Oui, Chef

Apple and Cranberry Crisp

HA....we're on a roll now.  This tasty treat turned out to be the perfect foil for a 1/2 used jar of Trader Joe's  Apple Butter hogging space in our fridge, and as easy as that the inventory of our refrigerator condiment museum took another hit.  Perhaps we should craft a song for the occasion...."50 bottles of condiments in the fridge, 50 bottle of condiments....you take 1 out, and put it to use, 49 bottles of condiments in the fridge"  Ugh, with 47 bottles left, this could take a while.....

Peanut Butter Honeycomb Pie

This lovely treat of a thing is something the Mrs. whipped up as a going away present for Grid, our recently departed college freshman.  Always a fan of the classic peanut butter and chocolate combination, she was sure that this pie would be a fitting climax to his final dinner at home before leaving for school.

Peach and Blueberry Crumble with Tarragon

I found some delicious, locally grown peaches at the market the other day, and they looked so good in their cute little wooden box that I had to buy them.  There were about 12 of them in the crate and were still a bit hard when I bought them so I left them on the counter to continue ripening for a couple of days.  When they seemed to have softened enough, my wife and I cut into one for a lunchtime dessert and were thrilled with how great they were, so juicy and very sweet.

Of course, the problem with peaches (and most fresh fruit for that matter) is that once they attain their peak of freshness, they begin a quick downhill sprint to the land of rot.  If we only had one or two to snarf down in a hurry I wouldn't have worried much, but with a ten or so peaches left, and most of our clan off at various camps this week, I was afraid we'd lose all the lovelies to our ever present summer battalion of fruit flies, before we had a chance to enjoy them.

Cherry Hand Pies

It seems that over the past year whenever we had guests that offered to make a pre-dinner nibble to have with cocktails, they decided to craft something using frozen puff pastry dough.  Given that each of these folks brought a fresh box of pastry sheets with them, and used only half a box to make their appetizer, we recently discovered that we had 83 half used boxes of puff pastry in our freezer (no wonder we're running out of room there).

As I was starting to panic, wondering what the #@*& we were going to do with that many pastry sheets, my wife found this simple but delicious recipe in our latest issue of Bon Appetit.  This recipe is for little cherry pies, using a combination of fresh and dried fruit, but any type of fruit would work.  Beware though, if you're using a really juicy fruit you may need to up the amount of cornstarch used in order to guarantee a nice thick filling for your pies.  I'm thinking fresh apples and dried cranberries would be lovely, or how about peanut butter with a fresh strawberry compote, or dare I say, Nutella with some orange marmalade?  Oohhhh.....

Lisa's "To Die For" Apple Pie

I'm not much of a Facebook guy.  Any of you who have been to my Oui, Chef Facebook Fan Page, can undoubtably attest to that fact.....sorry.  I set up the page on a friend's recommendation because "everyone" has one, so I should have one too.  Problem is....I can't figure out what the #$%& to do with it, so all it really contains are re-postings from my blog....ugh.  To the 310 of you who have become my fans (Thanks!), please accept my apolgies for there not being anything more compelling on the fan page than what you find here.  If any of you have any recommendations as to what I should do on my fan page, please let me know....I'm all ears.  Perhaps one day I'll figure it out on my own, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

I'm really no better with my personal Facebook page, in fact, I'm starting to think that I just don't get the whole Facebook thing.  All my "friends" find on my page are linked posts from this blog....I"M SO BORING.  I mean, I've enjoyed reconnecting with old acquaintences from high school and college, but after a brief "hey nice to see you're still alive", and a "so what are you doing to keep yourself busy these days?", I quickly run out of things to say.  It's not that I don't care.  Well, that's what I keep telling myself anyway.

Chris' Cranberry Crumb Tart

This lovely confection comes to us courtesy of MY lovely confection, my wife.  We are quite swimming in cranberries these days up here in "Pilgrim Country", the bogs are flooded, the harvest is on, and big bags of our local tart treats can be found on every corner.

When we had our neighbor, Richard (who used to be in the cranberry biz) to dinner the other night, I thought I'd use the occasion to kick off our cranberry cooking season with a bang.  I was originally planning to cook a chocolate - cranberry tart that I had found on Epicurious, until my lovely reminded me that Richard is not a big fan of chocolate (a little factoid that I continually forget, most likely because I find the notion so utterly preposterous...."you don't like chocolate, huh....you ARE joking aren't you?")  When I shared this little bit of trivia with Muppet, tears welled up in her eyes..."that poor poor man, I can't imagine not liking chocolate.  You don't think he's contagious, do you?  Because if he is, he has to go home now...and I mean RIGHT NOW!"

Chicken Pot Pie "Provencal"

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had holidays filled with lots of love, laughter and great food!  We here at "Oui, Chef" are just starting to get back into the swing of things after our holiday travel.  We're warming up the stove, cleaning the cobwebs from the pantry, and re-stocking the fridge so that we can share more fun, family friendly recipes with you as we launch into 2010.  Today we're sharing a chicken pot pie recipe that I came up with earlier in the Fall, and I have to say that I'm really proud of this creation....it ROCKS! 

The recipe calls for doing EVERYTHING from scratch, and as such, it is not a recipe that you will be whipping up for a weeknight dinner, it is more of a Saturday or Sunday cooking project.  That said, there are a number of shortcuts (I list them at the end of the post) that you could take when making this that would make it much less time intensive, and if you wanted to serve the filling "chicken ala king" style over some rice or pasta, you could easily pull this together during the week.

I have always been a big fan of pot pies, and I dare say, this was one of the best I've ever had, I do hope you give it a try.

Bouchon's Quiche Lorraine

OK. 

This is not a recipe for the casual, "I just like to throw it together" kind of cook, and certainly not one you will be whipping up in a rush on a weeknight, but if you have any interest at all in making what is likely the best quiche on the planet, I urge you to stop clicking on your mouse and hang with me here for a while.

It also is not a recipe that you can give your kids free reign over, but it does have plenty of elements that the kids can help with, and I encourage you to make them part of the process.  Not only will most kids LOVE this quiche, but I think it important that we make the effort to train our next generation in the fine art of quiche making, an art that is still alive and well in Europe, but sadly died here in the States in the "real men don't eat quiche" days of the early 80's.  Americanized quiches baked in factory-made, soggy pie shells, with over-cooked, curdled custards make me want to scream....our kids deserve better, don't you think?

This dish is actually not difficult to make, but as with every recipe Chef Thomas Keller creates, it IS exacting, and therein lies its brilliance.  Keller is not one of those chefs who lives on the bleeding edge of culinary adventure, like Heston Blumenthal, Feran Adria, or Grant Achats.  These guys make their livings pushing the edge of the envelope with regard to cooking technology and high tech ingredients, that allow them to reconstruct food in ways that leave diners giddily questioning what exactly it was they just ate. 

In contrast, what Keller does better than anyone else is rip classic dishes down to their most basic elements, and then reconstruct them using only the finest ingredients, and with such a finely honed and thoughtful technique, that the end result is a dish that is instantly recognizable for what it is, but is of a quality that has been elevated almost beyond measure.  When finished, you will immediately recognize this dish as a quiche, but what you will have created will make every other quiche you have tasted seem like a cheap, plastic imitation.  Successfully creating this dish will not require technical wizardry on your part, but it will require a tight eye on a few key details.  The rewards for your vigilance will be ample, I assure you.  You game?.....Then let's go.

Fig and Anise Clafoutis

 

I've been visiting a new website over the past few weeks, it is called Food 52.  It is the brain-child of Amanda Hesser (NY Times food writer) and her partner, Merrill Stubbs.  The purpose of the site is to hold recipe competitions among member "home cooks" every week for a year, with each winning recipe being featured in a cookbook that will be published by Harper Studio sometime in 2010.

My recipe for a Fig and Almond Clafoutis has been chosen as a weekly finalist....kinda cool, huh?  Users of the site have a week to vote on which recipe will win, AND THE VOTING DEADLINE IS TONIGHT, TUESDAY OCTOBER 20TH AT MIDNIGHT!

I suspect that the Fig showdown will be a close race, so I would REALLY appreciate your VOTE should you deem my recipe worthy.  CLICK HERE to register on the site and place your VOTE for my "FIG AND ANISE CLAFOUTIS".  Below, you can watch a video of Amanda and Merrill making the two finalist fig dishes, which is way fun.

Your Best Fig Recipe from Food52 on Vimeo.

I am so pleased with the way this recipe turned out, and am thrilled just to have been chosen as a finalist in the competition.  I encourage all of you fig lovers to try this recipe while fresh figs are still in season, it really is special!

Cheers and Thanks - Steve

Recipe:

Fig and Anise Clafoutis       

(Print Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients:

20 Black Mission Figs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon anise seeds, toasted
1 plump vanilla bean pod
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1 tablespoon Calvados
3 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoons of AP flour, sifted
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup whole milk
Zest of one lemon, finely minced, about 1 packed teaspoon
Kosher salt


Method:

• Preheat the oven to 400 F
• Butter and sugar a 10 1/2 inch round baking dish
• Cut the stems off the figs, and quarter them lengthwise
• Spread the almond pieces of a sheet tray and toast in the oven for 6-8 minutes, until nicely golden, remove from the oven and set aside.
• Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise, and using a sharp knife, scrape the seeds out of the pod and onto a small plate.
• Place the anise seeds in a small, dry saute pan over low heat and toast gently till fragrant.  Remove from heat and let cool.
• Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat, and when ready, add the butter, honey, 1/2 of the vanilla seeds, and the vanilla pod, stir well.  Add the figs, a pinch of salt, the anise seeds, and cook, tossing occasionally, 2-3 minutes, until the figs are starting to soften, and are well coated with the honey butter.
• Pour the figs into the prepared baking dish, and spread evenly across the bottom.  Remove the vanilla pod, and sprinkle with the toasted almond pieces.
• Zest the lemon with a fine toothed micro-plane, reserve.
• In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, blend the eggs until frothy, add the balance of the vanilla seeds, the lemon zest, the sugar, cream, and milk, and Calvados, and mix well.  Add the flour and a pinch of salt, and mix until well incorporated, 1-2 minutes.  Let rest 15 minutes.
• Pour the batter over the figs, and place the dish in the center of the preheated oven.  Bake until the center puffs and turns a deep golden color, and the clafoutis feels firm and set, about 30-40 minutes.  
• Transfer to a cooling rack.  Serve slightly warm, or at room temperature, dusting with confectioner’s sugar, and with a dollop of freshly whipped cream if desired.

Chorizo and Spinach Frittata

Making a frittata, much like a fried rice, is a great way to use up all the left-overs in your fridge.  Pick a few main ingredients that will define your flavor profile, and then feel free to toss in little remnants of past meals that are hanging on, begging not to become a science experiment in the back of your refrigerator.

The dish is endlessly versatile, can be tossed together in minutes, is great hot or cold, travels well, can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  As long as you like eggs, it is a nearly perfect food.  I've even thought of making a large one each Sunday, strictly for use throughout the coming week.  A slice is great re-heated for a quick breakfast, can be a healthy addition to a school lunch, and a satisfying meal on the fly with a quick salad as you race between appointments on your evening schedule.