chefex - Cristina, from Buenos Aires to Paris

Un Air de Printemps (Spring is in the Air) – Asparagus/Orange Cream Tart

Et oui! This could be another recipe for my Chefex ! It’s the asparagus season, and so I will devote some posts to these green knights (Have you ever read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? I used to torture my students with that…AND my (at the time) five-year-old nephew, who lives now in Germany but still remembers Gawain in awe, seeing the green knight picking up his head…sorry for the digression!)

What I meant is that, when the nice weather begins, we feel less prone to be in the kitchen, and more inclined to go out….at least that happens to me! I love losing my way in the streets of Paris, stopping at every store, to see what’s new..I particularly love little shops devoted to decoration items (apart from kitchenware stores) It is always nice to find a small new thing to decorate a room, or the balcony!

Of course, nobody is going to give me a Michelin star for this tart! but it is precisely its simplicity that makes this tart a winner…and then, just wait! Wait to see how the mild bitterness of the asparagus blends with the orange cream....Yes! as I always say, appearances are deceptive!

It would be a sort of “must” to have an excellent puff pastry! Buttery and flaky as you see here…or for the bold ones, to make it at home!

The shape of the asparagus suits the rectangle tart, and this provides a playful alternative to the traditional round tart…”Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, my mother used to say…

I hope you enjoy it!

To make this Asparagus/Orange Cream Tart, you will need:
(serves 2 tarts of 20x30cm)

*pastry puff (to roll out), 400gr *asparagus, 16 *orange, 2 *eggs, 2 *crème fraîche, 8tbsp *olive oil, to spray *salt/pepper

Cut the stalk of the asparagus (1/2cm) and in order to blanch them, put them into boiling salted water for 3/5′ (according to how thick they are) (if you can keep the tips out of the boiling water, better. Remove them from the boiling water and pass them immediately to a bowl of icy water (to stop the cooking process) . Let them rest for some minutes (till cool) Dry them.

Pre-heat your oven 210°C. Roll out your puff pastry into the desired shape (here, a rectangle of 20x30cm) Fold the edges (previously damped with water) to create a mold (see picture)

You don’t need parchment paper on the tray if your puff pastry is good quality, since it won’t stick due to the butter content. Just sprinkle the tray with icy water. Then, refrigerate for at least 30′ before putting in the oven!

Grate the orange with a zester. Then remove the skin. Peel the orange “à vif” as explained here. Then, whisk the two eggs with the cream, season to taste. Add in the orange juice that you got during the peeling process, and the zest. Remove the baking trays from the fridge. Pour half the cream/orange juice mixture. Accomodate 8 asparagus, and half the orange slices. Bake for approx 20′ till the crust is golden. Half-way the baking process, spray the tart with olive oil. (Proceed likewise for the other tart!)

Recipe adapted from “Elle à Table”

Fresh Pasta…Fresh Herbs…Fresh Vegetables…Yes! It’s Almost Springtime!

Yes, it’s almost springtime…almost…Temperatures here in Paris not yet so “spring that’s sprung”. Anyway, as if our strong wish could make things happen…we want to see green on our dishes, we want our meals to be lighter (eh oui, soon we have to leave our “manteaux” -overcoats, in the closets and show the world our “real selves”-OMG!), so just pasta with fresh veggies and herbs suited the occasion!

But it also happened that my dear Heavenly Housewife, from “From Donuts to Delirium“, invited a blogger to join her making home-made pasta. I accepted the challenge for two reasons: First and foremost because for me, this “not so Heavenly Housewife”‘s blog is almost therapeutical: HH writes using this typical, ironic, subtile English sense of humour that I love…and she makes me laugh, and for me, that’s the best medicine..! Second, because home-made pasta is Sunday tradition, “chez moi” (at home), probably due to our Argentinian-therefore-Italian background…

The idea of “invite a blogger to your table” was actually started by Valli, from More than Burnt Toast. It is a good “challenge” to take a blogger-friend out of her/his comfort zone, and to share experiences, so I encourage you to do it too!

Here are the rules:

1) Choose a dish to prepare and invite 1 blogger to create that dish with you. You can source your recipe from a cookbook, magazine, blog or any other source.2) Decide upon a date that you can both mutually post your recipe.3) Link back to More Than Burnt Toast http://morethanburnttoast.blogspot.com/ somewhere in your post.4) Please feel free to use the Avatar/Badge above “Invite a Blogger to Your Table.5) Once you have made your dish with your blogging friends and posted it or you can choose to stop or continue on and “invite another blogger to your table” to make something different.6) Cut and paste these instructions into your post and contact a friend.

But, going back to my dish, that could be part of Chefex (if you buy fresh pasta), you will need barely a couple of minutes to do this, because it is just a question of using a mandoline or sharp knife to cut raw zucchinis in julienne, slicing some mint leaves, chopping coarsely some hazelnuts, and adding a touch of lemon juice!

What really feels me with pride is to share with you, this piece of my life: my 16-year-old daughter, and her father sharing this recurring self-imposed Sunday challenge, in our minuscule, not so full of light kitchen (yes, that’s the negative side of the “grandeur Hausmannien”)

We can barely move there, the photos come out awful! but I don’t mind…We are happy sharing all this, and a “Hollywood” kitchen would not make our pasta better or tastier… We are a boisterous family, we criticize each other harshly, but then, two hours later, we all sit around this pasta, and we laugh, barely talk because we are hungry and the pasta is delicious…that’s my Sunday lunch…as simple as that!

To make fresh pasta dough, you will need:

*flour, 500gr *eggs, 5 *olive oil, 3tbsp * salt, one pinch

In a stand-mixer, with the hook, put the flour with the salt, the eggs and the olive oil. Start mixing slowly until the dough is formed. Then, flour slightly your work top, and knead the dough until the dough is resistant to your touch…it bounces back when pressed. Let rest for 30′. Cut the dough in small balls. Put your pasta machine in “1″. Put the dough ball (previously flattened a bit by hand) in the slot. Pass it again several times until it is even.

Sprinkle the dough with flour if necessary. Change the machine to “2″, then to “3″ until desired thickness. Let the tagliatelle, or spaghetti rest and “air” to dry a bit, hanging from these hangers for 15′. In the meanwhile, put abundant water to boil. Once boiling, add some coarse salt, and put all the pasta in. Stir with a fork, to make sure it does not stick. Cook till “al dente”.

For the greens and herbs:

Cut the zucchinis (how many, depends on quantity of pasta and your taste) in julienne. Slice some leaves of mint (again, it depends on how strong you like to feel the mint), some chopped hazelnuts, and one spoonful of lemon juice. Before adding this, I sprinkled the pasta with olive oil, to prevent it from sticking.