May 23, 2010
For love of French food
Cooking show host Laura Calder spills the beans on how French food has helped boost her love life
ST PHOTO: MALCOLM KOH
Cooking show host Laura Calder has a way of making French food sound sensual.
The celebrity cook helms French Food At Home, which airs on the Asian Food Channel on Mondays at 9pm.
In an interview with LifeStyle, Ms Calder, 40, says: 'French food is romantic because of the French approach to it. They are so passionate.
'They will go to the market and get the best ingredients, tell you about them, and touch them and smell them, it's very sexy,' she says, caressing an imaginary item of produce.
She adds that a lot of care and time is devoted to making a French meal, and enjoying it, so the whole experience is deeply moving.
She is here to kick-start a year-long series of celebrity chef events organised by American Express and the Asian Food Channel, with cooking demonstrations and dinners.
Tickets to her two cooking demonstrations held over this weekend, and two dinners at The Fullerton Hotel, tomorrow and Tuesday, sold out within four days earlier this month.
The Canadian-born cook fell in love with French food after studying at the Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne in Burgundy, France.
Has anyone captured her heart with French food?
The bachelorette says a former French boyfriend used to make her delicious French potato omelettes, which had onions, bacon and twice-fried potatoes.
She says: 'The omelette is firm like a torte and tasty and rich. I got the recipe from him and I have made it on the show.'
She adds jokingly: 'I always get recipes from people because you never know when (the relationship) will end.'
The guy of her dreams, however, does not have to be a good cook although he must enjoy eating.
She says: 'Once, this guy I was dating said, 'Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to bother with all this eating and you could just take a pill?' I think we broke up that night.'
Complicated fare is out
Ask if she has ever cooked to win somebody's heart and she says she does it all the time; it is what motivates her to cook for anyone.
But she stresses that her intention is to make her guests happy and not to impress them.
She says: 'I cannot handle the pressure of trying to impress. I used to have nervous breakdowns trying to do fancy, restaurant-style food at home. They were disasters.'
She does not shy away from challenging recipes that require skill, but she stays away from fussy dishes with finicky presentations.
And because she does not cook anything overly complicated, her guests do not feel intimidated to cook for her, so she always gets invited in return.
She is in fact busy working on dinner party recipes for her third cookbook, which is due out next September.
Her previous two cookbooks were French Food At Home (2003) and French Taste (2009).
During her short stay here - her first time in Singapore - she had a taste of local cuisine at places such as the food centre Chomp Chomp in Serangoon Gardens. She liked its lively atmosphere and variety of tasty, inexpensive food.
She also tucked into chilli crabs at The Fullerton Hotel restaurant, which she thoroughly enjoyed, despite having trouble eating it with her hands.
She says: 'The crab was delicious but I was embarrassed that I was wearing half of it by the time I was finished. This is not food I would eat on a first date.'
Her idea of a romantic home-cooked meal would be a three-course affair featuring stuffed mushroom caps, Provencal rack of lamb with ratatouille, and savarin with strawberries (see recipes, from her cookbook French Taste, below).
She picks stuffed mushroom caps as the starter because it is light tasting and simple to make. She chooses lamb rack for the main course because it looks pretty and the ratatouille on the side, which can be prepared in advance, for being the colour of passion - red.
She admits the savarin will require effort to make, but promises it will be worthwhile.
She says: 'You have strawberries and cream in this lovely sponge cake, which is not eaten all the time, so it is special. And, it squelches in your mouth nicely.'
Romantic recipes
Laura Calder shares her recipes for a three-course romantic meal for two. These are from her cookbook, French Taste.
STUFFED MUSHROOM CAPS
Ingredients
2 large button mushrooms or small portobello mushrooms, about 150g in total
olive oil
10g butter
1/2 shallot, minced
1/2 garlic clove, minced
pinch of crushed chilli pepper
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 Tbs fresh breadcrumbs
salt to taste
pepper to taste
handful of chopped fresh parsley
35g fresh goat's milk cheese
handful of watercress or pea sprouts
balsamic glaze
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 deg C.
2. Finely chop the mushroom stems. Set aside.
3. Place the mushroom caps gill-side down on a baking sheet and rub with a little olive oil. Bake for 10 minutes to shrink it slightly.
4. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat and gently fry the shallot until slightly soft, about two minutes.
5. Add the mushroom stems and cook until soft, about five more minutes. Add the garlic, chilli pepper, and thyme and saute for a minute. Add 1/2 Tbs of breadcrumbs and mix well.
6. Remove from the heat, taste and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
7. Mix the parsley and remaining breadcrumbs in a bowl. Set aside.
8. Turn the mushroom caps gill-side up and season with salt and pepper.
9. Divide the cheese evenly and pile it on the mushroom cap, gill-side up. Top with the cooked filling, parsley mixture and a drizzle of olive oil.
10. Bake until the tops are golden, about 20 minutes. Serve with watercress or sprouts on the side and a generous swirl of balsamic glaze.
PROVENCAL RACK OF LAMB WITH RATATOUILLE
Provencal rack of lamb
Ingredients
1 rack of lamb, about 8 ribs, frenched
salt to taste
pepper to taste
3 Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs Dijon mustard
40g fresh breadcrumbs
30g grated Parmesan cheese
2 handfuls of chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, thyme and rosemary
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 220 deg C.
2. Season the meat with salt and pepper.
3. Mix the oil with mustard and slather it over the rack to coat well.
4. Mix together the bread crumbs, cheese and herbs and pack it on the rack.
5. Set the lamb, bones arching upwards, in a roasting pan. Roast until the meat is done to your liking; roughly 20 minutes will give you medium-rare meat. Let the meat rest for 10 minutes before carving.
Ratatouille
Ingredients
1/2 eggplant
salt
1/2 red pepper
1/2 yellow pepper
30ml olive oil
1 small zucchini, cut into thick rounds
1/2 onion, sliced
1/2 garlic clove, minced
1/2 peperoncini, crushed
1 bay leaf
1/4 rosemary sprig
2 tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped
pepper to taste
handful of chopped fresh basil
Method
1. Heat the oven to broil.
2. Thickly slice the eggplant crosswise and lay the rounds on a cake rack placed in the sink. Salt generously and leave 30 minutes for the excess water in the eggplant to drain off. When ready, rinse well under the tap and pat dry.
3. While the eggplant drains, put the red and yellow peppers in the oven and broil until the skin is blackened.
4. Remove the peppers to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for five minutes. Then peel, seed and julienne. Set aside in a large bowl.
5. Put a little oil on a baking sheet, toss the zucchini slices in it, then roast at 230 deg C for about 10 minutes, turning it once. Remove and add to the peppers.
6. Cut the eggplant into large chunks, toss in some oil, spread on the baking sheet and roast until tender and golden, about 15 minutes. Add to the bowl.
7. Heat a spoonful of olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat and fry the onion until soft. Add the garlic, peperoncini, bay leaf and rosemary, and fry for a minute.
8. Stir in the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes are very soft and the mixture has a thick soupy consistency, about 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and rosemary.
9. Pour the tomato sauce over the vegetables, toss and season. Serve at room temperature with basil scattered over.
SAVARIN WITH STRAWBERRIES
Ingredients
1-1/2 tsp active dry yeast
275g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbs warm water
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
30ml milk
grated zest of one lemon
125g sifted flour
55g butter, softened
500ml water
60ml Grand Marnier, Kirsch, rum, or eau-de-vie
500 ml heavy cream
a few drops of vanilla essence
A few generous handfuls of fresh strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered
mint leaves for garnish, optional
Method
1. Butter and flour a 25cm savarin or other ring mould.
2. Mix the yeast, 1 Tbs sugar, salt and warm water in a large bowl and let stand five minutes until foamy.
3. Add the eggs, milk, lemon zest and flour. Beat vigorously in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment for 10 minutes to make the dough smooth and elastic, ensuring a light, fine-textured cake. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.
4. Punch down the dough and beat in the softened butter gradually until fully incorporated.
5. Spoon the mixture evenly into the mould, cover and let rise again until doubled, about two hours.
6. Heat the oven to 180 deg C and bake the savarin until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
7. Remove from the mould onto a wire rack and let cool slightly before transferring to a serving plate.
8. For the syrup, bring the water and 250g sugar to a boil in a saucepan, then boil for another minute.
9. Remove from the heat, stir in the Grand Marnier and ladle the syrup over the cake until fully absorbed. The cake will expand and become sponge-like in texture.
10. To serve, whip the cream with the vanilla and 1 Tbs sugar. Fold in the strawberries, reserving a few for garnish, and spoon into the hole in the centre of the cake.
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