à la française: Home-Cooked French Cuisine - Week 4

Well I must admit that my enthusiasm for weekly French cooking has sort of petered of some what... but it's also morphed into an overall near-obsessional zest for baking! :P I've baked at least 3 times a week in the past 2 weeks and it's revolved around a number of recipes that I've been trying to really get better at - raisin scones, cinnamon raisin rolls, citrus cake, brownies... I suppose if anything, I did start out trying to cook/bake French stuff, but now I've sort of gone a little more into just baking all sorts of items, not merely French ones. And it's so addictive that sometimes when I'm really bored in the day, I find myself googling recipes to try out. :D

What I'm going to be sharing today is one of the EASIEST and most REWARDING ones yet! It's Rachel Khoo's recipe for Quatre-quarts aux agrumes or, Citrus Fruit Cake. :D It's SUCH a good recipe. Very very easy to follow and EVERY SINGLE TIME it turns out really good. I was so happy when I baked it for the very first time and it came out exactly the texture and taste that I'd been hoping for and expecting. According to Rachel Khoo, it's like the French version of a British sponge cake and apparently because it's such a simple recipe, all French cooks will have some version of it committed to memory. On the most pared down level, it's basically 1. Flour 2. Sugar 3. Butter 4. Eggs in equal measure. :D



I didn't actually take any step-by-step photos because it was really pretty easy to follow. (But if anyone would like me to, I'd be more than happy to take some and explain a little more.)

Here's the recipe with just a few minor additions (of my own comments).

Ingredients you'll need:

4 eggs 
250g golden caster sugar (I just used regular white sugar) 
250g plain flour 
250g butter, melted and cooled (I would do this at the very beginning! Since you have to wait for the butter to cool, might as well get it out of the way) 
A pinch of salt 
Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon and 1 unwaxed orange 
1 teaspoon baking power

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and flour a 23 x 12 loaf tin.

For me, I actually used a teeny tiny bread loaf and separated the batter into 3 batches. It's a lot more time consuming but I like being able to control the size of the cake and I prefer smaller cakes (easier to cut and eat). I would both butter and flour the loaf tin (even if it's non-stick) because it just makes the cake come out so much easier after baking.

2. Separate the eggs. In a bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks with half of the sugar. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and the other half of the sugar until thick and pale in colour.

FYI, don't give up on getting your egg whites nice and stiff!! It just takes a loooot of time. But keep at it. I used an electric beater and probably spent about 5 minutes or more just beating at it at medium speed. Eventually, it really does become nice and stiff, almost like meringue.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, zest and baking powder together. If you haven't tried grating the skin of lemons/oranges, you're in for a workout. It can be TIRING.

4. Fold the flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture, then pour in the melted and cooled butter, stirring gently until the butter is just incorporated into the mix. Finally ,carefully fold in the egg whites.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, then bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the point of a knife comes out clean when inserted in the centre.

I fill the loaf tin up to just about 3/4. You don't want to fill it too full, as I did my very first time because the cake expands and it just ends up looking like it's near exploding if you fill it too high up. Plus, mine takes only about 25 minutes, so you'll really want to just watch it the very first time. When the outer surface of the cake gets brown, you might want to try taking it out and poking a Satay stick/chopstick or knife in to see if the inside of the cake is cooked or not. If it's still mushy and sticks to the implement, put it in longer. And I guess the very first attempt will be the one that gives you a gauge of the duration of time needed to bake your cake using your oven. :) It still tastes fine even if you end up having to put it in and out of the oven a few times. (Unlike cookies/scones that just get way too hard if you keep putting them in and out =( learnt it the hard way.)



Definitely a winning recipe! :D I've made it about 3 times in the past 2 weeks and it's been a great success each time!! If you do make it, let me know how it goes! :) I'd love to hear about it.

à la française: Home-Cooked French Cuisine - Week 3

Amazingly enough, I'm still going strong with this little weekly French dish project of mine. ;p Though I definitely feel myself gradually facing an uphill challenge because a lot of the ingredients for the quintessentially French dishes in Rachel Khoo's cookbook aren't readily available here. Either they are nowhere to be found, or if I do chance upon them in a more upscale grocery store, it's probably going to be pretty darn expensive. As a result, I've tended to pick more of the recipes for baked dishes (desserts/tarts/cakes etc) since they're much more manageable for me. 

So there were a number of reasons that led me to try the recipe for this Quiche Lorraine (Bacon and Egg tart). Firstly, earlier in the week, I had really wanted to bake a lemon tart in order to use up ALL THAT LEMON CURD which I had made for the Madeleines. (The actual amount of lemon curd used to decorate the Madeleines in that recipe was miniscule. I still, in fact, have a good jar and a half worth of lemon curd in the fridge up till now.) So I turned to this recipe of Jamie Oliver's for a nice tart base over which I figured I could simply pour my lemon curd onto. The tart came out fantastic. In fact, I had so much tart batter that I ended up making some of these mini lemon tarts late one night. :D 

(Recipe for the tart is the Jamie Oliver one. Recipe for lemon curd is the one in Rachel Khoo's recipe for her Madeleines)

These turned out well and were completely unplanned! Only problem was, my mum (who is the one reliable eater in the family, never mind that she consumes things literally at a snail's pace) didn't want so much lemon curd on the tart base. :( So there was no point in me making a whole lemon curd pie anyway.

(PSST. If you're making these lemon tarts, be sure to only put in the lemon curd if you want to eat it right then and there/ serve it to guests on the spot! I figured it out the hard way after piping all that lemon curd into the tarts, that it would be impossible to heat it up the next day to have it nice and warm without melting all the curd. -___-)

With all that leftover tart base, I decided to try incorporating it into the Quiche recipe. This recipe was a real mish mash, because I also made use of a recipe for a 'crustless mini Quiche' from Pure Green Magazine.



So incase you wanna know the ingredients I eventually ended up dumping in to make the filling (because the second recipe had more greens in it):

1. 4 eggs plus 2 egg yolks 
2. 150g of bacon (pan-fried) (I really couldn't bare to use lardons) 
3. 1/4 cup green onions, chopped 
4.1/2 cup baby spinach, shredded 
5.1 1/2 cup button mushrooms, sliced 
6. 1/2 cup red peppers, diced 
7. 1/2 cup chedder, shreded 
8. 1/4 tsp salt 
9. 1/2 tsp cracked pepper

The recipe was pretty simple. :) For the filling, it was basically mixing all the ingredients together after the initial whisking of the eggs. After which, the mixture was spooned evenly onto the tart base on the tin, and baked for about... 25 minutes I think. (Longer because I had to bake the tart as well)



It actually turned out pretty decent. A couple of learning points though:

1. It's best not to mix recipes that are so different! >< The second recipe was for a Crustless Quiche which basically meant that it didn't involve baking a separate tart layer at all. The timing was total trial and error and after initially removing the quiche from the oven, I'd only realized that the tart hadn't been completely baked after cutting a slice out. So back into the oven it went. 2. A tart base for a SWEET dessert should not be used as a tart base for a SAVORY dish. That wasn't a huuuuuge mistake because I actually really liked the mild sweetness of the Jamie Oliver tart itself. But combined with the savory ingredients of the rest of the quiche... it didn't quite jive that well. Lesson learnt. ;p



That said, it turned out to be pretty tasty. :D And I think it's always good to just try out recipes to see what aspects of each one I end up liking. All part of the learning process.

Man, that was a little lengthy. But the conclusion is, I think --> Give Jamie Oliver's recipe for the tart base a try! :D It's GOOD STUFF.

à la française: Home-cooked French Cuisine - Week 1

In the past two weeks, I've thrown myself headfirst into a new hobby - cooking! :D I've never actually done much cooking at all for the most part of growing up but now that I'm really getting on in my mid-20s (gahhhhhh), I figured it's high time I start learning to relish being in the kitchen learning to wield some dangerous tools. 


As you probably know from my previous post, after visiting Paris for a really short period of 6 days recently on my way back from Montreal, I've gotten into a little obsession heightened interest regarding the French culture; specifically what it's like to be a French woman. It's really fascinating to read about their approach to food and their eating habits. One thing I've learnt is that they don't have the habit of snacking - ever. No such thing as idly munching on chips/crackers when bored or in need of some form of stimulation as so many of us often do. Because processed foods/junk foods are merely empty calories. If the quality of the food isn't good, might as well not eat it at all. Instead, if you're hungry, it's better to snack on something simple and healthy (fruits/nuts/fresh bread etc) to tide the hunger temporarily while still keeping a good appetite for the next meal. It's something I've found incredibly helpful in approaching my meals in the day too. When I feel hungry before meals, instead of racing for the nearest edible thing I can find, I try to remind myself that the good, substantial meal will come soon and when I do eventually sit down for the meal, I try to eat a little slower than I did before, allowing for better digestion and appreciation of the food. It's worked most of the time this week, except for dinner just now when I was too hungry and scarfed down a whole bunch of pizza. =X Not a great feeling after. 


But this is a new approach to food I'm learning, so it's always going to take awhile at the beginning. After that rather long preamble, I'm finally going to say what I've been meaning to say, which is -- I've started a little project for myself! A little culinary endeavor - 1 French dish a week, starting with recipes from the incredible British chef, Rachel Khoo's , gorgeous cookbook, The Little Paris Kitchen. I happened to randomly find it in Kinokuniya the other day and it's the most BEAUTIFUL cookbook I've ever had (not that I've had many) or laid my eyes on. The creative direction, the photography, the bits of illustration done by Khoo herself...everything about this cookbook is sheer perfection.

 

So every Saturday, I'm going to be trying out a recipe (at least one!) from this cookbook and while I'm not sure how long exactly this little project is going to last, I sure hope I would have tried at least 15 recipes by the end of the next few months. God knows school is only going to get busier but since the crazy part isn't for a month or two, I'll see how far I can get. 


For Week 1, I managed to cook two dishes! :D Just because I happened to have some time last week and wayyy excited about embarking on it. They are
1. Ratatouille
2. Poulet aux champignons avec une sauce au vin blanc 
(Which really just means Chicken and Mushrooms in a white wine sauce. :D Sounds way cooler in French, non?)

I suppose I chose to attempt Ratatouille because it's a veggie dish and I'm a huge fan of veggies. Plus, it looks pretty simple, mainly just a huge mixture of all sorts of veggies stewed together. AND, it was also featured in movie of the same name starring the cutest Rat ever, Remi. :) 

I LOVE the riot of colors of fresh vegetables. Capsicums (tri-colored) are probably my favorite veggies to see and handle. 

Left: One of my favorite smells? Garlic and Onion frying in olive oil. MMMMMM. 

Right: LOTS of tomatoes were required for this dish. 

It basically involved tossing all the cut up veggies into a large roasting tin to bake in the oven for about an hour. 

Et voilà! :D Really a good dish to start off with for beginners, I feel. The only thing was that it really came out kind of soft and boggy, probably because of all the juices from the tomatoes (mainly) and the other veggies mixed together. I wonder if I should try to take out some of the tomato pulp/seeds next time to reduce the water content before it goes into the oven? It's nice when there's a bit of sogginess to it but for my first attempt it was a little too soggy for my liking. What happened to the crunchiness of the capsicums and zucchini?

This basically is enough to feed around 5 people as a main course veg or starter veg for lunch. 

The next dish was the Chicken and Mushroom in White Wine Sauce. :D I actually REALLY liked how this one turned out! I'm usually not a fan of cream-based sauces but this one was pretty good. Plus, since I'm the chef, I'll be able to tweak the recipe to my liking the next round and add in a little less cooking cream. The reason it's so tasty is probably because of all that butter that went into the sauce. MMM. Only problem with this dish was that my sauce turned out a more PASTY and less SAUCE-like than expected. Probably because I was distracted and let the sauce bubble up too much. Am started to figure out the whole, "if you want it to thicken up, let it boil more, and if you want it to be more liquid, add more chicken stock" thing. :)
 

So Week 1's dishes were pretty successful. I ended up eating the Ratatouille for pretty much the entire week though. O_o But it's good, because at least I get to bring home cooked food for lunch every day at the hospital. I learnt from a student in Montreal who told me that every Sunday night she cooks a huge load of pasta and keeps it in the fridge to reheat at lunch the entire week. It's such a money-saving idea too! :) It IS a little more troublesome to have to keep heading to the pantry to use the microwave while everyone else is already off buying lunch... but I think it's a worthwhile habit to continue. Here's a little video clip of Rachel Khoo's cooking show! :D I'm in love with it. If you love food, colors, beauty, French cuisine, Paris... you're going to love this show. It's got so many elements of perfection. Let me know if you watch/have tried her recipes/have any tips! :D

 

xoxo

à la française: Tips for Eating Well

Right before coming back to Singapore from Montreal, I was able to go to Paris for 6 wonderful days. :) It was just a fantastic time, and not just because I was able to meet up with Donald after being apart for awhile (he's doing his exchange too in Germany), but there's just something so special about that city, even in the rain. (And it rained pretty much EVERYDAY we were there) It definitely helped that I'd gotten used to seeing so much French in Montreal, but only after going to Paris did I realize how easy I'd had it in Montreal where pretty much everyone is effectively bilingual. 


That said, there will be posts dedicated to waxing lyrical about Paris but for this one, I just wanted to introduce some new stuff that I've learnt about the French, namely, some secrets about the way they eat. It's a topic that's much-discussed and it's definitely of interest to me -- how is it, that they are able to eat all that DECADENT food, and still remain slim, with relatively great health? I suppose I got a little worried after all those pastries in both Montreal and Paris and well, being someone who's always been a bit preoccupied about weight and healthy eating (ask any of my friends ;p), I figured there's no better time to take a leaf out of the French's book. 


The book, The French Twist: Twelve Secrets of Decadent Dining and Natural Weight Management, by Carol Cottrill, was simply fantastic. I devoured it in just a few days over the past week and there have been so many gems gleaned from it! But just as a teaser, here are the 12 secrets that she's written about: 

1. Embrace your individuality, your beauty, and your natural weight. 
The French woman accepts her body and rather than strive to attain a model's physique and weight through strict, obsessive diet and exercise, aims to keep herself at her natural weight through natural means. Here's the thing - they tend to regulate their weight through relying on internal cues, such as eating slowly enough to know when they are almost full and satisfied, then stopping, rather than relying on external cues such as when their plate is clean or when the TV show they are watching is over. 


2. Do not resist that which you crave. The more you resist, the more it's likely to come back to you. 
Diets are not the way to go. Because most of the diets revolve around restriction and denying oneself of certain types of foods. Rather than abstain from or deny oneself certain types of foods e.g. chocolates/carbs completely, it's better to give in to cravings but learn to eat in moderation. And after awhile, you'll realize that when you can have something and you've eaten a bit of it already, you don't crave it so much any more. 


3. Quality over quantity. 
Well cooked food from fresh produce is always better. "Elevate the quality of your food, and you will naturally eat less because high-quality, nutrient-dense food delivers the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients we need to feel satisfied." 'Nuff said. I do know that it's often the higher quality foods that are more expensive and hence less accessible to certain groups of people. It's something that should/needs to be changed but in the meantime, it's also good to consider that spending more money on healthy foods also means you'll be able to spend less money on recovering from illness. Investing in your health is probably the best form of investment you can make for yourself. 


4. Eat pleasurably. 
The French have a way of eating leisurely and savoring their meals. I never thought of it this way until reading the book but, "Hunger is the best sauce". And from the French point of view, instead of rushing through and scarfing down food when hungry, it's better to wait, feel the hunger and savor each bite slowly, enjoying the food through heightened senses. 


5. Everything in moderation. 


6. Real food is the way to go. 


7. Eat smaller portions and adjust your appetite accordingly. 
 Try eating smaller portions and in a slower, more leisurely manner, listening to your body as you do so. And once you reach a point at which you're satisfied but not stuffed, it's time to stop. And the remaining portions can be taken away (if you're at a restaurant). Gradually, you will learn how much food your body really needs rather than how much you yourself assume you need. 


8. Remember your metabolism is at play. Your body's metabolism changes depending on the time of day (with our digestive force being the most active at lunchtime) so we should eat accordingly. Lunch should be the biggest meal of the day, and it's not good to skip breakfast because when the body senses it's not getting enough energy, our metabolism rate slows down. Also, getting enough sleep is important!! With less sleep, the hunger hormone Ghrelin increases while the fullness hormone Leptin decreases. That's a simple way of putting things but everyone knows that without sleep, one just feels peeved. Interestingly, being aware helps with digestion because digestion begins at the 'mouth-watering' stage. By always being aware of what we're eating and tuning in to our senses, it's easier to be completely satisfied with a meal because we've been completely present. 


9. The French approach to exercise - be active doing what you enjoy. 
Apparently there aren't so many gyms in France because people tend to lead naturally active lives. Moderate exercise is really all the body needs and the best way to go about exercising is to "find pleasure in movement". It's better to find an activity we enjoy and feel pleasure in, rather than force ourselves to exercise in a certain manner that we feel is punishing. 


10. Make each meal a ritual to enjoy. 
 Cultivating dining rituals help make meals more enjoyable and allow you to focus on enjoying the meal and the company. This helps you focus on savoring and enjoying the food rather than be distracted by something else such as the TV. 


11. Know what you value and work towards it. 
 A simple equation, but a meaningful one at that: Value + Action = Outcome. I like this. Because it really does break things down into bite sized portions for thought. If you value your health (value), you will try to eat better quality food in a healthy manner (action), and this will be beneficial (outcome). So it's always good to remind yourself of your values and know what whatever action you take in accordance with those values with result in a particular outcome. If you value convenience or instant gratification, you might end up eating fast food or engaging in a quick fix diet, the outcome of which is more likely to be poorer health or a diet that doesn't work.


12. Eat the French Way 


There's a lot more that could be elaborated on for individual points but it's getting late and I'm getting sleepy. But I did want to introduce these tips for healthier eating. At the end of the day, I do like the way the French go about things. Instead of going on a diet to control weight, they don't deny themselves anything but rather, go about eating in moderation, sensually and pleasurably, with all the attendant benefits. It's so common-sensical, yet not everyone does it. 


Along this note, I've embarked on a little change in my life for myself, that of cooking my own lunches to bring along to school. I figured with this, there are multiple benefits -- 1. I'll be able to control what goes into my food, and I'll be able to pick healthier, better quality ingredients 2. I'll be learning a new, very necessary skill in life (God knows my culinary skills are just above the level of non-existence) 3. I'll be able to control the portion sizes. 4. I get to save some money! Furthermore, it's something that I've learnt from my time spent in Montreal. Pretty much everyone there at the hospitals packed their own lunches! Even the cafeterias came equipped with microwave ovens and toasters for people to reheat their food. It's not something you see often in Singapore, lemme tell you that. And once again, it makes SO MUCH SENSE. I'm glad that it's something I picked up from Montreal. Traveling rocks for reasons like these; when you can assimilate some aspects of another culture into your own life. 


So for the very first week, I decided to make a huge load of two things to pack to school over the course of a few days: 
1. Tabouleh Salad 
2. Eggplant Pomodoro Pasta 


I fell in love with Tabouleh Salad after my housemate in Montreal, Jessica, made some. And not only that, it was available in all the supermarkets and there were so many Lebanese restaurants to eat at! SIGH. <3

Recipe for the Tabouleh Salad 

Instead of Bulgur, I used couscous because there happened to be some at home and I've no idea where to find Bulgur O_o. The first attempt came out pretty well! Just a little too soggy/lemony but nothing that a little bit of quantity tweaking won't solve.

Recipe for the Eggplant Pomodoro Pasta 

The Eggplant Pomodoro dish actually turned out really well! :) It's easy enough because it's all just about cutting up the ingredients and then frying them. What really helped with the taste though, were the green olives and capers because they added the saltiness to the mix (so I didn't need to add any additional table salt).
I'd forgotten to add the garnish on. :) It just looks way better with that burst of green. 
More to come soon!