You absolutely read the title of this post right. It’s not a crêpe, it’s not a soufflé – it’s a combination of the two. And this might be the best dessert you’ll have all year. This fantastic recipe came all the way from Claude Troisgros restaurant in Rio de Janeiro (the son of the famed Pierre Troisgros in France) and also served by Laurent Tourondel at BLT restaurants in the US. It may look simple, but there’s more than meets the eye.

The crêpe part is a batter made with hot milk beaten into egg yolks to gently cook them, with just enough flour added to add structure. The egg whites are beaten with sugar separately and folded into the batter. The batter is then poured into a hot skillet like a crêpe, and cooked just long enough to get some color on the bottom. The skillet is placed in a hot oven, which, in turn, puffs the crêpe up like a soufflé. It’s so magic it will mess with your mind!

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Northern Italians traditionally eat this rich and delicious garlic sausage with lentils for New Year’s Eve dinner to bring prosperity and luck. The lentils represent the coins soon to befall all who consume the dish within an hour of midnight, so it’s with this in mind that I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year 2012.

My new year resolution for this site is of course to make it better on every level. There’s so much I would like to improve, the photography, the writing, the recipes… We’ve come a long way over the years but like the Rolling Stones I’m never satisfied. So I’ll keep working on it.

Zen Can Cook is now getting a nice chunk of traffic from just about every country in the world, the majority coming from the USA, Canada, England and Australia and tiny Singapore coming in fifth position. It feels like a full time job at times but it’s all well worth it because the great feedback I receive all the time in comments or by email. So thank you to every single one of you, and see you in 2012.

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This is a little experiment I did at home the other day. There has been a lot of chatter among chefs on what temperature and how long to cook pork belly to get the ultimate texture. Heston Blumenthal recommends cooking it sous-vide for 36-hours at a temperature of 144’F (62’C) while Nathan Myrvhold in Modernist Cuisine goes as far as cooking it for 72-hours. That’s a long time to wait for lunch so I decided to go with Heston Blumenthal technique first. I improvised a 12-hours pork belly cure that consisted of coriander, star anise, cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon and salt. The next day I washed it off and vacuumed the belly with a mixture of sake, mirin and soy sauce, I placed the pouch in the Sous Vide Supreme and forgot all about it for about a day and a half.

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I had a piece of Alaskan King salmon belly left from the salmon tartare cornets I made the other day, so I placed it in a mixture of maple syrup and dark soy sauce and left it to cure for 24 hours. The next day I cooked it in the Sous Vide Supreme at 50′ C for 15 minutes and grilled it quickly over Japanese Binchō-tan charcoal. I think this was the most delicious salmon I ever had. Moist, flaky and succulent in the inside with the perfect balance of salty and sweet and the smokey char and light caramelization from the grill on the outside. I finished it up with fleur de sel and a stir-fry of soy beans, boiled peanuts, shimeji mushrooms and pickled eggplant with a soy-ginger vinaigrette.

Binchō-tan charcoal is a high-quality white charcoal from Japan made from oak and usually used for yakitori. It is more expensive but worth every penny for the flavor it imparts the food.

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I think I could live on bite-sized food alone. I don’t know if it’s because you get to enjoy a wide variety of food without the formality of a sit down dinner or the fact you can have your own portable feast while hiding in a corner, but something makes amuse-bouche really appealing to me. These salmon tartare cornets a la Thomas Keller are the perfect example, they make a great party starter and they always draw oohhh’s and aaahhh’s from the crowd. And what food doesn’t taste better in miniature ice-cream cones, really. It’s a little bit like having dinner at the French Laundry right in the comfort of your own home.

The perfect finger food doesn’t come without a fight, though. First you will have to invest in cornet molds. You’ll have to make a 4-inch plastic stencil to spread the tuile batter into perfect rounds. You will have to burn your delicate little fingers to shape the black sesame tuiles into cones and bake them to a golden brown without burning them. And I know what I’m talking about here [cough-cough]. The good news is that practice makes perfect and once you get the hang of it you’ll be making them by the dozen in a flash. I adapted the recipe a little and added salmon roe because it’s even more fun that way. Enjoy!

Wish you all a happy holiday season!

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