Cucina Testa Rossa

Le Boo!

Say “Bonjour” to my petit potimarron, a small squash that is a cross between a potiron (pumpkin) and a marron (chestnut). And they taste like, well.....a cross between a potiron and a marron. Go figure. You can roast it, puree it, steam it, or just carve it up for a mini-jack-o-lantern which is what I ended up doing. The seeds, which I have every intention of roasting, will no doubt sit in my fridge until they say "Bonjour" to me when I open the door.

Halloween is a holiday barely acknowledged by adults here in France. While children are embracing this Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), in no small part due to EuroDisney plastering half the city with posters advertising Halloween Night at Euro Disney, France has traditionally celebrated Toussaints or All Saints Day. It is tradition to visit the cemeteries and leave flowers on the graves. Someone asked me where exactly Toussaints (tous = all; saints = saints) came from and I am embarrassed to say I didn’t have a very good answer, so after a quick spin around Google, I was quite enlightened.

It seems this Halloween tradition hails back 2000+ years to an early Celtic holiday at the beginning of the winter season, October 31st. “...Spirits of the dead were believed to roam freely and on the day known as "The Day of the Dead," living relatives would help their dead loved ones complete a safe journey to the afterlife. People would paint or carve scary faces on gourds and turnips and disguise themselves in outlandish costumes to scare away the evil spirits that were also thought to be wandering the earth that night. The Catholic Church, angered by these pagan practices, sought to eliminate them by declaring a new festival of religious observance called All Saint's Day ("Toussaint"), a day in which every saint would be honored...”

A much more uplifting holiday if you ask moi, and one that could have avoided the spawning of Freddie Kruger and his 10 sequels of horror. Happy Halloween and BOO!

Une Énigme De Chocolat ~ A Chocolate Conundrum

What does one do with a 7 POUND BAG OF CHOCOLATE?!?!?! Click here to unravel this chocolate conundrum.

La Vue de Ma Fenêtre ~ Les Fleurs du Soleil

Sunflowers (5 for 6 euros!) at the avenue President Wilson outdoor market ~ October 2005

Prune Blogging Thursday ~ Glace du Pruneaux d'Agen et Armagnac

Taking on David's challenge of Prune Blogging Thursday with the serious (though not the skill) of an Iron Chef, I set off with excitment in search of what he claimed were the best prunes in the world. What he failed to mention is that they are also the most expensive prunes in the world. Pruneaux d'Agen. Delicious indeed.

David gave me this idea so I take none of the credit other than simply making it, and with what's left of my limited number of brain cells, making is much easier than thinking these days. So on David's suggestion, I gave it whirl - well the ice cream machine gave it a whirl - and somehow, thanks to little prune fairies no doubt, the most delicious Glace du Pruneaux d'Agen et Armagnac or Prune and Brandy Ice Cream emerged from my little frozen miracle machine.

I halfed and stewed about 5 of these precocious prunes in a generous cup of brandy until good and mushy. I then added it all to the creme anglaise base and let it seep. I strained out the prune skins, chopped them up and added them to the ice cream as it was mixing. Even I, the most pastry-dessert-uncoordinated-inept person wielding a spatula, must admit that it was delicious. But once again, it was the quality of the ingredients. Let's not forget the most expensive prunes in the world, fresh eggs right off the farm from happy chickens (remember what they say about happy cows!), and freshly churned cream ladeled out of a 20 liter milk container. Hard to go wrong.

Glace du Pruneaux d'Agen et Armagnac

- 5 big fat creamy plump prunes, preferably Pruneaux d'Agen, cut in half lengthwise
- 1 cup Armagnac
- 500 ml (approx 18 oz) milk
- 500 ml (approx 18 oz) cream
- 4 egg yolks
- 200 g (approx 7 oz) sugar

1. Pour Armagnac into a pan and place the prunes cut side down in the pan. cook over medium heat until soft.

2. Put milk and cream into a cold pot and place it on the stove.

2. Bring this mixture to a boil, add the prune mixture, stir to combine and remove from heat.

3. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a non-reactive bowl until it is pale yellow. this is called “blanchir” or to whiten.

4. slowly add the hot milk/cream/prune mixture to the yolks/sugar mixture, whisking constantly.

5. Pour this mixture back into the pot and return to the stove top. Cook over medium heat while stirring constantly, making sure you scrape the inside corners of the pot.

6. The cream is ready when it is “nappant” or naps the back of the spoon. Run your finger down the back of a spoon and if the mixture doesn’t fill in, it is ready. The picture below is an example of “nappant”.

7. Strain through a chinois (fine strainer) into an ice bath or a bowl set over another bowl of ice. Stir the mixture - this will cool it down quickly.

8. When the mixture is room temp, add it to the ice cream machine and let’er rip! chop up the prune skins and add it to the machine as it is mixing. Freeze and serve. Bon appetit.

click here for more ice cream escapades....

Wine Wit and Wisdom

A huge FELICITATIONS to my friend Maggie Rosen in London for publishing her first book, Wine Wit and Wisdom!  Maggie also writes for The World of Wine so she knows a thing or two about this magic elixir.  It is full of fun facts such as where the term "plonk" comes from and howmany bubbles are in a bottle of champagne.  Wine words, wine and the cinema, wine and the gods, and wine and philosophy, it's got it all...including some sips of wisdom such as "Good wine ruins the purse; bad wine ruins the stomach" Spanish proverb. Here, here!

And for the shameless plug... this fun little book makes a fantastic party or hostess gift. With the holidays coming up, Wine Wit and Wisdom quintessentially perfect item for the dreaded office gift exchange party or as a stocking stuffer :-)  Congrats Maggie!  Cheers!

La Vue de Ma Fenêtre ~ Les Poivres de Joel Thiebault

Peppers from fermier (farmer) Joel Thiebault at the avenue President Wilson outdoor market ~ October 2005

Salon du Chocolat ~ Paris

Four friends and I hopped the #12 metro toward Porte de Versailles, heading to the south west corner of Paris and the Paris Expo for an indulgence of chocolate the likes of which would make even Willy Woonka himself dizzy with excitement. If you are/were in hi-tech, picture Comdex but with booths of chocolate rather than booths of software with give-aways of chocoalte covered marshmallows and chocolate covered fruit and just plain chocolate as opposed to mousepads and stress balls. I prefer this much better though I do miss the Stevie Wonder, Cher and Elton John concerts and the paychecks and the health insurance and, oh sorry... back to the chocolate show.....

There were chef demonstrations and bands and pictorial displays and chocolate massages and chocolate facials and chocolate fountains and chocolate fashions, chocolate as far as the eye could see, the nose could smell and our legs could walk.  Here is a quick peek inside the world of all things chocolate. Bon appetit!

Adrienne and Michele partaking in a chocolate covered fruit skewer.....

Sugar High Friday #13 & IMBB #20 Soufflé Sunday

A 3 kilo (6.6 lb) bag of 70% cacao Guanaja chocolate. Oh. My. God.

OK, I cheated, though I prefer to look at it as creative cooking. I combined Sugar High Friday #13: The Dark Side and IMBB #20: Soufflés into one uber-post. Kind of like the one-pot-meals. Kidding. Anyways... This cheating, er... creative culinary expression, led to a wallet-gouging spree through Dehillerin and G Detou, a veritable wonderland of copper pots and cooking supplies, where I went in search of passion fruit puree and some chocolate in anticipation of these 2 momentous events.

Some chocolate... as in 3 KILOS (6.6 pounds) of chocolate and 45 euros later......!  Like the prunes,  God forbid I do anything moderately.  Pierre Hermé uses this exact chocolate to make some of his showstopping delights and he purchases this size bag! Now he makes, oh I don’t know, thousands of pounds of chocolates a week so who do I think I am buying this monstrous bag o’ love? 

Well it was between a mediocre generic 1 kilo box of chocolate or the above mentioned indulgence. Wasn’t much of a decision so I staggered out of G Detou with my near 7 pound bag of chocolate in one hand and various and sundry dangerous looking devices I’d picked up at Dehillerin in the other...

...including an Emile Henri soufflé dish in which to concoct these chocolate clouds... I figured I would use all the chocolate over the course of a year and could therefore amortize it to 4 euros a month. Pas mal (not bad)! Hey, I can justify just about anything ;-) even a near 7 pound bag of chocolate which is so beyond reason it shuns explanation

So back to the culinary creativity. One of the most memorable meals I’ve had in the US was at Vong and we ended the evening with a Passionfruit Soufflé that I can taste to this day. It was truly one of the most spectacular desserts I’ve ever had. Dreamy, intoxicating, and completely enchanting. I wanted to make a passion fruit soufflé and I also wanted to start amortizing my near 7 pound bag of chocolate so I came up with the brilliant idea (well I thought it was brilliant) to combine Sugar High Friday with Soufflés a’ Burnin’ Sunday and voila:  Chocolate Passionfruit Soufflé!  Now my soufflé looks a little worse for wear but you should have seen the first one. Yikes! However, thanks to fabulous ingredients, the taste was delicious with the deep unctuous bitter chocolate cut with tangy passion fruit that sent me swooning. 

inside & seeds of passion fruit.....note the triangle shaped
symmetrical areas where the seeds are attached

So to make this baby, I followed that standard recipe for Soufflé au Chocolat and added about 1/3 cup of passion fruit purée to the mixture. Mine came out a bit funky because the oven was a bit too hot and I was rushing and didn’t completely fold in the egg whites so a few egg white lumps here and there but certainly nothing that stopped us from eating it...yes before our dinner!

Soufflé au Chocolat et Fruit de Passion

1 oz flour
1 oz butter + 1 oz for dish
4 ½ oz milk
3 ½ oz chocolate, finely chopped
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
½ oz sugar + some for dish
10 ml passion fruit purée

1. preheat oven to 400F / 200C / #6

2. rub 1 oz of butter all over the inside of the soufflé dish. coat with a thin layer of sugar. place in fridge until ready to fill.

3. in a pot, melt the butter on medium heat, then add the flour. stir to combine thoroughly. this is called a “roux” – a standard thickener for soups, stews and sauces.

4. take the pot off the heat and add the milk. stir with a wooden spoon to combine thoroughly.

5. add the chocolate and stir until completely melted.

6. add the egg yolks one at a time combining each completely before adding the next.

7. stir in the passion fruit purée.

8. in a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.

9. gently fold with a spatula ¼ of the egg whites at a time into the chocolate mixture.

10. pour into buttered/sugared molds and bake for 15 minutes for a large soufflé dish (half the time for the small ramekin-sized soufflé dishes.

11. serve immediately with a big spoon!  bon appetit!

Le George V ~ The 2nd Best Meal I've Ever Had

Dessert at Restaurant Le Cinq at l’Hôtel Four Seasons George V

This is the second best meal I have ever had. In my whole life. Ever. Period.

Believe it or not, this meal occurred the same weekend as the L'Ambroisie gastronomic extravaganza .... a veritable food frenzy that would have made Bacchus himself jealous. Click here to experience dinner at a 3-Michelin star restaurant in a hotel voted #1 in the world...

The Most Expensive Prunes in the World!

Dear David, I take back everything I said along with all my snide digestive-cleansing comments regarding the pedantic prune. You were right. I am converted. Prunaliciously yours, Laura

Since God forbid I do anything moderately, I took on David's Prune Blogging Thursday challenge with great gusto and headed to J Detou for some prunes. I was actually searching for passion fruit puree (coming in a few days) and I saw a tin of Pruneaux d’Agen that he’d exhalted. 18 euros later and a severe case of sticker shock, I staggered home glassy-eyed.

However all was made right in the world when I opened this little box o’ gold a la Charlie Bucket and his first bar of chocolate. There are 16 individually wrapped prunes in the beguiling blue tin. Are you doing the mental calculations as in 18 euros divided by 16 prunes equals 1.125 euros per prune...approximately...which comes to 1.406 or $1.41 PER PRUNE!  I could by a 10 gallon drum of prunes at Costco for that! But...

Bite into one of these little jewels and you will be transported to an out-of-body experience. They were firm on the outside, but sweet, creamy on the inside as if little Agen elfs magically removed all the insides, pureed them, sprinkled with fairy dust and reinserted it into the prunes. Maybe they did indeed do this and I am completely clueless and have no right to call myself a 'culinary professional' but these little babies just about knocked my socks off...and I wasn’t wearing socks!

A tin of Pruneaux d’Agen: 18 euros
Eating a Pruneaux d’Agen: Priceless