oignon confit

Le confit d'oignon est employé avec des gras de fois, agneau, canard ou juste seule comme spead sur le pain avec l'apèratif. J'emploie également ceci comme base en quiche d'oignon avec le gruyère.

La fonte 4 cuillers à soupe chaque huile et beurre d'olive dans le skillet et ajoutent 3 grands oignons coupés en tranches. Arrosez légèrement avec du sel et le sucre. Placez ou 1 feuille de laurier ou quelques feuilles emiettées de thym au-dessus des tranches puis ajoutent 3 oignons et sels coupés en tranches plus grands de répétition, sucre et herbes.

L'endroit sur un bas au feu moyen et remuent occassionally, ne veillant jamais à roussir, jusqu'à ce que profondément et caramalized. Finissez avec une éclaboussure du vinaigre ou du vin blanc pour l'oignon blanc, vin rouge pour les oignons rouges. Feuilles enlevées de compartiment si utilisé. Couverture et congé à adoucir avant l'emploi. Gardera plusieurs semaines si resté calme.

* * *

Onion confit is used with fois gras, lamb, duck or just on its own as a spead on bread with apèratif. I also use this as a base in onion quiche with gruyere.

Melt 4 tablespoons each olive oil and butter in skillet and add 3 large sliced onions. Sprinkle lightly with salt and sugar. Place either 1 bay leaf or a few crumbled leaves of thyme over slices then add 3 more large sliced onions and repeat salt, sugar and herbs.

Place on a low to medium fire and stir occassionally, making sure never to scorch, until thick and caramalized. Finish with a splash of vinegar or white wine for white onion, red wine for red onions. Removed bay leaves if used. Cover and leave to mellow before use. Will keep several weeks if kept cool.

July/August Chow Magazine - verjus

I was interviewed by Ella Lawrence for an article on verjus in this month's Chow in the "Tactics" section, portions of which were previously published in MetroActive Online.

I was out looking at my grapes to see what kind of crop I'll have, and there will be plenty for another jug of verjus for myself--I may try several different recipes this Fall.

Pots de Crème au Chocolat

Using coffee as an ingredient is this month's Sugar High Friday originated by Jennifer and hosted this month by Ronald.

Here is my recipe for a sublime pots de crème. Enjoy.

12 oz semisweet chocolate
1 tablespoon very strong coffee
1/4 teaspoon grated orange zest or
1 tablespoon orange liqueur or juice
2 (or 3 if small) egg yolks
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Melt chocolate in top of bain marie. Stir in coffee and zest or liqueur or juice. Beat yolks with a fork and scrape chocolate mixture into the yolks gradually, stirring constantly. Add cream to top of bain marie and carefully stir in chocolate egg mixture. Stir constantly while cooking until thick over hot water. Pour immediately into small serving dishes.

Garnish with orange slices or strip of orange peel. Makes 4-6 small servings--a little goes a long way.

Lavender, Chili and Peach Iced Milk

This month's Paper Chef combines some unusual ingredients: dried chillies, peaches, edible flowers and a local ingredient. I used this recipe as a starting point to come up with an ice cream garnished with local blackberries picked along Lake Huron's shore.

Steep lavender flowers and one or more dried chili pods to your taste in 2 and 1/3 cups hot milk. Use a seive to remove the flowers and chili, and stir the hot milk into 2 large egg yolks in the top of a bain marie. Add 1/2 cup sugar and a pinch of salt. Simmer gently over boiling water, stirring constantly until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Stir quickly into 1/2 pureed fresh peaches and cool to the touch before processing in your ice cream machine.

Serve your iced milk with a few blackberries. Smooth and peachy creamy, cool with a bite of chili on the tip of the tongue and a whiff of lavender on the back of the throat--different and delicious.

Tea Over Ice

Strong tea can be used to plump dried fruit prior to cooking or baking. Pruneaux is made by plumping the prunes in a strong tea over night. This now fruit-flavored tea can be used as a drink over ice, as a base for sorbet, or even used to deglaze a pan to get all the flavor incorporated into a sauce. Fruit-flavored tea adds an indefinable ingredient--give it a try

Tea

Lady Taking Tea, Chardin

Tea and tea implements were available and used in the 18thC kitchen in France, and Canada later in the century.

Teapots were both rustic


Detail, The Fast Day Meal, Chardin


and refined


Detail, Lady Taking Tea, Chardin


and special tables were used from which to serve and store tea implements.


Detail, The Butler's Table (Office), Chardin


Street sellers sold tisanes, or herbal tea preparations/purgative mixtures, as tea was considered something you drank for your stomach's sake as opposed to your palate's pleasure earlier in the century.


The Tisane Seller, Françoise DuParc


Toward the end of the century, tea services


Tea Service, Jean Etienne Liotard


and traveling boxes began to appear for use in more affluent homes.


French 18thC traveling Tea Chest, Rau Antiques


Segolene has a wonderful series of posts on tea, both its past and present use, and the correct way to prepare it. Do use a translator, if necessary, to enjoy the information she has gathered.

Le Thé

La Preparation du Thé

Origine du thé

Le thé Matcha du Japon et le Raku

Le thé aux épices et la gloire du Darjeling

La course du thé et les thés parfumés

Le thé vert

Sélection de thés selon les moments de la journée

Nougat Blanc

"One of the most commonly believed, and nicest stories, is that the name nougat evolved from France where an elderly lady combined almonds, egg whites, honey and sugar as a treat for local children. As the first nougat maker the children began to call her Tante Manon, tu nous gates (meaning Aunt Manon, you spoil us) and hence the word nougat is said to have first originated from this name. While the French believe nougat first originated in 1650 when the almond tree was introduced to the Montelimar area it is probable that nougat has been around far longer although carrying a different name. It seems nougat has been around for more than 500 years in the Middle East and probably paralleled the development of marzipan and other delicious desserts. Even before the birth of Christ the Greeks were praising the gastronomic value of a mixture made with almonds and honey".

Nougat Blanc:
3 c. sugar
1-3/4 c. honey
1 c. water
2 egg whites
1 tsp. brandy in which a vanilla bean has been infused
2 c. nutmeats (broken and toasted, if preferred)

Put the sugar, honey, and water together and cook until a hard crack ball will form when dropped in cold water. Beat the egg whites until stiff and pour the hot syrup slowly into them, beating constantly until the mixture grows too stiff to beat. Then fold in the brandy and nut meats. Mix well and pour onto a marble slab. When it is cool, cut in squares or rectangles. (If you do not have a marble slab, pour nougat onto pain azyme (rice paper or wafer paper) and place another sheet on top and weight with a board until cool.)

Depending upon the flavor of honey and type and shape of nuts (broken, toasted, ground) used, each batch of nougat will taste differently. Nougat is a traditional sweet eaten at holiday times.

Confiture - Bachelor's Jam

Looking forward to Winter evenings' desserts and after dinner coffee, prepare now by making a confiture of summer fruits otherwise known as "bachelor's jam."

Layer fruits with their weight in sugar into a sealable jar and pour 40 proof (or more) alcohol over the fruit. Marc, eau de vie, armagnac, kirsch are all good alcohols to use. You can continue to add fruits and sugar, but always make sure the alcohol covers all. Seal the jar and set in a dark, cool place; shaking the jar occasionally to help dissolve the sugar.

The melange of fruits and their resulting liqueur can be used over iced creams or custards, or just served in a glass with after dinner coffee.

Utensibility

Kitchens can be a bête noir or a paradise, depending upon one’s stock of kitchen utensils—those implements that go beyond a mixing bowl, a frying pan and a butcher knife. Sam asked for a recommendation for an item she “cannot do without.” My immediate response was I couldn’t be without my food processor, more commonly known as a mortar and pestle. With my lovely marble mortar, I can pound garlic for aioli or grind herbs and spices to add just the right nuance to my latest sauce.

Radishes

Radishes, if harvested regularly, do not take on that pithy, extra hot texture and taste. For a fresh, country taste slice radishes over a slather of butter on crusty bread and sprinkle on a pinch of salt. A great taste for a snack or picnic treat.

the cooks next door

A visitor from New Orleans stopped by the other day and asked me some questions about my cooking references. He was preceded by a neighbor who also had questions about when I learned to like working in the kitchen.

Msr. Danno had these questions for me:

Number of Cookbooks I've owned: I can count 123 on the shelves in the common room and I have several by the bed. But that doesn’t count several books that fell overboard the canoe on the trip across the lake.

Last book that I bought: La Varenne's The French Cook, Englished in 1653

Last (Food) book I read: The History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat
Cookbooks: Paris Sweets, Dorie Greenspan

Five Cookbooks that mean a lot to me: La Cuisine, Raymond Olivier
Savoring the Past:the French Kitchen Table from 1300-1769, Barbara Ketcham-Wheaton
Nouvelle instruction pour les confitures, les liqueurs et les fruits. de Massialot
Varenne's The French Cook, Englished in 1653
La Techinque, Jacques Pepin

Previously Msr. Chefdoc had these questions for me.

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own? When I was six, I got caught in the pantry eating chocolat tablets—ma mère taught me to bake biscuits that very day.

Who had the most influence on your cooking? Peering into the pots and pans of LaVarenne and Massialot via their livres de cuisine.

Do you have an old photo as "evidence" of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it? Yes, a very old picture of my cuisiniere.


my first cuisiniere

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat? With good instructions or a mentor, there is nothing I am afraid to try cooking.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown? I couldn’t live without my mortar and pestle—such a wonderful food processor. My biggest letdown was a bundle of sticks tied and used to whip—it didn’t work well.

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else does! Bleu fromages and fruit.

Your favorite ice-cream... Citron Crème Glacé

You will probably never eat... Pork or shellfish

Your own signature dish... Paté de Campagne

Added by Chefdoc of A Perfect Pear... Any signs that this passion is going slightly over the edge and may need intervention? My husband thinks so at times, but I’m sure he’s mistaken!

Canadian Wild Grapes - an Ode

 

Ode: a lyric poem usually marked by exaltation of feeling and style—and sweetly did the Vikings of yore, brave boatmen of Leif the Lucky, son of Eric the Red, sing as they discovered the wild grapes (Vitis riparia) near L’Anse aux Meadows, Northern Newfoundland. Grapes meant wine, a heady beverage to quaff after a hard day’s rowing and a necessity for a new land to become civilized. Vitis riparia can still be found growing along the rivers of Nouvelle France, from Upper Canada, the Pays Illinois and down into Louisiane, and today makes a foxy wine and great jams.

Glaze a roast with jam prior to putting on the spit. Use the wine to deglaze a pan to capture all those tantalizing juices for your sauces or as a refreshing hearty taste with artisanal cheese at the end of your meal. Grapes can be dried and later used by soaking in spirits to liven up great breads and sweets. Enjoy with me some of the oldest tastes of Canada.

Fromage: Pied-de-Vent

If you like Brie, you will like this cheese. As Derrick expressed, “ I'm always fascinated to read about these lesser-known breeds, especially when I hear they're making a comeback.” And I would like to encourage you to support this brand of cheese, Pied-deVent, which comes only from the Vache Canadienne.

Fraise et la Rhubarbe

Blog Appetit! de ce mois appels pour les fraises et la rhubarbe.
Tandis que j'ai un bon nombre de rhubarbe accroître dans le jardin, les fraisiers communs sont tardifs cette année, avec seulement des fleurs, mais aucun fruit réglé encore.

Pour véritable un dessert de printemps, la crème de vanille de couche dans un verre de parfait avec la rhubarbe cuite et de culis de fraise. Dans ce cas-ci j'ai employé le dernier petit pot de conserves de fraise de la moisson de l'année dernière.

* * * * *

This month’s blog appetit! calls for strawberries and rhubarb. While I have lots of rhubarb growing in the garden, the wild strawberries are late this year, with only blossoms, but no fruit set yet.

For a truly Springtime dessert, layer vanilla custard in a parfait glass with stewed rhubarb and strawberry culis. In this case I’ve used the last little pot of strawberry preserves from last year’s harvest.

Buttermilk & Honey Sorbet with Date Crunch Topping

Buttermilk, honey, dates (medjul) and eggs are this month's Paper Chef competition. Unfortunately my illustration apparatus (digital camera) is on the fritz and I can only describe my entry.

I made a buttermilk and honey sorbet using this recipe from a friend named epicurious.

Just before the sorbet had finished curing in my ice cream machine, I beat an egg to a froth and put in a cup of kasha or buckwheat grains and dry-fried them in a hot dry skillet stirring the grain until it began to pop open. Then I poured on some boiling water and a pinch of salt, covered the skillet and set it at the back of the fire to cook and fluff the buckwheat. When the buckwheat was cooked and still crunchy, I mixed some with cut dates for a crunchy topping for my sorbet. The buckwheat adds an interesting crunch and flavor with the sometimes too-sweet taste of the dates but compliments the unique flavors of buttermilk and honey in the sorbet.