Recipe Friday: Childhood Memory

I realized today that I haven't talked about one of my favourite things in a good while: Food. So I have decided to reinstate Recipe Friday.

During my parents' visit last week end, we ended up being snowed in (nothing new so far). So I spent a lot of my week end cooking for everybody (and to be honest trying to impress my mum with my cooking skills). On Sunday afternoon, after a snowball fight and the building a snowman, we decided to do a bit of baking for an afternoon snack. Marie and myself had baked some cookies on Saturday and had frozen 2 thirds of the dough for future use. So, in the oven, went the cookies. And in comes my mum. I have to say she is an expert at reusing leftovers and reinventing dishes. Although you might be eating the same ingredients two days in a row, it never feels like you are eating the same thing.

As the cookies are baking, she asks me: 'What are you going to do with that stale bread?'. Panic sets in: 'Emm, emm, I, emm, give it to the birds?'. Obviously, wrong answer. She says: 'Have you got some milk, one egg and some sugar?'. Staples, I mean, unless you're allergic who doesn't have milk, eggs and sugar?. 'Yes, I do'. 'Right, get out of the way, I'm going to make something you haven't had in years'. And how right was she. She produced in less than 10 minutes the most wonderful snack. She was right, I hadn't had it in years and why, oh why did I never make it before. It is so simple and tasty. And it brings back memories of winter Sundays afternoons, coming home after half freezing to death watching my dad play football. For a moment, after I took that first bite, I was 10 again. I only got to have one slice though, as Marie fell in love with it and ate the whole lot! The smell of vanilla, the crunch of the sugar on top, hummmm, so good I made some today, just for myself. And cheap as chips too. So here is my mum's recipe for making 'Pain perdu' (Lost Bread or French toast as it's called here). Well, I can tell you, it's not lost on us!!

- Slices of stale bread (a couple of days old)
- Some milk
- Some vanilla sugar (if you have some, normal sugar will do though)
- 1 egg.
(I am afraid my mum is as bad as I am with measures).

1) In a pot, heat up the milk and sugar.

2) In a large bowl, beat the egg.

3) Heat up a bit of butter in the pan.

4) Dip the bread in the warm milk (letting it soak up some of the milk but not too much or it will fall apart).

5) Dip it quickly in the egg.

6) Place on the pan.

7) Turn around when golden.

Sprinkle with some sugar before serving.

Eat hot or cold.

And there you are, Pain Perdu! Hope you get to try it, and love it as much as I and Marie do!

X

Foodie Mummy

Recipe Friday Christmas special

Another week has gone by, and it is Friday again, Recipe Friday.

Since it is now the last Friday before the big day (that's Christmas day to you and me), I could not give anything else but a festive recipe.

But before I do so, let me give you an insight on a traditional french Christmas.

France being such a large country, traditions vary from region to region. As I mentioned in another post, the celebrations start on Christmas Eve with a very large meal. Common dishes include foie gras (a pate made from goose or duck liver), oysters, smoked salmon, prawns, some kind of poultry (usually duck or goose), and for dessert the traditional 'Buche de Noel' (Christmas log), a cake shaped like a log.

Originally, the 'Buche de Noel' was a real log. On the 24th of December, the head of the house and the kids used to go into the woods to pick up a special log that was to burn from the 24th of December until the 1st of January (and sometimes until the 6th of January, day of the Kings). The log was brought back to the house and decorated with ribbons. It was then ceremoniously put in the fireplace and wine and oil were poured over it by the head of the house. The youngest child was to light it.

To keep up the tradition and with the advent of electricity and other means of heating, a baker, around 1945, decided to bake a cake in the shape of a log. So if you don't have time to make that Christmas pudding, or haven't bought one yet, maybe you can try this for a less traditional Irish Christmas dinner.

Ingredients :

- 4 eggs

- a glass of caster sugar

- a glass of self raising flour.

- 250g of baking chocolate

- 200g of unsalted butter

- Whisk the 4 egg yolks, with the sugar and 3 tablespoons of tepid water, until it starts foaming.

-Slowly add the flour.

- Once all the ingredients have come together, add the 4 beaten egg whites (these should be stiff).

- In a flat, long tray, pour the dough (should be about 1 inch thick), and bake in a hot oven until golden brown (about 10 minutes should do it).

- Take the cake out of the tray and put down on a damp tea towel.

- Roll it up and leave to cool.

- Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie (for those who are not sure, put a bowl over a pot of boiling water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not in contact with the water)

- Add the butter.

- Spread some of the chocolate and butter mix over the cake and roll back up.

- Spread the rest of the chocolate and butter mix over the cake and, using a fork, draw lines to resemble a log.

- Put in the fridge to cool down.

Some people sprinkle icing sugar over the top to resemble snow, or add a couple of sprigs of holly.

A lot easier and less time consuming than your traditional Christmas fruit cake! So get your aprons on and try it out, if not for Christmas day for any other day over the Christmas period.

Merry Christmas everybody.

Recipe Friday

I was going through some blogs today and I noticed a few blogs entitled Wordless Wednesday, where other mammies put on pictures or drawings. So I decided to create my own topical day. I hereby present you with Recipe Friday. I don't know if I'm being original at all, if it exists even but if somebody else already had the idea, I apologize.

Isn't it mad that when men leave their mam's to either move in by themselves or with someone else, the majority of them do not know how to cook (or, even though men love gadgets, use that box in which you put dirty clothes and a bit of magic powder also known as a washing machine). When my fiance moved in with me, I had dreams of romantic candlelit dinners, breakfasts in bed and other food- related niceties. So one evening, he offered to cook dinner for us. I was about to say 'oh yes please', when he warned me: the only thing I can cook is beans on toast. Hardly a 3 course romantic dinner. Indeed I had forgotten that he was straight out of Mammy's Bed and Breakfast / Restaurant / Launderette. Anyway, we enjoyed our beans on toast.

So I made it my mission to get him interested in food and most of all get him cooking. So I produced lovely dinners, one after the other, patiently developing his taste buds. After a few months, I bought him a children's cookbook. Yes you have read well, a children's cookbook. One with pictures and step by step explanations for a 28 year old man. Just a kick in the right direction. At first, he insisted that I be there whenever he was cooking but has since developed confidence and cooks (mostly) by himself (apart from chopping onions which he insists on cutting with his eyes closed, therefore often missing the onion and frequently nearly chopping his fingers off). He took to it like a fish to water. To the point that when we discovered that I was pregnant with Noelie, his reply was: I'd better go and stir my casserole ( I put that down to shock ). Now, I have to start introducing him to the magic box that cleans clothes, I wonder if there are any children's manuals on that subject.

But I digress, here is one of the quick and easy recipes I taught him, and which he has now perfected. A favourite of Marie's and myself and probably, in the not so distant future, one of Noelie's too .

Fishy Pasta Bake:

Feeds 4.

Ingredients:

- 400 grs of penne pasta (approx 100 grs/ person).
- a vegetable stock cube
- a small tub of fresh cream
- a big tin or 2 of tuna or salmon
- grated cheese (Cheddar, Emmental, Parmesan or any other hard cheese you like)

1) Cook the pasta in the vegetable stock (refer to the cooking time on the pack)
2) Drain the pasta and return to the pot.
3) Add the fresh cream and let it thicken while stirring.
4) Put the drained fish at the bottom of a gratin dish (or a casserole dish or any dish that goes in the oven),
5) Cover with the pasta and cream
6) Sprinkle grated cheese on top.
6) Put dish in the oven until golden brown.

Alternatively, you can use 4 fillets of fish, fresh or frozen. In that case, just cook the fish (either grill or boil or in the oven) and crumble at the bottom of the oven dish . Breaded fish works well and adds a bit of crunch, smoked fish adds a bit more flavour. I also like to sprinkle breadcrumbs on the top with the cheese for more crunch and texture.

You can also add some cooked vegetables to the pasta, cauliflower, courgettes, or broccoli (works well with salmon). And most of all, have some fun with it. Add a bit of nutmeg or some basil or anything that takes your fancy. Experiment!
I hope you'll try it and like it!

On that note, I'd better go and put some magic powder in the magic twirly box and search the Internet for a children's book on how to use it.