(Final) Cooking Praxis #7- French Cuisine
1.) Research and inquiry about a course/meal
I really enjoyed researching recipes for this specific praxis. I took Spanish throughout high school and was always cooking and sampling Spanish or Latino food, not so much French food the other classes were making. I was also very set on making this last meal fantastic and to go "all out" on a long, elaborate, enjoyable meal. Finding recipes wasn't that hard, I did find some websites that were specifically in French but that didn't cause a huge issue. Between my Betty Crocker's International Cook Book and the Internet I found some great recipes for an extravagant French meal. I chose to have many stages to my meal: an appetizer of salad (with French Salad Dressing) and homemade French Bread, an entree of Salmon with Lemon and Dill, with two sides of French Garden Peas and Green Beans and Zucchini with Sauce Verte. Lastly, for dessert I would make a French Chocolate Lava Cake which I was very excited to sample!
Recipes:
-Garden Fresh Lettuce with French Salad Dressing
1 cup canola oil
3/4 cup vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon salt
1 small piece garlic
Put all ingredients in a quart jar. Shake well until the sugar is dissolved. Store in refrigerator.
(Recipe found here: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1815,159191-246195,00.html)
-Roasted Salmon with Zucchini, Lemon, and Dill
Serves 4
Directions
(Read more at Marthastewart.com: Roasted Salmon With Zucchini, Lemon, and Dill and more delicious recipes, smart cooking tips, and video demonstrations on marthastewart.com)
-Green Beans and Zucchini with Sauce Verte
“Sauce verte is French for "green sauce." In this recipe, the sauce gets its vibrant color from basil, green onion, parsley, and capers. Any leftover sauce can be stirred into couscous or rice, or served with grilled chicken or fish.”
Makes 6 servings.
Sauce verte:
Vegetables:
For sauce verte:
Blend first 7 ingredients in processor until finely chopped. With machine running, gradually add olive oil. Process until coarse puree forms. Season sauce verte to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.
For vegetables:
Heat oil in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add vegetables; stir until coated. Sprinkle with salt and 3 tablespoons water. Cover; cook vegetables until almost crisp-tender, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Uncover; cook until vegetables are just tender, about 2 minutes longer. Stir in enough sauce verte to coat vegetables generously. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl. Garnish with parsley and serve.
(Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Green-Beans-and-Zucchini-with-Sauce-Verte-359389#ixzz0wFfsvPqb)
-French Bread
“French commercial bakeries have ovens that can give this loaf its legendary crust. A home oven can’t achieve the same results, but brushing the loaf with cold water encourages a crackly crust.”
1 package active dry yeast
1 ¼ cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 ¾ t o3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 egg white
2 tablespoons cold water
Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in sugar, salt and 2 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic; about five minutes. Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover with damp cloth; let rise in warm place until double; 1 ½ - 2 hours. (Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.)
Punch down dough; cover and let rest 15 minutes. Grease cookie sheet; sprinkle with cornmeal. Roll dough into rectangle, 15 x 10 inches. Roll up tightly, beginning at 15-inch side; seal edge. Roll gently back and forth to taper ends. Place on cookie sheet. Make ¼-inch slashes in loaf at 2-inch intervals or 1 lengthwise slash. Brush top of loaf with cold water. Let rise uncovered until double, 1 ½ hours.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Brush loaf with cold water. Bake 20 minutes. Mix egg white and 2 tablespoons water; brush over load. Bake until load is deep golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped, about 25 minutes.
1 loaf.
(Recipe from Betty Crocker’s New International Cookbook pg. 293.)
-French Garden Peas
“In France, the arrival of the first tiny sweet peas (petis pois) is cause for celebration. The French stew them with butter and a sprinkling of sugar and stir in gala ribbons of tender, pale lettuce.”
1 ½ cups shelled fresh green peas* (1 ½ pounds in pods)
1 cup shredded lettuce
3 green onions, sliced
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon sugar
Heat all ingredients to boiling; reduce heart/ Cover and simmer until peas are tender. About 8 minutes.
4 servings.
*1 package (10 ounces) frozen green peas can be substituted for the fresh peas.
(Recipe from Betty Crocker’s New International Cookbook pg. 253.)
-Chocolate Lava Cake Recipe:
"Moelleux au Chocolat… A French classic that literally melts in your mouth!!! This dessert is usually made in individual ramekins, but see the serving ideas below for other possibilities."
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients (4 people):
6 oz. Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate (or use your favorite 70% dark chocolate bar)
6 oz. Butter (diced, room temperature)
3 Eggs
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1/3 cup Flour
Butter for Ramekins
How to Make It:
Preheat oven to 350°F
1. Melt chocolate on low flame in a bain-marie (double boiler). When melted, take of flame, and…
2. Stir in diced butter, until it melts.
3. In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar, until it starts to whiten.
4. Stir in melted chocolate and then the flour.
5. Butter 4 individual ramekins, and pour in chocolate batter.
6. Cook for about 10 minutes.
7. Tip ramekins upside down onto dessert plates and serve.
Voilà!
Tips:
You can definitely prepare your chocolate lave cake recipe ahead of time, and then bake 10 minutes before serving. I always do it this way!
In terms of buttering the ramekins: butter the bottoms first, and then butter the sides, wiping from the bottom up to the top. It helps the chocolate to rise even more.
In terms of baking time… well, it depends on how runny you want it! I like it with a super-liquid-oozing center -- so do my guests! For this, you want the top to be cooked through, but the center to be liquid. You can check with a toothpick after 10 minutes of baking.
If you don't like liquid-center chocolate desserts, just cook for a little longer, and you will have an incredibly moist chocolate cake. So, either way, you can't go wrong!
Serving Ideas:
You can, if you want, serve your chocolate lava cake recipe with a Crème Anglaise (English Cream) or a Coulis aux Framboises (Raspberry Sauce). Personally, I always serve it as is (no sauce). And honestly, everyone FALLS IN LOVE with this dessert!!! How could they not?!!!
(This recipe found: http://www.famousfrenchdesserts.com/chocolate-lava-cake-recipe.html)
2.) Gathering/hunting/harvesting
This particular meal didn't cost me a cent because my Dad offered to buy my groceries for me (all I needed was green onions, salmon fillets and fresh lemons). Although it did cost me an entire day, which of course was a hot, sunny, beautiful day out. I literally spent the entire day either cooking or cleaning. I got up 7:30am, started making my dough for the French Bread around 8 am and didn't stop cooking or cleaning the kitchen until good after 6pm. It was a good thing I started early in the day because if I had tried making my bread and salad dressing while trying to watch all my other dishes it would have been total chaos. So I’m pretty proud of my time management skills.
3.) Processing and preparation
Like I said I started my French cooking off with making my French bread. I first mixed my ingredients, kneaded it and let it rise for about 2 hours. About an hour into letting it rise I went to check on it and was a little concerned it wasn’t rise fast enough or at all. The cook book said to put the dough in a warm place to rise so I just stuck it in the microwave thinking it was probably warmer than our cool kitchen. And it seemed to work because after letting it rise I went to check up on it and it had doubled in size. I’m glad it ended up rising because I would have had to mix a new solution of yeast and warm water and mixed it in with the non-rising dough. It definitely would have been a hassle. Other than the concern about my bread it came out great. Nice hard crust that I love with a soft, light inside. The French bread looked beautifully golden brown too.
After making my French bread I decided it would be a good idea to make my French Salad Dressing so I could get it out of the way. It was really easy to make. I simply had to measure and mix my ingredients, with a little bit of chopping the onion required. Next time I think I am going to cut the recipe in half because it did make a lot of dressing and for 3 people it seemed like way too much. I’m hoping we can work off of it the next week or so. I wonder how long natural homemade dressing can last before they start to go bad.
I had a couple hours before I could start making the warm dishes so I spent my time reading the textbook and cleaning the kitchen: washing dishes, mopping the floor and wiping down our stainless steel appliances. Sadly though when Christine and Dad got home neither of them noticed all of my hard work. I now know why wives yell at their husbands for not getting an recognition for cooking and cleaning. Haha.
Around 4:30pm I started preparing my warm dishes: the salmon, garden peas and zucchini/green bean recipe. I chopped all my green onions required, picking a handful of lettuce and assembled all of my pots and pans as if I was going to start cooking. I put all of my ingredients in the correct cookware: the peas, lettuce and green onions in a pot to boil and the zucchini, squash and green beans in a large saucepan. When the time came to flick on the gas burners I’d be ready. I then covered my salmon fillets in oil, so they wouldn’t stick to the grill and sprinkled them with dill weed and lemon juice. Now I know the recipe calls for the salmon to be broiled with zucchini. Well first off my Dad didn’t want me cooking the fish inside afraid we’d have an unpleasant after smell so he had me cook the fillets on the grill out of the porch and I had already had a recipe for zucchini so I just eliminated them from the recipe completely. And I have to say, a person definitely needs some skills when operating a grill. I was so scared of burning the fillets I went out every four minutes to check on them. Then when flames started licking up at my fish I got all scared my fish would get burned, but when I asked my Dad if that was normal he said it was fine. Well let’s just say my salmon got a little toasted on the bottom. Definitely need practice when working with the grill, although my Dad did have a good point when he said it would have been a lot harder working on a grill with coal briquettes. Could have been a lot worse I suppose.
After we had our dinner of Salmon with Lemon and Dill, French bread with leftover Sauce Verte for a spread, Fresh Garden Peas and Zucchini and Green Beans with Sauce Verte I made my most anticipated dish: Chocolate Lava Cake. Now I didn’t have the cone/triangle shaped baking pans called “Ramekins” so I improvised and made it in a brownie or cake pan which was 8 x 8 inches. I essentially followed the entire recipe except when it came to cook the batter in the ramekins I just poured out the batter into a pan, covered it with melted chocolate and baked it. Then I let it cool for about 10 minutes and then covered it with more melted chocolate. Pretty easy recipe for something that looks very sophisticated.
4.) Consumption
The French bread was delicious! It came out perfect and I’m excited to use the leftovers for sandwiches or French Toast. I will definitely use this same recipe in the future. The French Salad Dressing was really good as well. I’m usually a Ranch or Italian Dressing person so this was the first time I’ve had this particular dressing, but I really liked it. I will probably make it in the future but cut the recipe in half. The Fresh Garden Peas was my favorite vegetable dish but that could just be that I really like peas. The Zucchini and Greens Beans with Sauce Verte was alright but I wasn’t a huge fan of the Sauce Verte which was a little strong for me. I think I’m just used to eating plain steamed vegetables. The Salmon with Lemon and Dill was delicious, even with the lightly burnt bottoms. I love fish and it’s good for you too! The Chocolate Lava Cake was melt in your mouth delicious. Will definitely be making this again, probably for a birthday or special occasion
Photos
French Bread
Ingredients: Sugar, Yeast, Flour, Egg, Salt, Corn Meal
Letting my dough rise
Rolled out the dough and covered it in corn meal.
After being baked. Smelling SO good!
Cut and ready to be sampled.
Beautiful bread!
Ready to be served.
French Salad Dressing
Ingredients: Sugar, Salt, Oil, Vinegar, Onion, Garlic and Ketchup.
Mixed and delicious!
Final product of the salad dressing. The coarsely chopped onions
added a lot of flavor and texture to the dressing.
Sauce Verte
Ingredients: Dijon Mustard, Parsley, Basil, Olive Oil,
Lemon Juice, Green Onions and Garlic.
Sauce Verte all mixed and blended.
Fresh Garden Peas
For the one cup of lettuce required for the recipe I just
grabbed a handful of fresh lettuce from the garden.
Peas and lettuce ready to be cooked.
Green onions for the Fresh Garden Peas.
All the ingredients ready to be cooked. .
Final product of the Fresh Garden Peas.
Greens Beans and Zucchini in Sauce Verte
Zucchini, squash, green beans, oil and parsley ready to be cooked.
Final product of the Zucchini and Green Beans with Sauce Verte.
Salmon with Lemon and Dill
Fresh beautiful salmon.
Ingredients: Dill, lemon and oil.
Salmon coated with oil, dill and lemon.
Ready to be cooked.
Salmon cooked, garnished with lemons and ready to be served
Tablescape
View of the dinner table with all my dishes layed out.
French Bread in the back with the left over Sauce Verte for a spread.
The Salmon, Garden Peas and Zucchini and Green Beans.
Each person with their own individual salad waiting to
be topped with my French Salad Dressing.
Pulled out our nice chinaware too.
French Bread with the leftover Sauce Verte.
Dad getting ready to eat my French cuisine.
Chocolate Lava Cake
Ingredients (minus my chocolate bars): Butter, Eggs, Sugar and Flour.
Mixing my batter.
After scraping and licking the batter bowl.
Licking the batter spoon.
Final product of my Chocolate Lava Cake.
The Chocolate Lava Cake came out perfect!
See the chocolate lava inside?
I really enjoyed researching recipes for this specific praxis. I took Spanish throughout high school and was always cooking and sampling Spanish or Latino food, not so much French food the other classes were making. I was also very set on making this last meal fantastic and to go "all out" on a long, elaborate, enjoyable meal. Finding recipes wasn't that hard, I did find some websites that were specifically in French but that didn't cause a huge issue. Between my Betty Crocker's International Cook Book and the Internet I found some great recipes for an extravagant French meal. I chose to have many stages to my meal: an appetizer of salad (with French Salad Dressing) and homemade French Bread, an entree of Salmon with Lemon and Dill, with two sides of French Garden Peas and Green Beans and Zucchini with Sauce Verte. Lastly, for dessert I would make a French Chocolate Lava Cake which I was very excited to sample!
Recipes:
-Garden Fresh Lettuce with French Salad Dressing
1 cup canola oil
3/4 cup vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon salt
1 small piece garlic
Put all ingredients in a quart jar. Shake well until the sugar is dissolved. Store in refrigerator.
(Recipe found here: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1815,159191-246195,00.html)
-Roasted Salmon with Zucchini, Lemon, and Dill
Serves 4
- 1 1/2 pounds (about 3 medium) zucchini, cut diagonally into 1-inch-thick pieces
- 2 lemons, quartered, seeds removed
- 8 sprigs fresh dill
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- 4 (about 8 ounces each) skinless salmon fillets
Directions
- Heat broiler, with rack 4 inches from heat. Combine zucchini, lemons, and dill on a large rimmed broiler-proof baking sheet. Drizzle with oil, and season with salt and pepper; toss to coat.
- Nestle salmon fillets among vegetables; season generously with salt and pepper. Broil until vegetables are tender and fish is opaque throughout, 15 to 20 minutes.
(Read more at Marthastewart.com: Roasted Salmon With Zucchini, Lemon, and Dill and more delicious recipes, smart cooking tips, and video demonstrations on marthastewart.com)
-Green Beans and Zucchini with Sauce Verte
“Sauce verte is French for "green sauce." In this recipe, the sauce gets its vibrant color from basil, green onion, parsley, and capers. Any leftover sauce can be stirred into couscous or rice, or served with grilled chicken or fish.”
Makes 6 servings.
Sauce verte:
- 1/3 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves
- 1 green onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 tablespoons (packed) fresh Italian parsley
- 2 tablespoons drained capers
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Vegetables:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound green beans, stem end trimmed
- 12 ounces zucchini, halved lengthwise, each half cut lengthwise into 1/3-inch-wide strips
- 3 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley leaves (for garnish)
For sauce verte:
Blend first 7 ingredients in processor until finely chopped. With machine running, gradually add olive oil. Process until coarse puree forms. Season sauce verte to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.
For vegetables:
Heat oil in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add vegetables; stir until coated. Sprinkle with salt and 3 tablespoons water. Cover; cook vegetables until almost crisp-tender, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Uncover; cook until vegetables are just tender, about 2 minutes longer. Stir in enough sauce verte to coat vegetables generously. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl. Garnish with parsley and serve.
(Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Green-Beans-and-Zucchini-with-Sauce-Verte-359389#ixzz0wFfsvPqb)
-French Bread
“French commercial bakeries have ovens that can give this loaf its legendary crust. A home oven can’t achieve the same results, but brushing the loaf with cold water encourages a crackly crust.”
1 package active dry yeast
1 ¼ cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 ¾ t o3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 egg white
2 tablespoons cold water
Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in sugar, salt and 2 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic; about five minutes. Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover with damp cloth; let rise in warm place until double; 1 ½ - 2 hours. (Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.)
Punch down dough; cover and let rest 15 minutes. Grease cookie sheet; sprinkle with cornmeal. Roll dough into rectangle, 15 x 10 inches. Roll up tightly, beginning at 15-inch side; seal edge. Roll gently back and forth to taper ends. Place on cookie sheet. Make ¼-inch slashes in loaf at 2-inch intervals or 1 lengthwise slash. Brush top of loaf with cold water. Let rise uncovered until double, 1 ½ hours.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Brush loaf with cold water. Bake 20 minutes. Mix egg white and 2 tablespoons water; brush over load. Bake until load is deep golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped, about 25 minutes.
1 loaf.
(Recipe from Betty Crocker’s New International Cookbook pg. 293.)
-French Garden Peas
“In France, the arrival of the first tiny sweet peas (petis pois) is cause for celebration. The French stew them with butter and a sprinkling of sugar and stir in gala ribbons of tender, pale lettuce.”
1 ½ cups shelled fresh green peas* (1 ½ pounds in pods)
1 cup shredded lettuce
3 green onions, sliced
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon sugar
Heat all ingredients to boiling; reduce heart/ Cover and simmer until peas are tender. About 8 minutes.
4 servings.
*1 package (10 ounces) frozen green peas can be substituted for the fresh peas.
(Recipe from Betty Crocker’s New International Cookbook pg. 253.)
-Chocolate Lava Cake Recipe:
"Moelleux au Chocolat… A French classic that literally melts in your mouth!!! This dessert is usually made in individual ramekins, but see the serving ideas below for other possibilities."
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients (4 people):
6 oz. Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate (or use your favorite 70% dark chocolate bar)
6 oz. Butter (diced, room temperature)
3 Eggs
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1/3 cup Flour
Butter for Ramekins
How to Make It:
Preheat oven to 350°F
1. Melt chocolate on low flame in a bain-marie (double boiler). When melted, take of flame, and…
2. Stir in diced butter, until it melts.
3. In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar, until it starts to whiten.
4. Stir in melted chocolate and then the flour.
5. Butter 4 individual ramekins, and pour in chocolate batter.
6. Cook for about 10 minutes.
7. Tip ramekins upside down onto dessert plates and serve.
Voilà!
Tips:
You can definitely prepare your chocolate lave cake recipe ahead of time, and then bake 10 minutes before serving. I always do it this way!
In terms of buttering the ramekins: butter the bottoms first, and then butter the sides, wiping from the bottom up to the top. It helps the chocolate to rise even more.
In terms of baking time… well, it depends on how runny you want it! I like it with a super-liquid-oozing center -- so do my guests! For this, you want the top to be cooked through, but the center to be liquid. You can check with a toothpick after 10 minutes of baking.
If you don't like liquid-center chocolate desserts, just cook for a little longer, and you will have an incredibly moist chocolate cake. So, either way, you can't go wrong!
Serving Ideas:
You can, if you want, serve your chocolate lava cake recipe with a Crème Anglaise (English Cream) or a Coulis aux Framboises (Raspberry Sauce). Personally, I always serve it as is (no sauce). And honestly, everyone FALLS IN LOVE with this dessert!!! How could they not?!!!
(This recipe found: http://www.famousfrenchdesserts.com/chocolate-lava-cake-recipe.html)
2.) Gathering/hunting/harvesting
This particular meal didn't cost me a cent because my Dad offered to buy my groceries for me (all I needed was green onions, salmon fillets and fresh lemons). Although it did cost me an entire day, which of course was a hot, sunny, beautiful day out. I literally spent the entire day either cooking or cleaning. I got up 7:30am, started making my dough for the French Bread around 8 am and didn't stop cooking or cleaning the kitchen until good after 6pm. It was a good thing I started early in the day because if I had tried making my bread and salad dressing while trying to watch all my other dishes it would have been total chaos. So I’m pretty proud of my time management skills.
3.) Processing and preparation
Like I said I started my French cooking off with making my French bread. I first mixed my ingredients, kneaded it and let it rise for about 2 hours. About an hour into letting it rise I went to check on it and was a little concerned it wasn’t rise fast enough or at all. The cook book said to put the dough in a warm place to rise so I just stuck it in the microwave thinking it was probably warmer than our cool kitchen. And it seemed to work because after letting it rise I went to check up on it and it had doubled in size. I’m glad it ended up rising because I would have had to mix a new solution of yeast and warm water and mixed it in with the non-rising dough. It definitely would have been a hassle. Other than the concern about my bread it came out great. Nice hard crust that I love with a soft, light inside. The French bread looked beautifully golden brown too.
After making my French bread I decided it would be a good idea to make my French Salad Dressing so I could get it out of the way. It was really easy to make. I simply had to measure and mix my ingredients, with a little bit of chopping the onion required. Next time I think I am going to cut the recipe in half because it did make a lot of dressing and for 3 people it seemed like way too much. I’m hoping we can work off of it the next week or so. I wonder how long natural homemade dressing can last before they start to go bad.
I had a couple hours before I could start making the warm dishes so I spent my time reading the textbook and cleaning the kitchen: washing dishes, mopping the floor and wiping down our stainless steel appliances. Sadly though when Christine and Dad got home neither of them noticed all of my hard work. I now know why wives yell at their husbands for not getting an recognition for cooking and cleaning. Haha.
Around 4:30pm I started preparing my warm dishes: the salmon, garden peas and zucchini/green bean recipe. I chopped all my green onions required, picking a handful of lettuce and assembled all of my pots and pans as if I was going to start cooking. I put all of my ingredients in the correct cookware: the peas, lettuce and green onions in a pot to boil and the zucchini, squash and green beans in a large saucepan. When the time came to flick on the gas burners I’d be ready. I then covered my salmon fillets in oil, so they wouldn’t stick to the grill and sprinkled them with dill weed and lemon juice. Now I know the recipe calls for the salmon to be broiled with zucchini. Well first off my Dad didn’t want me cooking the fish inside afraid we’d have an unpleasant after smell so he had me cook the fillets on the grill out of the porch and I had already had a recipe for zucchini so I just eliminated them from the recipe completely. And I have to say, a person definitely needs some skills when operating a grill. I was so scared of burning the fillets I went out every four minutes to check on them. Then when flames started licking up at my fish I got all scared my fish would get burned, but when I asked my Dad if that was normal he said it was fine. Well let’s just say my salmon got a little toasted on the bottom. Definitely need practice when working with the grill, although my Dad did have a good point when he said it would have been a lot harder working on a grill with coal briquettes. Could have been a lot worse I suppose.
After we had our dinner of Salmon with Lemon and Dill, French bread with leftover Sauce Verte for a spread, Fresh Garden Peas and Zucchini and Green Beans with Sauce Verte I made my most anticipated dish: Chocolate Lava Cake. Now I didn’t have the cone/triangle shaped baking pans called “Ramekins” so I improvised and made it in a brownie or cake pan which was 8 x 8 inches. I essentially followed the entire recipe except when it came to cook the batter in the ramekins I just poured out the batter into a pan, covered it with melted chocolate and baked it. Then I let it cool for about 10 minutes and then covered it with more melted chocolate. Pretty easy recipe for something that looks very sophisticated.
4.) Consumption
The French bread was delicious! It came out perfect and I’m excited to use the leftovers for sandwiches or French Toast. I will definitely use this same recipe in the future. The French Salad Dressing was really good as well. I’m usually a Ranch or Italian Dressing person so this was the first time I’ve had this particular dressing, but I really liked it. I will probably make it in the future but cut the recipe in half. The Fresh Garden Peas was my favorite vegetable dish but that could just be that I really like peas. The Zucchini and Greens Beans with Sauce Verte was alright but I wasn’t a huge fan of the Sauce Verte which was a little strong for me. I think I’m just used to eating plain steamed vegetables. The Salmon with Lemon and Dill was delicious, even with the lightly burnt bottoms. I love fish and it’s good for you too! The Chocolate Lava Cake was melt in your mouth delicious. Will definitely be making this again, probably for a birthday or special occasion
Photos
French Bread
Ingredients: Sugar, Yeast, Flour, Egg, Salt, Corn Meal
Letting my dough rise
Rolled out the dough and covered it in corn meal.
After being baked. Smelling SO good!
Cut and ready to be sampled.
Beautiful bread!
Ready to be served.
French Salad Dressing
Ingredients: Sugar, Salt, Oil, Vinegar, Onion, Garlic and Ketchup.
Mixed and delicious!
Final product of the salad dressing. The coarsely chopped onions
added a lot of flavor and texture to the dressing.
Sauce Verte
Ingredients: Dijon Mustard, Parsley, Basil, Olive Oil,
Lemon Juice, Green Onions and Garlic.
Sauce Verte all mixed and blended.
Fresh Garden Peas
For the one cup of lettuce required for the recipe I just
grabbed a handful of fresh lettuce from the garden.
Peas and lettuce ready to be cooked.
Green onions for the Fresh Garden Peas.
All the ingredients ready to be cooked. .
Final product of the Fresh Garden Peas.
Greens Beans and Zucchini in Sauce Verte
Zucchini, squash, green beans, oil and parsley ready to be cooked.
Final product of the Zucchini and Green Beans with Sauce Verte.
Salmon with Lemon and Dill
Fresh beautiful salmon.
Ingredients: Dill, lemon and oil.
Salmon coated with oil, dill and lemon.
Ready to be cooked.
Salmon cooked, garnished with lemons and ready to be served
Tablescape
View of the dinner table with all my dishes layed out.
French Bread in the back with the left over Sauce Verte for a spread.
The Salmon, Garden Peas and Zucchini and Green Beans.
Each person with their own individual salad waiting to
be topped with my French Salad Dressing.
Pulled out our nice chinaware too.
French Bread with the leftover Sauce Verte.
Dad getting ready to eat my French cuisine.
Chocolate Lava Cake
Ingredients (minus my chocolate bars): Butter, Eggs, Sugar and Flour.
Mixing my batter.
After scraping and licking the batter bowl.
Licking the batter spoon.
Final product of my Chocolate Lava Cake.
The Chocolate Lava Cake came out perfect!
See the chocolate lava inside?