French dinner with a friend
I'm glad my friends and their family in Japan are all right. Readers from Japan. I hope you are ok, too. Stay safe.
Speaking of Japan, a friend came over to my place to plot out our trip. Where to go. What to do. That sort of thing. And I made dinner. A French dinner that looked like a lot of work but seriously ... it wasn't. At all. My main purpose for the all out French was that I had A LOT of onions. And I mean ... A LOT OF ONIONS. For some odd reason, friends who keep coming to my place give me onions. I tend to like to use shallots and pearl onions. So, I needed to use them up. And what better way to do so but a French onion soup. I also wanted to try the method of cooking fish en papillote. Which is just French for in paper. I then threw together a very healthy dessert. Les photos, s'il vous plait!
French onion soup was from here but I adjusted by adding a bayleaf and had no sherry so substituted with white wine. This was seriously simple. Like seriously. And good.
For 4
Ingredients:
1 kg onions, sliced thinly
50 g butter
2 tbsp thyme
1 bayleaf
3 tbsp sherry (did not have so substituted with white wine)
1.2 L beef stock
Directions:
1. Cook the onions and thyme with butter in a stock pot until soften and caramelize. This took about half an hour.
2. Add white wine and simmer for 2 - 3 minutes.
3. Add beef stock and allow it to boil. Then simmer for about another hour.
Cheesy Croutons:
Ingredients:
French baguette, sliced
1 garlic clove
olive oil
shredded gruyere cheese
Directions:
1. On a baking tray, rub garlic clove on top of the baguette.
2. Drizzle a little olive oil on top.
3. Top with shredded cheese.
4. Toast bread until cheese melts. Serve on top of the soup.
For the fish, I followed the one and only Gordon Ramsay. Watch him doing the en papillote method. I didn't have red mullet like he did, so I used red snapper instead. Any white fish will do. It was awesome and healthy. And easy. though the folding of the parchment paper part wasn't as easy at it looked in the video. Though second fish I wrapped, turned out better than the first. Will try again.
And dessert was so easy, I had to laugh. And good for you. Like, healthy good for you. Also, a Gordon Ramsay recipe from his cookbook, Best Restaurants. I flipped through it at the bookstore. I may actually buy it. It had a lot of easy recipes that I'd like to try all of them. I did adjust since I didn't own any brandy, peach schnapps or peach liquor like he stated, so I used white wine and peach nectar instead.
For 2
Ingredients:
3 peaches, cored and sliced
2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
3 tbsp of honey
seeds from one vanilla stick
splash of peach schnapps, peach liquor or brandy (did not have any of these so substituted with white wine and peach nectar)
Greek yogurt
Directions:
1. Place all ingredients except the yogurt into a baking tray and bake for 20 - 25 minutes at 180C.
2. Plate out and serve with a generous serving of Greek yogurt.
No day off this weekend. Work work work. Oh well. And it's so sunny and warm out today, too. :( I can only count down to my trip to Tokyo. YAY!
Speaking of Japan, a friend came over to my place to plot out our trip. Where to go. What to do. That sort of thing. And I made dinner. A French dinner that looked like a lot of work but seriously ... it wasn't. At all. My main purpose for the all out French was that I had A LOT of onions. And I mean ... A LOT OF ONIONS. For some odd reason, friends who keep coming to my place give me onions. I tend to like to use shallots and pearl onions. So, I needed to use them up. And what better way to do so but a French onion soup. I also wanted to try the method of cooking fish en papillote. Which is just French for in paper. I then threw together a very healthy dessert. Les photos, s'il vous plait!
French onion soup was from here but I adjusted by adding a bayleaf and had no sherry so substituted with white wine. This was seriously simple. Like seriously. And good.
For 4
Ingredients:
1 kg onions, sliced thinly
50 g butter
2 tbsp thyme
1 bayleaf
3 tbsp sherry (did not have so substituted with white wine)
1.2 L beef stock
Directions:
1. Cook the onions and thyme with butter in a stock pot until soften and caramelize. This took about half an hour.
2. Add white wine and simmer for 2 - 3 minutes.
3. Add beef stock and allow it to boil. Then simmer for about another hour.
Cheesy Croutons:
Ingredients:
French baguette, sliced
1 garlic clove
olive oil
shredded gruyere cheese
Directions:
1. On a baking tray, rub garlic clove on top of the baguette.
2. Drizzle a little olive oil on top.
3. Top with shredded cheese.
4. Toast bread until cheese melts. Serve on top of the soup.
For the fish, I followed the one and only Gordon Ramsay. Watch him doing the en papillote method. I didn't have red mullet like he did, so I used red snapper instead. Any white fish will do. It was awesome and healthy. And easy. though the folding of the parchment paper part wasn't as easy at it looked in the video. Though second fish I wrapped, turned out better than the first. Will try again.
And dessert was so easy, I had to laugh. And good for you. Like, healthy good for you. Also, a Gordon Ramsay recipe from his cookbook, Best Restaurants. I flipped through it at the bookstore. I may actually buy it. It had a lot of easy recipes that I'd like to try all of them. I did adjust since I didn't own any brandy, peach schnapps or peach liquor like he stated, so I used white wine and peach nectar instead.
For 2
Ingredients:
3 peaches, cored and sliced
2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
3 tbsp of honey
seeds from one vanilla stick
splash of peach schnapps, peach liquor or brandy (did not have any of these so substituted with white wine and peach nectar)
Greek yogurt
Directions:
1. Place all ingredients except the yogurt into a baking tray and bake for 20 - 25 minutes at 180C.
2. Plate out and serve with a generous serving of Greek yogurt.
No day off this weekend. Work work work. Oh well. And it's so sunny and warm out today, too. :( I can only count down to my trip to Tokyo. YAY!