I felt like I was living in a warzone this week (no it’s not Iraq but Paris I currently reside in). It all kicked off after the election results. I didn’t even venture out on Sunday night (I had ‘smellovision’ while watching the live reports. I could smell the burning/teargas).
Monday night I was sitting out on the ‘terrace’ having a drink with a friend. Halfway through my G&T the waiter came out and started shouting ‘get it get in’. So we rushed in and watched the ‘demonstration’ pass (smashing windows etc) followed by the police, fire brigade and then the TV cameras.

Tuesday night I arrived home about midnight (after baking 250 biscuits, in the last week I’ve baked about 500) to see the fire brigade running around frantically (lots of dishy firemen, RRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr baby). This time it wasn’t a car but Mcdonald’s which was burning. You think the week couldn’t get more exciting than that, well you’re mistaken.
The last couple of months I have been working on a extremely exciting project. I’m very lucky to be involved in a new ‘tasty’ food bookshop in Paris.
Drumroll please…

I proudly present La Cocotte:

After many late nights (or better said very early mornings) we opened La Cocotte with a bang on Thursday. I spent the evening serving Almond & Mate granita (or ‘Posh Slush Puppie’) with coquetines (the biscuits I made 500 of, which were all eaten/sold apart from 100) to various people from the press and friends. We even had Trish Deseine come by.

A full reportage on La Cocotte will be winging your way soon, once I’ve made another 500 biscuits.

Here’s the recipe for the Slush puppie ‘posh style’:

Mate Granita

Mate is an argentinian tea infusion.

1l freshly boiled water
300ml sugar syrup (150ml water 150g sugar – boiled for 1min or until dissolved)
10 tbsp mate

Make the mate. Brew only for 2 minutes (if you really like a strong taste brew longer, the colour will be more brown then green). Remove the leaves and mix tea with the sugar syrup. Pour into a container and freeze. You can either fork every couple of hours or freeze solid and use a blender to break up ice.

Almond Granita

1l Almond milk
3 drops of almond essence
300ml sugar syrup

Combine all the ingredients. Follow the same procedure as the Mate granita.

La recette en français…

Granité au Maté

Le Maté est une infusion du thé.

1l l’eau bouillante
300ml sirop du sucre (150ml l’eau/150g sucre – 1min d’ébullition)
10 cuillère à soupe du Maté

Faites le maté. Infusez-le 2min (Si vous l’aimez plus fort, infusez-le plus long. Mais la couleur sera plus marron que vert). Enlevez les feuilles du matés et melangez le sirop avec l’infusion. Versez-le dans un bac et congelez. Chaque quelques heures à l’aide d’une fourchette, grattez le dessus du granité afin d’obtenir de petits cristaux de glace ou congelez jusau’à solide et utiliser un mixeur pour obtenir les cristaux.

Granité à lait d’amande

1l Lait d’amande
3 gouttes d’essence d’amande
300ml sirop du sucre

Mélangez tous les ingredients. Versez-le dans un bac et congelez. Chaque quelques heures à l’aide d’une fourchette, grattez le dessus du granité afin d’obtenir de petits cristaux de glace ou congelez jusau’à solide et utiliser un mixeur pour obtenir les cristaux.