Series 2: Part 5 Potage Parmentier & Gigot de pre-sale roti

"There is a sheep in the garden" - this descriptive comment from daughter was not a surprise, as this one elusive sheep was often led astray by the call of the garden's green luxuriant grass. Leaving the company of the flock this independent thinking black faced suffock is often seen strutting around the property doing its own thing. With husband Jamie being overseas it wouldn't have surprised me if the whole lot were on the front lawn as there always seems to be animal or other "events" that want to test my perseverance and survival skills when home alone with the children. This fortnight included the death of a chook ... with the burial being an event in itself with the ground being so hard to dig up; the cat bringing in a dead rat and delivering it right in front of my mother  who was staying the night to help out (sure it was a sign of thanks); the water tank needing changing from one tank to the other late at night which meant wiggling underneath the house to reset the pump which didn't go particularly smoothly. Each night I was comatosed in bed - which meant I didn't even realise there had been a fatal crash down the road in the middle of the night with road closures in place. So I had a little interlude from Julia (she would have understood)...


Easter weekend was upon us, and with "Sausages" as daughter Caroline now describes our free reign sheep, I was inspired to cook a nice roast lamb with a French twist from Julia.
 I coated the lamb (brought from the super) with a mixture of mustard, soy sauce, garlic, rosemary from the garden, ginger and olive oil, which causes the lamb to become a beautiful brown as it roasts. Hardly a challenging French recipe, so I added the addition of a leek and potato soup as the entrée as a dish I had not made before. Julia introduces this recipe with...
 "Leek and potato soup smells good, tastes good, and is simplicity itself to make".
Its hard to go past an introduction like that! OK it didn't make the challenging criteria but the soup went down nicely with some freshly baked rolls I whipped up (a true trusted recipe from back in the 80's).
Being in the spirit of Easter the meal was completed with a divine chocolate brownie - thanks Jill.
And "Sausages" remains safe for another month or two!

Jill with Easter Bunny (Caroline)

Imke - preparing the potage paramentier

Michael - official carver

Series 2: Part 4 Salade Nicoise

Balmy summer evenings extending into March called for some fare that was light but tasty. Julia's rendition of Salade Nicoise - a Mediterranean Combination Salad from Nice - seemed ideal being both "nourishing and beautiful".
 In the 20 odd minutes that Julia has to instruct us on how to create the most famous of the composed salads, viewers are treated with video clips of Julia browsing the Nice market places. Hands are dipped into buckets of capers, olives, and whole salted anchovy's. Back in the kitchen Julia assembles the key ingredients for the salade - lettuce, blanched beans, tomatoes, potatoes, tuna, hard boiled eggs, anchovy, green herbs and of course the French dressing.
The lettuce is the first to arrange on the platter, with Julia taking the opportunity to show case some of latest lettuce drying devices. This is absolutely hilarious with the last item trumping the rest. This lettuce drier is unique in that you create the centrifugal force by pulling on a rope like you were starting a lawnmower. And according to Julia this Swiss design was created by "little old ladies in white tennis shoes" (go figure that statement!) Once you have your lettuce in place it is just the matter of arranging it all on the platter.
Tonight we had a shared dinner with our neighbours who supplied some delicious home made sausages. This worked beautifully with the Salade Nicoise. Of course we took the opportunity together to watch Julia's show "Stuffing a sausage" as our evening entertainment.... and review the episode Salade Nicose where my presenting salad was found to be as composed as Julia's! And as it was yet another beautiful balmy evening we set up our theatre outside and watched Julia underneath the stars.

Series 2: Part 3 Bouillabaisse

In keeping with the Oceania theme after completing another swimming challenge in the Pacific Ocean with my swimming buddy Anne, it seemed appropriate to have a dinner focused on the bounty one can acquire from such an environment. I was hoping for a less dramatic ending for the meal than the ending of my swim, where in my eagerness to cross the finish line to carve off a couple of seconds I did a dramatic dash and promptly tripped on the mat and face planted! Lucky for me I wasn't in first position coming out of the water (fat chance) so it was not witnessed by the entire swimming entourage.


In the French Chef television series one, Julia dedicates two episodes to fish. The "whole fish story" episode provided the fish fundamentals. It was difficult to concentrate on the content as I couldn't stop being distracted by the numerous alliterations that Julia used with the word fish and I was too busy enjoying and having a chuckle that I had to do a few rewinds of the DVD.... "French are fond of fresh fish, "Flat fish family" "Flexible fish knife" "Fabulous fish professor" "Fish frame" ... with Julia even admitting that "everything you do with fish seems to start with a "f". They were tips not only how to prepare, gut and cook your fish  but also how to eat it. A highlight of the show was the inclusion of a video of a French Poisson professor - she knew her fish and skill-fully whipped her knife around whilst handling the fish with a delicate and respectful manner. She demonstrated "fixing fish" which included wrapping the boned fillets of a fish around its still attached fish head so it resembled a rams head with curled horns. Another dramatic display was threading the fillets back through the fish open mouth!
With a knowledge of the fish fundamentals  I decided to cook the Bouillabaisse for the meal.
Bouillabaisse originated as a simple, Mediterranean fisherman's soup made from the catch of the day and flavoured with the typical condiments of the region - olive oil, garlic, leeks, onions, tomatoes and herbs.
First you make the aromatic broth - boiling the soup ingredients for about 40 minutes. For the fish addition for the broth I used  x2 snapper heads. Once the soup has been strained it was time to cook the fish. Julia recommends you should pick six or more varieties of fresh fish. There was only 3 of us eating so I reduced the fish variety to whole Tarakihi, deep sea cod pieces and mussels. Once we had gutted the Tarakihi and cleaned the mussels they all went into the boiling broth. Once cooked, the fish was removed to a platter and the broth served in a tureen which was lined with croutes - and after the obligatory pose for the camera... it was served and eaten immediately.
There was an unanimous decision that this was a fabulous flavoursome fish feast, fit for felicitation.

Gutting

Snapper heads

Caroline and Anne

Series 2: Part 2 - Bread of Life

The Potato Show was the title for the first episode from Julia's television series - "The French Chef 1". Apparently the potato only became fashionable around 1771 and was referred to thereafter as the "bread of life".  Julia found over 200 hundred French recipes for the potato but limited the 1/2 hour TV session to four recipes. These consisted of a combination of scalloped and grated potato dishes.


I choose to cook the "Crepes de pommes de terre" -  grated potato pancakes. Eldest daughter Caroline approved of this as it ticked the potato and pancake box.
4 oz of cream cheese was required to be mixed with one egg with the grated potato at the ready. You had to move smartly as Julia warned that potatoes brown quickly and that would cause "bad psychology for the cook" and I definitely did not want that!


Once you had grated the potato you had to squeeze the living daylights out of them to remove the water. This was referred to as the "amusing part" and I carefully followed Julia's food hygiene requirements of using a clean towel for this part as "not to offend anyone". Once squeezed and mixed with the other ingredients it was simply just the task to pan fry. After watching Julia attempt a few flips with "the courage of her convictions" and losing some of the potato across the kitchen I decided a relaxed non-adrenalin infused turn over with a simple fish slice would do the trick.


The potato pancake went down nicely as an accompaniment to the steak and salad we had for dinner that night... and it got the tick of approval from one of the most discerning food critics (and you thought Michelin rating was difficult!)

Approval from the food critic

Grating

Squeezing

Pan frying

 

Series Two - part one: Madeleines

As the summer holidays end and it is back to the normal routine of work, school, homework, so starts up the continuation of the French culinary cooking challenges. At the end of last year I splashed out on a series of DVDs of Julia Child "The French Chef" - as well as "The way to cook". This is over 1000 minutes of viewing time! I am expecting these to not only be informative but delightfully entertaining, with Julia' typical bloopers and down to earth wit.




The three day long weekend to celebrate Waitangi day seemed a good time to get back into cooking. However my DVDs have not yet been unwrapped and although I had thought I would recommence cooking this week I haven't prepared myself in anyway. However I did have a back up plan. At a recent shopping expedition I managed to secure a Madeleine pan half price. However to my dismay Julia had not included a recipe in her repertoire. Not too worry, I had my French patisserie book - however it required honey (damn), lemons (damn) and ground almond (damn)... plan C - Madeleine pan had recipe included... all ingredients readily available (although I had to shake the last drop of vanilla essence out the bottle). They are relatively easy to make but the mixture does require some resting in the refrigerator before cooking.






Madeleines have been described as a little romantic French cake, and are unique with their delicate shell shape. They are moist due to the "beurre noisette" - butter melted and cooked until nut brown.

Family were busy preparing for outdoor activities and although not quite the romantic ambiance one would get from sitting in a café in Paris - I attempted to capture some sort of refinement by placing a few on a bone china plate which family could enjoy on the go... and the left overs ideal for the school lunches tomorrow.

In two straight lines...

Week 21: Caneton aux peches & Crepes Suzette

The start of a New Year and the opportunity to throw in a few more culinary challenges. Although I did begin the New Year with a different  type of challenge - open water swimming. Similar to cooking, I am not a natural, throw myself in the deep end, surround myself with able people to strengthen the feeling of inadequacy and keep going. This open swim was conducted in the beautiful Lake Taupo - although at the time I was too focused on keeping alive then appreciating the wonderful landscape I was in. On reaching the shoreline my fellow participants were long ago dressed and ready for prize- giving, although my faithful family and a few staff members cheered me across.  Now safe from the deluge of swimmers a group of ducks were also there to greet me .... hmm what wonderful inspiration for my next Julia dish.


I love the taste of duck and Julia did provide a range of variations of Caneton Roti. However I found the recipes rather confusing with a number of  cross references which meant I was flicking back and forth in my book all over the place. I choose Roast Duck with peaches over the cheeries and orange sauce, mainly due to the shorter length of instructions to navigate through. I felt slightly guilty that I sourced tinned peach halves from Spain being surrounded by fresh fruit living in the Hawke's Bay - but they were perfect looking specimens and were right there in the specialist food shops when we were getting the duck. In preparation for cooking, the duck was seasoned, with thyme being the chosen herb, and I conducted some simple trussing to keep everything all tucked in and neat. Close to serving time I engaged the assistance of husband Jamie to assist with the sauce whilst I arranged the peaches and presented the duck. Julia states that the French taste for duck is roasted to a medium rare. Overcooked duck meat is brown, dry and disappointing! I am pleased to report that although more medium than rare, the duck was lovely and succulent and did not disappoint.


The preparing of the Crepes Suzette was another team activity. I had made the batter in advance for the crepe sucree - a more delicate crepe  and also the orange butter was ready to go. The orange butter consisted of orange peel, butter orange juice, orange liqueur and sugar. I don't know if Julia was rather tipsy on writing up this recipe as there was way too much orange butter. Anyway we had crepe team on hand with Jamie being the crepe maker, Mum specialising in the crepe folding, dunking the crepe in the melted orange butter and arranging on the chafing dish.  I performed the easiest job of preparing the orange liqueur and brandy and taking the photo of that impressive time when you set your food on fire! The adults enjoyed the crepes but daughters found the taste too intensive with a report of "you have ruined the pancakes". Note to self ...will add to the challenge of navigating rough seas, overcoming overdoses of salt water oral hydration and possible shark attacks with making desserts that daughters enjoy!

Into the challenge

The duck that did not disappoint

Expert crepe folder in action

Voila!

The scene of inspiration

Week 20: Christmas Quenelles and Buche de Noel

This Christmas we were staying at home, enjoying hosting my sister, bro in law and niece and nephew. With four adults, four teenagers and two dogs it was busy, and typically being the festive season, there was a lot of eating going down.
Christmas day we were all totally spoilt having a wonderful Christmas lunch at my parents house.
However Boxing Day was with us... and of course this meant the time to shine with French cuisine.
Julia did not have a Christmas section in her "Mastering the art of French Cooking", so I had to do a little homework on what would be a traditional French Christmas meal.
Wikipedia to the rescue - moved past the annoying little plea for funding from the site to find the list of food items traditionally eaten at Christmas:
Oysters - rather expensive beginning, lets see what is further down the list
Foie fras - not sure if I can support the action of force feeding ducks
Crepes - yes, but hard too do and for 12 people I would have to get up at 2am in the morning to get things done in time
Chapon - roasted chicken - had Turkey on Christmas day, don't really want to 2 birds in 2 days
Goose - difficult to source (although there are a few wild ones living close by..) and see comment above
Buche de Noel - Yule log - yes - chocolate
Thirteen desserts - traditional in Provence the 13 desserts represent Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles (not enough specific information)
Fougasse (Provencal bread) - like the sound of that.

Unfortunately Julia did not have most of these dishes in her book. So I looked to Julia for something different, yet special for the occasion. Quenelles caught my eye. Julia describes these as a distinguished first course which were the province of the haute cuisine, or  least of the great restaurants with plenty of young apprentice cooks to do the dog work. It was arduous process because it was the era of the BFP - Before Food Processor. However food processor was at the ready and so was my daughter Imke and niece Anneke- my two kitchen hands. They were the queens of the quenelle, shaping those fish quenelles into oval shapes and poaching in barely simmering water. There were some tense moments when we thought the quenelle may disintegrate - but unlike the highly tense reality food programmes or hells kitchen, we proceeded with calm and dignity. Also we had a back up plan, supported by Julia who has a section "In case of disaster". Julia recommends if by any chance your quenelle paste turns out to be too soft to poach it will taste every bit as good if you declare it to be a mousee. Love her practical nature!

Julia did not have a recipe for a Buche de Noel, so I sourced one from Nigella. I have always loved the look of a Yule log however have never made one. Slightly nervous about the rolling, and I almost rolled a stump rather than a log as started rolling the wrong end. However with declarations from the extended family observing the process, I was corrected - and proceeded to roll correctly. Nigella uses a chocolate ganache for the filling and for the icing... so of course it was gorgeous and voluptuous.

To complete the French theme my sister Jac and husband Mark presented us with some outstanding French cheeses. These were divine and we enjoyed these as our starter, although my sister did note that she had no idea what they would be like but they were French (a great blog supporter).
To accompany the cheese, Imke made the Fougasse (Provencal bread with olives and herbs).

It was a great meal with eating extending through most of the day, inter-dispensed with puppy play and general overeating malaise.

With the cousins... Caroline, Henk, Frankie (the dog), Imke and Anneke

The queens of the quenelles

Probably Yule log is not traditionally served in France with someone wearing a red beach towel!

Kneading

French cheeses

Mum and sister Jac

Jamie - in charge of the ham

Week 19: Oeufs Poches

"Gosh Mum, you are getting slack" was the report back from youngest daughter after serving up poached eggs for lunch. I admit, I missed last weeks blog write up as was supporting same daughter for weekend sporting event -  and with the pre-Christmas rush on, things are busy (excuses, excuses) so I have not invested so much time in increasing my culinary skills via Julia.

However, as I explained to my family, do not underestimate the poached egg. Julia dedicates 2 pages of explanation on how to make the perfect oeuf poches.  She explains that the perfect specimen is neat and oval and the white completely masks the yolk. The recipe for success includes having fresh eggs at hand, and a pan of barely simmering water with a touch of vinegar which helps the eggs keep in shape. Once you have broken the eggs into the water you immediately and gently push the water over the yolk with a wooden spoon. After about 4 minutes your egg should be ready for removal from the pan.
I must say the end product wasn't perfect but it was a vast improvement on my past poached eggs attempts where the egg whites were more of a milky way appearance - wispy and covering a large amount of space. On the removal of one of the eggs it flipped before landing on the plate, and from this perspective it looked perfect. The egg yolk remained liquid as per requirements. Although this was the desired effect it had two disadvantages. First disadvantage - eldest daughter does not like egg yolk so cutting off egg white was a delicate operation and with only one small nick of the egg yolk saw the contamination of the white - like a oil spill in the ocean. Second disadvantage is that with vigorous discussion over lunch accompanied with hearty gesturing saw the spray of egg yolk off the fork onto the table Christmas runner. The family did notice that this yellow did match the embroidery golden thread weaving through the runner, however I did insist on a quick spot clean. So there, I am  not entirely slack :-) 

Week 18: Carottes glacees & Chou-Fleur a la mornay, gratine

A sudden drop in temperature from our balmy summer hot weather saw a return to winter fare. Lucky there were vegetables at the ready including a cauliflower which was found in the depths of the fridge. I had fungating tomatoes last week so I am loathed to admit another repeat of "almost at the point of going off food ". Let's just say the cauli was ready for the eating. Although I do believe that the rotten food experience is known to more than us that we would perhaps admit. We may have cleaned up our act in adulthood  but the rotten apple at the bottom of the school bag was a pretty typical childhood experience. My legendary tale (according to my parents) was that they found 16 cheese segments in the bottom of my school bag - this was when chesdale processed chedder cheese was big.
So tonight was a great opportunity to cook up a couple of new vegetable dishes that were warm and comforting. I choose to follow Julia's Carottes Glacees - glazed carrots recipe. This involves boiling the carrots slowly in a covered pot with stock, sugar, pepper and butter for 30 minutes until the liquid has reduced to a syrupy glaze. Slightly got my timing wrong so didn't get to the glaze stage, rather soggy but tasty little numbers.
The cauliflower au gratin with cheese was prepared ahead and was far more relaxing in relation to timing, sitting patiently in the oven ready to go. Accompanying the steak I followed Julia's Champignons sautes au beurre instructions. Here Julia provides the requirements to have successful sauteed mushroom which are lightly browned. The secret is you need to ensure the mushrooms are dry, the butter very hot, and the mushroom must not be crowded in the pan. It was a rather uncomplicated dinner that night, but an opportunity to try a couple of new vegetable dishes. And with the less labour intensive meal meant I could use that time to clean out the fridge (almost as bad as the end of year school bag clean out!)

Reduction in progress

 

 

 

Hearty fare

 

Week 17: Tomatoes a la provencale and Tarte aux fraises

After last weeks poor performance and rating of non achieved for my Tarte aux fraises, I was adamant to resit and resubmit. However I also felt that I needed to try something new from Julia's repertoire of recipes. The "getting close to rotting stage tomatoes", perched on the kitchen bench, gave me the inspiration to try Tomoatoes a la provencale. Julia describes these as being one of the most savoury ways of serving tomatoes and they go well with many things. The stuffing is a mix of breadcrumbs, herbs (I used parsley), shallots and a sprinkle of olive oil, baked in the oven. I must say they did accompany the chicken/mushroom cream pasta dish for dinner quite nicely.

Call me a traitor, but I felt I needed a little more guidance for my repeat attempt for the Tarte aux fraises thanJulia could provide me. Luckily I did not have to look further than my book shelf as I have a weakness for books that seduce you with wonderful photo's even though you secretly know that the probability of baking or cooking a Gateau Saint-Honore is pretty remote. Lucky for me Will Torrent, the chef, had included a recipe for Tarte aux fraises. Actually it was quite exciting flicking through the pages and recognising dishes, that just a few months ago I would have had no idea what they were. Will grew up with a grandfather who was a chef in Bournemouth (I had grandparents that came from this area) and an uncle who owned a patisserie in Paris - so pastry was in his blood. Patisserie is all about technique, precision and elegance (I am doomed!), however, Will is very encouraging and states "When you make the decision to replicate these creations at home, you needn't doubt your skills; every basic technique is simple to master if you take your time (time poor!) are meticulous (how does the she'll be right philosophy fit into that!) and don't berate yourself too much for a novice attempt (Ok)". The pastry for the Tarte aux fraises this week was a pate sable - sable means sandy, and it is a recommended pastry for this dish. The change from last week was that this pastry was made with icing sugar, so before its overnight chill it was lovely and soft - it was more thereapuetic to the touch then play dough. The instructions were more detailed than Julia, and I need all the guidance I can get - I was going to mirror Will down to his crisp white shirt! This time the custard was smooth and non-flourey, no industrial sealant in sight and even the strawberries behaved. Updated rating from the judge (although not moderated) : Excellance  :-)






Mirror image

 

Will

Almost the same (just didn't have the same bread bin in the background!)

 



Tomates a la provencale

Week 16: Tarte aux Fraises

I usually try to complete my weekly cooking challenge on a Saturday, although this week, I must admit, the need for a nana nap on Saturday afternoon override any other item on my to do list. I found myself unconscious for 2 1/2 hours and was quite a pathetic specimen for the rest of the evening.
Tempted to do a Nigella with an avocado on toast equivalent, instead I committed myself to the cause and booked out some of my Sunday afternoon to complete a Tarte aux Fraises ... a Fresh Strawberry Tart.
I love summer and living in Hawke's Bay we are fortunate to be surrounded by orchards and a ready supply of fresh fruit including strawberries. Strawberries are well liked in our family, the issue was keeping the strawberries safe from little paws that were destined for the tarte.
Julia describes fresh fruit tarts as easy to make, pretty to look at and refreshing to eat. They consist of a fully baked tart shell, a glaze that protects the shell and a layer of crème pastissiere.Then of course the design of strawberries on top.
I deviated from the recipe today avoiding the addition of cognac both in the glaze, and custard filling believing that this would be more palatable to eldest daughter. I also didn't have red currant jelly for the glaze and thought the Pams strawberry jam, which was more jelly like, would do the trick.
Everything was lined up - the pastry shell, the hulled strawberries, the crème pastissiere and the glaze. However the custard was too thin, so I looked at trying to stiffen it up... this was the beginning of a mess!
I couldn't get a nice dimensional looking finish to the strawberries and certainly couldn't get them to snuggle close together. I avoided adding the glaze on top as despite following the rewarming instructions, it was way to thick.
 Although the finished product looked ok intack, and the pastry unmolded fine onto the plate the serving and the tasting was a unmitigated disaster. Even though the custard was thicker then before there was no way you could provide a nice tidy slice. So the individual servings looked a mess and the custard tasted like flour. On a positive note, I do believe though I have invented an ecological friendly industrial grade sealant. The glaze I made and painted on the pastry shell as a light waterproofing readily stuck to your teeth which required the family members to scrape it off with their finger nails.
According to my family I should be glad that this "non achieved" dish was only witnessed by them and how embarrassing it would have been if we had had visitors! The fresh strawberries were extracted from the custard goo and readily eaten. Maybe that avocado on toast idea wasn't so bad after all!

False advertising!

Industrial sealant in the making

Looked smooth

The judges

Unachieved!

Week 14: Truss me...Poulet poele a l'estragon

OK ... I admit I've avoiding trussing due to the association with sewing. When I explained to Caroline what the theme for for this week was, she replied ... "Good Luck" ... she knows me so well!
I was embarking on Julia's recipe "Poulet poele a l'estragon" - i.e. Casserole roasted chicken with tarragon.

 This was a different way of roasting from where I normally just shove the chook in a roasting dish with a sprinkle of a few herbs, into the oven. Following Julia's recipe you truss the chook, brown in butter and oil, then set to roast in a covered casserole with herbs and seasonings. Julia was absolutely right when she described this as "lovely method as the buttery, aromatic steam in the casserole gives the chicken great tenderness and flavour". The chicken was tender and moist, and my normal reliance of a gravy was not required.

Trussing is used as a technique so when you present the bird on the table it will look neat and attractive. For a chook there are two ties, one at the tail end to secure the drumsticks and one at the breast end to fasten the wings and neck skin. So as a good student I followed Julia's instructions and I thrust the needle in and tied that little chook up. Coming to serving time (which I must admit was late) the family was so hungry, that I could have served them bake beans on toast and they would have been happy!

Our eiffile tower candle was lit, as we sat down to eat out poulet for dinner and reflect on the tragedy of the terrorist attacks in Paris - vive la France



Truss me!

Tarragon.., courtesy of Millstream gardens (check out their website)

Vive la France



Week 13: Baba au Rhum

This week I was looking for something new. The section on babas caught my eye. I have never heard of babas, so was quite intrigued. Note - these are not to be confused with the French children's cartoon "Barbapapa". Actually I am quite fond of the Barbapapa characters and the way the papa is pink. However these little numbers were not child's play and were certainly for the adult palate.

According to Julia, babas always seem  to delight guests and they are not difficult to make! Sold!
As the "Mastering French Cooking" recipe book is pretty light on illustrations, I googled babas  to find out what the finished product should look like. Luckily the dough raising required a few hours as our internet connection was so slow. This is almost as frustrating as this laptop that I type this blog on... there are three keys that don't work properly - 2 w and s. In seems like every second letter is a s or a w! Although for some reason the keys warm up and start working (go figure!)

When I finally got connection, I watched a lovely romantic music video dedicated to 'Mum's Babas' in which the mother was lovingly preparing the babas whilst the family selected the finest Christmas tree in a Winter wonderland scene. However the picture was rather different here. I was stinky from a recent run which slightly over-powered the Pandora pond smell on me from my morning swim. Rather than the Christmas decorations I had piles of washing on the table (we were going to be eating dinner outside!), coupled with a potted primrose which had long ago did its dash of splendour and was way overdue for replanting outside.

Despite lacking the ability to conjure up a French winter scene my appetite for a baba was growing. In fact when the family reconvened for dinner everyone was ravenous from a full day of outside activities. Oldest daughter and father had a day rafting, and youngest daughter had a morning at rowing.
I had decided to make the Babas au Rhum - where firstly you make the babas which basically are  dough balls. Then the babas imbibe (another new word for me) the rum. I served these with whipped cream and accompanying extra rum syrup. For the "classique" babas au rhum you paint the babas with apricot glaze and place a cheery on top.
As a considerate mother I had already removed two babas from the rum baptism for eldest daughter. I needn't have bothered as according to Caroline they were "yuck" but I could redeem myself if I consented to allowing an ice-block instead! Luckily 3 of us enjoyed them (Mum and Dad there are a few left over coming your way). And somehow the rum went down quite nicely in the kiwi summer outdoor scene.

Look out for the barbapapa in the babas!