In Dorie Greenspan’s description of this week’s recipe choice, Popovers, she writes, “Many of us have fond memories of the messy thrill of eating popovers dripping with butter and honey.”
Popover Batch #2, Baked in Henderson, Nevada, Elevation 2190′
AlthoughI searched my personal Memory Bank very carefully, I have no such messy memories. Growing up in Manchester, Iowa, a small Midwestern farm community of 4,000 people, I don’t recall a popover ever crossing my path. As a 30-something adult, I first discovered these lovely puffy critters and enjoy them whenever the opportunity arises.
Making them myself? Really?
Mise en Place for Popover Batch #1. Question: What ingredient is missing from this photo? Answer: Eggs
Since for this week’s Tuesdays Post I would be back in Aspen (elevation 7890’), I decided to bake the popovers last Wednesday, just before leaving Nevada (elevation 2180’). While preparing my first batch, I experienced a Mise en Place-Fail. Note to Readers: If you don’t add 3 large eggs, at room temperature, to your Popover batter, the result will be hockey pucks.
JEOPARDY: Answer: Hockey Pucks. Question: What do you get when you don’t add 3 eggs to a Popover recipe?
Before leaving Nevada, I had time for one do-over and the result was Good, not Better or Best, but Good. To be honest, “Good” really doesn’t work for me. I needed a Better and Best.
The custardy interior of Batch #2, baked in Henderson, Nevada, elevation 2180′.
After arriving in Aspen, I fired off an SOS e-mail to my new friend, Marilyn Kakudo aka Piebird, a member of our Tuesdays with Dorie group, who lives in Boulder, Colorado. I consider her blog, Cook Teach Learn Grow, a must-read because she so clearly explains, through words, the art of baking. If I was going to attempt Popovers at high altitude, I needed Marilyn’s high altitude expertise.
Popover Batch #3, baked in Aspen, Colorado, elevation 7890′.
In what I now know to be true Kakudo-style, Marilyn wrote a rather lengthy instructive e-mail explaining how to bake Popovers à la Aspen. Yesterday I did just that and the result was Better. At almost 8000’, I’m okay with Better because this week’s Post does have a Best.
Colorado Popover…….Better.
The “Best” is what I discovered about “Chef Marilyn” as she is known in the Denver-area. Among our midst of dedicated home bakers (like me) are some phenomenal cooks with remarkable resumes who add so much depth to our Tuesday group. (It’s not for nothing that I was an investigative business reporter.) What I discovered is that Marilyn, who left a successful high tech career to pursue a culinary one, is in the latter group. Her food and wine credentials are impressive. As for me, I’m quite pleased and appreciative that she takes the time and makes the effort to share her considerable knowledge and experience with all of us. And, she does it very quietly.
Because I was moving back to the Colorado High Country with its high altitude baking challenges, I questioned whether I should continue baking with this Tuesday group. Considering that I think Marilyn will have my back, I’m all in.
A smokey Sunday afternoon view of the Rockies from the Aspen Mountain Club at the top of Ajax. The smoke continues to roll in from the fierce Pacific Northwest fires.
Thanks to Paula, our Buenos Aires baker and Amy, who bakes for a family of five, for hosting this week and sharing with everyone the Popover recipe, originated by the late Marian Cunningham. Cunningham, an American culinary icon, died last month at the age of 90.
The Palisade peach trees are being ambushed by the grape vines. The Grand Valley of Colorado, as this area is called, is the heart of Colorado’s ambitious and growing fruit and wine industry.
For me, carottes râpées and céleri rémoulade are the quintessential French bistro cruditiés, the fancy French word for raw salad. I’ve made these two recipes for years. Just take two rather ugly garden root vegetables, peel and shred, toss in a few extra ingredients and you’ve gone all exotic with your upcoming dinner menu.
A pound of newly-minted carrots just purchased at our Sunday Farmers Market.
Or, so I thought, asa young, rather Plain Jane cook in my kitchen. This week’s French Friday With Dorie recipe choice is Dorie’s delicious and versatile take on that café-style grated carrot salad. Serve it as a starter, side or snack. Slip it in a lunch box or pack for a picnic. It’s nutritious, filling and quickly made.
I needed a quickly-made something this week because I finally am making that long-anticipated move, at least until Thanksgiving, back to Colorado. For the past eight years my trips have been in the necessary flash-and-dash mode. I’d drive the ten-hour trip, stopping only for gas, in one day, stay in Aspen for three, and return the long albeit beautiful 510 miles the next. Each journey would end with my thinking, “Too old for this.”
This journey, no pressure, I could savor and enjoy. I left the still-darkened Henderson/Las Vegas area, as usual, at 5 A.M., the temperature was already 87 degrees. Since I lost an hour, due to the Pacific/Mountain time change, I arrived hungry in Green River, Utah at 1 P.M. While this community of less than 1000 residents may be a mecca for white water rafting (the Green River is the chief tributary of the Colorado River), the town itself is pathetically depressed with a boarded-up, for sale or rent, decapitated and delapitated main drag.
What’s not to love about Ray’s Tavern, a well-worn fixture in Green River, Utah.
Except for Ray’s Tavern. The destination-of-choice and only legitimate hang-out for, to quote Emma Lazarus, the tired, poor, hungry and huddled masses, Ray’s is a model for small town-institution. As one blogger put it, “The place is so authentic it doesn’t even have a website.” It’s a Jane and Michael Stern, Guy Fieri sort-of-place. It didn’t disappoint. Still crowded, authentic and hilarious, I sat at the 18‘ long community table to enjoy my teriyaki chicken sandwich, skins-intact fries and homemade slaw. As another blogger put it, “If for some godforsaken reason you happen to end up in Green River, Utah, then you might as well go to Ray’s Tavern.“
Two hours laterI reached my overnight destination, the tiny, vibrant Colorado community of Palisade. Population, 3,000. With its 78% sunshine average and 182-day growing season, it’s proudly billed as “The Peach Capital of Colorado”. This week-end, Palisade is strutting its fuzzy stuff with their 44th Annual Palisade Peach Festival.
Writing this, I have just checked into the Wine Country Inn, a lovely, faux-Victorian 80-room, wine-themed hotel built in 2007**. (**Nope, no perks, not free, always pay retail.) Set at the base of the Bookcliffs and next door to two wineries, the Inn is packed with Colorado peaches-on-their-mind tourists. Tonight I head to Main Street for the kick-off event, an Ice Cream Social and Street Dance. The peach sundaes are free, the Peach Queen will be crowned, recipes judged, pie-eating contests to begin, and the band will play on-and-on. Reminiscent of Manchester, Iowa, where I was raised, this is small town America at the ultimate and I couldn’t be happier. This year’s theme? “Life’s a Peach”. That’s true.
Let’s first return to this week’s recipe which can be found here. As I was saying, it’s simple. I made it Sunday to join an American hamburger and British ale for my international supper while watching the Olympics closing ceremonies. My only suggestions:
It’s easy to grate the carrots in a food processor.
One pound of carrots makes an ample supply of delicious carrot salad. The French like it plain, Dorie says, but she suggests we may add raisins, nuts and parsley. If one’s good, three is better. I added everything!
An All-American hamburger and French salad and………..
Pub Ale for a perfect supper to close the Olympics and salute the Brits for a job well done.
If possible, buy Farmer’s Market carrots with a little dirt still clinging.
In a hurry? Use the processor to grate the carrots and make the dressing.
If the carrots weep, don’t you cry, just wring them dry.
Although the French eat this “naked”, I added, at Dorie’s suggestion, raisins, roughly-cut walnuts and chopped fresh parsley this time. More nutritious. Yummy.
One pound (5 large carrots) makes “beaucoup de” (lots of) salad. It took the neighborhood to get me packed and loaded for my Colorado trip so I shared with them.
Palisade, Colorado
Wine Country Inn, Palisade, Colorado
To see what my other French Friday with Dorie colleagues grated up this week, go to this Site.
“J’aime la galette, savez-vous comment? Quand elle est bien faite, avec du beurre dedans.”
The Berry Galette, up close and personal. The Tuesday with Dorie Baking with Julia recipe choice for this week.
French school children sing a silly, nonsensical tune about this week’s TWD/BWJ recipe choice, Berry Galette. Translated, the lyrics are,“I like galette, do you know how? When it is made well, with butter inside.”
This afternoon, as I was putting together what I considered a simple recipe, “est bien faite” , the “made well “ part, became a problem. My dough wasn’t coming together for me. Not at all. Frustrated, I combined the two small disks into one and tossed them back in the refrigerator.
What started as two, wrapped tightly and chilled for two hours, failed to live up to their task. Two became one and were returned to the fridge to “chill out”.
Next, I’ll even admit pulling out my “if all else fails” emergency back-up, hidden in my freezer: Trader Joe’s Pie Crust. Just couldn’t do it. Instead, I walked around our community’s Loop ( it was 106 degrees), huffed and puffed and returned to try again.
Thought about it. Seriously. Considered it. Seriously. Couldn’t do it.
My second attempt was successful and I managed to roll out one 11” circle that was about 1/8” thick, discarding the rest of the dough. After transferring it to a parchment-lined jelly roll pan, I spread blackberries, raspberries and blueberries, within two inches of the border. Then I sprinkled sugar, poured honey, and sliced butter over the fruit. I wrapped and pleated the dough to seal in the fruit (hopefully).
In the oven, pleated and wrapped.
Although my galette sprung a leak, my sleuthing suggests it’s quite difficult to not have seepage. Even master baker and cookbook author Flo Braker, who shared this recipe with Julia, believes a juicy galette is a well-baked galette as shown in her photo on pages 344-345 of our cookbook, Baking with Julia.
Whoops.
The only change I made to this recipe was substituting one-half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. To add more flavor, a small amount of Licor 43 could be poured on the fruit mix but I choose not to add more liquid this time. To see the full recipe go to the websites of our hosts this week: Lisa, http://tomatothymes.blogspot.com, who is from Ohio and Andrea, http://kitchenlioness.blogspot.com , who now lives in Germany. Andrea is also my colleague as a member of French Fridays with Dorie. To see if others huffed or puffed this week, go to http://tuesdayswithdorie.wordpress.com
Served warm, with a scoop of ice cream, Berry Galette is very tasty.
A lovely lunch or light dinner: Tomato-Cheese Tartlet with steamed, chilled lentils and baby beets lying on an arugula bed. In the spirit of full disclosure, while the adults enjoyed their lunch, Clara opted for macaroni-and-cheese.
French Friday turned into an oops! moment last week as the day swept by without our even realizing my Dorista duties were beckoning. Let’s put the blame directly where it belongs…..at the feet of the nine-year-old cutie pie who was visiting me.
Since her Dad and 11-year-old sister, were hiking/camping the Pacific Crest Trail last week, she and her Mom decided to jump in the car and dash over to Grandma’s house. Never mind Nevada’s 111-degree heat. Our days were jam-packed with back-to-school shopping, craftwork (beading), jig saws (three 500-piece puzzles), swimming, nutritious meals tilted by tasty, sugary treats, all interspersed with cheering on the Americans (and, the Brits) at the Olympics and playing Jeopardy! (It was Kids Week and Clara held her own against the eleven-year-olds and, unfortunately, also her Mom and Grandmother.)
Needing to roll out the thawed puff pastry to a 13″ square, Clara grabbed the tape measure to be precise. A grandchild after her grandmother’s heart.
But Saturday morning, we got busy, pulled the puff pastry out of the freezer, waved our wand and created Tomato-Cheese Tartlets, an easy but showy pastry concoction that highlights the seasonal tomato harvest.
The technique to be learned this week, to my mind, is in the puff magic. ( I would sooooo like to finesse some dragon allusions into this week’s Post but am refraining from the obvious.) “These tartlets,” Dorie explains, “are built on a base of puff pastry that’s been weighted down so that it bakes to a flat crisp. These flat, rather sturdy discs can be grown into whatever you have on hand or want to pile on top of them.
Using a bowl with a diameter of 6″ as a guide, Clara used the point of a paring knife to score and then cut out 4 rounds of dough.
For this week’s recipe, spread the baked, browned pastry base with tapenade or pesto. Then overlap circles of heirloom tomatoes with mozzarella dressed in olive oil or aged, drippy and languid balsamic vinegar. I preferred to let my cheese melt just a smidgen so I placed it in the oven for a few minutes before dressing it.
Lay the rounds on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Prick each disc carefully with a fork so the puff pastry won’t even think about puffing.
Place the cookie sheet with pricked rounds in the oven, cover the top with parchment paper before placing another cookie sheet on top to weigh the pastry down.
Pop a bit of basil on top. It’s lunch or a light dinner. It’s lovely.
By far the most difficult part of this recipe is deciding what to do with the puff pastry scraps. Wouldn’t it be a shame to toss those morsels in the trash? Clara and her mom decided to rescue the leftovers from such a fate. Using a crystal Lalique wine glass as her cookie cutter (Yes, I blanched at that but said not-a-word.), Clara made twelve pastry rounds, brushed each one lightly with melted butter, sprinkled them heavily with Grandma’s ample stash mixture of cinnamon-sugar-and-chopped walnuts and baked until brown and puffy.
Being Foodies, we all know the Games of the XXX Olympiad cannot officially begin until we have our menu planned for tonight’s opening ceremonies. Luckily this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice, with a tweak or two, fits nicely into my All-American lineup.
The star is Barley, which Dorie calls “an odd-man-out kind of grain” in the French (and, American) kitchen. Also called “groats”, barley is a hardy, earthy grain, commonly used for animal fodder and beer. This week we’re using its most polished version, Pearl Barley, to create Lemon Barley Pilaf. Since we are still suffering 110 degree temperatures here, I preferred Dorie’s Bonne Idee and made a cold Ham & Barley Salad.
A delicious cold Summer entrée: HAM and BARLEY SALAD.
I cooked the barley, as suggested, and let it cool to room temperature before putting it in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, I cored, seeded and cut one red bell pepper into small cubes and sliced a dozen black olives. I tossed that together with 3 cups of diced ham (a 1 1/2 pound center-cut slab) and refrigerated it also.
A look at the butter, finely chopped onion, salt, pepper and pearl barley as it initially cooks before the broth, water and bay leaf are added.
For the dressing, I made a lusty whole-grain mustard vinaigrette:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons whole-grain Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1-2 teaspoons salt (since the ham is salty, back off a bit, if you wish)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3-4 drops of Sriracha
Directions:
In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients until thoroughly blended. Chill. Just before serving, pour lightly over the combined barley, ham and vegetables until thoroughly coated and to taste.
This salad will make 4 ample servings. I plan to add sliced heirloom tomatoes (seasoned), chunks of American swiss cheese, and crusty country bread to the plate. Beer, wine or soda all compliment this menu.
After adding the broth, water and bay leaf, everything comes to a boil and then simmers, covered, for 45 minutes (longer than Dorie suggested).
You can’t miss the Olympics, even if you try. NBC will broadcast 272 1/2 hours, starting with the opening ceremony tonight (Friday). MSNBC has 155 1/2 hours with NBC Sports picking up 292 1/2 hours of team sports. CNBC has 73 hours of boxing. Bravo has 56 hours of tennis. There’s more: NBCOlympics.com will live stream every event for a record total of 5,535 hours.
With memories of and honoring the Israeli athletes murdered forty years ago at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, my wish is for a safe, harmonious, and peaceful global competition during the next two weeks.
I’ll be hooting and hollering for my country’s athletes just as other FFWD bloggers, Paula, Andrea, Mardi, Rose, and Cakelaw, to name a few, are cheering for theirs.
