Compotée de tomatoes cerises et vanille (Cherry tomato and vanilla compote) – 06/05/14

Easiest recipe out of the book to date. All I had to do was infuse olive oil with a split vanilla bean for 15 minutes, cut 250g of cherry tomatoes in half, place them in a baking tray and sprinkle them with salt and sugar. Once the olive oil had infused I poured it over the cherry tomatoes and baked them for 1 hour until the tomatoes were still intact but soft and oozing juices. It paired really nicely with the goats cheese and as for the french bri it didn’t really to it any favours.

Truffles de foie gras (Foie gras truffles) – 07/05/14

I made these for a pre-dinner this week and they weren’t particularly enjoyable. We bought duck liver pâté instead of frios grios (as I hate was they do to the ducks) from our local delicatessen which we love and the three coatings in which I rolled it in distracted from its meaty rich buttery flavour. I have been searching in supermarkets for mukwas which is indian candied spices, they sell them at a shop in the city but I haven’t been able to get them. I managed to find a variation at an indian bazar in boronia mall whilst waiting for my gloria jeans coffee. When I opened the bag it smelt like a cleaning product but I persisted and picked out all the candied spices to replicate rachels truffles, this is one of the first things I have ever refused to try. My mother and father said they were unpleasant and tasted like musk. The dutch cocoa was ok but still slightly ruined the pâtés divine taste. Lastly the crushed ginger biscuits was the only coating I found to be enjoyable as it just added a subtle sweetness to the pâté like having it with quince paste only with a hint of spice. An unnecessary dish that should not exist, pâté is to be enjoyed by itself on thick slices of fresh crusty baguette.

Tartines sucrées et salées (Sweet and savoury open-faced sandwiches) – 09/05/14

I made both the sweet and savoury open sandwiches as a pre-dinner for my mother, father and I. I used a baguette we had frozen previously and it was as stale as old boots when I took it out, so I toasted it and it went quite crispy but was twas a great textural contrast against the toppings. All the toppings were a pleasure to eat, the combinations all worked superbly together, my favourite from the savoury topping was the fig, goats cheese and walnut as they are all  some my favourite ingredients singing together in a flavoursome rapture. The most enjoyable from the sweet toppings would have to be either the dark chocolate and olive oil as I love dark chocolate and you could barely taste the olive oil or the peach (I used pear) and brie as the cheese was gorgeous and fruit + cheese is an uncontrollable flavour relationship.

Fig, walnuts and goats cheese, Pear and roast leg ham, Salted butter and radish, avocado and grapefruit.

Peach and brie, Dark chocolate and olive oil, mint crème fraîche and strawberries, caramelised apples.

Tonight we had crêpes filled with thyme, chicken and ricotta with a garlic, onion and tomato sauce baked in the oven topped with parmesan cheese, yum! I don’t have the time to make crêpes for a snack or breakfast with various topping so I just made it into a dinner for the family with the left over chicken in the fridge and thyme thats beginning to go quite dry and old. The crêpes were close to prefect, they were crisp on the outer edge and were unbelievably soft it was insane, a delicious meal after a long day at work!

108 recipes down 12 to go!