Pear and Almond Cream Tart, my French Fridays recipe choice this week.
In early June, while shopping at our local Farmers Market, I spotted my friend, Judy Wrigley, walking towards me. Following the Hi’s, How are yous, she got down to business. “Mary,” she asked, “can you help me bake a paté sucrée? Show me how to do it right?”
Just to be clear, Judy is no slouch in the kitchen. Last December, at a holiday dinner party I attended, she served a Bûche de Noël with Marzipan Mushrooms as a finale to her spectacular homemade meal. However, being of sweet tooth rather than sound mind, I agreed. Whether a caveat or just hedging my bets, I suggested it be a collaboration. We decided to wait until Fall and cooler weather for our pastry project.
As a reminder, a Paté Sucrée Tutorial: “Leave it to the French to create a pastry dough specifically for tarts,” explains Renee Schettler Rossi, editor of Leite’sCulinaria. “Although it isn’t nearly as ridiculous as it may sound when you consider that pastry for a tart must be sufficiently sturdy to support itself—and whatever luscious filling you’ve decided to heap upon it—after the tin has been removed. It took quite a lot of egg yolks and sugar to create a solution, but the result, known as pâté sucrée, was worth it. It’s more tender and chewy than flaky and crispy,”
It’s all about the sweet pastry dough which is easily made in a food processor.
First on the schedule, Judy makes paté sucrée.
Pastry Overload. We made and refrigerated six sweet pastry dough disks
Remembering I had missed the French Fridays week when my colleagues made a Poached Pear and Almond Tart, this would be a perfect make-up opportunity. Judy’s request became reality last Wednesday at 9am when I drove over to her house in Mountain Valley. Earlier in the week we worked out our schedule, timing, necessary ingredients and equipment list.
Because paté sucrée needs to be refrigerated at least 1 or 2 hours, the day before I made three different versions of the sweet pastry dough using recipes from Dorie, Leite’s Culinaria and Bon Appetit. (You can link to each recipe.) I also mixed together Dorie’s knock-em-dead Almond Pastry Cream. (If all else failed, we could take 2 spoons and just devour Dorie’s divine bowl of cream.)
Judy wanted to make a strawberry tart with mascarpone pastry cream. Shortly after I arrived she put together her pastry dough and stuck it in the freezer. Together we had six paté sucrée disks (and, enough pans) for our play day. For fillings we wanted to try almond and mascarpone pastry creams, lemon curd and various jams, all topped with fresh fruit.
After filling the unbaked tart shell with almond cream, I placed sliced canned pears on top.
Carefully.
Strawberry-topped Tart with cooked Mascarpone Cream
We were most satisfied with our beautiful and delicious Pear and Almond Tart. While freshly poached pears are more desirable for this tart, Dorie admits French cooks often use canned.pear halves. Although I tried all three pastry recipes, what worked best for me, the most manageable, was Leite’s Culinaria. Judy preferred the Bon Appetit recipe. Most of my colleagues swear by Dorie’s sweet tart pastry.
So many pans. So much dough.
Some tips from our baking day:
1) Be organized and prepared for disappointments or disasters. We practiced rolling out the dough, over and over, tossing two attempts.
2) For the pear tart, use canned pears. Dorie’s correct, there is little
difference.
3) I would not cook the mascarpone pastry cream as we chose to do. Just fill a pre-baked tart with Dorie’s no-fail Cream Cheese Pastry Cream (or, your favorite mascarpone pastry cream) and top with any fresh fruit.
Dorie’s Cream Cheese Pastry Cream
For the filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
⅓ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup cold heavy cream
Put the room temperature cream cheese in a large bowl and sift the powdered sugar over it. With a sturdy rubber spatula or sturdy whisk, stir everything together. Add the vanilla and continue to stir. In a separate large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream until it holds firm peaks. Stir about a quarter of the whipped cream into the cream cheese ( You don’t have to be toooo gentle. This is more about getting the textures of the cream cheese and whipped cream similar to each other.) Gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream in 2 or 3 additions (This time, be ginger, as not to deflate the whipped cream.)
Our favorite. The star of the show.
Although every week I cook virtually with my French Fridays colleagues, this was tartful reality and a successful learning adventure. Why not take your cooking show on the road, sharing your skills, friendship and flour.
The question is….. should I kick off this post with The End? Or, do I stir things up and toss the lentilles du Puy in the pot. Better yet, chicken joke, anyone?
Q:What did the bad chicken lay? A:A deviled egg
C’mon, follow me, let’s see where my words need to wander?
French Lentils, this week’s French Friday’s recipe choice. Dorie finally spills the beans on her delish adaptions.
I’m hooked on a Barbara Kingsolver quote from Animal Dreams: “The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.”
For two years, since Michael died, my hope has been to find that roof of contentment and mindfulness and hang out under it. I needed to enjoy being Me again, making every day an adventure. Thankfully, I’d already built a structure, a framework for my future. I only questioned if I could close the sale.
Celebrating Summer’s End at Betsy’s Last Night for Whites pre-Labor Day dinner party. Carl Schiller Photo
Joyfully, it’s been a wildly successful summer for me. The same cannot be said for our World. I’ve consciously decided this blog will not deal with the world’s injustices. Those problems cannot be solved here. I’ll continue to tell stories, make you laugh (admit it, my posts are smilers). I’ll try to inspire you with ideas, suggestions and hopes. Then, there’s the food. Almost 200 posts later, is my cooking improving?
Chicken, Peppers, Onions and Peas are tossed together in a spicy curry seasoning. Note the yellow coloring of the sliced chicken pieces. To my thinking, the spicier, the tastier.
Let’s first talk about Curried Chicken, Peppers, and Peas en Papillote. (Here’s the recipe.) Whether a newbie or pro, this is dinner party fare. En Papillote means in paper. That’s how you cook this spicy chicken and veggie medley, in a pouch of foil or parchment. This takes 10 minutes to assemble and 20 minutes to bake before being whisked to the table for its Voila! moment. Each guest opens his own poultry pouch. I suggest you crank up the spice by doubling the curry powder or adding Aleppo Pepper or Cayenne.
Four poultry pouches, ready for the oven.
Freed from its pouch of foil, this curried chicken with peppers, sliced onions and peas looks good enough to eat.
I served French Lentils, this week’s recipe choice, with the curried chicken. All lentils are not born alike. Brown lentils are soft, turn mushy and best for soups. Use the more colorful lentils in purees and Indian cooking. For this recipe you want dark green lentilles du Puy.
Be sure to buy the beautiful and special lentilles du Puy
These babies remain firm when cooked, are nutty in flavor, taste delicious as a side dish (serve warm) or salad (room temperature). Your local grocery store probably carries them. Don’t settle for less. Here’s the recipe. If serving lentils hot from the pot, drizzle olive, hazelnut or walnut oil and a splash of lemon juice on top. Or, if you have a favorite vinaigrette, use that instead. Always dress lentils while hot so they can absorb the seasoning.
Our end-of-summer hike last week-end to Lake Hope, an alpine lake in the San Juan Mountain Range near Telluride. Tag Liebel Photo
Last year an exasperated friend suggested to me that Life cannot be perfect. Although he’s right, of course, there’s nothing in my DNA that allows that thinking. This summer I finally managed to complete My Version of Perfect. (Long may it last!). I believe anyone can flourish in the landscape where they’re planted just by dovetailing their passions into the Life they’ve been dealt. That combo makes magic.
One of our majestic resident moose at the just-as-majestic Maroon Bells. USFS Photo
Although every day has been memorable, with adventures I’ve often shared in this blog, here are two more moments:
Most Bizarre Memory – When I’m not doing a Ranger patrol, I often hike up Smuggler Mountain, a short, in-town “bit of a huff” and good exercise. One morning I was hiking down, closely followed by a fifties-something couple. During those 30-minutes, oblivious to my presence, they had a serious (and, loud) conversation, discussing where to buy Weed (Pot) locally, the various choices available, price comparisons and preferences of friends. (I knew those friends.) Not good hiking form, that’s for sure, but very entertaining.
2) Funny & Heartwarming Memories – On a recent Saturday, I rangered the Crater Lake Trail at Maroon Bells. During my patrol I encountered 451 hikers (we carry counters), answering many questions. These were two:
“Ranger, hey, do you carry Nitroglycerin?” a hiker yells, as he approaches me.
Be still my heart.
Further up the mountain, I spot his friend, slumped on a rock, holding his head in his hands. I’m now thinking that even if that guy doesn’t have a heart attack, I might! In the end, after TLC and water, the hiker survived without needing the Nitroglycerin tablet that I did not have.
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Later, as I was hiking down from Crater Lake, I spotted two boys, with their Dad, hiking toward me. The first young man, about 10, totally stopped in the middle of the trail. I couldn’t pass him.
“You ever hike those?” he asked seriously, pointing with his thumb to the mountains behind me.
“What?” I asked.
“The Bells,” he replied.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. (Egads, the peaks of the Bells are over 14,000’.)
He thought about this for a few seconds. “Too dangerous, huh?”
I nodded in agreement. Too dangerous. He hiked on, followed closely by his brother. As his Dad walked by, I muttered, “Your son has made my day, just by thinking I could.”
According to the Colorado Mycological Society there are 200 varieties of mushrooms growing in our Valley’s high-alpine climate and 800 statewide. In the Aspen area, the most prized edible fungi are Porcini (King Bolete), Chanterelles, Oysters and Morels. Although I have taken mushroom courses and have also foraged for them, my mantra has always been, “When in doubt, throw it out.”
In truth, most mushrooms I gather never cross my lips.
This week’s French Friday’s recipe, Chanterelles with Napa Cabbage and Nuts, was a perfect menu choice right now. Luckily, I was able to find some thin-stemmed, fan-shaped golden beauties.
Mise en Place
Napa Cabbage – You will notice later that I used three times the amount Dorie specified in her recipe.
First, however, let me introduce you to this nine-pound, nine-inch Western Giant Puffball.
Western Giant Puffball – an enormous mushroom
My friend, Donna Chase, called me last week with the exciting news that she had acquired a huge puffball. “When I was at the grocery store,” she said, “this guy had found it and asked if I wanted it.”
“Did you know him?” I wondered.
“Well, no,” she answered. “And, it smells. Steve [her husband] told me not to bring it in the house.”
“Where is it?” I asked.
“In the house,” she replied.
“If I can’t find chanterelles,” I told her, “I can always make Puffball with Napa Cabbage and Nuts.”
The next morning, another friend and I showed up at Chases for a puffball viewing. I was given the honor of slicing it open. If the interior was white, it’s considered edible. If it’s green-brown with a putrid odor, I’d be forced to continue hunting for chanterelles. These photos provide the verdict.
I eventually did find chanterelles at my grocery-of-last-resort, The Butcher Block. The Block is a great meat/gourmet market but très cher. The mushrooms cost, Gulp! Gulp!, $39.50 a pound. I was hosting a luncheon meeting during the week so this dish would be a unique appetizer. Very appropriate, in fact, since my luncheon colleagues were both terrific cooks and local Naturalists. They know their mushrooms. A bad one in the basket? They’d spot it.
Marcia Johnson, Executive Director of the Forest Conservancy, trims stems off the chanterelles.
On Wednesday, the three of us hunkered down around the cookbook and read the recipe carefully. Since this is a last minute, quickly concocted dish, we divided the chores: slicing, dicing, shredding. It is exactly nine minutes from the moment EVOO warms in the pan to when the mixture is plated. All hands on deck for the dash to the table.
My friend and fellow chef, Donna Grauer, minces the shallot.
The Accolades:“Earthy. Rocky Mountain Foie Gras. Sublime. Rich. A Little Dab Will Do Ya.”
Shallots and chanterelles, nicely coated with olive oil and on the fire.
Chanterelles with Napa Cabbage & Nuts is a stand-up/clap-your-hands appetizer. Donna’s warm baguette with herb butter was perfect for sopping up the juices. Dorie suggests serving this also as a side to a meat dish or with an herb salad for lunch. To my mind, this very special chanterelle mixture should bask in its own spotlight, sharing the stage with no one.
The complete recipe is here. My additional tips are:
1. I would add 1 cup of shredded Napa cabbage instead of the 1/3 cup suggested by Dorie.
2. Since the chanterelle blend is very rich, a 1/2 to 3/4 cup serving is sufficient.
3. Have all your preparations completed and ingredients ready before pouring your first tablespoon of oil into the skillet.
Enjoy.
Whoops! No photographs of the plated chanterelles – don’t they both look smug?
Read about my colleagues’ foraging skills on our French Fridays link right here. As I mention each week, we are an international cooking group having a wonderful time working our way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table.
Roasted Peppers, this week’s FFWD recipe, are a versatile, delicious and healthy veg,
This week’s French Friday’s with Dorie recipe choice is Roasted Peppers. In the spirit of full disclosure, I will admit I’d never roasted peppers before. That’s why I am able to promise that these are the most delicious peppers I’ve ever roasted. Like many of you, I get my roasted peppers from a jar and always have one jar in the fridge with two unopened jars as back-up in the pantry.
Before the fire…..
After roasting my own peppers, adding fresh herbs, garlic cloves and salt/pepper, I promise you this. Jarred roasted peppers will never grace my kitchen again. The technique and process are fun. Granted, it takes time, is messy and heats up your kitchen. I cranked up my oven to 500 degrees F rather than the 425 degrees F suggested by Dorie. (Instead of the oven, in hot weather, use your grill.)
Ready to roast in my 500 degrees F oven
But the rewards are many and plentiful, adding flavor, color and depth to a myriad of dishes. “In France, roasted red peppers slicked with olive oil, sometimes scattered with garlic, and often speckled with herbs are a time-honored bistro dish,” Dorie suggests. “They’re served as a starter with a fork, a knife and plenty of bread.”
Blistered and charred – that’s the look we’re wanting
Dorie serves her peppers as an appetizer with a fork, knife and crusty bread.
Need an alternative? I scoured the Internet and searched through my cookbooks. Here are some other great ideas to pepper-up your menus with this versatile, nutritious vegetable:
1. Red Tomato, Red Onion and Roasted Pepper Relish, an alternative to pickle relish
2. Red Pepper Hummus
3. Deviled Eggs
4. Muhammara – a hot pepper dip which blends roasted peppers, lemon, olive oil, pomegranate and walnuts. (used in Middle Eastern cuisines)
5. Roasted Pepper and Tomato Pasta Sauces, pureed or chunky, regular or meat-based.
6. Topping for Pizza, Bruschetta, Flatbread or Galettes
7. Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Bisque or Gazpacho
8. Fold into pasta or grains for an additional kick.
9. Stir into egg, chicken, tuna and potato salads.
10. Roasted Pepper Puree
11.Serve as an additional filling for fajitas
12. Roasted Pepper Dip (pureed with sour cream, Greek yogurt or cream cheese)
13. Fold into scrambled eggs, frittatas and omelets.
14. Stir into mashed potatoes (sweet potatoes, also), mashed celery root or cauliflower.
15. Add as an additional item to any sandwich.
16. Add to the steaming broth for mussels and shrimp.
17. Add roasted peppers to traditional condiments and side dishes like Ratatouille, Gremolata, Shakshuka, and Harissa (which already uses some roasted red peppers)
18. Add to roasted vegetables like corn, green beans, brussels sprouts, artichokes or zucchini.
19. Use it in your preserved lemons recipes which turns the preserved lemons into a delicious relish.
20. Have I missed anything? Now, it’s your turn.
Check out these food sites where I gleaned these many ideas: here and here and here and here and here. My Colorado friend, Michele, who blogs at Cooking with Michelle, offers many unique recipes. You’ll find Dorie’s version here. Pinterest offers other suggestions. Can’t find a particular recipe? Contact me. I’ll send it your way. Find my colleagues’ roasted peppers on our French Fridays link. As I mention each week, we are an international cooking group having a wonderful time working our way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table.
If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. And, these are duck eggs, fresh from our local farmers market. Another first for me.
This says it all. Gâteau Basque, this week’s FFWD recipe choice, is almost too good to be true.
Odds are you have the ingredients for Gâteau Basque in your kitchen. No need for a grocery run nor special equipment. It’s an effortless preparation. The frosting on this cake (whoops, there is no frosting on this cake) is that in France, there’s even a museum dedicated to it. Hoity-toity. Something to work into the conversation as dessert is served.
This week’s French Friday’s recipe is Gâteau Basque, the traditional dessert of the French Basque region. Although it might look like a torte, galette or monster cookie, the people of this region call it cake. It’s exactly what I needed yesterday to regain my status as super-duper resident of The Gant, the 144-condo complex where I live.
Gâteau Basque, fresh from the oven. Smokey Bear shared his birthday candles with me.
Wednesday, our local Whole Foods Market in El Jebel joined with the Forest Conservancy to celebrate Smokey Bear’s 70th Birthday. Everyone would have the opportunity to see Smokey, take photos and share his birthday cake. Five percent of the WF’s proceeds that day would go to the Conservancy. Our organization hums along on a lean budget so we were psyched. So was Smokey.
When I left The Gant early Wednesday morning I promised everyone at the front office to bring back some of Smokey’s birthday cake. What was I thinking? I returned home Wednesday night only with Smokey’s birthday candles. Not good.
Choose any filling you wish for the Gâteau Basque, even vanilla pastry cream. I used wild Swedish Lingonberries.
Gâteau Basque to the rescue. I poured myself an extra-tall Gin & Tonic (it had been a verrry long day) and put together the batter: flour, baking powder, salt, butter, sugar, brown and white, eggs and vanilla extract. After dividing the dough in half, I rolled out two 8-inch disks. Since the dough is sticky, Dorie suggests placing each disk between wax paper before the roll. Refrigerate, wax paper included, for at least 3 hours. I went to bed so it was an overnight.
The next day I laid one disk in a buttered 8-inch cake pan and dressed it with wild Swedish Lingonberries, leaving 1” inch of dough bare around the border. After moistening the bare ring with water, I put the second disk on top, sealed them together and brushed with an egg glaze before making the crosshatch pattern. Forty-five minutes in a 350 degrees oven-later, you’ve got a museum-quality cake.
Dorie Greenspan’s Gâteau Basque (photo by Dorie Greenspan)
After placing Smokey’s birthday candles on the Gâteau Basque and slicing a teeny-weeny piece for myself, I carried it to the front office. I handed it off to Lucas and heard a muffled whooping and hollering as he carried it to the back room. I understand it was ‘devoured’. Mark, who returned my plate, said, “It’s something you’d expect from a fancy bakery. And you can quote me on that.”
So, I did.
Smokey Bear’s 70th birthday cake made by Whole Foods in their bakery. Note the candles.
I not only maintained my stature at The Gant but can also report on Smokey’s successful celebration. We fattened our depleted coffers by $3,984. What made the day especially great was watching the public respond to the Big Guy. The kids were excited and had a ball but the adults went all silly in the greatest of ways.
According to the Ad Council, 96 percent of the U.S. adult population recognize Smokey Bear and 70 percent are able to recall his tagline without any prompting. Our Smokey posed for hundreds of pictures, had gestures-only conversations, held babies and strolled through WF’s so each employee shift could have photo-ops. It was a Mom-and-Apple Pie day as you can see from these photos.
Donna Chase and I helped Smokey organize this event. Bright-eyed and furry-tailed in the AM. By 6pm, we all had flagged a bit.
What’s more fun than adults being silly. This was Smokey’s first photo op. Note the kids waiting patiently in the back.
The local fire guys are helping Smokey Bear remind everyone, “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.”
It’s late. We’re a bit silly ourselves but Donna Grauer never loses her joie de vivre. . Betsy Dunbar not only shopped but also brought us snacks. We all forgot lunch!
French Fridays with Dorie is an international group cooking its way through Dorie Greenspan’s, Around My French Table. If you want to try today’s recipe, go here. To see what my colleagues baked this week, go here.
Soupe au Pistou is as close to the south of France as one can be without actually sticking a big toe in the Mediterranean. Grab a big dose of imagination, polish up your bonjours and mercis and follow me through a recipe we Americans call Provençal Vegetable Soup. This week French Fridays with Dorie celebrates summer, that glorious few months when Farmers Markets strut their stuff and tout their wares.
Although this soup is jam-packed with vegetables, it’s broth is fragrantly light and airy. By itself, it’s a light lunch. With a green leafy salad and a warm baguette, it’s supper on the patio. If you’ve grown fond of Rosés, pull out your nicest bottle.
The veggies – carrots, potatoes, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes and corn, onions and garlic – grab the spotlight. Hovering nearby are an abundance of fresh herbs – parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil and bay. Salt. Pepper. Depending on your audience, use vegetable, chicken broth or, water as your moisture base. Dorie’s version also includes 1/3 cup of tiny pasta and a can of cannellini beans.
To my mind, what makes this soup très spécial is its lah-de-dah finale. After ladling the liquid into individual bowls, add a healthy dab of basil pesto, drizzle a stream of olive oil over that (not much) and top everything with shredded basil leaves and grated Parmesan. Can’t you just visualize those bowls marching out of your kitchen in lockstep with the proud chef?
A Cast-iron Soup Kettle Packed with Fresh Vegetables and Herbs – Perfect for Summertime
The most challenging but important preparation in this recipe is adding the vegetables in proper order. Now is the time for Mise en Place – have all your ingredients prepped, lined up and ready to go. Tip One: when making this again, I will eliminate the 1/3 cup of pasta. The pasta becomes soft and mushy after a day or two. Tip Two: it’s perfectly acceptable, if you’re pressed for time, to buy your pesto in a jar.
Meet Rusty the Rufous Hummingbird. The word in the neighborhood is “Don’t Mess with Rusty.”
This summer I’ve been eating lunch and dinner on my tiny balcony. It’s fun, my mountain view is glorious and, it seemed to me, my Soupe au Pistou just tasted better en plein air. A little white-breasted nuthatch is often working his way down the nearby cottonwood tree and an amazing number of Anna’s and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds visit my two feeders everyday. These beautiful little creatures are fascinating to watch, making me laugh. Unfortunately this blissful scenario of joy ended abruptly recently. I’ve been kicked off my own balcony by a belligerent bully who is 3.75” long, weighs 3.4 grams, has a wingspan of 4.5” and doesn’t even speak English.
Last Sunday a male Rufous Hummingbird (now named Rusty) spotted my two nectar-filled feeders and decided to claim the territory. He quickly chased off the others and torpedoed any newcomers who ventured by for a sip. Rusty, who is often caught flashing his iridescent gorget (throat) while vigorously moving his head from side to side, is obviously looking for chicks. The more, the better. He is not a monogamous guy.
“WHOOPS, I’ve reached the end of the Line.” The white-breasted nuthatch has worked its way down this huge 100-year old cottonwood. Lots of tasty morsels to be had along the way.
Rusty sits in a nearby bush, guarding, what he now claims as his feeders, chasing off those who venture near. That includes Moi. Sometimes there are 5 or 6 hummers circling the feeders with a frenetic Rusty, darting to and fro. The chattering racket and loud wing-beating sounds have become annoying. The paying guests who are renting the condos surrounding mine are very good sports but we’re all pulling for Rusty to get lucky, eventually lose interest and move on. The sooner, the better, so peace can be restored at The Gant.
Rusty, caught cat-napping. When you’re on duty 24/7, it’s necessary to grab some shuteye when you can.
Whether you enjoy your Soupe au Pistou inside or outside, you will find the recipe here. To see what my colleagues cooked up this week, go to our French Fridays link. French Fridays with Dorie is an international cooking group working its way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table.
