How to: Afternoon Tea

I discovered afternoon tea in England. It is very typical british, and I love the way it looks. It's supposed to be taken in the afternoon (around 3 or so? until more or less 6) It makes you feel like having something super shmancy when it's actually pretty simple to make!
I've had quite a few afternoon teas here and there in England and I can tell you the ones in London are just... SO GODDAMN EXPENSIVE! Always more than 15£. When you go outside of London, you can have some for maybe 12. They might not look and be as fancy as but still a nice afternoon snack ^^

Afternoon tea consists of: a couple of finger sandwiches, scones, and some cakes/pastries. And of course, TEA. Sometimes you can also have Champagne afternoon tea which can add another 15£ to it -_-
So the price of afternoon tea can be rather discouraging... why not make it at home? I think it's very nice to do when you have guests (the whole thing usually leaves quite an impression on people? :P). I would really recommend you to try making it yourself, it's fun, easy and it just looks good :D

How to:

• Cutlery: What is essential for the afternoon tea is this little afternoon tea set, where you can place your food. This, really makes it an afternoon tea. To make it more into a british atmosphere, it is important that you have some nice tea cups. If you don't have that double/triple story set (I don't know the correct term sorreeeh) just nice looking plates will also do! :D
• Drinks: tea of course, whatever you like (english breakfast, or just simple early grey?). And if you want to make it fancier, have some champagne or prosecco (it's cheaper too :P)
• Sandwiches: try to buy the bread without the crust or otherwise you can always cut the crust out. Usually, you always have salmon one and an egg one (some places also have a cucumber one). For the salmon one, I put a thin layer of philadelphia cream cheese and salmon. For the cucumber, again a layer of philadelphia and thin slices of cucumber (remember it's supposed to be delicate and fancy so best when it's thin slices :P). And for the egg one, hard boil 2 eggs, add some mayonnaise (personally I use the japanese one) until it becomes quite creamy, pepper and a little bit of parsley. Cut the sandwiches into either triangles or rectangles and it's DONE!
• Scones: if you live in the UK, you can just buy the already made scones in local supermarkets (which is what we do most of the time :P) or make them yourself! :D (recipe coming soon ^^)
• Pastries: here you can basically make any cake you want! Sometimes I made cup cakes, or get French pastries (Eclair au chocolat? hehe). Carrot cake, cheese cake, lemon tart, nutella cake... As long as it's a small portion since you might already be stuffed from sandwiches and scones, everything is good. I've had pretty creamy/heavy cakes which I could really not finish anymore so I think keeping them either light or small portions will be best! :)

So these are pictures I have taken of the most recent afternoon teas at home! We also offered some chocolates (on the picture: Ferrero Rocher, my favorite chocolates of all time and orange-chocolate truffles).

If you want to spoil yourself some more, you can also do Champagne Aternoon Tea. Yes, it makes you feel even more luxurious and fancy. Champagne is a bit too much you say? Cheaper alternatives are prosecco or some other Italian spumante (sparkling wine)!

Prosecco Afternoon Tea I did with some of my girlfriends

With usual finger sandwhiches, steamed cup cakes, raisin scones and short bread ^^

Hope you try this at home! :D

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! 

How to spot a good Eclair au Chocolat

Eclair is, in my opinion, one of the most well-known French dessert. As a Nomster, I have tried a high amount of different eclairs (mainly chocolate flavor) in different countries and heard the criteria for a good Eclair many times throughout my life via my (French) mother. There are a variety of signs that can tell you if the eclair is going to be good. Here are a few tips:

1. Creme patissiere: this is the cream that fills the eclair. It is very important that it is chocolate/coffee flavored depending on the eclair of your choice and most importantly that the creme is NOT white. I have had many disappointments upon buying or finding those shaped like and called eclairs but filled with whipped cream. If you see white cream in the inside, remember, it is an impostor.  
2. Chocolate icing on top of the eclair. On a good eclair, the chocolate icing should be shiny. I find it aesthetically more appealing and it also shows that it is not the same cream used for the filling and the covering. 
3. Dough: this is something that can only be tested once in your mouth. The eclair dough has to be soft and moist. If it is too chewy and dry, it means the dough was left on the fire for too long. 
4. The filling: the filling inside of an eclair is called creme patissiere. This cream should be filling the eclair generously. If not, the eclair may feel rather dry. 
5. The taste of creme patissiere: a good one will obviously taste like chocolate or coffee. Sounds obvious but I have come across some that were rather tasteless! 
6. Consistency of creme patissiere: the cream inside should neither be too liquid or too thick. If too liquid, eating it without any spill will be a challenge and if too thick, it will make the eclair heavy. 

Below is a chocolate eclair from a French boulangerie that opened in West London. As you can see the icing in very shiny and dark and the filling tasted like chocolate with a good consistency. The only minus point was the dough that could be softer. 

The next eclair is from Maison Blanc at Chiswhick. This one was absolutely delicious: the dough was light and the filling was exceptionally good. It was pretty thick and you could really taste the chocolate (you can also see it's pretty legit by the colour of the filling as well!). The only minus point was that they were a little stingy on the chocolate icing on top.

Filled with deliciousness!

Hope this will help you identify more authentic eclairs :)