Soft sweet milk buns - Pains au lait

My 4 years-old is missing tonight... he's got invited for a sleep over at his friend's place. I should be having a party but instead I feel a little bit lonely. I am so not used to the silence in my home. But that's not the topic of this post.
This morning, first thing after he woke up, he got his backpack and started getting ready for this very first time event: he chose his favourite pj - no need to say his dinosaur pj -, some spare clothes for tomorrow and all the first necessity things. It was 8am and he was already ready to leave maman and papa for a new adventure. So to keep him busy before the separation - around 4 pm, we decided to make soft sweet milk buns with chocolate filling for a shared breakfast with his little mate.

These soft sweet milk buns - called pains au lait in French - are half way through in between bread and brioche. They are fluffy, soft and moist, and only slightly sweet. They are a quite a healthy treaty snack for little ones, including my 11 months old bubba. For the older ones, they can be filled with chocolate or jam. In general, they are perfect for breakfast or school snack. For breakfast, you can spread chocolate, jam or butter over it. You can even half them and toast them slightly. Yum!

As a child, I used to love those milky buns, with or without filling they are a hit with kids! As a grown-up I still love them and made several attempts before I finally found the best recipe, the one that reminds me of the bakery of my childhood in my hometown in the countryside of France. That's the recipe I'm sharing with you today. This recipe makes 12 buns - I made 8 chocolate-filled buns and 4 nature for my No.2.

No. 1 and I had lots of fun together making those buns, although as you can imagine that wasn't necessarily easy to manage the impatience of a 4 years-old: 'Wash your hands first.' 'No I said wash your hands first, yes with soap... AND water!!!' 'Now dry out your hands honey.' 'No! don't touch the eggs, not yet... be careful you may break them...' 'so now we need to measure the flour, when you see a 5 and two zeros here (I write on the white board to help him - he's only 4!), it means we have enough flour, alright?... that's good (25 g)... you're doing well (80g)... yep, yep, keep going... (90 g)... (115 g)... we need more honey... well I mean flour... (150 g)... (200 g)... ... ... (300 g)... (400 g)... a bit more... (650 g)... Ooopsie that was just too much (target was 500 g)...' Anyway, that's how it goes when baking with little ones. Just don't expect too much from your kids and you'll make it. As say a French blogger I like very much: "Our kids are all perfect! We (mums) are so imperfect... so what?" But with a dose of humour and lots of patience we can make it.
Really to be honnest I sounded more like: 'NOoooooo!! not YET! Wait, WAit, WA-IT!' 'That's good, yep, yep... nah, no, gentle... gen-tle... don't leek your fingers! GENTLE!!!... Don't touch... no don't touch... do not touch!... AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!'
But we did it! I am very proud of my little baker.  Don't they look gorgeous? - by the way my boy looked gorgeous, too, in his apron and with his chef's hat, but I don't feel ready to commit my kids' privacy, so sorry no pics.

Now the recipe...

Buttercup, kumara and spinach curry with chicken breast

I think I've already told you about our soup day at work. Few weeks ago, one of my (male) colleague's partner made a fantastic pumpkin and spinach curry. So rich in flavours, very hot, so well balanced. Probably, the best curry I ever had. When I asked for the recipe, I got a: 'emh... emh emh...' She actually had no recipe, she was just cooking from heart, and honnestly we could feel it. That vegan curry was awsome!

I don't pretend to even compare with this curry but this awsome pumpkin and spinach hot curry inspired today's recipe: a butternut, kumara and spinach curry, which I served with chicken breast rubbed in the same curry spices for those meat-lover dinosaurs.

This curry is not as spicy as the one that inspired it because I need to look after my little dinoboys' buds. But the combination of spices works very well. And you may not believe me, but this is a very healthy dish!

Ingredients (~ 6 servings)

- 1 buttercup, medium size, cubed (2 cm pieces)
- 6 kumara, cubed (2 cm pieces)
- 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled (en chemise)
- 4 bunches of spinach
- 1 onion
- 4 tbsp plain yoghurt
- 2 tsp olive oil*
- a pinch of dry hot chilli (optional)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper, whole
- 1 tsp cumin seed
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 1/2 tsp ginger ground
- 250 ml water
- salt
- 1 chicken breast (800 g), skin less, cut in two

French stick / French baguette

One of the most missed French food item, not to say THE most missed, is surely the bread, in particular the baguette, or French stick as you may better know it. It suits anything like cheese, meat, sauces, delifood, chocolate, butter of course!, jam or just straight from the oven!
The crust is golden and crispy, the breadcrumb is fluffy and moist... huuuummm (French version of Yuuuuuumm)...

Making French baguette/stick is really easy, but you need to know the rules. Yes it's just a matter of following all the gestures and manipulations explained in the recipe and some very basic knowledge about bread making. I hope that after this post, you'll feel confident that you can go ahead with making French baguette. I'm giving you all the tips I know to make a good baguette. Do not compromise and follow them carefully. Bread making is almost scientific, so if you follow the recipe, there is no way you can't mess it up! Success guaranteed at first go! (or reimbursed? LOL)

I used my Kenwood FP980 with the dough tool, but I used to make my baguette by hand before, so don't be afraid if you don't have a fancy kitchen aid.

Honey and grainy mustard-glazed chicken thighs with orrechiette salad

Sometimes, the best recipes are the improvised recipes. I recently received Rata honey for experimenting with it and grainy mustard from a friend. I thus improvised honey and grainy mustard-glazed chicken.

To serve with I used leftovers of home-made pasta dought, which I shaped into orrechiette to create a beautiful but simple roasted tomatoes and mushroom orrechiette salad. The salad is better served warm.

Spot on! all the flavours, from the chicken and the salad went very well together.

Home-made orrechiette are quite time-consuming - so we worked as a team: Dinodad rolled the little balls, Dinomum squeezed and rolled the balls on the board to form the orrechiette and Dino No.1 checked that the orrechiette were well shaped, while No. 2 was nicely sleeping! Heaven! These moments are so rare that I have to record them. But this is not the topic of this post!
Be reassured, you don't need to make your own orrechiette, dry orrechiette will be perfect instead!

Ingredients (6 servings)

- 6 chicken thighs, skinless, deboned
- 1 1/2 tbsp honey*
- 3 tbsp grainy mustard
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt, black pepper
- 4 tomatoes, chopped in 16
- 10 mushrooms, chopped in 4 or 6 depending their size
- mixed herbs
- 400 g orrechiette*

Instructions (~ 45 mins)

1. Pre-heat the oven, fan bake, at 180C.
2. Mix the grainy mustard, the honey and the olive oil together.
3. Brush the mustard mix all over the chicken tights and roll it on itself. Salt.
4. Put the meat in a baking dish and in the oven for 30 mins at 180C.*
5. Cook the orrechiette and prepare the veggies.
6. Five minutes before the chicken is ready, add half of the tomatoes and the mushrooms in the baking dish and cook with the chicken for 5 minutes. Keep the other half of tomatoes raw for the salad.
7. Take the veggies out and mix in the orrechiette (cooked and drained). Drizzle the cooking jus from the baking dish over the orrechiette as a seasoning. Add one extra tsp of mustard if you want to give it a kick.
8. Add the raw tomatoes and sprinkle some mixed herbs. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.
9. Serve and bon appétit!

Good to know...

* I used a Rata honey (Airborne); because it is a little buttery, I heated it slightly for better combination with the mustard and the oil.
* You're welcome to increase the portion of pasta, but after several months of WW diet (and 14 kg less! Yay!!!), I learnt to increase the proportions of veggies at the expense of the carbs. So if you want to keep this meal as healthy and balanced as possible, I suggest you stick with 60-70 g pasta per person.
* The honey, mustard and oil mix will slightly caramelised over the chicken. The pictures may look like burnt but it was just perfectly caramelised. That said, be careful that you oven temperature is not too high or the glazing may burn.
* For my GF friends, I suggest to replace the orrechiette by cannellini beans - you'll love this salad!

Mediterranean beef casserole

I love slow-cooking recipes! They are hearty, but can be made healthy, for quite cheap and require little skills. On the downside, it takes time to nurture such a dish. When I'm cooking for my family, it's always worth the time! And they give it back to me.
This Mediterranean beef casserole is perfect to warm up grey-ish days like today: a tiny tomato-ish, with spring seasoning based on thyme, balsamic vinegar, olives, capers and parsley, and a touch of red wine.

Served on mashed potatoes or pasta, all the family loves this hearty meal! Grown ups: Don't forget to compliment it with a glass of red wine ;)

Ingredients (~ 6 servings)

- 1 kg beef chuck strips (1 x 3 cm)
- 1 yellow capsicum
- 2 cups beef stock
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 onion, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp capers
- 1/2 olives (green or black)
- 1 tbsp rosemary, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- salt, pepper

Soyu-marinated Snapper on the barbecue - From French Polynesia

Dressed in my supermom cape and tights, I took my two boys for shopping at the supermarket on Sunday morning, because daddy was out of service (cause another bug - poor him!).
When shopping with kids, you better be strategic. It's all about strategy to keep your kids quiet and well-behaved while not accessing every new query they make and being effective - meaning you've got what it takes to run the house for the whole week instead of chocolate and other treats for TV snacking.

Sunday it was quite easy, for once! After only few minutes in the supermarket and at least 10 requests from No. 1 - at this stage, No.2 is quite easy! -, we passed through the fish... and believe what! No.1 made another claim:
'Maman, I want a Snapper!... This one with the eyes!... Are there any bones in Maman?! ... I can't see the bones... Can I eat the skin? like for the chichen, mum?...'
Just wait a little bit more until he is developing a real tantrum for a Snapper:
'... Mamam, Maman, Maman!!!!'
Then keep calm and explain clearly to your little beloved one:
'Alright honey. That's okay for the Snapper. I'm taking one, honey. Just for you. Now, you've got to be very nice and well-behaved until I'm finished shopping. You've got a favour.' Don't smile too obviously or he/she might get suspicious about your intentions...
That's how I managed to get a perfect little boy and fish for lunch! YAY!!! My lucky day!

Together we 'painted' the snapper with a traditional Polynesian sauce: the soyu. By 'painted' understand 'brushed'. The soyu gives a tang to the delicate snapper flesh, but be light on the soyu because you don't want to over-season the fish. Serve it with steamed rice, grated carrot and raw cabbage, with a bit more soyu. This dish, coming straight from French Polynesia (i.e., Tahiti, Bora Bora, Moorea...), is perfect for a barbecue lunch/dinner with friends! Thanks to my very good friend from Tahiti who taught me this recipe few years ago - it has become part of our family food culture!

At table, looking at the whole fish with fascination, my son asked: 'Maman, can I have the eyes?'
Me: 'Emh... No. Honey, I really appreciate your interest for all sorts of food, but the fish eyes... no.'

Ingredients (~ 4-5 servings)

- 1k400 whole snapper
- soyu - see ingredients below
- fresh parsley (optional)

Goat cheese, bacon and Rata honey tartines with dried figues

You'll love this classic French and simple dinner. You just need some bread, bacon, and goat cheese. Any real French has goat cheese in his fridge! Then to make those goat cheese tartines look and taste more fancy, just add a little bit of honey - I used Rata Honey kindly offered by Airborne for me to experiment NZ honey -, thyme and dried figues. Serve with green salad with Rata honey dressing and don't forget a glass of Pinot Gris or Chardonnay.

Airborne Rata Honey suited these tartines to perfection: creamy, buttery and slightly salty, it brought a nice balance to the saltiness of the bacon and to the tang of the goat cheese. This honey revealed its whole potential in the dressing while it brings sweetness and softeness in to the sharpness of the mustard and vinegar mix. Nice!

Quick, easy and a touch of fancy - ideal for busy moms and for busy host!

In France, we often prepare such tartines for quick dinners or as a gourmet entry when hosting friends. One may like replacing the goat cheese with blue cheese or cream cheese and sprinkle with some nuts, but my preference goes to the goat cheese.

There are not limits to your creativity to make gourmet tartines! What would be your favourite topping?

Ingredients (3 servings - 2 tartines/serve)

- 6 thick slices of bread*
- 125 g of soft goat cheese (more or less to meet your greediness!)
- 3 slices of bacon, stripped
- 2 tbsp of honey, slightly heated (15-20 secs in the microwave)
- thyme
- 6 dried figues

Dressing:
- 1 tsp French mustard (generous)
- 1 tsp sunflower oil
- 1 tsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp Rata honey
- 2 tsp warm water

Preparation (~ 20 mins)

1. Pre-heat the over, grill function, at 210C.
2. Toast the bread under the grill until slightly coloured - takes approx. 4 mins each side.
3. Take the bread out of the oven and crumble the cheese over and sprinkle the bacon strips. Drizzle the heated honey and sprinkle fresh thyme over the cheese..
4. Bake under the grill for 6-7 mins - but check the colouration.
5. Prepare the dressing: brisk together the mustard and the oil until smooth and well combined. Then gradually mix in the vinegar, the honey and the water. It's ready!
6. Serve the tartines on the top of greens and drizzle a little bit more honey.
7. Don't forget the figues! I forgot them on the pictures, but they definitively add a plus to the dish

Bon appétit!

Good to know...

* Here I used home-made cereal bread, but any rustic-ish bread would suit.

My NZ version of Paella: A seafood and meat one-pot dish

Seafood or meat? carbs or veggies? Why not all together in a gorgeous one-pot dish?
Today I'm sharing a rich nevertheless healthy Spanish-inspired one-pot casserole: A Paella.

Originally from the province of Valencia in Spain, there is not one version of the Paella, but many local or family versions. Here is my NZ quick - well relatively quick - and easy recipe!
Paella is a mix of white rice, green vegetables, meat (including rabbit, chicken and other) and/or seafood, beans, saffron-based seasoning and olive oil. This dish is originally cooked in a pan (not a pot as above) but you need a very large pan, so my version uses a pot (iron-cast). This cooking ustensil inspired the name of the Paella after the old French word for pan: paelle.

You'd be surprised how well this dish matches NZ food. It is actually a great dish to showcase the delicious - although a bit too big for my taste - green mussels from Coromandel and NZ shellfish like cockles freshly picked from Cockle Bay, Whangaparaoa - a great kid activity by the way! we love it!

Don't worry about the quantity of ingredients, it is still very easy to make. You can also adapt the recipe to your fridge and pantry, but my favourite version this mixed seafood and chichen Paella. Although today I had no prawns which also go very well in this dish.

Ingredients (6 servings)

- 750g cockles

- 24 green mussels

- 6 chicken drumsticks

- 1 whole squid, sliced*

- 1 whole hot chorizo, sliced*

- 2 tomatoes, peeled* and diced

- 250g green beans*
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 large red (or green) capsicum
- 1 onion, chopped
- 10g butter
- 1 sprig of parsley
- 1 shallot
- 1/2 cup white wine (Pinot gris)
- 1 cup of water
- 1 1/2 cup of parboiled rice
- 1 1/2 cup chicken stock*
- 1 1/2 cup seafood stock (included in this recipe)
- 1 dose of saffron*
- salt, pepper

Cooking instructions 

(~ 1.5 hour)

The preparation

First prepare all your ingredients: slice the chorizo, the squid and the capsicum; chop the onion and the shallot; peel and dice the tomatoes; cut the green beans' tails.

Lemon confits / Preserved lemons

Thanks to my FB follower who spotted a inconsistency between my FB page and the blog! I had accidentally removed this post from the blog... I probably got distracted by something... or someone... wonder who this might be... Anyway lemon confits are back!

The winter has ended; it is a good time to finish harvesting the lemons (or to buy them at a fair price), but you don't know what to do with all these lemons!? Let's prepare some jars of lemon confits or preserved lemons for summer salads and tajines. This is a very simple preparation that will add the little plus to your, sweet and savoury dishes, cakes and cookies...

Ingredients

- 1 kg lemons (~ 8 lemons), preferably organic if not coming straight from your garden
- 200 g salt
- hot water
- 1 big jar

Instructions

1. Incise the lemons in four quarters - do not cut them, the quaters must keep together (see picture above).
2. Stuff with one tablespoon of salt.
3. Squeeze all the salted lemons in a steril jar.*
4. Add the remaining salt in the jar and cover with hot water.
5. Close the jar tightly and store for at least 3 weeks before use.

Tips

* To sterilise the jar, first clean it, then keep it in boiling water for 10-15 minutes.

Suspicious silence

Silence... that's a word I forgot the meaning. My life is quite noisy. But it's actually quite good to keep track of your kids' activities, otherwise...

What you can see on this picture is the genuine writing of a silent 4 years-old of mine... I should have known that this beautiful silence in my kitchen was suspicious... Never ever trust a silent child or you may have bad surprises! I am grateful to the genius creator of washable markers!

I know I've been quite silent myself lately, but don't you worry. I'm still very motivated to keep this blog live. I have plenty of recipes to share with you. I'll be back soon...

Cheers
Liz