A Meal Outside of Arrondissement 16

For possibly the first time this semester, I cooked outside of the apartment building, (and by this I mean in a different arrondissement altogether). For the main course, I made a beef- and veg-filled cannelloni dish and followed up with a Nutella chocolate sauce over ice cream and fruits, the recipes of which are presented here.

Beef & Veg Cannelloni
(15 April 2009; Pat, Camille, and Dorothy)

What you'll need to fill the cannelloni (enough for 4 people):
16 cannelloni shells (a standard 250g box gives you more than enough, and if you have a bigger baking dish, you can definitely cook more)
350g ground beef
400g (or standard size equivalent, depending on type) pasta sauce
50g butter
2 carrots
1 leek
1 large onion
1,5 cloves of garlic
1 medium-large red pepper
1 medium-large green pepper
20cl liquid cream
2 semi-big tsps pepper purée (depending on your affinity for spice)
salt
pepper

To top off the dish, you'll also need:
50+ grams of parmesan (I like the thinly-sliced square pieces; the cheese is mainly to top off the cannelloni, so this is all very much up to you)

Finally, you'll also need:
1 or 2 pans (depending on how much you're making and the size of your pans; it's easier to split everything between the pans) + lids
rice
a deep baking dish
aluminum foil
cutting utensils
chopping board
stove
oven/toaster oven

Whew! After reading that whole list, you may be wondering why you would even bothering making it. Trust me, it's rather worth it and it's not as complicated or expensive as the list suggests.

What you need to do:
[N.B. Life is just a bit easier to live if you've pre-cut your vegetables before following along with the recipe.]
[N.B. All of the vegetables are rather straightforward to cut, perhaps except for the leek. To cut the leek, I take a knife and make a vertical cut starting from about 1 inch away from the root/base all the way to the end of the leaves. Then, I make a perpendicular, vertical cut. I then cut the leek in such a way that if I hadn't made the previous cuts, I would have round pieces, i.e., the final result should be strips of quarter-circumference leek pieces.]
1) Together, melt the butter and brown the beef.
2) Once all of the beef has been browned, add all of the chopped ingredients (except for the cloves of garlic, which should be minced). Simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes, covering the pan(s) with lids.
3) Add the salt, pepper, garlic, sauce and pepper purée, carefully stirring everything together. Continue cooking this for another 10 minutes or so, or until the vegetables become soft.
4) Finally, add the liquid cream and simmer for about five more minutes, stirring the cream into the mix. The cream should turn the red-ish sauce to an orange-cream colour.

5) Preheat the oven to about 180 degrees Celsius and turn off the heat of the stove (assuming you had already turned it on from the start). CAREFULLY, spoon some of the filling into the cannelloni and line the cannelloni in the baking dish side-by-side. With this recipe, you can fill about 16 cannelloni shells and have enough to top off the cannelloni.
6) Once all of the cannelloni that can fit into the baking dish have been filled, top off the cannelloni with the remaining filling. It's important that you try to cover all of the cannelloni with the filling. Top all of this off with parmesan cheese.
7) Bake the dish for about half an hour, after having first covered the dish with aluminum foil.

8) While all that yummy goodness is baking, put the leftover sauce, etc., into one, deep pan (using the same pan you cooked everything in--as long as it's deep enough--works great).
9) Fill the pan half-way with water and add about 1/3-1/2 that amount in rice.
10) Cover the pan with a lid and let the rice cook, adding more water, if necessary. Do check on the rice every five minutes to make sure it's not under/overcooked. Generally speaking, the rice and cannelloni will be done at about the same time.

11) Once everything has finished cooking, let things cool a tad and serve! Sweet cidre goes quite well with this dish.

Strawberry-Banana Split, with a Nutella Chocolate Sauce
(15 April 2009; Pat, Camille, and Dorothy)

Check out the photo above, if you'd like to prepare the fruits in a similar fashion. Of important note is that the bowls contain two halves of half a banana. Furthermore, one strawberry has been cut in half and the other has been cored and filled with Nutella.

What you'll need to make the Nutella chocolate sauce:

50g dessert chocolate
10cl liquid cream
2-3 heaping tablespoons Nutella

What you need to do:
1) Carefully melt the chocolate in a pot, making sure to not burn the chocolate.
2) Once the chocolate has melted, add the liquid cream and Nutella, stirring quickly to avoid burning the mixture.
3) Take the pot off the heat once you can start to smell the chocolate cooking. This is usually at a heat hot enough that stirring the mixture will continue to melt everything together and become smooth.