Flan au caramel traditionnel

This is a taste from my childhood that I cannot really find here in the US. So finally I decided to do it myself and it turned out pretty accurate to what I remember it to be.
Preheat oven at 350F.
First, start boiling 100ml of water with 1/3 cup (75 gr) of sugar on medium/high heat. Since it takes a while, you can stir it occasionally while you start the second task. In a small pot, boil 1/2 lt of milk with 1/3 cup (75 gr) of sugar and 1 vanilla bean (cut in half lengthwise). If you do not have a vanilla bean, you can substitute with about 1 tsp of liquid pure vanilla extract.
Beat four eggs and set aside. Remove the milk mixture from heat once it boiled for a couple minutes. When the water/sugar mix turns to light yellow/brown color, remove from heat and pour into the bottom of a medium round glass bowl (make sure that the bowl can go into the oven).
To make sure that the milk mixture do not cook the eggs, pour little bit of the milk mix into the eggs while whisking constantly. Slowly add more and continue mixing until all is mixed together.
Finally, slowly pour it into the medium bowl containing the caramel.
The flan should be cook AU BAIN-MARIE, meaning: fill a larger bowl with water and place the bowl containing the flan in it. The water should come to about half the medium bowl.
It says to bake it for 20 to 3o mins, but I had to keep it for about 40 mins. You will know it is ready if you insert a knife and it comes out clean.
After having cooled the flan in room temperature, it is best to refrigerate it for 2 hours before serving.
To serve, fill the larger bowl with hot water, let the flan rest in that bowl for a couple minutes so that the caramel underneath softens. Then turn the bowl containing the flan into a plate and watch the caramel flows from the top of the flan...
Recipe borrowed from marmiton.org

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Limy and Minty Asparagus

I am on one of those looong Boston-Montreal rides but at least I am lucky to have caught a new bus with internet! So I decided to use my time wisely, on our blog ;) Also, after a few days of eating-amazing-but-not-so-healthy food outside, I am craving for some healthy veggies. I wanted to write up a super simple recipe I tried a while ago. This one is from Simply Recipes by Garrett McCord.

Ingredients:
A bunch of asparagus
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 limes or 1 lemon
Fresh mint (chopped) or dried mint
A pinch of salt

There are two ways to cook the asparagus, you could either grill them in the oven or in a pan. Even better if you have a BBQ of course :) For the oven option, you need to place the asparagus on a baking sheet, drizzle some olive oil over, and sprinkle some salt on them. Move the asparagus around a bit to make sure they are coated evenly. Then place the asparagus in the oven at 400F for about 10 minutes. You could also do 'broil', but then you need to turn them a couple of times so that they do not burn. For the pan, simply heat the olive oil and saute the asparagus (with some salt) for 5 minutes over medium-high heat.

Once the asparagus is cooked, place them on the serving plate, pour the lime juice and sprinkle the mint on top. Ready! What I like about this recipe is its simplicity. Plus, it has a very refreshing flavor, which is exactly what I need right now on this bus..

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Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients:
1 liter ice cream -favorite flavor- I vote for chocolate :)
1/4 cup jam -favorite flavor- I vote for berries :)
10 strawberries (cut in half)
3 kiwi (cut in slices)
3 cups of flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
8 eggs (I know?!)

This recipe is from the Golden Book of Baking. This book is a gift from my friend Samia, which has 300 gorgeous recipes with pictures! So you can visit me and make an order from the catalogue :)

The first step is to prepare the cakes. Preheat the oven to 350F. You will need 2 round (around 9 inch) cake pans. Butter and flour the pans and set aside. In a deep bowl, mix the butter sugar and vanilla, until creamy. Then add the eggs one at a time. I have no idea why it needs so many eggs... Mix the remaining dry ingredients -flour baking powder salt- in a separate bowl. Once the batter is smooth, slowly beat the dry ingredients in. Finally, divide the batter into the 2 prepared pans. Bake them for 25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. I chose to slightly underbake them because you carve out the middle part anyway, and I wanted the sides to remain soft (not dried out). Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes in their pans, then turn them onto a rack to cool completely.

Once they cooled, carve out the middle parts with a knife, leaving a 1 cm shell on the sides and the bottom. In the meantime, let the ice cream warm up and soften for 10 minutes. Then fill the holes of the cakes with the ice cream, and push firmly! I realized later that I needed to pack firmer, make sure you use all the space. Brush the cakes with jam (the circle around) and stick the two together, ice-cream packings facing each other. Wrap the cake firmly with either plastic wrap or foil and freeze overnight. I hate this, you have to wait..

Next day, brush the top of the cake with the remaining jam and stick the kiwi slices and the strawberries. Serve immediately! Isn't it good?

The only problem is: The cake needs to return to the freezer after each serving.. But in the later rounds the fruits on top take too long to defrost and the ice cream starts melting. So I think it would be better if you could bake this cake for a dinner party -so that it would be all gone at once!

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Chickpea and Lamb Soup/Stew

Ingredients:
3 lamb shoulder chops (around 500 grams -cut into cubes)
1 can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1 onion (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
2 cups of chicken broth
1/2 can of crushed tomatoes
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Fresh cilantro or mint
Salt

If you like Moroccan cuisine, I am sure you will enjoy this soup. I found this recipe in the Soup's On book, and here is a slightly modified version. First thing to do is to prepare the spices. Place the coriander and cumin seeds in a small skillet and cook until they are toasted and fragrant. Then place them in a spice grinder and crush them into powder. I do not have one, so I just placed them within foil and used a glass to crush them. It's fine if they are not perfectly powdered. Add the cinnamon and pepper flakes to this mix.

Separate the meat from its bones and cut into small pieces but do not trash the bones yet. In a large soup pot, heat (medium-high) 1 tablespoon of olive oil, add the meat and the bones, and cook just to brown them for 4 minutes. Then transfer them to a bowl.

Reduce the heat to medium and add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil to the same soup pot. Add the onion and the garlic. Once they soften, add the prepared spice mix, and stir well. Slowly mix in the chicken broth, the lamb meat and the bones (and the juice in the bowl), crushed tomatoes, and water. When it boils, reduce the heat to medium-low and let it simmer uncovered about an hour. The can of chickpeas needs to be added at the very end, to cook for about 10 minutes only. Season with salt and remove the bones. The soup is ready! Serve it with chopped fresh cilantro or mint to garnish.

The recipe makes a thick soup so if you prefer you could thin it by adding more water. Alternatively, you can have it as a stew. We served it with some couscous, worked perfectly!

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