Ornaments

Le Bistrot du Peintre, Paris

 Le Bistrot du Peintre ("The Painter's Bistro") is in Paris's 11th arrondissement: in a slightly grubby, gritty, non-touristy part of town. The bistro itself is beautiful and full of gorgeous art-deco furnishings and finishes. We had a fantastic lunch here. The menu is full of Paris bistro and brasserie classics, like steak frites, composed salads, lovely cuts of meat and simple desserts.

Chewy sourdough baguette pieces with saucisson sec (dried sausage)

Beef tartare with pommes frites and salad

Crispy canard confit (duck leg) with pommes frites and salad 

Creme caramel

Paris Christmas florist

Christmas travels

I'm spending Christmas in Europe, like some sort of peasant orphan globetrotter. Paris, Zurich and Vienna, with a forecast of a cold snap all through December and temperatures well below zero at times. Hot chocolate in a left-bank Art Deco cafe? Yes. All-day shoe and brooch hunts through the Marais? Yes. Gluhwein and carols in St Stephen's Square? Lying in the bath with champagne while snow falls outside the window? Also yes.  

Buche de Noel 2010

With mini snowmen on top.

Buche de Noel

Sponge cake

50g cocoa

pinch sea salt

3 large eggs

75g light muscovado sugar, or a mixture of caster and brown sugar

Filling

375g sweetened chestnut puree

75g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

180ml whipping cream

Icing sugar

Christmas figurines or other decorations

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Butter a Swiss roll tin (approx. 23cm x 32cm), line it, and butter the lining.

2. Put eggs and sugar into electric mixer and whisk for 8 to 10 mins, or until pale and moussey.

Sift cocoa and salt into bowl and fold in lightly.

3. Pour into tin, tap on bench to knock out any air bubbles. Bake for 8 to 10 mins or until set and springy.

4. Turn cake out onto a clean tea towel dusted with icing sugar. Leave the paper on and carefully roll up the sponge, using the tea towel to help. Roll from the short end. Leave it to cool.

5. Whip the cream. Melt the chocolate over hot water. Combine both with the chestnut puree to taste.

6. Unroll the sponge, remove paper. Spread with half the filling mixture. Roll it back up. If the sponge cracks or breaks, just stuff it back together or ignore it.

7. Tip sponge onto serving plate, seam down. Spread it with the rest of the filling. Use fork to make lines and swirls, like a tree branch. Add decorations.

8. Chill in the fridge for an hour or longer. Bring it back to room temperature before serving, then sift over icing sugar.

Christmas lunch 2010

Ham with maple syrup glaze

Roast turkey breast

Lemon, thyme and parsley stuffing balls

Roast potatoes

Turkey gravy

Mixed tomato salad

Pear, apple and chicory salad with blue-cheese dressing

Cranberry sauce

Cherry chutney

Buche de Noel

Christmas breakfast 2010

Melba toasts, smoked salmon, red onion, caviar, capers and creme fraiche. Also, champagne and orange juice.

Little fondant snowmen

To go on top of my buche de Noel.

Christmas lunch 2009

The original plans: we ended up with this menu.

Earl Grey glazed ham

Tomato and basil salad

Spinach and rocket salad with Roquefort and toasted pine nuts

Turkey with Bill Granger's pistachio and cranberry stuffing

Onion relish

Cranberry sauce

Buche de Noel

Cherries

My buche de Noel 2009

Pre-decoration Log.

You know what's gross? Plain chestnut puree straight out of the can. It looks like poo jelly.

It's a Yule log. You roll up a plain sponge cake with a filling, then frost and decorate the outside. My filling was a mixture of unsweetened chestnut puree, dark chocolate, sugar and vanilla.

I made meringue mushrooms and rubbed them with edible gold powder.

Recipe to come.


The whole thing was pretty successful. If I did it again I would increase the chestnut ratio, not grate the white chocolate (not snowy-looking enough) and bake my sponge flatter and longer for a really fat roll.
Interesting how just a year ago I thought I would never attempt this.