Tradition Meets Inovation - Quinoa Chili

What happens when all the best stuff of life converge together in a bowl of chili?

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
3 tomatoes (or one 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes)
2 (19 ounce) cans black beans
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 zucchini
1 jalapeno pepper
1 tbsp chipotle pepper
1 tsp oregano
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
salt and ground black pepper

Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender, and the water has been absorbed, about 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, soften the onion in a tablespoon of water over medium heat. When the onion is transparent add the spices : garlic, chili powder, and cumin. Cook and stir 1 minute to release the flavors. Add 2 cups water. Stir in the diced vegetables : tomatoes, black beans, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, zucchini, jalapeno pepper, chipotle pepper, and oregano. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer 20 minutes.

Stir in the cooked quinoa. Remove from the heat, add the cilantro to serve.

Today's A Watermelon Slush Day!

Chop the best ripe watermelon of the year into one inch cubes. Freeze in a ziplock bag. On the hottest day of the year take out the bag of frozen pink ice-cubes. Blend or food-process to make slush. Serve.

Tastes Like Spring - Classic Risotto Italiano Alla Fungaiola

Risotto Italiano Alla Fungaiola
1lb (500 g) risotto rice (round Arborio)
olive oil
*optional splash of white wine
1 onion
1 branch of celery
1 clove of garlic
10 oz (300 g) mushrooms of your choice
6 cups natural chicken broth
3/4 cup (50 cl) sour cream (crème fraîche)
2 cup (150 g) fresh or frozen peas
1 or 2 sprigs of parsley (1 ou 2 brins de persil)
5 oz (150 g) fresh parmesan grated

In a large thick bottomed pot, soften the diced onion and diced celery and pressed garlic in olive oil. This is where you would add the splash of white wine if you want.

I used baby portobello mushrooms this time. Slice the mushrooms and cook them separately - Don't crowd the mushrooms!

When the onions are soft, add the rice to the pot and stir until rice has absorbed the oil and becomes transparent.

Add just enough broth to cover the rice. Allow it to boil uncovered until the rice has absorbed all the liquid. Continue adding broth to keep the rice moist until it is thoroughly cooked 15-20 minutes. The risotto should be slightly firm and creamy, not mushy.

Stir in the dollop of sour cream, peas, mushrooms and then add the grated parmesan. Stir well. Dress with sprigs of parsley, and serve steaming hot!

*I made this without broth the other day, I just used water. Turned out great!

Köttbullar "Mom's Meatballs" - Swedish Meatballs From Scratch

Growing up, swedish meatballs were a staple in our family. The recipe has been perfected over centuries, then promptly ruined by commercialization. Now we're getting back to the roots of a real, hearty, good for you, swedish meatballs from scratch recipe.

Swedish meatballs are essentially beef, onions and mushrooms in a sour cream and parsley sauce. Any dish called "Mom's Meatballs" is bound to have variations inspired by each household, that's why Köttbullar or Swedish meatballs must be prepared, above all, with love. So if you're trying your hand at this timeless recipe, don't feel intimidated by the variety of choices, just go with your gut and make a dish you would enjoy. Apparently, in southern Sweden many people prefer their meatballs with a little more fat, but the further north you go, the less pork you will find in the meatball mixture. Some things remain constant however, bread dipped in milk is a must!

KÖTTBULLAR MEATBALL
2 pounds of hamburger (preferably 1 1/2 lbs. beef and 1/2 lb. pork)
3 slices of bread - your favorite grain
1 cup milk
1/2 onion
2 eggs
salt, white pepper
Butter or lard for frying

SWEDISH CREAM SAUCE
1/2 onion
10 oz (300g) mushrooms
1 tub of sour cream
1/2 bunch of fresh parsley

First dice the entire onion and soften it on the stovetop, set it aside.
Then sauté the sliced mushrooms - don't crowd the mushrooms!

Meanwhile, stir together half of the onion and all of the meatball ingredients in a mixing bowl. Tear up the bread and get it wet in the milk, it will mix more easily. Frying the meatballs might be the most authentic method, but you can also bake them in the oven on a sheet of parchment paper, less mess, less fat.

Chop the parsley with scissors and mix the sauce ingredients together, perhaps in your mushroom pan to heat the sauce one last time before serving.

Tradition would have you serve the meatballs separate from the sauce, and generously pour the gravy over the meatballs. Serve with mashed potatoes or egg noodles. Always accompanied by lingonberries on the side.

Don't Crowd The Mushrooms

Crêpe Apéro

You'll need a batch of the World's Best Crêpes - Céline's Crêpes, but you can make them the night before. You can even eat a couple for breakfast and still have plenty to dress up your dinner.

smoked salmon
sour cream
chives (ciboulette)
cucumber

These are smaller than they look on the photo. The glasses they are in are actually expresso glasses, no more than two inches in height.

First you lay out a crêpe on a plate, fold it in half and roll it like an ice cream cone around the smoked salmon, cucumber and chives, and add a dollop of sour cream.

Claire's Pizza

This is the easiest pizza ever! I think Claire was in junior high when she started making this wonderful recipe. It's an American-style pizza which means you can whip it up in ten minutes. No yeast means there's no need to wait for the dough to rise, you just throw it on the baking dish and put the toppings on right away. It's that simple.

Claire's Pizza

5 1/4 cups (520 g) of flour
4 tsp (15 g) baking powder (levure chimique)
3 tsp (15 g) salt
1 1/4 cup (300 ml) milk
1/2 cup (125 ml) vegetable oil or olive oil

Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl. Wash your hands. Take off your rings. Mix with your bare hands, folding the dough over on itself until all the ingredients are absorbed into the ball of dough.

Split the dough into two balls, and press onto two pizza stones. *If you are using metal or glass baking dishes you'll want to oil the surface before pressing out the dough.

Spread tomato sauce on the surface of your dough, top with cheese and your favorite toppings!

Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

Food Is Art - Pomegranate Salad

"You first taste your food with your eyes"

Dress up a simple meal. Serve your drinks in stemware and serve your salad in your juice glasses. Why not? Set out the nice tablecloth you rarely use and suddenly excitement will be teeming through your veins!

Pomegranate Salad
pomegranate fruit
granny smith apples
arugula leaves (roquette)
feta
white wine vinegar
*optional foie gras

How To Prepare A Pomegranate
Slice off the end at the navel. Immerse the fruit in a bowl of water. Gently peel the tough skin off revealing the fragile fruit. Harvest the unblemished fruit jewels for your salad. Eat any nicked jewels immediately. Store unblemished fruit jewels for several days in a sealed container in the fridge.

Happy 10th Anniversary, The Color Of Love - Biscuits Roses, Pink French Lady Fingers

I must admit I was taken aback by the resemblance between my pink lady fingers and the pink French tea biscuit that is one of the oldest cookie recipes in the world. I am, however, certain that my recipe is unique. I can't fathom that the traditional French recipe of one of the oldest biscuits in culinary history would lean so heavily on cornstarch - a true American invention that was discovered in 1840. The aromas in this cookie should be subtle, not distracting from the perfect texture craquante et fondante (crackle outside and soft inside). The original and authentic French lady finger might have a more complex parfum, one could imagine : vanilla from madagascar, essence of rose, even champagne. But the complexity and the strength of these flavors could easily be overwhelming in a tea biscuit destined to be dunked into a porcelain tea cup or champagne flute.

Need-less-to-say, I'm very pleased with my impostor tea biscuits. And even more delighted that they pass so well for French. hum.

Biscuits Roses
2 eggs separated
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
one drop of vanilla
one drop of red food coloring
7/8 cup (7 oz, or 3/4 C+2 tbsp, or 90 g) flour
1/3 cup (45 g) cornstarch (maïzena)
1.3 tsp (5 g) baking powder (levure chimique)
powdered sugar

Beat the yolks and the sugar increasing the speed progressively during five or six minutes.
Add the egg whites and the vanilla and the food coloring and beat another two minutes.

Sift together the flour, cornstarch and baking powder. Use a rubber spatula to incorporate them into the fluffy batter until you have a smooth uniform batter.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat. Spoon the batter onto the liner in the form of round buttons or long narrow lady fingers. Allow the little cookies to develop a thin crust as you wait for the oven to heat up. Preheat the oven to 356°F (180°C). Powder with powdered sugar right before baking. Bake 12 minutes.

When you take them out of the oven they'll be pliable until they cool. Use this opportunity to reshape them into the perfect form. To make perfect squares, I filled a brownie pan with a shallow layer of batter and then cut them with a knife immediately when they came out of the oven.

The biscuits roses are great to eat alone, accompany a tea, decorate a charlotte or a tiramisu.

***Nichole's advice - Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and pour the batter in one large puddle. Don't let the batter touch the sides, rather allow the batter to settle into it's natural thickness, you'll get fluffier, moister cookies than if you make buttons. Be prepared to cut this giant cookie immediately when you remove the pan from the oven. They will stiffen as they cool.

Boudoirs, Cuillères, or Lady Fingers

Buttons, Cookies

The best way to make biscuits roses is in a square cake pan (above), then trim rectangular fingers with a metal spatula immediately when they come out of the oven to make bars like this...

Gâteau Rose de Reims
To make this traditional Reimois dessert you crush up a batch of Biscuits Roses and add three tablespoons of rum. This will give you a pliable dough like play-dough that you are free to form into any shape you want. Refrigerate and serve.

Amandine's Grandma loves us, and made this cake especially in our honor. I thought it would be an appropriate post for our anniversary day and the French National Holiday, all at the same time!

Going, going, gone ...

Quiche Lorraine

Quiche Lorraine is the most famous quiche in the world. THE classic quiche recipe. Every variation on quiche follows this standard... 1/2 lb (200g) meat, 1 small onion and 1 1/2 cups (200g) cheese. Smothered in this amazing egg, cream, milk and nutmeg mixture.

Quiche Lorraine

One flaky ready-made pie crust

TRADITIONAL LORRAINE FILLING
1/2lb (200g) lard (bacon or lardons)
1 onion
1 1/2 cups (200g) compté cheese (emmental or swiss)

BASIC QUICHE MIXTURE
9 eggs
3/4 cup (20 cl) heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup (10 cl) milk
2 shavings of fresh nut of nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 365°F (200°C).

LORRAINE FILLING
Start with one flat bottomed quiche or tart pan (you can substitue a 9 in round cake pan, but you won't get the best results with a pie pan). Cover your quiche / tarte pan with parchment paper. Lay out the ready-made pie crust on top of the parchment paper.

QUICHE MIXTURE
Whisk your eggs, cream, and milk. Rub the nutmeg with the edge of a sharp knife to create nutmeg powder over the mixing bowl. Whisk, Whisk, Whisk.

In the unbaked crust toss your solid ingredients. In this case : crispy bacon, onion and swiss cheese. Then whisk your quiche mixture and pour it over the solid ingredients and pop it into the oven on the middle rack. Remove it from the oven when it's golden on top and solid in the middle.

Try these other great QUICHES by me and my friends!!!

This one got a little crispy!

The day channel six came to my house - Cheesecake Video

Writing The Cheesecake Song

My bestie is a journalist who has a cheesecake blog. Every time she spots a new cheesecake in Paris, she'll write a juicy review. This month REAL Philadelphia Cream Cheese has just been released for sale in France at all your favorite grocery stores - Read more on Céline's blog! - oh yea, her blog is in French ;)

So, one fine day Céline gets a call from M6 asking if she would be willing to give them a tour of all the best places to find cheesecake in Paris, for one of their nationally syndicated television shows. Céline's response? No problem. She'll take them on a tour of all the best places to find cheesecake in Paris, but the BEST place to find cheesecake is at Nichole's house. So the show ends with a cheesecake party in my living room.



If you would like to learn to make the cheesecake shown in this film, you'll find the step by step guide here.

Let's Do Brunch - Kimm's Sunny Florida Quiche

My Aunt Kimm comes up with the most creative recipes!!! This crustless quiche comes out with a crispy buttery edge that is to die for! If you like this recipe you'll love Kimm's Festive Squash Gratin.

Kimm's Sunny Florida Quiche

2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 lb sausage
1/2 bag of fresh baby spinach leaves
1/2 onion
1 1/2 cups sharp cheese

QUICHE MIXTURE
9 eggs
3/4 cup (20 cl) heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup (10 cl) milk
2 shavings of fresh nut of nutmeg

Soften the butter and spread it evenly over a 10 inch flat bottomed tart pan (you can substitue a 9 in round cake pan, but you won't get the best results with a pie pan).

Cook the sausage.

Cut the thick stems off the spinach and wilt it in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Whisk your eggs, cream, and milk. Rub the nutmeg with the edge of a sharp knife to create nutmeg powder over the mixing bowl. Whisk, Whisk, Whisk.

Layer the sausage, spinach, diced onion and shredded cheese (I used sharp cheddar).
Pour the egg mixture over the toppings.

Bake for 35 minutes at 350°F (176°C).

After making the quiche I realized that I had exactly half of everything I bought left over so I decided to use the rest of the ingredients in a pie crust this time, just to demonstrate that it works just as well.

Ingredients layed out in a quiche crust.

Only You Can Be You - Mediterranean Fish

Want to feel special? Fix this simple gourmet dish and flatter yourself. Want to make someone else feel special? Serve this dish to them and savor life together.

There are way too many providential circumstances in this cosmic universe for life to just happen by chance. You are a treasure. No one else sees the world the way you do, you are really that unique. You are intentional. You are caring. You are loved. And caring for your soul enriches all your relationships.

This is one of my all-time favorite dishes. As you can see, it's just gorgeous to serve to guests! It will make any first time chef feel like a Cordon Bleu. It's colorful. It's flavorful. And it's ohh, soo, healthy!

Mediterranean Fish
(serves four)
Two whole white fish
One red bell pepper
One green bell pepper
One-half onion
Grape tomatoes cut in half
One jar of whole greek black olives

Clean (gut) the fish. The fish monger or supermarket clerk will gladly do this for you. ;)
Lay the whole fish in a shallow baking dish.
Slice the peppers and onion super thin, cut the tomatoes in half.
Layer green peppers, red peppers, onion, tomatoes, and black olives. Drizzle with olive oil.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for a half hour or until the onions and olives are blackened, and the fish flakes off the bone loosely.
Serve with red quinoa tossed with fresh Italian parsley.

Real Mediterranean black olives are the key to this meal. The non pitted ones have the best flavor. Here you can see that baking caramelizes the onions and olives. The olives get a bit wrinkly and the flavor changes completely. They are absolutely incredible! 

Chicken Muscatel

Chicken Muscatel
4 fresh chicken breasts
1 onion
2 heads of garlic
1 bottle of Muscatel

Sear the chicken breasts to seal in their juices. Remove them from the pan.

Brown the onions and garlic in a tablespoon of water. When they're thoroughly colorful, add the chicken  and half a bottle of Muscatel. Simmer until cooked through and tender. Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed fresh asparagus.

Berry Frost

Berry Frost
Stir a tablespoon of honey into a vanilla flavored yogurt. Pour over your berries and toss to coat them in sugar. Freeze.

Put more vanilla yogurts in the freezer. They will transform into frozen yogurt in about 2 hours.

In pretty little cups layer frozen berries, and vanilla yogurts, and then top with more berries and a drizzle of honey for decoration.