Potato-crusted Chicken Breast Pie

There are as many kinds of this pie as there are cheeses. You can substitute whichever kind of cheese you like for the "1 cup grated cheese"; blue or gruyere or cheddar etc.

2 potatoes, sliced 1⁄4 inch thick
4 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
1 Tbsp flour (wheat or rice)
1⁄8 tsp black pepper
1⁄2 tsp hot sauce
1 cup grated cheese
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced
2 green onions, chopped

1. Pre-heat oven to 375F.
2. Bring a bot of water to boil, and blanch the potatoes; about 10 minutes. Drain the potatoes and allow them to cool.
3. Whisk together the eggs, cottage cheese, flour, pepper, and hot sauce. Stir in the cheese, the chicken, and the green onions.
4. Butter a pie dish and arrange the slices in a single layer to cover the bottom and the sides of the dish.
5. Pour the egg mixture into the potato bowl.
6. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Allow it to cool at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before serving, otherwise it'll be too hot!

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 leek (6oz/170gr) diced 

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

1 Tbsp (1/2oz/14gr) butter

6 oz (170g) of diced day-old bread

4 large eggs

3/4 (150g) 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)

2 cups light cream (or combine 1 cup heavy cream with 1 cup milk)

(optional) heavy cream

1. Grease a 4quart glass baking dish with butter to coat the bottom and sides. There will be leftover butter from this process, save it for the last step.
2. If the bread is still too soft, you can toast the slices, butter if you wish. Layer the bread into the buttered baking dish.
3. Whisk the eggs, add the sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, pour in the dairy, whisking until uniform. 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°F 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. The internal temperature in the center should be 170°F for complete doneness.
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.

Lemon and Chive Pan Sauce

The sauce is from Cook's Illustrated, but for the chicken, I follow the instructions to make Sauteed Chicken Breasts.

1 shallot, minced (about 3 tablespoons)

1 tsp all-purpose flour

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1 Tbsp juice from 1 lemon

1 Tbsp minced fresh chives (I've also used green onion tails)

1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) butter

Salt and ground black pepper

1. If required, add a little oil and sautée shallot in a skillet and cook over medium heat until softened, about 2 minutes. 
2. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 30 seconds. 
3. Add the broth, increase the heat to medium-high, and bring to a simmer, scraping the pan bottom to loosen browned bits. 
4. Simmer rapidly until the liquid is reduced to ¾ cup, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in any accumulated chicken juices; return to a simmer and cook 30 seconds. Off heat, whisk in the lemon juice, chives, and butter; season with salt and pepper. Spoon over chicken and serve immediately.

Chestnut and chocolate, a sweet consonance - Fondants Chocolat Marron

My favourite recipes are the simple ones that give the impression of great luxury. This is one of them. The cake is so moist and thick with dark chocolaty gooey goodness, it's a miracle they're not sold at McDonald's. It's a recipe from the Limousin region in France, and I've adapted it from the Recoins de France Web site.

1 can sweetened chestnut paste

100g 70% chocolate (usually 1 bar)

3.5 oz (100g) butter 

3 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Melt together chocolate and butter in a bain marie.
3. Whisk in the chestnut paste until the mixture is uniform, then add eggs one-at-a-time.
4. Pour into a single cake tin or smaller containers such as ramekins.
5. Bake 25 minutes or until centre is firm.
6. Let cool completely before removing from containers and serving
7. Recommended with crème anglaise, raspberry coulis or caramel sauce.

Irish Mutton Stew

People prefer lamb over mutton because it's so much more tender. Well, I don't know if it's the recipe or the mutton I used, but this was a delicious dish, full of flavour with tender morsels of mutton. The original, lost in the mists of time (I didn't save the Internet page it was on, all I remember was that it was an extract from a book with a picture of the cook on the cover, a sweet Irish grandma... really, with the cloud of white hair on her head and everything. Very cute), asked for more than three times what I've used, and I'm pretty sure I made a few mistakes in my calculations, but it worked! And it also means that it'll be easy to multiply the quantity. The ratio of meat to veg in my first attempt wasn't quite right, so this is still a work in progress, and the following is what I think the next batch should be.

1½ lb mutton, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces

Grapeseed oil (optional)
1¾ cup stock

2-3 large carrots, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

1 onion, cut into eigths

1-2 potato(es), sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

sprig of thyme

1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) butter

1 Tbsp flour

chives and parsley

1. If you're chopping up your own piece of mutton, trim the fat and render it in a saucepan, removing the solid portion once the fats have melted out. You can use this to lightly brown the meat instead of using vegetable oil.
2. If you don't have extra or enough fat to render, use about a tablespoon of grapeseed oil.
3. Note the 'lightly' in lightly brown the meat. Set aside. Use meat stock to deglaze the pot, remove from the heat source, and set the stock aside.
4. The next step is to layer the ingredients in strata. Start with laying the cooked meat (and any juices) at the bottom of the pot, season with salt and pepper, then layer with the chopped carrots, sprinkle with salt and pepper and nestle the sprig of thyme on top, followed by the onion, again with some salt and pepper, followed by the sliced potato with, yes, a brief shower of salt and pepper.
5. Using the saucepan's lid as a guide, cut out a round of parchment paper and lay this on top of the veg, then put the saucepan lid on top of that. Bring to a boil and let simmer gently for 1 to 1 1/2 hour.
6. Once cooked nicely with the meat all tender, in a saute pan, melt the butter on high heat, sprinkle in the flour and whisk until it starts to brown; the browning is important for flavour. Whisking constantly, drizzle in all the stock from the stew pot, let it simmer for about 5 minutes, then chop up some chives and parsley, mix these in, then pour it all back over the meat and veg.
7. It's ready to serve.