We Provice Recipes

Showing posts with label french. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

So Not French Vanilla Ice Cream Made Easy

In a day or two, youll see an interview I filmed with Bruce Weinstein, author of the Ultimate Ice Cream Book. It was set up through foodbuzz, a rapidly growing online foodie community that I serve as a featured publisher for. I will save the details for that upcoming post, but after talking (and eating) ice cream with "Mr. Ice Cream," as I call him, I was inspired to make a batch myself.

I decided to do vanilla, as it really is the king of ice cream flavors (sorry chocolate). No other flavor makes milk taste milkier, or cream taste creamier. When I do vanilla ice cream, I prefer the old fashion "American," or "Philadelphia-style" which doesnt contain any eggs, as the more popular French vanilla does.

While this style of ice cream is certainly not as rich, in my opinion that sacrifice is rewarded with a brighter, more pronounced vanilla flavor. I also use a combination of milk and cream, which is obviously much lighter than the traditional all cream versions. You should experiment with different proportions of dairy, and find your "perfect scoop."

The Cuisinart ice cream maker pictured here is the one I use, and highly recommend. Its relatively inexpensive, and will provide many years of homemade ice cream and sorbets. The great thing about this model is that the "bucket" is kept in the freezer, and is ready any time you are. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup cream
2 1/4 cup milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

View the complete recipe

Saturday, March 15, 2014

FRENCH TOAST BOMBAY TOAST

FRENCH TOAST or BOMBAY TOAST is also known as Eggy Bread in Anglo-Indian parlance. It is a very popular breakfast item in most Anglo-Indian Homes, and is often served as an accompaniment to the traditional breakfast of Fried Eggs, Bacon, Sausages etc. - A perfect breakfast for a lazy saturday!

Ingredients:

8 slices sandwich bread

2 eggs

2 tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

Butter or Ghee for frying

½ cup milk

Break the eggs in a bowl and beat well with the sugar. Add the vanilla essence and milk and mix well.

Heat a flat pan and add a tablespoon of butter or ghee and smear all over. When hot dip one slice of bread at a time in the egg and milk mixture and shallow fry each slice on both sides till golden brown. 2 or 3 slices can be fried at a time. Serve hot with either Condensed Milk, Jam, honey or powdered sugar.

To make a savoury french Toast, omit the sugar and vanilla essnce and instead add a dash of pepper and salt. Chopped green chillies, chopped onions and chopped corriander leaves (Cilantro leaves) could also be added for a spicy French - Bombay Toast.

Monday, February 24, 2014

The Beurre Rouge – A red wine butter sauce born during that other French Revolution

Well, it happened again! I get an email asking for a red wine sauce. I reply please check the site, I’ve already posted one. They reply, oh no you didn’t. I check site and realize…oops, I never posted this clip. Excusez-moi. As usual, the standard “this is an old clip” disclaimer applies.

We all learned about the French Revolution in school. You remember, “let them eat cake,” and all that stuff. Anyway, there was another French Revolution that started in the 70’s and it had to do with French Cuisine. It was called “Nouvelle” cuisine which is simply French for "new cuisine." This style was a reaction to the classic “Haute” cuisine (meaning "high cooking"). It focused on lighter and more delicate dishes, without heavy flour-based sauces. One of the darlings of this new style was a simple butter sauce called a “beurre blanc” which was a reduction of white wine and vinegar, finished with whole butter. These lighter sauces became all the rage.

The version I’m showing today is the red wine version of the classic beurre blanc. I usually force you to get the procedure by watching the clip (multiple times, I suspect), but just this one time I’ll give you a brief procedure below, so the sauce doesn’t “break” or separate.

Ingredients:
A couple of nice steaks
1 minced shallot
1/2 stick butter (2oz)1/4 cup wine vinegar
1/2 cup red wine
salt and pepper to taste

1. Remove steaks from pan and turn off heat.
2. Add shallots with 2 tsp of the butter.
3. On low heat, sauté shallots until lightly browned.
4. Deglaze with vinegar, cook until almost evaporated.
5. Add wine and cook on med-high heat until reduced by half.
6. Turn off heat and whisk in butter, adjust for salt and pepper.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

French Bread Rolls

I have been seriously missing in action lately, but I have lots of good reasons. Were selling our house, Im having a baby in 2 weeks, my grandfather passed away, and life is just all around busy. But Im still cooking! I havent been making too many exciting things, but just the other day I thought that I wanted to make some yummy things in the next few weeks before the baby comes while I still have some time on my hands!

So thats where these little gems come in. I just took these out of the oven minutes ago and they are delish! I couldnt wait for them to cool - I had to try one. We are having these for dinner tonight along with some pulled pork that has been simmering in the crockpot all day (Ill share that recipe too), some coleslaw, and baked oven fries. Yum! Im excited for dinner...only 2 more hours to go!

French Bread Rolls

Makes 1 dozen rolls

1 1/2 c. warm water

3/4 T. instant yeast

2 T. white sugar

2 T. olive oil

1 tsp. salt

4 cups flour (roughly)

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine water, yeast, sugar, oil, salt and 2 cups flour. Begin mixing and gradually add the rest of the flour until a soft dough forms (you may need more or less - just watch it so you dont add too much; when it clears the sides of the bowl, you have enough).

Knead for about 5 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Lightly spray a large bowl with cooking spray and place dough in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel and let rise until doubled - about an hour.

Lightly deflate dough and divide into 12 equal pieces. Form into round balls and place on a cookie sheet about an inch or two apart. Let rise until doubled - about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake rolls for 12-15 minutes, until browned and done.

Source: Mels Kitchen Cafe

Sunday, February 9, 2014

PERFECT FRENCH FRIES

We dont eat homemade french fries very often because they dont turn out very well. Ive tried many potato varieties; Ive tried various oils and temperatures; Ive tried double frying them (what a hassle that was!) and Ive tried baking them... they all come out of the oil LOOKING great but turn limp and greasy in a matter of minutes.

Then, recently, I came across this very simple recipe. Assuming this technique was just too easy to produce great results, I didnt even mention the recipe "experiment" before I served them.

After about the third french fry, picky-picky hubby offered this unsolicited critique: "these fries are REALLY good"... I knew I had a winner. I will definitely be using this super easy method the next time we decide to treat ourselves to some fries.

2 pounds of Russet potatoes (make sure they are Russets)
2 tablespoons corn starch
peanut oil (peanut oil works the best)
kosher salt

Slice the potatoes into shoestring size pieces, trying to make them as even as possible. Rinse the cut potatoes thoroughly and put them in a big bowl of plain cold water in the fridge until dinner time (at least an hour, but overnight is even better).

Take the potatoes out of the cold water and lay them on an absorbent towel, blotting most of the water off. Coat the potatoes lightly with the cornstarch and shake off the excess. Let them air dry while the peanut oil heats up to 375 degrees.

A word about the oil: You will get the best french fries using peanut oil; it has a high scorch level and tastes great. You can also use regular vegetable oil, but avoid canola oil. Canola oil tastes a little "off" if you bring it up to 375 degrees. I was surprised what a difference peanut oil makes.

When the oil reaches 375, put a big handful of the coated potatoes in the oil and stir to separate them. After theyve fried for a minute or so, stir them again to make sure they arent sticking together (dont overcrowd your pan).

When the potatoes are light golden brown, take them out of the oil and put them on paper towels to wick away some of the oil. Sprinkle generously with kosher salt (it tastes so much better than regular table salt on the french fries).

Thats it!! No more limp, greasy french fries (and NO more double frying!!). Who knew that Russet potatoes, a little soak time, a little corn starch and some peanut oil would make such a great french fry?!?!

NOTE ABOUT CUTTING THE POTATOES: Peel (or wash) the potatoes and cut the sides of the potatoes off (making sort of a rectangle). This will give your potato flat sides to rest on while you slice through the potato. Stack the potato "slabs" and cut into shoestring size potatoes.

Russets are those big baking potatoes.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Burger and French fries pot

Burger and French fries pot

Ingredients

Beef mince ½ kg
Onion 1 cup chopped
Flour 2 tbsp
Tomato puree ½ cup
Cheddar cheese 1 cup
Frozen French fries 2 cups
Salt 1 tsp
Crushed red pepper 1 tsp
Black pepper ½ tsp
Mustard powder ½ tsp
Wooster shier sauce 2 tbsp

Method

Heat oil add onion fry for 5 minutes till soft add beef with salt, pepper, mustard, Wooster shier sauce and tomato puree, cover and cook till beef tender add flour and mix well, cook for 1 minute and remove in a greased casserole, sprinkle with cheddar cheese arrange frozen fries over beef in single layer bake uncovered for 20 minutes until fries golden brown.