French Fridays with Dorie Archives - Page 4 of 9 Kitchen Conundrum

Butter and Rum Crepes…Fancy and Plain- French Fridays with Dorie

February 22, 2014 by Renee

Perhaps we can make Spring come a little sooner if we just add some brightness to our lives. It’s time to come out of hibernation. I am so over winter and ready for some lighter and brighter fare. I am craving sunshine and the fresh flavors of home grown produce, citrus fruits and fresh berries.

Butter and Rum Crepes were on the menu this week for French Fridays with Dorie. This recipe for crepe batter incorporates the zests of a lemon and an orange along with a splash of dark rum and Grand Marnier, perfectly suited for the accompanying Honey Citrus Butter Sauce that is drizzled on top of the finished crepes. For the “Plain” crepes, one would just have to sprinkle a bit of powdered sugar on top but if you wanted to go all out and be “Fancy” you could make the suggested lemon curd that would be used as their filling. Of course, I felt a bit fancy and Lemon Curd had to be made.

If you could embody Spring in words, it would be daffodils and this lemon curd. Bright, refreshing and tangy sweet, this curd is the perfect filling for these crepes and there is plenty left over to use with scones or to make a tart-perhaps, Dorie’s Sable Breton Galette with Berries, even! (You’ll find the galette and the curd recipe there in Dorie’s newsletter.)

Everyone quite enjoyed these and I’d recommend them to anyone who wants to bring a little Spring to their kitchen.

While I cannot share this recipe, (Lemon Curd and Galette recipe is in the link above) you can (and should!) buy the book and cook along with us. It’s great fun! Every Friday we make a new recipe. Looking forward to next weeks! For details and to see how others are recreating the dishes from this awesome book, check out the FFWD site.

Buy the book:

Helene’s All White Salad – French Fridays with Dorie

February 14, 2014 by Renee

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Helene’s All White Salad, seemed quite apropos for the whiteout we’ve been having here in the Northeast. With several feet of white snow falling, it’s quite a winter wonderland. It blends perfectly with background. Which is to say, it’s also a little on the bland side. I love salad. In many incarnations. But there was not much flavor to this salad. It’s just celery and Napa cabbage with accents of mushrooms and Granny Smith apples topped with a light Greek yogurt vinaigrette. It’s light and fresh. And it’s very “vanilla”.

Being more of a chocolate girl myself, I think the best part of this salad were the semi-tart bites of apple. After the first plate was eaten, it was determined that the dressing also needed a lot more “jazzing” up. Three cloves of crushed garlic added just the zing it needed. Now, it was much better! Plus garlic still falls into the “white” category, so I don’t think I cheated too much.

This salad might get another chance over the summer. But I really don’t want to see too much more “white” this winter. Unless it’s a mound of mashed potatoes- with gravy.

While I cannot share the actual recipe, you can (and should!) buy the book and cook along with us. It’s great fun! Every Friday we make a new recipe. Looking forward to next weeks! For details and to see how others are recreating the dishes from this awesome book, check out the FFWD site.

Buy the book:

Boeuf a la Ficelle (Beef on a String) – French Fridays with Dorie

February 8, 2014 by Renee

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is a bit extravagant. Dorie says Boeuf a la Ficelle is her choice for New Year’s Eve dinners. I would have to agree- it’s quite elegant and celebration worthy. Which is perfect as I am celebrating taking a new job. I’ve been home with my little people for nearly five years after working in the tv ad industry for the whole of my adult life. It’s been a truly wonderful, extended sabbatical, I am extremely grateful for the time and experiences I have had, (I still worked- could never not – designing websites and handling social media for a few small businesses) but it will be fantastic going back to full time out of the house, work. I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity (this one in particular, actually) and am so happy I did, as it finally arrived. When I met Dorie a few months ago and we talked about the job I wanted, she had a saying for being unemployed- “in between chairs” and now, I thrilled to say, I have a chair again!

So we are celebrating with a bottle of wine, and this lovely filet with vegetables and broth.

The dish takes quite a bit of time to prepare. But it is so worth it! First you make the bouillon, which is a beef stock accented with vegetables. According to the recipe, the bouillon takes an hour or so to make. However, we wanted more than just bouillon and wanted to have more of a flavorful stock so we made it the traditional way- roasting the bones in the oven and simmering for eight hours (or overnight as we did). This long, slow simmer really extracts all of the flavors from the bones, vegetables and herbs. The result is a deeply infused bouillon.

Next, a melody of vegetables- carrots, turnips, potatoes, leeks and shallots- are cooked in the broth and set aside while you make the filet. The filet is tied with butchers string leaving a long loop of string so you can easily lower the meat into the boiling liquid and remove it minutes later. It emerges from the pot quite bleu (rare), but with a douse of hot broth, it cooks even a bit more in the “soup”. Any reservations about poaching the filet that I had was quickly extinguished with the first bite. Everyone, including the kids (even the picky one!) loved it.

It’s a hearty, rich dish, soothing with it’s broth, luxurious with the filet and very fulfilling with the vegetables. A perfect celebratory meal. We served it with a warm, fresh baguette which we used to soak up every last bit of broth. A dollop of horseradish sauce (or mustard) and a sprinkle of fleur de sel is all it needed!

I also found this terrific interview with Dorie discussing this very dish… check it out!

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