Mustard Bâtons

I made another catch-up recipe in the ffwd game this morning - mustard bâtons. I practically burned my brain the other day when I put my trader joe's dijon mustard on both sides of a sandwich, so I was scared to use as much mustard as Dorie suggested. This was a mistake because after baking, I couldn't really taste any mustard at all. A let down. I also twisted half the batch just for a little visual diversity. There's one twisted baton on the bottom left of the photo. I would definitely make these again, but next time will not skimp on the moutarde!

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Cardamom Rice Pilaf

This was a delicious, healthy, light and refreshing dish for a hot day. I absolutely love the flavor of cardamom, so I was excited about this dish. I'm trying to eat light these days, so for lunch today I had one serving of the rice, one serving of asparagus (boiled as in the Bacon, Egg, Asparagus salad), and then I ate two Vanilla Eclairs that I had leftover from yesterday. Haha!

Fancy French Dinner that Knocks Out 3 FFWD Recipes!

I'm on a mission, and that mission is to catch up on all the FFWD recipes that I've missed. I made great strides today with a fancy French dinner I made pour moi et mon amour. The menu:
Bacon, Egg and Asparagus Salad
Bistrot Paul Bert Pepper Steak
Broth-Braised Potatoes
Vanilla Eclairs

My first soft-boiled egg and it was pretty perfect if I do say so myself. I peeled the bottoms of the asparagus and there was no toughness.

I chose beef tenderloin for the steaks, and forgot to salt them (oops!) But I thought it was actually delicious and didn't need any. I wanted to add a healthy side dish so I chose Dorie's Broth-Braised Potatoes. They haven't been chosen for a FFWD recipe yet, but if they ever are, I'll be one step ahead! Btw, these potatoes are absolutely delicious and I would make them again in a heartbeat. I flavored them with sage.

The Vanilla Eclairs are delicious. It's all I can do to not go into my fridge and eat the rest of them. I halved the recipe since I didn't need to make 20 eclairs. The dough didn't puff up that much, and my mom (profiterole expert) said they could have probably used one more egg, or they could have stayed at 425 (instead of lowering the temp), or both. But the flavor was great. I used Dorie's bonne idee and added Grand Marnier to the pastry cream and the glaze. Honestly, I couldn't taste it at all. I dusted the plates with unsweetened cocoa to create a pretty decoration, but it turns out the cocoa is a tasty little dip for the eclairs too.

Back to cooking after a long semester!

I gave my penultimate doctoral recital May 5th - a lecture recital on the piano works of Jennifer Margaret Barker - and I'm finally getting back into the swing of cooking. That is, until the middle of June, when I start preparing my final recital, scheduled for Sept 15th. So between now and then, I'm trying to catch up on FFWD - a neat online club where people are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table - and also working to cook healthy and eat healthy and moderate portions. So far so good.


Today I made a Dorie recipe, "Marie-Helene's Apple Cake" and it was pretty delicious. It called for 3T of rum, and I think that was a bit much, so I'd probably drop it down to 2T if I made it again. But other than that, it was great, easy, and it gave me an excuse to use my new (and first) springform pan. As mentioned in the book, the cake pulled away from the sides right out of the oven (see above). With the help of a flat spatula, the cake separated easily from the bottom of the pan, and was a big hit at the dessert potluck I attended.


I figured I'd post a couple other pictures of dishes I'd made recently, including a gorgeous salad with fennel and fresh strawberries, and a vegetarian entree of marinated portobello mushroom, asian slaw and snap pea and orange salad. (That's the health kick showing itself)

Garlic Crumb-Coated Broccoli. Um. Yum.

I honestly wasn't looking forward to this recipe, because it didn't sound that exciting. How different is it from just sauteing broccoli in a bit of olive oil or butter and garlic?

Well, I should have known better, because breadcrumbs sauteed with garlic are always something special and delicious.

To try to make this recipe a little healthier, I used extra virgin olive oil instead of butter. I also used panko breadcrumbs instead of regular ones, simply because that's what I had in the house.

I really loved the result, well, who cares about the broccoli, I loved the garlic breadcrumbs! I think that had I used regular breadcrumbs, more would have probably stuck to the broccoli. But I was ok with having a bunch of leftover crispy tasty crumbs, because I then sprinkled them on my salad, on a lemon/evoo-dressed quinoa, and ate the rest with a spoon. Um. Yum.

Quinoa salad

One day late but still really good! I made the salad with golden raisins, dried cranberries, apricots, peaches and prunes, sunflower seeds, almonds and walnuts, and parsley and basil. I dressed the green salad with a little evoo and dark cherry balsamic (to complement the fruit) and used a nonfat greek yogurt. I was really surprised how much I enjoyed this. The hardest part was waiting for it to come to room temperature.

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Caramel Orange Scallops, Spicy Glazed Carrots and Gougeres

Last week I made the Caramel Orange Scallops on time, but forgot to post here and on FFWD! Doh! It's been a very busy week.

On the left here, you see my caramel orange sauce bubbling away. I didn't want to open a bottle of white wine for a 1/2 c. of wine, since I wouldn't be able to drink the rest before it got old, so I used dry vermouth.

Also, I only bought enough scallops for myself, so although I made the full sauce recipe, it was only for 3 scallops :) Luckily Harris Teeter was having a special on fresh sea scallops last Friday!

I don't think I let my sauce reduce enough, because it was a little watery.

As per Dorie's suggestion, I made the Spicy Glazed Carrots (one of the earlier recipes I hadn't tried yet) and enjoyed both making and eating them.

You can see I served my scallops with the carrots and plain basmati rice. I dropped the empty cardamom pods (I had used the seeds for the carrots) into the rice to add a tiny bit of flavor. It really almost added no extra flavor at all but I felt it pulled the whole thing together.

I patted the scallops dry before I put them in the saute pan, but they still spattered all over the place, so I covered them with a screen. Still got a couple flyaways - ouch!

And then on Sunday I got up earlier than my alarm, and decided to whip up a few gougeres for a small reception that morning at church. I wasn't expected to bring anything, but since I was up, and since gougeres were another past recipe I hadn't tried yet, I decided to give them a go. I'm not sure I let the dough dry enough in the pot, and I used a stand mixer to add the eggs, which according to my mom (who makes amazing profiteroles) wasn't the same as mixing it by hand. So I guess I'll try by hand next time. I added mozzarella and parmesan which I had in the fridge, and although they weren't the puffiest, they were very tasty.

Butter Break-Ups

I managed to get back on schedule this week with the Salted Butter Break-Ups from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table. The dough was very easy to make, thanks to my new food processor :) I chilled it for about two hours in a square shape, and then bashed it a little with the rolling pin as suggested by the book, then rolled it out into a "rectangle."



I brushed on the egg wash with my brand new pastry brush from Sur La Table (yay!). Notice the gentle brush strokes and the expert artist's hold of the brush (haha.)











I then created the criss-cross pattern with the back of a fork. That was the most "difficult" (and by difficult, I mean time consuming) part of this recipe. The pictures tell all.





The final product was DELICIOUS.

Savory Cheese and Herb Bread

I am totally on top of things and early this week with my FFWD recipe! I improvised with what I had on hand - parmesan, mozzarella, monterey jack, and parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme :)

I doubled the recipe to take a loaf to my friends. This bread is DELICIOUS. It's quite heavy, so one piece will really do you, but so tasty and just yum! How many ways can I say it? YUM-O!

I chose not to add any nuts, although I love them, because I wanted to enjoy the texture sans. Also, since cheese is already salty, I didn't want to oversalt the bread. I did add some salt to the dough, but I also sprinkled just a little freshly ground salt on top before putting them in the oven, and the result was a little crunchy salty goodness when you're eating the top crust.

Speculoos - Christmas cookies in February

Catching up on another past recipe from French Fridays with Dorie I decided to make speculoos, the Belgian Christmas cookies featured in Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table. I chose them because I was going to visit my honey at work for the first time, and I always like to make a nice impression on the people he works with (or on anyone for that matter.) This recipe said it made 70 cookies, which meant there would be plenty for them, and for me, and it didn't seem too hard.

I made the dough the night before so it could chill. I didn't have enough brown sugar so I added some more granulated sugar, but left the measurement just shy of its full amount since it's sweeter. I didn't have any cookie cutters that were 1.25 inches, so I improvised, and found a plastic bottle with the mouth about that size. I also threw in a couple with a penguin cookie cutter for my mom, who loves penguins.

Short Ribs (or Food Surgery, and Too Many Carbs)

Hello! I'm happy to say I finally completed that short ribs recipe! Better late than never. I ended up making about 3 lbs, which was plenty, and I got to use my brand new dutch oven, which was very exciting :)

The photo on the left is my first night of eating them, with pizza di patate and asparagus. My gremolata had the zest of one orange, parsley, and some grated garlic. I learned that I LOVE the flavor combination of orange and (browned) beef.



I have to say that although I kind of knew it beforehand, I was still shocked at how much fat was in the short ribs. It might be weird, but I have always loved spooning off congealed cold fat from the top of soups and sauces. I think it goes back to my dream of being a surgeon. It's kind of like operating on the food, trying to remove all the fat without any of the good stuff. This next picture shows just how much fat was there after a night in the fridge. Yikes!

Finally, tonight I decided to make mashed potatoes to go along with my short ribs leftovers.

I boiled 2 Russet potatoes, then mashed them (by hand!) with warm milk and a splash of half and half and some butter. For flavor, I sprinkled in some truffle salt, which turned out to be just the right amount. That stuff is strong, and can kind of ruin your dish if you have a heavy hand. I reheated the ribs with their sauce, sprinkled more of the delicious orange gremolata, and cut myself a piece (or 2) of the cheese herb bread. There's no such thing as too many carbs!

Suspicious Speculoos

I was planning on making the short ribs in red wine and port tonight, but between the two grocery stores I visited late this evening, I only found about 3lbs of short ribs. I'm wondering if I'm even buying the right thing, since Dorie's recipe calls for "12 short ribs, each with one bone (about 9lbs)". I got about 3 bones per package, so that's about 9 short ribs at 3lbs. Something's not adding up. I decided to figure it out tomorrow.

In the meantime, tonight I chose to make the dough for the speculoos cookies, yet another recipe that the FFWD group has already tackled. I rolled the dough out and put it in the fridge to chill overnight. I can tell that the house is going to smell AMAZING when they bake tomorrow. I thought 2 1/2 t of cinnamon was a lot, but I love cinnamon and it provides major circulation benefits I think.

Also, very exciting news - I purchased my first dutch oven today!!! I chose a 6 qt red one by Lodge. That was another small detail slowing down my short ribs progress. Tomorrow, amazing smelling Christmas cookies (xmas in February is ok) and day one of the ribs recipe. Pictures to come!

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Pancetta Peas and Potato Leek Soup!

Still with quite a few previous FFWD recipes to cook, today I made the Potato Leek Soup. Along with it, for dinner I made pancetta peas, a la pancetta green beans of last week, with panko-breaded chicken. I only had one chicken breast in the house, but I had some Trader Joe's frozen already grilled chicken strips, which I defrosted and then egged and breaded along with the breast. Seasoned only with salt and pepper, it turned out to be a really tasty dish. The picture of the soup is forthcoming - it's on my camera and I'm just a little lazy about uploading it now. This peas and chicken picture was taken with my phone - instant uploading is the way to go!

Not sure when I'm going to do the short ribs this week. I want to cook for some friends, but schedules are all conflicting. Also, I don't own a dutch oven. I've been researching them, since they are kind of (REALLY) expensive. I do want one however, so I want to get a good one. I may check out Marshalls or TJ Maxx to see if they have any good ones at a decent price.

People who love to cook (and are good at it) should not have to buy their ingredients and tools. They should receive all that stuff as thank you gifts for treating other people's mouths to pure deliciousness and delight!

Pancetta Green Beans and Playing Catch-up!

Whew! I finished the weekly recipe and am still going to be be able to get out and enjoy the warm afternoon. Hooray! Since I started FFWD only recently, I'll be posting catch-up recipes until I get caught up. It's just this little goal of mine.

Pancetta green beans - um, YUM! I could only find thinly sliced pancetta, but it was delicious just the same. Honestly, I used the frozen haricots verts from Trader Joe's, and they were still delicious. I made pumpkin gorgonzola flan today too. Didn't realize until after I had emptied the can into the food processor that it was actually pumpkin pie mix, so there was some sugar and various pie spices in it. I went ahead and made it anyway, and it was, well, ok. The gorgonzola, also from Trader Joe's, was sooo dry. I thought it would moisten and melt more in the flan, but it was still basically a lump. It was an interesting recipe and I would try it again with normal plain pumpkin.

Earlier in the week I made Gerard's Mustard Tart. I like mustard, and when I tasted the wet mix, I didn't notice too much mustard, so I used a little more than 2T of each. And maybe it was a little much. Fortunately I like that horseradishy hotness that goes straight to your brain. Crust was delicious and what an impressive dish.

Merci Dorie and Bon Appetit a tous!!!

Orange-Almond Tart

I managed to make it today but I didn't manage to find enough time to write about it.

More detail: With a friend in town last night, and with the fact that I spent the first part of the day purchasing the tart pan and a food processor, it turned into an all-day affair which is why I just managed to post the picture.

Late last night I got home and couldn't wait to try a piece. Ugh. Let me say that I was more than a little disappointed. As someone who LOVES almonds and anything almondy, I was sure I was going to love this tart. But I was wrong. I thought the almond cream was too sweet, and the oranges did not provide a pleasing opposing tartness or texture. These oranges were delicious, by the way, so I don't think it's a matter of using better oranges. I would just never put this combination together again on a tart.

Ok, just tasted it again. I will admit, tastes better this morning than it did last night after a Thai dinner and cocktails at 2am. Ok, maybe I would make it again after all :) And I'm not finding the almond cream too sweet. And I am finding the oranges more pleasant and still a little plump with juice.

More pluses: brand new pretty tart pan and food processor! And found really adorable ramekins yesterday at Sur La Table for 40% off!

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