>Home-Made Brioche

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See Elegant Cook for M-J’s Original Brioche Recipe

>It Was a Very Good Year

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Review of 2008 Domaine la Blaque Coteaux de Pierrevert by Jon Rimmerman

>Gevalia Kaffe at American Markets

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Kraft Foods corporation have chosen to market Gevalia, the favourite coffee of Sweden, known for its traditional medium-roast. The Swedes’ own Gevalia Kaffe brand will be available this summer at more than 20,000 retailers throughout the United States.

Gevalia, a $400 million-dollar global mail-order Swedish brand, has long had a following in the U.S.A. ”Gevalia is known and loved by millions who’ve purchased it online because it delivers on its promise of rich, smooth taste that’s never bitter,” said Domenic Borrelli, Vice President of Kraft’s U.S. coffee-branch. ”We’re telling retailers the good news now. And, we’re confident the convenience of being able to purchase Gevalia in stores will attract and delight an entirely new audience of discriminating coffee lovers.”

Kraft Foods has a $5 billion global coffee-purveying business, which includes the  French brand Carte Noire and Jacobs from Germany.

Kraft said that Swedes drink more coffee than citizens in almost any other country (rivaling Finland, another Scandinavian country), adding that Gevalia Kaffe is the top Swedish coffee brand. Gevalia is the official coffee of the Swedish Royal Court.

In my opinion, having drunk Gevalia Kaffe for half of my life, it is the natural antidote for popular over-roasted varieties that seem to all taste the same (Starbucks’ wide variety of dark roasts that are indistinguishable from one another comes to mind, all naturally-occurring flavours having been systematically burnt out of existence). The current coffee monotony will soon be passé. Americans will soon be able to taste real, high-quality coffee without establishing a mail-order contract with Gevalia. That is great news for coffee-connoisseurs!

©M-J de Mesterton 2011

>Elegant Pot-Roast

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Elegant Pot Roast of Beef I marinated the beef for two days in Burgundy wine. Then I dried it off, dusted it with salt, pepper and flour and in a hot, buttered Dutch oven, browned the meat. I added herbes de Provence, summer savoury, chopped onion, celery, carrots and new potatoes, then doused the lot with the marinade. After simmering the pot for an hour, I added more wine to it. After two hours of cooking on low heat, I had an elegant pot roast that was fit to serve company. My photo shows it in the pre-simmering stage. Cooking with wine will usually soften the toughest cuts of meat, an important tip for these days of austerity. ©M-J de Mesterton

>Elegant Japanese-Style Radish-Cucumber Salad

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This refreshing and elegant cucumber-radish salad is dressed with a rice wine vinegar-honey vinaigrette.

>Elegant Smoothie

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One carrot, two yellow Cubanelle peppers, a quarter of a lemon, peel and pulp included; two celery stalks, five radishes, and a cup of buttermilk whirled together in a blender or food-processor make an elegant morning smoothie. This particular concoction is loaded with vitamins A and C. 

>The Texture of Brioche

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This is what brioche, made properly, is like on the inside. The texture of brioche is light, and one can pull it apart in  fluffy strands. ©M-J de Mesterton 2011

>Elegant Pizza Dough

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M-J’s elegant pizza crust is fashioned out of her fougasse dough.

I use my own recipe for fougasse  dough to make an elegant, thin pizza crust.

~~M-J

>Elegant Strawberry Dessert

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An elegant strawberry dessert is made by cutting two thin slices of pound cake into round pieces, placing sliced strawberries upon the first one, covering it with piped-on whipped cream, and repeating the process in artful fashion. ©M-J de Mesterton 2011

>Elegant Radish-Cucumber Salad

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An elegant salad is composed of two ingredients in complementary colours: cucumbers and radishes.