Archive for the ‘Snacks’ Category
I woke up this morning with the urge to get in the kitchen. The sun had just come up – my shining hours. I love the mornings and always feel the most creative and alive when the day is young. I knew I wanted to spend this morning making something yummy before time slipped away and I got all caught up in my day.
Cooking is like therapy – I always get lost in stirring and mixing, feeling soothed by the smells and sounds of a tasty work in progress. I like to think of recipes more like methods, kind of like a math problem or a series of steps or ideas. This + that = delicious.
My roommate and I were just talking yesterday about this, actually. She loves to bake, and quite frankly… I can’t stand it. Perhaps it’s the mental scars of a day spent baking banana bread, only to spill the entire pan of batter on the floor and run fleeing to my room, sobbing uncontrollably. Perhaps this sob session wasn’t about the banana bread…
Anyway, I digress. She likes it because it’s so exact – there’s measurements and rules to follow that create a final product. But that’s exactly why I can’t stand it. I actually don’t have any measuring cups in my apartment here – and I’m finding it quite liberating. No measuring oats, or quinoa, or this or that.
I just like to throw stuff in and see what happens. It’s much more fun like that, yes?
So this morning, I donned my apron (okay, really I donned my polka dot pajamas, but apron sounded much more 1950’s-housewife-home-made-granola-esque), grabbed my red pan and wooden spoon and made another batch of stove top granola, only this time….better.
This time I toasted the almonds and walnuts with the oats making them nice and crunchy, used a little bit more butter (because, well, why not?), agave as a sweetener, and the magic ingredient – grey salt.
I picked up this very large bag of Gros sel Guérande at the agricultural fair this past weekend (look for a post soon!) for 2 euro and have been using it in everything since. It’s an all natural and unrefined salt from Guérande, France and is quite famous in the culinary world…or so I hear. I do know for certain that it tastes delicious and that it made all the difference in my stove-top granola this morning.
After getting lost in the scents of cinnamon and melting butter, I made some breakfast with my fresh batch of granola.
I mixed some plain yogurt with about 1 tablespoon of chia seeds, and topped it with the crispy granola that was sweet and salty to perfection, as well as a little dollop of somethin’ special…
Vanilla Chestnut Cream. So delicious. So dangerous, but so delicious. It’s all about balance…right?
Question: Baking or cooking…which do you prefer and why? Do you use measuring cups when you cook? Do you follow recipes or do you do your own thing?
I used to be clueless in the kitchen – like didn’t know how to put anything together. I started to experiment a bit and gave myself permission to get creative and try things when I cook. After a while of following recipes I had a general idea of what might taste good together and also drew from experiences dining out and trying new combinations in restaurants. Sometimes my creations are are flops, but sometimes, like this morning, it works.
Have a good day, my friends.
I mentioned yesterday that we started an intensive module class this week. Two weeks of Global Communications everyday from 10:00am to 6:00pm with other visits in addition.
Like this morning, for example… We were going to a conference at Cephalon Pharmaceuticals European headquarters and had to leave the house at 8:30am to arrive on time. This is after being at Le Cordon Bleu last night until past 9:00pm, doing our reading and other homework for today, and trying to get a good night’s sleep before waking up bright and early this morning.
Needless to say it’s been a busy week so far. The visits are all great and class is really interesting, but I was so thankful to have my afternoon free today. I finally got home around 3:00pm this afternoon, and wanted nothing more than to just do something for fun.
I thought I might want to hop on my yoga mat for a little, but I was just too tired. I’m trying this new thing where I actually listen to my body when it’s too tired. You know, like not pushing it when it’s begging me to just chill. Interesting concept, yes? Sarcasm.
Anyway. Taking a cue from my tired bod, I headed to my favorite room in any house – the kitchen.
Lately I’ve been craving granola. I make it all the time back home, but without an oven I haven’t even tried.
Until today.
Stove Top Granola
Since I don’t have a single measuring cup in Paris, this is really more of a method rather than a recipe. It was really easy to make and took all of 15 minutes, so I think it will come in handy even if you do have an oven back home – it’s super quick, and you only dirty up one pan making clean up very easy. Most importantly, it’s delicious.
First, I toasted the oats (maybe about 1.5 to 2 cups) in a dry pan on the stove. And of course by stove, I mean hot plate.
I turned the heat up to medium-high and stirred the oats constantly until they browned.
Next up – Honey. And Butter. Trust me. Butter makes everything better.
I let the butter and honey (maybe about 1tbspn each) melt together in the pan, then added cinnamon, salt, almonds and walnuts. I added the nuts whole, mostly because I don’t have a knife to chop them (gotta love my tiny Parisian kitchen). They would be great chopped too and you could use any nuts you have on hand, or whichever ones you like.
Stop lookin’ at me like I’m nuts. Get it? Granola humor! Enough jokes. Back to the granola…and I’m not referring to myself!
Ok this time, I’m really done.
Once that had all toasted for a bit (maybe 5 minutes), I added the toasted oats back in the pan and let them all mix together.
The oats soaked up the remaining butter and honey and the granola dried out really well making it very crunchy.
I decided to stir in some coconut flakes once it had cooled for a few minutes…
Mmm. I’ve missed my homemade granola, and felt so cozy and happy this afternoon, munching on fresh granola with fromage frais, soaking up my free afternoon, and basking in the glorious smell of cinnamon, honey and butter that lingered in the house after I made it.
You could really make this granola with anything you like in it – dried pineapple would have been great with the coconut in this recipe. Any dried fruit and any nut you like would work great.
Well, this nut is back to the books. Have a good Wednesday!
