A blog I love and have just recently discovered, Chez Loulou, hosts a wonderful event called “La Fête du Fromage” and I am super happy to participate in this one. This is the ninth one and although I didn’t post in the eight previous ones, I was certainly there in spirit. At least I hope I am participating in this one, as posts are due today and I have no idea how the Portland to France time difference thing is going to play out. *fingers crossed*

Anyway, the cheese I chose is Robusto, which is one of my most favorite cheeses ever. It was a happy accident — I was walking around the Whole Foods by work about a year ago and they had some Robusto pieces out to sample and I tried one (two. okay, four.). Oh my god, I loved the cheese! It’s kind of sharp and mild all at the same time. Kind of like if Gouda and Parmesan had a tasty, delicious love child.

The texture is a little hard, with a little crystallization like you can get on Parmesan, but the interior yields nicely to a knife. Today, I had a slice on its own but then I remembered that I had made walnut bread the other day, so I put a few slices of the robusto on a some of the bread. Oh my. So good with the walnuts and the creamy-sharp cheese!

I had my cheese and bread snack with a glass (okay, two) of chilled Columbia Crest Sauvignon Blanc from Washington state. The wine was very nice and crisp! But back to the robusto — I love this cheese so much. It has a somewhat nutty flavor and the Internets tell me that it is from Holland and aged about 9 months. If you can find it, I would definitely recommend picking up some robusto cheese!

Okay, so I’m looking forward to reading about all the other cheeses on Chez Loulou for La Fête du Fromage. But really, I think every day should be a day of cheese. Seriously.

Okay, I guess all good things must come to an end. Weekend Cookbook Challenge being no exception. Thanks Sara for creating and managing such a fun food blogging event for the last 37 months! Wow, I guess it has been along time! Sara rocks big time.

This month’s theme for February is “love”. This recipe is something I made for dessert on Valentine’s Day, so I think it fits. Tarte au Citron. It’s from the cookbook, Bouchon, by Thomas Keller. I really want to add an ! on the end of that for some reason… Bouchon!

My tart pan is only 8 inches. So, I decided to make a half recipe of the crust and see what happened. It worked for me. I ended up dividing the crust dough in half (instead of thirds) and froze one. The full recipe of saybayon filled my tart shell fine. If you have a standard-sized tart pan, just do what it says below for a full recipe of the tart dough. Oh and if pine nuts are not in your budget, almonds will work. I used half almonds and half pine nuts in my crust.

And, yeah, I have tons of pictures here. Hope you get through them all!

Pine Nut Crust
From the cookbook, Bouchon(!), by Thomas Keller
10 ounces (2 cups) pine nuts (or, use half toasted sliced, almonds and half pine nuts)
1/3 cup sugar
1 pound (3 cups) all-purpose flour
8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Place the pine nuts in a food processor and pulse a few times.

Add the sugar and flour and continue to pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

Add the butter, egg, and vanilla extract and mix to incorporate all the ingredients (the dough can be mixed by hand or in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment).

Divide the dough into three equal parts. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before using. (The extra dough can be frozen, wrapped well, for up to 1 month.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter and flour a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and refrigerate it while the oven preheats. I forgot to flour and butter my pan and I had no problems.

Remove the tart pan from the refrigerator. Use your fingertips to press the chilled pine nut dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Trim off any excess dough.

Bake the crust for 10 to 15 minutes, then rotate it and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until it is golden brown. Remove the crust from the oven and let it cool while you make the filling. (There may be some cracks in the crust; they will not affect the finished tart.)

Lemon Filling (Sabayon)
From the cookbook, Bouchon(!), by Thomas Keller
2 large eggs, cold
2 large egg yolks, cold
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about three lemons for me, one used one meyer lemon to 2 normal lemons)
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces

Bring about 1 1/2 inches of water to a boil in a pot that is slightly smaller than the diameter of the bowl you will be using for the sabayon.

Meanwhile, in a large metal bowl, whisk the eggs, yolks, and sugar for about 1 minute, or until the mixture is smooth.

Now, I did this wrong. I added the lemon juice right away (after I had whisked the eggs & sugar) and thickened it all together like that for the 8-10 minutes. It worked fine. But, if you want to do it correctly, follow the directions below.

Set the bowl over the pot and, using a large whisk, whip the mixture while you turn the bowl (for even heating). After about 2 minutes, when the eggs are foamy and have thickened, add one-third of the lemon juice. Continue to whisk vigorously and, when the mixture thickens again, add another one-third of the lemon juice. Whisk until the mixture thickens again, then add the remaining lemon juice. Continue whisking vigorously, still turning the bowl, until the mixture is thickened and light in color and the whisk leaves a trail in the bottom of the bowl. The total cooking time should be 8 to 10 minutes.

Turn off the heat and leave the bowl over the water. Whisk in the butter a piece at a time.

The sabayon may loosen slightly, but it will thicken and set as it cools. Pour the warm sabayon into the tart crust and place the pan on a baking sheet.

Preheat the broiler. While the sabayon is still warm, place the tart under the broiler. Leaving the door open, brown the top of the sabayon, rotating the tart if necessary for even color; this will take only a few seconds, so do not leave the area surrounding your oven.

Remove the tart from the broiler and let it sit for at least 1 hour before serving. Serve at room temperature or store in the fridge for a few hours and serve cold.

Okay, again thank you so much to Sara! Goodbye, Weekend Cookbook Challenge!

This month, Weekend Cookbook Challenge is all about appetizers. MMMmmmmm…snacks. This one is interesting. I was intrigued. It’s an olive, in a cheesy dough ball. The recipe is in a little book of appetizers and cocktails called, “Shag Party.” It also has lots of illustrations by Shag. Duh.

Oh and I promise I’ll post more next week. Really. I’m even going to try for one more post on Friday!

Snake Eyes
From the Book Shag Party by Adam Rocke
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1 cup AP flour
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1 (5 oz) jar of pimiento-stuffed olives

Mix cheese and butter in a mall bowl until blended. Mix in flour and W. sauce to make a dough. It’ll eventually come together. At least mine did. The liquid in the olives later will actually help a lot.

Roll dough on a board and pull off pieces to form around your olives.

I found the best way to do this was to put a piece of dough in my palm, put an olive on the dough and make a fist to press the dough around the olive.

Bake olives on parchment-pappered or aluminum-foiled baking sheet at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Let cool briefly before serving!

Thanks again to Sara for hosting this month!

***

Oh, here’s something else, would it kill Portland to sand or salt the icy roads? That’s why the whole city shuts down with snow, because no one can go anywhere because of the roads. Portland is all, “hey, man, it’ll melt.” And sure, 98% of the time, it will melt the next day, but for the rare times it doesn’t? MAKE THE ICE GO AWAY, YOU BASTARDS!! AGGHHH!!!

Okay. That’s all…

Foodie Chickie is hosting Weekend Cookbook Challenge this month and she chose Diner Food as the theme. Okay, so when I think of diner food, I think of breakfast!

Well, actually, I think of breakfast first, but then honestly, I then think of things like meatloaf and burgers and fries and then I get hungry and I need to get up and find a snack. But anyway, let’s just stick with breakfast, shall we? These are the first waffles of the Fall 2008 season. These are Gingerbread Waffles from the cookbook Prairie Home Cooking, by Judith Fertig. These are pretty damn good.

I skipped the pear sauce in the cookbook and opted instead to have maple syrup, with chopped fresh pear for the top of the waffles. I also had about a handful of chopped pecans. What the hell — I threw those in the batter too. This will make 4-6 waffles, depending on the size of your waffle making apparatus.

Gingerbread Waffles
From the book, Prairie Home Cooking, by Judith Fertig.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground dried ginger
1 cup milk
1/3 cup molasses
1/4 cup canola oil or corn oil
1 egg
Optional: 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger in a medium bowl. Add your chopped pecans here if using.

In a large measuring cup or bowl, add the milk, molasses, oil, and egg, and stir until well combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix until just combined. I thought the batter was a little thick, but it seemed to work just fine.

Cook in a waffle iron, for about 2 minutes. (The cooking time will vary with your waffle iron.)

Serve immediately, with maple syrup and diced pear.

Thanks again to Foodie Chickie for hosting WCC this month. Also, thanks to everyone who I exchanged soup with at Victory on Saturday! Our fridge/freezer is filled wonderful things! And now I want to drag jwa there so I can get another New Fashioned…

Oh! Garlic! This is the Weekend Cookbook Challenge I was born to post about. I love the garlic. Thank you so much to Carla at Chocolate Moosey for hosting this month and choosing one of my most favorite things in the whole world!

This is a crazy, old school recipe from a time, to paraphrase Gourmet Magazine, when tons of butter was the norm and one clove of garlic was scandalous. Now? Uh, not so much. Bring on the garlic! As it is 2008, I reduced the butter slightly and upped the garlic. This will feed 2 people as a small (but not sensible) dinner or be split in one bigger dish for more as a shared first course.

I used medium sized shrimp. You can totally use jumbo shrimp, but you will want to boil it for a minute or two first to start it cooking and give it longer cooking time in the oven. For my 31/40 ct shrimp (mine were probably closer to the 40) the 10-ish minutes plus 2.5 minutes under the broiler was absolutely perfect.

And damn! The garlic…mmmm! I used 1 huge clove and 1 medium clove in each. If I had to guess, I would say each single serving had about 1.5 teaspoons of garlic. Too much? Hell, no.

Oh and this is supposedly a Chicago recipe that originated at the De Jonghe Jonghe restaurant, many years ago. I remember getting it at Ki’s Restaurant in Glendale Heights, IL while growing up anytime we would go there for a special, family dinner. Anyway, it’s super garlicky and buttery and delicious. If you don’t smell like garlic the next day, you didn’t use enough.

Shrimp De Johnge Jonghe
Adapted from a recipe in Gourmet Magazine, by Jane and Michael Stern
18 - 20 Medium Shrimp (31/40 count is what I used for this, if you use larger shrimp see above)
1 stick of butter (yeah, seriously — I know, but it’s not like you’re eating this every night)
1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs (I made my own from a hunk of sourdough bread, crusts and all)
2 handfuls minced fresh parsley leaves
2 tbsp dry Sherry
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of cayenne
dash of paprika
Freshly ground black pepper
Garnish: lemon wedges

You can either make single serving portions in individual baking dishes or a large portion to share in one dish. If you make the individual portions, just divide the ingredients into two groups.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. and butter two small casserole dishes just large enough to hold 9-10 shrimp in one layer.

In a bowl stir together 4 tablespoons butter, 1/4 cup bread crumbs, a handful minced parsley, 1 tablespoon Sherry, 2 cloves garlic and 1/4 tsp salt, with a dash of cayenne, until blended. Stir together the remaining amounts of the ingredients in another bowl.

Place half the shrimp in one casserole dish and spoon bread-crumb mixture over them.

Repeat with the other baking dish. Give each a nice sprinkle of paprika and black pepper.

Bake shrimp on upper rack in oven (2nd highest position), 10-12 minutes until butter is melted, shrimp is pink and crumbs are starting to turn golden brown. Okay, now it’s time for fire power. Turn on the broiler and give it 2-3 more minutes until it’s all sizzling and toasty. Serve with lemon wedges.

Holy crap. So good. Now, I must go walk 3 miles or something. Uh, I mean watch TV. Damn you USA with your House marathons.

Thanks again to Chocolate Moosey for hosting this month!