This week’s French Fridays with Dorie choice is Scallop and Onion Tartes Fines. Like its brethren we’ve already made, Tomato-Cheese Tartlets andFresh Tuna, Mozzarella, and Basil Pizza, here’s another recipe where our intentions are not honorable. What Dufour and Pepperidge Farm have devoted years to perfecting, we take five minutes to flatten.
Start with a thawed sheet of puff pastry. After flouring your work area and rolling the pastry to a 13-inch square, take a 6-inch wide plate and, using a sharp knife, cut out four circles. Lay these on a parchment-lined baking sheet and prick with a fork. Lay more parchment on top and then plop another baking sheet over them. Sorta has a crushing affect on the unsuspecting pastry.
For the next fifteen minutes, while the pastry is baking and not puffing at 400 degrees, you mix together the caramel onion-bacon layer (my favorite part of this recipe). Divide this mixture among the four crusts and arrange scallops, sliced into thirds, over it. Drizzle olive oil over the top before seasoning with salt and pepper.
Dorie recommends baking these tarts at 400 degrees for 3 to 4 minutes. Being cautious, I baked mine longer which resulted in my pastry base becoming a tad too brown. In hindsight, I would have seared my scallops first. Still, tasty and unique as an appetizer or lunch (with a salad).
You might note that I suggested no wine choice for this menu. Last weekend I attended Vintage Paso: Zinfandeland Other Wild Wines, a 3-day touring blitz of our wine area. Readers, you know I’m a trooper, but after devoting one full day to this festival, I was done. That’s why you’re on your own for this week’s beverage.
The festival was educational, tasty and hilarious. My friends, John and Susan Lester, who live in southern Cali and blog at Create Amazing Meals joined me for the weekend. We’d known each other virtually for two years and met inreality last year. John is especially knowledgeable about wines, they visit this wine country frequently and were perfect companions and guests.Pictures and just a few words, tell our story best.
We’ve had our coffee. Susan and I, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, are ready to roll. Last week we plotted our zinful itinerary and plan to visit five wineries today.
Our first stop was Peachy Canyon Winery. This was supposed to be our fifth stop but, unfortunately, John missed a turn. Which meant that Susan and I both grabbed maps, assisted with directions all day and drove John, well, to drink!
Memo to my Colorado brother who is casually concerned about my wine adventures this winter: a Lester purchase.
Winery #2, Tablas Creek. With our tastings we enjoyed small bites, shrimp on sweet corn polenta cake and a beef slider on a sourdough crostini.
Winery #3, Halter Ranch, my favorite, where we had our wine and paella in the ranch’s original barn. Susan and I are at the tasting-less-and-eating-more stage.
Winery #4, Adelaida Cellars. It’s 82 degrees, I’ve had it. Susan and I sit at a picnic table while John happily disappears.
Winery #5, Opolo Vineyards. Whoopee. We head to the barbecue tent for roasted lamb, carne asada tacos, beans and all the fixings. We girls rally. Friends forever.
We assemble the wine on the dining room table and take the pledge, “What happens in Cambria, stays in Cambria.”
After dinner at my neighborhood Sea Chest restaurant, we settled in for an evening of Gin Rummy and a Port tutorial. Since I had never tasted Port, John bought me a bottle at Adelaida Cellars. A very smooth evening.
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Two Tartines from La Croix Rouge. According to Ms. Greenspan, our leader extraordinaire, La Croix Rouge is one of Paris’s busiest, most chic cafés. Chic grabs my interest but it’s the roast beef and smoked salmon tartines that whet my appetite.
Two paper-thin slices of the rarest-possible roast beef are needed for this week’s Tartine Saint-Germain.
Besides being just darn delish, these tartines are easily thrown together and require little equipment, dishes and utensils. Last Saturday the water guru in Cambria, where I am living this winter, invoked Mandatory Stage 3 Drought Restrictions. The crucial word here is mandatory. Everyone has to play or fine$ are imposed. Despite our recent rains, more than 22% of California still remains in the worst category: Exceptional Drought. Unfortunately, we on the Central Coast are part of that number.
Let’s leave water issues for later and get to the tastier part of my post. Tartines are simply fancy French toasted, open-faced sandwiches topped with any spreadable ingredient that one would eat. The combinations are endless. We Americans being Americans prefer to just slap another piece of bread on top, toasting is optional, and enjoy a sandwich. A Brit, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, claims credit for that.
A light dinner, Tartine Saint-Germain with roasted brussel sprouts (Fresh. Spotted at the farmer’s market. Sold.)
The French love their tartines and there are five of them in Greenspan’s Around my French Table cookbook. We’ve made them all. You may remember the Nutella, Dieter’s and Goat Cheese and Strawberry Tartines. Of those three, I remain nuts about Nutella.
At La Croix Rouge the two most popular tartines are Tartine Saint-Germain andTartine Norvégienne. For the Tartine Saint-Germain, start with a 2-inch thick slice of rustic bread. Grill or toast it on one side only. Then, slather the toasted bread with mayonnaise (I suggest using Aïoli, a garlicky mayonnaise and très français.) Although Dorie says to thinly slice a cornichon or gherkin to lay on top of the mayonnaise before covering the tartine with rare roast beef, I suggest not. Save the pickles for the surface along with salt and pepper. Cut the bread crosswise into one-inch wide strips. The wine is red.
For the Tartine Saint-Germain, I chose a Zinfandel from Peachy Canyon, another Central Coast wine.
Will it surprise you that the Tartine Norvegiénne includes smoked salmon? First, repeat the bread drill. Once toasted, spread butter (I used homemade dill sauce) on the bread and smother it in smoked salmon. Don’t forget those one-inch crosswise cuts. Top it off with pepper, capers and sliced lemons. The wine is white.
These were tasty, light dinners for me. Two tartines. Two nights.
While I’m not ready to put aside my lox and bagel with creme cheese, this Tartine Novegiénne is tasty.
Even better, these were no fuss, no mess, little clean-up, which helps as I try to restrict my water use here. Cambrians are restricted to using no more than two units of water, 1,500 gallons per resident per month. When I think of all the people in the world who have little access to water, I’m not feeling abused.
What I am feeling, however, is naive. Last Saturday I stopped by the local hardware store to purchase a bucket (for the shower, in case you were wondering). While paying, I said to the clerk, “I am a winter resident here and haven’t experienced water restrictions before. Could you give me some tips.”
For the smoked salmon tartine, I chose a chardonnay from Terra Robles, another local winery committed to sustainability.
The moral of this story is whenever you have a question, stop by your local hardware store. Business screeched to a halt. Customers gathered around the counter and my water-saving seminar began. Within 15 minutes I knew more than I wanted to know. No dishwasher. (Okay.) Launder colors and whites together. (Maybe.) Buy bottled water for cooking and drinking and brushing your teeth. (Aren’t all those plastic bottles bad for theenvironment?) Your car remains dirty. ( Or, grab a sponge and that bucket of shower water.) The other tips? (You don’t want to know.)
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. Please visit the blogs of my other colleagues who do bathe frequently by clicking here.
For the past three years, if it’s Friday, I’ve been posting a recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook, Around my French Table. Cooking-the-book with colleagues from around the world, I’ve had hits, fails, wows and never agains. This week’s effort, Dilled Gravlax with MustardSauce, sugar-and-spice cured-salmon, may be a personal best.
Crush toasted peppercorns, white and black, and coriander seeds with a mortar & pestle
Add sea salt and sugar to the crushed seeds and mix. Poke holes in the skin side of the salmon, rub the mixture into it and top generously with fresh dill.
Gravlax is the traditional party food but it’s just as delicious a breakfast-morning-after. Reluctant to hit the highway after Christmas dinner down valley, I bartered salmon for a sleep-over with my friends, Donna and Bernie. Donna phoned Zabar’s to send some bagels. Ho! Ho! Ho!
Flip the salmon and rub mixture into the flesh (no holes).
Cover with dill.
This was a three-day process. Words cannot describe how luscious and buttery this gravlax tasted. Richness personified. Let’s have pictures tell the story………
Cover tightly with plastic wrap, weight evenly, and refridgerate for 48-72 hours. I found the combo of 3 cans of pumpkin puree, a jar of pickled okra and a pineapple, just perfect.
After 2 to 3 days, scrape the dill and mixture off the salmon, rinse quickly with cold water, dry thoroughly, and refrigerate until ready to slice.
Bernie thinly slices the salmon, cutting on the diagonal, leaving the skin behind. (Please know that Donna and I are standing closely behind giving Bernie directions!)
Bring on the bagels.
A post-Christmas feast, Gravlax with cream cheese, capers, onions and Zabar’s toasted bagels.
The Christmas Dinner table at Chez Chase
A woman’s work is never done.
Ever.
The men enjoy the cocktail hour, of course.
While the women are in the kitchen, the men relax. Ahhhhh
If you’d like to make your own Gravlax, here’s Dorie’s recipe. Interested in seeing the results of other Doristas‘ efforts this week? Go, here.
In our family we’re a mixed bag as far as religion is concerned. My husband, Michael, was Jewish. I am Episcopalian. My son-in-law’s father was a Lutheran minister. My daughter finds truth and power in Buddhist principals. My granddaughters attend a Seven Day Adventist school. And just recently, I’ve found hope in the writings of Pope Francis.
If there really is a limb, we’re way out there.
However, the religion and culture that has most impacted my life the past twenty-five years is Judaism. One facet of that impact, of course, is the food of observances and celebrations. Soon after our arrival in Aspen in 1988, Michael and I were embraced by the local Jewish community. I am comforted by knowing he enjoyed the retirement of his dreams here and those friends contributed mightily to that joy.
Mme. Maman’s Chopped Chicken Liver Paté
Which brings me to chopped chicken liver.
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Mme. Sonia Maman’s Chopped Liver. Although I always contributed food to those parties, I left the chopped liver to the pros. My speciality was Haroses, a mixture of apples, nuts, wine and cinnamon used at Passover Seder. I also participated in the brisket bake-offs. My arm still has the burn marks to prove it.
The chicken liver mixture spread on pumpernickel rye bread
I never had made chopped liver. Kudos to Mme. Maman for substituting a heart-healthier peanut (or, grapeseed) oil for the traditional schmaltz which is rendered chicken fat. Her recipe is simple. Cook 2 chopped onions in oil until nicely browned. Remove the onions from the pan to drain and add the chicken livers to brown also. Because I wanted a paté rather than coarsely chopped livers, I threw the onions, livers, and seasonings into the food processor and did the blitz. After stirring two chopped hard-boiled eggs into the mixture, I covered it tightly before placing in the fridge.
Although this is tasty (and, I took a bite), I realized this stuff could kill you. That’s when I called Mindy, one of my younger, health-conscious Jewish friends to ask if chopped livers graced her table and those of her friends. Her distaste for chicken livers came through humorously but loud and clear.
Vegetarian Chopped Liver, a healthier alternative and mighty tasty
“Would you like me to send you my vegetarian version?” she asked. “It’s almost, almost as good as the real thing. Whenever I make it, it’s always eaten up.”
She quickly e-mailed me the recipe, “Here we go, Mary!” she wrote. “It’s yummmmmy!!!!!”
Vegetarian Chopped Liver
Ingredients:
1 slice pumpernickel bread
1 15 oz. can Le Sueur peas, drained
1 hard boiled egg, chopped
1 onion, chopped and sauteed in grapeseed oil
1/2 cup chopped, roasted walnuts
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Preparation:
Throw the bread, peas, and onions in a food processor and pulse into a mixture. Salt and pepper liberally to taste. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and stir in the egg and walnuts. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the mixture for two to three hours before serving.
In my taste-off, the peas held their own with the livers. Admittedly, because it was “almost, almost as good”, my heart has to belong to healthy.
Most of you grew up with stuffed peppers on your Mom’s menu. While Peter might have picked a peck of pickled peppers for your house, he never did for mine. Peppers in our house were always green, diced and added to iceberg lettuce salad.
picklelicious.com
Following in the family tradition, I’d never stuffed a pepper either but it was time to break the mold. This week’s FFWD recipe choice, Tuna-packed Piquillo Peppers, isa delightful stuffer starter for a novice. Have you even heard of “peek-ee-oh” peppers? Inquisitive French housewives peeked over the Spanish border and realized the Basque were seasoning their cuisine with these two-inch-long, fire-roasted, little darlings. Viola! Un ingrédient secret!
These slightly smoky, pleasantly sweet jewels come peeled and packed in a jar. “Look for piquillos that have the D.O. symbol, attesting to the fact they were grown and grilled in Navarre”, Dorie suggests. (You’ll find them in every French pantry and in a 12-ounce jar at your local Whole Foods.)
Throw together a savory tuna mixture with lemon, capers, shallots, Niçoise olives, olive oil and seasonings. Stuff each pepper with one tablespoon of it. Place them in a oiled pan to broil for five to seven minutes. Served with crusty bread and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, this was un almuerzo delicioso.
Dellalo.com
As you are reading this, I have just landed in Seattle to attend the International Food Bloggers Conference 2013. I have no idea what one does at a foodie confab but it must involve calories. If so, I’m all in.
What makes the conference extra-special is our own Dorie Greenspan is this year’s keynote speaker. That’s why 14 Doristas are converging on Seattle and will be sitting center-stage, hoopin‘ and hollering when Dorie steps to the podium. After three years of cooking her book, we are fired up and ready to meet our virtual mentor (and each other) in real time. To our colleagues who couldn’t be in Seattle this week, we will keep you in the Loop and very much miss your presence.
Right away you need to know that according to a recent British study, this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is numero uno of the top twenty foods we cannot pronounce. Tzatziki, a classic Greek cucumber-yogurt mix, even beats out Dauphinois, Gruyere and Mascarpone. My personal favorites, Gnocchi and Hors d’oeuvre, came in thirteenth and fourteenth.
Zat-ZEE-key. Pronouncing this word correctly has left me befuddled this week. That’s not all that’s left me befuddled, but let’s take one thing at a time……….
Although Tzatziki is easily thrown together, here are a few essential tips for its success. Use thick, creamy Greek yogurt, now easily found in your grocery store. After chopping, lightly salting your cucumbers and setting them aside for 30 minutes, drain, drain, drain. Dorie then suggests: Mixture – Towel – Twist – Squeeze. Tzatziki should NOT be zoupy!
Mise-en-Place for the Greek classic, Tzatziki
After letting the flavors blend for a few hours or overnight, serve it cold. Although I used this as a dip with pita bread, sharing with the kids at the front desk, Tzatziki is versatile and dances with many partners. I know the other Doristas will have some great ideas this week but whether a spread, side, embellishment for meat and fish, or dip with crudities, this recipe is delicious.
Now let’s return to this befuddle business. Of the many adjectives which could be used to describe Me, flaky,distracted, flustered, addled and befuddled are not even in the mix. That’s what has me worried. People, it’s not good.
Tzatziki, with an embellishment of dill
Last week, I went to my ophthalmologist appointment on a Friday morning only to be told I was scheduled for the following Monday. (And, yes, I asked, but the doctor was on vacation.) No big deal…… but his office is in Glenwood Springs, forty miles away. When I did return last Monday and parked my raincoat on the office coat rack, I left two hours later without it.
The next day I stopped at Colorado Mountain College to register for Fall classes. When I left the Registrar’s office, I also left behind my red leather calendar and notebook. My Life cannot function without my red leather calendar and notebook which, luckily, I retrieved the next day.
Wait, there’s more. I joined two friends for a wildflower hike this week. Because of our late-Spring rains, the flowers are gorgeous. As we were completing the hike, I pulled my car keys from my backpack and had them in hand. When we stopped to examine one last flower, pulling out our hand lens for a closer look, I obviously tossed my keys on the ground. And, didn’t retrieve them. Although the keys were quickly found, I was shaken. Losing car keys in the wilderness is a no-no.
This received an all-thumbs up from the crew at the front desk. They really, really enjoyed Dorie’s version of Tzatziki. Clean plate club.
Throw in two pair of forgotten glasses and this week has been a blockbuster. Unfortunately, this is not an anomaly. What makes me uncomfortable and, admittedly, embarrassed, is I don’t know when this wackiness will end? To my mind, I survived the past ten years. I did my best. Now I’ve luckily returned to this beautiful place that I call home where I’m safe and comfortable and surrounded by friends. Why go all dingy now?
My doctor recently cautioned me, “Mary, it may take two to three years.”
When she saw the look of sheer panic on my face, she quickly revised her prediction, “For you, I’m sure it will be quicker.”
Oh, yes, I’ve read Joan Didion’s Pulitzer Prize winning memoir, “The Year of Magical Thinking”, about her grief after the sudden loss of her husband. But Michael’s death wasn’t sudden. It was a decade-long, slow, heartbreaking, hopeless slog. And, therein may be the answer. When I returned to Colorado in April I resolved to be happy. Period. I embraced my passions and interests and was embraced, in turn, by my friends. It’s all working. But subconsciously, the grief and stress and fatigue of it all have decided to do their own jig and I can’t control their timeline.
This crazy part of myself has never surfaced before, so my solution, I’ve finally decided, is to laugh, keep calm and carry on. If it worked for the Brits, it might work for me.
