This post has been long overdue…I made those plums in fall, so when they were in season, then never got the chance to post it. With my trip to France and work schedule, everything got delayed and now it’s November and the plums are no longer in season. I figured I would still post it and not wait for one more year.

I love all poached fruits, they end up being such a delicate and light little treat. I make those quite often when I can find plums and you can complement them with all kinds of dried cookies, biscotti, madeleines, anything you can dip in the syrup. Needless to say this dessert is very quick to make, and “unratable” (that you cannot fail).

The first step is to make the tea. I used green tea in which I added fresh mint leaves and dried verbena leaves (I could not find any fresh ones). Don’t make the tea too strong or the syrup will end up bitter and unpleasant.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cup green verbena-mint tea
• 1 star anise
• vanilla bean, cut lengthwise
• 2 tbs honey
• 6 red plums, not too soft
• 2 tbs macarpone
• 2 tbs Plain greek yogurt
• 1 tsp powder sugar (optional)
• zest of 1/2 Meyer lemon
• pistachios, roasted

Preparation

First make tea, letting the mint and vebena infuse for 10 minutes in green tea. Drain and add honey.

In a pan, cook plums with tea, then add star anis and vanilla bean. Let the plums cook until soft but not mushy. At this point the syrup has thickened. It should not be too thick, add water if too thick. Remove vanilla bean and filter syrup if necessary. Let it cool.

Mix mascarpone and yogurt until smooth, add 1 tsp of powder sugar or more if you like it sweeter and add lemon zest.

Serve plums in cups pouring syrup around and 1 tbs of mascarpone cream on top. Sprinkle with pistachios.

That is one is now one of my new favorite desserts. I have a few favorite desserts despite my non sweet tooth, and this one certainly is on the list.

I was skeptical before starting this recipe, I thought the quinoa flavor would be too strong and overwhelming and not starchy enough, that this would not work as well as rice. I was wrong. I used regular milk but any other non dairy milk such as almond milk would be an alternative if you want to make it dairy free. I like to serve it with a fresh fruit salad and it’s the perfect light dessert, I would call it the guilt free dessert.

This is a quick little dessert to make, it cooks in 20 minutes, then you need to let it cool and it’s ready.

The pineapple salsa is cut in small little cubes and marinated in mint and agave nectar, nothing extravagant but perfect match with the subtle rum flavor you get while biting in the raisins.

Ingredients for 3-4

For the quinoa

• 7 oz (or 200 g) quinoa
• 1.7 cups (or 40 cl) milk
• 1.4 oz (or 40 g) sugar
• vanilla bean cut in 2
• golden raisins 3 tbs
• rum (enough to soak the raisins in)

For the pineapple salsa

• 3 slices of fresh pineapple, cut in small even cubes (about 6mm)
• 1 tbs mint, finely chopped
• agave nectar (to your liking)

Preparation

Rinse quinoa under running water, then place in a pot with the milk and vanilla beans scraped and simmer. Add sugar and let cook until the milk had been absorbed. In the meantime, soak raisins in rum until they turn soft and plumpy for about 30 minutes. Add raisins when quinoa is cooked. Stir well and let it cool, refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

For the pineapple salsa, mix all the ingredients and refrigerate.

Serve cream of quinoa with pineapple salsa.

One recipe adapted from “La Bonne Cuisine Végétarienne de Babette” with a creole inspiration. Who doesn’t like rum, vanilla and orange juice? I have never really cooked plantains before, maybe once or twice in a savory dish, but I never really got much inspired by it. In my mind, a plantain is just like a banana, a fruit, therefore more suited in a dessert type of dish.

Needless to say I loved this dessert, any fruit based desserts are my favorites. In the original recipe, there is a cinnamon stick, I didn’t add it since I am not a huge fan of cinnamon. I think usually cinnamon over powers the natural flavor of the fruit, but that’s just a personal preference. I changed the quantities a bit by adding less sugar, but you can play with that too. The great thing about this recipe, is that it’s quick to prepare, yet delicious, so definitely a winner.

I would serve this with a scoop of coconut ice cream (in the original recipe, they suggest some lime sorbet). I found some really good coconut ice cream a while ago, with candied ginger, that was incredibly good, but they stopped selling it, so I need to find a replacement for that. I found it strange that anytime I love something, they stop selling it or producing it. As we say in French, les bonnes choses ont une fin, good things have an end, so let’s enjoy them while we can!

Ingredients for 2 or 3

• 1.5 tbs sugar
• 1 ripe plantain, diced
• 1 ripe mango, diced
• 1 vanilla bean, cut in half and bean scraped
• 1 cinnamon stick (optional)
• 3 tbs rum
• juice of 2 oranges
• zest of one lemon
• Coconut ice cream (optional)

Preparation

Melt sugar in a pan to obtain a caramel (not too dark). Add mango and plantain, let cook for a few minutes, then add vanilla beans. and the scraped pod. Stir and cook for a few additional minutes. Add orange juice, rum and lemon zest and let cook for about ten more minutes.

Serve warm with a scoop of coconut ice cream

It’s seems like a long time since I prepared a savory dish with coconut or vanilla, but lately I have been thinking about vanilla and spices, so I guess I am ready to take a little vacation in the tropics. Anytime summer comes, I just want to pack my bags and go somewhere. My yearly trips to France are not really a vacation, it’s more like family time with everything that it implies. Going home to the city I grew up in is always a great pleasure, but does not make me feel I am on vacation. I think I want to go in a country where I don’t understand the language and feel completely “depaysée” (in a new world), discover new flavors, scents and feel new emotions.

My friend Laurent offered me a book called “La Bonne Cuisine Végétarienne de Babette“, a wonderful vegetarian book written by a French Créole chef, Babette De Rozières, where she presents recipes with a créole flair using tropical ingredients. Her cuisine if full of colors, sunny and vibrant like the islands. After I finished reading that book, I just wanted vanilla…everything needed to be vanilla.

Vanilla blends well with fish and poultry too, one aspect of vanilla is that it’s very delicate, and not strong nor overpowering, unless of course you use a lot of it. It’s better not to add too many other spices or flavors with vanilla, because it’s so delicate that strong spices will kill it subtle flavor.

You can substitute the spinach with some more exotic greens and use yams instead of the sweet potatoes. I used sweet potatoes and coconut, to complete the dish, and I really liked it. It’s fast to prepare as well, so nothing to complain about. Depending on the length of your vanilla beans and size of your shrimps, you might add more than two shrimps on the vanilla bean. My shrimps were quite large so only two fitted.

Ingredients for 4

For the shrimps marinade

• 12 shrimps
• zest of 1 lime
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 vanilla bean scraped
• 4 vanilla beans
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

For the spinach

• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 shallot, finely sliced
• 1 lb baby spinach
• salt and pepper

For the potatoes

• 2 large potatoes, peeled and sliced 1 cm thick
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

For the sauce

• 1.5 tsp butter
• the rest of the marinade
• 1/2 tsp cider vinegar (optional)
• 1/2 tsp honey
• 2-3 tbs coconut milk

Preparation

Place two or three shrimps in the vanilla bean. Mix all the ingredients of the marinade and pour on top of the shrimps. Place in a container and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Coat potato slices with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and broil in the oven until tender in the middle and golden brown on the outside. Keep warm.

Heat olive oil in a large pot, add shallot, let it sweat, then spinach, salt and pepper and keep stirring at high heat until wilted.

Melt butter in a pan. Add shrimps (removing excess marinade) and let them cook at medium heat, add marinade, stir well. Remove shrimps. Deglaze with vinegar, add honey and coconut milk. Let the sauce reduce a little.

Place two slices of potatoes in a place,  top them with spinach, then shrimps. Spoon sauce on top and serve hot.

Some people call this gâteau, it’s more like a flan to me than a cake, no matter how you call it, this is a very traditional French dessert. It took me a while to find coarse semolina and even thought of bringing it back from France at some point. But I figured, since you can find anything in San Francisco, with a little effort, I knew it would be out there. So this was another find at Samiramis, the Middle Eastern store. Semolina based desserts being common in Middle Eastern countries, here it was among other grains and cereals.

Flan de semoule is a very simple dessert, yet quite delicious. It does not have the consistency of a flan, it’s thicker and more dense because of the semolina, but the flavor reminds me of a flan. You can also add raisins and flavor it with rum for a little twist.

As for the caramel, it’s very easy to make, you need the right pan…when I use certain non-stick pan, my caramel crystallizes. It took me a while to figure that out. First, I thought it was my stove, then I was convinced it was the sugar…but no it was the pan material. So if your sugar doesn’t melt and crystallizes, before throwing away pounds of sugar, try out changing your pan, it might just be the trick!

Ingredients for 3-4 flans (depending on the size of the ramequins)

For the flans

• 1 pint (or 500 ml) milk
• 2.10 oz (or 60 g) coarse semolina
• 2.45 oz (or 70 g) sugar
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the caramel

• 5.30 oz (or 150 g) sugar

Preparation

Heat milk in a pot with vanilla bean (cut lengthwise, beans scraped). When the milk starts boiling, add semolina and keep stirring so that the semolina doesn’t stick. Cook and stir for about 15 minutes. Remove from stove and add sugar and egg.

For the caramel, melt sugar in a pan at low heat until the sugar melts and turns golden brown.

Divide caramel in ramequins, then pour semolina mixture on top. Cook in a water bath at 360F for about 25 minutes.

Refrigerate and serve cold.

I love summer, partly because I can eat peaches and apricots sans limites! My two favorites fruits are in season, and I only wait for summer to come, just to indulge in juicy peaches, nectarines, and apricots.

My friend Simon in France asked me why I was working so much, aren’t people gone on vacation in July-August in the US?…well it’s true that summer in France and Europe in general, is the dead season, especially July-August, where everything closes and businesses work “au ralenti“. Everyone goes on vacation and big cities are deserted. Well, not here, I cannot tell that this is summer, other than by the fog rolling in the city and the peaches and apricots are on the shelves (which is good enough for me).

I had some whole wheat pâte brisée left that I wanted to use, and decided to make one peach tart and one apricot tart slightly different. The peach tart was sprinkled with vanilla and I added cookies on the crust, so that they absorb the juice of the fruits while cooking. The apricot tart was sprinkled with rosemary and I spread raspberry jam on the crust…so two different flavors. You need to use well ripe fruits, especially apricots if they’re not ripe enough, they tend to be a little acidic and tart, then you need to add more sugar.

Ingredients for 4-6 tartlets

For the crust

• 200 g whole wheat flour
• 100 g butter
• 30 g sugar, soft at room temperature
• water

For apricot tartlets filling

• 1 lb apricots, well ripe and cut in half
• 2 tbs raspberry jam
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• 30 g butter, cut in small cubes
• 1 rosemary sprig

For the peach tartlets filling

• 4 peaches, peeled and cut in 1/2 inch slices
• 5 tbs crumbles shortbread cookies
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla powder
• 30 g butter, cut in small cubes

 Preparation

Start making the crust. In a mixing container, add flour and sugar, then incorporate butter using the tip of your fingers, not kneading dough too long, or it will break. Wrap in a plastic film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll dough and place in a tart pan. For the apricot tart, spread jam all over the crust and fill it with apricot halves. Sprinkle with sugar and place little bits of butter on top of the fruits. For the peach tart, cover crust with crushed cookies. Cover with peaches segments, sprinkle with vanilla powder and add bits of butter on top.

Cook for about 35 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 370F. Check to see the bottom of the crust is not over cooked.

Who said that polenta only needs to be eaten in savory dishes? I was so excited about this dessert, that I have been thinking about it for days. Let’s also enjoy the peaches while they last, soon they’ll no longer be available. I cannot believe it’s already September.

In France, we have some semolina based desserts like this one (gâteau à la semoule) that the kids usually love (well adults too). So I somehow decided to play with polenta. You need a medium to fine grind. I don’t like to use the coarse kind that much. This polenta has such a fragrant vanilla and milky flavor, I could not stop eating it from the pot. The peach is roasted in honey and rum, which makes every bits a real delight. If you combine on your spoon some polenta cake, peach, mascarpone and run sauce, you might end up being addicted to it.

The peaches need to be ripe but still firm so they don’t overcook quickly while in the oven.

While I was playing with my dessert, I got caught on the phone for a short time, I did not realized that someone was stealing my crumbs. My dog Enzo is as obsessed with food as I am. Of course, a dog being a dog, his obsessions limit themselves too eating food rather than preparing it. I think if I were a dog, I would be just like him. While distracted on the phone, I did not see Enzo, open the kitchen cabinet, and steel the breadcrumbs jar. He opened the lid, left the lid laying on the kitchen floor, took the bread crumbs jar in “his room”, spreading the crumbs on the rug before eating them, and of destroying the jar in pieces. Then after his fight with the crumbs, he hid underneath the bed to hide, knowing he was in trouble.

When I saw his moustache I could not stop laughing, schnauzers have funky moustaches that get easily dirty.

Ingredients for 4

For the polenta cakes

• 200 ml milk
• 30 g heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean cut lengthwise and beans scraped
• 50 g sugar
• 65 g polenta
• 2 tbs golden raisins
• 8 dried apricots, unsweetened and cut in small pieces
• 3 tbs rum

For the roasted peaches

• 2 large yellow peaches, peeled and cut in half and seed removed
• 1 tbs honey
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tbs sliced almonds, toasted
• 4 tbs mascarpone

Preparation

For the polenta cakes

In a pot, combine milk and cream, sugar and vanilla bean. Bring to a boil. Add polenta gradually while stirring. Keep stirring for about 20 minutes (you can also use express polenta). Add extra milk if the polenta gets too thick. Add raisins and apricots pieces. Mix well. Spread in a flat surface keeping the thickness to about 2 cm. Let it cool. Using cookie cutters, or rinds, cut 4 circles.

For the roasted peaches

Grease a  baking dish with butter. Place peaches halves (flat part down). sprinkle with sugar and honey and cook in a pre-heated oven at 400F for about 15 minutes, then turn the peaches on the other side. Let them cook for another 10 minutes, then deglaze with rum (the soaking rum). Put peaches back in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven let them cool a little.

Place one polenta cake in a plate. Add half peach on top. Add mascarpone on the side and sprinkle with rum sauce.

This is only for those days you have a lot of peaches in your kitchen, lots of mint in your garden and a huge desire to eat peaches…berries and peaches are some of the fruits I don’t get tired of eating. When my Greek grocer next door saw me with all those peaches in my basket, he asked me if I was going to kill myself with them. I told him that’s what was probably going to happen…that would be a great way to die, if you ask for my opinion. Death by peaches. As much as I am not a sweet tooth, I adore fruits and fruit-based desserts, they’re refreshing, light, put me in a great mood and energizing me for the day.  Alors voilà, encore des pêches!

The peach syrup has been infused with mint and vanilla, then enhanced by a a dollop of yogurt and light touch of cayenne pepper. The bouchées which are really tiny (1.5 inch diameter) look like muffins but they’re really not, have a subtle rosemary flavor, since the peaches have been caramelized in a butter, honey and fresh rosemary blend. This makes a light and refreshing dessert. I served this as a dessert to a dinner and it’s always so pleasant to have a fruity bite when people are no longer hungry. It cleans your palate and the herbal touch tells you: This is the end.

Ingredients for 5-6

For the peach soup

• 2 white peaches, peeled and cut
• 2 yellow peaches, peeled and cut
• 1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise
• 10 mint leaves
• 2 tbs agave syrup
• 1.2 cups water
• 6 tbs plain yogurt
• 6 pinches cayenne pepper

For 12 rosemary bouchées

• 2 eggs
• 60 g butter, melted (+ a tsp extra)
• 20 g kamut flour
• 30 g chestnut flour
• 20 g white flour
• 3 tbs almond flour
• 40 g agave syrup
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 rosemary sprig, chopped
• 1 tbs honey
• 2 peaches, peeled and diced

Preparation

For the peach soup

Mix water, agave syrup, mint, vanilla beans and bring to a boil for about 5 minutes, then let it cool and infuse the syrup. Drain and set aside. When syrup is cool, place some of it in a blender with peaches and mix into a smooth consistency. Refrigerate for at least one hour. When ready to serve add one 1 tsp of yogurt in the middle and a pinch of cayenne.

For the peach rosemary bouchées

Melt butter in a pan, add honey, then when the mixture turns thick, add peaches. Coat peaches with mixture for about 3 minutes, then add rosemary, cook for an additional 2 minutes, then remove from heat. In a mixing container, beat eggs with butter, agave syrup and the different flours. Add baking powder and mix well. Fill up individual mini molds such as silicon molds with the batter. Add 1/2 tsp of the peach mixture in the middle with some rosemary. Bake in pre-heated oven at 360F for about 20 minutes. Let them cool and serve with peach soup.

I have been obsessing about this green apple/scallop combination for weeks, and could not come up with something that I would be excited about. Raw apple? cooked apple? diced? sliced? not sure how I wanted to make it work. I have seen many recipes with scallop and green apple but it was not what I wanted, I just wanted something fresh and not to have some kind of apple sauce. I needed to have my favorite ingredient vanilla in it. So I knew there would be vanilla oil. Sometimes when developing a recipe, you have to think about it for weeks and think about it progressively, like it needs to mature in your mind. The key ingredients here are the green apple and vanilla oil.

Granny smith and sea scallop are becoming somehow a trendy combination in French cuisine and more chefs are serving this beautiful and elegant concoction….and this for a good reason, it’s a magnificent combination of flavors. The acidity of the granny smith marries to perfection with fish. When I started to cook, I was more traditional in my cuisine but with time going by, it evolved into a more eclectic fusion of tastes. I still enjoy traditional cuisine, but love to explore new flavors, and this one is a perfect example of this new exploration.

In new contemporary French cuisine, you are starting to see more fruits combined with fish, everything tastes extremely fresh, has a very low cooking time, and is an exuberance of wonderful flavors. I think with the weather getting warmer, and more wonderful summer fruits coming on the shelves, I will do more exploration.

I simply adore this recipe, I adore the granny smith acidity combined with a little honey and lime, I adore the vanilla oil, the moist sea scallops, the Szechuan pepper, I love just about every little aspect of this dish. The absolute winning part of it, is that it’s ready in 10 minutes (of course you need to infuse vanilla in olive oil overnight), and the rest happens magically.

Sea scallop is such a wonderful ingredient, you don’t need to dress it up with spices, or a lot of add on. Nature did a wonderful job in making them naturally delicious, their natural sweetness is simply a pure delight.

Ingredients for 4 (as a small bite)

• 4 large scallops
• 2 medium size granny smith apples, peeled and grated
• 1 tsp butter + 1 tbs butter
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped and infused in olive oil overnight
• 4 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 tsp honey
• 1 lime juice
• 1 lime zest
• Szechuan pepper
• salt

Preparation

First start preparing the vanilla oil by scraping the beans and adding it along with the rest of the pod to the olive oil. Place in a airtight container and let it infuse overnight.

Grate the apple and remove extra juice. Add 1 tsp of lime juice to prevent the pulp from staining. Add honey and salt.

Pat dry scallops on high heat and saute in 1 tbs butter until both sides turn golden brown, but still moist in the middle.

Melt 1 tsp butter in a small pan, then add apple for 30 seconds, just to warm it up.

Remove scallops, adjust with salt and Szechuan pepper. Place 2 tbs of apple mixture in small individual plates, add one scallop on top and drizzle with vanilla oil. Decorate with lime zests.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/05/as-chic-as-a-chanel-dress-sea-scallop-on-green-apple-with-vanilla-oil/feed/ 30 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/01/white-smoothness-in-a-jar-fig-vanilla-and-apple-kiwi-yogurts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=white-smoothness-in-a-jar-fig-vanilla-and-apple-kiwi-yogurts http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/01/white-smoothness-in-a-jar-fig-vanilla-and-apple-kiwi-yogurts/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:03:45 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=6575 Douceurs blanches dans un pot – Yaourts Figues-Vanille et Pomme-Kiwi

I have been back to the US since last Friday and one thing that I already start missing is the yogurt. If you haven’t tried homemade yogurts, you haven’t tasted the goodness of what a real yogurt can be. I have always been nostalgic about the wonderful yogurts you can find in France in the yogurt/dairy section in any supermarket area. There are about four full aisles of yogurts and dairy specialties of dairy and non dairy fresh desserts. I am in heaven. Yogurts in the US tend to be on the boring side and quite frankly not very good. I tasted all of the brands, and I always remain faithful to Strauss, their European called yogurt. It seems like all yogurts contain gelatin and taste artificial especially the flavored ones, so I stick to the plain kind.

Yogurt making is like bread making in France right now, two nationwide spread trends. So after going to FNAC, a bookstore/electronics store, and spending hours on the cook book section, I run into an intriguing book on making yogurts, and I decided to buy it.

After landing in the U S of A and going through customs with half a supermarket in my suitcase, I realized that I had no yogurt maker. Yogurts can be made in many other ways if you don’t have a yogurt maker, like using a pressure cooker, an oven, etc…but I just wanted a yogurt maker and not go through a few times of failing the yogurts, like it happened before. So on day 2, I went to buy a yogurt maker and if you are a yogurt “freak” like me, it’s a good investment. In a next post, I will explain how to make yogurts without a yogurt maker, in case you don’t have one since I suspect many people don’t have one. It’s a little more tricky but it does work.

I used approximately the recommended proportions I found on the book called “Yaourts” from Solar Editions, then I somehow flavored them according to my tastes. You can use any fruit you like.

The great thing about making yogurt is that you can play around with different milks, spices and fruits. For this first attempt, I used fat free milk, but next time I will use the 2% fat and see the difference. The only inconvenient is that it takes about 10 hours to have your yogurts ready, but then you get seven of them. You can use either a plain yogurt or yogurt ferments for your mixture.

Ingredients for 7 yogurts

• 2 kiwis, peeled and cut in small cubes
• 1/2 granny smith apple, peeled and cut in small cubes
• 4.4 oz (or 125 g) black figs, peeled and well ripe
• vanilla powder
• 2 tbs sugar
• 3.38 cups milk (or 800 ml) whole, skim or half-skimmed
• 6 tps evaporated milk (canned or in powder)
• 1 regular plain yogurt

Preparation

If you are using fruits at the bottom, I suggest to start preparing them beforehand. Peel figs and cut in small cubes, add sugar and let it cook until it becomes into a smooth consistency. Add vanilla and let it cool. Proceed the same way with the apples and kiwis (without the use of vanilla).

Remove milk from the refrigerator and keep it room temperature for a while. In a mixing container, mix milk and yogurt. Add evaporated milk. Mix well.

Place 2 tbs of fruit sauce in each jar, add milk mixture and place in yogurt maker as per instructions. Do not close jars with lids. I kept those for 9 hours in the machine since I used non-fat milk. If you are using regular milk, or half-skimmed milk, you need to leave the yogurts about 7-8 hours. When the machine has stopped, put lids on and place in the refirgerator for 3 hours.