The one thing you all must know about my French Friday with Dorie colleagues is that we try to be good sports. There are more than 300 recipes in “Around my French Table”, the cookbook we use that was written by Ms. Greenspan. We are committed to trying each and every one of these recipes, six years of Fridays. Including……
Sardine Rillettes.
Seaweed Sablés.
Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes with Garlic.
Seriously???
An unmolded chicken liver gâteaux served on a bed of butter lettuce tossed with champagne vinaigrette and pickled onions.
This week’s recipe choice, Chicken Liver Gâteaux with Pickled Onions. provided another “Seriously ?” Moment for me. In French, gâteaux means cake. A chicken liver cake? Dorie, however, treats this as a salad, “The idea of having cake at the start of a meal is too irresistible.”
When I stopped by my local grocery store to buy 1/2 pound of chicken livers, I was clueless. The butcher helped me find a carton of these squishy, runny, scraggly morsels. They didn’t look like anything I would ever place inside my mouth. After removing all their veins, fat, and green spots, according to directions (the yucky part), the gâteaux was ridiculously easy to put together. Throw everything in a blender, whir two minutes, pour into buttered ramekins and bake 40 minutes. The pickled onions were even easier, something I made the day before and will keep on hand to use often in other dishes.
The ingredients of the chicken liver mixture is the consistency of custard and pours easily into the buttered ramekins. To de-bubble the mixture (seen here) before baking, I rapped each ramekin on the kitchen counter. Worked like a charm.
I tasted one of the little cakes immediately, treating it as a warm paté and spreading it on rustic crackers. It was not particularly flavorful. I refrigerated the others overnight and unmolded them today to serve as a salad. They possessed the strong flavor you’d expect from an excellent paté. The vinaigrette and pickled onions kicked up the flavor even more. To my surprise, I enjoyed my cake-salad. Very, very much.
Chicken livers, anyone? To learn how to make this recipe yourself, go here. See what my colleagues thought of this week’s choice at French Fridays with Dorie.
This week’s FFWD recipe was supposed to be Long and Slow Apples. Who can get excited about making a dish with that name? I challenge you to find any restaurant in the world that offers a dessert on its menu called Long and Slow Apples.
(Memo to Dorie: I changed the name of the recipe on page 390-391 of your Around my French Table cookbook.)
This brilliantly simple recipe was created over one hundred years ago by Edouard Nignon (1865-1934), regarded as one of France’s greatest chefs. According to Larousse Gastronomique, he was head chef to the Tsar, the Emperor of Austria, and president Woodrow Wilson. I’d wager all my Johnny Appleseed trading cards that Edouard would not approve of the long-and-slow moniker.
As Dorie explains, “This recipe entails nothing more than cutting apples as thin as you can (a mandoline is great here), layering them with a gossamer slick of butter and a sprinkling of sugar, weighting them down and baking them for a long time.”
Until you’ve had it,” she adds, “you can’t imagine how glorious this dish is.”
Not only did I slice four apples as thinly as possible, I also individually placed each slice carefully in the ramekins……….until ramekin #3.
Although this recipe is simple, it is time-consuming. After peeling and slicing the four apples thinly, each slice must be arranged carefully in individual ramekins. I hang my head in shame as I admit that by the third ramekin, I was tossing those apple discs haphazardly into the bowl, just hoping they’d settle according to plan. The fourth ramekin never got filled.
After wrapping each ramekin in parchment paper and then foil, I pierced it, making 4 air holes. Each had to also be weighted down before placing in the oven at 300 degrees.
The good news is that I have become a mandoline maven. You may recall that my first visit with a mandoline was just last summer when we made zucchini tagliatelle. I was totally intimidated. But, now, we’re friends. I also opted to use cinnamon rather than ginger and coriander to pump up the flavoring. Susan Lester who writes Create Amazing Meals, made this dessert a year ago and offered some good suggestions about it on her blog.
Serve this very delicious Pommes Confites warm, at room temperature or chilled. In the ramekin or unmolded. With a whipped cream topping, ice cream, crème fraîche, or just plain. It’s scrumptious. Since the first full week in Year 2013 has been such a happy and successful one for me, I enjoyed my dessert warm, topped with whipped cream, and with champagne. I wish I’d filled that fourth ramekin.
Dorie shares the ingredients necessary for this recipe here. Visit the French Fridays with Dorie link to see if my colleagues enjoyed this dessert as much as I did.
A generous and delicious slice of Pizza with Onion Confit, the Tuesday with Dorie Baking with Julia recipe choice for today.
Tonight I’m celebrating and bringing in the New Year………with Dorie Greenspan, Steve Sullivan and Yotam Ottolenghi.
Let me quickly explain. I’ll be brief because I have to get back to my guests.
The Onion Confit, which can be made two days ahead, consists of 4 onions, red wine, red wine vinegar and seasonings. I added some Crème de Cassis to taste. It was New Year’s Eve, afterall.
Dorie, of course, is the well-recognized cookbook author and fearless leader of my Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking with Julia group. Greenspan wrote the cookbook, Baking with Julia, which was based on the popular PBS Series hosted by Julia Childs.
Steve Sullivan is a talented baker who successfully established his own bakery, Acme Bread Company, in San Francisco. His sourdough and levain breads are legendary.
Sullivan’s dough for this pizza “has enough texture and flavor to hold its own under any topping.” Although you first make a sponge before making the dough, necessitating two risings, this isn’t difficult. When ready, roll and work the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick before transferring it to a baker’s peel rubbed lightly with cornmeal.
London Chef Yotam Ottolenghi who is becoming one of the most respected chefs in the world, owns five remarkable restaurants in that city and has written two well-received cookbooks, Plenty and Jerusalem.
This coming week’s recipe choice is the very tasty Pizza with Onion Confit. Julia Childs collaborated with Steve Sullivan to create this rather involved, somewhat complicated dish. After tasting the Provencal-inspired Onion Confit, as the base, I’m not sure I will ever return to classic tomato sauce again. Admittedly, it was a two-day process, a sponge and two risings, but perfect, I thought, for my New Year’s Eve supper. Champagne? Maybe not. Beer? For sure.
After preheating the oven to a toasty 475 degrees, I transferred my pizza topped with precooked pancetta lardons, roasted artichoke hearts and Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, from the peel to my baking stone which had been also preheated in the oven.
Intriqued by Ottolenghi’s culinary talent and impressed by reviews of his recently-published cookbooks, I ordered both of them last month. Unfortunately, they’d been shoved aside on my kitchen counter, victims of the holiday hustle and bustle.
New Year’s Eve has never been a hoop-and-hollar event at our house. And, this year, especially, I needed quiet. To me, it felt right to just cook something delicious and settle in with a good (cook) book.
The finished product. Everything about this pizza —- perfect.
I must return to my friends, Dorie, Steve, Yotam (we’re channeling Julia). I’ll let my pictures speak for the pizza. Thanks to our host-with-the-most, Paul of The Boy Can Bake, for providing the recipe for this delicious pizza-confit combo to all of you. Check out his link. To see how my colleagues did this week, go to our Tuesdays with Dorie link.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013, FAITHFUL READERS AND DORIE COLLEAGUES. MAY THE YEAR AHEAD BE HAPPY, HEALTHY and OVERFLOWING WITH THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND GOOD FOOD.
Do you recall watching automobile ads where late-model cars race up dangerously narrow mountain roads careening around the curves at breakneck speed? At some point during the ad, a cautionary crawl appears, Do Not Try ThisAt Home. That’s exactly how I felt about this week’s FFWD recipe choice, Herb-speckled Spaetzle, a chewy, baby-sized pasta that is more German and Austrian than French.
Herb-Speckled Spaetzle, this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice.
I knew spaetzle spelled trouble when Cher, who is subtle in understatement, commented on the FFWD Questions&Problems Link, using terms such as “sticky dough” “patience” and “a spaetzle cutter would be helpful.”
That very same day, Betsy, who shares FFWD administrative duties with Laurie and me, asked if I’d made my spaetzle? She volunteered that she had completed the recipe, her first time making spaetzle, and noted that it was delicious.
“How did you make it without a spaetzle maker?” I asked.
“Oh, I actually found a spaetzle maker in the basement,” she replied casually.
Now, Readers, what are the chances that you’d have a spaetzle maker hanging out in your basement? In Germany, Austria, perhaps. Betsy lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.
On Thursday Robert spent the day working and painting at my house. (That is, when he wasn’t involved in his taste-testing duties.)
Undeterred, Thursday morning I gathered my ingredients, bowls, spoons and patience to begin making Herb-speckled Spaetzle. The egg dough, easily mixed together by hand, was sticky but manageable. However, I had a total fail with the next Step: “pushing the dough through the coarse holes of a grater, a slotted spoon or a colander” into a pot of boiling water.” (Dorie’s instructions.)
I tried all three methods and two more I won’t discuss here. In the end, my sticky dough landed in the roiling, boiling water, producing a spaetzle of my own design. I won’t disclose how that happen because no sane cook would want to repeat it.
I had just put all the spaetzle pieces in a large buttered bowl to cool when my Realtor, Charlie Fahr, stopped by. It was a lightbulb moment. My real estate agent — who is German, who has family living in Germany, who knows a thing or two about spaetzle. After spending 10 minutes helping me pronounce the word correctly, Charlie walked over to look at my buttered bowl of spaetzle, and with a small smile (not a smirk), suggested that it’s probably “essential to have the right spaetzle making equipment .”
May I just add here that Charlie is a really, really good Realtor!!! I took no offense at his dissing my spaetzle.
Robert, who would rather be painting, is obviously thinking, “Wait ’til the guys hear this one.” That’s me, in the mirror. being bossy, telling him how to pose. These would be better pictures if we hadn’t ended up laughing so hard. This was a bonding moment for Robert and me. He enjoyed my spaetzle. Really he did.
Charlie left me to soldier on with my recipe. To finish it off, giving it some Dorie dash, Dorie suggests adding mushrooms and onions after first softening them in a butter/olive oil combo. Next I mixed everything together, cooking it until the spaetzle started to brown. I then added seasonings and a cup of chicken broth, simmering it until total evaporation.
Do you believe in miracles? What didn’t look particularly pretty, tasted delicious. Really, really flavorful and good. Therefore, on Valentine’s Day I am giving myself a $6.99 Spaetzle Maker. When not in use, I will keep it in my basement.
After a day of making spaetzle, I joined Adriana Scrima, Susan Best and Ellen Fahr for an evening cooking lesson at Maggiano’s Little Italy, located on the Las Vegas Strip. Ellen (r), also my Realtor, treated us to this fun and funny girls-night-out.
Interested in making your own spaetzle? Here’s the recipe. I know that my colleagues are more proficient in spaetzle-making than I. To see how other Doristas did this week, go here.
What did you find in your stocking Christmas morning? I found celery root.
Odds are that when you planned Christmas dinner, celery root did not come to mind. When you were thinking about pies, I’m betting it was whether to bake pumpkin, pecan or apple. “Pot” probably didn’t enter the picture.
Here’s the problem. During the past six months, my Christmas dinner guests here in Henderson turned sorta-kinda-vegetarian. Sorta-kinda-vegetarian means they will not eat four-legged animals. If it moos, baas, oinks or whinnies, it’s a nonstarter. Furthermore, they won’t eat creatures with wings. Flying is a no, no. Swimmers? Yes, but only those with a shell.
Peel and cut up 2 celery roots and one medium russet potato. Quarter an onion. Add this to a pot of boiling milk, water and salt. To avoid a strong peppermint flavoring, discard the candy canes.
Here’s another problem. The French Friday with Dorie recipe this week is Go-With-Everything Celery Root Purée. To answer your question? Neither had I.
Merry Christmas. Ho! Ho! Ho!
Doesn’t everyone serve Lobster Pot Pie on Christmas Day? (With profound apologies to my Iowa born-and-bred, very traditional Mother.)
Thankfully, this story has a delicious, Christmas-bells-are-ringing ending. My menu may not have been traditional but, with a little help from you foodie friends, I pleased all our palates. Here are the 3 principal players —– We began with Cranberry and Avocado Salad topped by Candied Spiced Almonds and Sweet White Balsamic Vinaigrette as featured by Chris Scherer on The Café Sucré Farine. I added some baby beets, quartered.
The Barefoot Contessa’s Lobster Pot Pie solved my main course dilemma in a very tasty, très élégant manner. A bubble off, perhaps, but, hey, lobsters swim and have shells.
Thank you, Dorie, for this delicious, nutritious, Go-with-Everything Celery Root Purée.
Again, Dorie is correct. Why do I ever doubt that woman? When she calls this recipe, Go-With-Everything Celery Root Purée, she means business. “Because the flavor is subtle, complex, and just a little sweet,”, she writes “the purée is the perfect accompaniment to fish, meat or poultry, whether it’s a main dish that is robust and big flavored or one that is light and mild.”
No one at my table had ever sampled celery root served as a purée. It’s a wonderfully, less caloric, and more nutritious substitute for mashed potatoes. I used my Immersion Blender, instead of fussing with a food processor, to whirrrrr it into a smooth ivory purée. If you want a more silky texture, use the processor. Surprisingly, the lobsters and the celery root did not do battle. This dish totally complimented the pot pie with one guest even using it as a tasty base under the pie.
Seconds, anyone?
The ultimate compliment? No room for dessert.
Dessert, anyone? Last night Michelle and I contributed the sugar for our neighbor’s, Bobby & Adriana Scrima, annual everything-Italian Holiday Open House.
Michelle’s Eggnog Panna Cotta and Dorie’s Top-Secret Chocolate Mousse. When Lilly, a party guest from France, tasted this, her eyes brightened. “Very french,” she remarked. I asked her if she knew the secret? She replied, “Oui,” and preceeded to rattle off the recipe from the back of the Nestlé Dessert Chocolate Bar wrapper that Dorie had discovered and shared with us.
May I wish a Happy New Year 2013 to all you loyal Readers and my fellow Doristas, far and wide. And, to you, Trevor, for loyally cooking with us as our one-and-only FFWD “token” male. May the year ahead be filled with peace & happiness, good health, family & friends and the fellowship of food.
