Viva la France!

There's something wonderful about French cuisine. Perhaps it's the quality and the simplicity with which it's made. Perhaps it's the incredible ingredients you need to use. Or perhaps it's the lifestyle surrounding the food itself.

The traditional French breakfast is quite simple and light. French bread like baguettes or farmhouse bread with jam and or butter and a cup of black coffee. On weekends or as a special treat, the French will eat Croissants for breakfast in place of bread. They'll generally be taken with fresh jam only (adding butter to a butter pastry is a bit of overkill), or will be dipped into a coffee bowl.

The perfect French husband will pop down to the local baker at 7am on a Sunday morning to get some Croissants, hot from the oven, for his family to enjoy.

We decided to make some for a change instead of buying them, just to see how difficult it really is.

Things you'll need for the Croissants:

• 1½ cups of unbleached white bread flour
  
• ½ cup fine French plain flour, or Italian '00 flour
  
• ½ tsp salt
  
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
  
• 7g (¼oz) fresh yeast. You can get this from any good deli.
  
• ½ cup lukewarm milk
  
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
  
• ½ cup good butter
  

Things you'll need for the Glaze:

• 1 egg yolk
  
• 1 tbsp milk

Sift the flours and salt together into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Put the yeast into the lukewarm milk and make a cream. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the milk and yeast mix as well as the lightly beaten egg. Mix into the flour until it forms a dough.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes. Place in a large, lightly oiled bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about an hour.

The entire section above can be done using a bread machine - simply add all ingredients and set your bread machine to 'dough'. The kneading and proofing will all be taken care of.

Punch down the dough (to remove excess air), then re-cover and chill for another hour. Meanwhile flatten the butter into a block about 1cm thick. Knock back the dough again and turn out on to a lightly foured surface. Roll out to a 20cm square, with the edges thinner than the centre.

Place the block of butter diagonally in the centre and fold the corners of the dough like an envelope, tucking the edges to completely enclose the butter.

Roll the dough into a rectangle about 2cm thick, about twice as long as it is wide. Fold the bottom third up and the top third down and seal the edges with a rolling pin. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes.

Repeat the rolling, folding and chilling twice more, turning the dough by 90˚ each time. Roll out on a floured surface into a 63x33 cm rectangle, then trim the edges to give a 60x30 cm rectangle. Cut in half lengthways, then into 8 equal triangles.

Place the triangles onto baking sheets, cover with clear film and chill for another 10 minutes.

To shape the croissants, place each one with the wide end at the top, hold each side and pull gently to stretch the top of the triangle a little, then roll towards the point, finishing with the pointed end tucked underneath. Curve the ends towards the pointed end to make a crescent. Place on two baking sheets, spaced well apart.

Mix together the egg yolk and milk for the glaze. Lightly brush a little over the croissants, avoiding the cut edges of the dough. Cover the croissants loosely with oiled plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes, or until they've doubled in size.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220˚C. Brush the croissants with the remaining glaze and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until crisp and golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly before serving warm.

For those who are wondering, these were wonderful, especially with our home made strawberry jam. Yes, they were a bit of a pain to make, what with the rolling, chilling, waiting etc. - but the satisfaction they provided was greater than the struggle of making them. We also experimented by adding a little chopped chocolate to the wide end of a couple of croissants before rolling them up. They were really nice, especially when dipped in coffee.

Sexy Strawberries

Strawberries are wonderful things. When I mention strawberries in relation to a culinary romance, most out there would probably be thinking something including whipped cream with candles and Barry White playing in the background.

But that's not quite what I have in mind. Aside from the fact that a recipe for strawberries & whipped cream would be spectacularly unnecessary, it doesn't quite fit into what this site's about.

Strawberry jam is where it's all at. Fresh Croissants scream for it, midnight snack toast loves it, and there's always Pa,czki (Warsaw) Doughnuts if you want to go crazy.

This recipe is a very simple jam which we put together recently. We reduce the ratio of sugar to fruit, which means that it's less sugary jam and more squished up conserved strawberries.

You'll need:

• 500g Fresh Strawberries, hulled (remove the leafy bit) and halved if large
  
• 500g Caster Sugar
  
• 1/2 tsp Tartaric Acid
  
• An enamel-coated cast-iron saucepan or a copper preserving pan. Heavy-bottomed stainless steel will be ok at a pinch, but never use aluminium as it will react with the strawberries.
  
• A candy thermometer, which you can buy from any good kitchen supply store for about $8
  

First we need to soften the strawberries and release some of their wonderful flavour. Place your strawberries into the saucepan no more than two deep, and put the saucepan onto the stove on the lowest heat and simmer slowly for about 15 minutes. The strawberries don't need any water for this, as they cook in their own juices.

Once they're all soft and surrounded by a bubbling red ooze (which smells phenomenal), add in your sugar and tartaric acid. Leave the cooktop on low until the sugar dissolves (the mixture will go sort of transparent), then turn it up to high and let the mixture fast boil until your candy thermometer reads 104˚

Take the saucepan off the heat and stir gently as it cools. Don't be afraid if your candy thermometer goes up a little, either. It'll probably keep climbing to 106˚ or so, but is fine. Unless it does past 107˚, you'll end up with jam. Over that and you'll get strawberry toffee.

Once it's cooled, skim the bubbles off the surface and put the jam into sterilized jars, then pop in the fridge. Next morning you can scoff some fresh strawberry jam on toast or croissants to your heart's content.

Some like it hot - Chili Sauces

Chilies are wonderful things. Known for their pungent flavour, they are used in many schools of cooking to add a kick to a dish. Sometimes, however, you have to keep the spice level low, in order to accommodate for people with lower tolerances for spicy foods.

So what do you do when you cook a mild dish, but want to add some extra spice to your serving once it's hit your plate?

Well, you can use a hot sauce. This one was created for a Mexican party where some of our friends aren't too fond of really hot spices. We made all the main dishes quite mild, but offered this sauce for those who wanted to add a little extra something to their plate.

Triple Chili Hotsauce
Makes about 500ml

• 6 Habanero Chilies, Finely Chopped
  
• 6 Piri Piri (African Devil) Chilies, Finely Chopped
  
• 6 Red Cayenne Peppers, Finely Chopped
  
• 2 Red Capsicums (Bell Peppers), Finely chopped
  
• 2 Cloves of Garlic, Finely Chopped
  
• 2 Cups White Wine Vinegar
  
• Handful of Basil
  
• Handful of Thyme
  
• 1 Teaspoon Sugar
  
• 1 Tablespoon Salt
  
• 1 Tablespoon Treacle
  
• 3 Tablespoons Dried Cayenne Pepper
  
• 1/2 Cup Red Wine Vinegar
  
• Juice of a Lemon
  
• A 500ml bottle or jar, sterilized by boiling in water and then drying in a hot oven
  

Boil the Chopped Chilies and Garlic in the White Wine Vinegar in a Saucepan until the chilies are tender and soft, and the vinegar has boiled away.

Put into a blender and add the other ingredients. Blend until smooth, then return to the saucepan at a low heat to simmer and reduce. 

Once your sauce has reduced to the consistency of shop-bought Tomato Sauce, bring quickly to the boil, then pour into your bottle or jar.

Let your sauce sit for a week in the fridge before using, and start small as it will be nice and hot. It should last in the fridge for about four months.

Welcome!

Welcome to Recipes of a Twentysomething Culinary Romance.

We're just getting started at the moment, so hopefully there will be some new recipes up and running before too long.

Tomorrow night should be something special to get us underway - so special that we've started it this evening so it'll be ready in time.

We hope you enjoy reading as much as we enjoy writing.

- Leigh and Jacqueline