clafoutis

Yesterday being Bastille Day, it seemed appropriate to make a decidedly French desert to celebrate just a little bit. A clafoutis (kla-foo-tee) is a flan like batter that's baked into something resembling a large pancake. Traditionally it's made with cherries and it originates from Limousin, a province in central France. (Incidentally, the limousine car is named after the region because they wore a hood with a profile perceived to be similar to that of the car there... now you know.)

Want more random facts??? It's apparently very important to keep the pits in the cherries while the clafoutis bakes, because they impart additional flavor. Who knew! However, as you can tell from the pictures, no pits... or cherries were used here. I had lots of strawberries in the fridge and didn't want to see them go to waste. (Since we're in fact mode today... when anything other than cherries are used, it's actually called a flaugnarde, not a clafoutis, but who's counting.) As I was putting the batter together, it also dawned on me that this is a reasonably healthy desert - relatively speaking of course. Look through the list of ingredients and you'll notice about 80% of it is milk and fruit. Not bad!

Clafoutis (sorry for the grams, I'm sure you can all convert!)

450 g fruit, cut into bite size chunks if necessary (strawberries, cherries, rasperries, etc...)

150g flour

100g sugar

1 pinch salt

20g butter, melted

3 eggs

1/2 L milk

Instructions

Preheat oven at 425F

Sift dry ingredients together, add butter and mix

Add in eggs one at a time and mix 

Pour in the milk slowly while stirring, until smooth. do not overwork flour.

Butter a pie dish and layer fruit inside

Cover with batter

Bake for 45 minutes, serve at room temperature.

steak tartare

If someone placed 1/4 lb slab of raw beef in front of me and told me to eat it, I would probably cringe, take a couple bites, and push the rest away. So why do I love steak tartare?? Well for starters, it's so much more than just raw beef. When prepared correctly, it has a TON of flavor. It's kind of like those sushi rolls that are doused in various colorful sauces, covered in avocado and topped with bacon bits. Sure there's raw fish in there, but there's no way you'll ever taste it...

Tartare is the same. The beef is finely chopped until tender and then mixed with such an array of bold flavors, you really won't taste much "raw beefiness." I know it's a leap of faith, but trust me, if you buy good quality sirloin and keep the portion sizes reasonable, it's a pretty amazing dish. I followed Anthony Bourdain's recipe which seemed to get rave reviews throughout the internet and was very happy with the results. Just buy the best beef you can, and keep the whole thing very cold (including the plates!). And if you want to go super traditional, serve it next to a plate of fries.

Steak Tartare (Serves 3-4)

1 egg yolks
1 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 anchovy filets, finely chopped (if skipped, make sure to use salt. but don't skip!)
1 teaspoons ketchup
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco sauce, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tbls oil
1/2 tbls Cognac (I used regular brandy)
1/2 small onion, finely diced (you can use shallots)
1 ounces capers, rinsed and chopped
1 ounces cornichons, finely chopped
2 tbls finely chopped flat parsley
3/4 pounds fresh sirloin (buy the leanest cut possible, and don't waste your money on tenderloin, sirloin works perfectly here and has a little more flavor)
Toasted or grilled crusty white bread to serve


Directions
Mix egg yolk, mustard, anchovy filets, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, tabasco, and pepper in a large bowl.
Drizzle the oil in slowly as you mix the whole thing
Fold in the cognac, onion, capers, cornichos, parsley
Trim all the excess fat and sinew off of the meat
Grind the beef in a meat grinder or better yet, chop it up by hand with a very sharp knife.
Mix the meat into the dressing and serve immediately with some toasted bread.

rognons a la moutarde

For most people, watching Anthony Bourdain eat offal makes for some good television, but it does not necessarily inspire too many people to get in the kitchen and cook the stuff. So why does he always seem to shed a tear of happiness when confronted with a plate of kidneys, tongue, brain... the "nasty bits" as Bourdain calls them?

Well here's my guess. Offal is can be intimidating if you don't know how to prepare it, and turning something like tripe into a delicious dish takes some practice and skill. Whenever Bourdain eats on his show, he's already identified the best cooks and restaurants in town. Even if it's street food, he's put his fate in the hands of a nice old lady who has cooked tripe her entire life. Probably a safe bet if there ever was one. Of course put tripe in the wrong hands and it quickly becomes tough, smelly, and generally off-putting. On the other hand, when prepared by deft hands, its best qualities are revealed. Magic! Off-putting smells and textures are eliminated and it's elevated into some seriously good eats. Liver, for example, becomes sweet, blood is transformed into a rich spicy sausage, and pork trotters... well they just become the most rich, unctuous thing on the planet.



When I lived in the Bay Area I had the privilege of eating at some of the country's greatest restaurants. One of my favorite meals was at Bistro Jeanty. The fact that it's sandwiched between Ad Hoc and Bouchon and has stayed in business since 1998, never mind that it has a Michelin Star, should tell you something about the place. I only ate there once, which is not exactly a large enough sample size to put any sort of label on it. Nevertheless, the Rognons de Veau au Poivre Vert (veal kidneys with a green pepper sauce) is something I won't soon forget. As with all of the dishes on Jeanty's menu, this is a true classic. The kidneys are sauteed quickly and a mustard, green peppercorn, and mushroom sauce is made with the pan drippings. The dish comes together in less than ten minutes.Yet here I am still talking about it eight years later.

So what made the dish so spectacular? I think it just comes down to having cooks that know what they're doing and using the freshest products available. The kidneys were tender, yet with a perfect bite to them (like a great hot dog). The kidney flavor was there, but it wasn't so pronounced that it's all you could taste. Using veal kidneys helps - they're milder than beef kidneys. The mustard, peppercorn sauce doesn't hurt either. There are a lot of strong flavor there. In the end, it's just a really simple - and perfect - dish, and the cooks just knew how to execute it.

I was at the supermarket recently and noticed some very fresh looking veal kidneys. Now this isn't something you normally come across in most supermarkets. Even at the largest Whole Foods you'll probably need to place a special order for them. Luckily for me, I have easy access to this type of stuff at the Dekalb Farmer's Market and the Buford Highway Farmer's Market, neither of which are actual Farmer's Markets... but let's not go down that road today. And so when I noticed a large batch of fresh kidneys next to hearts, tongues, and brain at Dekalb, I immediately remembered my meal at Bistro Jeanty and was off and running, kidneys in hand.

There are some great cookbooks on how to cook and prepare offal. Primary among them is Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail Eating. I would highly recommend that book to anyone interested in learning more about how to skillfully prepare any offal you can think of. This time however, I wanted that traditional bistro dish that I remembered from Napa, and so I turned to Anthony Bourdain Les Halles Cookbook. Bourdain's sauce was simplified in that it had no mushrooms or green peppercorns (though these would have been great additions). The kidneys cook 4 minutes a side, and the sauce comes together in just a few minutes. The verdict? There's a reason this dish is a classic. It's not exactly very pretty, but it sure is tasty. Not a bad place to start if you're inclined to give the "nasty bits" a try in your kitchen.

Rognons de Veau a la Moutarde (Serves 4)

2 veal kidneys, cleaned

1 tbsp oil

2 tbsp butter

2 shallots, thinly sliced

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 tbsp dijon mustard

parsley for garnish

Directions

Cut Kidneys into small pieces, season with salt and pepper

Cook kidneys with 1 tbsp oil and 1tbsp butter over high heat, 2 minutes a side

Reduce heat to medium, cook 2 more minutes on each side

Remove kidneys from pan, drain excess fat, add butter back into pan

Cook shallots until soft, about 3 minutes on medium high heat

Add white wine and chicken stock to deglaze. Simmer 5 minutes.

Whisk in mustard and serve kidneys with the sauce spooned over the top. 

Garnish with parsley and enjoy!

(Make sure to have lots of fresh bread on hand to mop up the sauce)

cold cod and gribiche

Sometimes the simplest things are the best right? This meal could easily be reassembled into fish cakes or a soup. However, I decided to serve it simply and keep each ingredient separate and intact. No muddled flavors here - what you see is what you get. The center piece was some steamed cod, chilled and served with a gribiche sauce. Gribiche is essentially mayonnaise with chopped hard boiled eggs, capers, pickles (preferably french cornichons), some lemon juice, and herbs (usually tarragon, parseley, and chervil). It's a perfect accompaniment for fish, crabcakes, or if your so inclined, tete de veau. In fact it's great on a lot of things and a perfect opportunity to make your own mayo.


Tom's Cod & Gribiche Plate (serves 2)
2/3 lb cod or other white fish, steamed
1/3 cup gribiche sauce (or as much as you want!)
1 tomato, quartered and seasoned with salt
1 egg, hard boiled, quartered
1 yukon gold potato, boiled until tender and sliced
8-10 olives, preferably oil cured
12-15 asparagus, steamed

Gribiche Sauce (1/2 cup)
1 large egg yolk
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 hard boiled egg, finely chopped
2 tbls cornichon (or sour pickle), finely chopped
1 tbls capers, finely chopped
2 tbls parseley, finely chopped
1 tbls tarragon, finely chopped
1 tbls lemon juice
salt and peper

Directions
Mix the mustard, egg, and lemon juice
Slowly drizzle in the oil as you whisk up your mayonaise
Add all the remaining ingredients and adjust seasoning

crêpes

Here's a lesson in French holidays for those of you interested. In France, Feb 2 isn't Groundhog Day, but rather La Chandleur or Candlemas, a Christian holiday you can read all about here! Now I'm not sure why, but in France, Candlemas is celebrated with crêpes. Yumm!!


According to tradition, the crêpes must be eaten only after eight p.m. And, if the cook can flip a crêpe while holding a coin in the other hand, the family is assured of prosperity throughout the coming year. Of course I only found all this out on wikipedia after eating the crêpes. Traditionally with my family we've simply eat crêpes when we're hungry, and no coins are involved... though we always did have flipping competitions.

Anywho, making crêpes is never a bad thing, and so tonight I made a whole batch. Amity and I didn't have too much trouble getting through a batch that was supposed to feed four... Savory fillings included gruyere cheese, ham, homemade ricotta, homemade cheese, spinach, and mushrooms. Sweet crepes included banana, sugar, and cinnamon. We reluctantly decided to avoid buying Nutella, realizing that there would be almost an entire jar left in our cupboard if we bought some. After about five or six crepes each, we were rather parched.