Une quiche Lorraine...

 

... c'est toujours bon!

The other night I had a friend come over for dinner and I wanted to make something good and simple. I opted for a nice quiche Lorraine, given that I had all the ingredients required :-) Some eggs, cream, milk, Gruyère and bacon... only good (and light) stuff!
I like to make the dough for the crust myself, I think it tastes better this way (and your guests always get impressed). You can prepare it the night before and even freeze it down if you want to use another day.
Prepare the dough, put it in the fridge, and while it cools down, grill the bacon. The rest is just about mixing the eggs and cream, and baking the quiche in the oven.
I use this recipe as a base for other quiches too, you can easily add less cream and more milk, and remove the Gruyère to make a light dish. You can also use ham instead of bacon!
Try it and enjoy!

Recipe for a big quiche

Dough (pâte brisée):
240 g flour
140 g cold butter
1 tsp salt
1 dl cold water

Filling:
300 g bacon cubes
3 eggs
3 dl cream
2.5 dl milk
pepper
nutmeg
150 g grated Gruyère

In a bowl mix butter, salt and flour with your hands and make crumbs. Add the cold water and mix fast with a wooden spatula. The dough should not be too sticky, leave it in the fridge for about 30 min.
Prepare a big tart pan with butter and flour. Roll out the dough on a floured table and transfer to the form. Bake in the oven 8-10 min at 225 C.
In a frying pan, grill the bacon cubes so they become golden. Let them cool down and remove the fat with some kitchen paper.

With a whisk, lightly mix the eggs with the cream by adding one egg at a time. Add the milk, pepper and nutmeg. No need for salt since the bacon is already salty enough.
Spread the bacon on the baked dough and pour the cream mix on top. Sprinkle grated Gruyère on top and bake in the oven 25-30 min at 225 deg.
Serve with a salad and it will make for a perfect meal! Bon app!

White chocolate mousse

When I first made dark chocolate mousse, my friends asked me right away "what about white chocolate mousse?" Not a big fan of white chocolate, I thought it would make too sweet of a dessert. But being curious and always looking for new dessert recipes, I decided to try.

In the end, I mixed and adapted a few recipes that I found on the web and the result was quite surprising. I decided to add only very little sugar and to incorporate eggwhites in the recipe to have a more fluffy mousse that is not too sweet (white chocolate is already quite sweet).
The white chocolate mousse with some strawberries was quite a success and I like this recipe very much. I would recommend it as a light-ish dessert in the summer, it's just perfect!

Recipe of white chocolate mousse (6 portions)

200 g white chocolate
2 eggyolks
2 tbsp sugar
0.6 dl cream + 2.4 dl (3 dl total)
2 eggwhites
a few drops of lemon juice
berries, mint

Chop up or grate the white chocolate in a big bowl. Whip up the eggyolks with the sugar until almost white. In a small saucepan, warm up 0.6 dl of cream at low temperature until right before it boils. Add the cream to the egg-sugar mix, carefully mix and put back in the saucepan. At low heat, mix with a wooden spatula until the cream covers it. Transfer the warm cream to the white chocolate through a sieve. Mix the cream and chocolate until obtaining a smooth mix (the chocolate has to melt entirely).
In separate bowls, whip up the 2.4 dl cream and the 2 eggwhites. Right before stiffening add the drops of lemon juice to the eggwhites. Fold in the whipped cream in 2 times in the chocolate mix. Then carefully add the stiff eggwhites. Transfer the mousse in 6 small pots and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
Decorate with berries (strawberries are my favorite with white chocolate mousse!) and some mint leaves. Enjoy :-D

Bircher Müesli, Laura's way

Bircher Müesli (or birchermüsli) is a Swiss breakfast meal that was invented by Maximilian Bircher-Benner in the late 19th century for patients in his sanatorium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli). It is composed of rolled oats soaked in water, then mixed with yoghurt and lemon juice, as well as nuts and fruits. It is usually served for breakfast but can also be eaten any time of the day.

It is different from granola and oatmeal, in that the oats are raw, and not grilled nor cooked. The original recipe recommends cream or condensed milk, which I replace with yoghurt to make it a bit lighter. Also, instead of hazelnuts or almonds, I sometimes add pecan nuts which I like very much. I usually prepare a big bowl of müesli for the whole week, it keeps very well in the fridge for a couple of days.

The recipe is a bit approximate so you'll have to try and adjust it to your taste :-)

Recipe for Birchermüesli (4 portions)

250 g rolled oats
2x the volume of water (8 dl approx)
250 g plain yoghurt
juice of one lemon
honey or sugar to taste
a handful of raisins
1 apple
a handful of chopped nuts (pecan, hazel...)
extra: some berries (raspberries, strawberries...)

Soak the oats in the water for a few hours or overnight. Remove the water (use a sieve/strainer) and put in a bowl. Add the yoghurt and mix. You can add more or less depending on how "solid" you want your bircher to be. Add the lemon juice bit by bit until you start to taste it (it should make tiny bubbles). If you want to sweeten your bircher, I recommend you add some liquid honey here (or sugar).
Grate (or dice) an apple, add it along the raisins and the chopped nuts to the bircher and mix. The nuts are not necessary but I find that they add a crunchy side to the soft müesli. Serve and decorate the bircher with some berries if you have some, it tastes even better then :-)

Note: you can add more or less of the fruits and nuts to your preference!