French cheese gets in the Valentine’s Day mood

This Valentine’s Day, why not treat your other half to a cheesy, romantic night in? And no, we don’t mean a night in with Chris de Burgh; we’re actually talking about the perfect romantic meal for two, completed by the wonderfully creamy and very appropriately heart-shaped Neufchâtel cheese.

Neufchâtel is a delicious, mild but rich cheese that will make your chérie melt with amour, especially when she hears about its history. Legend has it that its shape is the result of young French women from Normandy wanting to secretly declare their love to the English soldiers during the Norman One Hundred Year war.

As if this wasn’t enough, a romantic cheese course has other added benefits too; ladies, you will literally be ‘glowing’ after you devour some of these goodies. Cheese is a natural source of Selenium, which is great for your hair skin and nails. It is also an antioxidant as well as having anti-aging affects.  According to John D. Kirschmann, of the Nutrition Almanac, it may also improve energy and mood levels, so you’ll be bright-eyed, ready for a night of romance.

So go the extra mile – it’s the little finishing touches that make all the difference – and charm your other half with Neufchâtel this Valentine’s Day.

- Cyrille

Bloody Mary "Drunch" Fest - a.k.a. the American Institution Known Simply as "Brunch"

Drink up! It's like a salad in a drink. With vodka. 

There seems to be a lot of chatter going around about day-drinking online, and I am not quite sure why (yet), so I thought this would be an appropriate time to share the great American tradition of the Bloody Mary and Mimosa Brunch. Recently, in London, people have been "discovering" a new trend called "Drunch". Apparently, it's a drunk brunch. To be honest, I am quite surprised that in a culture built on pub life and so fully committed to drinking, they have just discovered this. Hello England, in America, it's just called brunch, and you don't get drunk you just get tipsy. If you are doing it right, you eat too much to get properly drunk and considering it's most common on a Sunday, that's probably a good thing  (if it's Saturday, well you still have shopping to do and plans that night). We like to have a juicy cocktail with our bacon and pancakes and let me tell you this, it sure smoothes you out if you are nursing a hangover from the night before. It's funny, because just recently in Paris they laughed at me when I said that a certain (to remain nameless) champagne that was not quite working on its own but would be great with breakfast. They thought I was either kidding, or nuts. No kiddies, it's called a mimosa, it's almost healthy, and the best ones are of the bottomless variety (what's up Creme on U Street!). Mimosas are easy - champs and oj in a one-to-one ratio. Bloody Marys are an art form. 

Bloody Marys are delicious - and we Americans do not play around with making them. City, and nation wide, your brunch place is judged on your eggs benedict and your Bloody Marys. My favorite Bloody Mary in DC is at The Heights on 14th Street, which was a convenient straight shot from both my old DC place and Cyrille's, and pretty much central for all of our friends there. To give you an idea of their Bloody Mary aptitude, the entire back page of the menu was devoted to a multiple choice build-your-own guide to the perfect drink. Serious business. Other places offer the ever popular make-it-yourself bar, which although can be seen as a lazy way out of coming up with good recipes, is a sure way to get what you want. That is, if you are taught how to make one. So to get you crazy Euro-Brits started, here's your basic ingredients. Buy them all, invite your friends round, try a few versions, and enjoy. 

Start with tomato juice - a good one - you are only as good as your ingredients. Luckily on the East side of the Atlantic there is a great selection, better that the US. The gazpacho so readily available in France makes a superb base. Put it in a pint glass over ice. 

Add a good vodka - one shot or so. 

Then, think about what you like with tomatoes. Do you prefer Mexican flavor or Italian? Provence or Cajun? Let your taste preference be your guide. You really can't go wrong with the spice, the more the merrier, just add a bit at a time to find your balance. 

Essentials as seen above are worcestershire sauce, ready chopped garlic, hot sauce, s & p, but also get some horseradish, rosemary, lime juice, and old bay seasoning (available at Selfridges food hall). The more variety of hot sauces and spice you have the better. 

Shake at this point. 

Garnish it up. Celery, dill pickle, cucumber, olives, lime - I wouldn't say no to all of them together but that's why I'm a gourmand. Pick and choose to suite your flavor. Also, an addition that I had for the first time here in London, was a splash of red wine on top. Quite delish.

Enjoy, our Euro-Brit friends! Let us know how it turns out!

- Susannah

Epicurean Dream: Fortnum & Mason

Fortnum & Mason is one of our favorite stores in London. Established at 181 Piccadilly in 1707, it offers everything you could dream of from a specialty department store, but the best thing about F&M has to be the grocery and wine selection on the first 2 floors. From beet cured salmon to violet petal marshmallows, it is an epicurean playground, my grown-up idea of the biggest and best candy store. F&M focuses its selection on sourcing the finest food, with its own private label that offers an extensive selection of quality wines.

They have an amazing wine and champagne bar on the ground floor, intimate and with a fantastic selection. It's a great place for a date or a really nice catch-up. Enjoy a flight of 3 wines starting at £16, a great selection of wines by the glass, or any of their fabulous in-store bottles for only a £10 corkage fee.  There's a great nibbles menu, plus if you'd like to sample any of their delicious in-store and yet off-menu treats, simply ask and they would be happy to accommodate.

Now through March 13, they have a special deal in all of their 3 restaurants to enjoy a set 2 courses for only £15. Delish.

Get a taste here and stay tuned for my attempt at violet marshmallow and white chocolate s'mores. Yum.

Accidentally Delicious Cookies

I love happy accidents in cooking and baking. I've learned the hard way that it is best to write down what you did so that you can repeat it. This Sunday I was dying to bake something, as it was Sunday and the sun hadn't been out in a few days. So after searching for an open store to get butter, when we returned home I discovered that we were 1 cup short of the 3 needed to make oatmeal cookies. Forced to make oatmeal cookies with what we had on hand, they turned out quite delicious, less oatmeal-y than expected, quite nutty, a great cookie batter to use as a rich base milk or white chocolate chunks, cranberries, macadamias, or even a cinnamon sugar cookie. It’s also lower in saturated fat than the original version and higher in good fibers. It’s as close to a healthy cookie as I would want to make!

One of the funny things about finding recipes online is that no two are the same. The one that I used and altered, claims to be the classic Quaker Oats recipe, but alas, is slightly different than the one on the Quaker Oats website. So below is the recipe I used, and here are my substitutions.

            

Instead of the 3 cups of oats, I used 2 cups plus 1/2 cup of oatbran and 1/2 a cup of buckwheat flour. Oat bran and buckwheat are key components of the Dukan and Perricone diets respectively, and in a New Year's effort to incorporate more healthy elements into my cooking, they are now on hand in the kitchen. Turns out they are very useful! The oats I used are slow cooking, not instant, as the fiber in quick oats has already been broken down, so the health benefits are greatly diminished (according to Perricone). These oats taste much better than the instant, and only take a few minutes to cook to eat anyway. Also, seeing that the recipe called for an entire cup of butter, I decided to halve it with safflower oil, an oil that is low in saturated fat, also on hand. I used 1 cup of mixed dried fruits that are readily available here in the UK, which contain orange and lemon peel as well as red and white raisins. They do however have added sugar, which is a minus. Raisins and cranberries are easy to find with no added sugar. Speaking of sugar, instead of the amounts below I used ¾ cup of brown/unrefined granulated sugar and ¾ cup Splenda formulated for baking. I was quite happily surprised with the results.

Bake at 350 f, 180 c, for 15-20 minutes on a greased or non-stick pan. The original recipe calls for less time but the longer fibers and the oil need more time to set. Check at 15 and bake until light golden brown (see above).

Cookie recipe as found:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2  cup granulated sugar

 2  eggs

 1  teaspoon vanilla

 1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour

 1  teaspoon baking soda

 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon

 1/2  teaspoon salt (optional)

 3  cups oats

 1  cup raisins

Welcome the The Novice Gourmand!

Dear Friends,

We love food and wine, whether we're cooking and hosting at home, our going out to discover new places. Having a blog is a great way for us to share our passions while also keeping notes for ourselves, as a great recipe, restaurant or wine can so easily be forgotten. We hope this can be a great place for us to share our memories and adventures!

Susannah and Cyrille
The Novice Gourmands