Escargot in Creamy Spinach Sauce

Burgundy snails in creamy spinach sauce 

Escargot in english is garden snails.  It took me a long time before I got enough courage to try escargot, imagine eating garden snails, but then I thought, it's the same as eating balitong!  Burgundy snails are a higher quality of garden snails and taste better too.  I bought mine in a can of 800 gms.

Burgundy snails in a can

This is a very simple dish and taste good too.

Ingredients :
1 tbsp unsalted butter
a can of burgundy snails
1 liter double cream
150 gm frozen spinach
Grated emmental

Drain the burgundy snails and wash them.  In a pot, place the butter, then the burgundy snails, stir for about 3 minutes, then add the cream.  Bring to slow boil for about 15 minutes, then add the frozen spinach,  slow boil for another 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and let it cool.
In an escargot dish, place one escargot into each hole, if you don't have just use a small plate and divide the escargot.  Top with grated emmental, cook in the oven for another 10 minutes at 190°C, serve hot.

Escargot in the escargot dish

Escargot topped with cheese, one customer don't want cheese

Tiramisu

I don't fancy eating raw eggs, so I was happy that I found my favourite chef's recipe without egg for tiramisu.  Yes, it's Gordon Ramsey's recipe again and it is so good and so easy!

Ingredients :
150 ml double cream
3 tbsp icing sugar
250 mascarpone
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp Marsala (or brandy or Tia Maria)
200ml strong coffee or espresso, cooled to room temperature
12 boudoirs (a light, melt-in-your-mouth eggwhite-leavened sugar-dusted biscuit)
chocolate powder

Whisk the cream with icing sugar, you can use single cream but I like mine very creamy so I use double cream.  Then whisk in the mascarpone, vanilla extract and marsala.  The recipe requires that the sugar be added to the coffee with marsala, I just use strong coffee without any addition of sugar and marsala.  This is because the boudoirs are already very sweet.

Dip the boudoirs into the coffee and line the base of the ice cream cup, then spoon the tiramisu on top of the boudoirs.  Chill before serving. Sprinkle chocolate powder on top before serving. I make 4 servings.

Tiramisu side view

Tiramisu top view

Coq au Vin

Coq au vin is a another popular dish in France.  This is normally cooked using a cockerel and stewed in red wine.  As usual I would be using my chicken drumstick and not cockerel.

Ingredients :
Marinate overnight the following:-
75 cl red wine
2 medium carrots, cut into bite sizes
2 onions, julienne
3 celery stalks, julienne
1 tbsp fresh thyme, minced
2 bay leaves
6 chicken drumstick

The next day,
100 gm butter
100 ml vegetable oil
200 gm bacon
Bouquet garni 
500 gm button mushroom, sliced
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 tomatoes, cut into bite sizes
1 tbsp tomato puree
60 gm all purpose flour
50 ml brandy

In a pot, place the butter and vegetable oil and then the bacon and onion.  Stir fry till the onion is translucent.
Then add the chicken, chopped garlic, bouquet garni, button mushrooms, tomatoes and tomato puree, stir for about 5 minutes.
Sprinkle the chicken with flour, mix well, then pour the brandy and light.  Then add the wine marinate with the vegetables and cook for 45 minutes.  I serve this with spaghetti.

Coq au Vin

Leek Quiche

Leek Quiche

I love using Gordon Ramsey's recipes, this time I am doing Leek Quiche using his recipe.

Ingredients :
20 gm unsalted butter,
300 gm leek, sliced white part only
thyme
sea salt & freshly ground pepper
3 large eggs
2 egg yolks
200 ml double cream
200 ml milk
4 tbsp grated parmesan
150 gm reblochon cheese, rind removed (or chaource cheese)
1 portion pate brisée (http://zhelazycook.blogspot.com/2011/01/pate-brisee-short-crust-pastry.html)

I de-frost 1 portion of my pate brisée , and line my 11 inch tart pan, with a fork make a lot of holes on the pate brisée and place them in the fridge.
In a hot pan, place the butter, leek, thyme, seasoning for about 5 minutes, then remove and let it cool.
Whisk egg, egg yolk, cream, milk, parmesan and seasoning.
Spread the leek onto the short crust pastry, then tear the reblochon cheese on top of  the leek, place in the oven and pour the egg mix into the quiche.  If you place the egg mix and then place in the oven, you might spill the egg mix, so I always place the quiche into the oven then pour the egg mix.
Gordon's recipe requires to cook the short crust pastry at 200°C before placing the filing.  Lazy cook don't like to cook the short crust pastry before placing the filing because the pastry has their moods and too much work.  Normally, I place the quiche into raw short crust pastry and cook for 200°C for between 5 - 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 170°C and cook for a further 25 - 40 minutes.

Leek Quiche

Other variations with their cheese that I make are :
Brocolli & Brie cheese
Mushroom & Roquefort cheese
Spinach & Emmental cheese

Pangas Meuniere

I bought some Pangas fish on offer, this fish is imported from Vietnam.  So I decide to do some Meurniere Sauce to go with the Pangas.

Ingredients :
4 Pangas Filet
2 tbsp all purpose flour
3 tbsp olive oil
85 gm unsalted butter
Juice from 1 lemon
1 tbsp capers

Season the fish in salt and pepper and toss them in flour.  In a pan, place the oil and cook the fish for about 2 minutes on both sides.  Remove and add butter, once a little light brown add the lemon juice and capers, swirl to finish and topped in onto the fish before serving.  I serve the with pasta.

Pangas Meuniere

Brocolli and Bacon Frittata

Frittata is also known as omelette in English and French, in Spanish it's just tortilla, so many names so many ingredients that can be added to this egg dish.  I like mine simple and whatever I can find in my freezer and fridge would just do.  I have a lot of frozen vegetables in my freezer, when I need them I just have to de-frost them, sometimes I am so impatient that I just add some hot water to de-frost them faster.  I am doing Brocolli frittata, so I de-frost about 7 pieces frozen brocolli, de-frost in hot water and chopped them up.  I use 12 eggs, I am making 6 portions, one without bacon, one without cheese, customers are quite fussy sometimes!  Beat the eggs and add 2 white bread (in France it's called pain de mie), in Malaysia would be Gardenia or High 5.   Break the white bread into small pieces before adding to the beaten egg.  Add 2 cloves chopped garlic, salt and pepper.  In a hot pan, add a tsp of oil, cook the brocolli and bacon for about 3 minutes, then remove the brocolli and bacon into the beaten egg mix.  Then add a small amount of oil into the pan and place the brocolli, bacon, egg mix back into the pan, cook on slow fire for about  6 - 7 minutes, then remove and sprinkle some grated emmental cheese on top, then grill in the oven for about 2 - 3 minutes at 190°C.  I use 9 inch pan for this.

Spinach Bacon Frittata

My frittata, using a 6 inch pan for the big one and  a small pan for cooking an egg for the small one, the small one, one without bacon and one without cheese!

Rabbit Cacciatore

In France, you can find rabbit in almost every supermarket.  Normally, it's a whole rabbit that is sold, lazy cook are lousy at cutting up a chicken, don't even think of trying to cut up a rabbit!  And since lazy cook is a fan of drumstick, I bought some thor tooi (rabbit drumstick) frozen and only need to de-frost to exact amount of drumstick I need.  I got this recipe from Simply Recipes website.

Ingredients :
8 rabbit drumsticks
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp all purpose flour
salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium size onion, julienne
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup slice button mushrooms
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 can of tomatoes entiers (whole tomatoes)
1 bay leaf
16 olives

Marinate the rabbit in thyme, flour, salt & pepper.  In a pot, over medium heat, place 2 tbsp olive oil and fry the rabbit, remove.
Add onions and garlic, cook until onions translucent then add button mushrooms, rosemary, rabbit, tomatoes and bay leaf,  cover and cook for about 35 minutes, stir occassionally.  If it gets too dry add a teeny weeny bit of water.
Before serving, add the olives.

Rabbits served with pasta

Riz au Lait

Riz au lait in serving dish

Riz au Lait in english is rice got milk.  My first trip to France, my hubby's aunt asked me what I would like to eat so she can cook for me.  So I said rice and to my surprise this is what I got!  It took me a while to like this dessert but now I go crazy over it and buying them off the shelves are expensive compared to cooking them yourself.
Ingredients :
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup riz rond (round rice - risotto rice)
5 cups full cream milk
4 cups double cream
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vanilla essence

In a pot, over medium heat, place the butter then the rice.  I did not wash the rice, works out okay. Stir for about 3 minutes, then add the milk and cream.  The proportion of milk and cream is to your liking, I like mine onctuous, creamy and sinful, normally just add milk.  Then add the sugar and vanilla essence.  If you like it sweeter, add more sugar, the recipe I got uses vanilla beans, too much work for me so I use vanilla essence.  Stir continuously for about 35 minutes, it would come out creamy.  Remove from stove and place them in ramekins, I place mine in ice cream cups, makes 6 servings.  Serve Warm, I like mine cold so I chill for at least 4 hours before serving. Since I love Creme Anglaise so much, I added them to my riz au lait before serving.

How it looks like after finish cooking

Beef Stew

Beef stew served with salad

There are so many different style of cooking beef stew, so many names to it too!  In France, the ones that has tomatoes and red wine, are the famous Beef Bourguignon and in the south they call it Beef Daube.  Beef Daube has a tinge of orange.  Looking through the web, I found that there are so many different ingredients that are added to it and lazy cook hates cooking on the stove because the fire is just next to my tummy and standing there watching over the beef stew makes my tummy real HOT!  After looking through the famous Jamie Oliver, the Naked Chef website, I found one stew that is cooked in the oven.  I love cooking with the oven, just throw the things in, set the time and temperature and just go watch TV while its cooking, no HOT tummy!  Here is the inspiration from Jamie, http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/jools-s-favourite-beef-stew

Today I am cooking for 10 people, so here is my recipe:
2 kg beef cube
2 tbsp olive oil
5 medium size potatoes, cut into bite sizes
2 medium size carrots, cut into bite sizes
a head of garlic, peeled
1 big onion, julienne
a small can of tomato puree
1 tbsp of all purpose flour
75 cl red wine
2 cups beef stock
1 tsp herbs de provence
Salt and pepper

Place the beef cube in the roasting pan, marinate with salt, pepper, herbs de provence and olive oil.

Marinated beef

 Place them in the oven at 220°C for 10 minutes.  Jamie sears them in a cooking pot, but lazy cook hates washing dishes so I put them in the oven instead.

Beef after 10 minutes in the oven at 220°C

Add the onions, tomato puree, beef stock, wine, flour and mix well.  This time I forgot the wine but added more water, but came out okay.  In the oven for 1 hour, I cooked them without cover, I think next time I would try to cook them covered.

Ready for the oven

Remove from the oven and add the potatoes, carrots and garlic.  Back in the oven for another hour, but this time I check them after half hour, and next time I think I would cook them covered.

Ready for oven after adding potatoes, carrots and garlic

Ready to serve

Panna Cotta

This is an Italinan dessert similar to jelly, but this one uses double cream.   There are many flavours that one can add to the double cream, I like mine just with double cream and topped with creme anglaise.

Ingredients :
1 liter double cream
100 gm sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 1/2 tsp gelatin powder
9 cl cold water
Creme Anglaise

In a bowl, add the cold water into the gelatin powder and let it stand for at least 5 minutes.  In the meantime, melt the sugar in the double cream, till slow boil.  Remove from fire and add into the gelatin, add the vanilla extract and stir till the gelatine dissolves.  Then I fill up 8 ice cream cups, you can use any teacups or ramekins.  Leave to chill for about 4 hours, before serving topped up with Creme Anglaise.

Panna cotta

Panna cotta topped with Creme Anglaise

Beef Rendang

It took a long time before the lazy cook became friends with curries.  Living in Malaysia, we eat curry every day and don't have to cook them, there are warungs (hawker joints) everywhere and I own a few restaurants and have the luxury of telling my chefs what my urge for the day was.  Unfortunately, good days has gotta come to an end.  After so many failures, there are bound to be success, I believe!  So here is my take on Beef Rendang

Ingredients :
1 kg beef ( here in France, we buy it ready cubed)
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
3 cloves
1 cup coconut milk
1 tbsp tamarind pulp
10 kaffir lime leaves, julienne
5 tbsp kerisik
1 tsp brown sugar
salt to taste

Rempah (Spice Paste)
2 medium size onions
2 shallots
3 cloves garlic
a dash of lemon grass powder
1 tbsp baba brand meat chilli powder

My blender broke down, so this time instead of making the spice paste into puree, I julienne the onions and shallots and use garlic paste that I bought.
In a pot, over medium heat, add 2 tbsp oil, then add 1 cinnamon stick, 1 star anise and 3 cloves for about a minute.  Then instead of adding the rempah, I add the onions, shallots, garlic, a dash of lemon grass powder and baba brand meat chilli powder, I wanted my curry to be more spicy, so I add a tsp of super duppa hot chilli powder.  If you can find lemon grass, then add 1 stalk into the paste. I cook a lot of curry for my French customers, and cannot cook them too hot, this one is specially for me so havta be super duppa hot! If it is a bit dry add a bit more oil, cook for about 5 minutes then add the beef cubes.  Stir for about 5 minutes then add the coconut milk, stir for a minute, then add a cup of tamarind water (water from the tamarind pulp), stir for 5 minutes, then add the kaffir lime leaves, kerisik (stir fried dessicated coconut), brown sugar and salt. In France, I can find kaffir lime leaves frozen or dry, I like the frozen one.  I keep adding water to my tamarind pulp and when the rendang gets too dry, I add the water from the tamarind pulp, cook for about an hour.  Since this time I bought very cheap cut of tough beef, I cook it for another half hour.
If you don't have chilli powder, just add some ginger powder, galangal powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, cardamon powder and chilli powder.  About 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tbsp coriander powder, chilli powder according to how spicy you want your rendang.  ginger powder, galangal powder, cardamon powder, just a dash.  If you can find ginger and galangal fresh, about an inch each.  Lazy cook loves to use only dry ingredients to save time, money and washing up.  Taste, errrr..., away from Malaysia, NOT BAD!!

Beef Rendang

Char Italy Mee

A Penangite always have her cravings of Char Kway Teow!  When you live so far away from home, the nearest best thing one can get her hands on, to re-create this yummy dish would just do!

I have some fetucini leftover in the fridge, about 2 portions.  My mom use to make the soya sauce mix before cooking char kway teow and her mix would normally be dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, salt and pepper.  Lazy cook hates washing up so would be just add in as I fry.

In a hot pan, medium to high heat, add a tbsp of oil, then chopped garlic, bacon and then fetucini.  I add a tbsp of bacon because difficult to find prawns here and expensive too.  Top with a tsp dark soya sauce and harissa, stir the pan.  Harissa is Tunisian chilli paste and I find it close to the taste of Chilli Boh. Then make a hole in the centre add a tbsp of oil and break 2 eggs into the oil, top with a dash of pepper and a tsp of light soya sauce.  I also add a dash of  pepper and a tsp of light soya sauce all over the fetucini.  Stir fry till the colour are even and the egg cooked.

Char Italy Mee with a tube of Harissa

Pancakes

I use to buy pancake mix because we all love pancakes.  Then arrive in France and cannot find the mix that I use when I was in Malaysia.  So I search the web and found this recipe which is fairly easy from Chef In You website.

Ingredients :

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp melted butter

I don't have the measuring cup, all I use is a normal teacup and it works well.  Mix the flour, baking powder and salt.  Whisk in the milk, then the egg whites, vanilla essence, honey and butter.  Don't need to rest, can cook immediately in a pan.  Heat a frying pan and butter the pan, then place 2 tbsp pancake batter and cook on both sides.  I make about 10 nos.

Yummy breakfast served with pancake syrup.  The best part is can freeze the balance for later urge!

Terrine de Foie Gras (Duck Liver Terrine)

Duck Liver served with salad, smoked duck breast and raisins in champagne vinaigrette, yummy!!!

Foie Gras, in English is Goose Liver.  I am doing Duck Liver Terrine, it is fairly simple, I am doing 2 Duck Liver, one weighing about 600 gms, that is a big liver and poor duck have to carry so much weight so we can enjoy this delicacy.

Raw Duck Liver

Leave in room temperature for about an hour, then remove the veins.

Veins from the Duck Liver

Marinate the duck liver with salt, sugar, pepper and I marinate with port/brandy mix.  The alcohol mix should be 100 ml for every 100 gm.  My mix is 1000 ml port and 300 ml brandy as my duck liver weighs about 1.3 kg.  You can use Sauternes (sweet Bordeaux white wine) instead.

Duck Liver marinated

Put a cling film and leave in the fridge overnight.  The following day, place the duck liver in a terrine, compress as much as possible.  I don't have a cover for my terrine dish, so I cover with a aluminium foil.  Place them on a bain-marie, and in the oven at 150°C for 45 minutes.

Duck Liver in Terrine Dish

In Bain Marie ready for oven

Duck Liver after cooking in oven

Remove the oil and place them in a ramekin, I use another terrine dish and place some weight on the terrine to compress the terrine.  My weight is the oil I remove from the terrine.

Duck Liver Terrine with weights

Leave it for a few hours, them remove, and I add the oil back to the terrine and place them in the fridge for at least 2 days before removing from the terrine and serve.

Duck Liver terrine ready to serve

Roast Chicken

Roast chicken, yummmmmmmy!

This is the first mat saleh (white man) food I learnt to cook after I got married to a Frenchman.  My mother-in-law showed me how to do it and a few mat saleh friends.  I learnt to cook Roast Chicken because everytime we get invited to any dinner with mat saleh friends, it is always always Roast Chicken.  My roast chicken has come a long way since I first started cooking roast chicken.  Since I am a fan of kay tooi (chicken drumstick), I now only cook roast chicken drumstick, very lazy.  I end up cooking only the drumstick because a whole chicken takes forever to cook and have to check them every now and then, and I hate the most is having to cut up the chicken before serving, it's such a MESS!

Today, I have 8 people eating so I cook 8 chicken drumstick, so easy, no need to fight over the chicken all same all fair.  I normally buy 5 kgs of frozen chicken drumstick and just have to de-frost the exact amount I need.   I cook chicken drumstick for all my curries too!

Marinate the chicken with oregano, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, salt and pepper.  Rub them with mustard and then olive oil.  If you don't have all the herbs just marinate with whatever you have.

Place the chicken drumsticks in a roasting pan.  Today I feel like having chicken soup with potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes and garlic.  So I topped the chicken with about 5 medium size potatoes, 2 medium size carrots, 1 onions, 3 tomatoes and 5 garlics.  All peeled and cut into bite sizes.  Then I add about 6 cups of chicken stock, only a bit of the chicken are exposed after adding all the above.  I forgot to take a picture, sorry....

You can add whatever root vegetable you like, some people add apples, chestnuts, bacon, the list goes on... and you can add less chicken stock or just plain water.  I add a lot of water because lazy cook don't have to turn the chicken all the time, just leave them in the oven at 160°C for 45 minutes, no need to peek, no need to check, just remove from the oven after 45 minutes.  I always cook the chicken early and when time to serve I remove the chicken from the soup and roast them at 190°C for a further 10 minutes, together with  the soup seperately in the oven.

Chicken soup with potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onions and garlic

Roast chicken separate from the potatoes for final roasting

Chicken all ready to be served with potatoes, carrots, so easy, no sweat at all, no mess!

Tarte Tatin

Success!! Tarte Tatin

A popular dessert in French and I finally got it right!  I love this dessert and it is expensive to buy but so cheap to make, fairly easy once you get the correct recipe.  I have failed so many times till I found this recipe in Taste of Home website.

Ingredients :

1 cup sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
6 apples, peeled, cored & sliced into 12 slices
1 tbsp unsalted butter
pâte brisee (http://zhelazycook.blogspot.com/2011/01/pate-brisee-short-crust-pastry.html) or pâte feuilletée

Start the oven at 200°C.

Roll out the short crust pastry to the size of the pie dish.  Keep in the fridge for later use. I use an 11 inch pie dish. Line the pie dish with parchment paper, this step is important cos the tarte tatin would come out beautiful and no need to dig out from the pie dish!

Pie dish lined with parchment paper

Peel and cut the apples and squeeze a lemon into the apples to prevent it from turning brown.

Apples

Combine 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon and flour (flour mix).

In a small skillet, heat 3/4 cup of sugar with about a tbsp water, do not use any spoon, just move the skillet around till the sugar caramalised. You can add less water but because lazy cook is lousy in making caramel, I add a little more water. When the sugar is golden in colour pour it onto the pie dish, it doesn't matter if the sugar does not fill up the dish.  Lay the apples in the pie dish, top with the flour mix and layer the rest of the apples, dot it with butter.  Can see from my picture, lazy cook style of layering the apples, in Penang, we say kalam kabut, in English would be freestyle!

Before topping the pastry

This time I have some Puff Pastry leftover, so I use Puff Pastry, normally I prefer Short Crust Pastry, cos Puff Pastry have their moods!

Ready for oven

Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.

Straight out from the oven, so ugly!

Let it cool for about 2 hours before turning them over.  I let mine cool for about 4 hours and whar lar.....

Pâte Brisée (Short Crust Pastry)

Puff Pastry ready to freeze

In French cooking, they use a lot of Pâte Brisée and Pâte Feuilletée (Puff Pastry). Lazy cook buys the Puff Pastry, but for the short crust pastry, I normally make a batch of 3 and freeze them.

Ingredients :
500 gm all purpose flour
6 gm salt
250 gm unsalted butter, softened
10 cl cold water

Mix the salt to the flour, then add the butter till it becomes like bread crumbs.

Flour and butter mix

Add water and combine. Let it sit for at least an hour.  Then I make this into 3 portions and put them in the freezer for later use.

Kangaroo steak in red wine butter sauce

This is not for the faint hearted!  I served this to my customers and one of them throw up, and he is French, suppose to eat all kinds of red meat. Then hubby joked, Skippy the Kangaroo!

I bought this kangaroo steak frozen, so after defrosting I marinate with salt, pepper and olive oil and let it sit in room temperature for about 10 minutes.  Then over very hot pan, sear the meat on both sides, cook between 3-5 minutes on each side, depends on the thickness of the meat. Then wrap the steak in aluminium foil to keep warm  for about 10 minutes.  I serve this with Red Wine Butter Sauce ( http://zhelazycook.blogspot.com/2011/01/red-butter-sauce.html)

Kangaroo steak in red butter sauce

Red Wine Butter Sauce

This sauce goes very well with red meat.  It is easy to make and in a French kitchen all the ingredients are available.  Wine is cheap here and I just love to cook with wine.

Ingredients :
1/2 cup red wine
1 tbsp minced shallots
1/4 cup double cream
100 gm butter, cut into 8-10 cubes

In a saucepan, reduce the red wine in shallots till the wine is almost absorbed.  Add cream and reduce until syrupy consistency about half volume.  Remove from heat and whisk in the butter a little at a time.  Keep warm over boiling water, while you prepare the red meat.