This is a Hooray for Husbands! post. Last Tuesday it was Michael’s birthday. He would have been 86 years old. Instead of feeling sorry for myself and imbibing in Woe is Me, I decided to do what Michael loved best and invite friends to dinner. I asked two Aspen couples with a friendship history of 25 years, and another couple, who had only known Michael through my eyes, to join me.
I warned the gals about wearing lipstick, my code phrase for blogging purposes and photo ops and got down to the business of planning and cooking a meal. We neglected to mention to the men that this would be a work/blog dinner as well as, hopefully, a pleasurable evening.
…..which brings me to my French Fridays recipe choice, Sweet and Spicy Cocktail Nuts. The Doristas made these in 2010 prior to my joining the clan. Since everything I was serving for dinner I’d never made before, these would be a simple and tasty cocktail nibble. If as delicious as anticipated, wouldn’t they be a great hostess gift when packaged in holiday finery?
The whole almonds after they have been mixed thoroughly into the frothy egg white.
Although you can use a variety of nuts, I chose only whole almonds. After beating an egg white to a runny froth, I swished 2 cups of almonds until all were coated and shiny. Then I poured in a mixture of sweet (sugar and cinnamon) and spicy (salt, chili powder and cayenne). After the almonds were thoroughly coated, I separated the last bit of egg white from the nuts and transferred them to a parchment lined baking sheet. Thirty-five minutes later at 300 degreesF, I had toasty brown almonds to serve my guests.
All shiny and covered with the spice mixture, the almonds are headed to my oven.
Fast forward to Tuesday evening. Picture the scene: we have our wine and have just settled down to deal with the appetizers. The first guest to go for the nuts was Steve Chase who hardly got one into his mouth before I said, “What do you think?”
“About what?” he asked.
“The nuts,” I replied. “Do you taste the sweet? The spicy?”
At this point, all conversation has stopped to hear Steve’s and my exchange. At this point, also, Steve is looking at me like I’m nuts. (He’s given me this look before so I’m unbothered by it.) By the way, during the conversation I am also clicking photos of Steve eating the almonds. His wife, Donna, jumps in to explain that ‘Mary made these and is blogging about them’.
Long story short, the two other husbands, Philip Salet and Don Wrigley, took a handful of nuts and the critiquing began: “some spice, not too much, however,” “festive,” “still salty but sweet,” “perfect with a light red,” and “I just like them.” Not to be outdone, Philip’s wife, Jessica, suggested, “How about profound? These nuts are profound.”
Brown and toasty. It’s time to cool off.
We all agreed, Dorie’s Sweet and Spicy Cocktail Nuts are “profound”. I’ll include photos and more about our dinner party in next week’s post when our recipe is Béatrix’s phenomenal Red Kuri Soup. In the meantime, if you would enjoy making these Profound Sweet & Spicy Cocktail Nuts, here’s the recipe:
2 cups nuts, whole or halves, but not small pieces, such as almonds, cashews, peanuts, pecans, or a mix
Instructions
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
Spray a nonstick baking sheet with cooking spray or line it with a silicone baking mat.
Mix the sugar and spices together in a small bowl.
Beat the egg white lightly with a fork in a larger bowl – you’re not making a meringue, just breaking up the white so that it’s liquid.
Toss in the nuts, stir to coat them with egg white, then add the sugar-and-spice mixture and continue to stir so that the nuts are evenly covered.
Using your fingers, lift the nuts from the bowl, letting the excess egg white drip back into the bowl (you can run the dipped nuts against the side of the bowl to de-excess them), and transfer them to the baking sheet, separating them as best you can. Discard whatever sugar-egg mix is left in the bowl.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the nuts are browned and the coating is dry.
Cool for 5 minutes, then transfer the nuts to another baking sheet, a cutting board or a piece of parchment paper, break them apart, and let them cool completely. The nuts crisp as they cool.
Storing: Kept covered in a dry place, the nuts will hold for about 5 days at room temperature.
Notes
Bonne Idée: You can swap the spices at whim. For a change, omit the chile powder and go for 5-spice powder (you can keep the cinnamon, if you’d like), curry powder (I’d use just a smidgen of cinnamon with the curry) or even cardamom (in which case, I’d cut out the cinnamon). You can also make herb-flavored nuts using finely chopped fresh herbs or dried herbs (just make sure your dried herbs are brightly colored and still fragrant). Keep the sugar and salt, drop the chile powder and cinnamon, and try mixing the nuts with fresh rosemary or thyme or dried herbes de Provence.
In America we generally call my French Fridays recipe, Beef Stew. Plain and simple. In France, it’s a Daube, a stew cooked in wine in a deep casserole. Dorie suggests it could also be named Boeuf aux Carottes. That gets my vote and here’s why.
Dorie’s Go-To Beef Daube, also called Boeuf aux Carottes.
It’s already snowed twice in Aspen. Old Man Winter is knocking at my door. I’ve never found the perfect beef stew recipe, a go-to winter meal. By chance I discovered that my French Fridays colleagues made My Go-To Beef Daube, a recipe from Around My French Table, in May, 2010. Unfortunately, that was before I joined FFWD. It seemed that it was Opportunity knocking at my door this week.
What interests me most about the recipe is there are very few stars in this production. The economical beef chunk roast, which gets a lazy, three-hour braise, is the meat of choice. The only other major players are carrots and parsnips. Being from the same family, Apiaceae, they dance well together. That’s what I love about this stew. It’s simple goodness.
While beef, carrots and parsnips may be the main ingredients, it’s the flavoring and spices that pack the wallop. Oh, yes, there’s that bottle of red wine. Before the beef chunks and veggies ever hit the pot, the heady, aromatic sauce is already bubbling nicely. Bacon, onions, shallots and garlic provide rich flavor and a bouquet garni lends the spice. Did I mention the Cognac? This stew is a keeper. I posted the written recipe at the end of this post.
The star players: beef, carrots and parsnips. C’est tout.
I’ve polished off the stew these past few busy days, happy for the tasty leftovers. We leave this week for another presidential library tour, this time to Texas. You may remember that I consider the 13 presidential libraries managed by the National Archives to be the uncrowned jewels of our country’s historical tourist opportunities. Very little is written about these treasures. I hope to change that.
With the completion of this journey, I will have visited 9 of the 13 libraries. The ones I haven’t seen will be: G. Ford, Ann Arbor, Michigan; J. Carter, Atlanta, Georgia; F.D. Roosevelt, Hyde Park, New York; and J.F.Kenndy, Boston, Massachusetts. Can you figure out where I have been?
Last fall my good friend and companion in all things presidential, Donna Grauer, accompanied me on the road trip to the midwestern libraries of Eisenhower, Truman and Clinton. This year she’s game for the fly/drive to Dallas, Austin and College Station. With Donna, our resident brainiac, it’s always an adventure. Stay tuned.
My colleagues made Osso Bucco à l’Arman this week. See their efforts here.
We are an international cooking group working our way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table, more than 300 recipes from my home to yours.
A bouquet garni—2 thyme sprigs, 2 parsley sprigs, 1 rosemary sprig, and the leaves from 1 celery stalk, tied together in a piece of cheesecloth
Instructions
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Put a Dutch oven over medium heat and toss in the bacon. Cook, stirring, just until the bacon browns, then transfer to a bowl.
3. Dry the beef between sheets of paper towels. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to the bacon fat in the pot and warm it over medium-high heat, then brown the beef, in batches, on all sides. Don’t crowd the pot—if you try to cook too many pieces at once, you’ll steam the meat rather than brown it—and make sure that each piece gets good color. Transfer the browned meat to the bowl with the bacon and season lightly with salt and pepper.
4. Pour off the oil in the pot (don’t remove any browned bits stuck to the bottom), add the remaining tablespoon of oil, and warm it over medium heat. Add the onions and shallots, season lightly with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, until the onions soften, about 8 minutes. Toss in the garlic, carrots, and parsnips, if you’re using them, and give everything a few good turns to cover all the ingredients with a little oil. Pour in the brandy, turn up the heat, and stir well so that the brandy loosens whatever may be clinging to the bottom of the pot. Let the brandy boil for a minute, then return the beef and bacon to the pot, pour in the wine, and toss in the bouquet garni. Once again, give everything a good stir.
5. When the wine comes to a boil, cover the pot tightly with a piece of aluminum foil and the lid. Slide the daube into the oven and allow it to braise undisturbed for 1 hour.
6. Pull the pot out of the oven, remove the lid and foil, and stir everything up once. If it looks as if the liquid is reducing by a great deal (unlikely), add just enough water to cover the ingredients. Recover the pot with the foil and lid, slip it back into the oven, and cook for another 1 1/2 hours (total time is 2 1/2 hours). At this point the meat should be fork-tender—if it’s not, give it another 30 minutes or so in the oven.
7. Taste the sauce. If you’d like it a little more concentrated, pour the sauce into a saucepan, put it over high heat, and boil it down until it’s just the way you like it. When the sauce meets your approval, taste it for salt and pepper. (If you’re going to reduce the sauce, make certain not to salt it until it’s reduced.) Fish out the bouquet garni and using a large serving spoon, skim off the surface fat.
8. Serve the beef, carrots and parsnips moistened with sauce.
9. Storing: Like all stews, this can be kept in the refrigerator for about 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you are preparing the daube ahead, don’t reduce the sauce, just cool the daube and chill it. Then, at serving time, lift off the fat (an easy job when the daube’s been chilled), reduce the sauce, and season it one last time.
Baby Beet Tarte Tatin from River Cottage Veg, authored by Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall, an October Cottage Cooking Club recipe choice.
By no stretch of the imagination would you call me a Vegetarian. My granddaughter, yes. Close friends, you bet. But, me, absolutely not. That’s why it’s surprising that lately Deborah Madison, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Yotam Ottolenghi and I have become best buddies. I’m in awe of these three cookbook authors whose recently published cookbooks make vegetables sexy.
River Cottage Veg, 200 inspired vegetable recipes, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
For the past 6 months, since joining Cottage Cooking Club, I’ve been exploring Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg, 200 inspired vegetable recipes. This month I baked his scrumptious Pumpkin & Raisin Tea Loaf (no butter, no oil) and Baby Beet Tarte Tatin. Both recipes were unique, compelling, flavorful and dinner guest-worthy. Visit my October 7th Post, devoted to his Tea Loafhere. Find the recipe here.
Pumpkin & Raisin Tea Loaf
Tarte Tatin is a classic, of course, if you use apples. With beets? Not so classic. “But,” as HF-W writes, “the principle of caramelizing some delicious round sweet things, topping them with puff pastry, then flipping upside down, works equally well in the savory interpretation.”
Baby Beet Tarte Tatin
I simplified the preparation by purchasing vacuum-packed, ready-to-eat baby beets. My puff pastry of choice is DuFour Pastry Kitchens, available in grocery stores. Basically, halve the beets, caramelizing them and then fitting snugly into an 8-inch ovenproof container. Having already cut out a puff pastry disk to fit the dish, place it over the beets, patting firmly and tucking its edges down the pan’s side. After 20 minutes in the oven, the pastry should be a puffy, golden brown. Cool for 15 minutes before inverting it carefully onto the serving plate. Top with the vinaigrette (recipe included) or crumbled feta cheese. Serve immediately.
Spicy Chickpea & Bulgar Soup from Plenty More, a cookbook authored by Yotam Ottolenghi
Baby Beet Tarte Tatin is an excellent appetizer, first course, entrée side or, as I found, delicious lunch. I enjoyed this with a bowl of Ottolenghi’s Spicy Chickpea & Bulgar Soup, a recipe from Plenty More, his latest cookbook published this month. What I love about Ottolenghi is his no-holds-barred attitude regarding ingredients. There’s a whole vegetable world out there with its accompanying flavorings and spices that I’ve never met.
Plenty More, Yotam Ottolenghi’s latest cookbook
For this soup I did have the spices on hand, cumin, coriander and caraway seeds. Garlic, onions, carrots and celery added flavor and crunch. Bulgar wheat was a first time-ingredient for me but Bob’s Red Mill brand carries all kinds of Natural Foods, Mixes and Flours in our grocery stores. Harissa Paste, I knew about but had never used. My advice? Perhaps, less heat? Use 1 TBSP instead of 2 TBSP. For stock, vegetable, chicken or water work equally well. Instead of the Creamed Feta Paste garnish, I cut calories and just sprinkled feta chunks on the top. This soup is goodness.
Spicy Chickpea & Bulgar Soup topped with Feta Chunks
Deborah Madison waded deeply into the veggie business in 1997 with the publication of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, a James Beard Foundation Book Award winner, and, now, a classic. But it’s her recently published Vegetable Literacy, a celebration of the plant kingdom’s diversity, which has been captivating. Nostalgic moment, my mother often cooked with rutabagas. When the Indian Summer fades and our snow falls turn serious, I’m all over her Rutabaga and Apple Bisque and Winter Stew of Braised Rutabagas with Carrots, Potatoes and Parsley Sauce.
Quite often, when I finish a three or four-hour hike, my reward is to stop by the Woody Creek Tavern, an old Hunter Thompson hangout, and have a burger, fries and beer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. However, a journey down the veggie highway created by these three masterful chefs is well worth my time and effort also. Having it all is a good thing.
The Cottage Cooking Club is a virtual international group cooking its way through Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s excellent River Cottage VEG cookbook. Please join us in our adventure if you wish. To see what delicious fare my colleagues created this month, go here.
Next-Day Beef Salad, my French Fridays recipe this week and my last lunch on my balcony. Can you tell by the shadows that Old Man Winter is lurking nearby?
This week presented another opportunity to choose a recipe my colleagues made before I joined them. My family’s been here for their autumn vacation and my friend, Judy Boyd, brought us some fantastic meals. Judy deals very patiently with Low-fat, Gluten-free, No Dairy, Bring It On (my son-in-law) and I’ll Eat Anything (me). She had our bases covered all week while Melissa and I relished the breather.
After the kids left, I dealt with leftovers. When I spotted the remains of a skirt steak, Dorie’s Next-Day Beef Salad came to mind. It wasn’t hard to pull together this voluptuous salad by revisiting my fridge. What’s distinctive is its simple dressing – mayo and two French mustards, Dijon and grainy. A diced, tart apple alerts us to this salad’s sweet side. Add onions, olives, cornichons, tomatoes, capers, red bell and chile peppers to the mix and it’s a meal. Serve it over greens, with crusty bread, and your leftovers become super stars.
A big bowl of ingredients for my beef salad: diced beef, onions, olives, cornichons, tomatoes, capers, red bell and chile peppers.
Last Tuesday’s Post, Pumpkin & Raisin Tea Loaf, tackled the 6 steps involved in putting together a post: Choose; Make; Photograph; Eat; Write; and Go Live. For me, it’s a week-long process. As promised, here’s Part II, “Why the effort?”“Why bother?”
WHY I BLOG
1. Realistically, a food blogger must be multi-talented, blessed with kitchen skills, camera-ready, technically astute, creatively imaginative, and more. Think Barnum & Bailey’s Big Top and you’re the only performer. Truthfully, I didn’t qualify. I began blogging because I needed Structure, a framework in which to rebuild my Life. For the last two years of my husband’s life, while in a Memory Care Unit and under Hospice care, and for the next two years that it took to plant myself where I could nurture, the one constant activity in my Life was that damn blog. Whatever else was happening with me, I plodded through those six necessary steps to post a “product” every week. It often wasn’t pretty but, for me, a great accomplishment, week in, week out.
2. “I don’t know where the Summer went,” a friend lamented to me recently. “I can’t even remember what I did.” That’s not a problem for me. My blog is a Diary and Journal. I associate weekly Posts with lifestyle events and activities. At a time when pen-and-ink has become passé, my Blog lives safely on my portable hard drive.
To complete this lunch (or, dinner) cut up crusty bread and pour a glass of apple cider.
3. Using business jargon, food blogging requires a Low Start-up Fee. This project was something I could begin at a nominal cost. I found inexpensive tech assistance via Craig’s List. We all need to eat. Food bloggers wisely feed their families and friends with menus incorporated into their Posts. In our French Fridays group, there are many fine bloggers who are thrifty and cost-conscious.
4. I Am The Boss. My blog is all ME. A dream come true! For the first time in my adult memory, I am responsible for and to no one. When I returned to Aspen, I could either wilt or blossom. Throw a pity party or do and be everything that wasn’t possible in prior decades. I felt I owed my friends and family who offered us unconditional caring, support and love for ten years, to at least try. My blog has evolved from that effort.
I poured a two- mustard/mayo dressing onto the mixture and tossed lightly to saturate it.
5. Friendships. Number 5 is an unanticipated bonus. Without a doubt and throughout my life, I’ve collected the best group of “reality” friends ever. To me, they are priceless. But, virtual friends? Who knew about that? Being a lover of all things Greenspan, in February 2011, I joined French Fridays, an internet food group cooking through Dorie’s Around My French Table. Somewhere between the Cauliflower-Bacon Gratin (12/30/11) and Cocoa Sablés (3/23/12), I realized these were not just colleagues, they were friends. Through virtual networking I’ve met other foodie pals. Blogging in not a lonely sport and I’ll keep doing it if only to maintain these relationships.
6. Through blogging or because of it, my little world has grown richer and been enhanced by the experience. Examples — Because my kitchen is a constant companion, I’m a better cook. I’m on a first-name basis with all the butchers, bakers and candlestick makers up and down Colorado State Highway 82. Food blogging is a daily on-line education. What I’ve realized is how much I don’t know especially when interacting with international colleagues. There’s no time-out for boredom when your investment is in yourself. I thrive on praise (who doesn’t?). Alex, a young bellmen here at The Gant, is still talking about the meatballs I made last Christmas. My blog comments are encouraging, uplifting and sometimes hilarious. “Wear Your Lipstick.” is the heads-up to my friends whenever a social occasion is to become a blog. Good Sports, always. Every day has become an adventure.
Just too much salad – it’s filling. My eyes were bigger than my appetite.
7. By dumb luck, I slide into a perfect niche. As I’ve written, I believe anyone can flourish in the landscape where they’re planted just by dovetailing their passions into the Life they’ve been dealt. We’re all blindsided by challenges and bumps. How we deal with those is key. My blog tells my story, showing how I muddle through my days. My greatest wish is that it provides Inspiration, Hope & Humor to my readers.
To see how my colleagues muddled through their week, visit our French Fridayslink. The recipe for today’s salad is here. As I mention weekly, we are an international cooking group having a blast working our way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table.
Here’s another delicious recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg cookbook. I now have embraced this book of 200 inventive vegetable recipes as my own best idea. Truthfully, Andrea Mohr, a foodie in Bonn, Germany who blogs as The Kitchen Lioness, inspired me and others to join The Cottage Cooking Club and cook through this book together. In the spirit of full disclosure, my colleagues and I asked nicely, then pleaded and finally begged Andrea to mastermind and administer this group. She caved. (We love her.)
Among our October recipe choices is his Pumpkin & Raisin Tea Loaf which he describes as ‘rich and sweet, but also quite light because it doesn’t contain any butter or oil.’ Call me a skeptic but I’m an always-add-more-butter girl so this was a must-bake recipe. This was also an excellent opportunity to walk you, dear readers, through my blogging process.
Have you ever wondered, “How does Mary make this happen every week?” Why, thank you for asking. Whether a success or failure, let’s make this bread together. Here we go…..
Its thick batter is ready for the oven.
For me, there are six steps in the food blogging process:
1. Choose (or, create) a recipe. Source and gather the ingredients.
2. Make it.
3. Photograph it.
4. Serve it. Share it. Eat it.
5. Compose Post.
6. Go live on Lights on Bright No Brakes.
_________________________________________________________
Choose, Source and Gather
After choosing a recipe (Pumpkin & Raisin Tea Loaf), I first gather ingredients already on hand and list those that are not. Luckily I already had eggs, lemons, ground almond meal, sea salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Before buying those additional (and, sometimes pricey) remaining items, I consider substituting ingredients and making do with what I have in my pantry/fridge. Instead of 1 cup of Muscovado sugar, an unrefined brown sugar with a strong molasses content and flavor, Google claims I can use plain brown sugar. To convert Hungarian High Altitude Flour which I use for baking, into self-rising flour, I know to add 1 1/2 ts of baking powder and 1/2 ts of salt per cup. (I live in Colorado at 8000’ altitude.) Since I was out of raisins, I substituted dried cherries. This recipe calls for finely grated raw pumpkin or squash flesh. The only item I needed to buy was a can of Libby’s pure Pumpkin Purée. Cost – 10 cents!
Make It
After the ingredients are “in house”, I carefully re-read through the entire recipe 2 or 3 times. For this tea loaf, I pulled out my electric mixer, two bowls, preheated the oven and greased the proper-sized loaf pan. There was nothing very complicated to pulling this recipe together. Since I was folding stiffly beaten egg whites into a thick batter, I needed to lighten the batter, a technique often required in baking.
After an hour in a 375 degree oven, this bread needs to cool down.
Smile for the Camera
Throughout the baking process, I look for photo ops. Not claiming to be Ansel Adams nor a threat to Annie Liebovitz, I still like to include 5 or 6 photos in each Post. Hopefully my camera skills have improved during the past three years but I’m still clearly an amateur.
Serve It. Share It. Eat It.
This has been challenging since I cook for One. Food is expensive. With hunger being a worldwide issue, who can tolerate waste? My freezer capability is limited. Luckily, except when traveling, I seldom eat in restaurants. Over time I’ve learned to successfully halve and third recipes, tinkering with ratios and proportions. When possible, my Posts are planned around social/food events. Happily, the employees here at The Gant, where I live, are skilled (and, grateful) taste-testers. I shared this Pumpkin & Raisin Tea Loaf with the off-season crew (They liked.) No food goes uneaten.
Before slicing and, only if you wish, sprinkle with powdered sugar. It’s actually rich and sweet enough without the ps.
Compose Post.
Since I’ve spent more time in the newsroom than the kitchen, writing the Post is my favorite part of this adventure. Just love to write. Besides blogging about my chosen recipe, I also weave an anecdote through the piece, highlighting an event, experience, story or thought. To my mind and because I am not a food star like most of my colleagues, entertaining my readers through words is important. It takes 6 to 8 hours to write each Post. (Yeah, it does.)
Go Live on Lights on Bright No Brakes.
#%&@%#
The Good News: Maintaining a food blog requires technical skills, social media expertise and staying current.
The Bad News: Maintaining a food blog requires technical skills, social media expertise and staying current.
Every time I put up a new Post, it’s a challenge. My tech expert, Zoe Zuker, who redesigned my site, has tried to make every posting step a simple task. However, her simple is not my simple. She was born knowing these things. I was not. Patience is a virtue and she has big-time patience. When Go Daddy shut down my site two weeks ago – they still have not explained themselves – it was Zoe who spent 7 hours correcting that debacle. Every time I successfully link a new Post to my social media homes – Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, it’s a miracle moment.
You’ve just caught a glimpse of my food blogging life. Knowing you dear readers as I do, I suspect your reaction to this Post is WHY? Why do I do this? I will answer that question on my French Fridays with Dorie Post this week. Incidentally, the Pumpkin & Raisin Tea Loaf was tagged delicious by my tasting crew. Interested in low-fat but tasty? Find the recipe here.
French Fridays with Dorie, an international cooking group making its way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table, has been in business since October 2010. While this week’s 4th Year Anniversary is cause for jubilation and a tip of the toque to all my colleagues, I must extend the deepest sympathy to my cookbook.
My well-worn and weary cookbook, Around My French Table.
As you can see by this forlorn picture, it’s been a rough ride. I pre-ordered my book from Amazon in 2010 and it’s been my constant sidekick since first arriving at my doorstep. Sometime between the Duck Breast with Fresh Peaches (August 9, 2013) and Tuna-packed Piquillo Peppers (Sept. 20, 2013), the spine separated from its cover. My Compote de Pommes (Nov. 8, 2013) and Sugar-crusted French Toast ( Nov. 29, 2013) pages are totally ripped out and crammed back in place. And, not to seem ungrateful, but Melissa spilled rice vinegar on several pages while making Crunchy Ginger-pickled Cucumbers ( July 6, 2012) when she stepped in to help after Michael died.
Cake Salé, Savory Cheese and Chive Bread, is my French Fridays recipe choice this week.
My book moved from Nevada to Colorado and has been on all my car trips of the past 4 years. Ironically, my odometer just rolled over the 100,000 mile marker this week. I plead guilty to the occasional chocolate stain, greasy spatter and water mark. And, I keep a treasured Christmas note from Dorie between pages 386-7. Love her chocolate eclairs. What I now understand is every recipe I’ve made has cooked up a memory journal which has turned worn and battered into a treasure.
To celebrate Year Four, this week my FFWD recipe choice is Savory Cheese and Chive Bread which the others already baked in March 2011. I missed making this savory loaf of yum. To the French it’s a Cake Salé (salé means salty or savory). “I know this looks like a good old American quick bread,” Dorie explains, “but it’s got a French soul.”
This loaf baked at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. During the last 15 minutes I sprinkled more grated cheese over the top.
Although I’ve included the recipe below, a successful Cake Salé lends itself to imagination and leftovers. Use whatever combination of hard cheeses you have on hand. Choose fresh herbs over dried. As for add-ins, plug into your creative gene. Mix in diced ham, crispy bacon bits, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, minced shallots, small pieces of cooked vegetables or jalapeño bits, for example.
My favorite way to serve this bread is lightly toasted and buttered.
This bread can be served slightly warm or when cooled completely. The French offer it with aperitifs. Cut your loaf into 8, half-inch thick slices, cutting in half again. For me, a dab of chutney is a delicious touch. It’s also perfect for brunch and really tasty with salads. Since this is not a moist bread, after a day or two it’s best when lightly toasted and buttered. Use your end crusts as croutons. Another idea? Muffins. Bake in individual paper Lotus Cups and serve with winter soups and chili.
Must Bake This. You’ll impress your family and friends. Promise.
1/2–1 teaspoon salt (depending on what cheese and add-ins you’re using)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup whole milk, room temperature
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 generous cup (about 4 ounces) coarsely grated Gruyère, Comté, Emmenthal, or cheddar
2 ounces (1/2–2/ 3 cup) Gruyère, Comté, Emmenthal, or cheddar, cut into very small cubes
1/2 cup minced fresh chives or other herbs (or thinly sliced scallions)
1/3 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
Instructions
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter an 8-x-4½-x-2¾-inch loaf pan — a Pyrex pan is perfect here. If your pan is slightly larger, go ahead and use it, but your loaf will be lower and you’ll have to check it for doneness a little earlier.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, white pepper and cayenne together in a large bowl. Put the eggs in a medium bowl and whisk for about 1 minute, until they’re foamy and blended. Whisk in the milk and olive oil. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and, using a sturdy rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, gently mix until the dough comes together. There’s no need to be energetic — in fact, beating the dough toughens it — nor do you need to be very thorough: just stir until all the dry ingredients are moistened.
3. Stir in the cheese, grated and cubed, the herbs, and the walnuts. You’ll have a thick dough. Turn the dough into the buttered pan and even the top with the back of the spatula or spoon.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the bread is golden and a slender knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and wait for about 3 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the pan and turn the loaf over onto the rack; invert and cool right side up.
5. Well wrapped, the loaf will keep for about 2 days at room temperature or for up to 2 months in the freezer (thaw in the wrapper).
