Boursin Hash Brown Cupcakes

Posted July 22, 2014

Filed under beef, Creams and Puddings, entree, loaf mold, pork, potato, poultry, stainless steel cookware

I cannot remember where we were, but my husband ordered a Boursin Gratin. I am not usually a fan of potatoes but those were so fragrant that i had to try them. I was surprised by the taste. It had “un je ne sais quoi” that simply made me want to eat more. And it melted in my mouth…. It was so so good. Because I did not dare to ask the waiter what was the recipe, I tried to come up with mine. So here it is. My husband declares that they are out of this world. He is German, he knows his potatoes so i will believe him;-) I dare you to try.

Ingredients for 12 large cupcakes size:

1 1/2 bag of frozen hash browns ( each bag being 30oz.)
1 1/2 cup of heavy cream
1 1/2 box of Boursin Cheese ( French Cream Cheese flavored with herbs and garlic) Cheaper at Costco!!!
1 1/2 tbsp of garlic salt ( I used Lawry’s Garlic Salt)
1/8 tsp of pepper

1. Defrost the hash brown by either placing the bags in your fridge overnight, or by placing the hashbrown in the large round mold, covering it with the octagonal silpat and microwaving it for 3 minutes. 2. In a large bowl, mix the cream, the Boursin cheese, the garlic salt and the pepper.

3. Then add the defrosted hash browns. Mix well.

4. Place this mixture into the opening of the large muffin pan that you would have placed on top of a medium perforated sheet. ( It is great for portion control;-) You do not need to spray any oil in the Demarle Cookware, however you will need to, if using any other mold. 5. And cook for 30 minutes at 400 or until the potatoes are a golden brown. You may need to cook longer if you are using tin muffin pan. Also do not forget to spray them with oil. 6. Voila!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Boursin Hash Brown Cupcakes

Servings: 6-12
Time: 45 minutes
Difficulty: easy
Print

Ingredients for 12-15 large cupcakes or 25-30 mini size:

1 1/2 bag of frozen hash browns ( each bag being 26 oz, or 737 gr. )
1 1/2 cup of heavy cream
1 1/2 box of Boursin Cheese ( French Cream Cheese flavored with herbs and garlic) Cheaper at Costco!!!
1 1/2 tbsp of garlic salt ( i used Lawry’s Garlic Salt)
1/8 tsp of pepper

Defrost the hash brown by either placing the bags in your fridge overnight, or by placing the hashbrown in the large round mold, covering it with the octagonal silpat and microwaving it for 3 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix the cream, the Boursin cheese, the garlic salt and the pepper.
Then add the defrosted hash browns. Mix well.
Place this mixture into the opening of the large muffin. ( It is great for portion control;-) You do not need to spray any oil in the Demarle Cookware, however you will need to, if using any other mold.
And cook for 30 minutes at 400 or until the potatoes are a golden brown. You may need to cook longer if you are using tin muffin pan. Also do not forget to spray them with oil.
Voila!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Pizza Rolls

Posted March 29, 2014

Filed under appetizers, entree, meat, pork, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, silpat, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Looking for an easy thing to make for lunch?? You can make those cute pizza rolls for lunch. They are easy, yummy and a breeze to make. If you are making too many which is the case with this recipe, you can freeze them and use them as you need them. Much cheaper and a hundred time much healthier than hot pockets;-)

This recipe was adapted from Appetizers from Taste of Home.

Ingredients for 15-18 Pizza Rolls :

3 cups of italian cheese ( Mixed Italian Cheese, or any other)
8 oz. or 1/2 italian sausage cooked from Jimmy Dean
1 whole package of pepperoni diced very thinly from Hormel.
1 red pepper diced very thinly as well.
1 medium onion diced very thinly as well.
12 oz. or about 1 /2 jar of tomato sauce
2 eggs ( optional)
2 packs of large wontons

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
Place the rectangular roulpat over the counter for easy filling and cleaning.
Place the wontons flat onto the roulpat.
With a pastry brush, brush the outer rim of each wonton with water.
Place 1/4 cup of the mixture in the middle of each wonton, and only 1 tsp for the small wonton.
Roll the wonton over the mixture, and fold the wonton over to roll into a sausage. Fold the sides in to close the “pizza tube”.
For smaller wontons, you can do the same, or you can press the sides together to make little purses.
Place it on the large silpat that you would have placed onto a large perforated sheet.
Repeat the steps until you have used all the mixture.
With the same pastry brush, brush some olive oil over each wonton.
Cook the pizza rolls in the oven for 12-15 minutes at 400. Serve with more tomato sauce. My son actually likes to eat them with ranch dressing. The combination is quite good, as the sauce counteracts against the spiciness of the pizza. Try it . It is very good!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Pork Pot Stickers

Posted January 20, 2014

Filed under appetizers, Large round mold, meat, octogonal silpat, pork, poultry, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, roulpat, silpat, stainless steel cookware, veal, vegetables, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

I cook many things at home because I am very curious. And if something appeals to me I want to try it. But because my husband does not stray much from his favorite ( potato, pasta and German food), it is difficult to cook new things for him. So when there is something out there, different that he likes, I will jump on it and make it;-)

I love Asian Food, I love sushi and Thai. Since he will not eat sushi, we occasionally eat thai food though we have to really twist his arms and help him turn left to the Thai Place, and not to the right to his favorite German restaurant Gerhard’s:-)

There he will order two things, Pork Pot stickers and Beef Pasta stir fry.

I have not tried to fix the latter because the pasta are quite different and I am not sure that i could duplicate that, but since Pot Stickers are well liked at our house, I decided one day that I would try my hands at it. And I will say that they are so easy to make, yummy, really cheap and and and…………they can be frozen to be used at a later time;-)

If you try to make them, give your self some times because they will make a large bunch and it takes a bit of times to make the “ravioli”.

Ingredients for about 80:

1 bag of brocoli slaw
12 oz or 1 pack of ground chicken, turkey or pork(today I used pork).
3 tbsp of fresh ginger grated
2 garlic cloves pressed
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp of salt
1/8 tsp of pepper
1 pack of wontons

Ingredients for the sauce:

1/2 cup of soy sauce
2 tsbp of rice vinegar
1 tbsp of hoisin sauce
1 tsp of toasted sesame oil

Steam the brocoli slaw according to directions, (or place it into the large round mold, place the octogonal silpat on top of that and cook it for 5 minutes.) Let it cool.
When the brocoli is cold, chop it.
Place it into a large bowl, add the meat, all the other ingredients and mix well.
Place the rectangular roulpat on your counter and lay as many wonton on it as you can. Place about a teaspoon of the meat mixture in the middle of each wonton.
With a silicone brush, wet the sides of each wonton with water and close the wontons to make a triangle.
If you do decide to freeze them, place them flat on a large silpat that you would place on a large perforated sheet. Make sure that they are not touching or they will stick to one another and it will be impossible to separate them as they are very fragile. Freeze them as such and when they are frozen, place them in a ziploc bag to keep for later use.
Place a large frying pan on the stove, melt one tbsp of butter and when the butter is sizzling, place as many wontons as you can in the pan.
Sear them for a minute and then turn them.
Throw 1/4 cup of water over the pot stickers and place the lid over them. Cook them for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile prepare the sauce that goes with it.
Eat while they are warm.

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Korma or Curry and Coconut Pork

Posted July 7, 2013

Filed under entree, meat, pork, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, stainless steel cookware, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

These past couple of days I was home visiting my sweet twin sister. It was nice to come home and catch up. Besides visiting the region, we have been cooking together. I learned to make some leaven to make my own bread. We made some chocolate truffles with a hazelnut filling, and many other things. Unlike my family, her family will eat everything!!! Asian, Indian, Mexican, Italian.. everything! So it has been very nice to eat a large array of cuisine. This evening she chose to make a Curry and Coconut Pork. She called this recipe: Korma.

I really loved this dish for several reasons: it tasted great, it cooked quite fast, it required few ingredients and it could be adapted to include other meat or even vegetables.

Korma is an Indian dish, but like many recipes it varies according to region. Sometimes you will find yogurt, cinamon and many other ingredients. I am not sure where this recipe comes from, except that it was the one my sister taught me. I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I have.

Recipe for 4-6:

2 lbs. of Pork ( 0r any other meat: chicken, fish, lamb)
1 large onion, or 2 medium-sized onions
3 garlic cloves pressed
2 tbsp of Curry
2 tbsp. of coriander
2 tsp of cumin
2 tbsp of turmeric
1 can of coconut milk
1 cup of broth
Olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, warm up the olive oil and when the oil is warm, saute the onions until they are translucent. Add the garlic and saute it as well.
Remove the onion from the pot and set aside.
In the same pot, warm up another tbsp of olive oil and saute the pork so that it is “brown on all sides”.
Add the onions, the coconut milk, the broth, the curry and all the other ingredients and bring the mixture to boil.
When the mixture has come to boil, lower the temperature to low and cook for 30 minutes.
Serve as is, or with coconut rice. Et voila!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

Posted December 5, 2012

Filed under deep flexipan, entree, meat, pork, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

There are days when I have time to wander in the grocery store in search of my would-be dinner, and there are days when I have so many things to do that it is difficult to place dinner on the table. Yesterday was one of those days. It was 7:00 when i got home and I still had a long list of things to do. What do you do?? order out? I looked in my fridge and gathered a bunch of things that would make our dinner.

This dinner was not that healthy with the bacon but it was yum, yum….

Ingredients for 4-6:

1 pack of pork tenderloin ( or two small filet)
1 pack of lean bacon or about 10 strips of bacon uncooked
salt, pepper
1 tsp. of smokehouse Maple seasoning Mix from Mc Cormick.

Remove the pork tenderloins from its plastic wrap and rinse them under cold water. With paper towels, pat the tenderloins dry. Place the two tenderloins side to side, but make sure to place the end of one tenderloin at the head of the other one so that the roast will be even in size all through. Season the tenderloins with salt, pepper and the Smokehouse maple seasoning by sprinkling then lightly all over the tenderloins. Take strips of bacon, and wrap the tenderloins together.

Place the “roast” on a flexipat and cook in warm oven for 10 minutes at 450 ( to sizzle the bacon), then turn the heat down to 350 and cook for another 20 minutes.

When the roast is cooked, remove it from the oven and let it rest for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, melt 1 tbsp. of butter in a small saucepan. When the butter is melted, add 1 tsp of flour and stir well over low-medium temperature to make a roux. Pour the juice from the pan into the saucepan and stir well. Cook for a few minutes until it thickens. You may add a bit of broth to make the sauce more liquid if you do not have enough juice from the pan. I did not need to.

Slice the pork tenderloins and serve on individual plates. Drizzle the sauce over the pork. Serve with vegetables. I served grilled asparagus ( for me), and parmesan whipped potatoes for the rest of my family.

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Maple Smokehouse Pork Tenderloin

Posted November 5, 2012

Filed under deep flexipan, entree, meat, pork, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

If you read me before, you will know that I am a fan of Costco for the variety, freshness, and price of its produce. A month ago, they sold a smokehouse pork tenderloin that i just loved, loved, loved. So the other day, I decided to make this for our dinner, and drove 30 minutes to go to the Costco just for to get that meat, only to find out that they no longer sold it…

I was a bit upset, but highly dissapointed because I was really looking forward to the taste of that meat again. Luckily I had read the ingredients and figure that i could make it taste just like that too. So I made up a recipe with liquid smoke, various spices and tried it. Though I liked it ok, it did not quite taste like it. So I tried another time, except this time I used their smokehouse herb mix. It was almost as good. So happy;-)

Ingredients for 4:

1 pork tenderloin
2 tsbp of the smokehouse herb mix
olive oil
1 cup of chicken broth

Place the tenderloin on a large plate and rub the herb mix all over the tenderloin. Place the tenderloin in a ziploc bag and back into the refrigerator. Let it marinade for 2 hours or more.

Turn the oven to 400. Take the meat out of the fridge, and place it either on a flexipat. With a pastry brush, brush some olive oil on the tenderloin, sprinkle more of the herb mixture as well on each tenderloin. Cook the meat for 20-25 minutes depending on the width of the pork tenderloin or until a meat thermometer register 150F. When the meat is cooked, remove the pork tenderloin from the oven, and let it rest for 5 minutes. Remove the tenderloin from the flexipat, add 1 cup of broth to the pan, and mix and scrape the juices. Drizzle this “sauce” on the tenderloin. Et voila!!!

I served the tenderloin with roasted Sweet potatoes fries, and roasted corn. So good!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Oven Baked Pork Tenderloins with Mustard and Fig Jam

Posted August 25, 2012

Filed under deep flexipan, entree, meat, pork, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Can you believe that school is back?! I can’t hardly believe that summer is coming to its end… Well at least, it has been fun to see the kids at school and see how excited they are all to be back. Seeing that they have lost little of their French is so heart-warming also;-) I guess i did something right:-)

It is difficult to get everything done in the evening when school is going on. Papers need to be filled up, homework need to be done and dinner needs to be fixed in a timely manner and not at 9 or 10 as I have been doing this summer….

As I made my way home, I was already thinking of what to cook this evening so i stopped by the grocery store to get what i needed. As I walked in, I was welcome with a display of fresh figs;-) They look so good and so ripe that i could not just leave them there to go bad.. and so I picked a box.

We used to have a very big fig tree outside my bedroom’s window in France and i remember reaching to get the fig from the windows as I would close or open my shutters. Those figs were so sweet and so juicy. They were so so good! What would I give to taste those again….

Well, the figs I bought this evening were sweet but were a bit of a disappointment… not juicy enough for me to eat them as they were. I am certain they will taste fine in a tart or in anything I enterprise to make…. First I thought of making a mascarpone tart with them, but then, i realized that I had the pork cooking in the oven and decided that those figs would be a good side to my meat.

Ingredients for 4-6 people: 2 pork tenderloin, 4 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper, 1 tbsp of thyme/ rosemary blend from Demarle.

Turn the oven to 375. Remove the pork from the packaging. Rinse them under running water, and pat them dry. Place the two tenderloin on the flexipan or a large grande mold. With a pastry brush, brush both tenderloin with olive oil. Sprinkle the tenderloin with salt, pepper and the Demarle thyme blend. Cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes for medium ( if the tenderloin is slim, cook for 20 minutes. If it is thicker, cook for 30 minutes).

While the pork is cooking, cook the fig jelly.

Ingredients: 16 oz of fresh fig cut in quarters, 1/4 cup of honey, 1/3 cup of sugar, the zest of a fresh lime, 2 tbsp of sharp dijon mustard, 1/3 cup of white wine, the juice of 1 lime.

In a small saucepan, place the quartered figs, the sugar and the honey and cook on a medium temperature for 10-15 minutes. Stir frequently. When the sugar is melted and the figs are “melting”. Remove the saucepan from the stove, and empty the fig jam into a chopper. Chop the mixture. Empty this mixture into a small saucepan, add 2 tbsp of mustard, 1/3 cup of white wine, the lime juice and stir. Cook for a few minutes at medium temperature.

When the tenderloins are cooked, set them outside, cover them with aluminium foil and let them rest for a few minutes. Slice thinly and drizzle the fig sauce over the pork.

Et Voila!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Pasta with a Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Sauce

Posted March 28, 2012

Filed under entree, pasta, pork, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, silpat, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Once in a a blue moon, I can cook other things than potatoes for my husband;-). On those days, my choices are still limited : croque-monsieurs, crepes or pastas. Today too lazy to fix crepes, and wanting to fix a more balanced meal, I chose to cook pasta. Cooking pasta is so much fun, because you can dress the pasta in a million different way, yet when your family do not care to have seafood or vegetables in their pasta, it somewhat restricts you with what you can prepare. Since my husband loved red pepper, i chose to prepare the pasta with a red pepper sauce. I usually make a creamy sauce where I puree the red pepper and add cream, but tonite I decided to go a lighter way.

Ingredients: 2 red pepper, 1 whole head of garlic, salt and pepper to taste, linguini or spaghetti, 2 tbsp of fresh basil chopped, 1 package of four cheese italian sausages from Johnsville, olive oil, fresh parmesan.

Slice the red pepper in half, remove the seeds and place the red pepper open face down on a silpat as well as the garlic head. Cook in a warm oven at 450 for 30 minutes or until the skin of the red pepper is scorching. Remove the red pepper from the oven and place them in a ziploc bag. Place them in the fridge to cool.

Meanwhile add 1 tsp of olive oil in a frying pan. When the oil is getting hot, add the sausages and cook them on medium-high for about 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium low, cover the pan and cook them for another 7-10 minutes or until they are cooked through. Make sure to turn them during cooking so that they are cooked evenly on all sides. When the sausages are cooked, set the pan aside and keep warm until the rest of the meal is ready.

Cook the pasta according to the directions of the package. While the pasta are cooking, prepare the sauce. When the pepper have cooled ( 10-15 minutes), remove the peppers one by one from the ziploc bag and peel them. Place the red pepper and the garlic in a chopper and puree them. Add the chopped basil, 1 tbsp of olive oil, 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/8 tsp of pepper and mix well. When the pastas are cooked, drain them and add 1/4 cup of the sauce in the pasta. Mix well. Slice the sausages in 1 inch cut and add them to the pasta. Serve tha pasta on each plate, drizzle more sauce and sprinkle some fresh parmesan. Et voila!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Pork Saltimboca

Posted February 10, 2012

Filed under entree, meat, pork, silpat, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Though I eat a lot of fish, I never run out of ideas on how to prepare it. It is another story for fixing my husband meal. It is difficult to not fall in a rut when fixing his meals since his tastes are so limited. Today I decided to fix pork saltimboca, it is really easy, tasty and takes no time to prepare. You can also adapt this recipe to chicken and veal.

Ingredients: 1 boneless pork chop per person, 2 slices of very thin prosciutto or similar ham per pork chop, fresh sage, salt, pepper, 1/4 cup of broth, 1/4 cup of white wine, 1 tsbp of fresh lemon juice.

Place a pork chop in the middle of the roulpat. Fold the roulpat over and with the rolling-pin, “beat” the pork chop until it is thin and even throughout. Open the roulpat, sprinkle the pork chop with salt, pepper, and fresh sage or powdered sage. Place the 2 slices of prosciutto to cover the whole pork chop. Fold the pork chop and close it with a toothpick.

There are two ways you can cook those pork chops:

1. in the frying pan: Dust a little bit of flour over the pork chops. Melt 1 tsp of butter along 1 tsp of love oil in a frying pan and turn the heat up to sizzle. When the butter is sizzling, place the pork chop in the frying pan and cook for 2-3 minute on each side. Repeat the process for each pork chops. Place the pork chops on a plate and cover them with an aluminium foil to keep them warm.

2. Place the pork chops on a silpat. With a pastry brush, brush a little of olive oil and sprinkle the top with salt and pepper. Cook for 8 minutes at 375.

To prepare the sauce, you can deglaze the saucepan used earlier. In any case, melt 1 tsbp of butter and when the butter is sizzling, add 1/4 cup of broth, 1/4 cup of white wine, 1 tsp of lemon juice. Bring the mixture to boil and let it cook until it is reduced to a 1/3. Season with salt and pepper. You may even add a dash of sugar to get rid of the tartness of the lemon juice.

To serve, place the pork chop on a plate over fresh pasta and drizzle some of that sauce over it. I served the pork chops with oven roasted baby bok choy.

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

An Old Time Favorite: Roti de Porc au Lait or Pork Roast in a Milk Sauce

Posted November 14, 2011

Filed under entree, pork, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Who cooks dinner at home on Sundays?you or your husband?! After talking to many of my friends, it appears that many husbands cook as much, or even more than their spouses at home and they are often the ones cooking on Sundays. If most dinners are cooked on the stove during the week, it seems that the grill is the medium of choice for Sundays dinner. In France, you will rarely see men in the kitchen, and you will rarely see anyone using the grill except in the summer. Really the main difference between a weekly meal and a Sunday meal in France, is the time that is spent in the kitchen. On weekdays, the meal is generally fairly quick and easy to fix whereas on the weekends and most particularly on Sundays, the meal is more delicate and requires more preparation. In France, it was customary to have dishes such as Boeuf Bourguignon, or Coq au Vin. I loved those dishes. Well today I decided that I would start cooking those for my family despite the fact that my husband would not eat them… too bad for him , right?!?! So today we had a recipe that my mom made quite often: Pork Roast in a milk Sauce or Roti de Porc au Lait. It is a fairly easy recipe that requires very few ingredients. All it takes is time… but it is worth it!!!

Ingredients: 1 pork loin roast, 2 tbsp of butter, 1 medium onion chopped, 1 pack of small carrots, 1 tbsp of flour, 2 cups of milk, 1 bouquet garni ( parsley, thyme, rosemary in bundle), 2 potatoes per person, cut in large squares.

Season the pork roast with salt and pepper. In a large pot, melt the butter and when the butter is sizzling saute the pork loin on either side. Remove the pork roast from the pot and add the onions to the pot. Saute them until they are becoming brown and soft. Add the carrots and saute them as well. Add 1 tbsp of flour and stir. Then empty 2 cup of milk in the pot and bring the mixture to boil. Cook for a few minutes and add the roast to the sauce as well as the bouquet garni. Taste the sauce and add more salt and pepper if you feel it is necessary. Lower the temperature to low, place the lid over the pot and cook the roast for about 40 minutes. Stir every 15 minutes and turn the roast to make sure that the roast is being cooked on all sides. 15 minutes before the end, add the potatoes.

When the roast has cooked for about 40 minutes, remove the roast from the pot and slice it. To serve, place a few slices on each plate, spoon the sauce over the meat and place a few potatoes on the sides of the meat. Et voila!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!