Le Gigot d'Agneau

Yesterday I got a scary text from Copain:

Copain: I'll be your top chef tonight. I'll send you the menu later.

I responded: Haha ok (not to doubt his cooking skills, buuuuut, remember the calamari and spinach hot pocket?)

10 minutes later...

Copain: I'm going to get filets de Dorade and gigot d'agneau for tonight.

Worried that I was going to end up with a surf and turf disaster, I answered: Or maybe just one or the other?

Sure enough, Copain came home from Picard with Dorado filets, a bag of frozen broccoli and a gigantic gigot d'agneau.

Then, in true form, he cooked the fish and the broccoli for dinner (because cooking fish and broccoli isn't rocket science!) and declared me the cooker of the gigot d'agneau. 

Like I've ever cooked a gigot d'agneau.

ps - what the hell is a gigot d'agneau?

At lunch I told my colleagues that I would be cooking a gigantic gigot tonight - Copain's idea. One of them jokingly asked me if it would fit in my oven.  I laughed and told him of course it would, but what I didn't think about was the Pyrex dish:

This is one enormous gigot. I had to put the dish on a cookie sheet to catch any fat that may drip off the end. I obviously have no idea what I'm doing.

I decided to bust out the cookbook from Belle Mère to help me in my gigot feat. I had most of the ingredients, so I went with this option:

The gigantic gigot is now in the oven and Copain and I are noshing on olives while the darn thing cooks - for over an HOUR.  

This is so not a weekday dinner. 

Stay tuned - in an hour I'll put this thing out of the oven and cross my fingers that it's edible.

Cuisine de Cannes Cannes - Pumpkin Muffins

I've been in love with baking muffins ever since it started getting cold in Paris. Basically, I make a muffin batter base, and then I add whatever sounds good in the moment (or whatever I have in the cupboard!): apples, figs, raisins, cranberries, bananas. One thing never changes: cinnamon is always included in my recipes; it's my absolute favorite spice.

My newest creation - pumpkin muffins!  I take one to work with me every morning for breakfast and enjoy it with a cup of steaming hot coffee.  It's my morning happiness and is delicious after my Velib adventure. 

My solution to American pumpkin in a can - Merci Picard!

Ingredients:

1/2 box of frozen purée de potiron from Picard (if you double the recipe, you will use the entire box)

2 cups flour 

1/2 tsp  salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder (if you use self-rising flour (farine pour des gateaux), then you can leave this ingredient out)

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more if you are like me and LOVE cinnamon!)

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp allspice

4 tbsp softened unsalted butter

3-4 tbsp granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1/ cup milk

1 tbsp vanilla extract

raisins, walnuts or dried oats are optional - I think this would also taste amazing with apples or dried cranberries!

My cookbook (and pumpkin in a bag :-)

Directions: (I've simplified here :-)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Cream together butter and sugars, then add the egg, pumpkin, vanilla and milk.  Mix well.  Add dry ingredients, saving the flour for last.  Don't over-mix the batter.  If you are using a silicon cupcake mold or cupcake paper cups, then there is no need to grease the pan.  However, if you are using a regular cupcake tin, use butter to grease before putting batter into the tin.  Bake 20-25 minutes.  Yields 6 huge muffins (FCC style!) or 8 to 10 smaller muffins. 

After 7 years in France, I still can't cook using the metric measurements! I have cups! If you'd like to switch to metric just go to this conversion chart.

All ready for the oven...

Bon Appétit!