Homemade Tomato Ketchup

Ingredients:

3 kilos of ripe tomatoes,

3 large red onions,

4 large cloves of garlic,

1 red pepper,

25 cl of apple cider vinegar,

150 g of light brown sugar,

3 teaspoons salt,

freshly ground black pepper,

3 cloves and other spices to add to your taste: cinnamon, coriander and fenugreek (powdered), Espelette pepper ...

Preparation:

First chop the onions and the garlic, wash and chop the peppers, wash, wipe and cut the tomatoes into quarters. 
Place in a heavy bottomed pot, cover and cook for half an hour on a medium heat.

Pass the tomatoes through a blender or use a food mill (fine grid), then put it back on the stove, add vinegar, salt and spices.

Don’t hesitate to taste the sauce as you cook it.

Simmer uncovered for one more hour or a little more, the ketchup needs to reduce by half and thicken. 

Then add sugar and cook for another twenty minutes. Purists will be careful to keep the glass Heinz bottles to fill them with their own ketchup☺

Others use jam jars or other containers hermetically sealed. Be sure to boil all the containers before filling them with your cold ketchup.


This ketchup is to keep cool and eat within three months.

Pistachio Financiers

Pistachio Financiers
(makes about 30 small financiers)

Ingredients:
180g/6oz ground almonds
180g/6oz all purpose flour
360g/12oz sugar
1 pinch of salt
180g/6oz room temperature unsalted butter
2 tablespoons pistachio paste
30g/1oz dark rum
2 tsp vanilla extract or seeds of 1 vanilla pod
180g/6oz of egg whites (about 6 eggs)
fruit or dried fruits or nuts (ex. cherries, dried figs, pistachios, pine nuts etc)

Procedure:

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F. Prepare some small moulds (financier moulds or small muffin tins) by brushing with butter first and then coating lightly with flour.

In a standup mixer add ground almonds, flour, sugar and salt. Mix with the paddle attachment to combine, then add the butter, cut into small chunks. Keep mixing at low speed until mixture resembles wet sand. In the meantime, in a separate bowl add rum and vanilla to the egg whites and beat with a whisk until a bit frothy. Set aside.

Add pistachio paste to the standup mixer bowl, let disperse evenly then add the flavoured egg whites and keep mixing at medium speed until batter is nice and smooth.

Transfer batter into a piping bag and fill the moulds. Top with fruit and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Top should be golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the financier should come out clean.

Let cool before unmoulding.

The Figaroscope Gourmet Award Winners

Each month the Figaroscope, a supplement of the French newspaper Figaro, anonymously surveys bakeries, pâtisseries, pizzerias, crêperies, brasseries, restaurants and bars to test, rate and class the best of Parisian gastronomy. If you've missed it, here in chronological order, are all the winners recently announced by Figaroscope!

The best burgers
What are these burgers really worth with so many price differences? For our test, we took into account three elements: the bread (artisanal and mass-produced), the meat (cooking, texture and flavour) and trimmings (salad, homemade fries or not ...). Of course, the price plays a role. The winner of the test is Scoop (1st arrondissement) beating PDG (6th arrondissement).

The best pain au chocolat
We tested one of children’s favourite pastries in twenty-five addresses in the capital. Pretty to the eye, pleasing to the nose, pleasant in the mouth, trust your first impression when you buy! It was an artisan bakery who won. Winner: the bakery Julien (1st arrondissement).

The best egg mayo
Fans of this bistro appetiser, this survey is for you! Twenty-three excellent addresses were tested on this classic bistro dish, even graduates of Asom - Association for the Protection of the Egg Mayonnaise. The winner is Voltaire (7th arrondissement).


The best baguette
At a time when the trend in baguettes is the "Tradition", we chose to test the ordinary baguette in twenty famous bakeries in Paris, with the help of baker Gontran Cherrier. We are proud to test this ordinary baguette because it is one of the most sold products. The winner is found in Jacques Bazin (12th arrondissement).


The best pizza Margherita
The Margherita pizza is one of the most popular pizzas in France. We tested the twenty best pizzerias in Paris: rive gauche institutions, trattorias in West Paris, and tiny pizzerias in the Martyrs Trudaine-Abbesses area and few extra ones recommended by "pizzavores". Two winners tied for the Napolitan speciality: the Bistrot Napolitan (8th arrondissement) and Pizza Chic (6th arrondissement).

The best wholemeal crepe
Twenty creperies were tested on a best-seller: the wholemeal savoury crepe filled with ham, egg and cheese. The winning creperie the Breizh Café (4th arrondissement), where you can taste "the alternative crepe" is a reflection of a new generation of crêperies, the opposite of rustic Brittany type.

The best flan
Finding a good flan is a challenge. We tested twenty from artisan bakers and patissieries under the supervision of the patissier Christophe Felder. Like a homemade dessert, the flan should be rustic and straightforward. A simple pleasure is to buy it at the right time because bakers are often sold out by the middle of the day. The winner was found at L'Autre Boulange (11th arrondissement).

The best lemon tart
A classic dessert is a favourite of the French. A good enough reason to try out these delicious creations. Twenty addresses and reputed pâtisserie offering lemon tarts all year round were tested with the help of pastry chef Christophe Felder. The winner is Carl Marletti (5th arrondissement).

The best mojito
A cocktail for young people? Not only. This is one of the most requested cocktails in all the bars in the capital no matter what age. All Mojitos are born from the same recipe (rum, sugar, fresh mint, lime, ice and soda water), the mojitos somewhat resemble identical twins: same genetic traits but can be different! Our favourite is from Hotel Costes (1st arrondissement).

The best millefeuille
The millefeuille is one of the classic French pastries. We have made a careful selection to keep only twenty addresses, some of the most famous of the capital. The two winners come from local pâtisseries owned by excellent artisans: Vandermeersch (12th arrondissement) and Pâtisserie de l’Eglise (20th arrondissement).

The best plate of seafood
We tested a standard plate for two, as commonly proposed (with oysters, shrimp, prawns, crab and shellfish ). We've selected a good fifteen seafood oriented establishments, including some iconic brasseries of Paris. The winner is the brasserie Jarrassé in Neuilly.

The best Paris-Brest
If the Paris-Brest is a classic French pastry, which celebrates its hundreth year, it is not so easy to find in the supermarkets! This test has covered ten addresses among the most famous of the capital who make them daily. Result: the winner is sophisticated and tasty (La Pâtisserie des Rêves) and a simple but delicious boulangerie (Boulangerie Bazin).

This article is from Figaro.

Chocolate Viennese Cookies

Ingredients: 

260g/9oz all purpose flour (T45 in France)
30g/1oz unsweetened cocoa powder, better if alkalized
250g/8.5oz soft butter
100g/3.5oz icing sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 egg whites at room temperature

Procedure: 

Preheat the oven at 180C/350F.

Whisk flour and cocoa together (sift if necessary), set aside.

Mix together salt and icing sugar, set aside.

In the bowl of a standup mixer fitted with the paddle attachment put in the soft butter and start at medium speed until fluffy. Add salt and sugar mixture and keep mixing until it is a smooth consistency. Whisk egg whites lightly and add to the mixer. Keep mixing until well incorporated, stop and scrape a few times to make sure there's no chunks of unmixed butter at the bottom of the bowl. Stop and gradually start incorporating the flour and cocoa mix by hand, with a spatula. Mix until well incorporated but avoid overworking the dough.

Prepare a pastry bag fitted with a star tip; fill it with the mixture (not all at once or it'll be hard to squeeze) and pipe on a tray lined with baking paper. Classic shape is a "W". To pipe rosettes keep the tip above the paper at about 1 cm and turn your hand as you pipe. When the desired amount of dough has been piped stop squeezing the bag and keep twisting until dough naturally detaches from the piped cookie.

Bake immediately for 10 minutes then transfer baked cookies on a cooling rack.

Candlemas (La Fête de la Chandeleur)

The French holiday, La Fête de la Chandeleur, or Candlemas, is celebrated on February 2nd, 40 days after the birth of Jesus. Originally a Pagan festival honoring the Roman god named Pan, revelers paraded with torches through the streets. In 472, the Pope decided to Christianize the holiday; it would mark the date that it is thought that Jesus would have been presented at the Temple for consecration. It is said at this occasion there was a meeting of Jesus, his parents Mary and Joseph, and those he would be presented to. For this reason, the festival is also called "Hypapante", in Greek ("The Meeting"). Since the festival was celebrated with a candlelit procession at mass, the holiday was also called "Candlemas."
Since the holiday commemorates Mary having offered a sacrifice as part of her purification ritual after the birth of her son, it is dedicated to her and some people refer to the holiday as "The Purification."

This holiday is called la Chandeleur, Fête de la Lumière, or crêpe day.

Not only do the French eat a lot of crêpes on Chandeleur, but they also do a bit of fortune telling while making them. It is traditional to hold a coin in your writing hand and a crêpe pan in the other, and flip the crêpe into the air. If you manage to catch the crêpe in the pan, your family will be prosperous for the rest of the year.

There are all kinds of French proverbs and sayings for Chandeleur; here are just a few. Note the similarities to the Groundhog Day predictions made in the US and Canada:

À la Chandeleur, l'hiver cesse ou reprend vigueur
On Candlemas, winter ends or strengthens

À la Chandeleur, le jour croît de deux heures
On Candlemas, the day grows by two hours

Chandeleur couverte, quarante jours de perte
Candlemas covered (in snow), forty days lost

Rosée à la Chandeleur, hiver à sa dernière heure
Dew on Candlemas, winter at its final hour

Crepes Recipe

This sublime French crepe recipe is guaranteed to please all!
Served with Nutella, or sweet fresh fruits… ice-cream, whipped cream… chocolate sauce.
We 'll all scream for more!

You can make these crepes in any basic frying pan. 7 or 8 inches works best. Or, better yet, with a handy crepe maker.
The basic batter recipe is just below, but if you want to skip right to the fillings, go ahead!

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: about 30 minutes


Ingredients (for about 15 crepes):
2 cups Flour
2 1/2 cups Whole Milk
4 Eggs
2 tbsp. Butter (melted)
Pinch of Salt
1/2 Vanilla Stalk or Few Drops Vanilla Extract (optional)
Vegetable Oil (for pan)

How to Prepare Batter:

1. Sift flour and mix with salt in a bowl.
2. Make a well and pour in eggs. Stir well.
3. Slowly pour in milk while stirring. Keep stirring batter until small bubbles form on the surface.
4. Stir in Butter.
Voilà!

NB: The batter does not need to stand before using it. However, if you do let it stand, you will most likely want to add 1 tbsp. of water before cooking with it. General rule of thumb: if it seems thicker than cream, add a little more water, and/or a little more milk.

How to Prepare the Crepes:

1. Pour a little vegetable oil on a folded paper towel, and wipe the pan evenly. Keep paper towel at hand while preparing crepes, in case you want to give it another wipe.
2. Pour in 2 - 3 tbsp. of batter and quickly move the pan around, so that batter spreads evenly, covering the whole surface with a thin layer.
3. Let it cook for about 1 minute. Then, flip with a metal spatula, and cook other side for about 30 seconds.

Repeat these steps until you are out of batter, stacking cooked crepes on a plate. Yum!

Make your own Nutella it’s that simple and so good…

Try something new…Make your Own Nutella...
Nutella is a Chocolate-hazelnut spread. The kind of thing to me, which is like peanut butter or macaroni cheese to an American. I grew up on Nutella - spread on tartines, on crepes, with a spoon in front of the TV.

Here is my very personal recipe…

Yields about 1 1/2 cups - that is if you refrain from eating it while making it.

1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and peeled
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
12 ounces good milk chocolate, chopped and melted - I used milk chocolate chips

To toast and peel the hazelnuts, heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Toast the hazelnuts in one layer on a baking sheet for 15 minutes, until they are golden. Wrap them in a clean dish towel and rub continuously for a few minutes to remove the skin. You won't be able to remove everything but that's ok. Let the hazelnuts cool down before you grind them. Grind the hazelnuts well in a food processor to make a paste - my tiny food processor made me a paste with very tiny morsels (like big sand particles) and it's the best I could do, but it was fine. Add the oil, the sugar, the cocoa powder, and vanilla and continue processing. I microwave the chocolate chips on low power in small increments of 30 seconds, stirring before I would put it back in the microwave.
I transfer the hazelnut paste to the bowl of my processor, and then pour the chocolate, and pulse for a minute to blend it. I recommend straining the mix if you can still see large nut pieces; I did not because it was fine enough. Pour into a jar and let cool and thicken.
The spread will keep for about a month at room temperature (be sure the jar lid closes tightly there).
I recommend using whenever by itself, on crepes, on tartines, on muffins... You name it!

FOOD TRENDS IN 2010 – The Hot and the Cold List

The New Year begins and a decade ends. Looking back at the last 12 months we saw cooking change and redefine itself, the 2010 gourmet is wild, ecological and filled with treasures of modest means. Good-bye, red tuna. Hello, wild herbs. Get your gloves and your hiking boots on and bring your Corn Flakes, we going to the forest.

HOT: Herbs, berries, mushrooms, game.

All that is wild. The Scandinavian Chefs are walking in the footsteps of the French Marc Veyrat, who brought to the table, scented shoots from the forest and hills. In Quebec, hunting and fishing is making a comeback in the last few years. We not only want to eat "regional" but we want to eat altogether natural, no fertilizers, no energy-intensive work.

COLD: Stuffed deer heads in restaurants.

The game we want on the plate, not in the decor.

HOT: The animals we eat nose to tail.

Chicken feet, oxtail or pork tail, tongue, ears ... Forget veganism. If you want to eat in an environmentally sensible way, and not encourage the monoculture of soybeans, it’s by eating meat intelligently. So natural products, regional and no waste. When we kill a beast, we eat everything! Pork belly & shoulder are already popular in New York. Lamb’s neck is arriving on our plates. Veal or beef cheek is already everywhere. It goes on. A little pig stomach with that?

COLD: Our fish are overfished.

Even if some are delicious, such as yellowfin tuna, it is really bad taste to serve and eat. Moreover, the restaurants of Relais & Chateaux have totally removed yellowfin from their menus. Several other endangered species should follow.

HOT: Tap water.

We forget the water imported from halfway around the world in exotic bottles, often very pretty, but that cost a fortune to transport. We have very good water here. Why not drink it?

COLD: The restaurants that simply do not allow us to drink tap water, cold, filtered, without ice.

HOT: Momofuku Noodles.

It comes from northern China, with large plump noodles and dumplings filled with broth, reinvented by David Chang, New York chef of the moment. Mixing influences of Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese cuisine, Chang is both Asian and American. It feels solid but fragrant, tasty but refined. After sushi and dim sum that marked the last 10 years, leave room for the roast pork buns, pickled fish, salted seaweed used as a condiment, and home-made Kimchi.


COLD: Badly prepared Sushi now in every supermarket.

It is on the verge of indigestion.

HOT: Small fish and seafood whose survival is not threatened and that we too often snub: sardines, herring, mackerel, squid, shrimp from the Gulf ...

Fortunately, we just discovered environmentally correct sablefish, which is increasingly taking the place left by the Chilean sea bass (to avoid). But there are other fish to discover, such as brook trout...

COLD: Fish and seafood from non-organic farms.

Shrimp imported from Asia, for example, or farmed salmon grown in highly polluted environments.

HOT: Beer.

In northern regions like ours, vines don’t grow easily. Hops, though. Why not enjoy leaving more room for beer in our dining arrangements? The Scandinavian Chefs are moving away from olive oils, citrus and other Mediterranean products and turning increasingly to beer.


COLD: Restaurants and bars that do only commercial traditional lagers on the menu.

In 2010, we expect to find red beer everywhere. And why not golden & brown?

HOT: Vegetarian or vegan.

No need to refrain entirely from meat or cheese. But no need to eat it all the time either. In a world where the quality of meat is often dubious, we choose the best products, what about paying the high price and eating vegetables, grains and legumes at other times. Well? It's delicious, too.


COLD: Vegan and vegetarian products that are processed like junk food.

What is the idea of eating veggy products which we know neither the origin nor the recipe? And then eating tons of soy, ultra-processed, colored, flavored, is it ecologic when you know that this food, often grown in monoculture, is one of the first products on the list of GM?


HOT: Non-traditional grains, other than wheat, corn, soybeans.

We are rediscovering kamut, spelt, quinoa ... Not only because they taste good and are easy to cook, but also because it is a good idea to encourage biodiversity and revive the forgotten cereals. Like ancestral vegetables from far-off.


COLD: Organic or local at any price.

Do we really want to eat organic strawberries imported from California in the winter? Or local tomatoes grown in greenhouses when it’s snowing outside?

HOT: Bitter and Sour.

In a world that loves very sweet and fatty tastes, where flavors run together almost too easily, we rediscover the joy of angles and punctuation that provide bitter and tart tastes. Good, because they are abundant in these wild fruits and ancestral vegetables that we are looking for.

COLD: Stickers that decorate plates.

They are often very elegant, but do they really add to the fruit tart? We are ready to move on.

HOT: Modest ingredients.

In 2010, we no longer want to place the biodiversity of the planet at risk by eating it.
So we choose products, cheap & accessible: rice, beets, squash, pork feet, and make little miracles, delicous and not too expensive, like David Chang at Momofuku, who puts crunch on desserts with Corn Flakes or Inaki Aizpitarte at Chateaubriand in Paris, who reinvents radishes.


COLD: Expensive ingredients, which are often rare ingredients like caviar or yellowfin tuna. For who says rare often means threatened. In 2010, we prefer to pay for good simple food and good ideas.

A Taste of Christmas with Cook'n With Class

CARAMEL BANANA CHRISTMAS LOG

STEP 1 - Banana Caramel

Ingredients

200g/7oz heavy cream (35% fat)

55g/2oz sugar

55g/2oz unsalted butter

1 banana, cubed

---

for the caramel: 55g/2oz sugar

---

Procedure:

In a small pot boil together cream,

sugar, butter and the banana cubes.

In a second pot caramelize the sugar,

until deep amber color. Stop the cooking

of the caramel by adding the banana mix.

Mix well, transfer into a cool bowl and set aside to cool.

STEP 2 - Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients

180g/6oz heavy cream

140g/5oz 70% chocolate (bittersweet),

grated or cut into small pieces

---

360g/12oz heavy cream (35% fat), cold

---

Procedure:

Make a ganache with the first 2 ingredients: bring cream to a boil, pour onto cut chocolate, let sit for about one minute, then stir to incorporate the cream into the chocolate and let cool. Stir occasionally until it reaches room temperature. Whip heavy cream to soft peak and mix gently with

cooled ganache. Put the mousse in the fridge to keep cool.

 

STEP 3 - Chocolate Sponge Cake (biscuit au chocolat)

Ingredients

3 whole eggs

3 yolks

120g/4oz sugar

---

3 egg whites

60g/2oz sugar

---

50g/2oz all purpose flour

50g/2oz unsweetened cocoa powder (better if alkalized)

---

Procedure:

Sift together flour and cocoa powder, set aside.

Preheat the oven at 225C/375F. Grease a baking sheet with butter (bottom and sides) and line the bottom with parchment paper. In a standup mixer whisk eggs+3 yolks+sugar until light and foamy. Itwill triple in volume. Set aside. Clean mixer whisk and bowl, then whip egg whites and sugar to soft peak stage. Fold together the two egg mixtures gently while sifting on top the chocolate+flour mix .

Do not overmix or the batter will deflate.

With a spatula spread the batter on the parchment lined tray then bake immediately for about 15 minutes.

Lower the oven temp if the top starts browning.

Take out of the oven and run a sharp knife all around

the cake to loosen it from the pan.

Unmold after about one minute on a large parchment sheet lightly sprinkled with sugar. Gently peel off the parchment paper that

will be stuck to the cake. Don't pull it vertically or it will tear apart the delicate sponge cake! Let cool a few minutes before assembling.

ASSEMBLING

Spread a good amount of the chocolate mousse on top of the sponge cake, don't go too close to the

edges of the rectangle. Draw two grooves in the mousse

and fill them with the cooled banana caramel sauce.

Roll the sponge cake into a log shape,

use the parchment paper to keep it closed and

refrigerate until the log is completely set and cold.

At least 1hr.

DECORATION

Prepare a meringue with the following ingredients:

75g/2.5oz water

300g/10oz sugar

110g/4oz egg whites (about 4 eggs)

Put eggs whites in a standup mixer, add a small pinch

of salt. Bring water and sugar to a boil, when the

temperature of this syrup reaches 115C/239F start the

mixer on medium speed.

When syrup reaches 118C/245F pour gradually the syrup

into the mixer bowl, be careful not to pour onto the whisk!

Keep whisking at medium speed until the meringue

is stiff and shiny. Transfer into a piping bag fitted

with a decorative nozzle.

Unwrap the log and decorate.

Sprinkle some sifted cocoa powder on top for

extra decoration.

Leftover meringue mix can be piped on a parchment paper

or silpat to make "mushrooms".

You will pipe rounds and drops that

will be baked at low temperature until completely dry, then assembled to resemble small mushrooms.