Escalope with Mushrooms

Quick, easy and tasty, this is a lunch recipe.


Ingredients:

• 1 escalope /pers (veal, turkey or chicken)
• 200 gr mushrooms /pers (Paris and/or oyster mushroom)
• 1 ts butter
• 1 ts cream /pers
• salt, pepper, chives to taste

1. Warm a frying pan with the butter
2. Cook the escalopes on one side for some 3 minutes, then turn it to the other side and add the mushrooms (washed and cut in pieces)
3. When the mushrooms and the escalopes are cooked (the mushroom should be 2/3 of their original size), add the spices
4. Turn the fire off and add the cream - stir until it melts. It's ready !

It can be served with rice (you also can add fried onions, or a bit of lemon juice to the creamy sauce).

Pastourmas and Saganaki

Those days I didn't have much time to cook, and since Easter is coming soon, and with it a large choice of traditional Greek products in the supermarkets [for those who didn't follow the whole thing, I'm currently living in Athens]. Well anyways: just to explain why this post, cause it's not really a recipe.

Pastourmas (παστουρμάς)
It's beef meat seasoned with pepper, cayenne pepper, and dried with salt...
It's VERY salty. A bit special. To be honnest I don't like it much^^. But I thought that it looked a bit to the beef jerky that I tried in Florida, and of which I was really fond (the seasoning was lighter and there was much less salt) - I could never buy any in Europe, though.
Pastourmas is traditional in Greece, Turkey and Armenia.

Saganaki (σαγανάκι)
Is the fried cheese. The one on the photo was not really good cause I tried to play it traditional, so just like the pastourmi, it was much too salty (I used Haloumi cheese from Cyprus). But I've already tried with other kinds of goat or sheep cheese, less salty, and it can be a good appetizer.
Just cut the cheese in slices and fry it in olive oil (ok, that's ultra-calorific!).

So, in conclusion, I'll never buy pastourmas again, but saganaki is nice if you pick the right kind of cheese (kasseri, kefalograviera and even feta will make).

Grâtin with Potatoes and Sausage

This is a recipe I made, inspired by French and Greek cooking.




Ingredients:

• 800 gr potatoes
• 1 country sausage
• 1 frankfurt sausage
• 200 gr feta and/or hard goat cheese
• 50 gr grated cheese (like Emmental)
• 3 ts fresh cream
• 20 cL liquid cream
• 2 ts melted butter
• 3 eggs
• salt, pepper

1. Peel the potatoes, cut them in slices, and cook them in salty water
2. Cut the sausages in slices
3. In a buttered pan, put the slices of potatoes and of sausages together
4. In a bowl, beat the eggs, the liquid cream and the butter together, and season with salt and pepper
5. Pour the mixture all over the potatoes and sausages
6. Cut the feta and/or goat cheese in slices, and top the dish with it
7. Spread the fresh cream on the feta, and finally sprinkle over it
8. Preheat the oven (180°C) and bake for 25 minutes

This Grâtin already allies meat and vegetables, so it can be served with tomatoes or salad.

Banana Cake

Here's a recipe that I've just invented as a present for a banana-lover. :D
If you're on a diet, you'd better skip this page. :P

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas
• 1 pot yoghurt (apple or pear flavor is nice)
• 2 pots all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 pot sugar
• 1/2 pot melted butter
• 100 gr black chocolate
• 1 ts backing powder

1. Mix all the ingredients together, except from the bananas and the chocolate
2. Cut the bananas in thin slices and break the chocolates into small chunks
3. Add the bananas and the chocolate to the mixture, and mix again, but softly
4. Pour the mixture into a buttered pan
5. Bake for 40 minutes (180°C)

This cake tastes good, but is a bit heavy, so it's better served as a snack, or after a light meal.

Bifteki

One common Greek food is "bifteki"... the Greek version for "beef steak". There are many ways to adapt this easy recipe (you can easily change the herbs, spices and proportions, according to your taste).

Ingredients (for 6 steaks):

• 500 gr minced beef meat
• 1 onion - or green onions
• 1 egg
• 2 slices of bread (it doesn't matter if it is from the day before)
• 1 ts lemon juice
• 1 ts parmeggiano cheese
• 2 sprigs fresh mint
• 1/2 bunch of parsley
• 1 pinch cumin
• 1 pinch ginger
• 1 cs salt
• 1 pinch pepper
• 1 cs Cayenne ground pimento
• 1 cs oregano

1. Soak the bread into warm water, and then squeeze it
2. Chop the parsley and the onion or green onions, crush the mint
3. Mix all the ingredients together by hand
4. Leave it stand for half an hour (optional)
5. Make steaks (flaten it enough for the inside to be cooked as well)
6. Cook on a grill for 3 minutes on each side, or fry in olive oil

This is a nice summer food that can be served with a light salad.

Caramel

The word caramel has a latine root (it comes from caramellus: "sugar cane"). Toffee is quite similar but needs butter. I'll explain here the basic principles to make caramel - you can use those principles to make thousands of different caramels !




Ingredients:

• sugar (it's even better with brown sugar)
• water (1/3 of the sugar's weight)
• 1 cs lemon juice or vinegar

1. Boil together the sugar and the water until the sugar is entirely melted
2. Lower the fire temperature and continue to cook until it gets a little yellow
3. Take off the fire and add 1 cs cold water (be careful with the projections)
4. Add the lemon or the vinegar for it not to crystalize
5. Cover and leave it for a few minutes
6. Bring it again on a low fire and cook until it gets the color you wish (from transparent-yellow to light brown) - Don't forget that the color always gets a bit browner when you take the caramel off the fire for the second time, so don't leave it too long.
7. It's ready, but if you want something more liquid or browner, just add a bit of cold water and cook it again. (Take care not to doo it too much, because when it gets too brown, the taste becomes too strong and it's almost impossible to eat it).

To make toffee, you can add butter, cream, milk, nuts and chocolate to your caramel. Liquid caramel can be used as a coat for cakes (ex: Semolina Cake). For covering choux à la crème or fixing together pieces of pastries, it's better to use a very light and liquid caramel.

Semolina Cake

This is my own adaptation of a common recipe.





Ingredients:

• 200 gr semolina
• 100 gr sugar
• 1/2 vanilla pod
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 L milk
• caramel (use 60 gr sugar)
• butter (for the pan)

1. Precook the semolina, but keep it a bit dry
2. Boil the milk with the 100 gr sugar and the vanilla
3. Add the milk to the semolina
4. Add the yolks of the eggs
5. Beat the whites of the eggs until you get a snowy texture; add delicately to the rest
6. Butter a pan and put the mixture in it
7. Bake in the oven, in a bain-marie, for 30 minutes
8. While baking, prepare a liquid caramel (it can be brown, but light caramels also match with semolina cakes)
9. Unmold the cake on a plate and coat with the caramel

You can add raisins in the mixture before baking the care, and cover it with Grand Marnier instead of the caramel layer.

Crêpes

Crêpes are definitely amongst the most famous French foods. It can be eaten as a main dish or as a dessert, and be filled with many various ingredients - everybody likes it ! Crêpes are a great symbol in the French imagination: it's believed that if you make them "jump" on Chandeleur (2nd of February, commemorating the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple), with a coin in your hand, you'll be rich for all the year on. We also prepare crêpes for Mardi Gras (literally "Fat Tuesday" - better known as Carnival, the last day before the Fast period) and have a famous melody :

"Mardi Gras, t'en va pas, J'f'rons des crêpes, J'f'rons des crêpes,

Mardis Gras, t'en va pas, J'f'rons des crèpes et t'en auras!"

In Bretagne (Brittany), for the main dish crêpes, they use whole flour instead of all-purpouse flour, and drink cider with those crêpes.

Ingredients:

• 250g flour
• 4 eggs
• 1/2L milk
• 2 ts water
• 1 pinch of salt
• optional : 1 tablespoon sugar and/or rum for dessert crêpes
  

1. Mix the flour and the eggs together
2. Add the milk and the water little by little
3. Add the sald and the sugar (if necessary)
4. Leave the mixture for one or two hours
5. Warm the pan before cooking the "crêpes" (pour about 1/5 glass for one crêpe)
6. Cook each crêpe about 1 minute on each side. Traditionally, you have to make it "jump" to turn it from one face to the other, but you can use a spatula.

If you didn't use sugar for the paste, you can put eggs, bacon and cheese on your crêpes and serve it as a main dish. For dessert ones, use your imagination: sugar, jam, chestnut cream, chocolate, chantilly, fruits, ice-cream, etc ...

Chocolate Cake

This is a really easy recipe, and this kind of cake will be enjoyed on all occasions. :)


Ingredients:

• 200 gr black chocolate
• 200 gr butter
• 4 eggs
• 150 gr sugar
• 70 gr flour
  

1. Heat the chocolate in a double boiler - bain-marie (you can add a touch of milk)
2. Add the butter and stir until you get a homogeneous surface
3. Mix the sugar, the flour and the eggs together, then add the melted chocolate and butter and mix again
4. Pour into a buttered pan
5. Preheat the oven and cook half an hour in the 200°C

This chocolate cake can be served with a bit of cream and decorated with chocolate chips, or accompanied with ice cream, or topped with fluffy vanilla. The taste also matches well with a glass of milk (for breakfast...).

Chantilly Cream

The Chantilly cream is a more modern version of the whipped cream (highly enjoyed and advertised by the king Louis XIV). It's said to have been created for the first time in the city of Chantilly, in Picardie.

Ingredients:

• 50 gr superfine sugar
• 25 cL liquid cream (it has to be really cold)
• 1 cs sugar with vanilla

Whip the cream continuously until it gets the thickness of a whipped cream. Add the sugar and the vanilla (it's important to use superfine sugar). Whisk again. It's ready.

Keep the Chantilly refrigerated. Can be used to cover a Strawberry Genoise Cake.

Génoise

Génoise has been name after the Italian town Genoa, where this biscuit recipe comes from.
It can be used alone as a snack with jam, or as a base for cakes.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 120 gr sugar
• 120 gr flour

1. Butter a round mould cake (16 cm diameter is fine) and refrigerate
2. Hand-whip the eggs with the sugar in a bain-marie (in a bigger pot full of water and kept on the fire) for approximately 15 minutes, until the paste whitens and it volume triples
3. Take the pot out of the bain-marie, and stir stir until it cools
4. Preheat the oven (180°C)
5. Add the flour very slowly and carefully, and keep whisking at the same time
6. When the paste falls like a ribbon, take the mould out of the fridge, pour the paste in it, and bake for 15-20 minutes
7. This biscuit can be cut horizontally with a sharp knife in two or three slices

Idea of recipe using génoise: Strawberry Genoise Cake

Pastry Cream

Pastry Cream, Crème Patissière, is the basis of almost all French pastries. So it's one of the most important recipes for cooking deserts.

Ingredients:

• 150 gr sugar
• 75 gr flour
• 5 yolks of eggs
• 3/4 L milk
• 1/2 vanilla pod
  
  

1. Heat the milk with the vanilla cut in halves until it boils
2. Whip the yolks until they whiten, and add the flour
3. As soon as the milk starts boiling, pour it on the eggs and keep whisking
4. Put the mix back on the fire for 5-6 minutes, still whisking
5. When the cream thikens, it's ready: take it off the fire and let it cool down

This pastry cream can be used in a Strawberry Genoise Cake

Strawberry Genoise Cake

Génoise is the name of the biscuit on which the cake is based.
I elaborated this recipe for a birthday (using "basis" such as génoise, pastry cream, and chantilly).

Ingredients:

For the génoise:

• 3 eggs
• 120 gr flour
• 120 gr sugar

For the pastry cream (crème patissière):

• 150 gr sugar
• 75 gr flour
• 5 yolks of eggs
• 3/4 L milk
• 1/2 vanilla pod

For the Chantilly (1/4 L):

• 50 gr superfine sugar
• 25 cL liquid cream
• 1/4 vanilla pod

Others:

• 500 gr strawberries
• chocolate chips (decoration)
• 2 ts superfine sugar
• 1/3 cup water

1. Prepare a génoise and cut it horizontally in two halves with a sharp knife
2. Prepare a strawberry sirup (mixing together 200 gr strawberries with 1/3 cup water and 2 ts superfine sugar) and use 2/3 of it to wet the two halves of génoise (from the inside)
3. Prepare the pastry cream
4. Put the upper part of the génoise down on the pan where the cake will be presented
5. Cut 300 gr strawberries in halves, and cover the génoise half on the pan with it (the cut part of the strawberries against the paste)
6. Smear half of the pastry cream over the strawberries, and cover with the second half of the génoise
7. Smear the rest of the pastry cream
8. Prepare the chantilly, and smear it over the pastry cream
9. Decorate with a strawberry in slices, chocolate chips, and pour the rest of the strawberry syrup
10. Keep a few hours in the fridge before eating

Sushi

The term sushi is used for many kinds of bite-sized pieces of vinegared, most commonly topped with fish, or rolled in nori.
Sushi were invented in the early 19th century. Before fish was kept about one year in a marinade before being eaten, while the sushi, often topped with raw fish, has to be extremely fresh.

Ingredients:

For the rice:

• 2 cups of round-grain rice
• 2 ts vinegar
• 2 ts sugar
• 1/2 ts salt

For the filling/topping:

• sushi-nori (seaweed sheets), for the maki-sushi (sushi rolled in a seaweed sheet)
• raw filet from very fresh fishes (salmon, thuna, etc) [better use smoked salmon than not fresh enough raw fish...]
• shrimps
• lobster
• surimi
• crab meat
• ham (raw) or beef carpaccio
• vegetables (cumcumber, avocado, etc)
• japanese omelette in very thin slices [for 3 eggs: 1 ts vinegar, 1 ts sugar, 1 cs salt and 1 cs soy sauce]

For the decoration (optional):

• capers
• roasted sesame seeds
• lettuce
• raped carrot

For the dressing:

• Japanese soy sauce
• wasabi

How to prepare the rice:

1. Place it in 750 mL cold water
2. Leave it on a medium fire until it boils
3. Cover, reduce the fire and simmer for 20 minutes
4. Leave it in the cooking pot for 10 minutes without removing the cover
5. Add the vinegar sauce

Vinegar sauce: bring together the vinegar, sugar and soy sauce, and heat slowly for the sugar to melt

How to make nigiri-sushi (the well-known shape):

Don't forget first to wet your hands (keep a bowl of water close by, because your hands always need to be wet while confectioning sushi - as well as the knives that you may use to cut the fish)

1. Take some of the rice, make a bite-sized ball with it, put it in the palm of your hand and flatten it slightly
2. Mold it in the shape of a leaf
3. Top it with:

- a slice of raw fish (cut the fish in such a way that its size fits with the shape of the riceball)

- or some fish eggs

- or some of the minced japanese omelette

You can decorate it with capers, roasted sesame seeds, or small pieces of avocado

How to make maki-sushi (rolled in nori):

• Place the nori sheet on a makisu (bamboo mat)
• Cover the nori with a layer of rice, leaving at least 1 or 2 cm uncovered on the sides (if there is not enough rice on the extremities of the roll, it can be added later)
• On the center of the rice-line, arrange the filling ingredients on a rather narrow strip
• Roll the makisu, starting with the side where the rice is the closest to the edge. Keep a light but constant pressure while doing it
• Use a sharp knife to cut the roll in equal portions (each maki-sushi should be approximately 2,5 cm)
  

Ideas for variations:

• You can add some roasted sesame seeds to the rice before making the sushi
• For a spicier taste, you can smear a bit of wasabi on the surface of the rice layer of the maki
• You can put a thin japanese omelette on the surface of the nori before the rice
• It's possible to roll your maki-suhi inside out to obtain uramaki-sushi (the tip is: use a plastic film on your makisu, if you don't want the rice to stick on it !)
• You also can make a normal maki, and roll again in an external layer of rice (decorate the rice with seasam seeds)
• If you want to use the nori but find it hard to give a nice shape to your maki-sushi roll, you can replace it by temaki [literaly "hand"(te)-rolled(maki)": put the rice and the other ingredients on pieces of nori (the size of an individual sushi), but instead of rolling it, just give it the shape of a small cone

Croûtons

Basically, in French, a croûton is a little piece of crusty bread.

Croûtons can be used in many recipes, and it's a good way not to waste old bread. :)

Ingredients:

• bread (it can be old)
• parsley or oregano
• garlic
• melted butter or olive oil

1. Cut the bread in cubes (croûtons)
2. Rub the croutons with the garlic
3. Add the chopped parsley or oregano
4. Pour butter on it if you used parsley, and olive oil if you used oregano
5. Grill for 5-8 minutes in the oven (200°C)

Of course, it's possible to use different herbs, depending on tastes and dishes with which the croutons served.

Exemple: for the Winter Soup with Vegetables, use garlic, parsley and butter; for omelette, use oregano and olive oil, etc

Winter Soup with Vegetables

This easy-to-make recipe will be particularly appreciated during cold winters, and can be easily adaptated to whatever vegetables you have at home (turnips, etc), and accompanied with herbs.

Ingredients:

• 4 potatoes
• 4 carrots
• 1 leek
• green oinions
• 25 cL liquid cream
• milk (optional)
• salt, pepper, chive (optional)
• croûtons

1. the potatoes and the carrots in medium-size cubes, and mince the green onions
2. Cook all the vegetables together with salt and pepper (cover the pan and don't use too much water, in order to steam-cook them). You also can use a steam-pot.
3. When the potatoes and the carrots are cooked, mix the vegetables, add salt and pepper according to taste and add the liquid cream.
4. Serve warm; you can pour a table-spoon of milk and minced chive in each plate. Present the croûtons separately, or put them in the soup at the last moment.

Drinks

Here will be displayed the links to Drinks' recipes

Desserts

Strawberry Genoise Cake
Chocolate Cake
Crêpes
Génoise
Pastry Cream
Chantilly Cream
Semolina Cake
Caramel
Banana Cake

Main Dishes

Winter Soup with Vegetables
Sushi
Crêpes
Bifteki
Grâtin with Potatoes and Sausage

Appetizers

Croûtons