I love scones with clotted cream but of course it’s difficult to find in Geneva. When I brought a pot of fresh Crème de Gruyère I thought that it would be awesome on scones. I was right !

For scones I tried a lot of recipes. The best recipe I’ve found so far is Trish Deseine’s but I put a lot less baking powder.

The usual problem with scones is to find the right amount of baking powder that doesn’t feel funny on your teeth. In France we use a chemical baking powder that must be stronger than UK baking soda. I buy a special baking powder in specialized shops. I think it’s better but I still lessen the amount of baking powder in every recipe.

I made several attempts at omurice and only the fourth turned out good. In mangas, the say that it’s a very simple recipe (for example in Meru Puri, one of my favorite shojo mangas). I can’t imagine what’s a complicated japanese recipe ! The dish itself isn’t so difficult. It’s a chicken tomato rice with an omelet on top. The tricky part is when you flip the omelet with the rice on top to make it look like a wrap. The japanese omelet seems to be very soft so it’s really a pain to flip.

I also had troubles to make a bright yellow omelet because in France, we like them golden brown and crispy. At first I was like “it’s ok I know how to make an omelet”. The thing is, you really have to mix it in the pan and to cook it in low heat until it’s barely firm on top. Otherwise, you’ll have a big mess like on the last pic.

This recipe is very well explained in Cooking Wih Dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTf5EgVY5uU

I made Okonomiyaki for the second time. I still had troubles flipping those but it went ok at the end. I tried adding some mozzarella cheese, like we had in Osaka, but the pancake turned brown really quickly.

Okonomiyaki is a kind of crêpe or omelette garnished with cabbage, seafood, noodles (in Hiroshima fashion) and bacon, with a topping of seaweed and/or spring onion, dry bonito flakes (katsuo boshi), a kind of barbecue sauce and mayonnaise. From what I understand, it’s not a really old recipe so I guess it was inspired by occidental cuisine. When I make it, I like to think of how this recipe traveled from Occident to japan, then to Europe again with my French/Asian touch.

I tried following Cooking with dog’s recipe. It is my new favorite youtube channel. I love everything : the traditional feel, the chef’s skill, the recipes, the dog’s voice. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeUHy0A1GF0

I found strawberry Pocky at my japanese grocery store. I was so happy ! These taste absolutely artificial but I still love them. And they are so cute !

I didn’t bake much while playing Mass Effect 3 so my poor chéri had to make his own cookies. They were better than mine actually. He’s maybe a better pastry baker than me. He even used to make macarons and all.

Ch ch ch ch cheeeeeese !

In Switzerland, cheese fondue is an art. I went again in Gruyères, this time with my chéri and we had this nice vacherin fondue. This one is a little different than the traditional one. They call it “fondue tiède” for it’s not as hot as usual and barely melted. It has a bit of garlic flavour, no wine, and is eaten with steamed potatoes. Yum !

More pics of my Valentine dessert.

In fact, this dessert wasn’t meant to look this way but my mousse wasn’t firm enough so I had to serve it in a separate cup. In my head, it should have been a glorious “montage” of several simple elements so I can’t help being a little disappointed. It’s really frustrating when you have sort of a deadline (which was a starved fiancé waiting for his meal) and can’t make everything as perfect as you’d like. Oh well, it tasted good anyway and my fiancé even finished mine as I wasn’t hungry anymore.

My Valentine menu : 

- eggplant and sardine cream toasts

- sauteed scallops and safran risotto

- chocolate cake, milk chocolate mousse.

(I spent maybe 5 or 6 hours cooking !)

A cheese soufflé I improvised once. I tried to take its picture before it went down but I wasn’t quick enough :)

Homemade milk chocolate cupcakes, attempt #2.

So this time I changed recipe for the cake, taking something more like a chocolate sponge. I added a peanut butter filling because my fiancé eat those in the morning and needs the extra energy. Last time, my bavaroise cream was too liquid and didn’t make pretty swirls with the pastry bag. So I tried to wait till the cream was more solid. I think I waited too long, since the result isn’t very smooth. 

It’s still not perfect but my fiancé has to eat all this batch before I can make another attempt. (Hope he won’t be too fed up of milk chocolate cupcakes)