Pumpkin soup

A few weeks ago my daughter came back from daycare with a huge pumpkin, so heavy she couldn't lift it. We didn't get a chance to carve it in time for Halloween... but we got to eat it right after that :-)

A quarter of it turned into a soup (no, no the rest didn't turn into 3/4 of a carriage), inspired by one of Anne-Catherine Bley's many, delicious soup recipes.


Serves 6

• 1/4 pumpkin (that's about 1 kg or 2+ lbs)
• 3 or 4 small yellow or Yukon gold potatoes (optional)
  
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 or 2 garlic cloves
• salt and pepper
  
• nutmeg
• 1 tbsp olive oil or butter
  
• heavy whipping cream (half pint carton)
  
• 3 or 4 strips uncured bacon

1. Cut a pumpkin into 5 or 6 wedges. Remove the pumpkin's seeds and strings. Cut each wedge into 2-inch sections and cut out the skin. Cut each section into cubes.
2. Melt the butter or heat up the olive oil in a large pot. Peel and slice the onion and garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes.
3. Add the pumpkin and potatoes (also peeled and cubed) and cover with water (3 to 4 cups, or 3/4 liter). Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 25 to 30 minutes until the vegetables get mushy.
4. Remove from heat. Blend until smooth. Stir in freshly grated nutmeg.
   
5. Dice the bacon into "lardons" (small bits of bacon...). Cook in the microwave for a few minutes on a plate covered with paper towels, until crisp.
6. Serve 1 or 2 ladles of soup per person in small bowls. Serve the heavy whipping cream and crisp bacon bits in two serving dishes for the table. Each guest will pour the amount of cream they want in their soup and then sprinkle the desired amount of bacon on top.
   

Broccoli rabe and breaded veal scalopini

We recently moved to old downtown Mountain View and it really feels like heaven. Beautiful and quiet tree-lined streets, century-old houses, inviting vegetable gardens and deliciously fragrant flowers in the front yards, countless parks and playgrounds, shops, restaurants... and of course the weekly farmers market, which I was surprised to read is the fourth largest in California. We walk to it almost every Sunday. What a treat!

One farmer at the very end of the market (I forget their name...) sells the best french string beans we've ever had. They are thin, firm, with a bright green color that attest their freshness. We simply steam them and eat them with a little bit of butter melted on top. This farmer also sells what they label as "Italian broccoli" but is actually broccoli rabe. When my father visited last summer he immediately recognized these greens. They are not common in France, but his Italian grand mother would prepare them when he was a child. My father didn't remember how she would cook them so we made a few trials and here is what we came up with. They were the perfect side dish for our breaded veal scalopini (also a heritage from our Italian descents).


Broccoli rabe with tomatoes
Serves 4

• 1 lb (500 g) broccoli rabe
• 3 or 4 tomatoes
• 1 small yellow onion (or given the size they have in California, just one half)
• 1 or 2 garlic cloves
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

1. Wash and steam the broccoli rabe for a few minutes (3 or 4) in a pressure cooker.
2. Thinly slice the onion. Peel the garlic clove, cut in half and remove the stem.
3. Heat up 1 or 2 tbsp olive oil in a deep pan.
4. Sauté the onion and garlic for a few minutes on medium heat until translucent.
5. Add the broccoli rabe, close with a lid and cook for a few minutes.
6. Cut the tomatoes in 4 or 8 wedges depending on their size, add to the pan and cook several more minutes.
7. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
   

Breaded veal scalopini ("Escalopes de veau panées")

• 1 or 2 veal scalopini per person
• 1 egg, beaten in a bowl
  
• 1 or 2 handfuls bread crumbs, in a bowl
  
• salt and pepper
• at least 2 tbsp butter

Proceed as follows with each scalopini:

1. Season with salt and pepper
2. Dip in beaten egg
3. Dip in bread crumb and cover evenly
4. Pan fry in a good amount of butter (add more butter before flipping as the bread crumb will absorb it), 1 or 2 minutes on each side over high heat.

Grapefruit, avocado and shrimp salad

Hi Everyone!

It has been two and a half years since I posted anything on this blog (except for a couple posts maybe). I missed you! Life has been full of events, happy and sad. Mostly happy. We are now a family of four. Luca was born last June. Hanae is now a two and a half years old toddler. They are the most perfect children on Earth. :-)

Needless to say, though, that our cooking habits have changed quite a bit. We haven't given up on the healthy and tasty criteria, but everything has to be prepared quickly or we would never eat. I am hoping to find the time to blog regularly again (weekly?) as we are starting to settle in. The recipes will be simpler than ever. And you should try them on your kids! Hanae eats pretty much everything we do.

So let's start with this refreshing salad for the Indian summer (temperatures are high in the Bay these days). Keep it in the refrigerator until it is time to serve it as it is best chilled.

Serves 4

• 2 pink grapefruits
• 1 or 2 avocados
• 1/2 lbs cooked shrimp salad (that's a big handful)
• about 2 tablespoons vinaigrette salad dressing (recipe here) – Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, oil (sunflower + olive for instance), salt and pepper
  

1. Prepare the grapefruits by peeling them then removing the skin from each wedge and cutting the flesh in two. Make sure to work above a salad bowl to collect the juice. This is the hardest part of the recipe but it can go really fast once you have some practice.
   
2. Cut the avocados into small cubes. I find that the quickest way to do this is to cut each avocado in half, trace squares with a knife in the flesh, all the way down to the shell. Then flip the half avocado and press on the skin/shell to detach the cubes into the salad bowl.
3. Rince the shrimp, dry in a paper towel. Add to the salad bowl.
4. Prepare the vinaigrette by combining 1 tbsp Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp vinegar, 3 tbsp oil, 1 pinch salt and some freshly ground black pepper. The quickest way is to pour all ingredients into a jar, close the lid and shake.
   
5. Add the dressing and toss.

Grilled pizzas

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far in Sunnyvale. We had friends over for dinner and had planned to bake pizzas. A few days earlier, when we had planned the event, it was still winter (there is virtually no springtime here). So using the oven only sounded appropriate. But we couldn't possible heat up the house any more yesterday night, as we were already suffocating.

Fortunately Craig Priebe was here to help. He just wrote a great little book called "Grilled Pizzas and Piadinas" where all the pizzas are grilled on a barbecue. He explains how to make the dough (but also tells you it's ok to buy it) and how to pre-grill it; how to make sauces and toppings in advance, then how to build your pizza and grill it. We gave a try to two of his recipes, guided by the mouth-watering pictures, and it was a success! I guess we could perfect our grilling techniques but all the explanations are there in the book. You just need to make a little bit of reading at first (the first section of the book is a crash course on grilling the perfect pizza) then you're ready to go.
The piadinas (italian flat-bread sandwiches), salads and desserts also look fantastic. I'm trying the PAT piadina next (Pancetta, Arugula and Tomato, with a basil pecan pesto. Yum!).

Moroccan Grilled Pizza
Pizza dough: this is where all the art resides, but there is a nice little box on the side of the 2-page recipe that goes "save time with pre-made doughs or crusts [...] Trader Joe's sells terrific fresh pizza dough that grills up perfectly"... And indeed it does! As we were pressed by time, this is what we did. However the recipe is detailed but doesn't look overly complicated.
Toppings: grated Parmesan, shredded mozzarella, grilled chicken breast (coat breast with salt, pepper and olive oil and grill on the hottest part of the barbecue for about 5 minutes on each side) torn or cut into bit-size chunks, 1/2 thinly sliced red onion, about 12 roasted garlic cloves (we chopped the top of a whole garlic head, drizzled with olive oil and placed on a low-heat barbecue for 5-10 minutes), pitted Kalamata olives, 1/2 thinly sliced red pepper.
Curry Glaze (we forgot all about it but the pizza tasted great nonetheless... This would have given it a nice kick, though): combine 1/4 cup honey, 2 tbsp curry powder, 1 pinch red pepper flakes and 1 pinch salt. Drizzle over the finished pizza before grilling it.
How it works: first grill the pizza dough, rolled into an irregular 12x12" (30x30 cm) round without edges for about 3-4 minutes on one side only on a grill that indicates 400F (we used our gas barbecue but the book explains several indoors and outdoors grilling methods) . Flip the pizza crust over and brush with olive oil, then add the toppings (randomly sprinkled rather than layered, to create different tastes in each bite), starting with the cheeses; finish with the glaze. Grill for 5 to 8 minutes on your preheated (medium-high) barbecue. You can then broil for 2 minutes in the oven to caramelize the glaze (we forgot that step).


The Margheritan
This one is a simple tomato, basil and cheese pizza. We bought a small can of fire-roasted crushed tomatoes that we spread over a grilled pizza crust (first brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with Parmesan and shredded mozzarella). We added a sliced fresh mozzarella ball and fresh basil leaves and grilled for 5-8 minutes.
The recipe uses a "chunky tomato basil sauce" made of fresh, coarsely chopped tomatoes, fresh basil, pressed garlic, tomato paste, salt, pepper and sugar mixed together and used uncooked.

Home-made Yogurt

Had I known that making yogurt was so easy, I would have tried years ago. As I learned in Mireille Guiliano's best seller "French Women Don't Get Fat" (a fun summer read that reinstates many basics), a yogurt maker is totally optional. All that is required is uniform, constant warmth. An oven, turned off but with the light on, is enough. I followed her recipe:

- 1 liter 2% milk
- 1 or 2 tbsp yogurt as starter (preferably a good one with live cultures... I used Sonoma County's Saint-Benoît)

1. Slowly bring the milk to a boil on medium-low heat. Turn off the heat as soon as the milk is steaming and small bubbles form on the edges of the pot.
2. Transfer to another pot (or bowl) at room temperature and wait until a thermometer reads between 110F and 115F (about 45 degrees C).
3. Mix the starter (yogurt) with a few ladles of warm milk. Then pour into the pot of milk and stir well.
4. Fill jars and place in the oven (turned off). Cover jars with a clean cloth. Switch on the oven light. You can place a bowl of hot water in the oven if you fear the temperature won't be high enough. Wait 8 hours without opening the oven door.
5. Cover the jars with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Wait another 8 hours.

I obtained a very creamy and uniform yogurt. It wasn't quite as solid as the original Saint-Benoît from the store but it wasn't liquid or watery either. It was so soft and sweet that I didn't need to add anything to it. A pure marvel.

Dear readers,

Thank you so much for all your recent visits, comments, invitations to memes, etc... I am sorry I didn't take the time to respond. These past 10 months have been life changing and I am sure you will forgive me for being less and less present on the web once you know what was going on: I was cooking up my very best creation, a baby! Hanaé was born 1 month ago in California. She is, of course, the most beautiful and the sweetest baby girl on Earth. Her dad and I have never felt so happy!

Cooking and blogging have become a bit secondary, as you can imagine... However I will continue reading your many excellent culinary blogs, and I will try posting new recipes on this blog once in a while. I hope you'll keep checking My French Cuisine for updates and that you will make good use of the archives.

A bientôt !

Poires Belle-Hélène

"Beautiful Helen pears" were invented in Paris in the 19th century and were named after an opera by Offenbach. What a romantic introduction for this French dessert par excellence, a true classic, found in at least (this is a guess) half of the restaurants of the Hexagone. It only takes a few minutes (maybe seconds!) to assemble this dish if you use ready-made ingredients; it is actually not much longer to prepare half of them from scratch (the poached pears and the melted chocolate). You can even make ice cream and cookies from scratch for a deluxe version (but this probably won't taste like in restaurants, because I am pretty sure they go for the fast and easy way in most cases...).

You need:
- 1 whole pear per person, poached (or 2 canned half pears)
- 1 or 2 scoops vanilla bean ice cream
- chocolate melt
- a few almond cookies (thin and crisp, no matter what shape you choose)

The combination of temperatures (ice cream, warm chocolate), textures (soft pear, crispy cookie) and flavors (all of them!) is simply out of this world. There is even a little bonus: although this dessert looks very fancy, it is very easy to prepare.

I usually poach the pears in the morning to let them cool down and eat them the same evening. They should be at room temperature when you serve them (they won't taste as good if they just came out of the fridge). Either leave them out all day, in a closed dish, or allow them to warm up if you store them in the fridge. Bosc pears are my favorite, both for taste and "handling" (they hold well, even after being cooked).

All quantities below are for 6 pears.

To poach the pears:
Peel them, keeping them whole (leave the stem for decorative purposes). Place them upright in a deep pot. Sprinkle 1/4 cup (50 g or 4 tbsp) sugar and pour 1 cup (20 cl) water over the pears. Simmer/steam (lid on) for 20 minutes on medium heat. Drain the pears but keep the juice. Let both cool down.

Just before serving, prepare the chocolate melt as follows:
Bring the pear juice to a boil in a small pot and allow it to evaporate until only half of the volume is left. Place this small pot in a bigger one, half full of water ("Bain Marie") and place over medium heat (water should never boil).
Cut 4 1/2 oz (125 g) high quality* dark chocolate (for example Le Noir Gastronomique 61% cacao by Valrhona...) into small pieces. Melt chocolate in the warm pear syrup, stirring until smooth and shiny. Add 2 tbsp (30 g or 1/4 stick) butter and let it melt, stirring continuously.

To assemble:
Place one pear in each dish, upright. Add 1 or 2 scoops vanilla ice cream. Pour warm chocolate on the pear and ice cream. Stick 1 or 2 almond thins (or even more authentic: "tuiles aux amandes") in the ice cream. Serve immediately.

* good rule of thumb for quality chocolate: the list of ingredients should start with cocoa beans rather than sugar!