Getting Fat in France

So, I had the most amazing day making fruit flavoured eclairs and religieuses at Lenotre on the Champs Elysee today. The class was small and fun.  There were two french ladies who were quite amusing.  Half way through the class they confessed that their 'regime' did not permit them to eat butter, eggs, or meat.  Given butter and eggs were the base of every mixture we were all a little perplexed as to why they had chosen to do the class.  They were amusing in any case and made the class quite fun.  There was also a lovely Japanese girl and a young American who is living in Paris for a month with her fiance during her university holidays.  And then there was Floreal.  Floreal - said like Loreal but with an F, was a MAN.  Surely it is child abuse to call your son Floreal.  He was nice but again, we were all a little confused, especially Matthieu, as to why he was called Floreal.

Our classroom was on the ground floor and had a great view of everyone walking down the champs elysee.  The sun was out so there were lots of people walking around - some even came right up to the window and made us feel a little bit like a science experiment.

Everything seemed really quite easy to make - I think partly because all of the ingredients were in front of us and all the materials and equipment were nearby.  In any case, I hope to be able to recreate some of these amazing desserts because they really were just delicious.  Matthieu took a bit of a shine and tried quite hard to get me to sign on to more classes.  He was excited to learn that I was signed up for another class but was bitterly disappointed to learn that it was on Thursday and he wouldn't be there. I promised that I would look at some other classes in two weeks time when I return from Croatia.  My week at Le Cordon Bleu is still a blur - no idea what is going on with that group.

Anyway, we were given some quaint little boxes to store our creations but because I decided to walk home, get lost and then take the metro because I was sick of walking, my little beauties didn't look at good at home as they did in class.  They still tasted the same and Olly most enjoyed them after our healthy baked fish and salad dinner.

Still haven't done enough exercise to warrant this indulgent eating but who cares.... ok I do, I am meant to be wearing a bikini in a week - don't think that is going to look too crash hot.

Crème Framboise and Crème Passion, Abricot

These two recipes are dangerous for the waist line but truly delicious and offer a nice alternative to the traditional chocolate and coffee creams used in eclairs.  Don't be fooled into thinking you can use liquid measurements for the passionfruit, apricot cream - you can't.  It doesn't work as well.   

Ingredients

Raspberry Cream

900ml good quality raspberry pulp 

90g caster sugar

90g caster sugar

200g egg yolks

75g custard powder

Passionfruit and Apricot Cream

450g passionfruit pulp

450g abricot pulp

90g caster sugar

110g caster sugar

200g egg yolks

80g custard powder

Method

Bring pulp and sugar slowly to the boil.  In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks, second batch of sugar and custard powder together.

Carefully pour the boiling fruit and sugar mixture into the mixing bowl.  Mix together and then pour entire mixture back into saucepan and return to boil for 2 minutes.  

Pour into shallow containers and cover with cling film. It is important that there are no air bubbles between the film and the cream - it will form a nasty film if you do.  Leave to cool.  Place into a piping bag if using creams for eclairs.  Enjoy! 

  

An afternoon in Montmartre

Couldn't resist this photo

With Olly nursing the aftereffects of her champagne cocktail the night before, we headed up the hill to check out Le Chat Noir exhibition and catch up with one of the girl's from last night.  It was a really quaint little museum and it was lovely to be out and about on a nice Sunday afternoon - still not hot but much warmer than the previous week.  The black cat hanging out in the museum garden was almost too good to be true.   

Background - Le Chat Noir

Le Chat Noir is thought to be the first modern cabaret: a nightclub where the patrons sat at tables and drank alcoholic beverages while being entertained by a variety show on stage, introduced by a master of ceremonies who interacted with people he knew at the tables. Its imitators have included cabarets from St. Petersburg(Stray Dog Café) to Barcelona (Els Quatre Gats).

Perhaps best known now by its iconic Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen poster art, in its heyday it was a bustling nightclub that was part artist salon, part rowdy music hall. The cabaret published its own humorous journal Le Chat Noir, which survived until 1895. 

After the museum, we had a really lovely little lunch and then went shopping - a very dangerous
pastime.  

 

The vines at the bottom
of the museum

A night out in le marais

Last night was fun - about 13 of us headed out for drinks and tapas at a cool little bar in le marais district.  It was a fun place full of people and great live music.  The music did however make it a little difficult to hear and even harder to understand....my french is still a little slow.

Afterwards, we checked out another bar close by for some cocktails -Olly and I then headed home via her local.  The local was heaving with very sweaty and uber cool youngins.  Let's just say, I felt a little old and nowhere near cool enough to be hanging out with the uber cool dj and his "potes".  We headed home shortly afterwards and managed to take about 20 minutes to walk the 100m to the apartment as we were testing out our photography skills.

Fridge Essentials in Paris

I think we have the balance correct.

La pate a choux

100ml water

100ml milk
2g salt
2g sugar
80g soften butter
120g flour
4 eggs

Method

In a saucepan, place water, milk, salt, sugar and butter and bring to the boil.  Remove from heat and add flour - mix.  Return to heat for about 30 seconds to remove the moisture from the mixture.  This can take a bit longer than 30 seconds.  I thought 30 seconds was a little too short.  Remove from heat and add eggs, one at a time.  You need the mixture to be thick, glossy and elastic.  If your flour is old, it is drier and will need the 4th egg, if it is new flour, it may be ok with just 3 eggs. Place in piping bag and pipe to your hearts content.  

Cook at 190 degrees for about 25 mins.  Cooking time does depend on the size of whatever it is you piped.  So, clearly if it is black, you've cooked it for too long and if it still white, not long enough.    

Dessert anyone? Mille feuille framboise pistache

Base
400g puff pastry
icing sugar

La creme pistache
500ml milk
80g egg yolks
25g flour
25g maize
120g sugar
50g pistachio paste
50g butter (room temp)

To ensemble
250g rasberries
pistachios

Method                                                                                                                                                       

Base

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.

Divide the puff pastry into 2 pieces of 200g each and roll to a thickness of 2mm.  Place onto a lined baking tray, cover with cling film and put in the fridge to rest for 1 hour.

Remove from fridge, place another sheet of baking paper on top as well as another tray to weigh it down and place in the oven - cook for 40 minutes.

Remove from oven and remove tray and top layer of baking paper.  While still warm, cut 18 rectangles 5cm x 9cm, dust with icing sugar and return to the oven at 230 degrees until icing sugar has caramelised.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Cuire la creme

Place milk in a saucepan and bring to the boil.  In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolk and sugar until pale and it has thickened slightly, add the maize and flour and then slowly add milk.  Return saucepan to medium heat and stir continuously until the mixture has really thickened (this will happen quite quickly). Remove from heat, pour into a bowl and add the pistachio paste and butter.  Cover with cling film.  It is important that the film is on top of the mixture and it doesn't have any air pockets otherwise a nasty skin will form on the top.  Place in the fridge to cool or until ready to serve.

Once the cream has cooled, remove from fridge and beat until pale and it has thickened. Place cream in piping bag and get ready to decorate.

Pour le montage

Take three rectangles of puff pastry.  On the first rectangle, pipe pretty dollops of cream around the perimeter.  Place a row of raspberries in the middle.  It is important that the cream dollops are higher than the raspberries otherwise the next sheet will not stick.  We did an extra row of cream around the raspberries to help it stick. Do the same on the second rectangle.  Carefully place the second rectangle onto the first.  Dust the third rectangle with some fresh icing sugar and delicately place on top.  Decorate with another raspberry and some crushed pistachios et voila! 

...and more

just to top off the smell, the three of them demolished a bottle of pastis and two massive saucissons.

Off to Paris...

After a lovely few days floating around London I am finally on the train to Paris and enjoying a newly acquired playlist courtesy of Bree.

I have been forewarned by Holly that the weather isn't up to much.  Other than yesterday, the weather has been pretty rubbish and I had been banking on Paris to step it up a notch but clearly that isn't going to happen or at least not this week.  I am not quite sure when and where I am going to get this much desired European tan. 

Everything about the eurostar is pretty cool - everything except of course the particularly pungent smell coming from my neighbour.  I think it is a combination of not showering, drinking too much alcohol and a lot of sweat.  It is really quite foul and all I can do is pray that this train ride is over and done with as quickly as possible.  He is with two other friends and they smell too.  I think they must have been over for a big drinking session.  If I could liken the smell to anything, it would be the carpet in a pub on a Sunday morning after a really big night of footballers celebrating a victory.  This guy really has ruined this romantic idea I had of travelling by train to Paris.  

Notting Hill

Yesterday was a random day indeed. I had a fairly late start, Beck had her life in the UK exam to sit in the morning and I felt like a bit of a sleep in.  Around lunch, I trundled off to the Portobello markets.   I hadn't been before and I was keen to check it out even if it meant doing it by myself.  Beck and Bree weren't keen and I can now understand why.  I found the number of people quite overwhelming and the junk being sold really quite disappointing. So, after a few hours of wandering I went in search of a place to sit down for a while and just relax.  I stumbled across the Elgin pub and while meaning only to have the one beer and catch up on some emails, I had 5 pints, missed dinner with Beck and came home in rather a hilarious state with some very entertaining stories. Needless to say, I am feeling a little under the weather today.  Oops. 

Jet lag nearly conquered...new sim activated...it is time to explore

While it has only been three days, being without internet almost gave me a complex.  Rest assured, I am now back online and ready to start exploring.

Last night, Tim and I morphed into tourists and joined a guided tour of Jack the Ripper.  It was dark, cold and spitting so t'was the perfect setting for a murder mystery tour.  I was actually surprised by the number of people who turned up for the walk.  Some were keen Jack the Ripper enthusiasts which was quite amusing, others, like me, had absolutely no idea about the story and assumed at the end I would be given some more conclusive information about who Jack actually was.  (I left mildly irritated).  The highlight for me however was seeing a different tour guide using a microphone and very loud speaker to talk to his group of three people.  Needless to say our tour guide, with 50+ people, was slightly bemused and checked to see whether we were having any difficultly hearing him.

When is it appropriate to clear your throat?

So I am sitting in the Malaysian Airlines lounge killing time between flights.  My flight has been delayed by three hours which is a bit of a pain as all I want to do at the moment is get on my flight and have a snooze.  And while it is tempting just to curl up in my chair and enjoy a bit of shut eye this is just really not possible as the man sitting several seats away feels the need to clear his throat every few minutes.  As I listen to the phlegm swirl in his throat, I have been thinking to myself - when is it appropriate to clear one's throat in public?  I can understand people needing to clear their throat if they have a bit of a tickle - generally this period of throat clearing only happens for a few minutes and then passes.  This guy on the other hand is relentless and should go see a ear, nose and throat surgeon as I truly believe he has a more serious problem to address.  If by me moving seats was going to solve my discomfort, I would, but unfortunately, this man can be heard from every corner of the lounge.  I think I might just go enjoy a shower for the next hour.  There are no water restrictions in this town.