Sunday, February 27, 2011

For those who like Thai inspired recipes


This is a recipe of a Thai "bouillabaisse", which means basically fish and seafood cooked in a broth. To be honest, one of my good friends made for us a very good version of Bouillabaisse a couple of days ago, which gave me the idea of this one. To make a long story short, you need, serving 6 :
- 6 cups of vegetable broth (1,5L)
- 1 can of coconut milk (400ml)
- 2 tsp of sweet curry (2 cuillères à café)
- 4 onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 cans of diced tomatoes
- 4 fresh apples peeled and diced
- 2 limes
- 2 tsp of grated fresh ginger root
- 4 fish filets like Tilapia or seabass
- 18 uncooked shrimps
Slice the onions and garlic and fry them slowly in a dutch oven until translucent. Add the curry, salt pepper, the broth, the tomatoes, the apples, limes zests and juice, ginger and let it simmer for 30 to 45 min.
Add the coconut milk, the fish filets cut in 4 pieces and the shrimps. Bring to a light boil for 5 min. It's ready.
Serve like a soup or with white rice. A big question in my family: rice or no rice!!! No agreement yet!!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Another way of cooking lentils with salmon


You know already I love lentils and I'm always looking for some new creative way of cooking them. This recipe is very simple but the result is great.
You need, serving 4 people: 4 shallots, 1 cup of lentils, 3 slices of smoked salmon, heavy cream, 2 carrots.
Slice the shallots and fry them in a dutch oven until nicely brown. Dice the carrots. Pour the lentils in the dutch oven and the carrots and and cover with cold water, add a pinch of salt. Let them cook for 45 min slowly.
Drain them when they're cooked. Add the smoked salmon cut in small pieces and 1/4 pint of heavy cream... This is ready as a side dish for any fish filet, like tilapia or salmon.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Today, crêpes party...


It was the Chandeleur a week ago, special Crêpes day in France. I know I'm late...It's the "fête des Chandelles" which means the candle day, as a symbol of the purification of Maria, the blessed Virgin, and also as a symbol of the end of the winter (yes, a bit too soon in the reality, I know). And what about crêpes? 2 ideas, the crêpe looks like the Sun and therefore is a symbol of Spring or it was the beginning of the sowing season and the extra seeds were used to make crepes as a symbol of prosperity. To make it short, it's still a tradition to have crêpes for the Chandeleur in France and my children love it.

A simple and easy recipe for about 12 to 15 crêpes:
- 3 cups of milk (75 cl)
- 1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour (200g)
- 3 eggs
- you can add a drop of orange blossom water or a drop of rhum
- a pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp of butter (30g)
- for sweet crêpes, 2 tbsp of sugar

Mix flour, salt and milk. Then add the eggs, the melted butter, rhum or orange blossom. The texture of the dough should be smooth. Leave the dough aside for an hour.
Then heat the frying pan with a bit of oil. Pour a small ladle of dough in the pan ; let it cook for a couple of minutes and flip it to cook it on the other side.
I love crêpes with a bit of lemon juice and a tbsp of sugar ; my son Gabriel love them with a thin slices of chocolate you put on the crêpe in the pan so that they can melt. It's nice also with jam, only sugar, maple syrup, whipped cream and fresh strawberries...
If you chose not to put any sugar in the dough, you can enjoy these crêpes savory and have them with an egg, ham and cheese, what we call a Complète in Brittany.