Soup of watercress

What’s going on in Pauline-Cuisine ?

I took the opportunity that we are still in January for wishing you all the best for 2015. I hope this new year will be full of blossom and tasty discoveries.

Usually, people like to take some resolutions in order to make a good start but so few succeed to maintain them. So in order to help the one who decided to cook more often, you will love this website and the fact that most of the recipes are easy and quick to prepare. This week recipe is one of the simplest; I will share with you the cooking recipe for making a soup of watercress.

In fact, for a couple of year now, a soup for dinner appears as the perfect menu after a long day at work. That is really easy to do; you can even take your shower/bath when it is cooking. This dinner is super healthy and perfect for a good night sleep. The challenge is to find a couple of new soup for adding variety all along weeks of cold winter. For finding inspiration, I decided to go back to my childhood and the various soup that my mum does, and the one that came straight away to my mind is the watercress soup. At this time, it was a kind of festive soup as the watercress was not as easy to find as the one in the UK. My mum used to buy it at the food market and usually it was hard work to wash it. Completely different in UK where you have it ready to use which make the watercress soup like something easy to do and tasty to eat as often as I want.

Have a good week and don’t hesitate to comment the recipe and make some tasty amendments

Savory cake: chorizo, olives and dried tomatoes

What’s going on in Pauline's Cuisine ?

With this changing weather is really hard to cook something that fits with our mood. The salad can be disappointed with a rainy weather and a hot dish really not appropriate when the sun shines. So this week, I wanted to find a recipe that can fit for every day. I decided to go ahead with a savory cake. It has been a while that I have not taken the time to cook one of them because my last trial was not a great success, it was too oily. This week I will share with you a new recipe of savory cake with chorizo, olives and dried tomatoes.

Last week, I went to my favorite grocery shop, a big one that is located in the centre of the new Business centre: Canary Wharf. This particular shop is the flag shop of the brand, so everything is perfect and you have a lot different counters for bread, meat, charcuterie, cheese… everything is done for “helping” you to buy. As I was buying some charcuterie in order to prepare a cheese dinner, the chorizo was on sale. Usually I don’t like chorizo but this time, due to the attractive windows, I decided to buy chorizo. Back home, I had a quick look at my various cooking magazine in order to find a way to cook it in a savory cake. I found a recipe with chorizo and olives. As I bought some dried tomatoes, I decided to amend largely the recipe and added dried tomatoes in the savory cake and in order to maximize the flavor I added dried tomato oil. The cake was delicious. The taste of the chorizo was not too strong and the cake was perfectly balanced at the oil level.

This recipe of savory cake with chorizo, olives and dried tomatoes is a "must have" for your aperitif and your lunch box. You can eat it warm or cold. Don’t hesitate to give a trial this weekend. Still hesitating, need one more word for trying: the savory cake can be frozen easily and keeping all the flavor when you defrost it, is not it perfect?

Grilled vegetables with Tofu

What’s cooking in on Pauline-Cuisine?

The temperatures are going down and it is time to cook some warm food for lunch. This week, I tried to cook with Tofu. Indeed, I heard a lot of good things about it and I quite remember that the taste is not really strong, I just cooked it once and I was not convinced. But I gave it a try this week again. I decided to cook it with vegetables on a kind of Chinese way.

When I removed the Tofu from its package, the texture was really fluffy. I sliced it in square pieces and decided to fry it on my “barbecue” pan. I put one spoon of toasted sesame oil and when the pan was hot, I added the Tofu pieces. I let them cook for 10 minutes before turning them back. I think that was the right technique in order to keep the Tofu in bites. Then I added all the vegetables and some seasoning with Chinese spices and Soya sauce. This dish is really easy and quick cook and it is delicious to eat at lunch for your lunch break.

I hope you will enjoy cooking this new recipe for your lunch box. Have a nice week and see you next week with another tasty recipe.

Fresh salmon salad

What ‘s cooking in Pauline-Cuisine ?

The cold days are settled and I will need to find and experiment new recipes for cooking hot dishes. But before sharing with you hot lunch boxes, I would like to give you my last summer recipe. Why, I am still in summer because I went on holidays most part of September. So this week, I will share with you a salad with fresh salmon for your lunch box.

I went to the fish market one week ago and I bought my favourite enormous piece of salmon. It is always surprising to see how big a salmon can be and how fresh it is when it is bought from the market. On my way back, I was thinking about cooking it and I remind one of my day out when I went to the restaurant where I took a salmon salad, I was surprised that the salmon was fresh and not smoked as usual.  So I decided to cook a salad with fresh salmon. As the baby vegetables were discounted, I decided to add them on the salad. The result was really nice and colourful but the most important is that was really tasty. No question, I will cook it again, no matter if we are in winter… there are heaters at the office.

I hope you will enjoy cooking this salad with fresh salmon. And promise I won’t let you down as I have done it in September.

Apples and Strawberries Compote

What ‘s cooking in Pauline-Cuisine ?

I hope you have enjoyed your bank holiday. I took the opportunity of these three free days to clean up all the cupboards of my kitchen and I am now ready for a busy September. Today, I went to the street market in order to buy some vegetables and fruits, I am glad that every traders are back. I bought apples because in my mind, I wanted to do compote. As on Friday, I received my grocery order and I have ordered a large amount of strawberries and we don’t have time to eat all of them. I decided to give a try to a new idea: strawberries and apples compote.

I was a little bit worried during the cooking because the smelling was really strong, the entire kitchen smelt hot strawberries. When all the fruits are cooked, again I was not convinced by the appearance but this time the smelling was great. I put all on the blender in order to have smooth compote.  The texture is really nice, it is a little bit like a mousse. The taste is really wonderful, and I wanted to share with you this new recipe with seasonal fruits. Quite easy to do, tasty and so healthy.

I wish you a nice week and see you next week for another great recipe.

Spring salad

What’s going on in Pauline-Cuisine ?

This week I would like to share with you a new lunch box recipe: spring salad. This salad is really easy to do and healthy, so that checks all the boxes for a great lunch at work. That can be a served as a dish for a light dinner as well.

Last time when I went to the corner supermarket, I was struggling to find lamb lettuce, so I decided to give a try to the iceberg salad. It was a good experience because it is really tender to eat and it is really easy to prepare. You washed it quickly with the bottom on the top, then take a large sheet and cut it in small pieces. The light green of this salad add some colour to the salad.  This try was a huge success and I totally adopted this new salad. Moreover, the value-added is that it is easy to find and it is cheaper.

For doing this salad, if you are struggling with peeling the eggs, don’t forget to put some cold water on it when they are cooked, the cold water on the hot eggshell helps to break the shell.

I hope you will like to cook this spring salad. Don’t hesitate to post a comment on it.

See you next week with another delicious recipe.

Lunch box: salad with 2 cabbages

What’s cooking in Pauline –Cuisine?

The sun is back and that is a great news because the salads are back too. This week, I have enjoyed cooking fresh lunch boxes and eat them in the office’s terrace. Yes, I need to confess that I am really lucky to have this terrace which allows me to have sun bath during lunch time. Salads are perfect match with that. As I would like to celebrate sun, I wanted to create something new to eat. I had a quick review of some cook books, I picked up some idea of dishes and idea of sauces, then rushed to my kitchen in order to create my new lunch box: salad with 2 cabbages.

I am not a huge fan of cabbages but this mix of colors is so attractive. The crispy of the cabbage, fresh raped carrots and beansprot is so delicious. But the “must have” of this salad is the sauce.  I was fed of the basic vinaigrette but I was too tired to do a complicated sauce. So the fact to use lemon juice instead of vinegar was really great idea. The mix of mustard + lemon juice is so tasty that you don’t need to add pepper or salt.

For sure, I will eat a lot cabbages salad as I like the texture and the mix of colors add a joyful touch to my lunch break.

I wish you a nice weekend.

See you next week with a quick and delicious chocolate dessert.