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Artichokes

31/8/2013

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Spring, Spring, Spring , lets have fresh artichokes, their tender hearts and their soft, pulpy and delicious petals, for weeks! One must never be in a hurry when presented with such a delicacy , It is a hands on experience, ideal for those who love to dive in and get personal with their food! Italians love to stuff artichokes with a seasoned breading mixture or fry the sliced hearts in olive oil.
I like them simply cooked and eat the petals with mayonnaise or vinaigrette.

Select artichokes which have very closed leaves, to know for sure that it is fresh, bend a small leave near the stem, it should break easily and naturally, if it is too elastic don’t buy it.

Classical method :

Rinse your artichokes in cold water.
Trim the stem and leave 3cm of it.
Drop the artichokes in a large pot and enough boiling water to cover the artichokes.
Leave them to cook for 30 to 45 minutes. (depending of the size of the artichokes.)
Drain them with the stem up.

Steam method :

I prefer this method , less cooking time and it preserves more nutrients.

Place ½ litre water into a pot to boil with a steaming basket on top.
Drop the artichokes into the basket when the water is boiling, cover, reduce heat to simmer and steam for 25 to 35 minutes until the outer leaves can easily be pulled off.
The artichokes can also be cooked in a pressure cooker and it will take only 15 to 17 minutes cooking time.

It can be eaten warm or cold, I like it cold and simply served with a mayonnaise or dressing.
Dip the white end in mayonnaise, then eat the soft, pulpy and delicious portion of the petal.
Discard remaining petals.
Once all the petals have been eaten, with a spoon or knife scrape out the inedible fuzzy part
covering the heart then cut it into pieces and dip into sauce to eat.

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Brandade de Morue - Creamy salted Cod

17/8/2013

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When it is well prepared, it borders on ethereal!
This classical French can be found everywhere, at most fishmongers, market and is still an iconic bistro fare.
It is an ordinary dish, very familiar as a meat pie or fish and chips in Australia.
It is served as a lunch or dinner but as well as an appetizer dip.

Ingredients

A beautiful fillet of salt cod about 800g (I like to buy the one with skin and bones as it keeps the savour to the flesh)
100ml heavy cream
3 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
200ml Olive oil
2 bay leaves
Fresh thyme
1 bouquet garni
Whole Pepper.

Preparation

For tender salt cold, the only way is to not overcook it and keep the heat low, at just under a simmer ; rapid boiling will kill the tenderness in the cod and it will be dry.

The day before, give the fish a good rinse then soak it in a big bowl of water, cover completely the cod, changing water every 2 to 3 hours.
The next morning the cod is ready to be cooked.
Drain the cod and transfer to a saucepan with cold water, the bay leaves, thyme and 10 whole pepper, then bring to a gently boil.
Simmer over very low heat for 10 minutes.
Once cooked, drain the cod and peel of the skin if any and with carefull attention take off the bones.
Still warm, flake the fish (break into small pieces) and set aside.
Gently simmer half of the olive oil ( I add a bouquet garni to the oil, so the perfume oil infuses the fish, deliciously).
Lightly, heat the cream (optional).
In a saucepan, on very low heat poor half of olive oil for 3 minutes.
Add the fish.
Pour the other half olive oil, several tablespoonfuls at a time until the cod has incorporated all the oil.
Add the lightly heated cream and the smashed garlic and still on very low heat, whisk it until the cod has absorbed the cream.
All the ingredients should, ideally, be at the same temperature
Add a lot of pepper.

Serve the brandade lukewarm or cold, with toasted bread.
You can replace the cream for warm milk.
This silky cod cream can be kept in the fridge for 4/5 days.

Some heretics cooks add mashed potatoes , add the cooked potatoes puree to the cod before adding the cream and combine until just incorporated. Do not over mix.

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Almond with Mushrooms Potage

11/8/2013

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The subtil parfum of Almonds with Mushroom hummmm....

Serve 4

Ingredients

400g mushrooms cleaned and finely chopped (if possible add few dry or fresh porcini)
3 shallots peeled and finely chopped (if not available, replace par 1 medium white onion peeled and finely chopped)
2 big peeled garlic cloves
200ml fresh cream ( or a mix of cream and sour cream)
250mg of Almond meal
30g butter
Bouquet garni (link for method)
63cl vegetable stock and 37cl of almond milk (if no almond milk increase the vegetable stock to 1litre)
1 small bouquet of flat-leaf parsley
1 egg yolk
Sea salt and pepper
Truffle Oil (Optional)
Almond Oil (Optional)

Mix the chopped mushrooms, chopped shallots and chopped garlic.
In a large casserole, add half of the butter on a medium heat for 1 minute.
Add the mixture, stir, for 3minutes – medium heat, don’t let it turn brown.
Add the almond meal and the vegetable stock and almond milk.
Add the bouquet garni, salt and pepper.
Mix and bring to the boil then simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove the bouquet garni.
Whiz the soup a little bit, keeping some bits of mushrooms.
Mix the egg yolk and fresh cream.
Stop the heat and add the mix egg/cream to the soup and mix well.
Before serving sprinkle the chopped parsley on top of the soup and few drips of truffle oil and few drops of Almond oil.
Serve with grilled garlic bread.

You can quickly fry some nice-looking mushrooms like Girolles, Chanterelles or oysters and sprinkle these on top of the soup.

You can re-enforce the parfum by adding ,before you introduce the almond meal to the soup, 1 dessertspoon of tomato past.

The soup can be prepared few hours before the dinner and can be re-heated the day after.

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Caramelised Pear Cake

6/8/2013

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CARAMELIZED PEAR CAKE from my hero Joel Robuchon

For 8 gluttons

350g butter
250g raising flour
1kg ripe pears
50g honey
250g icing sugar
4 eggs
pinch of salt
50ml pear eau de vie or any eau de vie available in your pantry or a bit of cherry perhaps ? (optional)

Butter and flour a cake tin, reserve.
Peel the pears and dice into 2cm pieces.
In a frying pan brown them over a high heat with 82 g of butter.
Add the honey and let it caramelize until golden autumn leaves.
With a whisk, mix 250g of softened butter with the icing sugar.
Incorporate the eggs one by one then add the rest of the flour and the
Pinch of salt.
Softly add the caramelized pears and the juices.
Pour the mixture into the reserved cake tin and bake at 200/220C for 50minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven, let it cool for 10 minutes then remove it from the tin (if you can :)

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Artichokes

Brandade de Morue - Creamy salted Cod

Almond with Mushrooms Potage

Caramelised Pear Cake

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