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