Tag Archives: cooking

May 5, 2017 · 4:05 PM

Frisée Salad with Bacon, Egg, and Garlic Toasts

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We enjoy eating hearty main-dish salads for dinner fairly often. I usually just wing-it, using ingredients we have on hand or that need to get used up. Sometimes it’s fun to actually follow a recipe, discovering delicious flavor combinations along the way. This week’s Cook the Book Fridays recipe gave me a change to try one such salad recipe.

Frisée Salad with Bacon, Egg, and Garlic Toasts, also known as salade lyonnaise, is classic French fare. It’s a salad made with (you guessed it) frisée, bacon, poached or hard-boiled eggs, and garlic croutons, but it also includes potatoes and a tasty vinaigrette.

I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter, with a couple of small exceptions: I mixed in some Romaine lettuce with the frisée, and I left the raw garlic out of the vinaigrette (but I did include the fried garlic clove from making the croutons). My husband assembled his own salad, personalizing it to his own tastes. He left out the potatoes and croutons, added grated cheese, and used blue cheese dressing instead of the vinaigrette.

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Leftovers for Lunch

We loved this salad! The combination of flavors was perfect. I liked the extra heartiness the potatoes added, and I LOVED the croutons (why don’t I make croutons more often?). My husband enjoyed his version as well. I had enough leftovers for a delicious lunch the next day. I am sure I will be making salade lyonnaise again.

This post participates in Cook the Book Fridays, an online group currently cooking our way through David Lebovitz’s book, My Paris Kitchen. This week’s recipe can be found on page 99. Join us!

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April 11, 2017 · 5:22 PM

Slow-Roasted Spiced Pineapple + Madeleines

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I’m sure it’s the American in me, but I don’t generally think of eating fruit as a dessert. A fruit sauce garnishing a dessert, yes. But just fruit, no. But really why not? It’s a relatively healthy treat and one my whole family will eat.

This month, Tuesdays with Dorie has provided me the opportunity to try fruit as a dessert. We tried a recipe called Laurent’s Slow-Roasted Spiced Pineapple. A whole pineapple is peeled and cut into quarters. It is roasted slowly in a bath of liquor, orange juice, jelly or jam, and a variety of whole spices. I chose a mix of rum, orange marmalade, vanilla bean, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, and fresh ginger.

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The house sure smelled wonderful while the pineapple was roasting! My husband enjoyed this treat together after our daughter went to bed. I decided the flavors were a little sophisticated for her. Plus, the rum. The marmalade I used was a little bitter and I wished I had used a sweeter jelly or jam, but my husband thought the bitterness went nicely with the rum. All in all, a successful dessert. I look forward to drizzling some of the leftover syrup on vanilla ice cream!

A quick make-up: Last month I made Black-and-White Marbled Madeleines, but didn’t get a chance to write about them. Madeleines are always fun to make; I’m not sure why I don’t make them more often! These ones are scented with lime zest and vanilla. Half the batter is mixed with a bit of cocoa powder and melted milk chocolate.

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These were a fun treat! I didn’t get the traditional “hump” (Dorie warned us we wouldn’t), but they were still delicious.

This post participates in Tuesdays with Dorie, a group devoted to baking through Dorie Greenspan’s baking books. Both these recipes can be found in the book Baking Chez Moi.

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April 7, 2017 · 4:04 PM

Salted Olive Crisps

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Happy Friday! I have sat down several times today to work on this blog post, but I seem to be struck with a case of writer’s block. It’s not that the Cook the Books Fridays recipe of the week wasn’t interesting. In fact, I found it fun to make and I enjoyed the results. I just can’t think of anything interesting to say about it…

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I have generally shied away from making cracker-type recipes. They seem like a lot of work with results that just aren’t quite as good as store-bought. This might not be true, but it’s my perception. Salted Olive Crisps defied my expectations, turning out delicious crackers that were very easy to make.

The dough for Salted Olive Crisps comes together very quickly. Faster than quick bread! It is baked in a loaf pan for 30 minutes, just until the center is set. After the loaf is cool enough to handle, it is sliced as thinly as possible. The resulting slices are baked again to crisp them up.

The ingredients are a flavorful, savory mix. Whole wheat flour adds some heartiness, while herbes de Provence and dry-cured olives provide the flavor. I substituted the almonds with pistachios since I have a recently-discovered allergy to almonds.

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I had a lot of fun making Salted Olive Crisps. The resulting crackers are delicious and are a nice late afternoon pick-me-up. They would be a welcome nibble with cocktails or wine at a dinner party. I did find that the crackers lost some of their crispness after the first day (that’s not stopping me from eating them), so keep that in mind if you wish to serve them to guests.

Look at that! I found something to say after all. I guess the lesson here is “just start writing”.

You can find the recipe for Salted Olive Crisps on page 42 of David Lebovitz’s book My Paris Kitchen.

Have a great weekend!

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March 31, 2017 · 4:04 PM

Green Beans with Snail Butter + a Tart

Happy Friday! For the last two weeks I have been caught up in the vortex that is Spring Break. Whenever my daughter is on break from school, the routines get disrupted such that I feel like I only accomplish the bare minimum. In fact, I feel quite lucky that this post is getting written at all. It helped that the recipe of the week for Cook the Book Fridays was an easy one.

A large part of Spring Break was spent visiting my family in Seattle. It has become a bit of a Spring Break tradition for my daughter and I to spend some time there. We had a lovely visit and I even squeezed in a CtBF make-up recipe!

First we’ll talk about the recipe for this week, then we’ll discuss the make-up.

Green Beans with Snail Butter

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Green Beans with Snail Butter had a hard time making on to the Cook the Book Fridays schedule. I think people took one look at the title and thought the butter was made from snails, but in reality it is the garlicky butter generally put on snails. Big difference!

This was a great recipe. Steamed green beans are simply tossed with a generous amount of butter, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice. It couldn’t be easier and it couldn’t be more delicious. This was a hit with my whole family and may even be my new favorite green bean recipe.

Chocolate-Dulce de Leche Tart

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I think I have mentioned before that my Mom is cooking though My Paris Kitchen with us behind the scenes. Chocolate-Dulce de Leche Tart is one of the few recipes neither of us had made yet, so we took the opportunity to make it together for a family dinner while I was in Seattle.

We had one problem with this recipe: the chocolate filling was very jiggly when the baking and resting time was finished. I decided to turn the oven back on and bake the tart for an extra ten minutes or so. That did the trick, but it also caused the dulche de leche to bubble up and parts of the chocolate filling to crack. Later, when we sliced the tart, I noticed that the distinct layers shown in the book did not really exist in our tart.

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No worries, the minor problems we experienced did not diminish our enjoyment of this dessert. The tart was delicious! We chilled the leftovers and found that the filling got fudgier. I think I liked it even more the second day than I did the first. Another winner!

Both these recipes can be found in the cookbook, My Paris Kitchen, by David Lebovitz.

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March 17, 2017 · 4:19 PM

Caramel Pork Ribs

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I live in a small city (Reno, NV) nestled on the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. A short drive west takes you to amazing outdoor recreation, including Lake Tahoe. Drive any other direction and it doesn’t take you long to get to very rural countryside.

One benefit to living in a city like Reno is that it is fairly easy to find local ranchers selling pasture-raised meats (local produce is a different story; growing veggies in the high desert is tricky). I have been buying grass-fed beef from Alpine Ranch for several years now. The beef is delicious as well as nutritious, and I love supporting a local, family-owned business.

I recently purchased a quarter share of heritage Berkshire pork from Alpine Ranch. We haven’t eaten much of it yet, but what we have tried has been wonderful. The bacon is delicious! I have a giant fresh ham that I plan on roasting for Easter.

How is all this related to Cook the Book Fridays? We made Caramel Pork Ribs and I used a rack of spare ribs from my quarter share of pork!

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Caramel Pork Ribs is a great recipe. It starts by making caramel. Add in brown sugar, beer, bourbon, cider vinegar, ketchup, ginger, soy sauce, harissa, Dijon mustard, and freshly ground pepper to make a wonderful sauce. The pork ribs, which have been cup up into 3-rib portions, are added to the sauce and roasted for a couple of hours. The end result is tender ribs with a flavorful, sticky sauce.

These ribs were a big hit at my house! My husband liked them a lot but said the sauce needed a little “more” (I’m guessing more tang like a barbecue sauce?). My daughter didn’t seem interested in her serving, but then I coaxed her into trying a bite, and next thing I knew her plate was clean. I will definitely be making these again.

Cook the Book Fridays is an online cooking group, currently making our way through David Lebovitz’s book, My Paris Kitchen. We don’t share his recipes (you should buy the book!), but you can find the recipe for Caramel Pork Ribs on page 187.

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March 3, 2017 · 10:03 AM

Wheat Berry Salad + Merveilleux

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It’s Friday! I will be sharing two Cook the Book Fridays recipes with you today. I had intended to make the dessert, called Merveilleux, for Valentine’s Day, but I was sick with a nasty cold that week and just didn’t feel up to making it. The Wheat Berry Salad is the “official” recipe of the week.

Wheat Berry Salad with Radicchio, Root Vegetables, and Pomegranate

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Wheat Berry Salad with Radicchio, Root Vegetables, and Pomegranate is just like it sounds. Cooked wheat berries are tossed with roasted root vegetables (I chose butternut squash because I found a bag of pre-cut squash that was just the right amount for the recipe), wilted radicchio, parsley, pomegranate seeds, and a citrusy vinaigrette. I made half the recipe and ate it for lunch over the course of two days.

So, Wheat Berry Salad with Radicchio, Root Vegetables, and Pomegranate was only OK for me, but it’s not the fault of the recipe. This type of salad just doesn’t do much for me and I would have never chosen to make this one if it weren’t for Cook the Book Fridays. That said, it did make for a satisfying lunch.

Merveilleux

I mentioned above that I had planned to make Merveilleux for Valentine’s Day. Well, my husband’s birthday was the following week, so I made it for that special event instead.

This year’s birthday was a fun one because our daughter is finally starting to get excited about birthdays (hers and others). She had been looking forward to Daddy’s birthday, so I decided to capitalize on her interest and get her involved. I took her on a special outing to select Dad’s gift and card, then she helped me wrap the gift and signed the card. She was so excited to give him the gift on his birthday. And of course he loved receiving it from her.

Making Merveilleux was quite an involved process that took a good part of the day. I wasn’t really sure what I was even making. This recipe would have benefited from a photo of the finished product.

Basically, Merveilleux is two vanilla meringues filled with a coffee-flavored cream, then covered in that same cream, and coated with finely chopped chocolate. It was very messy to make and my finished products were not very pretty (I don’t think I got the cream stiff enough). The one pictured above was the prettiest and the rest were far less beautiful. The treat pictured below was a simplified Merveilleux that I made for my daughter.

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These were delicious! The coffee cream was so good, and I ended up eating quite a bit of it straight out of the bowl. I only made 4 filled Merveilleux, but I enjoyed eating the rest of the meringues on their own. BUT, I’m not sure it was worth the mess and effort. Perhaps Merveilleux is one of those treats best purchased from a pastry shop in Paris.

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You can find the recipes for Wheat Berry Salad with Radicchio, Root Vegetables, and Pomegranate and Merveilleux in David Lebovitz’s book, My Paris Kitchen.

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February 3, 2017 · 4:33 PM

Coq au Vin

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Do you ever sit down to write a blog post and you just can’t think of anything interesting to say? I’m having one of those days today…the ideas just aren’t flowing. So please forgive me if my post is a little boring.

My lack of anything interesting to say is no reflection on the Cook the Book Fridays recipe of the week, Coq au Vin (or, Chicken in Red Wine Sauce). In fact, it was quite delicious and I enjoyed it very much.

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My daughter seems to have a love-hate relationship with chicken. Sometimes she eats it right up, and other times she hardly touches it. This one she didn’t seem to care for much. Maybe the wine added a flavor that was too exotic?

This recipe hits all the right notes for me: braised chicken, bacon, mushrooms, and a flavorful sauce. All in all, it was a cozy dish to tuck myself into on a chilly night.

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January 20, 2017 · 4:23 PM

Salt Cod Fritters with Tartar Sauce

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Happy Friday! Remember last month when I made the Salt Cod and Potato Puree, and I mentioned that I froze half of it for later use? Well, this week I used it! The Cook the Book Fridays recipe this week was Salt Cod Fritters with Tartar Sauce, and the base of the recipe was the leftover puree.

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I rarely deep-fry things at home. Maybe once every couple of years. And I’m pretty sure the last time I deep-fried something was for French Fridays with Dorie. These cooking groups really help me get out of my comfort zone! So, while I was looking forward to eating these deep-fried fritters, I wasn’t all that excited about the frying part.

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The process starts by mixing the salt cod and potato puree with some bread crumbs (I used panko because that’s what I had) and forming them into 1-inch balls. The balls are refrigerated to firm them up.

While the fritters were chilling, I made the tartar sauce. Because I have never successfully made homemade mayonnaise (I *have* failed at making it before…) I decided to try the recipe from My Paris Kitchen. It was successful! Except I didn’t really like the taste, but that’s my issue and not the recipe’s. However I loved the resulting tartar sauce (it included chopped cornichons, minced shallots, chopped capers, parsley, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar) and I will certainly make it again, probably with store-bought mayonnaise.

Next up, the beer batter! It seems like a pretty basic batter recipe, but it is seasoned with cayenne pepper, parsley, and cilantro.

The frying part wasn’t so bad. Because I was only making a few fritters for myself, I used a 2 quart sauce pan with only about an inch and a half of oil. I appreciate that the recipe specified what temperature to bring the oil to; deep-frying is much more successful when the oil is the right temperature.

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Oh man, these were good! The batter fried up crisp and light and the filling was delicious. I’m sure the batter would be great for onion rings or fish and chips too. If you are feeling adventurous, give this recipe a try!

You can find the recipe for Salt Cod Fritter with Tartar Sauce on page 73 of David Lebovitz’s book My Paris Kitchen. If you don’t have it already, why not? It’s excellent!

Have a great weekend!

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January 11, 2017 · 11:46 AM

Honey-Yogurt Mousse

 

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As I looked at the January recipes for Tuesdays with Dorie, I realized I fell off the TWD wagon a bit this past year. I have always said I would only make the recipes from Baking Chez Moi that sounded good to me, but last year I skipped quite a few that I wanted to make. Ones I had even procured the ingredients for. What’s to blame? Certainly our busy schedule (especially the Fall) takes some of the blame. But some of it is also a lack of deadline (TWD switched to a “do whichever recipe for the month that you want to do each week” approach that apparently doesn’t work as well for me). I have decided that at the beginning of the month I will decide which recipes I am going to make, and then assign the due date for each one. I will also approach the baking and enjoying of each treat as a welcome respite from a busy life. We’ll see how it works!

You may notice that today is Wednesday, so I am starting the year off already a day late. But, I didn’t decide on my new scheduling plan until it was too late to have the recipe made, photographed, and blogged about on time.

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The recipe I chose to make to kick off the new year is called Honey-Yogurt Mousse. My family loves any kind of pudding or mousse so it seemed like a good fit. It is also sort of healthy. It doesn’t take much time at all to whip this one together, as long as you allow enough time for the yogurt to drain and the mousse to set.

I thought I was going to love this one. One of my favorite ways to eat Greek yogurt is to sweeten it with a bit of honey. A gussied-up dessert version sounded terrific! There were definitely things I liked about Honey-Yogurt Mousse, like the marshmallowy texture and the richness from the cream. But I thought it was too sweet. If I try this one again (and I might because it has potential) I will use a lot less honey.

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If you would like to try Honey-Yogurt Mousse, you can find the recipe on page 352 of Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking Chez Moi.

I hope to join you all for a year full of delicious baking!

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January 6, 2017 · 1:00 AM

Fresh Herb Omelet

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Hawthorne Berries in Snow

It’s rare that a snow day happens on the perfect day. Usually there’s somewhere to go, or something to cancel, or some other inconvenience caused by the snow. Today, as I sit here writing this, the snow is softly falling and everything is white. Happily, we had nowhere to be today: no errands, no appointments, no obligations outside the house. Just a quiet day, snuggled at home, looking out at the winter wonderland. The perfect snow day!

Cook the Book Fridays is starting the new year with a simple recipe that I am sure I will make again and again. Fresh Herb Omelet is nothing more than a simple omelet dressed up with a mix of herbs and a splash of cream.

I make myself omelets all the time, but I decided to follow David Lebovitz’s recipe and instructions exactly, to see if I could learn anything new from the process.

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Fresh Herb Omelet before being cut in half

First of all, I don’t normally put herbs in my eggs. This time I used a mix of fresh thyme, marjoram, and chives. While I do whisk in a bit of milk when I make an omelet, I have never tried heavy cream. I happened to have some, so I used it.

The biggest difference between my normal omelet technique and David’s is that I usually use a 10 inch pan for a 2 egg omelet, and he has us use one that is 12 inches. I liked the thinner omelet I got as a result, partly because it felt more refined, and also because the “top” of the omelet cooked to my liking more quickly.

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Fresh Herb Omelet, Bacon, and a Salad for Dinner

Takeaways? Both my husband and I liked the fresh herbs in the omelet. It gave the eggs a little extra something that we both enjoyed. Next time I would spread the grated cheese (I used Parmesan) over half the omelet rather that just down the center; I like a little more cheese distribution. Finally, I loved the results of the using the bigger pan. Overall, this recipe was a winner, and made for a delicious, easy dinner.

If you are interested in trying your own Fresh Herb Omelet, you can find the recipe on page 133 of David Lebovitz’s book My Paris Kitchen.

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