Soupe au Pistou (Pistou Soup)

This is the third recipe from foodtv.ca's French Food at Home. I really enjoy Laura Calder's show and I have an endless list of recipes of hers I'd like to make. I like that her dishes look appetizing and are usually fairly easy to make. She also has a bit of quirky personality that I enjoy.

For this soup, I spied fresh cranberry beans at the farmer's market. I just couldn't resist buying them and figuring out what to make later. With basil in abundance in the garden, making pesto for soupe au pistou seemed like a perfect idea.



Soupe au Pistou (Pistou Soup) - Makes 6 servings
From French Food at Home.

* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 cup green beans, cut into ½-inch pieces
* 1 potato, peeled and diced
* 1 cup carrots, diced
* salt and pepper, to taste
* 4 cups vegetable broth or water
* 1 bay leaf
* 1 sprig thyme
* 1 cup fresh beans or cooked beans of your choice
* 1 cup zucchini, diced small
* 2 tomatoes, seeded, and diced
* pesto, homemade or store-bought, for garnish
* Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Heat the oil in a sauté pan and gently cook the onion until translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add the green beans, potato, carrots and beans (if uncooked).
Pour the vegetable broth or water.
Season with salt and pepper, add the bay leaf and the thyme.
Bring to a boil, and simmer 10 minutes.
Add the zucchini (and the beans if you are using cooked or canned beans) and continue cooking until all the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes longer.
Stir through the tomato.
Ladle the soup into bowls.
(Remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs).
Add a spoonful (or more!) of pesto to each bowl.
Tada!



While the pesto is only a garnish, it is a defining ingredient in this soup. I thought it added a whole lot of flavour. Without it, the soup was a bit of a bland vegetable soup. I loved the fresh creamy beans in the soup.



Other Laura Calder (French Food at Home) recipes:
* Cauliflower Salad
* Goat Cheese stuffed Mushrooms
* Moelleux au Chocolat (Molten Chocolate Cake)

Cauliflower Salad

To accompany the goat cheese stuffed mushrooms, I made a cauliflower salad, also one of Laura Calder's (from French Food at Home) recipes. I really enjoy cauliflower in all its forms. I love it raw (give me cauliflower and dip, and I could probably finish a whole head), as well as cooked. I don't even mind it overcooked, as it often is in aloo gobi. I'm actually surprised I don't have any cauliflower recipes - I think I just didn't get nice pictures because I also love making cauliflower soup!



Cauliflower Salad
From French Food at Home.
What attracted me to this recipe were the salty sun-dried tomatoes and olives! I loved both against the crunchy raw cauliflowers with the lemony dressing. I only followed the ingredients and not the amount. I used basil since I don't have tarragon on hand.

* 1 small cauliflower or half a large one
* 1 clove garlic minced
* 2 generous handfuls of sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil
* 2 generous handfuls black olives, sliced
* 2 handfuls of fresh tarragon or basil leaves, chopped
* zest of a lemon and juice to taste
* extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
* salt and pepper, to taste

Break cauliflower into florettes, discarding the central stem.
Slice them thinly and put them in a bowl.
Add the olives and sun-dried tomatoes.
In a small bowl, mix the garlic and lemon zest with the lemon juice and olive oil.
Season with salt and pepper - not too much salt because of the salty components.
Pour the dressing over the vegetables.
Garnish with chopped basil.
Tada!



This salad is even better the next day, once the cauliflower has had a chance to absorb all the dressing.

Goat Cheese stuffed Mushrooms

I enjoy having "small plates" meals. What can I say? I like variety. So on this occasion, my boyfriend A made soup and a Greek salad. I brought over these goat cheese stuffed mushrooms, a cauliflower salad and roasted heirloom carrots (that didn't turn out too well).



Goat Cheese stuffed Mushrooms
I only realized now that the original recipes calls for large mushrooms. I tried to pick the smallest ones and think this size would be more suitable for cocktail parties. I also realized I don't follow recipes very well so I've included the changes I made.
From French Food at Home.

* 1 lb. small button mushrooms
* olive oil
* 1 shallot, minced (or ¼ onion)
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* ¼ tsp red dry chili flakes
* 2 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
* 3-4 Tbsp fresh breadcrumbs (I used panko crumbs)
* 1 pinch salt and pepper
* 4-6 Tbsp goat cheese
* 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves (I only had dried parsley and used that instead)

Remove the stems from the mushrooms, finely chop, and set aside.
Place the caps, holes downwards, on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 375F.
Meanwhile, heat up olive oil in a small pan and fry the shallot until slightly soft, about 3 minutes. Add the chopped mushroom stems until soft, about 5 more minutes.
Add the garlic, chili flakes, thyme and parsley.
Cook for another minute.
In a bowl, mix the cooked mushroom mixture, the goat cheese and all but a tablespoon of the breadcrumbs.
Taste, and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
Remove the mushrooms from the oven and turn them holes upwards.
Spoon the goat cheese mixture into each mushroom.
Top each mushroom with panko crumbs, pressing them into the cheese mixture.
Bake until the tops are golden and the filling is very hot, about 10 minutes.
Tada!


Emptied mushroom caps.


Mixing the goat cheese, mushroom stems and panko crumbs to make the filling.

I was really happy with these mushrooms. They were very easy to make. Each mushroom made for a perfect mushroom-y, salty bite. You can't go wrong combining goat cheese with mushrooms. Yum!


Perfect one bite mushrooms.

Moelleux au Chocolat

Moelleux au chocolat is pretty much molten chocolate cake or lava cake. But doesn't moeeeeeeeeellllleux sound so much better? Maybe it's because I like the French translation. Moelleux means something soft and mellow. It comes from the word moelle which means marrow, as in bone marrow, which is soft on the inside. This recipe is exactly what its name implies: soft, gooey and rich in the middle, just like marrow!



My friends S & J had hosted dinner followed by poker. I offered to bring dessert. This recipe is great because it's easy to make, and it can be baked right before it's served. There are also only five ingredients! I forgot to bring my camera and didn't quite know how to work S' camera. The pictures are a bit blurry. I guess I'll have to make it again, just to get better pictures...!

Moelleux au Chocolat - Serves 6
From French Food at Home.
I kept looking at the butter and thinking that I'd be eating a sixth of it. You musn't think this way. It is well worth the extra run or exercise the next day! The original recipe has an accompanying caramel sauce recipe. I personally think it's overkill and would rather have whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on the side!

* 4 oz dark chocolate
* ⅔ cup butter
* 4 eggs
* ⅔ cup sugar
* ½ cup flour

Butter six ramekins and line with a disk of parchment.
Melt the chocolate and butter together over a water bath.
Beat the eggs and sugar until thick, pale, and ribbony in a separate bowl.
Beat in the flour, and finally the chocolate mixture.
Pour into the ramekins and chill.
Just before serving, heat the oven to 400°F/200°C.
Place the moulds on a baking sheet and bake until the top is set, 12 to 14 minutes. (If you want it less runny, bake it for a few extra minutes.)
Remove and let sit five minutes.
Run a knife around the edges to separate the cake from the ramekin. (I didn't do this for the first ramekin and it was hard to get the cake out.)
Flip the ramekin with a tea towel (it's very hot!) and unmould onto a plate.
Serve with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream.
Tada!



It was amazingly quick to make!


Even the blurry picture cannot hide the gooey-ness of this dessert!

For other chocolate recipes:
* Chestnut Brownies
* Chocolate Fondue
* Chocolate Pecan Cheesecake
* Chocolate Pie with Meringue Topping
* Flourless Chocolate Torte
* French Chocolate Bark
* Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake