The French Recipes

Apologies to dear readers for delaying this entry. Blame it on the late nites spent at work. I sempat curi2 baca your blogs aje.. Anyway, here are the much awaited recipes by Laura Calder, copied directly from the recipe handouts given to us on the cooking demo day ;) Apart from the apple tart, Laura 'demo'ed asparagus with orange sauce and shallots and steak au poivre with potato gratin.

Asparagus with orange sauce
Ingredients:

• 2 oranges
• 1 shallot
• 3 tbs vinegar
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 4 tsp vinegar
• 4 tbs olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 20 spears asparagus, trimmed
• Parmesan cheese for shaving
  

Method:

• First, make the dressing. Zest one orange into a bowl, then juice both oranges and boil the juice down in a small saucepan to about 3 tablespoons. Meanwhile, mince the shallot and out in a ramekin with the vinegar poured over. Set aside for 5 minutes.
• Add the mustard to the zest.
• When the orange juice has reduced, strain in over the zest. Drain the shallot, discarding the vinegar.
  
• Whisk all together then slowly whisk in oil.
• Taste, season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
• Bring a saute pan full of water to boil. Salt it, then add asparagus and cook until tender.
• Drain, immediately rinse under ice cold water to set the colour.
• Pat dry with paper towels and transfer to a serving platter.
• Spoon over the sauce. Shave over the parmesan cheese. Grind over some pepper and serve.

Steak Au Poivre
Ingredients:

• 2 to 4 tenderloin steaks or eye of round (estimated 5 ounces per person)
• 1 to 2 tbsp green peppercorns, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup beef stock
• 1/4 cup red wine (Muslims, skip this and subsititute it with the same amount of beef stock instead)
• Salt to season
• 1/2 cup creme fraiche (You can substitute this with heavy / double cream)
  

Method:

• Bring the meat to room temperature before cooking, about 20 minutes. Soak the peppercorns in wine or water or black tea (drain before using).
• Heat the pan to high and season the meat.
• When the pan is very hot, fry the steaks on both sides to your liking (rare? medium rare? well-done?).
• Let the meat rest on board while you make the sauce.
• Deglaze the pan with the stock and boil it down to generous tablespoon, about 2minutes.
• Lower the heat and add the drained peppercorns and cream to heat through.
• Put the meat back in the pan, turning once to coat. Then put the meat in a platter and pour over the sauce to serve.
  

  
  

Potato Gratin
Ingredients:

• 1 kg potato peeled and thinly sliced
• Salt & pepper
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• A few garlic peeled and grated
• 250 ml Milk
• 250 ml heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter

Method:

• Heat the oven to 375°F/190ºC
• Spill half the potato slices into a gratin dish
• Season well with salt, pepper, and nutmeg
• Smear over the grated garlic
• Spread over the remaining potato slices
• Pour over the milk and cream
• Season well again with salt and pepper
• Dot with the butter
• Bake until all the liquid has been absorbed and the top is bubbly brown, 1 to 1-1/2 hours
• Serve

Petua from Laura: While baking the potatoes, the best is to have a brick (or anything else to use as weight) put on top of the layers of potatoes to ensure they are packed. Laura actually has a brick in her kitchen. She wraps it with a cloth and uses it as weight for her bakings etc.

We were all given a small plate each to taste all the dishes. Verdict? Magnifique!!! The asparagus were divine, especially with the orange sauce. I swear if I was on my own that day, I would have licked the sauce clean from the plate! (Tak senonohnya kan?) The steak was so tender and the sauce was excellent. Potato gratin pulak sangatlah lembut and creamy! Yummmm....Well, there you go readers...if any of you do try the recipes above, do share with me apakah resultnya ye? Bet they're gonna be delish! Ooooh la la!