20/10/2013
Salmon Puff

Here is a simple and quick recipe, perfect for a no brainer dinner on a rainy Sunday night …

The Ingredients

– 1 roll of puff pastry

– 1 handful of spinach leaves

– 1 tbsp olive oil

– 1/2 lemon

– poppy seeds

– 2 salmon fillets

– 1 egg yolk

The Recipe

Roll out the puff pastry, place the two salmon fillets on it.
Drop over the spinach, add the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Wrap the whole, brush the egg yolk on it and sprinkle with poppy seeds.
Place in oven 15 to 20 minutes at 190 ℃ (T 7).

10/10/2013
Pump up the jam

Aujourd’hui, je vais vous parler de confiture. Après la mode des bouchers, c’est au tour de la confiture d’inciter des passionnés à tout plaquer et à lancer leur magasin!

/ Today I’ll talk about jam. After the butchers trend, it is the turn of the jam to encourage passionate people to drop everything and run their store!

Tout d’abord, en Angleterre, l’équipe de Rubies in the Rubble de Jenny Dawson récupère les restes de fruits et légumes des marchés pour en faire de délicieux chutneys, en évitant le gaspillage (200 tonnes chaque semaine!). Vous pouvez acheter sur leur site des chutneys pomme-gingembre, poire et noix ou encore chilli et oignon rouge.

/ Firstly, in England, Jenny Dawson’s team Rubies in the Rubble gets the leftover fruit and vegetable from local markets to make delicious chutneys, avoiding enormous waste (200 tonnes per week). You can buy on their website apple-ginger, pear and walnut or chilli and red onion chutneys.

Toujours à Londres, Lillie O’Brien, chef patissière, a également lancé son atelier où elle concocte sauces, confitures et pickles, avec des associations gourmandes comme framboise-lavande, fraise-anis, ou figue-Earl Grey (recette ici!). Elle les vend entre autres ici et ici. Son tumblr London Borough of Jam est de toute beauté!

/ Still in London, Lillie O’Brien, a famous pastry chef, also launched her shop where she prepares sauces, jams and pickles, with creative associations such as raspberry- lavender, strawberry-anise, or fig-Earl Grey (recipe here!). She sells her products here and here. Her tumblr London Borough of Jam is beautiful!

Du côté de Williamsburg, c’est les deux copines Jessica Quon et Sabrina Valle qui commencent par confectionner des recettes originales de confitures dans leur petite cuisine avec des produits provenant de fermes locales. The Jam Stand propose des confitures originales comme la framboise-jalapeno, banane-citron vert ou encore leur fraises au thé Pu-Ehr!

/In Williamsburg, the two friends Sabrina Valle and Jessica Quon began making jams in their small kitchen with fresh products from local farms. The Jam Stand offers original jams like raspberry-jalapeno, banana-lime or strawberry with Pu-Ehr!

Du côté de chez nous, Lise Bienaimé dans la lignée de son arrière grande-père, lance son épicerie fine La Chambre aux Confitures, où elle fait nous fait découvrir des assemblages de fruits et légumes audacieux (rhubarbe et sureau, carotte au gewurztraminer, poire et noisette), aux textures variées, miels, chutneys et conserves pour fromages et foie gras, aux jolis packagings!

/ In Paris, Lise Bienaimé in the line of her great great grandfather, launched her cute deli La Chambre aux Confitures, where she shows us bold combinations of fruit and vegetables (rhubarb and elderberry, Gewurztraminer carrot, pear and hazelnut), various textures, honeys, chutneys and preserves for cheeses and foie gras, with delicate labels!

03/10/2013
Teriyaki meatballs

The Ingredients

– 500 g minced beef

– 500 g minced chicken

– 10 cl soy sauce

– 3 tbsp sugar

– 10 cl sake or white wine

– 1 tbsp rice vinegar

– 1 tbsp sesame oil

– 2 tbsp white and black sesame

– 1 egg yolk

The Recipe

Mix with chopped meats with the egg yolk, salt and pepper, and sesame seeds. Form small balls.
Heat a wok or frying pan with sesame oil and fry the meatballs.
In a saucepan, reduce the soy sauce with sugar, sake and vinegar to a thick caramel sauce.
Cover the meatballs with sauce.
You can serve with green peas, shiitake mushrooms and bean sprouts.

24/09/2013
Kunitoraya II

Having worked alongside the Sainte Anne street in Paris for several years, I am starting to know all the Japanese restaurants in the neighborhood. Some are obviously worth seeing more than others, the most authentic, the one where I found the true taste of Japan, is the Kunitoraya (39 rue Saint Anne), my favorite ramen is from Taishoken (40 Saint Anne), the yakiudon at Hokkaido (14 rue Chabanais) and the okonomiyaki (Japanese omelette) at Aki (11 bis rue Saint Anne).

If you feel lost, here’s a quick summary of Japanese noodles, eaten generally in broth (soy or miso), cold summer with a sauce or even fried in a wok:

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Ramen: imported from China, they are yellow, wavy, made of wheat flour.

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Udon: they are white, thick, and are prepared with wheat flour, mixed with water and salt.

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Soba: they are dark and fairly thin, made of buckwheat flour, sliced by hand (impressive to see, I’ll talk about it soon!).

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somen: they’re very thin and white, made of wheat flour, and usually served cold in summer.

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shirataki: low in calories, thin and transparent, these gelatinous noodles are made with konjac bulb

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harusame: they can be made from potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, or mung bean starch and look like shirataki

Kunitoraya

 1 rue Villedo

Paris 75002

All this to tell you about the new Kunitoraya which recently opened, and where you can enjoy delicious udon, served cold with tempura or miso soup. Although the 17 euro lunch menu is quite expensive, the noodles are delicious and the tempuras are refined. Some funny rules found on their website:
1. It is imperative to use chopsticks to eat.
2. It is imperative to eat udon by sipping or sip while eating.
3. A hot meal should be eaten while it is hot.
4. The udon lives! The more time passes, the more it expands and loses its elasticity.

23/09/2013
Peach and lavender crumble

I made this crumble this summer with the amazing peaches from the south of France and the garden lavender…

The Ingredients
– 6 peaches
– 150g flour
– 75g salted butter
– 100g sugar
– a few lavender branches

The Recipe

In a bowl, mix the flour with the sugar, then add the butter. Knead it well until it becomes “sandy”.
Cut the peaches. Crush the lavender flowers with a pestle.
Butter a mold, pour the peaches and lavender, and pour the mixture over.
Bake for 35 minutes at thermostat 6 (180°C).

15/09/2013
Clouds

Clouds, because they are intangible, have always fascinated me. Their perception and representation over the centuries is also captivating. If in ancient times they were considered the smoke of the sea, in the Middle Ages, they represent the veil of God, a mystical veil that could reveal heaven with lightning bolts. It is from the thirteenth century that the cloud began to be seen not as an object but as a material made of water and air. It was also a source of inspiration for the following centuries with the romantic and baroque periods. Although it remained associated with the sacred vision for a long time, Claude Monet and more recently, Olafur Eliasson used scientific evidence to represent it in their works.