Fresh Herb Omelet

Cook The Book Fridays welcomes the new year with a simple, easy and delicious recipe from My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz, Fresh Herb Omelet (Omelette Aux Fines Herbes).

For the fresh herbs, I've used Chinese chives from my garden pot. There's eggs, a little milk, salt and pepper, with the finely chopped herbs beaten together. Some cheese, of which I've used Cheddar is sprinkled over the centre in a line while the egg is setting in the skillet. Fold the omelet in half and slide onto a plate to serve. I like my omelet to be a little brown on the outside, so I have cooked it a little longer till the bottom is lightly crisp brown while the top is just set to my liking.

The best part, is the oozy cheesy part! I shared this omelet with my son, we had it sandwiched between two slices of white breads. Makes a very nice meal for hungry tummy!

To see what other fresh herbs that was used for this omelet, stop by Cook The Book Fridays and visit those links.

Onion Tart

Cook The Book Fridays, a group of lovely foodie bloggers are cooking their way through David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen. The selected recipe for this week is Onion Tart (Pissaladiere).

I've only made Pissaladiere once before. And remember that my kids were asking where is the cheese! My kids' idea that as long as it is some kind of pizza, or looks like it, it must have their favourite ingredient, Mozzarella cheese, and lots of it, the more the better! So this time, when I make David Lebovitz's Pissaladiere, I reminded them that I am making Pissaladiere, and traditionally it is made with NO cheese!

The caramelized onions took about 50 minutes to cook till dark golden brown. A few whole sprigs of thyme are cooked together with the onions. Remove the thyme sprigs before assembling the pissaladiere. 

I've made only two thirds of the recipe, to fit the size of the baking sheet I had. The dough was easy to handle. Pull and spread the dough to fill the base of the baking sheet. Spread the caramelized onions on the dough and arrange some olives and anchovies on the onions.

The pissaladiere is baked for about 20 minutes, though I baked mine for 25 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned. 

Delicious especially when eaten warm.

According to David, Pissaladiere should be crisp and very thin, not thick and bready. This is thin and crisp, and very delicious! Especially good eaten while still warm. My favourite part are the sides where you get to bite into the crispy edges and the crispy bottom of the crust. The caramelized onions are delicious and sweet,  match perfectly with the salty anchovies. 

This is a delicious onion tart. I love the crust, it would make a fabulous pizza base, and would be great with other pizza toppings, and of course, with lots of cheese too! 

Stop by Cook the Book Fridays to see what everyone thought about this Onion Tart.

Grated Carrot Salad

Cook The Book Fridays, a group of lovely foodie bloggers are cooking their way through David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen. The selected recipe for this week is Grated Carrot Salad. According to David Lebovitz, Grated Carrot Salad is so commonplace in France, that you'll hardly find it mentioned in any of the books on traditional French cuisine. Everyone has their own version of making this salad.

I have never grated carrots for salads before. What I would usually do is to slice them either thinly in rounds or half-moons, or sometimes julienned them to matchsticks, but never grated, for a salad. One of the things that I dislike doing while preparing veggies for a dish, is grating root veggies! I do grate carrots when making carrot cakes, which I enjoy eating, but dislike grating the carrots. I prefer chopping my veggies over grating, as chopping can be a rather enjoyable task, rather therapeutic at times. 

Because this is a Grated Carrot Salad, I dutifully grate my carrots. 

The grated carrots and some fresh chopped cilantro greens from my garden pot. 

The dressing is a mixture of Dijon mustard, honey, olive oil, lemon juice and salt, whisk to combine. Toss the carrots and fresh herbs with the dressing and serve. 

Quite a nice salad. The sweetness of the carrots balances well with the lemony-mustard sweet dressing. My son likes this. 

Makes a nice side dish. I served it alongside some baked chicken breast with fresh crisp celery sticks.

Stop by Cook the Book Fridays to see what everyone thought about this salad.

Chocolate-Dulce de Leche Tart

This week at Cook The Book Fridays, the selected recipe from My Paris Kitchen cookbook, is Chocolate-Dulce de Leche Tart. A chocolaty dessert with dulce de leche sandwiched between a chocolate crust and dark chocolate filling on top.

Dulce de Leche is one ingredient that I have not seen over here before. So I have made my own by baking condensed milk in a water bath, using David Lebovitz oven method recipe, which I have posted here before, more than two years ago!

I've been making lots of baking lately and did not want to over indulge in desserts, so I've made only half a recipe, for two mini 4-inches tarts. Which is just nice for the four of us. 

Since it was only half a recipe, I've mixed the dough crust by hand, it was easy and takes only minutes. After filling up the base and sides of the mini tart pan with the chocolaty dough, they are blind bake, then spread with a layer of the dulce de leche and top with the chocolate filling. I've used dark chocolate for the filling, which is melted over the stove, then the cooked custard of eggs and milk is poured over the melted chocolate over a sieve, add some vanilla, whisk until smooth. Either vanilla extract or rum can be used here. Well, I've used my homemade vanilla-rum extract.

The tart is then baked in the oven for 20 minutes, and with the oven turned off, leave the tart for another 25 minutes, then remove from the oven. The chocolate filling sets up nicely. Once the tart comes to room temperature, I placed them in the refrigerator to chill.

There's some salt which is sprinkled over the chocolate filling before baking, but I skimped on the salt, as I was afraid that it might be too salty, as there's also some salt sprinkled on the base of the bottom crust. After baking, when I ate a slice later, I could not taste the salt (I've used kosher salt), and wish that I have sprinkled more! 

Two mini tarts. That's half a tart per person! How often did you serve a whole half tart for one? Haha! But I've sliced each mini tart into 8 little wedges. Makes very cute elegant dessert for entertaining! The chocolaty crust is lovely and the dark chocolate filling goes perfectly with the sweet dulce de leche. I was expecting a very sweet dessert, but I was pleasantly surprised that the sweetness was just right, a contrast with the bitter chocolate filling. A lovely desssert, but best served in small servings.

We are cooking through David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen. If you have the book or thought of getting one, please do, and join us! Full details here.

Scalloped Potatoes with Feta and Roasted Garlic

At Cook the Book Fridays, recipe for this week is Scalloped Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Roasted Garlic. 

I have a pack of feta cheese which needed to be used up, so that goes into this dish, instead of buying a pack of blue cheese, as I'm trying to clear the "bits and pieces" stashed in my refrigerator and pantry. There's a lot of heavy cream used, all of 3 cups, but David Lebovitz has suggested that half and half can be used instead. I mixed an equal amount of heavy cream and milk to make 3 cups of half and half. 

Ingredients used are potatoes sliced into thin slices, chives of which I've used Chinese chives from my garden pot, blue cheese (I used feta), salt, pepper and the mixture of cream and roasted garlic.

Mine took about 1-1/2 hours to cook through as the potatoes was not done at 1 hour. The sauce was bubbling happily towards the last 45 minutes of cooking time. There's roasted garlic mixed into the sauce and it smells garlicky delicious. More roasted garlic the next time!

As suggested by David, we had the scalloped potatoes with some green salad, for lunch. My salad was plain, with no dressing, simply fresh green salad leaves and some sweet cherry tomatoes. The scalloped potatoes is delicious, both my son and daughter like it. 

Do stop by CtBF to view everyone's garlicky scalloped potatoes. We are cooking through David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen. If you have the book or thought of getting one, please do, and join us! Full details here.

Baked Eggs With Kale and Ham

This week at Cook the Book Fridays, the selected recipe is Baked Eggs With Kale and Smoked Salmon. CtBF is currently cooking through David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen.

I was looking forward to make this, as we love eggs around here, and also to use my homegrown kale, which I have been using in a number of recipes recently. 

David's recipe calls for smoked salmon but I've used one of the variations that David has suggested, slice of harm torn into pieces. According to him, bacon, crumbled cooked sausages or even sauteed mushrooms can be used instead.

I've used small ramekins for individual servings. Bottom layer is the sauteed kale, followed by a layer of the torn ham pieces. Crack an egg over the ham pieces, scatter some grated cheese over, of which I have used mozzarella. Dribble a tablespoon of heavy cream over the cheese, and sprinkle some bread crumbs over. The breadcrumbs is made by toasting in a skillet with butter, garlic, thyme and salt, until toasted.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the eggs are cooked to your liking. Serve immediately.

I baked these for 16 minutes, as the egg whites are not done yet at 12 minutes. Serve immediately, as up would want to eat this right after baking. You can get everything prepared and ready, then assemble and bake it later about 15 minutes or so,  before you intend to serve it.

A spoonful of deliciousness! 

The melty gooey mozzarella, my kids favourite cheese!  I've made this for lunch, and it was enjoyed by everyone. There's a request for a repeat! I would try with the other variations that David has suggested. 

Do stop by CtBF to view everyone's take on this delicious baked egg dish. If you have the book or thought of getting one, please do, and join us! Full details here.

Pumpkin Crumble

The selected recipe for this week at Cook The Book Fridays is Butternut Squash Crumble. I have used pumpkin instead of butternut as pumpkin is more readily available in the area where I live. Cook The Book Fridays, a group of bloggers, are currently cooking through David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen.

Pumpkin is peeled and cut to 1/2 inch pieces, then sauteed in a little oil and butter, with some fresh thymes, season with salt and pepper, stir occasionally until the pumpkin begin to brown on several sides. I did not brown the pumpkin, (too lazy to wait!!). I stir-fry for a few minutes. Add some sliced shallots, cook until softened, add some chicken stock and cook until the stock reduce a bit. Transfer to a well-buttered shallow baking tray. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes until the squash are tender.

The crumble topping is made by processing in a food processor, the bread crumbs, cornmeal, Parmesan, sage (I use dried oregano), sugar and salt together until crumbly. Add the chilled and cubed butter, and lastly the egg, pulse until mixture starts to clump together in bits. Remove the tray from the oven, and scatter the crumble topping all over. Return the tray to the oven with a slight reduction in the oven temperature. Bake for about 20 minutes until the topping is golden brown.

This savoury crumble is quite nice. Crispy topping with soft tender squash. But the Parmesan cheese is a little too strong for my taste. I think that it would work better for me if I have used Cheddar instead as I originally intended. I have always prefer Cheddar over Parmesan, just my personal preference. This would make a nice side dish, but I would go for small portions, as it is quite filling. 

Do stop by CtBF to view everyone's take on this savoury crumble. If you have the book or thought of getting one, please do, and join us! Full details here.

Sardine Spread

Cook The Book Fridays is cooking through David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen, and the selection for this week is Sardine Spread. We love sardine as a filling for sandwiches and I was really looking forward to make this. 

I use two cans of sardine packed in extra virgin olive oil.  Drain the sardines and discard the oil.

Remove the bones from each piece of sardine. Mix the cream cheese and butter in a bowl and add the sardine, mashing them to combine. Cream cheese is an interesting ingredient here. Add some chopped scallions, capers, lime juice, salt, black pepper, cayenne powder to taste. Mix everything together. That's it! This has got to be the most simplest recipe from this book, so far! Simple and delicious!

We had the Sardine Spread with my homemade Olive Oil Focaccia, made into a sandwich, with lettuce leaves and slices of cheese, for dinner. The family loved it. 

I have always used canned tuna for making similar sandwich spread like this, but instead of using cream cheese and butter, I have always used mayo. Now, this Sardine Spread, has a place along with my favourite tuna spread. I will definitely be making this again. 

Do stop by CtBF to view everyone's take on this delicious Sardine Spread. If you have the book or thought of getting one, please do, and join us! Full details here.

Gazpacho

This week at Cook the Book Fridays (CtBF), the selected recipe is Gazpacho with Herbed Goat Cheese Toasts. I have however only made the Gazpacho and have skipped the Herbed Goat Cheese Toasts. I have never made gazpacho before and was looking forward to try this cold soup.

A healthy raw soup, where ripe tomatoes are blanched in boiling water, remove the skins, cut into half, squeezed the seeds out and strain the seed over a strainer into a bowl to collect the juices. Discard the seeds. A piece of bread soaked in water for a minute or two, squeeze out the extra water. The tomatoes, the collected juices  and the bread are then processed in a food processor until almost liquefied, with some bits of tomato visible. Pour into a large bowl, mix in finely chopped cucumbers, finely chopped red pepper, finely chopped garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, smoked paprika salt and ground black pepper to taste. Add the vodka. Mix well and chill thoroughly before serving.

There are mixed reviews when I served this to the family. I thought that this soup was just OK for me. My daughter does not like this soup. But both my husband and son thought that, in their words, "quite nice". 

Do stop by CtBF to view everyone's take on this soup. If you have the book or thought of getting one, please do, and join us! Full details here.

Spiced Meatballs with Sriracha Sauce

The next recipe selected for this week at Cook the Book Fridays (CtBF) is Spiced Meatballs with Sriracha Sauce. These meatballs are David Lebovitz's take on the North African merguez sausages.

To make the meatballs, toast the coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cumin seeds in a small saucepan until fragrant. Leave to cool and grind to a powder in a spice mill. Mix the ground spices in a bowl with chopped cilantro, minced garlic, sweet paprika, harissa, salt, cinnamon, allspice and sumac. Add the ground meat, of which I have used ground pork, and mix well. I left the mixture in the refrigerator for a few hours for the flavours to blend. 

Pinch off some of the meat mixture about the size of an unshelled walnut, roll them into meatballs. These meatballs can either be fried over the stove or baked in the oven.

I baked the meatballs instead of cooking them over the stove. Put the meatballs in a greased baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes until cooked. The meatballs will release some of the oil and juices, and smells fantastic, aroma from all the combined spices!

The dipping sauce is made by mixing mayonnaise and sriracha sauce. Very nice!

The warm baked meatballs, very delicious! Love the spice taste and aroma in the meatballs.

These are very good! We actually had the meatballs with rice, and the tasty liquid from the baking tray is great spoon over the rice with the meatballs. My kids love the dipping sauce, but then they love anything with mayonnaise! 

Do stop by CtBF to view everyone's take on this delicious meatballs. If you have the book or thought of getting one, please do, and join us! Full details here.

Cherry Tomato Crostini with Homemade Herbed Cheese

This week at Cook The Book Fridays (CtBF), the selected recipe from David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen, is Cherry Tomato Crostini with Homemade Herbed Goat Cheese. 

To make the herbed cheese, either whole goats' milk or cows' milk yoghurt can be used. Since I always make my own yoghurt at home using whole cows' milk, that's what I used. 

Strain the yoghurt over a mesh strainer lined with a few layers of cheesecloth overnight in the refrigerator. What you get is really Greek Yoghurt, thick and creamy. Transfer the thick yoghurt into a bowl, and stir in finely chopped fresh herbs of your choice, though David did mention that be sure to include chives. So I snipped a few young stalks of chives, and basil leaves, both from my garden pot, and mix it with some fresh coriander. Chop them finely and mix into the yoghurt along with finely chopped shallot and garlic. Season with salt and pepper with a generous pinch of cayenne powder. 

Halved the cherry tomatoes, place on a baking tray, drizzle some olive oil, tuck in some fresh herbs, of which I've used basil and rosemary leaves, both from my garden pot. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper, stir to mix and bake in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes, stir once or twice in between. David suggested to bake these ahead of time, up to 8 hours in advance, so that the tomatoes have time to marinate in their own juices. 

For the bread, I've used my homemade sourdough bread. I've lightly sprayed the bread with olive oil and toast in the oven until light brown. As soon as they are out of the oven (even though it was suggested when just cool enough to handle), I rub the toasts with a garlic clove. Love it! I did not expect that the garlic would be like almost grated when rubbed onto the surface of the toasts, and find that I need another clove of garlic (for 6 slices of toasts). We are garlic lovers! And the aroma is just fantastic!

Time to assemble  (tummy growling!) ; the herbed cheese, roasted cherry tomatoes, slices of toasted sourdough bread and some fresh parsley for garnish.

Spread a generous amount of the herbed cheese on the toasts, top with a few of the roasted tomatoes, along with some drizzle of the wonderful juices from the tomatoes and garnish with some fresh herbs. 

 Bon appetit! Yummy!

I love the herbed cheese! We had the leftovers as a dip, with more sprinkling of cayenne powder, with some fresh celery and carrot sticks. So good! 

Do stop by CtBF to view everyone's take on this delicious crostini. If you have the book or thought of getting one, please do, and join us! Full details here.

Apricot Crumble Tart

This week's selected recipe at Cook The Book Fridays (CtBF), is Apricot Crumble Tart. CtBF is an online group of bloggers who are currently cooking through David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen.

Apricot Crumble Tart is a delicious tart, which has a base made with buttery dough, the filling with fresh apricot slices and the top is a crumble made with whole almonds, sugar, flour, butter, vanilla extract and ground cinnamon.

For the dough, I have reduced the amount of sugar by half, as I prefer my tart bases to be less sweet. With the reduced amount of sugar, the dough turns out really well too. Secondly, I have used canned apricots for the filling instead of fresh. I did not reduce the sugar for the filling, using the full amount of 3 tablespoons as mentioned in the recipe. Even though the canned apricots are soaked in syrup, I was very surprised to find that the apricots are very tart and not sweet at all and have even sprinkled an extra tablespoon of sugar. I have omitted the almond extract for the filling. (my seldom used little bottle of almond extract has expired!  oops...)

The crumble topping is made by processing whole almonds in the food processor along with flour, brown sugar, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon until the almonds are broken up into very small pieces. Chopped cold butter is added in, and pulse until the mixture clumps together. Refrigerate until needed. 

I have omitted the salt for both the dough and the crumble topping since I've used salted butter.

The dough is press on the bottom of a greased 9" springform pan, covering a little less than halfway up the sides. Place the pan in the freezer for 30 minutes before blind bake by covering the dough with foil with pie weights for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and weights, then continue to bake for another 5-10 minutes until the dough is brown.

Add the filling to the baked shell evenly. Then crumble the topping over the apricots and continue to bake until the crumble topping is browned.

This tart smells incredibly delicious from the cinnamon, vanilla and the nutty almonds. I thought that this tart is really good! The base of the tart is buttery and tender. The apricot filling is tart and not too sweet, which is really nice. I love the crumble topping. It was fragrant from both the vanilla and cinnamon, buttery and nutty. The three layers are so perfect together! 

Served with a scoop (or two!) of vanilla ice cream! Yummilicious!

To view everyone's lovely tart at CtBF, the link is here. If you have the book or thought of getting one, please do, and join us! Full details here.

Buckwheat Crepes with Ham, Cheese And Egg

This was supposed to be a Friday post for Cook The Books Friday (CtBF), an online group of bloggers, currently cooking from David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen. I am late in making this crepe and thus late in posting.

The batter for the crepe is made up of buckwheat flour, eggs, water and salt. Whisk everything well, keep covered in the refrigerator for at least an hour and can be refrigerated overnight. I have kept mine for 3 days! I mixed the batter at night, intending to make the crepe for breakfast the next morning, but somehow that did not happen, and I've only managed to make the crepe on the 3rd morning. The batter is still fine even on the 3rd day. 

Just as David says, the first two crepes are usually "a dud, so don't worry"! haha! Those are my two "dud"! Above crepe was made with 1/4 cup of batter, which is rather difficult for me to make into a large thin crepe.

So, I have used 1/2 cup of batter! Well, this seems to work out for me. It may not be perfect, but it is thin and large!

A piece of the crepe is then placed in the saucepan in hot foaming butter, slices of ham is then placed in the center of the crepe, sprinkle with shredded cheese (I've used Mozzarella), and break an egg in the middle. Cover the pan and continue to cook on low heat until the cheese melts and the egg whites are set. Serve immediately. I did not fold the four sides of the crepes over. 

We love our egg yolks runny! We've enjoyed these buckwheat crepes very much. I like the wheatie aroma of the crepes while it is cooking. Smells really nice.

Please stop by CtBF to see this delicious crepe that everyone has made.

Raw Vegetable Slaw with Creamy Garlic Dressing

This week at Cook the Book Fridays (CtBF), the selected recipe is Raw Vegetable Slaw with Creamy Garlic Dressing. CtBF is an online group of food bloggers who are currently cooking from David Lebovitz's latest cookbook, My Paris Kitchen. 

Firstly make the dressing by combining mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, Dijon mustard and ground black pepper, in a bowl until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours before using. Now there's a confusion about the amount of garlic when I read the concerns posted at CtBF, is it really 2 tablespoons or supposed to be just 2 cloves? So for a start, I've used two cloves, chopped finely, add to the dressing, and mixed to combine. I had a little taste of the dressing, it was really good, and the taste of the garlic is definitely there, so that was the amount of garlic I've used, only 2 cloves. 

Combination of shredded veggies ; red and green cabbage, carrots, broccoli and apples.

Six cups of thinly shredded vegetables is used with the combination of the suggested veggies given by David. I have however only used these veggies ; red and green cabbage, carrots, apple, broccoli. And I have even skipped the parsley and chives, simply because I have forgotten to buy them! I thinly shred the vegetables using a sharp knife, one process that I quite enjoy doing!

Toss the dressing with the raw shredded vegetables and serve. There's hard-boiled eggs in the ingredients. I did make the hard-boiled eggs, but did not add them to the slaw at the last moment, as I think the slaw is delicious as it is. However, I served the chopped eggs in a separate bowl, and letting the family help themselves, adding to their slaw if they want to. This is a delicious slaw and one that I would be making again.

Do drop by CtBF to see the other lovely ladies take on this raw slaw, perhaps with different combinations of veggies.

Chicken Lady Chicken

This week at Cook the Book Fridays (CtBF), the recipe that was selected from the book which we are currently cooking from, My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz, is this delicious dish called Chicken Lady Chicken. I like the name of this dish! I was giggling to myself when I was thinking, what if it was called "Chicken Man Chicken" or even "Chicken Guy Chicken". Nope, both do not sound right, Chicken Lady Chicken sounds perfect to me!

This recipe calls for a chicken which is to be prepared in a spatchcocked (butterflied) style, where the backbone of the chicken is removed, then the chicken is pushed down, crack the bone between the breast so that it lies as flat as possible. I have however used 4 whole chicken legs. (yup, i can be pretty lazy at times!). One other thing that I did not follow was to marinate the chicken for about  3 to 4 hours instead of 1 or 2 days in advance as indicated in the recipe. The only thing that I did really follow was the ingredients for the marinade ; garlic, salt, olive oil, lemon juice, white wine, soy sauce, harissa, Dijon mustard, and honey. Mix everything together, spoon some of the marinade under the skin, and rub the balance all over the chicken, in a bag. Keep refrigerated, flipping the bag over a few times. 

After marinating for a few hours (or overnight), the chicken is browned on the stove top in a skillet or a large pan, with a foil covering the top, and a heavy object (I used a stock pot filled with water), placed over the foil. Cook until the skin is golden brown, flip chicken over and brown the other side, Remove the foil and weight off the chicken and finish baking in the oven. There was some marinade left in the bag, instead of discarding it, I poured the marinade over the pieces of chicken before baking.

The chicken is so delicious! Even though I've only marinated the chicken pieces for a few hours, the flavours really did come through in the meat, which is moist, tender, and very tasty from the lovely marinade. There's some delicious juices from the baking, which is yummy spoon over the chicken pieces. The family love this new dish. One that I would make again.  I served this chicken dish with the Fattoush salad which we made for our previous assignment at CtBF. Perfect match!

Fattoush

This week at Cook the Book Fridays (CtBF), the selected recipe from David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen, is Fattoush, a salad dish. I have made Fattoush before, a recipe from Nigella Lawson which I've posted here, and I really love it! So I was pretty excited to try DL's version! 

Fattoush is a Middle Eastern salad and it uses the lovely spice Sumac. Traditionally, toasted pita breads is used in the salad, but I do not have any, and have used two pieces of wholemeal tortilla which I've toasted till crispy. The salad dressing is a mixture of lemon juice, salt, garlic, mustard and olive oil. Just before serving, toss the veggies with the dressing ; lettuce leaves, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, mint leaves and radishes, with some sumac and black pepper. I have omitted the radishes as I did not have any. Toss in the broken pieces of toasted pita (tortilla).

This is a very nice salad. I can't help comparing DL's Fattoush with NL's. And I prefer Nigella's version. If this is just another salad, then this is quite good actually, but since this is Fattoush, and since I have made Nigella's Fattoush, I prefer Nigella's simpler version without the mustard and the salad leaves. I like mustard but I think that a Fattoush is better without it. With the mustard, it is just like any other salad, at least for me!

We had this salad with Chicken Lady Chicken, (which is our next assignment in two weeks' time, so will be sharing that later), and it was a delicious meal. 

Please do stop by CtBF to see the other lovely ladies take on this salad.

Ham, Blue Cheese and Pear Quiche

Cook The Book Fridays, a group of foodie bloggers, is currently cooking from David Lebovitz's cookbook, My Paris Kitchen. This week's assignment is Ham, Blue Cheese and Pear Quiche, and it is extra special this week, because CtBF is participating in Food Revolution Day. As everyone knows, Food Revolution is created by Jamie Oliver.  A food movement which aims to inspire people to learn about food and how to cook good, honest and affordable food.

This week, CtBF has selected this quiche recipe, as Mardi Michels, who is the Food Revolution Ambassador for Canada, says, " we're all going to be cooking the dish we've deemed a "must know" starter French recipe - QUICHE!".  

Ham, Blue Cheese and Pear Quiche for Food Revolution Day at CtBF.

We love quiche and I've made them many times, but have never made the pastry with a mixture of flour and cornmeal before. I've always use a tart pan to bake quiche, in this recipe, DL has indicated to use a springform pan instead, so I figured that the filling for this quiche must be quite thick compared to others that I've made, especially so when I've read that the dough is to be pressed halfway up the sides of a springform pan.  The springform pan that I've used is 9" diameter, and I did not wrap the pan with aluminium foil around the outside, since it is going to be placed on a rimmed baking sheet before baking. The dough breaks in some places when I transferred the rolled dough into the pan, but the tears are easily patched up by using some of the dough pinched from the sides to cover the tears.

I've made a few changes to the amount of ingredients used, as folllows :

For the crust : use 1/4 tsp of salt instead of 1/2 tsp. The pastry needed less than 1 egg for it to come together. I beat the egg lightly in a small bowl and added a tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together. There's about slightly more than a tablespoon of the egg left.

For the filling : 1 cup heavy cream instead of 1-1/2 cups, 5 ounces cream cheese instead of 8 ounces, 100gm crumbled blue cheese instead of 150gm, 4 large eggs only and did not include the extra 2 egg yolks.

Use fresh oregano leaves from my garden pot, and bake the quiche for 70 minutes. 

The amount of filling fills the pan exactly to the level of the dough top. I sprinkled some black pepper over before baking. 

I was afraid that the taste of the blue cheese might be too strong. But the taste kinda mellows out during baking, mixed with all the other flavours in the filling. The pear makes an interesting addition, with a nice light crunch, and would not have guessed that there's pears in the quiche. With cream cheese and heavy cream in the filling, this is one very rich quiche. And very, very filling! Nice quiche, but not our favourite. As for the cornmeal crust, I like it.  Tender, flaky, and buttery. 

To know more about Food Revolution, click on the following link :

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/foodrevolutioncommunity
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/foodrev
Google+: http://www.google.com/+foodrevolutioncommunity
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/foodrevolution
Instagram: @foodrev

Stop by Cook The Book Fridays to see everyone's take on this quiche.