Red Bell Pepper, Goat Cheese, and Arugula Mini Quiches - Gluten Free.

Usually, I never make nor eat quiches. But I couldn't resist give a try to these ones.
This recipe is adapted from Réinventez vos tartes salées, sucrées by Catherine Kluger, Marabout ed. (in French).

Ingredients :
Make 6 mini quiches or a large one + 2 mini quiches

for the dough
- 200g rice flour
- a pinch of salt
- 90g cold butter, diced
- 2cl water
- 1 whipped egg (add another one if the dough is too floury)

for the filling
- 2 large red bell peppers
- 150g goatcheese log
- 50g raw almonds
- 60g arugula
- 15ml balsamic vinegar
- 25ml olive oil
- 2 garlic gloves
- some basil leaves
- 15cl rice milk
- 2 eggs
- 5cl whipping cream
- 15g cornstarch
- salt & pepper

 Directions:

for the dough
Preheat the oven at 220°C
1) Sift together the flour and salt;
2) Add the butter dices and crumble the mixture;
3) Incorporate the whipped egg and the water and mix with your fingers/blender until getting a homogenous dough;
4) Fridge the dough for an hour;
5) Dust the dough as needed and roll it out. Fit it to the moulds. Prick the dough with a fork. Allow the dough to rest for another hour.
6) Line the moulds with parchment paper and add pie weights on top. Bake for about 25min until the crust is golden but not overcooked. Remove from the oven.

for the filling
1) Slice the red bell peppers and put then on a grill for about 15 to 20 min until you can remove the peel easily (you can also bake them for 25-30min to remove the peel, I just like the first option best);
2) Mix half of the red bell peppers slices with the raw almonds, the balsamic vinegar, the olive oil, the garlic glove until getting a homogenous pesto;
3) Mix together the eggs with the rice milk and the whipping cream. Incorporate the cornstarch. Season;
4) Fill the mini quiches with dices of goatcheese, the rest of the red bell peppers, and some arugula and basil leaves. Pour the dairy mixture (appareil à quiche in French) on that and bake for 35-40 minutes at 200°C (depending on the size of the quiches, large ones will require 55 minutes to an hour);
5) Serve either cold or hot, as an appetizer or with salad as side.


Enjoy,
 B.

Salmon Rillettes.

 I've made this recipe for last Christmas Eve -I got the idea from a cooking magazine. Everyone found it pretty tasty but I wanted to make Kama taste it before I put it on the blog. And she largely approved it -okay, it was quite easy since Kama has a kind of salmon obsession at Christmas time ! 

The rillettes can be eaten as an appetizer either on blinis pancakes or baguette slices, or even on toasted bread.

  

Ingredients: 
- 200g raw salmon
- 150g smoked salmon
- 30g salmon eggs
- 40g butter
- a handful of chopped dill
- a handful of chopped chives
- the juice of a lime
- pepper

Instructions:
1) Cook the raw salmon; let it cool down before crumbling it.
2) Chop roughly the smoked salmon.
3) Mix together the salmon, smoked salmon, butter, lime juice, and chopped herbs in a food processor. The mixture must be homogenous but still with little morsels of salmon.
4) In a bowl, add the salmon eggs and stir carefully.
5) Fridge until serving.


Enjoy,
B.

4-hand cooking. part 1 : Turkey rolls

Last Monday, we've watched the French version of Top Chef (we LOVE this show) and two cooks made chicken rolls. And, big surprise, we decided to try to make some too ... So today, we spent the day together cooking and watching TV (and particularly the first episode of America's Next Top Model ... this 16th cycle promises to be once again so exciting!) We don't cook together so much but each time it's a real pleasure; we spend hours in the kitchen, trying new recipes and imagining others to come - and the list of recipes to come is very, very long ... It was our first attempt with turkey rolls but it turned out pretty well and we ate all of them! The rolls can be served either as appetizers or in a salad. We wrote below four recipes inspired by food around the world we love; hope they'll please your palates!

Instructions:

1)Tenderize the turkey/chicken breasts and place them on food wrap

2) Spread some of the preparation chosen on all the surface of the breast the if you want to obtain a spiral shape or on one side

3) Roll the breast firmly in the plastic wrap beginning with the side you spread the preparation upon ;

4) Fridge the rolls for 30min

5) Pour some water and a bouillon cub in a saucepan and let the water simmer (it mustn't boil); Plunge the rolls into water and cook for 15min

6) Let them cool down before cutting them. If you want to bread them, let them cool down first, then coat them with breadcrumbs, fry them in a frying pan and let them cool down again for 5min before cutting them.

Italian style

Ingredients :
-Ricotta
-Spinach leaves
-Salt and pepper.

For the breadcrumbs :
-Dry bread
-Walnuts
-Flour
-Olive oil (you can also use an egg... but I didn't have any, so we replaced it with olive oil and it worked perfectly well)

British style

Ingredients :
-We've used Ploughman's pickle ("made with BRITISH carrots, apples, cauliflowers and swede")

Southern France style

Ingredients :
- A few diced green olives
- A few diced bell peppers
- Chopped basil
- Goat cheese
- salt and pepper

Asian style

Ingredients :
-4 Baby corns
- 2 Black mushrooms
- 1/2 carrot
- 1 tspoon soy sauce
- 1 tspoon ketchup
- 1 lump granulated sugar



By K & B.

Mediterranean savory Cannelés.

Last Saturday, my father came back from the shopping with a GREAT gift for the foodie I am : a silicone canneles pan. I must confess, though I live in France - and is a French pastry -, I've never tasted any cannelé ... There are always lots of cannelés in every (good) pastry shop window but I've always found them too caramelized - yes okay, another confession: I don't like caramel -. However, I've always loved the shape of this cake so why not find an alternative and making savory cannelés instead?
As Kama said previously, it's pretty gray outside these days -well, actually the kind of weather that engenders bad mood and makes you wanna stay underneath a warm and cozy blanket watching series all day long ... see?
So I've decided to fight against it and invented a Mediterranean recipe: dried black olives, dried tomatoes, basil, and goat cheese!

As I said beneath, it was the first time I've made canneles and I wasn't really sure about the recipe so after an hour of research, I found one that sounded not too complicated nor buttery.
But when I opened the fridge, I realized I didn't have any milk .... and canneles require half a liter of milk ... No problem, I took my parents' soy milk and it worked. I don't like to drink soy milk because of its taste but I often use it to cook or bake (pancakes for ex.) because it's doesn't have any taste when cooked and it's far less fat than cow milk ... Plus, it's healthy so why hesitate?
Anyway, canneles take 45min to be done. After 30min, I checked them and I was a bit afraid since they had overflowed from the pans but they shrinked when they cooled down. And they turned out to be pretty good, very cheesy and moist, perfect as appetizers or sides of a salad.
Next time, I'll try the original cannele recipe with Rum for sure!

Have one ...


Or several.

Ingredients:

for 8 regular cannelés

- 1/2 l soy milk

- 1 egg + 1 yolk
- 100g all-purpose flour
- salt & pepper
- dried black olives
- dried tomatoes
- goat cheese (for these ingredients, I cannot really tell you the quantity needed; as I cheese lover, I put plenty of goat cheese in my canneles but do as you like; and you can also replace goat cheese by feta)
- 3 basil leaves

Directions:

Preheat the oven at 240°C/ 450-500°F (it mist be very hot otherwise the preparation will stick to the pans)
1) Put the milk and the butter in a saucepan and let them boil; don't forget to add the basil leaves so that they will brew in the milk; when it begins to boil, stir and remove from heat;
2) Meanwhile, whisk the egg and the yolk in a bowl and incorporate the flour;

3) Remove the basil leaves and pour the milk in the bowl little by little while continuing whisking;
4) Dice the olives, the tomatoes and the cheese and add them to the preparation;

5) Butter the pans and fill them to the brim;
6) Bake for 45min;
7) Let them cool down in their pans;
8) Serve warm or cold, with (or without) a salad.

By B.

Goat cheese and parmesan sablés

There is something wrong with me, and I'm sure you'll say it's a shame for someone who loves baking as much as I do... well the thing is most of the time I don't have eggs in my fridge...
So today I wanted to cook something I opened my fridge and I saw fresh goat cheese, parmesan, but no eggs but luckily for me there is at least one recipe that doesn't require eggs : sablés! They're easy to make, they're light, crunchy and they make a great appetizer.
To all cheese lovers here is the (eggless) recipe :


Ingredients : (about 30 sablés)

70 gr fresh goat cheese
70 gr parmesan
100 gr flour
80 gr butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
A touch of paprika (but you can add any spices you want)

Directions :

Mix 100 gr flour, 70 gr parmesan, salt, pepper and paprika in a large bowl. Add the butter cut into pieces and the goat cheese.
Start mixing with your fingers to obtain a dough and let it rest for half an hour in the fridge. I made a kind of sausage I put in the fridge to cut round sablés.
Place in a 400 °F preheat oven for 25 minutes.
Take the sablés out and let cool for ten minutes.
Enjoy!

By K.

Asian food - Surprising spring rolls.

Yesterday, my father and I went to the Chinese district of Paris (13eme arr) to do the usual shopping at Tang Freres' and Paris Store's. I love spending time in the departments, seeking for new ingredients to cook. So, as I was wandering in this asian food paradise, the idea of making spring rolls came up to my mind; and especially these spring rolls: chicken and sweet potato spring rolls with lotus seeds and black mushrooms. Actually, my mom invented this recipe a few years ago because she wanted to cook something new with sweet potatoes and I completely loved it.

So today, on this windy Sunday, I've decided to make them; I've just changed slightly things. It took me two hours to make them! Rolling spring rolls is indeed a long and fastidious task but when you're done and you see these cute little rolls made by yourself ... well it is such a satisfaction that you immediately forget that you were just fighting with the fine rice noodles an hour ago ...
Besides these spring rolls come on purpose as it's Chinese New Year this week-end!

I took some pictures of the preparation; Hope it will help you to roll your spring rolls!

Ingredients:
for 30 spring rolls (Since making spring rolls is quite a long task, I always make plenty of them and freeze them. It's really practical since they can remain two months in the freezer compartment. So now, if friends drop in on you unexpectedly, you'll have something nice and original ready in your kitchen!)

- 30 spring roll pastry; - 1 big sweet potato; - 4 chicken breasts; - 1 or 2 spring onions

- 200g of fine rice noodles (soak them for 10min in cold water and them cut in 3 or 4); - 100g of black mushrooms (black mushrooms are usually sold dehydrated so soak them one hour before you begin the preparation) ; - 100g of lotus seeds (same thing for lotus seeds; they are usually sold dehydrated but they need to be soaked the night before the preparation);

+ - 3 eggs (+1 egg to paste the pastry); - salt & pepper

For the sauce:

- 8 tbspoons rice vinegar

- 6 tbspoons granulated sugar

- 2 tbspoons water

- 1 tbspoon fish sauce

Directions:

1) Dice the sweet potato and steam it; when it's done, let it cool down

2) Mix together the chicken breasts, the lotus seeds, the black mushrooms, the spring onions; add 3 eggs, season, and mix again to obtain an homogenous stuffing

3) Mash the sweet potato

4) In a bowl, put together the cut fine rice noodles and the stuffing + add the sweet potato; mix the preparation with your hands

5) Take a full tbspoon of the stuffing

6) Put up each side and roll up neatly and firmly

7) Brush the top side with some beaten egg

8) Fry them until they're golden and serve with some salad and mint leaves and the sauce.

How to make the sauce:

1) Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and let the mixture boil until it caramelizes and then remove from heat.