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June 5, 2015 · 5:24 PM

FFWD: The Never-Doubt-Dorie Moment

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!

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Tagged as cooking, French Fridays, gravlax, salmon

January 10, 2014 · 5:59 PM

Onion “Carbonara” + Dilled Gravlax

Happy Friday! I didn’t get a chance to make this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, so I thought I would take this opportunity to do a “catch up” post. There are two recipes from December that I made on time, but didn’t quite find the time to write about. So, here we are!

Recipe-Swap Onion “Carbonara”

Recipe-Swap Onion “Carbonara” is a play on the classic pasta dish, Carbonara. It replaces the pasta with onions and can be served as a side dish or starter. In her Bonne Idée for this recipe, Dorie suggests that it is a wonderful topping for pasta, so that’s how I served it.

In this recipe, steamed thinly sliced onions are tossed with chopped bacon, cream, an egg yolk, butter, and grated Parmesan to make a creamy dish.

We loved the flavors of this, but felt that the fettuccine I used was too heavy for the onion sauce; it detracted from the flavors. The next day I gently reheated the leftovers and served it on a lighter pasta and it worked much better.

Dilled Gravlax with Mustard Sauce

This one is a showstopper! Save it for a special meal or when you want to impress! Or, since it is so easy to make, have it whenever you feel like treating yourself to something special.

I have never made Gravlax before. I have looked a recipes for it, but it always seemed so intimidating. I don’t know why I was intimidated – this is so easy to make! All you need is time and a quality piece of salmon.

To make gravlax, a fresh salmon fillet is rubbed with a mixture of white and black peppercorns, coriander seeds, sea salt, and sugar. It is topped with plenty of fresh dill and cured for 48 – 72 hours. Slice thinly and serve with a honey-mustard dill sauce.

I absolutely loved this! I never thought homemade gravlax could be so much better than store-bought. I loved how the dill permeated the salmon. It was so flavorful. I served this as part of my Christmas appetizer spread and it was perfect for such a special occasion.

The next morning I put some of the salmon on a toasted bagel with cream cheese – scrumptious!