The Montignac Method

[bleudauvergne]

Intuitively, what I would want to do is substitute cocoa butter for the hydrogenated fat, or perhaps whole chocolate for the cocoa and fat, since chocolate is a combination of cocoa butter and cocoa solids.... 

That of course would be ideal. This emulsion will be made for immediate consumption in order to use up that walnut oil I have to use because I doubt it will be good at the end of the summer.

Let me know if any of that works out. I have a grandson whose mother is beginning to let the tot taste sugar -- I know he's had a few home made shortcake cookies -- but won't let him near hydrogenated fat. Don't waste any sympathy for the lad, his bean puree has been well flavored with organic bacon and his asparagus is served with morels. His grandmother needlessly fretted about not bringing him a present from Spain, but no one ate the queso de cabra from Garrotxa with more enthusiasm.

←

This week I had my 13 year old niece to visit. We had a moment alone and were walking down the street. Like me, she's a quiet and contemplative girl from time to time. We were soaking up the sights, and I asked her how she was doing, if she was having a good time in France. She said: "Aunt Lucy, honestly, what I like the best about France is the food." She's destined for great things.

[Eden]

my understanding is that the European Nutella is made from a slightly differenct recipe. I've heard it doesn't contain hydrogenated fats,

I'm fairly positive you're right. here's an ingredient list I found on a "Nutella fan site":

Sugar, vegetable oils, hazelnuts (13%), cocoa, milk, skimmed-milk powder (5%), milk proteins, lecitine (emulsifying agent), natural flavours

note the lack of hydrogenation, and what ARE the "reduced minerals" in the US formula anyway???

Intuitively, what I would want to do is substitute cocoa butter for the hydrogenated fat, or perhaps whole chocolate for the cocoa and fat, since chocolate is a combination of cocoa butter and cocoa solids. Again intutitively, but with no real basis in experience, I might even experiment with good quality milk chocolate bars that are already a combination of sugar, cocoa solids, cocoa butter, milk, and generally lecithin as well as vanillin. Ideally, I'd prefer vanilla to vanillan, but I've only seen dark chocolate bars with real vanilla. Anyway, I'm suggesting chocolate bars, nuts and nut oil in various combinations.

excellent ideas. I happen to have several 70%+ chocolate bars lying about from a recent taste testing, some of whom I would be happy to melt down & schmoosh into hazelnut spread. (not the one with black currant essences though! )

[Silly Disciple]

Sorrel Soup

Broccoli and Almond Salad

We weren't really that hungry, so I ended up making just the asparagus soup, to which I added some broken, toasted almonds for texture.

I boiled the asparagus stalks, then put in the blender with about one cup of the water I used to boil them, and 2 cups of the chicken boullion, then I strained.

I then sauted 1/2 an onion (didn't have shallots), sauted the asparagus heads, deglazed with white wine, reduced, added some cream (didn't have eggs either), reduced that as well, then added to the blender and gave it a few quick pulses, just to blend a bit but leave "chunks" of asparagus heads.

what's for today?

SD

[bleudauvergne]

The star of last night's meal at our house was definitely the

Sorrel Soup. It has been very hot in Lyon, so the idea of hot soup was not so hot. It was excellent cold. I have another sorrel soup recipe that does not serve well cold because it contains butter. Since this one did not have oils that solidify when cooled, I think this is the better recipe for cold soup. Because of the serving temperature, I added a little extra salt. I also used some green bean puree leftover from another meal by adding it to the soup, thinking of Eden's idea of adding vegetable puree. The celeriac seems like the perfect marriage with sorrel, and I will definitely try Eden's idea next.

The method of covering the sorrel which has been steaming in the wine reduction in the double boiler was a space saver and worked well. The stock thickened with the cream / egg liaison quite easily, and then I removed everything from the heat, and incorporated it into the sorrel which had been steaming in the wine / shallot mixture. Having an immersion blender came in very handy because I could whip the sauce into a veloute right in the pan. I transfered it to a bowl and incorporated a couple of ice cubes, then set the bowl in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

Broccoli and Almond Salad looked pretty but was rather plain. This may have been because I discovered that the smoked almonds I had my sights set on had been eaten by the kitchen troll, thus at the last minute I used hazelnuts. The garlic dressing wasn't particularly complimentary to the whole in general. It was an average salad, and I ended up tossing in a handful of fresh garden peas leftover from yesterday.

Instead of yougert, the table elected to partake from the cheese plate. My husband and niece had bread with theirs and I enjoyed mine plain.

How were your soups and salads last night?

[bleudauvergne]

As promised, the shopping list Saturday through Tuesday. I didn't divide it by days but will do so in the next list. Many of the condiments and things like cognac for cooking you can buy once and keep in the larder for future meals for months to come. Most of the recipes make enough for 4 people. You can adjust the meat amounts accordingly or freeze leftovers of many of the vegetable dishes if you are only cooking for two. Recipes will be put in the gullet daily.

The dishes will be:

Saturday : Lunch : Salmon Carpaccio, Pork Roast, steamed market vegetable, Cheese, Brouillade au pommes au canelle. Dinner: Tomato consomme, semoule integrale aux legumes, Fromage blanc 0%.

Sunday: Lunch : Pate d'avocado with shrimp, fish in salt crust, steamed market vegetable, chestnuts with chocolate. Dinner : Boiled eggs with peppers, salad, cheese.

Monday : Lunch : Endive Salad, Pork chops provencales, tomates provencales, cheese. Dinner : Quiche rustique, Salad, whole yougurt.

Tuesday : Lunch : Beansprout Salad, Veal liver with onions, Cheese. Dinner : Cucumbers with non-fat mint yougert sauce, brown rice with tomatoes, home made applesauce.

Condiments / Oils / Seasonings / spices

Agar agar (use gelatine if you don’t find it)

chocolate 70% cocoa content

duck or Goose Fat

gelatine powder or sheets

green peppercorns

tomato paste

vanilla beans 2

Walnut oil or light oil

cinnamon

fructose

Eggs / Milk Products

Eggs 18

heavy cream 1 liter or quart

Non fat and full fat plain yogurt and non-fat fromage faiselle if you can find it

whole milk 1 liter or quart

Fish

Fresh fish for one meal (any kind, will be cooked in a salt crust)

Salmon ½ lb. / 250 g. (best you can find)

shrimp ½ lb. / 250 g.

Fruit / Produce

apples 6

avocados 5

bean sprouts

belgian endives for salad.

chestnuts 1 lb / 500g.

chives one bunch

cucumbers 2-3

garlic (head)

lemons 8

lettuce one head

parsley one bunch

season’s fresh vegetables to steam or saute for one meal

season’s fresh vegetables to steam or saute for one meal

shallots 4

tomatoes 2 lbs / 1 kilo

thyme one bunch

walnuts 100 g.

Grains

Brown Rice

Couscous integrale or whole grain pasta

Meat

Pork chops one meal

Pork Roast one meal

Veal Liver one meal

Wines / Spirits

cognac (for use in cooking)

dry white wine like a pinot gris (for use in one recipe and for drinking after meals)

Montbaziliac (a sweet white wine to use in cooking)

a red wine (for drinking after meals if desired)

[petite tête de chou]

One pound of chestnuts will be, quite honestly, impossible.

Is there a suitable stand-in?

[bleudauvergne]

One pound of chestnuts will be, quite honestly, impossible.

Is there a suitable stand-in?

←

Yes, I discovered that. I thought I might get them frozen but no dice. It's for one of the desserts. Therefore we must come up with a suitable other dessert. Possibly involving faux nutella.

[bleudauvergne]

Saturday : Lunch :

Salmon Carpaccio

Roti de Porc au Curry

steamed market vegetable, Cheese, Brouillade au pommes au canelle. (recipe coming shortly)

[bleudauvergne]

There is no way I can do all of my shopping in one stop. I have to chip away at it every day, because there are so many places to go and so many lines to wait in, and so many conversations to have. Therefore the pickings from the market only include what I found today. I did get the pork and the fish for today, and the chops.

As mentioned, there were no chestnuts. I swung by a Picard looking for them but understand that they are not available.

There may be other things not available, in which case substitutions will have to be found.

Back from the market.

parsley strawberries peas avocados pork roast and chops tomatoes lemons cucumbers shallots wild salmon lettuce apples beans thyme chives eggs garlic and a St. Marcellin 'bien fait'.

The roast was easy. I chose a smaller roast than was in the recipe because I only have three for lunch

let it marinate in the mix for awhile.

Ready to go in the oven.

A La Table! A sharp knife and good fish does not a sushi chef make. But let me tell you, it tasted wonderful.

[bleudauvergne]

Mmm sauce.

[bleudauvergne]

I have to get on the ball, I didn't read the recipe for dessert in advance so I have to serve this dessert to my loved ones tonight after dinner. Since dinner is fat free, I will have to skip dessert. But they won't have to. It's my own fault.

Anyway here's the recipe, and it will be served tonight. I cut the recipe somewhat, using 3 apples and one egg plus one yolk, then halved the rest of the ingredients. Oh, and I used muscat instead of calvados.

Brouillade de pommes a la cannelle

An immersion blender came in handy in preparing this dish.

These are chilling in the fridge... I'll sprinkle them with cinnamon just before serving. I haven't decided what kind of sauce to do yet.

edited to add the pics & comments

Edited June 4, 2005 by bleudauvergne (log)

[bleudauvergne]

Saturday, Dinner :

Consomme de Tomates

Couscous Integrale aux legumes

Fromage Blanc, faiselle, or yougert - Nonfat

We don't have any coucous integrale, so we will have to use quinoa - that would actually take out the grain element of the meal, enabling me to have the dessert! Yay!

Tonight will be my opportunity to clear out the fridge of a whole lot of leftover vegetables. I have been preparing more than we're eating. This whole idea of the brown rice, WW pasta, quinoa, or couscous integrale with veggies on top is a good one, even if it isn't so fancy.

[bleudauvergne]

The bleudauvergne food lab conducted an experiment tonight. It came close. Very close.

The Consomme de Tomates was a good simple soup. I'd do it with Basil next time.

The Quinoa was delicious and everything but the kitchen sink went into the vegetable pot.

Dessert was the Brouillade de pommes a la cannelle, and with the faux nutella, they were simply delicious. The texture and flavor were really wonderful. I decided not to sprinkle cinnamon on top.

I will talk tomorrow about what Montignac says about quinoa.

[Eden]

Details on the Fauxtella experiment please?

How were your soups and salads last night?

Well I made the soup & salad for dinner tonight with some notable variations.

(last night I had to use up some chicken so I made a chantrelle, chicken and asparagus gratin )

Soup: I used spinach instead of sorrell, onion instead of shallot, and quark instead of the crème fraiche that I had been CERTAIN was in the fridge . Because the quark had no fat proteins for the egg-yolks to bind to, the egg/stock liason never thickened as it should have. I used a little extra yolk & quark to offset this fact, and the soup was plenty thick regardless, and VERY tasty. It reminded me very much of my favorite cream of spinach soup which is thickened with a roux, so verboten right now. Nice to have an alternative. I only made a half batch so as not to have leftovers, and deeply regret that decision - I'll be making this again very soon! I'll have to remember that you reccomend it cold as well.

Salad: used asparagus instead of broccolli, jarred red peppers to be lazy, and my regular mustard vinaigrette since Lucy dissed the one in the recipe Perfectly nice, but have to agree that it wasn't very exciting.

Dessert: Pears poached in red wine. (Sorry no photo) I could only eat a sliver of a pear. As usual with this diet, after a small entrée & side dish I'm just too full for dessert...

[bleudauvergne]

Excellent presentation and ideas for the soup and salad, Eden! I love your dishes too. Thank you so much for posting the photos, please continue, no matter what you cook! It's very inspiring to see what you're doing, it makes me want to keep on the diet!

Well, here's what happened with the nutella experiement.

As mentioned before, I soaked the hazelnuts. I was going to do it for 6 hours, but lost patience after 2. Then I put the nuts in their water in the microwave and zapped it on high for two minutes. My niece and I spent about 1/2 hour peeling that little papery husk off the nuts. While we were doing this, Loic, mentioned that we could have bought the nuts already peeled. Duh.

Once that was done, I put the following into that cup that comes with the immersion blender, and on the scale, in went :

the 60 grams nuts, soaked

30 grams cocoa (bernachon)

30 grams powdered milk

60 ml water

30 grams fructose

4 tablespoons walnut oil

And blended it. Once the initial mix was homogenous, I then incorporated 1/3 more cup walnut oil bit by bit, and it progressively thickened. It began to act like nutella. Doing this in a regular blender or a mixer would not work, because it gets very thick and you have to work to push it through. I had to scrape it off from the sides a couple of times. The thought that I might burn up the motor came to mind. I think I should have incorporated a lot more oil to get it to the consistency of real nutella.

Result - I called in my niece, and took down the house jar of european real nutella, and the result of the experiement and had her taste them both. I asked her what she thought. She paused, and said she couldn't explain, but they were different. The real nutella wasn't quite as thick, and was lighter in color, I suspect from more milk. I asked her to think about it carefully. OK, she finally responded, the real nutella is significantly sweeter. Check. The first ingredient on the jar is sugar and my ratio of fructose did not correspond. There is also a complex flavor in the faux nutella that doesn't exist in the real one. I asked her if it could be the walnut oil. Her eyes brightened at that moment and she responded that that's what she thought it was.

I put the faux nutella into a sauce squeezer and stored it upside down to let the paste settle to the nozzle end. That way I could squeeze it out in the design on the dessert.

My tasting notes - the texture is smooth but I can still detect little bits of hazelnut, not hard or grainy, but simply not absolutely pureed to the smooth paste I wanted. I suspect that longer soaking of the nuts is in order. The nuking of the hazelnuts I think was beneficial because the nuts began to give off a nice toasted hazelnut aroma. I served the paste on the dessert about 4 hours after initially mixing it, and it seems that the resting time was good for the texture; it seemed smoother and the hazelnut grain was no longer in the forefront.

Voila. Experiment complete. Refinements to follow.

Montignac's menu gives copious meals on the weekends. So I'm going to get to work on lunch, with an adjustment - I don't have time to chill the pate for 6 hours to I'm going to serve a simple avocado and shimp entree, which might be better anyway. As a replacement for the chestnut dessert, I am going to play an encore of the dessert from last night, but this time I am going to use fraises des bois.

Loic has done some reserch on Camut, the ancient Egyptian grain revived by the Americans in these last few years with the GI of 30, and found that our boulanger makes 100% pure camut bread. He brought home a loaf still warm from the oven this morning and I tore into it voraciously before I realized that it might be nice to take a picture.

And here's a link to Montignac's GI page.

[Silly Disciple]

Sat morning I hurt my leg playing football (soccer), so I ended up going to the doctor instead of going to the market. Alas, I had (and will have to) do with what I have in the fridge for a few days, since markets are closed Sun and Mon here in Barcelona.

So for lunch Saturday I took 1/2 a piece of Matambre I had in the fridge.

Matambre is an Argentinian cut of beef, which I believe translates to flank steak. According to this description found on the web: "Matambre is one of the muscles on the surface of the abdomen, it's underneath the skin of the belly. "

I cooked it in the oven for abour 40 minutes (20 min each side) with sea salt and a bit of rosemary.

I'm not sure you can tell by this picture, but the cut is very thin, thus making a very crunchy exterior.

We had it with a big salad, and we also had a few white asparagus with home-made hummus (which I later realized shouldn't be had with meat, right?).

dessert was a 70% chocolate (lindt) square.

We weren't terribly hungry for dinner, so we just had some gazpacho I had left from a previous batch, and a few Boquerones (preserved anchovies).

I have a question for the Montignac experts. My wife insists on drinking diet soda (diet coke), and I'm not sure what Montignac says about this kind of beverages. anyone care to comment?

Also, I just stole Lucy's white-frame idea for the pics. Sorry Lucy, hope you don't mind?

SD

[bleudauvergne]

I am so sorry you hurt your ankle! Hummous can be combined with meat in Stage II, so as long as you go back to strictly stage I things, you're alright.

SD Your meal looks like it was awesome!

We are also going to slightly stray from the menu tonight since we still have leftover sauce from the pork roast we have to use.

One thing I have realized about the Montignac menus are that although they are full of variety and wonderful things to cook, I end up with a fridge full of leftovers and no way to use them if I strictly follow the menu. That's a serious problem. Therefore tonight I will use the leftover sauce on the eggs and top with a pepper garnish. We are hungry today because I screwed up the fish en croute de sel and we had to throw it away! It's a long story.

But the avocados and shrimp were delicious.

[Bux]

. . . .

The real nutella wasn't quite as thick, . . . .

←

Now that you're this successful, maybe it's time to start thinking creatively and not of imitating Nutella. Some years back as the Salon du Chocolate in Paris, I purchased a chocolate "paste." It came in a flat metal tin exactly like shoe polish. When you twisted the little gizmo on the side of the can, the lid popped off and there was the shiny surface of a brand new tin of shoe polish. I bought it for a nephew, but quickly realized that dark bitter chocolate flavor wasn't going to appeal to him anyway and like the grinch that I am, I kept it for myself. The tin was yellow and it was the product of a chocolatier in the northeast of France. He had a booth at the salon. I don't recall his name or if the stuff is available anywhere else in France. It was quite spreadable at room temperature on toasted brioche and rather excellent. I can't even recall, but I believe there were nuts or nut butter in the paste. Nutella should not be our paragon.

[Eden]

Excellent presentation and ideas for the soup and salad, Eden!  I love your dishes too.  Thank you so much for posting the photos, please continue, no matter what you cook!  It's very inspiring to see what you're doing, it makes me want to keep on the diet! 

Thanks & thank you for suggesting that soup, it was lovely. Those are my Italian maiollica dishes. I love them, and after looking at the beautiful presentation on all your meals I decided that it was a good day to pull them down

My tasting notes - the texture is smooth but I can still detect little bits of hazelnut, not hard or grainy, but simply not absolutely pureed to the smooth paste I wanted.  I suspect that longer soaking of the nuts is in order. 

Well after my day off from the diet I don't think I'll run out & put hazelnuts to soak tonight, but maybe later this week...

Loic has done some reserch on Camut, the ancient Egyptian grain revived by the Americans in these last few years with the GI of 30, and found that our boulanger makes 100% pure camut bread. 

This is the first I've heard of this grain, I'm fascinated. (FYI for googlers, it's called Kamut here in the US.) I will have to go see if they have this at any of the local health-nut stores...

One thing I have realized about the Montignac menus are that although they are full of variety and wonderful things to cook, I end up with a fridge full of leftovers and no way to use them if I strictly follow the menu.

Perhaps if you follow the menu every other day, or two days on two days off? This was my problem as well... Well that and many of the recipes have fish which I'm allergic to, so I'll pick & choose a couple recipes from the list to join you on over the next week, as there's room in the fridge - we must finish off some of the current leftovers first though!

[bleudauvergne]

. . . .

The real nutella wasn't quite as thick, . . . .

←

Now that you're this successful, maybe it's time to start thinking creatively and not of imitating Nutella. Some years back as the Salon du Chocolate in Paris, I purchased a chocolate "paste." It came in a flat metal tin exactly like shoe polish. When you twisted the little gizmo on the side of the can, the lid popped off and there was the shiny surface of a brand new tin of shoe polish. I bought it for a nephew, but quickly realized that dark bitter chocolate flavor wasn't going to appeal to him anyway and like the grinch that I am, I kept it for myself. The tin was yellow and it was the product of a chocolatier in the northeast of France. He had a booth at the salon. I don't recall his name or if the stuff is available anywhere else in France. It was quite spreadable at room temperature on toasted brioche and rather excellent. I can't even recall, but I believe there were nuts or nut butter in the paste. Nutella should not be our paragon.

←

I think Bux is right. Just mastering the plethora of ways we can use chocolate and incorporate it into our daily lives while following the Montignac method should be the goal. I would love to know what that paste was, Bux. Please try to remember.

[bleudauvergne]

Last night's dinner:

Eggs :

Salad :

Followed by the cheese plate in which I had St. Marcellin, Vieux Morbier, Some of this lovely cheese from Auvergne seasoned with pepper and garlic - the name escapes me, and a sliver of Roquefort. For the first time in ages the plate has no goat cheese. It was all cow's cheeses except the Roquefort.

They had dessert - The Brouillade aux Fraises des Bois made with cognac, topped by a layer of meringue and vanilla flavored ice creams which I packed in ramequins and fit in above the brouillade just before serving to make it look like a souffle coming to the table. The batch of brouillade I made was too small for 3 so I sacraficed my share (I had a couple of tastes while making it) so that they could enjoy it with the ice cream - it just seemed like it would marry beautifully with meringue flavored ice cream.

Instead of dessert I enjoyed a glass of Chardonnay.

[bleudauvergne]

One thing I have realized about the Montignac menus are that although they are full of variety and wonderful things to cook, I end up with a fridge full of leftovers and no way to use them if I strictly follow the menu.

Perhaps if you follow the menu every other day, or two days on two days off? This was my problem as well... Well that and many of the recipes have fish which I'm allergic to, so I'll pick & choose a couple recipes from the list to join you on over the next week, as there's room in the fridge - we must finish off some of the current leftovers first though!

←

I agree, however one thing that should be noted is that the menu does help me to keep the meals in proportion for their maximum efficiency, i.e. serving bigger meals at lunch and smaller meals at dinner. I have realized that instead of fixing up elaborate meals, I can focus my energies on presentation for the dinners. I have a long way to go and it will be good for me. We're slowly clearing out the fridge. I do have to fix the pork chops for lunch though.

[therese]

Loic has done some reserch on Camut, the ancient Egyptian grain revived by the Americans in these last few years with the GI of 30, and found that our boulanger makes 100% pure camut bread. 

This is the first I've heard of this grain, I'm fascinated. (FYI for googlers, it's called Kamut here in the US.) I will have to go see if they have this at any of the local health-nut stores...

←

Yes, it's called kamut in the U.S., and lots of health food stores and even regular grocery stores sell various pastas and cookies and so forth made of it.

The grain itself (if you can find it---I buy it in bulk here in Atlanta at Dekalb Farmers Market) looks like wheat, but with a bit of a curvature to one side, sort of like a hump. Cooking time is along the lines of brown rice (though I don't know for sure, I just cook it till it's done) and it's got a nice substantial texture and a slightly fatty, buttery taste (and mouthfeel), so great on a diet.

I store it in the fridge lest it go rancid.

Quinoa's a nice alternative to grain, both red and regular types available. Much shorter cooking time (20 minutes, like white rice), nice texture, slightly "green" flavor.

[bleudauvergne]

Lunch was out with my niece, we were running errands - so the pork chops are now in the freezer.

A bowl of chicken soup, which was supposed to have noodles, but I asked for the soup without. They were happy to oblige, and a very kind cook added julienned bamboo shoot instead of the noodles. It was quite satisfying with the coriander and chives. Next I had some sauteed Chinese greens, but I didn't get a picture.

Tonight's dinner will be a Flourless Quiche, a salad, and the cheese plate. This way I will use my leftovers.

[Bux]

. . . .

The real nutella wasn't quite as thick, . . . .

←

Now that you're this successful, maybe it's time to start thinking creatively and not of imitating Nutella. Some years back as the Salon du Chocolate in Paris, I purchased a chocolate "paste." It came in a flat metal tin exactly like shoe polish. When you twisted the little gizmo on the side of the can, the lid popped off and there was the shiny surface of a brand new tin of shoe polish. I bought it for a nephew, but quickly realized that dark bitter chocolate flavor wasn't going to appeal to him anyway and like the grinch that I am, I kept it for myself. The tin was yellow and it was the product of a chocolatier in the northeast of France. He had a booth at the salon. I don't recall his name or if the stuff is available anywhere else in France. It was quite spreadable at room temperature on toasted brioche and rather excellent. I can't even recall, but I believe there were nuts or nut butter in the paste. Nutella should not be our paragon.

←

I think Bux is right. Just mastering the plethora of ways we can use chocolate and incorporate it into our daily lives while following the Montignac method should be the goal. I would love to know what that paste was, Bux. Please try to remember.

←

It was simply a dark brown thick paste and smooth in texture. It was not quite as gummy as a thick cream cheese, nor as stick to the roof of your mouth as a smooth peanut butter. Not unlike a ganache perhaps. I have a more vivid memory of the surface sheen of the newly opened tin. It was remarkably like that of a new tin of wax shoe polish.