Picard round 3

So this week's Picard venture required even less cooking. The two entrees went into the microwave and the veggie dish cooked in the oven for 20 minutes.

Tasty bites and not so tasty andouillette

So I had a couple friends visiting from the states recently. I can't imagine a better reason to dine out than to show my friends tasty treats around Paris.

Summer rolls

Most people are familiar with Spring rolls aka goi cuon, which you can find in most Vietnamese restaurants, but not many people have tried Summer rolls aka bo bia. Spring rolls are filled with vermicelli noodles, veggies, pork and shrimp. On the other hand bo bia (I call them Summer rolls.. well because I'm not sure what else to call them), are filled with sauteed jicama, carrots, scallions, veggies, egg, and Chinese sausage. I prefer them over Spring rolls as they're served warm.

Tons of buns

So lately I've got tons of buns in the oven. Literally speaking of course, otherwise yours truly would be really freaking out. There's something to be said about eating something fresh and warm out of the oven, and even more so when its sweet, gooey, or stuffed with some delicious filling.

I made some ooey-gooey cinnamon buns, though I tweaked the recipe a little since the original has far too much butter and sugar to my liking. Plus I added maybe three times as much cinnamon as called for.

Reine des gauffres

It's only fitting that since I'm going to Bruges that one of my tasks this week was to make waffles. I like waffles, but after making over a hundred of them while broiling over a super hot 'gauffrier', I'm not looking forward to eating them in Belgium.

The one thing I like about making waffles? Everybody loves you when you make waffles. No, I'm not kidding. Everyone in the lab walks by with roaming eyes hoping that there's a hot reject they can claim and dip in sugar. Some are even brazen enough to say "can you make one for me?" or "wheres mine?" Seriously people, I need to finish making these damn waffles.

Our sous-chef (last year's world pastry champion) even went as far to call me the "reine des gauffres" aka queen of waffles. Maybe because I was doling them out; yeah there were quite a few rejects. When I was done, I actually requested to clean out the walk in fridge.

Boozin' in the lab

Okay well not exactly.  No alcohol consumption is going on in the lab, lest I want to lose my job. A couple weeks ago I noticed one of the sous chef making a chocolate transfer of Buzz Lightyear. In France they call him Buzz L'eclair... and it's pronounced booze lee-claire. How curious I thought. A few days later I was asked to cut out over a dozen stupid gold cardboard things that vaguely looked like a plane or something with wings.

Seafood massacre

I was finally able to find some bigorneau aka periwinkles at the market. They were kind of expensive at 15 euros a kilo, considering you can easily hunt for them yourself if you happen to live along the coast of France. I guess the 15 euros goes to transporting these little suckers.

Pain perdu & moules frites

French toast aka pain perdu, as with French fries, isn't necessarily French, but it's unarguably tasty. Though traditionally made with day old brioche, I've found that it's even better if you use a day old buttery croissant. The sous-chef at work also advised me to toast the brioche/croissant first so its sure to soak up extra egg and milk batter, and thus allowing you to 'reclaim' the 'lost' bread. Unfortunately I was out of croissants this past weekend, so brioche had to suffice. I like my pain perdu with cinnamon, a sprinkling of powdered sugar, and maple syrup.