Week 20: Christmas Quenelles and Buche de Noel

This Christmas we were staying at home, enjoying hosting my sister, bro in law and niece and nephew. With four adults, four teenagers and two dogs it was busy, and typically being the festive season, there was a lot of eating going down.
Christmas day we were all totally spoilt having a wonderful Christmas lunch at my parents house.
However Boxing Day was with us... and of course this meant the time to shine with French cuisine.
Julia did not have a Christmas section in her "Mastering the art of French Cooking", so I had to do a little homework on what would be a traditional French Christmas meal.
Wikipedia to the rescue - moved past the annoying little plea for funding from the site to find the list of food items traditionally eaten at Christmas:
Oysters - rather expensive beginning, lets see what is further down the list
Foie fras - not sure if I can support the action of force feeding ducks
Crepes - yes, but hard too do and for 12 people I would have to get up at 2am in the morning to get things done in time
Chapon - roasted chicken - had Turkey on Christmas day, don't really want to 2 birds in 2 days
Goose - difficult to source (although there are a few wild ones living close by..) and see comment above
Buche de Noel - Yule log - yes - chocolate
Thirteen desserts - traditional in Provence the 13 desserts represent Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles (not enough specific information)
Fougasse (Provencal bread) - like the sound of that.

Unfortunately Julia did not have most of these dishes in her book. So I looked to Julia for something different, yet special for the occasion. Quenelles caught my eye. Julia describes these as a distinguished first course which were the province of the haute cuisine, or  least of the great restaurants with plenty of young apprentice cooks to do the dog work. It was arduous process because it was the era of the BFP - Before Food Processor. However food processor was at the ready and so was my daughter Imke and niece Anneke- my two kitchen hands. They were the queens of the quenelle, shaping those fish quenelles into oval shapes and poaching in barely simmering water. There were some tense moments when we thought the quenelle may disintegrate - but unlike the highly tense reality food programmes or hells kitchen, we proceeded with calm and dignity. Also we had a back up plan, supported by Julia who has a section "In case of disaster". Julia recommends if by any chance your quenelle paste turns out to be too soft to poach it will taste every bit as good if you declare it to be a mousee. Love her practical nature!

Julia did not have a recipe for a Buche de Noel, so I sourced one from Nigella. I have always loved the look of a Yule log however have never made one. Slightly nervous about the rolling, and I almost rolled a stump rather than a log as started rolling the wrong end. However with declarations from the extended family observing the process, I was corrected - and proceeded to roll correctly. Nigella uses a chocolate ganache for the filling and for the icing... so of course it was gorgeous and voluptuous.

To complete the French theme my sister Jac and husband Mark presented us with some outstanding French cheeses. These were divine and we enjoyed these as our starter, although my sister did note that she had no idea what they would be like but they were French (a great blog supporter).
To accompany the cheese, Imke made the Fougasse (Provencal bread with olives and herbs).

It was a great meal with eating extending through most of the day, inter-dispensed with puppy play and general overeating malaise.

With the cousins... Caroline, Henk, Frankie (the dog), Imke and Anneke

The queens of the quenelles

Probably Yule log is not traditionally served in France with someone wearing a red beach towel!

Kneading

French cheeses

Mum and sister Jac

Jamie - in charge of the ham

Week 19: Oeufs Poches

"Gosh Mum, you are getting slack" was the report back from youngest daughter after serving up poached eggs for lunch. I admit, I missed last weeks blog write up as was supporting same daughter for weekend sporting event -  and with the pre-Christmas rush on, things are busy (excuses, excuses) so I have not invested so much time in increasing my culinary skills via Julia.

However, as I explained to my family, do not underestimate the poached egg. Julia dedicates 2 pages of explanation on how to make the perfect oeuf poches.  She explains that the perfect specimen is neat and oval and the white completely masks the yolk. The recipe for success includes having fresh eggs at hand, and a pan of barely simmering water with a touch of vinegar which helps the eggs keep in shape. Once you have broken the eggs into the water you immediately and gently push the water over the yolk with a wooden spoon. After about 4 minutes your egg should be ready for removal from the pan.
I must say the end product wasn't perfect but it was a vast improvement on my past poached eggs attempts where the egg whites were more of a milky way appearance - wispy and covering a large amount of space. On the removal of one of the eggs it flipped before landing on the plate, and from this perspective it looked perfect. The egg yolk remained liquid as per requirements. Although this was the desired effect it had two disadvantages. First disadvantage - eldest daughter does not like egg yolk so cutting off egg white was a delicate operation and with only one small nick of the egg yolk saw the contamination of the white - like a oil spill in the ocean. Second disadvantage is that with vigorous discussion over lunch accompanied with hearty gesturing saw the spray of egg yolk off the fork onto the table Christmas runner. The family did notice that this yellow did match the embroidery golden thread weaving through the runner, however I did insist on a quick spot clean. So there, I am  not entirely slack :-) 

Week 18: Carottes glacees & Chou-Fleur a la mornay, gratine

A sudden drop in temperature from our balmy summer hot weather saw a return to winter fare. Lucky there were vegetables at the ready including a cauliflower which was found in the depths of the fridge. I had fungating tomatoes last week so I am loathed to admit another repeat of "almost at the point of going off food ". Let's just say the cauli was ready for the eating. Although I do believe that the rotten food experience is known to more than us that we would perhaps admit. We may have cleaned up our act in adulthood  but the rotten apple at the bottom of the school bag was a pretty typical childhood experience. My legendary tale (according to my parents) was that they found 16 cheese segments in the bottom of my school bag - this was when chesdale processed chedder cheese was big.
So tonight was a great opportunity to cook up a couple of new vegetable dishes that were warm and comforting. I choose to follow Julia's Carottes Glacees - glazed carrots recipe. This involves boiling the carrots slowly in a covered pot with stock, sugar, pepper and butter for 30 minutes until the liquid has reduced to a syrupy glaze. Slightly got my timing wrong so didn't get to the glaze stage, rather soggy but tasty little numbers.
The cauliflower au gratin with cheese was prepared ahead and was far more relaxing in relation to timing, sitting patiently in the oven ready to go. Accompanying the steak I followed Julia's Champignons sautes au beurre instructions. Here Julia provides the requirements to have successful sauteed mushroom which are lightly browned. The secret is you need to ensure the mushrooms are dry, the butter very hot, and the mushroom must not be crowded in the pan. It was a rather uncomplicated dinner that night, but an opportunity to try a couple of new vegetable dishes. And with the less labour intensive meal meant I could use that time to clean out the fridge (almost as bad as the end of year school bag clean out!)

Reduction in progress

 

 

 

Hearty fare

 

Week 17: Tomatoes a la provencale and Tarte aux fraises

After last weeks poor performance and rating of non achieved for my Tarte aux fraises, I was adamant to resit and resubmit. However I also felt that I needed to try something new from Julia's repertoire of recipes. The "getting close to rotting stage tomatoes", perched on the kitchen bench, gave me the inspiration to try Tomoatoes a la provencale. Julia describes these as being one of the most savoury ways of serving tomatoes and they go well with many things. The stuffing is a mix of breadcrumbs, herbs (I used parsley), shallots and a sprinkle of olive oil, baked in the oven. I must say they did accompany the chicken/mushroom cream pasta dish for dinner quite nicely.

Call me a traitor, but I felt I needed a little more guidance for my repeat attempt for the Tarte aux fraises thanJulia could provide me. Luckily I did not have to look further than my book shelf as I have a weakness for books that seduce you with wonderful photo's even though you secretly know that the probability of baking or cooking a Gateau Saint-Honore is pretty remote. Lucky for me Will Torrent, the chef, had included a recipe for Tarte aux fraises. Actually it was quite exciting flicking through the pages and recognising dishes, that just a few months ago I would have had no idea what they were. Will grew up with a grandfather who was a chef in Bournemouth (I had grandparents that came from this area) and an uncle who owned a patisserie in Paris - so pastry was in his blood. Patisserie is all about technique, precision and elegance (I am doomed!), however, Will is very encouraging and states "When you make the decision to replicate these creations at home, you needn't doubt your skills; every basic technique is simple to master if you take your time (time poor!) are meticulous (how does the she'll be right philosophy fit into that!) and don't berate yourself too much for a novice attempt (Ok)". The pastry for the Tarte aux fraises this week was a pate sable - sable means sandy, and it is a recommended pastry for this dish. The change from last week was that this pastry was made with icing sugar, so before its overnight chill it was lovely and soft - it was more thereapuetic to the touch then play dough. The instructions were more detailed than Julia, and I need all the guidance I can get - I was going to mirror Will down to his crisp white shirt! This time the custard was smooth and non-flourey, no industrial sealant in sight and even the strawberries behaved. Updated rating from the judge (although not moderated) : Excellance  :-)






Mirror image

 

Will

Almost the same (just didn't have the same bread bin in the background!)

 



Tomates a la provencale

Week 16: Tarte aux Fraises

I usually try to complete my weekly cooking challenge on a Saturday, although this week, I must admit, the need for a nana nap on Saturday afternoon override any other item on my to do list. I found myself unconscious for 2 1/2 hours and was quite a pathetic specimen for the rest of the evening.
Tempted to do a Nigella with an avocado on toast equivalent, instead I committed myself to the cause and booked out some of my Sunday afternoon to complete a Tarte aux Fraises ... a Fresh Strawberry Tart.
I love summer and living in Hawke's Bay we are fortunate to be surrounded by orchards and a ready supply of fresh fruit including strawberries. Strawberries are well liked in our family, the issue was keeping the strawberries safe from little paws that were destined for the tarte.
Julia describes fresh fruit tarts as easy to make, pretty to look at and refreshing to eat. They consist of a fully baked tart shell, a glaze that protects the shell and a layer of crème pastissiere.Then of course the design of strawberries on top.
I deviated from the recipe today avoiding the addition of cognac both in the glaze, and custard filling believing that this would be more palatable to eldest daughter. I also didn't have red currant jelly for the glaze and thought the Pams strawberry jam, which was more jelly like, would do the trick.
Everything was lined up - the pastry shell, the hulled strawberries, the crème pastissiere and the glaze. However the custard was too thin, so I looked at trying to stiffen it up... this was the beginning of a mess!
I couldn't get a nice dimensional looking finish to the strawberries and certainly couldn't get them to snuggle close together. I avoided adding the glaze on top as despite following the rewarming instructions, it was way to thick.
 Although the finished product looked ok intack, and the pastry unmolded fine onto the plate the serving and the tasting was a unmitigated disaster. Even though the custard was thicker then before there was no way you could provide a nice tidy slice. So the individual servings looked a mess and the custard tasted like flour. On a positive note, I do believe though I have invented an ecological friendly industrial grade sealant. The glaze I made and painted on the pastry shell as a light waterproofing readily stuck to your teeth which required the family members to scrape it off with their finger nails.
According to my family I should be glad that this "non achieved" dish was only witnessed by them and how embarrassing it would have been if we had had visitors! The fresh strawberries were extracted from the custard goo and readily eaten. Maybe that avocado on toast idea wasn't so bad after all!

False advertising!

Industrial sealant in the making

Looked smooth

The judges

Unachieved!

Week 14: Truss me...Poulet poele a l'estragon

OK ... I admit I've avoiding trussing due to the association with sewing. When I explained to Caroline what the theme for for this week was, she replied ... "Good Luck" ... she knows me so well!
I was embarking on Julia's recipe "Poulet poele a l'estragon" - i.e. Casserole roasted chicken with tarragon.

 This was a different way of roasting from where I normally just shove the chook in a roasting dish with a sprinkle of a few herbs, into the oven. Following Julia's recipe you truss the chook, brown in butter and oil, then set to roast in a covered casserole with herbs and seasonings. Julia was absolutely right when she described this as "lovely method as the buttery, aromatic steam in the casserole gives the chicken great tenderness and flavour". The chicken was tender and moist, and my normal reliance of a gravy was not required.

Trussing is used as a technique so when you present the bird on the table it will look neat and attractive. For a chook there are two ties, one at the tail end to secure the drumsticks and one at the breast end to fasten the wings and neck skin. So as a good student I followed Julia's instructions and I thrust the needle in and tied that little chook up. Coming to serving time (which I must admit was late) the family was so hungry, that I could have served them bake beans on toast and they would have been happy!

Our eiffile tower candle was lit, as we sat down to eat out poulet for dinner and reflect on the tragedy of the terrorist attacks in Paris - vive la France



Truss me!

Tarragon.., courtesy of Millstream gardens (check out their website)

Vive la France



Week 13: Baba au Rhum

This week I was looking for something new. The section on babas caught my eye. I have never heard of babas, so was quite intrigued. Note - these are not to be confused with the French children's cartoon "Barbapapa". Actually I am quite fond of the Barbapapa characters and the way the papa is pink. However these little numbers were not child's play and were certainly for the adult palate.

According to Julia, babas always seem  to delight guests and they are not difficult to make! Sold!
As the "Mastering French Cooking" recipe book is pretty light on illustrations, I googled babas  to find out what the finished product should look like. Luckily the dough raising required a few hours as our internet connection was so slow. This is almost as frustrating as this laptop that I type this blog on... there are three keys that don't work properly - 2 w and s. In seems like every second letter is a s or a w! Although for some reason the keys warm up and start working (go figure!)

When I finally got connection, I watched a lovely romantic music video dedicated to 'Mum's Babas' in which the mother was lovingly preparing the babas whilst the family selected the finest Christmas tree in a Winter wonderland scene. However the picture was rather different here. I was stinky from a recent run which slightly over-powered the Pandora pond smell on me from my morning swim. Rather than the Christmas decorations I had piles of washing on the table (we were going to be eating dinner outside!), coupled with a potted primrose which had long ago did its dash of splendour and was way overdue for replanting outside.

Despite lacking the ability to conjure up a French winter scene my appetite for a baba was growing. In fact when the family reconvened for dinner everyone was ravenous from a full day of outside activities. Oldest daughter and father had a day rafting, and youngest daughter had a morning at rowing.
I had decided to make the Babas au Rhum - where firstly you make the babas which basically are  dough balls. Then the babas imbibe (another new word for me) the rum. I served these with whipped cream and accompanying extra rum syrup. For the "classique" babas au rhum you paint the babas with apricot glaze and place a cheery on top.
As a considerate mother I had already removed two babas from the rum baptism for eldest daughter. I needn't have bothered as according to Caroline they were "yuck" but I could redeem myself if I consented to allowing an ice-block instead! Luckily 3 of us enjoyed them (Mum and Dad there are a few left over coming your way). And somehow the rum went down quite nicely in the kiwi summer outdoor scene.

Look out for the barbapapa in the babas!

Week 12: Foie de Veau a la moutarde

We were having a Halloween party ... so the challenge was to find a receipe from Julia that fitted with the genre of the night. The section on brains caught my eye... hmm, maybe not... brain doesn't feature so strongly in supermarkets or butchers anymore with the association of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Julia had failed to include a good eyeball soup in the Potage section but did have on offer a few receipes using liver. I can't say that liver is on my top ten list of favourite foods, but I have been known to partake in eating the family traditional kidney and mushroom dish at Christmas time, however I had not ever cooked any.
I was pleasantly surprised that it was relatively cheap to buy, as this dish had a high chance of being dog tucker!
For "Foie de veau a la moutade",  the liver has to be cut into 1/2 inch thick slices and once seasoned and dredged in flour, sautéed very briefly to brown lightly. It is then painted with mustard and herbs and rolled in bread crumbs before placing under the grill. Relatively easy to make... but what would our fellow witches, wizards, devils and other enchanted guests think?
The liver was accompanied with maggot chicken, eyeball eggs, spider crackers and the odd finger. There were some strong advocates for the liver amongst the witches, but batman and even the devil herself found the liver as distasteful as the potential of Australia winning the rugby world cup. Bailey the lab was in luck!

 

 

Saute liver

 

 

Mwahaha......welcome

 

Fruity pumpkin

 
 
 

Tasty eyeballs

Paul and Caroline

Henry and Marg

Bailey, Caroline and Jill

Fingers

 

 

Family portrait!

 

 

Spiders

 

 

Eat... if you dare

Week 11:Tarte au Citron

As a child I used to pick the lemons from our tree at home and eat them whilst playing in the garden. This lemon tree was and still is, a prolific producer of lemons. Maybe it was the garden fairies or perhaps my father's secret pruning and feeding regime that made it have a never ending supply of lemons. So I knew exactly where I was sourcing lemons for this weeks dish... "Tarte au Citron".
Julia describes this dessert as a delicious, light tart, which is really a soufflé.

A sugar crust shell was required to be baked first. I got to use my baking balls again and this time I remembered to place the baking sheet between the pastry and the balls. They work well keeping the pastry nice and flat. Not only that, I also managed to keep control of my balls with only a few escaping ... my skills are improving! Success was probably assisted by being on-call and only having water to drink and not over committing to cooking too much in case I was called away.
The filling required the separation of the egg yolks and whites. The whites were beaten to form soft peaks, then sugar was added and beating recommenced until the peaks were stiff. This is a very important step, as Julia states...

            "The glory and lightness of French soufflés are largely a matter of how voluminously stiff       the egg whites have been beaten and how nicely they have been incorporated into the soufflé base."

The soufflé base was "nicely" coming along... not only did those egg yolks, sugar and lemon rind and juice look good thickening up it tasted good. I knew that lemons were high in vitamin C but I took the opportunity to google search and learn more about this tangy and tasty little number.... well I was shocked... not only was the humble lemon used  for culinary purposes it was also sited as a cleaning agent - a halved lemon dipped in salt or baking powder could be used to brighten copper cookware. Not only that, but apparently you can attach electrodes to a lemon and use it as a battery to produce electricity and with several lemons you can power a small digital watch. But wait there is more... one site claimed the health benefits of lemon included its use as a treatment of throat infections, indigestion, constipation, dental problems, and fever, internal bleeding, rheumatism, burns, obesity, respiratory disorders, cholera and high blood pressure, while it also benefits hair and skin care... And just when you thought this is too good to be true, lemons also helps to strengthen your immune system, cleanse your stomach, and it is considered a blood purifier. Crickey I wasn't making a tart, I was making a potion of magnificent powers that even Snape would be impressed with.

 

I transferred the tarte au citron out of the oven to the dinning room table ready to eat. Little did my family realise when about to embark on a board game with a fairy theme, that their accompanying dessert was also enchanted and magical... perhaps it was fairy's underneath the lemon tree after all!

My father (no fairies in sight)

Stiff egg whites

Fairy game

Week 10: Souffle au Fromage

Keeping with the light theme (with no crème in sight) this week was dedicated to the soufflé.
The soufflé is pretty egg intensive with 4 egg yolks and 5 egg whites required. I was relying on our home based chooks for a good supply of fresh eggs. This is challenging. Of the 6 chooks one is a Poland. This belongs to Caroline, who on receiving a "choosing and raising chickens" book as a gift identified the most ridiculous chook there was and exclaimed that was the one she wanted! The Poland has a huge ball like feather crest which almost blinds it. The book recommends that "a little care should be taken to ensure that they are not unintentionally frightened by sudden movements". Hence we now have a Poland chook - which is actually quite staunch (despite the crest) and holds her own with the 5 brown shavers. A Poland egg is pretty small so the pressure was on the other girls. This meant we needed to ensure that we locked them in a night! They are 3 year old ex-battery hens so production is not at the highest and one of the blighters has decided what she has produced is worth a peck or two! Despite the odds I was able to secure the necessary number of eggs.

I had been feeling quite intimidated by the thought of a soufflé and the potential inability to get it up. I avoided potential embarrassment by just having family as the witness to this dish. I had already embarrassed myself enough for one day (apparently) by wearing a grey t-shirt of Imke's who informed me that I had been paraded around the streets of Napier with her pj top on!  However with Julia's guidance and fresh eggs I was feeling pretty confident (even though I was still wearing my daughters pj top). This was knocked slightly when the soufflé was in the oven and I did a quick google search on how to serve a soufflé. Crickey all of a sudden I was filled with apprehension... was the egg white stiff enough... I totally forgot to smooth the top with the knife... should I have attended to the rubber seal around the oven door that was falling off... where is the oven light so I can see inside... does this oven even have a light!

It all worked out... the soufflé was high and light and honey coloured as our lab.




5 eggs! You have to be joking!

 

Intensive yellow egg yolks

 2 out of 3 people thumbs up with 1 interested lab