A French Christmas

I wanted to make a post on what is typically munched in a French Christmas. Despite being French-Japanese, for christmas my parents always tried to keep it European, if not French. This is probably because the ingredients are obviously easier to find and also because Christmas is more of a European tradition :P.

Anyways, so almost every year we start with…. FOIE GRAS. If you've never tried it then you definitely should. It's goose liver that is extra fat (foie gras literally means fatty liver). It has become illegal in some parts of the US but we won't go into the debate of whether this is right or not. Foie gras is part of the French culture and I am definitely not giving that up. Imagine it is like pate but a billion times more delicious. And expensive. Which is why you only eat it on special occasion. The best is to eat it with toast or toasted brioche (my fav *drool all over keyboard as I write this*). I know you can also make foie gras yourself but since I don't know how, I will only talk about the already prepared ones.

 You drink sweet wine called sauterne, it really goes perfectly with foie gras!

Christmas is also associated to sea food and French people eat a lot of oysters, langoustines (scampi in English), etc. We don't usually have this at home since we don't live in France. 

Next, poultry is served with some stuffing (a mash of turkey, raisins, chestnut and some spices).

Instead of poultry you can also have boudin blanc with truffles in it (alleged truffles, the black dots on the little sausage are supposed to be the infamous truffles. Could also be pepper. Who knows :P). I prefer this boudin more (It's not made of blood and milk and some bread is also added) as it feels lighter than the normal one. Here we have it accompanied with rosti (it is originally swiss and it consists of potato and it's super yummy :P)

Then you ALWAYS finish a french meal with a plate of CHEEEESE. This is my favorite part (not only am I a nomster but also a cheese addict T.T). So here are a few of the cheeses we had for Christmas… What to drink with cheese? Good red wine, of course. Usually, cheese comes accompanied with a nice refreshing salad.

Then you finish your dinner with a buche de noel, which is the typical desert you have for christmas. It looks like a log! Only have a picture from a few years ago… We don't always eat this since it's pretty heavy (lots of cream and what not) even if my mum's is the light version of it! How to end your night? Drink some champagne! Yey!

Hope you have a better idea of what French people eat for Christmas. What do you have in your country? :) 

How to: Sushi night at home

Sushi is known as a pretty expensive dish, especially when you want to get the proper stuff. Do you love eating sushi? Do you feel restricted because of the price? Do you not have the necessary material to roll them up nicely? Well, I have the perfect answer for you. At home we eat sushi pretty often (at least like once a month) and this is how we do it. It's super easy and MUCH MUCH cheaper than eating out! (When I did it with friends in Holland it was around 5,5euros per person and we were stuffed!).

First of all, find a fishmonger and buy salmon, tuna, coquille, shrimps, etc. Do NOT buy it at a supermarket! It's not always mega fresh and you might get sick! (I mean it might not happen necessarily, but I would say avoid it, just in case. No one wants worms in his stomach right? :/). The best is to tell your local fishmonger that you are planning to make sushi (ie. eating the fish raw) and he will tell you if it's ok or not. For the quantities, let's say 100g-150g of salmon for one person? The rest (like tuna) is quite expensive so just order less :P Once you have your fresh fish, you will have to cut it to make it as close as sashimi as you can. For this you need a nice sharp knife. This is the tricky part for me, trying to cut the salmon/tuna nicely... But just try! It can also be thinner pieces than on the photo (this was cut professionally, but just so you can have an idea!)

Tuna

Salmon

Coquille St. Jacques

Shriiiimps

Ikura (Salmon eggs)

Now for the rice... Cook some rice in your rice cooker (you need sticky rice for this so risotto rice also works). When it's ready, place it in a bowl and add rice vinegar, just enough so you can lightly smell it in the rice. Set aside until you are ready to munch.

Just looks like normal rice :P

For this sushi night at home you can also prepare some cucumber cut, avocado (all cut into stripes) and have some philadelphia cream cheese. 

When you are ready to eat, prepare the soya sauce, wasabi and only at the last moment take your nori (seaweed) out. Why only at the end? Seaweed is dry. If you leave it in open air it won't be as crispy/dry anymore, and you really don't want that. Sushi rolls in restaurants are normally prepared right when you order them. If they are made in advance the seaweed is all humid and soggy... which is how it is in those already made lunch boxes in supermarkets... Anyways, fold the seaweed paper into 4, make a little pile. Put everything on the table, and now you are ready to commence the feast!

How the table looks like when everything is ready!

How to:

Take a little bit of everything (if you like everything) rice, salmon, tuna, avocado etc. Have your soya sauce and wasabi ready nearby. First, take some seaweed and add some rice on it (not too much so you can make sure to fold it afterwards!)

My dad also added wasabi here

You can either cut your sashimi into half like on the photo or but the entire piece on it. 

Fold it as shown in the picture:

It should look like this! As you can see it's not perfectly rolled. If you are one of those people that just likes folding with the bamboo thing then this is definitely no fun for you…

Pretty easy! :P

Then dip it in soya sauce! (It's best not to put tooo much of it, just a light dip or otherwise it might be super salty)

*dip dip*

And then NOM! so yes, you can do a number of different combinations:

•  Shrimp + Japanese mayo
• Cucumber + Japanese mayo
• Salmon + avocado
• Salmon + avocado + philadelphia cream cheese
• Tuna + avocado + philadelphia
• Tuna + avocado
• Coquille 

etc, etc. 

I like this way of doing it, it's fun to do with your friends and everyone eats whatever they like! You don't have to wait to make ALL the rolls (maki) and starve on the side while preparing everything (which also takes forever). Your seaweed also doesn't have time to become all soggy from the rice. I think it's a pretty good dinner idea when you have people over (which is what we do at home) and the guests always seem to enjoy this presentation of sushi!

Hope you try it! Enjoy! 

Nutella Cake

For this year's Christmas cake we decided to make something new: Nutella cake. I think everyone is a big fan of nutella and most people would probably enjoy this recipe. As a baking noob, this recipe was still quite easy to make (even for me). I found the recipe on a French site and the link in French can be found at the end of this post! :)

Ingredients for 4 nomsters

• 6 spoons of Nutella
• 150g of flour
• 120g of sugar
• 1 yoghurt (plain yoghurt)
• 3 eggs
• Half a pack of baking soda

Preparation

1. Pre-heat your oven at 180C and butter your mold and cover it with flour so the cake doesn't stick. 
2. In a big bowl, mix the eggs with the sugar (you can use an electric mixer for this). Add the yoghurt, melted butter and mix well. Once it becomes smooth, add the flour and baking soda while mixing. 
3. Finally, add the Nutella. It didn't say in the recipe but we used the electric mixer (Nutella is quite thick so it was quite a hassle to mix. It was just faster!). 
4. Once the Nutella is incorporated, add it to mold and bake it for 30 min! 

Yeeey, so easy! Ok so this cake was pretty good. One minus point, it did not taste like Nutella as much as I thought... A little disappointed with this but it was very soft and spongy. It was also nice that it wasn't too sweet. If you add more Nutella it might be a little too intense... But yes, I think you should definitely try this out! We ate it with creme anglaise (vanilla flavoured *recipe coming soon*) and it was absolutely delicious! 

Nutella cake with creme anglaise

We made it Christmassy by adding powdered sugar (kind of like snow hehe) and some little decorations as you can see on the photo :)

Can you tell how spongy it is? :)

Recette en Francais --> http://gateau.com/gateau-au-nutella-facile.htm

Enjoy!

Vichyssoise Soup

Finally, a soup post for cold days! I personally love soup since it makes you feel so warm inside and it's sooo comforting somehow :3 Anyways, today I will be writing on vichyssoise soup, basically a leak-potato soup!To be honest, I'm not really sure where this soup is from but what I know is that I found this recipe from a Japanese cook book my parents have. So here it is, in English :P

Vichyssoise soup in traditional Breton bowl

Ingredients (4 nomsters):

• 2-4 leaks (depending on the size of the leaks)
• 1/2 or 1 onion (depending on the size)
• 4 small potatoes or 2 big ones
• Chicken broth (1 cube or 3 teaspoons) in 2 cups of water
•  4 cups of milk
• Salt/pepper
• Nutmeg (optional)
• 1 cup liquid cream

Preparation:

1. Cut the leaks into small pieces and the onion into stripes. If the potatoes are small you just have to peel them and throw them in the pan. If you have big potatoes just cut them into medium pieces. 
2. In a pot, heat a little bit of oil. Add the leak and onion. When they are starting to be cooked, add the potatoes with the chicken broth. Add salt and pepper and let it slowly cook.
3. When the potatoes are cooked (I usually poke them with a knife) add half of the milk and use the mixer. Make sure to get all the potatoes! 
4. When your soup looks like a soup, add the rest of the milk. 
5. At this point you can also add the liquid cream but I always skip this step to make the recipe healthier. And even without it, it's just as nice :)
6. You can add some nutmeg on top but this step is optional.

Usually, this soup is eaten cold but having it hot on cold winter days is also very nice :D This soup is very tasty and healthy and a perfect dinner would be the soup and a salad. It's very light and refreshing for maybe the day after a heavy meal? 

Xmas chocolate chip cookies!

Fresh out of the oven :3

Ok so this recipe is not reaaally a christmas recipe but more that christmas is a perfect reason to make some nice chocolate chip cookies :D
I found it on a french cooking site and it was super easy (although as a huge baking noob I did make a mistake the first time I baked them -____-) and fast to make... And it was delicious! What I liked about this recipe is that it was not too sweet or too greasy. I will definitely make them again!

So here is the translated recipe and the original one in French at the end :)

Ingredients:

• a bag of chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate ones)
• 100g of melted butter
• 1 bag of vanilla sugar
• 1/2 bag of baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 100g of brown sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 250g of flour

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 200 C. Prepare a tray with some baking paper on it.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, brown sugar, vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt. 
3. In another bowl, mix the eggs and the butter. In the original recipe it said softened butter but I completely melted it in the microwave and it was totally fine (it didn't make the cookies greasier as I had read on other sites). When I mixed the room temperature butter and egg, my butter was actually not soft enough and it made nasty clumps and had to throw it away... Anyways, best to use completely melted butter to be safe and lightly mix with a electric mixer! 
4. When it's mixed, add the egg-butter mixture and the chocolate chips (I put an entire bag of them :P) to the flour one. Mix well. You will obtain a pretty thick dough.
5. Use 2 spoons to make little balls of more or less 5 cm of diameter and place them on the tray with baking paper. Once you place it, I would recommend flattening the dough a bit (the first time I made them, they were very yummy but maybe a little too thick. As you can see on the pictures they were FAT cookies. Not for amateur cookie nomsters). Make sure there's enough space between each cookie! 
6. Place them in the oven for 9 min (I actually left them in a little longer, around 12 min but it depends on your oven). When they are done, they will be super soft inside :3 Make sure to keep them in a Tupperware if you like soft spongy cookies (like me) or leave them in open air for drier ones! 

Overall, this recipe was super easy and the outcome was amazing! It's perfect for a little snack with your family during this time of the year or to leave them next to the xmas tree with a glass of milk for Santa! :D I also gave some to my dad as an afternoon snack at work as it can be easily be put into a box or even wrap it with aluminium foil. 

Recette en Francais ici! http://gateau.com/cookies-facile-et-rapide.htm

Galette Bretonne

Traditional galette complete! 

I'm sure everyone has heard of crepes. In many creperie places, they also sell savory ones which are actually called galettes in French. Those galettes are actually from my mum's region, Brittany and they are an absolute must if you go there. 

Galettes are pancakes made of buckwheat flour and good ones are supposed to be very thin and crispy. Unlike crepe that are beige-ish colour, the galettes are more of a brown colour. You can find these savory pancakes with an infinite type of toppings but I personally think that the best ones are the most simple ones. For example one of the most traditional and simple ones is galette complete, with egg, ham and cheese (emmental) which is the one I ALWAYS have.

*drool all over keyboard*

You might think I am narrow minded but I never ever take another one. This one is my absolute favorite of all times. It's not too boring because it has a few toppings which also allows you to taste all the flavors of the galette itself. This galette complete can also have some tomatoes or mushrooms. Anyways, by keeping it to the basics, you will really feel the buckwheat pancake and your wallet will also thank you (the most simple ones are the cheapest ones. The cheapest one that was delicious was only 5 euros! But its usually around 6 euros in Brittany and around 10 euros in Paris... Paris you cray!)

Galette complete with tomatoes!

Another traditional one is with andouille de guéméné, which is a pork sausage typical from Brittany. It smells really strong and it has a pretty strong particular taste. I guess it's one of those things that you either hate or love? I was not a fan when I was little (have not tried it again since) but my parents were always big muncher of andouille. 

Galette a l'andouille, you can see the crispiness of the pancake :D

Ok so I also have a photo of a galette with lots of stuff on it like some kind of ratatouille and a sausage. It also tastes really good so I would also recommend the more elaborate ones like these but I am really all about the complete one. Oh and the flag you see on the sausage is the Breton flag. Breton flag will most definitely pop up here and there if you ever go to Brittany (we have 3 of them hanging in our house :P).

Galette with sausage and ratatouille

Allright so... do you feel like just stuffing your face with these delicious galette after seeing these photos? (I do...) Do you wanna feel the crispiness of the pancake? The cheese melting in your mouth? Pop the egg yolk when you think it's the most appropriate time? Well, you don't necessarily have to go to Brittany to taste them because.... HERE IS THE RECIPE, yeaaaah boooooi! So yes here is the recipe from my mum! :D

Galettes Recipe

Ingredients:

• 250g of buckwheat flour
• 2 eggs
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 l of water
• 100ml of liquid cream 

For the toppings: eggs, slices of ham, emmental cheese etc. Depends on your mood :D

Preparation
To make galette it would be nice to have a very thin pancake pan BUT if you don't have it no panic, you can also use a regular frying pan :)

1. Mix all the ingredients in the order written above until smooth. You can also use an electric mixer to make sure nothing clumps up. 
2. Heat the pan with some butter and make sure the butter covers the entire surface of the pan. 
3. When the pan is hot enough, use a laddle to get enough of the preparation onto the pan. Make sure it is not too thick (it will make the galette heavy) or too thin (you will have holes otherwise) and spread it evenly over the pan. 
4. Let it cook slowly. 
5. When one side is cook, carefully flip the galette. Ok so this part you can use your own method as it is the trickiest part. Once you manage to flip it, let the other side cook until brown. 
6. When its done, serve on a plate. Add emmental cheese, slices of ham, fried egg, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, whatever you want :D

Perfect drink to go with the galette? Cidre of course. 'You mean cider'. No, no, my friend, CIDRE is the Breton cider. Delicious. Those 2 were made to be enjoyed together.. :3 The glass below is the traditional glass in which you drink cidre.

Noob looking fried egg (made by me. Apologies)

Bon appetit! :)

Recipe also available in French!

Galette bretonne:

Ingredients: 

• 250g de farine de sarrasin
• 2 oeufs
• Sel et poivre
• 1/2 L d'eau
• 100ml de creme liquide

Preparation:

1. Melanger le tout dans un bol. Utiliser un mixeur si necessaire pour ne pas avoir de grumeaux. 
2. Faire chauffer la poele et mettre un peu de beurre et recouvrir la totalite de la poele.
3. Quand la poele est assez chaude, utiliser une louche pour mettre la preparation. Faire attention a ne pas en mettre de trop! (Il ne faut pas que la galette soit trop epaisse)
4. Laisser la galette cuire lentement.
5. Quand elle est cuite, la retourner (differentes techniques personnelles peuvent etre utiliser :P).
6. Une fois retournnee, laisser cuire. 
7. A servir avec un oeuf au plat, emmental, jambon, tomates, champignons etc. et a deguster en buvant du cidre! :D

Oroshi Nattou Soba

Oroshi nattou soba made by my dad! :3

Soba is a type of japanese noodle that is made of buckwheat flour. The noodle is brownish and you can eat it cold and hot! Soba is a dish typically munched during new years, to be able to live long and young. At home, we just eat them whenever we want (I know such rebels right?) and when my dad makes soba, this is how we usually eat them (see picture below)! My dad grates daikon radish (the white puree type thing), sprinkle some spring onion, some sea weed and wasabi. You add the soba tsuyu (the dipping sauce) and you munch away. It's so refreshing, it's perfect for summer days!

He had told me about putting nattou (fermented soya beans) on soba and I have been drooling over the idea for some time... I think many westerners don't like nattou since it has a very strong smell (rather ssshtinkyyyy for some :P) and it's all sticky and all. In any case, I love it so I was super keen to try. This recipe is pretty easy. The main problem would be the ingredients that can be rather difficult to find in Europe like nattou and daikon radish. The latter can easily be found in asian grocery store I think (at least in London and Netherlands). Nattou is trickier... I find it in London in a Japanese store called Atariya. Apparently, you can also make it yourself but haven't tried that yet :P Japanese grocery stores are scarce in Europe and are also expensive... Soba is also yummy without it so no worries :D Just adding spring onion, sea weed and wasabi already makes it delicious! For the soba tsuyu I managed to find it in Asian grocery store so should be manageable... 

Anyways, here are the directions for oroshi nattou soba! 

Ingredients (for 2 munchers):

• 400g Soba noodles 
• Soba tsuyu 
• 2 packs of nattou (one for each person)
• 1/3 of daikon radish
• couple of spring onions
• sea weed

Preparation:

1. Boil the water for the soba.
2. In the meantime, cut the spring onion (in small bits).
3. Grate the daikon, it will become like puree. Its very refreshing and a bit spicy? (you will need a little tool for that)
4. In a bowl, add the nattou and the little sauce. Mix it well until its all gooey and stickyyyy.  
5. Cook the soba (check the time on the packaging. Usually soba noodles cook very fast so be careful not to over cook!). When they are done, drain them and use cold water to cool them down.
6. Drain them well and place them into a bowl. Add some soba tsuyu, enough so half of it is immersed in it (some tsuyu needs to be diluted in water so read the etiquette beforehand!). Add the grated daikon raddish, the nattou, and finally sprinkle on the spring onion and sea weed! 

Dekiagari~ Enjoy! :)

Frogs legs

So for my birthday this year, I went to a French restaurant in London. When a young French girl/boy becomes an adult, he/she has to eat 6 sets of frogs' legs. Just kidding. Nyaaaa~

Ok in all seriousness, I did try them but only because I have been very curious about how they tasted like. I had it as a starter and they were arranged like this:

I couldn't really realize what I got until I started separating them. Then I could really see the shape of the legs and I could really recognize the little animal (kind of made me laugh :P) as you can see on the photo below.

Such gracious legs.

I had heard before that frogs legs were kind of like chicken... And honestly I couldn't agree more. The meat is white like chicken and the consistency is also pretty similar. What was absolutely delicious was the sauce (butter, garlic and parsley). But the legs itself were nothing spectacular, I mean it just tastes like chicken but is more expensive than chicken. Obviously, it's worth trying and it's still a good experience but I don't think I would specifically order frogs legs for the sake of eating the actual meat. One down side was that I thought it was a bit too much for a starter (also because of the butter, it feels pretty heavy); only 3 sets of legs would have been enough for me. 

Anyways, I felt like a real Frenchy after eating this :P Oh no wait... Still never tried escargots... o_O

FUJI: Japanese Restaurant in France

When I was in France mid november, I went to a Japanese restaurant in the city of Rennes (in Brittany, North West of France). I was pleasantly surprised by this restaurant, as it tasted really good and was pretty authentic! My mum had told me that my dad (who is Japanese) had approved so I was very curious to taste them out myself (also because Rennes is a pretty small city). Turns out the owner/chef of this restaurant and his wife are Japanese. I ordered a couple of dishes (we were 5 people) to nibble on for dinner and they were all very good! If you are ever around Rennes and are tired of eating French goodies (but seriously who is EVER tired of French food?!)  then this is the perfect place to go to!

The best way to describe this meal is with photos. So here are some of the dishes we munched that night :3 Enjoy the photos and let your tummies grumbleeee (mine is for sure... T.T) 

Started with some temaki and sashimi of course

Tsukune (chicken meat balls) and yakitori (grilled chicken)

Karaage one of my all times favorites >< (Japanese fried chicken)

Gyoza! (japanese dumplings)

Mochi Ice (mochi with ice cream filling) for desert 

Daifuku (mochi filled with red bean paste)

Hiyashi Carbonara

First time I made it! :)

You love carbonara? You love asian food? This may be the perfect recipe for you! I saw this recipe, hiyashi carbonara (冷やしカルボナーラ which means cold carbonara) in a Japanese magazine in a clinic for Japanese people in London. When I first read it I thought it was so clever! I adapted it a bit (combined it with how my mum makes her carbonara, my own carbonara recipe and the one in the magazine). If you love carbonara but have issues with the high calories of the original recipe, try making this one! Instead of using spaghetti, you use somen which are very thin Japanese noodles made of wheat flour that are usually served cold. For the sauce, use milk instead of cream! This dish is the perfect way to eat carbonara without feeling guilty or like a fat shit! Yey! AND if it's summer and it's too hot to eat carbonara (said no one ever?) this cold version will be perfect for you! Double YEY!

Second time I made this dish :3

Changed the presentation a bit :P

Ingredients (for 2-3 munchers):

• 400g Somen
• 1 Onion
• 100g Bacon/pancetta
• 2-3 spoons of mashed garlic
• 2 cups of Milk (you can also use liquid cream but makes the dish pretty heavy ><)
• Wasabi (optional)
• 3 Egg yolks
• Sake
• Cheese (emmental/gouda or any other cheese)
• Spring onion
• Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

1. Boil water for the somen while you prepare the sauce
2. Cut the onion into strips and cook them with a little bit of oil. When they start to soften, add the sake. Cover with a lid for 8min. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn. Lift the lid and let the liquid evaporate. When they are cooked, set aside and let them cool a bit. 
3. In another pan, fry the bacon (I don't put any oil in it since bacon already has PUULENTY) until crispy. Set aside so it cools down.   
4. In a bowl, add 3 egg yolks, wasabi and mashed garlic. Mix well with a fork until combined. 
5. Add the milk and cheese and mix some more. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
6. Cut the spring onion as small as possible and put into a bowl. 
7. When the somen are done, rinse them with cold water. Drain them well, place them on a plate, put the onion on top, the bacon and add the sauce. Sprinkle the spring onion as decoration! 

Although I love carbonara, I do think it is pretty heavy. By changing some ingredients to somen and milk, it makes the dish a lot lighter and still very tasty! To reduce even more fat I used smoked ham (it has less fat than bacon). I do think bacon is good for this recipe (even though I'm not such a fan) as it gives extra flavour to the sauce. Make sure you add enough salt to the sauce (it's just milk so it doesn't have that much taste). I also used 2 different types of cheeses for the second time I made it (grated emmental and some powdered nameless hard cheese?) but parmesan would also definitely be yummy :D

If you are not a fan of wasabi you can skip that step but I personally love wasabi so I like to put enough so I am able to taste it hehe. You can also add the onion and bacon to the sauce but make sure they cooled down a bit because otherwise it will cook the egg yolk in the sauce and it will become clumpy.

Enjoy!