Eton Mess my way

Eton Mess, for the non-Brits some more explanation. This desert normally consists of a mixture of strawberries, pieces of meringue and cream. All the students at Eton College eat this dish after the annual cricket game against students of Winchester College. Throughout the years the recipe has been changed slightly and here was my version of yesterday's Eton Mess.

Shopping list:

Eton Mess with cherries

Cherries or other red fruit (or a mixture of raspberries, black currant, red berries...)
Cream (in my area you cannot get double cream -slagroom- so I use fresh crème d'entière)
Sugar
Meringues (home made or bought at the baker's)
Chocolate sticks

Make sure when you use cherries to remove the stones.
Mix the cream with sugar, until the the texture is firm (you can put it away in the fridge until needed)
Break the meringues to pieces.

Actually you make some layers of fruit, cream and meringues.

In yesterday's Eton Mess I have used cherries from our own tree. I had frozen the cherries and the result was better than I thought it would be.

The picture tells the story.

French Onion Soup

Tonight for dinner I just fancied some hot soup and I decided to make a French onion soup. I do remember that I have made it ages ago and that it didn't taste that much of onion soup, but more experienced and wiser I gave it another go.

For 3-4 persons (depends about size of your soup bowls)

Shopping list
3 White onions
2 Cloves of garlic
Chicken stock (from cube) 600 ml
Sugar
Dry white wine
Butter
Cheese (grated)
(French) bread
Cognac (optional)

Cut the onions roughly.
Take a large sauce pan and put +/- 25 gr. non salted butter until melted
Then put the onions in together with 1 table spoon of sugar
Stir and simmer for 10 minutes until they get a nice brownish colour
Peel and cut the garlic and add to the onions
Then and I'm sure you like that one, pour half a glass of white wine
and 600 ml of stock. Bring it to the boil.
Lower the heat, put the lit on and let it cook for another 15-20 minutes or until onions are soft.
Switch on the grill for the last bit of your soup.
After the soup is ready, you can -optionally- add a little drop of cognac.
I didn't add any salt and pepper in mine.
Then pour the soup in a oven/grill proof bowl, add a piece of french bread or toast,
some grated cheese and put it for a very short while in the grill. Keep on looking....
until brown/melted.

As you can see I didn't put my bowl of soup under the grill because our grill isn't really
that good, so I used the oven which explained the melted cheese but not brown coloured.

Bon appetit!

Salmon sauce

This is a dish that is nice all year long; easy, and all ingredients can be bought all year round as well.
It's a sauce for 4 persons

Too big for this recipe :-)

Shopping list
3 shallots
200 gr salmon filet (no bones)
100 gr smoked salmon (if you buy it in little cuts pre-packed it's much cheaper)
1 small glass dry white wine (according to taste)
1/2 teaspoon saffron powder (for the colour)
100 gr mascarpone*
3 tablespoons cut chives
125 gr mushrooms

* You can change this into blue cheese or mon chou, then add 1/4 litre cream.
You can also add some pieces of sun-dried tomatoes, from the jar.
If you don't like mushrooms, then leave them out.



If you have chosen to use the mushrooms in this dish, then clean (with kitchen towel), cut them and fry them first.

Peel and cut the shallots.
Cut the salmon in small pieces
Put in a sauce pan the wine with the shallots and saffron to boil till the quantity is reduced to 1/4.
Add the mascarpone (or the other cheese with the cream, sun-dried tomatoes)
Stir and bring it to boil again and let it gentle heat for 10 minutes.
Add the salmon and heat all for another 2 minutes.
Salt and pepper according to taste.
Finally add the chives

Nice to serve this sauce with pasta, especially penne or tagliatelle.

Bon appetit

Mushrooms

I can't say that I am getting over-excited by white mushrooms, however, if you mix them with some other sorts, a new starter (or lunch) has born.

For 2 persons:

Shopping list
White mushrooms
Chestnut mushrooms (kastanje)
Chanterelles mushrooms (cantharellen)
Porcini or Cep mushrooms (Eekhoorntjesbrood)
1 Shallot
100 Gr. Blue Cheese* (Gorgonzola, Roquefort, Danish Blue)
White bread for toast
Olive Oil

Chanterelles

Chestnut

Porcini/Cep

* Why don't you use Stilton...I bet somebody gave you some for Christmas!

If you have the chance to get the mushrooms from the green grocers, just ask for a hand full of each, 3 sorts will do the job perfectly.


Cut the mushrooms to an eatable size.
Cut the shallot, but not too small.

Put some olive oil in the frying pan until hot.
Add the shallot and mushrooms and keep stirring
When almost ready, put the blue cheese over the mushrooms and let half of the cheese melt a bit, but make sure you will still see some of the cheese so it's not going to turn into a cheese sauce.

Toast some white bread and serve it separately.

Enjoy this tasty and quik starter.