Toffee treat by Stirway to Heaven

I've spent quite some time in front of my computer these last three days, as the girls are ill(during the school holidays!) I discovered a great Dutch site called Stirway to heaven on my daily visit to Food Porn watch, (the English-language equivalent of blog appétit.) It's a treasure chest of sweet recipes, chocolate, cookies... I just had to try the Toffee Treat, one of the latest posts, and took the liberty of translating it to French for the Blog Apetit community. I also noted the recipe for "Sweet Pretzel"...

Normandy apple tart and honey ice cream

The girls are on school holidays this week with a busy program in store : cinema, museums, bike rides, seeing friends,... and cooking with mum in the kitchen ! Here's a recipe to start with - apple tart and home-made honey ice cream from chef Jean-luc Tartarin.

Preparation : 50 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients for 4 :

5 apples

Pastry :

60 gr butter

60 gr icing sugar

2 egg yolks

150 gr plain flour

1 pinch of salt

Pralin :

100 gr sugar

50 gr flour

50 gr powdered almonds

1 tbsp cinnamon powder

50 gr softened butter

Honey ice cream :

50 cl half fat milk

4 egg yolks

200 gr honey

15 cl single cream

• Pastry : Mix the icing sugar with the flour. Add the butter in lumps in the middle.
• Crush the butter with the ends of your fingers, mixing in with the flour.
• Beat the eggs with the salt, and add to the preceeding mixture.
• Kneed the mixture together and into a ball with your hands. Flour the outside, and cool for an hour.
• Honey ice cream : Bring the milk to the boil.
• Beat the eggs and honey together in a bowl.
• Pour the hot milk over the eggs and honey. Whisk together, and pass through a strainer.
• Heat the mixture in a bain-marie on a medium heat until the mixture thickens stirring with a wooden spoon.
• Take off the heat and leave to cool.
• Mix in the single cream, and freeze the mixture using an ice-cream maker. Place in the freezer.
• Pralin : Mix the sugar, flour, almond powder and cinnamon in a bowl.
• Add the softened butter.
• In a tart mould (or individual moulds) :
• Roll out the pastry. Line the mould with ovenproof paper, or for individual moulds, I butter the inside and then use strips of paper, which help when turning out the tarts.

• Apply the pastry base and prick with a fork.
• Peel, core and cut the apples into small cubes of around 1cm.
• Fill the tarts with apple, then cover the top with the pralin.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve the tart warm with a spoon of ice cream and sprinkled with icing sugar.

Indian-style pork loin

We've finally finished the apple harvest, they're much better than last year! Safely packed in cartons and filling the basement with their distinctive fragance, they should see us through part of the winter. So time to revisit some of the apple recipes...

La petite virée en Inde inspired me for this weekend's recipe.

Marinade preparation (previous day) : 20 minutes

Cooking : 1 h00

Ingredients for 4

1 pork loin (4 ribs)

4 large apples

30 gr butter

1 piece of fresh coconut

Salt

Marinade :

1 chopped shallot

1 pressed garlic glove

1 pinch of powdered ginger

1 pinch of chili powder

2 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp cumin powder

1 pinch pepper

20 cl dry white wine

4 tbsp olive oil

• The previous day, pour the olive oil and the white wine into a deep dish, add the chopped shallot, the pressed garlic and all the spices. Mix well.
• Brush the pork loin with the marinade, then place it in the dish. Cover, and leave in the fridge for 12 hours, turning once.

• Preaheat the oven to 180° (mk.6). Place the pork in an oven dish, season with salt and pepper.
• Bake for 1 hour, basting from time to time with the marinade.
• Wash the apples and cut into quarters.
• Fry in butter for around 5 minutes until the apples become tender.
• Cut the coconut into flakes.

Serve the pork hot accompanied by the apples, covered with cocunut flakes, and served for example with Roast Potatoes

Eggs meurette

La Côte d'Or : a very colourful region of Burgundy, with seemingly everlasting vineyards and glazed rooftops, is beautiful to visit at this time of year, just after the grape harvest. A good chance to stock up with some fine wines... I first discovered this region around 15 years ago staying in a small hotel in Saulieu, directly opposite the famous restaurant of Bernard Loiseau.

We were dazzled by the quality of the local produce, cheeses such as Epoisse and Chaource, the speciality blackcurrant syrops, and the traditional dishes. This is a very typical example, les oeufs en meurette. I thought about trying Bernard Loiseau's own recipe, but it does involve setting light to around 1 litre of wine, and I retain a bad memory of this once as I nearly burnt down the kitchen. So, I just kept his idea for the addition of carrot purée in the sauce...

Preparation : 15 minutes

Cooking : 45 minutes

Ingredients for 6

6 large fresh eggs

3 slices of white bread

70 gr butter

2 tbsp oil

2 chopped onions

2 peeled and chopped carrots

2 pressed garlic gloves

1 bottle of red burgundy (Passetoutgrain)

1 herbal bouquet (thyme, laurel, parsley)

100 gr diced bacon

2 cloves

Salt, pepper

• Melt 50gr of butter slowly in a bain-marie, and remove the white foam that forms as the butter gets hot with a spoon. This clarified butter will not turn brown when it cooks. See this link for pictures Chef Simon pour les images.
• Fry the 2 chopped onions using the clarified butter.
• Pour in the bottle of red wine, and season with pepper.
• Add the pressed garlic, the herb bouquet and the 2 cloves. Cover, and leave to reduce for around 45 minutes.
• Cook the carrots in boiling salted water for 8 minutes. Then press them into a purée, and add them into the sauce.
• If the sauce tastes a little too acidic, add in one lump of sugar.

• Croûtons : Trim the crusts, fry the bread slices in a little oil or clarified butter on a low heat, and then cut each slice into two triangles.
• Rub the fried bread with the inside of a fresh garlic glove chopped in two if you want to heighten the garlic flavour.
• Place the fried bread in a deep plate or soup dish ready for serving.

• Poach the eggs in the wine sauce at the end of its cooking time : break the eggs one by one into a ladel, plunge into the hot sauce, and remove immediately from the heat.
• Cover, and leave the eggs to poach for 3 minutes.
• Remove the eggs with a perforated spoon and dry using absorbant paper.
• Trim the egg white to form a regular shape.
• Place the eggs on top of the fried bread slices.
• Keep warm on the open oven door.
• You can choose to strain the sauce (but I prefer to keep the onions).
• You can also add 100gr of diced bacon, boiled for 5 minutes in water and then browned in a frying pan with butter, to the sauce.
• Finally, melt 20gr of butter into the sauce, and then reduce on a low heat.

Pour the hot sauce over the eggs, and serve immediately.

Veal filet with parma ham and estragon

Mamina's Italian themes haves been inspiring me over the last few weeks, giving me a sudden desire for "Prosciutto di Parma". This fine ham is often served thin-sliced with melon or fig, but it also goes perfectly with veal. A good opportunity to return to a recipe inspired by chef Manuel Martinez.

Preparation : 30 minutes
Cookign timeisson : 50 minutes

Ingredients for 4

1 veal fillet
4 slices of Parma ham
10 cl veal stock
10 gr butter
1/2 bunch freshly chopped estragon
10 cl white wine
10 cl crème fraîche

Gratin de macaroni :
10 cl crème fraîche

100 gr macaroni
10 cl veal stock
100 gr gruyère cheese
10 gr butter
Salt, pepper

• Roll the parma ham around the veal fillet and attach with string.
• Cook the macaroni in salted boiling water. Drain and rinse.
• Reduce 10cl of veal stock in a saucepan and add in 10cl of crème fraîche.
• Add the butter, and the macaroni. Mix well.
• Pour into an oven dish and sprinkle with gruyère cheese.
• Brown under the grill just before serving.
• Cut the veal fillet into medallions.
• Season with salt and pepper, and fry in a pan with a little butter.
• Keep warm on one side.
• Drain the oil from the frying pan.
• Add the white wine, and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen the caramelized juices.
• Reduce, then add the veal stock.
• Reduce once again.
• Incorporate the crème fraîche and the chopped estragon.
• Mix the sauce in a blender, and stir in a little butter.

Serve the veal medallions with the estragon cream suace and macaroni gratin. You could replace the pasta with a gratin of courgette and tomato with parsley.

Border Tart

Our walnut harvest has been underway for a week or so now, and the girls are eager to help. They leave a little pile for the squirrels, not to be too selfish, and indeed the following day there's nothing left. Today we used some of the walnuts for this simple tart recipe, once again from Scotland, this time from the Borders.

Preparation : 20 minutes

Cooking : 30 minutes

Ingredients for 4

Sweet shortcrust pastry

150 gr butter

50 gr sugar

225 gr plain flour

1 egg

Filling

1 egg

75 gr brown sugar

50 gr melted butter

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

115 gr sultanas

25 gr chopped walnut

Sweet shortcrust pastry

• Mix the butter and sugar in a food mixer, add the flour and the egg, to obtain a smooth paste.
• Leave to cool in the fridge before use.

Filling

• Preaheat the oven to 190° (mk.5).
• Mix the egg, sugar and melted butter together.
• Add the vinegar, sultanas and chopped nuts.

• Roll out the pastry to fit a tart mould.
• Spread the filling evenly over the pastry.
• Bake for 30 minutes.
• Leave to cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Serve the tart warm with crème fraîche, or cold.

Glazed scallop and ginger

Here's my second scallop recipe this weekend! Patrick de chez cuisine de la mer inspired me serve up scallops, and so on saturday I tried this recipe with fresh ginger by chef Georges Paineau.

Preparation and cooking : 1 hour
Ingredients for 4

20 scallops
1 ginger root
150 gr butter
Salt, pepper

Fumet :

400 gr fish bones

60 gr butter

1 bunch of parsley

3 carrots

5 shallots

200 ml white wine

1.5 l water

• Peel and chop the ginger into very thin strips (mine were too big!) and put them in water.
• Prepare the fumet : melt the butter, add the fish bones, parsley, carrots and shallots.
• Wet with the white wine and the water.
• Simmer for 20 minutes.
• Clean the scallops, then wash and drain them.
• Slice them into thin circles, and lay out in large circles on oven-proof serving plates.
• Season with salt and pepper, and add the ginger strips.
• Strain the fumet, then reduce it by half.
• Melt the butter into the remaining liquid.

Before serving

• Cover each plate of scallops with the sauce, then brown under the grill, or use a browning torch or blowtorch to obtain a light golden glaze.

Prince Charlie's coffee and Malt whisky truffles

Bonnie Prince Charlie, pretender to the throne of England and Scotland, passed on his recipe for Drambuie to the MacKinnon clan whilst in exile on the island of Skye.

These days the liquour finds its place in this luxurious after-dinner coffee, which I appropriately accompanied with whisky truffles. My husband was outraged that I'd used 3 tablespoons of his precious Lagavulin for the recipe, mind you, after a few truffles all was forgiven...

Malt whisky truffles

Ingredients for 25 to 30 truffles

200 gr dark chocolate

150 ml crème fraîche

3 tbsp malt whisky

115 gr icing sugar

Cocoa powder

• Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie, and leave to cool.
• Whip the crème fraîche with the whisky to obtain a thick cream.
• Add the cooled chocolate and the icing sugar, and mix well.
• Leave to cool in the fridge for one hour.
• Pour the cocoa powder onto a plate, and dust over your hands.
• Take a teaspoonful of the chocolate mixture and roll it into a ball, or square, and then roll it in the cocoa powder.
• Leave the truffles in the fridge overnight.
• They will keep fresh for 3 days in the fridge.

Prince Charlie's coffee

Ingredients for a glass

30ml/2 tbsp Drambuie
2 ml/1 tbsp soft brown sugar
Black coffee
20 ml lightly whipped single cream

• Pour the Drambuie into a 300 ml glass.
• Add the brown sugar, and stir to dissolve the sugar in the alcohol.
• Pour hot black coffee into the glass, and stir.
• Pour the cream onto a teaspoon placed on the surface of the coffee.
  

Salmon and mushroon tart

This typical dish from Auvergne is adapted from a recipe by Hélène Chazal of the "Poste et Champanne" restaurant in Brioude.

Preparation : 45 minutes

Cooking time : 30 minutes

Ingredients for 4

300 gr of puff pastry or 2 ready made rolls

60 gr of mushrooms (chanterelle or similar)

1 chopped shallot

10 gr butter

500 gr deboned skinless salmon fillet

4 tbsp thick cream

1 egg

Salt, pepper

Cottage cheese

Freshly chopped herbs (parsley, chives, flat-leaf parsley)

• Cut two 22cm diameter pastry circles.
• Clean the mushrooms, then lightly fry them in butter.
• Add the chopped shallot and cook for 5 minutes.
• Mince 200gr of the salmon with half of the mushroom preparation in a food processor.
• In a bowl, mix the cream into the minced salmon.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Peaheat the oven to 200°C(mark 7).
• Cut the remaining salmon into thin strips.
• Beat the egg with salt in a bowl.
• Lay out one of the pastry circles into a pie dish, and prick the bottom with a fork.
• First, lay out the minced salmon mixture, then add the remainder of the mushroom mixture, then add the strips of salmon fillet on top.
• Cover the tart with the second layer of pastry, and press the edges together.
• Make a chimney hole in the middle, and brush the top with the beaten egg.
• Cook for 25 minutes.

I accompany the tart with a mixture of the cottage cheese and chopped herbs, with salt and pepper.

You can also accompany with a beurre blanc sauce.

Beurre blanc

Ingredients :

1 chopped shallot
4 tbsp white wine
15 cl single cream
200 gr butter
Freshly chopped herbs

• Simmer the chopped shallot in the white wine. Season with salt and pepper.
• Leave to reduce until the wine completely evaporates.
• Add the cream, and reduce.
• On a very low heat, add in the butter gradually, whilst stirring continually.
• The sauce is ready once all the butter has melted.
• Add the chopped herbs, and keep the sauce warm in a bain-marie.
  

Catalan chicken with fresh figs

A very easy recipe! The sweet-sour mix of fruit and meat. I've seen so many great fig-based recipes recently, so I just had to join in...

Preparation and cooking time : 30 minutes

Infusion : 3 hours
Ingredients for 4

Fig preparation :
150 gr sugar
12 cl white wine vinegar
1 slice of lemon
1 stick of cinnamon
450 gr fresh figs

Chicken :
12 cl medium-dry white wine
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1 chicken cut into pieces
50 gr diced bacon
1 tbsp olive oil
50 ml chicken stock
Salt, pepper

• Cook the sugar and vinegar with the lemon slice and cinnamon in 12cl of water for 5 minutes before adding the figs.
• Cook for a further 10 minutes, then pour into a bowl and leave for 3 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 180°c.
• Drain the figs, and then add them to the white wine and lemon zest.
• Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
• Brown the diced bacon in a frying pan, and then put it in a baking dish.
• Brown the chicken in the same frying pan in the bacon fat with the olive oil added, and then reserve.
• Strain the figs once again, then pour the white wine and lemon zest into the frying pan and bring to the boil.
• Add the chicken, the figs, the chicken stock and the sauce to the diced bacon in the baking dish.
• Cover with oven-proof paper and bake for 10 minutes.
• Serve with a salad.

Hazelnut shortbread with caramelized apple

I'd been taking it easy on sugar for the last couple of weeks, as three dessert recipes the previous week had left traces... After a few walks, a few lengths of the local pool, and an imaginary abdo workout, I was ready to return, with this recipe by Guy Guenego.

Preparation and cooking time : 1 h

Refrigerator : 1 hour

Ingredients for 4

100 gr butter

100 gr sugar

100 gr hazelnut powder

4 apples (golden delicious)

1 pinch of powdered cinnamon

Crème anglaise with praline :

1 vanilla bean

20 cl milk

2 egg yolks

60 gr sugar

30 gr praline

• Soften 50 gr of butter at room temerature.
• Mix the butter with 50 gr of sugar and the hazelnut powder.
• Divide into 6cm-diameter moulds, and leave for 1 hour in the freezer.

• For the creme anglaise, split open the vanilla bean and take out the seeds.
• Mix the milk, praline and vanilla seeds in a saucepan.
• Stir, and bring to the boil.
• Beat the egg yolk and sugar in a bowl.
• Pour the boiling milk over the egg yolk, whilst continuing to stir.
• Cook in a bain-marie, stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens. The cream is ready once it coats the spoon. Leave to cool in the fridge.
• Preheat the oven to 250° (mark 8)
• Bake the shortbread for 10 minutes, then remove and leave to cool.
• Peel the apples, and cut into thin slices.
• Spread the sliced apple onto a buttered baking tray.
• Distribute 50gr of butter over the apple, and sprinkle with the remaining sugar and the cinnamon powder.
• Bake for 10 minutes.

Presentation

• Turn out the shortbreads onto plates.
• Decorate the top with the baked apple slices.
• Dress with cold creme anglaise, and sprinkle a little hazelnut powder around the edges.

New England Clam Chowder

Yesterday I felt like going on a nostaligic tour of the 'historic capital' of the US, Boston. So the large clams on sale at the local market spraked off an idea... Many of my memories of Boston relate to the restaurants, like the delicious clam chowder served in the The Union Oyster House, the oldest eating place in town...

Preparation and cooking : 50 minutes

Ingredients for 8

16 clams

600 gr potatoes

2 onions

170 gr diced bacon

1 tin, (410 gr) concentrated, unsweetened milk

50 cl milk

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp corn flour

Persil (optional)

Salt, pepper

• Clean the clams. Put them in a pan of cold water, and then bring to the boil.
• Wait until the clams open.
• Take them out of the saucepan, and retain the liquid.
• Remove and retain the film (the skin which can be peeled easily) and seperate the flesh of the clams.
• Cut the bacon into small cubes, and lightly cook in a frying pan.
• In the same pan, brown the onions in the fat from the bacon.
• Cut the potatoes into small cubes.
• Mince the clam skin in a mixer.
• Add this to the onions and bacon, add the potatoes, and cover these ingredients with the cooking liquid from the clams.
• Cook for 10 minuutes on medium heat.
• Cut the flesh part of the clams into 3, add, and cook for a further 5 minutes.
• Pour in the concetrated milk.
• Mix the corn flour in milk before adding it to the soup, along with the butter, and season with salt and pepper.
• Stop cooking before the soup comes to the boil.
• Leave the soup to rest for 2 hours before serving hot.

Steamed sea perch in Champigny sauce

Friday is the day for our local market, and fresh fish... This time I was tempted by the sea perch. It's a fish rich in protein, iodine, iron and phosporus, fished in the Mediterrenean or the Atlantic. You have to be careful not to overcook the flesh, which can become pasty.

I had the perfect recipe from Georges PAINEAU to complement two fine fillets. He accompanies the fish with a tanin-rich Saumur-Champigny, an excellent wine for sauces which loses its acidity during cooking, whilst retaining all of its flavour.

Preparation and cooking : 1h10

Ingredients for 2 fillets

2 sea perch fillets (or sea bass)

60 gr butter

2 chopped shallots

3 carrots cut into cubes (mirepoix)

40 gr plain flour

1/2 bottle Saumur-Champigny

1 bunch of parsley

1 onion

1 clove

Thyme

Salt

Mixed pepper

• Melt 20gr of butter in the bottom of a steamer. Sweat the chopped onions with the mirepoix carrots.
• Sprinkle with flour, and then pour in 1/2 bottle of wine.
• Add the parsley, thyme and the onion - pricked with the clove.

• Cook for 35 minutes on a low heat.
• Place the sea perch fillets in the upper part of the steamer.

• Season with salt and the mixed pepper.
• Cover, and steam over the wine for 10 minutes.
• Strain the sauce, then put back on the heat to reduce, with a little meat stock added.
• Check the seasoning, then melt in 20gr of butter off the heat.

Presentation

• Lay out the fillets, and dress with the sauce.
• Decorate with parsley leavess, and serve with a rice timbale.
  

Sea Bream with golden potato scales

The only real difficulty in this recipe is in the cooking of the sea bream filets. I use oven-proof paper to help slide the fish into the frying pan. This idea comes from the renowned chefs Dominique TOULOUSY et Paul BOCUSE.

You can accompany the dish with spring onions caramelized in sugar, water and salt.

Preparation and cooking time : 1 h
Ingredients for 4

4 sea bream fillets
500 ml peanut oil
500 gr potatoes (BF15) of small size

1 beaten egg

Orange Sauce :
Juice of 2 oranges

2 tbsp crème fraiche

1 branch of rosemary

2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

• Peel the potatoes and cut them into thin round slices using a mandolin and a cutter.
• Wash and drain the potato, then fry in hot (130°c) peanut oil.
• Drain, and leave to cool.
• Season the sea bream with salt and pepper.
• Brush one side of the fillet with beaten egg.
• Dress the potato onto the fillet, overlapping so as to resemble fish scales.
• Boil the orange juice with the rosemary in a saucepan.
• Reduce to obtain a syrup-like consistency.
• Incorporate the cream, and leave again to reduce.
• Season with salt and pepper, and keep the sauce warm in a bain-marie.
• Place a piece of oven-proof paper underneath and on top of the bream fillets.
• Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, and slide the fillets into the oil, with the potato-side cooking in the oil.
• Cook for 7 minutes, without turning over.

Presentation

Place the fillet in the centre, scale-side up, and dress with the orange sauce, and chervil leaves for decoration.

Veal with olive and herbs

A little busy this week, I need a recipe ready in less than an hour. I've had this one by Julie Andrieu in my files for some time now, and just before autumn sets in, it's time to make the most of the remaining garden herbs. And I just had to add some green olives...

Preparation and cooking time : 1 hour

Ingredients for 4

1 kg of diced veal or pork

1 chopped onion

Juice of 1/2 lemon

20 gr butter

10 cl crème fraîche

1 bunch of chopped parsley

1 bunch of chopped chives

1 bunch of chervil

6 tarragon leaves

15 cl white wine

Green olives

4 tbsp olive oil

Salt, pepper

• Brown the meat in a large saucepan in the olive oil and butter.
• Add the chopped onion and sweat for 3 minutes.
• Pour in the white wine, the lemon juice, chopped herbs, and the green olives.
• Season with salt and pepper, and mix well.
• Cover, and cook for 45 minutes on a low heat, stirring from time to time.
• Add the crème fraiche 10 minutes before the end of this cooking time.
• Serve accompanied by rice.

Tuna and pistachio mousse

Preparation : 15 minutes
Refrigeration : 1 hour

Ingredients for 6

400 gr tuna in oil (tinned)
2 eggs
150 gr ricotta
40 gr shelled pistachio nuts
2 tbsp cognac
Basil
Salt, pepper

• Hard-boil the eggs for 10 minutes
• Cool and shell the eggs
• Drain the tuna, the mix in a food processor with the ricotta and the eggs
• Season with salt and pepper
• Add the cognac
• Leave for 1 hour in the fridge
• Mix in the pistachios before serving, and decorate with basil leaves.

Serve cold as an appetiser with crudité vegetables or crackers, or as a starter as stuffing for hollowed tomatoes or cucumber.

Chicken liver paté

This recipe comes from Sel&Poivre by Jody Vassallo. It's simple, and according to the rest of the family, it tastes good as well. However, my first cold of the season prevents me from having any kind of opinion of what I'm eating...!

Tip : don't let the livers overcook to prevent them from becoming lumpy

Preparation and cooking : 20 minutes
Refrigerator : 4 hours

Ingredients for 6

100 gr butter
4 chopped shallot onions
500 gr of chicken livers
1 apple (peeled and grated)
2 tbsp baies roses
3 tbsp cognac
2 tbsp single cream

• Melt 30 gr of butter in a frying pan and sweat the shallots for 3 minutes.
• Add the apple, and cook for a further 3 minutes until tender.
• Pour into a mixer.
• Add another 30 gr butter to the frying pan, and cook the chicken livers, season with salt, pepper, and add the baies roses.
• Cook for 2 minutes (the livers should be browned on the outside, and pink in the middle).
• Pour over the cognac, and light the alcohol.
• Add the livers to the mixer, add the cream, and mix to obtain a smooth paste.
• Add in the remaining butter in small cubes, and mix again.
• Divide into ramekins, and leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Chocolate praline fondant

This dessert should be prepared the preceeding evening.

As la turtle might say, this one is real "slaughter" - best to serve in small quantities! I don't know how I managed before with no praline in the cupboards... I guess I might be paying another visit to "G.Detou" sooner than I had thought...

Recipe by du chef Jean-Pierre GILLOT

Preparation and cooking time : 1 hour
Refrigeration : 15 hours
Ingredients for 4

4 tbsp very cold single cream
80 gr dark chocolate (minimum 55% cocoa)
2 egg yolks
20 gr sugar
40 gr butter
Pralin :
50 gr white chocolate
210 gr of praline cream
Chocolate decoration :
120 gr dark chocolate
Walnuts for decoration

• Place an 18cm diamater circle, or a 14cm-wide square mould, or as I used, a series of small circles on a sheet of oven-proof paper on a baking tray.
• Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie, and mix in the praline cream off the heat.
• Fill the chosen mould or moulds to one third of the height.
• Leave for 2 hours in the fridge.
• Beat the cold liquid cream in a bowl to obtain a firm whipped cream, and keep cool.
• Melt the dark chocolate in a bain-marie.
• Melt the butter, then leave to cool slightly.
• Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the mixture turns white.
• Add the chocolate, and then the butter.
• Let the preparation cool completely.
• Add 4 tbsp of the whipped cream.
• Add 4 tbsp of hot water, and whip to obtain a smooth paste.
• Fill the moulds (once cooled) with this mixture, and leave for 12 hours in the fridge.

Chocolate triangles

• See chef Simon's visual demonstration Like the chef, I would have liked to have add the marbled effect using white chocolate, but I had two little visitors to my kitchen at that point!

Presentation

• Turn out the moulds with the aid of a sharp knife.
• Dress the sides with chocolate triangles, and walnut on top.

Veal medallions with shrimp

The colour and the quality of the ingredients attracted me to this recipe inspired by chef Dominique TOULOUSY, which can be made using any white meat.

Preparation and cooking time : 45 minutes
Ingredients for 4

16 jumbo shrimp
1 600 gr veal filet
1 chopped shallot onion
50 ml oil
100 ml veal stock
1 pinch of saffron
200 ml white vermouth
2 courgettes
2 carrots
30 gr butter
Salt, pepper

• Poach the jumbo shrimp in a stock for 10 minutes.
• Peel the shrimps.
• Cut the veal filet into medaillons.
• Fry the veal in oil, and reserve.
• Drain the oil from the frying pan, and heat the chopped shallot.
• Add the veal stock, and scrape the pan to loosen the residues from the veal. Reduce on a low heat.
• Add the saffron, and the vermouth.
• Reduce again on a low heat.
• Strain the sauce, then stir in the butter off the heat.
• Keep this sauce warm in a bain-marie.
• Cut the courgette and carrot into thin strips, and poach in water.

Presentation

• Lay out the veal medallions with the shrimp on top.
• Add the courgette and carrot slices.
• Replace the shrimp heads for decoration.
• Complete the dish with the sauce.

Dundee Beef Stew

No hope for any more barbecues in this weather, so I've turned to the casserole dish for this Scottish dish, made with Marmelade, and named after the town famous for this ingredient, Dundee.

Preparation and cooking time: 3 hours

Ingredients for 4

900 gr stewing beef (paleron, rib or topside)

50 gr plain flour

1/2 tsp paprika

2 tbsp sunflower oil

225 gr chopped onion

50 gr butter

100 gr button mushrooms

1 tbsp Marmelade

300 ml red wine

150 ml beef stock or marmite

Salt, pepper.

• Chop the beef into 2.5cm cubes. Sprinkle with flour, salt, pepper, paprika and mix.
• Heat the oil and butter in a casserole dish.
• Brown the onions in the oil, then add the beef.
• Chop the mushrooms into quarters, and heat them seperately.
• Add the mushrooms to the casserole, along with the marmelade, the red wine and the beef stock.
• Cover, and leave to simmer on a low heat for 1h30 to 2h.

Serve with creamy mashed potatoes