Boiled Leg of Lamb with Caper Sauce

A simple British dish that is a play on a New England boiled dinner. The caper sauce was okay but we all pulled out some hot mustard anyway. Not much to say about this dish except that I had an endless amount of fun putting an entire onion onto everyone’s plate! Moving on.

Belgian Endive Salad

This is a really simple salad of endives with a mustard vinaigrette. I think I seasoned more robustly than the recipe called for but it’s still a good light salad to serve as a starter and whip up in a flash.

Croque-Monsieur

Having lived in Paris for nine months, I have eaten my fair share of croque-monsieurs. I may not have been able to eat at the Tour D’Argent but I could certainly afford to visit some of the many blue collar bistros scattered throughout the city and, wherever I went, I was sure to order their croque-monsieur and their onion soup. This recipe calls for something that I never came across once while in Paris, Roquefort cheese. Which I’m not complaining about because the addition of blue cheese made this luncheon sandwich a dream come true. Although, as you can see I did a little improvising myself and transformed this monsieur into a madame (with an egg on top). A delicious and simple recipe that brought me back to some of my happiest days.

Toad-in-the-Hole

Essential a Yorkshire Pudding with a Vienna sausage in the middle. The popover itself was very nice but the Vienna sausage was disgusting. You know you’re eating something bad as you do it. However, I would definitely use this recipe again and substitute the Vienna sausage for something of greater quality because the recipe itself is solid.

Tarte aux Framboises (Raspberry Tart)

Raspberries were in cheap abundance at the farmer’s markets so I decided to try this French raspberry tart. Simple crust but efficient and the custard filling was nice also. It was definitely a pleasant and not too sweet dessert although there was nothing abundantly special about it either. I enjoyed it and am moving on.

Currant Pasty with Hard Sauce

This was a very tasty little desert but, in my opinion, the hard sauce was overkill. The richness of the pastry crust with the sweet rich currant filling was already a flavour overload. While I like the idea of a butter and brandy sauce the 4 tablespoons of sugar made this the sweetest desert I’ve ever had! However, after we ditched the hard sauce me and my mom couldn’t stop devouring this tea time sweet.

Sardi’s Meat Sauce

I decided to do a little prep the other day and have a little spaghetti and meat sauce as well! This is a very basic meat sauce with a 1-4 ratio of veal to beef, no pork. It’s not quite as nuanced as the tomato sauce recipe but it is still quite serviceable on its own. I haven’t had a chance to use it as a base for a recipe yet but I froze a bunch in preparation.

Souffle au Grand Marnier

Not to be daunted by my previous travails with the raspberry souffle, I decided to try this one with Grand Marnier. Overall, I actually prefer this souffle much more and really liked the little lady finger soaked in Grand Marnier in the middle. As you can see from the photo, some of my souffles deflated again but this time it was because of a different reason. The recipe calls for you to take out the souffles mid-cook and top them with sugar which seems like flirting with danger where souffles are concerned. This time I cooked the souffles for only 30 minutes in total but that was still too long. I would say once more that a souffle should only be in the oven for 20 minutes and once its out it stays out unless you are very practiced. I will definitely be doing this one again soon and hopefully with perfect results.

Potage Tour D’Argent (Bean Soup)

This was a perfectly serviceable and easily made bean and lentil puree. The addition of the sorrel gave it that slight elevation in character to become something special. I might not make it again but the trick of adding sorrel was a neat one that I’ll keep in my back pocket for when I need it.

Le Coquelet a la Moutarde (Roast Game Hens with Mustard)

This dish is one of the rare recipes which does not include an individual introduction. Nevertheless, this dish from the Hostellerie de la Poste was fantastic. It actually only has a very light mustard flavour in comparison to the rich, savoury, cream sauce that is drenched in. The only recommendation I would have would be to use a light cream as opposed to a heavy cream for the sauce. I’ve grown accustomed to the excessive quantities of cream and butter in these recipes but I found the heavy cream just a little too much for this particular dish.