Truite aux amandes - Almond trouts

Cet après-midi, au moment de planifier le repas du soir, j'étais persuadée que les truites, ce serait rapide. Un tour dans la farine, et hop, cuites, servies. Vu le planning de la journée, sachant que j'étais à l'atelier jusqu'à 18h je récupérais les enfants à 18h15 pour les nourrir en théorie à 18h30 (oui, on mange tôt en général chez nous), c'était plutôt logique.

Sauf que des fois, j'ai des inspirations soudaines. Une envie soudaine de combiner truites + amandes. Mais pas juste en mettant des amandes dessus, non, et puis en fait, j'avais envie de les cuire au four (ça sent quand même moins le poisson dans la maison après). Et puis une chose en entraînant une autre, j'avais de l'hydromel entamé au frigo, et puis... voilà.

This afternoon as I started planning out tonight's meal, I thought the trouts would be a quick affair. On round in flour, one round in the pan, served and done ! Given I was busy at the print studio until six, supposed to pick up the kids at quarter pas six and feed them at half past six, this seemed like a reasonable plan.

And then I got ideas. I wanted almonds with my trouts. And I had mead in the fridge. And I wanted to cook them in the oven rather than on the stove (much less fish smell through the house). So, here it is.

Pour 4 truites - for 6 trouts

2 poignées d'amandes - 2 handfuls almonds

2 grosses gousses d'ail - 2 large garlic cloves

1 petit oignon - 1 small onion

1 brick de crème d'amandes - 1 pack (about 1 cup) almond cream)

2 cs d'hydromel - 2 tbsp mead

1 cc de moutarde - 1 teasp mustard

1 cs de miel - 1 tbsp honey

Torréfiez les amandes 5 à 10 minutes à four chaud. Laissez le four allumé.

Pelez et coupez grossièrement l'oignon et l'ail, hachez-les avec les amandes (un petit coup de blender ça marche bien).

Rincez les truites et disposez-les dans un plat allant au four. Répartissez la farce aux amandes à l'intérieur et un peu entre elles.

Dans un bol, mélange la crème d'amandes, l'hydromel, le miel et la moutarde. Versez par-dessus les truites. Enfournez 20 minutes.

Set the oven on hight and let the almonds get a little golden in it (about 5 to 10 minutes). Keep the oven on.

Peal and roughly hack the onion and garlic. Put them with the almond sin the blender and, well, blend. Not perfectly, I prefer to keep some crispiness to it.

Rinse the trouts and put them in an oven-proof dish. Stuff the trouts with the almond mixture. Put the excess stuffing between the trouts.

In a little bowl, whisk together the almond cream, mead, honey and mustard. Pour it over the fish. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

Pork tenderloin in tapenade crust

This is a combination recipe. First, there was a pork tenderloin cooked by a dear friend’s mother, using store-bought tapenade. I love tapenade, I love olives, and I adored the dish. On the other hand, I had my trusty almond tapenade recipe, ready-made tapenade tends to be expensive (and very salty), I rarely have it at hand, while olives and almond paste are staple ingredients in our pantry.
This is the recipe exactly how I made it this time, I don't always stick to these proportions - it is a VERY forgiving recipe, you can pretty much eyeball everything and never get it wrong.

Port tenderloin in tapenade crust

2 pork tenderloins

1 cup green olives

1/2 cup black olives
1 cup white almond butter
olive oil
Preheat your oven at 360°F.
First, make the tapenade. Rinse the olives, and, using your trusty immersion blender (don't know what I would do without this one !), mix them into a paste, adding olive oil until it is very creamy. The fat from the oil will prevent the crust from getting to dry in the oven.
When you're happy with your tapenade (taste it, but don't eat it all ;) ), spread some of it on one side of the tenderloins. Turn them over, and spread the rest over them. Bake for 30 minutes in the oven, serve.
If, like today here, it is very hot where you live and eat, you might be happy to know the dish is also very tasty served cold.

Going nuts - Zucchini and tomatoes tart

This recipe was a casualty of this blog's hibernation, and of just too much happening in the rest of my life. I had it photographed, I wanted to post it, and then... I didn't post it right away. Winter came, and this definitely did not feel like a winter recipe, so I didn't post it either. But I've heard spring is scheduled to start soon (or has been so for a few weeks), and now this seems more season-appropriate.
It was another of those nut experiments I do now and then, when I crave something with fat diary cream and suddenly remember how bad of an idea that would be. The nuts of choice being, this time as often, hazelnuts from our garden (I hear your envy !). We collected them, opened them and roasted them lightly in the fall, and stored them in a metal box.

Zucchini and tomatoes tart
1 pastry dough
2 garlic cloves
1 handful hazelnuts
2 zucchinis
2 tomatoes
thyme, oregano
On the night before, place the hazelnut in a large glass with one or two cups of water.
Prepare the pastry dough, roll it out onto your greased form. Pre-heat the oven at 360°F.
Drain the hazelnuts - but keep about half a cup of the water. add the peeled garlic cloves and mix until you get a thick, not still slightly crumbly paste. Add a little water back if necessary. Spread the paste onto your dough.
Thinly slice the vegetable and place them over the nut paste. Fold the excess dough back over them.
Bake for 40 minutes to one hour (the vegetables tend to stay crispy).

And before I disappear again under a mountain of fabric and ink, here's a link to a fantastic french cooking blog : Goûte,j'ai testé un truc !

Dip dip dip

It is hot here. The weather forecast keeps promising us rain... tomorrow. It's always "tomorrow". And it stays this way. In my quest for summer recipes that don't turn my kitchen into a sauna, I have turned to dips. I made a little more variety than usual as we had guests yesterday. There was the trusty guacamole, as well as the eggplant caviar, and then some more. I made another trusty preparation, almond tapenade from this blog, translated here for your convenience.

Clockwise from top left : eggplant caviar,
humus, tuna-hazelnut spread, tapenade

Almond tapenade

1/2 cup almond butter

1/2 cup green olives, pitted

Rinse the olives in running water, mix everything together. You can add more or less almond paste depending on your taste. If the tapenade is a little too thick, add a dash of olive oil.

Then I got a little bit more experimental, and I tried my hand at something I'd never done before : humus. I only had a can of chick pas. I'd have preferred the dry kind (as the humus turned out a bit salty for my taste), but well... you do with what you have.

Vegan humus

1 can chick peas (garbanzo beans)

1 cup oat cream

1 clove garlic

2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (okay, it was frozen coriander, my usual seller wasn't at the market lately)

1 tbsp tahini

Blend together using your mixer until smooth.

I was not so convinced right out of the bowl, the taste was better after  few hours in the fridge. A lot better, considering how many servings the guests took.

Lastly I was craving something with salmon. But I had no smoked salmon, could not find any at the store I went to, and the smoked salmon spread recipe I had involved fresh cheese anyway.This is were I got very experimental, and I must say, it worked !

Tuna-hazelnut spread

1 1/2 cup whole hazelnuts

1 can tuna (8 oz or so)

1 cup oat cream

1/2 oat milk

In a mixing bowl, blend the hazelnuts into a fine power. Keep blending and let the hazelnut power get a little warm. Add the rest of the ingredients and keep blending until you get a smooth cream.

I served everything with grilled spare ribs, sticks of red bell pepper, cucumber, endive and fresh bread. It was very good and I had leftovers for the next day. I will definitely keep tweaking the humus and tuna recipes, I'm sure they can be improved. I'll edit this post if I turn to a better version.