Spinach Flan

I've worked on this recipe for a while, a few miserable try and deception.. 

Couldn't unmold it, then there was too much flour, not enough flavour etc... 

I've finally found a good balance between ingredients :)

I tried with ham, less cheese more milk... Finally the dry-ripened tomatoes are perfect !

For 4 people

   You will need :   

for the spinach batter

1lb of fresh spinach

- around 1.1lb if possible -

7oz ricotta (200gr)

3 eggs

1oz flour (30gr)

- 2 small tbsp -

1/3 cup + 1tbsp of milk (3.4 fl oz.)

1tbsp olive oil

"herbes de provence"

- mix of thym, rosemary, oregano, basil, lavander, sage... -

1/2tsp of salt

pepper

If you have some agar agar, you can add some so it will be even more flan-texture

for the heart

#tbsp of dry-ripened tomatoes(1.4 oz/40gr)

1tbsp of flour

2,1 oz ricotta (60gr)

Prepare the spinach

Rinse them well and remove the biggest stams.

Put your spinach in a big sauce pan  full of salted water and bring to a boil. After 2 minutes at a gnetle boil, drain them well in a strainer. Use a spatula to press and remove as much water as you can.

Put them on your cutboard and coaersely chop. Reserve.

Turn the oven on at 360°F

Prepare the flan

Beat egss and salt, pepper ans ricotta for 2 minutes with an electric beater.

When the batter is homogeneous, stir in by hand the flour and the milk

Pour it little by little, starting with the flour, ending with the flour.

Finally, add the oil and the herbs. Mix well and stir in the spinach. Reserve.

Prepare the heart

Chop finely your dry tomatoes, remove the excess of oil with an absorbent paper and mix them with the flour. Stir in the ricotta. Reserve.

Cooking

Cover your mold with parchment paper and use some cooking spray on it.

If you have a silicone mold, oil it with an absorbent paper.

Pour 3/4 of the spinach-batter in the mold, and in the center, 

pour the tomato-mix as a long strip in the center of the cake. 

Use 2 teaspoons to help you shape that stripe.

Pour on the top the end of the spinach-batter.

Cook 40 to 45 minutes

Turn the oven off, slightly open the door and let it cook 20 more minutes in the oven.

You can enjoy it as a main course : still warm with rice, salad or a tomato sauce. 

But it's also good when cold, as an appetizer.

Well, and next, what should I do...

Chocolate and lemon cake... Soft and buttery cake !

It doesn't look that great...

But in fact *glups*

I don't know anymore, my favorite chocolate cake recipe may have become this one....

This is a recipe from Sébastien Gaudard's book with Françoise Bernard

"Le Meilleur des desserts"  It's a bible of the most famous classic french family recipe.

 Each of them gives its recipe of a classic cake, his advice and his knowledge of the cake.

It's a really nice book, though the pictures are really bad...

Françoise Bernard gives the classic recipe of the "Quatre-Quart", but Sébastien Gaudard 

proposes a "Cinq-cinquième" with a fifth ingredient in it : CHOCOLATE !

1/5 sugar, 1/5 eggs, 1/5 butter, 1/5 flour, 1/5 chocolate... oh my god.

Try it, it's awsome and really easy :)

Lemon and chocolate are a perfect match...

For 6 to 9 people

   You will need :   

Each ingredient at room temperature

2 eggs, weighted

- mine were 4,4 oz -

Same weight of sugar

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of salted butter

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of flour

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of dark chocolate : 70%

- 4,4 oz -

2 tsp of baking powder

Finely shredded lemon zest (1/3 of a meyer lemon)

Turn the oven on at 350°F

All the ingredients at room temperature

Prepare the zest

Peel the thin skin of the lemon, without grating the white part. Cut it in small pieces. 

- You can use a cheese-grate to peel it -

To avoid having a dry lemon after that, put some plastic film all around it.

Make the cake

Beat the eggs with the sugar and the zests until white

- about 3 minutes at high speed -

Melt the chocolate in the microwave in a bowl stirring it each time

- 4x30 secondes - 

When it's melted, stir in the softened butter

Stir in the chocolate-mix to the previous batter. 

Stir by hand to have a soft and souple batter.

Mix flour and baking powder together and stir that mix little by little in the previous batter.

Butter and flour your mold (or use a cooking spray)

Fill the mold to the 2/3

- it raises pretty well -

Put in the oven at least 30 minutes

- mine took 35 minutes -

Insert a toothpick in the center of the cake to check moist.

I hope you will like it as much as I did :)