It's not all about Pastry.....

Soy Ginger Glazed Salmon with Oven Roasted Green Beans

My undying love and passion for pastry is obvious, at least I think it is. However my time here in Paris has not just been spent sweating in the pastry kitchen at Cafe du Commerce, I've been doing a little cooking on the side. Ok, a lot of cooking. Several dinner parties have been held at Chez Romain over the past two months, featuring the works of Chef Moi. On nights when I am not going out to dine on yummy French food, I can be found in the tiny apartment kitchen, listening to music from my itunes, and cooking dinner for Romain and myself.

Paris has not just inspired dessert ideas. I visit the grocery store several times a week and also frequent the Fruiterie next to the Cafe. I go on Tastespotting.com a lot for dessert ideas and end up bookmarking just as many entries for savory meals as I do desserts. I find myself thinking so many ideas/recipes, but just so little time. Some of our dinners here have featured: Quiche Lorraine, Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto, Hand made Pizza, Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Carrots, Pan Seared Steaks, Veggie Fajitas, Omlettes with Mushroom, Cheese and Tomato, Cod with Lemon Caper Sauce, Salmon with Creamy Cabbage, Macaroni with Chedder and Gruyere Sauce, Stuffed Zucchini, Carbonnade Flamande, Soy Ginger Glazed Salmon, and lots of refreshing salads, fresh veggies and fruit. Some how I have managed not to gain any extra weight being here.

The Round Zucchini

One day as I was visiting the Monoprix, I saw these funny little round zucchinis. I had never seen them before and immediately I wanted to buy them and make stuffed zucchini for dinner. I bought two along with some mushrooms, spinach, and shallots. At home, I hollowed them out with a spoon, sauteed the shallots, mushrooms, spinach, the interior of the zucchinis and then added some shredded emmenthal, halved cherry tomatoes and some seasonings. I filled each zucchini to the top with the filling, placed them in a baking dish with an inch of water around them and baked them for about 40mins till soft. When I presented them for dinner, Romain asked, "they don't have any meat in them?" He seemed a little unsure about them. We sat down to dinner and he finished his before I finished mine. I guess he liked it.

Baked, Stuffed Zucchini

And then back to pastry.......

Quentin left for vacation last week, and Mme Guerraud returned this week. I've been having a wonderful time working with Marie in the pastry kitchen. We made some nice desserts this week for the dessert du jour. On Wednesday we served Chocolate Glace Croquante. It was a recipe Quentin and I had tested, but did not win approval for from Olivier. When I told Marie about it, she wanted to try it out. It is a simple recipe that makes a frozen, mousse like chocolate ice cream, but without the ice cream maker. The Croquante, or crunch, comes from pepites (bits of chocolate), or from crumbled up cookies that are stirred in before it is frozen. We decided on cookies, and I made an espresso shortbread cookie exactly for this purpose.

Espresso Shortbread Cookies

The recipe starts with cooking egg yolks and sugar over a bain-marie, the egg mixture is then cooled and melted chocolate is stirred in. Then whipped cream is folded in. The crushed cookies are added last. We piped the mousse like mixture into small custard dishes and placed them in the freezer to set overnight. The next day the dessert was like a light, creamy and very rich ice cream, punctuated with bits of buttery, espresso flavored cookie bits and small flecks of dark chocolate. It was very good.

Chocolate Glace Croquante
(Crunchy Chocolate Ice cream)

Although it was my last Friday at the cafe, (my final work day is next Wednesday), I am very much looking forward to this weekend. Tomorrow morning Romain and I are headed to Reims. If you don't understand the significance of this trip, go take a look at the label on a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne. Reims, along with being a historic city in France, is the capital of the Champagne region, and the hometown of many Champagne Houses....Veuve being one of them. So far we have visits scheduled for Veuve Clicquot, Tattinger and possibly Ruinart. I can't think of a better way to spend one of my last weekends in France.