Salad of Hericots Verts, Tomato Tartare, and Chive Oil

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Kelli

This is my first successful project out of French Laundry.

At the beginning of the book, Keller discusses the law of diminishing returns.  You take a bite of a dish, and it’s fabulous.  Second bite, still good.  But by the time you are at your 20th bite, the dish may still be every bit as delicious, but you don’t notice anymore.  Diminishing returns.

This is why at French Laundry, there are so many small courses.  So your palate is continuously delighted.

This of course means that the recipes in the French Laundry Cookbook are meant to be served in this fashion.  Not realistic for an every day dinner, but fine to make a special appetizer.  OR I could have quadrupled this and it would have been a legitimate side.

I digress.

Fist step.  Make your tomato confit.  Check.

Next, make Chive Oil.  (puree chives in oil, let it steep, then strain.)

Then make the tartare with the confit, some balsamic, some shallot chopped up.

Cut some beans in one inch segments and boil for a couple minutes and then shock in an ice bath.

These will be mixed with some whipped heavy whipping cream mixed with red wine vinegar.

Take a three inch ring… approx (I used a biscuit cutter) and make a circle around the outside with the chive oil.  Carefully spread the tartare around the bottom.

Remove the ring and heap some of the beans on top.

Top with some endive mixed with a light vinegar and salt and pepper.

Like a fancy hat!

It does have a lot of steps, but nearly everything can be done in advance.

Let me tell you, I could have eaten about eight of these lovely delights.  They were truly tasty.  I’m quite certain the best green bean dish I’ve ever had.  Though I probably won’t be bringing it to Thanksgiving.

Posted in Appetizer, Kitchen Diaries, Salad, Vegetable | 2 Comments

Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Kelli

For Mark’s Birthday this coming weekend I am going to make an almond cake with a strawberry rhubarb compote.

In an effort to stay ahead when I can, I’m making the compote now.  It can sit in the fridge for a while and do just fine.

I’ve never worked with rhubarb before.  I had no idea how much like celery it was.  I hope I’m peeling this correctly…

Basically rhubarb and Strawberries in a pot with a bit of lemon zest.

Dump in the granulated sugar…

This just simmers until some of the liquid is evaporated and the rhubarb is soft.

Of course I don’t have a good picture of the final product… but I WILL when I have my cake (and eat it too)

Posted in Breakfast, dessert, Kitchen Diaries | 1 Comment

Tomato Confit

Posted on May 26, 2012 by Kelli

Once again, in an effort to be prepared, I’m making some tomato confit.  I have spied a few things that I want to try that call for tomato confit, so I figure I might as well get on the ball and get it ready.

I bought strawberry tomatoes at the market because they said not to bother with the plum tomatoes.  (When I asked how they were, I actually saw a scrunchy nose.  Not a good sign.)

I actually couldn’t believe how quickly the peels fell off after a quick blanch and an ice bath.

Here they are all lovely, peeled and drizzled with oil, topped with thyme, and ready to go in the oven.

These baked at about 250 for around two hours before coming out like this:

Next step, pop one in my mouth, one in the jar.  One in my mouth, one in the jar.  Oops… nearly forgot I actually am going to need these.

These have AMAZING flavor. I would be tempted just to use them on pasta or a lightly toasted piece of bread…  Next time.

I can tell you what I am going to do with the abundance of tomatoes I hope to have in my garden this year…

Fingers Crossed…

This recipe is out of The French Laundry Cookbook.

Posted in Kitchen Diaries, Staple, Vegetable | 3 Comments

Potato Gratin

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Kelli

Gratin de Pommes de Terre

I love a tasty potato.  Since we were already having steak, what could be better than a scallop potato?

The best part is I already had all of the ingredients.  It’s like left overs kicked up a notch.

Was that cream?  Yes Sirree!  Why do you think it’s so good?

This was the only annoying part of this recipe.  You know how I dislike making sachets.  You can imagine how I felt about Boquet Garni…  that is like a sachet tied inside a leek.

It really isn’t too much of a pain, but seems a bit fussy for such a family style dish.

What can not be denied is the flavor, which was outstanding.  After the potatoes are simmered and tender in the cream, they are removed and layered with a bit of garlic and thyme.  What could be wrong with that?

Top with some bread crumbs and a bit of parmesan.

Bake for about a half hour, then turn on the broiler for a few minutes.

Oh yeah.

Spoon onto your plate and be glad that you are a meat and potatoes kind of person.

I’ll make this again.  Stuffy leek wrap and all.

This recipe is from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon cookbook.

Posted in Kitchen Diaries, Side Dish | Leave a comment

Steak with Caramelized Shallot and Red Wine Jus

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Kelli

Ready for a carnivorous delight?

These are a couple of flat iron steaks (untrimmed) The actual recipe called for skirt, but I got confused.  Decided to go ahead with it anyway.

Brown some butter in a pan.  Add a little oil.

I think Browned Butter might be the secret to the universe.

Brown the steaks on both sides for about 4 minutes.

Hello Mama.

After the eight minutes, move the steaks to a plate and caramelize your shallots.

When done, put the shallots on top of the steak, return to the pan, and pop in the oven for to finish cooking the steaks.  The recipe said five minutes but I did ten.  They seemed a little to squishy for me after five.

Take out and plate with a little watercress salad with a light vinaigrette.

Last thing- add your Red Wine Jus to top it off.  Just a couple of golden tablespoons.

Yes Please.

I ask you- how much would you pay for this in a restaurant?

I am fairly certain that I have never made a steak so perfectly cooked.  It was a miracle.  I blame it on the brown butter.

Ahh… it feels good to be a carnivore.

Recipe from Bouchon Cookbook.

Posted in Kitchen Diaries, Main | Leave a comment

Red Wine Jus

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Kelli

For dinner I made a delicious steak with this Red Wine Jus from the Bouchon Cookbook.

This is one of those sauces that simmers a long time, takes in all flavors of the vegetables and ends up simply fabulous.  Though may be it is the wine- or the veal stock.  Not sure.

First, take this lovely array of vegetables and put them in a pot.

Take a swig from the bottle, and dump the rest of the red wine in the pot.

Get your simmer on which gives you time to find a new bottle of wine for drinking.

After it’s simmered for about an hour, add some veal stock.  I did not make the veal stock because they had it at BB Ranch, so elected to take the easy way out.  Can’t make beef stock and veal stock in the same week.  Too much.

This simmers for a half hour and then is strained.

This, unlike the beef stock, smells fabulous.  It also tastes great.  Mind you, the Steak recipe I have calls for two tablespoons per steak.  I have enough of this Jus to get me through about 25 steaks.  Good thing it freezes well.

You have me over for dinner, I’ll bring the Jus.

Looks like chocolate.  Yum.

Full recipe can be found here.

Posted in Kitchen Diaries | 1 Comment

Beef Stock

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Kelli

If there is one thing I’ve learned in these first couple weeks of making Thomas Keller recipes- if you want to be able to make a variety of dishes when you want to eat them… be prepared.  Have his staples ready or any dish is going to feel overwhelming.

Garlic Confit… check.

Next up… Beef Broth.

We like BB Ranch at Pike Place because they seem to have everything and I don’t have to worry about eating unhappy animals.  (how humane of me)  In true form, they had some lovely pieces of Femur.

The sound of the saw in the back room as they chopped it up was very chainsaw massacre.

So, take those bones home and roast them in the oven for about an hour or so until they are nice and brown.

When they come out of the oven, take half a charred onion and enough water to cover the bones and start the simmer… for five hours.

Meanwhile, roast these lovely vegetables to add to the stock later.

About 45 minutes, they’ll be nice and caramelized like this…

At this point, you might be thinking that my house smells like lovely stew.  Like coming home when the crock pot has been on all day… nothing could be further from the truth.

In actuality, it smells like my face is in a heard of wet dog.  I’m not clear as to why it smells as bad as it does- but it is truly stinky.  Mark said it’s the smell of carcass.

After five hours, those veggies get added to the stink pot

These simmer for another hour before everything is strained and I end up with this:

Hopefully this will turn into lots of things that aren’t stinky.  I already have my eye on french onion soup.

This particular stock was out of the Bouchon Cookbook, but I’m fairly certain that all of his books have the same one (or quite close)

 

Posted in Kitchen Diaries, Staple | Leave a comment

Spring Vegetable Garbure

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Kelli

My brother-in-law says that no food is not picnic food.  I tend to agree.  Obviously, there are some exceptions to this rule- but the over arching idea is- just because you are outside, doesn’t mean you should eat something that isn’t delicious.  Makes perfect sense.

(I also believe that just because you are traveling, doesn’t mean you should dress crummy.)  But that is a different argument.

Tuesday nights in the summer, we picnic at Gas Works Park.  For the first picnic of the year, we started things off right.

We had a cheese course (semi failed, but still delicious) and I decided that since I didn’t know it was going to be 74 degrees, I would bring a spring soup- in case it got nippy… which I didn’t.  No bother…

Look at these delicious ingredients!

This has:

  • Carrots
  • Leeks
  • Onions
  • Potatoes
  • Asparagus
  • Fava Beans
  • Green Beans
  • Peas
  • Cabbage
  • Garbanzo Beans

Can’t you taste the wholesome goodness?

PLUS- this is the first time I’ve ever worked with fresh Fava Beans.   Who knew?

Now, this is where it gets dicy.  I stopped taking pictures because my camera died for a bit.  The broth was clear and lovely, the soup delicious, the veggies the brightest of bright greens.

Alas, when I put it in the thermos and transported it over three hours, it turned out looking more like split pea soup.  I had a feeling this would happen.

My clear and lovely broth was muddled and my lovely green vegetables look not so lovely.  BUT it was still delicious and that is most of what counts.

And, like I already said, no one cares when it is so lovely outside.

You might see a plate in the middle of the table.  That is the Thomas Keller Roast Chicken that Piper brought.  I don’t have enough space to tell you how good this chicken is.  Just that you need to make it.  Yesterday.

This was from Ad Hoc at Home.  The complete recipe can be found here.

I will make this again.  This time I might not pack it in a thermos.  PS- the leftovers got even more ugly.

Posted in Kitchen Diaries, soup | 1 Comment

Parmigiano-Reggiano Crisps with Goat Cheese Mousse

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Kelli
  1. Bake some cheese in a circle until it melts.
  2. Mold it into the shape of a cup so you can put more cheese in it.

Brilliant.  I mean honestly, why is this not a shape at our house?  The thought behind this is so marvelously simple, I thought this would be the perfect way to dive into The French Laundry Cookbook.

Just grate some parmesan cheese and form into circles.  I used a biscuit cutter to help me.

So far so good.  Bake for a bit until crisps are a rich golden brown.  (8-10 minutes)

Then lift them off the pan easily and place into clean egg carton to mold into cups.

Oh oh.  First one didn’t work.  Lets try again.

Damn.

This is truly tragic.  I think that I cooked it too long… may be didn’t use a cheese that was moist enough… may be didn’t use a large enough grate… not sure what went wrong.

At this point my Goat Cheese Mousse was done (just whip goat cheese, a bit of cream and some pepper and parsley in a food processor) so I had to come up with a solution.  It was still tasty.  The crispy parmesan flakes not bowls still served a salty crunchy purpose.

This is when you bring in the endive.

When in doubt, put something in endive and it looks amazing.

PS.  Did I tell you this was for a picnic?

On a beautiful day, with a glass of wine, if no one knew any better they never would have known this was a fail.

I’m going to try this again.  But next time when I grocery shop I’m going to come home with a couple heads of endive just in case.

Recipe and photo of what it is supposed to look like here.

Posted in Appetizer | 1 Comment

Red Potato and Green Bean Salad

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Kelli

All of you looking for a great side dish for the summer… look no further.

This salad has it all- your greens, your veggie, your potato… It can be prepared ahead of time, AND it is delicious.

This is out of Ad Hoc at Home.

First step- make the creamy pepper dressing.  IT IS WORTH IT.  Do it.  Might seem like a pain- but your taste buds will thank you.

Mark won’t stop talking about this dressing.

Crush some peppercorns.

pop them in a small pan with some Banyuls Vinegar.  (We found this at DeLaurenti) Could probably sub, but I plan on making a lot of this dressing- so it was worth the extra effort.

Add honey and reduce by half.

Next, whisk in your aoli  (which of course you previously made) with buttermilk and creme fraiche.

not sure why you need a creme fraiche visual… but I love it so much.

PS.  My Aioli did NOT turn out.  It never set up- but I figured that since I was using it for dressing… eh… no bother.

Combine all ingredients while vinegar is still warm and it will keep in your fridge for a week.

On to the vegetables.

Any one notice Tom is all about sachets?

For some reason I hate making these.  I find them to be fussy- so I usually skip this step and then curse myself later when I try to fish out all of the renegade peppercorns.

Put your sachet with your potatoes.

Cover with water and boil until tender.  Cool on a tray.

Take your lovely green beans and blanch them a couple minutes until crisp tender.

ICE BATH.  don’t skip this step.  Then drain on racks.

Don’t they look lovely?  At this point they can be mixed with some sliced shallot and the potatoes and they are good to go.

When you are ready to serve your salad, mix some of the dressing with some sliced bibb lettuce.

Why did I leave the paper towel in the bowl?  No matter.

Then mix dressing with the potato / bean mixture and layer with the lettuce.  Lettuce, beans, lettuce beans.

VOILA!!

I guarantee you will LOVE it.  I’m using this all summer.  Sometimes with no potatoes and just beans- may be with other spring veggies- possibilities are endless.

Posted in Salad, Side Dish, Vegetable | 1 Comment