Archive for the French Category

I wanted to make the raspberry napoleon featured in Keller’s Bouchon cookbook.

He makes the layers using real-butter puff pastry, baked for almost 50 minutes between two sheet pans (use parchment or silpats).

For the last 5-7 minutes, you cover the layer with corn syrup to create an impenetrable barrier.

This is the first time I made it, but in all actuality, it wasn’t hard. Assembly was okay. The most challenging part was making the pastry cream (a custard with cornstarch).

You let the pastry cool, and then get ready to cut your three slices.

Use a serrated knife; and start piping-on the pastry cream.

The pastry looks dark, but that’s the color it was in the cookbook, too.

By the time it’s served, you’ve got raspberries in the top layer, and you can garnish with powdered sugar or even chocolate sauce. I did both.

Before serving, here’s a shot of the side-view. It was great.

Find Bouchon in a 2-cookbook set on Amazon.

One of my most favorite meals of late was taken in at Lacroix Restaurant off Rittenhouse Square in downtown Philadelphia. A restaurant with French roots, it modernizes cuisine with unusually delicious combinations of flavors.

The evening I visited they featured a tasting menu:

• Himachi with Rhubarb and Sea Beans
• Strawberry Gazpacho
• Halibut with Morels
• Foie Gras with Heirloom Tomatoes
• A Berry Soda with Cinnamon
• Lamb
• Taleggio Cheese, served warm with Jamón Serrano
• Sacher Torte

Wow! If I had to choose the weakest dish, it would have been the dessert… it was good, but the other dishes were on a whole other level higher… and one of my favorites was the first (pictured left, above), the most clean tasting fish, with briny sea beans, watermelon skin that had been pickled, plus soft rhubarb. Absolutely delicious and fresh. I could have eaten a bowl of that, piled high.

That’s how the next dish read, too, a berry-infused gazpacho with all kinds of interesting things to throw into your bowl, including flowers. “Yummo!” we might hear from Rachel Ray. The MC also said Yummo!

Mushrooms are a special treat for me, and this menu featured both morels with a butter-poached halibut, but also porcini later on with the lamb. Foie is always a hit, no? Luxurious, yes, but also so well-paired with the flavors. Each course seemed an ideal size. Just enough to whet the appetite for more, then soon newer, if not richer flavors, were to follow.

The cheese was an extra course, and they will let you split it to share with a dining partner. This is wise, both because you do start to get full around dessert time, and plus, you ought to taste their quality ham and warm cheese combination. Taleggio isn’t Spanish, but it is a favorite stinky (Italian) cheese of mine. Having it served warm and crispy on the outside was a real treat.

Lacroix does offer in-kitchen table dining for those who just want to turn it up a notch on the foodie dial.

The atmosphere was more formal than I had imagined, but since it’s located in a hotel, not all guests were formally dressed.

This meal was offered at a very competitive price, considering the quality of flavors and ingredients. Warmly recommended.

As the summer weather finally convinces us that a new season is here to stay, we may soon turn to the vegetable harvest which can only improve a dish like this. I am a fan of the “raw” soups from Spain we call gazpacho. There are in fact a variety of soups the Spanish may call a gazpacho, and they are not all red, tomatoey soups.

Yet, I’m a fan of tomatoes and with our own easy access to our Hanover tomatoes, this soup can be a treat. You may also decide to make your gazpacho from a single heirloom variety, and of course, you can adopt tomatoes that are not typically red.

I featured a gazpacho recently here on the site, one inspired by some more tame flavors — a soup we might even call more French than Spanish. I’ve had gazpacho laced with cilantro and chunky, almost like a salsa. But my inspiration is leaning to a more complex, subtle flavor profile. This only works when you’re using really good produce.

The other aspect is texture. I like a gazpacho with a smooth flavor, but thick, too. It should be creamy, yet cold. How is this done?

Gazpacho, Take 2

• variety of ripe heirloom tomatoes
• red and yellow bell peppers
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
• Salt/Pepper
• cucumber, seeded
• herbs (parsley, basil)
• crustless-bread
• red onion
• garlic cloves, smashed
• vegetable stock or filtered water
• mustard ice cream (optional)
• sherry vinegar

So, here’s the thing… I didn’t measure much of anything to make this recipe. But I like tomato to be the dominant flavor, so I obviously used more of those. Peel your peppers with a vegetable peeler; you won’t remove 100%, but the peel is more difficult to digest. Core your tomatoes, peel the cucumber before de-seeding. (A spoon works wonders here, after the cucumber is split into two halves.)

I want my soup smooth. So I processed it in batches in a food processor. With each volley of tomato, pepper, salt and cucumber, I added some bread and some of the onion. Buzz… buzz… buzz… make it smooth! Through the feed tube, pour in some of the broth or water, then the EVOO. This soup is as much about the bread and the EVOO as it is the other things… you’ll give he soup a velvety texture and help to emulsify the soup, too.

I found the texture a little lumpy, and some stuff didn’t get well-chopped. Time for step 2.

Filter the gazpacho through a sieve. You’ll get the watery part to pass through, and taste this for seasoning. Then, re-process the chunky stuff. Re-integrate the two parts, and taste again for seasoning. If anything, I go light on the salt here because I plan to garnish each bowl or mug with salt and pepper.

It’s best to refrigerate the soup for 12-24 hours. Stir before serving, and you have a few choices for garnish.

I used the left-over mustard ice cream described by Patricia Wells in her Paris, the Cookbook. It’s a nice cold, creamy addition to the bowl. The cream has no seasoning, so it tends to wash out the salty-component. I garnished the top with Maldon salt and a lot of fresh-cracked pepper (my only addition this time for heat). I have found in the past if you want to use heat, try some hot sauce while making the soup.

Bon appétit!

While gazpacho is a cold soup, I don’t like to serve it “cold cold.” Leave it out of the refrigerator for an hour before service.

This recipe is published because I think it’s not about exact proportions (you can’t record in a recipe how flavorful the tomatoes are, or how big they are, or how much liquid they give off). My hunch is that gazpachos are not precise in origin, it’s a quick mixture of various vegetables in a savory/sour/salty mixture that’s fresh and rustic. But this is an excellent type of recipe for discovering your own palate and taste preferences. If you want to change the texture, you can use bread croutons instead of using bread as a thickener. Or, if you like cilantro and spice, you can do that. Add a squeeze of fresh lime juice at the end instead of the sherry vinegar. Add coarsely chopped tomatoes for texture. Add chive oil. The possibilities are endless, really.

This weekend, I borrowed Keller’s Bouchon from the library, and then ordered myself a copy.

The recipes are not simple, but there is much to learn about making excellent cuisine.

I chose three recipes. Let’s go in reverse order.

Sorbet

The recipe takes 2 lbs of fruit, 1.25 cups of sugar, and a little acid. I mixed half strawberries and blueberries.

While some recipes call for corn syrup, or even a sugar syrup, Keller’s is simple. Mix everything up in the blender. If you have a Vitamix or Blen-Tec, no need to strain. I have a Cuisinart, so I strained.

Then put the mixture in your ice cream machine.

I used lemon, but lime would have equally been well. I cut back on the sugar, and added a squirt of honey for the flavor.

The color and flavor were superb.

Cod with Pipérade

Keller calls for oil-poaching some cod fish, at 6 oz. per serving. You flavor some EVOO in thyme and garlic for 30 minutes at 150 degrees. I found my thermal/laser thermometer was excellent for grading the temperature.

Meanwhile, the complicated part is to create a pepper dish which acts as a base, called pipérade. It’s a mixture of an onion/tomato base (long cooking time), roasted red and yellow peppers, and a little spice. This mixture gets further cooked-down with vegetable stock.

The fish gets poached in oil for about 14-15 minutes. Take out the aromatics first, and regulate the temperature between 120-140 degrees F. I thought it was a mistake, but it really works.

The pepper part took a long time; I am sure there is a shortcut method, but the depth of flavors was outstanding. I brought me back to my lunch at Au Bascou in Paris where I enjoyed pipérade over eggs.

Salad with Asparagus

I roasted the pencil-thin asparagus with EVOO, salt and pepper for about 7 minutes at 450 degrees. Then I immediately put them in a mustard-vinaigrette to sit, then refrigerated them.

I used the left-over dressing to dress some greens, put the asparagus on top, and then shaved parmesan cheese over the top. Delicious. The warm asparagus soak-up some dressing and give them real flavor.

This morning we suffered; bacon and eggs that stayed with us for the entire day. I’ve never not had to eat lunch before, but today, the breakfast was so off-putting, we were belching up bacon through 2 PM.

Bad bacon? Perhaps.

But I had so many interesting dishes I wanted to make after making a run to the library for some cookbooks.

For a salad, I wanted something light. I thought about making scallops on a bed of lettuce, but we took a more Italian direction, with my garlicky croutons, salami, and more. I dressed it lightly, but used mustard as a base.

The real star was a gazpacho. I had watched Laura Calder make one this Saturday, and she did the crouton thing on top. But then Patricia Wells, in her The Paris Cookbook, talks about gazpacho, too, and using a special touch she discovered one hot July afternoon. Her soup was adorned with a canelle of Dijon mustard ice cream. She even includes the recipe.

I liked the coolness, but would have preferred more Dijon. Note for next time.

Some fool on TV told us not to cut our basil, but instead tear it into our food. Yuck, big chunks of basil in a cold soup is nasty. Chiffonade it up, my friends.

The recipe takes into account adjustments for a more pungent ice cream.

Gazpacho Soup MessyChef Style

(Don’t make a mess in your kitchen like I did, bumping a side-shelf of sticky Asian condiments onto the floor from inside the refrigerator, with broken glass.)

Ice Cream

• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup cream
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 2 Tbsp. sharp Dijon mustard

Warm the milk to around 160 degrees, then mix into the yolks. Add the yolks back into the saucepan, and stir, heating to around 170 degrees. I use a thermal/laser thermometer which makes this process easier to do.

Strain yolks mixture into a clean and cool bowl, add in cream and mustard, stir to cool. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Make into ice cream following your manufacturers instructions. Makes about enough ice cream for 4-5 bowls of soup.

Soup

• variety of 6 heirloom tomatoes
• 1 cucumber, de-seeded
• 1 red pepper, peeled and cut into large wedges
• 4 Tbsp. EVOO
• salt, to taste
• basil
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 4 cloves garlic (2 for croutons)
• 1/2 cup tomato juice or veggie stock
• EVOO and garlic croutons (red pepper flakes)

Chop ingredients in a food processor, and strain through a sieve. Refrigerate for 4-6 hours.

Once ready to eat, take the soup out to take the chill off, taste for seasoning.

Garnish with homemmade croutons, made by toasting torn Italian bread in EVOO in a hot pan with salt, 2 split garlic cloves, and red pepper flakes.

I would put the basil in with the soup instead of using it as a garnish; alternatively, you can chop it in little ribbons and use it as a garnish.

Put a dollop of the ice cream in the center of each bowel. The ice cream really keeps the soup cool, and I know would work well in hot weather.

Despite the Spanish nature of this dish, I felt the simpler recipe here, gilded with Dijon ice cream, was a French “translation.”