One of the first things I learnt was to cook pasta and a good sauce, well in-fact all sauces that you can think of that go with fish, chicken , vegetables etc just to give it that home made taste.

The basic pasta recipe can be made in a a food processor, mais moi(but me) I do it by hand

200g flour

200g semolina flour

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

Place the flours on a dry surface, in the centre add the eggs and salt mix together by folding the ingredients and then knead well until you have a silky, smooth and elastic dough and the surface is clean.

Wrap it up in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for 20min

For tagliatelle, lasagna and spaghetti I use a pasta machine to do the rolling and shaping.

They are great and not that expensive

But you can use a rolling pin it takes a bit longer but excellent for the arms and tummy muscles

Divide the ball of dough into 4 pieces and keep covered s0 that it does not dry out.

Flatten the ball and  on the thickest setting on your machine roll it through and continue by adding flour on the ball not to stick to the machine and repeat process until smooth enough to go to the last setting to desire thickness.

A open shallow pastry case baked with a sweet or savoury filling.

Pastry is rolled in to the lined into a pastry tin, use a metal rather than ceramic as the tin heats up faster and helps the pastry to cook

There are 3 methods for cooking a tart, the filling may be spread in to the uncooked pastry and baked.

Bind bake for example quiche if the filling is heavy eg egg base with vegetables or small pieces of meat.

Lastly a completely prebaked the pastry in the tin, the pastry is blind baked and the filling is added when cold for example fresh fruit, curd, flan and a gelatin and whipped cream base

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Strawberries, Balsamic Vinegar, Sugar and Cream Cheese Le petit déjeuner est le repas le plus importantBreakfast the most important meal of the day  Yes yes I know Honey once again its about breakfast but this one is just a little bit different see it as a lazy brunch that may run into the late hours of the afternoon.

As a child I remember that on week ends we would be in for a surprise for break fast,mum made fried bananas, grilled bacon and tomato, lightly fried or poached eggs and opened a tin of baked beans. OUTRAGEOUSLY SCRUMPTIOUS. oh and we got to do the toast.Today for not much time except for the week ends I whip up something quite easy and delicious to kick start the day.

Easter Eggs verses Breakfast Muffin

This morning around 7am Olive (2yrs) was first to discover eggs outside her bedroom door and a split second later Leelie Leeie she called her big sister (Caylee) with her mouth already full of jelly beans and kinder choc eggs.Caylee (8yrs) managed to pull her big brother and sister out of bed Guillaume and Mercedes which is a miracle come true at 7 something on a Sunday morning . She successfully gave them orders and direction for a successful egg hunting, they found even the ones I hid for myself for later during the week …Shoot!I made a few healthy muffins for breakfast all though I thought, ah maybe they wont be hungry cause they might be full from gobbling down their chocolates and sweets but to my surprise the smell of cinnamon and apple were more tempting than their prize discovery.

   Recipe

• 140g oats
• 75g sugar
• 140 cake flour
• 15ml cinnamon
• 150 ml butter
• 15ml baking powder
• 5 ml salt
• 385 g apple compote
• 110ml milk
• 2  large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 220°c
2. Grease muffin cups(15)
3. Sift flour and baking powder together and salt
4. Add oats, sugar, cinnamon and compote to the above sifted ingredients
5. Melt butter, add to cold milk and whisk together(just to blend)
6. Beat the eggs add to whisked ingredients
7. Fill the greased muffin cups half way add sliced apples on top of the batter and sprinkle sugar to caramelise the apples
8. Bake for 20 minutes

The Famous Cous-Cous Salad Chez Moi.

Yes i know its another salad but its really hard to get a way from something if you are addicted, to other food things… like salad things!Well this is another one of my simple cous-cous salad. I call it the pic-nic salad there is no worrying about soggy leaves soaked in a dressing and it great for TAKE AWAYS (pic-nics, work lunch and barbeque’s)Here is a partial list for salad garnishes

• Vegetables blanched or fully cooked, sliced shredded or uniform shaes
• Fruits currants, apricots(dried fruit) and berries, apples or pears and citrus segments
• Croutons assorted bread toasted or seasoned in various ways
• Cheese grated such as Parmesan, Asiago,Romano or cubes of Cheddar and Swiss chesse which are semi hard cheese can be grated or cut into julienne

Meats, fish, poultry, shellfish small or whole cooked shell fish such as scallops,lobster or crab diced or chopped,cooked meats and poultry sliced or diced and fish grilled or smoked can be either flaked or diced.

Couscous salad serves 4

• 250g of couscous
• 280 ml of cold water
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 handful flat Italian parsley,mint and coriander
• 6 red radish
• celery stalk
• tin of chick peas soaked
• diced tomato
• punnet cherry tomatoes
• olive oil salt and pepper
• 1Tbs rosewater Read more… »

Fennel and Gooseberry Salad

A quick and tasty interesting salad to serve within a few seconds. The thing I love about salads in general is that its crunchy and full of flavour and its GOOD for you, any combination of crunchy vegetables in a salad gives good texture like peppers,cherry tomatoes and beansprouts.On a occasional Sunday evenings after a big lunch I prepare us a light pasta salad with the left over chicken we had.I strip the remaining meat, add diced tomato, hard boiled egg roughly chopped, shredded purple cabbage, chopped flat leaf parsley, fried bacon cubes and cooked penne or farfalle pasta(cold) served with home made vinaigrette.its a great salad for left overs. Fennel is cultivated for its aromatic leaves and seeds,it has a similar flavour to anise or licorice and can be eaten raw or braised,steamed sautéed or baked.Gooseberry has a sweet acidic flavour its is also known as golden berry, ground cherry, alkekengi physalis and poha.Gooseberries are excellent for making jam as they have a high pectin content.

I love making soups because you can put anything into it. Soups are some of the quickest yet easiest meal you can make and if its one of those rainy days to be under the covers or a hot summer day, chilled soups are perfect.Well you cant go wrong here! Not even P can go wrong here!I make my own chicken stock and freeze portions for when I need it, I use vegetable cubes that can be bought in the supermarket if you are using powders or cubes remember to taste the soup before you season it further as they tend to be quite salty.One of my favourite soups is a pumpkin base soup. I simply dressed this soup up with some Smoked Mussels but there are plenty of other mouth watering ideas such as grilled chicken strips with Moroccan paste and fresh coriander or blue cheese basil and sun-dried tomato.

Pumpkin soup. serves 4-6

• 1.5 litres of basic chicken stock
• 1 onion thinly diced
• small piece of crushed ginger
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• pinch of grated nutmeg
• pinch of white pepper
• 2/3 cup of fresh cream
• 3 tbs of sugar
• 2.5 kg of pumpkin cleaned and cubed.
• In a pot, sauté the onion and ginger in the oil until transparent
• Add the pumpkin chicken stock and nutmeg
• Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the pumpkin is cooked
• once cooled slightly cooled down robuster into a smooth consistency
• Add cream pepper and sugar
• (tin of smoked mussels)

P and I had dinner at Nicolas and Charlotte’s NEW place in the Country side, there is nothing more than I love is a entrance floor with old tiles (Tomette) and stone wall (Pierre de taille) wooden floors and a fire place for melting marshmallows. Charlottes made us a traditional French dinner of Foie gras mi- cuit served with home made bread , Confit de canard with pommes de terre et cépes (large meaty wild mushroom) prepared by Nicolas and dessert was fruit compot. So delicious… Read more… »