French cooking

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French cooking: "

I love to cook.

We love to cook.

Both hubby and I.  (of course he’s a messer haha)

We enjoy trying new recipes and tastes all the time.

yummers!

My friend Kelly came over and saw this cookbook ~ French Taste – Elegant Everyday Eating  by Laura Calder and went on about the amazing show that Laura Calder hosts on the Food Network.  She loves her show and wanted to try some of the food.   I laughed because I don’t actually know who she is, but I love french cooking.  Anyhow, I thought we’d attempt the meringues.

Why the meringues?  I tried this recipe because we make them several times a year in our house and I wanted to see if it was any different from the same ol’ same ol’ we’ve had.  Well  this is the best meringue recipe I’ve ever tried! I think it was the vanilla that made me go crazy over them, but it was like a sweet explosion in my mouth!

So here it is — just an inkling of the tasty treats in this book.

Crisp Chewy Meringues (page 290)

Makes about 16 cake-of soap-sized meringues

• 4 egg whites


• pinch salt


• 1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla (or orange flower water, or maple extract, or, or, or)


• pinch cream of tartar


• 2/3 cup (140g) granulated sugar


• 2/3 cup (85g) icing sugar


• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) cornstarch

Heat the oven to 225F  Whip the whites with the salt to soft peaks, add the vanilla, and continue beating to stiff peaks.  Stir the cream of tartar into the granulated sugar, and whisk into the whites a spoonful at a time, until the sugar has dissolved and the meringue is stiff and gloss.  Sift together the icing sugar and cornstarch.  Sift over the meringue, and gently fold until fully incorporated.

Pile or spoon the meringues onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake until cream-colored and crisp on top when tapped, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  Cool on the baking sheets.  Store in an airtight container.

I liked that Laura actually left room for you to play with the recipes.. she left suggestive comments like use vanilla or… so you could experiment.  And I like to experiment, so that was really encouraging for myself!  I know mine don’t look pretty, next time it will be done with a piping bag, but let me say they were soooo delicious.  They barely lasted for Mr. C to even try one!

My hubby said that I could make the rough apple galette (page 256) anytime I wanted and the kids all said it was amazing! I was delighted because it was probably one of the easiest things I’ve ever made and has half the sugar of other apple pies I’ve made.  They all said the crust was amazing!  It has that old rustic look, but something memories could be made with.

In fact I was told I could try every recipe in this book!  So look out book! lol You and I have work to do!  Simply put Laura makes French cooking easy and fresh.  She brings the warmth and the tastes into do-able recipes that everyone will crave!

If nothing else, get it for the desserts!  you can’t go wrong with french desserts!

Curious about it?

Check inside the book:

or check out Laura’s webiste:  www.lauracalder.ca

**review copy provied by HarperCollins Canada

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