Brioche with Nectarine

Last night, the restaurant where I am currently working full time, Chez Dominique, had a lot of leftover brioche bread. What a pity, so sad to waste such a delicately perfected creation. So of course I had to take some home with me and it wasn't difficult to find some delicious ways to use it straight away for breakfast the next morning. 

Brioche is a french bread and the famous 'cake' referred to when Marie Antoinette declared 'Qu'ils mangent de la brioche' (let them eat cake) about the protests coming from the malnuorished and hungry masses. Because brioche is made with a lot of butter and sometimes eggs, it very easily crumbles and is very delicate, but very delicious. I myself have made several unsuccessful attempts at this bread, but perhaps in my next attempt I'll take tips from our in house baker. (Blog on this coming later)

Since I had some perfectly ripe nectarines, I decided to make a light syrup with them, putting a quarter cup of sugar and an eighth of a cup of water and a pinch of nutmeg to a small sauce pan and let boil. I added the slices of nectarine, skins and all, and let them soften.

Then I simply cut some of the brioche lightly in half. I was so glad about my recent purchase of a Fiskars knife set on sale, 50% off. 5 Pro series Fiskars knives for 25e. Now I finally have the perfect bread knife.

I toasted these lightly in our toaster oven. Using a regular toaster would have been disasterous because it would have squished them and then you would not have been able to get the pieces out. You would be left with brioche crumbs in the bottom of the toaster, burning, and nothing more. You can also use the regular oven's broiler for a few minutes.

Finally, I topped the brioche with the nectarine and syrup and served with some plain turkish yogurt on the side. Perfect breakfast food to share with A before he jets off to work.

Gratin au Reblochon

Some of the best cheeses (and the smelliest) I've tried have been those which my friend G has introduced me to from her home country of Switzerland. Though typical grocery stores may not carry a multitude of good cheese, the Kauppahalli, or Market Hall in Hakaniemi or in the Satama, will have almost everything you're looking for (I'm still searching for good sharp cheddar- not Pilgrim's brand!).

Reblochon is a cheese originally from the French Alps, during a time which taxes were paid by how much milk the cows produced. So dairy farmers often did not milk the cow fully, and waited until the milk was measured, then used the remaining richer milk to make their own cheese, such as this one.

This is a recipe G used last weekend at a party she and T threw for another successful benchmark at work passed. Congrats G! There were other French speakers there, mostly from Belgium, and they certainly appreciated her hard work (and duh, her gratin au reblochon!)

Gratin au Reblochon

• 1 kg potatoes, peeled, boiled, then sliced thinly
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cream
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 leek, sliced
• 4 tbs butter, melted
• nutmeg, salt, and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 210C.
2. Rub the gratin dish with a clove of garlic.
3. Saute the onion and leek in 2 tbs of butter until soft. Adding seasoning as desired.
4. Layer half of the potato slices in the dish, layer the onion and leek, then add the remaining potatoes.
5. Combine milk, cream, wine, and remaining 2 tbs of butter, and pour over the layers.
6. Grate or shave as much of the rind from the reblochon round as possible, and cut the round horizontally to create two thinner rounds of cheese. (this tends to be a bit messy, so you can use a helping hand, or a large spatula).
7. Top the gratin with the rounds, rind facing up, soft side down.
8. Bake gratin for about 30 minutes, turn down the oven to 180C and bake for another 15 minutes.

This was a great hit! G made three, two with smoked ham and onion, and one with leek and onion for me, what a sweetheart. <3.>

Herbed French Vegetable Stew

This stew was inspired by a lot vegetables that I just had on hand and was very simple to put together in a big dutch oven. Letting it stew for several hours gave the apartment a nice warm aroma and tasting it gave me a nice warm comfy feeling inside..... mmm... I could just sit and watch the snowfall and watch a good movie while eating this stew.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
2 carrots
3 stalks of celery
2-3 large waxy potatoes
1 large onion
1 can of green beans, or about 2 cups of frozen french cut green beans
2 cloves garlic
2 cubes vegetable bullion or 3-4 cups of vegetable broth
herbs de province
1 tbs tomatoe paste
parmesan cheese (optional)
3 tbs pesto rosso (optional)
olive oil
salt and pepper

I first diced the onion, celery and garlic, and sauteed them in about 2 tbs olive oil until the onions were transparents and the herbs were fragrant.
Then, I julliened the potatoes and carrots. I added these and the vegetable bullion cubes, plus 4 cups of water to the dutch oven and brought this to a slow simmer.
I then added the tomato paste, pesto, and salt and peper, gave it a stir, and continued to let simmer for 2 hours. By then, the vegetables had soaked up much of the broth, and rather than be soup-like, it was a delicious hearty winter stew.
Bon Apetit!