Savory cake: Turkey, cheddar and fresh mushrooms

What’s going on in Pauline-Cuisine?

This week, I would like to share with you another recipe that could fit as a lunch box or main course, even as a starter for welcoming your guests. I will give you the recipe of a delicious savory cake with turkey, cheddar and fresh mushrooms.

Last weekend, I was thinking about my lunch box timetable and I was quite fed up of my weekly quiche. Even if I have a large variety of quiches and dough for quiches, I wanted something different. I was thinking of an alternative when I just thought about a dish that I like to cook when I was student or when I organized finger food diner in Paris for my friends. This savory cake is easy to do, hard to fail and it always makes a good impression. The original recipe was made with Italian ham and white wine but as I am not really keen in using alcohol, I decided to amend the recipe. Moreover, I replaced the Italian ham with turkey as the Italian ham is quite hard to slice in the cake. When I made the recipe I was a little bit worried about the size of the Turkey bits, I didn’t want them too big because it will be hard to eat as a savory cake is quite compact, I decided to make small square pieces and it works really well. The cake was airy and it was really tasty.

I encourage you to bake this delicious savory cake with turkey, cheddar and mushrooms as it is really tasty for your lunch break and easy to prepare. Don’t hesitate to comment the recipe.

Have a nice week and see you next week.

Lunch box: Salad with Chaource

What’s cooking in Pauline-Cuisine?

This week I would like to share with you a great salad. I know that we are still in Winter but sometimes eating a great salad helps me to feel sunny. When I served this salad last week, all the guests have highly appreciated it, so I decided to share with you this Salad with cheese and vegetables. That is a perfect recipe for lunch box as well.

I cook lunch box on daily basis. Sometimes, I feel tired of my old recipe, so I spend a lot of time on my cooking books and magazines but sometimes the magic doesn’t appeared :(. So last week, as I usually do one lunch box with salad, I had no inspiration for my weekly salad. I looked in the fridge and I decided to let my imagination goes. I had some Chaource leftover, I really like this cheese but the problem is that he becomes old really quickly, so it is good to put it in a salad. In order to make a festive salad I decided to defrost some figs.  At the end, I made dried bread in the oven in order to make handmade croutons. The result was a smooth mix of sweet and sour flavour.

I let you try this tasty recipe and don’t hesitate to add some comments.

Have a nice week and see you next week with another delicious recipe.

Lunch box: courgette quiche with courgette salad

What’s cooking in Pauline-Cuisine ?

This week, I would like to share with you two recipes that are perfect match for Lunch box. The first one will be my favorite courgette quiche with a small variation at the dough level. The second one is a salad of fresh courgette which is perfect to eat with the quiche, all in one amazingly tasty lunch box.

I remember the first time that I ate a courgette quiche, at this time I was a child and I was not really keen to the courgette. But my parents decided to have a small vegetable garden and courgettes were perfect to grow up, so one day, the garden gave us plenty of this "awful" vegetable. My mother knew that it was not my favorite vegetable and she decided to ask to her friends how do they eat courgette? and that it is the courgette quiche arrived on my life. Since this day, it is one of my favorite quiche, it is really smooth. Few weeks ago I decided to re-invente the recipe, I didn’t change the mixture but I have amended the dough, I decided to use a vegetable dough (made from a vegetable flour). That is a quite new product that I found last time when I came back to France. The flavor of the vegetable dough is spinach and the taste is great addidtion to the courgette.

In order to change with the traditional salad that I serve with quiche, I decided to give a try to a courgette salad. I read a lot of different recipes and decided to not cook the courgettes and I think that is the best way to eat them. In order to add some flavour I added roasted pine nuts and bacon pieces. This courgette salad is really tasty and it changes to the usual green salad with tomatoes.

I hope you will find time to try these two recipes. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

I wish you a please week. See you next week with another delicious lunch box recipe.

Lunch box: Bulgur salad with vegetables

What’s cooking on in Pauline-Cuisine?

Another lunch box recipe for this week: Bulgur salad with vegetables, we need to keep on track with the new resolutions.

I wanted to taste the bulgur, so many times, I saw it mentioned in my cooking magazines as great alternative to the more traditional semolina. In order to help me to cook it for the first time, I took the inspiration from a well known French cooking website: Marmiton. I mixed different recipes with what I already know on my favorite mix in order to achieve this tasteful and easy recipe. It is a kind of Taboule but the fact to use the dried tomatoes gave a something different to the usual recipe. Moreover, as the cucumber has been replaced by olives and that mozzarella has been added, this lunch box has a kind of Italian way.

I was surprised how easy it is to cook the Bulgur. The first time, that I saw the seeds, I though that will be more like the Quinoa, which is for my part quite difficult to find the right cooking timing. Moreover, I was impressed by the volume of it. So the first time that I tried, I cooked far too much of it and I wasted it, so in the recipe, I have taken care to give you the right amount of dried seeds.

I hope you will enjoy this nice salad, don’t hesitate to comment it.

Have a nice week and see you next week with another delicious recipe.

Lunch box: Leek and cheddar Tart

What’s going on in Pauline-Cuisine?

That is a new year and I am willing to discover new products and new recipes.

For Christmas, I went to France for visiting my family and my favourite thing when I am back to France is to go to big supermarkets in order to discover new products. Usually, I spend a lot of time in the sugar and flour area, always looking for new thing for my baking. This time, my eyes were attracted by some small box of flour. On the box, it is written vegetable flour. You can choose 3 different tastes: green vegetables, tomatoes or curry. I had a long hesitation between the green flour and the red one, I finally chose the green one because I thought that can be a great match with my leek tart or the courgette version.

Back to London, for my first lunch box, I gave a try to this flour. It is quite surprising when you open the box to see the green colour even if it is not too aggressive. I decided to bake the dough with my usual recipe, I love the fact to have self-raising flour and corn flour on it. My dough was definitely green and it was strange to put that in my tart mould. Then I add leeks, cheddar and fresh cream and bake it for 25 minutes. The dough was not as green as at the beginning of the cooking, so it was more appealing. The taste of the dough is not really strong; it is stronger if you eat the tart cold. I will definitely try my courgette version with this green flour.

I hope you will enjoy this new recipe that is really great for your lunch at work.

I wish you a relaxing weekend; see you next week with another delicious recipe.

Twelfth night cake or “Galette des rois”

What’s going on in Pauline-Cuisine?

I wish you a happy new year, all the best for 2014. I hope you spent a nice time for Christmas and New Year Eve, did you cook delicious food or did you eat amazing dishes?

Did you take some resolutions? I always think that if I take a resolution, that needs to be life changing, so the responsibility is too high to take. I am better at taking resolution in September rather than in January, too cold month for taking life changing decision :)

I was, once again, too lazy during Christmas and New Year eve for sharing all my nice edible experiences. For new Year eve, I invited six guests for sharing a fine 5 courses menu, so I spent all my spare time in my kitchen in order to cook fine food, my guests were happy.

Now, it is time to go back on track and fill my goal toward you: sharing recipe. On January 6th, it is the Epiphany and in France, it is time to cook a “Galette des rois” (Twelfth night cake). People from the north of France cook “Galette des rois” (Twelfth night cake) with almond powder while people from the south of France prefer to cook another kind of “Galette des rois” (Twelfth night cake) which is quite similar as a brioche with orange flavour. As I am from the north, I will share with you my traditional “Galette des rois” (Twelfth night cake). I love the “Galette des rois” (Twelfth night cake) time, so I have added a small touch in order to let it more tasteful. I let you discover it on the recipe.

I wish you a nice week and great cooking experience. Don’t hesitate to comment the recipes :)

See you next week with another delicious recipe.

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.