Today I made my first cheese puffs, made from the classic French dough known as pâte à choux. While I have had these served to me before (they are, in small amounts, a rather special small appetizer, but also a welcome nibbler for parties), this is the first time I made them, and could appreciate their flavor and taste fully.

Yes, they do taste best fresh from the oven.

The idea here is to make a cooked-flour dough, then introduce eggs and cheese. Then, we pipe this mixture into small rounds that get baked. Once you have your ingredients assembled, it goes quickly.

I started with grating cheese. The classic recipe might call for Gruyère cheese. In my case, I used a combination of sheep’s milk romano cheese (hard, salty Italian cheese) and Jarlsberg cheese. My dad bought me this cheese, and I don’t like it. So, not to waste it, I used it up by grating it.

The Jarlsberg had more moisture than my other cheese, and isn’t too terribly different from a Gruyère or Emmenthaler. I think the others are better, but they are all mild cheeses with their own subtle flavor profiles. All melt pretty well.

So I started with heating milk, butter, nutmeg, white pepper, and salt until it just began to simmer. To this hot mixture, you stir in flour. It collects itself into a dough in your stockpot, and you keep stirring, cooking the flour through.

Then you add the eggs and flavors… for my recipe, they suggested using a food processor, which made easy work of combining my two cheeses and the eggs into a moist, glossy dough. I used a silpat-lined cookie sheet to hold the piped gougeres. With a different flavor profile, your dough could have become eclair dough, or dough used for cream puffs. If you’ve eaten these things, you probably can anticipate what the dough is like… airy, puffy, and empty! The steam makes a nice big pocket of air inside. When warm, the result is a nice light bite that’s full of flavor.

Flavor in my case was the special treat. You could taste the cheese component, and it was forward in my puffs. But the selling point was the hot lingering flavor left when the puff had been swallowed, coming from the white pepper. This spicy finish was really nice. It’s no wonder that many folks recommend chasing cheese puffs with a sparkling wine.

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Notes

I’ve been really interested in French food since planning our trip to Paris later this year.

I’ve been inspired by reading the excellent food blog centered around cooking out of the French Laundry Cookbook, Carol Cooks Keller—especially with posts like this one on floating islands. Wow—absolutely inspirational. Cheese puffs really don’t compare to that dessert, now do they? But my muse is simply less fussy.

I got my cheese puff recipe from Ina Garten who is not about fussy cooking. Her mantra seems to be centered around cooking good food easily. It might mean a new technique to save time, or a few steps taken away that make a process simpler.

At the same time, my meal tonight went beyond cheese puffs and included a disaster (waffle potato slices) and a delicious Steak Diane, following Julia Child’s example. Anyone can open a cookbook and make a recipe, which might turn out great. But when you feel a personal connection to the book, it’s creator, and the spirit behind the dish, the equation changes. You take some of their passion and develop your own emotional energy behind the dish. I don’t know why I don’t feel more like this when I’ve tried to make something by Rachel Ray or Tyler Florence.

(Incidentally, the potato mistake was Tyler’s fault. Okay, mine, but I followed his directions, I thought…)

I also made Julia & Jacques’ mushrooms with a creamy base. Steak “Diane” is a quick-sauté of a pounded steak, with a simple Dijon-mustardy sauce. It was simple yet also complex enough to evoke smiles. A French Pinot noir went well with the whole meal, cutting through the richness of the cream, accentuating the mustardy backdrop, and making everything go down well (secret: I chilled the wine for an hour beforehand in a 50-degree environment).

Someone asked me once why I review restaurants, and someone answered the question for me: he likes to eat out and share his experience. Another time, someone asked me why I write up things about what I’ve made at home, in my kitchen. I’m not alone, of course, but I am sure everyone’s reason is different.

I think cooking is one of just several very creative things I can do in my life to express myself.

Growing up, I was a passionate musician, gravitating to the piano everyday after school to practice. Not what I was supposed to be studying, but playing my own compositions.

Today, that special talent has left me. I don’t take the time to go beyond playing to find the creative zone in my piano playing. I know it’s there, but I often don’t have the patience to visit that place where my own thoughts and ideas take over.

In cooking, they can. Creating my own recipes and flavors is exciting and fun. But teaching yourself new techniques through a book or a DVD or a TV show can also be fun, albeit less creative. Making those cheese puffs was a real gas. I might have seen pâte-a-choux dough made many times on TV, but when I read the book, understood the story, and made them for myself with good results, it was really uplifting.

But once you’ve taught yourself how to make a classic gougere, or a Julia Child steak Diane, then you can go off into your own direction. Sometimes I do this without the experience, but I can say, there’s something very satisfying about cooking with Julia as your muse.

A few weeks ago someone very special in my life took me to a cooking lesson. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, and it was my birthday present. We learned how to make things with heirloom tomatoes, and I really enjoyed the class. I love heirloom tomatoes. I like the idea of cooking together. I hope we can do more of it, going forward.

But the experience also taught me (maybe it reminded me) that I really enjoy teaching others how to cook. I started off several years ago on this site cooking with a video camera. My friend offered her kitchen where we filmed many of those “shows.” I think looking forward I should look for opportunities to take this passion to others who need more than the inspiration of a dead cookbook author and TV personality, or a TV Food Network star to show them how to eat well. I go forward in life following one creative passion after another, and I think it would be a great idea.