This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Vegetable Barley Soup with the Taste of Little India. Très confus? Dorie admits this is neither French bistro fare nor authentically Indian. It’s a Greenspan concoction. While walking through a Parisian Indian neighborhood she spotted and bought several tiny sachets of mixed spices. Adding them to a rather conventional root vegetable and barley potage kicked its flavoring out of France and up a notch.
Author Brigit Binns, who has written 28 cookbooks, welcomes us to her first cooking class of the season.
The veggies are predictable: onions; carrots; and, parsnips. The spices are not: garlic; fresh ginger; turmeric; red pepper flakes; and, Garam Marsala (coriander, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, kalonji, caraway, cloves, ginger and nutmeg). Chicken broth and pearl barley complete it. The recipe for this heart-healthy dish is included in this recent Chicago Tribune article, Cook Along with French Fridays, giving we Doristas our 15 minutes of fame.
Vegetable Barley Soup with the Taste of Little India
Admittedly, even tasty soup is just soup. Ho hum. What do you think of adding warm and fragrant Oven-Roasted Olives, Sautéed Cauliflower Wedges with Bagna Cauda and Hoppe’s crusty artisan bread to this meal? For dessert let’s try Blueberry & Cinnamon Swirl sheep milk ice cream. A 2013 Rosé Galaxie made by winemaker Amy Butler, who owns Ranchero Cellars, banishes any ho-hum thoughts. Read on, you’ll get the picture(s).
The Two Cheese Mavens: Lindsay Dodson-Brown of Justin Vineyards & Winery (L) and Alexis Negranti of Negranti Creamery (R) prepare for class.
Last weekend I attended author Brigit Binn’s first cooking class of the season at Refugio, her home in Paso Robles. Binns‘ twenty-eighth cookbook, The New Wine Country Cookbook, Recipes from California’s Central Coast, has been my tour guide and culinary bible since arriving here in January. I barely made the cut of the chosen twelve but for two whining e-mails to Brigit and a last minute cancellation. Who says begging isn’t helpful?
The most difficult thing about making ricotta cheese in an outdoor kitchen on a windy day is to keep the burner’s flame lit. Brigit and her husband, Casey, try to block the wind!
Everyone in the class got to play.
The class was entitled Two Cheese Mavens. Lindsay Dodson-Brown of Justin Vineyards & Winery and Alexis Negranti who owns Negranti Creamery helped us make mozzarella and ricotta cheeses. But this was a teaching lesson with sideshows. While we were making cheese, Binns and her husband, Casey, were creating delicious, homemade flatbreads dressed in tasty toppings, roasted baby artichokes and those olives, all made in their wood-burning outdoor oven. Butler poured her 2013 Rosé as well as a 2012 Viognier, and a 2010 Carignan. (More about Winemaker Butler next week.) Do you understand why I humbled myself and groveled?
This flatbread is the best I’ve ever tasted. Briget shared the dough recipe so I will share also if you contact me.
Casey made his scrumptious olives in their outdoor oven. Mine tasted almost as delicious with my conventional one. Just as tasty the next day, served cold. Quoting from page 274 of Binn’s cookbook: “Toss brine-cured or oil-cured olives with a little olive oil, scatter with some springs of fresh thyme and rosemary, and a little lemon or orange zest. Roast in a shallow pan for 10 to 15 minutes at 425 degrees until the olives are shriveled, aromatic and slightly crisp.” [Between this recipe and Dorie Greenspan’s Herbed Olives, avoid the high-priced olive bars and turn plain, inexpensive olives into Fancy Nancys – Mary]
Casey’s Olives, roasted in the outdoor oven
My olives (a different kind) with herbs, olive oil and seasoning, ready for my 425 degree oven
Just Right
The cauliflower in my farmer’s market is gorgeous so I couldn’t resist this purchase. I recently found a recipe by Chef Chad Colby for Sauteed Cauliflower Wedges with Bagna Cauda on this blog. Since I’d never made the Italian dipping sauce, Bagna Cauda, before, it was worth a try. Yummy. More about Bagna Cauda-Love in a later Post.
Sauteed Cauliflower Wedges with Bagna Cauda
About my dessert. First, you milk a ewe. Now I didn’t have to do that because Alexis Negranti and her husband, Wade, already had. Negranti, who taught us how to make mozzarella, also chit-chatted about her passion, creating different flavors of sheep milk ice cream – Chocolate, Black Coffee, Raw Honey, Salted Brown Sugar, Pumpkin, Fresh Mint – using fresh produce from local farmers. There’s much to tout about this dish of deliciousness but, for now, be satisfied that its fat content is less than 8%. As I mentioned, this was a feast…with leftovers.
Blueberry and Cinnamon Swirl Sheep Milk Ice Cream. Killer. I’m a convert.
French Fridays with Dorie is an international cooking group working its way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table, more than 300 recipes from my home to yours. To see what my colleagues made this week, check out our FFWD site.
You are having WAY too much fun in California!!! I especially love the look of your cauliflower…plus I’ve always wanted to make bagna cauda.
PS…I ‘d love the flat bread recipe!!! Though I may not have any homemade cheese with which to top it!
I will send it to you tomorrow, Liz. Thanks for asking. When I say “the best”, I mean, “theeee best”.
You are a food jet setter Mary….the places you go, the people you see, the food you entice us with…
omg, even glass milk bottles, where do these come from. Or should I ask WHEN? Should I suspect more time travel?
Anyway, I never thought parsnips were predictable…but what do I know. Looking forward to actual eating some of this stuff you are learning how to make. BTW, I have loved Bagna Cauda for almost 40 years…since I first read about it from James Beard.
Your buddy, Donna
What a fun French Friday post Mary. Yes, you are having WAY too much fun in California! I am jealous of that sun and warmth!
So much fun here! Great shots of great food made me wish I was in that class with you.
“What do you think of adding warm and fragrant Oven-Roasted Olives, Sautéed Cauliflower Wedges with Bagna Cauda and Hoppe’s crusty artisan bread to this meal?” I think, yes, please!
You are having too much fun. I still swear I am just going to show up on your doorstep one day and move in… XO
Mary,
I absolutely love this post, every last word. I adore how much fun you are having and that you can share it with us. Never thought I’d look forward to a cauliflower recipe–but I do now. I have to figure out where to get garam masala here–but I may have received it as a gift. We can probably purchase sheep’s milk at Sustainable Settings—we can try ice cream? Congrats, really terrific post.
Blanca, I have a jar of Garam Masala for you if you can wait until Easter.
Every bit of this sounds fantastic. I’d like to demolish that tub of ice cream. You had me at blueberry. The cinnamon swirl is just a bonus. I (really, my husband, but I stole half of it) had blueberry gelato in venice last weekend. Best. Gelato. Ever. I’ve never seen blueberry around here before. My Italian friend told me that it’s too warm for the fruit to grow down here in Naples, so I guess if it’s not local, it’s not really used. The soup, the olives, the cheese, and the flatbread all sound wonderful, too. My heart’s with the ice cream, though. ha!
Mary, I love this post and all the wonderful photos. Such a great food experience for you, and so many
new and interesting lessons. I was always interested in how mozzarella was made.
I hope when you return to Aspen that you will not be too bored after all this fun. Enjoy…
wow! thats exciting!! I hope I can do some cooking classes like that one day in the future! again, your life is pretty exciting! Looks like you are really enjoying your time on the coast too! 🙂
I hope you keep blogging about all your adventures! When are you headed back to Aspen?
I really want to make ricotta at home, any tips from your class? Have a great weekend! Glad you liked the soup!
Ooooh, I love a cooking class. I covet the blueberries and icecream. I liked this soup, but I have never been a huge fan because of the status of soup in our house growing up – ie the meal that you have when there’s nothing else.
As an Italian-American I would so love to see how to make ricotta cheese… too cool… and all that wonderful fresh food outside … without any snow. Wonderful, wonderful.
Mary, It sounds like you had an amazing day! I grew up on roasted cauliflower…it was a staple in our Mediterranean house along with olives….what a wonderful feast you enjoyed! I made ricotta cheese a very long time ago…and this post just reminded me that I should make it again, soon!
I would have groveled!! Good job!
Mary…If you don’t mind I would also love the recipe for the flat bread…sounds scrumptious! Enjoy the rest of your time in Ca. Wish I was there!!
I will send along today, Kathy. You’ll love this flatbread.
Oh my, that cauliflower looks WONDERFUL–before and after! So glad you are doing such fun fun things in beautiful Cambria! Will keep you coming back to California! 🙂
I’ll admit I wasn’t wild about this week’s soup. What I am excited about is the rest of your menu. I’ve never baked olives, but I’m going to try. I love bagna cauda but never tried it on roasted vegetables, especially not cauliflower which I am trying hard to learn to love. I’m going to add these recipes of my list of things to cook soon. When you get a chance, please send me the flatbread recipe.
Mardi & I had a great evening. She’s as special as she seems from her blog.
Mary, I truly love your new blog design and style! And your photos seem to have stepped up to the same level. New camera? Editing software? Whatever it is it is working! My new design is coming together slowly but steadily. The header photo is the last big step and I hope that is complete this week. I would love to have your flatbread dough recipe. Now you have me wondering about making goat milk’s ice cream. You have certainly made the best of your time in CA and I am enjoying following your adventures! Speed on Mary! Your post has me excited about trying all kinds of new things!
Mary, this looks all so wonderful – the food, the cooking class, everything, but my favorite part are the olives. I often serve olives with an herb-and-citrus-infused olive oil and, yes, the kids love it – it is our once a week go-to item when I serve different kinds of pasta with different kinds vegetables. But I have never baked olives – I wil give that a try this week, as I am anxious to see how that tastes like. I guess the flatbread gains a lot of fabulous looks from the wood-burning oven.
What a fun and fabulous post – it looks like you are having a smashing time in Cambria1
And somehow it sounds like the last thing you need is another cooking group…
Let´s not forget about the soup -your bowl of soup lokk like great comfort food with a twist – most of my taste testers liked it and it was certainly a new “spicy” experience.
Liebe Grüße,
Andrea
Love those roasted olives… I need to bake some soon. Beautiful pictures !
Wow! What an amazing class you participated in! And I love the Sauteed Cauliflower Wedges with Bagna Cauda and the Blueberry and Cinnamon Swirl Sheep Milk Ice Cream. Sounds just delicious! What a great post.
So impressed that you wrangled your way into that class – what a wonderful day you had! Every dish you described sounds amazing. You really are in foodie heaven right now.
Everything about the cooking class and all of the things you’ve been making just sounds incredible. I never thought I’d be drooling over a bowl of cauliflower, but it looks amazing. I’m so glad you begged your way into the cooking class and shared the photos with us.