Tapas at a French restaurant

Last night my friend K and I had the monthly tapas menu at my favorite restaurant, Le Cafe De Paris. Typically tapas are a Spanish thing, but in the US in the last few years, the term has simply come to mean small plates. LCDP has a tapas night on the first Thursday of every month, and we go more often than not. Last night's tapas menu was French-themed (to scramble your brain even more), and we enjoyed asparagus with orange bechamel, chicken cordon bleu on toasts, pate with dijon, mushroom cream soup (and I don't even like mushrooms! But I liked the soup... Must have been the cream), steak tartare, and frog legs. The frog legs were tasty, but we both agreed that it was probably the deep fried crunchy goodness on the outside that really enticed us. Oh, and how could I forget the truffled pomme frites (French fries)?! They were hands down amazing. Some of the best fries I've ever had. Dessert was comprised of chocolate bonbons filled with strawberry ice cream, and creme caramel (similar to down, but probably with more cream in it, which I believe we've established by now is a typically French move!). A smooth glass of wine (or two!), wonderful company, and a gracious hostess made our evening memorable. I love this place. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Apple-Blackberry Cake

A variation on one of Dorie Greenspan's recipes from her book Baking: From my Home to Yours. That book is chock full of great things! Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Silpat

Since when did French baking get all modern on us? When I think of someone baking at home in France (which they rarely do, thanks to the gazillion patisseries everywhere), I imagine them using parchment paper or just a metal cookie sheet, with lots of butter. Everything in France has lots of butter. But the French have come up with a fabulous nonstick rubber sheet called a Silpat mat. It is flexible, reusable, and expensive! I've been wanting one for several years, and thanks to a Williams-Sonoma gift card from my birthday, I finally got one! Thanks J! But not after first buying the wrong size Silpat in the store and then returning it, being given another gift card, and finally purchasing it on their website. No worries. It's finally here. Silpats are especially good for candy-making, so I'll be sure to share my future Silpat experiments with you! Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Healthifried Fish Cakes

First off, I totally stole that title from Katy.  It describes exactly what these salmon cakes are - deliciously fried in a healthy fat!  And they were gooood... and easy and quick.  In other words, dinner - now! The recipe below is my version... vague.

 
FANTASTIC FISH CAKES
1 can salmon, drained
some onion (I used green onion)
1 egg
Couple spoonfuls of coconut flour
S&P, other spices (a little powdered mustard, maybe?)
A large... maybe overflowing... spoonful of coconut oil

1) Mix the first 5 ingredients in a bowl.  Don't worry if nothing sticks together, it will!  Or you'll threaten with a fiery demise.  Oh wait...
2) Divide into fourths (i.e., kinda scootch about a fourth into separate corners of the bowl.  Do bowls have corners?)
3) Melt the coconut oil in a skillet (I llluuuuvvvv my cast iron!) over medium-high heat. When it's pretty hot, pat a fourth of the salmon into a little patty and gently lay it in the oil.  Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. No rinsing.
4) Let them cook undisturbed for... oh... umm..... 4 minutes? 5 minutes?  And then flip! Gently.  Flip gently. Let cook another 3 minutes or so.
5) Remove from pan and eat with salad. Crispy! Crunchy! Almost like fish & chips! Almost.

Eat well!
Ri

Gruyere Souffle

Last Christmas, my mom gave me a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine.  I love learning about food, and I love mail, so... win-win.  The latest issue's (April 2012) feature was on eggs, and there were at least 4 recipes starring eggs, if I remember correctly.  One of those was a "light, airy, and decadently cheesy" souffle that was calling my name.  Cheese?  Yes please.

Key ingredients, clockwise from left: Gruyere cheese, Parmesan cheese, eggs, and buttahhh....

An elemental step in making a souffle is whisking the egg whites.  Make sure your bowl is squeaky clean, and don't overbeat them.  You want a noticeable peak when you lift the beater out, but not a firm peak.

The other key step in making a souffle is creating a bechamel sauce as the base.  Whisk, whisk, whisk...

Add the flour and whisk some more!  There is a certain turning point when the heat and motion are just right, and a sauce suddenly thickens.  It's like magic.

Pour your nutmeg-scented bechamel into a bowl and press plastic wrap into the top.  This prevents a skin from forming.

Remember those eggs up above?  The yolks get slightly beaten (in a good way!) and stirred into the bechamel.  Then the whites get whipped (my, we have violent kitchens, don't we?) and gently folded into the sauce as well, to make everything airy and light.

Poured into buttered, Parmesan-dusted ramekins and ready for the oven after getting another sprinkle of cheese on top.  Nobody can have enough cheese.

Yes, they will fall.  It's the nature of a souffle.  But they aren't embarrassed and neither should you be - you just made a cheesy, delicious side (or breakfast, as the case may be.... ahem)!

I was disappointed that my souffles overflowed so much, but that was probably my own fault for over-filling the ramekins!  I also substituted a few of the ingredients.  This really was a great souffle recipe, and I think I will keep it around.  It should be good, considering it came from Michel Richard, of [enter some fancy restaurant in D.C.].  You can find the full recipe at Bon Appetit.

Healthy dinner fast!

Or, Breakfast for Dinner. Or, How to Use Freezer-Burned Bluberries in Something Delicious. Or, How to Show the World That You Don't Know How to Plate Food. I just needed some food, in my stomach, preferably 10 minutes ago, because I needed to leave the house, oh... 5 minutes ago! In the bowl, we have red chard sauteed in Bacon (yes, I always capitalize Bacon, because... well, don't you know it is the most important food in your fridge?), with 2 fried eggs on top (this should have been on the plate). Salty, savory, and warm. On the plate, we have romaine with a balsamic-blueberry dressing and walnuts (this should have been in the bowl). Sweet, cool, and crunchy. And whatever other adjective I can think of to describe how careful you need to be while eating this over a white countertop, still wearing your work clothes. Will someone please come up with a word for that? I need to repeat it to myself slowly, ten times, while I wipe the counter down between hasty bites. Ciao! Ri Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Out of season

Because this is what freezers are for! Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android