What are we eating ? | Comforting Recipes

Just before the weekend, all the readers who cook ask themselves this endless question: what are we going to eat? In order to inspire you, Press suggests some suggestions for seasonal recipes that will make your mouth water.

Small hollow: onion soup with gruyère de grotte

Ingredients

• 1 C. tablespoon of butter
• 3 large Spanish onions (about 4 lbs or 1.8 kg), thinly sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup (250 mL) dry white wine
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) vincotto (cooked grape must)
• 6 cups (1.5 L) chicken stock (prepared beforehand)
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) port
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 12 thin baguette slices, toasted
• About 3 cups (300 g) Gruyère de Grotte or any Swiss cheese, grated
• Chopped parsley

Preperation

• 1. In a large saucepan or casserole, melt butter over medium heat.
• 2. Add the onions all at once and cook with a lid on the pot for 10 minutes or until tender and lightly caramelized, stirring regularly.
• 3. Remove the lid and cook for an additional 35 to 45 minutes, stirring regularly, until the onions begin to stick to the bottom of the pan and caramelize. It is not necessary to stir them constantly, but they should not be neglected, otherwise they will cook unevenly.
• 4. Add the bay leaf, garlic, white wine and vincotto and cook for 5 minutes.
• 5. Add the chicken stock and simmer for 30 minutes.
• 6. Before serving, remove the bay leaf. Add the port and season to taste.
• 7. Divide the soup among six bowls and cover them with two slices of toasted baguette and a generous helping of grated cheese.
• 8. Place the bowls under the broiler for about two minutes, until the cheese is melted and lightly browned.
• 9. Garnish with a little parsley and serve immediately.

Yield: 6 servings

Preparation: 25 minutes

Cooking: 1 hour 25 minutes

Posted on lapresse.ca on January 30, 2021.

Quickly done well: all-in-one soup-lasagna

Preparation: 20 min.

Cooking: 25 min.

Yield: 8 servings

Can be stored for 4 days in the refrigerator or 6 months in the freezer

Ingredients

• 450 g (1 lb) mild Italian sausages
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 8 medium tomatoes (see Notes)
• 1 liter (4 cups) sodium reduced beef broth
• 500 ml (2 cups) water
• 15 ml (1 tbsp.) Italian dried herbs
• 250 g (1/2 lb) mafalda pasta (see Notes)
• 1 punnet of 142 g of baby spinach
• 1 cup (250 ml) ricotta cheese

Preperation

• 1. Remove the casings from the sausages and crumble the flesh with your hands. Chop the onion and garlic.
• 2. In a large pot preheated over medium-high heat, without adding fat, cook the sausage meat, onion and garlic, 4 or 5 minutes, until the sausage is golden brown, stirring constantly. a few times.
• 3. Meanwhile, place the tomatoes in the container of a food processor. Puree while leaving a few pieces.
• 4. Add the tomatoes, broth, water and dried herbs to the pot. Bring to a boil over high heat.
• 5. Add the pasta and reduce heat to medium. Simmer 15 minutes or until pasta is al dente, stirring a few times.
• 6. Stir in the spinach and ricotta. Toss to break down the spinach and serve.

Notes

Take advantage of the harvest season to prepare this recipe with fresh tomatoes from Quebec. Out of season, replace them with 1 can of 796 ml of crushed tomatoes without added salt and 1 can of 796 ml of diced tomatoes without added salt, and replace the 500 ml (2 cups) of water with 1 can of 796 ml filled with water.

Mafalda-type pasta is shaped like small lasagna. They are found in bulk grocery stores and specialty grocery stores. If you can’t find any, simply replace them with broken-up lasagna noodles.

Don’t let the number of servings intimidate you: this soup freezes very well and you can take a break from cooking for lunch or dinner.

Posted on lapresse.ca on September 22, 2021.

Call me chef! : goose confit in the slow cooker

This recipe by butcher David Aghapekian can easily feed 8 people if there are several other dishes on the table.

Ingredients

• 35 g coarse sea salt
• 25 g brown sugar
• 25 g of juniper
• 25 g black peppercorns
• 15g dried balsam fir or rosemary
• 4 large goose thighs, whole, with skin (or 6 duck thighs)
• 100 ml of red wine

Preperation

• 1. In a bowl, combine salt, brown sugar, pepper, juniper and balsam fir.
• 2. Count 25 g of mixture per kilo of meat (keep what remains in a small airtight container).
• 3. Rub the thighs with the mixture and let sit in the refrigerator for two hours.
• 4. In the slow cooker, arrange the thighs, tightly packed, flesh side down. Pour in the red wine.
• 5. Cook for four hours on “low”. If necessary, baste the thighs with their own cooking liquid. Make sure the meat is flexible and pulls away from the bone.
• 6. Cool the thighs and wrap them delicately with their fat and the cooking juices in an airtight container. Freeze until Christmas!
• 7. When serving, in a non-stick pan, brown the thighs skin side down, basting them with their cooking fat. Pickled vegetables add a touch of acidity to the dish.

Other options

• To taste, the wing drumsticks can be cooked with the thighs. Hearts and gizzards too! Same cooking time.

• For sous-vide cooking, proceed in the same way. Wrap the thighs (or giblets) tightly in one or more bags for sous-vide cooking. Bake for a dozen hours at 70 ° C (160 ° F).

• Try the John Winter Russell method by wrapping two thighs in a cloth, then in aluminum foil. Bake at 150 ° C (300 ° F) for three and a half hours. Do the thumb test: the meat must give way under the thumb.

Posted on lapresse.ca on December 5, 2018.

Guilty pleasure: vegetable chocolate mousse

Ingredients

• 200 g of 60% dark chocolate
• 220 g of vegetable drink (soy milk, for example)
• 60 g of whole sugar (muscovado, for example)
• 80 g aquafaba (liquid from a can of chickpeas or the cooking juice of chickpeas)
• A few drops of lemon juice
• 1 pinch of fleur de sel

Preperation

• 1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.
• 2. Meanwhile, whisk the aquafaba and lemon juice in a stand mixer until the aquafaba is very frothy (be patient!). You can do it by hand, but it will take longer.
• 3. Gradually add the sugar (as soon as the aquafaba starts to foam) until a soft and shiny meringue is obtained.
• 4. Heat the vegetable drink and turn off the heat before boiling.
• 5. Pour a first third of the hot vegetable drink into the melted chocolate and mix in circular motions with a spatula. Above all, do not use a whisk! If the mixture is grainy, don’t worry, this will resolve itself after adding the second third of the vegetable drink.
• 6. Once the first third is integrated, add the second third and mix again in circular motions until incorporated.
• 7. Then add the third third and mix. Perfect the mixture by mixing for 30 seconds with a blender.
• 8. Add a first third of the meringue to the chocolate ganache and incorporate with a whisk. Then add the remaining two thirds and incorporate them delicately with the spatula in circular motions from the bottom to the top.
• 9. Add the fleur de sel, then pour into the containers of your choice.
• 10. At this stage, the preparation will have a fairly liquid consistency.
• 11. Leave to rest for 3 hours in the refrigerator. Decorate according to inspiration. Enjoy.

Posted on lapresse.ca on April 3, 2021.

Health ! : chaï masala

For 5 people

Ingredients

• 3 green cardamom pods
• 2 cloves
• ½ cinnamon stick
• 3 black peppercorns
• Ginger (optional)
• Black tea leaves, to taste
• Sugar, to taste
• Milk, to taste

Preperation

• 1. Dry roast the spices, then grind them in a mortar.
• 2. Put hot water in a saucepan, then add the black tea leaves (you can also use a tea bag).
• 3. Let boil for a few minutes, until the mixture turns dark.
• 4. Add spices and ginger, if desired.
• 5. Add sugar, to taste.
• 6. Add the milk (adjust to the desired amount).
• 7. Boil the mixture until it turns dark again.
• 8. Filter everything into a cup, and enjoy!

Posted on lapresse.ca on February 11, 2021.