A gratin refers to a dish that is baked with a golden-browned topping of seasoned breadcrumbs and cheese.We’ve all heard of potatoes au gratin, a very popular American dish. But, many of us don’t remember that vegetables such as cauliflower, green beans, eggplant or tomatoes can be prepared as a delicious and nutritious gratin, as well.
Let’s salute and wish Happy New Year to the cauliflower. For Christmas dinner, I served a Cauliflower Gratin that was quite different from this week’s recipe chosen by Dorie. Both are delicious but this was far easier to prepare.
Oven-Ready
Golden-Brown, A Wonderful Aroma, Ready for the Table
As Dorie relates, “Simply made, appealingly rustic and very tasty, it can sit alongside a main course or, with a little salad, take the stage for brunch, lunch, or supper.”
Happy New Year to all you Clever and Creative Cooks, who keep bringing good food to our tables.
My friend, Consuela, rescuing the seeds from our Pumpkin.
This recipe, Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good, has now clamored to the top of my favorite three recipes since beginning “French Fridays with Dorie” (the others are Tourteau de Chevre and Slow-Roasted Tomatoes). First, it’s a Halloween Hoot to make. Next, it’s Goblin Gorgeous to serve. Lastly, it tastes Devilish Divine.
The Trick: my pumpkin, carefully removed from the oven and cast-iron pot.
The Treat: the”stuff” plus cooked pumpkin, bubbly and ready-to-eat.
Begin with a three-pound pumpkin. Yes, that’s fairly small. Carve the potiron (Fr. m.). Remove the innards (Do not even think of giving this pumpkin a face – just won’t work,). My friend, Consuela, was helping me last Tuesday when I made this dish. She couldn’t wait to get her hands “inside” to salvage the pumpkin seeds which she took home to roast.
Assemble the “stuff with everything good” which includes bread, three cheeses, bacon (Trader Joe’s turkey bacon) and scallions. Add some spooky spices: cloves, thyme and garlic. After mixing it together, pack “the stuff” into the pumpkin. Now is when you might choose to improvise, experiment and substitute with, what you consider, “everything good“. Next time, I might include dried fruit. Or, spinach. Or, trade bacon for sausage. Go “Casper the Ghost” crazy. In this recipe, anything goes.
Stir nutmeg into heavy cream and pour it over the mixture. To be honest, I used twice the cream Dorie suggested. There is a reason she’s bone thin and I am not!
Cook at 350 degrees for two hours, on a cookie sheet (it will lose its shape) or in a cast iron pot (Le Creuset – my choice). Take it to the table, intact, and serve in slices. For a light evening meal, I included a green salad and robust red wine. A new signature dish for my Autumn meals, for sure.
Bonnes fêtes d’Halloween to all my “French Friday with Dorie” followers.
There are two important things to know about this week’s recipe choice: 1) You will have to use your imagination; 2) This recipe Salmon & Potatoes In a Jar is the reason I originally purchased Dorie’s cookbook, “Around My French Table.”
This recipe, and, who could not like something that makes itself in a jar, is arguably one of the two stars and most popular entries in this cookbook (the other is mustard bâtons). Just layer salmon and fingerling potatoes in two jars (separately) along with carrots, onions and a sublime combination of spices, and refrigerate for 2 to 3 days. The result is lunch (or, appetizers).
Salmon (right) and Fingerling Potatoes (left)
My “jars” , resulting in salmon positioned somewhere between gravlax and tartare, will be ready for Sunday lunch. Put the jars in the middle of the table, along with sliced lemons (for the salmon), a lightly dressed green salad, and a combination of dark breads (rye and pumpernickel for starters) and butter.
Whoever is at my lunch table on Sunday will be in for a real treat.
Note: As you can see from the top picture, Chef and Author Michael Ruhlman took a different twist on this idea.
French Fridays with Dorie – Chunky Beets with Icy Red Onions
Dream Dinner on the Côte d’Azur
It’s All About the Beets
It’s hovering around 105 degrees in Las Vegas these days so I hosted a Dream Dinner this week. My guests chose where they would rather be (Cote d’Azur) and I did the magic. The only caveat was it had to be a destination “involving” BEETS !
Since French home cooks often don’t roast their chickens themselves – they buy them off their butcher’s rotisserie – I did the same. To the menu I added French Potato Salad Niçoise (without the tuna), Dorie’s Beet Salad, Baguettes (de ma boulangerie très française), and a couple of bottles of Sancerre. For dessert, a Raspberry Sorbet with Madeleines. Now, what could be easier that that?
Chunky Beets with Red Onions, Individually Plated
If you like Beets, this is a simple salad that can be made early. Loaded with fresh herbs, the dressing is tangy. But, the recipe calls for a teaspoon of honey. That’s all the sweetness you need.
A Dream Dinner in the South of France? Try to beet that!
This week’s recipe is Cardamom Rice Pilaf. Although a bowl of rice doesn’t allow for a gorgeous picture (see my attempt below), this is a delicious take-off on a Pilaf. I like the slight taste of the cardamom which is enhanced and tempered by the lemon zest. Perhaps I’d toss in some figs for additional flavor (not necessary, of course.) While I am still in Aspen, working in my condo kitchen, with limited cuisine resources, we women-folk were able to pull together a wonderful meal. Green salad. Salmon with Pesto. Cardamom Rice Pilaf. It worked. This picture is entitled: “Austine, Eating; Karen, Posing; Judy, Scooping“. (Ansel Adams, I am not but the gals were “game”.)
Following dinner, we saw the award-winning film “Queen of the Sun” , which, my fellow food bloggers, I URGE you all to see. This is a documentary about honeybees, with more sting to it than honey. These little tigers are disappearing at an incredibly alarming rate due to a phenomenon now called “Colony Collapse Disorder”. Bottom line, we need bees to survive so we can!
