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Tag Archives: French
I have become reacquainted with an old favorite, and wanted to share it with you, as it would be a great recipe to have during the holidays. It is Choux. Choux is a light pastry dough that is made with butter, flour, water, and eggs. It does not have a baking agent, instead the high heat that it is baked at, created steam, which helps raise the little puffs. Once you have the basic recipe down, you can use choux to make many sweet or savory nibbles. It is also a great stand-by recipe for when you need a last minute nibble to serve impromptu guests.
The other night we were opening a bottle of bubbly to try out some new cocktails. I wanted something to nibble on while enjoying the moment, normally, I would grab some cheese out of the refrigerator. This night, I wanted something different. Then I remembered a classic that I use to make often; savory gougeres.
Gougeres are little puffs of choux dough that has been seasoned with savory herbs, cheeses, and mustard. For this recipe, I used white cheddar and sage; I thought the two would be great compliments with the cranberry champagne cocktails. I was right; they were a huge hit. Other favorite combinations are: gruyere cheese and dijon, blue cheese and black pepper, and rosemary and lemon zest. Use your imagination, the list is really endless.
 
To make choux you will have to be hands on. It is not a recipe that you can start and then leave on the stove and forget about. Once you have brought the water and butter to a boil, you will need to mix in the flour, quickly. It will form a soft ball rather fast; I keep beating it for a couple minutes (this is a great arm workout as well). By the time I have finished getting my up arm workout, the dough is cool enough to start adding the eggs. I find the key to mixing the eggs into the semi-hot dough is to use a wooden spoon; it gives me more control to mix the dough quickly. I beat in each egg separately, and do not add the next one until the dough is a little glossy. After I have mixed the dough, I then stir in my savories.
Some bakers like to pipe the dough onto their baking surface. I like to use two teaspoons and put little spoonfuls of dough on the baking sheet. They do get larger when baking, so keep this in mind when making your little puffs. I usually keep them the size of the teaspoon I am using. Bake and enjoy.
Simple isn’t it? I cannot wait to hear what flavors you come up with making these warm little bites.
Recipe: Basic Choux
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup flour
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- pinch of salt
- 2 large eggs
Heat the oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat. In a large saucepan bring the water, salt and butter to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and stir in the flour using a wooden spoon. Turn off the heat. Continue beating the mixture vigorously until the dough comes together. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat with the wooden spoon until the mixture is glossy; then add the next egg and repeat. Using a pastry bag or two small spoons, put little amounts of dough on the baking sheet, evenly spaced apart. Bake for 10 minutes, and then lower the heat to 375. Continue baking for 20 – 25 minutes, until they are golden brown. Serve warm. Eat. Recipe: White Cheddar and Sage Gourgeres
- basic choux recipe
- 1/2 cup grated white cheddar
- 1/8 cup fresh sage, minced
Make the basic choux recipe as above. After beating in the last egg, mix in 1/4 cup of the cheese and the sage. Mix well. Continue the recipe as mentioned above. Before baking sprinkle each little puff with a small amount of the remaining cheese.
Don’t you love saying “Clafouti” I love saying it … clafouti, clafouti, clafouti. Not only is it fun to say but it is fun to make as well as eat. I cannot remember the first time I had it. I do remember loving the warm custard base and jammy fresh summer fruit. I was hooked.
Clafouti as well as galettes are a staple summertime dessert in our house. I tend to whip one up whenever I have some overripe stone fruit laying around. I particularly love late summer apricots with an almond flavoring. Bliss. I have never considered adding berries. Don’t ask me why; because, I cannot even begin to answer that question. Then my friend Tracy whipped up a strawberry claufouti and provoked the baking goddess in me.
The other evening I had some leftover blueberries and a near overripe basket of strawberries sitting on the counter, just begging to be eaten. Instead, I pulled out my trusty clafouti recipe and went to work. Don’t be scared to tackle what looks like a complicated recipe. A clafouti is really easy to make. Just put all of the ingredients, except for the fruit, into a blender. Give a couple whirls and you are set. I like to put it into the oven about 30 minutes before serving, then you will have a lovely warm dessert to serve your guests, or to just enjoy yourself. Makes a wonderful breakfast companion with a cup of hot coffee as well. That is if you even have leftovers.
Happy Clafouti’n!
Recipe: Blueberry Strawberry Clafouti
- 1/2 pint strawberries, washed and cut in half
- 1 pint blueberries, washed
- 1/2 cup whole-milk
- 1/2 cup cream
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
- 1 tablespoon orange blossom water
- powdered sugar for garnish
Wash fruit and let dry for about 20 minutes. Melt the butter and set a side to cool. Heat oven to 350. Butter a swallow glass baking dish or individual ones. After cutting the strawberries in half, scatter them over the bottom of the buttered dish. Do the same with the blueberries. Set aside. In a blender mix rest of the ingredients and blend until combined; about 3 minutes. Pour over the fruit. Set the dish on a cookie sheet, just in-case it spills over a bit; this will keep your clean oven clean. Bake for 45 – 60 minutes. The top will be golden and center will only be slightly jiggly. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve. Eat.
If you like this recipe, check these out:
Apple and Hazelnut Clafouti
Peach Raspberry Clafouti
Sweet Potato and Crabapple Clafouti
It is that time of the month again; time for the Let’s Lunch group to get together to nosh. This month’s nibble is pies. No, I did not instantly think of a sticky, gooey, and sweet pie. Instead, my thoughts jumped to savory. Particularly, chicken pot pie. You know the kind; thick chunks of chicken, sweet veggie niblets, and a saucy but savory gravy that wraps it all together. The kind that drips off of your fork, and runs down your chin pot pie.
I have been thinking about this savory chicken pot pie since I picked up these cute chicken shaped ramekins. I know …. dorky to buy a dish just for a certain meal. I could not resist. Let’s Lunch seemed like the perfect time to perfect my pot pie recipe. Which by the way is very simple. I decided to fore-go the traditional chicken pot pie; you know the one full of chicken, peas, carrots, and celery. I wanted this one to be a little French and to ooze summer time.
I had planned to use chicken thighs for this recipe, but had a very large breast left over from another meal, so I used that. I started by using a little carrot, celery and shallot as my base and then threw in summer fresh green beans, and summer squash. As well I added a diced russet potato which acted as a thickener. The saucy sauce that brought the dish together was made with a little olive oil, butter, flour, chicken stock, and an abundance of fresh tarragon – the French part of the dish. Don’t all French recipes seem to use so much tarragon. The tarragon seemed to make, what can otherwise be a heavy meal, light. The pot pie was fresh tasting, and the vegetables were still slightly crisp, not over cooked. I did cheat a bit by using a premade puff pastry as the topping; Dufour is my favorite to use, as it is light and fluffy, and browns perfectly. Our summer pot pie recipe is so easy, that I had dinner on the table in an hour.
*note if you decide to use chicken that has not been cooked you will need to allow at least 15 minutes extra to precook the chicken.
Recipe: Summer Chicken Pot Pie
What you need:
- 1 carrot, diced very small
- 1 celery, diced very small
- 1 small shallot, diced very small
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 3 tablespoons tarragon, torn into pieces
- 1/4 lb green beans, cut into small pieces
- 1 small yellow summer squash, cut into small pieces
- 1 russet potato, small dice
- 1 large pre-cooked chicken breast, cut into small pieces
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups chicken broth
- salt and pepper to taste
- puff pastry, cut to fit your baking dishes
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
What you need to do:
Heat oven to 400. Butter two large ramekins or 4 smaller ones. In a large dutch oven, drizzle a small amount of olive oil; heat over medium heat. Add the shallots, stir, and cook until soft; about 3 minutes. Add the carrots and celery, stir, and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the green beans, summer squash and russet potato; stir and cook for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and tarragon, stir, and cook for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and set aside. In a small saucepan, add the olive oil and butter, heat over medium heat until the butter is melted. Whisk in the flour, and continue cooking until slightly bubbly; about a minute. Add the chicken broth, whisk until smooth, and cook over low heat until thick; about 3 – 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the sauce over the vegetable mixture, and gently stir in the chicken. Pour the mixture into the buttered ramekins. Cover the tops of the ramekins with puff pastry that has been cut slightly larger than the top of the dish. Lightly crimp the sides of the puff pastry over the sides of the dish. Beat the egg with a tablespoon of water, and gently brush the tops of the puff pastry. Put the ramekins onto a baking sheet, and slide into the oven. Bake until the tops are golden, and the inside is bubbly, it will begin to come out the sides; will take approximately 25 – 35 minutes. Serve. Eat.
Be sure to see what other #LetsLunch folks are slurping up this month.
A Tiger in the Kitchen
Blog Well Done
A Cow Girl Chef
Geo Fooding
Show Food Chef
Hot Curries and Cold Beer
Free Range Cookies
Kitchen Dreamer
Cooking the Fruit Bowl
Can It You Nit
Beyond the Plate
Caitlin Shetterly
First we had Tuesdays with Dorie, or as Lenny liked to call it (lovingly of course) Tuesday with the Devil (because there were too many delicious baked treats around) and now we have French Fridays with Dorie. You see I love her book Baking From My Home to Yours; why? Because every recipe is always right now and comes our perfectly. A little secret, I currently only own her book as my go-to baking book, no others exist in our house. It is the bible of baking as far as I am concerned. I remember the day I found out Dorie had a new book coming, I could not contain myself, I told everyone I know. I just have this warm feeling in my soul that Around My French Table will be just as great as Baking. I am sure the “French” part of the title has something to do with it, being I love France and all; but, in all honesty Dorie has never let me down. Geez, if I could marry her I probably would!
The day the book arrived, the first thought besides, what to make, was “I wonder if anyone will start a virtual cooking club such as TWD”. I tossed around the idea of maybe I should; but, then schedules, work, traveling, started clouding over those thoughts. I was so excited when I saw a little tweet out there that Laurie had started French Fridays with Dorie and I was even more excited to read that there was not the “participation rule” (you see I got the boot out of TWD as my work (and hips) schedule was not allowing me to bake at least 2 – 4 times a month).
The kick off recipe for French Fridays is Gougeres (p. 4 – 6) . Gougeres are basically a cream puff, similar to the Les Chouquettes I love to make for breakfast; but they are savory. I have made them many times as they are the perfect small bite with a nice glass of Floc or Champagne before dinner. I normally add a bit of dijon or maybe a little fresh cracked black pepper along with what-ever cheese I have on hand. This time I made them exactly as Dorie specifies in her book with lots of Gruyere or cheddar; I used Gruyere. I tossed around the idea of cutting the recipe in half as it said it would make 36 (which it did); but, decided to just go for it. Glad I did as Lenny had the first batch finished before dinner was on the table. I served the puffs with dinner as we were having soup and I wanted something different from the stand in warm loaf of bread. The Gruyere Gougeres were the perfect companion with a warm bowl of butternut squash soup.
Don’t be afraid to make this small little bite known as the Gougere. They are easy to make and Dorie makes them even easier, you don’t have to stand over a stove, beating in your eggs by hand; her recipe has you using your trusty mixer. What are you waiting for, whip up a batch this weekend.
Surprise your family and friends with this small treat and let us know what you think of them!
Recipe: Gougeres
* you must buy Dorie’s book to get her wonderful recipe, which I highly recommend, it is beautiful
If you enjoyed this dish, you may enjoy these others as well:
Gougeres with Mardi
Gougeres with Marie Alice Joan
Gougeres with Cafe Lynnylu
The past two weeks have been heavy meat eating weeks. Don’t get me wrong, we love to eat and we love to socialize with our friends over food, but, it has been a little nutty. This week we decided to take it a little easier with some meals that we could extend over a few days. Quiche was one of the first meals that came to mind.
I love making my quiche crust-less. Yes, it makes me feel less guilty about all those eggs and cheese. If you don’t mind a crust, please by all means do use one. I used the same recipe that I use for all of my quiche recipes but I made a few minor adjustments. This particular quiche was heavily scented with fresh thyme. I used some zucchini blooms as the main veggie ingredient. The addition of grey salt and a sprinkle of espelette pepper brought all of the ingredients together. Served with a green salad and warm bread, it was the perfect meal.
Recipe: Zucchini Blossom Quiche
(this is a long post, please keep reading, you will not want to miss any of it ….. delicious news)
(photo taken by Sara Remington)
After months of searching high and low and endless talking about how hard it is to find digital classes up in the Bay Area, we took the matter into our hands. We looked at the resources in front of us. We have so many friends who work professionally in a creative space, from photography all the way to film making; we sat with them explained the situation and the playground was born - Digital Media Playground. We are going to keep the workshops, small and intimate. We feel the best way to learn is by actually doing what you want to learn. We won’t sit you in a room, hand you a manual and fly through a session. You will get to work side by side with the instructor. You will ask the questions. You will learn. We are currently populating the calendar with an agenda; but we currently have some exciting workshops scheduled with some very talented photographers. We are starting off with beginning photography, studio shooting and food photography workshops. We personally know each photographer who will be teaching and can tell you right here and right now …. you will be learning a lot!!!
Our featured workshop for May will be with Sara Remington (the photo of the berries was taken by her). I am really excited that Sara will be teaching this hands-on workshop about food photography. I mean, have you seen her drool worthy photography? She currently has 15 books out there featuring her work, the most recent being: The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook and My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family and Big Sur . Sara believes in shooting organically, with ingredients and natural settings. If you want to learn how to shoot stunning photographs as well as how to style them, then this is the class for you. I caught a glimpse of the agenda a couple weeks ago ….. I am so excited for all of you. You are going to learn so much!!! You will not want to miss it! To sign up and for more information please visit this link. Or if you have any questions please do not hesitate to drop me an email or tweet me. As well be sure to check out some of her most recent work from shoot in Greece; but, prepare to become very hungry from these fantastic food scenes.
Now on to these delicious financiers….
I am so happy that berry season is lurking around the corner! Literally just waiting to burst into our lives. We are big berry eaters this time of the year, all the way to the last bite. Lenny and I don’t discriminate, we love them all, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, oallie berries. You name it, you will find throughout the season over at Chez Us. Not only are they the perfect ingredient, but they are the perfect snack. Come over on a weekend and you will find a big bowl of them on the counter.
I have fond memories of berry picking and summer is just not summer without a trip to the berry farm to pick. Since I don’t have kids to torture, I drag MEM (they do love it) and we pick berries and we eat berries. I love their little berry covered faces and fingers. All the way home we talk about how we are going to use the berries; ice cream, muffins, sauces for ice cream or the best way …. stuffed into our mouths! It really is a great way to bring the season into our kitchen.
I had some leftover egg whites the other day and needed some new creativity, so I put a tweet out. Normally I make macarons; but, Pim convinced me (which was not very hard to do) to venture over to Dorie’s kitchen and to make her financiers. If you are not familiar with them, financiers are a little square French cake. They were created by a French pastry chef by the name of Lasne in the nineteeth century. They are made of egg whites, ground almonds, sugar, flour and a lot of butter (the first time I misread the recipe and added 3 sticks). It is not quite time to hit the berry farm; but, I did manage to find a few pre-season raspberries that looked great and were slightly sweet. As well I had a few blueberries laying around, so I decided to add a little berry kiss to each of the financiers. As well I did not have the square little pans that are normally used and could not find them in San Francisco. Pim said to use a muffin pan which worked perfectly. These little cakes are delightful and you will definitely be seeing them more often over at Chez Us.
Recipe: Berry Financiers
(click the above link for a printable & down-loadable recipe)
Galette is a French term used for free form crusty cakes; think, buckwheat crepes from the Normandy area. I love galettes, either sweet or savory, they are wonderful. And I really love their rustic appearance. I know when I see a Galette that it will be simple good food.
I had some beets left over from the market last weekend and decided I would make a simple galette with them. I seasoned my pastry dough with a generous handful of fresh thyme and then lined the dough with goat cheese, beets, olive oil and a sprinkle of maldon salt. It was lovely, really lovely and made the perfect light dinner, especially when paired with some soup or a small salad.
Do you like Galettes? If so, are you sweet or savory? What is your favorite recipe? Do tell ….. we are always looking for new inspiration from our readers.
Recipe: Beet and Goat Cheese Galette
Click the printer icon for a downloadable PDF of this recipe
Despite the last few crazy rain storms we have had out this way, spring is definitely in the air. When I open the back door every morning the first thing I smell is sweet succulent jasmine starting to bloom. I love the dewy fragrant smell and always wish I could bottle it up and bring it in. At our old apartment we had planted four big bushes of lavender and that is what we smelled mixed in with intoxicating jasmine. I love lavender as it takes me to a far away place …. this dreamy little farm house in the middle of France. There are a few chickens, a couple goats and yes, Jacqueline, a pig. As well there are fields upon fields of lavender. When we open the doors in the morning to enjoy the sunshine on our feet while making coffee the lavender wraps it sweet arms around us. This is spring!
For this months’ Mac Attack Challenge 5 (can you believe it has been 5), we are participating in “World Macaron Day, which is March 20. The lovely duo Jamie and Deeba challenged us to put a little bit of spring into our macarons. I decided to make a soft but sweet lavender macaron with a vanilla bean buttercream. I was very pleased with this round as every one of the macarons came out perfect. Beautiful little feet, perfectly round, slightly crunchy but still a little chewy – perfect! I am so pleased with myself as I feel I have finally, after 3 years of making these petite bisous, I have done it! I have Jamie and Deeba to thank for pushing me beyond the comfort zone and to keep with it! Be sure to check out all the lovely spring time macarons over at the MacTweet site.
Recipe: Lavender Macarons with Vanilla Bean Buttercream
I used my basic macaron recipe but I added a couple drops of violet colored paste. As well before drying the macarons I sprinkled a touch of culinary lavender. I filled them with a buttery vanilla bean buttercream – simply leave out the bergamont and add the beans from one vanilla bean pod. This macaron is definitely all about spring time.
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