This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is, in Dorie Greenspan’s own words, an intriguing twist on a dependable dish. The dish? Broth-Braised Potatoes, in other words, a twist on boiled potatoes.

First, broth is simmered with some flavor boosters: lemon zest, garlic, bay leaf and a few sprigs of thyme. I used some homemade turkey broth from the freezer, and, miraculously, sprigs of thyme I found in my herb garden, sheltered under some leaves. (The rosemary was finally killed by cold weather.) The potatoes were added to the pot, and simmered until tender, about 20 minutes for me.

I had half a dozen small, but not baby, red potatoes, so I made half a recipe. To emulate the look of fingerling potatoes, I cut the potatoes into quarters lengthwise before cooking them. Then, because the liquid didn’t cover all the potatoes, I wasn’t sure that I should have halved the broth after all. However, the recipe is called braised, not boiled potatoes, and at all worked out in the end.

Simple in execution, surprisingly interesting in flavor, I can see these potatoes taking a place in the “simple side dish” repertoire at my house as an alternative to steamed potatoes drizzled with olive oil.

To see what the other FFwD bloggers did with their potatoes, check out their links here. The recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table.

Happy French Friday!

Last week, when made the French pound cake, quatre-quarts, I had an egg mishap. The eggs needed to be separated, and on the last egg, I broke the yolk into the bowl of egg whites and had to start over. I discarded the whites and stored the yolks in the fridge until I could figure out to do with two yolks. I’m not sure what I was thinking because I could have just saved the whites and the yolks, leaving me with two whole eggs, but I didn’t.

Earlier in the month when I made a key lime pie, I had 4 extra egg whites. Those I used in place of two whole eggs in a quick bread. I was less sure what to do with the yolks.

Alice, one of my cyber-friends, made a brilliant suggestion. Alice lives in London, and her idea was very British. “Why not make lemon curd?” she said. I have a stash of Meyer lemons, and I’ve always wanted to try making lemon curd, so that was the solution.

To make a lemon curd, sugar, or for this recipe, honey, is combined into melted butter along with lemon juice. Then, over a double boiler, the egg yolks are whisked into the lemon mixture until it thickens. The recipe said it would take up to 10 minutes, but it took me closer to 20 minutes. I think it took that long because I was conservative about the temperature of water in the double boiler.

The lemon curd is a lovely contrast of sweet and tart. The Meyer lemon gives it floral undertone. Now, I have to whip up a batch of scones for the perfect teatime snack!

Meyer Lemon Curd
Makes 1¼ cups

¼ cup (½ stick) butter
½ cup honey
½ cup Meyer lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
Zest of 1 lemon, if desired

If you are going to use the zest, zest one lemon before juicing it.

In a bowl set over simmering water, melt the butter. Stir the honey into the butter until it’s combined. Now, stir in the lemon juice.

Whisk the egg yolks and whole egg together. Add to the warm lemon mixture. Continue to stir until the mixture thickens. This will take a while, 10 to 20 minutes. It’s done when you run your finger through the mixture on a spoon or spatula, and it doesn’t run back together. Stir in the zest, if using.

Pour into a jar and chill. This will last for two months in the refrigerator.

A perfect cake! It’s easy, it’s elegant, and it’s delicious. This is a perfect cake for snacking on over tea with friends on a lazy afternoon. A sliver of this cake is a perfect end to a breakfast that was missing “something”. A wedge of this cake is the perfect to send home in a doggie bag with an expected dinner guest. This cake is also a perfect excuse to use my cake dome.

Dorie says this is the sort of cake that’s common on most French homes. I wish I were French. I was trying to remember if there was a go-to cake that my mother always had around when I was growing up. I think the go-to baked snacks at our house trended more towards brownies (always from a mix) and Toll House cookies.

Mom in 2002

My mom did make a signature cake, a chocolate chip cake. It wasn’t a fancy cake. She served it from its 13×9 metal baking pan, merely sprinkled with powdered sugar. But, we only had it for special occasions. The funny thing is that one reason I think she only made it for special occasions was that you had to separate the eggs, beat the whites separately and fold them in, just like in this everyday French cake. Maybe our cake was French after all.

Even with the step to beat the egg whites, this was a snap to put together. The only advice I have is to break the egg whites over a separate bowl one at a time and then transferring the white to the bigger bowl. Normally, I do this. I don’t know why I didn’t the day I made this. Unfortunately, the third egg yolk broken (which never happens to me), ruining my bowl of whites, so I had to start over with new eggs. (That means I have two extra egg yolks in the fridge. Any suggestions on what to use them for?)

I used dark rum in my cake, and I loved the extra zing it gave over the more pedestrian vanilla. The friends who came over to tea suggested trying other liqueurs for the rum, maybe kirsch for some subtle cherry flavor. That sounds interesting. I sprinkled the top with the granulated brown sugar left over from the crème brulees. As in that recipe, the sugar didn’t melt as expected, so I’ll try turbinado, which melted better on my custards, the next time I make this cake.

This cake might be simplicity itself, but I know the other bloggers for French Fridays with Dorie are bound to put their own twist on things. For more ideas, check out their posts on the FFwD site.

I love roasted chicken! I adore Dorie’s Lazy Person’s Chicken that we made for French Fridays with Dorie in November 2010, so I was game for another of Dorie’s versions for roasted chicken.

Once again, the recipe started with a large Dutch oven. My Le Creuset definitely gets a workout with Dorie’s recipes. It was a gift from my sister Jane, so it’s like she’s cooking along with me. Chopped onions, sliced carrots, and quartered potatoes are lightly warmed in olive oil, then, the lightly seasoned chicken is nestled in vegetables with some pitted prunes, herbs (still from my backdoor garden – in January – in New England – what’s up with that?), and brandy (cheap stuff, not actually Armagnac). Cover the pot and bake at high heat for an hour. That’s it!

I had some trouble figuring out how to truss the chicken. Did you? I didn’t plan ahead, and so when it was time to put the chicken in the pot, I quickly looked in a few books, but didn’t find any good pictures or descriptions. I ended up “winging” it, but I don’t know whether I should have bothered.

It would have helped if had read the recipe a little more carefully. I added ALL the ingredients before baking, including the cup of water that supposed to be added after the chicken is roasted. While my chicken was cooked through and perfectly moist, the skin didn’t browned. It was more steamed than roasted. I still consider it a success, but I missed the crispy skin.

The vegetables were a nice accompaniment. The onions melted into a sauce. The potatoes had great flavor from cooking in the chicken’s juices. If I hadn’t had the steaming issue I mentioned, I wonder whether the potatoes might have been crispier like my chicken skin was supposed to be. And, I liked the sweetness that the prunes added to the mix. I also braised some sliced Swiss chard to round out the plate.

I’m looking forward to reading about what my fellow FFwD bloggers thought about this week’s recipe. Check out their links at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes, but I found it on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s website if you want to try this at home. It’s still worth getting your own copy of the book, Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. Maybe you’ll even want to cook along with us on Fridays.

Next week’s selection is French version of pound cake: Quatre-Quarts

Wolf Moon over the Old Res, Lexington, MA

Howard’s away this week, so I’m on full dog duty. Each morning, as the sun is coming up, and the moon is going down, Bella and I go to for a walk, going by the neighborhood elementary school and through the woods around the old reservoir (now swimming or skating pond, depending on the season).

There was a slight dusting of snow last night, and, this morning, we had a magical walk in the light of the setting Wolf Moon.

(Apologies for the blurry photo. It’s challenging to take a picture with your phone while the dog is pulling on her leash.)

New month, new year, new recipe for French Fridays with Dorie. I actually wanted to try making bread during my end of year break from work. I never got around to it, but when this year’s first recipe for brioche was announced, I was thrilled!

I love the idea of making bread. The alchemy of yeast, flour and a few other ingredients transforming into bread is so simple and magical at the same time. It’s not even labor-intensive. The blocker for me is finding chunks of continuous time in a sequence that works for all the steps to come together. With its 3 eggs and 1½ sticks of butter, brioche isn’t really everyday bread, but I found it easy to mesh the rising schedule of this particular recipe into mine. The overnight rest in the refrigerator really helped with the timing.

I found a jar of yeast in my refrigerator. It was within the “use by” period, but the jar also said “best used within 6 months of opening”. From the 1/11 written on the lid, I could see it had been open for a year, so had some doubts. I followed the instructions to proof the yeast to see if it was still good. After dissolving the yeast in warm water and adding a pinch of sugar, I waited for 10 minutes to see what happened. It grew and grew, so I went ahead and used my “not best” yeast. It was fine.

Proof Test on Left

After

Before

Before

After

As I said, brioche isn’t everyday bread. It is quite rich, eggy like a challah, but not as sweet and not as soft and squishy, more elegant. The bubble-top brioche rolls were baked in muffin tins to make little rolls. They are perfect with a bowl of soup or for breakfast. I gave the leftovers a few minutes in the oven to warm them up. (By the way, I’m starting to think that Dorie sets the bar much higher than I do for leftovers. For many of her recipes, including the brioche, she implies the leftovers won’t be good, but, in my experience, they’ve been fine.)

Recently, I wrote about how crazy my dog Bella is about challah (with cute pictures). I don’t know what it is about her and egg breads, but she was hanging out in front of the oven while the bread was baking, and I had to keep a close eye on her while it was cooling on the counter. I used one of the rolls as a treat to keep her still while Howard applied the monthly tube of Intercept (anti-flea and tick treatment, for the non-dog owners) to her back.

I would definitely make brioche again. I’d like to try it in loaf form next time. Besides making a lovely breakfast, I love brioche for grilled cheese sandwiches.

I’m looking forward to reading about how brioche worked out for my fellow FFwD bloggers. I’m hoping someone baked a loaf so I can take notes on that. Check out their links at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes, but this one was already published here on Bon Appetit’s website. Still consider getting your own copy of the book, Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. And you’re always welcome to cook along with us on Fridays.

Happy French Friday!

Happy New Year 2012!

Lately, I’ve been debating about whether to continue with my blog. On the one hand, I love to cook and eat. Having my blog as an outlet to share my successes and failures and other discoveries makes me happy. On the other hand, I feel more and more like I’m not putting enough time into it and that it’s hard to make more time. I’ve been pretty reliable about keeping up with the on-line cooking group I joined (French Fridays with Dorie), but I feel it’s somewhat at the expense of blogging about my other kitchen adventures. I have them, but then I forget to take a picture or two. Or I’m busy and after a few days, it seems like I’ve lost the momentum to write about that particular topic. Or I can’t think of something to write about.

I don’t believe in making New Year’s resolutions, but I thought I’d set some blogging goals for myself in 2012. Last week, I told Howard my goal was to write something every day. It didn’t have to be long, or well illustrated, or even about food, but I would put something out there every day. Well, you can see how well I’m doing with that. It’s January 4th, and this is my first post. Maybe I’d be better off with a more realistic goal for frequency.

As far as content, I’ve seen some bloggers have different themes for different days of the week. That idea is appealing. Fridays can continue to be French Fridays, but then other days could have different themes, depending on which days I end blogging. And because I don’t have a strong allegiance to resolutions, if I feel inspired to change the rules, I can.

If you’re a blogger, why do you blog? Where do you get your inspiration? Do you feel a need to post with a certain frequency or just when the mood strikes you? I’m curious about what you think.

The last French Fridays with Dorie recipe for 2011 was a clear winner at our house: Cauliflower-Bacon Gratin. I got a new oven earlier this week, and this was the inaugural dish baked in the oven.

I struggle to like both cauliflower and broccoli, but I’m getting there. This dish definitely paves the way. What’s not to like about anything cooked with bacon and custard and cheese?

The gratin is sort of like a crustless quiche, but a little more substantial.

The cauliflower is meltingly tender.

The bacon is smoky.

The custard that holds it all together is creamy, and I love Gruyere cheese.

Dorie suggested the gratin could be served as a main dish or a side. I opted to serve it as an entrée with a green salad on the side. It warmed our insides and filled our bellies. I agree it would be a nice complement to a simple preparation of meat or chicken. Leftovers held up well too.

When I was making this, I was a little frustrated because it called for a cauliflower, but there was no guidance about its recommended weight. Also, it called for the cauliflower to be broken into florets, but not their size. I had two different cauliflowers in the refrigerator, one twice as big as the other. I used the bigger one, but some of the florets were huge. I ended up quartering the giant ones. In the end, I realized that none of my anxiety mattered. I know it would have worked out fine with a bigger or smaller cauliflower and a bigger or smaller florets. The gratin is quite forgiving.

I can’t wait to read about the other Dorista’s gratins. That’s what I’ll spend the rest of the evening doing, while I enjoy the last crème brulée from last week — now successfully torched with turbinado sugar, rather than brownulated, on top. (Thanks Elaine!)

You can read about their gratins too by following the links on the FFwD site. We are asked not to post the recipes, but I found it posted here on Leite’s Culinaria. That doesn’t mean that if you find Dorie’s recipes appealing, you shouldn’t get yourself a copy of Around My French Table.

Happy New Year 2012 to all my cooking friends! It’s been a great year getting to know you all and sharing a passion for the kitchen with you.

Bella Shows Off the New Oven

For many years, Howard and I have made it a tradition of taking off from work for the last week of the year. Typically, we don’t go anywhere. Instead, we spend the week on various housekeeping projects and other things we didn’t get around to finishing during the year. We also take time to do something fun everyday.

For the most part, my doings this week aren’t interesting enough to tell about in detail. However, here are some highlights.

• They say that friends are the family you choose for yourself. We shared Christmas celebrations with good, long-time friends who live nearby. The best was the Feast of 7 Fishes on Christmas Eve.

Chocolate Cake for Christmas Dessert

• Every morning, after breakfast, I go for a walk with Howard and Bella in the woods.  It’s my favorite walk.  The woods look different in each season, and it’s very quiet and peaceful there.  It’s also the only place where Bella is allowed off-leash.  She loves the freedom to explore the terrain, at the same time, never letting us out of her sight.

• We ate at two of my favorite casual eateries: All Star Sandwich Bar in Cambridge and Sweet Cheeks Q in Boston. All Star has great sandwiches (obviously from the name). The menu includes both classic sandwiches as well as more creative combinations. They also have amazing French fries. They’re hand cut and skinny and served piping hot, with lots crispy bits. I had one of the daily specials, an ALT, avocado, lettuce and tomato, served along with grilled onions and melted Jack cheese as a panini. Yum! Howard had a pastrami Reuben, which he enjoyed. I don’t eat sauerkraut, so I didn’t try it out.

• Sweet Cheeks Q is a new barbeque restaurant near Fenway Park. Their brisket can’t be beat, but we’ve also tried the pork belly, pulled pork, and ribs. It’s all exceptional. For a family with a genuine Texas smoker in our backyard, we know what we’re talking about. The sides are outstanding as well. I’m crazy about the Farm Salad made with seared Brussels sprouts, candied hazelnuts, and grapes, among other ingredients. The cheesy broccoli casserole is also worth writing home about.

• My home office has gotten to the point where it lacked any semblance of organization. I made a dent in the chaos. I managed to discard 8 to 10 bundles of unread magazines in time for the week’s curbside recycling. There’s more, but it made a noticeable difference.

• Nearby Watertown is home to some excellent Armenian markets. One morning, we went on a mini-shopping spree. Spinach pie, eetch (a sort of tomato-infused tabouli), and stuffed grape leaves made for a delicious feast for lunch. I don’t know why we don’t shop in that neighborhood more often.

• Our annual latke dinner for Hanukkah.  I didn’t get around to making any applesauce, but we enjoyed that pile of potato pancakes with sour cream.  They came out really well this year.  The downside is that the house smells like oil for days, but it’s worth it.

Pile of Latkes

• My oven started acting up right before Thanksgiving. Well, it had some electrical problems over the summer, where the control panel stopped displaying, but Howard managed to fix that. More recently, a poltergeist took up residence in the oven and started locking and unlocking it while it was off. Kind of creepy, especially because the only time the oven usually locks is when it goes into self-cleaning mode. Howard removed the latch, but the oven’s days were definitely numbered. End of story: I had a new oven installed this week. Yay!

I know, it isn’t everyone’s idea of a thrilling vacation, but I’ll definitely end the year with a feeling of accomplishment!  The week isn’t over yet. I don’t go back to work until Tuesday. There are a few more days and more projects on the list and more adventures too. Stay tuned.

Crème brulée is one of my favorite desserts to order in a restaurant. It had never occurred to me that I could make it at home. Crème brulée was this week’s assignment for French Fridays with Dorie, and, so, the challenge was on.

I’d never made custard before. First, you heat the cream and milk. I chose to do this in the microwave, but lacking experience, I think I should have done it on top of the stove. I didn’t want the milk to boil over, but I wasn’t sure how long it would take. It was hard to see through the glass of the microwave, so I would have been better off just using a pot on the stovetop — much easier to watch.

Then, you whisk together egg yolks and sugar, and gradually add the hot milk until it’s all combined. My custard was overly foamy, even after a lot of rapping the container on the counter, so I skimmed off the layer of foam.

For a new twist on crème brulée, Dorie has you spread a spoonful of jam on the bottom of each dish. I had both raspberry and strawberry jams that I made this summer, so I made 3 with each flavor.

I didn’t have the exactly right-sized dishes for the crème brulée, but used what I had. None of my dishes were quite as wide as the 4 inches suggested, so my custards took longer to cook. Rather than spending an hour in a low oven, my custards needed more like 90 minutes to set. Then, after cooling, the crèmes spent the night in the refrigerator.

The final step, the bruléeing, called for family fun. For some reason, Howard had a butane torch in the basement, so I called on him to conduct the caramelization step. I don’t know whether I layered the sugar on too thick. Initially, the sugar flamed up like roasted marshmallows do, leaving little burnt spots on top. The sugar wasn’t really melting. We watched a couple of YouTube videos to see how it’s done. It worked better when he held the flame closer and moved the flame around faster.

Howard the Torcher

I have to let you in on a secret though. I’m actually the only one at our house that likes custard, so we only tried out one so far. This step will require more practice. The sugar wasn’t quite as crusty as I’ve had at restaurants, but there are 5 more dishes to try this on.

Overall, I liked my home-rendition of crème brulée. I liked the hint of fruit in the bottom of the dish. This would definitely be fun to serve to company, but no one was coming over before Friday. I’ll see if I can share some of the other 5 dishes in the fridge.

I’m looking forward to reading about what my fellow FFwD bloggers thought about this week’s recipe. Check out their links at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes, but consider getting your own copy of Dorie Greenspan’s book, Around My French Table.

Merry Christmas to all, and, to all, a good night!