Cassoulet

Cassoulet, specifically the cassoulet at L'Auberge Pyrénées Cévennes, has been added to my short list of possible death row last meal ideas.
For the second time now, I've attempted, and failed, to eat the massive portion of white beans, sausages, confit de canard, pork ribs, and several other pork products all cooked together for hours, served bubbling in an enormous copper pan.I thought I had a chance this time, skipping the entrée and ordering a la carte, but I still succumbed to the rich and starchy French comfort food.
Paired with a bottle of Vin de Pays de l'Hérault at only 12€ a bottle (unheard of in Paris) and the genuinely friendly service of the restaurant staff (also unheard of in Paris), this restaurant is a rare gem in the city of lights and it definitely deserves a third attempt to conquer the cassoulet.

L'Auberge Pyrénées Cévennes 106 Rue de la Folie Méricourt  75011 Paris

American Cake 4 - American Reunion

Last week I was asked to come up with a "very American" menu for an embassy lunch. For the dessert I was torn between American apple pie and NY cheesecake. However, the French apple tarts are really not too far from the American apple pie, besides the top crust we add in the states. The cheesecake here on the other hand is wildly different and vastly inferior to ours in the good olde USofA.
It was decided. Cheesecake! Here is my recipe.

Preheat oven to 200C or about 400F

Crust:
200g Crushed butter shortbread cookies
2-3T Butter, melted
Mix crushed cookies and melted butter together and press into the bottom of a buttered and parchment paper-line spring form pan.
Cook about 5-10 minutes.

Filling:
1120g Cream cheese
400g sugar
30g Flour
1t Vanilla
pinch of salt
Zest of 1 lemon
5 Eggs
2 Yolks

Mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Add flour, vanilla, salt, and zest. One by one add the eggs and yolks until incorporated and smooth.
Butter the sides of the spring form pan and pour in filling. Smooth out the top and place in the oven at 200C. Once the cheesecake begins to take on some color turn down the oven to 180C and continue to cook until cooked through. You can check with a knife of tooth pick inserted into the center. If it comes out clean it's done.
In my mini oven it took about 1 hour, but it could be more or less time in yours.
Remove the cheesecake. Cool.

Raspberry Coulis:
125g Raspberries
Juice of 1/2 lemon
A couple tablespoons of sugar to taste.

Blend all together with a stick blender and pass through a sieve to remove seeds. Chill. Tada!

Embassy Dinner 14/05/2012

 Last night I cooked another embassy dinner for 12 in the heart of the 16th arrondissement. Here was the menu for last night

                                   Écrevisses, mayonnaise épicée aux agrumes

    Salade de blé, vinaigrette aux olives grecques, feta. / Tartare de saumon fumé, citron vert confit

                                Soupe d'asperges servi froid, crème fraiche, croutons

       Saumon roti, sauce BBQ aux framboises fait maison, pommes de terre écrasée, poireaux fondus, lardons

 Assiette de fromages (Reblochon, Crottin de Chavignol, Bleu d'Auvergne) Confiture  aux fraises et a la vanille FM, petite salade.

                                                          Opera FM

Absinthe

Chez Janou, a Provençal restaurant and bar in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, boasts having more than 80 different Pastis, of which about 20 or more are Absinthes.
During a recent trip there to drink some of those very Absinthes, a friend and I started to discuss the alleged history of driving people mad that Absinthe carries.
We came up with a few theories:
1) The wormwood content was higher than it is now, leading to hallucinations. (I don't really subscribe to this theory though because it would need to be quite potent to cause this.)
2) The incredibly high alcohol content of some of these Absinthes gets you very drunk very quickly, which it does. And your behavior changes dramatically, which it does.
3) These were artists and writers who famously went crazy from drinking too much, not much different from today.
Either way, that night after a few glasses of Absinthe Amer at 72% alcohol, I woke up panicked in a cold sweat from a vivid nightmare. Coincidence or not?

It's kinda like Japan.....a little bit.

Yesterday I went to the Jardin Japonais, or Japanese Gardens at the Jardin d"Acclimatation in Paris. After the 45 minute line to get inside, it seemed less like a Japanese garden, and more like a Japanese fair or festival, with many people selling art, toys, and sadly, only very little Japanese food.
The smell of takoyaki floating through the air was enough to make us wait in line, though had we known it would be an hour to get the takoyaki, we may have decided otherwise.
It was pretty good, although incredibly expensive, and it turned out to be the only food we were able to taste during the day, as after waiting a half hour for onigiri, they decided to tell us they had already ran out and were only selling packaged cup ramen now. Disappointment.
The rest of the day at the gardens was pleasant and we made the best out of the rare sunny day in Paris.
Next time though, I'll just save my money for a plane ticket to the real Japan, where I can eat all the Japanese food I want, and experience a real Japanese garden. 

Stephan Hermé

It took a few tries with different temperatures, lengths of time, and baking surfaces, but I am finally able to make perfect macarons in my mini oven. The perfected cooking technique couldn't have come at a better time, as I was asked to make some macarons, along with some other dishes, for the wedding of two friends of mine here in Paris. Here's to the happy couple.

Embassy Dinner 11/4/2012

Thanks to some recent good word of mouth, I had been asked to make some dishes I've made once before for a previous attaché dinner. I decided to change a few things and add a couple others for the season.
Just steps away from Trocadero, in a beautiful apartment with an incredibly surrealistic postcard view of the Eiffel Tower, this was my dinner for the attachés.

Heirloom tomatoes for the Heirloom Tomato Salad, Wild Roquette Pesto, Roquette Salad













Smoked Salmon Tartare and Candied Lime Crostini















Spicy Shrimp and Avocado Salad
















Heirloom Tomato Salad, Wild Roquette Pesto, Roquette Salad
















Balsamic Braised Beef Cheeks, Crushed New Potatoes, Caramelized Leeks, and Spring Peas.
















Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake, Vanilla Bean Creme Anglaise, Raspberry Coulis.