Alsatian Onion Tart

I had bookmarked this recipe in Orangette ages ago, and upon reading it again, I was surprised to see it didn’t contain cheese. So it’s not really like a quiche (and there’s only one egg). I used 15% cream in which I had added lactase drops and I was really pleased with the consistency of the tart. It was delicious, and easy to make. Next time I make it, though, I’ll cut the onion thinner and I’ll make short slices (as opposed to “onion ring” slices, which made the tart harder to slice neatly). Also, I cheated that evening and I used a premade tart shell, but as always, I encourage you to make your own (I almost always use Martha Stewart’s recipe myself).

1 half-recipe Martha Stewart’s pâte brisée
2 Tbsp olive oil
1-1 ½ lbs yellow onions (about 2 large), peeled and very thinly sliced
1 large egg
½ cup cream
salt
freshly ground pepper
grated nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 375 °F.

Roll out the pâte brisée and line a 9-inch removable-bottom tart shell with it (or a regular 9-inch pie plate). Cover it with plastic wrap, and chill it in the refrigerator.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and sauté the onions, stirring regularly, until they are lightly golden—just beginning to caramelize—and tender. Remove the skillet from the heat.



In a small bowl, beat the egg and cream together. Add a pinch or two of salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.



Add this to the onions, stirring to combine.

Remove the tart shell from the refrigerator, and fill it with the onion and egg mixture.



Bake tart for 25 minutes, or until the filling is golden brown and set. Serve hot or warm.

Apricot, Almond, Chocolate Chip Cookie

This recipe is from a beautiful blog called Tea & Cookies. I usually don’t like nuts in cookies, but that rule doesn’t apply here – these cookies were great. I used almonds, though I’m sure pecans would be good. I also used dark chocolate chips, though milk chocolate chips are acceptable too. And you can’t really make this recipe lactose-free if you use white chocolate chips, but the small amount of dairy in there did not affect me. Note that the dried apricots we used were organic, so they were brown (with none of the chemical that makes them stay orange once they’re dried, I guess). Once they were chopped up and mixed with the nuts and chocolate chips, it was fine, and they tasted great – it was just weird to look at them on their own. I do think it looks better with orange apricots, though.

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt, more for sprinkling on top (the latter is optional)
¾ cup melted butter or lactose-free margarine
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2/3 cup white chocolate chips
2/3 cup dark chocolate chips
¾ cup chopped almonds
¾ cup dried apricots, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, stir in the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla.



Stir in the dry ingredients until well blended, then add the chips, almonds, and apricots.



Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto an unprepared cookie sheet. Sprinkle salt on top, if desired. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven (try not to overbake them). Cookies should be golden brown. Remove from the baking sheet to cool on wire racks.

Apple Jacks

They’re baaa-aaaack!!!

The Engineer made a quick trip to our corner store last night to get some drinks and some cereal, while I was making dinner. He came back and, when he showed me the box of cereals he got, my face lit up like a Christmas tree. Apple Jacks! These used to be one of my favourite cereals, and I can’t tell you how often I’ve craved them recently – you see, they were discontinued by Kellogg’s for some reason and are now only sold at special fairs. Well, as you can see on the box, these are a limited edition, but the point is: they are now in stores. Go get yours!

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed this morning, though, because they don’t taste quite like they used to. Has anyone else tried this batch? What do you think? I know the greens O’s aren't classic, but they taste the same as the orange ones, and I remember them from the 1990’s. And if you’re some of those “weirdos” from my generation who haven’t heard of these cereals, go buy some. Now!

Chocolate Mousse with Olive Oil and Sea Salt

This recipe first appealed to me because I like sweet-salty pairings, so a chocolate mousse that used olive and sea salt sounded right up my alley. It has the added benefit of explaining how to pasteurize eggs to use in the mousse. My go-to chocolate mousse skips this step entirely, but since my friends are starting to have babies, I’m more aware of dietary restrictions during pregnancy than I used to be. So this mousse can be made safe for pregnant women, even though it has eggs.

I must confess that my favourite thermometer broke recently (it was in my drawer, before the latest kitchen intervention, and must have gotten banged around once too many). The Engineer and I bought a new digital thermometer instead, but it turns out that while you couldn’t ask for a better meat thermometer, its capacities for taking the temperature of a mixture in a saucepan are severely limited. So I used our old meat thermometer, but it doesn’t have a clip to hang on to the saucepan and it has a slow reaction time. Since I had one hand holding the thermometer and one hand whisking the eggs (periodically removing the thermometer so I could whisk better), I ever-so-slightly missed the point at which I should have removed the eggs from the heat: they started to scramble a bit. So I decided to start over and this time, I didn’t use the thermometer, but removed the eggs from the heat when they started to look like they had right before it was too late. I didn’t care about the precise temperature, since I have no qualms about eating raw eggs. That being said, we will invest in a new thermometer with a saucepan clip, so we can do it more precisely next time.

I used the Scharffen Berger chocolate I had brought back from Vermont, and seriously, quality chocolate makes all the difference. There was no sugar in this recipe (only a little maple syrup), but the chocolate was so good that I didn’t miss the sweetness (but of course, I’m addicted to dark chocolate; those who are not might want to add a bit more maple syrup). As far as chocolate mousses go, this one is remarkably healthy!

In the end, I didn’t use sea salt flakes to finish the dish; I made lavender salt by crushing sea salt with lavender flowers. This salt was also great on chicken roasted with Dijon mustard. Of course, it’s entirely optional, don’t feel like you have to do this!



Here is the recipe.

2 eggs, thoroughly beaten
¾ cup whole milk
6 oz good-quality semi-sweet dark chocolate, in pieces
¼ cup finishing-quality olive oil
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 tiny pinch fine salt
sea salt or lavender salt, to serve

Whisk the milk and eggs together, beating for at least a minute. Put in a small, heavy saucepan over low heat. Put a thermometer into the milk mixture and carefully heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture reaches 160 °F. Take off the heat.

In another small, heavy saucepan (a double-boiler is safer), put the chocolate over low heat. Heat slowly, stirring frequently, until the chocolate is completely melted. Take off the heat and stir in the olive oil.


I can finally create a double boiler with my new metal bowls.



This is the chocolate as it is starting to melt. Notice how the eggs next to it look a little scrambled...



Smooth, melted chocolate.



My second try at the eggs - the texture is much better.


Add the milk and egg mixture to a blender or food processor, along with the maple syrup, vanilla, and a pinch of fine salt. Blend to combine.



With the food processor or blender running, slowly pour in the chocolate mixture and blend until well combined. The final mix will be frothy and smooth.

Fill four 6-oz ramekins and put in the refrigerator to chill. The mousse will take about three hours to set.



Serve with just a pinch of rough salt.

Bœuf bourguignon

Le bœuf bourguignon de ma mère est un plat que j’adore. Il n’est pas exactement rapide (comptez environ 30 minutes de préparation active et 2 h 40 minutes de cuisson au four), mais il n’est pas compliqué du tout. C’est idéal pour un après-midi de fin de semaine, et les restes se congèlent bien. Je vous donne sa recette, qu’elle m’a elle-même donné récemment. Et j’ajoute plein de photos pour ceux et celles qui ont peur de rater une étape.

2 lb d’intérieur de ronde de bœuf, coupé en cubes de 2 pouces
½ tasse de beurre non salé (ou de margarine) (donc 8 c. à soupe)
1 c. à soupe d’huile d’olive
1 oignon, finement tranché
1 c. à soupe de farine
2 gousses d’ail, écrasées ou émincées (au goût)
1 feuille de laurier et du thym séché
poivre et sel, au goût
1 bouteille de vin rouge
6 tranches de bacon, en morceaux (ou des lardons)
20 oignons perlés
½ lb de champignons de Paris
persil frais, haché (facultatif)

Préchauffer le four à 300 °F.
Bien sécher la viande avec des essuie-tout (elle ne brunira pas si elle est trop humide). Faire fondre 6 c. à soupe de beurre dans un faitout. Ajouter l’huile, puis la viande.



Faire revenir la viande à feu élevé jusqu’à ce qu’elle soit dorée, puis ajouter l’oignon tranché. Faire cuire jusqu’à ce que l’oignon soit transparent, saupoudrer de la farine et mélanger pour qu’elle enrobe bien la viande. Faire cuire encore quelques minutes. (Ici, vous pouvez aussi ajouter 3 c. à soupe de brandy et l’allumer, mais je m’en passe.)




Ajouter l’ail, la feuille de laurier, le thym, le poivre et le sel. Mélanger et verser assez de vin rouge pour recouvrir la viande. Faire mijoter le mélange, puis couvrir le faitout et le mettre au centre du four pendant 2 heures.



Pendant ce temps, faire cuire le bacon dans une poêle jusqu’à ce qu’il soit croustillant. Ajouter les oignons perlés et faire cuire jusqu’à ce qu’ils soient dorés (ajouter du beurre s’il le faut).




Mettre le bacon et les oignons dans le faitout et mélanger. Faire cuire encore 30 minutes.
Faire sauter les champignons dans la même poêle (ajouter le reste du beurre s’il le faut); les ajouter au faitout et mélanger. Faire cuire encore 10 minutes.



Saupoudrer de persil et servir.
(Ici, j’ai servi avec du couscous, parce que je me suis rendu compte à la dernière minute que je n’avais pas pensé au plat d’accompagnement, trop fière d’avoir fait du bœuf bourguignon! C’est bon aussi avec des pommes de terre et des carottes.)

Impossible Pumpkin Pies

You may remember the impossible pie (or tart) concept from my coconut version. They are so-called because it seems impossible to get something solid with those ingredients. The flour falls to the bottom and creates a crust, while the eggs keep the center gooey.

The problem with this recipe is that it was presented in the form of cupcakes, but they were nearly impossible to get out of paper liners (I’m not sure it would have been much prettier with silicone liners either). So I suggest using six greased ramekins and upping the cooking time a bit. Of course, I did make a substitution so that I could have a lactose-free version of half-and-half, but I don’t think the problem was entirely attributable to that. I think impossible pies are just not meant to be unmolded, that’s all.

After reading this website, I recommend melting 1 Tbsp butter or lactose-free margarine in a cup, then adding whole (lactose-free) milk until you have ¾ cup total, to substitute for the half-and-half. And I used my nifty digital scale to weigh 15 oz of pumpkin purée, which almost finished the can I had opened for the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Also, for the pumpkin spice: the “official” recipe is to mix ¼ cup ground cinnamon + 2 Tbsp ground ginger + 2 tsp ground cloves + 1 tsp ground nutmeg + ½ tsp ground cardamom, if you wish. But that makes enough spice to store, more than you need for the recipe. Also, the cinnamon ratio is much too high for me (I like cinnamon, but not THAT much). So I added these spices in various ratios to total 2 tsp; you can do it to taste.

2/3 cup all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
15 oz pumpkin purée
½ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup half-and-half (or lactose-free substitution)

Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Grease six ramekins.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice
In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and half-and-half until well combined.



Add in dry ingredients and whisk until no streaks of flour remain and batter is smooth.
Fill each ramekin with approximately 2/3 cup of batter.



Bake for 25-30 minutes. The pies will sink as they cool. Serve at room temperature or chilled, topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream or a lactose-free equivalent if you wish.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fall is pumpkin season. And I just love pumpkin desserts! Well, pumpkin soup and pumpkin seeds are good too, but desserts are my favourite. I’ve added two new recipes to my arsenal recently, so I’ll share them here.

This cookie recipe was really good, though I have to say that I felt like they were lacking in... “heat”. Maybe it’s because of the ginger and spices that I’ve come to associate with pumpkin desserts and that are absent from this recipe. The cookies were wonderfully chewy, though, and the chocolate was a great touch (though not quite enough to satisfy a chocolate craving if you have one – it’s a supporting player here). Next time I make those, I’ll add powdered ginger (which goes well with dark chocolate), and maybe ground cloves or nutmeg. It’s up to you whether or not you want to spice them up.

Also, on the subject of pumpkin purée... I use canned purée. Sure, you can make your own with a real pumpkin, by roasting the flesh and processing the heck out of it. I’ve done it once. Once. Now, I stick to unsweetened canned pumpkin purée, such as Libby’s – with only pumpkin as an ingredient, what’s not to love? It’s so much easier that making your own purée, and you can stockpile it to use in seasons other than fall.

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp milk (lactose-free if you want)
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven at 350 °F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or grease them.
Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt.
Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in.




Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
Add vanilla and chocolate chips.



Drop by spoonful on the baking sheets and bake for approximately 10-15 minutes or until lightly brown and firm. (Go by the look of the cookies rather than the baking time.)

The Woman on Page 194

I've had this bookmarked for a while and I meant to write about it sooner.

A few months ago, the September issue of Glamour hit newsstands. In that issue was a picture that sparked so many positive comments that it started somewhat of a revolution. It’s a picture of Lizzi Miller, who at a size 12-14 (an average body-size, really), is a plus-size model. But this picture shows her stomach hanging. And it’s what most women out there look like, but it’s never really been shown in the media before.

I just wanted to say how much I like that picture, and I hope that more magazines follow suit by representing a wider range of body types. This woman is clearly beautiful, and she’s not stick-thin. Score one for the normal girls!

Gâteau au chocolat sans cholestérol

Bon, j’avais de très bonnes intentions avec ce gâteau. Il s’agit d’un excellent gâteau au chocolat, facile et rapide à faire, qui ne m’avait jamais donné de fil à retordre. Mais pour une raison quelconque, ce n’était pas ma soirée. Le gâteau a un peu trop cuit sur les bords et s’est défait lors du démoulage (ce qui ne m’était jamais arrivé auparavant avec cette recette). Pourtant, j’ai utilisé les mêmes ingrédients (sans substitutions de marques ou quoi que ce soit), et habituellement, notre four chauffe un peu moins que les autres, alors je ne vois pas ce qui s’est passé. De plus, sans lumière du jour, je n’ai pas de belles photos à présenter. Mais j’ai décidé de vous donner la recette quand même, parce qu’en temps normal, ça vaut vraiment la peine de le faire; le gâteau est vraiment très bon. J’ai modifié un peu la recette en ajoutant du papier au fond du moule, ce qui devrait donc empêcher le gâteau de se défaire (même si, vraiment, ça n’est arrivé que ce soir-là). Le glaçage est facultatif aussi, mais je l’aime bien parce qu’il ne contient pas de produits laitiers (et cette fois-ci, il m’a servi à masquer le fait que mon gâteau était en morceaux détachés!).

Pour le gâteau
1 tasse d’eau chaude
½ tasse de cacao
1 ½ tasse de farine tout-usage
1 tasse de sucre granulé
¾ c. à thé de bicarbonate de soude
½ c. à thé de sel
½ tasse d’huile de tournesol ou de canola
1 c. à soupe de vanille
2 c. à thé de vinaigre blanc distillé

Pour le glaçage
2 oz de chocolat noir, haché
½ tasse de sucre en poudre
2 c. à soupe d’eau

Préchauffer le four à 375 °F. Graisser un moule à gâteau de 8 pouces de diamètre; mettre du papier ciré au fond et graisser de nouveau.

Dans un petit bol, fouetter ensemble l’eau chaude et le cacao.



Dans un grand bol, mélanger la farine, le sucre, le bicarbonate de soude et le sel. Faire un puits au centre. Ajouter le mélange de cacao, l’huile et la vanille. Fouetter jusqu’à obtention d’une pâte lisse. Ajouter le vinaigre et fouetter. Mettre la pâte dans le moule.



Faire cuire jusqu’à ce qu’un cure-dents en ressorte propre, environ 30 à 35 minutes. Laisser refroidir sur une grille 20 minutes. Démouler et laisser refroidir complètement.



Pour faire le glaçage, faire fondre le chocolat noir; laisser refroidir un peu. Fouetter ensemble le sucre en poudre et l’eau. Ajouter le chocolat en un mince filet et fouetter jusqu’à obtention d’une texture lisse et épaisse, environ 1 minute. Glacer immédiatement le gâteau.

Roasted Tomato and Onion Tart

As you might guess, I have a long list of bookmarked websites with recipes that I want to try (along with a small pile of paper recipes in my kitchen). I was pretty proud of myself here, because I managed to combine three of them in this one dish. I used Clotilde Dusoulier’s Easy Olive Oil Tart Crust and David Lebovitz’z Aïoli as a base for a roasted tomato and onion tart. The tart called for garlic and mayonnaise, which I replaced with just aïoli.

I should mention first that I made the aïoli in the food processor. It may not be authentic, but it’s damn easy. Also, please take the instructions seriously when they say to start with only half of the garlic you have crushed. I decided to use all of it at once, since I like garlic and it didn’t seem like much. What could happen, right? Well, it was the most potent aïoli ever. Like, nuclear garlic flavour. So I ended up being stingy with it in the tart – and wouldn’t you know it, the taste was almost lost in it. The same later happened with some aïoli I had put in a ham-cheese-alfalfa, it really didn’t taste as strongly once it was mixed with other things.

Also, I did find that the tomatoes were a little watery in the tart. It’s possible that I should have let them roast longer, or maybe extra aïoli (substituting for the mayonnaise in the original recipe) would have helped. In fact, that may be why the recipe called for what seemed like an obscene amount of mayonnaise (2/3 cup). I’ll write a lesser amount in the recipe, but know that you should probably use more than I did in the pictures.


For the crust
250 grams (about 2 cups) light whole wheat flour, or a 50/50 mix of all-purpose and whole wheat
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp dried herbs (I used thyme)
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup cold water

Grease the tart pan lightly if it doesn't have a nonstick coating.
Combine the flour, salt, and herbs in a medium mixing bowl. Add the oil and mix it in with a fork. Add the water, mix with the fork until it is absorbed, then knead lightly until the dough comes together into a ball.
Turn the dough out on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle a little flour on the ball of dough and on the rolling pin, and roll the dough out into a circle large enough to fit your tart pan.
Transfer the dough carefully into the prepared pan and line it neatly. Place the pan in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.


For the aïoli
2-3 cloves of garlic (preferably fresh)
½ tsp salt
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil (you can substitute canola if you wish)

Crush the garlic cloves with the salt in a mortar or deep bowl until you have a smooth paste. Take out some of it as it may be too much; you can add it back later.
Put the remaining paste in the food processor along with the egg yolk and process.
Add the oil to the egg and garlic mixture starting very slowly, drop by drop. You can use a spout in an olive oil bottle to regulate the flow, but you can also drip the oil in from a spoon. As the mayonnaise thickens, continue to add the oil in a very thin stream. Continue until all the oil has been incorporated. (If it gets too thick you can dilute it slightly with a tablespoon of warm water - don't add more oil, it will just get thicker.)
Taste, and add more of the garlic, if desired.






For the tart
1 ½ lbs sliced tomatoes (4 medium)
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 slices thick slab bacon
10-12 basil leaves, shredded
2 cups sharp white cheddar, grated (lactose-free if you want)
2/3 cup gruyère, grated (lactose-free if you want)
1/2 cup mayonnaise, good quality (or aïoli, but then omit the garlic cloves)
fresh ground pepper
basic pastry dough for one tart

Preheat oven to 400 °F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Core tomatoes, then slice them into ½-inch thick slices and lay them on the baking sheet. Thinly slice the onion and lay it on the other half of the baking sheet. Drizzle the oil evenly on top of the onion and tomatoes, baking them until wilted and slightly browned. This takes about 30 minutes. Set aside.
Cook your bacon, removing when crisp. Dry on paper towels and break up into 1-inch pieces.




Sprinkle the cheddar cheese on the tart shell. Layer tomatoes, overlapping them on top, and then scatter the onion on the tomatoes. Sprinkle the garlic on top, if using, along with the bacon bits. Sprinkle the basil on top.




Whip the mayonnaise or aïoli until light and spreadable. Place dollops evenly on the tart and spread to cover. Sprinkle the gruyere on top of the mayonnaise and bake in a 400 °F oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top is a golden brown. Let cool for about 10 minutes, remove the ring and serve.