Thursday, March 31, 2011

Samosas or creative ideas to have a fun dinner with kids



Yesterday's dinner idea was quite simple and very convenient as I finished the vegetables leftovers in my fridge.
The basic idea is to have filo pastry filled with a stuffing of your choice.
For my recipe, you need, for 12 samosas :
- 6 filo pastries
- an egg yolk
- 1 thick slice of cooked ham
- 4 slices of prosciutto
- 2 onions
- 4 cooked brocoli florets
- 4 tbsp of spinach
- 4 sun dried tomatoes

- prepare the stuffing : dice the onions and all the hams and fry them until nicely browned
- cut the filo in 2 half circles ; put a tbsp of stuffing + a tbsp of tomatoes or half a broccoli or 1 tbsp of spinach and follow my drawing to fold them in triangle
- spread egg yolk with a brush on each and put them for 10 min in a pre-heated oven (400F)
Ask your kids to put any vegetable they like in their samosa and help them fold them ; they'll eat them for sure!
Enjoy with a green salad and you have a very balanced dinner!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

A nice marinade for salmon


I improvised a lunch with friends today and my fridge was almost empty. I only had in my freezer salmon steaks. Let's defrost them and bake them with a nice marinade.
Put the 4 salmon steaks in a dish, cover them with the juice and zests of 2 limes, 2 lemon juices, 6 tbsp of soy sauce, tasty and fruity whole pepper (like 20 seeds), salt and 4 tbsp of olive oil. Let it marinate for 1h and bake the steaks in a dish covered with foil for 10 min in a pre-heated oven (400F). So simple!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Spring in Paris and a Croque Monsieur at a terrace


Today, suddenly, winter was over and we enjoyed sun and warmth. My boys were in T shirts playing and rollerskating in the park close to our apartment. You just felt like not going back inside. Therefore, we made a big decision: let's have lunch at the Café around the corner and let's have a Croque Monsieur ! My boys loved it!
Actually, it's very simple, if you don't have a Café around the corner to make it for you : you just need for a simple Croque Monsieur, hard cheese, cooked ham, butter and sliced sandwich bread.
Take a slice of bread and spread a bit of butter on one side, then put a slice of ham and a slice of cheese, another slice of bread with butter again; the butter should be outside the sandwich. Then cook it in the oven (350F) or in pan for 10 min until nicely brown.
For a change, put a fried egg on top and it's a Croque Madame... my son thinks it's nicer, so it must be a "Madame" ; you can also add grated parmesan on top, and even bechamel (see my post of April 2010 on asparagus) and grated parmesan on top.
Just enjoy with a green salad and an apple as a dessert for a balanced meal.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Raspberry for dessert!

If you have a dinner with friends and you're wondering what to serve for dessert, yummy and light... this recipe is for you...
The idea is very simple you choose the fruits of the season, any berries, oranges, grapefruits or a mix of them. Split the fruits between the individual ramekins.
Before dessert, serving 4, whip 4 egg yolks with 1/4 oz (80g) of powdered sugar (sucre glace) and 4 tbsp of orange juice ; cook this sabayon on a bain-marie whipping all the time, until the texture gets thicker.
When it's ready split it between the ramekins and broil them for a few minutes until nicely brown. Et voilà!!!
Many variants are possible : you can replace orange juice by any alcohol you like ; you can add fresh grated ginger, vanilla, of course cinnamon...
The only drawback of this recipe is that you have to spend 10 min in the kitchen to make it at the last minute. Not so bad if you're in the US with a open kitchen, though!!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Artichokes go along very well with lemon

I wanted to make something new, yesterday evening, for a dinner with friends. I had made the decision for the main course : sea bass baked in the oven with lemon juice, olive oil, black olives, basil, dried tomatoes and a little bit of butter. I was wondering what would be the ideal side dish.
My idea of yesterday was an artichoke purée : you boil 3 to 4 artichokes hearts per person, then you blend them with heavy cream (one tbsp), lemon juice (one teaspoon), olive oil (one tbsp), salt, pepper until you reach the desired texture. If you want to serve it like a purée, you don't need the texture to be too liquid. You can also put the purée in a siphon to give it the texture of a chantilly : then, the texture needs to be quite liquid, like a thick coulis.