Soft Polenta with Ratatouille

I’ve eaten polenta on numerous occasions, and it’s always been so bland and tasteless. When set and cut into pieces, it’s boring, and when soft, it brings back bad childhood memories of being forced to eat disgusting semolina with a splat of jam. Urgh… UK school dinners (or more correctly lunches) in the 80’s.

Polenta was one of those things that I thought I just hated. That was until J ordered vegetarian polenta at The Olive and Grape for lunch. Two things were weird – he went for a vegetarian dish, and it was polenta?!?

Buttery Palmiers with Cinnamon Sugar

I had a batch of puff pastry I made a while back, and it was time I needed to use it up. I decided to make delicious buttery palmiers with cinnamon sugar. They are quick and easy to make and everyone will love them.

Use store-bought, ready-rolled, butter puff pastry for a quick cheat. They are perfect for general snacking or afternoon tea.

All-Butter Croissants

I’ve been spoilt, so spoilt that I’ve tasted fresh croissants in France. And once you’ve tasted the real deal in France, nothing will ever come close in comparison. So, if you ever happen to be visiting France, do NOT, I repeat do NOT try their fresh croissants. Otherwise, you’ll suffer a life-long torment in searching for the perfect croissant again.

Slimmed-Down Leek & Goat Cheese Quiche

Here’s the slimmed down version of quiche, as promised.
To slim down quiche, I use unbuttered filo- (phyllo-) pastry for the crust, I also use half water and no-fat milk/unsweetened milk substitute to the egg mix. I don’t particularly miss the buttery short-crust pastry, because the filling carries the quiche off.

Apricot Compote

Last year, Trader Joe’s did wonderful offers on fruit, such as 3 lbs of organic cherries for $5.99 and a dozen of organic apricots for $3.99. I very rarely buy my produce from Trader Joe’s, because their quality isn’t on par with PCC. But these were steals!

The cherries didn’t last long in our house, but the apricots were a little tart, so I let them ripen on the counter top. In a day, some of them were starting to go bad at the stem, so I decided to make a batch of apricot compote.

Cheese Sables

I made these cheese sables on Valentine’s Day and received the best compliment from J. He said “these taste just like my Uncle’s….” Now, this may not mean much to most people, but J’s uncle used to own a patisserie in the Netherlands for many many years.

These cheese sables are buttery, cheesy, crispy and delicate, suitable for general snacking, nibbles before dinner, or with an aperitif.

Profiteroles with Coffee Flavored Crème Patisserie and Chocolate Sauce

Profiteroles (cream puffs) have never been a favorite dessert of mine. I blame it on my experiences with choux pastry when I was younger – the slightly salty flavor and texture made me wanted to vomit. Since then, I’ve grown up believing that I disliked choux pastry, and anything that was made with it. That was until I decided to make profiteroles for dessert one Christmas.

I wasn’t going to fill them with vanilla-laced sweetened cream (chantilly), nor was I going to fill it with ordinary crème patisserie (pastry cream) - I was going to use coffee flavored crème patisserie. Of course, they’d have to be served with dark chocolate sauce!

Chocolate Lava Cakes

This recipe for chocolate lava cakes is not for the faint hearted – they’re pretty deadly! I made them one Christmas for dessert, and even for chocolate lovers, like us, one small ramekin would have been plenty.

The dessert has a light chocolate-sponge encasing a pool of liquid chocolate. Depending on how long you cook the cakes, you either get a huge pool of liquid chocolate or a very moist cake.

Leek & Goat Cheese Quiche

Spinach & pine-nut, Lorraine, ham & broccoli, roasted red pepper and goat cheese are all flavors of quiche that I love.

Quiche is more often than not, loaded with saturated fat. Take the rich-buttery crust, which is then filled with a custard base with far too much cream, full-fat milk and to top it off tons of cheese.

I tone down the fat in my quiche by using a mixture of unsweetened soy milk and water; I also use very strong mature (sharp) cheese, if required – that way, you only need a tiny bit. There's a natural rich creaminess to the egg custard from the duck eggs I use. You can slim down the recipe further by using layers of unbuttered filo- (phyllo-) pastry for the crust. {I will be posting the slimmed down version of this quiche later.}

Viennese Fingers

This is one of my recipes that I usually dig out when we need a host/hostess gift. I love to package them in a cellophane bag, tie it with a red bow and pop an ingredients tag onto it.

The trick to a good Viennese finger is the butter. Use the best European butter you can find/afford for this recipe.

These Viennese fingers are slightly crisp, buttery and melt in the mouth. They are quick to make, taste delicious, and the recipient will certainly thank you for them.