November Daring Bakers Challenge Crostata

A day or two late for the challenge, le bebe gourmand and I had our first day home alone together and the Baby Bjorn saved my sanity although the crostata was not made until Le Gourmand was home from work and holding LBG. As I type this she lies in her father's arms.... grizzling.

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

I used pie apples and strawberry vanilla jam to flavour - Le Gourmand was very impressed.

Making pasta frolla by hand:

1. Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Rub or cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. You can do this in the bowl or on your work surface, using your fingertips or an implement of choice.
3. Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it (reserve about a teaspoon of the egg mixture for glazing purposes later on – place in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use).
4. Add the lemon zest to your flour/butter/egg mixture.
5. Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips.
6. Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.
7. Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours. You can refrigerate the dough overnight.

If you choose to make a crostata with a jam filling, you will need:

• 1 and 3/4 cups [415ml, 600 gm, 21 oz] of jam or fruit preserves, whatever flavor you like (Note: I use my homemade fruit preserves, which have a low sugar content. I recommend you choose a good quality product, made with mostly fruit.)

I used pie apples flavoured with 1 tablespoon of vanilla strawberry jam.

Assembling and baking the crostata di marmellata:

1. Heat the oven to 375ºF [190ºC/gas mark 5].
2. Take the pasta frolla out of the fridge, unwrap it and cut away ¼ of the dough. Reserve this dough to make the lattice top of the crostata. Refrigerate this dough while you work on the tart base.
3. To help roll the crostata dough, keep the dough on top of the plastic wrap that you had it wrapped in. This can help rolling the dough and can also help when transferring the dough to your pan. You can also use parchment paper for this. However, you can also roll the dough directly on a work surface if you prefer.
4. Lightly dust the top of the dough and your work surface (if you’re rolling directly on a work surface) with flour. Keep some flour handy to dust the dough as you go along.
5. If the dough is very firm, start by pressing the dough with the rolling pin from the middle to each end, moving the rolling pin by a pin's width each time; turn the dough 180 degrees and repeat; when it softens, start rolling.
6. Roll the dough into a circle about 1/8th inch (3 mm) thick.
7. If you used the plastic wrap or parchment paper as rolling surface, flip dough over the pan, centering it, and delicately press it all around so the corners are well covered. Peel away the plastic wrap.
8. Trim the excess dough hanging over the edges of the pan. Press the remaining dough around the border into the sides of the pan making sure the border is an even thickness all the way around.
9. Prick the bottom of the dough with a fork in several places.
10. Take out of the fridge the reserved pasta frolla you had cut away earlier. Roll it with your pin and cut into strips or use cookie cutters to make small shapes (this is not traditional, but it looks cute); or roll with your hands into ropes.
11. Spread the jam or fruit preserves evenly over the bottom of the crostata. 
12. Use the prepared strips or rolls of dough to make a lattice over the surface, or decorate with the cut shapes. (Note: You can use dough scraps to make cookies: see the Additional Information section for some pointers) 
13. Brush the border and strips of dough with the reserved beaten eggs. You can add a drop or two of water to the beaten eggs if you don’t have enough liquid. 
14. Put the tart in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
15. After 25 minutes, check the tart and continue baking until the tart is of a nice golden hue. (Note: Every oven is different. In my oven it took 34 minutes to bake the tart until golden.)
16. When done, remove the tart from the oven and let cool. If you have used a tart pan with a removable bottom, then release the tart base from the fluted tart ring. Make sure the tart is completely cool before slicing and serving.

The arrival of le bébé gourmand

She chose to spend another week eating excellent food inside of me but Bruce has finally arrived and it's a girl! Which warrants a change of name so she will henceforth be known as le bébé gourmand or BG for short. She is completely divine but, not surprisingly, given her parents' love of food, she is a voracious eater. She was 15 grams off regaining her birth weight at 1 week and 3 days (we were not surprised). Now the real challenge is seeing if french food tastes as good in breast milk as it must have in utero!

Daring Cooks Challenge November - Souffle

Souffle was the perfect tie in for Julia Child but I have been super slow in posting as a result of BG's arrival - annoying as this was cooked well ahead of time. It was accompanied by Supremes de Volaille a Blanc (Breast of Chicken with cream) cooked in the pan briefly then in the oven with the le creuset - the sauce was the chicken cooking juices, stock, wine and butter with (naturally) cream stirred in at the end. The Julia cooking has been fairly sparse for several weeks but we also managed Veau Poele (Casserole- roasted veal) the week before, which was tasty.

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

I chose egg white souffle from MTAOFC and followed Julia's suggestion that I could substitute all manner of things for the diced cheese, substituted diced ham and broccoli - delicious!


Souffle Aux Blancs D'Oeufs 
(Cheese souffle w/ egg whites only)
Serves 4

Grated cheese and butter for prepping souffle dish

2.5 TB butter
3 TB flour
3/4 c. simmering light cream
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
Big pinch nutmeg

6-7 egg whites (3/4-7/8 cup)
Big pinch salt
3/4 c. (3 oz.) coarsely grated Swiss cheese
3/4 c. (3 oz.) Swiss cheese cut into 1/4" dice (or substitute 2/3 cup ground fish, chicken, sweetbreads, ham or vegetables)

Preheat oven to 400F. Generously butter 6-cup souffle dish and coat evenly w/ grated cheese (I like parmesan). In saucepan over low-med heat, melt butter and then stir in flour. Cook for about 2 min. making sure it doesn't brown. Off heat, add simmering cream and seasonings. Bring to boil and stir for 1 min. Take off heat.

Beat egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form. Stir one quarter into cream base. Stir in all but a TB of grated cheese. Then add diced cheese (in my case broccoli and ham). Gently fold in remaining whites.

Pour mixture into prepared souffle dish, sprinkle w/ reserved grated cheese. Set in middle of oven and immediately reduce heat to 375F. Bake for 25-30 min. til souffle has puffed and browned. Don't open oven door for at least 20-25 min. Serve immediately!

Dear Julia - a message from Bruce

Dear Julia
I just want you to know that mum is still cooking like a mad woman from your book but she is rather busy getting ready for me so she hasn't posted anything for awhile. This doesn't mean that I haven't been ingesting a lot of French food as part of her master plan. To be honest, I don't mind the food, but sometimes she eats a lot of it and it makes it difficult for me to wriggle around. Don't worry, I still manage it, but sometimes not until dinner is over and mum is trying to get some sleep.
Now I probably won't remember all of the things that she has cooked over the last few months but there have been quite a few.

People also seem to get really excited about ham - mum and Memere made one that they braised in wine and served with a creamy mushroom sauce that was naughty but really yummy (Jambon Braise Morvandelle with Cream and Mushroom Sauce Version 1). Then she used the leftover ham and added tomatoes and capsicum and mushroom (Tranches de Jambon en Piperade), which dad loved. She also made brunch one day with Piperade an Omelette with ham, onions, peppers and tomatoes, followed up with Crepes Fine Sucrees.  She made the Bear a Spinach Quiche - Quiche aux Epinards - without the pastry - that was delicious!

We have eaten a lot of lamb - mum finally gave in and cooked the stuffing with olives (Farce aux Olives), but instead of stuffing a leg of lamb she made it into lamburgers which dad loved. We also have had Lamb in cooked wine marinade (Marinade Cuite) and lamb in uncooked wine marinade (Marinade au Laurier). I think Mum is a bit tired of cooking lamb really well so I don't get sick but at least the marinade adds flavour.

Artichokes have been on the menu but they really are hard to eat and dad (Le Gourmand) complains a lot about that. I wouldn't say the Fonds D'Artichauts au Beurre or the Quartiers de Fonds d'Artichauts au Beurre have been great successes but it's good to try different things.

We have also had a lot of veal because it is the season apparently. The Escallopes de Veau Chasseur and the Cotes de Veau Aux Herbes have been really tasty plus she made Fricadelles de Veau Duxelles even though dad isn't the biggest mushroom fan.

We're still eating lots of vegetables but they don't seem to have as much cream and butter - the Carrotes a la Forestiere with mushrooms and artichokes were nice and light and the Champignons Sautes a la Bordelaise weren't super buttery. We did have asparagus with Sauce Maltaise (Orange Hollandaise) one night - dad loved that - and Cauliflower in Cream Sauce (Sauce a la Creme) with our roast lamb another night but mum hasn't cooked anything really crazy yet, like your baked cucumber or braised celery.

She did put celery in Supremes de Vollaile a l'Ecossaise but you could barely taste it, it was diced so finely. The curry sauce (Sauce au Cari) with baked chicken was really yummy and so was the tarragon sauce which we also had with chicken (Sauce Brune a l'Estragon). I also like it when she does Pork with sauce - the Sauce Moutarde a la Normande was really yummy.

My favourite is when she cooks dessert. She made your Biscuit au Beurre and decorated it with strawberries and cream - that was delicious! Even better was the Strawberry Tart (Tarte Aux Fraises) - a sweet pastry crust, filled with Creme Patissiere and covered with strawberries glazed with cranberry sauce, sugar and cointreau. We had that at a little party for the grand final where she made your cheese potato sticks (Bouchees Parmentier au Fromage), which were also great.

I think she's cooked a few other things but I just can't remember them - I know she keeps muttering about aspic but I think she is waiting until after I arrive for that.

Thanks for all the lovely recipes Julia
Love Bruce
                                                                                                                                                                        

Daring Bakers Challenge October - Donuts mmm

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

I have to admit that deep frying anything whilst heavily pregnant was not a particularly appealing prospect so I enlisted the help of Le Gourmand to stand over the hot oil, while I cut the dough. Initially sceptical about cooking after 11 at night, his tune changed when he started to eat the luscious bomboloni from Kate Neumann's recipe. Instead of dusting in sugar and then icing sugar, we just dusted them in sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon and filled them with plum jam.

Despite the claims below that the dough would not rise in the refrigerator, mine did so I used a cutter of about an inch diameter instead of half an inch. And instead of making 32 I would estimate we made closer to 50.

Unfortunately they don't keep very long, although we have managed to resurrect them with a few seconds in the microwave.

INGREDIENTS

1. 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon lukewarm water
2. 1 1/2 envelopes active dry yeast (3 1/4 teaspoons)
3. 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
4. 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
5. 3 tablespoons milk
6. 6 large egg yolks
7. 1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
8. 2 teaspoons kosher salt
9. 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
10. 3 cups canola oil, for frying
11. 3/4 cup seedless raspberry preserves
12. Confectioners' Sugar, for dusting

DIRECTIONS

1. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, mix the water, yeast, honey and 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of the flour. (Alternatively, whisk the ingredients by hand.) Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until foamy, about 1 hour.
2. Return the bowl to the mixer, fitted with a dough hook. Add the remaining 13/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons of flour, along with the milk, egg yolks, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar and the salt. Mix at low speed until blended, then add the butter and knead at medium speed until silky but sticky, about 5 minutes; the dough will not pull away from the side of the bowl. Using an oiled spatula, scrape the dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight. The dough will not rise.
3. In a large saucepan, heat the canola oil to 360°. Line a rack with paper towels. Fill a shallow bowl with 1/2 inch of granulated sugar. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough a scant 1/2 inch thick. Using a 1/2-inch round biscuit cutter, stamp out 32 rounds; do not reroll the dough. Fry the rounds, 8 at a time, until they are browned, about 4 minutes. Be sure to keep the oil between 360° and 375°. Drain the bomboloni on paper towels, then roll them in the granulated sugar. Continue frying and rolling the remaining bomboloni.
4. Fit a pastry bag with a plain donut tip (or a 1/4-inch tip) and fill with the preserves (you can also use a squeeze bottle). Poke the tip three-fourths of the way into the bomboloni and squeeze in the preserves, pulling the tip out slightly as you squeeze to fill them as much as possible. Dust the bomboloni with confectioners' sugar and serve warm.

The Daring Cooks' Challenge - Stuffed Leaves

Tess Mallos is the queen of all things Greek in my family so I could not stuff vine leaves any other way. We made a middle east feast to accompany them using her Baba Ganoush and Baklava recipes, as well as whipping up some Tzatziki to accompany the vine leaves and Le Gourmand's lamb skewers and thrice cooked oregano potatoes. Blairgourmand brought some middle eastern inspired prawns to complete the feast. Blairgourmand, Petit Poulet and Le Gourmand were in raptures over the vine leaves!

Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.

Apart from the difficulties of wrapping with some of the smaller leaves, this recipe was pretty hassle free. I would advise people not to overstuff their leaves (a lesson learnt by me many moons ago) in the wrapping stage as the rice will expand.

STUFFED GRAPE LEAVES: (Source The Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook)
Filling:
2 lg onions, finely chopped
1/2 c olive oil
1 c rice
1/4 c pine nuts
1/4 c currants
1 t ground allspice
2 T fresh dill, finely chopped
fresh ground black pepper

TO FINISH:
80 fresh or preserved grape vine leaves
water
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1/4 c olive oil
lemon wedges & yoghurt for serving

1 In a pan, fry onion gently in olive oil until transparent. Add rice & stir over heat for 5 minutes. Add pine nuts, currants, allspice, dill, salt & pepper to taste. Cover & cook on gentle heat for 5 minutesw. Remove & leave aside.
2. Blanch fresh or preserved grape vine leaves in boiling water for 3 minutes, adding them in 3 lots. As each lot is blanched, remove to a bowl of cold water, then drain well.
3. Spread a vine leaf on work surface, shiny side down, and place a heaped teaspoon of the rice filling towards stem end. Roll once, fold in sides and roll into a neat package. Repeat w/remaining ingredients.
4. Line base of a heavy pan w/4 vine leaves & pack rolls, folded side down, in close packed rows. As each row is completed, place 3 thin slices of lemon on top before beginning next row.
5. When all rolls are in pan, top w/ 3 lemon slices & cover w/ remaining vine leaves. Pour 2 cups water and olive oil over rolls & invert a heavy plate on top to keep rolls in shape during cooking.
You may need to add more water - watch them,
6. Bring to a slow simmer, reduce heat, covery pan and simmer gently for 50 minutes. Remove pan from heat & leave until cool.
7. Carefully remove rolls to serving dish, discarding lemon slices. Serve at room temperature, or cover dish & chill before serving. Garnish platter w/lemon wedges & serve w/a bowl of yoghurt.

4 recipes in one cake and I am pleased!

Menu Gâteau À L'Orange (page 671)

Gateau Fourre a la Crème d'Orange

Crème au Beurre a l'Orange Glazed Orange or Lemon Peel Vietmum is back in Australia to have her baby (very very soon!) so we gathered for a baby shower and my contribution was Julia's orange sponge. Conveniently this involved four recipes, so I cleared the whole morning and felt a little apprehensive about my sponge making prowess and our oven. My fears were assuaged by Julia's  comprehensive instructions and the sponge tasted like a sponge. Of course this may have been aided by my super dooper Kitchen Aid beautifully beating the egg whites before adding them to the beaten egg, sugar orange rind and orange juice into which flour had been delicately folded. The filling involved heating butter, sugar, eggs, orange juice, orange liqueur and rind until a little whiff of steam rises! Then beating it until cool over cold water. Add butter for your icing and pull out your candy thermometer to glaze some zested orange peel for decoration! Transporting on a hot day may lead to slightly less aesthetically pleasing results..... The afternoon tea was delightful - mmmm macarons and cucumber sandwiches!

La semaine en bref

The weeks are hectic as the end of work and Bruce's arrival approaches. So hectic that I am beginning to forget what I have cooked, although we are still religiously following Julia. So all I will offer is some brief recipe appraisals.


The Sauce Robert - a brown sauce with mustard and some yummy tarragon flavours was delicious! The spinach au gratin (with mushrooms, picked out by Le Gourmand) was totally decadent, especially as it was backed up the following night with broccoli au gratin and the gorgeous braised leeks with swiss cheese. The lamb was simply a mustard glaze and I lessened the impact of the creamy mustard sauce for the pork by breaking the pork up and adding carrots and capsicum to it, serving it on rice. Very very tasty!


Menu
Tuesday

Poulet avec Sauce Robert

Epinards a la Mornay, Gratines

Wednesday
Gigot a la Moutarde
Poireaux Gratines au Fromage


Thursday

Rôti De Porc Poêlé avec

Sauce Moutarde a la Normande

Festivus

And there was great feasting and merriment for Pepere was about to turn 65. The whole tribe (apart from the New Yorker) gathered for the requisite celebratory ale and french meal.

Menu

Souffle with pear, parmesan and butter lettuce salad
Coq au Vin
Grandma Rose's chocolate sponge with Glaçage Au Chocolat 

Saturday night was the celebration for Pepere's birthday so the Bear, Memere and I put on a french-themed feast. The main event was Coq au Vin, which I assisted Memere to cook. Actually it was more like observing a Julia masterclass. Apparently it is worth the effort of drying your chicken/meat and the added je ne sais quoi of the dish is flaming it in cognac or brandy - the results spoke for themselves, even Memere admitted it was one of her best CAVs ever. She didn't blink an eye at sauteeing the mushrooms or browning the onions using the separate recipes - possibly because she has done it so many times before she doesn't even need to look at said recipes. I note that she did not blanch the bacon!

My entree was filled with the requisite drama of cooking a souffle and needing to marshall the troops into the dining room at the right time - the recipe was much the same as the earlier spinach and cheese souffle and despite my concerns it rose beautifully!  The balsamic glaze on the pear, parmesan and butter lettuce salad was just right. The only complaint was that there was not enough.

Which meant that we were very hungry for the main event but had to patiently wait while it returned to the oven. Le Gourmand contributed his excellent mashed potatoes to my oven cooked tomatoes and the menu was complete. Memere had spent loving amounts of time properly deglazing the sauce from the coq au vin and as a result the sauce was gorgeous, restrained and not too rich. 

The Bear patiently listened to thousands of helpful ideas and made a fantastic double sponge for dessert following Grandma's special recipe, which left out a few instructions here and there. The Bull and I used Julia's chocolate icing recipe (heat rum and chocolate, beat in butter, allow to thicken beating over bowl of ice and water) and the results were divine.

As all good birthday dinners end, the party ended when the birthday boy - exhausted from a big day at an air show with all of the other men - fell asleep at the table (naturally after the meal).

Daring Bakers Challenge September- Lemon Footprint Cookies!

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking. 

The cookie recipe was great as it meant the cookies kept there shape but the decorating was a real challenge - in my pregnated state I am currently not blessed with much stamina, which might ordinary overcome my lack of artistic talent or not particularly steady hand. Plus, the bonus of MTAOFC is very few pictures of the finished product so you can use your imagination. The challenge required mental toughness and an egg free royal icing substitute!

The theme was September which automatically means spring and new life for me - quite conveniently as Bruce will arrive in less than two months and it is almost time for a baby shower. These cookies were my practice run for a baby shower. Still some work needed but they tasted great (is this a recurring comment for my daring baker challenges?).

Basic Sugar Cookies with Lemon twist: 

Makes approximately 36 x 10cm / 4 inch cookies 

200g / 7oz / • cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature 

400g / 14oz / 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour 

200g / 7oz / 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar 

1 Large Egg, lightly beaten 

5ml / 1 tsp Lemon Juice

Zest of one lemon

Directions: 

Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming creamy in texture. 

Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during baking, losing their shape. 

Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. 

Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms. 

Tip: I don’t have a stand mixer so I find it easier to switch to dough hooks at this stage to avoid flour flying everywhere. 

Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces. 

Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch) 

Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins. 

Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker. 

Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface. 

Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife. 

Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour. 

Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking. 

Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up. 

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4. 

Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies. 

Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in some cookies being baked before others are done. 

Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly. 

Leave to cool on cooling racks. 

Once completely cooled, decorate as desired. 

Tip: If wrapped in tinfoil/cling wrap or kept in airtight containers in a cool place, un-decorated cookies can last up to a month. 

Lemon Royal Icing

I modified this recipe http://veglicious.blogspot.com/2008/07/royal-icing-decorations.html 

1 c. confectioner's sugar

1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch

2 tsp. lemon juice

food coloring (optional)

2-3 tsp. milk

Sift the sugar and cornstarch together. Stir in the lemon juice and any food coloring you wish to use. Add the milk, 1 tsp. at a time, until the mixture becomes a smooth, but thick, paste. Run a knife along the icing - if it is smooth between 5 and 10 seconds after this, it is ready.

To decorate I used icing writing tubes in red and blue.

Try not to choke

I cooked artichokes for the first time on Wednesday night. It was quite a spectacle - Julia provides detailed instructions not only on how to cook artichokes but how to eat them. Consequently Le Gourmand and I sat at the dinner table, MTAOFC propped up in front of us, trying to maximise our enjoyment of the artichokes. This involves using your teeth to remove the "meat" inside each leaf until you get to the "meatier" choke. Fingers are a must although you must be prepared to get you fingers dirty with your chosen sauce.

Menu
Artichauts Au Naturel
Sauce Bâtarde
Escalopes de Veau a l'Estragon

Once the base of the artichoke is trimmed, it is fairly straightforward to sit it in water, cover with cheesecloth and cook for 30-40 minutes. Draining the water out of the artichoke is a bit more of a challenge.

The book suggests Hollandaise to accompany the artichokes but, as I am trying to avoid raw egg, I substituted Sauce Batarde or mock hollandaise, which involves using a white roux to thicken up some white stock and then slowly adding to egg yolk and cream before briefly heating the sauce again (and hopefully cooking the egg). Le Gourmand was impressed.

More sauce followed - the veal scallops were lightly cooked but the real star was the tarragon sauce, which involved deglazing the pan with dried tarragon and white wine before adding two cups of jus lie (recycling from the week before) and cooking down the results. I am still a little dubious about the amount of arrowroot that was in the jus lie, as I prefer things a little less thick, but the sauce was extremely tasty with the veal scallops.

Bruce decided to assert himself for the next few nights - his habit of lying on my right side has landed me at the physio with all kinds of restrictions and it seems that being pregnant really does make you tired. Who would have thought it?

Apple Butter and Mastering the Art of French Cooking - Daring Cooks September Challenge

The challenge for the daring cooks this month was to preserve food. I have been "canning" or bottling my own relish for a while now and know what an involved job it could be, so I decided to try the freezing option for my apple butter instead.

My personal challenge? Cook a MTAOFC recipe that would complement the apple butter (and remember to do it before the September 14 deadline expired). The recipe? Roti de Porc aux Choux - nothing too daring about roast pork and cabbage with apple butter but... the result? Spectacular! The only problem - we wished that we made more apple butter (I frugally made a half serving). Le Gourmand joked that one of the two freezer bags might just disappear...

The pork was browned in a casserole and then the obligatory carrot and onion were cooked slowly with a herb bouquet and two unpeeled garlic cloves for five minutes. The pork was then cooked in a slow oven for about and hour before I added a lot of cabbage boiled for two minutes, with carraway, salt and pepper, brought the casserole to a simmer and returned it to the oven for another 30-40 minutes, basting the meat juices through the cabbage.

Meanwhile the apple butter had been cooking away, as I diligently followed the directions so that there was no ring of liquid around the final product. I have cooked apple sauce before but apple butter adds a whole different, delicious dimension to the flavour profile. And it goes beautifully with the pork and cabbage (and the toast I had it on for dessert) - Le Gourmand will be a pork lover yet!

The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation

Being pregnant I was not keen to use artificial sweetner so I used sugar and Granny Smith Apples (my favourite), and halved the apple cider content, but the reduced sugar option follows. I peeled and cored my apples and mashed them in the pot (they were so broken down I really just needed to stir them) and then took some of the apple mixture out and blended it with the sugar and spice before returning it to the pot as I don't have a stick blender.

Recipe: Reduced Sugar Apple Butter

2kg apples, cut into eights and cored (peel if you like)

1 cup Apple Cider (Optional: Water or Juice)
1/2 cup Sucralose/Splenda (Optional: Honey, Agave or Sugar - to taste)
1 Tbl Cinnamon, Ground
1/2 tsp Allspice, Ground
1/4 tsp Cloves, Ground

Note: * If you used peeled and cored apples. I recommend buying 5 lbs (2.26 kg) of apples

1. Wash apples well and remove stems. Cut apples into quarters or eighths and remove cores.
Note: I ended up peeling the apple at this step.

2. Combine unpeeled apples and cider in 8-quart (about 7 ½ litre) saucepan. Cook slowly and stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Cook until apples are very soft (falling apart).

3. Position a food mill or strainer securely over a large bowl. Press cooked apples with cider through the food mill or strainer to make a pulp. Be sure to collect all the pulp that comes through the food mill or strainer; for example, scrape any pulp clinging under the food mill into the bowl.
Note: Since the apples were peeled, I just mashed in the pot.

4. Combine pulp with Sucralose and spices in an 8-quart (about 7 ½ litre) saucepan. Simmer over low heat, stirring frequently.
Note: A stick blender can be used to mix the spices and creates a smoother apple butter. Also, when cooking down the apples, you want to leave the lid ajar or use a splatter screen. This will allow for evaporation. Another trick is to support the lid by laying two wooden spoons across the top of the pot.

5. To test for doneness, spoon a small quantity onto a clean plate; when the butter mounds on the plate without liquid separating around the edge of the butter, it is ready for processing. Another way to test for doneness is to remove a spoonful of the cooked butter on a spoon and hold it away from steam for 2 minutes. It is done if the butter remains mounded on the spoon.

6. Pour contents into desired storage container or multiple containers. I stored my apple butter in 1-cup (250ml) plastic containers with screw on tops. Refrigerate up to 2 weeks, freeze up to a year, and home canning is good for a year.

* The Finished Apple Butter:Apple Butter is often used as a spread. However, apple butter can also be used as a condiment (pork chops or in marinades) or as an ingredient to an apple quick bread.

* Freezing:I used a freezer bag where I expelled as much air as possible and minimized the gaps in the bag. Freezer bags work well for storage since they can lay flatter in the freezer than containers.

With a container, you need to ensure you have “headspace”. Headspace is the gap between the food (or liquid level) and the top of the container. Typical, headspace when freezing foods is 1/2 “ (1.27 cm) for straight sided containers. As mentioned previously, water expands when freezing. The headspace allows room for expansion.Thawing: The best method (Food Safety) is to thaw in the refrigerator for a day.Cold water, 70ºF (21ºC) or lower, can be used for as quicker way to defrost. The frozen food is submerged under running water. An alternative to running water is to change the water every 30 minutes. If you need an even faster method to defrost and you plan to cook the food immediately, the microwave is another method (of last resort).

Weekend a la Child, Bertholle and Beck

Le Gourmand and I had a delightful start to the weekend on our balcony. Le Gourmand made the coffee (very week for me and Bruce) and I made Oeufs Brouillés - yummy scrambled eggs. The ratio of milk to eggs was 1 tsp to each egg and the amount of butter added at the end was surprisingly restrained! The results were soft, yummy scrambled eggs.

Menu
Gigot Ou Épaule De Pré-Salé, Farce Duxelles aux Haricots
Petites Crêpes D'Épinards

For dinner on Saturday night I was finally organised enough to make the crepe batter for spinach crepes, which were delicate and yummy. Le Gourmand last ate Julia's crepes after several litres of beer so they were even more of a revelation for him.

Very exciting - I was able to use my boning knife to bone our leg of lamb cooked with white beans. Less exciting - trying to stuff said lamb with the ham, mushroom, herbs, onion, pork fat (MacGyvered off the pork roast for Monday) and tie it - before browning the lamb and adding the obligatory carrot and onions to the casserole. Meanwhile parcook the beans - boil for two minutes, soak for an hour, simmer for an hour - before draining off the sauce from the lamb and degreasing. Return lamb, degreased sauce and beans to oven. Voila! Very tasty.

But the night was still young. It seemed to take forever to make the Tarte Au Citron Et Aux Amandes for afternoon tea the next day - making the sugar pastry crust (the same one I made for the apple pie); peeling the lemons and blanching the julienned lemon peel; cooking the sugar syrup with a candy thermometer; adding the lemon peel to the syrup; beating the egg and sugar to form a ribbon; adding the almond meal, almond essence and lemon juice; filling the crust and baking; removing the lemon peel from the syrup and scattering over the baked tart; boiling down the syrup and glazing the pie. All for one recipe! Luckily people seemed to like it (or at least eat it) at afternoon tea the next day. A little too almond essencey for me and apparently too sweet and tart for Le Gourmand so it was good that others could try it (plus it's never that great to eat a pie between two).

Yummy little morsels

Menu

Fricadelles de Veau a la Crème

Beurre de Moutarde

Flamiche - Quiche Aux Poireaux

We really love our veal patties, so tonight we used the left over veal from the ballotines to make veal fricadelles with cream sauce, which was delicious. Tonight was particularly decadent - we also had leek quiche cooked as a gratin (without the pastry) and it was fantastic, boil the leeks down for 20 minutes then add them to the cream, egg mixture and sprinkle with swiss cheese - divine! I wish I could remember what the third Julia touch was (this was the week of three Julia recipes each night, we were so busy devouring the veal and leeks that it's difficult to remember. Actually it was dijon mustard butter, which I used to enrich the sauce for the fricadelles but also used with some stir fried carrots and garlic shoots, cooking them in the melted butter and then adding a few small spoons of the butter to the final stir fry.

Why garlic shoots you ask? Le Gourmand had been sent to get celeriac and was assured that the garlic shoots were in fact celeriac. Luckily garlic shoots and mustard butter make a fine team.

Monday, Tuesday, Julia

Some weeks all of the Julia blends into one. Sometimes it's a real struggle to cook from the book, thanks to a lack of foresight in penning the weekly shopping list, or work being a bit unmanageable or Bruce wriggling around inside complaining that rich, buttery foods don't really interest him.

This week, I was running out of vegetables so I tried to cook more widely across the book - on Monday night I cooked an easy brown sauce (stock, arrowroot, herbs) for the chicken I baked in the oven which became Sauce Diable (devil's sauce) when I added some black pepper, cayenne pepper and port. Yummy - plus I am always happy when I can cook two of Julia's recipes at the same time!

Menu

Jus Lié

Sauce Diable

Soubise

We also had onion soubise which was fantastic - slice up lots and lots of onions and cook briefly in butter, add half a cup of rice that has been boiled for five minutes and drained, then cover and cook in the oven for about an hour. The juices from the onion will cook the rice and everything will be very sweet. At the end add 1/4 cup of cheese and 1/4 cup of cream - of course! We were quite enamoured with it but happily, given Le Gourmand's recent complaints, it wasn't too rich. A side salad was served!

On Tuesday night I revisited the dubious garlic soup section of the book and cooked a variation adding potatoes and saffron. The verdict - not bad. Le Gourmand and I remain a bit confused by these garlic soups, they seem a bit insipid to us, but as the end of soup season approaches and it was a cold night, we weren't too disappointed.

Menu

Soupe À L'Ail aux Pommes de Terre

Paupiettes De Beouf/Roulades De Beouf/Petites Ballontines De Beouf

Frozen Peas

The real challenge for this evening was the beef rolls (yes paupiettes sounds much more exotic so I will stick with that) which were difficult because they involved rolling out meat into 1/2 centimetre pieces when the meat was really not cut properly for that purpose. A long day at work and beating meat with a rolling pin is not really that invigorating when you're seven months pregnant (otherwise I might have enjoyed beating the meat). The rest of the recipe was surpisingly painless - stuff with seasoned pork and veal mince, tie with kitchen string, brown in casserole and then add onion and carrot to the casserole, add blanched bacon rind to the bottom, pour in some stock and wine, partially submerge paupiettes, bring to a simmer and then cook in a slow oven for an hour. Once the paupiettes are tender, remove, strain and degrease sauce, and boil sauce down if necessary, adding some mustard and cream at the end. Oh and of course a little butter. Again, surprisingly not too heavy.

Julia's recipe for frozen peas involves cooking them down in half a cup of stock with a minced shallot and some butter - must have helped because we didn't feel too cheated that the freshly shelled peas to which we were becoming accustomed had been replaced by frozen ones once more. Still feels like cheating to use frozen food in a Julia recipe!

Pork, potatoes and the dreaded anchovies

It's been a long term challenge to entice Le Gourmand to enjoy pork. If it has enough flavour he is generally sold, so with some care that morning I prepared the dry marinade for our pork loin.
However, it seems that I drop the ball that night when I decide to make a spinach and potato dish with anchovies. Ooops - never a good look when your dinner companion runs from the table to spit out the meal you have lovingly prepared and declares that you are mean for hiding anchovies in food. But I've done it before, I protest weakly. And I eat olives when you hide them in food, I think to myself, pushing the leftover

Menu
Marinade Sèche
Rôti De Porc Poêlé
Épinards À La Basquaise

Why do people hate anchovies so much? I have to be a bit careful as there is a bunch of dreaded celery in my fridge at the moment, waiting for me to bite the bullet and cook Julia's braised celery. I imagine I will find a multitude of ways to put it off.

Luckily the casserole roasted pork saves the day - Le Gourmand loves the flavour in the pork - the dry marinade has allspice as well as the usual suspects of salt, pepper, bay leaf, thyme - and it is browned and then cooked in the oven in a casserole. Carefully - as our pork loin is a lot smaller than Julia's recipe - and once again the meat thermometer is my friend. The sauce is more a jus, cooked down juices with wine.

Meanwhile I enjoy the sliced potatoes and spinach in stock flavoured with anchovies and butter and sprinkled with cheese. Less heavy than the previous gratins, it means dinner is not the usual cream and butter festival. Le Gourmand enjoys the reheated vegetables from earlier in the week. There are no complaints from Bruce - hopefully he will eat anchovies when the time comes.

I made mayonaisse!

So what? You say. It's not that difficult. Most of the time.
All true. I think the reason I have never been bothered to make mayo from scratch is (whisper quiet voice), I prefer the commercially produced stuff. Which might sentence me to a fate worse than death if I were a Masterchef contestant, but, in the greater scheme of things, has not really held me back gastronomically speaking.

Thanks to the salad recipe calling for herbed mayonaisse, I knocked over both the regular mayonaisse recipe (saving it in a jar for later) and one of the variations. Wonderful now but at the time, a lot of cooking and a lot of processes.

Menu
Cotes de Porc Sauce Nenette
Chou-Fleur Aux Tomates Fraîches
Petit Pois (for very young peas)
Salade À La D'Argenson
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise aux Fines Herbes

The beetroots for the salad had been sitting around for a week but, knowing that cooking them takes an hour at the very least, I had always been too tired to cook them. Eventually I popped them into the oven on Monday night in preparation for Tuesday. This meant I just had to peel them (a job better done while they are still warm I would suggest) and dice them, while I waited for an equivalent amount of potatoes to cook, so I could dice them and mix with the beets. I then added minced shallots and, instead of making another vinaigrette, substituted the mustard dressing I had made the night before. I also added half a cup of cooked beans.

After that it was just a matter of making the mayonaisse. Beat egg yolks until sticky, add dry mustard and white wine vinegar, beat with whisk while slowly adding oil drop by drop. This was a lot easier thanks to the helpful Julia suggestion of using a teaspoon to add the oil. Eventually the mayonaisse emulsifies and you can add oil more quickly. Julia then suggests adding two tablespoons of boiling water as an anti-curdling agent. This thins it out but, interestingly, turned my mayonaisse from a pale yellow to a more traditional creamy colour.

For the herbed mayonaisse variation, I simply finely chopped two tablespoons of parsley.

Apparently parsley is great for iron absorption, calcium, vitamin C and lots of other nutrients. Of course - as with most things - too much parsley is bad and can result in pre-term contractions and early labour. So for now, I use parsley in Julia's recipes with a little caution but in about nine and a half weeks it may feature more prominently in my diet.

I added the herbed mayonaisse to my beet and potato mixture and voila! D'Argenson Salad. The only D'argensons I could find on Wiki appeared to have been French statesmen. One is described as a noted bibliophile - hopefully the salad was named for him, perhaps my Larousse Gastronomique will have the answer.

The pork chops had been browned on the stove and them cooked in the oven. Julia's recipe still seems to over cook pork chops, no matter how much I reduce the cooking time. The sauce was simple - dry mustard and tomato puree were mixed with simmered cream and seasoned. At the end the sauce was added to the deglazed pan and simmered for a few minutes before the chops were returned to the sauce to coat. Le Gourmand and I agreed this was a tasty pork sauce!

It's hard for any cauliflower dish to live up to Cauliflower au gratin. This one involved blanching the cauliflower and adding it to a dish and surround it with tomato pulp. Melted butter was then drizzled on top before swiss cheese and breadcrumbs were added and more butter was drizzled. Everything was then baked in an oven for 30 minutes. Yummy but not quite like the decadent white sauce we eat whenever we can justify it in the Brioche household.

Meanwhile, peas take forever to peel and at this time of year the young baby peas are mixed in with the more mature larger peas, so I threw caution to the wind and cooked them to the baby pea recipe which involves boiling them, adding a bit of sugar and butter and voila!

Part of the challenge tonight was to try not to draw Le Gourmand's attention to the fact that we were having white meat with a creamy sauce for the second night in a row. I understand that this might be cause for objection, unless it was a clever use of leftovers (which it was not). Speaking of leftovers, Le Gourmand is starting to fret about the amount of leftovers in our fridge. Try as I might to cut Julia down to size (I divided the pork and potato and beet salad recipes in two) we do have a lot that remains and most of the meat things I am being super-careful about not reheating for fear of some nefarious baby unfriendly bug. Ordinarily it wouldn't be a problem but we are off to Melbourne for the weekend. C'est la vie!


Pork chops

Yummy creamy chicken

There's a style of creamy sauce that I really like, not too rich, with a subtle flavour that enhances the cream. More subtle than your standard sauce in a jar that sullies the good name of cream sauces everywhere.

Some people associate heavy cream sauces with the worst of French cooking but I as I have not had an unpleasant cream sauce in my travels in France, I suspect that this style may actually be a hallmark of inferior local French restaurants.

The cream sauce that we made for our chicken was fantastic. I wished that I had made rice so that I would have an excuse to eat more of it - that said, there was an elegant sufficiency of vegetables, including left-over carrots from last Friday. I had foolishly believed that the braised leeks would soak up the sauce, but they were busy dealing with their own natural cooking juices.

Menu
Poulet Saute a la Crème
Poireaux Braisés Au Beurre
Salad with Sauce Moutarde

This was our last sauteed chicken recipe - a bit of a shame as they have all been quite enjoyable. The drill was fairly standard initially, with the addition of slow cooked onion to the casserole. The chicken pieces, once cooked in butter, were seasoned with salt, pepper and curry powder. Just a hint, but a nice subtle bit of flavour, which, with the onions, reduced the overpowering nature of the cream. I then poured port over the chicken and cooked that down before finally adding "boiling cream" and slowly simmering the chicken for twenty minutes. Season with salt, pepper and a little lemon juice. Delicious!

The leeks were beautiful, clean leeks - which made me happy as they had cost Le Gourmand an arm and at least half a leg (he was shopping unsupervised, I suspect there would have been no leeks this week if I had been there but how can you criticise commitment to the list?). I cooked them down in water and butter, and slowly simmered them on the cooktop for 25 minutes before removing them to the oven, loosely covered in foil for another 25 minutes baking. We love the sweet flavour of leeks all by themselves - no need for excessive flavour intervention.

Le Gourmand had outdone himself with a Moroccan tagine on Sunday night so, in the interests of lightening up our diets, salad was on the menu. I have really enjoyed all of Julia's salad dressing recipes so far and the mustard sauce was no exception - mix dijon mustard with hot water, slowly add oil, a little lemon and don't forget the parsley!

Daring Bakers Challenge August - Rosewater Ice Cream Petit Fours with Brown Butter Cake

Mmm what could be yummier? An adult's ice cream cake for your birthday....

Not necessarily the prettiest cake I ever baked but amazingly decadent with the chocolate ganache. To make it me I added a tablespoon of rosewater to the ice cream and it was divine! Very rich though, you probably couldn't eat a whole bowl of it by yourself.

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

Rosewater Ice Cream

1 cup (250ml) whole milk

A pinch of salt

3/4 cup (165g) sugar

2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract

2 cups (500ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream

5 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon rosewater

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Let cool to room temperature.)

2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.

3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.

4. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract and rosewater and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

5. Freeze in an ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make it without a machine. See instructions from David Lebovitz: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/07/making_ice_crea_1.html

I made this without an ice cream maker overnight and it was great - went to bed before it had finally set so I took to it with a handbeater the next morning and left it until late afternoon to set it.

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter

2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring; for cake flour substitute 2 teaspoons cornflour to make up each cup of plain flour)

1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder

1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt

1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar

1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.

2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.

5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.

6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Glaze (For the Ice Cream Petit Fours)

9 ounces (250g) dark chocolate, finely chopped

1 cup (250 ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream

1 1/2 tablespoons (32g) light corn syrup, Golden syrup, or agave nectar

2 teaspoons (10ml) vanilla extract

Stir the heavy cream and light corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add the dark chocolate. Let sit 30 seconds, then stir to completely melt the chocolate. Stir in the vanilla and let cool until tepid before glazing the petit fours.

Assembly Instructions – Ice Cream Petit Fours

1. Line a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) pan with plastic wrap, so that no sides of the pan are exposed and so there is some extra plastic wrap hanging off the sides. Spread 1 ¾ to 2 cups (450ml to 500ml) ice cream into the pan. Cover with more plastic wrap and freeze several hours.

2. Once the brown butter pound cake has completely cooled, level the top with a cake leveler or a serrated knife. Then split the cake in half horizontally to form two thin layers.

3. Unwrap the frozen ice cream. Flip out onto one of the layers of cake and top with the second layer of cake. Wrap well in plastic wrap and return to the freezer overnight.

4. Make the chocolate glaze (see above.)

5. While the glaze cools, trim ¾” (2cm) off each side of the ice cream cake to leave a perfectly square 7.5” (19cm) ice cream cake. Cut the cake into twenty five petit fours, each 1.5”x1.5” (4cmx4cm).

6. Glaze the petit fours one at a time: place a petit four on a fork and spoon chocolate glaze over it.

7. Place the petit fours on a parchment-lined baking sheet and return to the freezer for one hour.