Cookies with chocolate chunk

What’s going on in Pauline-Cuisine ?

It is really enjoyable this warm weather! I rediscover the pleasure to do some long walk nearby the water canal in the East London. It is a really peaceful walk with a lot of animals to see. But after walking for one hour or two, it is time to eat something. So last weekend, after this sunny and warm walk, I decided to bake quickly some cookies. It has been a long time since I haven’t took the time to make some.

It takes only 15 minutes to bake and a quick 10 minutes to make and trust me the taste is far better than the one which can be found in the supermarket. I was used to make them when I was a student, so I really enjoy making them again. They didn’t last long and the few cookies leftover were a nice addition such as dessert for my Monday lunch box.

Have a nice week and don’t hesitate to comment the recipes shared.

Savory cake: Roquefort, cheddar and olives

What’s going on in Pauline-Cuisine ?

Since I moved to this new flat, I am enjoying my new kitchen and I spent more time cooking rather than sharing my recipes. On top of that, I love receiving people and I challenge myself to be more creative for the aperitif offer. In fact, I usually describe myself as a sweet tooth, so I usually have a lot of ideas for dessert and I keep keeping the same set of aperitif such as smoked salmon verrine, smoked salmon canapé

Last weekend, I decided to have a look at all the cooking books that I have and tried to create a new recipe with ingredients that I had on the fridge. I decided to go ahead with a savory cake: Roquefort, olives and cheddar. I know that usually my guest like savory cakes and they are great alternative to the usually crisps. On top of that, you can store easily the savory cake for 3 or 4 days in a plastic box.

In order to create a more aperitif version of this savory cake with Roquefort, olives and cheddar, I decided to use a mould that I received quite a while ago. I found it when I tidied up the drawer where I put all the moulds.

I let you try this new recipe: savory cake with Roquefort, cheddar and olives; which can be served as an aperitif or as a main course with a salad.

Have a nice week.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Pumpkin and sweet potato soup

What’s cooking on in Pauline-Cuisine?

I hope you had a nice Halloween party with scary pumpkin and delicious black and orange cakes.  Last Saturday, I planned for the Halloween party to cook a creamy Halloween soup. However, my husband had an idea on his mind, and he stole the lovely pumpkin that I had bought for carving it. It was the first time that he did it and I was really impressed by the result.  On the middle of the party, the sharp of the pumpkin has changed because of the heat, but no worries, my husband had done to the pumpkin a “facial surgery” and the pumpkin was great all the party long.

Even if the Halloween pumpkin was nice, I had no more of it for cooking my soup. So I bought another one and when I was in the grocery shop, I decided to buy a sweet potato as well. The taste association was really great and it was a nice amendment to my last pumpkin soup. So I share with you this pumpkin and sweet potato soup with you. It is really easy to do. The most difficult thing is to peel the pumpkin but after it, let’s cook for 30 minutes and your soup is nearly ready, so delicious for a winter dinner.

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

Bakery: Brioche and Kamut Bread

What’s going on in Pauline-Cuisine?

I would like to focus my weekly note on baking. I love baking and I like eating bread; I try to do make bread as many as I can. A day without bread is not a good day :).

Every Friday, I bake a brioche in order to have it ready for a delicious Saturday breakfast. Last Friday, my usual mould for doing my brioche was used for my delicious bread (a test that I have done, I will explain it below), so I decided to use a square one. I was not convinced at the beginning because I thought I won’t have enough dough for fill in. So I gave a try, and then put the dough in the mould in the cupboard where the hot water tank is. It is so convenient because the environment is really warm but not too much; I think this system exists only in UK. So, I put it for 1 hour, I was so impatient to see the result and it was worth to wait. After one hour, the dough has filled completely the mould. I was so impressed by the strength of the yeast…. So, I decided to share with you this really easy recipe and so delicious … Look at the picture, don’t you want to eat it.

I have used my “brioche” mould for doing a bread experience. In fact, I was quite bored about my usual bread, so I have tried a new technique: bread on “poolish”. I tried this new technique with my favourite flour: Kamut flour. A few months ago, I was disappointed because I couldn’t find this flour and suddenly I found it at the supermarket. So I decided to give a try to this new technique with my newly found again flour. This new technique takes more time for making the bread because you need to let rest the poolish for one day before making the bread. But one more time, it is worth to wait because the bread is really airy. You should try it if you want to have really tasty and airy bread.

I wish you a nice week and I will share with you a new recipe next week.

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.

Caramel Jelly

What’s cooking in Pauline-Cuisine ?

This week, I would like to share with you a new dessert recipe: a flamby, that is a kind of caramel jelly. It was a quite emblematic dessert, when I was younger and I remember really well the TV ad on it. The funny value-added of this dessert is the little sticker on the bottom of the pot, you need to remove in order to let the jelly to go on the plate and the caramel spread around the jelly.

Last week, I went to a second hand market and I found some jelly mould, so I decided to give them a try and a start my various recipes of flamby. The first try was a mess, as I have tried to do my homemade caramel. That was a huge mistake because when you put the fresh and really hot caramel on the bottom of the mould, the plastic has melted with the caramel. I was disappointed but I decided to give a second try with my spare moulds. This time, I decided to use Agave syrup instead of caramel as it is easier to find this syrup in UK. Moreover, I decided to use some agar-agar, that is vegetal gelifiant. The huge challenge with this kind of powder is to find the right balance between a jelly texture and something not really smooth. So, for my second try I have only included 1 g of Agar-Agar that was not sufficient for 650 ml of milk and the jelly stay liquid. At the end, my third try was great, so I decided to give you the right recipe to try. 

I hope you will enjoy eating this funny dessert, reminder of childhood.

I wish you a nice week and see you next week with other delicious recipes.