 |
 |
|||||
 |
||||||
|
|
My Delicious Valentine       The few days before valentine's day are always fun (& kind of cheesy). My friends and I scout for 'V-Victims' (valentine's victims), you can tell who those are by the matching red shirts, the red lipstick, the rose, and even sometimes a decal sticker on the bumper of their vehicle. Sad. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against a celebration of love, but I just don't see why someone would wait 365 days to tell someone "I love you" or buy them a gift. That, in addition to fashion crimes committed on that day made it register as a cliché in my mind -for the most part, that is. Instead of spending Valentine's day with love, I opted to spend it doing something I love. A workshop with Monsieur Pierre-Hermé, the master chef behind the delicious hug-like macaroons at Pierre Hermé of Paris It was so interesting because there it was, our chance to ask the world's best macaroon maker about the validity of the many macaroon-making myths. The eggs, for instance, are aged before use in the fridge for 3-4 days uncovered, no egg white powder no nothing. All fresh, all accessible, and all feasible. I had him sign my recipe notebook in which I write down the recipes I've invented, it felt like a blessing from the Godfather of master cooks to be honest. Now, my recipe note book has this glow of holiness around it, and holds many small dirty secrets of experienced cooks. Je t'aime Pierre Herme! Je t'aime, je t'aiiiiiiiime Labels: Cookingfessional, Domestic Goddess, La Dolce Vita $3 in my moola box | link | email this post Homemade with Love (Part Un): Foi Gras Wrapped in Porcini Mushrooms  If you live in Abu Dhabi, you probably have heard of Jones the Grocer opening its first branch (old news? peut-etre, but wait..) Aside from their fingerlickin' Wagyu beef burger (I give it a rating of 8/10 - only preceded by Five Guys burgers in the US) the up scale grocery stocks all sorts of gourmands' treasures: black truffles, white truffle oils, peanut sauce, foi gras foam, and french cheese to name but a few. One of my favorite things is to search the stacks of neatly lined jars and packs on their shelves for the inspiration to my next gourmet experiment, it's a fun experience, kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle - only without knowing what the final picture would look like. This time my compelling curiosity goaded me to buy a pack of Porcini Mushrooms (Oooh! pronouncing the name already makes me feel like an über italian 5-michelin star chef! Por-cini.. Porrrrr-ciiini) I had no idea what I'd do with it, but I remembered a conversation I had with Nermine Hanno a couple of months back on how to treat dried mushrooms, and the bulb of inspiration was instantly lit Foi gras tenderly wrapped in porcini mushrooms for dinner, s'il te plaîtSo, if you're someone who likes having foi gras this recipe is for you (& if you're an animal rights enthusiast, please don't over flood my comments box, I can't do anything to stop force-feeding of geese) Ingredients: - 1 200gm pack of dried porcini muchrooms - 2 cups of boiling water - 1/2 pack of foi gras - 4 table spoons of fresh cream - Salt to taste How to: 1) In a bowl, pour the hot water on the dried Porcini mushrooms and let soak for 10 minutes. Make sure you do not stir and let the water as is. 2) Carefully, and without causing too much motion in the water, take out re-hydrated mushrooms and place them on a side dish. You'll notice now that the water turned brownish with a residue at the bottom of the bowl 3) Slowly pour the mushroom hydration water into a casserole making sure NOT to include the residue ...at this point, preheat the oven to 175 degrees... 4) Turn on the heat on high, add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt (to taste) & let boil till water is reduced into a thick mushroomy-sauce, quickly add 3 spoons of fresh cream and take off heat 5) Line a small souffle bowl with a 1cm layer of mushrooms 6) On top of the mushrooms, add a layer of foi gras (1/2cm slices) 7) Cover with another 1cm of mushrooms, and press the top with the back of a tablespoon or gourmet pusher to flatten and hold in place 8) Add 1/2 of tbsp of fresh cream on top of the souffle bowl, and put into the oven. Let cook for 15 minutes, and serve with great traditional baguette (good luck finding that) or alternatively, a good piece of brown bun Bon apetite ♥ Labels: Cookingfessional, Domestic Goddess, Recipes $6 in my moola box | link | email this post Early Birds go to The Market         A true chef's paradise is found at dusk on a Saturday morning in the small streets lining large avenues -- the liveliness, the color, and animation that impregnates them never fails to amuse me, every time. One of my favorite things to do on a Saturday morning (only preceded by antique-ing at Port de Vanves & Marché aux Puces) is to walk through imperfectly lined stalls of all things fresh: fresh fruits, exotic mushrooms, shellfish & St-Jacques, freshly packed snails with herbs and beurre -- all of that surrounded by cheerful fishermen swiping the asphalt floor to get the ice off, & dig through their crop of the morning. It makes me wish I had a large kitchen made to my liking here in Paris, in order to experience the whole "buy fresh foods, cook delicious meals" thing the way I like; mais, alas, I sighed out my wish and took a walk to Arc de Triomphe (I love the detail of its architecture under the morning light) -- unfortunately, my looks of appreciation couldn't last long, my nose froze & tummy started growling, I had to run down Avenue de Wagram for my favorite Parisian baguette at Eric Kayser - I love it! It's the small little nooks of Paris that give me the foremost degree of pleasure. Of course, my temple of worship still remains 24 Rue du Fabourge St.Honoré, but, how does one say no to a crisp & crunchy freshly baked baguette sprinkled with flour & bagged in a piece of paper with a smiling face wishing you a bonne journée? Labels: Cookingfessional, Travel $1 in my moola box | link | email this post Devour This: Lavenders & Rose Edible Delights One of my favorite times of the day is the morning of a plan-free weekened; when the curtains of my window are spread open and the prominent light of a horizontal sun rests on my white line -- It is also the time when I get the strangest ideas, ..and often get the temptation to write them. A couple of weeks ago, I took a shot at creating a combination of flowers and rice and put them aside to inhale the aroma and flavor. After two-weeks of storage, I decided to put my creation to the test, ...and yay! it was délicieux -to say the least.        Poulet Provençal w/ olives & lavenders (Chicken with Provençal spices & herbs + saffron/lavender rice) Basically, I created 2 jars, the first was the lavender rice in which I combined edible sun-dried lavenders with Basmati rice in an air-tight jar, and did the same with sun-dried rose petals. For cooking, I tried to use complementing tastes for ingredients, for example: Lavender-Saffron/figs and Rose-Pistache, also one can try Jasmine-Green Tea leaves. For my first test, I opted to go for the lavender-saffron combination, marinated the chicken in some provençal spices for 2 hours, cooked it in olive oil with onions and olives, sprinkled it with lavender and served with my lavender rice and saffron. Take a deep breath- Close your eyes- and mmmMMMmmmmm slowly with pleasure ;p Au revoir for today, more to come later x Labels: Cookingfessional $5 in my moola box | link | email this post At My French Table: Food, Family, & Joie de Vivre in a Corner of Normandy  "..This time Michel gave us a little of it's history. The Napoleonic style Château de Bosgouet is considered young by European standards. It was built in 1853 on the foundations of a sixteenth-century château that had burnt to the ground some thirty years before. The five-storey château sits within a 50-acre park and has many outbuildings, some of which were used as servants' quarters. The château was occupied by the Germans during the second world war and two rather unremarkable outbuildings were built on the grounds to accommodate the troops. One was used as sleeping quarters and the other built as a mess hall. Only those with rank and seniority could have ever expected to see the inside of Château de Bosgouet." Its been a long time since I picked up a book that I related to at many different levels, en fait, the last book of that effect on me was Sacred Contracts  -- in many ways, this book had the same effect on me, just in a very different context.'At My French Table' is where Jane Webster tells her story of selling her house in Melbourne and moving her four kids to Normandy to open a cooking school. She speaks about the beautiful countrysides, the decadent charms, her impressions, her recipes, and the complicated French system (the latter I know too well)  Buy at Amazon Or, go to the château on your own, or through an organized culinary trip - I know I can't wait to take mine =) + Mariek's Art of Living: A Culinary Vacation Beyond Expectations + At My French Table: Visiting Chefs & 8-Day Itinerary More on the subject, & I also like: + A Table in the Tarn: Living, Eating and Cooking in Rural France  + French General: Handmade Soirees: Simple Projects for Special Occasions  Okay, I'm off to start my day -- Did I mention I did a very crazy thing yesterday that I'm -still- trying to comprehend? No, I didn't but now you know, so I'm off to spend my comprehension Have a lovely weekend x Labels: Books, Cookingfessional, Domestic Goddess, La Dolce Vita, Travel $2 in my moola box | link | email this post The Beauty of Sucré      The legenady people at Laduree launched their book, finally! and just as one would expect from them: it's faaaaaaaaaaaaaabulous! AND it has a whole section comprising of macaroon recipes. I'll try not to get carried away telling you how excited I was when I first saw the book in Paris, but rather, I'd like to tell you the first three thoughts that popped into my head: 1) Yay! After breif contemplation, I realized that this was not going to be just any cookbook, this one was put together in the most beautiful form - square, velvet, and colored pages. More like a family album, or something that was loved very very much. Beautifully laid out, beautifully collected, beaitifully edited - tres chic! Everyone should get a copy, buy it directly at Amazon.fr  Or if you're in Paris by any chance, just drop by their shops at any of the locations below: 1. 75 Avenue des Champs Elysées Paris 8ème Labels: Books, Cookingfessional, Domestic Goddess, La Dolce Vita $8 in my moola box | link | email this post Crab Salad with Truffle Oil, Made with Love My thoughts (and speech?) have been interrupted a thousand times today courtesy of random, frequent sneezing -I call it the one-day cold. If I were to look at the positive side of it, I'd say that I needed the universe to send me something to barge into my mind and suspend my thinking of the face I see in my mind every minute of my days. The work-week bode well for this objective, my mornings have been consumed with trying to resist a new assignment lacking any form or shape of system and process - working a completely fragmented environment with very limited authority is a challenge I have yet to overcome, so far, I suck at it. Nevertheless, I am learning things about myself I did not previously know. To be honest, the past few weeks have had quite a few highlights of learning that stemmed from either pressure-inducing or shocking experiences. We, girls in the Emirates, are often raised in a sheltered environment which is a wonderful blessing to have but has its flaws nonetheless. The first time we face any breed of trouble, we often either don't know how to react to it, or gear the wrong reaction. The up side of it is, well, you live a simple worry-free life; minimum consequence-thinking, criminal exposure, and security deficits. Atchuuuh! Another interruption. Great timing. This weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting Nermine Hanno, she's everything a Cordon Bleu Chef should be, and way more. We clicked from the first 20 seconds, molecular gastronomy, faith, religion, publishing, life, dream-kitchens, and of course, food were amongst the subjects we spoke about. An absolute delight, to say the least. And today, her comment totallyyyy made my day! I felt like the little mouse in Ratatouille getting that nod of approval to work in the kitchen lol After her departure the next day, inspiration struck, and decided to take a shot at making crab-salad a la café de l'homme in Paris, I thought I'd substitute 1 or 2 elements and add truffle oil - the result was better than expected, courtesy of Fauchon's black truffle oil & fresh blue crab <3 I also thought I'd share the recipe with you here, it's quite straight forward & I'm sure you'll love it! =D  Fabulous Crab Salad with Black Truffle Oil Ingredients 2 medium blue crabs, boiled 2 cups of a variety of lettuce, to your taste 1 small tomato, seeds removed, and chopped small 2 table spoons of olive oil & lemon dressing 1 teaspoon of black truffle oil How to 1. Break the crab shells and start scouting for its meat 2. Chop the meat into small pieces 3. In a mixing bowl, combine lettuce + tomatoes and mix well 4. Add crab meat, combine 5. Pour salad dressing, mix well 6. Serve the salad on a plate, and splash/add the truffle oil last Et voila!     Labels: Cookingfessional, Domestic Goddess $5 in my moola box | link | email this post Parisian Brocantes & Publishing        I did mention earlier my infatuation with parisian brocantes and posted photos of the ones I've been to last May through July I've been to several brocantes in different parts of France, some in the south, south-west, west, and partially north; in which I have come across some of my favorite pieces, but one has to really dig for things as opposed to finding abundance of beauty in the displayed items. In Paris, however, most flea markets have just SO MANY beautiful items that it makes it difficult to choose, let alone worry about packing and shipping back home. This time of the year I found that the Parisian brocante had a completely different flavor; the sounds, the livliness, the smells and even items - fabulous! Here are some of the photos I took on my last hunt ;p Also, I've finally done some house-keeping around here, and put ALL the albums together under the link 'Photos' (high time, non? lol) I love you, I do.. & I love blogging, but time is scarce, and it's become more so by the day. Hopefully having things in order will aid publishing and posting more photos -- and, speaking of publishing, I have a not-so-small piece of news to share with those who enjoy reading my Cookingfessional posts, for now you'll have an opportunity to keep a hard copy of those entries (& more), the first feature goes to publishing on November's issue of Fatafeat food magazine. Seriously. I never wrote for a magazine before, and it was quite odd sitting by my macbook trying to jot down some words on my word processor (major carrie bradshaw flashbacks), finally, I decided the only way to overcome this block is to write my article on my blogger editor as if it was a blog post, ..and that, my friends, worked like a charm. I did fool myself into it ;p Big cheers for the team at Fatafeat ♥ Labels: Cookingfessional, Fashion, Travel $4 in my moola box | link | email this post Sugar Spinning & Tutu Making            As it turns out, I make a better tutu-maker than a chef, and the proof to follow, Last night, I opted to trade my bath slot for tutu-making for Tantra (yep, you heard me right). Tools of the trade? 1/2 meter of candy pink tulle, velvet ribbon, velcro, a sewing machine that took me nearly an hour to figure out where the thread is supposed to go, and a live overweight chihuahua mannequin ;p 40 minutes later, the results were surprising (even to me) lol! now, I want to make free tutus for everyone! Queue please ;p I wish I could say the same though for my first attempt at spun sugar, but I seriously think I was cheated by Martha with the recipe, quelle horreur! Horrifying scene of a very cluttered kitchen withstanding, the outcome wasn't entirely miserable. I managed to wrap my clotted spun-sugar around fresh strawberries, pistache, and rose sauce for Friday dessert. Will I take a second strike at this recipe? Definitely yes, but the key question is 'when'. Not anytime soon. Lots of love x Labels: Cookingfessional, Domestic Goddess, Poochy Mamma $6 in my moola box | link | email this post |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
