- Purses filled with pear, brie and raspberry.
- Tuscan White Bean Crostini.
- Apricot Chicken.
- Cakes filled with dates.
- S'mores shooters.
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Here is a very recipe to make a wonderful bread that has a subtle anise taste.
For 8 small breads:
17.5 ounce (500g) of white flour
1 tablespoon of salt
3/4 tablespoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of anise seeds
1/2 ounce of dry yeast
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
0.8 cup of lukewarm water
The first thing to do is to grind the anise seeds.
To grind seeds, I use a coffee grinder.
Mix all the ingredients and knead until firm. I have a bread machine and use the setting to only knead and rise as I will cook the bread in the oven.
Let the dough rise for 1h30.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. At the same time, make 8 even portions of the dough and lay them on a cooking sheet or aluminum foil, making sure you either grease it or put some flour to prevent the bread to stick.
In a small ball, make an egg wash by cracking an egg at room temperature and whisking it until the yolk is incorporated in the white.
With a knife, make a X on top of each bread so they open while cooking.
Then brush each bread with the egg wash.
Rest for 25 more minutes; the bread will rise again.
Put the bread in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until golden.
Et voila!
Bon appetit!
Brioche is a viennoiserie that is similar to Challah bread, where water is replaced by milk, has more eggs, butter and sugar.
The recipe below is very easy to make!
Ingredients for 12 brioches (approx. 2 pounds):
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 4 large eggs
- 8 tablespoons of unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 3 3/4 cups of white flour
- 2 packets of yeast (I use active dry instant yeast)
Place in the following order the milk, eggs, butter at room temperature and cut in small pieces, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in a pan. Knead until obtaining a soft dough, and let rise for 45 minutes.
Melt some butter and brush generously the inside and outside of a muffin pan (you can use a bread pan also for cooking the brioche). The butter will prevent the brioche to stick to the pan once cooked.
Put some dough in the bottom of the muffin hole and add some chocolate chip in the middle. This time, I put chocolate chips inside the brioche. You can other wise not put anything or put nutella or jam.
Cover with some dough and try to seal the brioche (do not worry: it will crack anyway during the cooking process, revealing some chips). Brush the top with an egg wash. Let rise for another 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden. Then remove from the oven and let it cool. Et voila!
Bon appétit!
I love Almond Cigars. When I was a kid, my mom and my grand mother use to make them: it was driving me crazy! Well, it still does...
It is a treat that comes from North Africa, but in fact, as cuisine traveled, you can easily compare it to the baklava found in Greece or Middle East. It is a delicious dessert, served with a hot tea (best is with mint tea in fact).
So everybody probably knows Coolio from the song Gangsta's Paradise he wrote in 1995 for the movie Dangerous Minds with Michelle Pfeiffer. What I did not know until I watch Rachel (Ray) vs. Guy (Fieri) on the Food Network, is that Coolio is also a cook. He even published a cook book called
Cookin' with Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price
and calls himself the Ghetto Gourmet. In this book, he will teach you how to be a Kitchen Pimp, explaining what you need in you Pimp-try...
Let me tell you: this guy knows how to cook (taught by his now deceased mother) and he ended up in the finale!
So, I decided to try to cook his Ghetto Garlic Bread, his take on Garlic Bread, made with mayonnaise. I do not have a cook book, so I tried to recreate the quantities.
In a bowl, I mixed:
I spread the mixture on a baguette cut in half and toasted it.
It was good, but if you do not like mayonnaise, I do not think it is for you!
Enjoy (I did)!
References:
Wikipedia:
When I was a kid, I hated brussels sprouts! I could not stand the smell or the taste. I remember that my mom used to prepare them with merguez (lamb sausages) and unfortunately, the sausages were absorbing all the taste of the brussels sprouts! Many years later, I ended up with brussels sprouts on my plate, in a restaurant in New York City. I tried and kind of liked them! So, if you are struggling to get your kids to eat vegetables, it is not desperate and you should try to roast them (the vegetables, not the kids!!!).
The way I roast brussels sprouts applies also to other vegetables like asparagus. I like them slightly burnt so it caramelized them.
First, after washing the brussels sprouts, I remove the buds from the stalk and discard any loosen leaf from the surface. Depending on the size of the sprouts, I may cut them into two parts. Then, I put them on a tray with olive oil, salt and pepper. With my hands, I mix the brussels sprout with the oil, salt and pepper to ensure they all get their little bath. I then cook them in a preheated oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. Et voila!
Bon Appétit!
I tried a similar dish at
, one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco. Similar in the sense that I tried to recreate it and hopefully it is close enough! I love this dish: it is great for a nice dinner and very flavorful, mixing the flavors from the fish, the olives and olive oil and the sweetness of the butternut squash. It is not complicated, but takes time (close to 1h30)!
Here is the recipe:
For 4 servings
- thin white fish: I picked tilapia (4 filets)
- Pitted Manzanilla Olives (8oz)
- Peeled Butternut Squash (20oz)
- Potatoes (24oz)
- Salt and Pepper
- Olive oil
For the potatoes, I picked some baby potatoes, preferably the creamer ones, with a thin and tasty skin as I keep the skin on it when roasting them. They are usually moist and have a creamier flesh perfect for this dish.
For the Butternut Squash, I prefer the peeled one as it is a pain in the neck (excuse my French) to cut a squash. I cook it in boiling water until soft as a first step and then will cut each piece in a size that will match the size of the potatoes that I will also cut in small pieces.
In a dish that goes in the oven, put some olive oil, salt and pepper. Put the potatoes and cook at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until the flesh is soft (test with a knife). This may take 30 to 40 minutes. Then, put the pieces of butternut squash and the olives. Cook for another 10 minutes. Add some more olive oil and put in the bottom of the dish the filets. Cover with the potatoes, squash and olives and cook for 30 minutes. Et voila!
Bon appétit!