Cook N Bake French Series: Ile Flottante

Hello Everyone,

Have you ever wondered despite of having eaten more than enough we can always find some room for dessert? Sometimes we end up ordering a whole slice of cake when all we wanted was to savor one little bite of it! But we just couldn’t help it, and dinner wouldn’t be the same without it. It is desserts take us back to our childhood memories probably more than any other course.

Today Rometti wants to explore a traditional dessert from the French cuisine that, even if you’ve never had it before, its simple and popular ingredients that we hope will in fact take you back to those childhood memories.

The French have a wide array of desserts, from the popular creme brulee to the apple tart tatin, without forgetting crepes, cookies, creams, flans, ganaches.. Our choice was not easy this week, but we decided to dedicate our blog to the Ile Flottante which we had the chance to taste a few weeks ago while in France at the restaurant Le Boeuf A La Mode (Versailles) which we nicely recommend.
The Ile Flottante, or Floating Island, which looks like a cake is actually nothing less than a light meringue made of egg whites and sugar and dipped into a custard sauce such as the Creme Anglaise. Ile Flottante is a delicious, dreamy, airy dessert that melts in your mouth, but don’t be fooled, its preparation requires precision!
Ingredients:

for the meringue:
9 large egg whites, room temperature (reserve 4 yolks for making creme anglaise)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
for the Creme Anglaise:
1 1/4 cups whole milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
4 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
Coarse salt

Preheat the oven at 375 F and brush a Bundt pan with oil.
Start making the meringue with bringing a kettle of water to a boil. In the meantime whisk egg whites, cream of tartar and salt in a mixer at medium speed until soft. Add very slowly some superfine sugar and while doing that increase the speed to high. Beat for about 3-4 minutes until stiff. Reduce the speed to low and whisk in some vanilla.

Put the meringue into pan and smooth it with a small spatula to remove air pockets. Set the Bundt pan in a roasting pan to put into the oven. Add about 2 inches of boiling water into the roasting pan so not to burn the meringue. Bake for about 20 minutes until puffed and lightly browned. Transfer the Bundt pan to a wire rack and let it cool.

For the Creme Anglaise: combine milk and cream in a saucepan. Scrape vanilla seeds into pan. Bring to simmer over medium heat. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar, salt (only a pinch). While whisking pour the milk mixture into the yolk mixture. Put the whole mixture back into the pan. Cook about 5 minutes at medium heat without stopping stirring. When the mixture is very thick strain through a fine sleeve into a bowl. Press a plastic wrap on the top of the creme and refrigerate for about 2 hours.

Unmold the meringue onto a cake plate. Cut in slices and top each slice with the creme anglaise to make the Ile Flottante. Serve cold!

Note: you can add a caramel sauce or a fruit sauce to it, as well as you can decorate it with dry fruit or almonds.

~ENJOY!

Happy Hour Tuesday: Limoncello Sangria

Happy Hour Tuesday my friends!

A glass of wine is always a good cure to a long, hard day at work. It’s cozy, warm and it keeps the doctor away! However, wine, especially if it’s a dry red wine, is good not only by itself but if mixed with the right ingredients it becomes an exuberant drink to transform every night into a celebration! Spanish know that very well, as they came up with a mix of wine, fruit, and a sweetener like brandy in a drink that everyone knows as Sangria, which derives from the Spanish sangre, blood, as the color of it originally is due to the tint of red wine (although we find also the Sangria Blanca, made with white wine).
Just like many other drinks Sangria goes way back. It’s difficult to estimate a date, but for sure Spain has been growing vineyards since back in 200 BC when the Roman Empire introduced the art of wine-making. Some historians speculate that Andalusia, a Southern Spanish region, was where Sangria originated because of the availability of citrus. One thing is sure: that in 1964 Sangria became popular overseas thanks to the World’s Fair in New York.
Sangria has many variations. Limoncello Sangria uses Rometti Limoncello as sweetener instead than brandy, with the result of an intensified sweet citrusy taste complimentary to the dryness of red wine, such as merlot. You can enjoy Limoncello Sangria as is, but we believe that it’s even better if you add some chopped fruit!

Ingredients:

2 oz Dry Red Wine (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec…)

1 oz Orange Juice

1/2 oz Rometti Limoncello

Chopped fruit

Mix the wine with the orange juice and Rometti Limoncello, Add chopped fruit like oranges, apples, berries.

~ENJOY!

Rometti Featured on Daily Food & Wine

Just incase you missed it, Rometti Limoncello was reviewed and featured on Daily Food & Wine’s website by connoisseur Doug Singer.

Check out this article and more from Daily Food & Wine here.

Rometti Limoncello, and it’s Italian History

Cook N Bake French Series: Bouillabaisse A La Marseillaise

Last week we started out with a very simple yet delicious French cuisine dish, this week we’re elevating to something a little more complicated, a recipe from Marseille, la Bouillabaisse. Marseille is the second biggest city of France after Paris, the capital of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region and the oldest city in France (it was founded by the Phoenicians in 600 BC)! Its economy has always evolved around the port, both for the trade and for the transportation. Today Marseille is one of the most visited cities in France because of its naturally beautiful landscapes and breathtaking coastal scenery, the art scene, the restaurants and the cafes that extend along the port.

La Bouillabaisse A La Marseillaise is a traditional dish similar to a seafood stew made with at least five kinds of fish (or seven, the more the better!), a classic Mediterranean recipe that originated from the lower class as a meal for the fishermen returning from their trips. Initially they used shellfish and rockfish that restaurants refused to serve, eventually, as the city developed in its richness, more ingredients were added to refine the recipe and the dish started to be served in restaurants for the upper class.
Like many other dishes, Bouillabaisse‘s rich flavor is the anthem for Summer, but since we’re almost at the end of Summer, we’re sure that its savory, garlicky, seafood and herbs combination will take you back to those sunny days with just one sip!

Ingredients (serves 6):

3 pounds of at least 3 different kinds of fish fillets, fresh or quick frozen (thaw first)

1/2 cup Olive oil

1-2 pounds of Oysters, clams, or mussels

1 cup cooked shrimp, crab, or lobster meat, or rock lobster tails

1 cup thinly sliced onions

4 Shallots, thinly sliced OR the white parts of 2 or 3 leeks, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 large tomato, chopped, or 1/2 cup canned tomatoes

1 sweet red pepper, chopped

4 stalks celery, thinly sliced

2-inch slice of fennel or 1 teaspoon of fennel seed

3 sprigs fresh thyme or 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

2-3 whole cloves

Zest of half an orange

1/2 teaspoon powdered saffron

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup clam juice or fish broth

2 Tbps lemon juice

2/3 cup white wine

Sliced French bread

Put 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large saucepan. Once it’s hot add and sauté for about a minute onions and shallots. Add the garlic and sweet red pepper, followed by tomato, celery, and fennel. Stir for a few minutes. Add another 1/4 cup of olive oil, thyme, bay leaf, cloves and orange zest. Cook until the onion is soft and golden.
Cut fish fillets into 2-inch pieces. Add them and 2 cups of water to the vegetable mixture . Bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered for 10 minutes (in French Bouillabaisse is a combination of the verbs bolhir, to boil, and abaissar, to reduce the heat). Add the rest of the seafood: oysters, clams, mussels, shrimp, crabmeat, lobster tails (you can choose other types of fish and shellfish as long as they are super fresh!).
Add saffron, salt and pepper. Add clam juice, lemon juice and white wine. Let it simmer and cook for 5 minutes longer.
Serve hot with a crisp slice of French bread, and..
~ENJOY!

Happy Hour Tuesday: Piña Colada Limoncello

Hello Rometti followers!

This week our Happy Hour Tuesday blog takes you to Puerto Rico with a sweet, creamy and delicious drink called Piña Colada Limoncello.
Piña Colada takes its name after two Spanish words: piña, “pineapple”, and colada, “strained”. It seems to have originated in Puerto Rico in 1954, by Ramon “Monchito” Marrero, bartender in the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber bar in San Juan. One of the ingredients, the coconut cream, was created the same year in the University of Puerto Rico. When Mr. Marrero was awarded for selling the three-millionth Piña Colada in 1978, Puerto Rico made it its official drink.
Piña Colada is a Summer drink (it’s not by chance that the first Piña Colada was sold on August 15, 1954) which will delight your palate. Its smooth and sweet taste is accentuated by the velvety texture of the coconut cream, and the tartness hint of the pineapple juice. The smoothness of the rum brings adds some warmth while blending in perfectly with the other ingredients. At last, the limoncello cream, which has a different citrusy sweetness, plays almost as an energy booster in the whole exotic mix.

Ingredients:

0.5 oz Rometti Limoncello Cream (coming soon!)

2 oz Pineapple juice

2 oz Coconut cream (Coco Lopez)

1.5 oz White rum

1 oz Dark rum

Put the ingredients in an electric blender with some crushed ice. Blend briefly at high speed. Strain into a glass and garnish with either a slice of pineapple or a cherry.
~ENJOY!

Cook N Bake French Series: Croque-Madame

“After one taste of French food … I was hooked. I’d never eaten like that before, I didn’t know such food existed. The wonderful attention paid to each detail of the meal was incredible to me. I’d never really drunk good wine before, and knew nothing at all about it. It was simply a whole new life experience.”
Julia Child

This Thursday we start our Cook N Bake: French Series, inspired by the elegant and memorable culinarian journey that we experienced during our latest trip to the fascinating capital of France, Paris. To inaugurate this new series that will celebrate the French cuisine for the next month, Rometti decided to let you discover the Parisian flavors by starting with a simple recipe that everyone can easily replicate at home, the Croque-Madame.

Croque-Madame is a variation of the original Croque-Monsieur, a hot ham and cheese sandwich which takes its name after the French verb croquer, “to crunch”, and monsieur, “mister”, and born as a fast snack appeared for the first time in a Parisian Cafe’ on the boulevard des Capucines in 1920. Croque Madame differs from Croque-Monsieur because of a fried or poached egg on top, believed to resemble a lady’s hat. The Croque-Madame, as well as the Croque-Monsieur, can be made with different kinds of cheese (gruyere, Gouda, Swiss, bleu d’Auvergne cheese…) and ham can be substituted by other cold cuts such as turkey or chicken, as the French chef Jacques Pepin did on an episode/cookbook of the Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home series in which he worked with nothing less than Julia Child (who by the way yesterday would have turned 100 years old!).

For a successful Croque-Madame you will need to use the freshest sliced bread you can get, white, with cereals, or you can even try with an English muffin or an American bagel.

Ingredients:

2 soft white bread slices

2 thin slices of ham

room temperature butter

1 egg

2 thin slices of gruyere cheese

Take the two bread slices and spread them with butter on one side. On one slice lay 2 slice of cheese, and then the 2 slices of ham. Top it with the other bread slice having the side with the butter touching the ham. Set aside.
In the meantime warm up the oven to 465 F (240 C).
Take about 1 oz of butter and melt it into a small nonstick pan. Melt another 1 oz of butter in another little pan.
When the butter start sizzling, pour in the egg without breaking the yolk. Pour the rest of the melted butter on top of the egg, cook for about 2 minutes and then put the pan into the oven until the yolk is cooked to desire.
Grill the Croque-Monsieur on both sides, into a toaster or on a pan, and when the egg is ready gently put it on top of the croque which is now a Croque-Madame!
Eat while it’s still hot.

ENJOY! ~

Image by Radvaner: http://www.bernardradvaner.com

Happy Hour Tuesday: Dry Lemon

Happy Hour Tuesday is back, after a couple of weeks in Italy!
While there, we experienced the joy of dining with friends and family, and what other digestif would have been the perfect way of ending our Italian Summer nights but limoncello?

This week we would like to enlighten you with a cocktail recipe that we savored just recently, Dry Lemon.
Other than Campari and Rometti Limoncello, which you should all now be familiar with, we introduce Angostura, which is a concentrated bitter made of water, alcohol, gentian root and vegetable extracts. Although a German Surgeon General came up with the recipe, Angostura takes its name after a town in Venezuela where the ingredients were easily available. Believed to have restorative properties, Angostura seems to be great to cure hiccups and upset stomach!
In addition to Angostura, Dry Lemon uses also the British Tanqueray Gin (from Charles Tanqueray, its first distiller), a London dry gin made of double distilled grain.

Dry Lemon is a dry, refreshing cocktail which will both quench your thirst and satisfy your tasting buds!

Ingredients:

1/4 Rometti Limoncello

1/4 Campari bitter

a few drops of Angostura

2/4 Tanqueray Gin

1 Lemon wedge

Add Rometti Limoncello, Campari, a few drops of Angostura and Tanqueray gin into a cocktail shaker filled with some ice cubes. Shake well and pour into a glass. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

ENJOY!~
Recipe courtesy of DBRicette.