Lentil Soup

Lentils, unlike some other legumes, cook pretty quickly. This should take less than an hour unless you chop vegetables very slowly. My brother made this a Le Creuset enameled dutch oven, but a large enough pot works too.

Ingredients:
One onion

One cup of carrots-- about five small carrots

three small celery stalks-- less than one cup

six and a half to seven cups of water

two cups lentils

one sixth cup extra virgin olive oil
tomato paste
vegetable stock (we used the stuff that comes in a jar. If you have the liquid stock, substitute that for some of the water)
oregano
rosemary
pepper
bay leaves
basil

Procedure:
Chop the vegetables into small pieces as shown:



Sauté them in olive oil in a large pot until the onions ad celery are translucent.



They will have cooked down and begun to smell like celery at this point, and lots of steam will be coming up.



Add the lentils and two or more bay leaves.



Add the water. a few tablespoons or so of tomato paste, a few teaspoons of oregano and basil, a couple spoonfuls of vegetable stock, and pepper. Stir it up, put a lid on it, and let it steam for 20 minutes. About halfway through, add a sprig of rosemary.



My brother suggested not adding as much vegetable stock as the jar says to use, since there are so many other vegetables in the soup. The rosemary doesn't go into his soup until near the end because it is so strong and he thinks it overpowers the other tastes. If you disagree, add it earlier with the other spices.

Add salt to taste, and the soup will be done.



Cut up some rye bread and eat it with the soup. I put several slices in my bowl and poured the soup over it.

Madeleines

Every time I visited a thrift store in the last year or so, I kept an eye out for a madeleine pan. One finally turned up about a week ago. I tried a couple recipes on my brother, who has been to France and eaten the madeleines there. The recipe he says tastes more French is from http://www.mercotte.fr/2008/09/30/pas-de-doute-il-ny-a-pas-de-recette-de-madeleine-sur-ce-blog/. Since it is in French and Celsius, I will translate it. I also had different cook times because I think my oven is hotter.

Yield: Between 30 and 36, depending on how much batter is used for each.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
250g flour
200g sugar OR 80g sugar and 40g honey
125g butter (about a stick and an eigth)
50g milk
10g baking powder (about 2 tsp)
1 sachet of vanilla sugar

I don't have vanilla sugar, so I just put in a quarter teaspoon of vanilla extract. Using a mixture of honey and sugar makes moister madeleines. The first time i made them, I only used sugar, and they were drier than I would have liked. The second time, I replaced three of the spoonfuls of sugar with one spoonful of honey, and they were nice and moist.

Special equipment: A madeleine pan. I found a recipe in English that suggests using a mini muffin pan if you don't have a madeleine pan.

Mix the eggs, flour, sugar, milk, baking powder and vanilla until the batter is smooth. Add the melted butter and stir for about a minute. Cover with a dish towel and let it rest for two hours at room temperature.

The mixture contains milk and eggs, so I checked to make sure it was okay to leave it out. Apparently egg dough can rest for up to two hours unrefrigerated, which is just right for this.

Preheat the oven to 425° F (220° C). Butter the madeleine pan (or pans). Butter it even if it is nonstick. I forgot to butter mine once, and the bottoms broke off and stayed stuck to the pan when I tried to get them out. Fill the madeleine molds up halfway with batter.

Bake them for 5 or 6 minutes at 425° F, then turn down the temperature to 390° F (200° C) and bake for two and a half to four minutes. They are done when the edges are turning brown.

I used a chopstick to get the madeleines out of the pan because it is thin and won't scratch nonstick. They should come out pretty easily if the pan was buttered. While you preheat the oven back to 425° for the next batch, you can wipe the crumbs off the pan with a paper towel and put in more batter.

The sea shell shape from the madeleine pan (And lines from the cooling rack)

The final result after I ate five or six of them:

This batch made thirty-three madeleines. The previous one with the same amount of ingredients made thirty-six. 

Black Skimmers!

I went for a walk on the beach and found a flock of terns and black skimmers. Since I had never seen black skimmers before, I ran back to my car for my camera. As it turned out, I had left my telephoto lens on my bedroom floor, so I had the choice of my 90 mm macro lens or my 10-20 mm wide angle lens. I chose the macro lens.

Elegant terns in the flock too

This Heerman's gull was standing right in front of me for a while.

The sun finally went down and pictures started getting blurry.

Crêpes!

I like crêpes a lot, but they always seemed kind of difficult to make. Eventually, I watched some youtube videos and it turns out they aren't that hard. I also learned ways to solve several of the problems I had with them:

• Problem: The crêpe is lumpy because there were flour lumps in the batter
• Solution: put the batter through a strainer or mix the batter in a blender (I should have thought of that, but I didn't)

• Problem: There are holes in the crêpe where the batter didn't cover the area
• Solution: put more batter over the holes. I figured everyone else was just better at tilting the pan to spread the batter (and maybe they are), but this is another way to have crepes that fill the entire area they encompass. The other way is to use a crêpe spreader tool, which is a completely different technique.
• 
  
• Problem: The crêpes are supposed to sit in the fridge for an hour, but I don't have space for a mixing bowl
• Problem: I can't eat an entire batch of crêpes
• Problem: taking a cup or ladle full of batter out of the bowl becomes more difficult when there is not enough batter left to submerge the utensil
• Solution: Pour the batter into a mason jar. It takes up less fridge space, and crêpe batter can apparently stay good for two days in the fridge. There is no reason why I have to make the entire batch at once. Even if I do, crêpes can be refrigerated and reheated and still taste good. Also, I found it is easiest to make crêpes by pouring the batter out of the jar straight into the pan.

three eggs, two cups of milk, and one cup of flour all fit in a mason jar

Once I didn't have to worry about scooping out the right amount of batter or tilting the pan exactly right, I could relax and enjoy the process. I was still experimenting with how much batter to pour out, and found I tended to err on the side of not enough, which resulted in crepes with crispy, paper-thin edges. It wasn't very good for rolling up, but one of the edges turned a medium-dark reddish brown color and tasted amazing. I started using more batter so it didn't spread quite so thin, and I got more normal crêpes.

I used this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/french-crepes/

Beat three eggs with two cups of milk in one bowl and mix one cup of flour, one teaspoon of sugar, and one quarter teaspoon of salt in another bowl. Beat the flour mixture into the egg mixture and stir in two tablespoons of melted butter. Let the batter rest in the fridge for at least an hour, then cook the crêpes.

This was also my first time making savory crêpes. After looking on the internet for ideas of combinations of foods to use, I took a few ideas from the crêpe menu at my school and filled them with onions and little mushrooms I had sautéed in butter, topped with grated gruyère cheese. I had planned on adding some sort of meat, like bacon or ham, but the onions, mushrooms, and cheese by themselves were fantastic.

sautéed crimini mushrooms, sautéed onion, grated gruyère

rolled up and ready to eat

this was the best looking crêpe in the batch, so I used it first and took pictures

I looked at these, and realized that they look like little French burritos or flautas. There is another crêpe recipe that is basically enchiladas, but more French. I haven't made it yet, but I plan to once I get some crème fraîche and make some fromage blanc (French fresh cheese). It comes from my La Cuisine Lorraine book.

Creupes au Fremgeye (crêpes au fromage frais)

Ingredients: 

crêpes

fromage blanc, well drained

crème fraîche

eggs

cooked ham

salt, pepper, and nutmeg

chopped parsley

On each crêpe, spread a thin layer of fromage blanc mixed with a little crème fraîche, an egg, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Put a slice of ham on top and spread it with more fromage blanc. Roll up the crêpes, and put them side by side in a buttered baking dish. Cover with more fromage blanc, put it in the oven, and cook until it turns into gratin. The book doesn't give an oven temperature, but various gratin recipes on the internet seem to agree on about 375 degrees farenheit. Cook until the top is browned, which is probably somewhere between fifteen and thirty minutes. Sprinkle chopped parsley on top and serve hot.

As I was finishing my leftover crêpes filled with sliced peaches, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and sugar, I wondered about other sweet crêpe fillings I could use. I've had crêpes with chocolate sauce and Bavarian cream custard, so I thought the chocolate crème pâtissière I use in religieuses would be good.

Then I realized: Why don't I just make a religieuse crêpe?

Religieuse Crêpes

ingredients:

crêpes (see recipe above)

crème pâtissière (see this post about religieuses)

crème au beurre frosting (see religieuse post again)

melted chocolate

Spread each crêpe with crème pâtissière. Roll up the crêpe and drizzle melted chocolate on it. Pipe crème au beurre frosting on top with a pastry bag with a star tip. If you are feeling extra fancy, garnish with those curly decorative chocolate pieces or chopped hazelnut and maybe drizzle some melted chocolate on the plate.

Religieuses are usually eaten cold I think, so you could refrigerate all the ingredients before assembling them. This seems easier than refrigerating the finished assembled crêpe. 

Lorraine Food: Sauerkraut

A year ago and a half ago, my French grandmother gave me a book called La Cuisine Lorraine. It isn't so much a cookbook as a book about Lorraine food. It has general procedures for making foods and ingredient lists, but it rarely has anything as specific as cooking time. In addition to these recipes, it has bits of history about food in the Lorraine region, illustrations, poems, and a few stories written in both French and a local patois.

After looking through it occasionally for a while, I decided that I would like to try to make one of the sauerkraut recipes. It consists of pork shoulder slow cooked with sauerkraut, onions, spices, and potatoes. The cooking time was not specified, other than it must be at least a half hour, but I looked at similar recipes on the next page and got an idea of how long to cook it.

If you can read French, cool! If not, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• pork shoulder
• sauerkraut- about as much by weight as the pork shoulder. I think you are supposed to rinse it.
• onions
• salt and pepper
• thyme
• bay leaf
• nutmeg
• some liquid to simmer it in. The recipe says dry white wine, but I just used some chicken broth that I had.
• potatoes
• smoked ham or sausage (optional)

Procedure:

1. brown the pork shoulder in the pan. 

2. Add the liquid, sauerkraut, salt, pepper, bay leaf, entire onions, and plenty of thyme and nutmeg. Add ham and/ or sausage if desired.

3. Cover the pan and let it simmer for three hours.

4. A half hour before it is done, cut up some potatoes and put them in the pan. They will cook from the steam.

Chocolate Coconut Omelette

I was looking at a recipe on marmiton.com, when I saw the "Au hasard" button (Au hasard is French for random). I decided it would be fun to click it a few times and see if anything interesting came up. One of the more interesting results was the Omelette chocolat coco, or chocolate coconut omelette. My boyfriend's cousin decided that we should make it after our religion class one evening, so I brought ingredients and the recipe, my boyfriend brought his knowledge of how to actually make an omelette, and his cousin helped us eat the finished product.

http://www.marmiton.org/recettes/recette_omelette-chocolat-coco_50400.aspx

After making this food, I looked at the ingredients again and realized this contains slightly more chocolate than eggs by weight, and I was using extra large eggs. Basically, it tasted like a very chocolaty brownie. Not only can it be made extremely quickly without waiting for an oven to heat up, it would also be a good brownie alternative to people who can't eat flour. Unfortunately, the only person I see very often who can't eat flour also can't eat chocolate. So no chocolate omelette brownies for him.

just poured the chocolate egg mixture into the pan

Ingredients:
100 grams of chocolate chips
100 grams of dark chocolate
3 eggs
shredded coconut

just flipped over the omelette

Procedure:
1. Melt the dark chocolate. You can use a double boiler/ bain-marie, but I used the microwave.
2. beat the eggs in a bowl, then add the chocolate chips and melted chocolate.
3. Make the omelette.
4. Sprinkle coconut on the omelette and serve. We actually added the coconut to the omelette while it was still cooking, so it added some nice texture to the inside.

I would make this again, especially since it is an easier alternative to making brownies, and I don't like waiting for the oven to preheat. I might not put in quite as much chocolate next time, though.

Eating some of the finished omelette.

Italian Food

My brother makes good food, so I keep trying to get him to put recipes on a blog. Finally, I just asked him if I could put them on my blog. Here is the recipe he wrote for a kind of Italian food, along with some pictures he took. I have eaten it once and it was good.

The soul of Pasta alla Giorno. Just EVOO, Pine nuts, garlic, tomatoes, rocket, and salt.

Begin boiling about 150-170g pasta secca in a sufficient amount of salty water.

Start by gently heating two tablespoons of high-quality extra virgin olive oil (see if you can get something under 0.5% acidity, or single origin). 

Toast a handful of pine nuts halfway through, then add two or three cloves finely minced garlic, careful not to burn anything.

As the garlic just begins to brown, throw in two chopped tomatoes, salt generously depending on how salted your pasta water is, reduce heat, and stir. Continue cooking the tomatoes while the pasta finishes, tossing around and letting them soften, but not dissolve completely.

Twenty or so seconds before you mix the seasoning with the pasta, add in one or two cups of loosely chopped rocket (arugula) leaves, removed from their stems, and mix them around until they're about halfway wilted. This happens very quickly.

Remove the pan from the heat and mix it with your freshly cooked pasta secca in a bowl. The pasta's heat will finish wilting the rocket. Pepper to taste and serve.