Tag: French

Barefoot Contessa Recipe #39: Meringues Chantilly

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This recipe can be found in Barefoot in Paris, pg. 176.

Monday was my day off from work. And I had the opportunity to make dinner for us all once again. I made a recipe out of Cook Like a Pro. Check out Recipe #38! But, the original plan for Monday was to make a dessert! I think I’m becoming a dessert person. Ha!

So, sticking with the Paris and French theme I started last Friday, I decided to bang out a dessert recipe from Barefoot in Paris. Meringues Chantilly called to me as soon as I laid my eyes on it! So I knew that had to be it. But there was one problem. I’ve never attempted meringue before.

Well, this was definitely the recipe I would because, after all, one of the reasons for this blog is to learn new things, right? So the meringues were made. And to be honest, after I accomplished separating the egg whites successfully (went through a couple more than I wanted to, pesky yolks!), the stand mixer did most of the work.

Then came the piping! I read the recipe, drew my circles on the parchment, made of mess of the piping bag, my hand, and the counter and piped my circles. It wasn’t until after I stuck them in the oven that I realized they were supposed to be discs. Oh well! I’ll work with it and it still came out fine.

Since meringue can be kind of bland and dry on their own, I decided to whip up Ina’s sweetened whipped cream and the raspberry sauce that is a few pages later in Barefoot in Paris.

When it came time to serve, I spooned some raspberry sauce on the bottom of the plate, placed one meringue ring on top, added some whipped cream, more raspberry sauce, another meringue ring, a dab of whipped cream, and finally some more raspberry sauce. I garnished with some fresh raspberries and a strawberry.

How did it taste?

One word: DIVINE!

Recipe #20 Eggplant Gratin

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This recipe can be found in Barefoot in Paris, page 54

This weekend, I decided to cook from one of the two remaining cookbooks that I had not yet cooked from: Barefoot in Paris and Cook Like a Pro. The first recipe I made this weekend was for dinner on Friday night and it was Eggplant Gratin, coming from Ina’s French cookbook.

This recipe is nothing more than a French take on the Italian Eggplant Parmesan. However, it was so much tastier! Who would have thought half and half would make such a difference! This recipe was pretty easy to make since I already had the eggplant fried. It was also a win for me since I only had to buy the half and half for this recipe. Everything else, including the ricotta and parmesan cheese was already in my fridge!

The thinning of the cheese mixture with half and half adds an unexpected richness that would probably be overwhelming if the recipe called for cream. It was a big hit with my family too! I think this will become the recipe I make in the future when I feel like making an eggplant parmesan.

Additionally, I also baked this weekend. It came from Cook Like a Pro and the recipe and review of that will be dropping later this week!

Review of “Barefoot in Paris”

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This is part of a 12-part series where I review each of Ina’s cookbooks. A new review drops every Thursday at 1:30 PM. This is the fourth review out of the twelve.

This week I get to talk about my favorite Barefoot Contessa cookbook to date — Barefoot in Paris. This book is different from the others in a few ways. First, this is the only book (so far!) that focusing solely on one type of cuisine: French.

Continue reading “Review of “Barefoot in Paris”” →