Bastille Day in Pictures

Vive la France!

Pastis- like the old French men like it!

the farmer claimed these were a red pepper/ tomato hybrid

either way, these were perfect for a Ratatouille. The trick? Cook the vegetables seperately and reassemble at the end to avoid sogginess

Ratatouille the following day

wishing these were melons de Cavaillion

Le Clafoutis aux Cerises

Whole Lemon Tart

Clafoutis avec Mémé

When my parents flew back to the US for the summer, they stopped off in Paris to visit my French grandmother Suzanne. We call her Mémé and she is known- above all else- for her cooking. She is the only woman who could get my 12 year old self to eat fish. How? By whipping up one of those famously French, sinfully delicious white butter-laden sauces .

But I'm here to talk about her clafoutis which is a sort of cake made with black cherries. If you haven't already tried one, you should. As I've mentioned before, I don't really even like cherries, but this takes the cake. (ha!)


It's not even that difficult to make- Mémé doesn't even have a set recipe. So if cherries are still in season near you, I'd suggest giving this a try before it's too late.

My mom had the ingenious idea of taking pictures of the process while she was visiting and so whitout her permission, I have posted them here for our mutual enjoyment. See how much I care?

Et voila ma Mémé Suzanne:

Step one- Butter a baking dish. All good French recipe require butter. fact of life.

Now here we have some pitted cherries. Some say that you MUST keep the pits in as they infuse the cake with their nutty almost almond like flavour- but others are more practical. My Mémé falls into the later category.

Mixing up the batter. Do I spot some yogurt or creme fraiche on the lip of the bowl?

Adding the obligatory milk.

And a bit of flour tooNext are the cherries. And try not to lose any, ok?

Mix it all up
And pour into your buttered pan

Into the oven for 34-40 minutes.

Et voila! Un delicieux clafoutis aux cerises!

Clafoutis
From the Larousse Gastronomique
A desert from the Limousin region of France , clafoutis consists of black cherries arranged in a buttered dish, covered with fairly thick batter and baked. It is served lukewarm, dusted with sugar. As a rule, the cherries are not stoned (pitted) but simply washed and stalked (stemmed), since the kernel add their flavor to the batter during cooking.

• 500g black cherries
• 100g caster sugar, seperated
  
• butter for greasing
• 125g flour
• pinch of salt
• 3 eggs
• 300ml milk
• icing sugar, for dusting

Remove the stalks from 500g (18 oz) washed black cherries, dust them with 50g (2oz) caster sugar and leave for at least 30 minutes. Butter a baking tin and fill it with cherries. Put 125g (4 1/2 oz) plain flour in a mixing bowl and add a pinch of salt, 50g (2oz) caster sugar and 3 well-beaten eggs; mix well; then add 300ml (1/2 pint) milk and mix thoroughly again. Pour the mixture over the cherries and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C (350 degrees F) for 35-40 minutes. When it is lukewarm dust with icing sugar.

miam!

Cleaning out my archives

I stumbled across this video I took when Kris and I went to Paris for a last hurrah before he moved back to the states. He's like a modern day Snow White!

Croque Monsieur

My recent trip to Paris was so jam packed full of work that I missed out on having my French staple: the Croque Monsieur- so I had to remedy the situation as soon as possible. I decided to use an old contraption I had grabbed out of my mom's garage- a contraption I wrongly assumed was an antique croque monsieur maker. After several failed yet delicious attempts, I'm gonna just have to accept that this might just be an antique panini maker.

Start by making a Bechamel Sauce. Mine was a little lumpy...didn't whisk hard enough!

Shaping the bread to fit

It's easiest to snap it shut and cut around the edges.

Bechamel sauce, shredded Gruyere, whole wheat bread and bacon. Ain't nothing wrong here!

Croque Monsieur

From this recipe by Ina Garten

When making this recipe, I halved it and (to my boyfriend's dismay) used bacon instead of Virginia Ham. It was still quite tasty.

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups hot milk
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch nutmeg
• 12 ounces Gruyere, grated (5 cups)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• 16 slices white sandwich bread, crusts removed
• Dijon mustard
• 8 ounces baked Virginia ham, sliced but not paper thin

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan and add the flour all at once, stirring with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Slowly pour the hot milk into the butter–flour mixture and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce is thickened. Off the heat add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup grated Gruyere, and the Parmesan and set aside.
To toast the bread, place the slices on 2 baking sheets and bake for 5 minutes. Turn each slice and bake for another 2 minutes, until toasted.
Lightly brush half the toasted breads with mustard, add a slice of ham to each, and sprinkle with half the remaining Gruyere. Top with another piece of toasted bread. Slather the tops with the cheese sauce, sprinkle with the remaining Gruyere, and bake the sandwiches for 5 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the topping is bubbly and lightly browned. Serve hot.

Délicieux !

Nice is so nice!

Har har. I know... But it was really wonderful going back to the south of France last weekend. I always say I grew up in France, which is true, but I only spent 5 years living in the South between La Cadiere D'Azur and Bandol. Going back last weekend made me realize just how much I've missed it and how attached I still feel to that place. If only for the amazing array of colors which don't seem to exist anywhere else. I even miss those chirpy cigales.

And please ignore the zombie like color of the hands- we were under a blue tarp...

Where else can you have two scoops of Lavender and Miel de Pignons ice cream?