Posted by Chanda
Today I’m going to give you a recipe in French for chocolate mousse.
Ingrédients:
200 g de chocolat noir à pâtisser (around 2 cups)
50 g de beurre (around 3 1/2 tbsp)
3 jaunes d’oeufs
5 blancs d’oeufs
125 g de sucre en poudre (just a little under 1 cup)
1. Dans une casserole au bain-marie, faites fondre le chocolat en morceaux avec le beurre.
2. Cassez les oeufs dans un saladier, en séparant les blancs des jaunes.
3. Battez au fouet à main les jaunes avec le sucre jusqu’à ce que le mélange blanchisse.
4. Ajoutez ensuite le chocolat fondu et mélangez bien à l’aide d’une cuillère en bois.
5. Battez en neige très ferme les blancs d’oeufs.
6. Incorporez-les délicatement dans le saladier avec une cuillère en bois, en soulevant toujours le mélange de bas en haut, afin de ne pas faire retomber les blancs battus.
7. Laissez reposer plusieurs heures au réfrigérateur avant de déguster.
If you have any questions, please let us know in a comment. Bon courage!
Posted by Chanda
The summer is underway and the pilgrims on St. James’ Way can be seen making their way to Santiago. One of my very favorite appetizers or first course dishes is Coquilles Saint Jacques or what is known in English as simply ’scallops’. I don’t know about you, but I find Coquilles Saint Jacques much more elegant…but then again that seems to happen a lot with French cuisine. The funny thing about them is the fact that their history is actually tied to Spain and that they don’t have such an elegant name in Spanish…Saint Jacques or Saint James was one of the 12 Apostles and the scallop shell is the symbol of the crusaders of the Order of St. James, which was founded to protect pilgrims headed to Santiago de Compostela. The story goes that St. James saved a drowning knight’s life and the knight came out of the water covered in scallop shells. It is also said that the body of St. James, himself, was lost in the ocean on the way to Spain for burial and later washed ashore covered in scallops. There are also other versions. In any case, the order and the French dish were named in his honor.
I thought I would share this very simple Coquilles Saint Jacques recipe with all of you.
Ingredients:
1 lb. of scallops
2 pints mussels
10 oz. shrimp
3 shallots
1 glass of white whine
1 cup of fresh cream
2 tablespoons of olive oil
5 teaspoons of butter
2 small cans of mushrooms
salt
pepper
Mince the shallots and sauté them in the oil until clear. Add the scallops, mussels and shrimp and let them cook for 3 minutes on low heat. Then, add the mushrooms and again let it cook for a minute.
Pour the white wine over this and then pour in the fresh cream and let it cook for 5 more minutes. Thicken the sauce with butter. Salt and pepper.
Serve this in the scallop shells after you have cleaned them.
Posted by Chanda
When I was living in France for the second time in 2003 there was a Big Brother type show on television (Nice People) which I avidly watched and one of the guest housemates was a French cook named Maïté. Since I wasn’t eating there, I obviously fell in love with her personality as she’s bubbly, fun, quick-witted and she loves to cook and really gets you into it too. It was the only time I can think of where I ran out to a bookstore to specifically buy a cookbook. And I still have her cookbook La cuisine de Maïté. It’s a favorite of mine as it’s quite easy to follow and makes French cuisine seem so simple. You’ll be producing excellent four-course meals in no time! She has two other great books as well - Les desserts de Maïté and Les soupes de Maïté. She has a cooking show on French television called A table avec Maïté and has appeared on TV, in the movies, in films, on radio and just about everywhere. Read about her in French in Wikipedia. She’s quite a character!
Here’s her French Onion Soup recipe:
Ingredients
5 large onions
3 tablespoons of oil
1 knob of butter (basically a walnut-size clump of butter)
1 garlic clove
1 bouquet garni (a bundle of herbs)
1 glass of white wine
9 cups of vegetable broth
1/2 glass of Porto
2 cups of Gruyère cheese
5 slices of hard bread
Salt
Pepper
Instructions
1) Wash and finely slice the onions.
2) Place on a pot over medium heat and put in the oil and butter.
3) Throw in the onions and stir constantly as they brown.
4) Deglaze the onions with the white wine and the Porto. Add some salt and pepper.
5) Gradually add the hot vegetable broth.
6) Add the garlic and the bouquet garni and let boil for 15 minutes.
7) Cut the slices of bread into four pieces each to make the croutons.
Brown them a bit in a little oil over low heat. Add more oil if necessary as you brown them so they don’t burn.
9) Place the croutons, then the cheese, the soup, then croutons and cheese again in individual au gratin bowls.
10) Place the bowls under the grill for 5 minutes and serve.
Here is an interview with Maïté en Le Journal des Femmes.
And you can read the menu and get recipes from her restaurant at www.chezmaite.com.
Bon appétit!
