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EZ Contemporary
French Cooking
Lesson #5 of
5
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Brie Puff Pastry
This incredibly easy recipe is extremely versatile. It also
freezes very well, so you can make it ahead of time and keep it
on hand. We're going to use it twice in this dinner - half of it
will be used as the base for our appetizer, Montrachet Tarts.
The remainder will serve as the crust for the Caramelized Apple
Tart.
Makes about one pound of pastry
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, COLD (cut into 8 pieces)
2 cups unbleached flour
4 ounces imported Brie cheese, at room temperature
Procedure:
In food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the flour
and butter with short pulses until mixture is the consistency of
coarse meal.
Cut the Brie into several small pieces and add to the flour
mixture. Pulse until just before mixture forms a ball. Form
mixture into a disc and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour.
Teacher's Tip: This pastry is so versatile and durable you may
wish to make it in "commercial amounts" and keep it on hand in
your freezer. Here are the proportions: 1 pound unsalted butter,
1 pound (4 cups) unbleached flour; 1/2 pound Brie.
Montrachet Tarts
You will absolutely love these tiny little tartlets of tender
Brie puff pastry you can buzz up in your food processor! They
are fabulous to serve with Champagne, for a special dinner, or
as a passed hors d'oeuvre for a cocktail party, anytime. What
makes them even better is that ...the pastry can be made (and
frozen) as much as a month in advance, and the tiny tarts
completely assembled (except for brushing with the rosemary oil
and baking) and kept stacked in your refrigerator the day of
your party to be baked as needed.
Makes 6 cocktail servings
Ingredients:
1/2 recipe Brie Puff Pastry
Filling:
1 cup extra virgin olive
oil
1 - 2 branches fresh rosemary
1 log mild goat cheese
Procedure:
Remove the rosemary leaves from their stems and chop them
coarsely with a large chef's knife. Put into a glass jar with
the olive oil. You may do this several days ahead.
When you are ready to assemble the tarts, pull small pieces of
the dough (about the size of a gumball) from the disc, and roll
into a ball in your palms.
Place the balls about 1 inch apart on a baking sheet.
Press them down with your thumb. Put a little piece of goat
cheese in the thumbprint. Chill the trays VERY WELL.
Preheat the oven to 425º F. Remove baking sheets from
refrigerator only as needed. Brush each tart with the
room-temperature rosemary oil.
Bake about 10 minutes. Remove to a tray and serve immediately.
Teacher's Tip: Garnish the serving tray with a fresh rosemary
sprig.
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Boeuf Bourguignon
On a cool spring evening, there are few dishes as satisfying --
or as romantic -- as a hearty Boeuf Bourguignon. This is an
essential dish to have in your repertoire because, besides being
heart-warming and delicious, it benefits from being prepared in
advance and reheated; AND leftovers freeze well.
Makes 6 servings
3 pounds lean stew beef (chuck, round), cut in 1 1/2-inch cubes
3 cups (1 bottle) hearty red wine (Beaujolais or Côtes du Rhône
are flavorful and not too costly)
4 Tb Cognac
1 bouquet garni (1 sprig thyme, 1 bay leaf, 10 parsley stems)
6 black peppercorns
3 Tb vegetable oil
5 large onions
3 large carrots
1/2 pound slab bacon (or pancetta)
Freshly ground black pepper
2 Tb unsalted butter
Sea salt, to taste
1 garlic clove
30 pearl onions (fresh -- not from a bottle)
1/4 pound fresh mushroom caps
Procedure:
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine beef cubes with the wine, 3
tablespoons Cognac, the bouquet garni, a few peppercorns and 1
tablespoon vegetable oil.
Set aside to marinate for at least 2 hours, but not overnight.
2. Peel and chop the onions and carrots. Remove rind from the
bacon and cut the meat into 1-inch pieces. Blanch bacon in
boiling water for several seconds. Drain and pat dry.
3. Remove beef from the marinade with a slotted spoon and pat
dry. (If the meat is not dry, it will not brown.) Reserve the
marinade.
4. Heat a Dutch oven or a large, deep-sided sauté pan with a
tight-fitting lid and film it with oil. Sauté the bacon until it
is lightly browned.
Remove bacon from the pan and set aside to drain on paper
towels. Leave any bacon fat in the pan.
5. Add the remaining vegetable oil to the pan, melt 1 tablespoon
of the butter in it, and when it is very hot add the beef to the
pan (in 2 batches, if necessary) and sear on all sides.
Season with salt and pepper. Remove the beef from the pan.
6. Add the chopped onions and carrots to the pan and sauté the
mixture until onions become translucent. Return the beef and
bacon to the pan.
Add the marinade and bouquet garni to the pan and bring
everything to a boil. Add unpeeled but lightly crushed garlic.
Cover and simmer over low heat until beef is tender -- about 2
1/2 hours -- and the sauce is a rich, dark brown.
7. Wipe the mushroom caps with a piece of paper towel. Peel the
pearl onions, and cut an "x" in the root end of each with a
small, sharp knife.
Melt the remaining butter in another skillet. Add the onions and
mushrooms and sauté quickly over medium high heat without
browning. Set aside.
8. When the beef has finished cooking, remove it and the bacon
from the cooking liquid with a slotted spoon. Strain the liquid
through a sieve or strainer.
Press to get all the juices out of the vegetables you will be
discarding.
Return the sauce to the pan with the beef and bacon. (If the
sauce seems too thin, mix 2 teaspoons of potato starch with 1/4
cup of the cool sauce before returning to the pan.)
Add the mushrooms, pearl onions and the remaining Cognac. Warm
the stew until it is completely heated through.
Wine Tip: I like to drink a Corton or Pommard (Burgundy, of
course!) with this very Burgundian stew -- or you could choose a
Carneros Pinot Noir from California.
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Saffron Fettuccine
1/2 pound top quality dried fettuccine (some brands call it
"tagliatelle" - it's all the same)
1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron threads
sea salt
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add a large
tablespoon of salt and the saffron. When the water boils
furiously again, add the pasta.
Stir to make sure the noodles don't stick together. (Do NOT add
oil to the water!)
Drain the cooked pasta well and add about 2 tablespoons unsalted
butter to the pasta in its dish.
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Special Salad
This is the most popular salad -- and provides a sweet/tart
palate cleanser before dessert.
Makes 6 servings
1 head Boston lettuce, well washed and thoroughly dried
1 bunch arugula, well washed and thoroughly dried
1 red onion, very thinly sliced (I use the 2mm blade in the
Cuisinart)
1 pint strawberries, thinly sliced and marinated in 2
tablespoons raspberry vinegar
1 cup walnut pieces, toasted
Dressing:
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup raspberry vinegar (some drained from the strawberries)
1/4 cup walnut oil
1/2 cup canola or grapeseed oil
A pinch of sea salt and a few turns of freshly ground pepper
Remove pithy bottoms from Boston lettuce leaves, and remove the
woody arugula stems. Drain the strawberries, and put the first
five ingredients into a large, shallow bowl (perhaps the one you
will bring to the table).
In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard and vinegar, then
add the walnut oil, whisking all the while. Continue whisking
while dribbling in the Canola oil, then add the salt and pepper.
Taste and correct the seasoning. Toss with the salad just before
arranging on individual plates or salad bowls.
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Caramelized Apple Tart in Brie Puff
Pastry
(Tarte Tatin)
Tarte Tatin is an apple tart that is baked with the crust on top
and inverted on the serving plate. Two French sisters (named
Tatin) supposedly invented it in the Loire Valley many years
ago. Whatever the REAL story, the tart became a classic because
it tastes so good and is so easy to prepare. This is another
delicious use for the Brie Puff Pastry.
Makes one 10-inch tart
1/2 recipe Brie Puff Pastry
Filling:
6 crisp apples (Golden Delicious or Gala are the most like
French apples)
1/3 cup granulated cane sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown cane sugar
6 tablespoons melted butter
Quarter, core and peel apples. Cut them lengthwise into 1/8-inch
slices (thin). Mix cinnamon and sugar and toss with the apples.
Butter a 10-inch ovenproof deep fry pie pan heavily with the 2
tablespoons soft butter. Make sure you coat the bottom
especially well.
Sprinkle half of the 1/2 cup of sugar over the butter. Arrange
1/3 of the apples over the sugar. Sprinkle 1/3 of the melted
butter over the apples.
Repeat with 1/2 the remaining apples and butter, then a final
layer of apples and butter. Put remaining sugar on top.
Cook on top of the stove (over medium-low heat) for about 20
minutes, until apples have softened and begun to caramelize.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out pastry to 1/8-inch thick. Cut it into a circle the size of the top of the pie pan.
Place over the apples, letting the edges fall against the inside edge of the dish.
Cut 4 or 5 holes about 1/8-inch long in pastry as vents.
Bake in lower third of preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes. If pastry is browning too fast, cover lightly with aluminum foil.
Tart is done when you can see thick brown syrup exuding from apples between the crust and edge of pan. |
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