Chocolate Love & Vegetable Color

In this context, I am not so witty as the master to entertain you with my kitchen failures, suffice it to say that as wonderfully tasty as salted butter caramel concoctions are, I have ruined enough of them in the kitchen this week (in terms of texture and presentation, not taste) to conclude that I am not mastering my time as a new mother as well as Béa, and to satisfy my craving for salted butter caramel for a little while (or at least until I get in the kitchen again). Now that the little gal is here, I'm suddenly so inspired to bake, cook and blog up a storm, but I'm irrationally nervous about her needing me every time I go into the kitchen and as a result my mind is only half on what I'm doing in there. Must be that whole as soon as you can't do something, you desperately want to be doing it again, and I have been neglecting this blog so.

That said, my absence from the interwebs does not mean that I don't eat or that I don't enjoy eating these days (far from it, in fact I don't see these extra pounds vanishing as fast as I'd like them to, but not eating whatever I want is as appealing as shoving a fork in my eye, so they'll just have to take their sweet time going away). So, to console me from my pastry failures and for my first Mother's Day (I have step-children but he meant it in the you-made-this-baby way), A. made me pick out a pound of chocolates at the La Maison du Chocolat counter at Horrid's yesterday while he went to the meat counter. I picked a few of just about everything they had except for the alcohol-filled chocolates (while we love us some booze in other instances, neither A. nor I have ever cared for alcohol in chocolates). I know, my life is hard.

In a nod to that most brilliant ingredient photographer out there Haalo, I took pictures of some of the lovely colorful vegetables that A. brought home to make my Mother's Day dinner. Of course I didn't do them justice the way Haalo does, but since I'd never seen purple asparagus before and it is actually a very-short lived veg (in season 6 weeks of the year), and I often overlook round courgettes but these were such a gorgeous lemony color, here they are for your (perhaps) viewing pleasure. A. made us Moroccan meatballs with raita, sauteed horsehoe mushrooms and yellow courgettes, and grilled the asparagus (which were so loaded with flavor, I'm hunting them down every year from now on). It was delish. I love my husband.
Happy belated Mother's Day to all you mothers out there.

Hors d'Oeuvres de Courgettes - Zucchini Appetizer

I don't have a lot of time for posting these days, but I don't want to neglect the blog entirely, so I'm just going to post a little recipe here for an appetizer that is super quick and easy to make, but with the caveat that it is only for those who really like zucchini as the flavors are subtle. It's also very light on the waistline.


The Recipe (ok I'm exaggerating, it's not really a recipe)
3 medium Zucchini
1 yogurt
1 garlic clove
paprika
salt/pepper

You can either partly or completely peel the zucchini. Slice lengthwise and salt, leave for a half hour to disgorge water which you then drain, and lay on a baking tray or in a steamer (depending on whether you want to broil them or steam them). Broil for a half hour or less depending on your oven, or steam them for about 10mn, until the edges are crisp and golden or they are steamed. Make a mound on a serving dish.
Crush the garlic. Mix with the yogurt, add salt, a dash of pepper and paprika to taste (I like a lot of paprika personally). Pour over the zucchini. Serve with pita bread or some other kind of flat bread.


In Français!


Je n'ai pas beaucoup de temps pour écrire des billets ces jours-ci, mais comme je ne veux pas complètement délaisser ce blog, je vous propose une petite recette de hors d'oeuvre hyper simple et rapide, mais avec le caveat que ce n'est que pour les personnes qui apprécient vraiment les courgettes, car les saveur sont très subtiles. C'est aussi très léger.


La Recette (d'accord j'exaggère, ce n'est pas vraiment une recette)
3 courgettes moyenne
1 yaourt
1 gousse d'ail
paprika (ou piment d'espelette)
sel/poivre

Vous pouvez partiellement ou entièrement pelez les courgettes. Coupez en fines tranches et salez, puis laissez dégorger. Posez sur une plaque à four pour les griller, ou faîtes cuire à la vapeur. Griller à 270° ou sur la fonction grill de vôtre four pendant une demi-heure ou moins jusqu'à ce les bords soient dorés et craquants, ou cuisez à la vapeur pendant une dizaine de minutes. Faîtes un petit tas sur une assiette.
Ecrasez l'ail. Mélangez avec le yaourt, salez, poivrez légèrement et ajouter le paprika ou le piment d'espelette au goût (moi j'aime pas mal de l'un ou de l'autre). Versez sur les courgettes. Servez avec du pain pita ou du pain lavash.

Quel Temps Fait-Il? - What's the Weather Like?

Il fait beau et ensoleillé, puis il fait couvert et humide, puis dix minutes plus tard c'est le déluge pendant un quart d'heure. On ne sait plus quoi mettre ou si on peut même prévoir de faire une balade ou quoi que ce soit d'autre. D'ailleurs, ce temps est bizarre et légèrement inquiétant parce qu'il commence à ressembler à un temps de région sub-tropicale, et Paris est loin d'être à la même latitude que des villes telle que Miami...
J'ai des quantités de légumes à utiliser en ce moment et suis à l'affût de nouvelles recettes pour les courgettes en particulier, et pour les autres légumes aussi. J'ai l'habitude de manger beaucoup de légumes en salade, alors c'est un truc un peu nouveau pour moi de les cuisiner régulièrement, mais ça me fait plaisir de découvrir des recettes sur les autres blogs de cuisine et de les adapter selon mes goûts.

Voici une petite recette qui m'est venue en tête en regardant des recettes de soupe de courgettes sur le site de cuisine l'internaute et que j'ai fait à ma façon. Cette soupe est agréable quand il ne fait pas aussi chaud qu'il devrait pour un début de mois de Juillet, et je promets que la recette suivante sera sucrée. Après tout, je suis une grande gourmande, mais vous n'avez pas encore eu l'occasion de vraiment le constater. N'ayez crainte, ça va venir...


La Recette – Soupe de Courgettes

3 courgettes moyennes
125ml de crème fraîche
2 échalotes
1 oignon
1 gousse d'ail
1 cuil. à café de curry
1 cuil. à café de curcuma
1 cuil. à soupe d'huile d'olive
Sel, Poivre

Lavez, pelez à moitié, et râpez les courgettes.
Epluchez et concasser les échalotes, l'oignon et l'ail. Dans une grande casserole (assez grande pour toute la soupe à la fin), faîtes chauffer l'huile. Faîtes dorer l'ail, puis les échalotes et l'oignon. Ajoutez les courgettes râpées. Faîtes revenir une minute pour dorer. Salez et poivrez.
Versez le mélange avec 125ml de crème fraiche dans le mixer et mixez. Ajoutez le curry, curcuma, sel et poivre au goût. Mixez à nouveau. Reversez le mélange dans la casserole et chauffez. C'est tout.
Servez avec un petit peu de yaourt ou crème fraîche en plus si vous voulez.



In English...

It's sunny and beautiful out, then it's gray and muggy, then ten minutes later it's the deluge for about fifteen minutes. It's impossible to know what to wear or if you can go for a walk or do anything else in this weather. What's even more worrying is how this weather is starting to resemble that of a subtropical region, and Paris is far from being at the same latitude as cities such as Miami...
I have loads of vegetables I need to use right now and am always looking for new recipes, particularly some for zucchini, but for other vegetables too. I'm used to eating most vegetables raw in salads, so it's kind of a new thing for me to be cooking them regularly, but I love finding new recipes on other cooking blogs and adapting them to my tastes.

Here's a little recipe which was inspired by looking at recipes for zucchini soup on the recipe website linternaute and which I made my way. It's a pleasant soup when it's not as warm outside as it should be for a beginning of July, and I promise that the next recipe will be sweet. After all, I'm a big gourmande, you just haven't really had the opportunity to find that out yet. No worries, coming soon...


The Recipe - Zucchini Soup

3 medium-sized zucchini
1/2 cup crème fraîche (or sour cream)
2 shallots
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp curcuma powder
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt, Pepper

Wash, half peel and grate the zucchini.
Peel and chop the shallots, onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a big sauce pan or pot (big enough to hold all the soup at the end of the recipe). Brown the garlic, then the shallots and onion. Add the grated zucchini. Stir for a minute to coat and lightly brown. Add salt and pepper.
Pour into the mixer with the crème fraîche or sour cream and mix. Add the curry, curcuma, salt and pepper to taste. Mix again. Pour back into the pot and heat up. That's all.
Serve with a dollop of yogurt, crème fraîche or sour cream if you want.