end of the season
One of Les Gourmettes Cooking School’s longtime students, Marilyn, brought in a huge box of green tomatoes to share with the class. I brought home a couple of pounds of them myself. My lone remaining tomato plant yielded the three tomatoes with the stems that you see in the photo below.
I’ve posted the recipe for fried green tomatoes previously, so this time I’m turning them into the deli delicacy – pickled green tomatoes. If you love these crunchy, thick-walled, salty, sour, spicy treats as I do, just wait until you see how easy they are to make at home. If you want to learn a little more about the fried tomato recipe, it pairs really well with a fresh feta salad, especially during the BBQ season.
This “refrigerator pickle” technique is basically foolproof. No lengthy temperature-critical fermentation and no sterile canning (although the jars and lids need to be cleaned with boiling water first). And they must be kept refrigerated. The best part is that the refrigerator pickled green tomatoes remain crunchy. Pasteurized pickled green tomatoes get mushy.
It is important that the tomatoes are firm and completely green, with no bits of orange or red and no mushy green tomatoes! I have labeled four of the jars and will be giving them as Christmas gifts.
December 19, 2011 2 Comments
soup weather
It’s been raining for the last few days, so the weather is perfect for a steaming bowl of soup. But you already know how much I love soup, so really it doesn’t need to be raining to be the perfect day for me!
As I was working on the computer yesterday, I took a break to check in on Facebook, and right there on my wall, I saw this post from Chelsea’s Kitchen (yes, the same Chelsea’s Kitchen that serves THIS amazing Brussels Sprout Salad).
“Chelsea’s Kitchen is the perfect place on a rainy day to get some good ‘ole comfort food. Try our potato fennel soup with crispy shallots and parsley! It’s amazing!”
Mind you, I had no intention of driving the 9 miles, in the rain, to eat a bowl of soup and lunch all by myself. But… I did have a fennel bulb, potatoes, and shallots in my own kitchen. Although I don’t know if this soup is anything like the one served at CK… I can assure you, it too is amazing!
December 14, 2011 3 Comments
individual sweetness
I made these luxurious little toffee cakes for the last class of my three-week series at Les Gourmettes Cooking School last Wednesday night and then served them again for a dinner party at a friend’s home last night. They are a true Christmas treat. Make, share, and enjoy!
December 5, 2011 No Comments
lovely crème fraîche
Weekly Tip #9
According to the “source of all knowledge” – Wikipedia – “Crème fraîche originates from Normandy in France, where the crème fraîche from a defined area around the town of Isigny-Sur-Mer in the Calvados department of Normandy is highly regarded and is the only cream to have AOC (‘Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée’) status, which was awarded in 1986.”
Crème fraîche is a matured thickened cream with a slightly tangy, nutty flavor and a velvety rich texture, thicker and richer than sour cream. Crème fraîche is particularly useful in finishing sauces in French cooking because it does not curdle.
Although you can find it at Trader Joe’s and many other grocery stores today, that was not the case only a few short years ago. What’s a French-loving person to do? Make your own, of course! And I often still choose to do so. It is easy and less expensive, and with the holidays on the doorstep, I am sure to be using plenty of it. And what a wonderful hostess gift to give to a cook! I love the packaging in that top photo… I just may have to do this! GO HERE to order the labels and HERE for the tags, if you would like.
December 4, 2011 No Comments
festive duck
First things first – Happy Birthday to my BBF, Jennifer Markett, who lives in Illinois! I LOVE YOU! And if you were here with me, I would be serving you this wonderful duck strudel! xoxo
Pictured above is my collection of authentic vintage French confit pots. Pretty, aren’t they? Duck confit has been a preservation method, for cooking and keeping duck in its rendered fat in France, for centuries. It results in supremely tender, moist, and extremely flavorful duck. You can then sear the duck legs in a hot skillet and serve them as is, shred the meat and add it to salads, or into the delicious and festive strudel recipe, I have for you below.
One of the great things about this strudel is that you can assemble the entire thing a month in advance and freeze it. Pop it in the oven for your Christmas celebrations and impress your guests! It is out of this world glorious!
A sealed glass jar of confit may be kept in the refrigerator for up to six months, or several weeks if kept in a reusable plastic container. To maximize preservation, the fat should top the meat by at least one inch. As the fat turns solid and prevents any air from reaching the meat, so basically the confit technique is a way of hermetically sealing the meat. The cooking fat acts as both a seal and preservative and results in a very rich taste.
I have been collecting authentic confit pots from France for a while now. Before refrigerators, the pots were used to “refrigerate” the confit. The entire inside of the pot is glazed and the glaze drips decoratively down the outside rim of the pot. The rest of the outside of the pot is left unglazed. The pot was filled with the duck and sealed with the fat. The pot was then buried in the cold mud and the unglazed outside of the pot would soak up that coldness and keep the duck confit perfectly chilled until ready to dig out and use.
The amount of duck confit used in this recipe is small, only 4 ounces. So instead of going to the trouble to make my own confit, I purchased a leg quarter from Chef Vincent Guerithault of the famed Vincent’s on Camelback. Call ahead, and Chef Guerithault will happily sell you some too. Or you can make your own duck confit, I’ve included a recipe from Epicurious.com at the bottom of this post. It is not difficult, just time-consuming. You will need to salt the duck for at least 24 hours before beginning and you have to render duck fat from the duck skin, which I have posted about before. The link on how to do that is there in the recipe too. But if you just purchase the confit, you can get going on the strudel recipe…. right now!
December 3, 2011 1 Comment
pink and green…
… is kinda of red and green, which makes this very pretty appetizer or brunch pizza perfect for Christmas.
Naan can be found on the bread aisle at most grocery stores, at Trader Joe’s, or at Costco. And smoked mozzarella with other specialty cheeses. But if you can’t find the mozzarella, substitute smoked Gouda.
December 2, 2011 1 Comment
5 days late
Ready to make your pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving? Yeah, sorry I didn’t get this recipe up before the big feast. But maybe you will need to make a pumpkin pie for Christmas, in which case, this is perfect timing!
November 28, 2011 No Comments
turkey lasagna
Everyone has their favorite way to eat up their leftover Thanksgiving turkey. I’d guess that a good old turkey sandwich would be the hands-down winner for most of us. I like my sandwich one way and one way only – on white bread that is slathered in Miracle Whip with sliced turkey breast only. I don’t eat any of the leftover sides, I just relish that sandwich and I am as happy as can be. If I haven’t remembered to purchase a jar of Miracle Whip before Thanksgiving so that it is ready to be cracked open on the Friday after… well, someone (someone who is not me!) is going to the store to get me my Miracle Whip! Mayo will not do! I buy the smallest jar because this is the only thing I ever use it for, leftover turkey sandwiches.
Connor, on the other hand, makes a sandwich that looks like this…
He’s got the required white bread but tops it with turkey (white or dark), then spoons on the gravy and the stuffing, tops that with the other slice of bread, and heats it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Interesting, but not to my taste. Marissa also must have the breast only and tops her’s with cranberry sauce and eats some stuffing and maybe some gravy on the side. Finally, there is Dave, he will eat it all and will eat it any and every way, sandwich or a full redo of the Thanksgiving plate.
After a couple or three sandwiches, I am through with the turkey, then it is time to remake it into an entirely different meal, such as this lasagna. Now, this is how you get rid of leftover turkey!
November 27, 2011 No Comments
top it!
I made this cornbread to go along with my Two Bean-Two Corn Chorizo and Poblano Chili on our “no poultry” day (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving). But is equally delicious served with leftover turkey and gravy or with a creamed turkey mixture served over the top.
I even toasted a half slice and had a poached egg on top for breakfast, it is that versatile, so top it with anything you would like.
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November 25, 2011 1 Comment
no poultry
It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and the last thing any of us wants to eat is turkey or chicken! In fact, today – the day and night before Turkey Day – is the biggest day for pizza delivery for the entire year! Bigger than Super Bowl Sunday, bigger than New Year’s Eve (we always ordered delivery pizza for our kids that night just as we were heading out the door), and bigger than any other day! Why??? Because everyone is sick of cooking, the refrigerators are full, and we are all anticipating cooking and eating turkey tomorrow!
In honor of the “no poultry” unwritten rule, I’ve got some spicy chili for your dining pleasure. I purchased a package of chorizo bolita at the Mexican market thinking I was going to be trying some new and exciting style of chorizo. After some internet research, I learned that chorizo bolita is just regular chorizo in little links. Bolita means pellets. Oh well, I tried, and it turns out it is a convenient way to buy chorizo. You can cut off as many links as you need and then repackage and freeze the rest in smaller amounts. I used 3 pellets, or about 5 ounces, for this chili recipe. Plus I really wanted to cook and slice the chorizo as links instead of cooking and crumbling it as I usually do. Removing the casing very carefully and then cooking the links in a bit of water, gave me the exact result I was looking for.
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November 23, 2011 4 Comments
