tomato_kumato

When it’s berry season back at home, all that means is that we buy more berries. They are cheaper; we buy more. That’s all.

Not so for apricot season in France.

Apricot season here means that there are apricots sold by the crateful on the side of the road.

Apricot season here means that there is an apricot festival. (Read all about it here, at my travel blog.) ALERT: Shameless pimping of my own blog.

Apricot season in this house means apricot jam, and tons of it. The kids have all rotated in and out of the atelier de cuisine, where Patricia has been teaching them how to make apricot jam. Each kid gets a small pot to take home, and the rest, we dutifully eat every morning.

And sometimes in the evening, atop bowls of fromage frais.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remind myself that it isn’t a dream. I live in France, and here, everyone loves food just as much as I do.

As we like to say around here, it’s super-chouette.

Patricia’s Confiture aux Abricots (adapted from Vitpris)

1.4 kg apricots
1.8 kg sugar
20 cl water
one packet (37.6 g) Vitpris*

*Vitpris is a fruit-pectin based product that helps make jam set properly. It basically cuts down cooking time. If you can get your hands on some, it’s great.

Wash the apricots. Take out the apricot pits. Cook the fruit slowly over low heat with the water, covered, stirring gently every once in awhile with a wooden spoon, until the fruit has broken down.

Mix two tablespoons of the sugar with the packet of Vitpris. Sprinkle this mixture over the fruit. Bring to a boil for three minutes, and the add the rest of the sugar. Bring the mixture back up to a boil and boil for three minutes. At the end of cooking time, remove the foam from the top with a skimming spoon.

To eat immediately, simply ladle into clean jars, cover them and turn them upside down until they cool.

I got Bill Granger’s coconut bread recipe care of Luisa at the Wednesday Chef, and I have to say, it’s incredible. I’ve had these photos lying around for a really long time… I kind of forgot to post about this, and now that it’s been so long, I don’t really remember the circumstances of it, except that this was amazing and the Canadian and I fought over the last little bit.

All I remember is that I subbed white sugar for superfine, and that I used the same shredded, unsweetened coconut that Luisa did. The way I made it, it’s not terribly coconutty… kind of in the way that zucchini bread doesn’t really taste like zucchini. In my opinion, the dominant taste was the cinnamon (that could be because I added a bit more than I was supposed to… I also added nutmeg and cloves, but I’m into improvising like that.) This would be a good bread to make even for someone who thinks they don’t really like coconut… the only problem being that you sometimes get a strand or two in the bread. I don’t really know where I’m going with this, so I’m going to stop. Coconut bread=good. End of story. Go make it.

Oh, also, if you’re feeling very, very bad, toast a slice of this bread and spread it with some really good, unsalted European butter. It’s divine.

I have a habit of undercooking baked goods. OK, scratch that. I have a habit of undercooking everything. I’ve undercooked steak. I’ve undercooked ahi tuna. That takes a lot of skill and dexterity.

I guess I’ve just always been fairly convinced that there is nothing worse than something that is burned or overcooked. A gray steak has absolutely no appeal, no matter how succulent the filet cut was to begin with. The actual application of heat is everything, and I’d rather pull out a quickbread that’s a little doughy in the center than one with a crumb like styrofoam and a crust like cardboard.

But not this time. No, sir. I just tried the Pumpkin Pound Cake over from Desert Culinary. (Sidebar: I love this blog. I just discovered it a while back, and I feel like I’ve been missing out. I’ve already made two recipes from it–the other will be up here soon–and I can’t wait to make more!)

The cake came out perfectly. After about thirty minutes, the house smelled just like pumpkin, and I desperately wanted to peek, but I just sat at my computer reading my other food blogs and waiting. And waiting. Until the dreaded fifty minutes were up and I peeked. I checked with a toothpick. And then, something unheard of. Without cutting into the cake, I put it back in the oven.

I know. It’s a milestone for me. But when the cake came out ten minutes later, after a total baking time of one hour, I knew it was worth it. The Canadian and I have been snacking on this cake all week, and it is divine. Sweet, but not too sweet, spicy, moist and delicious. And not in the least undercooked.

I made a few changes:

1. As you can tell from the pictures, I skipped the buttermilk glaze. I wasn’t using real buttermilk in the cake anyway (I soured my own milk with lemon), so it didn’t seem worth it. The cake didn’t suffer.

2. I used light brown sugar, because the box was opened. It had started to clump a bit, but try as I might, I couldn’t get some of the smaller clumps to… un-clump. But it actually worked to my advantage: see those little pockets of dark brown sweetness? There were several floating throughout the cake, and they were a welcome surprise. I may have to do it again on purpose next time.

3. I didn’t dry the pumpkin on paper towels first. I’m lazy. It didn’t matter much.

4. I subbed the spices listed for a four spice powder sold here in France made up of cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper and cloves. It’s easy. I’m lazy.

5. I used all all-purpose flour.

Today, I made doughnuts for the first time.

It was a learning experience.

When I lived in Massachusetts, one of our favorite things to do was to run to Smallack farms and get a box of apple cider doughnuts. They were dipped in cinnamon sugar, and they were just about the best things ever. And we didn’t even feel bad about eating them, because we figured that running to the farm and eating a box of doughnuts essentially cancelled each other out.

I wanted to participate in Peabody and Helene’s doughnut challenge, and I got very excited, because there is a market near my house that is only opened on Wednesdays and Sundays, and they sell amazing apple cider. I actually even had a recipe for cider doughnuts from Peabody’s archive that I had been wanting to try for awhile. In my eyes, the planets had aligned, so I got up bright and early on Wednesday, went over to the market, and picked up my ingredients. This is when the learning started.

1. I need to get a one cup measuring cup. Or learn to count. I can’t be sure, but I think I only added two and a half instead of three and a half cups of flour. The dough was more like batter, and I tried so hard to roll it out before I decided that it just wasn’t going to happen.

2. I am not afraid of boiling oil. But I should be. As I was trying to get the temperature right, I ended up scalding the bottom of my pot, making a couple of rejects when the oil wasn’t hot enough, and standing against the wall while the few inches of shortening in the bottom of my dutch oven boiled to five times their original height and threatened to take over my kitchen.

3. The rejects taste awesome.

The Canadian came in to ask me some questions about photoshop, and he took a bunch of the doughnut holes (AKA Tim Bits… Tim Hortons… any Canadians out there? OK. Moving on.) which he enjoyed quite a bit. After awhile, I got a nice rhythm going… but then I was out of dough. So… yeah.

Rejects and Timbits.

Link to Recipe: http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2007/10/12/the-joys-of-fried-dough/

I know, it’s Mardi Gras, and I’m supposed to be making pancakes, but the truth is, I just didn’t have time today. However, I will take this opportunity to blog about another recipe that I made recently that also uses up your excess flour, butter and eggs before Lent.

Yes, I finally jumped on the bandwagon and made Peabody’s Snickerdoodle Muffins, also known as, the little muffin that caused a big stir in the food blogging world… and I have to say, I totally understand the hype now! The dough was incredibly easy, made entirely from pantry items (except the sour cream… but how hard is it to get sour cream?) and rolling the dough in sugar before plopping it in the muffins tin made me giddy! Hee hee.

No, but these muffins are incredible. The outside, coated with sugar (I used cassonade, which is like Sugar in the Raw) ends up crunchy and crisp, while the inside of the muffin stays moist, probably due to the sour cream. The Canadian and I were both vying for the last one (he got it while I was at school). I made sixteen, and Britney got one… the rest we hoarded for ourselves.

I didn’t change anything… as always, the recipe is perfect, but if any of the rest of you have been slow like me about getting into the kitchen and making these… well then march yourself right on into the kitchen.

Now!

I know… I know. I’ve been bad. It isn’t even that I haven’t been cooking! I have tons of recipes to share, plus I just got back from England, where I ate at some awesome places. Nope… I just sometimes forget that I’m a student until I suddenly have to be one nonstop for several days. But my paper on Atlas Shrugged has been turned in, so I’m back and ready to tell you about Thanksgiving, yesterday.

Yes… I said yesterday. And yes, I’m well aware that Thanksgiving is actually today. But you see, back to the student thing, my partner in crime, Britney Spears (see Halloween post), was leaving for Madrid on a school trip early this morning, so we decided to have it one day early. I sent out invitations, but because of the strike, we were only able to attract three of the six who RSVPed… and they were all boys. Hmm…

I woke up at 9:00 yesterday to start work. The Canadian slept and shouted what he thought were helpful comments from the living room. He also watched in awe as Britney rolled out a pie crust. “I’ve never been behind the scenes before…”

The menu was as follows…

Roast Turkey Legs
Stuffing
Pumpkin Tarte Tatin
Whole Cranberry Sauce with Orange
Green beans with scallions
Sweet Potato Hash
Mashed Potatoes
Gratin Dauphinoise
Buttermilk Corn Bread
Tarte Tatin
Spiced Pumpkin Pie with Tender Pie Crust

Get ready… this is going to be a long post.

Ok, first of all, the turkey. I couldn’t roast a whole turkey in my dinky little oven, and even though some of the local shops were offering to sell whole roast turkeys, I wanted to do everything myself (not even a frozen pie crust around here). I went with turkey thighs, and I bought four of them. In the end, this was too much: as the Canadian said and Emese agreed, no one really cares about the turkey. It has to be there, in case you want to take a little slice and place it decoratively on your plate, but really, it doesn’t matter.

Well, good. Because I followed my mother’s advice and cooked them for an hour, (rubbed them first with some butter, sage, salt and pepper) but they were still pink inside, so I threw them back in after I had reheated everything else, and the turkey made an appearance on the table during second helpings of everything else. As Emese said, the potatoes are what are important.

Or, if you’re the Canadian, the stuffing. And no, stuffing does not come out of a box here. I called my mother and asked for a recipe, but she infuriatingly gave her “until it’s wet enough… enough to cover the bottom of the pan” directions, so I turned to Ree. To be fair, Mommy, her recipe was pretty much the same as yours… it was just easier to follow. And the stuffing was really, really good. I was going to only make one pan when there were going to be nine of us, but the Canadian thought that was ludicrous, so I made two. We finished one, but there were only six of us, so I suppose he was right.

I tried another new thing, the Pumpkin Tarte Tatin from the Wednesday Chef. I didn’t invert it, because I’m lazy, but it was delicious. I told Britney that I was going to attempt it, but that I wasn’t sure it would work out. She said, “Pumpkin and cheese? How can you go wrong?” Then I told her there was pastry and cream involved. Nuff said.
Cranberry sauce used to be the one thing on the table I sort of ignored. (Actually, make that one of two things. And I still ignore creamed pearl onions, so they didn’t make it onto my table. Sorry, Mommy). But I grew to love it, and now I can’t live without the tangy sweetness. I got my recipe from Finding La Dolce Vita, and it was perfect. As I watched the cranberries floating in the orange juice, I was a little bit skeptical, but then all of a sudden, without warning, it was cranberry sauce. I couldn’t tell you how it happened, but it was gorgeous on the table, and it’s almost gone! (I saved a little to have with my leftovers… Shh…)

Britney told me I didn’t need to have vegetables at Thanksgiving, but I ignored her. Yes, I didn’t make roasted brussels sprouts with pancetta and pistachios… possibly my favorite veggie on the Thanksgiving table, because I know that people are prejudiced against them and will never love them the way I do (*cough*theCanadian*cough*), but my Mommy promised to make them for me at Christmas, even though they’re usually a Thanksgiving fare, so I moved on and went with green beans. Guess what? They’re almost gone. For this, I can only thank Mommy… I used her recipe. You slow cook finely sliced shallots in some olive oil and butter, blanch the green beans (I boil water in my electric kettle, pour it over the beans, and dump it out almost immediately, right after they turn green. Then run them under ice water. You want them to still have some snap.), and then dump them into the pan with the shallots until ready to serve. Just turn the heat up, add a little more oil if you need it, and toss until heated through. So easy… and everyone ate their greens. My god, I am my mother.

We needed sweet potatoes, but I was running out of space in my oven. I made everything ahead of time, but it was all going to have to be reheated, and I’ve never much liked that marshmallow yam thing anyway, so I decided to try an epicurious recipe for Sweet Potato Hash. Because I was making it last minute, it turned into more of a Sweet Potato Mash (haha… rhyming. I’m so clever.), but it was delicious anyway. I also was having a slight problem with my brown sugar… I paid an exorbitant amount for it at the American store, only to learn that it was stale and hard as a rock. I sprinkled it with water and microwaved it, so some of it melted, leaving massive craters, and I was able to make small brown sugar pebbles when I attacked it with a fork. I used the smaller pebbles for pumpkin pie (which turned out creamy and delicious, than you), so I was left with larger pebbles for my potatoes. Thus, I had some trouble getting it to caramelize the potatoes and was happy enough to get it to melt. They were delicious and creamy and there’s very little left, but I’m thinking about saving them and eating them cold tonight.

Kudos to those who are still here. Mashed potatoes are mashed potatoes. I made a huge pot and threw some crème fraiche, heavy cream, butter and milk. They were a little wanting for salt, but there’s not much left, so I guess people were happy with them.

Gratin Dauphinoise is always the most popular dish for Thanksgiving at home. It’s my recipe, and I won’t give it to my mom, because I don’t want her making them without me. I usually make them at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and my aunt refuses to come to our house unless I promise they’ll be on the table. You slice potatoes reeeaaaalllly thin, put a layer in a greased baking pan, top with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and then a layer of grated gruyère cheese. You keep going with these layers, but only peppering the potatoes, no salt or nutmeg, until the last layer. Before putting the last bit of spice and cheese, you mix a cup of cream and a cup of milk and scald it, temper one egg and add it, and pour the mixture all over the gratin. Then add the spice (salt, pepper and nutmeg this time) and a layer of cheese. It’s amazing. I’m currently eating it for breakfast.

Emese made the cornbread from a recipe we got off epicurious. I don’t recommend it, so I won’t post it. It was fine and all, but not nearly moist enough. Emese and I ate quite a bit of it when we were in the picking stages after thirds or fourths, when you don’t want to refill your plate again. I suppose it helped that we were the two who were eating on the floor, right next to the table.

The tarte tatin was the same one I’ve posted about before. Same deliciousness. I won’t go on, as my fingers are starting to hurt and my gratin is getting cold. The pumpkin pie was delicious. It’s almost gone, and everyone was complaining that they didn’t have room for pie. That’s ridiculous. Who doesn’t have room for pie. Now if you’ll excuse me, there are some potatoes calling me. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Canadian just woke up from his nap and told me he could smell pie.

Me: A whole pie, or a slice of pie on a plate?

The Canadian: A whole pie.

He just at the rest of the pie in bed. I have photo evidence.

Place baking sheet in oven and preheat to 450°F. Whisk 2/3 cup golden brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon quatre épices, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg in large bowl to blend. Whisk in 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin and 4 eggs, then 1 cup of heavy cream. Pour mixture into crust. (I used a homemade butter crust.)
Place pie on preheated baking sheet in oven. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325°F and bake until sides puff and center is just set, about 40 minutes. Cool. Serve at room temperature.

Sometimes, you just need something hot and delicious.

I made myself rice pudding on one of those days recently, and of course, when I told my friend, she laughed at me. Aren’t those the days when you just grab the jar of Nutella and go to town on it with a spoon?

I suppose… maybe. Anyone who knows me well knows I’m not a huge fan of chocolate. Besides… I love idly stirring as something as wonderful as rice pudding comes together (which anyone who knows how to make risotto can make: it’s another one of those “add liquid and stir ’til it looks right recipes.) Just melt 2 parts butter to 1 part sugar in a saucepan. Add 4 parts arborio rice, and toast in the butter. And then, it’s stirring time: add warm milk flavored with vanilla by the ladleful until it’s is creamy and delicious, with toothsome grains and a thick, white pudding. Stir a little more butter in, and maybe some cinnamon, and that’s it: you have your snack.

Now I’m not saying there aren’t days for the Nutella pot, but there are also definitely days for hot, delicious (wow… almost went Giada there and said decadent… now you know how good this stuff is) rice pudding.

I know that most people celebrate Halloween with candy… so how in the world did I end up spending my holiday with pasta, cupcakes and Britney Spears? I suppose I should begin at the beginning.

After a “tiring” shopping trip (tiring to the Canadian… I like wandering down the Champs Elysées), we headed back home. I went straight to the kitchen, where I had planned to bake some Belgian Brownies (love this recipe!) and some Chocolate Orange Muffins with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting, from slashfood. I had just started melting the chocolate over the double boiler when the Canadian called out, “You hungry?”

Of course, this doesn’t mean, “are you hungry,” but rather, “I’m hungry. Please feed me.” Because we were drinking that night (and also a little bit because I was already devoting all of my energy to melting chocolate), I suggested pasta. Directly after this, I remembered that a) we had finished all of the jarred pesto, b) I hadn’t replaced the parmesan cheese and c) the vat of tomato sauce I froze was frozen into the fridge and would need to be removed on a rainy day when I had a hammer and chisel. I did, however, have some tomato paste, tomatoes, and a recipe for Quick Tomato-Cream Sauce that was also on my list of things to try from Under the Tuscan Sun. Bingo.

This was one of the best tomato sauces I’ve ever tried, and it was really easy. My only qualm, as you can probably tell from the pictures, is that I made too much pasta and not enough sauce.

Once we ate the pasta, I still had cupcakes to bake. I made the Belgian Brownies no problem: this is one of the easiest recipes in the world and one of my favorites… and I don’t even like chocolate! But I had also wanted to make the Chocolate Orange Cupcakes… seeing as it was Halloween. One problem: no cream cheese. I decided to sub mascarpone, but in the end, the frosting was looking a little funny. I put it in the fridge, hoping that chilling it would help, and continued getting ready for our Halloween party. When my friends got there, I hadn’t had time to frost them, so I left them in the kitchen and just brought out the Belgian Brownies. However, they disappeared rather fast, and my friend Emese found and delivered the Orange-Chocolate Cupcake stash. And you know what? They were good even without the frosting. The mix of chocolate and orange is delicious, as always, and the crumb was dense. They were sweet without being cloying, and basically, just good. Sure, it looked very pretty on the slashfood site, but sometimes you just can’t make everything look pretty.

(The flatter ones are Belgian Brownies, the kind of bulbous ones are the cupcakes.)

Oh… and Britney? That was Emese:

Quick-Tomato Cream Sauce from Under the Tuscan Sun

Cook 4 or 5 slices of pancetta, drain on paper towels, then crumble and set aside. Chop 2 medium onions and 2 or 3 cloves of garlic and sauté in the pork fat for 5 minutes. Chop and add 1 large red pepper and 4 or 5 whole tomatoes from a can. Season with salt and pepper and cook 5 minutes more. Stir in 1/2 cup of creme fraîche and another 3/4 cup of canned tomatoes with juice. Add a spoonful or so of the pasta water to the sauce. Stir the pancetta into the sauce at the last minute to retain crispness. Cook and drain enough pasta for 4. Mix the pasta with half the sauce; serve the rest of the sauce over the pasta.

Wow… this Magazine Monday thing is not off to a good start for me. It’s because of midterms, but I know that’s no excuse… I’ve been pretty lazy with the book reviews too. Oh well… hopefully I can get back on track soon.

Anyway, two days late, my first Magazine Monday, which is really a blog (I told myself I could use blog recipes as well, because I have just as many recipes to try from y’all as I do from magazines.)

This one comes from Stephen Cooks, one of my favorite sites for food porn. I made these Espresso “Mayan” Cookies last week… but I think I did something wrong. The flavor was delicious, don’t get me wrong, but the texture left something to be desired, and mine didn’t look like Stephen’s. I tried some the next day, and they had softened a bit, which I liked. This one’s going to need a little bit of tinkering, because I loved the flavors… maybe I’ll try for something that rises a little bit more…

At any rate, the newspaper staff loved them, and when the Planet staff is happy, I’m happy.