If Wacky and Wonderful can be friends, together they beautifully describe this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Sablés aux Olives Noires. Sablés are exquisite but crumbly, classic French cookies. More a shortbread than a Toll House.
Mise en Place for this week’s FFWD recipe choice.
What is special about these sablés is they were created by Pierre Hermé, France’s acknowledged pastry king, with a few twists and turns from Dorie, of course. Think potato starch, oily black olives and the yolk of a large hard-boiled egg! What’s up with that?
I’ve learned not to doubt Dorie so when she suggested this cocktail nibble was either ‘a sweet cookie with a spot of savoriness or a savory cookie with a touch of sweetness’, I put on my apron. Once the ingredients were gathered (the potato starch was a problem for some) and the egg, boiled, these little slice-and-bakes were simply made.
Pastry logs, ready for the Big Chill
Following Dorie’s directions and after making the dough, I made three pastry logs, wrapped them in plastic and chilled overnight. The next day I sliced two logs, making 1/4” cookies, and baked them for 16 minutes at 325 degrees. Brown the edges not the entire cookie. I wrapped the extra log in foil for the freezer.
Ready to bake
Friends were hosting a Welcome Home wine-and-nibbles party last night, providing me with a perfect and discriminating tasting panel for this week’s recipe choice. I wasn’t surprised to note that these delightful sablés passed muster.
Baked and Taste-Tested
My move to Aspen, I arrived last Monday, is now history. Right now I’m a bit altitude-weary, my condo is, let’s just say, disheveled and, yes, it’s snowed once or twice. However, I cannot stop smiling.
Nibbles
and Wine
To make these clever cocktail nibbles, go here. To see what my colleagues created this week with potato starch and an egg yolk, go to our French Fridays with Dorie link.
This year March is not playing its proper role. Oh, yes, it roared in like a Lion but in most of the country, we have yet to see the Lamb. Baa. Baa. Baa.
Graphic by danastrip.com
Our recipe choice this week,Lemon-Steamed Spinach, will put a little Spring in your step even if it has not yet come knocking at your door. It could be a perfect and healthy side dish for your holiday or dinner table.
Unfortunately, Dear Readers, you will have to go here to see how my FFWD colleagues prepared this tasty leaf. My kitchen was successfully “loaded and locked” several days ago in preparation for my move to Colorado.
Improvisation is something I do quite easily. For a neighborhood gathering on Palm Sunday I was able to bake my holiday ham in my oven’s broiler pan and glaze it with maple syrup (the real stuff – an entire jug) and it was delicious. For the past several days I’ve been defrosting a vacuum-packed serving of Trader Joe’s oatmeal on a paper plate, topping it with a sliced banana or dried dates. It worked. But I just could not figure out how to zest a lemon and wash and steam spinach without the proper equipment.
The distinctively flavorful Ispahan Loaf Cake, made with Rose Extract and Rose Syrup
Mary,
The Raspberry loaf is wonderful. You can really taste the Rose Syrup/Extract. I really enjoyed it! I just had a piece of it with a cup of tea and it was so delicious. I saved the other piece for Lorena [sister] (she hasn’t come in yet to the office) but if she doesn’t come in today, I am going to eat the rest of it. It is so moist and so flavorful and I can even taste the raspberries, which I love. I would say it’s one of my favorite desserts you have made! It sounds like it would be complicated to make because of all the different ingredients that you need, but maybe Mom would be able to make it. You might have to give her the recipe.
Thank you I really enjoyed it!
Adriana
The cake is loaded with strategically placed moist, plump raspberries.
This e-mail says everything that should be said about this week’s FFWD recipe choice, a remarkable dessert closely resembling a pound cake. Please don’t judge this cake by its cover. Although both loaf cakes are cut into thick slices, in taste they are not at all related.
Ispahan was once the capital of Persia and is also the name of a profoundly fragrant rose. It was the talented pastry maestro Pierre Hermé who first began infusing his sweets with intensely flavorful rose syrups and extracts.
I topped my first slice of cake with whipped cream and raspberry coulis. We ate the rest of the cake “naked”.
Since this is my last Blog Post from my Nevada kitchen, I was especially pleased to make a celebratory cake which I could share with friends who have been my loyal taste testers since its beginning in February, 2011. Without a doubt, Adriana and her husband, Bob, my incredibly kind backyard neighbors, have played the guinea pig-role the most — always with good will and candor. It was a bittersweet moment when I dropped this week’s FFWD sampling of cake at her front door Wednesday morning.
There is nothing difficult about making this cake once you’ve gathered the ingredients. I ordered the Rose Extract made by Star Kay White on line through Amazon. (Yeah, go figure.) After buying Rose Water at Whole Foods, I made my own Rose Syrup. Almond flour can be bought at any grocery store and the other ingredients, whole milk, confectioners sugar, eggs, sugar, AP flour, and butter are regulars in my kitchen. My raspberries were fresh, plump and organic.
The raspberries are layered carefully on top of the batter —- twice.
Although I did embellish my first slice with whipped cream and raspberry coulis, my taste testers and I enjoyed the rest of the loaf just ‘plain and simple’. Wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, this dessert keeps well at room temperature for up to four or five days.
“All the surprises are in the finished cake,” Dorie writes. “The color is pink. The flavor is haunting. The crumb is soft, tight, and pleasantly springy. Then there are the fresh raspberries – they dot the interior of the cake and permeate it with both their distinctive flavor and their perfume. It’s a remarkable cake.”
Layer #1. Next, cover with batter, repeat raspberries and cover again.
I loved this cake and, when I make it again and again, it will always bring back memories of the remarkable friends I have made during my eight-and-a-half years here in Henderson.
Allow me to embellish a wonderful quote by Molly Wizenberg from her book, AHomemade Life:
“When I walk into my kitchen today, I am not alone. Whether we know it or not, none of us is. We bring fathers and mothers and kitchen tables, and every meal we have ever eaten. Food is never just food. It’s also a way of getting at something else: who we are, who we have been, and who we want to be.”
to that I would add…….”and where we have been and who we have met along the way.”
If you’d like to try this recipe, go here for the directions. If you want to see what the other Roses who belong to FFWD baked this week, go to our Link.
Orange-scented Lentil Soup garnished with a dollop of Greek yogurt and fresh pineapple bits
I am neither Catholic nor Argentinean. However, the selection of a new pope, like the election of an American president, coronation of an English royal or the FIFA World Cup competition, understandably captures global interest and attention.
Last Wednesday I suspect many of us joined with the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics in celebrating Argentinean Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s peaceful election as the first pontiff from Latin America. We’ll now know him as Pope Francis. That our FFWD colleague, Paula Montenegro, who blogs at Vintage Kitchen Notes is from Buenos Aires, makes this more exciting.
Hopeful that His Holiness possesses a sense of humor, I submit that this week’s FFWD recipe choice, Orange-Scented LENT-il Soup was in anticipation of White Smoke billowing out of the Sistine Chapel. Congratulations to the new pope and may he guide his followers wisely and with compassion.
Thinly sliced onions, carrots and celery stalks
“Lentil soup seems to have a lock on French hearts,” Dorie explains.
Dorie’s version of lentil soup
Yes, every French cook seems to have a version of his/her very own. Lentil soup chez Greenspan has its own flavor surprises, a touch of ginger and a prominent fragrance and taste of orange. For the legumes, try to find Lentils du Puy (French green lentils), found in high-end grocery stores, speciality culinary shops or on-line.
This is a simply made soup. Soften thinly sliced onions, celery stalks, and carrots in olive oil before adding broth, lentils, and spices. Bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, for 60 to 90 minutes or until the lentils soften. Season with salt and pepper and then puree to a smooth or chunky texture. I prefer chunky.
Oatmeal & Honey Bread, beautifully made and photographed by Michelle Morgando
Although the soup anchored many-a-meal for me this week, my first lunch was the most delicious. I toasted a slice of Oatmeal & Honey Bread, an elegantly scrumptious gift from my neighbor, Michelle Morgando. On the toast I piled smashed avocados sprinkled with lemon and salt, a treat suggested by Joy the Baker. I garnished my soup with a dollop of Greek yogurt topped with tiny slices of fresh pineapple. Yummy combo.
A perfect toasting bread for smashed avocados sprinkled with salt and lemon juice
Orange-scented Lentil Soup is a winner for me. To see what my colleagues mixed up this week, go here. If you want to add this to your own soup recipe collection, go here.
How ya gonna keep her out in the kitchen after she’s been on Air Force One?
Air Force One Tail Number 27000 flew seven U.S. presidents – Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton, and W. Bush, around the world on countless missions from 1972-1990. This beautifully restored and reassembled big bird now lives in the Air Force One Pavilion at the Reagan Presidential Library.
That might have been a legitimate question for me this week if our First Fridays with Dorie recipe choice had not been CheesyCrème Brûlée. It still might have been an issue had I not read some early Dorista comments. Both Teresa and Amanda made six individual servings, enjoying one each evening. Translated: this recipe refrigerates well. Then, Diane called it decadent. It’s settled, I’m all over it.
Dorie suggests using 3 ounces of tiny cubed cheese bits for the custard mixture and 2 ounces of grated cheese for the topping. To do it correctly, I weighed my portions. It seems that I am find using my scale more often these days. In fact, I now keep it on the counter.
Realizing that I could make this one recipe, which is decadent, and savor the six servings myself during the coming week, I unfastened my seatbelt, scurried home from my week’s work in California and got out my blowtorch.
“What could be better than combining two of life’s great culinary pleasures, crème brûlée and cheese?” Dorie asks. “It’s a double serving of voluptuousness.”
After buttering shallow ramekins, cut 3 ounces of cheese into tiny cubes. Since I’m two weeks away from needing an empty refrigerator, I combined what I always have on hand, Parmesan and cheddar. Dorie suggests a Parmesan/Comté combo.
Even better,it’s darn easy. You simply exchange cheese for sugar. That it can be made up to two days ahead is even better. (Don’t tell Dorie but I still found it tasty on Day 4 and 5.)
Bring heavy cream and whole milk to a boil in a small sauce pan before pouring it slowly into a bowl of 3 vigorously whisked egg yolks seasoned with nutmeg, salt and pepper. After blending and de-bubbling the mixture (I had to spoon off the layer of bubbles), divide among the ramekins.
Dorie suggested cooking the custard in a 200 degree oven for 50 minutes until firm. It took an extra 20 minutes at my house. Then cool the custard to room temperature, sprinkle grated cheese on top and brown the cheese evenly with a mini propane torch or under the broiler.
I wanted more over less of a crust and this seemd perfect to me. In retrospect, I would grate all my cheese rather than cut it into tiny cubes. Although the cheese melted, it was a tad “lumpy” and I wouldn’t like that for entertaining purposes. However, it made no difference to the taste.
Last week I went to California to begin a long-anticipated writing project on the Presidential Libraries, focusing, at first, on the thirteen facilities overseen by the Office of Presidential Libraries in the National Archives and Records Administration. Although all our Presidents have museums dedicated to their memories, the concept of an official presidential library was the brainchild of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the first was for his predecessor, the 31st President of the United States, Herbert Hoover.
There are some bonuses to living alone. After taking the initial picture of the Crème Brûlée, I ate the strawberry, tossed the spoon in the sink, found some almond biscuits and dug in. My Mother would NOT have been proud.
Since this project has been sitting on a back-burner the past ten years, I was anxious to get started and with two libraries in California, where better to begin? Knowing my schedule, I e-mailed Susan Lester, a FFWD colleague who blogs at Create Amazing Meals, and asked if she and her husband, John, lived anywhere near Simi Valley (Reagan) and Yorba Linda (Nixon), my stomping grounds for a few days. Dinner, perhaps?
I considered it a perfect launch party and good omen for my upcoming writing project. The Lesters not only met me for dinner but generously treated me to dinner. I looking forward to seeing them again next September at the International Food Bloggers Conference in Seattle. This time, the dinner will be on me!
My inquiry and her quick reply – Napa Tavern, 6:30p.m. – made our introductory dinner together last Friday a reality. If you’ve ever questioned that food translates into friendship and fellowship, the proof was in the pudding Friday evening. With two-and-a-half years of blogging among us, we danced easily from topic to topic. And, since you asked? Yes, John held his own.
If you want to see how well my colleagues liked this week’s recipe, check it out here. Since this recipe is not on the blogosphere, you will have to e-mail me privately and I will be happy to send the recipe.
Since I needed to do some research work at both the Reagan and Nixon Presidential Libraries, I took a break from packing boxes to spend a week in sunny California. My first stop, Cambria. Seven years ago I came nose-to-proboscis with migrating elephant seals who spend the Winter on the Central Callie Coast and I haven’t missed a opportunity to visit them every year since.
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice is Chicken Diable breasts but the organic chicken thighs in my freezer suggested I make a minor change to the recipe. Which, I did.
This classic dish, a perfect choice for Sunday night’s dinner while watching the Academy Awards, also yielded enough leftovers to keep my engine running during my drive to California last Monday. I needed to do research at both the Reagan and Nixon Presidential Libraries and could combine that work with a short stop in Cambria, visiting Colorado friends who had set up camp there for the Winter.
Before you comment that I seem to serve Trader Joe’s baked french fries with every meal, please understand that I’m trying to empty my freezer by mid-March. Admittedly, I stowed a few too many bags of french fries in my freezer. I showed no restraint regarding the delicious sauce. (The devil made me do it.) This was a perfect meal for Oscar night although I thought Naomi Watts deserved the Best Actress Award for “The Impossible” and I was pulling for “Lincoln” or “Life of Pi” for Best Picture.
“Diable is the French word for devil,” Dorie says, “and when you see it on the menu you can be pretty sure that the dish includes mustard, usually a strong Dijon mustard which is about as hot as condiments in the French kitchen get.”
I exchanged chicken breasts for thighs, pounding them lightly before sauteing them in a pan with olive oil and butter. If you prefer beef, try a filet mignon.
Like many of Dorie’s recipes, she’s taken a traditional French dish and turned it into simple without losing any of its taste. I pounded chicken cutlets lightly before slipping them into a large skillet, coated with butter and olive oil, to sauté. Then I transferred them to a 200 degree oven for warmth before making the sauce.
After lightly browning the chicken cutlets for about 4 minutes on each side, I transferred them to a pan, covered them with foil and slipped them into a 200 degree oven.
Using the same skillet I softened finely chopped shallots, garlic and seasonings before adding the dry white wine and heavy cream. After the sauce reached a boil, I added mustard and Worcestershire sauce and stirred to blend. Once the sauce was seasoned correctly, I removed the chicken from the oven, plated it and poured the mustard sauce over the top. It was delicious.
We took many hikes into the surrounding hills and along the Central coastline. Because of the wonderfully warm and sunny weather, the flowers are starting to burst into bloom. Hottentot Fig, more commonly known as Ice Plant, Carpobrotus edulis, Ice Plant family. Photo by Ruth Frey
For my trip west the next day, I cut the remaining Chicken Thighs Diable into long strips and packed them into Tupperware. Along with a few carrots and celery sticks, they provided a flavorful and protein-filled treat for the drive.
California Brown Pelican
If you’d like to try Dorie’s very tasty recipe, go here. To see what others thought about this week’s recipe, go to our French Fridays with Dorie link.
