From Paris--the City of...

Pots and Frills has been kind of slow lately, but not because I have run out of recipes or have lost my passion for cooking - absolutely not! First, like every parent, I have been very busy during this end-of-school period. But also, I have not been much around lately, because I spent the entire last week in Paris.

Some time this month, my blog has turned one-year old and there was no better place to celebrate this than in Paris with French food, champagne, and much much more, soldes including.

Paris has been given so many flattering nicknames and I suppose it deserves all of them. To me it was...

...the city of art,

...the city of love,

...the city of fashion,

...the city of chic,

...the city of fun,

...the city of style,

...the city of pretty girls (smoking cigarettes),

...the city of famous cafés,

...the city of beautiful people,

...and, most of all, the city of the best food in the world (to be continued).

Frisée and Star Fruit Salad--Fusion of Two Salads

I like the look of the star fruits so much that I buy them sometimes just for their beauty. I use them to decorate some of my desserts or glasses with drinks but I must admit that often I am at a loss as to what to do with the rest of that unused fruit which unfortunately quickly turns brown and ends in trash. I have been looking for a recipe on how to use them better but I could not find anything else than a fruit salad with coconut milk.

Star fruit, also called carambola, is often used just to extract its juice. It is rich in antioxidants but one has to be careful drinking eat at any time because, similarly to a grapefruit juice, if consumed in large amount it may enter into interaction with some medications.

Last week, I could not resist buying a beautiful star fruit again. The fruit itself has a delicate, hard to describe taste, somewhat reminiscent of a pear. Following this association, I decided to make a salad with star fruits as I make it with pears. In the fall I often make a salad with Belgian endives, pears, blue cheese, and roasted walnuts and dress it with walnut oil. As I discovered recently this simple idea is still quite unknown outside France. In Switzerland I learned a recipe for a frisée lettuce salad with good quality blue cheese and honey dressing. Inspired by both of these salads, I made my frisée and star fruit salad for the first time. It is more seasonal than the one using endives; frisée is more summery, while Belgian endives taste better in fall or winter.

This salad not only had a new taste but it also looked very picturesque. Dressing should be poured over it at the last moment as it will soften the star fruit and make it lose its fresh perfect look.

Frisée and Star Fruit Salad

Ingredients:
1 star fruit,
1/2 lb (a medium-sized head) frisée salad,
1/3 cup roasted walnuts,
4 oz hard blue cheese, such as Stilton or Bleu d'Auvergne.

Dressing:
juice from half a lemon,
1/2 tbsp running honey,
2 tbsp rice bran oil,
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Cut frisée in smaller pieces and arrange on the plate.
2. Mix all the dressing ingredients and pour over the lettuce.
3. Cut a star fruit into very thin slices and arrange on top of the frisée.
4. Sprinkle with roasted walnuts and crumbled blue cheese.

Blueberry Tart--from My Tart Collection

If the name "Tartelette" was still available I think that would be a great name for my blog. Unfortunately, it is already taken and by a well known and established blog. Tarts are one of my favorite pastry and I make them very often--either savory or sweet. I made sweet tarts with almost all fruits and nuts. I like fruit tarts especially in the summer and fall when I can use fresh seasonal fruits to make them.

For last few weeks, the locally growing blueberries have been arriving massively to the food stores in my area. Today everyone is aware of their high antioxidant content and they are almost in everyone's shopping cart.

I love to eat them fresh straight from the box, put them in my kids' lunch boxes, or put them in fruit salads. Sometimes, I also make tarts with blueberries, especially when they are in their peak--large and sweet. For the crust I typically use my classic short cake recipe, but this time to make it different, I added ground almonds to the crust. I spread the crust over the tart pan, baked it for 10-15 minutes and only then I added fruits and baked it altogether for another 15-20 minutes and voilà my dessert was ready in half an hour. To me it tastes always best when it is still slightly warm.

Blueberry Tart
(For a 10-inch tart tin)

Ingredients for the crust:
1 and 1/2 cup flour,
2 sticks (about 230 g) cold, unsalted butter, cut into thick slices
1/2 cup icing sugar,
1/2 cup ground almonds,
a pinch of salt,

Ingredients for the filling:
3 six oz boxes of blueberries,
1/4 cup sugar,
2 whole eggs,
1 cup table cream.

Preparation:
1. Place flour, sugar, ground almonds, and salt in a large bowl. Mix all the ingredients.
2. Add butter to the flour mixture and working with hands break butter and rub it in the flour to form coarse crumbs.
3. Place the crust in a plastic bag and chill for at least 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 375F.
5. Butter slightly the baking tin and spread the crust over it. Press gently with fingers make sure to cover the bottom and the side walls.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the crust is gold.
7. Whip quickly sugar, eggs and cream to make a kind of custard mix. Spread blueberries on top of the crust, cover with the custard mix, and bake for about 20-30 minutes, until the topping is set.

Tip: the crust can be made ahead and stored in a refrigerator for up to two weeks.