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.
Check out those Chunks of “divers” Apples – Honey Crisp, Pink Lady, Fugi, Granny Smith & Braeburn
It may have been Marie-Antoinette who said ‘Let them eat cake,” but it was Marie-hélène Brunet-Lhoste, a friend of Dorie’s, who first made this scrumptiously delicious Apple Cake. If Marie-Antoinette had suggested this particular cake, she’d still have her head!
Although this week’s FFWD recipe was Chard-stuffed Pork Roast (yum), my Wednesday evening Supper crowd included a guest who does not eat food produced from animals with four feet. Yeah, right!
The Apple of my Eye, just out of the oven. Link to Recipe below.
Marie-hélène’s Apple Cake has already been featured on FFWD (before I joined), receiving rave reviews. For sure, my fellow Dorista’s know a good cake when they bake it. As the younger generation says, “It’s the bomb.”
You just must bake this cake. http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/marie-helenes-apple-cake/ Its simple presentation is only surpassed by its taste. Moist. More apples, than batter. I chose five different kinds of apples, as Dorie suggested, and left them in 2-inch chunks. Don’t dismiss the 3 tablespoons of dark rum or 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. Dorie gives you options but I urge you to include these ingredients. Thank goodness, dark rum doesn’t have four feet.
BUSTED. A dessert sliced before its time.
Serve this warm, with crème fraîche, (my choice), or vanilla bean ice cream. During the sugar-laden holidays, filled with fancy desserts, this cake is a “relief” treat, for friends, relatives and family. And, if leftovers are a possibility and, that is laughable, this apple cake is delicious for breakfast, an afternoon pick-me-up or Santa snack. Merci Beaucoup and Happy Holidays, Dorie.
A Complimentary Finale to a Corn Bread, Green Salad and Black-Bean Soup Supper.
Joyeux Thanksgiving from the French Friday with Dorie gang.
CROQUANTS, VERY POPULAR IN FRANCE, DELICIOUS WITH TEA OR ESPRESSO
Yes, Thanksgiving is a North American celebration but what’s unique about families and friends gathering to enjoy traditional foods and the company of others? The first Thanksgiving meal probably occurred in 1621 between the colonists and the Wampanoag, the Plymouth colony Indian tribe. Sans dishwashers, Cuisinarts, Convection ovens and TV Football, I might add. It became a national American holiday in 1941 and is arguably our favorite holiday. If the scales be damned, Thanksgiving could even become a two-fer. In Canada it is celebrated in October, coinciding with the Fall harvest. (I just received greetings from my Canadian friends and will return the favor, if not the meal, in October.)
To celebrate this holiday of largesse this week, we created a potluck of recipes at FFWD. Cook’s Choice. See what others picked at http://www.frenchfridayswithdorie.com/
Such a simple-to-bake, simply delicious French cookie, a platter of Croquants
For Le Jour de Merci Donnant, I decided to bake Croquants, a popular French cookie. Easy to make. Sublime to eat. A crunchy combination, really, of sugar (white) and nuts (I used the traditional salted hazelnuts/almonds combo.). I first tasted a Croquant at Berthillon, Paris’s most famous glacier, when it was served with my Chocolate Noir ice cream. Discovering that Dorie could help me duplicate this tasty treat is a real bonus! At Christmas I’m even going to add tiny slices of dried cherries to make them look more festive for my holiday cookie platter. This cookie begs for variations, I think.
A Midwestern Tradition – Chex Mix – There Are Not Words to Describe How Addictive This Is.
Since, after all, Thanksgiving is a North American holiday and reeks of tradition, I also made gallons, yes, gallons, of Chex Mix yesterday. I know! I know! There is nothing nutritious nor healthy about Chex Mix. That pound of butter I used in the Mix shouts heart-unfriendly. It’s during these times that I bless Julia Childs. She loved butter. Then there’s Paula Deen. You gotta love Paula.
I cannot remember a holiday season in my Manchester, Iowa, home without Chex Mix. God Bless my Mom, a lady who never let butter-anxiety get in the way of delicious baked goods. My defense to this treat is that I only make it at Thanksgiving and, most importantly, my son-in-law and I bonded over my Chex Mix. Now is not the time to test loyalties.
Chex Mix and the Holidays – my Iowa family’s tradition for more than 60 years.
Hopefully, you, like me, have much to be thankful for this year. This is a day devoted to just that – giving thanks for family, friends, and loved ones. Happy Thanksgiving.
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.
Dorie’s Version of Baba Ghanoush with a tweak de français
Don’t be frightened by its name. There is nothing “posh” about Eggplant Caviar. It’s fun and easy to make, the primary ingredients being eggplant, tomatoes and onions. A few seasonings. A few herbs. Viola.
This is a dish, however, that is best used the day it is made. So, I halved the recipe and, first, used it with pita crisps as an afternoon snack.
For dinner, I roasted some peppers and made a sandwich: Nine Grain Bread, Eggplant Caviar and Roasted Peppers. Dories’s idea, not mine, and it was delicious.
I will make this Eggplant Caviar again and again to use as a nutritious and very flavorful sandwich spread.
Roasted Peppers – I love the paper sack-step.
Eggplant Caviar + Roasted Peppers
+ 9-Grain Bread = Veggie Sandwich
Add thinly-sliced ham to this sandwich for a different and more substantial taste.
My Sicilian neighbor keeps me supplied me with her family’s home-made sun-dried tomatoes. Utilizing Las Vegas’ searing sun, they’re dried in the time-consuming European-style and are the most delicious sun-dried tomatoes I have ever tasted. Dorie’s Tomates Confites, our recipe of the week, comes close to matching their flavor. It’s so simple, a no-brainer, to cut cherry or grape tomatoes in half, throw on olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and fresh thyme from the garden, before roasting in the oven for three hours.
Viola! A burst of flavor for salads, pasta, spreads and dips. Ladle them over sautéed or steamed chicken, salmon or tuna or throw some in the belly of a whole fish headed for the grill. For my next pasta dinner party, I’m going to throw them on a platter, place it in the middle of the table and let everyone choose themselves whether to add to the pasta or salad, smother over some crusty Italian bread, or use as a side dish — whatever smacks their fancy. The tomato-garlic-thyme aroma is heavenly.
If you aren’t using the roasted tomatoes for the day’s menu, pack them in a jar along with the garlic and thyme and cover with olive oil where they will keep for a few weeks. I intend to start giving them as house gifts or for Christmas to my friends who love to cook. Really flavorful, for sure, and useful, any time of the year.
