Grandma's Kitchen Table

Weekend in a French Kitchen (Mimi Thorisson): Red Berry Barquettes

       This is our fourth recipe for the Sunday cooking group Weekend in a French Kitchen cooking from Mimi Thorisson's A Kitchen in France:  A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse, Red Berry Barquettes, found on page 132.

       The ingredient list:  flour, sugar, salt, egg yolks, butter, cranberry jelly, water, and red summer berries. 

       A few years back I was blogging in a group that was working on baking through Nick Malgieri's Modern Baker cookbook, the leader of the group decided that we were going to do the recipes in order as they appeared in the book.  I wasn't too keen on that idea at the time as it meant I had a whole lot of tarts all in a row week after week, both savory and sweet.  The result was that I learned to make tarts quickly and efficiently and with great confidence.  When we completed those sections, I have to say, I felt like I could make a fairly good tart at a moment's notice.  Making them over and over like that gives you a real feel for dough and sizing. 

       I have about every size tart pan you can imagine (the good French ones) but I do not have any barquette pan molds (click here) and I didn't realize until now that I was ever going to want some, but want some, I do.  I'm trying to resist ordering them special just because to be honest, how often am I really going to use barquette molds?  On the other hand, if I have them, then I would think of ways to use them, right?  You can see the massive justification that accompanies my decisions on baking pans (and why I have a whole linen closet full of them).  So I made these little tarts in small individual 4" tart pans as that is the size that works for the guys feeling they have had a decent portion of dessert, anything smaller and they feel they need two or more of them. 

       The recipe is simple, make the dough, bake the little tarts, paint the inside of the tarts with a thinned out version of jelly, place in the fruit, and glaze them with some more of the thinned jelly.  Oh, and if you are at our house, the requisite whipped cream on top, what can I say, the guys like what they like.  Delicious.  Definitely worthy of a repeat.  

       If you would like to see how the others fared, click here and follow the links.  Next week's recipe is Almond Gazpacho, page 85.

Weekend in a French Kitchen (Mimi Thorisson): Cherry Clafoutis

        This is our third recipe for the Sunday cooking group Weekend in a French Kitchen cooking from Mimi Thorisson's A Kitchen in France:  A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse, Cherry Clafoutis, found on page 135. Mimi also has the recipe posted online here.

       The ingredient list:  butter, fresh cherries, flour, sugar, salt, vanilla bean, milk, eggs, orange flower water, and confectioner's sugar. 

       So, clafoutis-making might not be my thing.  I have made them before and they turned out just okay.  I made this one and it was completely strange, all bumpy in all the wrong places, not the cherries, which are supposed to be bumpy, but the batter was all risen on one side and not the other so I'm guessing my mixing technique was a bit distracted that morning.  Hmmm.  I gave Peggy a quick text and she sent me a photo of hers, which was beautiful, so I knew it had to be operator error on my part with this recipe.  Back to the baking counter.  The second time around was much better and turned out just fine.  Can't imagine what I did with that first one but there you have it, the old adage, "if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again..." 

        It all tasted fine, I'm not the biggest clafoutis fan in general, but Mark liked it and it was better the second day, the flavors had settled nicely.  I liked using the fresh deepest dark red Michigan cherries (they look purple in the photos) from my CSA basket so it was good I had those for both attempts.  Would I make this again?  Maybe not, more of a personal taste than anything, not the recipe itself. It was enjoyed by those who ate it and I enjoyed finding out about orange flower water, something I had not used before now. Oh, and I did pit the cherries...I cook for guys and they aren't going to be fond of cherry pits in desserts, so I went with personal preference on this one.  

       If you would like to see how the others fared, click here and follow the links.  Next week's recipe is Red Berry Barquettes, page 132.

Weekend in a French Kitchen (Mimi Thorisson): Langoustines with Armagnac

       This is our second recipe for the Sunday cooking group Weekend in a French Kitchen cooking from Mimi Thorisson's A Kitchen in France:  A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse, Langoustines with Armagnac, found on page 110.

       The ingredient list:  langoustines (or jumbo shrimp, preferably with the head on...I used shrimp without heads because, well this is Indiana and I am not able to get those here without special order and didn't feel strongly enough about it all to special order them to be flown in), extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, shallots, fresh thyme, dry white wine, and Armagnac. 

       Shrimp is a popular choice here at the house, everyone here loves shrimp.  I cook for guys, one husband always and two grown sons frequently, so I knew that leaving heads on the shrimp would not be a popular call.  One adjusts certain things for certain diners. 

       This is a remarkably quick and easy dinner as it has just a few ingredients and takes just a short amount of time to pull it all together.  We enjoyed the taste of the sauce for the shrimp, definitely worthy of repeating. 

       Quick note:  We could not get the Armagnac to ignite with such a small amount of it, so that didn't happen.  I made half a recipe so it could be that in halving the recipe I jeopardized the ability of the lesser amount of Armagnac to ignite.  In the past I have found this to be true at different times.  If anyone has a special foolproof way to insure that it ignites, please share!  

       If you would like to see how the others fared, click here and follow the links.  Next week's recipe is Cherry Clafoutis, page 135.

Weekend in a French Kitchen (Mimi Thorisson): Tomato Salad with Parsley and Shallots

       This weekend begins a new adventure.  The Three French Hens and The Chickadee have put together a new cooking adventure called Weekend in a French Kitchen.  French food.  Cooking from not one but two books each week.  It reminded me of my old Whisk Wednesdays group when we tackled Le Cordon Bleu French recipes each week for a couple of years...I miss those days and cooking with my Whisk Chicks pals. 

       I didn't have a lot of time to think about this new group since I just discovered it all on Thursday (thanks to my blogging friend Gaye who has cooked/baked with me in about a half dozen groups) and since the first post for the group was due on Sunday I had to act fast, signing up, finding the two books, making it all, and posting.  I managed to get all that done in time.  You can read all about the group here and meet the other participants.  (You can also join up there if you are so inclined.)  The books we are cooking from are:  Cafe Boulud Cookbook by Daniel Boulud and Dorie Greenspan (these posts will be on Saturdays) and A Kitchen in France:  A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse by Mimi Thorisson (these posts will be on Sundays).  

       The first recipe from the A Kitchen in France book is Tomato Salad with Parsley and Shallots and is found on page 89. 

       The ingredient list:  shallots, Dijon, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, heirloom tomatoes, and fresh parsley leaves. 

       This recipe came at a great time as here in Indiana we are getting the first of the ripe tomatoes and this nice yellow heirloom showed up in my CSA basket this week perfectly ripe and juicy so I knew this would be the perfect place to park it.  I loved the look of it all with the white/purple shallots and the green parsley, it makes for a stunning presentation.  The recipe was simple, easy, delicious, you can't go wrong with that, definitely will use this a great deal this summer during tomato season. 

       If you would like to see how the others fared, click here and follow the links.  Next week's recipe is Langoustines with Armagnac, page 110.