French Fridays with Dorie, Week 5: Marie-Hélène's Apple Cake

Fall weather has arrived in Ohio and the kitchen has been a flurry with baking activity.  Week five of the French Fridays with Dorie adventure delivers a cozy fall weather cake.   Dorie shared a recipe from her good friend, Marie-Hélène Brunet-Lhoste.  Again, aren't the best recipes shared by friends? 

This cake is simple to prepare and really more apples than cake.  The batter whisked together easily using melted butter, sugar, egg, a little flour, salt & baking powder that stretched to coat each apple piece.  In her recipe, Dorie suggested using a variety of apples.  Luckily, my last trip to the farmer's market resulted in a bounty of apples:  Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, Jonagold, and Ida Red.  It has been a spectacular year for apples in Ohio!  The mix of tart and sweet apples plus dark rum and vanilla resulted in a delicate, simple flavor.  The apples really are the stars.  Dorie's recipe can be found at epicurious.com. 

The recipe called for using an eight-inch springform pan, exactly what I found myself without.  Instead of spreading out the batter in a nine-inch springform pan, I buttered & lined seven ramekins (3 ½ -inch) with parchment paper.  The cakes were golden brown and pulled away from the edges of the ramekins after 35 minutes versus the 50 to 60 minutes in the original recipe.  I let the cakes rest a few minutes before attempting what I hoped would not be a disaster.  I was prepared to enjoy the cakes in the ramekins, which would have been just as delicious, but they popped right out and even maintained their shape and golden crust goodness on top. 

The individual cakes were perfect warm from the oven and were over the top with a scoop of salty caramel ice cream from our neighborhood ice cream shop: Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream.  The burnt sugar flavor of the ice cream paired perfectly with the simple apple cake.  Delicious!

Google translate so would have made my high school French class life much easier!  Ahhh, technology. 

This week we go English to French.  Listen to the translation:

Marie-Hélène's Apple Cake  =  Gâteau aux pommes de Marie-Hélène.

November promises to be a fantastic journey through more of Dorie Greenspan's recipes.  Stay tuned!   

FFwD, Week 4: Hachis Parmentier

Week four of French Fridays with Dorie, I'm afraid, has become French Sundays with Dorie.  Nevertheless, this week’s recipe, I promise, does not disappoint & quite definitely will become a wonderful winter companion. 

Before delving into the recipe details, we must give thanks to Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the French Chemist & Botanist responsible for making the potato a household staple.  After serving in the French Army, Mr. Parmentier dedicated his research to the potato & in 1773, proclaimed the potato’s famine reducing qualities.  The French honor Mr. Parmentier with several potato-containing dishes including a potato & leek soup, Potage Parmentier and a simple diced, seasoned potato, Pommes Parmentier.

Hachis Parmentier, a meat & potato pie, is unlike any shepherd's pie I have enjoyed before.  Comfort food to the extreme, this recipe begins with the preparation of a beef broth by simmering cube steak, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, parsley sprigs, bay leaf, salt, black peppercorns along with a little water.  

The carrots, onions & celery rescued from the broth were added to the beef along with spicy sausage to create the meat base of the dish and topped with whole milk, heavy cream, & butter-laden mashed potatoes sprinkled with Gruyere & Parmesan cheese.  Rib sticking, goodness, indeed.  The lovely meat & potato dish baked until the filling bubbled & the most delicious golden crust formed on top. 
We enjoyed the Hachis Parmentier with a simple salad & lovely Argyle Pinot Noir.  I can assure you there will definitely not be a famine happening here!

   

Translation:  Shepherd's Pie

Pronunciation: Hachis Parmentier

The publisher of Around My French Table has asked that the recipes not be posted. 

I have my eye on a few variations of Shepherd's Pie to try this winter: 
Wine Braised Beef & Celery Root Shepherd's Pie,
Food & WineShepherd's Pie, Epicurious
Shepherd's Pie, Ellie Krieger, Food Network    
                         (A much lighter version)

FFwD, Week 3: Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup

Week 3 of French Fridays with Dorie delivers another delicious recipe from Dorie Greenspan & her latest cookbook, Around My French Table.  This is a soup I would try in a restaurant or at least convince a dining companion to order so that I might have a taste, but honestly would probably never have made at home.  Stay tuned & you will learn why. 

The recipe starts off with a mix of bold flavors:  cilantro, star anise, coriander seeds, white peppercorns, onion, garlic, ginger & two dried chilies mixed with chicken broth, unsweetened coconut milk, nuoc mam, brown sugar & a pinch of salt.  I was expecting a spicy soup & either I’m adjusting to my husband’s preference for super spicy or maybe I went wrong with my pepper selection.  I chose the Arbol Chili Peppers from Penzeys Spices.  The chilies have such a great color!

The soup finished nicely with shreds of poached chicken, rice noodles, lime juice & fresh basil on top.

Running through my head while making this was, “to cilantro, or not?”  Are you a cilantro hater?  There is science to back up this much debated topic.  Others in my family detest do not tolerate it, so perhaps it is true that I am genetically predisposed to not so much like cilantro.  To me it does taste a little soapy.  I tolerate in small amounts.  I love so many things often paired with cilantro & I’m not willing to ban it altogether from my diet.  I did not find the cilantro flavor to be overpowering in the soup & quite enjoyed it!  The potential was there for it to be overwhelming considering cilantro is the stem/leaves of the coriander plant & the recipe includes coriander seeds!  So my question to you, in which camp do you fall?  Are you a cilantrophobe?

I have my eye on some other Vietnamese-style soup recipes...
Chicken Noodle Soup with Lemongrass, Fine Cooking
Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup, Food & Wine
Pho Ga,  Emeril Lagasse and the Food Network


Week 2:  Gérard's Mustard Tart
Week 4:  Hachis Parmentier


Make a difference in your community on October 16, World Food Day, by donating in some way to your local food bank.  Contact your local food bank for information and guidelines before donating. A monetary donation is another way to provide pantries with the ability to feed those who are hungry.

French Fridays with Dorie, Week 2

Again, a challenge this week to stretch my kitchen skills.  Does Dorie know that I am terrified of any recipe that involves a crust?  I love baking, but will avoid a pie or tart recipe like the plague.  Week two of French Fridays with Dorie, I present you with a successful tart dough attempt & a definite keeper of a recipe:  Gérard’s Mustard Tart.   This recipe comes from Dorie's friend, Gérard.  I am sure you would agree that some of the best recipes are shared by friends.   

I split up the preparation of this recipe over two days to give the tart dough ample attention.  With a pile of sand like flour turned out of the food processor, I seriously thought I had a disastrous situation on my hands.  Not willing to give up too easily, I kept going with the process & it all came together into a triumphant disk of dough!

Since our tomato plants are still producing despite the chilly weather the end of September delivered, I decided to add tomatoes into the mix with the carrots & leeks.  In addition to the lovely tomatoes, earlier this summer we had a gorgeous crop of sunflowers.



Feeling a sense of relief to have the base of the tart completed, I whisked together the eggs, crème fraîche, classic Dijon mustard, coarse ground Dijon mustard, fleur de sel, and ground white pepper.  The egg mixture was topped with steamed slender sticks of carrots & leeks on one half, tomato slices on the other & a rosemary sprig in the middle.  Into the oven it went & our house slowly filled with the best mustard scent ever. 

What a way to spend a Friday! 

Next up:  Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup.  Looking forward to the soup, but hoping that soup weather stays away!

French Fridays with Dorie, Week One

I am guilty of stalking many food blogs & could not resist joining in the fun with the launch of French Fridays with Dorie.   I finally have had a moment to dive into Dorie Greenspan's latest cookbook, Around My French Table, and it is exactly what I need to stretch my kitchen skills!  Dorie is setting us off on this adventure by selecting the recipes for the first four weeks & this week's selection is divine:  Gougères.  These little puffs of cheese are equally delicious straight from the oven or cooled to room temperature. 

For some odd reason & I am now quite ashamed to admit, I have steered clear of anything that starts with pâte à choux.  Sad mistake on my part!  Dorie has made this recipe so approachable & such goodness from the oven should no longer be avoided.   Basic ingredients: milk, butter, salt flour, eggs, & cheese!  

Traditionally, gougères are made with Gruyère, but extra sharp cheddar was what I had on hand.  After "taste testing" several, I could see how fun it could become to play around with the dough trying a variety of cheeses and seasonings.


I stashed a full cookie sheet worth of scoops of the dough in the freezer for another day.  36 gougères seemed a little too many for my waste line, although they could have easily disappeared!  Wait, there is that nutrition degree talking. 

The gougères will be perfect to pull out for a quick appetizer this fall & to savor with a favorite verre de vin.  At last...putting those years of French classes to use!

Dorie shared her recipe on NPR several years ago.  Check it out & bon appétit!

This is my kitchen helper.  Could not forget to snap a picture of him!