Vegetable Flan for a crowd

For those of us constantly looking for ideas to feed more than four people successfully, here is a great recipe that I made last week. Served with a salad and a fresh baguette it is a crowd pleaser. 

Walnut and Coffee biscuits

Biscuits...my love affair is growing. I wrote a while ago that I was getting back into biscuits. For a while I found them too time consuming in my little parisian kitchen. The french have a knack for making the most of every each of space. They have to - as in Paris many apartments are spatially challenged, to say the least. I have a friend who lives in 9m2 bedroom/bathroom/kitchen included. At least it doesn't long to clean! In Paris shops one can find any combination of kitchen appliances in the one machine. My personal favourite is the stovetop, oven and dishwasher - all-in-one. They also sell microwave ovens that function as an oven and microwave, with 2 hotplates on top. Whatever next!

Lemon cake and meeting our neighbours

It can be a difficult thing to meet your neighbours in this city. I always think that when you move in your neighbours bake you cakes and come over to introduce themselves and say 'Welcome' to the neighbourhood/the floor/the apartment block. In this crowded city I realise that we live pretty close with our neighbours. With one set of neighbours we share the cries of their baby through our wall, early in the morning and late at night too. To the other side, we share the TV with our elderly neighbours. They are hard-of-hearing so they turn up the TV rather loud.

To give them credit, they share our life too in a sense. Our big dinner parties on Tuesdays, our video nights with friends on Thursdays, our 'bricolage', handyman work which happened late Wednesday night last week to fix our bedroom curtains. We know each others' rhythms pretty well without knowing names. 

I decided to change that.

Feeding a crowd - lost for ideas?

Within my circle of friends we often have people over for dinner. Not just one or two people, as a normal french person would do; mostly because everyone lives in such small apartments that anything over 4 people becomes spatially challenging. No, me and my friends seem to have 'large groups' of people; mostly because we have so many friends. I often get asked the question 'What can I cook?' , 'How can I feed 8 people?'

So, after some consultation and personal trial and error, I am giving you a collection of recipes that work for larger than normal numbers and are not too expensive on the pocket.  They are all recipes that I've cooked for groups of people, hence they have been tested on numerous taste testers. The good news is people are still coming back to my place to eat.

Oat Soda Bread

I was browsing through some of my favourite blogs the other day and following my whimsical fancy, clicking here and clicking there as I wanted, I happened upon this delicious looking idea for homemade bread.

Heidi has a blog called 101 Cookbooks and manages to make healthy attractive and desirable. I love it. She was inspired from a friend of hers who made this bread. So I'm simply being another link in the chain for spreading this good recipe and good health around. 

Tuscan Bean soup on Sunday afternoon

It's Sunday afternoon.

My handsome husband is napping and I am sitting looking out our window at the city bathed in the pale wintry sunlight, rereading my recipe notebook. There's a slight fog in the air and it reminds me of my childhood when the slight fog was the smoke from our log fire or in autumn of burning the leaves. It reminds me of Mum calling us in from the garden, fingers tingling with the cold, cheeks pink from the air, to wash our hands for dinner. It reminds me of the warm fire inside, the feeling of safety as the night and cold fell darker and colder outside the windows. 
ahhhh....the good ole days. 
But we're living in good days now too! 
This afternoon for early dinner we will be eating homemade, hot, wholesome Tuscan Bean soup.

Pears poached in red wine

Our friend M. came back over the Christmas period for a surprise visit. It was a good surprise. We had 'the gang' over for dinner, 10 people around our table. It was a good night, one of those nights that becomes a reference point sometime in the future.

'Don't you remember that dinner at their place, when M. came home?'

It was everything a good night with friends should be. A lot of laughter over silly jokes, silly stories to recount and silly stories to create and of course some good food.

These poached pears graced our table for dessert. I found them in the market that morning. Cold, firm and deliciously blushing. They added the magic to the end of our evening. 

Herb and Mustard Crumbed Pork

After the cold snap before Christmas we now have above average temperatures in January and the snow seems but a distant memory. Paris saw the worst snow for 20 years. I was happy to watch it from the window of my 15th floor apartment. Friends came for dinner that very same night and one of them had walked from work (no bus) for one hour just to get here. She arrived with frozen feet (no snow boots) but my NZ possum and merino socks saved the day (thanks Mum).
After the long celebrations over Christmas and New Year it's time to fill our stomachs with something hot and light(er). We ate this last week and it filled all the right criteria for a mid-week January dinner.  

Making a come-back with Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

I know, I can hear you muttering from here, 'Where has she been?'  It's been a while and of course I have some very good and valuable excuses. (I've had a long time to think of some!)

We live a life of adventure. Since my last post we have moved apartments which seemed to consume every spare moment of September and October. First the packing, then the unpacking. We moved into an apartment double the size so we spent many hours choosing and buying furniture to fill it up with. And if that wasn't enough we had severe problems with our internet connection and rather unsympathetic customer service that didn't help. 

I'm tempted to say 'That's France for you' but I'm not going to. 

Tarte aux Mirabelles

I was pleasantly surprised (but I shouldn't have been) to see Mirabelles, small delicious golden stone fruit, in all the shops on our return to Paris after our holiday.  The season started while we were in Italy so I missed seeing their debut.  I remember from last year how they come into the markets and fruit shops near the end of summer/the beginning of the school year and when friends came to visit they were armed with bags of mirabelles as gifts. The season is short - mid August until mid September so you really have to make the most of it. Last year I made Mirabelle and Ginger jam. It was delicious on brioche for breakfast. 

This year I'm making tartes.

Holiday food on a plastic table

We've been away on holiday hence the long gap between posts. We had a great time with family and exploring some of the beautiful countryside in this amazing country. We headed into the Alps and spent a week hiking and soaking in the calm and quiet of the mountains. It actually wasn't too silent as the cows and goats still wear bells around their necks and you can hear them from miles away. 
We enjoyed some delicious food - holidays for us tend to revolve around the meal table. For our week in the Alps it was a plastic picnic table under the tree. Think of this recipe as a cross between a meat loaf (for the Anglophones) and a country terrine (for the Europeans). Packed full of flavour, it travels well, can be eaten hot or cold, main course with a salad and potatoes or as an apéro with cornichons (gerkins). 

Lemon, Basil and Parma Ham Risotto

This is a delicious recipe that takes hardly no time at all. I'm sure pure foodies will dispute my cooking method for risotto but when a busy working girl needs to eat, fold the washing, read her emails and save the world after work something has to give. 
This fabulous way of cooking risotto is so simple and gives great results I'm sure you'll be convinced of changing. Or if making risotto has always scared you, I'm now giving you the keys to success!
Simple ingredients, simple method, simply successful.

You say tomatoe, I say tomato...tart

It's been awhile I know. I'd like to tell you that it was because I was so busy cooking but alas no. It's more like work, the thing I do to help pay for the food we eat, that has kept me out of the kitchen.  
It's time to redress the balance!
Just look at this gorgeous red tomato tart, would you? 

Doesn't it make you want to eat one right now, or maybe tomorrow for dinner? It won't take you long and there are some lovely tomatoes in the markets (in the northern hemisphere) at the moment. 
This will be a regular on our summer menu this year. You can taste the sunshine in the tomatoes.
I adapted the recipe from Joanne Harris, the talented writer who wrote Chocolate, The Lollipop Shoes and Blackberry Wine to name just a few. She also co-wrote several cookbooks which give a delightful insight into French cuisine.
Sorry to disappoint some of you but I really did buy ready-rolled pastry for this one.  Feel free to make your own at home but I was too busy to make my own...honest!

Une Tarte de Salade - in aid of A21

What a great night we had with the first of the Atelier de Cuisine A21 for May. 8 gorgeous people turned up for a night filled with fun and laughter and a lot of good food.

Of course.

Enjoy the photos - we hope you can join us at the next one - and the recipe, courtesy of Jon the chef, for the Tarte de Salade that is out-of-this-world good. 

The girls enjoying their hard work - Chocolate textured layered Cake

Hard at work concentrating on sauté-ing the garlic and onion

'Look what I can do!'

Atelier de Cuisine A21 for May

After the fun of our last Cooking Workshop, thanks to the talents of Jon, we've organised three more for the month of May. I'm excited to have chef Ry join the cause and donate his time and talent to Atelier #3, and Adeline our master of macaroons for Atelier #2. I am very enthusiastic about the endless possibilities before us. As mentioned before all money from these workshops go to A21 to support their efforts in rescuing victims of Human Trafficking. People, we can't ignore this.

Check out our menus below and see what fun we are anticipating for the coming month. We've got a fun idea for Mothers Day. We're learning how to make macaroons and then giving them away to beautiful mummies for Mothers Day. 

Inbetween seasons with a green bean salad

The great debate is on. Is it time to change one's wardrobe from winter to summer? Is it too early?  Will I leave the house one crisp morning next week and wish my jumper was not vacuumed-packed in the basement? Typical parisian apartments are rather small and one is required to rotate winter and summer wardrobes as there is not usually enough room for a bigger closet. 

In the kitchen my recipes and menus are mimicking the change to warmer days. It's time to put away thoughts of tartiflettes, casseroles and heart warming soups and look towards summer produce and flavours. I'm eagerly awaiting the nectarines, peaches and fresh French cherries, iced tea on the terrace, a cold beer after a day in the sun.

Saturday's Brunch and Lemon Basil muffins

I love Saturdays. Don't you? 
Today 6 of my lovely girlfriends came over for brunch.  
On the menu : Bacon and eggs, Cherry and Vanilla jam + ricotta tartines, Lemon Basil muffins
If you ever do a brunch you should include these Lemon Basil muffins on your table. My girlfriends asked to take home the ones we didn't eat. They are that good.

Don't be put off by the ingredients. It's not everyday you put basil, yes basil the green herb, in your sweet muffins, but trust me - it works.
They are themselves a reason to put on a brunch chez toi. So gather some girlfriends and enjoy a lazy Saturday brunch. 

how to cook and save the world at the same time

Yes - it is possible to do both at once!  Several things have changed my life lately thanks to a book and video. 

Half the Sky is written by a husband and wife Pulitzer Prize winning team about the basic state of women in the world today. It has broken my heart and warmed my heart and made me laugh, cry and ache all at once. You must read it.

The video is by Christine Caine about the organisation A21's efforts to help rescue victims from the horror of human trafficking.   

After reading and watching these I know that this is something I cannot or rather we cannot afford to ignore. 

So, after hearing your constant requests for 'please help me to cook' we put together a Cooking Workshop that supports A21 and the work they do. You learn to cook something delicious and you help rescue someone from a terrible situation. Pretty neat huh?! (not cool that people are hurt and broken but pretty cool that we can help them)

My lovely friend Jon offered his professional talent for the evening and 8 gorgeous participants showed up to offer their support to A21, ready at the same time to make some delicious desserts. 

Click to see some photos of the fun :

(We'll be doing more of these so watch this space for information)

Spring and Sweet Red Pepper Sauce

Spring is finally coming! It's nearly here - officially it arrives on Sunday.  After a long winter it's a relief to feel a small warmth in the wind.  It doesn't bite through your jacket like it did all through December and January, and February come to think of it. The birds are singing songs in the trees as I walk home from the metro each evening. 
Spring means summer. 
Youpee!
Red Pepper Sauce.
No better way to get ready for summer. It's a brilliantly useful sauce for cooked chicken or lamb.  It's great added to vinaigrette for a salad a bit different.

Orange Syrup Cake

Dear Hélène,
Here is the cake recipe that you asked for.
Lovely
P.S. even if your name is not Hélène you are more than welcome to try it.