ffwD: Croquants

Woo-hoo! This is my first ffwD post in a long while, and I think I picked a good recipe for my return!

These four ingredient croquants (unskinned hazelnuts, sugar, egg whites, and flour) were easy to assemble after staying late at work Thursday night. However, it helped that I already had all of the ingredients in my cupboards! Now, after baking my first batch of croquants for the suggested 10 minutes, the cookies turned out very pale on top, had lightly browned bottoms and sides, and stuck to the parchment when I tried to lift them after they had cooled. They were also only slightly crispy on the outside and still chewy on the inside.

Because of these results, I baked the subsequent batches for 12 minutes each. The 12-minute bake produced nicely browned tops, sides, and bottoms and allowed for easy lifting from the parchment after cooling. For my oven, 12 minutes was obviously the way to go. As for the taste, these are extremely sweet (and crispy!) cookies, probably due to the one and a quarter cups of sugar to 1/2 cup of flour in the dough. Definitely serve these with hot tea to help mellow the taste and the texture!

As a hilarious side note, because it’s been such a long time since I’ve baked for a post, I was completely scatterbrained during my last three batches. For the first scatterbrain batch, I put the croquants in but forgot to turn on the timer. The second scatterbrain batch, I turned on the timer but forgot to put the croquants in the oven. For the last scatterbrain batch, I placed the croquants in the oven, turned on the timer, and somehow turned off the oven because it was the last batch. I ended up throwing those away. When I told my surgeon friend (Codename: Candelabra) about the three batches, she laughed and said, “I don’t even know what to say about that.”

These croquants were made for French Fridays with Dorie, a group of bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

ffwD: Tomatoes Provençal

I’m excited to get back into cooking and baking with French Fridays with Dorie! It’s been too long since I’ve even been in town on a Friday, so it was nice to come back to an easier recipe. However, what I didn’t realize was that I just posted a tomato recipe last week for my first post back after my hiatus. Oh, well. Tomatoes are so good right now, I can’t complain.

This method of roasting tomatoes was easy and open to interpretation. Halving tomatoes and topping them with a mixture of minced garlic and your choice of herbs (in my case, thyme) then drizzling olive oil on top was pretty delicious. Though, I’m not used to eating roasted tomatoes as halves, as they were pretty thick. Then again, I probably didn’t follow Dorie’s suggestion of using 4 oz. tomatoes. I just grabbed ones that looked good. Anyway, this recipe makes for a simple side or even a lighter main dish, if you prefer. I ate my tomatoes with toasted sourdough slices.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

These tomatoes provençal were made for French Fridays with Dorie, a group of bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

ffwD: Baby Bok Choy, Sugar Snaps and Garlic en Papillote

This week’s assignment, baby bok choy, sugar snaps and garlic en papillote, combined the popular French steaming method with traditional Chinese veggies and Asian flavors. Seeing as I grew up eating bok choy, sugar snaps, and garlic in a myriad of dishes, this side dish was right up my alley.

I didn’t have mint or a lemon on hand, but I did have lime-infused olive oil which worked in a pinch. I also couldn’t find baby white onions so I just tossed in a few frozen pearl onions into each packet. I was working out during the oven-steaming process, so when the timer went off, I just kept the veggies in the oven. Sure, the extra 10 minutes did wilt the veggies a bit more than Dorie would approve of, but I didn’t mind it. Especially since the aroma when opening the foil packets was pretty amazing. This method was a quick and fuss-free way of preparing the delicate baby bok choy while softening the sugar snaps and the sliced garlic!

This baby bok choy, sugar snaps and garlic en papillote was made for French Fridays with Dorie, a group of bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

ffwD: Quiche Maraîchère

Earlier this week, I started working at a new law firm. The only downside to this new firm’s location is that it’s extremely far from the grocery store I normally shopped at during my lunchbreaks with my old law firm. This change meant that getting all the veggies for this week’s assignment before Friday was next to impossible and had to be put off until Saturday. Luckily, I found out that the grocery store chain has a location closer to my apartment, so making the trek on Saturday morning for the red bell pepper, leeks, celery, and carrots turned out to be a fairly quick excursion.

Making this quiche was extremely easy because I already had a whole wheat version of Dorie Greenspan’s tart dough in the freezer! This meant the only prep that needed to be done was the chopping of all the veggies. Too bad I hadn’t planned a trip to the grocery store sooner, or I would’ve been able to enjoy this quiche during the week instead of grabbing salads every night! I’ll definitely be making this again.

This quiche maraîchère was made for French Fridays with Dorie, a group of bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

ffwD: Visitandine

It has been a roller coaster week for me, both professionally and personally, but I’m hoping to find some semblance of normalcy soon. Getting back into the swing of French Fridays with Dorie has helped. However, I was a bit puzzled when I read this week’s assignment, visitandine, because I found two handwritten notes in my cookbook indicating “can be a bit dry” and “worth it despite the folding”. Seeing as I cannot recall ever making this cake before, I can only assume that I meant to write those comments on the quartre-quarts recipe, which happens to be on the page before the visitandine recipe.

Setting aside the comments, this cake was very good. Somewhat chewy, which I like, and not dry. However, that could’ve been helped by the whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Oh, and I really liked the flavor of the browned butter in the cake, so that step is definitely worth doing again. Overall, a great cake!

This visitandine was made for French Fridays with Dorie, a group of bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

(A little late) ffwD: Scallop & Onion Tartes Fines

Last Friday, I was disappointed when I wasn’t able to make these scallop & onion tartes fines with the Doristas. (I was judging a student trial competition from Thursday through Sunday, rendering anything beyond takeout impossible.) However, I’m glad I finally made them, albeit five days late, because I immensely enjoy scallops in any way, shape, or form. And, oh my, these were delicious. I mean, how can you say no to scallops, caramelized onions, bacon, and puff pastry? Definitely a winnner and worth the wait.

These scallop and onion tartes fines were made for French Fridays with Dorie, a group of bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

ffwD: Sausage-stuffed Cornish hen

How delicious was this week’s assignment? I’d never had Cornish hen before; although I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular, I did enjoy how all the flavors went together. The spicyness of the sausage, the slight sweetness from the pan-drippings glaze, and the hint of saltiness from the hen itself. However, this will have to be a “sometimes treat” recipe as one Cornish hen set me back $7.00 a pound, so I only bought one. Maybe I’ll try this same stuffing and cooking method with a garden-variety whole chicken…

This sausage-stuffed Cornish hen was made for French Fridays with Dorie, a group of bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

ffwD: Two Tartines from La Croix Rouge

This week’s ffwD assignment was inspired by two appetizers served at a French cafe Dorie frequents called La Croix Rouge. The first, tartine norvégienne, calls for paper-thin slices of smoked salmon on toasted bread slathered with butter and topped with capers. I couldn’t see myself eating butter with salmon, so I went the bagel route and used cream cheese as the spread.

The second, tartine saint-germain, uses mayonnaise as the spread, paper-thin slices of rare roast beef, and cornichons as garnish. For this one, I skipped the cornichons and used rare beef tenderloin from the supermarket. Although neither of my tartine had paper-thin slices, they were no less delicious. Definitely worth buying a whole jar of capers for salty zing!

These two tartines from La Croix Rouge were made for French Fridays with Dorie, a group of bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

ffwD: Paris brest

Whenever I see pâte à choux, I automatically think whipped cream as a filling. Even after I saw “pastry cream” as the filling in this week’s recipe, I still thought “whipped cream”. I just feel like “pastry cream” is misleading (at least to me) because pastry cream’s texture is more like a pudding. So, in my mind, it should be called pastry pudding. But, whatever.

This week’s assignment, Paris brest, involved a simple pâte à choux dough piped in a circular pattern, baked with sliced almonds on top, and then filled with pastry cream. However, I didn’t have any sliced almonds on hand, so I skipped that part.

My dessert wasn’t as impressive as I thought it would be mainly because I didn’t pipe my choux dough high enough. Instead, I piped it 1-inch wide, making the circle too flat to slice in half. Good thing the recipe produced enough dough to make two circles. So, I improvised and used one circle for the base and the second for the top.

This Paris brest was made for French Fridays with Dorie, a group of bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

ffwD: moules marinière

I’m usually a bit concerned when there are five Fridays, thus five ffwD assignments, in one month. It’s difficult to make so many dishes when I’m already scaling down the recipes for myself. However, I lucked out with January’s lineup because I made all the dishes in advance while my sister (Codename: Gamer Psychologist) was in town over Christmas. One of the highlights was this week’s moules marinière.

Per Dorie’s suggestion, these tasty little mussels were served piping hot. My sister and I downed these like nobody’s business. Additionally, I thickened the mussels’ steaming liquid and used it as a sauce for the side of fettucine I had on hand. It was an absolutely delicious and easy to prepare meal.

These moules marinière were made for French Fridays with Dorie, a group of bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.