September 13, 2012

Soupe à l'oignon

Crispy autumn days almost demanded to cook something hearty, warm and little bit sweet... but salty, onion soup!

One could think that onion soup would be boring and bitter dish. Well, could not be more wrong. French people trust for their classic dishes for reason. This recipe is worth trying!

I prepared a smaller amount of soup than what is regurlarly recommended in cook books. I started by peeling and slicing regular yellow onions, leeks and garlic. I fried them in butter for about 5 minutes and after that added two tablespoons of wheat flour and mixed it well with the onions.



I continued with adding six desilitres of water with one vegetable stock cube. Seasoning is in quite important role in this dish. I used black pepper, thyme (very important!) and a hint of salt to season.



The longer you let the soup boil on the stove, the better the soup gets. However, I let it boil 30 minutes and was happy with the result. I was too hungry to wait longer! I hope you enjoy it, too!


September 7, 2012

First "La Citrouille" food blog post: Apple-chokeberry jam!

Hi everybody,

Welcome to read my first ever blog post! La citrouelle (Eng. Pumpkin) blogs mainly about cooking and baking. I also want to share some knowledge about wines and things that inspire me.

What is inspires me at the moment is the current season: The autumn. Today I wanted to prepare something sweet and homely, yet not so common jam - from apples and chokeberries. Might sound a bit scary, but I am really looking forward to enjoying it with yoghourt, porridge and toast!

I began with preparing the berries and apples. I peeled and chopped 500 grams apples ( I used cultivars Malus Domestica and "Huvitus") and put them into a kettel with about 400 grams of chokeberries and one decilitre of water.




I boiled them for 15 minutes with gentle heat, mashed them with a mixer and added 1,5 deciletres of jam sugar. I continued boiling the jam for 10 minutes. Finally I poured the jam to empty disinfected cans.




And that's what the jam looks like! (sorry for the dark picture)

And the taste is... delicate, bit tangy and surprisingly refined. I recommend for you to try the recipe!

PS. It is good to keep the cans refrigereted after the jam has cooled in the cans.