Baguette à l'ancienne

After returning from Paris, I got excited about learning how to make a good baguette. My first foray into bread was more than a year ago, when I tried to make bread from scratch using the original NYT's article on No Knead Bread. The bread came out fine but it wasn't what I was looking for...not like the ones I've eaten at my local boulangerie.

There are so many recipes online and I had a difficult time deciding on one, but Appie Pie Patis and Pate's baguettes à l'ancienne looks like the elusive recipe I've been searching for.

I gave it a try and it came out great! Crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. Complex tasting. Next time I will underbake a little since my oven gets so hot so fast.

Swiss knoepfli in a herb butter sauce

Sorry I haven't posted any stories or photos of Paris yet. Since returning from Paris last Monday night, R and I have been quite busy, doing daytrips to Geneva then Lyon. And on top of that, we've had brilliant weather. Warm enough that I'm wearing skirts, shorts, and my Tevas everyday.

On Friday I spent many hours shaping the garden, planting seeds and transplanting some of the seedlings that had been germinating in the serre, including tomatoes, leeks, salad greens, courgettes, kales and kohlrabis. After a long day of gardening and on my knees, a good warm shower never felt better. As the sage, chives and thyme plants are growing strong, I decided to make something using fresh herbs. And what better then a big plate of Swiss knoepfli or spätzli which is sort of like German spätzle.

Tarte aux coings, pommes et poires

I love this simple apple tart...it's the American pie's lighter French cousin. The crust is a layer of thin puff pastry, pâte brisée, then a thin layer of quince jam, followed by a layer of very thin slices of apples and a pear. I used about half a stick of butter or 4.5 tablespoons to make the tart.

It's a delicious treat, very light and not too sweet. I often have this with tea, or just straight out of the oven. Usually I make this tart with different varieties of apples, but today I had some Williams pears, so I added one for a hint of pear deliciousness. A tart worth making from scratch.

Quiche aux poireaux, courgettes, poivron rouge

Do you ever go through phases of obsessively eating, or cooking one thing? A friend of mine, when she first moved to France, was offered foie gras too many times. Seven years later, she still has an aversion to it. Another friend devoured so many blueberries she started turning blue! My friend V had a strong addiction to a certain chain's Korean style chicken wings for a while, and then she couldn't eat it for a while.

Moi, lately my cooking has centered around the Asian kitchen. Could it be related to my new bamboo steamer, the latest "gadget" in my repertoire? Or my well-stocked Asian pantry? Actually come to think of it, my newfound appreciation for Asian but in particular Chinese cuisine started a few years ago with a book my good friend S gifted me. Serve the People, an American-Chinese journalist's account of eating her way through China, really sparked my interest in Chinese cuisine and in visiting China too, so I could eat knife-cut noodles and taste the heat of schezuan peppercorns. After reading that, I quickly moved on to Fuschia Dunlop's book, and then another one whose name I can't remember now. Funny how I grew up wanting to eat anything but Chinese food except of course, Mom and co's homecooked meals.

Anyway, the other day, I thought I'd attempt cooking something very French to balance all the Asian meals. You know, ying and yang. My French dish of choice? Quiche aux poireaux, courgettes, et poivron rouge.

Orange glory

Happy birthday to my sweetheart R! We've had a great day so far—I went on a field trip with my new Japanese friend and her baby. Then R and I sat outside in the garden, having a nice leisurely BBQ, followed by birthday fruit tart. Fresh nectarines, strawberries, and kiwis—all atop a layer of French pastry cream speckled with vanilla beans and an almond flour/cornmeal pastry crust.

I got the kind of candles that relight after you've blown them to test his lung capacity—which is still pretty good for my R. Now listening to more of his CD collection—Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday song, Milli Vanilli, Pet Shop Boys, Summer of 1969, and now Der Kommisar in German. Tonight R and I will be celebrating his birthday dinner at the bistro in our village, a place we've been looking forward to trying.


Last night R and I got into the World Cup spirit by dressing in orange. R made his entrance raising the Dutch flag in support of the Netherlands who were playing Cameroon. The hosts had festooned their house in the color of the Dutch royal house—orange balloons, orange caps, funny orange hats (which I'm wearing in the picture below), huge orange sunglasses, orange flower leis, etc. One of the guests even had a giant block of cheese on his head which faintly reminded me of the cheesehead hats that the Packers fans don. Upon asking my guess was confirmed—the guy got it from Wisconsin.

After the hosts realized Swiss networks weren't showing the game, R saved the day by hooking a laptop up to a site that had live streaming of the game. The game was good but I watched from the kitchen, near the table set with aromatic juicy barbecue chicken, satay sticks, tabbouleh salad. The beer, of course, was Heineken.

On another note, my Japanese friend was pretty excited that Japan beat Denmark, 3-1. And she reminded me Le Tour is coming! It's passing by our town on July 11th. I'm getting my yellow jersey out so watch out for me on le tv.

Supernatural brownies and listening to music loudly

One of the benefits of living in a house on a hill in the countryside is that you can turn your music way up. R and I are doing just that right now. R's going through huge collection of music and at this moment Dark Side of the Moon is playing.

I made a simple marinara sauce with farfalle with oregano that I picked from the garden.

I'm having fun dancing while baking David Lebovitz's supernatural brownies. He's the former pastry chef at Chez Panisse who has is now living and baking in Paris. I mostly use his recipes because they are tried and tested with ingredients from France. I loved his "The Sweet Life in Paris" and became a convert after making his recipe for chocolate peanut butter chocolate ice cream.

I chose the most plain dark chocolate I could find. There was a huge choice of chocolate with chestnuts, hazelnuts, curry, mint, etc. I haven't been able to find dark packed brown sugar (or light brown sugar for that matter), so I used something called sucre brut moulu. Crossing my fingers the brownies come out well.

It's R's birthday on Friday. I've found a recipe for a French fruit tart but I will make it with almond flour since I have some in my pantry.