And that reminds me. I got my edition of CVF or Cuisine et vins de France a few days ago, something that I wait for with baited breath every month or so in my letterbox. This month's edition was about bistro desserts, 15 classic bistro desserts to be exact. And I can tell ya - no discovery of any bloody star could make this knitting songbird happier than the recipes I discovered, or should I say, rediscovered in this issue. Par exemple: tarte tatin, that wonderful upside down apple concoction that the Tatin sisters discovered by accident and put them on the gastronomic map forever, creme brulee or "burnt" cream, THE dessert of all French desserts with its brittle caramel top and smooth vanilla bottom, gâteau moelleux au chocolat or soft chocolate cake where the creamy chocolate centre literally melts in your mouth, pain perdu au chocolat or French toast with chocolate, the simplest but not least tasty of all French desserts and crepes Suzettes, another delicious dish discovered by accident by a young assistant waiter cooking for the Prince of Wales and his companion whose first name was Suzette. Suffice to say, I have been poring over the issue since I got it and haven't been able to put it down.
I gave the creme brulee (in the top 5 of desserts for me) a try the same day, I just had to, love it too much. And it turned out magnifique, if I can say so myself. It even made me go out and buy a bloody creme brulee blow torch (finally, I might add)! Pity that when I made it for Davor a few weeks ago it turned out really crappy - and that's an understatement. The eggs curdled ('cause the gas ran out and I had to cook it on the electric burner), it was a watery mess and the sugar didn't caramelise ('cause I didn't have the bloody blow torch!). In short, un desastre - sorry 'bout that Davor! But that always happens when you cook for someone else, at least to me - you make that extra effort and what happens? Un desastre. Next time it'll be better Davor, promise! Got gas and got the blow torch now!
Here's the recipe for y'all, if ya wanna give it a try. It really is dead easy, foolproof (even if you're under pressure making it for someone else!) and it tastes just delish:
Creme brulee
5 egg yolks
2 vanilla beans
250 ml full cream milk
80 g icing sugar
250 ml cream
100g brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 120 degrees C.
Split the vanilla beans open, scrape the seeds and place into a saucepan along with the beans. Pour in the milk, slowly bring to the boil then remove from the heat and let steep 10 minutes. While the milk is stepping, put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix with the cream and sugar until well incorporated. Mix the egg mixture with the milk mixture (remove the vanilla beans). Pour the mixture evenly into 6 ramekins and place on a large oven tray. Pour some water into the oven tray so that it comes to 1 cm to the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 1h/1h 15 min or until the cream is slightly "wobbly".
Let the cream cool and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Once well chilled, put a couple of spoons of sugar on the top of each and "burn" with a blow torch until the sugar is caramelised. Serve at once.
Bon appetit!
And here are a few more quotes from the gastronome of all gastronomes that you might like:
"A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye." (Ain't that the truth! I sometimes eat just cheese and bread as a meal in itself!)
"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." (Aha. That's why I don't eat at McDonald's anymore, I can tell ya)
"Drinking Bordeaux you think about, drinking Burgunder you talk about and drinking champagne you do foolish things." (Just ask Davor and I - we just had two glasses in Paris on our last night there, Veuve Cliquot of course, and talked the worst French you could ever hear in your life for the space of two hours!)
"The destiny of nations depends upon the manner in which they feed themselves." (hmmm, interesting one that...maybe that's why most of the Western world is obese these days, eh?)
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