goat cheese puffs

Posted on 16/11/2012 by oneexpatslife

I’m posting from Amsterdam this week and feel obliged to take a moment to extol the virtues of this city. For anyone out there who still associates Amsterdam only with marijuana and red lights, I urge you to look again. Amsterdam has so much going for it. The city itself is beautiful, the museums are first class, the restaurant options are diverse, and EVERYONE speaks english. I know that you often hear that about all major european cities, but here it is really true and it makes navigating the city as a tourist (or business traveller as is more often the case with me lately) just that much easier. I am not saying that the marijuana and red lights don’t exist (and if you are easily offended by such things you should probably stay away), but they are a footnote in a city which has so much more to offer.

But now a word about this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Goat Cheese Puffs. Dorie’s description of this recipe had me thinking of hors d’oeuvres one might encounter at a fancy cocktail reception. They are choux pastry balls filled with herbed goat cheese. I was, in fact, a little frightened of this recipe. Hors d’oeuvres in my house usually consists of mixed nuts, homemade if my guests are lucky. This sounded like a heck of a lot more work and I was strangely looking forward to it, simply because I have never made anything even remotely like it before.

I’m not going to lie and say that these were quick and easy, but I will say that they were significantly less effort than I had anticipated. I used my 1 tablespoon ice cream scooper to portion out the dough and then a pasty bag to fill them with goat cheese. The general consensus was that they were tasty and fun to make, so who knows, maybe I will even make them again one day.

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top-secret chocolate mousse

Posted on 11/11/2012 by oneexpatslife

Chocolate Mousse is one of my very favorite desserts to serve for a dinner party. It has so many things going for it. First, it’s a crowd pleaser, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like chocolate mousse. Second, it has a bit of wow factor because people think that it is more difficult to make than it really is. Third, it can be rustic (served in scoops from a big family style bowl) or fancy (individual servings in cocktail glasses with berries and a sprig of mint). Finally, and this is the important one, it is made ahead of time. This is key because the last thing I want to do be doing when my friends are over is slaving away in the kitchen.

Dorie’s recipe, and this past week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, is chocolate mousse at its most basic. No fancy additions, just chocolate, eggs, and a hint of sugar. Sounds easy enough right? And yet I messed it up the first time I tried to make it last weekend. Actually, it was a procurement error and not a cooking error. I was in a hurry while shopping and accidentally bought chocolate with some kind of chunky bits in it. I didn’t even notice my error until I couldn’t get the darn stuff to melt properly. Doh!

So yesterday I headed back to the store to buy the right kind of chocolate and today I tried the mousse again. This time my chocolate melted beautifully and the mousse came together quite quickly. I did add a bit of kahlua, because, well, why not really. But otherwise I did as I was told.

Verdict? Delicious! A bit heavier than my usual recipe, in fact, it really needed a hit of cream on top to lighten it up a bit. But still darn tasty.

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mushroom and shallot quiche

Posted on 05/11/2012 by oneexpatslife

Better late than never right? Well, I certainly hope so, because after accidentally buying the wrong chocolate, things aren’t looking too good for this week’s mousse recipe either. In any case, last week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe was Mushroom & Shallot Quiche. Yum!

I love quiche. I hate making tart crust. Do you see the problem? But Dorie keeps throwing all these tempting recipes at me which are forcing me to learn. And little by very little, it does seem to be getting easier.

On the subject of tart/pie crust, what do you do with your extra scraps of dough? I follow my mother’s practice of rolling it out, smearing it with butter, sugar or maple syrup, chopped nuts if I happen to have them on hand, and then rolling it into a log and baking it. I suspect that my mother did this to distract me so that I would leave the pie alone until it cooled. I can attest that it is a tasty little distraction, also good with a cup of tea.

But quiche is what we are talking about today. Dorie has several recipes for quiche in her book and I have loved them all. This one was no exception and I will definitely make it again. Maybe even soon, I do now have an extra portion tart dough in my freezer. Or do I make the gorgonzola-apple quiche again? Decisions decisions…

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chicken tagine with sweet potatoes and prunes

Posted on 26/10/2012 by oneexpatslife

Is it really Friday already? Where did this week go? I’d like to request a copy of the transcript to verify that it actually happened. Personally, I’ve got my doubts.

But I guess the fact that I’ve got pictures on my camera of this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Chicken Tagine with Sweet Potatoes and Prunes, proves that there was some life in my kitchen this week. Speaking of pictures, no idea why my pictures didn’t work in last week’s post and I can’t seem to fix it. C’est la vie.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to this one. Chicken tagine… sounds great, with sweet potatoes… okay, and prunes… hmm, not so much. I don’t think I’ve ever willingly eaten a prune in my life. I considered replacing them with something else, but I’ve never made a tagine before and had no idea what would work and what wouldn’t. In the end, I decided to stick with Dorie and hope for the best.

It turns out that a tagine is not as difficult to make as I thought. For some reason I had built it up in my head as being massively complicated. Not so. It did take some time, but very little of it was hands on time. Mostly you just throw it all into a pot and let it bubble away. So far so good. While the chicken was cooking I made some isreali couscous and put out some walnuts to garnish the dish.

Final verdict? Loved the chicken, loved the sauce, could have done without the sweet potatoes and the prunes (even though I admit that they contributed to the tastiness of the sauce). And the walnuts… well, my husband ate most of those before the chicken was done cooking, but the three or so which I was able to use as a garnish were tasty enough:-)

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spur-of-the-moment carrot soup

Posted on 19/10/2012 by oneexpatslife

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is called Spur-of-the-Moment Vegetable Soup (the carrot version). And as appropriate as the name is, I have a better one, it’s the There’s-Nothing-to-Eat-Soup. Why? Because even when you think that there’s nothing to eat, you can probably scrounge up the ingredients to make this soup.

This is a very basic recipe and probably not one which you’ll pull out to impress company. But it is one which you’ll pull out when you’re scrounging at the back of the fridge for dinner.

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apple-almond tart

Posted on 12/10/2012 by oneexpatslife

So this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is actually called Crispy, Crackly Apple-Almond Tart, but since I couldn’t find filo dough I had to drop the Crispy, Crackly part and use puff pastry instead. But despite this initial setback, I was really excited about this recipe.

Maybe it’s because fall is in the air, maybe it’s because I haven’t done a dessert in a while… or maybe, just maybe, it’s because apple pie is one of my all time favorite desserts and pie crust is one of my all time most dreaded recipes to prepare. Dorie’s alternative, a simple almond cream and thinly sliced apples on a filo puff pastry base sounded like an awfully promising alternative.

In the end, Dorie’s recipe delivered on its promise. This was just crazy easy! The almond cream came together in minutes and then it was really just an assembly job.

Yummy, I will definitely make this again. The satisfaction of apple pie without the annoyance of making crust!

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hummus and eggplant tartine

Posted on 05/10/2012 by oneexpatslife

AAAHHHH, I’m covered from head to toe in red itchy spots. Chicken pox? Measles? The plague? Nope, according to the doctor I am having an allergic reaction to something I ate. No idea what. I’ve never had a food allergy that I know of, food and I are usually friends.

scratch scratch  But moving on, maybe typing up this week’s post will be a good distraction for my fingers.

In trying to figure out how I was going to serve this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Hummus, I remembered that I recently missed another recipe which might go nicely, namely the Eggplant Tartine. Heck, throw some olives in and call it mixed antipasti I say.

scratch scratch

Hummus is something which I buy somewhat regularly and really enjoy. It’s a tasty and easy, all-purpose kind of food to have around, either as a dip or spread for sandwiches. But somehow, not once in many years did it ever occur to me to make it myself. And now I am left to wonder, why the heck not?! This week Dorie showed me how incredibly easy hummus is to make at home. Throw all of the ingredients into a food processor and hit the On button. Done! Seriously easy. Not just that, but it turns out that I usually have all of the necessary ingredients in my cupboard. I will absolutely be making this again. We served it sprinkled with a bit of cayenne and olive oil, and with fresh veggies for dipping.

scratch scratch

Eggplant tartine, on the other hand, is something which I had never heard of before. In this recipe, Dorie plays fast and loose with the term ‘tartine’ and has us using roasted eggplant slices as the bread, which is then topped with a tasty fresh tomato salad. Sounded a little odd to be honest and I wasn’t really sure how it was all going to come together. Turns out I needn’t have worried because it was actually pretty tasty. Messy to eat for sure, but tasty. If I were to make this again, I would probably just cube the eggplant and toss the whole thing together into a salad to make it easier to eat.

scratch scratch          When will it stop itching!!!

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endives, apples, and grapes

Posted on 28/09/2012 by oneexpatslife

Busy busy. Got back late last night from a business trip and today I need to quickly repack my bags because tonight we are heading down to Munich for Oktoberfest. I barely remember when I had a chance to make this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, but somehow it seems to have been been made.

This week’s recipe used ingredients which I have used together before, namely, Endives, Apples, and Grapes, and yet still introduced me to a new recipe because, instead of mixed the lot into a salad, Dorie has us sauteing everything together in a pan with butter

And not just any butter, but my very favorite kind which has sea salt added to it. In the US the default butter is salted and in Germany the default butter is unsalted. One can of course find regular salted butter here, but after attending a cooking course in Paris a few years ago and listening to our instructor rant throughout about the evils of salted butter (which is apparently infused with a brine solution which also serves as a preservative) I tend to stick with the unsalted stuff. The exception, however, is this absolutely delicious french aux cristaux de sel butter, which is not brined, but instead has whole salt crystals mixed in. If you look closely, you can actually see the crystals.

Dorie’s recipe calls for the endives, apples, and grapes to be sauteed in salted butter until browned and caramely. Probably not as browned as mine, I had some issues where mine wasn’t browning at all at first and I impatiently turned up the heat until it started to burn. Oops. We served this over leftover polenta and alongside roasted butterflied cornish hens. Delicious!

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chicken basquaise

Posted on 21/09/2012 by oneexpatslife

So it’s like this, the week before we left for vacation I was stressed and working late every night to try to prepare, and the week after my vacation I was stressed and working late every night to try to catch back up. Almost makes one wonder if it’s worth it…

Almost, but not quite 🙂

Yes, we are back from our trip to Georgia and Armenia and I can report that we had an amazing time. The weather was perfect, Tbilisi and Yerevan were so much fun, and oh, I’m almost ashamed to tell you how much I ate…

Almost, but not quite 🙂

But we’ll have to save that for another post because today is Friday and that means I need to post this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Chicken Basquaise. Basquaise, as it turns out, means a whole lotta peppers. Did you know that? I didn’t know that. Not sure where I’ve been, but apparently it hasn’t been to Basque Country.

I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty skeptical about this recipe, primarily because my usually easy-going husband’s lips clamp shut at the mere hint of bell peppers. I resigned myself early on to the fact that I would probably be eating alone this week. Oh well, I wouldn’t be the first Dorista to encounter this particular problem.

But wouldn’t ya know it, Dorie has gone and seduced my husband. When I try to cook with bell peppers he turns his little nose up, but when Dorie suggests cooking with bell peppers (lots and lots of bell peppers), he actually deigns to try it. AND he even liked it! How do you like that?

So in short (if that’s even possible this far into my post) this one was a surprise hit in my house. My husband went back for seconds and I agreed that it was quite tasty. It did take an awfully long time to get on the table and ranks among the less photogenic recipe in the book. But all in all, quite a tasty dinner.

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minted zucchini tagliatelle with cucumbers and lemon

Posted on 31/08/2012 by oneexpatslife

This is going to have to be a short one this week because the countdown to my vacation is on and I still have a million things to do. Before tomorrow I need to pack, do laundry so that I have something to pack, and figure out where those darn passports are! Then we are off to Georgia and Armenia for two weeks. I’m SO excited! My husband did a short stint in Tbilisi years ago and ever since, all he can talk about is the amazing food. I finally got tired of hearing about it and told him that it was time for him bring me. Now that I think about it, maybe I also need to find my pants with the stretchy waist band:-)

This means that I will have to catch up with my fellow Doristas at the end of September. In the meantime, I managed to get this week’s recipe, Minted Zucchini Tagliatelle with Cucumbers and Lemon, made last weekend, but I think that it is one which I am going to have to try again if I ever manage to get my hands on some good pistachio oil. I just couldn’t find this seemingly key ingredient anywhere and had to substitute olive oil instead. I really like the idea of this recipe and am always excited to find new ideas for veggie sides. Especially zucchini, I think I have 2 or 3 standard recipes for zucchini and never seem to make anything different. With the olive oil it was good, but I suspect that it could be better.

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