Monthly Archives: January 2012

January 31, 2012 · 2:45 PM

Catching Up With Dorie

I started participating in French Fridays with Dorie last January.  I am proud to say that I only missed one recipe in all of 2011!

While I actually cooked all but one of the recipes, I took a blogging break last summer and didn’t get to share all of my results with you.  Here is a long overdue recap of the recipes I missed.

Looking at all these pictures from last summer is making long for some warmer weather!

Salmon and Potatoes in a Jar

Salmon and Potatoes in a Jar

Salmon and Potatoes in a Jar was a very unique cooking experience!  First, raw salmon is cured in salt and sugar, then the salmon and cooked potatoes are packed in separate jars and marinated for up to 3 days.  Remove from the jar and eat!

I have never cured my own salmon before, but it was very easy.  I served this with rye bread I made using the no-knead method.  I thought we (especially my husband) would prefer the potatoes over the salmon, but the opposite was true.  The salmon was quite tasty, but the potatoes seemed a little boring.  I don’t think I would make this again as a dinner, but I can definitely imagine making just the salmon to serve as an appetizer at a party.

Eggplant Caviar

Eggplant Caviar with Tomatoes

Eggplant Caviar is a spread made from (you guessed it!) eggplant.  It also contains garlic, lemon zest and juice, chopped onion, and several herbs and spices.  The eggplant is first roasted and then combined with the rest of the ingredients.  I thought I would like this more than I did.  The flavor was a little too lemony for my taste, and I did not like the taste or texture of the raw onions.  That said, it made a very satisfying summer lunch with crusty bread and tomatoes.

Café Salle Pleyel Hamburger

Yummy Hamburgers

The Café Salle Pleyel Hamburger is a French take on an American classic.  The meat is mixed with chopped sun-dried tomatoes, capers, cornichons, tarragon, and parsley, giving it a wonderful flavor.  For serving, the buns are spread with homemade red onion marmalade, which is topped with thinly sliced dill pickles.  Ribbons of Parmesan cheese top the meat.

I really loved the flavors of this hamburger!  I don’t generally like pickles on my burgers, so I used them sparingly.  After taking a few bites I added more pickles because the flavor blended so well with the rest of the burger.  This recipe won’t replace our favorite grilled hamburgers, but I will definitely make them again when I am looking for a change of pace.

Corn Soup

Corn Soup

Corn Soup is like a taste of summer.  In-season, fresh corn is a must here.  The corn kernels, cobs, onions, celery, carrot, garlic, and herbs (thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf) are simmered in milk until tender and flavorful.  After blending the soup, it is served with a garnish of fresh corn kernels, green onion, and cooked bacon.  Dorie says the garnish is optional, but to me it is not:  the garnish really made the soup!  A very nice way to enjoy summer corn.

Cinnamon-Crunch Chicken

Cinnamon-Crunch Chicken

Cinnamon-Crunch Chicken is a quick but interesting dish.  Chicken breasts are quickly sauteed until almost cooked through, and then simmered with a mixture of crushed cinnamon spice cookies and crème fraîche.  The first time I made this I could not find the suggested cookies (LU Cinnamon Sugar Spice Biscuits) so I used gingersnaps instead.  After I found the correct cookies I made it again.

I’m not sure how I feel about this dish.  I like chicken.  The sauce went nicely with the noodles.  I think the problem I had with it was the sweet taste from the cookies.  It just didn’t seem right to me.  While this was a fun dish to try, I don’t think I will be making it again.

2010 Recipes

The group started cooking in October 2010, so I missed three months of recipes.  I have been slowly working my way through those recipes too.  These are the ones I have completed:

Spiced Butter-Glazed Carrots:  I made them to accompany Scallops with Caramel-Orange Sauce.

Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux:  I have made this a couple times now, the first time last January – delish!

Gougeres and Sweet and Spicy Cocktail Nuts:  I made these as appetizers for Thanksgiving 2011 and both were met with rave reviews!

My Go-To Beef Daube:  A satisfying beef stew for a cold winter’s night.

Potato Gratin:  I made this for Christmas dinner.  It was rich and delicious!

What’s Left?

I have a few recipes left to make and some of them I’m not sure I will feel inspired to make, but I will try.  I plan on making Vietnamese Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup very soon (tonight, actually!) after reading how much Alice at A Mama, A Baby and Shar-Pei in the Kitchen liked it recently.  Aside from the Vietnamese soup, I still have to make the following:

Gerard’s Mustard Tart

Hachis Parmentier

Marie-Helene’s Apple Cake

Caramel-Topped Semolina Cake

Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans

Leek and Potato Soup

Speculoos

Orange-Almond Tarte

I would love to be able to say at the end of the French Fridays with Dorie journey that I cooked every recipe!

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January 27, 2012 · 12:10 PM

Broth-Braised Potatoes

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is not very exciting, but it is one that I will be making often.

To make Broth-Braised Potatoes, chicken broth is first infused with the flavors of olive oil, garlic, lemon zest, bay leaf, fresh thyme, and salt and pepper.  Then the potatoes are cooked in the aromatic broth until tender.  If you wish to serve some of the cooking liquid with the potatoes (I did), remove the potatoes and simmer the broth for a few minutes to concentrate the flavors.

The end result is tender, flavorful potatoes that taste richer than they are.  My husband’s comment about these potatoes is that they “are just boiled potatoes”.  That they are, but they are much more flavorful, and don’t require butter to make them taste so good!

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January 20, 2012 · 11:58 AM

Quatre-Quarts

Is it really Friday already?  This week has flown by!  Being Friday, you know what that means:  French Fridays with Dorie.

This week’s recipe is a simple cake called Quatre-Quarts, which translates directly to “four-fourths”.  Similar in concept to an American pound cake, the cake uses equal amounts of eggs, flour, sugar, and butter.

Cakes have been my nemesis since I moved to Reno over 11 years ago.  Growing up in sea-level Seattle I never had to be concerned with my altitude while baking.  Reno is apparently at a high enough altitude (~4400 feet) to affect the baking of cakes.  I suddenly had cakes that were not rising properly, sinking in the middle, spilling over the pan, and the texture was off.  The richer the cake, the more trouble I had.

I received the book High Altitude Baking, which explains a lot of the science behind baking and altitude and also gives suggestions for adjusting recipes.  For years I attempted small adjustments to my recipes with mixed results.  Whenever I did any Internet searches for help with high altitude baking, most people said they simply added an extra egg to their recipe.  I resisted trying this because it seemed too easy, but a year or so ago I started adding an extra egg to cake recipes and it worked!  The extra egg changes the texture a little bit, but cakes rise beautifully and the texture is way better than what I was getting without the extra egg.

If you live at a higher altitude, do you adjust your cake recipes?  If so, what method do you use?

Now, back to this week’s cake…  I debated whether or not to follow the recipe as written or to add the extra egg.  In the end, I decided to add the egg.  The result was a lovely, simple cake very similar to a pound cake, but lighter in texture.

I really liked this cake.  Dorie mentions that it is a common after-school snack cake, so my daughter enjoyed a piece when she got home from school.  We ate it plain, but the cake would also be lovely dressed up a bit.  Strawberries and whipped cream would be good!

My daughter is notorious for helping herself to cakes and other baked goods left unattended.  This cake became a victim.  Luckily it happened after my pictures were taken!

Who ate this cake - a little mouse or a little girl?

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January 16, 2012 · 12:02 PM

Dinner Last Night

Remember last fall when I made and froze tomato sauce using garden tomatoes?  Well, I used it last night to make Baked Conchiglione.  It was so good!  Do yourself a favor:  next summer go to the farmer’s market and buy a bunch of tomatoes (or grow your own!) and make this sauce!

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January 13, 2012 · 9:11 PM

Armagnac Chicken

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is called M. Jacques’ Armagnac Chicken.

This recipe is a simple down-home recipe perfect for a lazy Sunday dinner.  A whole chicken and vegetables (potatoes, onion, and carrots) are placed in a large covered pot.  Pour some Armagnac around the chicken and roast in the oven for an hour or so.  The chicken creates a tasty sauce while it cooks.  The end result is a simple, but delicious, one-pot meal.

Armagnac is a distilled spirit made in the Southwest region of France.  Dorie suggests Cognac or other brandy as a substitute.  I used a brandy I already had on hand rather than try to find the Armagnac.

The only issue I had with this recipe is that my chicken did not come out “beautifully browned” as Dorie said it would.  Perhaps it was because I did not use a cast iron dutch oven?  Even though it wasn’t browned, it was still juicy and delicious.

Not browned, but still yummy.

We loved this dinner!  This is my husband’s favorite type of meal as he particularly loves chicken.  I can see making this often in the cooler months.

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· 12:09 PM

Bubble-Top Brioches

Happy French Friday!  I’m hoping to knock out two posts today…both last and this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipes.  We will start with last week’s recipe (which I actually did make last week – I just didn’t get around to writing about it).

If you own Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table, you must make Bubble-Top Brioches!  My kitchen smelled like a bakery while they were baking, and they tasted like they came from a bakery too.

Ready for the second rise

Though these delicious rolls take some time to make (most of the time is “hands-off”), they are not difficult.  After chilling the dough overnight, it is quite easy to work with.  The dough is rolled into small balls that are placed into muffin tins (or individual brioche molds if you are lucky enough to have them), giving the rolls their “bubble-top” appearance.

Fresh from the oven!

Dorie gives instructions for making brioche loaves as well.  This time I only made 6 of the bubble-top rolls and froze the rest of the dough for later use.  Perhaps I will try a loaf.

This recipe is one of those “never would have made it if not for French Fridays with Dorie recipes”.  It seemed very intimidating to try making brioche.  But – wow! – I’m so glad I made these because they were wonderful.

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