When we lived down in the South East of the country we sometimes took ourselves over to France for a day out. We were not all that far from the ferry back then, and it was an easy jaunt and a pleasant trip over on the Ferry.
You could be sitting in Boulogne enjoying a hot drink and a plate of Frites in only a few hours, even faster if you took the car train through the tunnel.
I preferred the ferry over the train for several reasons. For one, you could get out of your car and stretch your legs.
For two, you could spend the journey in their comfy lounge enjoying a drink and one of their fresh almond croissants.
Oh boy . . . one of the things that the French do very well, aside from their beautiful breads and macrons . . . is croissants and my favourite of all are the almond ones.
They are quite, quite, QUITE delicious to say the least!
It has always been my dream to spend a week in Paris, in the Spring time when everything is bursting out in bloom, and it is neither too hot, nor too cold . . .
not too wet, and when I can sit at a sidewalk cafe within the sight of the Eiffel Tower, enjoying a hot drink and a freshly baked almond croissant . . .
Oh yes dreams do come true. I am a great believer in the truth of our dreams, but in the meantime, I make these. . . .
which are not quite as fabulous as the fresh ones you can get in France, but let me tell you, they make a pretty darned tasty substitution!!
I have adapted the recipe from one I found online here.
She adapted it from a recipe that she found here. AND she adapted the recipe from one she found here by Clothilde Dusoulier on Chocolate & Zucchini.
Aren't we just so very, very blessed to have the wide variety of sources to draw from these days online? I think so at any rate.
So much inspiration . . . so little time. There are just not enough hours in the day to do all the things I would love to do. Not enough . . .
I hope you will forgive me for not having the potato recipe which was planned for today.
I ended up having to work on a new recipe for the site I write for and so I didn't have enough time to do the Pillsburg Potatoes, but never fear. It is still in the queue for a later date.
In the meantime I give you tasty, flaky delicious croissants . . . brushed with an almond flavoured liqueur syrup . . .
it soaks into those flaky layers and adds much additional almond flavour and a hint of sweet . . .
Filled with a rich and lush almond filling . . . oh boy, but I could eat that with a spoon . . . buttery and almondy and scrum, Scrum, SCRUMMY!
Brushed with yet more of that almond syrup and scattered with flaked almonds before baking . . .
until the almond filling is all gooey and golden . . .
And the outsides sweet and golden crisp . . . .
Ready to dust with some icing sugar and then sit down and enjoy with a nice hot cuppa. All is right with the world . . . all is right . . .
Yield: 8
Easy Almond Croissants
You can't get much easier or tastier than this!
ingredients:
You Will Need:
- 8 day old medium sized baked croissants
- a handful of flaked almonds
- icing sugar to dust
For the Soaking Syrup:
- 120ml water (1/2 cup)
- 1 TBS sugar
- 1 1/2 TBS Disaronno liqueuer (almond flavoured)
For the Almond Filling:
- 45g granulated sugar (1/4 cup)
- 50g ground almonds (1/2 cup)
- pinch salt
- 60g diced butter (1/4 cup)
- few drops almond essence
- 1 large free range egg, beaten
instructions:
How to cook Easy Almond Croissants
- First make the syrup. Put all of the ingredients into a small saucpan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil for one minute. Set aside to cool.
- To make the filling whisk together the almonds and the sugar. Using a spatula mash in the butter until well combined. Add the almond essence to the egg and stir into the almond mixture to combine thoroughly.
- Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/gas mark 4.
- Take your croissants and using a serrated knife cut them in half horizontally, leaving a small hinge on the one side so that they are not completely separated. Brush them thoroughly on both cut sides inside and all over the outside. They should be fairly saturated. Spoon a portion of the almond filling onto the bottom cut sides, and fold the tops back over. Place onto the baking sheet, leaving space in between. Brush with any remaining syrup and sprinkle almonds on top.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes until the filling has set and the croissants and almonds are golden. Remove from the oven. Let cool slightly, dust generously with icing sugar and serve, slightly warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!
It is also my dream one day to bake croissants from scratch . . . hopefully while I still have the energy to cope with laminating doughs and all of the rolling and buttering and faffing about. In the meantime I still have Paris . . . and I still have these . . .
Up Tomorrow: Pan Seared Mahi Mahi with a Honey & Lime Coleslaw
Today a beautifully delicious dish, Crispy Sheet Pan Chicken Milanese, perfectly sized for just two people!
I love chicken recipes like this. Recipes that are simple to make, with no fuss or muss, but that give excellent delicious results.
With this one you get lovely tender, crisp golden crumb and cheese chicken breasts, flavoured with garlic and lemon.
They are baked rather than fried, which makes them a bit healthier. You also have crisp golden brown potatoes . . . again flavoured with butter and garlic.
If you are low carbing it, you could replace them with cauliflower florets.
Add to the mix, beautiful crispy tender green beans, again flavoured with butter and garlic . . .
The coated chicken and potatoes are roasted first and then you add the green beans and roast them for a bit longer . . .
By then your potatoes will be getting crisp and golden brown also . . . finally you add some halved baby plum tomatoes.
The tomatoes are drizzled with a bit of Balsamic vinegar, to help bring out their natural sweetness, and pop everything back into the oven just until the tomatoes are wilted and beginning to caramelise . . .
This is such a beautiful combination . . . tender juicy crisp coated chicken, crispy buttery potatoes, crispy tender green beans, caramelised tomatoes . . .
You can't go wrong!
Dust the tray with some additional finely grated Parmesan cheese . . . .
Sprinkle with some parsley to give an additional colour hit . . .
Pass out the lemon wedges for squeezing . . . or not as you desire.
Myself, I enjoy a hit of lemon . . .
Altogether a beautiful dish, delicious and colourful, generously sized with nothing to wash up except for your eating utensils. You can't go wrong!
Yield: 2
Crispy Sheet Pan Chicken Milanese
An oven baked all in one pan chicken dinner for two with delicious Italian flavours!
ingredients:
For the Vegetables:
- 250g baby potatoes, washed, dried and quartered (1/2 pound)
- 250g green beans, washed, trimmed and dried (1/2 pound)
- 12 baby plum tomatoes, halved
- 1 TBS balsamic vinegar
- 60g melted butter (1/4 cup)
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- dry Italian seasoning
- salt and black pepper to taste
For the crispy chicken:
- 1 small free range egg, beaten lightly
- 1 TBS lemon juice
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
- 1/4 tsp each salt and black pepper
- 35g dried bread crumbs (1/4 cup) (I like panko)
- 3 TBS freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 TBS melted butter
To serve:
- Chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
- a dusting of Parmesan cheese
- fresh lemon wedges
instructions:
How to cook Crispy Sheet Pan Chicken Milanese
- First prepare the chicken. Whisk the egg, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper together in a shallow bowl. Pound the chicken breasts so that they are roughly the same thickness throughout. Add them to the egg mixture, turning to coat them. Refrigerate and marinate for half an hour at least.
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/gas mark 6. Line a baking tray with aluminium foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- Put the bread crumbs in a bowl with the Parmesan cheese. Dredge each chicken breast on both sides in this, pressing them lightly to help the crumbs to stick. Place them onto the baking tray. Drizzle with the melted butter. (Alternately you can spray them with the low fat cooking spray). Place them in a single layer on the baking sheet.
- Melt the butter for the vegetables and mix with the garlic, Italian seasoning and salt to taste. Toss the potatoes with half of this and the green beans with the other half.
- Place the potatoes in one layer around the chicken, reserving the beans for later.
- Roast the chicken and potatoes in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Push the potatoes to one side and add the green beans around the chicken on the other side. Return to the oven and roast for a further10 minutes.
- Remove the tray from the oven again. Push the beans aside to make room for the tomatoes. Add the cherry tomatoes and drizzle with the balsamic vinegar and season with some salt and black pepper. Return the tray to the oven and roast for a further 10 minutes, until the chicken is golden and cooked through, the potatoes are crisp and golden brown and the green beans crispy tender. The tomatoes should be wilted and beginning to caramelise. Scatter some Parmesan cheese over the tray and sprinkle with the flat leaf parsley. Serve immediately with lemon wedges for spritzing over top.
If you don't like your green beans crispy tender, you may want to blanch them first. If you don't like green beans you can use trimmed asparagus spears, or baby corn cobs. Tasty either way!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
I would pick one of the warmest days this week to make us soup for our dinner wouldn't I? Never mind, it was enjoyed no matter the temperature and I just know you will enjoy this Cheddar Chowder Recipe also, if not now, then in the coming months, so you might want to pin or bookmark it for later on.
It won't be the last, I guarantee. Isn't it funny how you save things for years and years and years, and never get around to using or making them.
Losing my mom this past year taught me one thing and that was that life is too short not to use the things you have. There is no point in saving things for a rainy day or for better times . . . use them now and get all the joy that you can get from them for as long as you can!
And that includes old recipe cards, filled with recipes that once upon a time you thought were good enough, and tasty enough to want to record them down by hand and tuck into your recipe box with the idea in mind to make them.
This is a fabulous soup . . . rich and creamy. Cheddar Chowder . . . meant to be hearty. You will want to make sure you have a really good cheddar cheese to use in this. A farmhouse cheddar, an old strong or sharp cheddar, I guess it is called in North America . . . well aged.
I used a cheddar that I picked up in Costco . . . aged enough that it is crumbly and there are little crunchy bits of calcification in it . . . a cheese you want to flake off and eat with a nice piece of apple pie if you had some, or enjoy with a nice glass of wine if you were a wine drinking person.
We have no apple pies . . . nor are we wine drinkers, but I do confess I enjoyed a few flakes while I was preparing this tasty recipe.
Served hot, ladled into bowls and topped with homemade croutons, it went down a real treat. There's enough leftover for Todd to enjoy some more tomorrow. He's really looking forward to that!
Yield: 4
Cheddar Chowder
This is a fabulously tasty chowder. I adore chowders, which are milk based soups. This one boasts the rich and creamy taste of a good farmhouse cheddar. Make sure you pick a good one. Your choice will make all the difference in the world.
ingredients:
- 2 TBS butter
- 1 large onion, peeled, cut in half and then sliced into thin half moons
- 2 TBS flour
- 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
- 240ml chicken stock
- 2 pints whole milk (4 cups)
- 1/4 tsp celery seed
- 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
- 1/2 tsp hot paprika
- 180g of a well flavoured old cheddar cheese, grated (1 1/2 cups)
- salt and black pepper to taste
- buttered croutons to serve
instructions:
How to cook Cheddar Chowder
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally over low heat until softened without browning. Stir in the flour. Cook for a minute or so to cook the taste of the flour out. Stir in the stock, milk, potatoes and celery seed. Heat just to the boil. Don't allow it to boil. Reduce to a slow simmer, cover and simmer over very low heat for 25 minutes, or until the potatoes are knife tender. Stir in the mustard powder and paprika. Cook, uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the cheese and season to taste with salt and white pepper. Ladle into heated soup bowls, sprinkle with croutons and serve immediately.
I make my own croutons for soups. They are so easy to make. I just preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Butter some slices of stale white bread (or any bread really) and cut the bread into shapes with a cookie cutter (s). Today I sprinkled them with Everything But Bagel seasoning I bought on Amazon. It was Trader Joes. I paid a bomb, but I wanted to try the best so that then I can make my own. Watch this space!
Up Tomorrow: Crispy Sheet Pan Chicken Milanese
When I was a young newly-wed, I relied a lot on magazines and newspaper clippings for new and delicious recipes to cook for my husband and growing family.
I did not own many cookery books at the time. I had The Fanny Farmer Cookbook, and several volumes from the BHG Cooking Library.
There was no Internet to source recipes from. Half the time recipes did not even have photographs to go along with them.
You really didn't have much of an idea of how they were supposed to look when done, or how they were going to taste.
Another way of gleaning tasty recipes was to have them shared with you via family and friends. Those were the best recipes of all.
You knew that if they were tasty enough for people to want to share them with you, then they were tasty full stop!
This recipe comes from my ex MIL, Elizabeth. She also gave me my basic fried rice recipe, which was one she had gotten from one of her neighbours when she was living in Winnipeg.
Both recipes used prepared minute rice, which was (I'm ashamed to say) pretty much the only rice that we used back in the day.
I didn't grow up in a household that served rice. The only rice I had ever eaten came from Chinese restaurants, so minute rice was my bar of experience.
Thankfully I have grown tons since then and now I would rather die than serve anyone minute rice.
This recipe I am sharing is for a delicious casserole type of side dish. Country Style Casserole. The card on which it is written is yellowed with age and stained.
It is one of my tried and true treasures. It is a recipe which has withstood the test of time.
Cooked rice is mixed with grated carrots, almost but not quite in equal measure . . . and sliced spring onions . . . the original recipe only called for one, but I think two is better.
I love recipes that you can tweak a bit here and there to make them your own.
Added to the mix is a good quality mayonnaise. I have my favourite, and you probably have yours.
If I am not using homemade, I am using Hellman's. It is the best in my opinion, but I am open to trying new things.
Mom always used Miracle Whip. I still miss Miracle Whip . . . it was the best on a fresh Tomato Sandwich, in the summer, fresh tomatoes from the garden, on soft white bread, with salt and black pepper.
To me this is the taste of summer. A fresh tomato sandwich with miracle whip. I think mom had a tomato sandwich for lunch just about every day of her life!
But I digress . . . along with the mayonnaise you will need one large free range egg, lightly beaten. I only use free range, rspca approved (if I can get them) eggs. I like to think I am eating happy eggs from happy chickens.
If I could, I would have my own chickens, and they would all have names. Names like Ditsy and Fluffybutt, and Little Red. They would be like family.
Along with the egg, carrot, mayo, and onion there is also cheese, whole milk and seasoning. Remember cheese is salty. I use a good old strong cheddar as it has a beautiful flavour and I choose un-dyed white cheddar.
There is enough orange in there from the carrots. Poured into a baking dish, tightly covered and baked, this casserole is really delicious and goes well with just about everything. Its even great on it's own.
A sprinkle of chopped parsley and voila! A delicious side that doesn't cause you to break into even the least amount of a sweat.
Country Style Casserole
Yield: 6
This deliciously easy casserole goes together very quickly, especially if you use a ready cooked pouch of rice. Gleaned from a magazine ad, the original recipe used prepared minute rice, which I might have used once upon a time, but would never use now. Instead I like to use brown rice. I have been making this tasty side dish for years!
ingredients:
- 320g cooked rice (2 cups) (Use your favourite, long grain, basmati, brown)
- 165g peeled and grated carrot (1 1/2 cups)
- 120g grated strong cheddar cheese (1 cup, old cheddar) (I like the white)
- 110g good quality mayonnaise (1/2 cup)
- 80ml whole milk (1/3 cup)
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 2 spring onions (scallions) thinly sliced
- salt and black pepper to taste
- chopped parsley to garnish
instructions:
How to cook Country Style Casserole
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 1 litre/4 cup casserole dish.
- Mix together all of the ingredients, seasoning to taste with some salt and black pepper. Pour into the buttered casserole dish. Cover tightly and bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, uncover, sprinkle with parsley flakes and serve immediately!
We enjoyed this with a Costco rotisserie chicken and some runner beans from the garden. It was a quick, easy and quite enjoyable meal. If you have a vegetarian in your life this would make a great main dish, especially if you add some toasted nuts.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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