Recipe Ideas - French Onion Soup – Soupe à l’Oignon Gratinée

For 4 people. EZPZ.

Ingredients for Onion Soup
250 g (1/2 lb) onions
50 g (2 oz) butter
25 g (1 oz) flour
2 pints of chicken stock (2 cubes)
200 g (6 oz) grated cheese

Dice the onions and cook in the butter until golden, cover with flour.
When everything is light ‘roux’ (red) pour in the stock.
Season.
Leave to cook for 20 mins.
Pour into a soup bowl or into ‘gratin’ bowls. Then add grilled ‘croutons’ of bread.
Cover generously with grated cheese and grill in a hot oven.
Eat but be careful it's hot !

Onionology - Interesting Facts about Onions

In Ancient Egypt onions were an object of worship. The onion symbolized eternity, the Egyptians saw eternal life in the circular structure of the onion and they buried onions along with the Pharaohs.

In India in the 6th century B.C., the medical treatise Charaka - Sanhita praises the onion as medicine, saying it is a diuretic and is good for the digestion, the heart, the eyes and the joints.

In Ancient Rome, Pliny the Elder states that the onion cures vision problems, induces sleep, heals mouth sores, dog bites, toothaches, dysentery and lumbago.

In Ancient Greece onions were used to fortify athletes for the Olympic Games. Athletes used to eat pounds of onions, drink onion juice and rub onions on their bodies. I think I might give it a try myself.

Previous Recipes
Baked Apples Magritte
Black Forest Gateau with Nigella

Onion Soup
Soupe Oignon Gratinee

If after all that you fancy some sushi check out the Sushi Site

Recipe Ideas - Hare Stew with Chocolate - Civet de Lievre au Chocolat

Preparation : 45 mins.
Difficulty : Interesting

Stew with chocolate ! That's got to be worth something.

(....................................................... The hare is the one with the big ears)

Ingredients

1 big Hare with its liver and blood,
1 soupspoon vinegar,
3 liters (6 pints) cold marinade for meat and game,
2 soupspoons orange juice,
4 juniper berries,
2 pinches mace,
or nutmeg,
10 g (1/3 oz) fresh ginger,
50 g (1 2/3 oz) bitter chocolate,
40 g (1 1/1 oz) butter,
1 teaspoon lemon juice
pepper,

Preparation



(Hares can also be square)


Prepare the Hare and keep the blood and the liver. Add the vinegar to the blood.
Clean the liver and store it in a cool place.
Cut the Hare into pieces.
Prepare the marinade in a large salad bowl and add the crushed juniper berries, the mace or the nutmeg and the ginger.
Put in the pieces of hare.
Cover the salad bowl and leave to marinate for 24 to 48 h in a cool place.
Pre-heat the oven to 160 °C.
Place the Hare and the marinade with its aromatic side dish into a casserole dish









(Hares are also very fast !)


Bring to the boil, cover and leave to simmer in the oven for approximately 2 hours.
Remove the pieces and keep them warm in another casserole dish
Strain the sauce through a fine sieve.
Pour in a small ladle of sauce onto the blood, mix.
Away from the heat, pour all the blood into the sauce, add the chocolate, the butter, the lemon juice and the orange juice.



Mix and check the seasoning.
Pour this sauce onto the pieces of hare.
Keep hot but don’t boil.




Eat !

Baked Apples Magritte
Black Forest Gateau with Nigella

Hare Stew
Hare Chocolate

Recipes - Dial a Lobster Thermidor

Lobster Thermidor Ingredients for 4 people

4 small cooked rock lobsters
1 ½ pints cream sauce
1 liqueur glass of dry Sherry
1 teaspoon of strong mustard
1 pinch of Cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of Worcester sauce
Telephone optional

Cream sauce : 40 g (1 ½ oz) butter, 40 g (1 ½ oz) flour, 1 pint milk, 4 to 6 soup spoons of cream.

Preparation

Cut the lobsters in two lengthwise.

Remove the flesh and cut into large pieces. Put the shells aside.

Heat the cream sauce, season with a small amount of Sherry, mustard, Cayenne pepper, Worcester sauce, salt and pepper and cook slowly for 2 minutes.

Add the pieces of lobster and heat up. Fill the shells with this mixture, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and a pinch of paprika. Put in a few pieces of butter on top and place under the grill.

If it looks like this when you've finished it - lighten up on the Sherry.

Cream sauce: Prepare a pint of Béchamel sauce (40 g (1 ½ oz) butter, 40 g (1 ½ oz) flour, 1 pint milk. When it is cooked, add 4 to 6 soup spoons of cream, salt and black pepper.

Lobster Quote of the Day

“My temples throb, my pulses boil,
I'm sick of song, and ode, and ballad--
So, Thyrsis, take the midnight oil,
And pour it on a lobster salad.” Thomas Hood (1799-1845)

Lobsters and the Arts

To shock the bourgeois, French writer Gerard de Nerval sometimes used to take his pet lobster for walks through the streets of Paris.

Jean-Paul Sartre on the other hand often had hallucinations of being pursued by a lobster, - proof of reincarnation if ever there was !

Octopus like lobsters too - for a gory video of an octopus lobster human confrontation check this out - Blinkx Results Date

Previous recipes :
Baked Apples Magritte
Black Forest Gateau with Nigella

Lobster Thermidor
Lobster Sartre Nerval Magritte Dali
Blinkx Results Date

Simple Recipes - Baked Apples Magritte Stuffed with Speculoos !

(........................... Apples Magritte)

(Speculoos !)

This simple recipe comes all the way from Belgium - home of speculoos and René Magritte - another famous Belgian

Preparation : 25 mins (inc. cooking) - if the train is on time
Cooking : 20 min
Difficulty : Easy Peasy

Ingredients (for 2 people) :

- 2 apples (type Royal Gala preferably)
- 2 or 3 speculoo biscuits (like Gingerbread men)
- 1 knob of butter
- 1 pinch cinnamon (optional)
- 2 or 3 soup spoons of brown or white sugar

Preparation :

Wash and rinse apples (don’t peel them!).
Slice off the tops of apples and keep!
Empty apples using an apple corer or a small spoon (you choose).
Pre-heat oven to 210°C (gas mark 7).
Reduce the speculoos to crumbs (using a blender, or putting them in a plastic bag and whacking them with a rolling pin).
Mix them up with the butter with your fingertips, until you obtain a rough paste.
Stuff apples with the mixture, and powder with brown sugar and cinnamon.
Place apples in an oven dish, and put the tops of the apples in the dish next to the apples (2 mm apart).
Pour 3 or 4 soup spoons of water into the bottom of the dish (where else !) (to prevent the juice from burning), cook for 20 mins.
Put tops back on the apples (after removing from oven!).
Eat, (preferably in the dining car of a train coming out of your fireplace). Remember not to talk with your mouth full and don't forget to chew, chew, chew. Whilst eating you may wish to ponder some words of wisdom from René Magritte (see below).

“The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.”

i.e.

"L'esprit aime l'inconnu. Il aime des images dont le sens est inconnu, étant donné que le sens de l'esprit lui-même est inconnu."

"Everyone is entitled to 24 hours of freedom a day."

Previous simple recipes :

Strawberry Cheesecake a la Salvador Dali
Black Forest Gateau with Nigella

Baked Apples Magritte Speculoos
Apple Recipes

Recipes - Beef Cooked in Beer (Boeuf a la Biere)

You like beef ? You like beer ? Then here is a recipe for beef cooked in beer - what could be better !?
Time : 3 hours
Difficulty : EZPZ

Ingredients for 4 People

680 g (1 1/2 lb) of beef (chuck steak or top rump) cut into cubes
2 soup spoons of sunflower oil
2 sliced onions
1 soup spoon of flour
1 pint of lager type beer
1 crushed clove of garlic
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt
Pepper
1 sprig parsley

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 140°C (gas mark 4/5)
Heat 1 soup spoon of oil in a casserole dish
Brown the beef all over. Keep the meat and the sauce.
Turn the heat down and add the rest of the oil. Cook the onions for 5 mins., then put in the meat and its sauce. Sprinkle with flour and mix together.
Pour in the beer and bring to the boil.
Add the garlic, the thyme and the bay leaf. Add seasoning. Cover the casserole dish and cook in the oven for 2 h 30 mins.
Chop the parsley up roughly and sprinkle over the beef before serving.

Note : Check after 1h 30 mins. that the liquid has not completely evaporated. If necessary, you can add another glass of beer.

Mexican Chicken Recipe

Ingredients
1 Mexican Chicken
Salt and pepper
Flour
5 fl oz olive oil
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
3 fl oz white wine
1 laurel leaf
Cayenne pepper
100 g (3 ½ oz) of almonds
24 green and black olives
1 lb tomatoes
Chicken stock

Preparation

Cut up the chicken and season the pieces. Sprinkle with flour and fry in olive oil with crushed garlic and chopped onion. Replace the olive oil by white wine and cover with the chicken stock. Add the seasoning, Cayenne pepper and the bay leaf. Simmer for 45 mins. Put the almonds in.

Presentation: Serve in the casserole and put in the crushed tomatoes and a choice of green and black olives.

Words of Wisdom to Contemplate
“It is better to be the head of chicken than the rear end of an ox” Japanese Proverb

Simple Cake Recipes - Strawberry Cheesecake a la Salvador Dali

"One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams." Salvador Dali

"A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye" Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Simple Cake Recipes

Ingredients for 4-6 People
Time : 1 hour + 3 hours cooling - Difficulty : Easy

200 g (7 1/4 oz) of crushed digestive biscuits
500 g (1lb 2 oz) of 40% cream cheese
2 eggs
40 g (1 1/2 oz) butter
150 g (5 1/4 oz) sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Half teaspoon liquid vanilla extract
20 cl (7 1/4 fl. oz) custard
20 cl ( 7 1/4 fl. oz) strawberry coulis
5 cl (2 oz) chocolate sauce

(A beautiful woman sharing her homemade cheesecake)

Preparation

Heat the oven to gas mark 6 (180°C)

Strain the cheese and mix in a bowl with the eggs, sugar and vanilla. Mix in the lemon juice.
Crumble the digestive biscuits, mix with fingertips with the butter in small pieces and cover the bottom and sides of the mould, press firmly with fingers.
Pour in the cheese mixture and place in oven for 50 mins.
The cheesecake must be firm but not brown.

(Salvador Dali - Self-Portrait in the Monumental Shape of Cheesecake with Strawberry Genius - 1938)

Leave it to cool and place in the refrigerator for 3 hours. Remove from mould and cut into pieces.
Pour some custard into each plate
Pour a small amount of strawberry coulis in a circle and a second circle of chocolate sauce. Draw marks across these circles towards the outside using the blade of a pointed knife

Arrange the pieces of cheesecake on the plates, cover them with strawberry coulis, retire to bed and eat.

Click here for Simple Chicken Recipe for Philosophers

Simple Black Forest Cake Gateau Recipe a la Nigella (Schwarzwald Torte – Gateau de la Foret Noire)

The Black Forest Gateau is also known as the Black Forest Cake in the USA

It is easy to make and even easier to eat !

• (Nigella Lawson (not part of the recipe) + Lake Titisee in the Black Forest- if Nigella Lawson were a cake she would be a Black Forest Gateau - Nigella Lawson was once considered too sexy for U.S. TV)
  (The real Black Forest Gateau)

Black Forest Gateau - Black Forest Cake - Ingredients

500 g (17.5 oz.) black cherries
200 g (6 oz) sugar
200 g (6 oz) dark chocolate
100 g (3 oz) cocoa
100 g (3 oz) butter
75 g (2.5 oz) powdered almonds
50 g (1.75 oz) plain flour
40 cl cream (single cream in the UK)
25 g (.75 oz) icing sugar
10 cl kirsch
6 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ bag baking powder
Chocolate chips
Nigella Lawson

Black Forest Gateau - aka Black Forest Cake - Preparation

• Remove the stones fom the cherries and macerate in the kirsch for two hours, strain and keep the juice
• Mix the flour and the baking powder. Separate the whites of the eggs
• Mix the egg yolks and 50 g of suger
• Beat until the mixture turns white, add the butter, then the powdered almonds, cocoa, flour/baking powder and a teaspoon of vanilla extract
• Mix until smooth
• Beat the egg whites until stiff, beat into mixture
• Pour batter into 3 greased and floured cake moulds of the same diameter
• Cook for 20 mins. at 180°C. Remove from mould and leave to cool (each one is now called a ‘biscuit’)
• Make a syrup with the rest of the sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and half pint of water, away from the heat add the cherry juice
• Soak the biscuits in the syrup, baste frequently
• Beat the cream until it turns into a Chantilly cream, add the icing sugar and vanilla extract
• Coat a biscuit with a quarter of the Chantilly cream, arrange half of the strained cherries
• Cover with a biscuit, coat with a quarter of Chantilly and the cherries
• Cover with the biscuit, coat the top and sides of the cake with the Chantilly
• Place the chocolate chips on the cake to cover it fully
• Place the Black Forest Gateau in the refrigerator 3 hours before serving
• Phone up Nigella and invite her to come round and admire your handiwork - eat

Note
The batter can be cooked in a single mould, the cooking then takes 40 mins. And the cake is sliced into three equal parts

NB : for those who have no idea who the beautiful Nigella is

Who is Nigella Lawson?
Nigella Lawson is a national treasure in the UK and has achieved the impossible by making cooking look interesting ! But of course her culinary words of wisdom are wasted on the male population, as no man can remember anything she says as she has the power to hypnotize them with a single glance, after which she plants the suggestion deep within their strangely aroused cognitive organ - "go forth and buy my books you pitiful worms!" After each of Nigella's appearances on UK TV, men can be seen rising tuber-like from their couches in a daze and heading for their local Tesco's mumbling "yes mistress, must buy book". Fortunately the books in question are lavishly illustrated with pictures of the beautiful Nigella herself, firmly gripping carrots and/or bananas, which explains their best-seller status and the increase in banana consumption.

Nigella missed her vocation however as, given her background (daddy was a Tory MP and 'magnificent' Chancellor of the Exchequer), she should have embraced a career in politics where she would have undoubtedly slid all the way to the top of the greasy pole and become the UK's first real woman Prime Minister - it's not too late Nigella ! We will vote for you !

For How to Make Ice Cream see - Ice Cream Makers
For How to Make Chocolate Easter Eggs see How to Make Chocolate Easter Eggs at Home

black forest gateau nigella lawson recipes simple recipes

Simple Recipes - French Recipes - Fish - Provencal Carp

Simple Recipes - Provencal Carp Recipe – Carpe a la Provencale

Ingredients for 4 People

1 Carp weighing approx. 2lbs (1 kg.)
50 g. (1.75 oz.) of oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
A few leaves of sage, basil and cinnamon
250 gr (8.75 oz.) of peeled tomatoes
Salt
Pepper

(French woman elegantly digesting a carp )

Preparation

Salt the carp and place it between 2 plates for 2 hours
Lightly brown the thinly sliced onion and the garlic in a fish kettle, add the carp and brown it on both sides
Next add the sage, basil, salt, pepper and cinnamon.
Cook.
Add a few spoonfuls of water from time to time.
After cooking for 15 minutes add the crushed tomatoes and leave to cook for 20 minutes. The sauce must be thick.
Eat, and digest as illustrated. Next some more cakes.

Simple Recipes - French Recipes Chicken with Almonds (Poulet aux amandes)

French cuisine - a simple chicken recipe and very easy to prepare, for workophobics.

(A chicken - yours doesn't have to look like this one)

Ingredients for 4 People

1 chicken
1 lightly beaten egg
1/2 cup of flaked and chopped almonds
2 cups of grated gruyère cheese
1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon of paprika
Salt, pepper

(Some almonds - in case you've never seen almonds before - hey you may be an Eskimo - sorry Inuit)

Preparation
Cut the chicken into 6 - 8 pieces (best to make sure it's dead first).
Soak the pieces in the beaten egg.

Mix the almonds, gruyère, parmesan, paprika, salt and pepper. Coat the chicken with this mixture and press firmly.
Place in a lightly greased cooking tray. Cook in oven at 200° (gas mark 6) for 40 minutes.
Eat, but don’t sue me if you burn your mouth if you eat it when it’s still too hot.

If you fancy an Almond Cheesecake to go with your Almond Chicken you can download my E-book Mrs Beeton's Cake and Pudding Recipes very cheap at only $2

Chicken almonds
Poulet aux amandes
French recipes

Simple Recipes - French Recipes - Ratatouille

Ratatouille is one of the most simple recipes from the South of France, it one of the easiest to make, it is also the name of a famous film and it does not contain any rats.

It is a stew made from peppers, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and onions prepared using olive oil, which can be eaten hot or cold, with bread, but you no supposed to heat it up if has gone cold.

Hot, ratatouille is a wonderful accompanying dish for fish, chicken, veal chops or a main vegetarian course.

Ingredients for 4 people
1 aubergine (eggplant)
2 courgettes (zucchinis)
5 cloves of garlic
2 peppers
4 peeled tomatoes
Approx 50 g. of olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 sprig of thyme
1 sprig of parsley
1 sprig of basil

Preparation
Chop all the vegetables into small cubes. Chop the garlic into thin pieces. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in the bottom of the pot
Add the aubergines and courgettes and cook for 5 minutes. Heat 2 more tbsp of olive oil. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add salt and pepper.

Add the chopped herbs and cook on low heat for 1 hour

Alternatively, for an easier way of making ratatouille, put all the ingredients together in a large pot and allow them to cook over a slow heat for approximately 1 hour until the vegetables are well-cooked and soft.

Simple Recipes - French Recipes - Traditional Savoy Cake

Simple Cake Recipes

Savoy Cake for 6 – 8 People

Ingredients

7 eggs
250 g. sugar
200 g. flour
Half a packet of bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt

Turn the oven on to gas mark 5 (thermostat 150 degrees)
Add the sugar to the egg yolks and mix.
Whip the egg whites
Mix the bicarbonate into the flour, pour part of the flour into the egg yolks then a part of the egg whites by folding over gently, recommence to mix in all the flour in two or three goes.
Pour into a mould immediately, and cook on a slow heat for 40 minutes
remove from mould hot and place on a grill. Tips : Leave the door slightly ajar so that the air can take part in the cooking. Use a teflon mould.

For a good book of French recipes have a look at Simple French Cookery by Raymond Blanc.

For traditional English cake recipes by the legendary Mrs Beeton Mrs Beeton's Cake and Pudding Recipes for a Christmas Cake Recipe see Traditional Christmas Cake Recipe

French recipes
Savoy cake
Cake recipes