Happy New Decade!

Bonne Année 2010!
Wishing you big smiles aplenty for the new decade!

A beautiful, bountiful Christmas!

Noël 2009, c'est fini!
I will keep a vivid memory of the cheerful carols we sang on Christmas Eve, and of the very gourmet/gourmand Christmas that we spent with our loved ones.
Just for the sake of sharing the joy, here is a sample of what was on our menu for this year's Christmas potluck dinner at home:

***Appetizers***
I'll give you just one that is typical to my hometown:
-Lyons hot sausage with truffles and pistachios, also called "cervelas truffé et pistaché" .
(see picture above)
I was so happy when I received some from my parents in France that I had to serve this special dish for my Canadian Christmas. I served the sausages sliced, and halved topped with a cloud of homemade chutney (date & apricot winter chutney).

Different types of Lyons sausages

Traditionally the hot sausage or 'cervelas' is served with steamed potatoes, or on a bed of lentils (so typical to the cuisine lyonaise). It can also be served in a brioche, it is then called saucisson brioché. Any option is equally tasty!

***The pièce de résistance***
- A 7-kg smoked turkey (a big mama turkey!) with a side of roasted vegetables (chestnuts, butternut squash, small potatoes, rosemary, paprika, onions and garlic), and cranberry sauce.

I'd like to report the fact that, on Christmas Day, I turned a vegetarian into a carnivore with that turkey. Incr-edible!

***Desserts***
-Chocolate Log
-Schwowebredle
-Gingerbread Cake
All 3 from Simone Morgenthaler's Alsatian cookbook-

-Crème Jaune à la Vanille ( a sort of custard cream)
-Chocolate Truffles ( stuffed with roasted almonds!)
-Christmas Shortbread Cookies

It was my first Christmas as a married woman, and I had a beautiful, bountiful Christmas sharing with my in-laws, here in Canada. I felt like a child offering my homemade Christmas presents: orange marmalade, chutney, Christmas cookies and truffles, all wrapped up in hand-made gift bags. But I also felt the intense joy of receiving in front of so many generous earthly presents! I enjoyed every moment before, during and after the party. Perhaps like me, you too enjoyed that special moment when, once the guests have left, all snug in your slippers, you start to clean the place a bit, shove the colourful wrapping papers in the recycling bin, pack and store the leftovers in the fridge, and eventually pause in awe in front of all these wonderful memories and gifts that you collected over the day (See post on my other blog Christine Rochet-Jacob) !
One of the greatest gifts that we received came from my mother-in-law who is a great supporter of my culinary experiments. Ohlala! Quelle folie! She offered my husband and I a master Vita-Mix juicer-blender! Look at the beast...

I have read the instructions, and gone through the DVD with the Getting Started recipes. I feel ready to try my first Vita-Mix juices in a couple of days, i.e on New Year's Day. Fresh juice will sure help us cleanse the body from all the toxins accumulated over the holiday season, and start the new decade with a lot of vitamins and a lot of bravado! Yes. Let's get ready for a healthy detoxifying diet come January!
Now before we part, allow me to leave you for this year 2009 on a double-bill happy note!
For your viewing pleasure, I recommend you watch...

A Chef in Love (Les mille et une recettes du cuisinier amoureux)

Dir: Nana Dzhordzadze/Cast: Pierre Richard, Nino Kirtadze, Timur Kamkhadze, Micheline Presle, Jean-Yves Gautier/ Language: French and Russian with English Subtitles/ 1996/ 100 mins

This film tastes like a fairy tale about a bigger-than-life French tenor/gigolo/Chef. The title character of A Chef In Love is indeed a Frenchman with equal passions for his restaurant and his lover.
As cinematic banquets go, I enjoyed A Chef in Love ( I love Pierre Richard, and Micheline Presle, whom we hardly see, unfortunately...) but I must confess it left me somehow unsatisfied as parts of the plot was left unresolved. It tickled my appetite but...- je suis restée sur ma faim!
I therefore went for an extra serving of ''Babette's Feast''(Ahhhh!Ohhh!Wow!), and invite you to do the same!

Babette's Feast

Savour the last moments of 2009!

Merry Christmas! ** Joyeux Noël!

Running short of cookies in the jar?
Here is an easy and quick way to fix it with Nigella's good tips!

Wishing you a very merry Christmas!

"This Xmas, let us give each other a hand!" - Season's greetings by Cédric Roulliat

Now, don't forget to also check out my other blog, Christine Rochet-Jacob. You will find another gift under the Christmas tree...

Tea time with Laura Calder

Recently, I met Laura Calder, a vibrant author turned chef and expert in French cuisine after several years spent in France (Paris, and Burgundy). For our second meeting, she had kindly invited me to her place for tea. I was not expecting anything in particular, but two elements I thought I would find at Laura's place were elegance and humour. I was not disappointed! What a treat for the eye, ...and the mouth! She is a real pleasure to share anecdotes and deeper reflections with. She is obviously knowledgeable in the cooking field but she is also effervescent and reaches out to many a subject that catches her attention, and on this point we really get on well...

Check out her shows and browse her recipes on the Food Network, you won't regret it!


I also recommend that you read her interview with Gremolata for more details.
Now, as she has just moved back to Canada, Toronto in particular (great choice!), she is still sharing her continental expertise in her shows for the Food Network, and working on new projects that take into account her newly regained Canadian lifestyle. But "motus et bouche cousue", her projects are confidential...

Laura is a wonderful hostess, indeed! And to prove it, let me show you the pictures I took at her place while sipping a delicious black tea, regularly shipped by her parents in New Brunswick, and savouring a tasty banana cake. Laura was not too happy with that cake recipe that she had just tested... She actually found it boring - well, even if I see what she means, I still enjoyed it a lot. For a failure, it was quite a success!

On a large windowsill in the living room, white candles, holly and pine boughs are displayed to fill the air with their delicate holiday fragrance.

This decorative deer was offered to her as a joke by a friend, to welcome her back to Canada. I found it very appropriate to the setting!

Beautiful arrangement of roses and a cedar-fragranced candle; even unlit, this candle was exhuming its subtle notes of cedar wood from the table...

I loved this eclectic corner on the couch: there is humour in the quirky cushion, adventure with A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (I am curious, I'll have to ask her for that read!) and high-brow literature with the New Yorker.

In this antique mirror that she had revamped, one can see the reflection of her kitchen, where the magic happens!Ciao, bella Laura. Au revoir, and thank you so much for that beautiful tea time! I enjoyed every minute we shared together. Our next meeting should see us celebrate the new year with a couple of friends.

But I do not forget that she also asked me to take her on a shopping expedition. I will suggest that we invite my husband and his twin brother as style experts to guide us through our journey. That might well be the subject of a new post on my other blog, Christine Rochet-Jacob. To be continued in 2010...

Wishing you all a lot of friendly tea times for the holiday season!

'Tis the Season around the World

Mon cher Coco,

Eh oui...'tis the season! Just like me, I bet you too are finalizing the last preparations for the day, or days, or week of festive gatherings. My husband and I will be hosting this year's family Christmas dinner party, and we expect about 15 people to share their appetite and joy with us! While deciding on the last hors d'oeuvres to insert in my menu, I found this 1960s ad that put a big smile on my face. But, no. It would be too far a stretch from my ideal gourmet banquet...
No frozen banquet dinner for this Xmas! Instead, I am planning to complete my Christmas shopping with the purchase of a very traditional turkey. I saw big healthy birds at Toronto's St Lawrence food Market the other day, and I am going to get one tomorrow - before they all vanish into thin air, so to say.

Bouquets of carrots and roots at Toronto's St Lawrence Market, December 2009. My photo.

But what about you? I wonder where in the world your nearest market can be? Do you have any traditional ritual for Christmas?

Oh, but a wait a minute, talking of Christmas and Markets makes me think of Christmas markets! I will grant you the point that they sometimes can be irritatingly cheesy and overcrowded, but aren't they most of the time a good occasion to share the festive spirit with your loved ones?

Here is a selection of some of the Christmas markets that one can find around the world.

Strasbourg, France: More than 400 years in operation, the Christkindelsmärik is the largest Christmas market in France with a fantastic location on the Place Broglie, in front of Strasbourg Cathedral.

I went twice to this market, and enjoyed the experience to the full, munching on freshly made pretzels or sipping from a cup of mulled wine to defeat the cold. Christmas in Alsace is quite special!

Berlin: Ah, booming Berlin, what a swell swinging city! More than 60 markets are held each year throughout the city, including one in front of Charlottenburg Castle with carriage rides and theme exhibits in the palace that was built in the 17th and 18th centuries.
In the Gendarmenmarkt square, a classic Christmas market is held in December.
Cusco, Peru: Held Christmas Eve on Cusco's spacious Plaza de Armas, the market includes dozens of stalls selling craft items, especially clay nativity scene figurines as well as candies and other delicious edibles...On Christmas day, you can also attend the parade, which starts when the Christmas day mass in the Cathedral ends. The congregation bursts out intermingled with groups of dancers, accompanied by singing, drumming, whistling and chanting. I am most particularly attracted to this Christmas tradition..but my husband is Peruvian, this might explain that.

How would you like to spend Christmas day in Cusco, ancient city of the Incas? Watching a show of colourful dancers in the main square, and get in the festive spirit

Mexico City: Two of the traditional Christmas markets in this vast capital are centrally located. The Grand Bazaar Navideno of the Colonia Del Valle at the Lazaro Cardenas Market sells tree decorations made from tin, papier-mâché and wood as well as candles and figurines of every description. Another good bet is the one mounted around the Coyoacan Market.

Dolls for sale in the Coyoacan market

Chicago: The largest Christmas market in the United-States. Chicago's was inspired by Nuremberg's Christkindlesmarkt and is located dowtown Daley Plaza. Attracting more than a million visitors every year, the market is dominated by a large illuminated Christmas tree.

Umm, yes...this is in Chicago!

Krakow: Centred in Krakow's Rynek Glowny Square, the holiday market offers oplatek (Nativity-printed wafers), Polish honey cake, amber pieces, Bohemian glass, fur slippers and silver jewellery among other items.
Do you live near one of these markets? Have you ever attended one? Don't hesitate to leave your comments on the subject!

Source for this post: Article by John Fitzgerald, published in The Toronto Star on Thursday, November 19, 2009.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas Market time!

Schwowebredle, Alsatian Christmas cookies

Here are my little almond and orange candied peel Christmas cookies. If you too decide to bake a batch, you won't regret it - believe me!
Taken from Simone Morgenthaler's Recettes de Noël, Traditions d'Alsace. The recipe is in French. If you can't decipher it in French, ask me for a translation. It will be my pleasure to fix it for you.

Petits Gâteaux Souabes
-Schwowebredle-

Pour 900 g environ Pâte
. 200 g de sucre semoule
. 200 g de beurre
. 2 oeufs
. 275 g de farine
. 275 g d'amandes en poudre
. 75 g d'écorces d'orange confite finement hachée
. 2 c. à café de cannelle
. 1 pincée de sel
. 2,5 cl de kirsch (ou de Grand-Marnier, ma suggestion!)

Dorure
. 1 jaune d'oeuf
. 1 c. à soupe de crème fraîche

Travaillez le beurre en pommade avec le sucre jusqu'à consistance très crémeuse. Ajoutez les deux oeufs entiers, mélangez bien puis incorporez la farine, les amandes, les écorces d'orange confites, la cannelle, le sel fin et la liqueur pour parfumer. Travaillez ce mélange à la main, énergiquement, afin d'obtenir une pâte bien consistante. Enveloppez-la dans du papier film et mettez au frais pendant une nuit.

Le lendemain, étalez au fur et à mesure des portions de pâte sur une épaisseur de 3 à 4 mm. Il ne faut pas que la pâte se réchauffe sinon elle se déatche très difficilement. (Mon conseil: Replacez la pâte au réfrigirateur entre plusieurs fournées)
Découpez à l'emporte-piéce (cutters) des motifs variés, selon votre envie...Disposez-les sur une plaque beurrée. Badigeonnez-les avec la dorure.
Faites cuire à four moyen à 180*C (350*F) pendant 10 à 15 mn.
Détachez-les à l'aide d'une spatule et laissez-les refroidir sur une grille.

Et pour citer Simone avant de se quitter: "Les Schwowebredle se laissent croquer à toute heure du jour et...de la nuit. En Alsace, on aime les déguster avant la messe de minuit avec un verre de vin chaud."

...................Voilà!..................

These bredle are fun to prepare alone, or with your loved ones. The younger ones will particularly enjoy cutting the varied shapes off the dough. Magic! You can bake the bredle now and seal them in a tin box and store them in a dry, cool closet or in the fridge.

Happy baking holiday to all!

City of Craft...day and night!

Plants you can't kill by Shannon Gerard

Last weekend I went to The City of Craft. Toronto's celebration of all things handmade. Of course, Mon cher Coco had to be there!

My attention was caught by a few amazing booths: Lines by: davis., The Devil's Workshop (last July my husband and I took a jewellery lesson with them to make our wedding bands),Damned Dollies, Kid Icarus prints, and one of my favourites: Plants that you can't kill by Shannon Gerard- the fastest crocheting I've ever seen!

But, I must admit that at the end of the day, it was a bit too crafty for me...Too many buttons, sock monkeys, screen printed T-shirts, hemp bags or tea towels. After a few hours at the fair, we left and as we were walking on Queen Street west, I suddenly stopped - I could not help but laugh my heart out. Look at that!

The Knit Café is a really neat place to hang out, for sure...and this crocheted skeleton in the window will not contradict me. I agree that the subject might look a bit grim, but it is so hilariously unexpected for a Xmas window decoration. I love these girls! It makes me feel like learning how to knit properly with them...
Once we were back from this day out full of crafty discoveries, we got ourselves ready to attend a very stylish Christmas party, thrown by Deryck, photographer, and Sioban, visual merchandiser and stylist. My husband and his twin brother had agreed on d-jaying the party for the night.
As soon as we entered the place, I was blown away! The Xmas decoration was breathtaking and so inspirational. But I'd better let you judge by yourselves...

So what do you think...Thumbs up?

The Jacob Twins (Miguel and Marco) off the hook, rocking the dance floor! Thank you guys. We had a great time dancing.

This Saturday, day and night, felt like a real Xmas treat! It left me with the imperceptible, and delicate aftertastes of a scrumptious pain au chocolat - which actually reminds me that Sioban has recently experimented a crazy pain au chocolat recipe... Hum, I wish she would use me as a guinea pig for her next batch! Hey Sioban, whatever the pain it causes you, I will support your effort, and just so you know I am ready to come and taste any pains that you bake. ;0)

A ladle of mulled wine and a handful of festive spirit: that's Coco & Co. !

No Christmas tree this year. I opted for alternative Xmas decorations at home.

Last week, my husband and I hosted 5 friends for our second Coco & Co. special Christmas gift party. The party started at 3 P.M Saturday afternoon and ended at 4 A.M on Sunday morning...Cooking and baking took us about 4 hours, and the rest was just dedicated to sharing a good time together, around the dining table, then in front of a film: Thank you for Smoking, and eventually, talking and exchanging views until dawn.
We had agreed on making enough winter chutney to fill up 12 jars, and on baking 4 gingerbread cakes: one for each invited couple to take back home, plus one for our dinner party!
While we were getting ready to start with the chutney, my husband started playing some Brazilian bossa nova by Sergio Mendes, some French groovy music by Jean-Pierre Massiera: Psychoses, discoïd (1976-1981)...

... followed by Alexander Robotnick's Krypta 1982, The Flying Lizards, Bananarama, and Spandau Ballet, to name but a few...As for Daniel, he had concocted a special CD full of Xmas songs to cheer us up!
The Chutney was based on my winter chutney recipe, we just replaced the prunes with dates for that special batch of the day. Well, more precisely, the nuts and fruit ingredients were : dates, apricots, currants, pine nuts, walnuts and the magic touch: a ladle of ...mulled wine that Daniel prepared on the stove all afternoon long. Hum, delicious spicy mulled wine, we loved you! I just had one cup of it, when the others could refill at leisure. Such is life! I was kind of 'driving' the cooking session, so I had to stay sober.

Our Coco&Co. Date & Apricot Winter Chutney : delicious with a slice of slightly fried foie gras...

Now as for our gingerbread cake recipe, I was really happy to share my love for this traditional, Alsatian spicy Christmas loaf with my friends.
Alsace is indeed very proud of their pain d'épices and you can even find a museum dedicated to this cake in the tiny village of Gertwiller.

Illustration by Hansi, the pseudonym of the Alsatian artist Jean Jacques Waltz .

The traditional recipe for pain d'épices calls for making a pâte-mère (mother dough) by mixing honey and flour (often a combination of all-purpose and rye flours) and letting it sit for a long time, sometimes even several months. The lack of water and preserving qualities of the sugar in the honey creates an environment where germs cannot proliferate. After this aging, other ingredients are added to produce different sorts of cakes.

Traditionally pain d'épices did not contain milk or butter, making it a very low fat treat. However the spice cake recipe you find here below contains butter and eggs and does not use the pâte-mère technique, making it a practical and popular alternative for home cooks of today. It is taken from the reference cookbook: Décors et Recettes de Noël by Simone Morgenthaler.

Pain aux épices- Spice cake// Lebküeche (in Alsatian)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans of 22cm

Dough:
.350 g all-purpose flour
.200 g rye flour
.2 pinches of salt
.10 g of baking powder
.15 g ground cinnamon
.5 g groudn ginger
. 4 g ground anise
. 2 g ground cloves
.2 g ground cardamom
.2 g grated nutmeg
.500 g of pine tree honey
.200 g of golden yellow sugar or muscovado sugar
.200 g butter + 20 g for the pans
. 4 eggs
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped candied orange rinds, roughly chopped

Sift the flours with the sugar, baking powder, spices and salt into a large mixing bowl. Form a well in the middle.
In a medium pan, melt the butter and honey together on very low heat.
Beat the eggs with a fork in a separate bowl. Then add the sugar and the eggs to the mixture, pour in the middle of the well,and start stirring very gently with a wooden spoon.
Mix until well blended. The dough will be stiff and sticky.
Mix in the candied orange peel if you are using it.
Spread dough into the prepared pans (you may need to push on it a bit to get it to fill into the corners).
Optional: Pour les gourmands! Top each pan with orange marmalade and press gently.
Bake for 30 min at 350F, then lower the heat to 300F for another 20 min.
Cool cake thoroughly and cover in plastic wrap to store.

Note: Most people agree that honey spice cake tastes better after it has aged a bit and some will even wait several days before eating it. Wrapped in plastic wrap you can save it at room temperature or in the refrigerator. It also freezes very well.

Spice Cake Serving Suggestions

You will probably enjoy slices of this spice cake recipe just as it is, at tea time or even for breakfast. However, the French like to use pain d'épices in many different preparations. Here are a few ideas:

• Slice and toast, then serve with butter and orange marmalade or lemon curd spread.
• Slice and toast, then serve with savory toppings, such as foie gras (a must!) and cheese - try Roquefort or goat cheese ;)
• Or use this cake to make other desserts where bread is called for. Perhaps to line a charlotte or top a crumble.

Below are our Coco&Co. goodies: winter chutney and spice cakes. I had prepared a bag full of ribbons, raffia string, kraft paper, tags and our special Coco&Co. labels (graphic design by Marco Jacob) created for the occasion. We had a lot of fun wrapping up our gifts for Christmas!

We will keep an excellent memory of this cooking session! The participants' warmth and festive spirit, plus the unpredictable effects of mulled wine turned it all into a memorable get-together party. There must have been some wine in that wine, as Marco said...

Bravo Coco & Co.!