Tian Provençal of Sardine with Tomato Confit

6 Portions

For Sardines:

Ingredients:

6 pieces or 150g/ 5oz sardine filets

Salt 

Ground pepper 

Olive oil

Procedure: 

• Take out the fish bones with a tweezers 
• Pre-heat a sauce pan with a spoon of olive oil. Season the fish both sides.You can add lemon peel, ginger, and any flavors you like.
• Sear the fish skin side first until you can see on the edge a nice brown color.
• Finish cooking in the oven 350f ( 190°C) for 5 minutes depending how thin the flesh is.

For Tomato confit:

Ingredients:

6 large tomatoes

Salt pepper olive oil

Garlic,  thyme,  bay leaves

Pine nuts

Onions 

Procedure: 

• First, slice the onions without crying ;)
• Sweat them with olive oil at low heat, add salt and pepper.
• Peel the tomatoes by blanching them in boiling water in order to take off the skin.
• Cut them in 4 take out the seeds and dice them.
• Cook the tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper, bay leaves and thyme , garlic, drain the excess water. When cooked, add roasted pine nuts to the tomatoes and add the onions. 

For serving use a ring mold and fill up with the tomato confit. Then you may add on a Parmesan tuile which is made by baking thinly grated parmesan on a non-stick tray. On top place the sardines and serve.

Bœuf Bourguignon

A traditional Sunday dish, beef bourguignon is a recipe from Burgundy, France. Burgundy is a region renowned for the quality of its cattle farms, especially the Charolais cattle and its vineyards such as the Côtes de Beaune and Côtes de Nuits-Saint-Georges. Along with “pain d’epices” or “oeufs en meurette”, beef bourguignon is emblematic dish of Burgundy and its terroir.

Ingredients:

 

900 g/ 2lbs. stewing beef (Beef cheeks when in a rush, otherwise chuck, rump, or round)

450 g/1lb. veal bones, or 2 cups reduced veal/beef stock

2 thick slices bacon

2 T flour

1/4 C cognac

1 bottle dry red wine (not too dry, not too sweet)

2 cloves garlic,

6 carrots peeled

2 bay leaves,

3 sprigs fresh thyme

20 pearl onions, or 4 large white onions,

1/4ered 360 g (13 oz.) button mushrooms

2 T. butter 450 g,

(1 lb.) fingerling potatoes

1 bunch chopped parsley

Procedure:

Trim silver skin off meat, and brown with bones in oven 1 hour at 375 F/190C. Cut meat into large dices. Dust well with flour but shake off excess Meanwhile, chop bacon and brown in wide sauté pan over medium heat. Careful not to burn oil, remove and reserve bacon once browned.

Place beef pieces in bacon fat and brown on all sides, then deglaze with Cognac, which can be flambéed if desired. Reduce 3 minutes, and then add the herbs and wine, which should cover about 1/2 way up the meat.

Salt lightly, and bring to the simmer over medium heat, careful not to ever boil. (Best not to put on a lid, as the steam build-up can quickly toughen the meat.) Add bones once browned, or make quick stock on the side by boiling bones and trimmings in wide skillet covered with water, till 2 cups liquid remain – then add to wine and meat.

Meanwhile, unless you have a huge pan, you'll have to cook the vegetables in a separate sauté pan. Melt 2 T. butter brown the mushrooms uncovered, about 10 minutes. Then add onions and carrots with light browning about 10 minutes, covered. Add garlic cloves for last 2 minutes, salt, and reserve till last 30 minutes of meat cooking.

Leave the meat immersed in the wine, and pour veggies over top, continue cooking uncovered so that sauce can thicken. If sauce remains much too thin to coat the back of a spoon, but meat is already tender, optionally pour off the sauce into another wide pan and boil to reduce sauce until it's thick enough to coat the meat.

Check for seasoning, toss in parsley the last minute, and serve with fingerling potatoes, which have been boiled about 30 minutes, salted, till tender.

Pan Seared Foie Gras with Echalots Confites

                                                  6 portion

For Foie Gras

Ingredients: 

1 whole duck or goose foie gras, deveined, cold - serves 6 people 

1 cup of corn starch (a.k.a. corn flour) 

coarse salt 

pepper

Procedure: 

• Slice foie gras using a warm chef’s knife. Dredge slices of foie gras in starch, brush off excess starch, arrange on a cold plate. 
• With the tip of a paring knife score une side of the steaks mimicking grill marks. 
• Preheat a non stick skillet over medium high heat. Pan is ready when smoking. 
• Arrange slices of foie gras, scrored side down first. Sear for about 1 minute, then gently flip and sear other side, for about 1 minute. 
• Serve immediately on warm plates. Season with salt and pepper.

Tips: 

Keep the slices cold until ready to cook them. Don’t crowd the pan with too many pieces, it’ll drop the temperature of the pan preventing a nice brown color and it’ll make it difficult to flip the steaks. Clean the pan if you see burned starch particles. Drain the excess melted fat in between batches.

For Echalots Confites

Ingredients :

9 shallots 

100g unsalted butter (about 3oz) 

1 tablespoon raw sugar (or white table sugar, or brown sugar) 

Salt 

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 

60g/2oz sugar 

1⁄4 of a glass of water

Procedure:

• Trim the root end of the shallots but don’t cut it off completely or the shallot will fall apart during cooking. 
• Cut the shallots in half, peel them. In a deep small pot over medium heat add butter and let melt, add shallots, sugar and a pinch of salt. 
• Stir to coat then lower the heat and cook slowly until shallots start to brown, without caramelizing. Stir occasionally during this phase. 
• Turn off set aside. 
• Prepare caramel: in a small pot over high heat (on a small burner!) add about 2 tablespoon of the 60g of sugar. Wait until sugar starts to melt then add another tablespoon at the time until all sugar is in the pan. Cook the sugar swirling the pan occasionally until dark in color (like coffee or coca cola). At arm length pour the water, swirl the pan to dissolve the caramel then pour the obtained caramel syrup over the onions. Let mixture cool then taste to adjust seasoning (salt), add balsamic and stir gently. 
• Strain the shallots and save the juices that can be boiled down to a syrupy consistency and served as a sauce (duck, foie gras, seared lamb chops, pork chops etc).

The Ultimate Hot Chocolate

SERVES 4 PEOPLE

2 ½    cups whole milk
1 ½    cups whipped cream {35 %}
¼       cup granulated sugar
¼       cup Cocoa powder, unsweetened
1        Pinch of salt

1        Teaspoon Vanilla extract

Method:

In a saucepan, warm 2 cups of milk with 1 cup of cream. In the mean time mix sugar, cocoa, salt, the vanilla extract and the rest of the milk (1/2 cup), mix well until you obtain a paste with no lumps. Turn the stove on low, then add the paste slowly to the warm milk; whisk well to get a foamy creamy chocolate. Reheat until it is hot but don’t let the liquid boil! Whip the left over cream (1/2 cup) until you have a smooth whipped cream. Pour the hot chocolate into the serving cups, pour the cream on top…. 

Serve immediately. 

(To have a Mexican twist, add a cinnamon stick to the milk when warming) 

(If you are “lush” or it’s very cold outside, add ¼ cup of Frangelico (hazelnut liquor) before pouring in the cups.;)