Paris I love you !

Pictures taken these three last years

Around olive oil #2 - Paola's garlic bread with herbs

La recette en français ...

Paola is my italian friend who already gave me her family recipe from tiramisu, a must-have in every kitchen.

So I was curious when she brought this simple garlic bread for a picnic last year. We celebrated the end of our reading group, and this bread was surrounded by gorgeous and sophisticated dishes. But from the time we tasted it, we loved it !

You can prepare your own bread dough, it's quite easy. But if you're lack of time, you can also buy a prepared pizza dough, it works perfectly !

You can eat this garlic bread fresh for the oven when it's still warm. You can also make it a few hours ahead and bring it for a picnic, wonderful anyway :-)

Paola's garlic bread with herbs

for the bread dough

The recipe is from Jamie Oliver and it works perfectly. The amount of flour is 1 kg, but 750g is enough for 4 pizzas in my kitchen. The bread is also excellent !

- 750g flour (I use a mix of wheat and whole wheat)

- 3/4 Tbsp salt

- 1 sachet of dry yeast (11g, I use SAF brand)

- 3/4 Tbsp caster sugar

- around 500ml lukewarm water

Mix the flours and salt in a bowl big enough for all the dough. Add the yeast and sugar to the water, mix up with a fork and leave for a few minutes. Pour 1/3 of the water into the flour and mix using a fork. Do the same with the rest of the water. When it's too hard to work with the fork, dust your surface with a little flour and knead the dough. Use your left hand to stretch the dough towards you and your right hand to push the dough away from you at the same time. Repeat this until you have a smooth soft dough.

Put the dough in your bowl, cover and let it rest at room temperature about half an hour. 

for the herbs ang garlic bread

Feel free to use fresh herbs ; since only my thyme survived this winter, well, I used dried !

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 4 Tbsp olive oil

- 1 Tbsp dry rosemary

- 1 Tbsp dry oregano

- 1 Tbsp fresh thyme + for dusting

- sea salt and freshly ground pepper

- more olive oil for drizzle

When you're ready to cook the pizza, preheat your oven to 240°C with a pizza stone if you own one. 

Take around 1/4 of the dough, dust your surface and roll the dough out into a circle about 0.5cm thick. Transfer on a baking paper dusted with a little flour. You can prepare all the pizza bases doing the same. Let rest for 15 minutes.

Smash the garlic up to a paste with the olive oil. Roughly smash this herbs in  a pestle and mortar. Smear the garlic oil over the pizza base and sprinkle over the herbs. Season generously with black pepper and a little salt. Cook until gold and crisp, and drizzle with extra olive oil just before serving.

Around olive oil #1 - The seaweed tartare from Sylviane

Read the french recipe ...

Or oyster without oyster !

I received a early Christmas gift last December : a package of 8 different olive oils. Since I'm a big fan of olive oil in my kitchen, I was like a kid ! I was lucky to taste all of these oils last November in Soissons. Even if it was around 10 am, I enjoyed eating pieces of bread dipped with varieties of olive oils ! Olive oil is magical ; it could be bitter and even sour for the stronger varieties if eaten by itself, but it also can sublimate a very simple dish.

So I decided to share my favourite olive oil recipes ; most of them are very simple and often take place on my table.

I always thought that I didn't like seaweed or strong iodized taste. That was before the seaweed tartare from Sylviane ! A very simple spread for appetizer, made in five minutes. Eaten in good company near the Bourget's lake last summer, it was just perfect …

Multigrains cake with beetroot and orange

Version française ...

It seems that I'm fed up with beetroot and its friends, aka winter vegetables. So sad :-( until next autumn.

I just feel like eating green and fresh meals these sunny days. So when I found this lonely beetroot in the bottom of my fridge, I remembered a recipe of beetroot and carrot bread in the excellent book of Molly Brown, grains, seeds and legumes.

This recipe is in the bread and crackers chapter. I don't understand why, since it really looks and tastes like a cake. But with all the changes I did, it may really be a bread at the beginning ...

The cake is delicious anyway : moist thanks to the beetroot puree, full of grains (I love that !), full of orange and spices flavors, it also has a beautiful pink color. Perfect for tea time, breakfast or snack ...

Plum, cardamom and ginger ice cream

Lire en français ...

One of those dishes that you love or hate :-)

So if you're a plum and spice lover, this ice cream may be for you. Otherwise, come the next time !

Its rich flavor matches perfectly with my amaretti. I finished my lunch yesterday with the last little one biscuit and two scoop of this ice cream, yummy !