I'm back

Pink window of Stéphane Secco on Rue Jean Nicot (6th)

hummm... left Paris exactly 2 weeks ago :( and I miss it. I loved wandering around in such a lovely city, with bakeries everywhere... really, so good! I hadn't been to Paris for 5.5 years and I had never spent so many days there that this time I was sad to leave at the end! I hope I could go again soon. Dear Singapore Airlines, please do another great sale asap! I love flying with you and even enjoyed the long flight, and didn't mind the 5 hour transit.

Maybe you had seen this list before somewhere on the big world wide web but here is Le Figaro's list of the best croissant in Paris. (Kind of my itinerary - I ate several pastries a day, everyday, convinced that all the walking would counteract all the calories.)

1 - Pierre Hermé
2 - Triomphe
3 - L. Duchêne
4 - Mulot
5 - Lenôtre
6 - Boul. de Monge
6 - Vandermeersch
8 - Julien
8 - Delmontel
8 - Grande Épicerie
8 - A. Poilâne
8 - M. de la Vierge
8 - Secco
8 - Nicolle
15 - Kayser
16 - Angelina
17 - L'Autre Boulange
17 - Blé Sucré
17 - Fauchon
17 - Martin
21 - Cléret
21 - La Fournée d'Augustine
21 - Maître Pain
24 - La Croissanterie
24 - Carton
24 - Paul
24 - Ladurée
24 - Gana
24 - Dalloyau
30 - Moisan
31 - Stohrer
31 - Malo

So that I could re-read and reminisce, some notes on what I ate and liked... in chronological order.

Day 1 - Saturday 9/10. I arrived in the morning and stayed in the Bastille, that afternoon I found this little place that Clotilde mentioned Le Bar à Soupes. So I had lunch there, it was quite nice... I had a bowl of carrot soup and a slice of homemade citrus tart.... near Place des Vosges I came across a Lenotre but I didn't go in because I was still full. After hours of walking around though, I came across Carton on Rue Buci (6th) so I had my first croissant. Honestly it didn't look too flash, but surprise surprise! it was very good.
Day 2 - Sunday 10/10. I went to the organic market on Boulevard Raspail, then as I wondered around Boulevard St Germain I found a pink delivery car that says Gerard Mulot, 76 Rue de Seine. Ha! Just around the corner so there I went. The window is so lovely, really exquisite I think. I bought a slice of quiche, and a sugar plum tart.


The quiche was yummo... I decided to hold on to the tart until I find somewhere to have tea. So lucky because I was there around the time sale started, not that I cared much about the sale, but then Le Bon Marché was open exceptionally on that Sunday. I was excited first and foremost because I was dying to go to toilet actually. Relieved I then went on browsing around the book section, next to the cook book section I found a Cojean.
So I ate my tart there with a cup of tea. It was really nice but not as lovely as I thought it'd be... the plum on top though were beautiful. Really.

... to be continued

Thriller

As I write this, I am looking nervously at my oven. Inside it, is a trayful of what is to be some vanilla macarons. In a few minutes I will find out whether they have feet or not. I'm not an expert in this, in fact I can refer you to a specialist: Duncan from Syrup&Tang.

ARGHHH !! it's only been 8 minutes as I glanced into the oven, the macarons have feet allright! but, they have taken in too much colour!! Boohoo! Kuidaore is right... One has to watch the oven like a hawk :(

The thrill doesn't last very long. No Way I'm going to take a photo, in fact I'm going to get rid of the offending biscuits soon with a cup of tea.

Right, so perhaps I should just show you my new dining table and this chicken dish I like to make from time to time. A Jamie Oliver's recipe, very quick, easy and delish and the several times I made it, I used whatever herbs I had in the fridge.



Chicken with tomatoes, capsicums and couscous
Serves 4 (delicious magazine, aug06, p.37)
4 chicken breast fillets, cut into 2 cm chunks
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 long red chilli, seeds removed, cut into thin strips
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups (300gr) couscous
2 good handfuls mixed coloured teardrop or cherry tomatoes, halved
270gr jar roasted red capsicums, drained, cut into fat strips
Few basil leaves, finely shredded.

Combine chicken with most of the lemon zest and chilli, the lemon juice, cumin, garlic and 2 tbs oil. Season and set aside to marinate. Combine couscous and 350ml boiling water in a bowl. Cover and set aside for a few minutes

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large frying pan over high heat. When hot, cook chicken and marinade, stirring, for 3 minutes or until golden brown and cooked. Add tomato, capsicum and basil, and cook for 1 minute until tomato softens.

Stir remaining oil into couscous with a fork, fluffing up grains then season. Sprinkle chicken with reserved zest and chilli and add a spoonful of thick Greek yoghurt if you like. Serve with couscous.

Note:
1. Whence I had none, I substituted basil for some rosemary, flat leaf parsley, curly parsley, coriander and/or mint... all of them worked quite well.
2. Of course I've had it with couscous, but also with pasta, and cold with rocket in a a crusty bread. So good!
3. Here is a pic of the afore mentioned dining table. I know that I'm gloating a little bit (and that it's not a very nice characteristic!) but I do love this table, the tempered glass colour is my kind of colour, it seats 6 but extends to seat 10... just in case.

Dud

Every now and then, no matter how much care I put into making something, the result turned out to be a dud. Now I know that I can easily blame the recipe but this time, seeing that it comes from the mighty Mr Hermé, one of ses coups de coeur no less, I think I must have done something wrong. Recipe attempted : passionfruit crème brulée.

Crème brulée aux fruits de la passion
(Larousse des desserts p.443)
7 egg yolks
125 gr caster sugar
8 passionfruits
380ml crème fraîche liquide

Preheat oven to 90°C.
Whisk egg yolks with the sugar, incorporate the passionfruit pulp and add the cream.
Divide into individual ramekins, and bake for 1 hour. (the recipe didn't specify for a bain marie so I just baked them like that)

I've made this once and liked it though I made a mental note that it was too runny, and thus must either add another yolk or use less cream. But I was hesitant to muck around with the recipe and decided to give this recipe another go as is, fatal mistake. After an hour, the top wobbled all right... I crossed my fingers hoping that they would set overnight in the fridge. Long story short, they didn't and A said it was like soup. No offense taken.

Crafty little me, made some other milky passionfruity concoction last night and mixed it with the remainder of the duddy PCB and churned the bloody thing in the ice cream maker. Dud transformed into a quite a delight.



Note:
1. I added 3 more passionfruits, about cup and a half of milk, juice of 1 and a half of lemon plus sugar to taste.

Delivery

Finally! YAY!

But GOSH! The armchair was already a tight fit but the sofa was a struggle to get in through the entry door, lift, another door and finally my door. There was only one guy delivering and so, I had to act as the second delivery man. I still have sore biceps from all the manoeuvering and lifting.

Anyway... took this picture yesterday. Figgy already claimed the sofa as his. Please come by visit me and Figaro, now that you wouldn't have to stand around... waiting for me to offer you water. Sorry T and C! Next time, there might be a treat.

So exciting that now I have a fridge with a freezer! I made some ice cream last week. It lasted a week. Well the magazine did say the texture might deteriorate and it's best to be consumed within one week of being made.

Vanilla bean ice-cream
makes 1 litre
(Delicious magazine, Nov'03 p.134)

Step 1
6 egg yolks
125 gr caster sugar
400 ml milk
1 vanilla bean, split
300 ml thick cream (48% fat content)

Step 2
Place the egg yolks and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with electric hand beater until thick and pale. Place the milk in a saucepan, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add to the milk with the pod, then heat over medium heat until scalding point. Remove from heat and set aside to infuse for 10 minutes. Discard pod and reheat milk to scalding point, then strain over the egg mixture and beat until just combined. Return the mixture to a clean saucepan and place over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon - don't allow it to boil (this can take up to 20 minutes).

Step 3
Pour the custard into a bowl and sit over a bowl of ice, stirring until cool. Cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and place in the fridge to chill completely. Whisk the cream into the cold custard until well combined, then pour into a shallow plastic container, cover and freeze until frozen at the edges (this can take up to 1 1/2 - 2 hours).

Step 4
Remove the ice-cream from the freezer, beat with an electric hand beater until smooth, then return to the freezer. Repeat this step 2 or 3 more times (beating the ice-cream prevents the formation of ice crystals). Alternatively, churn the mixture in an ice-cream machine to manufacturer's instructions.

Note :
1. I added a packet of oreo biscuits (sans the white cream filling) towards the end of the churning.
2. I must say that I felt mighty fat the following week.
3. Have sneaked a peek at this month's daring bakers challenge, and it's a good one, I'm in!