Jeanpaul's signature dish: Pears in wine [Stoofpeertjes]

PEARS IN WINE / STOOFPEERTJES / POIRE AU VIN

On special request [and with pain in my heart :-)], I will share today the recipe for my pears in wine dish (Dutch: stoofpeertjes).


First of all, when you  make this recipe, don't hesitate to double or triple the amount. The work is not that much more (except for the peeling part) and you can easily store it in the deep-freezer for a long time.  You can use this as side dish for a fancy christmas dinner, use it as ingredient for cooked desserts, simply eat it with ice or yoghurt or just enjoy its full flavour by eating it straight away.
So it will come in very handy to have some stock available anytime.

Ingredients (per 2 kilo of pears)
- 2 kilos of pears for cooking
   (I strongly favor Gieser Wildeman for its sweet taste, but Saint Rémy or any other pear  that is suitable for cooking and will keep its shape can be used)
- 150 grams of powdered /confectioners' sugar  [Dutch: poedersuiker, French: sucre en poudre]

- 1 bottle of red wine
- half a bottle of port
- 2 packs of vanilla sugar
- 3 cloves [Dutch: kruidnagels, French: clou de girofle]
- 1 cinnamon sticks [Dutch: kaneelstokje, French: baton de cannelle]
- 2  Star anise [Dutch: steranijs, French: badiane ou anis étoilé]

So now that the "mise en place" is ready, we can start the work!
In the pictures you will see the quantities for 4 kilos of pears. Also note: these are not Gieser Wildeman, but home grown pears that I received from my uncle Hans. No idea what race they are, sorry. And yes...they look like apples, but really are proud pears.


















Step 1:  Peel the pears.
This is the most time consuming task. You will end up with a maximum speed of 3 pears per minute and afterwards some cramp, but its worth it. No need to chuck out the seeds or dig in hole on the middle. Leave them intact with the end of the branch still connected. This will make a smashing presentation in any dish.
-> When you are finished peeling, cut around 20% of the pears into quarters.
This is to fill up the space between the whole pears when adding them to the pan. Otherwise you would need double the amount of liquid.

Step 2:  Add pears into a casserole or large pan and add all the other ingredients
Add the whole pears to a large pan, fill all the empty spaces with the chopped pieces of pear
Add the sugar
Add the cloves, cinnamon sticks and the star anise
Add the wine and port
If the pears are not covered by the liquid, you can add some extra port or water

Step 3 :Bring to boil and let the pears simmer on low heat
Bring the pears briefly to the boil and afterwards let them simmer on low heath for at least 3 hours.
After 2 hours you can taste the liquid and add a couple of tablespoons of powdered sugar if you prefer a sweeter taste.

Step 4: You made it, Enjoy!
After 3 or more hours, when  the pears have a nice deep red color, are soft when pinching with a fork but will not fall apart and the liquid has the desired taste of sweetness, you can stop the heat.

Serve directly as they are still warm with yoghurt, vanilla (vla) or ice or next to a nice piece of game meat such as deer.  If you prefer to present it with a bit thicker juice add some starch until you have the desired texture.

Otherwise let the pears cool slowly and store them with the juice in portions in deep freezer or for direct use in the fridge.

Hope you like them as much as we do!
Enjoy
Jeanpaul

Romantic Dinner

There's a funny story about the anniversary of the day Jeanpaul and I met each other. That is: for something like 8 years we've been celebrating it on the wrong day. Lol.
I was convinced it was on the 16th January 2000, and Jeanpaul, who's got a monster memory only not  for birthday dates, hence went by what I believed.... till the day I finnaly set out to make my photo album from Finland and fell on the ticket for the cruise between Helsinki and Stockholm on which we met. Definitely stating it was on January 11, 2000.

Nevertheless... today we have been together for 14 years, a very good reason to celebrate, which we did yesterday with 2 nice little lobsters Jeanpaul had been inspired to buy. It was one of these nice evenings when we cook together. Nice team work. Love that.

So Jeanpaul did 2 preparations of lobster and I improvised a risotto to go with it, making use of what was in the fridge given we need to empty it in view of our upcoming holiday to... South Africa! (This promises some nice culinary discoveries).


Here's what I found for the risotto (for 2 persons): The main idea was to make a very simple risotto and to add the vegetables at the end so that the tomatoes would just be warmed up in the risotto but definitely not cooked. This to make the link with one half of the lobster that was going to be grilled under a layer of diced tomatoes and the other one with parmesan. As for the sage, it's a spice I don't use very often but discovered recently that it's got a huge flavouring power, so I was curious to try. This time I did not put too much of it in the dish so it was absolutely delicious!

Ingrédients:
1 oignon
1 clove of garlic
6 little tomatoes (that's about 250 to 300g)
green asparagus tips (about 200g)
1/4 teaspoon dried sage
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 cubes of chicken broth (hope this is the right translation for bouillon cube)
100 g of grated parmesan
130 g of risotto rice
olive oil
salt & pepper

Preparation for the risotto:
1 - Bring 1 liter of water and the 2 cubes of broth to boiling temperature. Set aside once it's reached boiling temperature. It's ready to use.
2 - Bring some water to boiling temperature in another pan to peel the tomatoes.
3 - Whilst the water is heating up, chop the onion and peel the garlic clove
Once the water boils, plunge the tomatoes for 20 seconds (for small ones) in the hot water, then put them in a boil with cold water. Keep the boiling water!
3 - Add some salt in the water used for the tomatoes, and cook the asparagus tips it it for 5 minutes. Take the asparagus out of the water and set aside. Now you can throw the water away.
4 -  Whilst the asparagus tips are cooking peel and chop the tomatoes in very little dices. Put them into a sieve to drain
5 - In a pan with olive oil, cook the onion and the grated garlic till the onion is translucent.
6 - Add the rice and mix with onion for a few minutes
7 - I did not do this but aftewards sought I should have: add 20 ml of white wine and mix.
8 - Once the wine is nearly absorbed add a spoon of broth and continue to mix gently till it's nearly absorbed (set your fire at medium level so it does not go too fast)
9 -  Continue to add the broth spoon by spoon while mixing till the rice is cooked (I don't know the time, just taste)
10 - Put 2 of the asparagus tips in the remainder of thebroth to warm them up


11 - Set the fire at a the lowest level, add the parmesan and continue to mix gently till it's smelted
12 - Add the tomatoes and the rest of the asparagus tips (cut in pieces of 1 cm) and mix. After 2 minutes stop the fire.

13 - warm up 2 plates and start dressing. Add the asparagus tips on top of the risotto for decorations.

For the lobster Jeanpaul was inspired by the following 2 recipes:

Lobster in the oven by Peter Goossens
http://www.smulweb.nl/recepten/825884/Kreeft-in-de-oven
The only thing is that we had no basilicum and chive so he used parsley. But it was absolutely gorgeous that way too!!!
Also we had frozen cooked lobster, no fresh lobaster, so he only put the lobster 6-7 minutes in the oven.

The other recipe, Gratin of lobster,  comes from the website of Albert Heijn and was executed without modification
http://www.ah.nl/allerhande/recepten/597476/gegratineerde-kreeft

From a timing perspective if you were to try this combination alone, then start with preparing the lobster till they are ready to go in the oven, then do the risotto, and then put the 2 lobsters for 6 minutes in the oven while you warm up the plates and start serving the risotto.
Avoid at all cost letting the lobster more than the 6-7 minutes in the oven, else it becomes chewy.

And here the pictures of our 2 little fellows before going into the oven and on the plate...

Yummy!!!!

Product to watch Karkalla [Zeebananen]

Product to watch Karkalla [Zeebananen]

This is the first post, so I made it an easy one :-)

I would like to share a new food produce called Sea Bananas/Karkalla [Zeebanaantjes] that I came across this month.

This is not what I mean :-)

It looks like samphire [Dutch: zeekraal / French: salicorne] but it's branches are much thicker, juicier and I prefer them over samphire.
It's a little plant that thrives in the coastal regions of South-Australia and has been eaten by Aboriginals for decades. The leaves are getting yellow towards the end when getting older and with some imagination you can see the "banana" reference. It is now cultivated in France and a little bit in the Netherlands as well and finding its way to restaurants rapidly. It's a great combination with fish dishes!

So I bought a small promo box and put them in a skillet with some olive oil on medium heat for a few minutes until they started to get a darker shade of green. We ate it with some fish in a salt crust. Delicious! JP

It comes in boxes of 75 grams

The result: Yummy!

Joyeux Noël

L'idée est née ce 25 décembre 2013. Partager les photos et recettes de nos réalisations et découvertes  culinaires sur un blog. Pourquoi pas? m'a dit Jeanpaul avec plus d'enthousiasme que ce à quoi je m'attendais.
Je réalise maintenant que la chose est plus facile à dire qu'à faire... Je viens déjà de réécrire le début de ce post à trois reprises. En anglais pour commencer, l'objectif étant de pouvoir être lus par un maximum. Seconde tentative en néerlandais, vu que c'est la langue que je partage avec Jeanpaul. Finalement ce sera quand même dans ce bon vieux français que je me sentirai plus à mon aise pour pondre quelque chose de potable. Je laisserai le soin à Jeanpaul d'élaborer un contenu néerlandophone ;-)

Pour ce premier post, j'ai sous la main les photos du repas de Noël avec la famille de Jeanpaul. Il me faut de suite rendre à César ce qui lui appartient: Jacqueline et Amir ont réalisé l'entrée, une soupe de panais aux poires. Jeanpaul a pris le lead pour le plat principal, un filet de lotte sur lit de poivron et maïs, accompagné de linguines de courgettes, popcorn au romarin et chips de pomme de terre vitelotte. La maman de Jeanpaul a mis tout son amour dans le dessert... et je calle sur la traduction: appelbol... boule de pomme... appelons ça une pomme en croûte et sauce aux fruits rouges.
En ce qui me concerne, j'ai fait le commis ;-)

Potage de de panais et de poires

La première recette vient d'un magazine culinaire néerlandais (Delicious magazine), mais j'ai trouvé le lien vers une recette en français. http://www.iga.net/fr/recettes_inspirantes/potage_de_panais_et_de_poires/ 
Un petit conseil: rajouter du jus de citron en fin de cuisson.


Pour les bâtons en pâte feuilletée, il faut un paquet de pâte feuilletée en plaques, du jaune d'oeuf, du fromage râpé et des amandes finement hachées au préalable. Badigeonner les plaques de pâte avec le jaune d'oeuf, puis étaler les amandes et du fromage râpé par dessus, et tordre ensuite chaque plaque de pâte pour en former un bâtonnet torsadé => enfourner une dizaine de minutes jusqu'à ce que les bâtonnets soient bien dorés.
  

 

 

 Loup de mer, linguine de courgettes, gel de poivrons et crème de maïs

Ingrédients pour 4 personnes:
6 poivrons rouges
1 gousse d'ail
400 ml de bouillon de volaille
10 gr agar agar
huile d'olive
poivbre et sel
4 échalotes finement hachées
2 gousses d'ail écrasées
300 gr de grains de maïs
200 ml de crème fraîche
125 gr de beurre
un sachet de popcorn à faire au micro-ondes
1/4 de branche de romarin hâchée
2.5ml d'huile d'olive extra vierge
gros sel de mer
1 courgette
380gr de loup de mer
4 pommes de terre vitelottes

Préchauffer le four à 180 degrés C.
Enfourner les poivrons environs 10 minutes
Peler les poivrons puis les faire revenir dans une poêle avec l'ail
Arroser avec 300 ml de bouillon
Passer la préparation au blender et laisser refroidir
Ajouter l'agar agar et faire bouillir puis laisser cuire quelques instants à feu vif.
Laisser refroidir au frigo
Passer la préparation au blender une deuxième fois avec un peu d'huile d'olive
Saler et poivrer
Réserver à température ambiante


Faire revenir l'échalotte et l'ail dans un peu d'huile
Ajouter le maïs puis arroser avec la crème et 100 ml de bouillon
Ajouter le beurre
Laisser cuire à feu doux jusqu'à ce que les grains de maïs soient cuits, puis passer au blender et au tamis
Saler et poivrer

Découper les pommes de terre en fines plaques à l'aide d'une mandoline
Faire frire à la friteuse, saler et laisser sécher sur du papier absorbant

Faire sauter le pop-corn au micro ondes
Le mettre dans un bol et mélanger avec le sel, l'huile d'olivre extra vierge et le romarin
(si le pop-corn est déjà salé ne pas saler une deuxième fois)

Découper les courgettes en plaques, puis en filaments.
Découper le loup de mer en morceaux de taille égale, faite cruire des 2 côtés dans une poêle avec du beurre pendant 6 à 8 minutes.
Pendant ce temps, faire revenir les courgettes dans un peu d'huile d'olive

Pour la mise en place, tracer 2 trainées sur l'assiette avec le gel de poivrons et la crème de maïs. Y poser le loup de mer et les courgettes par dessus. Garnir avec quelques pop-corn et quelques chips de vitelotte

Pomme en croûte et coulis de fruits rouges

Ce dessert est un classique de la cuisine hollandaise, qui se sert normalement avec une sauce à la vanille. Dans ce cas ci, la maman de Jeanpaul a eu la bonne idée de remplacer la sauce à la vanille par un coulis de fruits rouges.

Ingrédients pour 4 boules:
4  pommes de reinette
40 gr. de pâte d'amande
4 plaques de pâte feuilletée
60 gr. de sucre à la cannelle (1/2 cuillère à café de cannelle pour 1 cuillère à soupe de sucre semoule)
1 jaune d'oeuf
2 dl. de crème
50 gr. sucre
250 gr de fruits rouge
1 gousse de vanille
 

Préparation des pommes:

Préchauffer le four à 200 degrés C

Peler les pommes et en enlever le coeur avec un vide pomme
Séparer la pâte d'amande en 8 petites boules
Enfoncer une boule de pâte d'amande dans le trou de chaque pomme
Remplir chaque trou de sucre à la cannelle et refermer à l'aide d'une deuxième poule de pâte d'amande
Emballer chaque pomme dans une plaque de pâte feuilletée
Badigeonner chaque boule avec du jaune d'oeuf
Faire rouler les boules dans du sucre à la cannelle
Enfourner environ 10 minutes


Pour le coulis: 
Faire cuire les fruits rouges quelques minutes
Rajouter du sucre (au goût)
Rajouter les grains sortis de la gousse de vanille
Mixer le tout et passer au tamis


Bon appétit!

Céline