French Epiphany Pastry

I am happiest when I have a table full of people to feed.  So yesterday, when a friend texted me and asked if I wanted to eat... (silly question, of course I want to eat) I invited a couple of friends over for a meal.  And I rustled up pasta with pancetta, parsley and peppers from Nigella's book.  Like many pasta recipes, it's quick and easy to cook and simply delicious.  The saltiness of the pancetta is balanced nicely with sweet charred peppers.  You can certainly buy jarred chargrilled or flame-roasted peppers from the store and I often do, but I had some peppers need using so, I made my own which is pretty straightforward.  Also in the pasta, there's heat from dried chilli flakes and bright fresh flavours contributed from the zest and juice of a lemon.  What I also like is the parsley here is more than just for sprinkling on top of the pasta.  The parsley is like another vegetable going into the dish because you need a good bunch here.

From Italy, we travelled to France for pudding... French Epiphany Pastry.  This is a recipe by Stéphane Reynaud from his book, 365 good reasons to sit down to eat.  This pastry is certainly one good reason to sit down and eat.  You only need minutes to assemble this pastry because the puff-pastry is store bought (lazily, I bought mine already rolled as well) and you only require a light stirring to make the almond-flavoured filling.  Happy days!

This pastry is known as Galette de Rois in France.  Eating the galette at the beginning of January is still a popular French tradition and an opportunity for friends and family to gather round the table.  The galette normally contains a lucky charm (une fève), and whoever found the charm in their slice of cake becomes the king or queen and is given a golden paper clown.   

French Epiphany Pastry
Recipe by Stéphane Reynaud
Serves 6


100 g grounds almonds
100 g sugar
100 g butter, melted
2 eggs
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
bitter almond extract
2 sheets store-bought butter puff pastry, each cut into a round (mine's about 30 cm in diameter)
1 tablespoon icing sugar
1 lucky charm to hide in the cake (well, it's optional... just make sure it's nothing that'll melt in the oven)


Combine the ground almonds with the sugar, butter and 2 eggs.  Add a few drops of bitter almond extract.  Place the almond cream in the centre of one pastry round.  Moisten the edges with the beaten egg yolk using a pastry brush.  Cover with the second pastry round.  Press the edge so that the two pieces of pastry are sealed together well.  Make a rosette pattern using a knife, starting from the centre, and brush with the egg yolk.  Chill for 30 minutes*.  Preheat the oven to 180 C, bake for 20 minutes, take it out of the oven and sprinkle with icing sugar.  Bake for a further 5 minutes. 


*Why chill it before putting it into the oven? So that the pastry solidifies a little and the flaky layers rise well.

Dragon chicken

I struggled to wake up this morning and get ready to go to work after the holidays... My alarm beeped at 7.  I hit the snoozed button twice before removing the alarm completely and an hour later I woke up in a rush after a strange dream which I couldn't remember now... But I made it to work on time.  Actually, I don't need to get up that early... I don't live too far from the University, but I quite enjoy the morning, drinking coffee, making toasts, watch a little bit of news and walk leisurely to work...

But anyway, let's talk about this Dragon Chicken.  I, sadly, but true keep a journal where I scribble recipe ideas, menu planning, magic spells, you know, that kinda things... And I was looking through it earlier and I couldn't believe that I have written a whole section on chicken wings recipes alone.  Next to the thighs, wings are my favourite part of chickens.  This Dragon Chicken is exceptionally delicious.  As its name suggests, these wings are fiery but just enough to keep you wanting for more.  However, if you like your stuff flaming hot, I suppose you can always leave the chillies whole, so that way you get the seeds and all, but at your own risk and don't blame me...

These wings are great to serve when you have friends over for some cool drinks or the next day to recover from the cool drinks.  Again, your choice...

Dragon Chicken
Recipe by Nigella Lawson
Makes 20 chicken wings, serves 8 - 10 (when I cooked this, the 4 of us happily demolished the whole thing)

5 long red chillies, de-seeded and halved
1 red pepper, de-seeded and core removed
2 x 8 cm pieces fresh ginger, peeled and cut into small chunks
2 x 15 ml tablespoons sea salt flakes or 1 tablespoon pouring salt
2 teaspoon rice vinegar
80 ml garlic oil
80 ml vegetable oil
20 chicken wings, whole
Chopped fresh coriander for serving

Preheat the oven to 220 C. Process the chillies, red pepper, ginger, salt, vinegar and the 2 oils in a food processor and whiz until smooth.

You can at this point leave your chicken wings to marinate in a freezer bag coated in the chilli sauce for up to 24 hours if you want - or for two days if you omit the salt and add this later.  Otherwise tip out the sauce over the chicken wings onto a shallow-sided foil-lined roasting tray or lipped baking sheet - don't use a high-sided tin, or the wings will braise rather that roast.

Make sure all the wings are coated in the chilli-flecked sauce, and the roast for 40 minutes.

Transfer the wings to a serving platter and sprinkle with some coriander.

Poached chicken with lardons and lentils

Some foods are considered to be lucky to eat at the coming of the New Year.  I heard somewhere that eating lentils at this time is a good thing.  In some cultures, lentils signify good fortune, wealth and prosperity.  And so I prayed and ate a bowlful of this. Amen...

Words from Nigella (and from me): If you want to lose the lardons, do, but for me everything's better with bacon (indeed!).  Still, I can see that those after goodness and purity might want to lose that luscious salty fat. Not me, though... (and not me).

Poached Chicken with Lardons and Lentils
Recipe by Nigella Lawson
Serves 1

2 x 15 tablespoons garlic oil
100 gr smoked lardons or pancetta (or diced smoked streaky bacon)
1 carrot, peeled and halved lengthwise, roughly chopped
1 leek, cleaned, trimmed and halved lengthwise, roughly chopped
3 x 15 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried mint
grated zest 1 lemon
125 g puy lentils
1 teaspoon English mustard
1 chicken supreme (skinned breast, bone in), preferable organic
500 ml water
salt and pepper, to taste

Fry the lardons, carrot, leek, parsley, mint and lemon zest in the oil for about 7 minutes, stirring frequently, in a smallish, heavy-based pan (big enough to lay 1 chicken breast in) that has a lid.

Stir in the lentils and cook for another minute, before adding the yellow gloop of mustard and stir that in, too.

Sit the chicken on top of everything in the pan, and add the water. Bring to the boil, put on a lid and simmer very, very gently for 45 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the lentils are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

You can eat now, but everything is at its most tender best made in advance and reheated.  I let it cool in the pan with the lid off, but for no longer than 1 hour, the put the lid back on and stash the pan in the fridge.  Later, warm it in the pan with the lid on, until piping hot again.  Why add to the washing up?

If you wish, sprinkle more chopped parsley and serve with more English mustard.

Orange Cherry Cookies

Many times when I read food blogs and I came across mouth-watering recipes, if you're like me, you drool all over your computer whilst typing a nice comment and then you save the link or bookmark the page and thinking I'll cook that some day.  I have kept many recipes over the last few months and so far I only cooked two of them.

So, I've decided as one of my New Year's resolution (I have two. The other one is to learn to type with ten fingers) is to cook my way through these recipes, your recipes.  So, just wait and see, yours might be next.  I'll make sure to mention your blog and I'll let you know as well.

This cookies recipes comes from Juliana at Simple Recipes, It's as simple as that... I love the flavour combo and like many cookies recipes, this is easy to make, buttery, delicious and it's always so reassuring to have a jar of home-made cookies in the house.  Juliana, thank you for sharing this recipe with us.

Orange Cherry Cookies
Recipe by Juliana at Simple Recipes
Makes approximately 24 cookies

1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup fine granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 cup chopped dried cherries

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Place the butter and sugar in a larger bowl and beat together with an electric mixer on medium-high for 2-3 minutes until fluffy.  Add the egg, vanilla and orange zest and beat again until smooth.  Beat in the flour mixture on low until just incorporated and then add the dried cherries.

Wrap the dough in cling and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours (or up to 24 hours).  Remove the dough from the fridge and make small balls, approximately 24 balls.  Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C.

Flat the balls and place the cookies at least 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake the cookies until they are lightly golden around the edges, about 13-15 minutes.  Let them stand on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Detox Soup

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a wonderful time with family and/or friends.

My friends and I had a great time in Bath and London.  The New Year's Eve fireworks display on the Thames was spectacular!! (notice the two exclamation marks...).  And also in London I spent money I don't have... I immersed myself in consumerist culture and I ate my way through the food and drinks supply of the capital.  Soon, I'll be fat again and will not be able to pay my rent.  But let me tell you, when I end up living on the street, it'll be filled with some nice kitchen furnitures I just purchased.

Today, I decided to stay at home and just relaxing.  I took all the Christmas decorations down and cleaned the place.  And with the soup, no, I am not going on any diet.  I need to get rid of the holiday weight, but not just yet.  I feel like after all the butter I've been eating and the cream I've been drinking, my body needs a little break before I can eat another slice of cake; something to restore the system, like this soup.  However unappetising the name of the soup, it's actually rather delicious.

Detox Soup
Recipe by Stéphane Reynaud
Serves 6


2 aspirin 
1 jog (for 30 minutes, but it's optional)
4 onions 
3 leeks, white part only
1 bunch of celery*
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
snipped chives


At 1 pm, you're finding it hard to wake up, your eyes are puffed up like helium balloons, your mouth is as fresh as sewerage outlet on a night of heavy rain, your head is ringing like a Tibetan gong and your feet are still majestically enrobed in your socks.  The 31st got the better of you, it's up to you to get the better of the 1st.  Two aspirins taken on the go, mouth hosed down Karcher-style, followed up with a jog and a good sweat.  Back at the house: you peel and finely slice the onions, slice the leeks and celery, you gently sauté everything in olive oil, then add 1.5 litre water, cook for 45 minutes, season, top with the chives.  A good shower in the meantime, and a day to clean yourself with soup and raw celery. 


*Serving suggestion: Set aside a little raw celery, it's good to chew after all!