Pear Belle-Hélène
INGREDIENTS:
Poached Pears
1 cup sugar
3 cups white wine or white grape juice
3 cups water
Zest of 1 orange, in 1 by 3-inch strips
1 cinnamon stick
8 whole cloves
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 slightly underripe Bosc pears, peeled and cored, with stems intact
Chocolate Sauce
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup Fra Angelico liqueur
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
15 g shaved semisweet chocolate or chocolate chips
To assemble
1 1/2 cups vanilla ice cream or low-fat frozen yogurt, softened, for serving.
Method:
To make the poached pears, combine all the ingredients except the pears in a nonaluminum Dutch oven or soup pot. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the peeled pears, stem side up, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the pears are just tender. (Ripe pears will cook much quicker.) Remove the pears from the poaching liquid with a slotted spoon and regfrigerate for at least 2 hours. The poaching liquid can be stored and reused.
To make the chocolate sauce, bring the cream, liqueur, sugar, and salt to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat, add the chocolate, and cover. After 3 minutes, blend in the chocolate until the sauce is smooth. (The sauce can be prepared several days ahead and chilled.)
To assemble, warm the chocolate sauce, if chilled, over low heat or in a double boiler. If it is too thick, add a few drops of cream. Place a large spoonful of vanilla ice cream in each dessert cup. Stand a chilled pear in the ice cream and spoon the warm chocolate sauce over the pears. Serve immediately, with your best silver spoons.
Note: This classic French recipe stands a poached pear in ice cream topped with chocolate sauce like a sundae. A low-fat frozen yogurt can also be used. Use a tall, elegantly shaped, and long-stemmed poaching pear like the Bosc.
SERVES 6 connoisseurs.
C’est merveilleux!
Read MoreCoq Au Vin Cheat
Ingredients:
3-4 chicken thighs
2 rashers bacon, cut into small pieces
6-8 shallots, peeled
4 large chestnut mushrooms, quartered
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsp plain flour
300 ml red wine
150 ml chicken stock
1 tbsp brandy
1 tsp herbes de Provence
1 sachet bouquet garni
salt & pepper
Method:
Heat the oil with the butter in a large frying pan. Brown the chicken thighs on all sides and then put in the slow cooker. Make sure they are quite brown. Add the bacon and the shallots to the pan and brown lightly. Add the flour and cook, stirring frquently with a spatula for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the wine and chicken stock. Return to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring constantly, then pour over the chicken in the slow cooker. Add the mushrooms, brandy and seasonings. Put the slow cooker on high for 30 min and then low for 6 hours or medium for 4 hours. Serve with steamed broccoli and carrots and mashed potatoes.
Note: Traditionally made dish that is basically mature chicken braised in wine. In fact, Coq au Vin translates to “rooster in wine” and is a very basic dish that was prepared in most French farmer’s kitchens. Meat on the bone offers more flavor than boneless meat and holds up best in braises. A pinot noir or burgundy are tasty choices for this dish. You can serve in a bowl over mashed potatoes to soak up the sauce.
Read MoreCroissant Recipe
Ingredients:
• 1 kg Strong white flour
• 570 ml Water and milk mixed
• 450 gm Unsalted butter or margarine
• 2 Sachets easy bake yeast
• 1 Egg for egg wash
• Pinch of salt
• Sugar to taste
Method:
• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
• Cut butter into small pieces.
• Take a bowl and combine flour, salt, sugar, yeast, butter, water and milk.
• Knead it to make cohesive dough.
• Shape the mixture into a rectangle and roll out to about 30cmx20cm.
• Fold over the top third, fold up the bottom third and close each side with the side of your hand.
• Place it into the plastic bag and chill for about 30 minutes.
• Now turn 90 degrees and roll it again to another rectangle.
• Fold up bottom third and close it with the side of your hand.
• Chill it again for 30 minutes.
• Repeat two more times, chilling for about 30 minutes between each rolling.
• Return it to the plastic bag and place it into the refrigerator for about an hour.
• Remove it from the fridge and roll into a big rectangle 50cmx30cm.
• Cut in half lengthwise and divide into triangles and shape into crescent.
• Beat egg and carefully, egg wash croisant.
• Place them on a baking sheet and allow it to rise for about 20 minutes.
• Now bake it for about 20 minutes till golden brown.
Note: Today the croissant is practically the national bread of France (after the baguette of course), where it is eaten almost exclusively for breakfast, a good strong cup of coffee on the side. And though you would’t think it, the most popular varieties aren’t made with real butter at all. Instead they’re made from margarine, which yields a crispier, tougher product (though one that’s much better than the original for dunking). When in France, know a margarine-based croissant by it’s straight shape (I guess that goes for Japan as well). The original butter-based croissant is known as the croissant au beurre and is still made in the classic crescent.
Read MoreClafoutis aux Abricots (Apricot batter pudding)
Ingredients:
450 gr [1 lb] ripe apricots
150 gr [5 1/3 oz] plain flour
250 gr [8 3/4 oz] granulated sugar
4 eggs
100 ml [3 1/2 fl oz] single cream
100 ml [3 1/2 fl oz] milk
5 spoons of rhum or liquor
Butter for mould
1 pinch of salt
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C / 400°F ; wash the apricots, cut them in halves and take pits off; butter 6 to 8 pie dishes.
2. In an electric mixer (with blade), put the flour and sugar, and the pinch of salt; while mixing, add the eggs on by one, then the milk, then the single cream.
3. Lay the apricots halves evenly on the bottom of each dish; pour over the batter.
4. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes; serve warm.
Tip: to verify if your custard is baked, push the point of a knife in the centre of it; if the blade comes out clean, the custards are ready. You need to increase baking time if you use a single large dish, and vice versa.
Note: More generally served with cherries, this recipe can be made with many different fruits. Apricot is a good and original version. Serves 6 to 8.
Read MoreFilet Mignon aux Oignons – Gratin Dauphinois
Pork Filet Mignon with Onions – Dauphiné oven baked potatoes
Ingredients for 4 people :
- 800 gr [3 lb] filet mignon of pork
- 4 brown onions
- 20 cl [7 fl oz] dry white wine
- 5 Tbspoons olive oil
- Salt & pepper
Side dish :
- 4 big potatoes
- 35 cl [12 oz] single cream
- 100 gr [4 oz] swiss cheese
- nutmeg, salt & pepper
Main course recipe :
All steps of side dish must be done before main course (baking time 1h15) ; start to prepare main course once the gratin is in the oven…
1- Peel and mince the onions ; cut the filet mignon in 3 to 4 sections.
2- In a non-stick stewpot, medium flame, heat the oil and brown the onions in for 15 minutes (turn regularly with a wooden spoon).
3- Brown the meat in the onions for 5 minutes with salt and pepper, then pour the wine, cover with a lid, and let simmer for 30 minutes ; turn from time to time.
4- Serve each of your guest cutting slices from the meat sections.
Side dish recipe :
A – Grate the swiss cheese. Peel the potatoes and cut them into thin slices (with the slicer side of your grater or electric mixer) ; display them in an oven dish by layers, add salt and pepper each time one layer is completed ; spread as well a pinch of grated nutmeg and some grated cheese every other layer. Once all slices are displayed, pour the single cream in the dish ; it needs to cover exactly all potatoes ; complete with a little milk if it is not the case (leave the extra cream if you have too much).
B- Spread the left cheese (1/3) on top of the potatoes ; bake the whole in (pre-heated) oven at 200°C / 400°F for about 1h15. The gratin must be golden brown and the cream should be totally absorbed by the potatoes.
TRICK : verify that the potatoes are cooked by pricking them with the tip of a knife which must penetrate softly and easily.
Tip:
Serve with seasonal salad. This is very easy but truly delicious main dish for dinner.
Read More