I bought some strawberries the other day for Eva but never got around to giving them to her until today. But I wanted some dessert to go with our very simple dinner so decided to whip some up clafoutis. Clafoutis is traditionally made with whole cherries and the first time I had the dish was only recently – at my mother-in-law’s place. After scouting around the Net (and ignoring tabs on document imaging software), I discovered that you can also use blueberries, plums, prunes, apples, cranberries or blackberries. Clearly this is a summer dish but it’s winter now. Strawberries aren’t exactly in season either. Ohphooey. Never mind – strawberry clafoutis it is then.

I made an amateur mistake of overfilling this as I hadn’t anticipated how puffed up it would get in the oven. So fill the dish/pan/whatever you’re using up to the 3/4 mark and no more. Anymore and you’ll end up with messy sides – thanks to the juices oozing from the strawberries as they cook. Hai – more work for me as I’ll be busy scrubbing pans and cleaning the oven.

NOTE: When the clafoutis cools, it’ll sink in the center like nobody’s business. So be prepared for some serious deflation!

A Very Messy Strawberry Clafoutis

Ingredients

A handful of strawberries – I put about 2-3 large cubed strawberries per ramekin
300 ml milk
3 eggs
90 gms cane sugar
50 gms flour – sifted
50 gms ground almond
60 gms butter – melted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Some butter (and sugar – optional) to coat the ramekins

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C and cube the strawberries. Butter the ramekins (and coat the inside with brown sugar – optional).
2. Scald the milk (don’t let it boil!). Beat the eggs with the sugar using an electric mixer until the mixture is fluffy and pale. Add in the melted butter gradually until it is well incorporated. Gradually add in the sifted flour and almond meal before pouring in the milk. DO NOT pour all the milk in at one go. Do it bit by bit as this helps prevents lumps from forming.
3. Place the diced strawberries in the prepared ramekins before pouring the batter into the moulds. Bake for 45 minutes until the tops are golden brown and the batter has puffed up.
4. Remove from the oven and serve warm or cold.

This is a quick bake (I managed to bake this up in between reviews for montecristo cigars and managing two kids before lunch time!) and excellent for breakfast or as a snack. It makes use of just about whatever dry ingredients you have in your pantry – if you’re me, that is. You can add other types of fruits like dried bananas, mangoes, peaches, prunes, blueberry or add in nuts like cashew, pine, walnut, peanut, sunflower seeds and even things like chocolate chips and rice bubbles! Some recipes call for the use of golden syrup or peanut butter in place of honey but I prefer this version – easier to handle and not all that sweet, really.

Note though – I have to firmly pack the mix in once I add in the syrup. While my slab turned out okay, it was a little crumbly in some parts so I chuck it in the fridge to harden it a little after cutting it into bars. For my next try, I’ll have to use the baking paper, fold it over and press down HARD. Am also going to try it out with other types of fruits, nuts and cereals.

UPDATE: Initially, I thought it would turn out crunchy due to the addition of cornflakes but no, after cooling and hardening, these bars became quite chewy and thus, the change in name!

CrunchyChewy fruit coconut bars

Ingredients

1.5 cups rolled oats
1.5 cups crushed cornflakes
1/2 cup dried apricots – cubed
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup sultanas
1/4 cup glazed fruit – I used strawberry
1/4 cup almond slice
125 gms butter
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare a pan of your choice by lining it with baking paper.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and place aside.
3. Place the sugar, butter and honey in a pan and cook on medium heat until the butter and sugar has dissolved. Bring the syrup to a boil and cook for a further 2-3 minutes or until it has thickened a little.
4. Pour the syrup over the mixture and mix well. Once well-combined, pour into the baking pan and spread it out evenly before pressing down firmly. The mix needs to be packed in well and compactly or else they’ll fall apart when you cut the slab into bars.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Cut the slab into bars when the mix is cool – to speed up the process, place in the refrigerator for about 30 mins to an hour before cutting. Keep in airtight containers in the fridge or freeze.

This is one of those simple, do pretty much nothing kind of recipe. I was in one of those “I don’t want to be in front of the stove cooking come lunch time” so I decided to do something different with the cuts of chicken that I took out from the fridge. I bought a kilo of these cuts a while back during the sale, split up the portions and froze them in three different ziplock bags. After hunting around in my recipe books, I decided to try something different for a change.

Instead of the paprika called for, I substituted with a tandoori spice rub instead and used egg plus milk to coat the batter before tossing them into the Japanese bread crumbs I bought a while back. The result is a flavoursome (just nice for Eva yet still strong enough for us adults) yet light (read: not oily) and very CRISPY (oven) fried chicken.

Oven fried chicken

Ingredients

Four portions of chicken – breast and thigh
Some tandoori spice mix (or any spice you like, eg paprika, chilli, or a mix of your own)
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 egg
Some milk
Bread crumbs
Salt & pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Mix the egg and milk until combined and place aside. Pour the vegetable oil into a deep pan of your choice.
2. Rub the spice onto your meat and dip into the egg mix. Cover well before tossing the pieces in the breadcrumbs to coat evenly. Shake off the excess and place skin-side down into the pan. Do the same until all the pieces of chicken are done.
3. Bake for 30 minutes before removing to turn the chicken over. Bake for another 20-30 minutes (this depends on the size of your chicken). When ready, remove and serve with steam or fresh vegetables.

… Into the wok, it all goes!

… 10 minutes later…

… 30-45 minutes later…(I took a break to have dinner and feed Noah here!)

… A close up of the jam before the break!

… The finished product – all 900 gms of it.

We have been spending time at my in-laws for Christmas and I thought to give my mother-in-law a break by cooking one of the meals for dinner. Since we had a guest over who was a vegetarian, I thought to try and make a vegetable curry. Yes, despite having two kids – Noah was finally starting to settle in – and busy with my knits and stuff like reviewing The North Face jackets (which I happen to love!), I wanted to cook before my skills started to go down the drain. I based my recipe for the paste from this one here and thus began the quest for ingredients.

Lyon is a much better place for finding Asian ingredients. We went to our usual spot in search of herbs and spices, and I decided to get some herbs for planting such as lemongrass, galangal and turmeric. Am keeping my fingers cross that these will do okay in the apartment in Dole. Since it was a last minute thing – deciding to make the vegetable curry – we went to a much smaller store nearby instead of our usual spot and opted for a Thai version of the sambal oelek. In terms of veg, we used cabbage, zucchini, eggplant, okra and tomato – no long beans and tau foo though. A pity because tau foo would have been excellent!

Anyway, my vegetable curry still came out well although it was sweeter than normal. No matter, Nil thought it was fab and would go awesomely well with fish or other seafood. All he could think of while he was eating it was fish head, fish head and fish head. Hahaha.

I thought of giving some brownies away for Christmas and decided to try out some new recipes over at Smitten Kitchen and Raspberri Cupcakes. I ended up having a very long day in the kitchen and then out of it with the vacation packing and what-not.

Eva, as usual, was my kitchen assistant even though this time around, she didn’t do much – just help me taste the chocolate, clean the spatula and well, mix the batter for one of the recipes. Through some stroke of bad luck, I didn’t exactly preheat the oven so my plans of baking one brownie first went out the window so I decided to bake both brownies together. I baked them both at 175°C and for 30 minutes. While the banana walnut brownies came out fine (even though I forgot that I had a new carton of eggs in the fridge and used only 2 instead of the 3 called for), the classic brownies from Smitten came out cakey. Still good but a sign that it was baking for far too long.

Nonetheless, they were a hit especially the banana walnut brownies – Nil’s words were “C’est excellent, ton brownies, Mabel!” Me? I’m determined to get it right so I’ll be working on these again. In the meantime, back to my search for personalized lapel pins.

In search of an afternoon activity for Eva considering the rainy afternoon & days, I decided to make some Christmas cookies with the almonds I have in the pantry. Turned out to be a really fun activity for her and it ate up our entire afternoon – nearly two hours! YAY!

As for the recipe, I made some changes. I used orange juice instead of water and cut back on the sugar – I am certain that if I hadn’t, these cookies would be ultra sweet! I also made the cookies in such a way that the flaked almonds were layered in the cookies instead of just sprinkled over the top. Turned out to be pretty delicious and a keeper!

Flaked almond cookies

Ingredients

175 gms unsalted butter, diced
225 gms self-raising flour
100 gms cane/brown sugar
1 egg, separated
2 tbsp orange juice
50 gms flaked almonds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Rub the butter into the flour until they resemble breadcrumbs and stir in the sugar before adding in the egg yolk and juice to form a firm dough.
2. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1 cm thick and sprinkle over the almonds. Fold twice and roll again until the dough is approx 5mm thick.
3. Cut the dough into desired shapes and place on an ungreased baking tray. Continue to do the same until there is no more dough left. Whisk the egg white lightly and brush over the cookies.
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove immediately and leave on a wire rack to cool & harden. The cookies will be soften at first but will harden as they cool.

Another one of those hearty yet light dishes which is great on a cold autumn evening. It’s pretty easy to whip up – I started working on this at 5pm and by 6pm, it was all set for the dining table to be consumed. No leftovers too! Everyone loved how this dish turned out.

The pastry must be rolled to the right thickness – too thin and it’ll break during the transfer, too thick and it won’t taste right. The addition of cherry tomatoes directly into the dish and not into the pan to cook makes the resulting sauce/juice oozing from the pie sweeter and all the more fragrant. Feel free to try this with seafood, fish and other meats as well as other vegetables like potato, zucchini, eggplant and carrots. Definitely a keeper!

Meat with leek, tomato & mushroom pie

Ingredients

(A) Pastry
Approx 80-100 gms plain flour
Approx 40-50 gms butter – cubed
A sprinkle of ice cold water

(B) Filling
Some fresh button mushrooms – quartered
2 medium sized leeks
About 1 cup cherry tomatoes
Some chicken breast – skinless and cubed
Some mince beef
A handful of smoked pork belly
Salt & pepper to taste / Vegetable stock cube
Egg yolk (for glazing)

Method

1. Prepare the pastry by mixing in the butter with the flour until they resemble breadcrumbs. Add in some water to bind into a firm dough. Place aside in the fridge.
2. In a pan, add some oil before tossing in the leeks and smoked pork belly. Fry until fragrant and the leeks slightly burnt/caramelized before adding in the mushroom, beef, chicken and the stock cube. Fry until the meat is semi-cooked before putting aside.
3. In an ovenproof dish, toss in the cherry tomatoes before spreading the filling over. Remove the pastry dough from the fridge and roll out until it reaches the size needed to cover the dish.
4. Place the dough over the dish and seal the edges before trimming off the excess. Remember to slit the top to allow steam to escape.
5. Brush some egg yolk over the pastry and bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Serve warm as is or with a serving of French loaf to soak up the excess juices.

I ran out of ideas on what to make for dinner and decided to use the tortilla chips my parents bought – they would be heading back soon and I didn’t want to have any chips lying around (bad for Eva)! My parents wanted something light and since Noah has been fussy of lately, I wanted something that I could prepare earlier and put together quickly when necessary. Plus me turning into a panda (maybe I should buy a silver panda to commemorate me having another child!) and complex recipes equals a disaster!

So I ran out and bought some avocados as well as mince beef and bell peppers. Ended up with some pretty interesting nachos and really fabulous guacamole! Do note that with nachos, it’s best to use cheese that melts like mozzarella topped off with a strong flavoured cheese like cheddar or Gruyère. They didn’t have any of these so I settled for Emmental. Not the best of choices but it makes for a decent meal. Also, feel free to pile your nachos high up with plenty of layers of chips and mince as well as cheese. Do feel free to substitute beef with chicken, turkey or even pork and don’t worry – you can use different cuts of meat and not just mince!

Nachos The Grousson Style

Ingredients
Tortilla chips (unsalted)
1 Red & 1 yellow bell pepper – chopped and sliced (size is up to you)
1 cup fresh button mushrooms – chopped roughly
500 gms minced beef
1 medium sized onion – diced finely
A handful of smoked pork belly
Grated cheese – mozzarella & cheddar is preferred
1 stock cube

Method

1. Line the tortilla chips in a pan or ovenproof dish of your choice and place aside.
2. In a pan, add some oil before tossing in the onions and smoked pork belly. Fry until fragrant before adding in the peppers, mushroom, beef and the stock cube. Fry until the beef is cooked and the mushroom is soft.
3. Once ready, spread the meat mix over the chips before topping off with some grated cheese. Bake under the grill under the cheese is golden brown. Serve with some guacamole and sour cream.

Five vegetable soup

Ingredients
2 medium-large red bell pepper
2 large leeks
1 large zucchini
1/4 portion of a pumpkin
2 large tomatoes
Approx 1 liter of stock – I used vegetable stock
Some garlic croutons and mozzarella cheese – optional
Olive oil

Method

1. Wash and roughly cube all the vegetables.
2. Add some olive oil in a pressure cooker and fry the vegetables on high for 1-2 minutes before adding in the stock. Cover and cook under pressure for 15-20 minutes.
3. Once ready, release the pressure, remove the cover and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper if needed and serve warm or hot with some croutons and mozzarella cheese.