Tarte Tatin

On a recent trip to France I got the chance to eat a home mage Tarte Tatin - which is similar to an upside down apple cake but I felt that the ratio of apples to dough was more to my liking ( = more apples).

Upon my return I searched for a recipe and found this one that I adapted a bit since I don't have a pan that can go into the oven.

Ingredients
Apples, peeled, cored and quartered
Lemon juice
100g sugar
2/3 stick butter, cubed
2 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of allspice
3 tbsp calvados
Puff pastry, rolled out in a circle shape a bit larger than the baking dish.
Egg yolk with a bit of water

Mix apples with lemon juice.
Add sugar to a pot and heat on medium heat until the sugar caramelizes.
Then add butter, cinnamon, and allspice.
When the butter is melted, and the mixture boils, add calvados and cook for another 2 minutes.
Add the apples, then cover and let cook on low for 10 minutes.
Get a baking dish ready. Add the apple mixture and cover with puff pastry.
Brush the egg yolk onto the dough. Bake for ~30 minutes.

When I took the cake out of the oven, I let it stand for a little bit before I turned it over, to let the liquid settle.

Curry - #Whattodowithpotatoesmushroomsandtofu

Today we had some dish in mind that would use up the soaked beans we had in the fridge. But the beans had other plans - they must have spoiled some time this week.

We were left with potatoes, mushrooms, tofu and onions. A quick google search revealed a bunch of great recipes with those ingredients, and we settled on a recipe for a curry with coconut milk

Ingredients
Oil
2 onions, chopped in half rings
3 potatoes, chopped into cubes
6 big mushrooms, sliced
1 package of firm tofu
100ml vegetable stock
100ml cream
400ml coconut milk
Curry powder, cumin, salt, pepper to taste

In a dutch oven, heat some oil, then add onions and potatoes. Cook for 5 mins until the potatoes start to soften. Add tofu and mushrooms, and cook for a few more mins, adding stock to avoid burning on the bottom. Add spices, cream and coconut milk, and simmer for 10 mins.

The potatoes came out very creamy, and the tofu was flavorful! We served it over brown rice and it was delicious!

Breakfast roll ups

When I made enchiladas recently, I had some tortillas leftover. So I looked online to see what else I could make and found breakfast roll ups!
They are very easy to make, quite tasty and they look wonderful.

Ingredients

Eggs
Tortillas
Cheese
Spinach

Beat the egg and fry it in a pan, covering the whole surface. Slide the cooked egg onto a tortilla and top with grated cheese and spinach. Roll it up and enjoy!

Campfire dough

One thing I love about camping is the cooking outside. We mostly cook our dinner on the campfire, but for breakfast we have a camping stove.
On our last trip, I prepared dough for campfire breadsticks. I accidentally made way too much so we had leftover dough in the morning - it worked out perfectly as a sort of camping pancake :D

1 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup water

Mix all the ingredients and store in a plastic bag until it's time to wrap it around a stick or to fry it as a pancake.

Braised French Onion Chicken with Gruyère

We recently signed up for a fruit and vegetable box that is delivered to our door every two weeks.
The last box contained a whole bunch of onions so I decided to make a dish that I made once before and really enjoyed: Braised French Onion Chicken with Gruyère!
It takes a bit of time to make, but it is very yummy.

This time, I also made mushrooms in a cream and brandy sauce to go with the chicken:

Ingredients

Butter
Mushrooms
Onions
1/2 cup cream
2 tbsp cognac or brandy
Corn starch
Salt
Pepper

Melt the butter in a pan, add onions and fry until translucent. Cut the mushrooms into halves or thick slices and add them to the onions. Fry for two minutes. Add the cream and brandy, and increase the heat. Simmer until the liquid is reduced. Add cornstarch to thicken the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I served the chicken and mushrooms with potatoes. Yum!

French Savory Pumpkin Tarte

I have made this pumpkin pie recipe a bunch of times over the years. It's my favorite pumpkin pie - why add sugar to a dish when you can add cheese instead, right!? :P

Ingredients

For the crust:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, cut into small pieces
4 tbsp (or more) cold water

For the filling:
400g of pumpkin, peeled and cut into small pieces
1 onion, diced
2 eggs
1 egg white
2 tbsp creme fraiche
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
50g parmesan,
50g gruyere,
25 g butter

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Melt the butter in a pan and add onions and pumpkin. Cook until pumpkin is reduced to a puree. Let the mixture cool and add the eggs, cheese, creme fraiche, parsley, salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, add flower and salt. Use your hands to "massage" in the butter until the mixture has a slightly coarse consistency and when you pinch it, it sticks together in clumps. Add cold water and work into a dough. Make a thick disk, wrap in cling foil and chill for about 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough. It's easiest when you roll out the dough between two sheets of cling foil. Line a round baking pan with the crust, use a fork to make some small holes in the dough. Bake for about 10 minutes.

After the crust is pre-baked, brush it with the egg white. Add the pumpkin puree.

Turn the oven down to 360 F (360 °C. Bake for 30-40 minutes until done).

Avocados filled with Shrimp

This is a quick and simple recipe and it tastes great. It's easy to make the filling and bring it with the avocados to a party where the avocados can be cut and filled in no time. 

The recipe is based on this one, which uses crab meat instead of shrimps.

Ingredients:
Avocados
Cooked mini shrimp, chopped
Celery
1/2 - 1 Shallots

Mayonnaise
Cream cheese

Lemon or lime juice
Salt

Pepper

Chop celery and shallot very finely in a food processor. Mix with shrimp, mayonnaise, cream cheese, lemon juice, salt, pepper and sea food spice if desired.

Cut avocados in half and take out a little bit of the flesh to be mixed in the filling. Salt the avocado halves. Fill with shrimp filling. Add pepper or parsley to garnish.

Enjoy!

Fig and Bree Puff Pastry Bites

This recipe is similar the one I've made recently. But it's based on this recipe.

Instead of putting the puff pastry sheets in the oven with the filling already added, this recipe instructs the baker to pre-bake the puff pastry sheets, resulting in fluffier dough.

Ingredients:

1 puff pastry sheet

frozen figs

2 tbsp honey

1/4 cup water

brie

macademia nuts

blue cheese

pear

pecan nuts

cranberries

Heat figs, honey and water on the stove and let simmer until the liquid is thick enough to cover the back of a spoon. Remove from heat.

Roll out puff pastry sheet and cut into 12 rectangles. Place rectangles into muffin pan molds and bake for 12 minutes at 375 F (190 C). When done, remove from the oven and gently press down on the middle of the puff pastry cups. Fill 6 cups brie and top with macademia nuts and fig mass. Fill the other 6 cups with pear pieces, blue cheese, pecan nuts and cranberries. Return to the oven for 5-7 minutes until cheese is melted and puff pastry is golden brown.