Series Two: Part Eight - La Frite

It is hard to go past a hot chip - and Julia, as a keen consumer of anything potato, includes the preparation of the French fry in her 1972 episode "The Potato Show". It seemed fitting due to the fact that this fried concoction has French in its title. However according to Wikipedia there are some contentious theories of its origin with the French and Belgian both claiming ownership. Some people believe that the term "French" was introduced when British and American soldiers arrived in Belgium during World War One and consequently tasted Belgium fries. They supposedly called them "French" as it was the local language and the official language of the Belgium Army at that time.






Julia demonstrates four different dishes in this "French Fry free for all" ... (yet again Julia can't resist the use of alliteration of the f word- but in the best possible taste. Refer to the fish show for more entertaining uses of words starting with the letter "f".) There is the souffle potato, the potato chip, the potato nest and the French fry. There were pots of fat heating up all over the place and I have never seen such plentiful use of paper towels. I could almost feel the fat lining my mouth as I watched - it was fat overload! I decided to limit myself and just focus on the French fries and souffle potato. I also did not have the bird nest nets to cook the peeled potato in.


First step was the cutting of the potato and this was the opportunity for Julia to show case some French fry cutters. With some grunting and puffing Julia shows off one particular appliance that obviously is not easy to use, then quickly summarises that a knife is the best. There is not much guidance  about the type of potato to use apart from the recommendation to experiment with the caution that "potatoes are strange animals". The girls had recently battled the vegetable garden to find the potatoes within and had unearthed a good number - there were going to be used for the job.
For both the French fry and souffle potato they are firstly cooked in 300 F hot fat then placed in a 400 F fat. For the souffle potato the rectangle potato shape should then puff up - which did for the first lot that were cooked.


However, there were two technical difficulties experienced when cooking. We had a power cut earlier in the day, which had thrown the oven thermostat unbeknown to me. The tarragon chicken that was supposed to be cooked, was only warm. I had started cooking the French fries and the hungry gannets were circulating.  First course - fries. Second course - chicken with healthy vegetables!
The other technical difficulty was that we had another power-cut right in the middle of deep frying. After the lighting of candles and the search for a deck of cards, power was back on and cooking could recommence. At this stage I had had enough and just cooked the remaining prepared potato straight in the 400 F fat.
I did however remain vigilant and ensure safety at all time after witnessing Julia burn herself and lose the handle of the basket in the deep fryer and have to skilfully reclaim it.
The family didn't seem to care that the souffle potato were not filled with air, and that the French fries could have been slightly more cooked inside. Whatever the origin of this rectangle size, cholesterol filled, cardiac causing arteriosclerosis piece of potato, it sure tasted good.

Harvesting the potatoes

The first taste test

Power cut!

Series Two: Part Seven - Jarrets de devant

Autumnal

It is time to slow down... after a hectic week of end of a school term, Imke breaking world records, Caroline hitting the stage with tap, Jamie away in Melbourne and two of us celebrating birthday's ... French cooking took a back step last week. Imke wasn't going to accept the takeaway pizza's midweek as a sufficient birthday dinner. Her request was for a dinner of lamb shank' s... Julia to the rescue. A slow paced, warming comfort dinner dish - complements the autumnal weather we are experiencing of late.

The only reference for lamb shanks in "Mastering the art of French Cooking" is as a variation to Navarin Printanier (Lamb stew with spring vegetables. Apparently lamb shanks (jarrets de devant) are considered part of the shoulder in France, so no special recipes are given for them. Julia suggests that they may be boned or left whole and that any of the lamb stew recipes will do. OK!

Preparation for chef:

1. One glass of red wine (or two) - my choice was a Cabernet Sauvignon - from the Catholics (Mission Estate Winery - Hawke's Bay) - it is a Sunday after all

2.  Music playing on stereo  - Latin (I like to infuse the best of cultures together)

Preparation for Lamb Shanks:

1. Brown lamb shanks (don't forget to dry off first)

2. Sprinkle with sugar and toss until sugar has caramelized

3. Toss again but this time with salt and pepper and flour

4. Add beef stock, tomato paste, garlic, rosemary, bay leaf and cook away in the oven

5. After about an hour add spuds, onions and carrots

A perfect dinner to complement the ebb and flow of this week. The time efficiency of this dish enabled me to have a nana nap this afternoon, the girls to bury the old chook that died (zoom in the autumnal pic and you will see the evidence - an animal death always seems to happen when Jamie is away) - and a rather relaxed ending to the evening... slow down goal achieved.

Preparation for chef

Compliments from the birthday girl

Series Two: Part Six - A little bit of Sole and Creme Caramel

This was supposed to be a blog about the "Spinach Twins" disc one number five from the "The French Chef". I had purchased the spinach from the supermarket in the morning, and had settled down early afternoon to watch the recipe unfold on DVD. It was looking promising - a spinach turnover was being described. After dutifully taking notes of preparation of spinach including the high chop action with the stainless steel knife, the video stopped functioning and I could go no further. Damn it! Julia didn't even have the recipe recorded in her "Mastering the Art of French Cooking".
I did have Tarakihi fish on the menu for the nights dinner, so technically I could have mastered this week by following the crumb fish recipe. I took a photo of one cooked deliciously golden brown to provide some evidence of mastery of cooking....although we all really know that it is simply throwing the fish in some flour, egg and breadcrumbs and frying! So to overcome the disappointment of the spinach I have ventured out to new frontiers - the Crème Caramel dessert. It is rather off putting when Julia describes this as one of the dishes that separates chefs. Quite partial to custard and having plenty of time I commenced preparation. A highlight of this dish was the inaugural use of the copper pot that I had purchased from Julia's favourite cookery supply place in Paris. This was used for preparing the caramel, and it did a super job. The fun part was swirling the caramel around the baking dish like a lava flow in perpetual motion until it cools and sets. The recipe called for 6 large eggs and 5 egg yolks (lucky I had also purchased eggs this morning) warmed milk and some vanilla extract which I clumsily tipped over rather zealously but managed to avoid overdose of the dish.
Julia recommends baking in a pan of boiling water in the lower third of the oven in a 350F oven for about an hour. Hour went past and the mixture was pretty runny .. hmm more time... after an additional hour of cooking I decided its now or never. Off to the freezer to cool down because I wanted to sample this before midnight!
The high anxiety moment of unmoulding worked (whew). One caramel custard ready for eating.. and it went down a treat - very smooth and light - no guilt at all.
Now what to do with that spinach...

Series 2: Part 5 Potage Parmentier & Gigot de pre-sale roti

"There is a sheep in the garden" - this descriptive comment from daughter was not a surprise, as this one elusive sheep was often led astray by the call of the garden's green luxuriant grass. Leaving the company of the flock this independent thinking black faced suffock is often seen strutting around the property doing its own thing. With husband Jamie being overseas it wouldn't have surprised me if the whole lot were on the front lawn as there always seems to be animal or other "events" that want to test my perseverance and survival skills when home alone with the children. This fortnight included the death of a chook ... with the burial being an event in itself with the ground being so hard to dig up; the cat bringing in a dead rat and delivering it right in front of my mother  who was staying the night to help out (sure it was a sign of thanks); the water tank needing changing from one tank to the other late at night which meant wiggling underneath the house to reset the pump which didn't go particularly smoothly. Each night I was comatosed in bed - which meant I didn't even realise there had been a fatal crash down the road in the middle of the night with road closures in place. So I had a little interlude from Julia (she would have understood)...


Easter weekend was upon us, and with "Sausages" as daughter Caroline now describes our free reign sheep, I was inspired to cook a nice roast lamb with a French twist from Julia.
 I coated the lamb (brought from the super) with a mixture of mustard, soy sauce, garlic, rosemary from the garden, ginger and olive oil, which causes the lamb to become a beautiful brown as it roasts. Hardly a challenging French recipe, so I added the addition of a leek and potato soup as the entrée as a dish I had not made before. Julia introduces this recipe with...
 "Leek and potato soup smells good, tastes good, and is simplicity itself to make".
Its hard to go past an introduction like that! OK it didn't make the challenging criteria but the soup went down nicely with some freshly baked rolls I whipped up (a true trusted recipe from back in the 80's).
Being in the spirit of Easter the meal was completed with a divine chocolate brownie - thanks Jill.
And "Sausages" remains safe for another month or two!

Jill with Easter Bunny (Caroline)

Imke - preparing the potage paramentier

Michael - official carver

Series 2: Part 4 Salade Nicoise

Balmy summer evenings extending into March called for some fare that was light but tasty. Julia's rendition of Salade Nicoise - a Mediterranean Combination Salad from Nice - seemed ideal being both "nourishing and beautiful".
 In the 20 odd minutes that Julia has to instruct us on how to create the most famous of the composed salads, viewers are treated with video clips of Julia browsing the Nice market places. Hands are dipped into buckets of capers, olives, and whole salted anchovy's. Back in the kitchen Julia assembles the key ingredients for the salade - lettuce, blanched beans, tomatoes, potatoes, tuna, hard boiled eggs, anchovy, green herbs and of course the French dressing.
The lettuce is the first to arrange on the platter, with Julia taking the opportunity to show case some of latest lettuce drying devices. This is absolutely hilarious with the last item trumping the rest. This lettuce drier is unique in that you create the centrifugal force by pulling on a rope like you were starting a lawnmower. And according to Julia this Swiss design was created by "little old ladies in white tennis shoes" (go figure that statement!) Once you have your lettuce in place it is just the matter of arranging it all on the platter.
Tonight we had a shared dinner with our neighbours who supplied some delicious home made sausages. This worked beautifully with the Salade Nicoise. Of course we took the opportunity together to watch Julia's show "Stuffing a sausage" as our evening entertainment.... and review the episode Salade Nicose where my presenting salad was found to be as composed as Julia's! And as it was yet another beautiful balmy evening we set up our theatre outside and watched Julia underneath the stars.

Series 2: Part 3 Bouillabaisse

In keeping with the Oceania theme after completing another swimming challenge in the Pacific Ocean with my swimming buddy Anne, it seemed appropriate to have a dinner focused on the bounty one can acquire from such an environment. I was hoping for a less dramatic ending for the meal than the ending of my swim, where in my eagerness to cross the finish line to carve off a couple of seconds I did a dramatic dash and promptly tripped on the mat and face planted! Lucky for me I wasn't in first position coming out of the water (fat chance) so it was not witnessed by the entire swimming entourage.


In the French Chef television series one, Julia dedicates two episodes to fish. The "whole fish story" episode provided the fish fundamentals. It was difficult to concentrate on the content as I couldn't stop being distracted by the numerous alliterations that Julia used with the word fish and I was too busy enjoying and having a chuckle that I had to do a few rewinds of the DVD.... "French are fond of fresh fish, "Flat fish family" "Flexible fish knife" "Fabulous fish professor" "Fish frame" ... with Julia even admitting that "everything you do with fish seems to start with a "f". They were tips not only how to prepare, gut and cook your fish  but also how to eat it. A highlight of the show was the inclusion of a video of a French Poisson professor - she knew her fish and skill-fully whipped her knife around whilst handling the fish with a delicate and respectful manner. She demonstrated "fixing fish" which included wrapping the boned fillets of a fish around its still attached fish head so it resembled a rams head with curled horns. Another dramatic display was threading the fillets back through the fish open mouth!
With a knowledge of the fish fundamentals  I decided to cook the Bouillabaisse for the meal.
Bouillabaisse originated as a simple, Mediterranean fisherman's soup made from the catch of the day and flavoured with the typical condiments of the region - olive oil, garlic, leeks, onions, tomatoes and herbs.
First you make the aromatic broth - boiling the soup ingredients for about 40 minutes. For the fish addition for the broth I used  x2 snapper heads. Once the soup has been strained it was time to cook the fish. Julia recommends you should pick six or more varieties of fresh fish. There was only 3 of us eating so I reduced the fish variety to whole Tarakihi, deep sea cod pieces and mussels. Once we had gutted the Tarakihi and cleaned the mussels they all went into the boiling broth. Once cooked, the fish was removed to a platter and the broth served in a tureen which was lined with croutes - and after the obligatory pose for the camera... it was served and eaten immediately.
There was an unanimous decision that this was a fabulous flavoursome fish feast, fit for felicitation.

Gutting

Snapper heads

Caroline and Anne

Series 2: Part 2 - Bread of Life

The Potato Show was the title for the first episode from Julia's television series - "The French Chef 1". Apparently the potato only became fashionable around 1771 and was referred to thereafter as the "bread of life".  Julia found over 200 hundred French recipes for the potato but limited the 1/2 hour TV session to four recipes. These consisted of a combination of scalloped and grated potato dishes.


I choose to cook the "Crepes de pommes de terre" -  grated potato pancakes. Eldest daughter Caroline approved of this as it ticked the potato and pancake box.
4 oz of cream cheese was required to be mixed with one egg with the grated potato at the ready. You had to move smartly as Julia warned that potatoes brown quickly and that would cause "bad psychology for the cook" and I definitely did not want that!


Once you had grated the potato you had to squeeze the living daylights out of them to remove the water. This was referred to as the "amusing part" and I carefully followed Julia's food hygiene requirements of using a clean towel for this part as "not to offend anyone". Once squeezed and mixed with the other ingredients it was simply just the task to pan fry. After watching Julia attempt a few flips with "the courage of her convictions" and losing some of the potato across the kitchen I decided a relaxed non-adrenalin infused turn over with a simple fish slice would do the trick.


The potato pancake went down nicely as an accompaniment to the steak and salad we had for dinner that night... and it got the tick of approval from one of the most discerning food critics (and you thought Michelin rating was difficult!)

Approval from the food critic

Grating

Squeezing

Pan frying

 

Series Two - part one: Madeleines

As the summer holidays end and it is back to the normal routine of work, school, homework, so starts up the continuation of the French culinary cooking challenges. At the end of last year I splashed out on a series of DVDs of Julia Child "The French Chef" - as well as "The way to cook". This is over 1000 minutes of viewing time! I am expecting these to not only be informative but delightfully entertaining, with Julia' typical bloopers and down to earth wit.




The three day long weekend to celebrate Waitangi day seemed a good time to get back into cooking. However my DVDs have not yet been unwrapped and although I had thought I would recommence cooking this week I haven't prepared myself in anyway. However I did have a back up plan. At a recent shopping expedition I managed to secure a Madeleine pan half price. However to my dismay Julia had not included a recipe in her repertoire. Not too worry, I had my French patisserie book - however it required honey (damn), lemons (damn) and ground almond (damn)... plan C - Madeleine pan had recipe included... all ingredients readily available (although I had to shake the last drop of vanilla essence out the bottle). They are relatively easy to make but the mixture does require some resting in the refrigerator before cooking.






Madeleines have been described as a little romantic French cake, and are unique with their delicate shell shape. They are moist due to the "beurre noisette" - butter melted and cooked until nut brown.

Family were busy preparing for outdoor activities and although not quite the romantic ambiance one would get from sitting in a café in Paris - I attempted to capture some sort of refinement by placing a few on a bone china plate which family could enjoy on the go... and the left overs ideal for the school lunches tomorrow.

In two straight lines...

Week 21: Caneton aux peches & Crepes Suzette

The start of a New Year and the opportunity to throw in a few more culinary challenges. Although I did begin the New Year with a different  type of challenge - open water swimming. Similar to cooking, I am not a natural, throw myself in the deep end, surround myself with able people to strengthen the feeling of inadequacy and keep going. This open swim was conducted in the beautiful Lake Taupo - although at the time I was too focused on keeping alive then appreciating the wonderful landscape I was in. On reaching the shoreline my fellow participants were long ago dressed and ready for prize- giving, although my faithful family and a few staff members cheered me across.  Now safe from the deluge of swimmers a group of ducks were also there to greet me .... hmm what wonderful inspiration for my next Julia dish.


I love the taste of duck and Julia did provide a range of variations of Caneton Roti. However I found the recipes rather confusing with a number of  cross references which meant I was flicking back and forth in my book all over the place. I choose Roast Duck with peaches over the cheeries and orange sauce, mainly due to the shorter length of instructions to navigate through. I felt slightly guilty that I sourced tinned peach halves from Spain being surrounded by fresh fruit living in the Hawke's Bay - but they were perfect looking specimens and were right there in the specialist food shops when we were getting the duck. In preparation for cooking, the duck was seasoned, with thyme being the chosen herb, and I conducted some simple trussing to keep everything all tucked in and neat. Close to serving time I engaged the assistance of husband Jamie to assist with the sauce whilst I arranged the peaches and presented the duck. Julia states that the French taste for duck is roasted to a medium rare. Overcooked duck meat is brown, dry and disappointing! I am pleased to report that although more medium than rare, the duck was lovely and succulent and did not disappoint.


The preparing of the Crepes Suzette was another team activity. I had made the batter in advance for the crepe sucree - a more delicate crepe  and also the orange butter was ready to go. The orange butter consisted of orange peel, butter orange juice, orange liqueur and sugar. I don't know if Julia was rather tipsy on writing up this recipe as there was way too much orange butter. Anyway we had crepe team on hand with Jamie being the crepe maker, Mum specialising in the crepe folding, dunking the crepe in the melted orange butter and arranging on the chafing dish.  I performed the easiest job of preparing the orange liqueur and brandy and taking the photo of that impressive time when you set your food on fire! The adults enjoyed the crepes but daughters found the taste too intensive with a report of "you have ruined the pancakes". Note to self ...will add to the challenge of navigating rough seas, overcoming overdoses of salt water oral hydration and possible shark attacks with making desserts that daughters enjoy!

Into the challenge

The duck that did not disappoint

Expert crepe folder in action

Voila!

The scene of inspiration

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