I wish we celebrated Thanksgiving in France. But we don't. Sadly. I love Thanksgiving not because it's a Holiday which means no work, but because of its meaning. I feel so lucky for all that I have today. A house, a nice camera, a wonderful family, friends… I think we should think of Thanksgiving not only as a holiday to remember what happened during the past, but also as a day to be thankful for what other people give us in the present : their love, their time, their patience…
So I imagined this pumpkin pie with a french inspiration. Lightly perfumed with honey, lemon and spices and served with a chocolate sauce and some homemade vanilla ice cream It's a kind of tribute to some of the people I love to thank them for all the good thing they bring to me. And it's also a big thank you to the few people who believe in me and follow me on this blog. Thank you and enjoy this pie :-)
Crust :
- 1 stick salted butter (melted)
- 1 table spoon muscovado sugar or brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 8 ounces (220 g) wheat flour
Pie filling :
- 17,6 ounces (500 g) homemade pumpkin puree or canned puree
- 2 eggs
- 2 table spoons heavy cream
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 of a lemon zest
- 7 ounces (200 g) white sugar
- 3,5 ounces water
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon four-spice blend
Steps :
In a large bowl, whisk together the egg and the melted butter. Add the sugar and keep whisking. Add the flour and use your hands to mix until you have a dough which is not too sticky and which does not crumble too much. Add a bit more flour if necessary. Cover your dough and set it in the fridge for at least one hour.
Cut the lemon zest in thin strips.
Heat the water and the white sugar over medium heat until small bubbles appear. Throw in the lemon zest and bring it on a low heat. Let the zest crystallise for about 20 minutes.
In a bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, the brown sugar and the honey. Collect the zest and add it to the mix. Add the spices and keep whisking until the mixture is homogeneous. Set appart in the fridge for an hour so that all the flavours can mix together.
After an hour, add the eggs to the dough. Preheat your oven to 350° F.
Coat a work surface with flour and spread the crust. I like it quite thin but it's up to your taste to make it thick or thin.
Set it in a 9 inches pie shell and add in the pie filling.
Bake the pie for 30-40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes clean.
Let the pie cool and serve it with a home-made chocolate sauce (simply melt 3,5 ounces dark chocolate in 1/4 cup boiling heavy cream) and some vanilla ice cream.
I love crêpes. I guess it’s one of my favorite pastries and one of my favorite french treat. I love the smooth and thin layer of dough, I love the smell of the ingredients mixing together to bring a unique taste and perfume each time. Crêpes never really taste the same. They always taste something special, something typical of the day you choose to cook them.
When I was younger, it was always a feast when my Mom was baking crêpes. During the whole winter, I’m sure we had some every week at least, always with a different taste. She always put so much love in them and I guess that’s what made them so special. Each family has a different recipe of crêpes I should say. Some like them a bit thick and other love them thin. Some enjoy a light taste of rhum in the back whereas some like the flavour of orange blossom better.
When I was at school, every mother would bake some for the year feast and I remember that it was an occasion for us to seize each other. It was all about whose mother made the best crêpes in the school and most time, no one could admit that someone else’s crêpes were better than their mother’s!
Back in 2013, I wanted to get my own crêpes recipe, that is to say, a gluten free recipe and a recipe that would taste like the weather outside : spicy and comforting. Crêpes are usually a very basic dish : wheat flour, eggs and milk. With such basic ingredients, it’s always possible to give way to your imagination and go ahead with tons of different recipes. Since I have a weakness for chocolate, I wanted to come out with a chocolate gluten free crêpe recipe. Moreover, we had a red kuri squash in the fridge which we wanted to do something unusual with. So I came up with a chestnut squash jam recipe which was perfect with my gluten free chocolate crêpes.
I’ll leave you with the recipe without any further ado…
Chesnut squash jam :
- 1 large red kuri squash (about 500 g/ 18 oz)
- 3 apples
- About 4 cups (about 500 g) sugar
- 1 lemon juice
- 1 orange juice
- Spices to your taste
Gluten free chocolate crêpes :
- 1/4 cup (40g) dark chocolate (melted)
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup (50 g) corn flour
- 3/4 cup (100 g) cornstarch
- 3/4 cup (100 g) rice flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1 tablespoon cream
- 1 table spoon rhum
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- Oil
The day before :
Cut the chestnut squash into half and take the seeds appart.
Cook it in boiling water until it’s very smooth (about 25 minutes).
Use a spoon to get the pulp appart in a bowl and throw the skin away.
Peel the apples and cut them in quarters. Cook them for 25 minutes in boiling water with cinnamon or any other spice.
Put the chestnut squash pulp and the cooked apple in a pot. You can add some spices if you wish too. Pumpkin spices for exemple, will taste great. Add the sugar and the fruit juices and leave the mixing overnight.
The d-day :
Cook the chestnut squash jam for half an hour and put it in glass jars.
In a large bowl, whisk together the chocolate, the cream, the eggs, the sugar and the rhum. Add the flours and little by little, the milk. Keep whisking until the dough is homogeneous. Set the dough in the fridge to rest for 1 hour or more.
When ready to use, stir the dough again. Heat a frying pan and spread a little bit of oil. When it’s hot, add a thin layer of crêpe dough in the center of the frying pan and move to coat the bottom. Cook it for approximately one minute (until it starts bubbling). Flip it and cook it for another minute. Repeat this step until you run out of dough and keep the crêpes on a plate as you work.
Serve with a spoon of chestnut squash jam and a cup of hot christmas tea or hot chocolate.
"Pourquoi tu ne nous ferais pas du hachis?" ("Why don't you cook us hachis?") my aunt asked me yesterday night as we were looking for an idea for saturday lunch. I thought that was a good idea.
I love cooking hachis. It's one of those dishes that can be cooked either very quickly when you're in a hurry and don't know what to do with the leftovers of a beaf stew or very slowly when you have plenty of time on front of you. But whichever solution you pick, hachis always conveys the same feelings to me : a feeling of warmth and comfort.
The second great advantage of hachis is that it is a family dish. Chances that kids don't like it are slim and grown ups often appreciate it.
The third advantage of hachis when you live abroad is that it's quite simple to cook and yet, so french! It always makes quite an impression on your guests, even though you live in France. It's all a question of adding the right herbs and spices.
So I cooked my hachis on Saturday morning and we ate it. All together. And we finished our meal with a cup of coffee or tea and a cherry flavoured cookie.
Then we spent our afternoon doing our own business. As for me, it was mainly work, work and work since studying law means a great part of personal work. But I'm happy since I managed to cook and share my recipe with you. I hope you all enjoy it ;-)
You will need :
- 2 pounds beaf meat
- 6 carrots
- 2 tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons white wine
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- Parsil and Thyme according to your taste
- 3 coriander seeds
- 4 Table spoons tomatoe sauce
- A glass of water
- 1 big red oignon
- 2 pounds potatoes
- 40 cL milk
- A bit of butter
1. Peal and cut the potatoes in cubes. Put them in a stew full of cold water and cook them for about 30 minutes.
2. In the meantime, cut the oignon in tiny pieces and heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan. Sweat the oignon for about three minutes. Set aside.
3. Peal and cut the carrots and the tomatoes in tiny dices and pour them in the frying pan. Add the meat, the wine, the herbs, the coriander, the mustard and the water and cook for half an hour. It's best to wait until the carrots are melting and the ingredients have absorbed all the liquid.
4. Place this mixture in the bowl of a food processor, chop it and set aside.
5. When the potatoes are cooked, puree them and add the milk, some salt and pepper until it matches your taste.
6. Preheat the oven at 350°F.
7. Butter a large dish (or individual ones) and add a layer of meat. Top with the mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with nutmeg and red peppercorns. Add a few pieces of butter on top and cook in the oven for 35 minutes before placing under the broil for 5 more minutes. Serve warm with a green salad.
This is it. Fall has arrived and with it, the grey skies. Rain is pouring and the wind is announcing winter. But the beautiful red and yellow leaves falling on the ground or flying across the streets of my hometown make it beautiful to watch. Definitely, I love fall, even though it's not as beautiful as it is in America, especially on the East coast.
But, still, it's beautiful. And appeasing. After the back to school rush and stress, it feels good to have this cold weather to keep us home a bit. I like studying in front of my window and listening to the wind blowing outside. It feels good to drink a hot cup of tea or chocolate while working on a school paper.
Even though I'm more and more busy, I still try to keep a little time to cook and shoot. Last week, I cooked a very french "hâchis parmentier" with homemade mashed potatoes. It was just delicious and felt so good on a cold sunday. However, I shouldn't forget to talk about the beautiful days fall offers us. Indeed, french fall is not all about rain, sadness and cold weather. It's also about surprising hot days. On these days, the sun is shinning bright and the paths which were wet yesterday dry on the next day. In the meantime, they reflect the stunning hot colours of the season. Fall is the season when you can cook according to your wish : either you choose a cold or a hot dish, chances that it doesn't fit the daily weather are slim.
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| The rooster of the Parc de Procé in Nantes |
So in the end, I wanted to share with you my recipe of french Pim's. These little cakes are easy as pie to cook and yet, delicious. In France, we often buy them and you can find many flavours: orange, raspberry, cherry… My aunt buys some every week. But one week, she forgot to buy some. And my cousin was quite disappointed. So I decided to try to bake some. I chose to stuff them with apricot jam but whichever jam you choose, it will be good. It's all a question of taste.
But I won't let you wait any longer dear reader. Here is the recipe of the french Pim's.
For the spongecake:
5.3 ounces flour
5.3 ounces sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
Stuffing:
Jam (homemade if possible)
Topping:
Dark Chocolate
Preheat the oven at 350 °F (or 180 °C).
Lubricate and flour a springform pan.
Separate the eggs. Keep the egg yolks in a bowl and pour the egg whites in a mixing bowl.
Use a whisk to whip up the egg whites. Once they are firm, whisk in the sugar. Don't stop whisking and add the egg yolks to the dough and then the flour and the baking powder. Keep whisking for a few more minutes.
Pour the spongecake dough in the springform pan and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.
Once the spongecake is ready, remove it form the tin and let it cool on a baking grill.
Cut some small circles in the spongecakes.
In a saucepan, heat the dark chocolate with a bit of milk. Stir it until it has completely melted.
Spread some jam on top of the circles and cover them with dark chocolate. Set the Pim's in the fridge until the chocolate becomes a bit hard and crunchy.
My
time in southern France has finally come to an end. I really enjoyed spending
time with my parents and especially cooking with my Mom. We baked bread,
cheesecakes, pies with our garden fruits and so on. We also had a lot of fun
cooking dishes for lunch or dinner together.
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| A church in the french Pyrénées |
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| Les Pyrénées |
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| La mer in Argelès |
I enjoyed as well the time I spent with my little sister who was always ready to pose for me. She is the person one photographs is delighted to shoot! She’s always smiling or making faces. Anytime, any moment, she’s always pleased to be your model. And you can make her do whatever you want to: jump, lie down, be sad, be happy, eat an apple, play in the garden, pretend you’re not around… She’s the perfect model, and she is really cute! And pretty.
So
back in early September, I came back in western France where I live and study
law. It was a bit hard to leave my home in Toulouse, a place where I could
enjoy fresh products, local farms and wonderful places to shoot. But all good
things come to an end. So here I am in Nantes, ready for a new college year as
a senior. Since I live with my uncle and my aunt, I cook for them as well. The
traditional dish I cook are often risotto and salads. And the traditional
pastries are cookies and cheesecakes. So in a week, I had the occasion to bake
both!
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| Sunset in Nantes |
I
love baking cookies. I use the basic dough and then add in all the ingredients
I get my hands on. This time, it was a jar of too cooked cherry jam and some
white chocolate forgotten in the cupboard. They made delicious cherry cookies.
I like to pack one with me when I’m going to school. Or when I come back home
from a long day at college, I enjoy one with a fig and a glass of milk. Cookies
make me feel better. They never taste the same and I like the smile they put on
everybody in the family. Somehow, baking is a way for me to forget the pain I
had when leaving my family.
Cookie
dough recipe:
-
200 g/7 ounces butter
-
350 g/ 12 ounces flour
-
100g/ 3,5 ounces sugar
-
2 tbs honey
-
1 egg
-
1 pack baking powder
-
200g/ 7 ounces chocolate
-
150g/ 5 ounces corn flakes
-
Raisins, oat flakes, dried fruits… according to
taste
Preheat
the oven at 160°C or 350°F.
Melt
the butter in a jar and bat it with the egg, the baking powder, the honey and
the sugar.
Add
in the flour and mix until the dough is homogenous.
Cut
the chocolate in irregular bits and add it to the dough.
Add
the corn flakes and the other ingredients to the dough.
Make
tiny cookies on a baking trail and bake them for about 15 minutes. Lay them on
a cooking grid until they have completely cooled down. Store them in a metal
box and enjoy them!
I desperately tried to cook macaroons during summer time. But I guess the weather wasn't really in my favor! I always failed at having that little ring which makes them as beautiful to watch as good to eat! But at least, they made good crackers to enjoy with coffee after lunch.
My parents have decided to rent an apartment by the sea. That means we will be away for a week and thus, that the fridge has to be empty when we leave home. This way, I cooked a peach cake with my sister and french meringues! We had two egg whites waiting in the fridge and since I couldn't manage to cook macaroons, I decided to bake french meringues.
My sister helped me, of course! She's so cute and so interested in baking! That's really funny and nice. We spent a couple hours making them. I would lay hem down on the baking sheet while she would decorate them with pink sugar pearls and chocolate and sugar bits. We baked them and stocked them in an iron box and brought them with us.
After that, I shot the meringues and also shot a few pictures of my sister in our garden. Then we spent the rest of our day next to the pool, jumping in the water, swimming and laughing. It was a nice and lovely day, full of sun and good memories to relate.
Back to the beach, we share the apartment with a couple of friends and their 8 year old daughter just loved the meringues, as well as her father. I like cooking in these moments because it makes people happy. Cooking makes me happy whenever I can please someone with my dishes.
French Meringues
2 egg whites
4,4 ounces sugar
Chocolate and sugar decorations
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the sugar little by little, still beating the egg whites.
Lay the meringues down on a baking sheet and decorate them to your taste.
Preheat the oven at 212°F (100°C). When hot, bake the meringue for an hour and a half.
Let them cool down and enjoy them with a cup of coffee or use them to decorate a dessert!
I've been in southern France for almost a week. I'm enjoying wonderful times with my family. I'm happy that I can now cook with my sister who's 8 and very interesting in cooking and photography!
I'm trying new recipes that I can't wait to share with you. But for right now, I'll leave you with a few pictures. I hope you enjoy your summer as well as I do! See you soon :-)
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| My sister playing with water in the pool |
I'm trying new recipes that I can't wait to share with you. But for right now, I'll leave you with a few pictures. I hope you enjoy your summer as well as I do! See you soon :-)
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| Morning sun on my sister's hair |
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| A salad seller at the local market |
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| Coming back home from the market, ready to try new recipes! |
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| Tomato tartare with beet chips and roasted pistachios |
