lundi 22 octobre 2007

the magic of *crème fraiche*

The secret to French cuisine is (I've mentioned it in my previous entry but I've now decided it's important enough for a dedicated post) ...... CREME FRAICHE!!  It's out!! Crème fraiche is easy, cheap, and delicious!!  I've done it!  I've killed the Michelin 3 star restaurants and the fine French dining industry as a whole... forever. 

Dishes

Pasta with pepper mushroom cream sauce Alki
30 Rock Carbonara Pizza Max + Alki

so i'm slightly obsessed with the pepper sauce at "au pere louis".  in fact, i order the steak ONLY to have that small cup of heaven on the side of my plate.  i could eat it by the spoonfuls. 

saturday afternoon, i was at monoprix, and i thought to myself, "hey, can I make a scrumptious pepper sauce?"  hell of course i can!

so with my amazing culinary intuition, i found the necessary ingredients (recipe to follow), called pablo over for lunch, and embarked on my mission.  

crème fraiche (i opted for 15% fat to be healthy.  ha).  onions.  pepper.  and mushrooms.  === TOUR D'ARGENT menu material.  ok, i might have dropped a bit too much pepper as the weakling spaniard was coughing the whole time.  nonetheless, it was GOOD.

and then tonight, max came over and we had a night of EFFICIENCY.  we went for a 20-minute run.  bought some veggies at monoprix.  and then made a CARBONARA pizza.  again, with the 15% crème fraiche.  max was mostly in charge of the pizza (after which we made duncan hines brownies which mary brought from market basket lexington wassap!  ... to which we added 3 huge tablespoons of peanut butter to make possibly the best brownies ever.  EVER).  
so max gets most of the credit for the pizza.  again, a bit of creme fraiche, minced meat, half a tomato, and some fresh mozzarella... DELICIEUX (i'm running out of adjectives in english).  maybe not tour d'argent, but definitely emma's (cambridge wassap!).  

and then we watched five episodes of 30 rock.  max is in love with tina fey.  and i want to be her.  

Pete: "We own K-Mart now?"

Jack: "No, so why do you dress like we do?"


Pasta with Pepper Mushroom Cream Sauce (man, i need a better name for that... any suggestions?)

Ingredients
Linguini
Lots of onions
15% crème fraiche
mushrooms
pepper (freshly ground plus non-freshly ground)
salt
olive oil


sauté the onions (use more onions than you think you need) until they are a nice, golden brown (they always say that in recipes!).  add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes.  then add the crème fraiche and stir slowly over medium heat.  start adding pepper.  but BEWARE with the pepper.  add a bit of salt.  then continue adding pepper, all the while tasting it and TESTING it, until you find the perfect blend. 

trust me, this is good.  and easy!

30 Rock Carbonara Pizza
Serves 2 people

1 Pate Brisé (Pizza crust)
15% Crème Fraiche
2 patties of minced meat
1/2 tomato
1 ball of fresh mozzarella (125 grams)
salt and pepper to season
1/4 of an orange bell pepper (that was just for kicks!)

okay, i wasn't paying complete attention while max was preparing the sauce but i'll do my best.  cook the minced patties in a frying pan.  add the tomato and orange bell pepper.  stir in the crème fraiche (again not soo good with proportions but use your intuition).  season with salt and pepper (and maybe basil which we didn't do but i'm sure would be delicious).  and voila, the sauce is ready!!

spread the sauce on the pizza crust, add slices of fresh mozzarella and stick it in the oven for 10-15 minutes.  

again, so easy and SO delicious.  i surprise myself sometimes.  

there you have it.  let's give it up for ... crème fraiche.  




1 commentaire:

Heather a dit…

sounds delish! def have to try that peppersauce! i have some good recipes too! no blog access, but i'll send 'em to you!