Express white sauce

I think I will create a new category "why should we do complex things when it could be so simple" or "simple express cooking". I just love to invent and create shortcuts...

After the microwave zucchinis, i give to you... the express white sauce. The Bechamel kind you can pour on cauliflower and brocolis.... Not only is it quick and tasty, but there is no added fat !

Ingredients

250 ml of cold milk
1/2 cube of vegetable broth
2 soup spoon of corn starch (Maizena)
pepper

Recipe

Boil 200 ml of the milk with the broth in a pan.
Dissolve the starch in the remaining cold milk and add the mix to the pan when it's boiling. Mix constantly until the sauce thickens. Add pepper.

There you go, it's now ready to serve !

Of course this recipe welcomes many variations. Add cheese, change to chicken broth, add herbs, etc.... and you get sauces for all circunstances.

Chocolate pie recipe

DBF really wanted a chocolate pie, a sort of obession with him. So we tried different method, such as buying ready made cream and cooking it in the pie crust. But as usual, we can't control what's in the cream.

So I tried to make my own chocolate cream. The first attempt with real chocolate tasted a bit weird, so I decided to try with Nesquik. I love Nesquik and it's designed to go well with milk. And tada ! the perfect recipe. And you can also make tartelets, like in the picture.

Start with making a basic pie crust (recipe here)
Read the preliminary notes

Ingrédients

450 ml of cold milk
2 soup spoon Maizena
1 egg yolk
90 g of instant chocolate powder (Nesquik)

Recipe

Cook the crust blank 5-10 minutes at 180°c. Meanwhile, prepare the cream.

Put 350 ml of milk and the chocolate to boil in a pan, and dilute the Maizena in the remaining cold milk. Add the egg yolk and mix..

Remove the pie from the oven before the milk boils. Because once it does, you'll have to add the Maizena, egg mix to the pan, mixing constantly, and the cream will thicken fast (in about 1 minute max). And you want to have the pie crust nearby to pour the cream in.

Oven cook the pie 10-15 minutes at 180°c.

Test de scones

One of the things I miss from not living in the UK anymore is scones. I was browsing my Google + thingy when I found a recipe for scones, so I had to try it.

I left out the sultanas (I don't like them). I have to say I don't master the shape of them yet, the dough was all sticky (better add more flour next time).

But they are tasting like real scones, crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, and a little sugary. No need to add anything, it's like mini cakes !

---------------------------------

Une des choses qui me manquent depuis que j'ai quitté l'Angleterre, ce sont les scones. Alors quand j'ai vu cette recette sur Marmiton en surfant sur mon Google plus, il a fallu que j'essaye sur le champ !

Je n'ai pas mis les raisins secs (beurk) La pâte était assez collante (ma faute, la prochaine fois je rajouterai de la farine), et je n'ai donc pas maitrisé la forme, mais ils ont le goût des vrais scones, croustillants à l'extérieur, fondants à l'intérieur, pas besoin de rajouter quoique ce soit, même pas de la confiture, c'est assez sucré, comme des gâteaux miniatures.... Bonne recette !

Oats cookies

DBF is a chocolate freak, mostly in a pie form, but I prefer cookies and biscuits. The simple kind. The advantage of baking our own cookies is to know exactly what's in them, to avoid all the E-something and other weird things so good to the taste, but potentially harmful to our body.

So here is a recipe for oats cookies.

Why oats? Look on the box, it's full of good things, lowers cholesterol, etc... You can keep these cookies for weeks if stored correctly, and they are easy to carry around and eat whenever you feel like it during the day. You can make them any shape you want. I personnaly prefer 4 cm size shapes, quite small, so it's easier to munch on them.

Ingredients

50 g of flour
100 g of oats (the Quaker porridge kind)
60 g of vegetable fat
75 g of caster sugar
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
1 soup spoon of milk

Recipe

Mix and knead all the ingredients together to get a firm and non sticky ball. If it's too dry, add some milk.
Leave it in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Switch the oven to 175°c
Roll the dough flat to have a 0.5cm thickness with a rolling pin or your hands. Use shapes to cut out the cookies.

Note that the dough might be a bit brittle, so knead it a little bit to warm up, and the dough will become more elastic and workable.

Bake about 10 minutes. The cookies will be a little bit soft still, but will harden with time. If you cook for too long, beware of your teeth !

Leave the cookies to cool down on a grid, and store in a dry cool box.

Tarte à la clémentine

Yet another experiment... It's the end of the clementine season here, and I wanted to try an alternative to the lemon pie. So I replaced the 100 ml of lemon juice by clementine juice (freshly squeezed), and used 50 g of sugar instead of 150 g.

Verdict : it has only a subtle taste of clementine, and it's not very sweet. DBF, who hates desserts with citrus, loves it. He ate 2 parts tonight !!!

I think it will make a nice fresh dessert for a warm summer....

-----------------------------

Encore une expérience.... c'est la fin de saison pour les clémentines, donc c'est juste le moment pour essayer une version alternative de la tarte au citron, en remplaçant les 100 ml de jus de citron par du jus de clémentine (pressé) et en utilisant 50 g de sucre à la place de 150 g.

Verdict : le goût de clémentine est vraiment subtil, au point où DBF, qui déteste les desserts aux agrumes, adore et en a mangé deux parts ce soir ! 

Cela fera un dessert frais pour un été chaud....

Lemon pie recipe

I love lemon pies (just like the Stark girls, if you know Game of Thrones), but DBF hates them. So it's not easy to try and make one, then be the only one eating it. But I was lucky, because DBF's mom and sister came to visit and gave me a yummy thumbs up.

This recipe is a first draft, so if you try it on, don't hesitate to send your comments ! The originality is that it's made with milk, not with butter.

Start with making a basic pie crust (recipe here)
Read the preliminary notes

Ingrédients

2 lemons
about 350 ml of cold milk
2 soup spoon Maizena
1 egg yolk
150 g of sugar

Recipe

Cook the crust blank 5-10 minutes at 180°c. Meanwhile, prepare the lemon cream.

Squeeze 2 lemons and measure the volume up. It will determine how much milk you need for a final volume of 450 ml. For exemple, if you have 100 ml of lemon juice, you'll need 350 ml of milk.

Put the milk and the sugar to boil in a pan, but keep 50 ml to dilute the Maizena, the egg and the lemon juice.

Remove the pie from the oven before the milk boils. Because once it does, you'll have to add the Maizena, egg and juice mix to the pan, mixing constantly, and the cream will thicken fast (in about 1 minute max). And you want to have the pie crust nearby to pour the cream in.

Oven cook the pie 15 minutes at 180°c.

Pie crust recipe

This is the recipe I use for all my pies.

Mix 200 g of flour, a pinch of salt and 100 g of cold butter (or 80 g of vegetable spread) with your fingers to create a  « crumble ».

Note : for a sweet pie, add 30 g of sugar and a pack of vanilla sugar, and for a salted pie, add 1/4 tea spoon of salt.

Add about 50 ml of cold water and mix until you have a non sticky elastic ball of dough.

Let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll and flatten the dough. Prepare the pie plate so it looks like the picture: put a sheet of cooking paper before setting the dough on the plate. Push the dough over the sides of the plate, make holes on the bottom with a fork and cut the excess paper so it won't touch the sides of the oven (because the paper will burn !)

That's it ! Your crust is ready to use !