Revol – Amazing and Beautiful French Porcelain

Grands Classiques Collection: Lion head soup bowl with large dried scallops

We know how limited storage space we have in the kitchen, especially living in New York City, so finding plates, pots, and pans that is practical, beautiful, and ideally, multipurpose. I discovered Revol France porcelain dinner and cookware for my home. Revol’s porcelain ware are all dishwasher, oven, freezer and microwave safe making it versatile for everyday use and it looks amazing at the table.

This French high quality porcelain ware company that started in 1789 made with a secret mix that includes clay, quartz, feldspar and kaolin. Interestingly enough, they are one of the rare porcelain manufacturers to produce their own clay and adapt the clay to their manufacturing processes.

Espresso Crumbled Tumblers

What is great about their Espresso “Crumbled” Tumblers, is that it’s modern (that something you’d expect to see at a MoMA store), unusual and it has a cheery side from the bold, bright colors. What I ended up doing is more than just my espresso/cappuccino cup – it’s plated for my breakfast (with a homemade yogurt and fruit parfait), my cold flavored iced tea with the same flavored ice cubes (prevent dilution), and my ice cream (dessert presentation).

From Revol’s Belle Cuisine collection, the oval cocotte is gorgeous with its stark white color, and I’ve cooked stews and baked a loaf of no-knead bread since it’s not too far off, in my opinion, from a Dutch oven. The large loaf pan is great for making my pullman loaf and eventually my terrine or pâté when I’m having a (very big) dinner party with friends and family, as it can easily feed a football team, especially if I’m making the latter.

Basalt Collection: Large Rectangular Plate

Revol’s latest collection, Basalt, is very unusual from the rest from its trade. When you touch this particular line’s plates, it feels like slate – slate black, rough surface and edges and even when you clean it, it’s like natural slate that if you’d wipe it with a cloth, it would cling onto the surface. Getting to the point, this entire plate is actually made of porcelain and like its other wares, it’s dishwasher, oven, freezer, and microwave safe.

What I really adore about my large rectangular plate (measures 15.75 x 11.75 x 0.75 inches) is that it can be plated for many different things. It was my own personal buffet platter for my Sunday meal of steamed 2-pound lobster with blue crabs at its peak and the most beautiful cheese tray when I had out-of-town friends visiting my home. You can use it for more refined, ornate presentations to something rustic and natural looking – it all depends on your style.

So here’s two recipes that you can recreate at home. One for the Espresso Crumbled Tumbler and the other for the Basalt’s large rectangular plate.

Homemade Yogurt (for the Espresso Crumbled Tumbler)
Recipe from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients:
4 cups of fresh, organic 2% milk
1/3 cup of powdered milk
1/2 cup organic yogurt (this will be your starter)

Directions:
Making yogurt begins with the freshest milk possible. It will taste so much better. Slowly heat the milk on the stove over low-medium heat.

At this point you can choose to add powdered milk. Powdered milk creates thicker yogurt that takes less time to ferment. It’s optional if you are using whole milk or two percent. Some skim and one percent milk include added milk proteins which make the product taste less watery and will behave the same way as if you added powdered milk.

For your first batch we are going to go with two-percent milk plus 1/3 cup of powdered milk. This combination of milk with the powder will produce a delicious, basic yogurt.

The most tedious thing about making yogurt is watching the milk get hot. You need it to hit 170 degrees, but not have it boil. So you want to pay attention to the pot and have a thermometer at hand. Once you’ve hit the target temperature, remove from heat and then wait for the milk to cool. Unless you put the pot in the refrigerator it will take some time to cool to 108-112 degrees.

If you are using existing yogurt as a starter, have it handy in a cup. When the milk is cooled to the proper temperature, mix a small amount it in with the yogurt. This will break up the yogurt and makes blending it with the rest of the milk easier. Once you add the starter, the milk can be placed in the pre-heated yogurt maker for four to eight hours. Refrigerate before serving. Makes one quart.

To make the parfait, layer the yogurt with fresh fruits (I had blueberries, blackberries, and diced fresh apricots) for each Espresso “Crumpled” Tumbler.

Boiled lobster and blue crabs (for the Basalt Large rectangular plate)

Recipe from Simply Recipes

Ingredients:
2-pound fresh lobster (one per person, if you’re cooking more than for yourself)
A large pot of salted water
Melted butter, seasoned with salt and thyme (for dipping your shelled crustaceans’ meat)

Directions:
First consider the size of your pot for boiling the lobsters. An 8-quart pot will easily take one lobster, a 16-quart pot, 2 or 3 lobsters. If you are cooking a lot of lobsters you’ll either need to cook them in stages or have more than one pot of water boiling.

1. Fill a large pot 3/4 full of water. Add 2 Tbsp of salt for every quart of water. The water should be salty like sea water (in fact you can use clean sea water if you have it). Bring the water to a rapid boil.

2. Grasp the lobster by the body and lower it upside down and head first into the boiling water. Continue to add the live lobsters to the pot in this manner. Cover the pot.

3. Note the time at which the water comes to a boil again. From that point, boil the lobsters for 12-20 minutes or longer, depending on the size of the lobster. 12-15 minutes for 1 lb lobster, 15-20 minutes for a 1 1/2 pound lobster, 20-25 minutes for a 2-3 pound lobster. The lobsters should be a bright vivid red color when done.

Note: Larger lobsters will turn bright red before they are completely finished cooking, so you do want to time your cooking, and not just go on color alone. Unlike with fresh scallops or fish that you can eat raw (think sashimi), you don’t want to eat raw or undercooked lobster. Translucent undercooked lobster meat really doesn’t taste good. It needs to be opaque through and through. If you cook it too long, the meat will get rubbery, so keep an eye on the time.

4. Remove the lobsters from the pot with tongs and place on a plate to drain and cool. If you’re not going to eat it immediately, place it in a large bowl filled with ice water to prevent it from overcooking.

As for the boiled blue crabs, you may use the same boiled water from the boiled lobster. Boil the said water (or use a fresh pot of water and season with salt), put the crabs in, so cover and let it come back to a full boil. When it does, cook for 10-15 minutes. When you see crabs floating on the surface, give it another 2-3 minutes.

Once it is cooked, take it out immediately with tongs and place in a large bowl of ice water bath to cool, to prevent overcooking.

Have fun cracking the shells and savor its sweet flesh with or without the seasoned melted butter.

For more photos of Revol’s porcelain ware, please scroll through the slideshow below:

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Information:
Revol France
English website: http://www.revol-porcelaine.fr/index.php?id=revolen

Where to purchase select products within the NYC region/United States:
Sur La Table and Amazon