Yesterday / Hier

As I am typing this, the sun is playing hide and seek with the clouds, and me. Some snow flurries were chased away by the wind this morning and the rain didn’t stop chasing my dreams away last night. February is on its way.

Still, yesterday was a better day. Yesterdays seem to always be better than today.
We had a warmer breeze and a heavy, cloudy sky. We were able to go out, leaving behind our hats, our furry boots and winter gloves. We went for a stroll to the downtown bakery, said Hi to the old lady and went exploring the bookstore for a new nighttime story.

Yesterday was a glorious day.

Lunch was made of wiggly linguine and coriander roasted butternut squash, my daughter’s favorite. While dinner was a dive into the fridge, rescuing what was supposed to be a Savoy cabbage. It was tucked away, forgotten between the crunchy bunch of spinach and the red lettuce. Here was my green cabbage, waiting for its time to come, for my hands to pull it away from the cold crisper and for my newly sharpened knife to…Oh! I’ll spare you the details. Although this time I didn’t have to use my knife, as I nearly cut my index off the other day chopping some onions. I should go back to the butter knife days. Those were safer days!

My cabbage waiting for me on the countertop, I started taking care of my ground beef filling by adding to it some cumin, a dash of cinnamon, herbs, garlic and other seasonings. The cabbage leaves were gently peeled, cleaned, filled and carefully nestled under the chickpeas, in a yellow, soothing river. How I wish I could swim in it.


Stuffed Cabbage Tagine is the way my mother had us eating cabbage when we were kids. And trust me, it was very hard not to love it in this dish. We would lick the plate and ask for more.
It’s so easy to make, I had my hubby making a good part of it while I was getting my daughter ready for bed. Don’t get me wrong; he can be a fine cook. When he wants to. You don’t have to own a Tagine to make this dish; just a good pan will do the trick. The beautiful yellow color of the broth is due the use of Turmeric, also known as the saffron of the poor man. I used overnight-soaked chickpeas that I added at the beginning of the cooking, but if you have ready, canned chickpeas, let them cook in the pan during the last ten minutes before serving.

To enjoy this Tagine plentifully, you will need a good portion of crusty bread to mop up the broth, and a bar of soap to clean your turmeric colored nails.

Yesterday was indeed a colorful day.

Stuffed Cabbage Tagine

Recipe: Serves 4
- 1 Savoy Cabbage
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- ½ cup chickpeas (soaked overnight or canned)
- 1 medium sweet onion, finely chopped
- For the filling:
- ½ lb ground beef
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- 2 small garlic, finely chopped
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 square of bread, soaked in a little bit of milk, then drained.
- ¾ tsp cumin powder
- ½ tsp Ras El Hanout (optional)
- Cinnamon
- Canola oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup water

Carefully peel the leaves of the cabbage. Wipe them with a clean towel, remove the hard stem and set aside. In a pan, heat the oil, add half the onion and cook over a medium heat until transparent but not caramelized. Add the garlic finely chopped, ¼ tsp of ground cinnamon, the turmeric and the chickpeas. Cover with water and bring to a gentle boil. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Prepare the filling: Mix the ground beef with the remaining chopped onion, the remaining chopped garlic, parsley, egg, bread, cumin, Ras El Hanout, a dash of ground cinnamon, salt, ground black pepper, and mix without “kneading” the meat.
Fill each center of the cabbage leaf with the filling and fold as you would fold a letter. Seal with a toothpick. You can turn some filling left into meatballs (like in the picture) and let them cook in the broth.
Nestle the cabbage packages tightly under the chickpeas, add the meatballs, if any, cover and simmer on a medium low heat for 30-45 min, or until the chickpeas are fork tender and the meat is cooked all the way through. Uncover, and let the broth thickens until it becomes slightly syrupy. Season to taste then carefully remove the toothpicks. Serve generously sprinkled with parsley.

Tagine de Choux Farcis

In Francais Please: Pour 4 personnes
- 1 chou vert
- 1 oignon moyen
- 1 c.c de curcuma en poudre
- 250ml d’eau
- 50g de pois-chiches, trempées la veille ou en conserve.
- Pour la farce;
- 250g de viande de boeuf hachée
- 2 c,s de persil, finment haché
- 2 gousses d’ail, finement haché
- 1 jaune d’oeuf
- 1 petit carré de pain, trempé dans le lait et essoré
- ¾ c.c de cumin en poudre
- ½ c.c de Ras El Hanout
- Cannelle en poudre
- Huile
- Sel, poivre

Eplucher délicatement le chou. Netoyer ses feuilles avec un torchon propre, enlever la tige épaisse du milieu et mettre de coté. Faites chauffer un peu d’huile dans une poele. Ajouter la moitié des oigons et faites suer sur feu doux sans les caraméliser. Ajouter une gousse d’ail hachée, les pois chiche, curcuma, et couvrir d’eau. Assaisonner legerement de sel, poivre et porter a ébullition. D’autre part, mélanger la viande avec le reste de l’oignon, ail, persil, le jaune, le pain, cumin, une pincée de canelle, sel, poivre. Mélanger mais sand “pétrir” le tout.
Remplir chaque feuille de chou de la farce et fermer comme si vous fermez une envelope. Fermer avec des cure-dents. Vous pouvez untiliser le reste de viande comme des boulettes (voir photo). Ajouter les envelopes de choux a la sauce et le boulettes de viands, si vous souhaiter en mettre. Fermer et laisser cuire a feu doux pendant 30-45 minutes, jusqu’a ce que les pois-chiches soient cuites et la viande aussi. Decouvrir et laisser la sauce réduire en une sauce épaisse.
Retirer les cure-dents et servir avec du persil haché, généreusement parsemé sur le dessus.

Daring Baker's Meringue Lemon Pie

Not being able to complete last month’s challenge, it felt like ages since my last Daring Baker’s Challenge. This time, Jen form Canadian Baker is our host and she had chosen the Classical Lemon Meringue pie for this Month’s challenge.

I believe I’ve mentioned before how my darling can’t stand the tart flavor of the lemon and that I have to add extra sugar to my lemon tarts to suit his taste. This time, not wanting to add the extra calories to my hips and thighs, and with the gorgeous lemons I’ve found at Whole Foods the other day, I’ve decided to use Meyer Lemons for my lemon meringue Pie. Meyer Lemons are believed to be a cross between real lemons and Mandarin Oranges. They are smaller in size and rounder than a lemon. They also have a light orange color when ripe. They are sweeter and less acidic than the lemons (Eureka and Lisbon) commonly found in the US, this is why I had to reduce the amount of sugar in the filling. Sssweet! Or should I say: Less Sssweet!

The Lemon meringue pie that I regularly make is my mother’s recipe. What differs it from the DB’s one is that my mother’s recipe uses fewer eggs for the filling, no butter and no cornstarch too. When making the filling, although the appearance of the lemon curd was gorgeous and smooth, it took a lot of time to thicken, past boiling point.

The crust was hard to work with at first, and I had to add some extra flour to stop it from sticking. And while the dough was able to hold the filling perfectly out of the pan, it wasn’t as flaky as I like it to be.
The meringue on the other hand was my favorite part: not too sweet and not too egg tasting.

Overall it was a fairly easy challenge, a little time consuming but I would have to say that my mother’s recipe remains my favorite by far.

You can check out the detailed recipe here. Thank you Jen for this lemony Challenge, and be sure to visit my fellow Daring Baker’s for more mouthwatering creations.

Leeks and gruyère Soufflé, Step-By-Step / Le Soufflé de poireaux et Gruyère, étape par étape

When I was thirteen, I started writing recipes in an agenda that my father had given me. The agenda wasn’t my favorite. When I think about it, I should have chosen a prettier one, a real recipe notebook; yet I’ve decided to go with this one. A small blue agenda with aluminum covered corners and on the cover you can read: “M Roads and Buildings Industry”. I know this M. He’s my father’s friend, a really nice guy. I just didn’t expect his agenda to be the one that would carry my cherished recipes for such a long time, but it did.

My mother’s recipes notebook is also an agenda. A big, black agenda, that goes back to the late seventies, early eighties. I don’t really remember the exact date. What I do remember however is that on the cover you can read: "National’s Oil Company”. I guess it runs in the family!

But when you come to think about it, isn’t cooking making something out of natural resources? That might explain why my mother and I use such agendas as recipes repertoire. Smart thinking, right?

One thing I made yesterday in my kitchen was this Gruyère and Leeks soufflé. It was heavenly delicious: Creamy, light and very comforting. I know a lot of people get scared of soufflés; they have this reputation of being hard to make and don’t like to wait for anybody. But like most reputations, what you hear is not always true.

If you’ve ever whipped up some egg whites or made a mousse, then there is no reason in not making soufflé. This time, I decided to give you a step-by-step recipe in making leeks and Gruyère soufflé. I hope you will enjoy it.

If you have any ideas for step-by-step recipes, let me know. All suggestions are always welcome.

Leeks and Gruyère Soufflé

Recipe: Basic Soufflé recipe from here. Serves 6.
- 4 ½ tbsp sweet butter, plus 1 tsp to coat the
- ¾ cup grated Gruyère cheese
- 3 leeks, cleaned, washed and roughly sliced
- 1 ¼ tsp sea salt
- 4 ½ tbsp flour
- 1 ¼ cup milk
- ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- ½ tsp old style Dijon mustard
- A pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
- 3 egg yolks
- 7 egg whites

Soufflé de Poireaux et Gruyère

In Francais Please: La base du soufflé d'ici. Pour 6 personnes.
- 75 g de farine
- 75 g de Gruyère râpé
- 3 poireaux, néttoyés, laves et grossierement hachés
- 1 ½ c.c de sel marin
- 40g de farine
- 275 ml lait
- ¼ c.c de poivre noir, fraichement moulu
- ½ c.c de moutarde a l’ancienne
- Une petite pincée de noix de muscade, fraichement moulu
- 3 jaunes d’oeufs
- 7 blancs d’oeufs

- Make Ahead: Take the eggs out of the fridge, and let them come at room temperature.
Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a pan and sauté the sliced leeks season with ¼ tsp salt. Cover and cook for 5 min on medium-low heat until the leeks are tender. Uncover and continue cooking for a few minutes on high heat until all the liquid has been evaporated. Set aside to cool.
- Avant Toute Chose: Sortir les oeufs du frigo pour qu’ils reviennent à temperature ambiante. Faire fondre 1 c.c de beurre dans une poele et faites sauter les poireaux. Ajouter du sel et laisser cuire sur feu dou, couvert jusqu'à ce qu’ils deviennent tendres. Découvrir le poele et laisser cuire encore plus, sur grand feu, jusqu’à ce que tout liquide soit evaporé. Mettre de coté.

1- Butter a 1½- quart soufflé mold with 1 tsp soft butter. Be sure it is well coated all around.
Add the Gruyère cheese and turn the mold around so that the cheese sticks to the butter. Let the extra cheese fall into a bowl. Refrigerate the coated mold. A very cold mold helps the soufflé rise straight. Never smear the coating or you mat disturb the rising of the mixture.

1- Beurrer généreusement un moule à soufflé d’1 ½ L avec 1 c.c de beurre mou. Ajouter le Gruyère râpé et faites tourner le moule tout autour afin que le fromage adhere aux parois du moule. Enlever l’exces de fromage mais sans jamais toucher l’interieur du moule ou vous risquerez de deranger la montée du soufflé. Mettre le moule au frais. Un moule bien froid aide le soufflé a monter bien droit.

2- Melt the remaining butter in a saucepan and add the flour. Stir quickly, and cook for 1 minute on low heat.
3- Add the milk, 1 tsp salt, black pepper, the Dijon mustard and bring to a boil, stirring with a whisk. As soon as it reaches the boiling point, the sauce will thicken. Boil on low heat for 1 min, still stirring to avoid scorching.

2- Faites fondre le beurre restant dans une casserole et ajouter la farine d’un seul coup. Mélanger rapidement, et faites cuire sur feu doux pendant 1 minute.
3- Ajouter le lait, sel, poivre, la moutarde de Dijon et porter a ébullition, en remuant constament avec un fouet. Des les premiers bouillonements, la sauce commencera a épaissir. Laisser mijoter sur feu doux pendant une minute, tout en continuant de mélanger.

4- Away from the heat, add the yolks and mix well.

4- Hors du feu, ajouter les jaunes d’oeufs et mélanger.

5- Add the leeks, ground nutmeg and the grated Gruyère cheese. Stir with a wooden spoon.

5- Ajouter les poireaux, la noix de muscade rape et le Gruyère rape. Mélanger a l’aide d’une cuillere en bois.

6- Whip the egg whites until they hold a peak, but are still “wet”. Place about one-third in the leek mixture and mix with a whisk. Work as fast as you can, because as soon as you stop beating the whites, they start to break down and become grainy.

6- Battre les blancs d’oeufs en neige jusqu’a ce qu’ils gagnent de volume mais reste un peu mousseux. Ajouter le tiers a la sauce de poireaux et mélanger avec un fouet. Travailler aussi rapidement que possible car après avoir cesser de battre les blancs, ils ont tendance a se séparer.

7- Using a spatula, gently fold the remaining whites and leeks mixture together.

7- A l’aide d’une maryse, incorporer délicatement les blancs au mélange de poireaux.

8- Fill the soufflé mold to the edges. At this point, the soufflé can be refrigerated, and will keep for at least a couple of hours. At baking time, sprinkle some Gruyere cheese on top and place on a cookie sheet in a 375F-preheated oven. Reduce the heat to 350F and bake for 30-35 minutes (about 25 minutes for individual ramekins). Never open the oven when it’s still baking. Serve immediately.

8- Remplir le moule à soufflé jusqu’aux bords. A ce stade, le soufflé peut etre mis au frais pour quelques heures. Au moment de le cuire, parsemer un peu de gruyère râpé au dessus et faites cuire dans un four préchauffé a 190C. Baisser la temperature a 177C et laisser cuire pendant 30-35 minutes (Environ 25 minutes pour des ramequins). Ne jamais ouvrir le four pendant la cuisson du soufflé. Servir tout de suite.

9- You can also serve your soufflé, especially if it is collapsed, unmolded. Run a knife a round the edges and invert on a plate. Serve in wedges.

9- Vous pouvez aussi choisir de servir le soufflé démoulé (surtout si ce dernier est tombé). Faites passer un couteau autour des bords et démouler. Servir en tranches.

The Best Granola

It always raises a certain level of high expectations when a recipe calls itself “The Best”. While this granola recipe may seem as any other granola you may find on the web or a cookbook, it is, at least in my opinion, the Best granola I’ve tested so far.

After more than a year, eleven failed granola recipes, and half an hour harassing a local baker about her secret to the perfect granola, I have finally found the one that I can call my favorite. My vision of the perfect Granola was that it had to be crunchy, all natural (no hidden corn syrup), not boring, not too crumbly and not too sweet.

This one is all what I was looking for. It is crunchy, with the right amount of sweetness and pleasantly spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla. There was really nothing to change to the original recipe, but being the inquiring person that I am, I still wanted to experience different possibilities, additions and subtractions to make it my own:

- The recipe calls for a mixture of quick oats and oats flour. I tried it with oats flour, ray flour; buckwheat flour and white whole-wheat flour and I always had better results and texture with the last one. I also subtracted half the amount of flour from the original recipe.

- The addition of nuts is purely personal. I like to put in mine 2 cups of nuts (walnuts and hazelnuts in this one) with ½ cup of unsweetened coconut flakes, for the aroma and taste, and ½ cup of flaxseeds for their subtle nutty flavor and abundance of omega-3 fatty acids.

- Finally I didn’t use mace simply because I couldn’t find it, plus I’ve never had it before.

So here it is! My Favorite Granola in the whole wide world. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do, every morning.


Happy Birthday, Papa!

My Favorite Granola

Recipe: Adapted from here
- ½ lb quick oats
- ¼ lb white whole wheat flour
- 2 oz unsweetened shredded coconut
- 2 oz flaxseeds
- 7 oz of coarsely chopped nuts (I use walnuts with almonds or with hazelnuts but you can use whatever you like)
- 1 cup, packed dark brown sugar
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup water
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cardamom

Preheat your oven at 300F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, flour, flax seeds, coconut and nuts. Set aside. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the brown sugar, butter and water and heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is bubbly. Using a wooden spoon, stir the mixture together until smooth, and then stir in the salt, vanilla and spices. Pour the mixture over the oats mixture and stir well to coat (Doing this with your hands is much better). Let stand for about 10 minutes.

Spread the mixture on a large baking sheet, separating it into irregular clumps with your fingers, and allowing space between the clumps for the hot air to circulate. Slide it into the middle of the oven and bake until the top is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir to break up the mixture into medium sized clumps. Return to the oven and bake again for another 15 minutes before stirring again. Bake for another 15 minutes or until the granola is a uniform golden brown and completely dry; this usually takes me about 30-45 minutes from the beginning of baking to finish. Cool completely on a wire rack (out of reach from your companion) before using.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Serve as desired.

Mes Granolas Préférés

In Francais please: Adaptée d’ici
- 250g de flocons d’avoine
- 100g de farine blanche complete
- 50g de graines de lin
- 50g de noix de coco non-sucrée
- 200g de fruits secs de votre choix, grossierement hachés (noix, amandes, noisettes, noix de pecan)
- 115g de beurre
- 200g de sucre brun
- 60ml eau
- ½ c.c de sel marin
- 1 c.c d’extrait de vanille
- ½ c.c de canelle
- ½ c.c de cardamome en poudre

Préchauffer le four a 150C. Dans une jatte profonds, mettre les flacons d’avoine, la farine, les fruits secs, la noix de coco et les graines de lin. Metrre de côté. D’autre part, dans une petite casserole, mettre le sucre, le beurre et l’eau. Mettre sur feu doux et laisser cuire jusqu’à ce que le beurre fonde et que le mélange commence à bouillonner. Mélanger a l’aide d’une cuillere en bois et ajouter sel, vanille et épices et mélanger encore. Verser le mélange de beurre sur les ingredients secs et mélanger (utiliser vos mains pour cette étape, c’est plus efficace). Laisser de côté pendant 10 minutes.

Etaler le mélange de granola en petits domes sur une large plaque allant au four, en faisant en sorte de séparer les domes pour que l’air chaud circule entre eux. Mettre au milieu du four et faites cuire jusqu’à ce que la surface soit dorée, environ 15 minutes. Retirer du four et mélanger délicatement à l’aide d’une cuillere en bois pour detruire les petits domes. Remettre et four pour encore 15 minutes. Ressortir du four et mélanger encore et ceci jusqu’à ce que le granola soit déshydraté et d’une belle couleur dorée. Cela m’a prit environ 30-45 minutes du début de cuisson jusqu’à la fin.

Laisser refroidir sur une grille a pâtisserie avant de servir. Le Granola se conservera dans un bocal à fermeture hermétique a temperature ambiante. Servir au petit déjeuner avec du lait, yaourt et fruits ou selon vos goûts et désir.

Happy New Year / Bonne Année

Happy New Year!

My family and I wish you the best of everything for 2008.

Peace, happiness and blessings to the world.

See you very soon my friends.

Until then, here's a list of my 2007's favorite Concoctions. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did, sharing them with you.

The Casbah Delights: (Algerian Dishes)
- Eggplant Zaalouk
- How to make your own Zaatar
- Kaab el Ghazal
- Caak
- Stuffed Globe Zucchinis

Breakfast:
- Buckwheat and Apple cider crepes
- Jam cookies
- Ricotta and blueberry Pancakes
- Chocolate Brioches
- Pain d’épices

Tarts:
- Easy Lemon Tart
- Fig and almond Tart
- Plum and Coconut tart
- Ricotta, peach and lavender honey parcels

Desserts:
- The best chocolate pot ever
- Cherry and strawberry cheesecake
- Black forest verrines
- Frozen honey and orange mousse

Culinary techniques:
- How to make praline
- How to make candied orange rinds