I'm back to my world trip this time stopping off in Monaco, the second smallest country in the world. Even though it measures just under 2 km in area, I still managed to find some dishes that are tied to Monaco. The first is socca, naturally vegan chickpea crepes that are also linked to Nice nearby in the south of France. The other was a dessert called Prince Albert mille feuille, a pastry filled with custard, cream and strawberries.
Socca is a fairly regular breakfast item at home on weekends ever since recipe testing for Terry Hope Romero's new cookbook Vegan Eats World, it's also become my solution for running out of bread. Apart from the resting period it's so easy to put together and tastes great. We normally love our socca with sun-dried tomatoes as well as olives and this was the first time I had been out of them but they worked well enough with olives and onions.
I had great plans for the mille feuille and when it can to the execution, everything went wrong. The puff pastry sheets were pre-baked using a flattening method I saw in this post, unfortunately mine didn't need quite as hot an oven or as long as the recipe stated so the first batch were a burst mess after half the cooking time. A pre-prepared batch of almond cream didn't turn out as thick as I was expecting. I also had woes with an initial batch of custard due to being distracted by a family drop-in and had to remake another batch. When it came time to put the few untainted ones together, I was weary and did a very rushed job. The main thing was they tasted fantastic and my decision to add lemon flavoured icing was a wise one indeed.
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Did you know?
Monaco's flag is the same as the flag of Indonesia. The only difference is that the Indonesian flag is wider. The red and white colours of the flag are the heraldic colours of Grimaldi, the name of the ruling family of Monaco since 1297.
Do you want to know where else I've been this month? Click here for the round up.
Another post that delights me. You pick really interesting countries (and even though I live far closer to Monaco I never heard about these.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked this and that you learnt about some new dishes.
DeleteI must make socca some time - always love the sound of it and love cooking with chickpea flour. And your mille-feuille looks delicious - love your photo
ReplyDeleteThanks Johanna, there is a socca recipe you could try on David Lebovitz's site which is similar to Terry's recipe.
DeleteWell, if everything went wrong with the mille, it sure does look gorgeous! And I really need to make socca soon--yours looks so good!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jes, I was relieved that some of pastries worked out in the end even though it was a frustrating process.
DeleteSOCCA! Excellent choice - I totally didn't know it was a Monacan thing (Monanan? Monacanian?)
ReplyDeleteHow did you make the icing?
Socca is a southern France thing which includes Monaco, I didn't know that until I looked into the food of Monaco.
DeleteThe icing was pretty high-tech - lemon juice and icing sugar! I usually add a dob of melted dairy-free margarine but didn't this time.
I agree with Jes above - your mille-feuille doesn't look like it went wrong at all, but instead seems rather fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThanks, if I showed you the in progress photos you would see a different story!
DeleteI am still yet to try socca, so thanks for the reminder, I love the circles on yours!
ReplyDeleteAnd mmmmm, mille feuille! Looks lovely :D
Socca is such a great brunch item, you must try it straight away when your copy of Vegan Eats World arrives!
DeleteThink this has been my favorite stopover yet! Can't believe so much went wrong because it turned out beautiful! Loving the fun facts at the end too!
ReplyDeleteThanks, the few that did work turned out well so it was worth the effort!
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