Saturday, May 1, 2010

French Lentils Salad, Sea Trout Papillottes, Chocolate Tart with Poached Pears

French Lentils Salad from the Lyon region

This is a delicious entree from Lyon (this town in France is also called the Capital of Food) that can be completed with other salads or cold cuts but also can be served to accompany a barbecue or roast meats.

Serve 6 to 8 persons

Ingredients:
250g of French du Puy lentils or bondi lentils*
200 g of Bacon or smoked speck
1 small yellow onion
1 red onion
3 carrots
5 branches of parsley, 1 laurel leave
1 litre of vegetable stock
*bondi lentils are distributed by - jcsqualityfoods - available in most of Sydney's fruit shops

for the dressing:
1 coffee spoon of french mustard, 3 coffee spoons of olive oil,1 coffee spoon of wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

  1. Cut the bacon or speck in small rectangles of 2 cm long and 1/2 cm wide (what we call lardon in France).
    Slice finely the yellow onion.In a pot, fry the yellow onion slices and the "lardons" in 2 spoonfuls of olive oil for a few minutes. The onion should get transparent but not turning brown.Add the vegetable stock and the laurel leave. add salt and pepper.Let this cook for 30 to 40 mn at low heat.Taste the Lentils (with a wooden spoon), they should be tender, not hard and not turning into mush either.
    Strain the lentils and let them cool down.

  2. Peel and grate the carrots in a salad bowl. Add the sliced red onion and the parsley finely cut.Prepare the dressing.

  3. Take the laurel leave out of the lentils and mix with the other ingredients in the salad bowl.Pour the dressing over it and mix again.

You can serve the salad warm, cold or at room temperature, to your taste.


Papillottes of Sea Trout with Julienne veggies, Beurre Blanc sauce

A "papillotte" in France is a portion of fish with cut vegetables and spices wrapped in aluminum foil and cooked in the oven. This way of cooking keep all the fish and spices flavors together and the sauce is added to the taste of each guest. The way of cutting vegetable in a long and fine stick shape is called Julienne.

Serve 6 to 8 persons

Time to prepare: 40mns

Ingredients:

6 to 8 sea trout portions
2 carrots
2 turnips
1 large red capsicum
6 to 8 branches of Fresh Thyme
salt and white ground pepper
Olive oil

For the "Beurre Blanc" sauce

1 French eshallot (type of sweet onion), 1 glass of dry white wine, 50g of butter, 3 large spoonful of sour cream, salt and pepper to taste.

  1. Peel the carrots and turnips. Cut the red capsicum and take out the white flesh and seeds. Cut the carrots in long and fine sticks of 3mm wide and 5 to 6 cm long. Do the same for the turnips and the capsicums. Cook these vegetable in boiling water for 5/10 Mn (the veggies should be tenderised but not fully cooked). Strain the veggies and let them cool down.

  2. Choose an oven dish or oven tray that will hold all the aluminium squares with the fish portion.Place the fish portion in the middle of the alu.square and lift up both side of the alu.square.Place them all in your oven dish / tray. Add some vegetable julienne on the top of each fish portion and finish with a small branch of fresh thyme. Add a little salt on each portion (fish is salty by definition so you do not need to add a lot of salt) and add generously some white ground pepper.Finish with a a dash of olive oil. Wrap the alu.squares lifting up the ends so the juice in the wrapping won't escape during cooking. Place in the oven and cook for 20 Mn at 180 degrees.

  3. Cut the French eschalotte and put in a small pot with the glass of white wine.Cook until the wine has disappeared the add the butter and the sour cream. Cook for 5 mn until all ingredients are well mixed. Add salt and pepper and 2 spoonful of water and use an electric soup mixer to lift up this sauce so it gets airy.

You can serve the "papillotes" directly on the table or you can prepare each plate on your kitchen board, removing the aluminum wrapping directly from the plate, sliding the fish portion in its juice,topped with the veggies straight into the plate. Place the Beurre Blanc into a hot bowl (a sauce is nicer when it is hot, therefore the serving bowl should be soaking in hot water to keep the sauce warm).

You can add a spoonful of nice white Basmati rice or 2/3 boiled peeled kiffler potatoes with this dish.

Sauvignon blanc or a white chardonnay (not too sweet)will accompany this full flavor dish.

Bon appetit !


Well, after all this a plate of cheese will be placed in the middle of the table aside of crusty baguette slices. Usually, a minimum of 3 different types of cheeses constitute a simple cheese plate.


Chocolate Tart with Poached Pears

I have always thought poached pears are delicious with a chocolate sauce. I made up this chocolate tart recipe and added some poached pears to it to decorate the choco tart and add this beautiful flavor association.

Serve 6 to 8 persons

Chocolate filling:

4 pears
20cl of whipping cream
150g of dark cooking chocolate
1 egg
2/3 drops of Vanilla extract

Shortbread crust:

250g of flour, 150g of melted butter, 1 egg, 1 spoonful of sour cream, a pinch of salt, 2 spoonful of sugar.

Mix all these ingredient to form a dough. Roll down the dough in between 2 sheets of baking paper. Place in the fridge for 30mn.
  1. Prepare the chocolate cream. Melt the chocolate in a bain-Marie saucepan(the saucepan with the chocolate will be placed into a bigger pot with boiling water).In the meantime, peel the pears, cut them in half and remove the middle seeds.

  2. Boil for 5 Mn the pears to tenderise them. Strain them and keep aside. Place the shortbread crust into an oven tart dish.Remove the upper baking paper, pick the crust with a fork and cook in the oven for 15/20mn until it golden. Look if the crust lift during cooking and simply open the oven and pick it with a pointy knive to let the air go. Do not over cook the crust, take it out of the oven when it starts to have a golden colour. Let it cool down.

  3. Pour the whipping cream over the melted chocolate. Turn off the fire after 5 mn. Add the egg and 2/3 drops of vanilla extract and mix again. Pour this filling into the shortbread crust. Cut bottom of the pears so they look like a hand-fan. Delicately place the pears on the chocolate filling and push them down so they open as a hand-fan.

  4. Put the Tart again in the oven for 20mn at 150 degrees. Remove from the oven and let it cool down. Before serving, sprinkle a little bit of icing sugar.

Et Voila!

4 comments:

  1. Genial it was exactly Jean-Claude's birthday diner on last friday ! Perfect . . . .

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  2. pas tout à fait voilà: il manque les lentilles dans la liste des ingrédients!!!! Ou alors il me faut une autre paire de lunettes...Enfin, je vois que je ne suis pas la seule à être tête en l'air quand je fais la cuisine.
    Véronique

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  3. The lentils have come back, as they went away for a while. I've told them to stay in this recipe!!!!

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  4. I made the Papillotte with fresh canadian sockeye salmon fillets. And it tasted just like Estelle's wonderfful meal...the buerre blanc sauce is what really made it.

    ReplyDelete