November 28th, 2010
It’s Sunday and the first real cold spell of Winter has arrived in paris. The cold weather further motivated me to make the soup I mentioned on the Facebook page last week. After purchasing five butternut squash from La Grande Épicerie de Paris that I didn’t need for Thanksgiving, I did some research and decided to do some soup improvisation. This is the result: Butternut squash with apple cider from Normandy, ham, ginger and cream. Poured around an apple lattice. I’ll post the recipe later. It’s time for a Sunday nap…
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November 10th, 2010
I prepare my lasagna 24 hours in advance...it's worth the wait! Photo taken with my new Canon EOS - Merci mon Chéri!
My mother used to make the best lasagna around but like most of her recipes and the recipes I received from my Grandmother, I have made my own adaptions. Mom had some unique ways of doing things…instead of making a béchamel sauce, mom simply cooked the hacked beef with onions, garlic, herbs and added the tomato sauce – this constituted one of the layers in her lasagna (which was of course repeated two times). Then things got strange…mom would use cottage cheese as a layer on it’s own instead of ricotta. I liked it anyway. It tasted especially good the next day, as most things do after the flavour infuse.
And so I adapted my own version of mom’s lasagna…I definitely do not use cottage cheese.
Instead I prepare a mixture of ricotta, a pinch or two of nutmeg and fresh herbs.
I then prepare a tomato sauce with some grated carrots and basil. Next comes the beef, sautéed with sweet onions and garlic. This is combined with the tomato sauce and then a béchamel sauce is stirred in, creating a creamy, savoury tomato beef mixture that is used for the second layer (also repeated twice).
But here’s the trick to an amazing lasagna – Always prepare it 24-hours in advance! This allows the flavours to infuse and trust me, it’s worth it!
You simply bake the lasagna at 200°C first for 15 minutes without the cheese topping. Then add the grated cheese and bake for a further five minutes. Immediately remove from heat, allow to cool and refrigerate for 24 hours. When you are ready to serve it, pre-heat the oven to 200°C and bake for 20 minutes until bubbling and golden.
I made this lasagna for my guy… he gets to eat the entire thing himself.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAA
Recipe: My 24-Hour Wait Lasagna
Ingredients
- lasagna noodles
- 350g ground beef
- 700g jar/can of crushed tomato
- 200g tomato sauce
- 100g tomato paste
- 2 grated carrots
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- fennel seed
- fresh basil
- fresh Italian parsley
- fresh oregano
- 3 crushed garlic cloves
- 1 large sweet onion diced
- olive oil
- 500g ricotta
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 cups 3.5% fat milk
- 1 tsp salt nutmeg
- grated mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- For the ricotta mixture: combine ricotta with fresh parsley, oregano, basil and a pinch of nutmeg. Set aside for later.
- For the tomato sauce: Mix all three tomato products together, (paste, sauce and crushed tomatoes). Add one teaspoon of sugar, grated carrots and chopped fresh basil. Simmer on stove top on low heat for 15 minutes. Allow to cool and purée with hand-held mixer so that the carrots are puréed and the sauce emulsifies.
- Meanwhile, brown the meat in saucepan with a bit of olive oil and the chopped onion, 1 tsp fennel seeds and garlic. When the meat is half-way cooked, remove from heat and add the meat mixture to the tomato sauce.
- For the béchamel sauce: In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium-low heat until melted. Add the flour and stir until smooth.
- Over medium heat, cook until the mixture turns a light, golden sandy color, about 6 to 7 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the milk in a separate pan until just about to boil.
- Add the hot milk to the butter mixture 1 cup at a time, whisking continuously until very smooth.
- Bring to a boil. Cook 10 minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from heat.
- Season with salt and nutmeg, and set aside until ready to use.
- The béchamel sauce should be thick! If it is not thick then add another tablespoon of flour and allow to reduce until thick but be careful not to burn!
- Add the béchmel sauce to the tomato and meat mixture.
- Stir well and set aside.
- Oil your baking dish with olive oil.
- Place layer of lasagna noodles in the bottom.
- Cover with one layer of tomato and meat mixture.
- Add second layer of lasagna noodles.
- Cover this layer with half of the ricotta herb mix.
- Add another layer of noodles and cover with the tomato meat mixture.
- Add another layer of noodles, top with the remaining ricotta mixture.
- Finally add the last layer of noodles and top with the remaining tomato sauce.
- Bake in pre-heated oven at 200°C for 15 minutes WITHOUT grated mozzarella cheese topping!
- Then add cheese and bake additional 5 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- Cover well and refrigerate for 24 hours.
- When you are ready to serve the lasagna: Pre-heat oven to 200°C Bake for 20 minutes or until hot, bubbling and golden!
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November 7th, 2010
Ricotta, Créme Fraiche, Pesto, Greens, Olive Oil and Sea Salt - All Green (and healthy) Pizza!
It’s now been raining in Paris for thirty hours straight and surprisingly I’m not in the mood for heavy comfort food. That might be because we ate a meal last night that was rich enough to warrant immediate cholesterol checks.
FYI: Le Quinzième serves the best potato purée I have ever eaten. Thankfully, the Server waited until after our meal to inform us that they use three-quarters butter to one-quarter potato purée. Oh, yeah…and they throw in a bit of cream.
Right, so that meal followed by a rainy Sunday (preceded by a rainy Saturday) and what do you get? In our case it was a strong desire to stay indoors and pretend it’s Summer.
Staying in doors wasn’t an option though. I announced to my Sweety that I would be making an All Green Pizza…the only problem was that we have nothing for pizza crust on hand, no greens, no ricotta or cream
fraiche. So two umbrellas in hand we headed out and eventually found everything necessary.
A little while later, a glass of white wine, a candle burning and our faces turned away from the window display of grey bleakness…and it felt almost like Summer.
This pizza is one of the healthiest you can make.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Ingredients
- Pre-made thin pizza crust
- Crème fraiche
- Ricotta
- Pesto
- Either Mache or fresh spinach leaves
- Rucola
- Flash frozen garden peas (not petite pois! Make sure to get the sweet, fresh tasting garden peas)
- Parsley
- Shallots
- Pinenuts
- Olive oil
- Sea Salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°c
- Thaw-out the garden peas – or cover with water and microwave for 50 seconds (do NOT allow them to cook!)
- Roll the pizza crust out onto a flat surface covered with baking paper
- Spread crème fraiche evenly across the pizza dough
- Add dollops of ricotta – spacing them to allow for two dollops per pizza slice
- Drizzle pesto across the surface in the same manner
- Bake at 200° for approximately 15 minutes or until your crust is golden at the edges and completely done in the middle.
- Remove from oven and immediately top with mache or spinach leaves, rucola, garden peas, parsley, pinenuts and shallots. Drizzle olive oil onto and sprinkle some sea salt over the pizza.
Note: If your ricotta is salted you may not need any sea salt! Taste before salting.
Enjoy with a glass of white wine 
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