Desserts de France…

Les crêpes !
Crêpes Suzette mandarine – Crêpes boisettes (berry) – Crêpes little sun – Crêpes soufflées tropicales

More : crêpes compilation (sweet and savory)

Noël et Rois (Xmas and Kings) :
Pompe à l’huile (sweet fougasse) – Nonnettes (fluffy gingerbread) – Flocon de neige (snowflake cake) – Nougat glacé (honey ice-cream) – Galette des Rois (Kings’ cake) – Galette des Rois au chocolat

More : Christmas dessert compilation

Les fruits !
Poire pochée au chocolat – Baked pineapple – Fruity papillote – Tartelette aux figues – Pomme lampion (baked apple) – Crémet aux fruits rouges

Classiques :
Génoise – Cygne et choux (cream puffs and swan) – Millefeuille –Tarte au chocolat – Religieuse (cream puff “nun”)

Regions :
Brioche de Pâques (Easter bread, Provence) – Gâteau de Metz (retro chocolate cake, Lorraine) – Croustade or Pastis aux pommes (apple pie, Gascogne) – Millas (corn and pumpkin, South-West) –Farz fourn (butter cake, Bretagne)

Chocolat.
Coffee sunglasses – Gâteau truffe aux kumquats – White chocolate cinnamon apple cake – Raspeberry choco-carob cake

More chocolate sweets.

Festifs.
Pets de nonne (‘farting nun’ carnival donuts) – Mango coco millefeuille – Star anise mandarin chocolate tarte – Crémet in mint sauce – Gâteau de la bergère (Shepherd’s cake made with potato) – Petits flans a la betterave (sweet beetroot puddings)

More ? French dessert compilation.

Three Asian flavors for Italian Easter rice pies

The bunny and the bells wish you a Merry Easter, even you don’t believe in chocolate eggs.
Well, that’s a personal version of the Italian Easter pies filled with rice and ricotta. This one is simplified and plant-based.

I’ve added flavoring to cooked rice, let it overnight to soak the liquid.

That’s the Asian touch. Lots of zests of yuzu, mikan (mandarin orange) and kumquat, and some juice. I also mixed it a good amount of firm tofu, after squeezing water out of it and crumbling it. Then some coconut yogurt.

Filled pies (the crust is simply flour, olive oil, water sugar, yuzu zest).

Decorate them. That doesn’t cost more and that’s so much prettier.

Bake about one hour at moderate heat.

Let them cool. Ideally wait till the next day so the flavors have the time to develop fully.

Yummm… I love Easter sweets.

Tofu in mandarin orange red wine creamy sauce

I recommend this recipe ! The sauce is rich, creamy and emanates a fragrance of citrus. On hot tofu, that brings warmth like a log burning in the fireplace.

Sometimes, I’m super proud of my *inventions* because it’s really delicious. I don’t mean it’s bad usually, no, I eat good, but you sometimes find something really different. And that happened today.
Of course I have not invented the wheel nor the tofu. I met that white wine and neri goma (sesame) sauce at the sesame cooking class. Then I’ve changed it all, so it’s my recipe now. And yours if you adopt it…

It looks like Christmas market’s hot wine. I refried cut onions, 1/2 dry chili and some dry mikan orange peels. I keep it on a basket when I eat fresh ones. The dry orange peel is a condiment in Asia and also in Provence, for la daube, the wine meat stew. I’ve added :
1 cup of red wine,
2 cups of water,
1 tbs of thick soy sauce,
2 tbs of mirin (you can replace by a little sugar)

Make sesame cream : toast 1/2 cup of sesame seeds, and “juice” them in the blender into 2 cups of this cream.

When the sauce is reduced to 25%, add the “cream”, the cube tofu and simmer gently to reheat. I had more mikan peel too.

Serve with brown rice and steamed komatsuna greens.

Mmm… I could say that’s the ultimate tofu. Actually, the sauce is so good that it could go well with anything.

Little buckwheat blinis

Warm, golden, firm, fluffy…and small. That’s the perfect blinis.

It’s ideal for small smoked salmon bites.

A yeasted dough with 30% of buckwheat flour, after an hour in a warm place, I added an egg (white beaten), cream.

Other version :

simple buttery blinis

As I don’t have mini-pans, I simply re-cut them.

With salmon, aneth, onions.

No wasting !

At coffee time, with the cut parts can be reheated, served with rose petal cream cheese, mikan mandarin marmelade and better to melt on top :

Marmelade de mandarines à la badiane

How the star anise got married with the tiny Japanese orange…

An avalanche of mikan, the Japanese mandarin oranges. The season is really starting now. These are small like ping pong balls and irregular, but totally delicious.

Easy to peel.

Juicy. I’ve eaten tons already.

And cooked a few with star anise into a spicy marmelade. Not marmalade. It’s any citrus jam/compote for in French. But this one is not any. It’s specially delicious.

And it’s … addictive. Already made another batch.