Recipe Fondue Surrealist Surprise

French Recipe Ideas - Fondue Surrealist Surprise

Very Easy and Fun due (if you Like your Guests)

Ingredients for Fondue for 6

• 1/3 litre of Apremont or Mondeuse (wine from Savoie)
• Cheese as follows:-
• 400 g. (approx. 1 lb.) Beaufort
• 400 g Abondance
• 400 g Gruyere des Bauges
• 400 g. Emmental
• 400 g. Conté
• 1 clove of garlic, salt, pepper, nutmeg
• 1 soupspoon Dijon mustard
• 5 cl Kirsch Liqueur or Marc de Savoie (grappa brandy)
• 1 farmhouse loaf (approx 500 g. - 1.1 lb)).:

Preparation

1. Peel the clove of garlic and rub the inside of the fondu saucepan with it.
2. Grate the cheeses and put them together in a bowl.
3. Cut the bread into cubes of approx. 1 inch.
4. Pour the wine into the saucepan and bring to the boil.
5. At this stage, lower the heat and gradually put the grated cheese in allowing it to melt, and stirring all the time with a wooden spoon making figures of 8.
6. When all the cheese has melted, season to taste with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.
7. Add the mustard and the alcohol, mix further to bind together.
8. Place the saucepan on the table between the guests, on a hotplate.
9. Mix the preparation in order to ensure to doesn’t stick to the pan.
10. Each person puts a piece of bread on his/her fondue fork and dips it in the fondue.

Fondue from Savoy is eaten accompanied by Mondeuse or Apremont wine. It can also be eaten with ham or smoked saucisson (salami).





















Previous recipes :
Strawberry Cheesecake a la Salvador Dali
Black Forest Gateau with Nigella

French Recipe
Fondue Surprise Surrealist

Black Forest Gateau Recipe with Nigella

Simple Black Forest Cake Gateau Recipe a la Nigella (Schwarzwald Torte – Gateau de la Foret Noire)

The Black Forest Gateau is also known as the Black Forest Cake in the USA
It is easy to make and even easier to eat !

• (Nigella Lawson (not part of the recipe) + Lake Titisee in the Black Forest- if Nigella Lawson were a cake she would be a Black Forest Gateau - Nigella Lawson was once considered too sexy for U.S. TV)
  (The real Black Forest Gateau)

Black Forest Gateau - Black Forest Cake - Ingredients
500 g (17.5 oz.) black cherries
200 g (6 oz) sugar
200 g (6 oz) dark chocolate
100 g (3 oz) cocoa
100 g (3 oz) butter
75 g (2.5 oz) powdered almonds
50 g (1.75 oz) plain flour
40 cl cream (single cream in the UK)
25 g (.75 oz) icing sugar
10 cl kirsch
6 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ bag baking powder
Chocolate chips
Nigella Lawson

Black Forest Gateau - aka Black Forest Cake - Preparation

• Remove the stones fom the cherries and macerate in the kirsch for two hours, strain and keep the juice
• Mix the flour and the baking powder. Separate the whites of the eggs
• Mix the egg yolks and 50 g of suger
• Beat until the mixture turns white, add the butter, then the powdered almonds, cocoa, flour/baking powder and a teaspoon of vanilla extract
• Mix until smooth
• Beat the egg whites until stiff, beat into mixture
• Pour batter into 3 greased and floured cake moulds of the same diameter
• Cook for 20 mins. at 180°C. Remove from mould and leave to cool (each one is now called a ‘biscuit’)
• Make a syrup with the rest of the sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and half pint of water, away from the heat add the cherry juice
• Soak the biscuits in the syrup, baste frequently
• Beat the cream until it turns into a Chantilly cream, add the icing sugar and vanilla extract
• Coat a biscuit with a quarter of the Chantilly cream, arrange half of the strained cherries
• Cover with a biscuit, coat with a quarter of Chantilly and the cherries
• Cover with the biscuit, coat the top and sides of the cake with the Chantilly
• Place the chocolate chips on the cake to cover it fully
• Place the Black Forest Gateau in the refrigerator 3 hours before serving
• Phone up Nigella and invite her to come round and admire your handiwork - eat

NoteThe batter can be cooked in a single mould, the cooking then takes 40 mins. And the cake is sliced into three equal parts
NB : for those who have no idea who the beautiful Nigella is
Who is Nigella Lawson?
Nigella Lawson is a national treasure in the UK and has achieved the impossible by making cooking look interesting ! But of course her culinary words of wisdom are wasted on the male population, as no man can remember anything she says as she has the power to hypnotize them with a single glance, after which she plants the suggestion deep within their strangely aroused cognitive organ - "go forth and buy my books you pitiful worms!" After each of Nigella's appearances on UK TV, men can be seen rising tuber-like from their couches in a daze and heading for their local Tesco's mumbling "yes mistress, must buy book". Fortunately the books in question are lavishly illustrated with pictures of the beautiful Nigella herself, firmly gripping carrots and/or bananas, which explains their best-seller status and the increase in banana consumption.
Nigella missed her vocation however as, given her background (daddy was a Tory MP and 'magnificent' Chancellor of the Exchequer), she should have embraced a career in politics where she would have undoubtedly slid all the way to the top of the greasy pole and become the UK's first real woman Prime Minister - it's not too late Nigella ! We will vote for you !

For How to Make Ice Cream see - Ice Cream Makers
For How to Make Chocolate Easter Eggs see How to Make Chocolate Easter Eggs at Home

black forest gateau




nigella lawson recipes simple recipes

French Recipes| Ratatouille

Simple Recipes - French Recipes - Ratatouille

Ratatouille is one of the most simple recipes from the South of France, it one of the easiest to make, it is also the name of a famous film and it does not contain any rats.

It is a stew made from peppers, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and onions prepared using olive oil, which can be eaten hot or cold, with bread, but you no supposed to heat it up if has gone cold.
Hot, ratatouille is a wonderful accompanying dish for fish, chicken, veal chops or a main vegetarian course.





Ingredients for 4 people
1 aubergine (eggplant)
2 courgettes (zucchinis)
5 cloves of garlic
2 peppers
4 peeled tomatoes
Approx 50 g. of olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 sprig of thyme
1 sprig of parsley
1 sprig of basil


Preparation
Chop all the vegetables into small cubes. Chop the garlic into thin pieces. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in the bottom of the pot
Add the aubergines and courgettes and cook for 5 minutes. Heat 2 more tbsp of olive oil. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add salt and pepper.

Add the chopped herbs and cook on low heat for 1 hour

Alternatively, for an easier way of making ratatouille, put all the ingredients together in a large pot and allow them to cook over a slow heat for approximately 1 hour until the vegetables are well-cooked and soft.

French Recipes - Savoy Cake

Simple Recipes - French Recipes - Traditional Savoy Cake

Simple Cake Recipes

Savoy Cake for 6 – 8 People

Ingredients

7 eggs
250 g. sugar
200 g. flour
Half a packet of bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt

Turn the oven on to gas mark 5 (thermostat 150 degrees)
Add the sugar to the egg yolks and mix.
Whip the egg whites
Mix the bicarbonate into the flour, pour part of the flour into the egg yolks then a part of the egg whites by folding over gently, recommence to mix in all the flour in two or three goes.
Pour into a mould immediately, and cook on a slow heat for 40 minutes
remove from mould hot and place on a grill. Tips : Leave the door slightly ajar so that the air can take part in the cooking. Use a teflon mould.
For a good book of French recipes have a look at Simple French Cookery by Raymond Blanc.

For traditional English cake recipes by the legendary Mrs Beeton Mrs Beeton's Cake and Pudding Recipes for a Christmas Cake Recipe see Traditional Christmas Cake Recipe

French Tourin a la Tomate

Simple Recipes - Recipe Ideas Tourin a la Tomate

Simple Soup Recipe

I was born in France but now live in England. I have adapted to the climate, which, here in the South-West is not that different from my native Paris… The food, however, is a different matter. Part of my roots are in the South-West of France where my sister and I used to spend our summer holidays.

In the evening, our aunt Pierrette would make such delicious soups that even now thinking of them, makes my mouth water. So I have decided to create this blog to post some of my favourite recipes. The first recipe is a French recipe for one of my aunt’s excellent soups from the Périgourdine Region of France. In French it is called ‘Tourin à la tomate’ or Thick Tomato Soup. The quantities are for 4 people.

Ingredients for ‘tourin à la tomate’:

1 spoon of oil (traditionally goose or duck fat)
1 onion (100g)
2 big cloves of garlic
1kg (2.2 pounds) of beef tomatoes
1 spoon of tomato purée
1.5 litres (2.7 pints) of chicken stock
A sprig of thyme
Salt and pepper
4 large slices of farmhouse bread

• Peel and cut the onion in thin slices, then peel the garlic cloves, cut each clove lengthwise into two halves and carefully remove and discard the green heart which is not digestible, then slice thinly.
• In a heavy casserole dish put the oil or goose fat to melt. As soon as it starts sizzling put the sliced onion and garlic in it. Stir often until it takes a golden colour.
• Rinse the beef tomatoes in water and dry them, then cut into quarters. Add to the onion and garlic and stir well, one or two minutes, remove from the heat.
• Mix the tomato purée in a bowl with part of the chicken stock, add it to the casserole dish, then add the rest of the chicken stock, the sprig of thyme, the salt and pepper. Cover and let it simmer at a very low gas mark for 30 minutes.
• Toast the bread lightly and put in a soup tureen. When the soup is ready pour it on to the toasted bread, cover and leave 3 minutes to rest, then grind some fresh pepper on it and serve.

This ‘tourin’ recipe is one of many variants of the typical soup of South West of France. It is very simple to make but it is the one I like best, I hope you will too.

Bon appétit.