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By mlb, on March 8th, 2013%
I had every intention of skipping this week’s French Fridays with Dorie because I didn’t think I’d have enough time to make it. Then I checked the schedule and saw that it was Cheesy Crème Brûlée and well, I found myself heading right to the store to pick up supplies.
I love crème brûlée and I love cheese, so this was quite the alluring combination for me. But, because it is all cheesy and creamy, I did opt to only make about a third of the recipe. This was roughly one egg yolk, 3/4 cup half and half (which I subbed for the whole milk and cream to make it a bit easier) and about 1.7 oz of cheese (a mix of Parmesan and cheddar). I used a very short, wide crème brûlée dish and it ended up being the perfect size to share.
Other changes I made: I added about 1/2 tsp of Dijon mustard to the custard and for the topping cheese, I mixed in a little smoked paprika and more freshly ground black pepper.
I had some troubles getting mine to set at such a low oven temperature (mostly due to . . . → Read More: FFwD: Cheesy Crème Brûlée
By mlb, on February 7th, 2013%
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie was fairly interesting — pork tenderloin, cut into pieces, browned and then cooked quickly in orange juice, zest and segments, cardamom and onion. So, um, I changed a few things.
Originally, the diced onions were to be added with the orange, but I caramelized those a bit first thing, then removed them and browned the pork. I added the onions back in when I added the rest of the ingredients. I just wasn’t really into the idea of boiled diced onions, when I could brown them at the beginning and give them a sweeter flavor.
Also, I only made a half recipe and I put my cardamom seeds in a spice bag so I wouldn’t have to fish them out before serving.
Oh and I only cooked my pork for about five minutes in the sauce, as I wanted to pull it out before it overcooked (plus, I think I cut my pork a bit smaller than I should have). I just kept it warm under foil while I finished the sauce.
Everyone’s posts are here and my photos are below.
 . . . → Read More: FFwD: Fresh Orange Pork Tenderloin
By mlb, on January 19th, 2013%
I received the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook for Christmas and besides being a beautiful cookbook, it also appears to have my most favorite muffin recipe ever in it. Originally, the recipe was for carrot muffins but I have been using squash (once butternut and most recently delicata) to make wonderful, somewhat healthy, winter muffins.
The cookbook gives all the measurements in gram weights as well as cups/teaspoons/etc…and while I can see how that’s useful, I really only weighed my flours and squash. You, of course, are free to weigh your eggs and baking soda, but you’ll need to buy the book for those amounts. Or not weigh anything at all, of course.
These are seriously the best muffins ever. Not too sweet (but with a nicely sweet topping) and enough healthy ingredients to not make you feel too guilty about the butter and sugar. And of course, feel free to substitute the original grated carrots for the squash.
The struesel topping recipe make more than you will need for one batch of muffins. Store the leftovers for the next batch in the fridge and you should have just enough to cover those as . . . → Read More: Butternut Squash Muffins with Oat Streusel Topping
By mlb, on December 13th, 2012%
I have actually made something like this week’s French Fridays with Dorie Chicken, Apples and Cream a la Normande before, so I knew I would probably like it. And I did. I used regular brandy, as I didn’t have any Calvados. I also halved the amount of cream. Just because it’s the holidays and who needs more cream than necessary, right? Even with only 1/3 cup, it was very rich and delicious.
Oh and I also think I added garlic. Everything must have garlic. Here’s a link to everyone’s posts and my photos below.
Sauteing the chicken, lightly dusted with flour first.
Apples, onions and mushrooms added to the pan. A couple of cloves of garlic too.
After adding the brandy, reducing a bit.
Now the 1/3 (instead of 2/3′s) cup of cream.
Plated and ready for eating. Leftovers made great lunches the next day.
 . . . → Read More: FFwD: Chicken, Apples and Cream a la Normande
By mlb, on November 2nd, 2012%
Oh, look. It’s another quiche for French Fridays with Dorie, which actually just fine with me as quiche was something I used to make all the time, but really, for the past 10 years or so I’ve made it hardly at all. It’s a lot of fun to rediscover it with the recipes in Around my French Table. For this one, I did something a little different — mini quiches!
Notes:
1. I halved the recipe and had enough custard and mushrooms for three mini quiches. Unfortunately, I only had enough leftover whole wheat and olive oil crust for two. I improvised on the third quiche-lette with a circular piece of spinach tortilla.
2. I added garlic to the mushroom & shallot mixture.
3. Uh, I added a little bit more cheese than the recipe called for…and I used Parmesan instead of Gruyere.
4. I par-baked my wheat crusts for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees F before adding the filling.
Okay, on with the link to everyone’s posts and my photos below. And if you want to make the recipe but don’t yet have the cookbook, here’s the recipe at epicurious.com.
 . . . → Read More: FFwD: (Mini) Mushroom and Shallot Quiche(s)
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