Fish in Puff Pastry (Julia Child style) | You've Got Meal!

I’m actually super excited about writing this post, it was a wonderful thing to cook and the making of the pastry, although fairly time consuming and not easy, is incredibly fulfilling. Could be just me, but I just loved making the pastry and using it here.  I took the recipe for the puff pastry from this site.

It’s thoroughly explained and detailed and I followed every step there. I’m going to try and give you as much feedback as I can, but let’s be honest you’ll probably check Julia Child and Michel Richard. For my pastry I used half the quantities given by the 2 masters as I didn’t need all that much pastry.  

• 375 grams of all purpose flour, 
• 150 ml of ice cold water, 
• 200 grams of cold butter, 
• 1 tsp. of salt. 

They say all over the internet that the trick behind making pastry is respecting the temperature of the ingredients and there is no room for error there. The way Child makes the pastry is by first creating a dough from the flour, ice cold water and salt. A food processor does do the trick, but I used a whisk and my hands. 

1. First note here – try and use your hands at least as possible as they will heat the dough and, especially, the butter. 
2. After the dough was done, I let it cool in the fridge for 15 minutes, covered in some paper towels. 
3. For the butter, place it between  2 cling films and press it down to a 1,5 cm thickness – give it the form of a square and put in the fridge. Like I said before, limit the direct use of your hands. Also the faster you work, the more steps you can make before having to return the pastry in the fridge. 
4. Take the dough, place it on well floured, clean, dry and flat work surface and shape it in a square shape, about ½ half bigger than the butter square. 
5. Next, with your rolling pin, create sort of flaps form the corners of the dough – those wedges will be thinner and the middle will remain thicker. 
6. Place the butter in the middle of the dough and cover it with the thinned down corners. The thing I did next was to fold the dough one more time, creating something like a rectangle or a book. Keep the work surface well floured. When butter popped out of different places in the dough (and trust me it sure did) I just sprinkled some flour on top. 
7. Next, create another square by rolling the dough with your pin, make the same flaps as before and repeat the folding process.  I only did 2 of those at a time, keeping the pastry for 40 minutes in the fridge. In total I made 6 folds-I would have done more, but it was getting kind of late and I was hungry. 
8. Keep the pastry in the fridge until you are ready to cook it. 

Now, I think, vaguely, I said something about some fish? I got a little carried away with the pastry, so let me get to the filling.

• 3 pieces of perch, 100 grams each (cod works just as well, like sea bass or sea bream), 
• 3 pieces of leek (the white part) cut into slices, 
• 1 chili- optional, 
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, 
• parsley, 
• dill, 
• salt, pepper and olive oil. 

1. Start of by cooking the leek – you can do this while the pastry cools in the fridge. This way will also give you the time you need for the leek to cool, as it needs to be this way before being put in the pastry. Cooking the vegetable is super easy, on medium-low heat sauté the leek (and the finely chopped chili- if you choose to add it) in 3 tbs of olive oil for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
2. Crush the garlic with some salt in a mortar, add 50 grams of water on top, mix and pour the garlic in the leak pot. Cook until the liquid has evaporated and the leak has softened enough to create a base for the fish to have under. 

You can now begin to assemble your dish, roll a sheet of pastry, about 0.5 cm thick, big enough to fit your piece of fish. Place some leek on the dough, the fish on top, sprinkle some salt (careful here, remember that the leeks have also been salted), pepper and some whole leaves of parsley and dill. Close the dough creating (in my case) a wallet. Brush the dough with some whisked egg white, this will close the pocket and it will give a nice shine to the dish. Place the fish in a preheated oven, on medium high heat for 15-17 minutes or until the pastry has a golden- slightly brown color.

The result is a versatile dish, that can be served warm or at room temperature, you can make it in smaller portions and serve it as an appetizer. Use some fresh, crunchy boiled green beans as a side dish, or maybe similar mange tout. Give yourself the time (and the courage) to try and make the dough, it will be worth it. If you’re in a hurry, use some premade frozen pastry and just follow the instructions on the package. Whichever way you approach, you can be assured that this French themed dish is a definite keeper in your kitchen. 

Enjoy,

Breakfast Revolution: French Toast with Apples and Cinnamon

Do you find toast too boring for your mornings? Don’t worry, this is French. J I am not sure the recipe is even French, or that French people eat it, but it is a simple breakfast for which you don’t have to go down to the grocery store to buy ingredients. For a twist for your toast (?!?) I added some apples, cooked just a bit with some cinnamon.

For 6 slices a bread prepare a batter with:

2 beaten eggs

1 pinch a salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp 5 spice

125 ml milk

*French toast recipe adapted from foodwishes.blogspot.com

Some butter for frying and some honey/ maple syrup for serving.

Mix all the ingredients and whisk them good, then toss the bread slices in the batter until they absorb all the liquid. In a pan with some butter, fry the bread slices until they turn golden-brown. Then, transfer the slices on a tray and let then cook some more in the oven (for 10-15 minutes) until the outside gets crispy.

When the toast is in the oven you can get on with the apples. In a pan, heat up some vegetable oil with a dust of cinnamon, 5 spices, nutmeg and vanilla sugar. When the oil is heated it will already be infused with those lovely spices. You just need to add the apple, sliced as you prefer it. Make sure to toss it around to get covered in all the spices. Also, the vanilla sugar will caramelize it a little. Cook them as long as you like, I didn’t want to make them all mushy and pureed, so I just let the slices get a bit tender and absorb the flavors (around 3-5 minutes).

Add the apples to the toast and drizzle some honey or maple syrup on top of everything. Great start to make your day sweeter.

Enjoy,

Mrs. G.

Scallops with Leak “Fondue” (Saint-Jacques aux Poireaux )

This was out first time cooking these beautiful shells and we tried to use a simple, elegant recipe, that really underlined the texture and refinement of the scallops. For this dish we had shells that were whole, meaning we used both the scallop (the muscle of the mollusk) and the coral (you can choose to cook only the scallop itself ), and this is important mentioning as the two have different  cooking times. 

So, the ingredients:

-about  14 scallop+coral combo

- 500 grams of leak, finely chopped (I used both the white and the green part of the leak, if you don’t want to see any green in the dish, use only the whites)

-120 grams butter

- 2 tbs cream

- 1-2 tbs finely chopped parsley

- 2 garlic cloves

- 1tbs olive oil

Start by washing the mollusks and separating the scallop from the coral (be careful as you do this, the meat tends to brake easily of the coral). In a heavy base pot heat up 60 grams of butter on a low heat, add the leak, stir, put a lid on, and let it break down for about 20 minutes. After that, the leak should have an almost creamy consistency, at which point add salt, pepper, the cream and the finely cut garlic, mix on low heat without a lid for 3 minutes, and you’re done with the vegetable.

We also tried a Tunisian wine for the first time

Meanwhile, prepare the meat. Heat up the remaining butter with the oil, and fry (on medium high heat) the scallops for 3-4 minutes, turning them half-way, and the coral for about 1-1,5 minutes, flipping them also. Make sure you sprinkle some parsley on the dish, also some lemon juice brings a nice kick to the scallops.

Enjoy!

Sorrel Soup Recipe (Supa frantuzeasca de stevie)

If you don't know sorrel by now, you should meet :)

Honestly now, sorrel (garden sorrel) is a plant, similar to spinach, but a bit more sour and it is perfect for your garden because it is very resistant and it is one of the first greens that wake you up from winter.
In most countries it is used for soups, but it can also be used in stews ( on its own or with spinach), salads or sandwiches.

All around Europe you will find different versions of cooking it and in France its sourness is balanced with cream and eggs.

You will need:

4-5 bundles of sorrel
2-3 spring onions
1 small glass of white wine (optional)
2 egg yolks
100g cream
2-3 tbsp flour
butter
salt

First, make sure you clean the sorrel thoroughly. Put some water or stock to boil. In a pan, heat some butter and cook the onion for 8-10 minutes to get it tender. Then, add the chopped sorrel and you will notice how your meal shrinks in a minute. Add the wine and let it cook on medium heat for 10 minutes. Then, you should incorporate the flour.

Add the water\ broth stirring continously adn bring to a simmer. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and the cream, carefully adding some stock from time to time, so that your cream mixture and soup wwill have a similar temperature and your eggs won't scramble. Then add the eggs and cream to the soup, whisk again, let it simmer but don't boil it and you're done!

Don't forget the crunchy baguette or crutons.

You can chop the sorrel as fine as you preffer, I like to keep it in longer strips.

RO: In Franta, gustul usor acrisor al steviei este balansat cu smantana si oua.

Ingrediente:

4-5 legaturi de stevie

2-3 cepe verzi

1 pahar mic de vin  (optional)

2 galbenusuri de oua

100g smantana

2-3- lg faina

unt

sare

Curatati bine stevia, puneti la fiert apa sau supa. Intr-o cratita sau tigaie inalta, incalziti unt si caliti ceapa 8-10 minute cat sa se inmoaie. Apoi, adaugati stevia taiata fasii sau foarte marunt, dupa preferinte, si veti observa cum cantitatea se micsoreaza drastic. Adaugati vinul si lasati totul la foc mediu pentru 10 minute. Apoi, puteti incorpora faina. Adaugati apa/ supa amestecand continuu si lasati sa fiarba domol. Intr-un bol separat, bateti galbenusurile cu smantana, adaugand usor usor cate putina supa pentru ca mix-ul de smantana sa aiba o temperatura similara supei pentru a nu se taia. Adaugati apoi intreg amestecul in supa, amestecati iarasi, lasati-o sa ajunga la fierbere, fara sa clocoteasca si gata. Sa nu uitati de o bagheta crocanta sau crutoane.

Enjoy!