In My Kitchen: December 2023

This November was the fastest month ever in my life! I did a month of writing, the third time I've done the National Novel Writing Month challenge to write 50,000 words in the month of November. You can see some photos of Paris as I explored some cafés to write in... 

An update on my sourdough son Barney... 

He's coming back to life! Here I made him into an apple cinnamon babka which worked out really well, the dough was light and fluffy, pulled apart nicely... I took it to a brunch with some other expats in my area. 

Here I recreated the pumpkin loaf that I made last year for Canadian Thanksgiving. It is well and truly the pumpkin/courge season in France and they are in every store. I love the slightly orange tint that it gives to the bread. 

Barney is finally coming back to life.. This was an experiment I did with 20% buckwheat and the dough was quite wet so I added generous handfuls of oats to the dough as well. 

 For American Thanksgiving I made this "Thanksgiving turkey" for our musical friend. We got together to play string quartets one evening - the Hoffmeister and the Beethoven Op.95, my favourite string quartet of all time!

Dinners in November... 

I bought an enormous quantity of spinach so I made this deconstructed lasagne with spinach, ricotta and cannelini beans. I think it was one of our best dinners in November. 

Continuing with the pasta theme as the weather gets colder, here we had mushroom risotto with a side of spinach braised with tomatoes. Simple and delicious dinner!

I've always wanted to try stuffing a butternut, and here I've stuffed it with a mix of quinoa, lentils, mushrooms and cranberries. The flavour combination was excellent, though next time I'd add some more liquid so it would be more mushy and stick together better.

 

It's been so cold this month we have had a lot of soup. Here is a Korean style soybean based soup with tofu, seaweed, Chinese cabbage and radish. 

Three extraordinary, soft and luscious Italian kakis are also in the background. 

Other beautiful things to remember...  

I've never been a huge fan of mug cakes (I think I shouldn't have them because they are too easy and maybe I would eat them all the time?) but for my friend's birthday I had this vegan chocolate mug cake and it was such an amazing treat for a whole 2 minutes work and 3 minutes in the microwave, if only I had some vanilla icecream as well... 

We were in Lyon for a weekend in November visiting S' friends. One of them brought this spectacular cake called Le Président from the famous Bernachon to our dinner party. It was created in 1975 for the then French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.  Each cake comes with its own serial number and explanation card! 

The cake consists of a hazelnut praline chocolate sponge cake filled with candied cherries and topped with those amazing ruffled "leaves" of chocolate - those leaves have to be tasted to be believed, they are like snowflakes melting on the tongue!  

While we were in living in Toronto, two of S' friends had a baby - they were the cellist and second violinist of the group he often played with (in fact they performed several times as part of Des Amis de la Philharmonie de Paris). We had a get together and they brought this incredible Saint Honoré cake, light blobs of choux with an enormous quantity of cream. 

I bought these gorgeous little yellow organic apples one day with the idea to turn them into... 

My first tarte tatin! To be honest I've never eaten a real French tarte tatin (I may have had it once in Australia?), so I was entirely unsure of what I was aiming for. 

First I made a caramel (which I salted for an additional dimension of flavour), cooked the apples in the caramel, then added the pastry on top to bake. I had no idea how it would turn out, but the apples turned into a gorgeous smooth and quivering jelly-like consistency with the caramel darkened and condensed into a syrup. 

We took it to S' friend's place for lunch (attracting some admiring looks on the subway), and I think the ultimate compliment was when his son ate practically half the tart! 

The curveball this month... 

is a crib! (that S and I had fun assembling one rainy afternoon)

I'm not sure exactly how long I have been involved with IMK now but it has become a lovely monthly routine for me to review the photos of what I've eaten and cooked in the last month. It's certainly a moment that brings me a lot of joy every month! 

I am very happy to share with all of you that the next 1st of the month (1 Jan 2024) is the due date of our first child. I might miss a few IMKs, but rest assured I'll be back with pictures of purée soon! 

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the IMK community for having witnessed all the changes in my life over the last few years. I don't know any of you in real life but rest assured I know you all by your food! I'm sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings, who of course hosts the monthly IMK event, thanks Sherry!