Happy Sunday Roast to You!

Last Sunday, my husband, Marco, and I had invited his family for lunch. We set the table just formally enough to greet them with all due respect. So we placed cards with our guests' names on them, set up my Fontainebleau-pattern antique soup plates (Porcelaine de Longwy, France), and used part of our silverware to cheer the table! They loved it.
The menu consisted of:
- Impromptu Pumpkin Soup
- Pork roast (stuffed with mushrooms, goat cheese, berries and bacon) from Cumbrae's, cooked in its juice with 2 garlic heads, plum tomatoes and prunes, and served with mashed potatoes & sesame green beans.
- Tartes d'Automne (1 blueberry amandine tart and 1 pear & chocolate chips tart), served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Wine: Côtes-du Rhônes red wine, Antonin Rodet - 2008, is what we had and it worked very well with the main course.

Impromptu Pumpkin Soup: (up to 8 generous servings)

- 2-3 tbsp of safflower (or olive) oil
- 1 yellow onion
- 3 garlic cloves
-500g pumpkin (or butternut squash), peeled and sliced
-1 leek
-1 celery stick + leaves (very tasty!)
-1 carrot
-1 potato
-fine sea salt and ground pepper
-rosemary dried leaves, and three bay leaves
- a pinch of curry powder, cumin and cinnamon (or nutmeg, instead of cinnamon)
-1 tbsp of soy sauce
-1 tbsp of olive oil
-fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves for garnish

Heat the safflower or olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic cloves. After 5 min, once they have softened and toasted a bit, add all the vegetables: pumpkin, leek, carrot, potato and celery. Let the magic work for 10 min or so, all the vegetables will greet each other and fry a bit to look gently golden!
Season to your taste with: pepper and salt, the above-listed spices, rosemary and bay leaves.
Pour in enough water to cover the vegetables. If you prefer, you can replace water by 1.5L of vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer, cover, lower to medium-low, and cook for 20-30 min, until the vegetables are soft.
Let the soup cool down for a few minutes. Purée the soup using an immersion blender, until the soup is smooth with just a few remaining chunks.
Stir in the soy sauce and olive oil (I used Croatian award-winner olive oil, Izbor 2008, from the Meneghetti property, 22 euros per 0,25L bottle: very expensive, but beyond compare with its bitter-sweet flavours!), taste, and adjust the seasoning. Ladle into bowls. Serve with a nice piece of multigrain bread + butter and tapenade spread (black or green olives purée: miam-miam!).

Sorry for the poor presentation of the food on this plate...We were just about to eat, and Marco decided to shoot his plate in no time. It sure looked like a big mess on his plate, but it tasted divine.
Cumbrae's (butcher shop on 481 Church Street) meat is always a delight, you can't go wrong with their products!
Mashed potatoes: based on the recipe I learnt from my mother. You steam the potatoes, put them though a potato ricer and complete the mashing with a spoon adding butter and enough half-half cream to get a firm but unctuous purée. (for an amazing variation of mashed potatoes, see Julia Child's Garlic Mashed Potatoes, p520-521, in Mastering the Art of French Cooking).
Ok, time for desserts now!

On another note, it is in Deseine's insane book (see below), Chocolate, that I found the recipe for a killer crust. Here I give it to you, enjoy!

Chocolate Sweet Crust

To make a tart shell about 11 inches in diameter
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Chilling time: 2 hours

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup less 2 tbspn confectioner's sugar (icing sugar)
1 pinch of salt
1 tbspn cocoa powder
1 3/4 sticks of very cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces.
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten with 1 tbspn water.

Place all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, add the butter, and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. This can also be done in a fodd processor.
Make a well in the center and add the egg yolks and water. Combine using a wooden spoon, then knead by hand to form a ball of dough. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before using.

Trick or treat? TREAT yourself to a video showing Trish Deseine make Chocolate Truffles:
And now I would like to share the Blueberry Amandine Tart with you. It is a recipe taken from Chocolate&Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier. It is very easy, and unmissable!
Mind you, I made the mistake of using an 11-inch tart pan for an amandine mixture that fits a 9-inch pan, hence the tight aspect of the amandine mixture on my tart...You live and you learn!

Blueberry Amandine Tart

Serves 10

100g sugar
100g whole blanched almonds
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
100 g (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs
400g blueberries, fresh or frozen (no need to thaw them if they are frozen)
25g sliced almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 350*F (180*C). Grease a 9/10-inch (25cm) tart pan. Bake the tart shell (Pate Sablée or in this case the Chocolate Sweet Crust, miam-miam!) for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove the pan from the oven (leave the heat on) and transfer to a rack to cool for 10 minutes.
2. Prepare the almond cream: combine the sugar, almonds, and salt in a food processor and mix until finely ground. Add the butter and process until smooth. This can be made up to a day ahead: transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before using.
3. Pour the blueberries in the tart shell, cover evenly with the almond cream, and level the surface with a spatula, working gently to avoid popping the blueberries.
4. Bake for 25 minutes. Take the pan out, sprinkle with sliced almonds, and bake for 15 minutes, or until the almond cream is set and the almonds are golden. Let cool completely and serve. (The tart can be made up to 8 hours ahead, covered with foil, and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before serving.)

And to conclude the menu, here is my creation, invented with the ingredients I had on the spur of the moment...

Pear, Chocolate chips and Almonds Tart

Serves 6
3 pears
2 tbspn of blackberry jam (any other berries jam can do, but organic or homemade, if possible!)
1 tbspn brown sugar
2 egg yolks
1 cup of half-half cream
20g of sliced almonds

1.Preheat the oven to 350*F (180*C). Grease an 8-inch tart pan. Bake the tart shell (Pate Sablée or in this case the Chocolate Sweet Crust) for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove the pan from the oven (leave the heat on) and transfer to a rack to cool for 10 minutes.
2.Prepare the mixture: Mix in a bowl the sugar, egg yolks and the half-half cream.
3.Spread the blackberry jam on the tart shell, display the slivers of pears in a flower pattern and cover evenly with the eggs, sugar+cream mixture.
4. Bake for 25 minutes. Take the pan out, sprinkle with sliced almonds, and bake for 15 minutes, or until the cream is set and the almonds are golden. Let cool completely and serve. (The tart can be made up to 8 hours ahead, covered with foil, and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before serving.)

Bon appétit!