Need a Dessert in a Hurry ?

Clafouti aux Pommes (Apple Clafouti)

I finally caught my mom making a dessert, gotta be quick ! We were invited for dinner last night and she decided to bring a dessert. With only 90 minutes at her disposal to a) prepare a dessert, b) bake it, and c) change and get ready, she had no time to hide from my sneaky camera (ha ha !). But I had to be quick to note down all her ingredients, she was done in only 15 minutes ! I offer you full frontal nudity in my mom's kitchen (lucky devils !).

Step 1

First she grabbed a baking pan (about a foot in diameter) and greased it with butter, then filled it with apple slices all the way to the top (about 4 apples I think). According to her, the more apples the better it tastes (I totally agree). She added on top a few tablespoons of apricot jam (homemade, the best kind, I licked the spoon !) and butter and set it aside.

Step 1: apples and jam

Step 2

In a food processor (Thermomix TM31, a true beast that does absolutely everything, I was flabbergasted ! I so want one now, anyone knows where I can get one ???) she prepared the batter by mixing 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of flour, and 1/2 cup of sugar, and poured it on top of the apples.

Step 2: ready to bake

Step 3

The cake was baked at 380F for about 30-40 minutes, cooled down and flipped for presentation (see top picture).

Step 3: out of the oven

The results ? A soft pastry softened by cooked apples (choose baking apples for fully cooked apples), and not very sweet. It's best served warm, alone or accompanied with a creme anglaise or vanilla ice-cream.

Bon Appetit !

So Many Cheeses, So Little Time !

Tome de Savoie, Cantal, St Marcelin, Brie, Goat Cheese, Roquefort

St Marcelin and Goat Cheeses

"A meal without cheese is a beautiful woman with an eye missing" - Brillat-Savarin (La Philosophie du Gout)

Only when I go to France do I realize how much I miss eating cheese. With 400 cheeses, the selection is huge ! None of that pasteurized nonsense we see in the US. This is real cheese. Fresh and aging. From cows, sheeps, goats. Hard, semi-hard, soft, melting. Some are a veritable living ecosystem of various molds, imparting a strong taste and smell to the host. Ever tried Roquefort ? Or simply blue cheese ? Then you are ready for the old goat cheese with shades of green and brown molds. With a piece of fresh french bread and a glass of red wine. It's a smorgasbord of flavors, tannins and fermented milk mingling and dancing in your mouth.

Next time you are in the dairy aisle at the grocery store, take a chance and try out a French cheese. Whole Foods Market offers a good selection, some unpasteurized (!). Or look out for a cheese shop offering imported cheeses, and ask for a selection of French cheeses, from mild to strong. Make it an evening to remember, ask friends to bring bread and their favorite wines ! And if you even happen to be in France, skip the Eiffel Tower and pig out on cheese and bread for a true french experience !

Say cheese !

French Food, How I Have Missed You !

I am afraid coming back home with a few more pounds will not be too difficult ! It is almost a rite of passage when traveling to France. But I feel every ounces are worth every bites ! I hit two restaurants this week-end, where I was able to sample some french specialties I particularly like and which are near impossible to find in the US.

On Friday night, I rediscovered duck breast. I suspect french ducks are a different species than the ducks found in american markets, given the size of its breasts. That's the best part of the duck here. Imagine a huge chicken breast, but red meat with a thick layer of fatty skin on one side and a rich gamey flavor. It has enough flavor to be cooked in its own fat, but here it was served with a green peppercorn sauce, some french beans, an oven-baked potato, a small salad, and a vegetable flan. A very good jazz band provided the entertainment to a nice evening, with a full glass of rose wine in hand (Coteaux de Bandol, a local wine).

Magret de Canard, Sauce au Poivre Vert

(Duck Breast with Green Peppercorn Sauce)

On Saturday night, a childhood friend of mine took me to a restaurant he enjoys for its selection of specialties from Provence and the South-West regions of France. It was called "La Boulangerie", or The Bakery, likely because its location in an old bakery building. The place was very small, falling into the category of hole-in-the-wall, and the kitchen even smaller, with just one woman manning pots and pans. The minute I stepped through the door I knew I was in for a local treat. My friend specifically recommended the "Cassoulet", a bean stew with pork and mutton. But we were out of luck, the chef was all out. Another sign of a small, but successful, operation. Plan B was the "gardianne de taureau", a specialty from the Camargues region known for its wild white horses, its bulls, its pink flamingos, and its rice cultures. Bullfights are also common there. Hmmm, now you know where the bull in the plate is coming from. No wasting good meat though. Bull meat is indeed very lean, similar to buffalo, and the flavor is a bit stronger than beef. The raw meat is first marinated in wine before cooking it slowly in more wine with carrots and tomatoes, in a manner similar to Boeuf Bourguignon. The result is a rich meat stew with a strong wine flavor, best consummed with white rice (and here a serving of ratatouille) and a full bodied red wine. In this case, my friend, a wine connoisseur, chose a Vacqueyras red wine that was simply excellent. Supple on the tongue with lots of oak overtones, it complemented the heavy stew dish, and you could not help but drink some more ! Vacqueyras is akin to a Chateauneuf-du-Pape (similar region) or a Gigondas. If you happen to find a bottle, please give it a try.

Gardianne de Taureau avec Ratatouille et Riz de Camargues

(Bull Stew with ratatouille and rice from Camargues)

Vacqueyras Red Wine

The Simple Life

French Bread and Coffee for Breakfast

I so missed good french bread ! You don't know what you are missing until you are exposed to it. Crusty on the outside and soft on the inside, stay fresh all day, and only 2 euros (close to $3) for a huge broad loaf. Bread is THE staple of every french meals. For breakfast, with butter and jams, dunked in coffee or hot chocolate. For lunch and dinner, to clean up the sauce in your plate, or accompany your cheese. I am lucky to stay in a small village with 4 different bread shops in walking distance. That's fresh bread every day !
Why is it so hard to find good bread in the US ? Is it because of the ingredients ? Bread and Cie does an excellent job, though. But at $5 a small loaf, a french diet would ruin me ! I wonder if they have a "frequent flyer" program...or a french discount ?!! How about a store in every neighborhoods ? Life could be so simple...

That's what I am talking about !!!

Cheese, Sweet Cheese !

Sneaked out to France for a 3-week visit ! Pardon me if I kept it hush hush, but with the ash cloud ghost looming in the background, I did not want to say anything until I had my two feet on french ground. But here I am now ! I landed in Brussels this morning and caught my connection to Marseille, to find rainy skies and a colder weather than usual. It should clear out by the week-end (I hope!).
My first meal at the family table: zucchini, tomato and potato gratin, followed by a welcoming array of cheeses and fresh baguette. Ah, I could not ask for more for a light supper before succumbing to jetlag stupor. Checking out early today....
Peace.

Whole and Fresh - Part 2

Spotted Sandbass on a Bed of Vegetables

As luck would have it, I happened to be in Mission Valley again on Friday during their farmer's market. I couldn't pass on the opportunity to snatch a fresh whole fish, so I went to say hello to my new friends at Poppa's Fresh Catch ("any fresher and you'd be underwater!", I love their slogan !). Their whole fish that day was the spotted sandbass, a beautiful fish with a huge mouth and lots of meat. I went home with a 3-pounder.
I had to get my biggest cooking dish for that monster ! I placed a bit of olive oil and about 1 oz of butter at the bottom, then layered a bed of onion slices (1 big onion) and precut mushrooms (1 pack). Then I proceeded to stuff the sandbass with a few sprigs of fresh thyme and some dried bay leaves, before placing it on the bed of vegetables. I surrounded the fish with two big tomatoes cut in eighth, added salt, pepper, pieces of lemons, spinkled about 1 oz of butter. Lastly I poured about 3/4 cup of white wine on top, and cooked in the oven at 400F for 45 minutes.
The vegetables cooked in the wine-butter mixture and were nicely complemented with steaming white rice. White wine/butter/white fish is a perfect trifecta, a master combo anyone can pull off with the right fish. The spotted sandbass turned out to have a firm texture that reminded me of, ironically, seabass. I never once set down my fork until everything was gone off my plate. What a great dinner ! Yum, yum :)

Whole and Fresh, Please !

Black-Lung Rockfish

You'd think it would not be hard to find fresh whole fish in a big harbor city like San Diego. Unfortunately, it is not an easy task. The average Joe has a pretty dismal choice of fillet, fillet, or fillet at the grocery store. Unless you are looking for a rainbow trout, prepacked whole and ready to go. Maybe it's a consequence of mass markets, the consummer does not want to know where the food is coming from. Everything is precut, prepackaged with a sticker on it so you know what you are buying. It's fast and convenient, but it disconnects the consummer from the food he's eating. And in some cases, it removes any clues on the freshness of the product.

Fish is the perfect example. I grew up near Marseilles, where seafood is an important part of the diet. Think Bouillabaisse, Soupe de Poissons, Loup au Champagne, Moules Meunieres, Fruits de Mer...There freshness is what ranks fish shops, and hearsay can make or break a reputation. Owners proudly display whole fresh fish on beds of ice to attract shoppers. I was always told to find a fresh fish you have to look at its eyes. A clear eye means fresh, a cloudy eye means it is old (basically the proteins in the eye have started to degrade, creating a cloudy residue). That's it ! It's a simple rule. If only the fish was not sold with its head chopped off....

Fish Shop in Aix-en-Provence

I had a very pleasant surprise on Friday. I just happened to run into a recently new farmer's market in the Mission Valley area in San Diego. There I met a very nice man from Poppa's Fresh Catch, selling, gasp !, fresh fish, both whole and filleted. Their slogan "any fresher and it's underwater" made me laugh ! But I have to agree, the whole rockfish they sold me, descaled and gutted, was caught today. The eye was absolutely clear, and the meat, once cooked, was still clinging to the bones (another sign of freshness). The local company operates at many other farmer's market in the San Diego area. Make sure you stop by their booth, it's worth a look and it's good for the tummy :)


With fresh fish in a bag, I gleefully went home and started the oven. A fresh catch does not need much to taste good. A dash of olive oil and rock salt, a few slices of lemons in the gut (or dried fennel, as my mom would do), and a piece of aluminum foil on top to keep the juices in. In the oven at 360F for 30 minutes and it was ready. Moist and firm. Served with the juices in the pan.

The hardest part ? Waiting for next friday !