Ile Flottante

My project, it has been revived.

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My very first post, I talked about needing a project to keep busy.  A constantly moving mind (thanks adult-ADHD!)  The other things I wanted to do that my husband was resistant to - buying a home (check), having kid #2 (check), going back to school and getting a LLM (check!).  As I wrapped up my LLM program this May, I thought about this project.  About my approaching 40th birthday.  About goals.  About change.  Taking plunges, like opening my own law firm two years ago.  Success.   Unfinished business.  And I decided my last year of my 30's was going to be dedicated to finishing things.  Starting with... my French Laundry Project!

This revival has less pictures, despite my miles-prettier kitchen, due to having people sitting and watching me cook (photos feel awkward now).  More and bigger courses.  Pushing limits and traipsing into the previously-uneaten foods of which I am no longer scared.  In four months i've hosted 4 dinners, with more than 30 recipes covered.  I am a more confident cook than I have ever been.  And my children go to bed on their own and sleep through the night, which certainly helps my ability to work through ambiguous-as-fuck recipes, such as "make a farce and roll it into skin".

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Another goal with 40 approaching is to organize my life.  Photos, mostly.  I can't remember things, and it scares me.  Probably normal aging, but my grandmother and two of her sisters have Alzheimers - at just over 80, my grandmother no longer knows who I am - and there are few worse diseases.  But photos and writing spark memories.  I had no memory of eating, yet alone making, a handful of the recipes.  When I remembered and skimmed through my blog, it all came back.  Which clearly shows I need to document it.  Once I am done, it is all going into a shutterfly book.  One I can pull out and show my kids, to show them when mommy did something adventurous and scary, to show them that they can take on big projects and to finish them (even if it takes a decade!)  Expect a return to writing, even if the pictures leave something to be desired.

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When I opened the 'post now', I found a partially-written blog post (amusingly, of one of the things I told my husband I had zero recollection of making).  Without further adieu, pictures from a dinner I made in 2014!  Five years later, I have no recollection of how hard it was, how it tasted, or what I screwed up.  The photos do tell me that there were a lot of freaking steps, so I probably don't want to do it again.

 
Weird cookies.  The bottom, probably:

Who doesn't love a little sugar cooked with egg whites.  Into some sort of meringue-like thing, I think:

Moving on: ingredients for creme anglaise:

Gonna be honest, this looks like meringue.  But that's not where it is in the photo order.  Mixed up photos?  Something else?  Maybe creme?  But why would that be whisked?  Your guess is as good as mine.

Now this I know.  Melting chocolate with hot cream.  Did a lot of times, including (apparently) for this dessert.

On its way to being mint oil:

Ta-da, I finished it!  You know, five years later, I still think I nailed it with the mint oil drops.  But I have no recollection at all of what this tasted like, or how I got the chocolate to be shavings.  Still, I clearly did it, so check!

Updates All Around, Dinner # I-Lost-Count

So, my reader (again, singular) may have noticed my prolonged absence.  Despite my lack of blogging, I have still kept cooking (kind of).  Two more dinners since my last post, which I will blog about, someday.  Likely while I am on maternity leave.  Yep, we are having another baby, a little girl, and I cannot wait.  Unlike with my first, I did not suffer from the kind of morning sickness that is utterly life-altering and renders one incapable of doing anything.  But I didn't feel like eating much of anything, yet alone something squicky like oysters (which reminds me... need to get the raw oyster dishes out of the way while I can still beg off because I am pregnant!).  So, an extended absence.  But then I started reading all these things about how the sale of foie gras won't be permitted in California anymore, and I realized that I still have FOUR recipes that need foie, and I thought "I better get myself in gear."  I did, and i'm glad I did.  My husband emerges from a pool peaceful, like his soul is better for a swim.  I emerge from a kitchen the same way (well, if you ignore the screams at my dogs to GET.OUT.of the way.)

And, so, for my most recent dinner, I loaded up on the foie:

Starter: Gruyere Cheese Gougeres
First: Gewurzterminer-Poached Foie Gras
Second: Lobster with Poached Figs and Foie Gras
Main: Pekin Duck with Corn and Morels
Dessert: Strawberry Shortcakes with Creme Fraiche.  I can feel little E bouncing around in my stomach just thinking about this deliciousness!

Perail de Brebis with (Arugula) Aux Lardons

This was simultaneously the easiest dish to make and the dish I would eat for dinner 3 times a week for the rest of my life.  You know, if I kept things like quail eggs stocked in my fridge.  I did make a minor change to the recipe, and substituted argula for frisee.  Frisee tastes like dental floss.  Argula tastes like peppery lettuce, except a thousand times better.  No one complained about the substitution, and everyone finished their plate, so i'm guess that it was ok.

First, brioche!  I had intended to make my own fresh brioche.  Due to pesky work, it didn't happen... so Bread and Cie came through for me on Friday morning.

Slicing the brioche into 1" thick slices, and cutting holes out using my cutters took like 30 seconds.  For all of them.  AND I had some little 'cooks snacks' (leftover brioche rounds) that I got to nibble on as I prepped. 

The dressing took like 2 minutes.  Olive oil, sherry vinegar, mustard, along with a dash of salt and pepper.  My friend asked me for the recipe like two months later, and didn't believe it was so simple because it was so good.

The dressing was unusual, in that you didn't use the mustard as an emulsifying agent.  Instead, I whisked the mustard and vinegar together, then stirred in the olive oil with a spoon.  Easy, easy stuff.

Right before serving, I cut the cheese into wedges (another 2 minutes), and tossed the bread rounds in a pan with some melted butter.  Flip the round, then creak a quail egg in the hole.  Drizzle dressing on top of the arugula.  Total time: less than 5 minutes.

 I realized after serving that I forgot to put the lardons on the salad part, so I brought them to the table and let people do it themselves.  Unsurprisingly, no one complained, and there was no lardons left.

Seriously, if you have The French Laundry Cookbook and you are afraid to tackle something, start with THIS.  It was amazing.  Like, so good that I used leftover ingredients (well, subbing brie for the cheese) to make this for dinner twice that week.  And each time, it was like a 15 minute dinner, start to sitting down to each - even with doubling the recipe to make it dinner-sized and cutting the bread into pretty circles!!!!  AND it was easy to find all of the ingredients, except maybe the cheese (but it is easy enough to find a cheese close to perail de brebis).  This isn't just on my "keepers" list, it is literally in my monthly list of "things I make when i'm busy."  And, oh, have I been busy lately... but more to come on that. 

Venison Chops with Pan Roasted Butternut Squash

Like so many of the other 'firsts' involved in cooking my way through the French Laundry Cookbook, this was my first time cooking venison... AND my first time eating venison.  I don't have anything against game, per se, its just that I don't really like meat that much, so I certainly wouldn't go for a good venison chop over, say, a nice steak.

The first step in making this, like with most of the meat dishes, was making the anything-but 'Quick Sauce.'  Ideally, I would have had venison bones.  I didn't.  I couldn't find any anywhere (anyone in SD want to give me a hint about where this is possible?), so I got beef bones.  I figured, if anything, it would hide the potential game-yness of the venison chops.

Mis: stock - chicken and veal, mirepoix, beef bones, and blueberries (my substitute for the also-unfindable huckleberries)

This time, when roasting the bones (and UNLIKE when I did the lamb quick sauce), I had a little splatter screen.  It's amazing how much pain a little $3 accessory from Ikea can save a person.

Also as a result of the splatter screen, I was able to take some extra pictures - here, after the second 10-minute bone roasting when I added the mirepoix

Eventually, I cooked the bones, mirepoix, stock, and blueberries down and strained, then strained again, then reduced again.  Yeah, not quick.

Next, I roasted the shallots.  Super easy - shallots, thyme, and a little oil...

All tossed in a foil packet, then tossed in the oven

Next, I frenched the bones.  The ruby-red meat was both a little freaky and beautiful.

The butternut squash!  My very favorite vegetable, at least when roasted (and especially when roasted then make into a soup). 

The instructions said to peel, then cut circles.  But I seriously saw no point in doing this when my circles were smaller than the neck of the butternut squash, so I just cut them lengthwise, then cut out the circles (shhh.. don't tell anyone)

These were boil (not pictured), then pan-fried (also not pictured).  And, most excitingly, they were scored, so that they had a little diamond pattern.  Really wish I had a picture of that!

The finished plate (a little out of focus, sorry):

The meat was great - not gamey at all.  In fact, I think its way less gamey than lamb, and I love lamb chops.  The bacon was a perfect amount of added fat, since the dish was generally pretty lean.  And it was super pretty when served - just look at the perfect circles and pretty bacon handle and stuff (but ignore that the sauce isn't that good a circle - i'm not great with making a circle using a spoon).  Pretty delicious, and not that hard.

Tasting of Potatoes with Black Truffles

Wow, I can't believe a month has slipped by since i've last posted.  It's been a busy month.  Christmas, skiing, parties, working (boo!), and some exciting news to come helped December and the first half of January fly by.

Where was I with this dinner thing?  Oh yeah, second course.  Tasting of Potatoes.  It doesn't sound that fancy when you read it - it's basically a recipe for glorified mashed potatoes.  But after making potatoes this way, I never want to go back to plain ol' Thanksgiving mashed potatoes again (notwithstanding that this recipe is so finicky and exacting that it would be near impossible to make it as part of a dinner served all at once). 

I started with the truffle chips.  Unlike 'Tasting of potatoes,' truffle chips do *not* sound like something we would have at a holiday meal.  They were surprisingly easy to prepare, but at the same time, had some issues with the cooking.

First I shaped a potato into something resembling an oval (look at how many scraps I had trying to get there!):

Then I thinly sliced potatoes and a truffle using my Japanese mandoline (and my new 'cut-proof gloves' - a worthy $15 investment if, like me, you need fingers to work), and laid a truffle between two potato slices on a buttered-salted sheet.  Notice how the ones on the right are sliced much thicker.  If you want the chips to cook in normal amounts of time, make them as absolutely thin as you can.

And, like an hour later, truffle chips!  They weren't as crispy as I imagine they should have been.  Were I to make them again (and I think i'm supposed to for 'Chips and Dip'), I would cook them in the over until they were really "stuck" then try deep drying them.  Not that this is guaranteed to work, but it would take a lot less time than the HOUR they spent backing (with me examining them every 10 minutes saying '.... still not chip-looking, hopefully more time will do it.'

Extreme close-up!

The truffle chips were definitely the most time consuming step.  Next I (gently) boiled some potatoes, put them through the tamis, and then basically created an emulsion with ungodly amounts of cream and butter.  Best mashed potatoes ever.

Finally, I cut what felt like a million fingerling-type potatoes into tiny pieces, blanched, then cooked with some truffle bits, truffle stock, and brunoise until it got thick.  Well, thick-ish.  It said to blanch the potatoes for 3 minutes (an insanely short time, but it makes sense when they are all fingernail-sized), then to add vinegar/stock/etc, and reduce.  I think it should have reduced longer, but I didn't want to spoil the potatoes or have them break, so we went with 'not-quite-thick' potato-topping-stuff.

See?  Looks a little runny.

But it tasted delicious; earthy and rich.  I really liked it.  Not loved, though.  I think that maybe, at heart, i'm just not a huge fan of truffles (blasphemy in the foodie world, i'm sure).  It's funny, because I love mushrooms, but I just feel like truffles are overwhelming.  I thought maybe it was just a white truffle oil thing - because that stuff IS overwhelming - but it applies to black winter truffles too.  Still, the potato-emulsification was awesomeness, something that I am going to repeat (but never after a workout, because, dude! all the stirring hurt my arms).

White Truffle Oil Infused Custards with Black Truffle Ragout

I have admired the picture of the completed custards over and over.  I've contemplated cutting the shells, how pretty the standing chive chip would be, how delicious double-truffle custard would be.

Well, at least I got one of those right.

Let's start with the eggshells.  I bought an egg cutter (against all instinct, because I thought I would be terrible at cutting eggshells).  The stupid, stupid thing did not work (what a waste of $10!)  But, I was right about the eggshells: I AM terrible at cutting them.

(and let us not even mention the number I broke.  Luckily, I needed a lot of eggs for the dinner overall).

I knew the chive chips would be a challenge.  I mean, i'm making chips out of potatoes squished together!

First, I prepped the sheets - two silpats, clarified butter, salt.  Hint: don't put a ton of salt.  The chips may have been pretty, but they were kind of like eating a salt lick.

I peeled the potato, cut it into a band-aid shape, sliced it thin on the mandoline.  I laid a chive between two slices, and baked on low low heat.

The recipe said they were supposed to take 20 minutes.  Um, more like an HOUR before they were golden brown and crisp-like - they never got crisp like a real chip, but at the least they were cooked.  Some of this may have been me, since I did confuse the instructions and think that I needed to sandwich those between two cookie sheets.  They were delicious, once I got past the salt lick thing.

Finally, a couple of hours before people were due, I made the custard.  It was actually simple.  There were only like four things in it - how could it not be??

I warmed the milk and cream to just under a boil, turned the blender on, and poured it in.  Yes, turned the blender on THEN poured it in.  I have to admit, I was scared - visions of scalding milk flying in my direction.  But Thomas Keller said turning it on first would actually STOP splashing, and who am I to argue with TK?  Unsurprisingly, he was right.

So, where was I?  Oh yeah, milk/cream, blending, then I added a couple of eggs, salt, pepper, and (at the very end) white truffle oil.  As i've said so many times, i'm not a huge fan of the smell of white truffle oil, so it didn't smell heavenly.  Pour it into a spouted measuring cup, into the egg shells, which went into a big glass pan that I filled 2/3rds of the way with water.  Baked for about an hour, perfect custards!

Finally, right before serving, I reduced some truffle-infused stock, a dash of vinegar, some truffles, and some brunoise.  Beautiful stuff.

The finished dish:

The chip is standing!  At least it did for a minute - it quickly wilted in the sauce/custard.  Eating it... well, lets just say this is the 'playfulness' in this meal.  I served them in these shotglasses (sake glasses?) I found when unpacking hubby's old high school pottery he made that had been boxed up for at least a decade.  Innocent high school times, i'm sure.  And to go with pottery shotglasses?  Baby spoons.  The only thing I could find that actually fit into the eggshells.  Well, I found one espresso spoon, which husband used, because he said there was 'absolutely no way' he was eating off a baby spoon.  Marked contrast to one male guest who told us about how he used to eat baby bananas and HIDE THE JARS and how eating off a baby spoon brought back memories.  Hilarious things that come out when you have co-workers over for dinner.

I think the fact that I talked about the container and spoon for so long tells how I felt about the custard.  I mean, it wasn't bad.  But it wasn't my favorite.  I was disappointed, after admiring the picture for so long.  With so few disappointments so far, though, it only seems fitting that something wouldn't be the most amazing thing ever.

Dinner 11: New House, New Kitchen, New Outlook

Well, maybe a readoption of an old outlook.  I'm simultaneously gaining and losing steam.  On one hand, I just planned and executed a FIVE course menu from TFLC.  Five courses!  And it wasn't even that hard (well, obviously this was due in part to the menu).  I yearn to spend more time in the kitchen, learning, cooking.  At the same time, i'm becoming less confident in my ability to do this.  By this, I mean make it through The French Laundry.   I've made it just shy of halfway (48% to be exact!), but, well, whole lambs are crazy.  And pigs heads and feet are gross.  Obviously, making it through The French Laundry will be the biggest challenge of the Keller collection (well, not sure how Under Pressure is, but Bouchon and Ad Hoc are both pretty simple after TFLC).  Does this mean that i'm going to spend my next decade cooking Keller for my friends, family, and co-workers?  I'm just not sure.

Musings aside, my five course menu for dinner!

Canape - white truffle oil-infused custards with black truffle ragout
First Course - tasting of potatoes with black truffle
Entree - Venison Chops with pan-roasted butternut squash
Cheese course - Perail de brebis with frisee aux lardons
Dessert - ile flottante

Sally Schmidt's Cranberry Apple Kuchen

We've established that I have gone literally months - *months* - without cooking.  Life is busy, deadlines, work, lawyer, blah, blah.  We all get busy sometimes.  Mine led to no cooking.

By November, I was really starting to have French Laundry withdrawals.  Four months without using my round cutters or chinois!  Four months without making a new flavored oil!  Four months without worrying about accidentally setting my kitchen on fire!  So, I insisted on having people over for Thanksgiving.  It was a long, hard fight; I won.  We had a small crowd (six people), so I stuck to traditions: turkey, mashed potatoes, grilled veggies, stuffing.  I threw in one unusual item: pumpkin-thyme rolls (which were a giant hit).  

And, I managed to seamlessly add a dessert from The French Laundry Cookbook.  Since we didn't have cranberry sauce, since no one coming over really loved pie (except me and angry toddler), I decided apple-cranberry cake would be a perfect way to end the meal.  It was.  And easy to boot.  I actually managed to prep it and cook it during the five hours that it took me to do all of Thanksgiving dinner.

The mis.  Notice something unusual about this picture? 

If you said 'granite counters, so that must be your new kitchen'... dingdingding!  Good observation skills.

Next I peeled, sliced, and cored some apples.

To make the batter, I creamed some butter, sugar, and an egg, then added flour and baking soda.

I spooned that into a cake pan (or in my case, really a cheesecake springform pan, which is nice because it releases easy but can turn out poorly for a bunch of reasons I dont understand.  I used it because it was the only cake pan I had that was anywhere near the right size) and arranged the apples in a pretty ring.

Sprinkling cranberries is fun!

With cranberries arranged around all of the edges and center.

Then I dusted with cinnamon/sugar/possibly nutmeg (I have no recollection of that, but looking back at my mis I see nutmeg and milk, which must have been in the batter)

Forty-odd minutes later, it emerged from the oven all beautiful.  And without any natural light to make a pretty photograph, and with people who had just finished dinner clamoring for a bite.

I whipped up the hot cream sauce - which was basically fat, more fat, and a different form of something that will make you fat (ie, cream, butter, and sugar).

The cake was delicious, although I wished that I had used a slightly smaller cake pan, since the batter part of the cake seemed a little thin.  It was a little tart without the hot cream sauce.  The dessert-hater crowd was happy about that, since (1) they could pretend like it was healthier and (2) it wasn't really sweet.  The hot cream sauce brought the sweetness up a tinge, and soaked through the batter to almost make it like a tres leches cake.

I thought it was delicious both ways.  It definitely reheated better with the cream sauces as breakfast (and maybe lunch... and dinner) the next day.  The combination tart-sweet seems like it would be a good holiday cake or like a nice cake in the summer, when its hot and you don't want to feel weighted down by something super sugary.  It just occurred to me that cranberries are near impossible to find in the summer though - so maybe its more of a September/October in San Diego cake (when its still hot, but we like to pretend its fall.)  Just find a time to make it.  It will take less than an hour, including cooking time, and will get rave reviews.