French Cuisine Friday : White Bean Hummus | Brandade á la Soissonaise

The other day, I made lamb in the pressure cooker because it is so much tender that way, plus the water makes a lamb broth which I freeze for later.
I, also, decided to cook white beans too. At first, I was going to make a salad with them, but then I remembered there was already salad in the fridge. So, I went to my new best friend pinterest and I remembered that I had pinned a recipe for white bean hummus (dip) - see recipe below - and decided to make it. I already knew that I would be the only person eating it, because my husband has never eaten hummus and has refused to try it.

I put the hummus out on the dinner table and right away Yilmaz says "Is that hummus? (When he doesn't know what something is he calls it hummus?) and I was glad to report "Why yes this time, this actually is hummus." At first, he said he didn't like it which usually means I like it but I don't want to admit that I like it. Halfway through dinner he started dipping his bread in it which led to bigger and bigger scoops. I jokingly said "Oh I thought you didn't like it" and he said "Oh I don't, but what else do you expect me to eat ???". This is a great dish for those picky eaters because you can dip almost anything into it!

Here is my recipe adapted from Vicky of avocadopesto.com

Julia Child’s Brandade á la Soissonaise (White Bean Dip)

 

 Ingredients

• 1 cup dried white beans, soaked and cooked until tender
• 2 Tbs of dried basil
• 3-4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• ¼ cup Tahini paste
•  minced garlic - I used 3 garlic cloves
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons olive oil (plus more drizzling)
• red pepper  for garnish, optional

Instructions

1. Add beans, lemon juice, tahini paste, and minced garlic to a blender and process until beans are pureed, about 1 minute - add water if needed. Then add olive oil through the feed chute 1 tablespoon at a time. 
2. Place in a decorative bowl and drizzle olive oil and sprinkle red pepper. Enjoy!!

French Cuisine Friday - Mousse au Chocolat

French Cuisine Friday, I will show you a French cuisine item I made during the week. I will post pictures as well as the recipe and some background on the item and possibly including some French vocab in the process.

While my mom was here, she kept complaining that she wanted chocolate mousse (mousse au chocolat). We had planned on making it several times but we actually never got around to doing it. I think it was all the prefecture visits (posts to come soon!).

One Sunday morning when she went to church, I decided to make her some as it was a few days before she was leaving and it would be a nice surprise.

I didn't use a French recipe for this. Julia Child has a good one, but I don't have access to her book. So, I ended up using the recipe off of Joy of Baking.


According to Joy of Baking,

One spoonful of this Chocolate Mousse and you will be hooked forever. It is what you could call a grown up chocolate pudding. A simple yet elegant dessert. While it uses only a few ingredients, its chocolate flavor is rich and its texture is silky smooth, airy, almost foamy. And foamy is an apt description as "mousse" is French for 'froth' or 'foam'.

Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateMousse.html#ixzz2hxd3Vgdl

I experienced one problem, the cream wouldn't whip.  So I just ended up pouring the semi-whipped liquid in and the chocolate mousse was a little liquidy. But it received a 10/10 from my mom.