Posts from — October 2007

Ingredients for two portions

• 500 g. of chicken breast
• sesame
• 2 eggs
• vegetable oil
• salt, pepper

Cooking Steps:

• Cut the chicken breast in strips. Salt and pepper them.
• Put the sesame on a plate and mix it with the scrambled eggs.
• Roll the strips through the sesame.
• Put the chicken-sesame strips in boiled oil and turn them to be fried on both sides.

Serve hot, with fried potatoes and green salad.

Ingredients for two persons:

• 500 g. of chicken hearts and gizzards
• 1 garlic
• 100 g. of milk
• 100 g. of flour
• vegetable oil
• salt

How To Cook It:

• Grate the garlic. Salt it.
• Boil the chicken hearts and gizzards, at a medium temperature, for 10 min., and throw away the water.
• Continue to boil them in clean boiling water until they are ready. Keep the remaining water.
• Put the garlic in the vegetable oil, at a medium temperature, for 2 min. Add 10 spoons from the remaining water.
• Warm up the milk.
• Add 1 spoon with flour. Stir. Add 5 spoons from the remaining water. Stir.
• Add 1 spoon with flour. Stir. Add enough milk for the flour not to stick. Stir.
• Repeat until you finish the flour.
• Put the boiled chicken hearts and gizzards. Stir for 2 min.
• Leave it for five minutes in the pan before eating.

Ingredients for two persons

• 1 cauliflower
• 2 eggs
• 1 lemon
• dried crust
• oil
• pepper, salt

Cooking:

• Detach the cauliflower’s bouquets.
• Boil them up to the point when they are ready to be eaten, but not too soft. Put them on a plate to chill up. Add the salt and pepper.
• Take each cauliflower’s bouquet and cover it with dried crust.
• Lubricate it with the eggs.
• Put it in boiled oil and turn it to be fried on each side.
• Put them on a plate and pour the lemon juice.

Tip from the chef:

The same recipe can be done with garlic sauce instead of lemon.

Ingredients for two portions:

• 300 g. of chicken liver
• 400 g. of long sliced bacon
• vegetable oil
• salt, pepper

Cooking process

• Boil the chicken liver. Salt it and leave it to chill up.
• Put each chicken liver on a slice of bacon and roll it.
• Keep them together with one tooth-pick at each end.
• Put it in boiling oil and turn it to be fried on both sides.

Serve them with pilaff or with mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

• 2 celery roots
• 3 eggs
• dried crust
• vegetable oil
• salt

Cooking Process

• Cut the celery in slices and boil them up to the point when they are ready to be eaten, but not too soft.
• Put them on a plate to chill up. Add the salt.
• Sift the dried crust on a plate.
• Take each slice of celery and fill it with dried crust.
• Lubricate it with the eggs.
• Put it in boiling oil and turn it to be fried on both sides.

Serve hot.

Ingredients

• 500 g. of big mushrooms
• 100g. of parmesan
• 100g. of smoked bacon
• olive oil
• pepper, salt

Cooking Process

• Peal off the mushroom skin; take their tail ends, cut them in small cubes.
• Stuff the mushrooms with the tail ends, put them on a tray with a little bit of water and olive oil and put it in the oven, at a medium temperature, for 20 min.
• Grate the parmesan and mix it with the smoked bacon cut in cubes, with the salt and pepper.
• Put them on top of each mushroom and leave them in the oven for 10 min.

Serve hot. It’s so easy to prepare, that all you’ll have to do is wait for the dinner party gifts from your guests.

Ingredients for two persons

• 400 g. of pasta
• 200 g of red bell peppers
• 2 medium onions
• 300 g of pork and cow minced meat
• 4 big tomatoes
• 150 g. of mushrooms
• olive oil
• pepper, oregano, salt

Cooking Process

• Boil the pasta; take them up and rinse with cold water.
• Boil the meat and throw out the remaining water.
• Cut the onions, the tomatoes, the mushrooms and the bell peppers in cubes.
• Put them in olive oil with 100 g. of water and stir for 5 min. at a medium temperature; add the ready cooked meat, the spices, and stir for another 5 min. at the same temperature.
• Mix together the pasta with the composition and stir for 2 min.

Serve hot. Ideally, you would want to use one of those delicious pasta sauce recipes to make a sauce for your dish, but you can very well do with an inexpensive bottle of ketchup or some spicy salsa.

Ingredients for two persons

• 1 cauliflower
• 300 g. of cheese: goat or cow
• 150 g. sour cream
• 2 eggs
• pepper, oregano, salt

How To Cook The Cauliflower Souffle

• Detach the cauliflower’s bouquets.
• Boil them up to the point when they are ready to be eaten, but not too soft.
• Mix up the cheese with the eggs, the cream, the pepper, the oregano and the salt.
• Take a Jena vessel; put a little bit of oil and the ready cooked cauliflower. Pour the mixture on top of it.
• Leave it in the oven, at a medium temperature, for 20 min.

Special note from the cook:

The same recipe can be done with vegetable marrow instead of the cauliflower. The vegetable marrow should be cut in medium cubes.

Looking for French food?

The best eating experience I had in Paris happened in Le Balzac Restaurant, placed near Arc de Triomphe, on 29, avenue de Friedland, 75008. The “escalope de saumon” you will find there is beyond description. And not just for salmon’s persons. Looking at the table opposite mine, I’ve noticed a couple who shared the same dish I had, after the man almost finished the stake with potatoes he ordered. He cleaned with bread his partner’s plate with “escalope de saumon”. And, believe me, all the portions are big.

Not to be missed is Hippopotamus Restaurant grill, on 80, Ave. General Leclerc, 75014. Try the “foie gras” with “tartare tomate”.

If you are in the mood for oysters, make sure you find Huitres et Saumons de Passy Restaurant, on 17, rue de l’Annonciation, 75016. If you want your oysters cooked, you have to call two days before to order, at the telephone number: 01 42 88 19 64.

At almost each corner of the street you can find the big sandwiches with smoked salmon. Cheep and good.

From the Patisserie, it is interesting to try all kind of fruitcakes, the famous French Cheese cake. However, I never managed to find a place to prepare that tasty banana bread recipe my mother used to bake for us when we were children.

The Spanish restaurants are authentic. If you like this kind of food, go and eat.

To be avoided:

• Le Carolus Bar a Biere, 130ter, Bd de Clichy, 75018. The “formula Carolus” is not the formula you wish for yourselves. If the fly in the drink is your thing, ask for “Kir Sauvignon”. All this, in a day you are willing to wait for half an hour for your order to be taken and other half to be served.
• In an Italian restaurant I ordered lasagna and, for 20 Euro, I got a frozen one, reheated, you can buy at the supermarket with 4 Euro. May not be the same story everywhere.
• Food from the menu without translation. You will probably get sausages instead. It is easier to boil than to cook.
• The French pizza served in Brasseries.

Are you an average income person? Do you feel like buying clothes in the famous Paris? If your answers are yes, at both questions, I will share with you my experience in the beautiful capital of France.

Few days before the end of the trip, I bought a ticket for a show at the theatre. It was a spontaneous act and I was unprepared for it, meaning the clothes I had in my luggage were good for walks in rainy winter days: mountain boots, sweaters…

My first stop was La Fayette Gallery, were even the sport ware clothes are so expensive that I decided to visit the shop like a museum. Time well spent. Wonderful cupola, nice view from the terrace at the top.
After that, I tried on some garments at the shops in the area. Still expensive.

The best idea that came into my mind was to find a small shop on a narrow street, nearby, with prices I could afford. And I found it, on 40, rue St Anne – 75002. The shop’s name is Camille SARL, 75 Paris.

Do not go there!

You may find (depending on their schedule) an apparently honest middle-aged lady, who doesn’t know English but is willing to try to understand a poor French if you show up as a customer. Her ability of understanding is directly related to the amount of money she can steal from you.

During the time I tried the outfits, she seemed to understand well enough my not so good French. The problems appeared when it came to the payment. She told me an amount of money I found to be way too much for the clothes I bought: 453 Euro. I expressed my confusion and asked the lady to please give me the price tags she ripped off from the garments, to see them. She said that is not possible, those should stay at the shop. Just to see them, I insisted. The woman took and put them in a notebook.

Very soon, I started to feel sick, to have speeding head, the calcium went down, and the hands started to tremble. I think (my French is not good) that she explained to me that something is wrong with the cashier machine and she is not able to give me a receipt. I said “OK, than give my in your hand writing (I was showing with the right hand, in case she didn’t understand) the price of each garment.” She had a problem with this as well. She kept saying that is “bon Marché” (a good deal) and that when I will return to my country I will be proud to show off with clothes from Paris. Nonsense. “That is not something to be proud of” I replayed. It seemed like she didn’t bother at all.

I paid 153.90 Euro with the credit card and the rest with cash. Leaving the shop, I entered in the first pharmacy to buy Calcium with magnesium.

Returning to my country, I noticed that the blouse had a float and it was knotted.

If you didn’t take my advice and you find the shop, send my regards to the crook.