Author: chezbonneau

Coq en croûte

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When my daughter saw this dish come from the oven, she said it looked like Beef Wellington. The idea was spot on, but this is about a rooster, not a bovine.

Breast of a coq in puff pastry

This recipe is based on things I had on hand and what I hoped would work. ON HAND:

  • Breasts of a large old rooster marinated in red wine for 48 hours. (Part of a Coq au vin i was preparing but not destined for the long braise of that recipe.)
  • Puff pastry that I had made for the Tourtière limousine.
  • Tomato paste with Italian spices.
  • Emmental (“Swiss”) cheese
Coq with elements of the marinade: red wine, fresh rosemary, bay leaf, thyme, garlic, celery, carrots.
Breasts after 48 hours in the red wine marinade (in the refrigerator); split with emmenthal cheese inside).

The breasts of any fowl would work fine – chicken, turkey, Guinée hen or rooster, etc. I would suggest some kind of marinade. It doesn’t have to be the one I used. Lots of other flavor profiles are possible. A marinade is meant primarily to guarantee a moist and tender breast.

One recipe of quick puff pastry (Bruno Albouze) divided in thirds – I still have 1/3 left for another “something” to come.

With the breasts ready to be tucked away in their flaky, buttery bed, take the puff pastry from the fridge, roll it out (generously using flour to prevent sticking) and spread your paste all round, leaving the edges clean so that the pastry sticks together when folded. I used an herbal tomato paste. A pesto would also be an amazing choice.

After applying the paste (plus adding salt and freshly cracked black pepper), wrap each breast in the pastry. You should wet the edges of the pastry so that it holds together.
Brush the pastry with an egg wash (one egg with yolk and white) and score with a knife with a design of your choice)

Place in a a preheated oven at 375-400 F / 200C. Check at about 20 minutes. Cover with foil and let bake 10 minutes more. Thirty minutes total should enough for this moist, buttery, flaky dish. It certainly was for us.

Menu: Tomates au basilique et l’huile d’olive, Coq en croûte, polenta. Wine? We had a Chardonnay but an Italian red would work well.

Bon appétit à tous.

Coq en croûte

Tourtière limousine (Pâté de pommes de terre et de la viande)

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This is one variation of a traditional, savory dish in the Limousine region of France. It may be made with or without a layer of meat (pork) between two layers of potatoes and cream and the crust may be either a brioche or puff pastry. This tourtière is made with a puff pastry and a layer of ground pork between the sheets of potato.

Tourtière limousine

This is supposed to be peasant food. If peasants ate this well, count me in. Butter in a flaky crust, potatoes covered in cream, ground pork seasoned with shallots and a hint of garlic. [A Texan is probably thinking biscuits and gravy with pork sausage and potatoes on the side at this point.]

Why this recipe today? Well, I’ve been hungry to cook more, I had a very light breakfast, and I’ve been dying to use a bunch of the chives that have been thriving this summer.

Garden fresh chives

Let’s get to it: Ingredients

  • Puff pastry- one recipe according to this one by Bruno Albouze
  • 1 egg (to use as egg wash)
  • 750 g of potatoes (Yukon Gold might be the best option)
  • 250 ml heavy cream (or a reduced fat cream but not milk)
  • 300 g ground, unseasoned pork
  • Fresh chives – be generous; finely chopped
  • 2 shallots or 1 medium white onion finely chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
  • Ground nutmeg – fresh is always best
  • (Sea)Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sausage et al.

Process: Puff pastry + 25 min prep other ingredients + 30-40 min baking

  • Make the “Quick Puff Pastry” – this takes a couple of hours. A good idea to make this a day or more in advance. Once this is done, this recipe comes together quickly and easily.
Quick Puff Pastry (Bruno Albouze)
  • The potatoes…
  • Place a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil.
  • Meanwhile, peal and slice the potatoes into thin rounds (using a mandolin if you have one)
  • Place the potatoes in the boiling water for about 4 minutes. You want them partially cooked but slightly firm for the process to follow.
  • Meanwhile, in a small/medium sized bowl mix the cream, chives, nutmeg and salt (no black pepper) for the potatoes.
  • Drain the potatoes. In a larger mixing bowl, cover the bottom with the cream mixture, add some of the potatoes, then a bit more cream, more potatoes, the rest of the cream. [Why so fussy about this step? You want to evenly evenly coat the potato slices with the sauce without breaking them. This is how I did it.]
  • The ground pork….
  • Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil to a frying pan on medium heat
  • Add the shallots; when translucent (don’t let them brown) add the garlic stirring frequently until fragrant.
  • Add the sausage meat, mix and stir until brown.
  • Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove from heat.
  • Assembly required:
  • Grease (butter or oil) a 9” or 22 cm tart/cake pan that has sides of 1.5 to 2 inches.
  • Remove your puff pastry from the fridge
  • Divide the pastry 2/3 (bottom and sides) and 1/3 (top) and roll out as quickly as possible
  • Fit the bottom sheet in your pan and begin layering your ingredients…
  • 1/2 of the potatoes, then all of the sausage, then the rest of the potatoes
  • Lastly….
  • Whisk the egg and brush the edges of the pastry to help seal the top to the bottom sheet.
  • Place the top sheet on the tourtière, trim any excess pastry and crimp the edges together.
  • Brush the entire surface with egg wash
  • Score the surface with a knife to create a design if you’d like to
  • Pierce the pastry in several places with a toothpick to let steam escape
  • Cut a small circle out of the center of the pastry to let steam escape

Place in your preheated oven at 190C or 375F for 35-40 minutes. Check on the tourtière at 30 minutes to make sure the crust is not over-browning. You may want to lay a piece of aluminum foil over it to protect the pastry. (I did.) At 40 minutes it should be done. Bring it out of the oven and LET IT COOL for at least thirty minutes before cutting into it. It needs this in order to hold together, for more steam to escape and for the cream to thicken.

A red Bordeaux wine is often suggested to pair with this. On this beautiful sunny day in France, I went with an inexpensive rosé and was not disappointed. Actually, after the first bite of that buttery crust, I couldn’t think about much else.
À la prochaine.

La Toque / The Chef’s Hat

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La Toque is an apple pie with a layer of almond cream inspired by chef Bruno Albouze’s « Grandma’ s Apple Pie. » The pie has a puff pastry crust. The bottom crust is perfectly constrained by the tart ring while the top crust is allowed to puff up, thus « giving rise » to the name.

Maybe I should stop saying I’m using leftovers and start saying, « with xyz » that I made ahead of time – like in this recipe. For this pie, I already had at hand the puff pastry from a previous double batch, and the almond cream. I had made the almond cream before I knew how I’d use it, but I had a hunch that it might find its way into this pie.

Keep it cool and dusted with flour and you’ll be pleased.

If you have been wanting to make a desert with puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) but have been hesitating – cast aside you doubts and make this recipe by Albouze. Even after a week in the fridge, it made a beautiful crust that firmly held the almond cream and sautéed apples without becoming soggy

For the almond cream and sautéed apples, go to Chef Bruno’s page. For the assembly of this pie, just follow the illustrations below.

Fit the chilled but supple bottom crust into a greased tart ring sitting on parchment paper in baking tray. Trim the excess but leave a 1/2 inch overhang to join to the upper crust later. Fill the bottom with a generous layer of almond cream.
Arrange your room temperature sautéed apples as you see here. Do not be afraid to squeeze them in a bit as you would for a Tarte Tatin.
When you’ve filled the ring with apples, pour in some of the room temperature, thickened juice from the sauté pan – this will be a syrupy cinnamon, vanilla delight. It must be a reduced syrupy consistency so as not to add too much liquid to the pie. It must be at room temperature so as not to melt the pastry or the cream. Patience pays off.
Cover, crimp, score and egg wash. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.
10 minutes in the oven at 200C / 400F, then lower the temperature to 180C/ 350F for 30 minutes. Do not unmold until at room temperature or colder. I placed mine in the fridge overnight.
Unmold for this beautiful « Toque ».
When cooled, this pie cuts beautifully. You can warm a slice if you wish or eat at room temperature for the fullest flavor.

Give it a try and have a sweet day.

Chausson aux poires (Pear turnovers)

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Time to confront my fears – puff pastry. I recently watched Bruno Albouze produce several beautiful deserts using quick puff pastry – a King’s Cake, an apple pie and apple turnovers. Besides showcasing upgraded versions of classic French deserts, Albouze was demonstrating the quality results possible with a very fast method of making puff pastry. The method reduced the production of puff pastry from three days to just a couple of hours. I thought, “Now that’s an idea to take with me into retirement.” And, by the looks of things, I surely will.

I had lots of fruit in the house to choose from, especially apples and pears. I chose to substitute pears for this classic French, Chausson aux pommes (Apple Turnovers), pastry. The result has been delicious. Here’s the low down:

  1. 1/2 recipe of Albouze’s quick puff pastry. Follow his directions and you will succeed.

2. Pear Compote. The compote contains the reason for my choice to use pears instead of apples today. The pears were super ripe and needed to be used. I was hungry for lots of flavor, so I searched and found a recipe for Spiced Pear Compote. I knew that this recipe with anise, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg would help create an exotic filling – and I wasn’t disappointed. It was a struggle to save the compote for the turnovers and not just eat it on the spot. But I managed. As usual, added my own small touch to this recipe. First, I was able to use freshly grated nutmeg. Second, I added about an ounce of Poire Williams Eau de Vie for some added depth.

3. The pear filling. I simply peeled, cored and diced enough pears to give me 350 gm fruit for the filling. As per the apple mixture recipe of Chef Albouze, I added sugar and a bit of cinnamon and then sautéed them on high for a few minutes to soften but not disintegrate the small pieces and drive away a great deal of moisture.

  1. 350 gm pear
  2. 80 gm sugar
  3. 15 gm butter
Compote and diced pear mixture to create the filling for the “Chaussons”.

Filling and dough done, time to assemble:

I used a large ice-cream scoop to measuring .
Brushed some of the flavorful juice from the sautéed pears to help seal the turnovers.
Egg wash, score, let rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Then bake.
After 10 minutes at 220 C, then 30 minutes at 180 C.
Brushed with maple syrup for a sweet and glossy finish. Done!

Tomorrow – apple turnovers. The puff pastry is already made.

Have a sweet day.

Tarte aux Poires Belle Helene (avec des noix de Chez Bonneau)

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This tart was inspired by that of Beth Dunham. If you follow her link, you’ll see why one would want to do the same. I thought I’d try to replicate hers, but then, up popped my recurring “leftover” them, and I saw some graham crackers that had been in the cupboard too long…. You know the story. So I made a crust detour, and then a filling detour (or two). So, what happened?

IN THE BEGINNING

Visiting my blog, you’ll see that the post just prior to this one was about making crystalized ginger. That was my first step toward making this tart. I didn’t have and couldn’t quickly find any, so, pushing myself to do a bit more on my own, I…. made my own. So, on to today.

DETOURS

This recipe is composed of the following

  1. CRUST: a graham cracker crust made with butter and some quality powdered cocoa.
    1. 150 g graham crackers
    2. 140 g melted butter
    3. 10 g 100% chocolate cocoa powder
    4. 50 g brown sugar

I processed the cookies in a food processor until it was like smooth sand. Then added the chocolate and brown sugar – pulse. Lastly, added the butter and pulsed until homogenous. Press into the tart/pie pan of your choice. I used two “tools” for pressing and shaping: 1) my 1/4 cup measuring cup with square sides for pressing the bottom and sides, and 2) a bench scraper to shape the edges. (I tried using the small glass jar you see but it didn’t work well for me.)

  1. Filling A: a chocolate ganache (not a part of Beth’s recipe)
    1. 140 g dark chocolate (72% recommended)
    2. 100 g heavy cream
    3. 30 g ginger syrup (saved from making the crystalized ginger)
  2. I did NOT follow standard procedure for making this ganache. Just saying.
    1. I melted the chocolate in a microwave until smooth and easy to stir with a whisk.
    2. Heat the cream in a sauce pan till beginning to boil. Take off heat and begin incorporating the chocolate.
    3. I used my whisk to incorporate the melted chocolate little by little, stirring vigorously to incorporate and smooth the mixture.
    4. Added the ginger – duh.
    5. I would move my pan onto or off of the heat on the stovetop as I felt the need to keep things developing into a smooth, homogeneous mixture. It worked really well.
    6. Note: Remember to take a picture of this stage. Oops! Woah! I DID take a video of pouring it into the crust. Let’s see if I can click it in below or link it….
    7. Ganache in tarte shell…. “the pour”
  1. Filling B: pears sautéed in cinnamon, vanilla, butter, brown sugar and walnuts (Should we call this a topping instead?). NOTE: The following recipe follows closely Beth Dunham’s with some note changes. Also, as you can see, I used my measuring spoons for this part.
    1. 3 pears (peel, cut in half, core) – Beth thinly sliced two pears.
    2. a splash of water to prevent carmelization
    3. 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
    4. 3 tbsp brown sugar
    5. 1 vanilla bean (cut open and placed in the sautée pan.(Beth: 1 tsp pure vanilla extract)
    6. 2 small cinnamon sticks (Beth: 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon)
    7. 1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
Vue du ciel

As you can see, that’s it. Now we await judgement that only a knife and fork can bring.

I pray that you and your loved ones have a sweet and beautiful day.

Candied / Crystalized Ginger

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I ran across a recipe for a Pear Tarte with ginger and walnuts the other day that looked delicious. I didn’t have any candied ginger nor did I see any in the store, so I decided to make some for myself. As it turns out, the process is not difficult but it does take a faire amount of time.

Drying stage plus an added bonus of gingered syrup.

I haven’t decided if I want to bathe them in sugar or not. It depends on how sticky they remain. For now, lookin’ and tasting wonderful. Next stop….. that tart.

I almost forgot. Here is the link to the recipe I followed from The Daring Gourmet: https://www.daringgourmet.com/how-to-make-crystallized-ginger/#recipe

Tarte au Boudin noir

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Farm to table comfort food

I spend a good bit of time looking for French comfort food recipes that can come from a small farm and find a place on the table near the fireplace. This is one such dish, Boudin noir. Traditionally, boudin noir (blood sausage) is served warm with sautéed or roasted apples. Happily, we have a number of apple trees on the farm to help us bring this dish to the table. I owe the presentation of this “boudin pie” to Bruno Albouze, a talented chef you can find on YouTube whom I highly recommend.

Leftovers – the gift that keeps on giving.

Why this dish now? Well, chef Albouze had just recently published his “Blood Sausage Roasted Apple Pie” (Ça va, chef, si je traduis le titre en français?), so it was on my mind. Then “low and behold”, I opened our fridge and, to my surprise, we had almost everything on hand ready to go for this recipe. I had some unused pie crust in the freezer, some leftover caramelized onions from a hamburger party, a few Granny Smith apples that were part of a cole slaw recipe and three pears . Oh, “what’s that in the back of the fridge?” Boudin noir? Where did that come from? Not sure. But I knew I had to ask permission to use it from this family’s true chef, my wife. Permission granted. So I got busy.

Le rassemblement

What do to?

  1. Pie crust – Made. I needed to thaw it, shape it in the pan, put it back in the freezer for a few minutes, then bake it (blind bake, 20 minutes, then uncovered 10 minutes at 350 F).
  2. Caramalized onions – Made. Just pull from the fridge.
  3. Compote- Oops, chef! I did not have enough apples for the apple compote AND the apples on top of the pie. Sooooooo, I made a pear compote instead “because they were there” and because I was convinced that the Poire-Williams Eau de vie in the cupboard would bring a flavor that would marry well with this complex set of flavors and textures – and I was right!
  4. Potato prep – As directed by Chef Albouze and recommended by the late Joël Robuchon, I boiled them with skin on beginning in cold, salted water. Peel. Slice. Done.
  5. Sautéed apples – peel, core, slice (6 per apple), sauter in duck fat. Oh. I failed to mention that I had some duck fat on hand too. Sorry, it almost feels like cheating. What to do if you don’t have or can’t find duck fat? Not sure. I am inclined to say “sauter in clarified butter”. I did so for a Christmas meal – and it was very, very yum.
  6. Gastric sauce — a finishing touch that has a great effect on this dish. Please watch the Albouze video for that one.

A few pictures of the process follow…

Crust plus caramelized onions
Pear compote with Eau de vie
Apple, potato, sausage, repeat (as artfully as possible)
Fresh out of the oven (basted once with some melted butter)
Ready to enjoy with a lovely salad and some mulled wine for a mid-winter treat.

La tarte bleue

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Look what happens when you clean out the fridge and freezer. This tarte is a mostly standard fruit tarte you might find in a French patisserie. If I were starting from scratch, some things would probably be different. For instance, the crust is a pâte brisé, best for a quiche and not the typical crust for a fruit tarte. It was left in the freezer from a previous recipe and needed to meet its maker.

You can see from the photographs that the layers of this fruit tarte are as follows: crust, crème pâtissière, a gelled fruit compote and finally fresh fruit. The crème patissière is absolutely standard but I made sure to use vanilla from a vanilla bean pod that had spent far too long in the cupboard. Any time you can afford to, use vanilla straight from the bean pod.

The layer of gelled compote was made from frozen blackberries and frozen blueberries from partially used bags of desserts of long ago. I never try to use frozen fruit as whole-fruit toppings on a tart. They tend to fall apart and bleed everywhere. So I help them along by cooking them with a little sugar and cinnamon, reduce the water content and add a gelatin. On top of all of this, I added “fresh” blueberries that managed to stay in great shape in the fridge during our two-week Christmas vacation.

RECIPE

Crust (Pâte brisée) and Crème pâtissière – for ingredients and method go to Bruno Albouze (I did!)

Fruit compote

Ingredients:

250 g frozen blackberries

250 g frozen blueberri

5 g cinnamon

150 g sugar

3 gelatin leaves

Method:

Place frozen fruit, sugar and cinnamon in a casserole, bring to a boil, turn down the heat to medium low and allow to gently bubble and loose 50% of the water content. Take off heat. Place gelatin leaves in cool water and allow to soften. Squeeze the leaves to remove excess water and place them in the fruit compote. Carefully use a submersible blender to blend and homogenize the fruit and gelatin.

COOLING TIME: For great results and ease of assembling the final product, allow the custard and compote to rest in the fridge over night. Allow the crust to sit overnight, covered, on the kitchen counter. When ready to assemble, vigorously whisk the custard and gelled compote, then layer them with care into the crust.

FRUIT TOPING: It would be great to cover the top of this tarte with a mix of blackberries and blueberries. I used what I had on hand, a handful of leftover blueberries. Fresh fruit could be coated with an apricot glaze or simply left natural if you plan to serve them “today.”

I hope that you have a sweet day with family and friends!