It's exactly 7:37 pm on December 31 and I'm feeling ambivalent about 2009. Was it a good year? From the learning aspect, I'd say it was an excellent year. What I mean by learning is not so much the intellectual type of learning. Let's just say it was an extraordinarily culinary year for me.
I turned to cooking and baking early this year. I was never fond of the kitchen, but thinking about it now, my desire to learn had something to do with the death of my father in August 2008. He was a hearty eater and I suspect he was just a tad disappointed that I did not have any culinary skills. If he were alive today and observed my puttering about in the kitchen, he'd be grinning from ear to ear...
What comes to mind when we want to go all out and celebrate the New Year? Many of my friends will readily say "champagne", but who can make champagne these days unless one owns a vineyard?
May I suggest lait de poule (eggnog) instead? I looked for a recipe in French web sites and came across this one from "supertoinette" at http://www.supertoinette.com/recette/15/lait_poule_chocolat_de_to.html. What's good about it is it's made at home and is chocolate-flavored!
I have never tried making eggnog from scratch because supermarket shelves are stocked with them. It's tempting to just grab a couple of cartons and serve them to guests when you've got other dishes to make from scratch. Perhaps next year you and I will want to make homemade eggnog with chocolate.
Supertoinette's advice: make sure the eggs are fresh, and don't keep the eggnog for more than a day - even if refrigerated!
Here's the recipe translated into English. It's written in the first person.
This recipe will serve three people. Use this web site to convert metric to American measurements: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/convert/measurements.html
Pour la casserole / In a bowl:
FRENCH | ENGLISH |
| 100 g de lait écrémé | 100 grams of skim milk |
| 13 g de vanille liquide | 13 g of vanilla extract (the writer says "liquid" here as opposed to using a fresh vanilla pod or bean) |
| 200 g de crème allégée | 200 grams of light cream (use 5% - 8% cream) |
Pour le robot mixeur / In the electric mixer:
FRENCH | ENGLISH |
| 100 g de chocolat noir en tablette | 100 grams of a black chocolate bar |
| 71 g de jaunes d'oeuf, très frais | 71 grams of very fresh egg yolks |
Préparation / Preparation:
1. Je casse le chocolat en morceaux. Dans une casserole moyenne, je verse le lait, la vanille liquide, la crème.
English: I break the chocolate
bar into pieces. In a medium-size bowl, I pour the milk, vanilla and cream.2. Porter à ébullition, puis éteindre. Je secoue doucement pour faire tomber le blanc d'oeuf avec l'appareil de mamie.
English: Bring the milk mixture to a boil and then turn off heat. I gently break the eggs in an egg separator
. (The writer says "appareil de mamie" and I believe she's referring to the gadget that her child is holding).3. Je mets les jaunes dans un bol et les blancs dans un second récipient et je les garde pour une autre utilisation, les ranger au frigo immédiatement. Je pèse le poids des jaunes pour les noter sur la recette.
English: I put the egg yolks in a bowl and the egg whites in a second container which I will use for another recipe, putting them in the fridge immediately. I weigh the egg yolks and jot down their weights on the recipe card.
4. Je verse la préparation chaude dans le bol du mixeur et je mets tous les morceaux de chocolat. Je laisse tourner 50 secondes, il suffit de compter jusqu'à 50.
English: I pour the hot mixture into the mixer and add all the chocolate pieces. I turn on the motor for about 50 seconds (just count until 50).
5. Les morceaux de chocolats ont fondus dans la préparation. Je verse maintenant les jaunes d'oeuf. Je mets en route pour la deuxième fois le mixeur et je recompte jusqu'à 50. Je verse le lait de poule au chocolat dans des verres ou des bols !
English: The pieces of chocolate have melted. I now pour the egg yolks. I turn on the mixer for the second time and count until 50. I then pour the eggnog mixture into glasses or into small bowls!
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