Bonne Annee 2009!!

New Year's eve dinner is another big food moment in France; One Juan and I never miss, no matter which continent we celebrate the new year on. After a big trip to Central Market and Mandola's (for some of their fantastic bread), we headed back home to start on my cooking spree.

Nothing makes me happier than preparing a big meal and putting a lot of effort into making it fantastic. Even though, I have to admit, I am less able to stand on my feet in the kitchen for as long as I used to, now that I am pregnant. But it was worth it! I believe the secret really is patience and good quality ingredients - one should never neglect that.

I prepared some cheese palmiers and some shrimp, ricotta and avocado mousse verrines as an hors d'oeuvre. Verrines are extremely popular in France; they are very small glasses filled with two or more layers of different flavors. Verrine in French means "little glass". They can be served as an appetizer or as a dessert. They can be cold or hot. There are no limits as to what you can put in them. The ultimate goal is to mix textures, colors, temperatures and flavors. Verrines are very slowly coming to America. I have mostly seen them sold for dessert (check out your frozen aisle). I love how versatile they are and best: they are prepared in advance, which makes them a number 1 choice for entertaining!

I also made a celery remoulade salad, which was not planned, but Central Market had a huge display of celery roots and I couldn't resist... I had never made it before because in France, we buy it at the deli. I'm not sure why, because it's very easy to make!! Celery root has a sharp and aromatic favor that really is unusual and wonderful. Think of celery remoulade as the French cousin of coleslaw, but stronger in taste. The remoulade part is nothing but a mayonnaise flavored with a lot of mustard, vinegar and lemon juice. It's truly wonderful and even better the day after!

My main dish was individual bay scallop gratin, sauce batarde. The sauce is a simple bechamelle with creme fraiche, to which you add fresh lemon juice and egg yolks as a liaison. My favorite part is the gratin part, for which you pop your dishes under the broiler after covering them with bread crumbs. That's where your fresh loaf of bread comes in handy to soak up all the wonderful sauce at the end. Divine!

Of course, we had a nice big plate of cheeses and for dessert, I made a King's Cake Frangipane tart. But I will not tell you too much about it since I plan to share the recipe with you all in my next post! So come back next week!

I hope you had a wonderful end of the year celebration. During 2009, I plan to share even more French recipes and memories with you, always in the same belief that French home cooking is easy. Thank you all for reading The French Fork and Bonne Annee a tous!