Delicious libanese spices, tahini and zaatar

I was not familiar with these spices, except of course, as everybody, I knew that the tahini was the specific spice for the hummus.

These ideas came from a specific issue of one French magazine I love, Saveurs.

Tahini is made with sesame seeds. You can make a chickpeas purée with one can of chickpeas, you would mix with olive oil and tahini, salt and pepper. Add olive oil until you get the desired texture.

Zaatar is a blend of oregano, sumac, sesame seeds and salt. You can use it on a fish filet, like tilapia or sea bass. Just spread it one on side of the filet and cook it in a frying pan for 5 min.

Serve the chickpeas purée warm with the fish filets with zaatar. Add a pinch of lemon juice on the fish and some cilantro leaves on the purée. I hope you'll like it... Enjoy!

Happy New Year!!! and winter squash soup

New Year resolutions, I love the idea. You know, those resolution you make and you follow for 2 days before giving up... This year, I decided, I won't give up so easily.

So, resolution number one: try at least a new recipe or idea per week and post it on my blog

Resolution number two: exercise bike at least twice a week so that I can try these new recipes without feeling guilty

Resolution number three: find a job, and make resolution number 3 compatible with number 1 and 2...

Therefore, here is my first recipe of 2011: a very quick one I tried yesterday.

Winter squash soup is very easy but the result could be disappointing if you use only winter squash.

Just add in the boiling water with the winter squash (a big slice) peeled and cut in small pieces, one or two peeled baking potatoes and one sliced leek. You can add in the water, according to your taste one or two tablespoon of curry paste, and of course salt and pepper.

Once all the vegetables are cooked, blend them together... and enjoy.

And please, make the resolution, my beloved reader, to comment these posts!

Need ideas for New Years Eve?

An idea for an appetizer, with scallops and passion fruits. The combination is great.

Serving 4 people, you need : 8 scallops, fresh ones, 8 passion fruits, butter and green salad as a side dish.

Open the passion fruits and take the pulp and the grains, mix them with a fork, with 2 tbsp of butter.

Heat your frying pan, spread a tbsp of olive oil and bake the scallops 1min on each side, until nicely brown, then add the butter with passion fruits and use a spoon to put it on the scallops for 2 min.

Serve these scallops with green salad with arugula and a balsamic vinaigrette.

This is a great recipe inspired by a great cooking class I attended recently at Guy Martin's cooking school in Paris.

The chouquettes of my son Paul

I love it when I'm the help of my 11 years old son Paul. He likes to cook, to bake ... and to eat. The recipe of tonight is "chouquettes", in other words small "choux" covered with small sugar pieces.

Kids love it as a snack. He prepares them for breakfast at school tomorrow morning.

To make them, you need :

- 1 cup of water - 250ml

- 8 tbsp of butter - 110g

- 1 tbsp of sugar - 10g

- 1 cup of flour - 120g

- 5 eggs

- a pinch of salt

In a sauce pan, bring to a small boil the water and butter. When the butter is melted, add the flour and quickly stir with a spoon until it has the shape of a ball. Put the dough in a mixing bowl and add the eggs one by one. You should get the texture of a smooth dough.

Add sugar and salt.

Preheat the oven at 400F (180 degrees C).

Shape the chouquettes with 2 teaspoons on a plate that goes to the oven covered with parchment paper.

Bake for 20min until nicely brown (wait until brown otherwise they would deflate).

Put little pieces of sugar on each of them. Bravo Paul!!

Another soup recipe to warm up...

I left Boston last summer but brought back Boston's weather in Paris. Incredible!

Temperatures have been below 30 degrees for a week and we left the whole Boston's weather equipment in our house in the Loire Valley!

Not so many solutions to warm up : soups, soups and soups... or pot-au-feu, this will be for the next post.

Today's soup is a vegetable soup with a hint of curry. You'll have your "5 fruits and vegetable per day" portion.

You need for soup for 4:

- 1 leek

- 2 zucchinis

- 2 carrots

- 1 celery stalk

- 2 potatoes (baking ones, Idaho, Russet or all purpose ones like Yukon gold; if you're in France use "pommes de terre à purée", like monalisa or bintje)

- 2 or 3 tomatoes (you can use whole peeled tomatoes)

- 2 teaspoons of curry powder or curry paste

- salt, pepper

- Vache Qui Rit (processed cheese)

Peel and cut all the vegetables, put them in a pot full of water with salt, pepper and curry and bring to a boil until everything is cooked (about 30 min).

Blend all the vegetables with part of the boiling water (according to the texture you want) with 2 portions of Vache Qui Rit

Ready. Enjoy and stay warm...

Happy Thanksgiving! Need for a simple and last minute recipe for apple pie?

OK, this is my grand mother's.

Make a dough with 1 1/2 cup of flour, 1/3 cup of butter, 2 tablespoon of granulated sugar, 2 tablespoon of sour cream, my little secret. Mix everything together until it has the shape of a bowl, and put the dough in the fridge for an hour. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin and put it in a baking dish on a parchment paper. You can also us a ready to use dough(I like the Pillsbury one - pie crust).

Cut the apples in slices and spread them on the dough with each slice recovering partly the previous one. Then spread on the apples 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and small slices of butter.

Bake for 30 to 35 min in a pre-heated oven to 400F.

Guess what : the smell in my apartment is great, and the pies will be ready to celebrate Thanksgiving in my son's class tomorrow! Happy thanksgiving!

Shiny soup for grey and cold weather

You know I love lentils. Here is a recipe of my friend Françoise who leaves in Poland. She enjoys there, as in Boston, very cold weather and has become the world champion of soups.

The lentils and tomato soup is one of my favorite.

You need one onion, lentils, a can of diced tomatoes, curry powder and a can of coconut milk.

Dice the onion and fry it until translucent, add 1 cup of lentils, salt, 2 teaspoons of curry and the diced tomatoes, and cold water of course. Cook for 1/2 hour and blend it with the coconut milk. Delicious!!