Tarte aux abricots

Last week was warm and sunny, it was the only week so far that feels like a really month of July.  And now we are back to cold and grey. 

At least, summer fruits are abundant.  So I've decided to make an apricot tart.  In France, people like to make tarts, either a salty or sweet  one.  Pie shells can be found easily in any grocery store.  It is even cut in round shape, so no dough rolling is required.  It only takes 5 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:

1 pie shell 

500g of apricots

3-4 t.s. of sugar

2 t.s. of crème fraîche (sour cream or any cream)

1 egg

In a bowl, cut in half the apricots and pour some sugar on it.  Make sure to sweet enough the fruits, because apricots are quite acid.

For the filling, whisk the egg and the cream and add sugar, 2-3 t.s.  You will have to taste it, I am not good with quantities.  Arrange the apricots nicely on the pie.

Cook for 45 min at 200°C.

And Voilà.

ps. Even if you fear of sugar, don't be shy on the sugar because my tart was acid.

pps. you can add some prune liqueur or amaretto in the filling, and almonds flakes on it too.

Desserts

With  "Blogger", I  have daily stats of the visitors of my blog. The statistics are clear, people are visiting my blog for Lemon Curd Recipe! I found that amusing, and I didn't know that Lemon Curd is so popular, especially in anglophone countries, such as the States, and the UK.  I don't think I could ever buy lemon curd in jar at Tesco anymore.  (Haven't had the chance to go to Tesco for at least 2 years).

With a little patience, you'll get the best lemon curd ever.  Here a photo of a Meringue tart I made with lemon curd.

I used an italian meringue recipe :
- 4 egg whites
- 250 g of sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 100 ml of water

Whip the egg whites until foamy.  Boil water and add the sugar.  While whipping the egg whites, gently pour over the boiled sugar little by little.

 Pour the meringue over the lemon curd tart, and bake it for 15 min at 180-200 °C

And on to the another recipe, Strawberry Tiramisu.

 This thing is so delicious. It doesn't require any cooking. It doesn't take too long to make it.

For this recipe, you will need:

-a box of ladyfingers (about 20 biscuits)
-250 g of mascarpone
-100 g of sugar
-3 eggs
-1 to 2 t.s. of amaretto
-50 ml of orange juice
-200 g of strawberries

The mascarpone mousse:

Separate the eggs, you will need the egg whites for the mousse.
Whip the egg whites until they get foamy.

In another bowl, whisk the sugar and the egg yolks until the mixture gets creamy and in pale yellow.
Add the mascarpone little by little in the egg yolks mixture.
Add the few drops of your favorite liqueur, like amaretto.

Fold the beaten egg whites with the mascarpone mixture.

Soak briefly the lady finders in some orange juice.  Lay the fingerladies in a mold.  One layer of the biscuits, one layer of the mascarpone mousse, and one layer of strawberries.  It's like a lasagna.

Then put it in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or if you can't wait that long, put in the freezer a couple of hours.
And now enjoy!

Assez! Basta! Enough!

I might have mentioned that we run a business in France.  We had a few ups and downs because of the French Government.  These days, we are totally annoyed by one employee. 

I should explain first, in France, once you get your permanent job contract i.e. "c.o.n.t.r.a.t à d..u.r.é.e i.n.d.é.t.e.rm.i.n.é.e", the employee is untouchable. The employer has little flexibility to fire an annoying employee.  He could take some sick leaves and the boss cannot know the reason or the severity of the sickness.  The French Health Insurance would pay half of the salary, and employer would contribute to the salary as well.  So back to the annoyant employee, he has decided to switch his work schedule without even telling us in advance.  I have reminded him casually that he would be off on Friday, and said that finally he would take the next Friday off, instead.  My husband was back at 8pm and was furious with this employee, because he had disrupted the working schedule without notifying in advance.  So on Friday morning, his girlfriend called and said he was on a sick leave until next Sunday and he has the doctor's note to back his leave of absence.  We have to ask our accountant what rights we have to punish him.  We might have to do a "c.o.n..t.r.e v.i.s.i.t.e m.é.d.i.c.a.l.e", follow-up inspection by another doctor. If the private doctor says the employee is able to work, he must return at work, and the Health insurance will stop compensate him.  So basically, he will get off the hook if we don't do anything.  We will see what we will do on Monday.  

I'm astonished by the way we have to deal with employees in France.  They think they have the right for everything.  And if you ever fire employees, you have to compensate them, at least a month of their salary.

I've been complaining about the unemployment rate in France in some of my other posts, but cleary too much social security is one of the reasons why unemployment is so high here.  In Canada, the work environment is so much better.  The relationship between the boss and employees is more easier, and if you hate your job, you get on with your life and look for another one.  It's not the end of the world.  In France, if you hate your job, you hang on to it, or you find a way to get fired and get some unemployment benefits for at least a year.

Sorry about the rant, but I have to let it out.

ps: sorry for the dotted words, but I don't want some random googlers end up reading this post.

Summer is here

This summer was one of the coldest I've known since I've been living in France.  It is cold and rainy.  We had a few warm days, but I don't think I would be swimming in the sea this July. 

Appart from the cold weather, I'm enjoying some fresh products from farms in my area.  I have given up on the supermarket vegetables.  They are rather expensive and not fresh.  Besides, our neighbor is selling pork meat directly.  She is pretty much feeding all the village with fresh meat every week.  What she sells has nothing to do with industrial meat.  As for my vegetables and fruits, there's another farm that does seasonal greens and fruits.  You can also pick the vegetables and berries yourself on their farm.

At home, I don't even have a garden.  All the nearby parcels, farmers are growing potatoes and wheat.  When you see the pesticides they are spraying you do not want to plant vegetables nearby. 

I had some pak choy growing in the house.  So proud of it, and only one thai basil.  The other seeds didn't grow.

                                                                 pak choy and one thai basil plant

 

Bo Bun, vietnamese cold noodle salad, usually made with beef, 

but I made it with pork

Today's harvest pak choy

 Pak choy stir fry with turkey

Hope you are enjoying some fresh greens as well.  Have a nice summer.

Bilinguism and English TV

I have the chance to be able to watch English TV through my satelite.  It is my little escape from the French world.  It's not that I'm complaining about French, I am a francophone, I consider it to be my first language. But growing up in Canada, especially where I lived, we had English speaking people surrounding us.  I've lived accross the border of 2 provinces, Québec and Ontario.  I have mostly lived in la Belle province. 

All francophones teenagers of my generation went through a phase, where they've decided overnight  to only watch English programs on tv and listen mostly to American pop.  Well, that was in the '90s.  At that time, we thought that English was cooler and we basically learned English with Fresh Prince of Belair or Full House. lol  

This morning I came across a survey of the Globe and Mail : Tell us: Is bilingualism still relevant to Canadian identity?

My answer : yes of course!  how can this be an issue for my country? I can't hide my dislike of Harper, the Prime Minister....When we had Francophone as Prime Ministers, the French language wasn't an issue, and it is mandatory for this kind of of position to be bilingual.  I was shocked by  some commenters of the article : 

On 12/06/21

"  French is a  dying   language......The.. following is... fact.... In North America....... there are.......       more     deaf.... people       who......       know     how    to......     speak.....    sign..... language .....       than     people     who.....     speak French."

I hope he won't google his own words and read my post here.  This is just non sense.  Where I live now (in France, near the Belgium border), being bilingual, trilingual is not a big deal.  I admire Belgians or Dutch people who are able to switch so easily to Dutch, French, English or German.   All I can say is that I embrace bilinguism and I am glad I can speak both languages.

 
Ok, enough of my ramblings.

On to a lighter subject and back to English TV, it is a delight to watch English programs.  I admit, some are crappy but entertaining. 

I watched last night Secret eaters.  Basically, people in the show don't understand why they are overweight or aren't able to lose the weight.  So they were followed by "detectives" and filmed for 1 week and they were shocked by their habbits.  Their food diary of their daily intake doesn't quite match the reality.  So they have it on their face, the food they have eaten through the week was layed on a table.    It is an eye opener.  Well I don't snack but I've reached a plateau and I haven't lost weight for a while.  Frustrating! 

Anyway, if you can watch it on the web, here's the link:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/secret-eaters