Just make it simple: Ratatouille

After my meat laden last post, I decided it would be nice to go just vegetables for this one. Fine, for the ongoing reason of the Bloggers Around the World World Cup challenge, I also wanted to have something French for today. Now we just make it simple and have a typical French vegetable stew, which we know as Ratatouille. I tried this recipe from The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo. I only made minimal adjustments according to what I could do with. Really, the only problem with that book is, the index isn't working properly.

What we need:

Olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1-2 cloves of garlic, finely mashed

Some thyme (and time as well, of course)

1 aubergine, finely sliced

1 courgette, finely sliced

1 red and 1 yellow bell pepper, cut in stripes

6 tomatoes, quartered

A bit of sugar

Salt

Just do it:

First we start in a pan and heat up a splash of olive oil. Then we add the onion, garlic and thyme and let it go until the onion is translucent. After that comes the aubergine and we cook it soft in a few minutes.

Now we concentrate on the oven, which we like to heat up to 180 °C. We have a baking try ready. In there we toss the courgette, peppers, tomatoes and the content of the pan.

Off it all goes to the oven ... but wait, don't forget to cover the tray with aluminium foil.

Hm ... eh ... about one hour should be enough for the vegetables in the oven. Then remove it, sprinkle a bit sugar on it, add salt to taste, mix it through and transfer it back to the oven in the top section for about 4 minutes.

You can now go and eat it just like this, maybe with a bit of extra olive oil on top, maybe with some lovely bread or maybe you eat it cold the next day ... maybe if you have leftovers.

Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy it. I'm going to enjoy the res of my day whether it rains or not, whether the sun will shine for me or not. I'll just do it.

Going French with Rillettes and Fougasse

Some weeks ago I was very much in the mood for cooking some French food and improve my knowledge in that cuisine. Well, apart from the option to look things up on the net, I have a few books on French cooking. One of it is The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo. It's a lovely book and the recipes work excellently. I selected some of them and worked myself through them during a week.
I like to share some of the results with you today as France is also playing Switzerland in the World Cup today. However, I will not share all of them, I need to reserve a bit for later.
Therefore today I like to concentrate on two things: Rillettes au porc and Fougasse aux romarin, avande et from age du chèvre.

 First to the rilletes with pork. If you find the right shop you most probably can by it ready in a jar. However, it's so simple and worth a try. You need pork belly, some bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and some time. It goes into the oven for 3 hours at 130 °C. Afterwards you can easily shred the pork (rind cut off) and jar it up and eat it with some lovely homemade bread and a glass of red wine.
If you care to make a mess in your oven you can throw the cut off rind under the grill and let them get crispy. Great, you get a crispy, fatty snack, hear some crackling sounds from your oven and get the chance to clean your oven.
Guess what I did ...

I just wanted to test some pork cracklings, too.
Anyway, I enjoyed the rillettes most of it together with the fougasse and the red wine.

Sure, you need some time as well to make the fougasse, but hey, it's all so lovely. What I liked about this fougasse version was, that it included lavender and goat's cheese.
You make a yeasty dough with 10 g dried yeast, 400 g flour, salt, dried rosemary, dried lavender and olive oil.
Then, you know, there is some kneading involved, rising, proving and all that lot, yes shaping. Apart from that we need to fit in the goat's cheese. Push pieces of 80 g of firm goat's cheese into the bread before you let it rise for the last time after the shaping.
The bread needs about 20 minutes at 210 °C in the oven. 
The end result is lovely. So, if you want to try it, you either have to try it as it is or have a look at the book or ask for further details.

Now you get also a closer look at the bread. I enjoyed it very much. So, do you like to have a bite?

If you like to have this ready for the football match today, I have to inform you, that you better have to hurry. Otherwise ... you need to have something else.

I add this to our ever increasing collection of posts for the World Cup 2014 and Bloggers Around the World.

Je ne parle pas français - Salade Pastourelle

Eh bien, je ne parle pas français. Well, I tried it at school for some month, but honestly I don't really understand much French. Nevertheless I like French cooking. Now, some time ago, I had strange ideas when travelling. I thought I might get a cookbook, when I'm on holiday ... in that country ... in the local language. As a consequence, I ended up with an Italian and a French cookbook. Great, I'm not really able to read it properly. So I didn't really make any efforts to try some recipes.
Here is, where it starts to get interesting. Dom from Belleau Kitchen has another entertaining idea for this month's random recipes. The theme is time for a spring clean and the idea is to give those books you would get rid off another go. Anyway, I wouldn't even think of getting rid off any of my cookbooks, even those I can't read properly. Nevertheless, I wanted to give one of those two books a go. The rolling of dice decided for the French one, which is Je Sais Cuisiner by Ginette Mathiot, and the random choice came up to Salade Pastourelle, which freely translated has to mean Young Shepherdess Salad. Have a look ...

This was the second try to select a random recipe for I by no means wanted to make anything with rognon de bœuf. Sorry, but no. I wouldn't know where to get beef kidneys and I don't want to know what they taste like.
So I was lucky I came to the salad section with the second attempt. Still there would be the challenge to translate the ingredients and the recipe. Then I reduced the amounts to m needs and came up with the following.

Ingredients:
5 small round onions, cooked, roasted, whatever
1 pickled gherkin, finely sliced
3 anchovy fillets, sliced
2 hard boiled egg yolks
50 g tuna in oil
2 tsp. capers
8 pitted olives
Vinegar, oil, salt, pepper
Freshly chopped parsley

Method:
Another problem with the book was, there are nearly 2000 recipes in the book, but no pictures of the dishes at all and the instructions are very limited.
However, I was so focused on getting the small round onions, that I totally mixed things up and got the wrong ones, for in the recipe it said you should boil them in salted water for 30 minutes. My onions needed no cooking at all, because they came in a jar  and where already roasted.
Accordingly my sole job was to get the egg yolks ready and then carefully mix all the ingredients together. Well, the egg yolks and the parsley where supposed to feature as a garnish.
Now I can not say whether I got this salade pastourelle right, but I liked it and as a matter of fact had another one the day after, however without egg yolks. I wasn't ready for more eggs that day.

I reckon, that cookbook has a lot of good French recipes in it. Fine, a few might be towards a direction I don't want to go, but I guess I could work a bit more on my French and have another go at something else. Maybe then I'll be able to figure out, why I got the book in the first place ...

More from the Tart Tin - Quiche Lorraine

Fine, I have a few more things lined up coming from my loose bottom tart tin, simply can't help it. Now it doesn't always have to be sweet, although at first glance that might be fine with me, but I know better that it's far too dangerous to have to much of sweets. Since I don't always get the chance to share finished products, I have to balance the cake and sweets department better with the savoury department.
For that cause I have some Quiche Lorraine for you today, even more balanced with a salad on the side.

Still we get the chance to use the loose bottom tart tin. Oh, I can't exactly remember what the salad was all about, but I have the details of the Quiche Lorraine for you.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
250 g flour
1 egg
A pinch of salt
4 tbsp. water
125 g butter
For the filling:
125 g bacon, cut into small pieces
200 g crème fraîche
4 eggs
2 leeks, cut into rings
Salt and pepper
150 g grated cheese

Method:
Carefully put together the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour ... or the other way around ... so you get a mixture resembling bread crumbs. Don't forget the salt. Then add the egg and the water to bring the dough together. Pop it into the fridge for 30 minutes.
For the filling or topping or whatever else you like to call it, first briefly fry your bacon in a pan. Transfer it to a bowl and mix it with the remaining ingredients for the filling. There is no other magic to i. Just do it and thoroughly mix it all together.

Get your oven ready to 180 ºC and butter your tart tin. Oh, right get the dough into the tin and then blind bake it for 15 minutes. I always use some chickpeas for that. Their fate is to remain reserved for blind baking, never to be eaten.
Remove your blind pastry ... eh ... blind baked pastry and top it with the filling or ... fill t with the topping and get it back into the oven for let's say 20-25 minutes or until the quiche lorraine has taken a lovely colour.

Then, I reckon, the only thing left to do is to have your meal. As I suggested before, together with a nice salad and, if you are  in the mood for it, with a glass of wine. For that, of course you have to be a person appreciating wine. Otherwise you might want to take a beer.

It's always something lovely to have a quiche lorraine from time to time. Now they also work better for me and I can enjoy them even more. Before I didn't use to add leeks, but I think they are a good addition.

Still I have more to come from my loose bottom tart tin. Anyway, what would you bake with it?

Cake au salami avec pignon et prunes

It is over when it is over. Therefore I have the honour to tell you, it isn't. I still got some plum deals for you. As I told you before, I checked some of my cookbooks for inspiration and nearly missed this one ...

It's from the book The little Paris kitchen by Rachel Khoo. I tried to do a similar setup for the picture as was in the book, but I didn't dare to take the photo outside in the garden on the lawn, because it was too cold for my taste at that time. I suppose that won't improve for a while.
Now to the recipe. I had to do a few adjustments, since I didn't have French smoked sausages and pistachios. Let's see ...

Hot Fusion - Hot Chilli Puff Pastry Tarte

Cold fusion: Hypothetical type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near room temperature. Usually you need millions of degrees for a fusion of nuclear kind of reaction. This is a controversial subject. The whole concept appears to defy the laws of physics. Some scientists believe cold fusion to be a real phenomenon and that it will be at one point in the future, however far far away, the basis for an abundant, cheap source of energy. Others say that cold fusion is impossible.

Well then, it's quite good, we are not dealing with cold fusion today, but with hot fusion. How do we come to this point?
As it happens to be I'm busy trying to grow my own chillies on the windowsill.

Having them is one part, but actually it's not for the sake of growing, but cooking. I need to do something with them. These are (were) my only two habanero chillies. Those are considered to be quite hot ... and so something else should be, too ... Yes, I'm referring to the weather. Some days it might work out.
Ahem ... what to do now with the habanero chilli? I just took the yellow one. The green one still needs some time. Fine, I could do a chilli, a real hot one ...

The Show must go on - Fougasse de Chocolat et Fraise

Maybe you have been hearing me talking about cooking through a complete book with all it's recipes. As far as I noticed I have been talking about it since I started the blog and ... it hasn't materialised. But ... I might start one day!
On the other hand, if you have read posts on this blog also in the last year, you might have noticed that I started to bake myself through a book, namely Secrets of a French baker. I haven't even finished that. In fact, I haven't done much for it, either. However, it's mostly bread in it and each recipe takes several hours to complete. It's good exercise, though, because a lot of kneading is involved. 
It happens to be the case at times, that I like to join blog challenges. There is an ongoing one done by Lavender and Lovage and What Kate Baked. It's called Tea Time Treats. This month Lavender and Lovage is hosting and ... très bien ... the them is: Ooh La La! French Tarts, Cakes, Bakes and Pastries.

That is a perfect opportunity to let the show go on and do another recipe from that book: Fougasse. That is a kind of bread with a lovely filling. While the book is suggesting 7 different savoury fillings I decided to go for sweet one with chocolate spread and strawberry jam. I would have loved to add some fresh strawberries from the garden, but obviously it isn't the time yet.
Somehow I managed to do something wrong while preparing the bread, but I don't take the blame all on myself. The recipe - strangely - didn't state what to do with two ingredients and as I didn't bother to think about the recipe and simply went step by step, well, I didn't use the one tbs of soft butter and 3 tbs of milk powder.
I only did as follows:
Sift 225 g of strong baking flour and 225 g of spelt flour together with one and a half tsp of salt into a bowl. Then added a sachet of dried yeast and added bit by bit 240 ml of lukewarm water. I used a hand mixer to ... eh ... mix it. Then I used my hands to make a solid ball of dough. I left it on the kitchen work surface for 10 minutes and did something else.
I did my exercise by kneading the dough for over 15 minutes.
Then I carefully made a half flat half ball kind of object and placed the dough like this into the bowl, covered it with a wet kitchen towel and left it for 45 minutes. I went to do something else. Can't remember what!
I might have read something or just checked things on the computer, but who knows or cares.
I took the dough again and divided it into two balls, which I placed one a floured kitchen towel and covered with the other still wet kitchen towel and left the dough again for 25 minutes, while doing something else. In between I noticed I forgot to roll the bowls in coarse sugar. So I tried to fix it and continued  to wait for the 25 minutes to end.
Now I started to heat up the oven to 220 °C. The two dough balls were flattened and stretched to two rectangular dough pieces.

On one side of each rectangular dough piece I smeared first some chocolate spread and then some strawberry jam. On the other half I made five incisions respectively. After that the sides with the cuts went over the chocolate jam and I tried my best to seal the bread. Then I transferred the breads to a baking tray and brushed them generously with some egg wash. Finally I sprinkled sugar on top and put the tray for 20 minutes into the oven.

They came out like this. I expected the incisions to be open, but maybe it was better that way so there was no chance for the filling to seep out at all cuts.
First of all I thought to do some arranging and get a nice picture. I put the breads on a wooden chopping board and started thinking ...

... but to no avail. I got no idea on how to do it. Therefore I simply cut them open ...

As you see ... eh ... you see quite some bread and not so much filling. Maybe flattening the dough a bit more and adding more filling would have been something. Nevertheless the fougasses tasted lovely ... maybe that would be something for a chocolate lover.
Well, I'm not promising now, that the show will go on and you find a bread here on my blog every week, but still I will be trying the remaining recipes from that book ... one day ... one day ... in the future.
Oh, well, I have to leave soon for the airport. Just managed to finish the post. Fine, I still have a few more minutes ...

Bookmarked Recipe: Onion Soup on a Sandwich

Do you like simple recipes? Those that bring you great taste and joy without much effort? Another point to consider maybe, having usually all the needed ingredients at hand all the time.
That was something I discovered while reading around on other food blogs. I came across the post of Sprung at Last with the name 'French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese'. That title already intrigued me, because I very much like French onion soup and, of course, cheese. Sounds perfect!
So I had to have a go. You can read about the recipe in the original post, although you may already be able to discern it by simply looking at the following picture.

I said it was simple. That's life! The things in this life bringing you the most joy are usually small things: beautiful flowers, a stunning sunset, listening to the sound of the sea at the sea, a smile, watching playful puppies or kittens, someone saying 'thank you', commendation from persons really meaning it, sunshine on your skin and the list could go on and on and on. 
On top of it, those things don't cost much. You need no money for them (only for the simple meal, though, you need a bit money to get the ingredients). 
Therefore, think again about it! You have the power to make someone happy with just a little effort.
As for the bread for this Onion Soup Sandwich, I baked it myself already some days before that. It's not to hard either to do your own bread. It's mainly flour, water, yeast and salt. You don't even need to add any artificial substances to it. Just saying!
Well, I want to contribute this post to a lovely monthly challenge that Jacqueline is doing at Tinned Tomatoes: Bookmarked Recipes.

Maybe you like to enjoy a simple meal with French onion soup and cheese on a sandwich or ... just go out there and make someone happy ...

All Good Things Come to an End ...

I guess it's over! All good things come to an end. That is at least what I heard. I'm not sure right now whether to tell it, but ... I might not even have heard it, but ... well ... you know ... again ... there is this song of that ... eh ... person and ... at least she sang it. There was also something about dogs barking at the new moon, but I didn't get that quite well. Maybe I'm not the smartest kind of person. 
Anyhow, the year 2012 is drawing to it's end. Was it a good one? That depends on any persons self. You ought to know it for yourself. With 2012 being over, this will pose a few challenges ... hm ... the first few days or even weeks of the year I have to focus on writing 2013 instead of 2012. Then it will be winter still as well and the coldest months might still be ahead.
Well, then, let's say it as it is: All good things come to an end. This will be the last you are hearing from me ...
However, before that is going to happen, have a brief look at the (somehow) most viewed posts of my blog in 2012:

On rank number 5 we find TMC - Tipsy Mint Cookies. Those greenish shimmering cookies had a really short life. They definitely have come to their end as well.



Next on number 4 is Rocket, Ricotta and Chocolate ... Triple Feature Random Recipe. In fact it was more then just a recipe. As the title suggest it were three. That was really a dangerous time for a lot of chocolate was involved here. On the positive side - if you want to call it that way - there was at least also some salad involved.



We are coming to number 3. Challenge warm up à la française ... escalope de porc aux champignons brought us to some French cooking. Even with seeing that now, I get hungry again, which in fact I shouldn't, because I just had something to eat. Well, it looked slightly similar.



We are heading for number 2 with some Leftover Risotto. That was relly a good way to use some leftover risotto, although you could as well use plain rice. I wrote about this at a very nice time of the year, in May. Thinking about that, I long for warmer weather.



Finally we come to number 1 and our all time favourite: Pass me that chorizo ... eh ... we are having a chorizo stew. Somehow it must have been someone else's favourite as well. Chorizo works!



As I said: All good things come to an end and so does our top 5 for the year 2012. Talking about that, which one was your favourite post for 2012 on my blog? Just let me know!
Now, this was the last you heard from me ... for the year 2012. 
See you next year then ...

Encore français - aligot et bœuf bourguignon for #BloggersAroundTheWorld

The warm up is in the past. Now we are ready for the real thing. 
Some time ago I was invited by a friend, who actually is from France. According to him, a usual meal would consist of apéritif - not necessarily some alcohol to drink, although a pastis would work for me - then a salad or soup, followed by the main course. After that we would be ready for the cheese course and we can close with dessert, of course. Really? Maybe a calvados fits in to round everything up.
I don't need to mention, that baguette and red wine would be part of the deal as well, although the alcohol is not compulsory.
Now I would love to present you such a meal. 
Pastis - no big deal. Well, it doesn't have to be the apéritif, because we have aligot.
Many moons ago ... or month ... I read the book Encore Provence written by Peter Mayle. Maybe you have heard of him, or read something he wrote, or even saw a movie.
Whatsoever, in this very book, he mentioned something called aligot. This originates from the Latin word aliquid, that means something. The story behind it has something to do with monks, but I don't want to bore you with any more details.
This aligot contains two important things: garlic and cheese. In fact a large part in it is cheese. So ... naturellement ... I was destined to try it. In other words, the moment I read about it, I knew I would make it one day. So, apart from the garlic and the cheese you need tomatoes, sour cream or the like, salt and pepper, and patience.

To get a bit more detailed, I used the following:
400 g tinned tomatoes, chopped
250 g cheese (one that is a good melting kind)
100 g créme fraîche
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Let's do it, or at least have a try:
Before we start, just a brief note. The cheese that would be used in the original one is tome d'Aubrac, that is fresh cheese from the region where this dish comes from.
First of all cook the tomatoes. If you haven't chopped them properly, you can also puree them afterwards.
Once done, add the remaining ingredients and start stirring ... and keep stirring ... stirring ... stirring ... stirring ... stirring.
Hopefully, it will thicken at one point. However, if it gets so thick, you can't stir anymore or even get out the spoon, things went terribly wrong and according to Peter, you should have a glass of wine and start again.
However, I was on the safe side and ... lost patience ... and consequently had to be satisfied with a slightly thinner version.

That, in no way deminished the joy of this meal. To you give you a fuller picture ...

Already we feel a bit satisfied. Still, we need to think about the main course. That would be bœuf bourguignon.
In fact for that we have to go a few hours back in time, for you have to start this well in advance. At least that is what I heard. Before that day, I didn't cook it yet.
I had to enlist the aid of some cookbooks among which is the well known Mastering the Art of French cooking. I took that as a rough guide, combining it with other information I read. Anyway, I had to adjust to the amount of food I would need in the end or respectively on what I had in stock.
Here we go for the main course ...

Bœuf Bourguignon

• Melt 50 g of butter in a pan at a medium heat.
• Cut 100 g of bacon into stripes and fry them in the butter. 
• After that remove them to a casserole type dish.
• Have 500 g of beef, that is cut into about 2 cm sized chunks. Pat the meat dry with ... something.
• Then fry the meat in the pan, so it gets colour from all sides.
• Pre-heat your oven to 160°C.
• Remove the meat as well and ... have a guess ... yes, put it into the casserole type dish and reduce the heat for the pan
• Now you have two medium sized onions ready, which you more or less have chopped finely ... as fine as you like.
• Soften the onions in the pan.
• While that happens add a few tbs of flour to the casserole type dish to coat the meat and then put the dish into the oven for about ten minutes.

 

• Get the dish out and repeat the flour thingy.
• By now your onions should be ready. You can turn of the heat for the pan.

• The onions go the well known casserole type dish. Together with the onions you add a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme, a bay leaf and two peeled and crushed cloves of garlic.

• Now we top that up with 300 ml of red wine and 300 ml of beef stock.

• Now cover your casserole type dish and put it into the oven for about three hours until the meat is really tender.
• Just before that time is over you could prepare some potatoes to eat together with your bœuf bourguignon.

• When you think your meat is ready ... it is not. Remove the cover from your dish and keep it for another 30 minutes in the oven.
• Then you are ready to plate up and eat the main course.

I hope you enjoy it! I did! It was very delicious. That would bring us then to our next course ...
If you feel you already had enough cheese at the beginning, this must be an illusion. For sure there is a little bit room for some Camembert, brie or another cheese ... Why not!
What's for pudding?
Well, I felt like I should have a chocolate souffle or some crêpes, but honestly? Yes, I didn't feel like preparing them or even eating some more food. I already had quite some share from the bœuf bourguignon. So I have to do a chocolate souffle at some other time.
Still, I hope you enjoyed this small (?) French meal for Bloggers Around the World.

If you haven't done so already, why not join us on this food trip around the world ...

Challenge warm up à la française ... escalope de porc aux champignons

You might remember that I set up my own blog challenge Bloggers Around The World just last month. After our start in Germany with a bit of German food the next leg of the journey is bringing us to France.
Well, now it's not just that I like others to join, but of course I want to contribute as well with some food. Due to this I tried a few things French in my kitchen over the last few weeks. Still it hasn't all been the kind of things I want to contribute to my own challenge. Right, I set up the rules. Hm, I can't remember setting up a rule that limits the number of entries, but I guess one will suffice.

While I don't want to contribute this bit of food, I still like to share it with you. I might even add it to another challenge. 
Whatsoever, I consider it as a little warm up for some more French cooking. I can't quite claim that I mastered the art of French cooking. However, there is help available, as I have the two volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck.
What you see on the picture is kind of based on the recipe Tournedos Sautés Aux Champignons. Fine, I didn't use fillet steak, but pork cutlets and ... eh marinated the meat therefore a bit differently. I used the simple marinade for pork from the aforementioned book.
Here we go then and warm up a bit à la française.

1. The pork cutlets are marinated for at least 2 hours, and if you like to put them in the fridge, for 4 hours. The marinade contains salt, pepper, lemon juice, parsley sprigs, thyme, a bay leaf and a clove of bashed garlic.
2. The mushrooms are sauteed in butter for a couple of minutes until then slightly brown.
   
   
   
   
   
3. I guess they deserve a little bit of seasoning with salt and pepper.
4. Then remove the mushrooms and put them to a separate bowl.
5. Now it's time for the pork cutlets to make there appearance again. Fry some butter in a different pan and then fry the cutlets from both sides until the colour is right and they are cooked through.
6. That's the point where I want to totally deviate from the book ... In reality, the following steps you have to perform while step 5 is still going.
7. In the pan, where the mushrooms have been, add quite a good share of white wine.
8. Then mix about 125 ml of double cream with a tbs of corn starch and then add to the pan with the white wine.
9. Now I wonder why I removed the mushrooms from the pan and just add them to the sauce again.
10. It's time to plate it up. Just do it the way as you have seen in the first picture and have a salad on the side.

Good, that was already a start. Was it French enough. I'm not too sure. I only know that it tasted very delicious. It even makes me to want some right now ... but I well know that this is out of bounds.
So far the warm up. I will do something else for the Bloggers Around The World challenge at some other day and ... I have also something in mind already. Keep on the watch!
Do you know what, some might use a package of who knows what is in it ready made sauce, but this was all from scratch without any E-somethings.

The Rise of the Eggs - Soufflé au Fromage

"El queso está vijeo y podrido!" I hope this isn't true for the cheese in your fridge. It isn't for mine anyway. I don't know why ... maybe something is wrong with my brain ... but from time to time sentences like this come up in my head. I only know it's from a movie and the scene was at a high school during a Spanish lesson. Do you know which movie it was?
When talking about cheese that is not old and mouldy - as in the evil kind of mould - I am in. I just had some goat's cheese in my breakfast. However, I don't want to write you about my breakfast.
Still the breakfast contained at least three ingredients that are also included in what I want to write you about.
While flipping through the pages of my latest issue of the Jamie Oliver magazine, I came across some French recipes for single persons, that is French recipes for one persons. Whatever!

I went for the soufflé - of course with cheese! I wanted to try a soufflé anyway. So far I didn't have the chance ... I mean so far I didn't bother doing it.
That should not be too difficult. Quickly done!
I just prepare my mould (I know, it can be confusing) with some butter and flour.
Then I go for the bechamel sauce with melting some butter and then spooning in flour and make it smooth before I pour in 75 ml of milk ... bit by bit by bit by bit ... until all is in.
Now let it thicken for 2-3 minutes while continuing to whisk it.
After that I add 35 g of cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper and let it all cool down for a while.
Once I'm tired of waiting, I separate an egg, add the yolk to the sauce and whisk the white like mad.
Again, when I'm tired, I carefully add the beaten egg white to the sauce and put everything in my prepared mould.
Together with some tomatoes (as seen on the photo) it all goes into the oven for 20 minutes or even a bit longer until the soufflé has browned sufficiently.
Well, I would have wished the egg would have risen a bit more. It didn't fully look like in the Jamie magazine, but taste wise it was good.
Now that I know how to do a soufflé ... do I really know?
I will try again. Maybe next time it will rise a bit more. 
Do you have any experiences with a soufflé?

Crêpes Fourrées et Flambées - #CookForJulia

Previously on #CookForJulia ...

... cutting mushrooms ... simmering ... Lucy ... the Muppet Show ...

... as I said we are going to have some action in the kitchen with orange liqueur and fire for a dessert. Did you already recover from that Swedish Chef? Are you ready now? I hope so.

What is it it then, we want to do today? Eh ... just a moment ... I did it already yesterday! I just wanted to mention that detail.

Alright! Yesterday! It was: Crêpes Fourrées et Flambées. Or in other words (that is English): Crêpes with Orange-almond Butter, Flambées (OK, I didn't translate everything, but you get it anyway).

First of all we need the Crêpes batter. In fact Julia's book gives three variations: normal, with beaten egg white, or with yeast. Guess, which one I selected? I wanted some exercise.

It doesn't look too spectacular, but don't let you put off by this. We are working on it. In fact, it is not a quick thing. The lid goes on and the batter disappears for at least two hours in the fridge.

That gives as plenty of time to prepare a mushroom soup and ... the orange-almond butter.

Here you already see sugar and orange peel on a chopping board. I only wished I had taken the larger one ... well, cleaned the larger one to be able to use it.

Whatever, this one had to do the job. And it did, in a messy kind of way, but it worked.

Together with 250 g of softened butter and the juice from the oranges and orange liqueur (some of the liqueur already went into the batter) and ... of course ... pulverized almonds combine together with that.

About two hours later we can start with doing the Crêpes, after folding in some white substance taken from eggs. Now you can use different sizes of pans for that. You only need to be aware that things can go wrong.

So after a bit of trial and error I decided for the smaller pan. There things were looking already better.

After finishing a Crêpes and starting already the next one I spread some of the orange-almond butter on it and roll it together.

On the side an oven-proof dish is already waiting. A couple of these Crêpes join forces together in it and get sprinkled with sugar just before they make their way into the oven for a couple of minutes.

Now we get some orange liqueur (what? we already used some before? no worries!) ready and heat it up a bit.

Then there comes the time where the Crêpes return from the oven. That is the time for FIRE! We pour a bit of the alcohol over the Crêpes and light it.

Oops! That didn't look so impressive on the photo. If you look hard enough, you see some flames actually, but this is far from being action. What can I do about this?

Does this look better? Here you see the fire clearly, not on the Crêpes, though. We have to resist the temptation to pour more and more liqueur over the Crêpes, for they will taste or get rather boozy! You wouldn't want that, would you?
Anyway, those orange-almod filled Crêpes are absolutely a winner, wonderful flavour and dangerously yummy.I hope, you enjoyed it: "Bon Appétit!"