Sunday 15 June 2014

Kiwi ice cream without ice cream maker

What’s going on in Pauline-Cuisine ?

The last few days have been really hot, like the summer was here, unfortunately, when the weekend arrives, the sun has disappeared. Anyway, it has been a long time that I wanted to do my own ice cream, I was looking for an ice cream maker but the major problem is that I don’t have any more space in my kitchen. I didn’t see the point to have an ice cream maker and keeping it in his box. So I decided to ask my mum if she knows a recipe for doing ice cream without ice cream maker and she gave me an amazing recipe.

I couldn’t imagine that it is so easy and quick to do ice cream. Moreover, with the homemade ice cream you can choose your very own flavor. As I bought some discounted kiwi at my local shop, I decided to give a try to a kiwi ice cream. Not easy to find it at the supermarket isn’t it? This kiwi ice cream is perfect as a dessert served with grilled almond. That makes a great impression to all your guests. Give a try at this amazingly easy and tasty kiwi ice cream. Don’t miss the opportunity to create some unexpected flavor for the summer.

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

Sunday 8 June 2014

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?

Sunday 20 April 2014

Mushrooms pasta with pesto and walnuts

What’s going on in Pauline-Cuisine?

First of all, I would like to wish you a great Happy Easter. The perfect time of the year for eating chocolate without thinking, I hope you find your chocolate eggs on the garden, I have already ate them :)

This week, I would like to share with you a new recipe: mushrooms pasta with pesto and walnuts that I created after spending some holidays in the mountains. In fact, two weeks ago, I was on holiday with my family in a small ski station: Aussois near by the Italian border. The weather was really nice and it was quite relaxing to have a break over there where the time seems to have been stopped. As I am not a huge fan of ski and snow, I decided to have a look at the village and try to find mew cooking products. It was quick mission as the shops are not always open and are really small. I ended my walk on the small mini market near by the hotel and I finally found an attractive product: mushrooms pasta.

Back to London, I planned to give a try to this product. As I like to cook chestnut mushrooms, I decided to cook this pasta with tasteful kind of mushrooms. When I was cooking the chestnut mushrooms, I was not really convinced about the recipe that I have imagined. So I looked around in my kitchen in order to find the magic ingredient which suits with my idea of the recipe: I decided to add pesto and walnuts. And on top of that, I added some small pieces of dried Italian ham. The smell in the kitchen was really great. The taste of the mushrooms pasta is not as strong as I imagine, it was quite discreet but the recipe is really delicious and easy to make.

I wish you a good week, see you next with another delicious recipe.

Sunday 9 March 2014

Lunch box: mix of wild rice with vegetables

What’s going on in Pauline-Cuisine ?

This week, I will share with you an easy and colourful recipe for lunch box: mix of wild rice with vegetables. I discovered a large variety of rice when I came to live in London. When I lived in France, I only know a lot of white rice but I didn’t notice this kind of colourful rice: wild, Camargue, brown rice.

The first time that I bought a mix, it was just for trying but I was a little bit afraid about the cooking time, you need to plan at least 35 minutes. Fortunately, I escaped really quickly this “waste” of time by using my lazy option: using my rice cooker that it can do it in 35 minutes as well but without check. From this time, I took the habit to cook more and more of this kind of rices, I usually serve it as a main dish, whereas the white Basmati rice is usually use for accompanying a fish.

Last week, I went to my usual supermarket after work and I found an attractive selection of mini vegetables, it was a mix of small corn, mange-tout, broccoli and a small chilli. It was colourful and I thought that could be a nice addition to my mix of brown, wild and Camargue rice.
I sliced in small pieces mange-tout and mini corn and prepare the chilli. I used a pan in order to roast them. I have already tried to cook them with boiling water but the taste is not as strong as roasting them. I cook the broccoli really quickly, 5 minutes only in boiling water, if you let them too long in the boiling water, they lost their crunchy. When all the mini vegetables are cooked, add the rice and mix all of them together.

You can serve this dish warm or cold, if you serve it cold, you could add some dressing on top. I like this recipe both cold and warm:  so easy to do, healthy, tasty and so colourful. Don’t hesitate to try it and post some comments.

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

Saturday 1 March 2014

Roasted apples and pears with pecan nuts and almond

What’s cooking on in Pauline-Cuisine ?

I recently put myself in the fact to create dessert for lunch box. Indeed, I am a sweet tooth and sometimes after delicious lunch box, I would appreciate a dessert. I didn’t want to have high sugar dessert or simple fruit salad; I wanted something in the middle, something with a nice touch on it. It took me quite a while before finding the right recipe that will tick all the boxes: roasted apples and pears with pecan nuts and flaked almond.

The two main goals of this dessert were: fruit based and healthy. As I have the habit to go to the market every Saturday, I am used to buy some apple but at the moment I quite fed up of the compote. So I decided to roast some apple and sweet pears in a pan with small pieces of butter. The smelling in the Kitchen was amazing :). After having roasting the apples and pears, I decided to add sliced pieces of soft prunes. I love this mix, but once again, I would like to add something, so I added pecan nuts and roasted flaked almond. The taste of the mix is great and the presentation of this dessert is amazing.

I hope you will find some time to try this dessert, easy to cook and so convenient as a dessert for lunch.

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

Sunday 23 February 2014

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.

Saturday 8 February 2014

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.

Friday 31 January 2014

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.

Saturday 18 January 2014

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.

Saturday 11 January 2014

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.

Saturday 4 January 2014

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.