Guaca-truc - Guaca-thing

Bon, je savais que c'était risqué, des avocats sur notre marché, en ce moment... c'est pas l'idéal on va dire. J'ai fait le pari de les prendre pas mûrs et d'utiliser le voisinage de pommes pour pallier à cet inconvénient. Ben laissez-moi vous dire que ça marche vraiment mieux avec les bananes. Une semaine après, les avocats étaient toujours aussi verts et aussi durs, mais avec un goût qui lui commençait à tourner vers le un peu trop mûr. Bref, pas fameux.

Consulté en urgence, mon blender a accepté de s'en charger, mais quand même, ce n'était pas assez bon pour des avocats, même à guacamole. D'un autre côté, j'avais des tomates qui criaient. Et puis quelques épices et aromates, il faut bien.

I knew it was a bit risky, buying avocados at our local (cheap) market this time of the year... let's say it isn't ideal. I took a gamble and hoped the unripe  avocados would ripen next to the apples. Turns out bananas are better at this job. One week after I brought them home, the poor sad avocados were as green and hard as ever, but starting to develop a slight overripe taste.

Not daring to turn them into a regular guacamole, I took out the blender, some also overripe roma tomatoes that were lingering in the pantry, and my spice rack - because honestly, what would I do without it ?

Guaca-truc - Guaca-thing

3 avocats - 3 avocados

3 tomates roma bien mûres - 3 Roma tomatoes

1 gousse d'ail - 1 garlic clove

1 cac de tamari - 1 teasp tamari

1 cac de vinaigre de cidre - 1teasp cider vinegar

2 pincées de sel - 2 pinches of salt

1/2 cac de baies roses - 1 teasp pink peppercorn

Lavez les tomates, pelez l'ail, coupez le tout en gros dés et passez au blender... et voilà ! Une petite entrée, à consommer en dip ou sur un peu de pain frais. Et mes avocats ont été sauvés !

Wash the tomatoes, peal the garlic glove, roughly dice everything and blend with the spices and liquids...  And... that's it ! It's probably one of the easiest and fastest recipes Iever made, and my avocados did turn out great !

Bête comme Quiche

C'est un classique familial. Chez nous, on l'appelle "quiche Catherine", souvenir d'une Catherine depuis longtemps perdue de vue, qui est je suppose à l'origine de la recette. C'est la plat parfait pour une entrée ou un plat unique quand on est à la bourre, en panne d'imagination, ou avec de petits restes.

This recipe is a family classic. We use to call it "quiche Catherine", after a Catherine we've long lost contact with. It's a really simple, really basic dish, it can be either an entrée or a main course, it's perfect for a tired weekday evening as well as for using up those small leftovers in the fridge.

Quiche Catherine

5 oeufs - 5 eggs

3 petits verres de lait d'avoine - 3 cups oat milk

3 grosses cuillères à soupe de farine - 3 (large) tblsp all-purpose flour

1 paquet de lardons - a few bacon slices

1 poivron vert - 1 green bell pepper

1 poivron rouge - 1 red bell pepper

1 oignon - 1 onion

Préchauffez votre four à 180°C.
Dans une poêle,  faites revenir les lardons. Ajoutez très rapidement les oignons émincés et les poivrons coupés en petits cubes. Laissez dorer les lardons et fondre l'oignon.
Pendant ce temps, battez dans une jatte les oeufs avec la farine. Ajoutez doucement (sinon ça va faire des grumeaux) le lait d'avoine.
Graissez un poule à tarte, étalez dedans la garniture, puis versez la pâte par-dessus.
Enfourner 30 à 40 minutes, jusqu'à ce que le dessus commence à dorer.

Preheat your oven at 360°F.
Cut the bacon slices in smallish bits, put them in a hot pan, adding the minced onion and diced peppers as soon as there's a little grease in the pan. Cook until the bacon is golden and the onion soft.
In a mixing bowl beat the whole eggs with the flour, slowly add the oat milk.
Grease your mold (the flatter the mold, the better), transfer the bacon and vegetables into it. Pour the batter over them.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes - until the top gets slightly golden.

Ce qu'il y a de merveilleux avec les quiches, c'est qu'on peut les faire à tout. Un reste de courgettes sautées ? Du saumon fumé ? Des épinards ? Un bout de fromage un peu trop "caractériel" ? Ca y va !
Ce qu'il y a de merveilleux avec ce plat, c'est qu'on n'a même pas besoin de faire de pâte (mais riend ne vous empêche d'en faire une, ou de prendre un pâte feuilletée du commerce, c'est bon aussi), du coup, c'est vraiment très, très rapide à préparer.

Now the great thing aoubt quiche is that you can just put about anything into it. Leftover sautéed zucchinis ? smoked salmon ? Spinach ? Goat cheese ? It all goes in !
And the other great thing about this one it you don't even have to make a proper pie crust - of course, you can make one, it you really want to, or use a ready-made puff pastry dough, it works really well, too.

Baking week-end

There was a bit of a baking orgy this week-end. We spent Saturday and Sunday with my parents and ended up with three cakes for four persons. My Mom baked a candied fruit cake, my husband turned the way-too-early strawberries into a yummy strawberry tart, and I made a gâteau d'Aunis - because I was out of bread and hungry. Then after we went home on Sunday evening, dinner consisted of an onion tart (and some leftover rice).

The onion tart is one of those recipe that I have stored in the back of my head and don't need to look at my recipe files to make. No precise measuring, not too many ingredients - that's good in my book ! The only real difficulty is surviving the onions without weeping yourself to death. I do have a secret weapon : safety goggles. The kind you find at the hardware store for dealing with plaster or other stuff you don't want to get into your eyes. A friend of mine uses diving goggles.

Onion tart

1 pastry dough

10 onions

2 tablespoons mustard

7 oz (one small package) almond cream

1 egg

2 tablespoons flour

oil

1 big glass of dry white wine (optional)

Roll out your dough over a floured surface, grease a tart mold (I used a large, not very high one, but you can also use one that is smaller but higher, it doesn't really matter), place the dough in it.

Peel and thinly slice the onions (with the goggles on ;) ). Heat a good glob of oil in a large pan, once it's hot add the onions and cook them, stirring regularly, until they're very tender. This time I had some white whine leftover in the fridge, so I added it to the pan at the end and let it evaporate.

Pour the onions into a large bowl,  add the cream, the flour, the mustard, the egg and mix well. Pour this filling over your dough. Fold the dough's edges over the filling.

Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes at 360°F. The filling should be golden brown and the dough dry and firm to the touch, just a little golden. Serve hot.

Below is my usual recipe for the cake. I changed it a little this time - I had egg whites remaining from the strawberry tart my husband had made, so I used only one full egg and replaced the other with 4 egg whites I had beaten until stiff. It worked just as well.

Gâteau d'Aunis (Aunis cake)
6 oz vegetal butter substitute
7 oz sugar
2 eggs
8 oz flour
2 oz candied angelica
1/2 cup cognac or rum

Cut the angelica into small pieces and put it in a bowl with the alcohol.
Beat the sugar with the butter until it gets white-ish. Still beating, add the eggs one by one, then the angelica and alcohol. Lastly, add the flour.
Grease a mold (mine is about 10 inches wide and 2 1/2 inches deep), pour the batter in it. Bake in the oven, 40 minutes at 390°F.

Caviar...

Not real caviar, no, I'm not that full of cash to cook anything with it. I must even admit I've never tried it. But I do make eggplant caviar on a regular basis. You can eat it as a dip, or as a spread. We generally eat a few mouthfuls over a little bit of fresh white bread.

I have to give credit where it's due, though, and say that I didn't personally make this one. It was made by my dear friend Eysméralda - but it still fits the title of this blog, and I wouldn't have made it much differently.

I know it's not the traditional way to cook it - usually, one would roast the eggplants in the oven. I tried. I burnt my fingers removing the meat from the skin. And there was one casualty. The first time I cooked this, I killed my oven. I had forgotten to cut off the ends of the eggplants before roasting them. They exploded, taking the door of the oven with them.

Okay, the door still hung to the oven. But it never agreed to close again.
For the love of quick cooking, preserving my fingers (the skin stays tender enough to be blended with the rest), and functioning ovens, I turned to the pressure cooker.

The caviar (on top)
with bread and cucumber-paprika salad

Caviar d'aubergines

4 or 5 eggplants

2 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

a few leaves fresh coriander

olive oil

salt

Wash and dice the eggplants, put them in your beloved pressure cooker and cook until they're tender. By the sight of my nose, that should be something like 20 minutes.

Cut, peal and hack the garlic and herbs.

Put the eggplants and oil into a bowl and use a hand mixer to turn them into a somewhat smooth paste - don't worry if its not perfectly smooth, it doesn't have to be perfect to taste good ! Add the garlic and herbs. Serve cold. Or hot if you're very hungry and don't have the time to wait until it's completely cooled.

Now, there are dozens of way to prepare this. You can mix up spices and herbs, add lemon... Try a few things out and find what you like best ! You can cook a lot of the caviar, and keep it in the fridge for a few days.