Happy French Friday! It’s hard to believe how close we are to finishing Around My French Table. Just one more new recipe and four retrospective posts left to go!
This week I will be talking about two week’s worth of recipes: Seafood Pot-au-feu and Cheesecake Tart.
Seafood Pot-au-feu
Seafood Pot-au-feu is the perfect dish for Spring! Light and healthy, and pretty too. This recipe is a lighted-up version of the classic French dish.
This light stew consists of a bright combination of vegetables and seafood. The veggies include small potatoes, spring onions (which I actually found!), carrots, leeks, and sugar snap peas. I left out the mushrooms because certain family members don’t care for them, and while I like mushrooms, they didn’t sound good to me in this particular recipe. For seafood, Dorie recommends mussels, salmon, and sea scallops. Due to family tastes, I used only salmon, and included three scallops just for me. Luckily, we all like salmon! I served the optional pesto as a garnish.
Reactions to the recipe were mixed. I really liked it, but wished I had cooked the carrots and potatoes a bit longer. My husband enjoyed the salmon and veggies, but overall felt it wasn’t very cohesive (I think he specifically said it lacked “synergy”). We both agreed the pesto was a nice addition. My daughter ate her salmon as long as she had ketchup to dip it in.
Cheesecake Tart
Our final dessert, Cheesecake Tart, was kind of a dud for me. It’s basically a tart shell filled with a cheesecake-like filling and dried cranberries.
There was nothing particularly wrong with this recipe (except I felt the filling was a little rubbery), it’s just that I like some of the other desserts in the book so much better. The best thing this recipe has going for it, is that it gave me a chance to enjoy that wonderful Sweet Tart Dough recipe again. I may or may not have scraped away some of the filling to enjoy the shell unadulterated.
This post participates in French Fridays with Dorie, an online cooking group that has nearly finished cooking our way through Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table.
From Scratch 
Both dishes look great in the photos. Sorry you did not enjoy the tart 100% but at least you baked it! Did you used the cottage cheese it required? I bought Ricotta initially but managed to find cottage so I have both in the fridge and will be making it this weekend.
Now that’s a new one for me, ketchup on salmon. I am a ketchup lover, to the disdain of my granddaughters, and eat it on scrambled eggs, with raw carrots, all cuts of beef and pork and, even shrimp. But, salmon, haven’t tried that yet. When I pour a rather healthy amount on my eggs, Emma and Clara would like to ask me to sit at another table but I am their grandmother, after all. Sorry this week’s choices didn’t get rave notices from you but they both looked tasty and you did find the best part (the sweet tart part of the cheesecake).
You did a wonderful job on both dishes, they look delicious. Happy Mother’s
Day to you.
We pretty much felt the same way about the pot-au-feu. It lacked. I think it was the chicken broth and the absence of liquor.
I have a grandson who loves ketchup on everything! Both your dishes look lovely! I used some white wine in my broth because I thought it a bit flat, but we did enjoy it! A lovely meal for a warm spring evening!
Sorry the tart wasn’t a hit!
Happy Mother’s day, Karen!
My son thinks ketchup fixes everything too. I agree with your sentiments on the sweet tart dough.
Haha, Karen, I totally agree about that sweet tart dough! The cheesecake tart was interesting, but I think it needs a different name. For the soup, my potatoes (small baby ones!) were not cooked enough, so I had to make a note to adjust cooking time even more than I already had. Hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day!