Isabelle's soupe - Wild Mushroom and Hazelnut Soup

My niece has asked me to show her how to cook. What an incredible honor and compliment to have been asked by her! Although I haven't been such a great teacher, 'cause I want to do everything. Last week I decided I'd find a recipe for her to try on her own (mostly on her own... at least partly on her own... ok, she did a lot under my guidance and with lots of help from me!) and I think she was really proud of the results, and with reason; bien fait, Isabelle! Thanks to my colleague Carole from giving me the recipe. (omit butter to make is suitable for vegans)

2 Tbsps (28gr) butter

2 Tbsps mild vegetable oil

1/2 lb button mushrooms, sliced

1/4 lb assorted wild mushrooms

1 cup diced leek

3/4 cup diced parsnip

1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, crushed

1 Tbsp fresh thyme, minced

2 garlic cloves

4 cups chicken broth (veg for vegetarian)

3/4 tsp salt, to taste

Pepper

optional 1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley

1. Melt 1 tbsp butter with 1 tbsp oil in a large pot over high heat (a large pot to have the surface for the liquid from the mushrooms to evaporate quickly and leave the earthy richness of the mushroom behind). Stir mushroom occasionally and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside.
2. Return pot to heat and melt remaining butter and oil. Add leek, parsnip, hazelnuts, thyme and cook a few minutes before adding garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook until veg are tender, another couple of minutes, then add mushrooms and stock. Bring to a boil reduce heat, and simmer about 10 minutes, covered.
3. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Bread Pudding Recipe

This is a very simple recipe, but I'm so fascinated by how the ingredients I used reacted. I had the great fortune of living close to the only authentic French bakery in Vancouver at the time (that I know of). One of the baguettes they produced they called 'buche', which appears to be a flat baguette with a very dense crust. This is what I used to make this recipe. I did not remove the crust and to my delight it not only absorbed all of the custard, but it expanded, crust and sponge, into a beautiful soufflé that kept its rounded shape in the pot for at least a minute before slowly deflating, the bread pieces forming oval honeycomb-ish shapes. Beautiful, and simple, two of my favourite things. Nowadays, since I bake my own bread, the pudding is heartier with my more dense Commons Bread, usually, and it continues to be delicious. The best way to make sure you have the right amount of bread is to use the weight. I'll save the ends in the freezer as the material for this recipe; it creates variation in the texture, which is quite nice. A great breakfast pudding, and elevated by serving it with some Crème Anglaise.

Yield: one 8" round glass baking dish

6 oz of diced day-old bread or ½ loaf baguette

4 large eggs

3/4 cups sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

A few pinches cinnamon

A smidgeon of nutmeg

2 tsp vanilla extract (or to taste, I likely use more, love the stuff)

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup milk

1 Tbsp (1/2oz/14gr) butter

(optional) heavy cream

1. Brush the baking dish with the melted butter to coat the bottom and sides.
2. If the bread is still too soft, you can toast and butter the slices. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired. Layer the slices of bread into the buttered baking dish.
3. Whisk the eggs, add the sugar, salt and nutmeg, pour in the cream and milk, whisking to combine uniformly. Strain the mixture directly over the bread to completely soak the slices, cover and let sit as long as you like, even overnight, especially if the bread is very dry. The goal of course is to have maximum soaking and minimum dry bread.
4. Bake, covered, at 325° for 45 minutes. Rotate the pan if needed for even baking, and continue to bake covered until the custard puffs up. Uncover, and continue to bake until firm at the edges, soft but set in the center.
5. (Optional) you can serve with a drizzle of cream or Crème Anglaise or some such.

Peter Rabbit Carrots - Lemon and cilantro carrots

Orange always seems to be what's recommended to go with carrots, but I've often felt that the flavour is missing. Maybe because I used the wrong kinds of oranges? Anyway, I decided to try with lemon instead and that did it! Granted, I was using some amazingly sweet and delicious biodynamically grown organic carrots, and their sweetness definitely contributed.

2 medium sized carrots

1-2 tsps (5-10gr) butter

juice from 1⁄2 lemon

1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro, or to taste

salt, to taste

1. Boil carrots until just done. Drain. 
2. Add butter and allow to melt, then squeeze the juice out of the lemon over top, sprinkle with the cilantro, then the salt, toss, and serve.