Series Three: Part Eleven: Trout Geneve

Holidays are great .. and this labour weekend had the additional bonus of an additional day off for Hawke's Bay Anniversary. Leading into the long weekend I was fortunate to be gifted a rainbow trout, gutted, scaled and ready for the cooking. This fish had been caught at Turangi -a small town beside the Tongariro river. It is well known for its trout fishing and is aptly named "the trout fishing capital of the world".


Of course this had to be my dish for the week. I had seen recipes for trout in a number of the cordon bleu series. Series 46  had "Advanced fish dishes" including 7 specific to trout. They all called for 4 -5 even sized fish. 4-5 fish!!!  I must say even though I have only thrown my line into the water on a couple of occasions I do have some idea of undersized fish, and the trout displayed in the photos either in the "cutting of the head" photo or the beautifully displayed "stuffed trout with decorative cooked orange slices" balanced symmetrically on top, certainly would have got the Conservation ranges in a state. However different era and different country.
I chose the Trout Geneve - a dish taking its namesake from Lake Geneve, a large glacial lake located between Switzerland and France. Funnily enough the lake is the shape of a croissant with the north end and the two ends are Swiss and the south shore is French. The lake is famous for its fishing boasting fish species such as perch, fera (type of white fish), trout, char and pike.


For Trout Geneve the first step is to poach the trout in a court bouillon. I had the perfect little cotton infuser bag purchased at an expensive cookery shop in Auckland (one of the cheapest things you could buy). I proudly snipped at my potted herbs taking the opportunity to pluck out a weed or two, stuffed it all in the bag (excluding weeds) and along with the wine, carrots and onions let the fish bathe in the tepid concoction. The sauce included butter, shallots, mushrooms, lemon juice  and breadcrumbs. This was drizzed over the fish just before serving. The fish was delicate and tasty with all family members getting stuck in.


Now we are at the end of the weekend and I did believe that I would have completed at least another CB dish to share with you... I need to learn from my fellow anglers and learn that actually its OK to just do one thing... relax and enjoy ... I need to take the Labour out of labour weekend!

Trout Geneve

Infuser bag

Series Three: Part Ten - Veloute: Creme St.Germain

I had taken the advantage of being in Auckland recently to visit the Mercy Hospice shop in Ponsonby. Being an employee of Mercy Hospital back in the 90's, it was nice to revisit and support this great cause. I was delighted to purchase a soup tureen, and with a cold southerly change in the weather this weekend, a soup was called for. Cordon Bleu series 41, included a section on Veloute, iced and bisque soups. I went for the warmth of a veloute soup. As CB explains the consistency of veloute soups is described by their name meaning velvety (from the French for velvet - velours). They are made by pouring a well flavoured stock on to a blond ronx. This is blended, returned to the heat and stirred until boiling. The finishing touch is the addition of a liaison made of egg yolks and cream. I chose the St. Germain soup, which used spring onions, lettuce and peas (old and rather floury peas were called for but not something I have readily available, so Pams frozen little numbers had to do the trick).
I needed to do a main and came to CB series 62 section referred to as "Career Girl Entertaining". The name in itself was enough to fire up the feminist inside me to start a rave and lecture to my daughters of tales of female suppression and harmful limiting stereotypes. The necessity of the statement as per page11   "... we will give ideas for husbands temporarily coping with the family cooking in a future lesson" was hopefully now of an age and stage, which like Trumps campaign "is over"! Looking beyond this historic context I cooked up the "Fish crumble". This involved cooked white fish (I choose Lemon Fish), hard boiled egg, prawns, a crumble mixture to go on top and a béchamel sauce. I was pleasantly surprised that all members of the family enjoyed this.


In relation to Crème St Germain this was more to the adults taste. St. Germain is an area in Paris renown post war as being synonymous with intellectual life centred around bars and cafes. As a family we were fortunate to visit this particular area of the Left Bank. With Jamie doing a visit to an agent in the area, the girls and I took advantage of visiting a café. This became a memorable experience for two main reasons. Firstly it would have to be the most expensive hot chocolate I have ever brought, even Imke at the great age of 8 with advanced fiscal appreciation, was horrified. Second reason was in the enthusiasm of drinking this liquid gold we managed to create a Willy Wonka chocolate waterfall with the chocolate jug tipping over and spilling over the edge of the table pooling onto the carpet below. In a very calm manner we left to clean ourselves up in the refined toilet facilities, then to make payment at the desk. Leaving the café and avoiding eye contact with our waiter I couldn't help but wonder if the man who now occupied our table was aware of how dangerously close his feet were to a rather soggy chocolate patch!
St Germain... not only memorable for its soup...

Caroline age 11 enjoying a St Germain hot chocolate

Imke age 8 not enjoying the bill

"Career Girl" Fish crumble

Series Three: Part Nine: Eggs Jacqueline

This post is dedicated to Jacqueline - my sister. My recent visit with the girls seeing their Aunty Jac and family in Auckland was my excuse for not blogging last weekend. But it was not a weekend without its French culinary experiences. My brother in-law had sussed out a French Market in Parnell to visit. Mouth watering pastries, coffee and the purchase of a French loaf bag set the morning off beautifully. Even the canine's were catered for with decorative doggie treats for purchase.

A night market in an underground Warehouse car-park served us all very well for dinner, so there was no need to cook. However my sister had to prepare stuffed eggs for a 70 year old birthday party. In preparation I had brought up my Cordon Bleu - 40 ways with eggs, thinking surely there would be an appropriate recipe in that lot ... but alas there was not...  google to the rescue.

We both could claim that egg stuffing was not one skill we had much experience with, however Jacqueline whipped them up like she was an old hand  - and to boot they went down a treat at the party.

I only discovered from returning from that visit that there was actually a stuffed egg dish named "Eggs Jacqueline"- Cordon Bleu series 41. It just seemed to be appropriate to make it. I used the last of the duck eggs and made this the entrée course for Saturday nights dinner.

For the main I chose the "Chicken casserole with peaches" (series 43) for two reasons. One is that eldest daughter is the peach queen and secondly my mother had provided a jar of beautifully preserved peacharines for the eating. I accompanied the chicken with a pilaf - long grain rice, butter, turmeric (which is a magnet to any white clothes - including the top I had on!) chicken stock, which is cooked in the oven until the rice is tender.

The highlight had to be the Eggs Jacqueline though. First you line the ovenproof dish with a bed of asparagus. Then you place the  cooked 1/2 egg whites on top, which are filled with an egg yolk, butter and prawn mixture. Additional prawns are scattered on top and then all is coated with a béchamel sauce and a sprinkle of parmesan. After 20 odd minutes in the oven the dish is ready to eat. I must say it was delicious with the asparagus being a winning combination with the eggs. 

 I  need to go back to Auckland and repay my sisters hospitality and cook this tasty dish. What do you reckon sis - Eggs, Jacqueline?



sister's



Eggs Jacqueline

Peacharines