Quick Hello from France

Bonjour! Just a quick hello from the city of love-PARIS! We are having the time of our lives and I can't wait to write all about it..... If I had to summarise France in 3 words, it would be amazing, amazing, AMaZing!

Just a few foodie pics to get your salivary glands going...

Definitely ate too much sweet stuff this trip! But it was worth it.... I am going to miss the patisseries!

Fried Sweet Chili, Coriander and Ginger Chicken

Thought I better cook Chinese tonight as we will be in France tomorrow for 9 days! Don't think we will be eating rice somehow......

By the way, what do you think about my new template? Any comments?...
Also, congratulations to Doreen on your engagement! I  am happy for you.

Fried Sweet Chili, Coriander and Ginger Chicken


6 chicken thighs, skin off, cut into bite-size pieces
4 tablespoons cornflour
2 egg whites
oil for deep-frying
sea salt and ground white pepper

For the sauce:
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2.5cm/1 inch piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and sliced
1 medium red chilli, deseeded
6 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
1 small handful of freshly chopped coriander

Season the chicken pieces with salt and white pepper. Combine the cornflour and egg whites to make a batter.
 Heat the oil to 180º or until a cube of bread dropped in turns golden brown in 15 seconds and floats to the surface.
 Dip the chicken slices in the batter, lower into the oil and deep-fry for about 5 minutes until crispy and golden. Lift out using tongs and drain on absorbent kitchen paper.
To make the sauce, add 1 tablespoon of the oil into a seperate pan, and when it starts to smoke, add the garlic, ginger and chilli and stir-fry for a few seconds, then add the chilli sauce, soy sauce and lime juice. Mix well.
Return the chicken to the pan and turn to coat in the hot sauce, then stir in the coriander and serve immediately. Serve with steam rice.

Classic Steak au Poivre

Steak au Poivre is a simple French recipe that has full of flavour, mainly of peppercorn and red wine. Follow the instruction properly to get the perfect texture (I like my steak medium rare). I actually did not turn down the heat after I seared it on the hot pan, so I overcooked it a little (So annoying as I normally undercook my steak!). But the flavour was fantastic, and adding the red wine at the last minute gives it a beautiful sticky sauce.

This one is for you GQ. Make sure you give it a go...

Steak au Poivre Recipe

2x 300g sirloin steaks
1 large garlic clove, chopped finely
2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
150ml red wine


If you've got time, prepare your steak au poivre one or several hours ahead. Begin by crushing the peppercorns very coarsely with a pestle and mortar (if you don't have a pestle and mortar then use the back of a tablespoon and crush them on a flat surface).
Now take a shallow dish, large enough to hold 2 steaks comfortably side by side, then pour 1 tablespoon of the olive oil mixed with half a clove of the crushed garlic into the dish.
Then coat each steak evenly on both sides with the crushed peppercorns, pressing them in firmly. Lay the steaks in the dish and spoon the other tablespoon of oil and the rest of the garlic over them. Cover with clingfilm and leave them aside for several hours, turning them over once.
When you're ready to cook the steaks, you need a thick-based frying pan. Place it over a very high heat and let it preheat until it's very hot indeed – the more daring you can be in getting the pan really hot, the better the finished steak will be! Now quickly drop each steak directly into the pan. Sear them quickly on both sides – give them about 1 minute on each side.
Then lower the heat and cook them how you want them. Some people like them 'blue', which means seared only and very rare; for medium rare give them 3 more minutes, and for well done, 4 more minutes.

Either way, 1 minute before the end of the cooking time, pour in the wine, then let it bubble and reduce down to a syrupy consistency about one-third of its original volume. This whole process will be very brief. Sprinkle with salt and serve the steaks as quickly as possible with the wine sauce poured over. Rest for 3-5 mins before serving.

French Onion Soup (Soupe a l'oignon)

Thought I might kick off our French trip with a few French classics... Do try and use Gruyure cheese if you can, it does make a difference. This recipe was a adapted from SBS's Food Safari.

French Onion Soup (Soupe a l'oignon) Recipe

60g unsalted butter
4 -5 brown onions, peeled and finely sliced
2 sprigs thyme, stem removed
50g flour
2 litres water
1 glass white wine
100g French Gruyère cheese, ½ cut into cubes and ½ grated
1 baguette
Salt and pepper

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan, add onion then cook for 25 minutes until the onion is deep golden brown and beginning to caramelize. Stir from time to time.
Add flour and stir for 2 minutes.
Add water and wine and season with thyme,salt and pepper.
Add cubes of cheese, stir and bring to the boil.
Cover and simmer for 20- 25 minutes. Check seasoning.
Slice the baguette, sprinkle with the remaining cheese and grill until the cheese is melted.
Put the soup in a serving bowl and serve with the toasted baguette on top.

Beef Lasagna

London summer is pretty sad... very windy and quite cold the last couple of days. I can only imagine how bad winter will be. Anyway, Bern's parents were visiting over the weekend. We went to watch Lion King the musical, which was fantastic. Definitely better than Avenue Q (a musical with puppets, with a very cynical and adult plot). I made beef lasagna on one of the many cold nights... I realise that it is actually very similar to the Moussaka recipe. I used the same meat sauce and bechamel sauce recipe and replaced the vegies with instant lasagna sheets.

Beef Lasagna Recipe (for the meat sauce and bechamel recipe, see related Moussaka Recipe)

One quantity meat sauce
One quantity bechamel sauce
grated parmesan
instant dry lasagna sheets

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Place some sauce at the bottom of a ceramic baking dish. Drizzle some bechamel on top followed by some cheese and then a layer of lasagna sheet. Repeat the process and  with the last layer, pour the rest of the bechamel over the top and generously top it with grated parmesan.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes.
Serve with salad.

Before.....

After.....

We took Bern's parents to the Borough Market. The store where we normally get our foie gras pate was selling black truffles. As you can see, it is 32 pounds per 100g and the nuggets range between 30g to 150g. That means it is 320 pounds per kg (or around AUD 650 per kg). Expensive, but not as expensive as the truffles sold by Simon Johnsons Grocers in Melbourne (I was told I need to order it a week before hand, and the cost was AUD 1000-1500 per kg- depending on the quality. Never got around to getting it, could not afford it!) One of these days, I'm going to have to just buy one and see what the fuss is all about. Some nuggets were about 7 pounds each.

A jar of black gold... I took a sniff- a good musty smell?!!

Also, thanks to Doreen (and the rest of you) for your ongoing support of this blog of mine. Really appreciate

 your comments and feedback. Glad to know your banoffee pie was a success. Definitely reduce the amount of toffee if you like it to be less sweet. I also added more bananas the next time I made it and topped it with more cream and chocolate!

I really need to publish more post, I am getting lazy! :) Also, I am missing home HEAPS! Bern can attest to that...

Stockholm, Sweden

Bern and I just spent a weekend in Stockholm, Sweden. We were there visiting a friend and his Swedish wife and we had a good time catching up. Sweden has many islands and Stockholm, the capital city is surrounded by water. It is a beautiful city, and it does not feel 'old', which you can sometimes feel with London. The currency used in Sweden is the Swedish Kronor (1 pound is roughly 11 kronors). The picture above is a dish of pickled herring, which is a traditional Swdeish dish. It was a little salty for my liking but otherwise very nice. We both felt that things were quite exepnsive in Sweden, even comparing to London.

These were souvenirs that I purchased. There are many souvenirs with Swedish reindeers and I thought the mit would really go with my hot red KitchenAid mixer (which I really miss by the way).

The streets of Stockholm itself is very pretty and very clean. You will find many design and furniture stores (but no IKEA in sight) and it seems like that is what they excel at. On the streets, there are also many well -groomed people (including the men). The Swedes are very stylish...

Gamla Stans means Old Town, which was my favourite part of the city. Coincidentally, we were there on the weekend of the Swedish national day. Also, Princess Stephanie is getting married and there is a month-long celebration. Hence, wherever we go, there are heaps of memorabilia on sale (including table wipe-sponges that has the princess and her partner printed on them- Strange!)

 

After walking about all day, we decided to have a drink at a local cafe. As you can see, many of the outdoor chairs are supplied with a warm fleece/donna for customer use when the weather gets cool. I have never seen this before...

A street in Gamla Stans

Chocolate and Candy store

Could not tell you what this building is- everything is in Swedish! But people here converse well in English too-so there is no problem getting about

Anyway, Bern and I had the relaxing weekend away from London. Looking forward to our next big trip which is in two weeks. We are off to the South of France and driving to Paris with some friends. The trip will be 9 days in total- cannot wait!

Mint and Yogurt Soup with grilled Lamb Kofta

My apologies for not posting that frequently of late. The excuse that I'm giving is that I've been so busy planning trips and holidays (it actually takes up alot of time, especially if you want to look for good flight deals, decent hotels etc) but also I've been a little lazy. I still have been cooking and baking but not putting it on post as much as I should. Time to give myself a kick up the bum...

Just before we left for London, we had dinner at Maha and I remember this beautiful soup that we had. This is actually Shane Delia's original recipe which was on the Gourmet Traveller Magazine issue just before I left.I know it is summer, but London is known for cool and rainy weather most of the time, so it is appropriate.Make sure you serve the lamb with the soup, or it would not be the same. I made my own chili oil by frying a few sliced chillies in oil and left it to infuse.

Mint and Yogurt Soup with grilled Lamb Kofta Recipe

500ml chicken stock
100g rice, rinsed
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
20g plain flour
800g greek style yogurt
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp dried mint
thinly slice mint to serve

chili oil to drizzle

Lamb kofta ingredient:

500g lamb mince
3 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 1/2  tbsp coarsely chopped flat leave parsley
salt and pepper
pinch of chili powder

For lamb kofta, mix all the above and form into 8 balls. When ready, place on skewer and grill over high heat. Cooked until golden and cooked through.

Meanwhile combine chicken stock and 1 litre water in large saucepan and bring to simmer. Add rice and cook until tender. Combine onion and oil in seperate saucepan and saute over medium heat until tender. Combine flour and 100ml water, whisk to dissolve, add yogurt and yolk , mix to combine. Whisk into rice mixture with fried onion and dried mint. Season to taste and bring to simmer, stirring until flour is cooked and soup is slightly thickened.
Served with sliced mint, and lamb kofta on the side.