Try a Chocolate Sandwich

By David Hu
A new video for Video Friday

I love pain au chocolat, similar to a croissant, but shaped in a puffy rectangle, wrapped around a core of dark chocolate. Since making French pastry is beyond my ability, I make the next best easy thing: Chocolate Panini.

This is a very simple recipe. You just sandwich baking chocolate between baguette slices, butter the outsides and cook on stovetop until the chocolate melts. The result is a buttery, melted chocolate concoction you will love.

The only tricky part in cooking is that, when you press down on the sandwich with a spatula, the bread tends to stick to the spatula, unsettling your sandwich, so a little patience is required. It is super-easy if can grill using a panini press, as in this demo.

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How to Make Crème Fraîche

By David Hu
A new video for Video Friday

Today’s Special Fork Video Friday features our easiest video yet. You just mix two ingredients and leave it alone for 10 hours. Period!

Crème fraîche, like sour cream, is used to dollop on soups, as a dessert topping, and for many sweet and savory recipes when a thick, tangy creaminess is desired. It’s fairly expensive to buy but the ingredients used to make it, heavy cream and buttermilk, are more budget-friendly. When you mix the two ingredients together and let it stand at room temperature, the mixture thickens and turns tangy. Once it thickens, store the mixture in the fridge up to 10 days, where it will continue to get thicker and tangier.

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Easy Asian Dessert

By David Hu
A new video for Video Friday

When I cook Asian food, I like to serve an Asian dessert. My favorite easy choice is Fried Banana Bites. Once you see how it’s done on this video, you won’t need a recipe to make it yourself.

Aside from oil, which most people have on hand, you only need two ingredients: bananas and wonton wrappers. We use wonton wrappers a lot at Special Fork, but rarely to make wontons. Like phyllo, it’s a readymade, neutral dough that works in both savory and sweet applications. We use wonton wrappers for raviolis, as well as appetizer and dessert cups.

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Pita Pizza – Another Quick, Weekday Meal

By David Hu
A new video for Video Friday

I’ve noticed a pattern with my cooking over the years. I usually start off the week all gung ho about cooking. On Monday I’m experimenting with a new recipe, or making an old favorite with 20 ingredients, multiple steps and four hours of cook time. Yay! So exciting and full of energy!

But after a few days, my enthusiasm wanes and I can’t even remember what possessed me to make those complicated dishes earlier in the week.

Wednesday is hump day and by then, my cooking ambition has evaporated. That’s when I turn to my storehouse of quick and easy weekday meals. My requirements to get into this rotation are simple: tastes good, needs few ingredients and requires short prep and cook times.

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Try this Hot and Hearty Sandwich for Dinner

Enter to win a collection of food items from France, selected by Sandy, along with Around my French Table cookbook by Dorie Greenspan. To enter the sweepstakes, go to http://bit.ly/YGrDyy. Follow Sandy in France on Twitter to keep updated on new goodies for the prize package.

By David Hu
A new video for Video Friday

Much as I try to cook dinner most weekday evenings, sometimes I’m too tired or there’s not quite enough time. In these instances, sandwiches tend to be one of my go-to meals: quick and usually made with pantry-stocked ingredients.

I try to make a hot sandwich because it seems a little more dinner-like and more satisfying. Today’s video recipe is a take on the classic French Croque Monsieur. Some Croque Monsieurs require broilers but this one’s made easily on stovetop. From start to finish you’ll be eating in under 10 minutes. It goes great with a green salad.

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