Iparralde - the French Basque Countryside

It feels so good to be home. Fresh air, green mountains, and soft sandy beaches.



I am still in the thick of my vacation with my family in the Basque Country, but I wanted to pop in and say hello. I have captured over 1,000 images and I thought you would like to see some from a trip we took to Iparralde last week -- the French Basque Country.







Despite current political divisions, the Basque Country (Euskal Herria) is made of seven provinces, four of them in Spain in the south (Hegoaldea) and three in the north in France (Iparraldea). The Basque language is spoken throughout and that is why we call it the Basque Country.



When I was a little girl and before all European borders disappeared, going to Iparralde was a very exciting adventure. Only an hour drive away, we had to carry our passports and a completely different currency. We looked for products that we couldn't find back home and indulged in the supermarket aisles.







Last week we decided to take a trip to Donibane Lohitzun (St. Jean de Luz) and Espelette, where the famous peppers come from. We packed some food, but we knew we would find most of what we would need for our picnic in the farmers' market that happens every Tuesday.



We purchased local sheep's milk cheese and yogurt, artisanal bread from Etchart, charcuterie, mirabelle plums, berries, and more. As we expected, the old pedestrian streets were crowded with tourists. We ate amazing ice cream at Txomin and macarons and gâteaux basques at Maison Adam, then headed to the beach where we leisurely ate our bounty while we watched people come and go.







In the afternoon, we drove to Espelette. I was so excited for the burst of color that awaited us. The buildings are covered with hanging red peppers that are dried to make the coveted piment d'Espelette that I love.



Green hills surround the old town where herds of sheep graze. There was a light mist of rain that afternoon and it smelled of the Basque Country I remember from my childhood. A certain nostalgia and mysticism.







Last week I also taped a new episode for cooking show Robin Food, which will air in November. I cooked a risotto with wild mushrooms and clams, as well as a plum and red currant galette. I think you will like it. We certainly did.



I was also extremely lucky to eat at three-star Michelin restaurant Martin Berasategui and two-star Michelin Mugaritz. I will have to tell you all about it. What an opportunity.



I am in awe and inspired.







The kids are having so much fun playing with their cousins, visiting family farms, and running around in the open spaces. Weather has been unpredictable, but I welcome it. I love summer rain.



And so we will be here one more week. I will return with more images and stories, but for now, I must go.



The park awaits us.

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Iparralde - the French Basque Countryside

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Sweetness, Sparkle and Christmas Eats

There is lots of excitement around our home these days. Counting the days until we can share food with friends and children tearing through a sea of packaging. Happens every year, but every year feels new.

Our menu will include butternut squash soup, lobster, avocado and citrus salad, tenderloin, broccoli rabe, tortilla, panettone bread pudding, trifle and lots and lots of cookies. What about you? Any family traditions?

So for all of you who celebrate Christmas, and even those who don't, I wish you peace and a day filled with family warmth.

Zorionak.

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Sweetness, Sparkle and Christmas Eats

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Pear, Apple and Fennel Salad and More Holiday Cookies

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving came and went in a blink of an eye. 'What comes next?", asked J. who can only tell time by the order in which holidays are approaching. I really wanted to tell him to enjoy the moment, to savor every second he has because time will fly soon enough. But again, I remember my own anxiety with time when I was a child. Soon was never soon enough.



We cooked, we ate and we enjoyed each others company this weekend. Thanksgiving morning we took the kids to the park. It was a beautiful morning and the streets were deserted. We had the park all to ourselves. "Let's really enjoy dinner" I told C.

It is easy for me to feel rushed at the dinner table with small children, especially when is just us. Just us might make it seem less important sometimes, but I was determined to sit down, enjoy and have a long conversation with my family, just like we used to do growing up. And so we did and it is the special moment I took away with me this weekend.



I spent Saturday morning baking cupcakes and more holiday cookies. C. asked to make his favorite pistachio sandies. Crumbly and soft, covered in melting powdered sugar. One of my all time favorites as well. I took some cupcakes to my friend Lena's house in exchange of some fresh greens from her garden.

Lunch was simple. I craved simple after all the heavy cooking and eating of the previous days. Thinly sliced apples, forelle pears and fennel with a simple apple cider vinaigrette inspired by Donna Hay's towering salads.



And so let the holiday baking continue...

Pear, Apple and Fennel Salad

makes 4 servings

2 honeycrisp apples, thinly sliced
4 forelle pears, thinly sliced
2 fennel bulbs, cored and thinly sliced
1 cup fresh watercress
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 lemon, juiced
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

In a large bowl, combine water and the juice of 1 lemon. Thinly slice the apples, per and fennel and place the slices in the water immediately after to avoid oxidation. To make the vinaigrette, whisk together the mustard, apple cider vinegar and olive oil. Stack the sliced vegetables and garnish with watercress leaves. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle the vinaigrette on top.


Pistachio Sandies

makes 2 dozen 1" ball cookies

4 oz (115 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup (45 grams) powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup (110 grams) superfine brown rice flour
2 Tbs (20 grams) tapioca starch
1/4 cup (40 grams) pistachios, chopped
pinch of salt
powdered sugar, for rolling

Cream the butter and powdered sugar together for a minute or so. Add the vanilla extract. Add the flour, tapioca starch, salt and chopped pistachios. Mix until the dough comes together.

using a 1" ice cream scoop, scopp out the dough forming little balls. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper about 1" apart.

Bake at 350F for about 15-18 minutes until bottom lightly golden and when touched, they don't fall apart. Let them cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Roll them in powdered sugar while still warm.

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Pear, Apple and Fennel Salad and More Holiday Cookies

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And Let The Holiday Baking Begin...

I love this time of year. I have never been one to get caught up in the craziness of it all. I am a minimalist and I try not to overindulge when it comes to shopping. I like to keep things simple. But there is one thing that I love to do and that is to bake.

It comes back to my childhood when right around the beginning of December, the pastry shop and everyone in my family would start to gear up for all the seasonal baking that would happen all month long. Turron, intricate marzipan figurines, tarta de ponche and many other petits fours and cookies. All of them heavy on almonds and labor. Lots of labor.

We would help in any way we could and I vividly remember sitting down peeling kilos and kilos of raw almonds that my grandmother would blanch in-house. Something they do to this day. Blanch, peel and grind the almonds to make their own almond meal.



So now when Thanksgiving comes around, I start to get excited for all the baking. The old Gourmet and all the Martha Stewart magazines provide so much inspiration. Love browsing through past issues and getting inspired.

Here is an assortment of things we are baking. Mesquite meringue cookies with chocolate cream, pistachio and raspberry layered shortbreads, almond and raspberry linzers, milk jam cookies and many more.



And finally, Arielle is the winner of last week's book giveaway. Please email me so I can get your address. Thanks everyone for sharing your family recipes.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

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And Let The Holiday Baking Begin...

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Sweets, Holidays and Wishes

We just delivered the last of our holiday treat boxes this morning with some last minute chestnut macarons in them. Now we have a full day of cooking ahead of us and the anticipation before Christmas Eve. Prawns, foie, rib roast, roasted root vegetables, chocolate mousse cake... all in the works. I am completely thrilled to be sharing the kitchen with my mom this year and to have my family close. That is the biggest gift I could ask for.

So whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I wish you all peace and laughter. Merry Christmas!...Zorionak!

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Sweets, Holidays and Wishes

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Bonbon Oiseau and my Candy Cane Marshmallow

This is the story about another blogsphere friendship that developed over some matcha diamant cookies. It's about the lovely and super talented Deb and her delicate jewelry Bonbon Oiseau and my interpretation of what her pieces represent.

I have admired Deb's work ever since I found her blog "Your Destiny is Stone Golden" a few months ago. We started exchanging emails and as time went on, we decided that one day we would collaborate somehow. Deb asked me if I could photograph her work. Her necklaces are very delicate and almost angelic. I didn't know if I would be able to capture her essence, until I decided to pair them with something that I made. Suddenly, marshmallow entered my mind.

So here is my ode to you Deb, my ode to your fabulous work with some peppermint candy cane marshmallow.



Holidays are here and if you are looking for a perfect gift for a friend, loved one or even yourself, please checkout her fabulous shop. Deb has been kind enough to agree to offer a 20% discount on her pieces to all Cannelle Et Vanille readers until December 10th. Please visit her shop and mention the code "Cannelle Vanille" at checkout.



Peppermint Candy Cane Marshmallow

This recipe makes one layer of the marshmallow, so you will need to make it times two if you want to just make one color, or two times for the bicolor effect; one recipe with food coloring, the other without.

I used a 14"x14" square frame

320 grams sugar
12 grams glucose or corn syrup
130 grams water
40 grams powdered gelatin
130 grams water
45 grams egg whites
pinch of cream of tartar
20 grams sugar
1 tsp peppermint oil (optional)
5-6 drops of natural red food coloring (optional)

In a small saucepan with tall sides, combine the sugar, glucose or corn syrup and water. Cook to 126C.

In the meantime, whisk the powdered gelatin and 130 grams of water together and let the gelatin bloom.

Place the egg whites and the cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric mixer and start whipping in medium speed. When the egg whites are almost fully whipped, add the 20 grams sugar and continue whipping in slow to medium speed depending on how far the sugar syrup is from reaching the desired temperature.

When the sugar syrup reaches 126C, turn the heat off and add the bloomed gelatin (will be a solid mass) to the saucepan. It will bubble up so be careful. Whisk until the gelatin dissolves completely in the syrup.

Add the syrup with the gelatin into the whipped egg whites while whipping in low speed. When all has been added, turn the speed up to high and let it whip until ribbons start to form. Add the flavoring and food coloring at this point. We don't want the marshmallow to cool completely because we want to be able to spread it. Remove from mixer and pour into the square frame that has been placed over a silicon mat. Let it harden.

If making the bicolor marshmallow, repeat the recipe and pour on top of the first layer.

If it becomes sticky, sift together half cornstarch and half powdered sugar and lightly dust this over marshmallow. Roll in crushed candy cane powder.

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Bonbon Oiseau and my Candy Cane Marshmallow

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How to Explain Cranberries

This will be the first year since I have been living in the US that my parents will get to spend Thanksgiving with us. It's very exciting to be able to share a holiday meal with them. I grew up in a large family where holidays and gatherings revolved around food. We always had at least thirty people around the table. Space was always an issue but it never stopped us. Improvised tables, mismatched silverware, borrowed chairs. It was all fine as long as we could all be together, elbow to elbow. So this year, I am really going to sit at the Thanksgiving table, take time to enjoy the moment and be thankful for their company.

As my mom and I sat down to write down the Thanksgiving dinner menu, I realized how most of the traditional American holiday dishes are foreign to my parents' palates. Roasted turkey, stuffing, yams with marshmallows or cranberries. They have never tasted any of those. I have to admit I am not very fond of the cranberry jellies and compotes served at many dinner tables, but I really wanted my mom to try a new berry, something she had never had before.



Warm fruit crisps are always a comforting dessert and my mom happens to love cooked apples in any way, shape or form. So I combined sweet apples with tart cranberries and spicy candied ginger and topped it all with pistachio and almond crumble. And because us Europeans really enjoy fruit compotes in jars (check out these lovely ladies here and here), I made her a little cranberry and orange compote to go with a quick white chocolate mousse. I am not much of a white chocolate fan unless it is accompanied by something tart and sour to balance out the sweetness so I barely added any sugar to the cranberry compote.

Cranberry, Apple and Candied Ginger Crumble

100 grams fresh cranberries
2 golden delicious apples, peeled, cored and medium diced
100 grams sugar
5 grams candied ginger, small dice
Zest of an orange
Juice of half an orange
Pistachio and almond crumble (use half ground pistachios and half ground almonds)

In a bowl, combine the fresh cranberries, diced apples, diced ginger, sugar, orange zest and orange juice. Mix gently and let the fruit sit in the bowl for a few minutes until the sugar starts to lightly dissolve with the juices.

Place 4 small ramekins on a sheetpan. Spoon the fruit filling into the ramekins and top with some pistachio and almond crumble. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes or until the fruit starts to bubble over and the crumble is golden brown. If the topping starts to get dark but the fruit is not cooked yet, cover the ramekins with aluminum foil so it doesn't burn and continue cooking.

Cranberry Orange Compote

100 grams fresh cranberries
20 grams sugar
Zest of half an orange

Combine the cranberries, sugar and orange zest in a small saucepan and cook for about 10 minutes until cranberries pop open. You can serve it like this or puree it with a hand blended or food processor (which I did). Spoon the compote into the glass jars and let it cool.

Quick White Chocolate Mousse

150 grams heavy cream, soft peak
75 grams white chocolate, chopped

Place the white chocolate in a bowl and melt it over a double boiler. Remove the bowl from the heat when the chocolate is melted and let it cool slightly.

In the meantime, whip the cream to soft peak. Pour a third of the whipped cream into the chocolate and whisk. Pour this mixture over the rest of the whipped cream and gently fold not to overmix it.

Place the mousse in a pastry bag and pipe into the glass jars on top of the cooled cranberry compote. Return jars to refrigerator to cool completely and until the mousse hardens a bit more. Serve with white chocolate shavings.

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How to Explain Cranberries

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