Some soup for the soul is just what I need. Not only has it been raining cats and dogs but life has been a bit of a roller coaster recently. So what better than a nice cup of soup (and no, not this kind). I took a leaf out of Charlotte Lascève, the author of the delightful “Petit sequences” which we launched at La Cocotte this thursday. She made a delicious pumpkin soup. Perfect for a wintry evening. However I do like things spicy. The sweet, slightly nutty pumpkin flavour with the coconut milk marries well with a tablespoon or two (depending on how hot you like things) of red thai curry paste. Think a kick arse version of “Chicken soup for the soul” minus the meat

If you haven’t checked out the amazing prizes in the Menu for Hope IV fundraiser. Make sure to do so!

28.10.08

This soup has been entered in the Cookthink: Rootsource challenge “Pumpkin”. Take a look at the site for other delicious pumpkin recipes.

Spicy pumpkin soup
adapted from Charlotte Lascève “Les petites séquences”

1kg pumpkin, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crush with the back of knife blade
15g of galangal (or 5g of ginger), peeled
250ml coconut milk*
300ml water**
4 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp thai red curry paste (adjust amount for desired heat)
1 tbsp sunflower/vegetable oil
Bunch of coriander

* add more for a creamier taste
** add more water for a thinner soup

Heat the oil. Fry the garlic and ginger for a minute add the pumpkin. Sautée until slightly caramelised. Add the curry paste, stir in well and then add coconut milk, soya sauce and water. Simmer for 20 minutes. Then blend until smooth. Garnish with either coriander or sweet basil leaves.

Soupe de potiron épicée
Adapté de Charlotte Lascève “Les petites séquences”

1 kg de potiron, épluchée et hachées
3 gousses d’ail, épluchée et les écraser15g de galanga (ou 5g morceau du gingembre), pelées
250 ml de lait de coco *
300 ml d’eau **
4 c. à soupe de sauce soja
1 c. à soupe de sauce thai curry rouge (ajuster le montant désiré de chaleur)
1 c. à soupe de tournesol/huile végétale
Botte de coriandre

* Ajouter plus pour un goût plus crémeux
** Ajouter plus de l’eau pour une soupe plus lisse

Chauffer l’huile. Sautée l’ail et le gingembre pendant une minute, ajoutez le potiron. Sautée jusqu’à légèrement caramélisées. Ajouter la sauce de curry, mélangez bien puis ajoutez le lait de coco, la sauce de soja et de l’eau. Faites cuire à feu doux 20 minutes. Puis mixez jusqu’à lisse. Parsemez de coriandre.

Hate to blow my trumpet, but who cares I’m so excited about being on the cover (with my cake) of this month’s Elle à table I just had to share it with you. There’s an 8 page article inside “Christmas dinner with the 4 girls from la Cocotte“. Andrea and I wrote the recipes and made the food (and some food styling). Nathalie did the beautiful interior and prop styling…well worth rushing to your local newsagent and getting a copy now, while there are still some left

Cantucci: famous tuscan almond biscotti

The last couple of weeks (or maybe months) have been pretty crazy, not just workwise but socially. I seem to be meeting a whole bunch of cool people every week. The obligatory ‘So what do you do in life?’ question crops up within 2/3 minutes of the first conversation. I usually say I bake biscuits, makes things a lot simpler (telling people you’re a food stylist, always involves a lengthy explanation). Then comes the ‘Can you make xxx?’ ‘Yes’ ‘Can you really?’ …and a demand of some proof of some sort.

All this socialising networking (it’s all about who you know, darrrrrrling) has had a few other side effects (less sleep, more make-up to put on in the morning) meaning I’ve resulted into drinking a coffee or two (normally I’m ‘a cup of tea’ gal) to keep me going during the day.

Now for me, a perfect cup of coffee (or tea, even a hot chocolate) must include some kind of dunkable biscuit (here’s a past recipe). And no, you don’t want some kind of pathetic biscuit which will give up on you half way through being dunked. ‘Cantucci’ or often mistakenly called ‘Biscotti’ (which is the general Italian word for biscuit) are perfect dunking biscuits. Crisp and crunchy before ‘the dip’ they handle any kind of liquid well.

If the thought of baking these little dunkable darlings is too much to handle. Pop by La Cocotte. The cantucci go by the name of ‘Biscocotti’ and are sold at 1.50€ a packet .

Don’t forget to vote for your favourite Stop the traffik chocolate entry. Deadline is Tuesday 16th October.

P.S. The absolutely awful pun (I know they are getting worse and worse. I will stop, honest!) is dedicated to a fellow foodie blogger I just met. Who knows, you might see a food blog cook/bake off in the near future.

Dulce de leche cantucci

270g plain flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
140g sugar

180g blanched almonds
3 eggs
200g Dulce de leche

Mix together all the ingredients apart from the Dulce de leche. Then roll out the dough and spread Dulce de leche on top leaving an 1 inch border. Roll into a sausage (this can be quite messy). Bake at 160°c 30-40mins. Leave to cool. Cut 5mm slices and bake 10-15 minutes or until biscuits are crispy and dry. Makes 40-50

Recette en français

Cantucci de dulce de leche

270 g de farine
1 ½ c. à café de levure chimique
140 g de sucre
180 g de amandes entiers
3 oeufs
200 g Dulce de leche

Mélanger tous les ingrédients sauf que le Dulce de leche. Ensuite, étaler la pâte et mettre le Dulce de lait sur le dessus laissant 3cm d’une frontière. Roulez la pâte dans une saucisse (ça peut être un peu difficile). Cuire à 160 ° C 30 – 40mins. Laisser refroidir. Couper en tranches de 5mm et cuire 10-15 minutes ou jusqu’à ce que les biscuits sont croquants et sec. 40-50 pièces.

Drum roll, please…here are the absolutely fantastic chocotastic entries for the Stop the Traffik chocolate competition. And what a range there has been. Each entry has had me licking my lips and going yum yum. Thanks to everyone who participated I’m truly impressed with all the effort everyone has made. If I’ve forgotten your entry or made an error, please let me know.

So start drooling over your keyboards (click on each image for the whole entry) and send me your votes to rkhooks@gmail.com by Tuesday 16th October.

P.S. Only one entry per person. I know you guys want to win the goodie bag

On Thursday we had our little ‘flowery’ event @ La Cocotte for the book launch of ‘Petits bouquets de cuisine’. There were flowery mocktails and these little raspberry dahlia mousses with mint choc leaves. Absolutely delish! I couldn’t stop eating the mint choc leaves. Think After eight but without the sweet filling and calories.

Just a tip if you’re going to use Dahlias to decorate make sure you use pesticide free (flowers from the florist are usually heavily sprayed).

Special thank you to Andrea (the La Cocotte mastermind) who spent the night making the delicious mint choc leaves.

Raspberry & dahlia mousse
Adapted from ‘Petits bouquets de cuisine’

450g raspberries (frozen)
100g raspberry ‘bits’
400ml whipping cream
150g sugar
3 leaves of gelatine
1 dahlia

6 glasses

For the mint chocolate leaves

150g dark chocolate
Bunch of mint leaves

Dip the mint leaves in the tempered chocolate. Leave to set on a piece of greaseproof paper.

For the mousse

Soak gelatine in ice-cold water. Heat the frozen raspberries with 75g of the sugar for a couple of minutes (or until you have a purée texture). Pass through a sieve. Whip cream to soft peaks, add sugar half way through. Fold together the cream with the cooked raspberries. Squeeze the water out of the gelatine, heat gently in a pot until melted. Add a spoon of the cream mixture to the gelatine. Mix, then add the gelatine to the cream. Folding gently but making sure it’s well incorporated. Fill the glasses and chill for at least 6 hours. Before serving top with raspberry ‘bits’ and decorate with dahlia petals and choc/mint leaves.

Mousse de framboise et dahlia
adapté de ‘Petits bouquets de cuisine’

450g de framboises (surgelées)
100g de framboises, brisées pour le décoration
400ml crème fleurette
150g de sucre
3 feuilles de gélatine
1 dahlia

6 verres

Pour les feuilles de menthe/chocolate

150g chocolat noir
Feuilles de menthe

Trempez les feuilles de menthe dans le chocolat fondu. Laissez froidir sur une feuille de papier cuisson.

Pour le mousse

Faites cuire une dizine de minutes les framboises avec 75g de sucre. Passez à travers un tamis en pressant bien. Faites tremper la gélatine dans de l’eau froide pendant quelques minutes. Montez en chantilly la crème fleurette bien froide. A mi-montage ajoutez le reste du sucre progressivement sans cesser de batter. Après melangez doucement les framboises cuites. Chauffez légèrement les feuilles de gelatine puis incorporez. Rempliz dans les verrines. Mettre au frigo au moins 6. Avant servir mettez une c. à soupe de framboises brisées dessous et decouréz avec des petales dahlias et feuilles de menthe.

If you haven’t already fallen for ‘verrine‘ thing, then here’s a recipe you could make in your sleep. The whole ‘verrine’ (transl. glass) fashion has taken hold of the cuisine world the last couple of years. Everyone does them. We have about 5 cookbooks at La Cocotte covering every possible combination of sweet, savoury or both flavours together.

To be honest I think it’s a bit of a gimick. It just involves plonking several different layers of ingredients in a glass. But heh hoh it looks posh and I’m all for fancy things which can be whipped up within minutes.

Banoffee verrine – light version

2 bananas, sliced
½ lemon
10 biscuits (preferably digestives), crushed to crumbs
150g of low fat yoghurt (use mascarpone for full fat version)
8 tbsp Dulce de leche

4 glasses

Squeeze lemon juice over bananas, stir. Put a tablespoon of biscuit crumbs at the bottom and then alternate layers of banana, dulce de leche and yoghurt. Finish with a sprinkling of crumbs. Served chilled.

Banoffee verrine – version ‘light’

2 bananes, couper en tranches.
Jus de 1/2 citron
10 biscuits (préférablement des digestives), écrasés
150g fromage blanc 0% (ou mascarpone)
8 c. à soupe de confiture de lait

4 verrines

Mélangez le jus de citron avec les bananes. Disposez une c. à soupe de biscuit écrasés au fond de chaque verrine, après alterner les couche de confiture du lait, des bananes et fromage blanc. Terminez en saupoudrant les biscuits. Servez froid.

Swing by La Cocotte Thursday 5th July at 7pm and discover Martine Camillieri & Angélique Villeneuve’s new book ‘Petits bouquets de cuisine’.

La Cocotte 5, rue Paul Bert 75011 Paris 01 43 73 04 02

I took a leaf out of Bob’s smoothie book (excellent recipes, very original, think hot surfer meets Palm springs party style, unfortunately only in French at the mo) and came up with my own creation. Still going with the dulce de leche theme I found a tin of chestnuts knocking around in my cupboard. Chestnuts & dulce de leche? Pourquoi not (sorry I couldn’t resist a bit of franglais, homage to a chef at Le Cordon Bleu). And I must say they do go very well together.

Lie back in your deck chair, soak up the sun rays with a chilled glass of this in your hand. Purrrrrrrrfect!

Chestnut & Dulce de leche smoothie

1 tin of chestnuts (250g)
500ml milk
6 tbsp of dulce de leche (or to taste)
Ice cubes

Blend all the ingredients together apart from the ice cubes. Pour into glasses with ice. And that’s it.

Chestnut & Dulce de leche smoothie

1 boîte de marrons (250g)
500ml lait
6 c. à soupe de confiture de lait
Glaçons

Pour 4 petits verres ou 2 grands verres.

Mixez tous les ingredients ensemble, sauf que les glaçons. Servez avec les glaçons et voilà, c’est tout.

Last week’s book signing at la Cocotte went down a storm. We had several little chefs assembling the ‘tea-ramisu’. The kids had to imbibe a green tea genoise with a green tea syrup and then build several layers of genoise with a green tea cream. It got a bit messy but everyone had fun and it all tasted good.

For some reason we were left with plenty of the green tea cream filling. Me, not being one to waste things, I decided to try and make ice cream. I don’t have an ice cream maker, so my way of making ice cream involves just freezing (if you have an ice cream maker and you try this recipe, let me know how it goes).

Fluffy (whisked egg whites), melt in your mouth with a wonderful subtle green tea flavour. This ice cream goes perfectly with the tartness of the raspberry wafers.

For more ice cream recipes check out ‘Scream for Ice cream’ food blog event on Whats for Lunch Honey.

Green tea ice cream
Recipe taken from Sourasack Phongphet (chef of restaurant Ploum) tea-ramisu recipe

5 egg whites
4 egg yolks
70g sugar
370g mascarpone
1 tbsp green tea powder
A pinch of salt

A packet of raspberry jam filled wafers (e.g. La Paille d’or)
Fresh raspberries for garnish, optional

Serves 4 – 6

Beat egg yolks with half the sugar until pale in colour (= blanchir). Stir in mascarpone and green tea powder until the mixture is smooth. Whip egg whites until stiff, add sugar halfway through and a pinch of salt to ‘fix’ the egg whites. Fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites. Pour into container and freeze until solid.

To assemble: Use ‘hot’ knife (run knife under hot water). Cut 2cm thick slices of ice cream and sandwich between wafer. Garnish with a couple of raspberries.

Sandwich glace à la thé vert et framboise

‘Thé-ramisu’ recette de Sourasack Phongphet (chef of restaurant Ploum)

Glace à la thé vert

5 blancs d’oeufs
4 jaunes d’oeufs
70g de sucre
370g de mascarpone
1 c. à c. de thé vert en poudre

Une boîte de Paille d’or aux framboises
Framboises frais

Pour 4 – 6 personnes

Battez les jaunes d’oeufs avec la moitié de sucre jusqu’à ce qu’ils blanchissent. Ajoutez-y le mascarpone et le thé jusqu’à obtenir une crème lisse. Incorporez les blancs d’oeufs battus en neige ferme avec une pincée de sel et le reste de sucre. Mettez la crème dans une bac et congélez-la jusqu’à solide.
Montage: Coupez des tranches (2cm epaisseur) de glace avec une couteau chaude (mettez-la dans de l’eau chaud avant). Faites une sandwich avec les pailles d’or. Servir avec les frais framboises à côté.

It’s been aonther hectic week of running from one job to another (seems to be becoming the norm). I should have really stayed at home Friday & Saturday night and caught up on sleep. Not the case, this weekend I put on my ‘rock chick’ gear and headed out to see two great gigs. Friday night it was the Sugarbeans and Saturday night it was the excellent Alice Russell (kind of eclectic soul/jazz/funk…just plain brilliant).

Amongst all my running around and late nights out, I thought it would be good to consume something ‘detoxifying’, although combining this with a peanut butter sandwich, kind of defeated the whole point. Simple to make, this is the perfect chilled summer classic.

Cucumber & mint soup

1 kg cucumbers & 1 small cucumber for decoration
250g Fromage blanc 0%
1 bunch of mint (keep a few leaves for the decoration)
Salt & pepper

Serves 4

Peel & deseed the cucumbers. Blend with a handful of mint. Mix the fromage blanc, season and chill. To serve, garnish with cucumber ribbons and mint leaves or mint ice cubes (put mint leaves in the ice cubes before freezing).

Soupe au concombre et à la menthe

1 kg de concombres & un petit concombre pour la garniture
250g de fromage blanc à 0%
Menthe (garder quelque feuilles pour la garniture)
Sel & poivre
Pour 4 personnes.

Pelez et épépinez 1 kg de concombres, mixez-les avec 1 poignée de menthe. Incorporez le fromage blanc, salez et poivrez. Laissez froidir. Décorez avec des rubans de concombre et des feuilles de menthe ou des glaçons avec des feuilles de menthe.