Tarte Flambée

One Sunday evening, both L and I were uninspired as to what to have for dinner. We could've stuck a frozen pizza in the oven, but we also had (raw) veggies and others still in the fridge. That's when L remembered a tarte flambée (also known as flammkuchen) that a friend had made and sent us pics of.

We decided to be inspired by that, but with what we had on hand. Instead of the traditional bread dough, I cut a large, rectangular puff pastry in half. Then I scored shallow lines about a centimeter in from the edge to form the crust with a knife, and pricked the inside section with a fork.

Instead of a crème fraiche base, I used Greek yogurt on which I sprinkled salt and pepper. Then I laid on thin slices of butternut squash (to quicken the cooking process, I cut them as thin as possible), and brushed leftover gratin dauphinois sauce mix on top. This sauce is essentially heavy cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, to taste. To finish off, I threw on some sliced mushroom.

The whole thing was baked at around 190˚C until the edges were golden, and the squash was cooked.

Homemade Gyoza (Potstickers)

Whew, lots of December things to catch up on here on the blog! Despite a crazy few weeks of exams and papers and presentations, I still managed to squeeze in some baking to get rid of some stress.

December 11, 2015

For a long time now, I've been wanting to make my own gyoza (Japanese potstickers), as they are a little hard to find in my corner of the world when I am at college. I found the gyoza skin recipe on La Fuji Mama and had it bookmarked for about a year before I finally got to it and made these.

First I made a pan of filling. To keep it relatively simple, I just stir-fried chopped Chinese cabbage, shiitake mushroom (dried and rehydrated), carrots, and ginger, which I seasoned with vegetarian oyster sauce. On hindsight, adding something to try and make it hold together more easily would have made wrapping the gyoza easier, but I was out of tofu and patience.

Then I made the skins, and rolled them out flat. As I am not proficient at making nice circles with just the rolling pin, I cheated by using a circle cutter to cut them out with.

Everything was kept under a wet towel while L and I wrapped them (she helped me to speed up the process). I think we made about 33 of them, though the dough was a bit too thickly rolled, and the thicknesses were uneven.

Then L helped me fry them on a nonstick pan until the bottom was nicely browned, before adding hot water to the pan and covering it, to steam the tops of the gyoza.

We ate these dipped in a mix of veg ponzu sauce (mix of soy sauce and citrus) and chili.

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GYOZA SKIN RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• flour for dusting

  Procedure

1. In a bowl, mix flour and salt. Make a well in the middle.
2. With chopsticks or another utensil, add hot water in the well and mix in flour progressively until a dough is formed.
3. Roll into a ball. Some more water may be required.
4. Cover with a damp cloth and let site for 1 hour.
5. Knead on a floured surface for about 5 mins.
6. Form into a log and cut into about 40 slices.
7. Roll into round skins (or use round cookie cutter to make circles), dusting both sides with flour.
8. Fill and cook, or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until use.

Pseudo Terrine

 

Some of you might know how much of a manga fan I am. Lately, I've been reading a lot of Shokugeki no Souma. In there, one of the characters makes a terrine. Since I read that, I've been thinking of making a terrine for a while.

Some issues: most terrines use meat or gelatin or eggs to hold the layers together. Due to an excess of carrots, I decided to try to make a semi-mousse out of them. I used some peanut butter and corn starch as binding agents. Unfortunately, I had to add a lot of water for the carrots to blend properly. Then I didn't have time to chill the whole thing... so it kind of flopped.

The edge is made out of steamed eggplant slices. Then I had a layer of carrot "mousse," a mix if mashed peas and potatoes, some sliced mushroom, then another layer of carrot. This was served with an herb sauce (perilla, cilantro, lemon juice, and a bit of olive oil) and a quark sauce.

Maybe next time I'll add tofu to the carrot layer... and I will chill it properly with a weight for it to hold together better.

Casserole (step-by-step)

Remember the Lazy Student Casserole? I suddenly had an urge to eat it again today, so I did.

First, I looked at what I had in the fridge. Quite a few vegetables, so I selected a few and sliced them. In my assortment: zucchini, bellpepper, mushroom, eggplant, potato, and ripped-up iceberg lettuce. I also chopped tofu into thin strands, as I didn't fell like putting cheese on top this time.

First heat up a small pot, then take it off the heat and coat the bottom and a bit of the sides with some plain oil. Then layer your ingredients, making sure the potatoes are not the bottom-most. I think most casseroles have cheese, but not this time. I opted for some cilantro over the top of everything. You can season in the middle, wherever you wish. I put some Provincial herbs, salt, pepper, and dried chili flakes.

Cook on medium-low heat 15-20 minutes until veggies are tender. I had some troubles and put the heat too high, resulting in a burned the bottom layer, but it was good nevertheless. Portion out and serve!

Lazy Student Casserole

What do you do when you cook for yourself and you're lazy to stand by the pot and stir? You make a casserole. (Stove-top one, I don't have an oven yet).

It's really simple really. Just slice your veggies, layer them in a pot, cook on low heat. DONE! If anyone's interested, I got the recipe from a manga (Cooking Papa), once again. Even though it's never sure exactly how safe it is to test recipes from fictional characters, I like getting inspired by them.

With the potatoes inside, you don't even need any rice or anything. The veggies will leak out some juice, so it's not bad to mop up with bread if you're still hungry enough. Feel free to change the veggie type, just make sure the potatoes are not the bottom-most layer.

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What do you do when you're lazy (not counting instant noodles and such stereotypical student food)?

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RECIPE (full meal for one person)

  Ingredients

• 2 small potatoes (or 1 large one)
• 1/3 zucchini/courgette
• 3 white mushrooms (champignon de Paris)
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1 piece tofu
• 150 g mozzarella
• salt, pepper, chili flakes, Maggi soy sauce, Provencal herbs
• neutral oil

  Procedure

1. Slice everything
2. Heat a small pot, then remove from heat. Coat the bottom with some mild oil (I used olive oil)
3. Layer your veggies (this is the order I used, the bottom-most one being the one at the bottom of the list):
                   Mozzarella
                   Tofu + soy sauce + pepper + chili flakes
                   Bell pepper
                   Mushroom
                   Potato + bit of salt
                   Zucchini + herbs
4. Return to the stove, close the lid, and let cook on low heat for 15-20 minutes or until all the veggies are cooked through
5. Enjoy~

Food food food

Pastry dough squares with a mushroom and cream stuffing, stick in the oven~ delicious!

For the stuffing:
- chop mushrooms into little pieces
- heat some cream over the fire, once it's warm, add the mushroom
- add a dollop of butter
- sift some flour in until the it is less liquid
- season with salt, sugar, pepper and Italian seasoning

An attempt at a rose-flavored cheesecake, with raspberry sauce on top, accompanied by raspberry sorbet. That was a mistake, since it masked the cheesecake's flavor. Although it originally stood out, the rose's taste was not pronounced enough in the cheesecake. To redo one day.

Pics and such of the past and present.

So, as I am starting today, I must update on things I have made before. Here is an overview:

August 31, 2011
My second apple pie~

September 25, 2011
Chickpea (Garbanzo Bean) Hummus, recipe from one of my teachers~

October 13, 2011
Mushroom sauce feuilletés~

October 17, 2011
Pasta gratin -- tomato sauce, mushroom, tofu, pasta, cheese -- in individual dish~

 3rd Apple pie~

October 23, 2011
Another apple pie (yes, I was in the process of perfecting it)~

November 04, 2011
Pêche melba~

November 12, 2011
Chocolate chip and walnut cookies (batch 2)~

And another gratin this time with pasta, mushroom, tofu, and white sauce~