Happy French Friday! This is the second of four “celebratory” posts to ease ourselves to the French Fridays with Dorie finish line. This week we are to choose a recipe that “taught you a technique or gave you an idea or provided a lesson of some kind”.
One of my favorite aspects of participating in French Fridays with Dorie was that it pushed me to make recipes I may have otherwise skipped over. Perhaps they sounded too difficult to make, or just didn’t appeal to me. Sometimes I was right to be hesitant about a recipe, but other times I was pleasantly surprised. Either way, I learned a new technique or tried a new ingredient or combination of ingredients.
One such recipe was Dilled Gravlax with Mustard Sauce. I had seen gravlax recipes in other cook books I own. Maybe I didn’t know what to expect as the end result, but whenever I would read through one of these recipes, my eyes would glaze over and I would think “too difficult”, or “not worth it”. So I passed them by.
Then came the week we were to make Dilled Gravlax for French Fridays. By then, I knew I was going to attempt to go the distance and make every recipe from the book. So I made the gravlax. And guess what? It was easy and it was delicious! Who knew?
There are a few other recipes I would like to call out that I probably would not have made if not for FFWD, but that pleasantly surprised me:
Olive Oil Ice Cream – A flavor I wouldn’t expect in ice cream, but that was delicious (especially with chocolate sauce).
Riviera Fish Soup – Pureed fish soup? Yes, when it has the wonderful flavors this soup has.
Cold Melon-Berry Soup – I could not get my head around this one, but I found it refreshing and delicious.
Curious about other Never-Doubt-Dorie Moments? Check out what everyone else thought here.
Have a great weekend everyone!
From Scratch 
I would never, ever had made gravlax if I wasn’t part of this group. I just never thought it was something you could make at home. And I can’t help but laugh about the olive oil ice cream. Now that is an example of the need to use the right ingredients. I did not use fruity olive oil and my ice cream was horrible.
The olive oil ice cream! That was one that caused a lot of us trepidation. But, it was delicious. Nice choices!
I wasn’t sure about the gravlax, but I was glad I made it – sooooo good.
Great choices!
I brought the gravlax to a holiday dinner one year and I remember Joe, my dad and my nephew pretty much commandeering the whole platter. This one was a huge winner.
And that melon soup! I really need to remake that. Soon 🙂
So interesting. I made the Gravlax for my parents who loved it. The olive oil ice cream and fish soup rate amongst our very short list of “absolutely never again”!!!
Such an interesting list of choices! Some of which I did not get to (unlike you, I failed at the “every recipe” part – well done!). Actually, the only one I DID make was the gravlax! So fun to read your thoughts! And see your photo!
The gravalax is a great recipe which I too would have easily skipped if it was not for this group. So glad that I made it and now know how incredibly easy it is to make at home. Great choice.
Now that summer is here I should try that olive oil ice cream. Chocolate makes everything taste better. Congratulations on finishing the book.
Those are 4 of the recipes I did not get to make because of life… 😉 But I will have to go back and make them up. 🙂
I didn’t make the olive oil ice cream when it first came up because I thought it was gross, but when I was determined to finish all the recipes in the book and finally made it, it really wasn’t bad at all.
I love the gravlax, and especially the mustard sauce. I’m really enjoyed everyone’s lists. Such variety as we are all individuals with different tastes.