If I had tried to orchestrate this week’s French Friday with Dorie recipe scenario, I could not have done better. From beginning to end, it was the perfect storm.
Literally.
Springtime in Colorado
Today’s recipe is Financiers(fee-nahn-see-AY), tiny rich buttery cakes. created a century ago at a patisserie near the Bourse (the French Wall Street). These treats were popular with stockbrokers as pick-me-up, finger food.
What makes these exceptionally delicious is beurre noisette, (brown butter). Financiers require oodles of butter. When cooked to a golden brown coloring, it acquires a nutty flavor. NOTE: Go the extra mile and brown your butter.
Beurre Noisette, in the making…
One cup of sugar and almond flour, 2/3 cup A-P flour and 6 egg whites later, you’ve got batter ready to chill for an hour or two. Overnight is better.
Although the Financiers can be any petite shape, I only could find a mini-muffin tin in my moving boxes. I found gorgeous raspberries at the store. Thus, fruit Financiers. To celebrate my first week in Aspen, I decided to share the spoils with the young people manning our front office.
To those of you who have asked, The Gant, my new home, is an 143-condominium complex located in the heart of downtown Aspen. Built in 1975, each condo is individually owned. It is basically a resort rental complex with all the amenities and staff (100) that go along with that moniker. Most homeowners come for the summer, holidays and a week or two during the ski season. Only 8 other owners live here full-time.
Nine years ago, because of my husband’s health, we needed to escape the altitude, find a kinder climate and be nearer our kids. After selling our house and thinking we could at least enjoy the Aspen summers, I bought a condo here at The Gant. When it became apparent we couldn’t return, Donnie Lee, the general manager, promised me, since my hands were full, that they would take care of our condo. Whenever they needed to buy, build, install, improve, or change something in my place, someone would call to get my approval. They did the rest. Every year I’d return for 3 or 4 days to check in. That’s why I’m lucky enough to know all the staff and consider them family.
Mr. Lee, the Boss
Now back to the Financiers. After whipping up the batter Monday evening, I woke up early Tuesday to a raging spring snowstorm. Really? Wouldn’t warm little raspberry mini-muffins (the staff’s eventual name for my Financiers) be a tasty treat for the front desk staff who often work outside as well as in?
I filled the buttered molds with batter and raspberries and baked them 18 minutes until golden and springy to the touch. They popped out easily and, while still warm, I covered them carefully and pulled on my boots and heavy jacket to scurry over to the office.
Here’s what I can say about the Financiers. There is no photo because I didn’t have the heart to freeze-frame the staff’s enthusiasm, insisting they pose for this Post. However, with apologies to Roger Ebert, the bellmen each gave them a Ten-Fingers Up.
To see the absolutely gorgeous, fancier Financiers that my colleagues made this week, go here.
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.
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.
Dorie suggests plating these sealed vegetable packets and letting each guest have the pleasure of savoring the first fragrant puff of steam when the seal is broken. My friend, Ruth, enjoyed the moment.
My! My! My!
Everything about this week’s FFWD recipe was a delicious, winning, you-must-make-this, choice. Let’s just forgeddabout last week’s not-so-good and race quickly on to better and best: Brown-Sugar Squash and Brussels Sprouts** en Papillote.
The cubed squash, apples, halved Brussels sprouts, olive oil, salt and pepper are easily and simply mixed together.
Dorie echoed my original thought when I first read this recipe. “I don’t thinkI’d ever have put the squash and Brussels sprouts together if they weren’t packed into the bin side by side,” she said. “And it was just a stroke of luck that I had both an apple and fresh sage, which is perfect with the vegetables and fruit.”
Divide evenly between four non-stick, 12-inch squares of aluminum foil. Frankly, this was the hardest part and, yes, I counted!!!
To my surprise and Dorie’s, what pleased her most about this serendipitous side was ‘the play between earthy and sweet’.
I sprinkled brown sugar over each bundle and topped with fresh sage. Earthy. Sweet.
Although this is really a recipe for your Fall menus, it is tasty in Winter also. Once again, our Doristas who live in South America and Australia, where it is Summer, are very, very good sports.
I sealed the packets, leaving room so the ingredients can steam, and put them in the refridgerator.
Because I am particularly busy right now, I bought a pound package of pre-cut, cubed squash so it took only 15 minutes to throw this together. I also made the packets in the morning, refrigerated them and added a few minutes to their baking time.
Luckily my veggie-lovin’ Colorado friends, Peter and Ruth Frey, joined me for this week’s successful taste testing. The Freys, enroute to a two-month stay in Cambria, California, stopped to observe my January 31st house-closing (or to “manage” my emotional fall-out if there was a closing glitch).
To accompany this week’s FFWD recipe, I served a green salad and Yotam Ottolenghi’s “Very Full Tart”, a delicious recipe from his cookbook, “Plenty”.
Fortunately we enjoyed two sunny days of exploring Nevada’s outdoors fueled by wonderful food, drink and friendship. Plus, we were able to celebrate yesterday’s successful house closing/sale before their leaving for Callie this morning.
The reason Peter is not smiling is that he had already begun to open his packet before Ruth and I scared the hell out of him by telling (well, yelling at) him to STOP. I needed a photo, of course. A long-time professor at Northwestern University, he understands ‘learning experiences’ and patiently re-sealed his packet for picture-taking. But, he’s all-business so couldn’t smile.
Peter’s silent compliment to the cook.
To see how my FFWD colleagues handled their tinfoil this week, go to our group link. If you want to try this recipe, and I urge you to try it, go here.
I enjoyed introducing my Colorado friends to Nevada’s outdoor hiking opportunities. Nevada is over 80% public land, forty-eight million acres of that land is administered by the Bureau of Land management. Since Ruth and I are both volunteer forest rangers in Colorado’s High Country, she especially enjoyed our hikes at Lake Mead, the Red Rocks National Conservation Area and Black Mountain, a totally different experience from hiking in the Rockies.
** These tiny cabbage-like vegetables are named after the Belgian city of Brussels, which has an “S” on the end. The correct spelling is “Brussels sprouts.”
The one thing you all must know about my French Friday with Dorie colleagues is that we try to be good sports. There are more than 300 recipes in “Around my French Table”, the cookbook we use that was written by Ms. Greenspan. We are committed to trying each and every one of these recipes, six years of Fridays. Including……
Sardine Rillettes.
Seaweed Sablés.
Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes with Garlic.
Seriously???
An unmolded chicken liver gâteaux served on a bed of butter lettuce tossed with champagne vinaigrette and pickled onions.
This week’s recipe choice, Chicken Liver Gâteaux with Pickled Onions. provided another “Seriously ?” Moment for me. In French, gâteaux means cake. A chicken liver cake? Dorie, however, treats this as a salad, “The idea of having cake at the start of a meal is too irresistible.”
When I stopped by my local grocery store to buy 1/2 pound of chicken livers, I was clueless. The butcher helped me find a carton of these squishy, runny, scraggly morsels. They didn’t look like anything I would ever place inside my mouth. After removing all their veins, fat, and green spots, according to directions (the yucky part), the gâteaux was ridiculously easy to put together. Throw everything in a blender, whir two minutes, pour into buttered ramekins and bake 40 minutes. The pickled onions were even easier, something I made the day before and will keep on hand to use often in other dishes.
The ingredients of the chicken liver mixture is the consistency of custard and pours easily into the buttered ramekins. To de-bubble the mixture (seen here) before baking, I rapped each ramekin on the kitchen counter. Worked like a charm.
I tasted one of the little cakes immediately, treating it as a warm paté and spreading it on rustic crackers. It was not particularly flavorful. I refrigerated the others overnight and unmolded them today to serve as a salad. They possessed the strong flavor you’d expect from an excellent paté. The vinaigrette and pickled onions kicked up the flavor even more. To my surprise, I enjoyed my cake-salad. Very, very much.
Chicken livers, anyone? To learn how to make this recipe yourself, go here. See what my colleagues thought of this week’s choice at French Fridays with Dorie.
A generous and delicious slice of Pizza with Onion Confit, the Tuesday with Dorie Baking with Julia recipe choice for today.
Tonight I’m celebrating and bringing in the New Year………with Dorie Greenspan, Steve Sullivan and Yotam Ottolenghi.
Let me quickly explain. I’ll be brief because I have to get back to my guests.
The Onion Confit, which can be made two days ahead, consists of 4 onions, red wine, red wine vinegar and seasonings. I added some Crème de Cassis to taste. It was New Year’s Eve, afterall.
Dorie, of course, is the well-recognized cookbook author and fearless leader of my Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking with Julia group. Greenspan wrote the cookbook, Baking with Julia, which was based on the popular PBS Series hosted by Julia Childs.
Steve Sullivan is a talented baker who successfully established his own bakery, Acme Bread Company, in San Francisco. His sourdough and levain breads are legendary.
Sullivan’s dough for this pizza “has enough texture and flavor to hold its own under any topping.” Although you first make a sponge before making the dough, necessitating two risings, this isn’t difficult. When ready, roll and work the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick before transferring it to a baker’s peel rubbed lightly with cornmeal.
London Chef Yotam Ottolenghi who is becoming one of the most respected chefs in the world, owns five remarkable restaurants in that city and has written two well-received cookbooks, Plenty and Jerusalem.
This coming week’s recipe choice is the very tasty Pizza with Onion Confit. Julia Childs collaborated with Steve Sullivan to create this rather involved, somewhat complicated dish. After tasting the Provencal-inspired Onion Confit, as the base, I’m not sure I will ever return to classic tomato sauce again. Admittedly, it was a two-day process, a sponge and two risings, but perfect, I thought, for my New Year’s Eve supper. Champagne? Maybe not. Beer? For sure.
After preheating the oven to a toasty 475 degrees, I transferred my pizza topped with precooked pancetta lardons, roasted artichoke hearts and Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, from the peel to my baking stone which had been also preheated in the oven.
Intriqued by Ottolenghi’s culinary talent and impressed by reviews of his recently-published cookbooks, I ordered both of them last month. Unfortunately, they’d been shoved aside on my kitchen counter, victims of the holiday hustle and bustle.
New Year’s Eve has never been a hoop-and-hollar event at our house. And, this year, especially, I needed quiet. To me, it felt right to just cook something delicious and settle in with a good (cook) book.
The finished product. Everything about this pizza —- perfect.
I must return to my friends, Dorie, Steve, Yotam (we’re channeling Julia). I’ll let my pictures speak for the pizza. Thanks to our host-with-the-most, Paul of The Boy Can Bake, for providing the recipe for this delicious pizza-confit combo to all of you. Check out his link. To see how my colleagues did this week, go to our Tuesdays with Dorie link.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013, FAITHFUL READERS AND DORIE COLLEAGUES. MAY THE YEAR AHEAD BE HAPPY, HEALTHY and OVERFLOWING WITH THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND GOOD FOOD.
