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Category: Food

Macaroni and Cheese
comfort food

noun

noun: comfort food; plural noun: comfort foods

food that provides consolation or a feeling of well-being, typically having a high sugar or carbohydrate content and associated with childhood or home cooking.

…I was robbed! This weekend’s drama definitely put me in the mood for a big helping of the above — comfort food.

You guys, do you ever have day that goes so well that you start thinking something’s up? It was a super productive day at work, and a big weekend planned including seeing a good friend in town from Paris. Well, Friday was one of those days! It ended on a pretty good note and I was out of the office earlier than usual, around 5pm. As I was driving home on my (once) beautiful Honda motorbike, I was thinking how happy I was that I brought it over from Paris to London when we moved. And even more so, I was thankful to not be stuck on the hot & stuffy London Tube to get home!

Home in only 20 minutes, I parked my bike and headed upstairs to my flat. Fast forward to the next morning when I went outside… only to see that it had been stolen! That’s the worst feeling ever, realizing that someone else has your stuff… and you have no way of getting it back 🙁

I raced back upstairs to tell Jonathan and he goes “Yeah I noticed it wasn’t there last night when I came home…!!” – he simply thought I had left the bike at work for the weekend as rain was on the forecast. This means that the it was stolen sometime between 6-8pm on a busy road, and in broad daylight as it doesn’t even get dark until pretty late these days. Talk about brazen!

After a few hopeful phone calls to the city pound to make sure it hadn’t just been towed for some reason, I finally accepted that my treasured moto was gone. So, I filed the police report and went about the rest of my Saturday feeling pretty down. I know it’s just a material good, but it’s such a violation to have something taken from you. But then, I got an email from the London police confirming my details and to let me know that it had been recovered! I know sometimes motorbikes are stolen and used for joyrides (or for committing other crimes…), so I tried to prepare myself for the worst. Off we went to the local police station, and there she was…sitting in a corner: a bit banged up, but all in all, not as bad as we were expecting! The steering column was all broken and the ignition was ripped out, but Jonathan was able to use his mechanic training hot wire it to start, and we brought her home safe and sound. We’re in for about $1000 in repairs (!!!), but overall a happy ending to a very annoying situation!

After the longest Saturday ever, I was definitely in need of a nice big bowl of comfort food, but not just any comfort food: macaroni and cheese. Whenever I’m feeling down, stressed, or just want a taste of home, I always crave mac n cheese for some reason. After ten years of living in fancy-cheese-having France (but no cheddar*…!) it’s nice to be able to whip up a bowl of the stuff using the ingredients I’m used to, ie a nice sharp cheddar.

As is often the case for Sunday dinner, I found myself staring into the fridge looking for inspiration. But tonight was a no brainer as soon as I opened the fridge and realized taht I had a bunch of greek yogurt and cheese to use up.

A comfort food recipe should be by definition easy to make, and this is no exception. Feel free to wing it, change up the quantities, and swap in different cheeses – the warm fuzzy feeling that this dish will give you will be the same, either way 🙂
Macaroni and Cheese

Recipe Type: Comfort food

Cuisine: American

Author: Veronica | seefoodplay.com

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 35 mins

This is one of the simplest recipes I’ve come up with thus far for easy, creamy and very cheesy macaroni and cheese. Ready in about 20-30 minutes, this is the ultimate comfort food recipe | seefoodplay.com
Ingredients

3 tablespoons of greek yogurt

1/2 cup of water

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of flour

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

100 grams of macaroni (or any shape you want!), cooked until al dente

Cheese:

¼ cup of parmesan

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar

½ cup strong cheddar (save for topping)
Instructions

Place your butter in a medium-sized pot and melt it on a low heat, then add in the flour.

You’ll need to whisk the butter + flour mixture together to prevent clumps, and it will come together to form a nice smooth buttery roux.

Next, add in the Greek yogurt to combine well, then the mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and ground pepper.

Now, add in all the cheese and stir until melted.

Use a big spoon (or whisk, like I do) to continue to stir the cheese mixture, adding in the water slowly if it gets too thick.

Now, add in the cooked pasta and stir until mixed in with the cheese.

Place a bit of olive oil in a baking dish, and transfer your macaroni +cheese mix to the dish.

Top with the ½ cup of cheddar, then bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until the topping is as golden as you like it!
Notes

With the arrival of Marks and Spencer’s in Paris, proper strong/sharp cheddar cheese is now readily available around town. So if you happen to live in Paris, you can make this recipe, too 🙂

3.3.3070
May 16, 2015
Spinach & Apple smoothie
Maybe it’s because spring is right around the corner (at least, I hope it’s hiding around there somewhere…) but I’ve been craving light, healthy and energizing food lately. Or maybe it’s also the overdose on take-out food over the last few months during our move… Either way, I’ve been subconsciously making all sorts of things that I never would have even considered before, on my quest to eat something that didn’t arrive at ours in 30 minutes or less ::cough Dominos Pizza cough::

I’m always up for a good experiment in the kitchen, so over the weekend when I opened the fridge and saw a half-eaten bag of baby spinach, some greek yogurt, and a few old apples… my new-found sense of culinary curiosity for smoothies was awakened.

I’m not a big fan of drinking my food, and have never been into smoothies. They’re all the rage these days but they’ve always just grossed me out, and I’m not really sure why. Thought it’s probably just my general aversion to drinks with chunks or textures in them – bubble tea is literally what my nightmares are made of. I was feeling brave this weekend though (and couldn’t think of anything else to do with these random ingredients), so I decided to give it a try. If it didn’t work, I was going to try to turn it into Spinach & Apple ice cream. I think for all involved, it’s best that this smoothie turned out delicious…

So I set about washing and peeling the apples (peeled because apparently the apple skins make the texture awful.. I’ll try it next time and let you know, though), threw all the ingredients into my blender and let her whirl for a good minute or two. As the dark green of the spinach transformed into a lovely lighter green-goddesy green, I said a little prayer for this not to be gross… and anxiously waited while it all came together into a smooth and creamy morning energy boost.

To my delight, my “please don’t be gross…!” prayer worked and the result was a ginger-flavored tangy drink that I was even able to get Hubby to have a glass of! Spinachy-apple-breakfast success was mine!

What are some things that you’ve hated, but came around to loving? Recipes and links are welcome!
Spinach & Apple smoothie

Recipe Type: Drink

Author: Veronica | seefoodplay.com

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

Serves: 2 small smoothies

Fresh and nutrient-packed spinach and apple smoothie | seefoodplay.com
Ingredients

1 tablespoon of powdered ginger

2 tablespoons of Greek yogurt

Juice from 1/2 of a lemon

1 tablespoon honey

2 small apples peeled and cored

1 cup fresh baby spinach

½ cup of ice
Instructions

Blend all ingredients until uniform in color and smooth (about 1 minute, depending on your blender). Drink immediately.
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May 12, 2015
Weekly meal planning
Working a 9-5 (more like 8-8 in reality, by the time you count the commute) and getting a homemade + healthy + fast meal on the dinner table every night can be quite the challenge.

Our routine is usually as follows: do a grocery shop once a week and pick up random things that I think I might want to eat, then do several smaller shops to pick up specific ingredients to make dinner with, once I’ve decided what to actually cook. For two people, our monthly grocery bill has been unnecessarily high (easily over €700). Granted, we allocate a decent-sized portion of our budget to food because…well, we love to eat good food! We don’t skimp on high-end ingredients like organic meats, seafood and veggies, and we don’t always buy based on what’s on sale. What happens way too often, though, is that we ended up wasting food (which is horrible) and not eating as diverse meals throughout the week as we should. Since my shopping isn’t always targeted based on actual meals, I end up with too many ingredients that I can’t use that end up going bad. Of course, when we’re not sure what to make for dinner, way-too-often we opt for an easy pasta dish. I would eat pasta for every meal if I could (really…) but Hubby’s metabolism doesn’t process it the same way mine does, so alternatives need to be served up on a regular basis.

To battle the weekly dinner problems described above, I’ve implemented a 3-part strategy to eat better (for less money), waste less food and generally be more organized with our meal management.

So, the plan is:

–          Online grocery shopping

–          Strict(ish) budget of £400/month

–          Weekly meal planning

Online grocery shopping solves the problem of just randomly throwing things in the shopping cart, then getting to the checkout with tons of groceries but nothing to really make into actual meals. Our flat is a 3^rd floor walk-up, so it’s also a pretty big convenience to not have to lug everything up the stairs! We shop at Waitrose (one day I’ll write about the Tesco grocery delivery fiasco) and we love it. The food is fresh and deliveries arrive on-time, which is key for busy folks like us. Most online grocery stores have a shopping list feature, so you can essentially build your list over the course of a few days, then order once you’ve gotten everything you’ll need for the week. Shopping online makes price comparison significantly easier, because you can just sort by price and make smarter choices. The price per item or per kilo is often provided as well, so you can really make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck this way. If you have the online shopping option available to you, then give it a try!

Sticking to a budget: We are big believers in only putting quality products into our bodies, and are very thankful to be able to afford organic foods and the like. That doesn’t mean, though, that we can’t eat just as well for less money! We just need to pay attention to what we’re buying and stick to a budget. Again, online shopping comes in handy because I can very easily keep track of exactly how much I’m spending and I can cut down on mid-week shopping trips – I always end up buying things I don’t need when I’m at the grocery store! So, I’ve reigned in our budget to no more than £400/month. So, that works out to £75-100/week, plus a little leftover for a mid-week shop if we do run out of something.

Online shopping and budgets are key, but the real revolution for us has been meal planning. I’ve dabbled in make-ahead breakfasts and freezer meals, but I’ve never actually committed to a full-on weekly meal plan. It just seemed so daunting: spending hours thinking of recipes, making sure to have all the ingredients on-hand, then a full day of preparing everything ahead of time. Who has time for that…? Well, it turns out – I do!

Saturday morning I spent around 2 hours working out recipes. This takes a while because: my husband is somewhat picky, I wanted to choose recipes that allow me to use similar ingredients without making similar recipes, I was sticking to a budget, and I wanted easy recipes that could be semi-prepped in advance. Once all of my meals were planned out, I made a grocery list and did my online shopping to be delivered on Sunday. So ::drumroll: here’s the menu for our first week of meal planning:
- Monday: Homemade shake-n-bake chicken
- Tuesday: Paris-style roast chicken
- Wednesday: Beef & Broccoli stir fry
- Thursday: Jonathan’s spaghetti bolognese
- Friday: Greek chicken salad
Once my groceries arrived, I brined the chicken, made the shake-n-bake mix, marinated the beef for the stir-fry, marinated the chicken for the salad (the put it in the freezer). I didn’t pre-chop any veggies because I still prefer to make those fresh. All of this took under an hour, which was pretty surprising as I thought it’d take way longer. It was so fast, that I had time to work on my Ikea Bekvam stool makeover (coming soon!) before it got too late 😉

For the moment, I’m only doing the meal-planning for dinner but I’ll be updating it for all meals soon – so keep an eye out for that!

Since I have a husband that’s less-than-thrilled when it’s his turn to make dinner, this also erases the stress he might feel when I text to say that I’ll be home late…please make dinner! Whenever I know I’ll have a late night at work, we plan ahead by picking out a man-friendly recipe that Jonathan feels comfortable making. The main ingredients are usually already prepped, so on “his nights” he usually just needs to pop his recipe in the oven and I come home to a delicious-smelling apartment!

What are your tips for getting healthy meals on your dinner table every night without going crazy? I’d love to hear them, as our strategy is constantly evolving!
May 10, 2015
Better-than-Chipotle’s Cilantro lime rice
**Updated March 2018**

You guys… what’s better than Chipotle’s cilantro rice (OK, besides Chipotle’s guacamole..)?? Nothing because that stuff is the bomb! I’ve tried to recreate it time and again, without ever really getting it right. This Cilantro lime rice is a copycat version of the famously delicious Chipotle recipe. It’s fast, easy, and goes great as a side dish to any meal.

I think I’ve gotten it as close as any home chef can get though, so go ahead and give my version a try and let me know what you think!

This recipe goes perfectly with tacos, as a side to grilled chicken, or…anything really!
Better-than-Chipotle’s Cilantro lime rice

Recipe Type: side dish

Cuisine: Mexican

Author: Veronica | seefoodplay.com

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Chipotle copycat cilantro lime rice.
Ingredients

3 cups of cooked rice (brown or white)

½ cup of fresh lime juice

1 cup of fresh chopped coriander

2 tablespoons melted butter

A dash of Worcestershire sauce (skip if you don’t have it)

Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions

Mix the lime juice, coriander, melted butter and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl large enough for the rice until nice and mixed together, then stir in the cooked rice. Season with salt & pepper to taste.
Notes

The key to getting this right is by mixing everything together in a big bowl, to make sure all ingredients are evenly incorporated into the rice.

3.3.3070
May 6, 2015
Homemade restaurant-style salsa
Some recipes are so simple that I really do think twice about posting them, but then I remember that one of (the many) reasons I started this blog in the first place is to keep track & share my favorite recipes, even the simplest ones.

Salsa is one of my favorite things ever, because it’s so fresh and tomatoey, and it can freshen up so many dishes with just a few spoonfuls. A few years ago, I developed (much to my dismay) an intolerance to onions and fresh garlic. Nightmare, right? Mine too. I was in denial for several months until I couldn’t take the turmoil in my tummy after feasting on an onion-laden burrito, one too many times.

Anyway, the long of the short is that when I make my salsa recipe, I (sadly) only put in the tiniest teaspoon of onion into it. In case there’s anyone else out there reading with similar issues…never fear, the salsa is still pretty darn good, without tons of onions and jalapenos!

One of my first trips abroad was to Mexico, and I’ve been lucky enough to go a few more times in the past decade. If you love Mexican Food like I do, then a trip south of the border is a must. You’ll quickly realize that the Mexican food that we’re used to (in America, in any case) is a pretty far cry from anything you’ll eat in Mexico. On my last trip there in September 2014 I was lucky to go with my best friend who grew up in Oaxaca, and I discovered so much about what real Mexican food is – and I was not disappointed! I will be opening up a guest author spot to my best friend in a few weeks and she’ll be covering a few of her favorite authentic Mexican recipes, so keep an eye out for that!

Anyway, on to the recipe! The below can be whipped up in a matter of seconds and can be enjoyed for days. Do you have any favorite recipes that you’ve had to adapt and modify to meet your dietary needs? Feel free to post links to recipes below! Bon appétit 🙂
Homemade restaurant-style salsa

Recipe Type: Sauce

Cuisine: Mexican

Author: Veronica | seefoodplay.com

Prep time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

A delicious, super-easy recipe for restaurant-style homemade salsa | seefoodplay.com
Ingredients

1 can of whole tomatoes

1 tablespoon of fresh garlic paste or 1 clove of garlic

½ white or red onion

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons of lime juice

½ cup of fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar

pinch of salt
Instructions

Throw all of the ingredients into a blender and pulse a few times, until the tomatoes are the desired size and texture. I always make mine such that it’s pretty uniform and without big chunks of tomatoes (Mainly just because I have a tomato-hating husband).
Notes

It should be noted that I’m not trying to pass this off as “authentic” Mexican salsa, which is all sorts of deliciousness that I’ll post about another day.[br][br]I can usually keep this salsa in my fridge up to around 4 days in those handy Ikea “Rajtan” jars.

3.3.3070
May 2, 2015
Easy chocolate cake
No matter how many times I have tried, I have come to the conclusion that I simply am not great at making baked goods. I have a hard time accepting defeat (I have a framed quote of “Anything is possible!” on my desk…), but baking and I have never been friends. And I have tried everything! When it comes to desserts, it’s just not my thing. I am a believer that foods made with love simply taste better, so the fact that I don’t actually love desserts probably has something to do with my continued failure in that arena. My first issue with baking is that I have a hard time following recipes. I think there are two types of people in the world: people that follow recipes and people that don’t! When I’m cooking up a pot of my marina sauce, for example, I can wing it and throw in whatever my heart desires and it’ll usually come out delicious. It might be slightly different each time, but delicious all the same. A recipe for crème brulee, panna cotta, or fondant au chocolat, however, might be a little less forgiving! If you’ve never spent time and money on quality ingredients, not to mention preparation time in the kitchen on a dessert only for it to come out undercooked or overcooked, dry, too sweet or just plain grody, then you’re lucky and I envy you!

I, however, am not so lucky. It will remain forever etched in my memory the time I tried to master French baking (as if, lol) by taking on a cherry clafoutis. Oh, how I miss the youthful optimism and naiveté of days gone! Off to my local farmer’s market for fresh cherries I went, then back home to wash, de-stem and pit I don’t know how many cherries, whisk, pour, bake and wait (because a clafoutis takes about…forever to bake!). As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, it didn’t turn out great. It was the driest, least-sweet, most dense, sticky and generally unpleasant glob of flour, sugar and cherries that I’d ever seen or tasted! It was that very moment that I decided that baking desserts was not for me. Fast forward about 7 years later, I now realize that there are just very few desserts that I like, even when they’re prepared well, let alone when they’re horrible culinary disasters like my Clafoutis de Cerise of 2008 catastrophe! Making recipes of foods that you don’t actually like is a very special talent in my book, and I salute those of you are capable of this feat.

My saving grace for many years was simply living in Paris! With Lenôtre, Ladurée, le Bon Marché and (if you’re really fancy) Michel Rostaing, who needs to make dessert at home anyway? Paris has so many amazing (really, amazing, and this is coming from the girl that could care less about 95% of all foods with sugar in them) places to procure fully prepared and ready-to-consume desserts, I have always relied on buying them (I know, I know…sad times). That is, until a 5-ingredient recipe for chocolate cake changed my life.

My old job duties before I changed departments (at my day job) used to include sometimes working Saturday’s. We didn’t always know when we’d have time for lunch, so someone often brought in snacks to hold us over. Then one day, something beautiful happened: one of my coworkers brought in a cake that was so moist, so perfectly cakey yet somewhat browny-like, so sweet, but not overpoweringly so that it almost took my mind off the fact that it was the middle of summer and I was spending my Saturday afternoon testing our latest software release. I thought to myself: man, this guy’s lucky to have a wife that has mastered the oh-so-elusive art of making dessert. I jokingly asked for the recipe (knowing deep down inside that I’d never be able to replicate this little slice of perfection in my own kitchen), and much to my surprise, I got an email the next week with the recipe that I’d like to share with you today. I’ve changed a few ingredients (because I can’t really use 5 eggs in anything, and I never have the full 200g of butter in my fridge). In my book, it has the title of “Easiest chocolate cake recipe on Earth” but you can call it whatever you want, it’s just that good. What makes it so great is not only that it’s easy to whip up with ingredients that we often have already on-hand, but it’s also impossible to mess this up. It’s my marina sauce’s twin-sister, in dessert form! Don’t have the right amount of sugar? No problem! I’ve used half the sugar, half the butter, and half the eggs once and it was still good. Everything, except the right amount of chocolate? No problem – it will still be good. Don’t like measuring? As long as you’re pretty close, no problem, this recipe will forgive you and make you a delicious piece of chocolate heaven. This is definitely my go-to cake recipe for birthdays and it is super easy to pair with all sorts of things to mix things up a bit: whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, caramel crème sauce, raspberry reduction syrup… the possibilities are endless. It turns out that I can bake; I just hadn’t found the right recipe!

It’s so easy, I hesitate to even share this with you in the guise of a “recipe” – but it wouldn’t be right keeping it to all to myself, so here it is!
Easy chocolate cake

Recipe Type: Dessert

Author: Veronica | seefoodplay.com

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 30 mins

An amazingly simple, perfect go-to chocolate cake recipe.
Ingredients

200g baker’s chocolate (any brand)

3 eggs

100g granulated sugar

150g unsalted butter

1 teaspoon of flour
Instructions

Melt the chocolate in a small saucepan over a low heat, or in the microwave until smooth and all of the major chunks have melted. (just watch it to make sure it doesn’t burn!). Do the same with the butter. While that’s happening, crack open the eggs into a mixing bowl that will be big enough to hold all of the ingredients. Whisk together the eggs until they’re uniform, then add in the sugar and whisk until well-combined.

Be careful with the melted chocolate and butter: they’ll be very hot once melted!

Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Next, slowly add in the melted butter with the whisk, followed by the melted chocolate. Whisk for around 30 seconds or until completely uniform, then add in the teaspoon of flour.

Pour the mixture into your baking pan, and cook at 200 degrees for around 20 minutes (depending on the size of your baking dish).
3.3.3070
This recipe will yield a thin and dense sort-of-like a brownie chocolatey cake. If you like a lighter cake, then simply add in a teaspoon or so of Baking Powder. If you like yours more like a fondant, then cook for around 17 minutes. A bit drier, then go for 25 minutes. The beauty of this recipe is that it is simply meant to be adapted, tweaked, and turned into your chocolate cake recipe.

What’s your go-to recipe when you need a guaranteed crowd-pleaser? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below! Bon appetite 🙂
April 30, 2015
Jonathan’s spaghetti bolognese
Sometimes I have to take a step and just be thankful for the lovely little French family I somehow got lucky enough to marry into.

We have been relocating from Paris to London for what feels like an eternity (okay, it’s only been about 5 weeks of back-and-forths, and there are much worse problems to deal with…). Last week, we had to return to Paris for yet another formality: my French nationality ceremony. Since I also need to be in Paris for work next week, here we are: stuck in town for almost a week! Tough life, I know – forced to hang out in Paris for a week…

Jonathan’s parents living only an hour south of Paris, we decided to pay them a visit. Imagine the nicest, cutest and most welcoming parents-in-law, and you have my in-laws! Any trip to see them usually involves eating some amazing food, good times and some even better wine. As I sit here looking through the window at the Loing river, sipping a glass of champagne waiting for Jonathan to finish making lunch, I can’t help but just feel one thing: happy.

Jonathan and Jonathan Senior (i.e., Jean-Luc) have been arguing over the merits of garlic powder versus fresh garlic, and whether Spaghetti n5 or n7 is best for a perfect bolognaise. As I’m distracted by these twos’ kitchen musings, the scent of simmering onions in olive oil perfumes the house. It’s also a nice little revenge as J.L. is changing the recipe around, changing the pots around, adding things like white wine and other spices, and generally acting just like Jonathan when I’m cooking.

So while these two go at it, I’ve decided to type up J’s recipe — it’s super easy, and is one of our family favorites. When I’m working late and starving, this is usually what I request that Hubby have waiting for me when I get home.

Ingredients:
- 2 8- oz cans of whole or crushed tomatoes
- 2 large cloves of garlic, minced/finely chopped
- ½ cup diced onion
- ½ cup of parmesean cheese
- 1 teaspoon of oregano
- 4 teaspoons olive oil
- 500 grams of fresh ground beef
- 200 grams of n7 spaghetti
- 2 whole mini cayenne peppers
- ½ cup chopped fresh basil (optional for garnish)
Instructions:
1. Place 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a non-stick pan with the diced onion over a medium heat, until onions are cooked through and slightly browned.
2. Next, turn the heat up high and add the ground beef until browned. Turn the heat back down to medium and add the minced garlic, stirring frequently.
3. Add the remaining spices (including the cayenne peppers, whole) and oil, stirring for about a minute.
4. Next, add in the canned tomatoes and let simmer for about 10 minutes before adding in the fresh parmesean.
5. While your sauce is simmering, bring a bit pot of water to boil and cook your noodles until they’re al dente (for me, this is usually 1 minute less than the indicated cooking time).
6. Drain your pasta, return to the pot and toss in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil to make sure the noodles are evenly coated.
7. Plate up your noodles, then top with the bolognese sauce, fresh basil and a dash of olive oil & fresh ground black pepper.
April 22, 2015
Brined rotisserie roast chicken
The “Rotisserie Roast Chicken” is an institution in French culture. At least, in Paris that definitely seems to be the case! I will never forget my first few months of living in Paris, and walking past the rotisseries with their chickens roasting away outside, filling the neighborhod with the delectable aroma of a perfectly-roasted chicken. You see, French rotisserie’s have a certain savoir faire that makes their roast chickens fall-off-the bone tender with that lovely rotisserie flavor. If I was feeling extra greedy, I’d go for the roasted potatoes with drippings too. It’s not uncommon to pick one up for dinner after a busy day at work, or for a Sunday family lunch.

I’m a big believer in making things from scratch, and eating homemade everything. French roast chickens though are one of my rare exceptions! Not only are they just that good, but they’re such a good deal. In my neighborhood, they go for 5euros each! A beautifully roasted, steaming-hot chicken… for 5 euros. As in, dinner for 4 on the cheap, but still totally healthy and guilt-free when serving it to your family. A whole chicken at the grocery store is around 7euros, and you still have to prepare and cook the thing yourself. Anyway, I think I’ve spent enough time telling you about how delicious these are because unless you live there (and if you do, stop reading and go buy one now!) – you’ll have to roast our own chicken.

Today I’m going to try to help you make a Rotisserie-level roast chicken in your own kitchen, one that could hold its own against even the best chicken shops in France! If you have a rotisserie attachment for your oven then again…stop reading and go buy all the ingredients and make this immediately – with this recipe you’ll be able to duplicate the Parisian roast chicken! For the rest of us, keep reading…then run out and get the ingredients and make this, because our regular-oven version will be good too 🙂

Basic brine:
- 2 large onions, roughly chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 100ml Salt*
- 100ml Sugar*
- 2 Litres of water
Roast chicken ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken, cleaned and all organs removed
- 1 large white onion, roughly chopped
- 1 apple, quartered
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic, minched
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions:
1. Prepare your brine: bring about 500 ml’s of water and all of the other brine ingredients to a boil for about 5 minutes then let cool completely. Pour the boiled brine into a container big enough to submerge the chicken, add in the rest of the water, then add the chicken. Allow to brine in the fridge for around 12 hours.
2. Take your brined chicken out of the water and place it in the baking dish.
3. In a small bowl, mix together your butter , 1 tablespoon of olive oil, the minced and powdered garlic, and the dried herbs.
4. Now, with a sharp knife, separate the skin from the meat of the chicken, being careful not to poke holes in the skin.
5. Take your butter-garlic-herb mixture and spoon it (or use your hands) under the skin, evenly distributed on the chicken. It doesn’t have to be perfect, as it’ll all melt together anyway and will get into all the like nooks and crannies.
6. Next, stuff the chicken with the chopped onion and apple.
7. Take the remaining olive oil and spread it over the chicken.
8. Season with a bit of freshly ground black pepper.
Roasting:
- Preheat your oven to 425°F, and stick the chicken in the oven for 15 minutes at this temperature to crisp the skin.
- Reduce the heat to 375°F and cook for 45-60 minutes longer, depending on your oven. Chicken is done once it reaches 165°F, and the juices run clear.
- Once cooked, remove from the oven and let rest 15 minutes before carving.
Notes:

Brining your chicken isn’t a must, but it does make a noticeable difference in the taste and texture of your chicken, and it’s much less likely to come out dry. Even if you only have enough time for a quick 60-minute brine, then do it!

I’m always worried when brining my poulty that it’ll come out too salty, so I never add as much salt as I should and I usually take it out of the brine sooner than I should. I’ve played around with it a bit, and I usually use 2 litres of water + equal parts salt & sugar (that is, 100mL of each). You should be safe with those quantities, but play around with it and experiment!

Using a meat thermometer is a must and a great investment for any home cook. This is the easiest way to know exactly when your meat is safe to eat, and prevents you from having to constantly cut in to check if the juices are running that famous shade of clear.

Check every 20 minutes or so that your chicken isn’t getting too dark, and if it is, then just cover it with some foil.
April 18, 2015
Homemade Ranch dressing
After moving to France, there were a few things that I missed sooo much food-wise that I would really stock up on during my visits back home to Detroit. Over the years, I got used to French products and relied less and less on my precious stock of American goods. I remember once during my first year in Paris I literally came back with an entire suitcase of American goodies like peanut butter, Kraft mac n cheese, ramen (yes, I brought Ramen to Paris because…French food wasn’t good enough for me), and lots of salad dressing. I’m a huge fan of blue cheese, cesar, ranch, thousand island… I love dressing!

Let’s take a step back though, because you might be wondering “…what do French people put on their salads if you had to import dressing??” The French do it the right way. They don’t add a bunch of fatty creamy sauce to their salads: they mix up an olive oil & vinegar dressing (or vinaigrette, I suppose, to be precise) and season it with a bit of salt and pepper, and that’s all she wrote. And it is good. So good. Once my ramen-noodle taste buds grew up a bit, I learned to really appreciate a great vinaigrette and stopped drowning my salads in store-bought dressings. Sometimes, though, a good ranch dressing is the perfect accompaniment to a fresh salad or pita, wrap, or even just as a veggie dip.

Now, fast-forward to this weekend as our grocery delivery was hopelessly delayed and our cupboards were desperately bare. I didn’t have much to work with for dinner, so really needed something simple but with strong flavors. I always have ingredients to make pasta with a nice tomato sauce, so that was a no-brainer. But there were also a few fresh ingredients available, too: romaine lettuce, a tomato, red onions, cucumber and black olives. Since we were having a relatively simple meal, I really wanted to dress it up a bit with a bit more than our classic vinaigrette. Then the light bulb went off: Ranch! Now, I have tried many times to duplicate that classic ranchflavour, never really succeeding to create something I liked. Some things just aren’t the same when they’re from scratch. My goal was simply to throw the ingredients I had together for a creamy garlicy sauce, but it ended up tasting pretty close to the real thing, albeit way healthier! Let me know what you think. Bon appetit!

Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup of greek yogurt
- ¼ cup of mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon of Dijon-style mustard
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
Dry ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
- 1 teaspoon dried chives
- 1 teaspoon dried dill
Instructions:

Combine all of the dry ingredients, then add in the wet ingredients stirring well to make sure everything is nice and mixed together. The dressing can be used immediately, but the longer you wait, the better it tastes! If you can make it overnight, then even better. Also note: lots of homemade ranch recipes call for fresh garlic – this is way too strong for me and really overpowers the dressing, but if you love garlic, then feel free to add a clove!

Note: if you can get dried buttermilk, then add 1 tablespoon of that as well. I can’t get it locally, so I’ve left it off the ingredient list.

Tip: If you combine only the dry ingredients, you’ve got Ranch-flavored spice mix, which can be used for all sorts of delicious recipes.
April 14, 2015
Perfect-every-time caramel cream sauce
I’ve been trying to enjoy this Fall-like weather as much as I can, and nothing reminds me of Fall more than a rich and creamy caramel cream sauce. This is one of those recipes that I like to use when I don’t necessarily have time for a big fancy dessert, but still want an impressive end to a meal. Almost everyone loves caramel sauce, and you can serve it over fruit for a very simple snack or dessert. Spring might not be here just yet, but I’m making the most of it! If it continues like this, then I’ll have to bust out my copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Spice latte recipe…! In the meantime, I’ll settle for caramel covered apples 🙂

My first attempts at making caramel sauce were major fails, and I think it was because I was so intimidated by the mere idea of it! Boiling hot sugar, and a recipe that can go from perfectly golden to horribly burned in a matter of seconds…um hello?! Scary city. But then last year I got the bright idea of serving a dessert for Thanksgiving Dinner (recipes to come, so keep an eye out for that!) that called for a caramel crème sauce. And I needed enough of the stuff to make desserts for 25 people. Yes, I’m crazy. I considered buying it pre-made for about two seconds, before coming to my senses. If you usually buy this instead of making it homemade, then stop right there! This recipe is for you. It’s easy but does require a bit of patience! But it is oh-so-so satisfying when you serve it up and hear “wow – you made this yourself!?” – totally worth it!

First of all, I need to preface this recipe by telling you that there are two ways to make caramel sauce: the wet method and the dry method. I don’t personally like the dry method because it results in a flavor that I don’t really care for, and I find it more difficult to work with. If you want to try the dry method, then there are lots of recipes out there to try: like here.

My method, however, is pretty hard to mess up (yes, even for absolute beginners) and produces a thick and smooth, slightly-salty caramel crème sauce.
Perfect-every-time caramel cream sauce

Recipe Type: Dessert sauce

Author: Veronica | seefoodplay.com

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 20 mins

This is an easy totally fool-proof method for making perfect (every time) salted caramel cream sauce.
Ingredients

1 cup of sugar

¼ cup of water

½ cup of heavy cream, room temperature

½ teaspoon of sea salt
Instructions

Add your sugar and water to a small saucepan, and heat on low until the sugar is dissolved.

Once the sugar has completely dissolved, increase the heat slightly (to medium), until the sugar and water comes to a slow boil.

Continue to cook your sugar & water, and after about 5-10 minutes the color will go from completely clear to a slightly yellow color, then a darker golden color.

Once your sugar is a golden-yellow color (or darker if you prefer a richer sauce), remove immediately from the burner.

Now, slowly whisk in your heavy cream. The pot will bubble up quite a bit – don’t worry, this is normal! Just keep whisking and make sure it doesn’t overflow.

You should now have something that looks like a caramel cream sauce! Sprinkle your sea salt into the mix, and store in a container of your choice. I use Korken jars from Ikea.
3.3.3070
Notes:
- Resist the urge to stir – this isn’t necessary!
- The time it takes for your sugar to turn golden depends on the amount of water used, and how high your burner is turned on. I prefer the low & slow method because I’m less likely to burn the sauce, but you can use a higher heat to accelerate the process. Just keep a close eye because it takes literally 5-10 seconds of too much heat to totally ruin your sauce!
- Don’t freak out, because this will bubble like crazy when you add the cream! If it looks like it might overflow, just blow on it and the bubbles should go down.
- If you have clumps of crystalized sugar in your sauce, just pass it through a fine sieve and filter them out.
April 12, 2015