My On-the-Road Rolling Pin – Note that, appropriately, the Vodka is French
“Comment voulez-vous gouverner un pays qui a deux cent quarante-six variétés de fromage?” General Charles DeGaulle
Every week, in my French Friday with Dorie Post, I join more than 100 cooks to bake a specific recipe from Around My French Table, Dorie Greenspan’s latest cookbook. It’s reasonable, even appropriate, to expect Dorie to favor and choose ingredients français.
Not this week.
France is all about producing fine cheeses, but, for this week’s quiche, Dorie has risked the wrath of DeGaulle and crossed borders to choose Gorgonzola dolce, the soft, mild blue cheese from Italy. Her reasoning? Gorgonzola has a milder, sweeter, less salty flavor with a softer, creamier consistency than its French cousin, Roquefort.
Albeit equipment-challenged and despite my improvisation, this quiche turned out well.
What man wouldn’t like this? Get real………..
Dorie also turns left from traditional, Quiche Lorraine, and suggests a tart loaded with apples, onion, toasted hazelnuts (or, walnuts) and Gorgonzola. Scrumptious. And, the comment from my supper guest/guinea pig, who shared this with me? “This is delicious. It tastes ‘so French’ !!!
My only challenge with this simply-put-together Quiche is that I am living in a rental house this Winter. This kitchen is not my kitchen. Since Michael Ruhlman just posted the article I wish he’d written earlier but didn’t, I’ve had to improvise. http://ruhlman.com/2012/01/cooking-on-the-road-tools-i-traveled-with/
1.My rolling pin. A Vodka bottle. Yes, the Vodka was French. (For the Record: I don’t drink Vodka but found this bottle in the freezer!)
2.The tart pan. An over-sized Pyrex pie plate.
3.I pre-baked the tart shell and used a metal cake pan to keep the dough flat.
4.I added an extra egg and more heavy cream to fill the larger vessel (plate).
The buttered foil and metal cake pan kept the chilled tart dough flat while pre-baking.
Oven-ready, hoping for “puffy”. I may not drink Vodka but wine, yeah.
The result was just fine, not perfect, but good e’nuf. I have awarded myself a “Best in Show” Blue Ribbon for improvisation.
Although I urge you to buy Dorie’s excellent book, Around my French Table, if you covet this recipe, just e-mail me personally and I’ll send it your way. To see the quiche versions of the extraordinary and more-talented Doristas, visit: http://www.frenchfridayswithdorie.com/
Yummy enough to eat
(NOTE: Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking with Julia premieres next week, February 7th, with two recipes per month. To date there are over 300 blogs represented! Ten bakers are named Jennifer. Four of our bakers are men. California is the most represented state with 53 bakers. Although I will be baking with Dorie, next week’s recipe is bread, something I cannot make without my heavy-duty mixer. Please see what others have baked at http://tuesdayswithdorie.wordpress.com/. I will post my first Tuesday’s recipe on February 21st, Chocolate Truffle Tartlets, which I am baking in anticipation of my daughter’s birthday week-end celebration.)
A tart is really just a pie baked in a pan with a removable bottom! I’d say you did mighty well with your improvisation.
Looking forward to TWD Part Deux starting up next week! Those chocolate tarts were good, but mighty rich. Have a pint of vanilla ice cream handy 🙂
And, I don’t even particularly love chocolate. What I will like the most about TWD Part Deux (am adopting that name, is that okay?) is refreshing my baking techniques. I lived for 20 years at 8,000′ and never adjusted well to high-altitude baking. So, I didn’t. Now that I am commuting between high and low/elevations, that is, I can and want to bake more. I also thin you Doristas will have some substitutions and suggestions regarding stepping back on the high caloric and sugar content. Thanks for the heads up. Ice cream or whipped cream or Crème fraîche.
I agree with your award…nice job. And I’m checking out the link because I often cook “on-the-road” too.
Krissy, I like Ruhlman and would like to know your opinion on his suggestions. Any additions? I am putting together my own list and will share with you.
Nice improv! I love the vodka-as-rolling-pin.
You deserve the best in show ribbon for sure! Very ingenious to use a cold bottle of vodka as your rolling pin! I also enjoy Michael Ruhlman.
all the best cooks can improvise on ingredients and tools. 🙂 looks wonderful. enjoy your winter abode.
Good job on the improvisation. I agree the flavors in this one were “very French”. I liked it more than I expected (was skeptical about apples in a savory dish). Yours looks fabulous.
You are so resourceful! I would have never thought of using a bottle as a rolling pin. And it was already cold – helping the dough stay flaky! I bookmarked Ruhlman’s article. Glad to see you enjoyed this quiche.
Great job improvising to get this done – and wasn’t it worth it? I’m also baking with TWD but will just do one recipe a month, I have decided – I cannot keep up and neither can my stomach with both groups and the rest of my blog!
Loved your improvisations. If you hadn’t already awarded yourself the award I’m sure we would all have done so. Amazing how we can make do when required. This quiche was worth the effort. Glad you increased the filling. We thought it was a little on the thin side in a 9″ pan.
There was a review of Katherine Boo’s book in the paper this week. I felt so smart as I was able to tell my husband ” oh, I already know about that, it’s on my to read list.” Thank you for making me feel that I was just a little ahead of the curve. Sounds fascinating.
And, thanks back to you for putting Boo’s book on your to-read list. I think all of us who read it may just be better and more grateful people.
Great post Mary – I especially love your French Vodka rolling pin! Looking forward to reading your TWD post on Tuesday – struggling with the second one of the month since Chocolate gives me a migraine – I may have to do white chocolate since that is not really chocolate. What is the Katherine Boo Book about?
Katherine Boo lived for three-and-a-half years in Annawadi,a Mumbai, India, slum that sits on the edge of a lake of sewage? ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ is a riveting, fearlessly reported portrait of a poverty so obliterating that it amounts to a slow-motion genocide. Beautiful Forevers will be one of the year’s big books — a conversation starter, an award winner and just an important book to read. Boo, who won a Pulitzer Prize also was awarded a MacArthur Genius grant in 2003. Well worth a read, I promise.