SALMON AND LEEK PIE

With salmon and leek but made in a pie, this quiche is the perfect example of healthy food in hiding. My partner loves it and it's also great as left over.

You will need
 - 2 sheet of frozen puff pasty
 - 2 eggs
 - glass of milk or cream
 - 1 fillet of salmon
 - 1 leek

Start by reducing the leek at mid temperature. I usually cut in dice, then add water in a small pot, and cook slowly for 15 minutes

In the meantime, cut the salmon in smaller pieces then, poach it. I usually reuse the pot that reduced the leek, so I poach the salmon in the juice. That should cook in low boiling water in a bit less than 10 minutes

Mix egg, milk, salmon and leek in a bowl, add salt and pepper, and add to the puff pastry. Use the second sheet to close.

Finally cook at 180 degree for 25 minutes.

 

DIY : FISH AND CHIPS

It' actually easy to prepare fish in a fish and chips manner, and much healthier than buying it!

Using fish fillets or small fishes, dip the fish in an egg, then in flour. Then grill. The mix of egg and flour will prevent it from overcooking, and adds that great colour and wonderful savour.

With some homemade chips, it's perfect !

 

DUCKLING LEGS with ROSEMARY

If you have a good butcher, you might be able to find duckling legs. I personally find it at the Greenslopes Rock and Roll butcher in Brisbane for 12 dollar for 2 legs! Bargain.

It will most likely impress your guests as this recipe would not be found in a French restaurant and it worth a million box, while being quite cheap to do.

For 4 persons
 - 4 duckling leg per persons (one per person)
 - 3 big potatoes, 3 big carrots, 3 big turnips
 - plenty of rosemary and olive oil for the marinade
 - 2 rashes of bacon and a small bottle of white wine for the sauce

If bought from frozen, make sure it is well unfrozen when you cook it. If not, make sure to cook it longer.

Start by marinating the legs in olive oil and rosemary for 1 hour. In the meantime, cut all the vegetables in dice.











When ready, heat up a large pan, fry the bacon and legs  in olive oil until brown.










Add the wine and then the vegetable. Add half a glass of water to make more sauce and cover. Stir from time to time to make sure everything cooks well. The vegie will nicely melt into the sauce.
I recommend to cook for quite a long time like 50 minutes.




My partner find that recipe amazing as he had never tasted duck like that! Even if you usually don't like turnip, don't replace them as they really make the recipe.

 

FONDANT AU CHOCOLAT (easy)

This recipe is super easy and made in 30 minutes, if you have already done it few times. The chocolate fondant is smooth and moist

 - 175g of your favourite dark chocolate
 - 150g sugar
 - 150g butter
 - 50 almond powder
 - 5 eggs
 - 30g flour

To melt the chocolate break the squares and add a bit of water then 50 sec in the microwave. Same for the butter but only 30 seconds.

Mix all the ingredients together adding the flour at the end. They should form a silky paste which smells extremely good.

Pre-heat the oven at 180, and cook 20 minutes at 180. The fondant will form a light crust, but stay moist in the middle.

ENJOY !!!!!


Personal note: eat it while it last, usually not very long :)

 

BOEUF BOURGUIGNON (with Marinade)


I made an habit of always cooking the 'boeuf bourguignon' for Bastille day, as it is the most typical dish from France. Each time my guest love it. :)
The good point of the dish, is that you usually have few days of delicious leftover.

For 5 persons (and leftover)

 - 1.5k of beef (beef for stew, rather cheap). I paid 11 dollars for the piece I got at the butcher
 - 1k of potatoes
 - 1kg of tomatoes
 - 300g of white mushroom

For the marinade
 - a bottle of red wine. Cabernet preferably and mid range price like 10 dollar or around
 - lots of parsley, rosemary, thyme
 - 3 red onions







The meat has to marinate for at least 4 hours. My mother used to do it overnight.

 - cut the beef in big dice and add olive oil
 - slice the onions and add to the beef. Add parsley, thyme, rosemary and the bottle of red.
 - wait 4 hours

Before cooking
 - cut the potatoes and tomatoes, and slice the mushroom.
 - filter the sauce from the marinade and keep it separate.

In your largest pot, bring some olive oil to heat, and when it is very hot, add the meat and stir fry to brown it. I usually add the onions, parsley, thyme and rosemary as well.
When it's half cooked, add the tomatoes, and mushroom. Stir fry. Finish with the potatoes and bring to low heat. Add the red wine sauce.

Cook for at least one hour. Everything should reduce into a thick sauce. I don't add flour to it as the potatoes will melt in the sauce.

Serves hot with a thick slice of sourdough bread, and a glass of red like Cabernet or Pinot.

                   HAPPY BASTILLE DAY !!!

 

SALMON AND QUINOA SALAD

A classic from Australia, is the Tassie Salmon. Not only it is seriously good, but it is also super healthy. Added with gluten free quinoa, and avocado, you can not do any better than that.

For a big salad for 4:

• 200g of quinoa
• 1 fillet of Tassie salmon skin on
• one Lebanese cucumber
• one avocado
• for dressing, I use a lemon juice and olive oil dressing
• salt and peper

To prepare the quinoa start by washing it, then add to cold salted water and bring to boil. Reduce the heat, and cook in stimming water for 15 minutes. The quinoa will absorb the water. I match 2 times the quantity of water with the quinoa






Once cooked, drain and leave to cool down.

For the salmon, I poach it, starting in cold salted water as well, then bringing to stim as well. It will cook slowly and stay moist. 15 minutes will do the job.


In the meantime prepare the cucumber and avocado as on pictures. Same for salmon. Add to the quinoa, and add the lemon juice and olive oil dressing.


Place in the fridge to add more freshness!

Enjoy !

SPINACH, MUSHROOM AND BACON QUICHE

Perfect evening meal when you dont have time, or to bring to a brunch, here is a super easy recipie of kiche.

Serves 2:
one sheet of frozen pufff pastry
around 12 brown mushrooms
4 bacon rasher
250g of frozen spinach
1 egg
100ml of milk
parmesan cheese (non grated)

Unfreeze the spinach by boiling it slowly and drain well, you dont want too much water to remain. Then prepare the puff pastry to unfreeze and display in the dish


Cut the mushrooms and bacon, then stir fry until cooked

When cooked, add the spinach, mushroom and bacon to the puff pastry












Mix the egg and the milk then add to the kiche, and add salt and pepper and layer of parmesan cheese

Pre-heat the oven to 200 then cook for 20 minutes
 

DIY Chicken nugget

 

I do chicken nugget when my boyfriend have friend or family coming over to watch the footie. So much better than the KFC, this is always a great success.

Serves 3:
2 chicken breast
100g flour
2 eggs
Crambles. If  you want it to glutten free, use corn crambles.

In addition, if you want to serve french fries : add vegetable oil and 8 bigs potatoes



Cut the chicken breast into big dices, the size of the chicken nuggets you usually eat
Cover them well with flour, then with the eggs
And finally with the crambles.

 

 

 

Pre-heat the vegetable oil in the frying pan and when it is medium heat, add the chicken. Cook at medium heat for roughly 15 min, the chicken will turn white and the cramble nicely brown.


I usually serve sith a side of french fries. You can do up to 3 portions usually using a large pans and 1 centimeter deep of vegetable oil. It will cook for 40 minutes and make sure you stir regularly to aviod burning and sticking.

 

DIY MEAT BALL AND MASH POTATOE

It's easy to buy meat balls from the supermarket, but doing it yourself is not so complicated, and will avoid you all the nasty preservatives.


For 3 serves, I get:
500g of beef and pork mince
2 spoon of plain flour
1 egg
1 onion
parsley
salt and peper and some spices like ginger and paprika






Start by chopping the onions and parsley as thin as possible and mix them together, then incorporate the meat, add the 2 spoons of flour and the egg.

 

 

Preheat the oven at 200.

 

 

In the meantime, prepare the balls by rolling it in your hand and display on foil paper (spray of bit of oil before hand), foil bright side on top



 

 

 

When the oven is hot, cook for 25 minutes.

 

I served with a side of mash and salad for a healthy dinner, but very much appreciated by the kangaroo himself !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

POULET BASQUAISE (easy version)

The poulet basquaise is a chicken stew dish from the south of France. Normally you would do it with chicken maryland, but you often find only drumstick at your local supermarket.


For 2 persons, I buy
4 good quality chicken drumsticks like free range.
6 tomatoes
1 red and 1 green capsicum
1 onion
paprika
the usual suspects : salt peper, olive oil, rosemary




Stir fry the chicken with plenty of paprika in olive oil until it is nicely brown. Remove from the pan,  add oil and stir fry the onions, capsicums first, then tomatoes. Put back the chicken.

 

 

Add water to avoid burning, then let to cook on low heat until the meat starts to fall off the bones. Dont be afraid to cook it for a long time.

I usually serve with a side or rice and bread to soak the delicious sauce in the end.

Once cooked, it can keep for few days, so dont hesitate to make plenty !!

 

APRICOT TART

This is a very delicious and easy to make tart from France. Ideal in summer or to please your in-laws :). Prepare it in advance and store in the fridge to make it refreshing. Perfect for a brunch or afternoon tea.

For a tart:
A sheet of frozen puff pastry.
Enough apricot to cover the tart, so 500g or more or less 8 apricots depending on the size.
2 eggs
3 spoon of cream
almond powder (depending on your taste)
sugar : 100g to be adapted depending the apricots are sweet or not.







Cut the apricots into 2.  Once the frozen sheet of puff pastry is ready, display them to cover the sheet.

Mix the cream, eggs and almond powder and pur on the tart.




Pre-heat the oven at 180, then bake for 35 minutes.

That will smell really good in your kitchen !! :)





 

LAPIN A LA PROVENCALE (easy version)



If you want an alternative to the usual beef/chicken/pork and have a butcher that provides it (you can find adress on the internet usually), rabbit is an excelent meat. As they eat only grass it is particularly healthy and lean.

For 4 persons,

2 rabbbits
6 tomatoes
1 large onion
glass of dry white wine (not too bad quality)
smoked bacon cut in big dice 
herbs : rosemary, thyme, bay leave in quantity










The rabbit you can get from the butcher, may not be cut, in that case, that tutorial will help you.

http://www.marmiton.org/pratique/techniques-culinaires-video-cuisine_decoupe-du-lapin.aspx

Before starting, marinate the cut pieces of rabbit in the thyme, rosemary, salt and olive oil. That will make the whole difference.

When the rabbit is well marinated, stir fry together rabbit and bacon. When the meat is totally white, add the wine and let cook few more minutes

Remove the rabbit, and add fresh oil to the pan and stir fry the onions then add the tomatoes and the rest of herbs. Then the rabbits.
Nothing more to do. Add some water to keep the sauce and cook at medium heat for 50 minutes or so.

I served with a side of mash.

If you are only 4, but no guests, 1 rabbit is enough. French etiquette :  if you have guests, keep in mind you want to serve them the legs which are the best parts (keep shoulders and middle part for yourself unless they specifically ask for it.


 

DIY French Baguette

I must say when you have a good bakery not too far from you, why bother to make bread. But what if you don’t ?

You can get delivered french bread flour  from that website, so I decided to give it a go
http://www.basicingredients.com.au/catalog/index.php?cPath=103_180

So you will need

500g of flour

300ml warm water

35g yeast  salt       

In a big bowl add the yeast at the center of the flour. Start slowly incorporating the water to the flour until you have a nice bowl. If you feel it is not right like too sticky add flour. Or on the contrary add water. Also mixing is very important to incorporate all ingredients so mix well.

 

 

  

Let to rest for 30 minutes under a tea towel. You will see it expand quite a lot.

Spread some flour on a board and make a square with the paste. Fold then roll in a baguette shape or other shape. You can do it several time for even better result.

 

Let to rest for 40 minutes in that shape. It will expand again, so don’t keep the bread too close to each other

 

 

Pre-heat your oven at 250 and then cooked for 30 minutes at 200 or when the crust looks really nice.

MIAM!