Please welcome Jill McKeever of SimpleDailyRecipes.com who kindly offered to guest a recipe (Thanks again Jill ):

Garlic soup may not sound like the choice soup to serve at a dinner party, yet you’ll be surprised by its mild, dare I say, sweet flavor.  If you love the taste of roasted garlic, you will love this soup.  It is extremely easy to prepare and only takes 15 minutes to bring together.

Because there’s so little that goes into this soup, it’s important to use the freshest and best ingredients you have available.  Don’t be afraid of the first ingredient, chicken fat.  It possesses great flavor that adds depth to this already delicate soup.  I recommend rendering chicken fat from poultry that has been pasture raised. If you dig making your own chicken stock, then you probably already have some on hand.

If you love to bake your own artisan breads, I suggest an Olive Oil baguette spiced with fresh ground pepper and garlic to be the toasted center of attention.  The smooth sweet garlic soup soaked into the peppery-garlic toast is a match made in heaven.

HERE’S ALL IT TAKES to serve 4 friends:

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

3 tablespoons chicken fat
1 head garlic, each clove peeled and sliced
8 slices baguette
4 cups fresh chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

Instructions

1/ Heat oven to 375º for toasting baguette slices.

2/ In a medium saucepan over low heat, sauté garlic in chicken fat until tender – about 7-10 minutes total. Transfer the garlic to a plate.

3/ Brush baguette slices on both sides with garlic seasoned oil and toast in oven until they are golden brown. Transfer 2 toasts into each soup bowl.

4/ Add the cooked garlic, chicken stock, and thyme back into the saucepan and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes.

5/ Ladle the soup over the garlic toasts and serve immediately.

Recipe and photo by Jill McKeever of SimpleDailyRecipes.com. Check out her blog!

This is a special recipe for me, one of my top 5 favorite. Again, nothing very recommended for a strict diet but believe me duck parmentier is succulent

It’s a French classic, the classy version of ‘Hachis Parmentier’ (Shepherd’s pie). The original recipe doesn’t use Comté cheese, you can replace it by parmesan cheese or simply skip the cheese part.

Preparation time: 15 minutes – Cooking time: 30 minutes – Grill : 10 minutes

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

2 legs of duck confit (Click here to buy online)
1.6 lbs (750 g) of potatoes
1.4 oz (40 g) of Comté cheese (Click here to buy online)
3 tablespoons of crème fraiche
2 tablespoons of parsley
1/2 tablespoon of butter
1 pinch of nutmeg
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Peel potatoes and cut them into 2 or 4 pieces depending on their size (bigger pieces will need more time to be done).

2/ Boil potatoes into salted water for 30 minutes (they’ll be easier to mash if overcooked). Drain water and let them chill.

3/ Meanwhile,  take duck legs off their fat and separate meat from bones and skin.

4/ Rinse and dry parsley. Chop it.

5/ Heat a pan over medium-low heat, fry duck meat  with a little bit of duck fat from the can. Add parsley and leave for 10 minutes stirring often.

6/ Mash potatoes (you can use a a food mill or potato ricer, if you don’t have any use a potato masher or heavy fork.) Pour mashed potatoes into a pan heated over low heat. Add butter, cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir well.

7/ You can use either an ovenproof dish or individual round pastry cutters. Whatever you’re using grease it with a little bit of butter and add a layer of duck topped with a layer of mashed potatoes.

8/ Grate Comté cheese and sprinkle on top of duck parmentier.

9/ Heat oven on grill position and bake for 10 minutes or until cheese has a golden color.

10/ Serve right away with a salad. (If you used individual round pastry cutters, separate melted cheese with a knife and carefully take cutter out.)

Can’t get enough appetizer spoons recipes, I just can’t get enough
Their secret resides in mixing textures and getting the flavors not to override one another. In general, 2 to 3  different main ingredients are enough.

In this amuse-bouche recipe, we have a creamy texture thanks to the avocado and mascarpone cheese contrasting with the grapefruit pulp’s distinctive texture. My advice so the flavors are well balanced is to be very generous when topping with the crab flesh. Grapefruit’s bitterness tends to be too prominent otherwise. And don’t forget avocado oxidates pretty quick, so don’t prepare your appetizer spoons too much in advance.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Ingredients (for 15 to 20 spoons)

2 crab claws
1 ripe avocado
1 grapefruit
2 tablespoons of mascarpone cheese
1/2 teaspoon of pimentón (smoked paprika)
Tabasco drops (optional – quantity according to your taste)
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Cut avocado in half and remove pit. Scoop the flesh out with a spoon and leave in a food processor bowl.

2/ Open grapefruit and remove pulp carefully with a teaspoon. Keep juice in a small cup and pulp in a bowl.

3/ In the food processor bowl, add mascarpone cheese, grapefruit juice, pimentón and tabasco (optional). Mix until you get a smooth texture. Add salt and pepper. Mix again. Taste and adjust seasoning.

4/ Crack crab claw and carefully remove flesh. Set aside.

5/ Prepare the Chinese soup spoons by adding to each one a tablespoon of the avocado mixture, followed by a piece of grapefruit pulp. Top generously with crab flesh.

Happy New Year fellow foodies . May 2010 bring you and your loved ones everything you’ve been hoping for!

I’m usually not really good at realizing new year’s resolutions, that’s why I stopped making them a few years ago. This time is different, I do need to be more organized in 2010 in order to be able to keep posting at a regular pace. A whole load of work is ahead in a business project I’m part of, it should take most of my time this year. I’ll try to stick to more organization and see how it goes

Let’s get back to this salmon now. It’s been part of the appetizers I made  for New Year’s eve dinner and I must say we all enjoyed it. At first, I was planning on using salted soy sauce and pretty disappointed when I found out I didn’t have any. Well, now I can say I’ll do it again with sweet one. It tastes amazing with ginger!  I kept lime as a last ingredient to give this tartare a fresh taste. If you want to experiment you can also add the grated zest before marinating but don’t forget lime juice has to be added last if you don’t want your tartare to turn out being a ceviche!

This ginger and lime salmon tartare recipe is meant to be served in appetizer spoons or small verrines (glass cups) but if you wish to have it as a unique starter, count about 4.5 oz per serving and adapt the ingredients’ quantity accordingly.

Preparation time: 10 minutes – Marinating time: at least 30 minutes

Ingredients (for 6 servings as an appetizer)

15 oz (425 g) of salmon fillets (skinless, boneless)
2 spring onions
1-inch square of fresh ginger root (= 1 tablespoon grated)
1 non-treated lime
6 tablespoons of sweet soy sauce

Instructions

1/ Clean and chop spring onions.

2/ Peel and grate ginger.

3/ Rinse and dry salmon fillets. Cut them into small dices (around 1/2-inch square).

4/ Combine salmon, spring onions, ginger and sweet soy sauce. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

5/ Serve in Chinese soup spoons, small individual ramekins or glass cups leaving marinade in the plate.

6/ Rinse lime and grate zest over individual portions.

7/ Squeeze lime, add on top and serve tartare right away.