a separate post.

Ingredients (2 people) :
1 cup of long grain rice
1.5 cup of liquid (water, chicken broth or coconut milk) (This quantity is 1.5 times the volume of the rice)
1 onion
Salt
Herbs of Provence, bay leaf (nice to have)

How to make a pilaf:

1. Pre-cook the ingredients: finely chop the onion into tiny bits. Heat up some butter or olive oil to stir fry the onion for few minutes until the onion is softened. Add in the rice to the onion, stir fry for a couple of minutes, make sure the grains are completely covered with the oil.

2. Add in the liquid prepared, and add a pinch of salt. Add in the herbs and bay leaf suggested or other spices as you like. Mix the whole thing well.

3. Bring it to boil, cover the pot/pan with a lid, mimimize the fire. Let the rice be cooked for about 15 minutes, then switch off the fire. DO NOT remove the lid during this cooking time, as we need to keep the steam inside to cook the rice.

Note: If you smell that the rice starts to burn, stop the fire immediately without waiting for the end of cooking time. The rice is not totally lost, you can still serve the unburned, well cooked portion on top.

4. Let the rice rest in the pot/pan with the lid covered for another 5-10 minutes, to ensure the rice has absorbed all liquid and well cooked. Remove the bay leaf.

If you are not in a diet and would like to further enhancing the taste of the rice, you can stir in some butter before serving.

Spaghetti Carbonara

Today I decided to make a simple meal. With an empty refrigerator, I basically have just enough ingredients to make a spaghetti dish – the Carbonara. It’s a dish that we have eaten hundrens times before; this time, I decided to make some change to surprise my husband.

Before, we have always used cream as the sauce, and we sprinkled the grated cheese on the spaghetti on the plat. This time, instead, I have mixed eggs and grated cheese to the cream before cooking. This change has greatly improved the texture and taste of the sauce – it is much creamier and rich. Second change I have made was to replace the parmesan with grated Emmental cheese. I like its softer, rounder taste. Finally, I have also added some netmeg powder, it raises the taste nicely. Voila, here’s the recipe:

Spaghetti Carbonara

Ingredients (for 4 people)
500 g of spaghetti capellini (angle hair)
250 g of smoked ham
2 eggs
1 onion
25 cl of cream
a handful of Parmesan
Salt, pepper, netmeg powder

How to cook
1. Chop the onion into very small bits. Warm up a frying pan with some oliver oil and cook the onion and ham pieces together. Adjust the fire down, so that the onion is softened but not burned.

2. Boil the spaghetti in lots of boiling water with some salt, and respect the cooking duration indicated on the packaging.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, cream, grated cheese together. When the onion is softened, reduce the fire and stir in the cream mix, keep stirring and wait until the whole thing starts boiling again, switch off the fire. Season the sauce with pinches of salt, pepper and netmeg powder as you like. Stir in the spaghatti and mix them well before serving.

We were too hungry to take picture before hand, and here’s what’s left after the meal…

Feuilleté de chèvre aux épinards / Danish pastry with goat cheese and spinach

The Feuillete with goat cheese and spinach was the first dish of my “French cuisine lessons”. It’s supposed to be an “Entrée” dish (the dish before Main dish). Due to the poor time management, the pastry was not at all cooked at dinner time, and the big guys in the dinning rooms were hungry, so I have ended up serving it as the “Cheese” plat after the main. (Fortunately, it’s normal to serve “Cheese” after the main dish). The cheese pastry can be eaten alone or served along with a green salad with tomato.

I’m not a great fan of cheese in general, but the warmed goat cheese has a soft and round taste. I like it to be served with a bit of honey on a tiny toast with a green salad. This impression is reconfirmed in this recipe. The taste of both goat cheese and spinach are softened by the cooking and cream.

Feuilleté de chèvre aux épinards / Danish pastry with goat cheese and spinach

Ingredients (for 4 people):
“pâte feuilletée”/ puff pastry – 1 sheet (you can buy it from supermarket)
Goat cheese – 100g (basic ones will do, since it is not for direct tasting)
Spinach – 400g
Garlic – 1 clove
Cream (prefer thick than liquid) – 10cl
Egg yolk – 1
Salt and pepper

How to cook

1. Prepare the basic ingredients

• Cut the goat cheese into slides of 25g each (about 1cm thick) 
• Crush the garlic into mash
• Warm up the oven to 200°C
• Cook the spinach leaves with a pinch of salt, in steam for 1 min. (For frozen spinach, simply defrost it). Press the leaves into a ball to remove the water. 
• In a heated pan, mix the spinach, cream, and garlic together. Season it with salt and pepper as you like.

2. Make the puff pastry

• Mix the egg yolk with just a little bit of water. This mixture is called a “dorure” in French; it’s for making the pastry golden and crispy after baking.
• If you have prepared your own pastry sheet, prepare 4 slides of 10 x 14 cm. If you have bought a puff pastry sheet for tarte baking, cut the pastry sheet into 4 equal parts. In each part, place 50g of the spinach mix, and 1 slide of goat cheese on top of the spinach.
• Pinch the edges of the puff pastry together to form a package. Use a small piece of baking paper and roll it into a pipe shape, poke it into each package to form a chimney. 
• Spread the egg yolk mix over the puff pastry package’s surface.
• Put the pastry onto the middle level of a baking tray, and cook it for about 30mins at 200°C, until they are golden brown in color.

Bon appétit!