France -- Whole wheat Crepês with Banana, Strawberry & Nutella filling

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: F for France

Dish: Whole wheat Crepês with Banana, Strawberry & Nutella filling

Today we are going to France, Western European country that is definitely on my bucket list. One of my ex-colleague was from France and she has quite a few stories to tell about her country. Also I almost forgot to mention that I learnt French for about 5 years in school, but the most I can speak or understand is 'Bonjour'. What I learnt from my French friend is that French people love their language and don't like it being butchered by non-French speaking people (like me). I was ridiculed way too many times for my poor pronunciation and grammar.

French cuisine is known to be the finest in the world. It is very diverse and has exerted a major influence on other western cuisines. Traditionally, each region in France has its own distinctive cuisine.

I decided to make one of the most common and popular French dishes, Crepês. A crepê is a type of very thin pancake, usually made from wheat flour or buckwheat flour. Crepês are served with a variety of fillings, from the most simple with only sugar to flambeed crepe suzette or elaborate savory galettes. French sure have dishes with some fancy names.

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Faluche du Nord (North France Flat Bread)

For this month's Home Baker's Challenge Priya Suresh @ Priya's Versatile Recipes chose some yummy French baked goodies. I picked this simple flat bread from Northern France called Faluche du Nord from Priya's list. The recipe seemed very simple to make almost, yeasted dough then rolled out and baked into bread, almost like our own naans. But I thought these were much simpler to make because the rolled out dough is cut using a cutter instead of rolling each bread separately.

I thoroughly enjoyed making these bread. I added some atta (whole wheat flour) to add some fiber and nutrition. The dough is very easy to work with, very smooth and pliable. House smelt amazing when the breads were baking. I baked them a few minutes before I brought my son back from school and the first thing he said when he walked in was 'what are you baking? It smells good in here.' He loved how soft the bread was.

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Savory Kugelhopf

For this month's International Food Challenge and for this month, our host Shobana @ Kitchen Secrets and Snippets wanted us to explore the Alsace-Lorraine region. This is a multi-cuisine region which inherits partly German, partly French culture and so their recipes are influenced from both the countries. Alsace and Lorraine are separate regions in France's north-eastern corner, and share borders with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland. Alsatian cuisine, somehow based on Germanic culinary traditions, is marked by the use of pork in various forms. Traditional dishes include baeckeoffe, flammekueche, choucroute, quiche lorraine and fleischnacka. Southern Alsace, also called the Sundgau, is characterized by carpe frite (that also exists in Yidish tradition).
Out of the many prominent dishes from the region, we were asked to pick 1 of the 3 dishes: Tarte Flambe/ Kugelhopf & Quiche Lorraine. I chose to make Savory Kugelhopf.

Kugelhopf or Gugelhupf is a yeasted soft -- a hybrid between cake and a bread. Usually kugelhopf is a sweet bread that contains raisins, almonds and is flavored with citrus. Some also contain candied fruits and nuts. A lesser known version of the Kugelhopf is its savoury Alsatian version called the Kugelhopf aux Lardons. “Lardons” is the French word for bacon, and this version is typically made with onions, ham/ bacon, walnuts and herbs.

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Mini Tomato Clafoutis

For some reason I chuckle every time I say “Clafoutis “, I have no idea why, may be it sounds similar to something that’s funny.. I don’t know, but I’m chuckling to myself typing this. Well to those of you who don’t know what this funny word is: Clafoutis, is a custard-like baked French dessert that is typically made by baking fresh fruit and a batter. I used grape tomatoes instead of fruit (cherries are most commonly used) and the result was awesome; light, eggy and quiche-like.

Recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine. These clafoutis are baked in muffin tin; they are puffed up like soufflé when hot, but drop as soon as they are out of the oven. This happens in matter of minutes, I tried to take pictures of souffléd muffins, but they dropped so fast that I don't think my pictures do justice.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times magazine:
Ingredients:
Eggs - 3 large
AP Flour - 1/3 cup
Reduced Fat Milk - 1 1/2 cups (I used 1% milk)
Reduced Fat Sour cream - 3 tbsp
Fresh thyme - 1 tbsp
Grape Tomatoes - 1 cup, halved
Parmesan cheese - 3 tbsp
Salt and Pepper - to taste

Method:

• Preheat oven to 375F. Coat 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.
  
• Beat eggs in a medium mixing bowl. Gradually whisk in flour. Stir in milk, sour cream, thyme, salt and pepper.
• Divide half of the egg mixture in the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
• Place 3 tomato halves in each muffin cup, round side up, pour remaining half of the egg mixture over the top. Sprinkle with the cheese and bake for 22 minutes more or until tip of a knife inserted comes out clean. Cool for 1 minute; unmold with a thin spatula and serve warm.

We had these for our Sunday brunch with Blackeyed Pea Burgers (recipe coming soon).

This is my 3rd entry to awesome DK @ Culinary Bazaar for her A.W.E.D - France event.

Les Recettes pour A.W.E.D France

I took French classes for almost 5 years long long long time ago and don't remember a whole lot now, except for a few words here and there. My only aim was to get a passing grade and get over with it. I struggled to understand why the French had to have genders for every "thing". But now that I think about it, may be I should have paid attention in the class; knowing a second language is such a plus nowadays.

So for this month's A.W.E.D DK @ Culinary Bazaar chose French. My entries are Crunchy Croque Provencal and "French" fries.


Crunchy Croque Provencal:

This recipe is from vegetarian times magazine. Traditionally a Croque sandwich is a hot grilled sandwich made with ham and cheese. This vegetarian version is baked and has tomatoes & onions along with cheese. I made some changes to the recipe since I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand. Click here for the original recipe.

Adapted from Vegetarian Times magazine.
Ingredients:
Rosemary & Olive bread (or French bread) - 4 slices
Coarse-grain mustard - 1 tbsp
Reduced fat Cheddar cheese - 4 slices
Red onion - 2 thin slices, rings separated
Tomatoes - 4 thin slics
Egg - 1, beaten
1% Milk - 1/4 cup
Method:

• Preheat oven to 450F. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray.
• Spread mustard over 2 bread slices. Top each slice with cheese, 1 onion ring, 2 tomato slices. Season with salt and pepper. Top with remaining bread slices.
• Whisk together milk and egg in shallow dish. Season with salt and pepper. Soak both sides of the sandwiches in the milk mixture until liquid is absorbed.
• Transfer sandwiches to prepared baking sheet, and bake 10 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

These turned out to be one of the tastiest sandwiches I ever had and with my Sweet Potato "French" fries made it a complete meal.

Sweet Potato "French" Fries:

These fries have become my absolute favorite. These are baked instead of fried; they are sweet and savory at the same time which makes them irrestitable. My sweet potato hating husband also likes them. They can be flavored in many different ways, for the french themed fries, I added 'herb de provence'.

Ingredients:
Sweet Potato - 1 medium
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Herb de provence - 1 tsp
Salt & pepper - to taste

Method:

• Preheat oven to 450F.
  
• Cut sweet potato into thin slices.
  
• Add oil, herbs, salt and pepper into a bowl. Add the potato slices, toss around to coat.
• Place them in a single layer on a baking sheet (covered with foil for easy clean up) and bake for 15-20 minutes.

These are not as crunchy as regular potato fries, but they are much more nutritious and delicious.