La chinoise, the mythical brioche from the East

Chinois, it’s Chinese people, it’s over-complicated language, that’s it, just this cake.

Te recipe is secret… Even myself, I don’t know what I put in it.

another chinois
Yes, that changes each time.

Yum….

Left over make over

A meal to empty the fridge around a big piece : a roast of white sweet corn. OK, that’s not a Christmas dinner. The idea was to use all the parts of veggies I had around before going shopping for fresher produce.

White cucumbers, salted. Rinsed after 20 minutes. They are juicy like melon.

A chilled kabocha and sesame soup. It’s deliciously creamy.

I had used the flesh of steamed kabocha for a salad. The skin is edible. So I used it in the soup.
I’ve added sesame seeds, miso, green chili, yellow paprika. Blended.

Boiled green soy beans and romanesco were in the freezer. Simply with yuzu lemon and chili flakes.

Grated daikon, goji berries, cashew nuts and black pepper.

I steamed the corn cob, then grilled in the oven toaster.

Galette des noix. My pie is a nutcase.

You knew French 3 Kings’ cake, la galette des rois . Here it’s the galette des… noix. Noix are nuts. It went a little crazy.

It was going to look like that. Something like this :

galette des rois au chocolat

But it would be filled with a classic crème d’amande. It became that :

MDR (ROFL).

It’s made like a crème d’amande but…

It’s a crème with two nuts, cashew nuts and a few walnuts. Both are infinitely cheaper than almonds, and just as good.

Then… a mistake : not waiting enough to chill the filling. Bref, the crème was runny, no way to properly seal the pie.

Then… oops, the fève (token) is not inside : forgot it !
Bref, that was too late.

Then… the pie burst in the oven.
Bref, some filling leaked.

Then… the runaway filling fell in the bottom of the oven, burnt and made tons of smoke, the cooking sheet started burning.
Bref, the whole city of Osaka was totally burnt.

Then… the pie was not burnt at all.
Bref, the monster survived the tragedy and came to scare guests on the table.

Then…1/3 of the pie wedges had no filling ! And no king, no queen, no quiing, this year.
Bref, we are all losers (yes, everybody picked one of the damned wedges).

Then… we’ve eaten the good wedges after that.
Bref, we’ll be super-fatty losers.

Besides, for 2/3 of it : it’s perfect. Great fun, great dessert.

The quick baker’s compil’

SAVORY

Grits’in corn bread
Fava beans and pesto cakes
Pounti (herb and prune peasant cake)
Express sesame buns
Cake salé au fromage et aux piments jalapeños

SWEET

Mikan orange cake
Quatre-Quarts, the simple butter cake
Saint-Nicolas Nonnettes (mikan stuffed ginger bread muffins)
Banana breads with nuts
Gâteau au pamplemousse – Grapefruit cake
“Hattaiko flour” cake
Millas (raisin corn bread)
Softy apple banana muffins (not on the photo)

And (click here) many variations of ok’cakes (soy fiber okara cakes).

Let’s finish with the lemony buckwheat soda bread (special post here).

Nougat glacé aux noix et au miel

Walnut honey nougat ice-cream.

With raspberry coulis. Sweet and sour. That’s one of my favorite party dessert. I made some for the 13 desserts of Christmas and I had a few servings left. It is ice-cream so it can be stored in the freezer very conveniently.

The classic nougat is made of egg white, honey, roast nuts. This version is a honey Italian meringue, mixed with whipped cream. It is enriched by walnuts bits in caramel, a little Grand-Marnier soaked raisins and mandarin orange peel and grated lemon zest.