Oh my, this was so good! I think this is my favorite French Fridays with Dorie so far…and that’s saying a lot, because I’ve really liked pretty much everything (except the sardines, which this totally makes up for).

This is also bread that I thought, looks much more complicated than it is — always a plus. I actually can’t wait to make this one again.

Notes: 1. I used a mix of kalamata and mixed Mediterranean olives, as I didn’t have any oil-cured ones. But I really want to try it with the right kind of olives next time. 2. Halved the recipe as I usually do so I got one loaf. 3. I added a 1/2 tsp of herbes de Provence to the dough. 4. I could probably have eaten the whole loaf a few minutes it came out of the oven but I decided it would probably be nice . . . → Read More: FFwD: Provencal Olive Fougasse]]>

Oh my, this was so good! I think this is my favorite French Fridays with Dorie so far…and that’s saying a lot, because I’ve really liked pretty much everything (except the sardines, which this totally makes up for).

This is also bread that I thought, looks much more complicated than it is — always a plus. I actually can’t wait to make this one again.

Notes:
1. I used a mix of kalamata and mixed Mediterranean olives, as I didn’t have any oil-cured ones. But I really want to try it with the right kind of olives next time.
2. Halved the recipe as I usually do so I got one loaf.
3. I added a 1/2 tsp of herbes de Provence to the dough.
4. I could probably have eaten the whole loaf a few minutes it came out of the oven but I decided it would probably be nice to leave some for jwa.
5. Oh, I might have had a bit too much flour in mine as it never seemed as loose as Dorie said it would be. Mine felt like regular bread dough.
6. I baked my bread on a pizza stone and I got a nice, crunchy bottom.
7. And finally, I found the recipe online at Serious Eats, so here’s a link to it if you don’t have Around My French Table yet but want to try this one.

Okay, here are everyone’s posts and my photos below.

A mix of chopped olives.

Adding it all into the dough.

After resting overnight in the fridge, patted out and ready to start rolling.

Leaf shapes cut and spread open.

After about 18 minutes in the oven, mine got pretty golden (and yes, I’ve started eating it already).

Looking good inside, I even got some nice air holes.

It’s Farro! Farro is a type of wheat (grown mostly in Italy), that is like a spelt, but should be soaked before cooking. After cooking, it retains a nice, chewy texture. You can do a lot of fun things with it like make salads, add it to soups and use it for risotto — farrotto! This is made pretty much exactly like a risotto, you just have to soak the farro first.

The original recipe stirred in some butter at the end, but I used goat cheese. Because, why use butter when you can use cheese? This could also totally be made without the sausage if you wanted to keep it vegetarian (and use vegetable broth, of course). Maybe add some chopped bell pepper or something. Go crazy.

Farrotto with Sausage, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Saffron Adapted from a recipe in the New York Times, serves 4 1 1/2 cups farro 5 cups vegetable . . . → Read More: Farrotto with Sausage, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Saffron]]>

It’s Farro! Farro is a type of wheat (grown mostly in Italy), that is like a spelt, but should be soaked before cooking. After cooking, it retains a nice, chewy texture. You can do a lot of fun things with it like make salads, add it to soups and use it for risotto — farrotto! This is made pretty much exactly like a risotto, you just have to soak the farro first.

The original recipe stirred in some butter at the end, but I used goat cheese. Because, why use butter when you can use cheese? This could also totally be made without the sausage if you wanted to keep it vegetarian (and use vegetable broth, of course). Maybe add some chopped bell pepper or something. Go crazy.

Farrotto with Sausage, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Saffron
Adapted from a recipe in the New York Times, serves 4
1 1/2 cups farro
5 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1/2 tsp saffron threads
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Italian sausages, casings removed (pork or chicken)
1 medium leek, rinsed and cleaned, white and light green parts chopped
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
8 soft sun-dried tomatoes, not in oil, slivered
1/2 cup dry red wine
Salt and ground black pepper
2 Tbsp goat cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Chives or parsley for garnish

Place the farro in a bowl, add 3/4 cup boiling water and set aside about 1 hour, until water is absorbed.

Place the stock in a saucepan, bring to a simmer, add the saffron and remove from heat.

Heat the oil in a 3-quart saucepan. Add the sausage and brown, breaking up as it cooks. Remove and set aside.

To the saucepan, add the leek and garlic and sauté on low until they are soft. Stir in the fennel seeds and sun-dried tomatoes.

When the farro has absorbed the water, add it to the pan with the leeks and tomatoes. Cook, stirring, on medium, about 2 minutes. Stir in the wine and cook until it evaporates.

Start adding stock, about 3/4 cup at a time, stirring on medium-low, and adding more as the liquid is absorbed. Stir from time to time, not constantly.

After about 35-45 minutes all the stock should be used and the farro should be al dente, with some grains just starting to break. Add the sausage back to the pot and stir to mix it in. Add the goat cheese and when it melts, remove the pan from the heat, and stir in about 2/3′s of the Parmesan.

Taste and season with salt and pepper and garnish with some chopped chives or fresh parsley. Serve, sprinkled with the remaining cheese.

Edited to add: Upon having this for lunch the next day, the flavors and smell really remind me of paella. I’m sure it’s the grain-saffron-tomato combination, but it’s weird how that familiar (and delicious) flavor really developed overnight!

This right here is a great dinner. Or a lunch even, in fact that’s what I made it for mainly, a lunch for both jwa and I to bring to work the next day. So awesome. It’s salty and spicy and basil-y. And a great vehicle for Spring asparagus.

I altered this a bit in that I decreased the chicken and asparagus a little but kept the sauce measurements the same. Because you need extra sauce to soak into the rice. You just do. Okay, on with the delicious stir-fry!

Chicken Stir-Fry with Asparagus and Almonds Adapted from Food & Wine magazine — 2-3 servings 1/3 cup slivered almonds 3/4 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces 2 tbsp Asian fish sauce 2 tbsp peanut oil 1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium broth 3/4 pound asparagus, sliced on the diagonal, 1 inch thick 1 tbsp oyster sauce 1 tbsp . . . → Read More: Chicken Stir-Fry with Asparagus and Almonds]]>

This right here is a great dinner. Or a lunch even, in fact that’s what I made it for mainly, a lunch for both jwa and I to bring to work the next day. So awesome. It’s salty and spicy and basil-y. And a great vehicle for Spring asparagus.

I altered this a bit in that I decreased the chicken and asparagus a little but kept the sauce measurements the same. Because you need extra sauce to soak into the rice. You just do. Okay, on with the delicious stir-fry!

Chicken Stir-Fry with Asparagus and Almonds
Adapted from Food & Wine magazine — 2-3 servings
1/3 cup slivered almonds
3/4 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
2 tbsp Asian fish sauce
2 tbsp peanut oil
1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium broth
3/4 pound asparagus, sliced on the diagonal, 1 inch thick
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup chopped basil
2 tbsp chopped chives
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread the almonds out on a small baking dish and toast in the oven for about 8 minutes, until they are nicely browned and fragrant. Let cool.

In a medium bowl, toss the chicken with 1 tablespoon of the fish sauce. In a wok or large skillet, heat the oil until shimmering.

Add the chicken in an even layer and cook over high heat, turning once, until browned and just cooked throughout, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to a clean bowl.

Pour the chicken stock into the wok and bring to a simmer, scraping up any browned bits. Add the asparagus slices, cover and cook over moderate heat until they are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the asparagus to the bowl along with the chicken.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of fish sauce to the wok along with the oyster sauce, lime juice and cayenne pepper. Simmer until the sauce is reduced to 1/3 cup, about 2 minutes. Return the chicken pieces and sliced asparagus to the wok and toss to heat through. Remove the wok from the heat and stir in the almonds, basil and chives.

Season the stir-fry with black pepper and serve with cooked brown rice. It’s really good!

***

Completely unrelated to food, this post is brought to you by Check Your Head, which I listened to a lot in grad school. I remember driving around Muncie, listening to it quite loud. And I just listened to it quite loud today while editing the images for this post and putting it all together. We’re all just collectively really bummed out by Adam Yauch dying, right? Yeah, I thought so. Damn.

Also, Sabotage is the best video ever.

Well, hello French Fridays with Dorie, how in the world is it time for you again? Wow, such a fast week. Thankfully, this was a super quick meal and very easy one to put together on a Thursday night (and I even had enough time to bake a cake for our anniversary dinner tomorrow night). It’s our fourth — flowers. A cake made with flour? Get it? Yeah, it’s kind of a stretch but that’s what I’ve got. Anywhoooo….

This week it was Almond Flounder Meuniere but with cod. Because I had a hell of a time finding flounder or even what my first choice was — ling cod. I didn’t feel like traipsing all over town so I finally settled for some true Cod I got at New Seasons. And now I just realized I should have gone to that fish place on Hawthorne, by . . . → Read More: FFwD: Almond Flounder (Cod) Meuniere]]>

Well, hello French Fridays with Dorie, how in the world is it time for you again? Wow, such a fast week. Thankfully, this was a super quick meal and very easy one to put together on a Thursday night (and I even had enough time to bake a cake for our anniversary dinner tomorrow night). It’s our fourth — flowers. A cake made with flour? Get it? Yeah, it’s kind of a stretch but that’s what I’ve got. Anywhoooo….

This week it was Almond Flounder Meuniere but with cod. Because I had a hell of a time finding flounder or even what my first choice was — ling cod. I didn’t feel like traipsing all over town so I finally settled for some true Cod I got at New Seasons. And now I just realized I should have gone to that fish place on Hawthorne, by the produce market. Damn. Oh well. I think I’m meandering here. Probably time to get on with it.

Here’s a link to everyone’s posts and here are my pics. I really liked this dish and loved the lemony/almond-y coating. Delicious!

Ground almonds, flour and lemon zest.

Fish coated and ready to go.

In the pan. I used non-stick as I’ve had sad times trying to make fish in a non, non-stick pan before.

Very photogenic! With lemon wedges, cilantro (too lazy to go pick parsley outside), and some sauteed green beans.

Mmmmm, close-up.

The Irish Table 1235 S Hemlock Cannon Beach, OR 97110

This place is quickly becoming one of our favorite restaurants on the Oregon Coast. We’ve been twice in the last six months and honestly, I would be okay sneaking another two dinners in before the end of the year. Definitely okay with that. They’re located in the back of Sleepy Monk Coffee Roasters and it’s actually pretty perfect — there for coffee drinks in the AM and back for dinner in the PM.

On this trip we were there right after they opened at 5:30 and pretty much all of the small tables were already taken. We were offered spaces at the communal table in back or one of the smaller tables up front. We chose to sit up front which was very nice with a breeze coming in through the front door and some . . . → Read More: The Irish Table in Cannon Beach, OR]]>

The Irish Table
1235 S Hemlock
Cannon Beach, OR 97110

This place is quickly becoming one of our favorite restaurants on the Oregon Coast. We’ve been twice in the last six months and honestly, I would be okay sneaking another two dinners in before the end of the year. Definitely okay with that. They’re located in the back of Sleepy Monk Coffee Roasters and it’s actually pretty perfect — there for coffee drinks in the AM and back for dinner in the PM.

On this trip we were there right after they opened at 5:30 and pretty much all of the small tables were already taken. We were offered spaces at the communal table in back or one of the smaller tables up front. We chose to sit up front which was very nice with a breeze coming in through the front door and some space in which to spread out a bit.

Here are some photos from our meal. I usually make a habit of taking a picture of the menu when we eat out, so that if I post about it, I remember exactly what we ate. I forgot to do this at the Irish Table. So, I’ve done my best to remember the details about everything we had. Hopefully, I’m pretty close.

Coffee house by day…

Our somewhat private table up front later that night.

Lox and Greens Salad. We both got this although we could probably have split it (it was huge)! Lemon-dill vinaigrette, greens, crostini with Boursin cheese, lox, hard boiled egg, pickled onions and cucumber. Very good!

What jwa got — the salmon special. It was on fingerling potatoes, had greens, olives and a Buerre Blanc sauce.

What I got — the Flat Iron Steak with a bacon, peppercorn, whiskey sauce. With colcannon, carrots, kale and mashed potatoes on the side. So, so good although I didn’t really eat my potatoes.

After dinner whiskey. We also got an orange vanilla sorbet that was great.

Also, I have a new favorite Summer drink – The Plunkett. I got two of these at the restaurant and have already recreated at home. Here’s my version:

This will be the Summer of the Plunkett. Oh, yes it will.

The Plunkett
For each cocktail –
1 shot of Whiskey
Juice of ½ an orange, plus 1 long strip of orange zest
Ginger Ale (the good stuff, I used Reed’s Ginger Beer)
Ice

Add ice to a glass and then add the whiskey, orange zest strips, orange juice. Fill to the top with ginger ale. Stir. Oh geez, so good!