Some of you may have noticed I’ve been having some technical problems on my blog lately … I spent a lot of time trying to fix everything (even if we’re far from done…); time I didn’t spent cooking! So, I figured it was a great moment for an extra simple dessert recipe. Citrus and chocolate, ready in 15 minutes!

Preparation time: 15 mn – Cooking time: 10 mn

Ingredients (for 6 servings)

6 mandarins (more if they are really small)
1/3 lbs (150 g) of white chocolate
6 tablespoons of whipped cream
5 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of water

Instructions

1/ Carefully cut a line around mandarins and take their tops off without tearing the bottom part. Take off pieces and set aside.

2/ Melt chocolate, sugar and water in a sauce pan over low heat.  Leave for about 10 mn and take off heat. Let it chill.

3/ Mix whipped cream and mandarine pieces with chocolate cream. (You won’t be able to use all mandarin pieces, maybe 3/4th of them).

4/ Pour in empty mandarins and let chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Here is an original and very tasty winter soup recipe. I’m sure you’ll love the slight cumin flavor and the lime marinated mushrooms… I use dried chickpeas because they taste better (in my humble opinion) and are more nutritional than canned ones but they definitely ask for more organization You’ll need to soak them overnight before cooking your soup. So if you don’t have time, go for canned chickpeas and reduce considerably cooking time.

Preparation time : 30 mn (+1 night soaking of dried chickpeas) – Cooking time : 2 h

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

2/3 lbs (310 g) of chickpeas
1 large onion
1 bay leaf
10 to 12 cups (2, 5 to 3 l) of water
1 cup (25cl) of sour cream (crème fraiche)
1 pinch of cumin powder

Marinated mushrooms

1/2 lbs (310 g) of portobello mushrooms
3/8 of cup (10 cl) of olive oil
1 lime
1 tablespoon of fresh chopped coriander
1/2 pinch of red chilli powder

Toasted bread

4 bread slices
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1/ Rinse chickpeas until water comes out clear, then soak them in about 12 cups of water overnight. (Add cooking salt and a tablespoon of baking soda to it: it helps soften the cheakpeas).

2/ Peel and slice mushrooms. (When cleaning mushrooms you should try to avoid using water, they would get soaked and loose taste). Combine olive oil, coriander and chilli pepper.

3/ Clean lime, grate zest and squeeze it. Add zest and juice to marinade. Add salt and pepper. Pour mushrooms in marinade and set aside.

4/ Get water to a boil. Peel and slice onion. Pour onion slices, bay leaf and chickpeas into boiling water. Cover (leaving some air coming out so it doesn’t boil over) and leave until chickpeas are tender.

5/ Mix it in a food mixer; add creme fraiche and season with cumin, salt and pepper. (Try it and add seasoning if needed).

6/ Peel garlic clove. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add the whole garlic clove. Get the garlic all around the pan so the oil gets garlic flavour. Add bread slices cut in half. Leave 1 or 2 minutes on each side.

7/ Serve chickpea soup adding marinated mushrooms on top with bread on side.

Enjoy!

We always hear soufflé is very difficult to make. The truth is, it’s very difficult to get it to the table all nice and up but it is still very good even if you never get to that part . You can see mine got down before I took the picture and nobody complained! I cooked them as a side dish for a Bordeaux style fish and didn’t have enough space in my oven to bake them together… So, here is the rule: whatever happens, get your soufflés right from the oven to the table!

Preparation time: 45 mn – Baking time: 35 mn

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

2 lbs (900g) of fresh spinach
1/2 cup (125 ml) of milk
3 oz (85g) of butter (1/2 oz + 2 1/2 oz)
3 oz (85g) of grated cheese
4 eggs
4 shallots
4 tablespoons of flour
1 garlic clove
1 pinch of nutmeg
salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Get a salted water filled pan to a boil. Clean and hull spinach. Leave them in boiling water for 5 mn then strain and press spinach to take water off.

2/ Peel and chop shallots and garlic. Heat a cooking pan over low medium heat. Melt 1/2 oz of butter, add shallots and garlic. Leave covered for 5 mn, moving it a few times. Add spinach. After 5 to 7 mn, add salt and pepper and set aside.

3/ Melt 2 1/2 oz of butter in a cooking pan. Sprinkle with flour, let it get a golden color and add cold milk. Add a little salt, pepper and nutmeg. Then add cheese. Stir well and take off heat.

4/ Separate egg whites from yolks. (The easiest way to do it is by taking the broken egg in one hand and let white fall in a bowl when keeping yolk over your fingers). Add yolks to cheese sauce. Beat egg whites until stiff.

5/ Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C/ Th 6).

6/ Add cheese sauce to spinach. Stir well. Fold stiff eggs thoroughly into mixture.

7/ Grease a muffin pan and fill it with mixture. Bake in oven for 25 mn.

Serve it right away

This fish recipe is a great classic in French cuisine. If you ever visit a French supermarket, you’ll even find it already made in the frozen section. It takes no time and is really easy to cook but the best thing is you can realize it with any white fish you like!

Preparation time: 15 mn  -  Baking time: 15 to 20 mn

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

4 white fish filets (hake, cod etc.)
6 dry bread slices (if you don’t have dry bread,
you can toast bread slices or use already made dried breadcrumbs)
4 shallots
1 garlic clove
1 lemon
2 tablespoons of parsley
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of white wine
2/3 oz (20g) of butter
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Peel and chop shallots and garlic. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic.

2/ After 5 mn, add wine and let boil smoothly until liquid evaporates.

3/ Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C/ Th 6).

4/ Squeeze lemon. Mix bread, lemon juice, shallots, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper in a food mixer until getting a paste. (Add a little olive oil if it stays too dry)

5/ Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a baking pan. Add fish filets and cover with paste. Add the olive oil you have left.

6/ Bake in oven for 15 to 20 mn or until fish is done.

Serve with rice, potatoes or vegetables. Marries perfectly spinach soufflés.

On Frebruary 2nd Candlemas is celebrated in many parts of the world eating pancakes. In France, we eat crepes. There already is a sweet crepes recipe on this site, Candlemas is the perfect occasion to share with you the most famous galette (crepe made with buckweat flour) : la complète. Very simple; ham, cheese and egg… but you can always add it mushrooms, tomatoes or all kinds of cheese. You can basically put whatever dish you want in a galette, it goes from the simplest ham & cheese to more elaborated ones with scallops, salmon or duck! Galettes are from Brittany (north-western France) and were originally a dish made by poor families to replace bread. They wrapped inside all the leftovers. The original recipe only counts with buckwheat flour, salt and water. I usually add it an egg, it makes it easier to prepare

Preparation time : 10 mn (+ at least 2 h in the fridge)

Ingredients (for 12 to 15 galettes)

5 cups of buckwheat flour
4 cups of water (more or less)
1 egg
1 pinch of salt
butter

Garniture (per galette)

1 egg
1/8 lbs (55 gr/2 oz) of grated cheese
1 slice of ham

Instructions

1/ Blend flour, egg and salt.

2/ Gradually add water. Stir energetically until smooth. (It has to be liquid)

3/ Leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

4/ Heat a large frying pan (diameter of at least 15 inches is best)  over medium high heat. Melt butter. (Be careful not to put too much butter, your crepes would be too greasy and not easy to cook) (Click here to buy crepes cooking material).

5/ Pour about 1/4 cup of mixture in the pan making a circle. Then tilt the pan with a circular motion so the mixture fills the pan evenly.
(Note: galettes are supposed to be thin, if you make them like pancakes, it won’t be good at all)

6/ Cook galette for about 2mn or until borders peel off and bottom is slightly brown. Turn and cook the other side (1mn should be enough).

7/ Make all galettes at once, you’ll go faster serving your guests later.

8/  Melt butter in a frying pan over medium high heat. Heat galette quickly on one side (10 sec), then turn it to the other side.

9/ Add egg and grated cheese. When egg is cooked and cheese melted, add ham, salt and pepper and close borders.

10/ Serve it and repeat for the next guest! It’s best eaten warm, so don’t wait for everyone to be served in order to start enjoying!

As I said before, you can put whatever ingredient you want in a galette. Just remember to adapt your ingredients cooking time. In that one, you can add mushrooms. If you cook them appart before (with some garlic and parsley for example), then you add them at the end. But if you add them rare, better putting them at the begining… Nothing very complicated