Happy Sunday, little chickens!

(I hope you're having a good weekend under the comforter or in the sun. As for me, I'm shooting in the rain and I'm taking advantage of a moment of calm to write to you! Today I'd like to share with you some recipes that have been ordered for us by La Grande Épicerie de Paris... The store has launched its brand of high-quality products and asked us to imagine recipes using them! I love this store, I could stay for hours, the merchandising is sublime, everything makes me want to go, and the details are so meticulous! If you're visiting Paris, I recommend you go there for the beauty of the products and for inspiration on how to enhance the objects. It was a pleasure to work with them! For the occasion, I prepared four recipes from breakfast to dinner, including snacks! Very easy, you'll see, and even if you're not lucky enough to go to Paris rue de Sèvres, these recipes will be completely feasible with everyday products! A big kiss and see you tomorrow for a lovely mother/daughter shoot!

Highly Instagrammable gourmet bowl:

Beneath this mysterious title lies a breakfast idea to delight your pupils and taste buds, but be careful not to get overzealous with the presentation, you risk arriving late at the office...

You'll need :

  • cottage cheese or Greek yoghurt,
  • 1 tablespoon raspberry jam,
  • 5 "petit beurre" cookies,
  • 10 raspberries,
  • 1/2 sliced banana,
  • blueberries and redcurrants,
  • almonds, pistachios and pine nuts.

Start by placing a teaspoon of jam (or two, depending on your sweet tooth) in the bottom of a bowl, then crumble the butters over the jam. Pour the fromage blanc over the cookies and start decorating the top of the bowl with fresh and dried fruit. The neater you organize the fruit, the more your bowl will throw away. Add some edible flowers and you'll break Instagram! For a healthier option, replace the jam with compote! And above all, enjoy!

Chicken Hot Dog:

Don't try to analyze the title of this recipe, you'll get lost in it and form a terrible mental image of what follows:

For 2 snacks, you'll need:

  • 2 chicken cutlets,
  • 2 hot dog buns,
  • corn on the cob,
  • 1 ripe avocado,
  • 1/2 lemon,
  • a small bunch of spring onions,
  • a few coriander leaves for decoration,
  • a little olive oil,
  • and the finest mustard!

Start by slicing the chicken and cooking it over low heat in a little olive oil with the corn kernels. Meanwhile, slice the spring onions and dice the avocado. Place the vegetables in a small bowl and sprinkle with the juice of half a lemon. When the chicken is almost cooked, take the opportunity to toast the hot dog bun for a few minutes, taking care not to leave it too long, otherwise the bun will become too dry. Once the bread is golden, spread the sexiest of your mustards on one side and arrange the chicken, add the avocado and sprinkle with corn and spring onions. Finish with touches of mustard and coriander leaves! Enjoy! You can accompany your hot dogs with a small sucrine salad with a little olive oil and a drizzle of lemon juice!

Citrus supreme with orange blossom and tea :

Here's a good alternative to snacking, to avoid throwing yourself on the packet of cookies... Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.

For a good snack, you'll need :

  • 1 grapefruit,
  • 1 orange,
  • 2 tablespoons orange blossom,
  • a few grams of citrus tea,
  • and mint leaves for the finishing touch!

Take a large bowl and place your citrus fruit segments in it as soon as you've extracted them. To extract the citrus fruit supremes, first choose firm, high-quality fruit! First, use a knife to remove the skin and white membrane from the outside of the fruit, then peel your citrus fruit raw. Now that you've got your grapefruit and orange naked, you'll slide your knife along each quarter membrane, one stroke to the left from top to bottom and the same to the right, so you can extract the flesh from the citrus fruit. Then continue for the whole fruit as if you were turning the page of a book with each membrane. Sounds a bit barbaric, but it's actually very simple, especially if your fruit is of good quality and your knife is sharp! Once you've finished, collect all the juice from your fruit in a cup and add the orange blossom. Now steep your tea in the juice/orange blossom mixture for a few minutes before pouring over the supremes! Garnish with a few mint leaves and enjoy!

Cold soup and artichoke strip tease!

It's an easy, super-healthy alternative for your uninspired evenings, a green dinner that you can spice up with gourmet treats!

For 2 people, you'll need :

  • 1 large artichoke,
  • 500 g green tomatoes,
  • 2 spring onions,
  • 2 tbsp olive oil,
  • 4 sprigs mint,
  • 4 basil sprigs,
  • Guérande salt,
  • a small brick of crème fraîche,
  • truffle olive oil.

First, peel and finely chop the onions, then clean the mint and basil. Place the green tomatoes in a large pot of boiling water to loosen their skins. You can score the underside of the tomatoes beforehand. Run them under cold water to stop them cooking, then peel them finely, chop them and remove the seeds. Put the onions, tomatoes, mint, basil, crème fraîche and a generous pinch of Guérande salt into a blender and blend until you have a smooth velouté.

Arrange in bowls and add a touch of truffle oil. Keep chilled until ready to serve, then take care of the rest.

For the artichoke, it's as simple as that and as tasty as ever! Fill a large saucepan with water and add 3 tablespoons of coarse salt. As soon as the water boils, put in your artichoke, which tends to turn upside down... To keep it upside down, place a small plate heavy enough to block it. And forget about it on a medium heat for 20 to 25 minutes. When the heart is tender when you insert the blade of your knife, the artichoke is cooked! Let it drain completely, then remove the skin and enjoy the cold soup!

And you can make the whole thing even more gourmet by nibbling on filled pesto shortbread: spread truffle salted butter caramel (yes, yes, it's possible, it's delirious) or tapenade on a first shortbread, and close the whole thing with a second shortbread to get a crazy salted macaroon!

May 22, 2016