Guinness & Bacon Mussels

I’ve been a bit quiet recently but but but: I’ve got a couple of good excuses! (And I do insist on the fact they are good!) First, I’ve got evening classes on Mondays and Tuesdays, which mean I come home late, rush to prepare my stuff for the next day blah-blah-blah, by Wednesday I try to catch up with everything I didn’t have time to do before and suddenly boom! It’s the weekend! You think: Oh, I’m going to bake this and that and be more organised for next week but, what a surprise: I only end up baking!

My second excuse is because of THIS blog! On Sunday I prepared a lovely meal. I thought I would put it on the blog after lunch so I took pictures while preparing it and everything… Once it was cooked I putted it on the table, in front of the fireplace and started to eat it with Mister Lapin. And that’s when the drama started: After 5 minutes, I started to develop a strong allergy! NON!!!!!!!!

I’m absolutely gutted! I ate mussels a few weeks ago and I was absolutely fine! Plus, I missed my evening class on Monday (took me 48h to recover) and was really looking forward to go to that one. It also means that my list of allergies has now grown… :-(

RIP mussels…

Ingredients (2 pers)

·      1 Kg mussels

·      2-3 chopped shallots

·      2 chopped carrots

·      3 slices of diced bacon

·      1 pint of Guinness

·      Herbs

·      Chips

Method:

In a deep sauce pan (or casserole), melt some butter. Add the herbs, shallots and carrots. Cook slowly for 10min.

During that time, Wash and clean the mussels. If any are opened or broken, get rid of them.

In your pan, on medium heat, add the bacon and stir til golden. Pour the Guinness and add the mussels. Toss regularly until the mussels open up. It might take 15min.

Serve warm with a bit of jus, bread and crispy chips.

Tah-da!

Eggs Benedict Bagels with Roasted Asparagus

Ok guys, It’s official, I have an addiction. I’ve tried to deny it for years but it’s time to open my eyes: I do have a problem. To be fair, it’s not entirely my fault, I inherited from my mum, she has the same problem… And my sister is not bad on that front either. So I can only assume it’s in my DNA (It’s the only excuse I found so far).

Hello, my name is Sophie and I’m addicted to cookbooks. That’s right peeps: Cookbooks! I love them so much that I feel the need to have them all! My addiction force me to always check the cookbook shelf wherever I go and in my brain it goes like that:

« Oh, a cookbook! It’s so pretty and I don’t have that one (yet). Is it reasonable? After all, I already have SOOOO many of them… On the other hand there are at least 3 recipes I would like to try. No, come on Soph’ be strong! Oh hang, it’s 20%off!!!! Right, I’m having it! »

You see, it’s difficult to resist. The result of it is that I’ve got cookbooks in almost every room of the house. But it ‘s last night I realised I had a problem. There were 4 cookbooks (this does not include the magazines) waiting to be read.

Therefore, it’s time to tackle my addiction: From now on, I will not buy any other cookbooks as long as I have read the others. I know it will be hard and that sometimes I’ll feel weak and will want a quick fix but I’m ready to fight!

Ingredients (2 pers)

·      2 bagels

·      2 eggs

·      4 slices of smoked bacon

·      400gr asparagus

Hollandaise sauce

·      Juice of 1-1/2 lemons

·      15ml of white wine vinegar

·      1 finely chopped shallot

·      125gr diced butter

·      2 egg yolks

·      Salt, Pepper

Method

Slice the bagels in two and toast them. Spread butter on it. Bring to boil a pan of water. In a skillet pan, cook the bacon. Keep in a warm oven when cooked to taste.

Wash the asparagus and cut the dry end. Crack opens the eggs and keeps in two Small bowls.

In a Small pan, bring to boil the vinegar and shallot for about a minute. The liquid should reduce slightly. Add the lemon juice. During that time, in another pan, slowly melt the butter until you see some foam appearing.

In the skillet pan you used to cook the bacon, add some butter and roast the asparagus.

Place the two egg yolks with a pinch of salt in a blender. Turn it on, and while it’s blending, add the lemon/shallot/vinegar preparation. Then, slowly add the melted butter and keep blending for another few seconds until your sauce is creamy.

In the pan of boiling water, add a tbsp of vinegar and poach your eggs.

In a plate, place a slice of bagel, top up with the bacon, poached egg, asparagus on the side and cover it all with the hollandaise sauce. Place the other slice of bagel on top.

Ta-dah!

Note: The hollandaise sauce always seems difficult to do but with a blender, it’s actually a piece of cake! The secret is to add the warm ingredients very slowly so it doesn’t cook the egg yolks.

If your sauce is too liquid or runny, pour it in a Small pan on top of a pan of boiling water (Bain Marie) and whisk for a minute or two.

Chilli Chocolate Bars

Well, well, well… The past few days have been crazy guys! Our friend Phlau made it to our home on his push bike (North of France – Cheshire on a push bike in November is pretty mental!), Which mean that he and Mister Lapin played a LOT of guitar (I'm pretty sure they managed to record at least two albums over the weekend) and then earlier this week I started to attend 2 evening classes. I will have to tell you more about it another day.

So, this little creation was made for the boys over the weekend. It was difficult to judge the quantities as: 

1- I don’t like chocolate (but LOVE watching people eating it)
and 

2- I’m allergic to chillies! doh, that was a painful recipe!!!!!

But after degustation, Phlau and Mister Lapin said it was really nice and that they could taste the chilli AND the chocolate (so the chilli didn’t overpower the chocolate).

Ingredients:

- ½ red chilli

- 120gr dark chocolate

- 25gr-unsalted butter

- 2 tblsp double cream

Method

The day before, finely chop the red chilli and softly mix it with the butter. Leave to rest in the fridge.

The next day, put in a saucepan (in this order): The chilli butter, the roughly chopped chocolate and the double cream.

Boil some water in a bigger saucepan and leave the chocolate melt slowly, using the Bain Marie method. Stir occasionally.

Once the chocolate has melted, pour it in into a silicon mould (you can find lots of them on the internet).

Using a plain edge scraper, spread the chocolate. Make sure you cover every corner and try to avoid air bubbles (doesn’t look good).

Leave in the fridge to cool for a few hours before tasting.

Ta-dah!!!

It's Halloween!!

Happy Halloween everybody!

I don’t know if it’s because growing up in France we didn’t celebrate Halloween or if it’s something else but I LOVE Halloween!!! The dressing up, spooky movies, trick or treat… It’s brilliant! 

Unfortunately I can’t do the dressing up / trick or treat as I might be a bit too old but I always make sure that I’ve got a pumpkin ready by the front door to welcome the kids in the neighbourhood.

So, today, no recipe, well you might have one very soon, but just a few pictures of what I’ve done last night. I do have another pumpkin to carve later today, exciting times!


Ta-Dah!

Dark chocolate & Orange tuiles

I don’t know how was your week but I’m glad it’s the weekend! Well, I am mainly trying to avoid thinking about going back to work tomorrow :-(

This week at work was actually that bad, I had to take my bottle of « Brain Bleach » out of my drawer, this is usually a sign!!!!!! But he-ho, let’s think about something else!

It might sound crazy for some of you but, this year my family is coming to the UK to celebrate Christmas and, therefore, I’m starting to plan my meal!! Crazy I know!

However, before Xmas, we have a friend from France coming to see us next weekend! Phlau is actually coming on his pushbike and plan to travel about 100km every day before he can make it here! Pretty brave I think!  So, after all these kilometres, I better make sure he is going to eat and drink like a King! I already have a « surprise drink » in mind for him and Mister Lapin…

Anyway, today’s recipe is Chocolate and orange tuiles.

Ingredients:

• 120gr dark chocolate
• 1 orange
• 20gr butter
• 1-tablespoon double cream
• 1-tablespoon caster sugar

Method

Zest the orange and chop very finely the zest.

Boil a pot of water for the bain-marie. During that time, pour into a smaller pot or a bowl the chocolate, orange zest, butter and double cream.

Once the water is boiling, place the smaller pot into it and let the chocolate melt slowly (do forget to gently stir occasionally).

When your chocolate is ready, add the tablespoon of caster sugar, stir. This is done at the last minute to make sure the sugar will stay crispy when the tuiles are dry.

On a silicon-baking mat, make tuiles with the chocolate, usually the quantity of a big teaspoon.

Keep in a cool place or in the fridge for a few hours before eating.

Ta-dah!

Halloumi & Pomegranate Salad

Yesterday we went to the Combermere for Sunday lunch with some friends. It was a perfect day in Cheshire: Lovely weather, great company and delicious food! While Mister Lapin was driving I was admiring the Cheshire countryside. Whenever it is during the year, the countryside has always something charming here. Yesterday was sunny and, with the arrival of autumn, the trees leaves had these peculiars colours. You know, the ones where you want to jump in it and roll, roll, roll…

Yesterday was also the first time of my life for drinking a G&T (I know, shame on me, waiting all these years!) and I have to say, I don’t see what’s all the malarkey about it. It was good but (and maybe I put too much pressure on it) no big deal. Maybe I should give it another try...

Anyway, it was nice to see everybody, talking and eating around a big old wooden table with a pint. Few months back I was talking with my friend Rachael (she lives in London so couldn’t be with us) and we realised that in our group of friends, we are ALL passionate about food! I noticed it was the case once again yesterday. We were eating and we still managed to talk about recipes and cooking  (and it wasn’t the ones in our plates)!

So, I did this halloumi salad last night, because I wanted something fresh and we were still full from the Sunday lunch and starter and pudding… It was time for something light!

I really love halloumi: it’s easy to cook and the flavour and taste is very characteristic! I like to have it in my salad with pomegranate. Like that it will counterbalance the saltiness of the halloumi. After that, you can go wild: Add croutons, tomatoes, pines nuts… anything you want!

Ingredients: (for 2 pers)

Young leafs salad

225gr halloumi

3 tomatoes

2 slices dried bread

1 handful pine nuts

1/2 pomegranate

Dressing

1 garlic clove

Method:

Heat a Small pan. Add the pine nuts so they slowly toast. Toss on a regular basis. During that time, rub the bread with a garlic clove and cut in cubes. In another pan, heat some olive oil and toast the bread until golden.

Dice the tomatoes, leave in a salad bowl and add the salad. By now the pines nuts should have cooled down. If so, add to the salad.

Bash the pomegranate to get the seeds out. Note that the white part is very bitter! Add the seeds to the salad. Slice the halloumi (about 1 cm thick).

Heat a griddle pan, on high. Cook the halloumi for a few minutes on each side. Season your salad to taste and serve in individual plates. Cover with croutons and finally, arrange the griddled halloumi.

Ta-dah!