Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

The lake was as smooth as glass a few mornings ago and my husband took some pictures from our boathouse. It was so quiet and beautiful.

Enjoy year-round living with a waterfront 4-season cottage in Ontario, offering picturesque views and a serene environment for any season.

Our neighbors to the West.

The abandoned property directly across from us. There used to be a beautiful house here full of antiques and much history. It burned down over ten years ago and nothing has been done with the property. It has a lot of potential. Won’t you come and be my neighbor?

The boathouse toward the East.

This is our wizard that was carved from a fallen red oak tree. He keeps watch over our house.

The mountain laurel in full bloom. Spring in the mountains is a glorious time of the year.

There is a story behind this dish and I have been wanting to make Gnafron since the first time I read about it in Peggy Knickerbocker’s book Simple Soirees; Seasonal Menus for Sensational Dinner Parties. Miss Knickerbocker was in Lyon, France with a friend on a wintry day. It was lunch time and they were hungry. At an open air market on a quay on the Rhone they asked advice from a vendor who sent them to Rue des Marronniers. She assured them that all of the restaurants there were good ones. They chose Chabert it Fils just as it was about to close. After hearing the description of Gnafron, “an andouille flan wrapped in delicate cabbage leaves, steamed to wobbly perfection, and drizzled with garlic cream” Miss Knickerbocker was smitten. It lived up to it’s description and she asked for the recipe. Unfortunately the chef had left for the day and she departed with only the taste memory and an obsession with getting the recipe. It would take more than a year. At a dinner party she ran into an old friend whose fiance’ lived just blocks from the restaurant. The fiance’ got the recipe and sent it to her scribbled on a napkin in French. Her version is in her cookbook which I highly recommend. I have posted more of her recipes Here and Here.

Give this flan a try. It is perfect for a brunch or a light supper.

GNAFRON

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 carrot, diced

1/2 pound andouille sausage or other distinctively flavored, spicy sausage, finely chopped

1 medium onion, minced

2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves or 1 teapoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Splash of white wine

1 Napa cabbage, separated, tough parts of the core removed (16 to 20 leaves)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter for greasing the ramekins

4 large eggs

1/4 cup heavy cream

For the Garlic Cream:

3 cloves garlic

Pinch of sugar

Pinch of salt

Splash of white wine

1/2 cup heavy cream

In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter in the olive oil. Add the carrot, sausage, onion, thyme, and bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer slowly for 15 minutes. When the mixture becomes slightly dry, add the wine and stir well.

When the ingredients have become soft and aromatic, another 5 to 10 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, bring 4 cups of salted water to a simmer over high heat. Blanch the cabbage leaves (tender parts only), a few at a time. Remove with tongs and allow them to drain on clean kitchen towels or paper towels.

Grease 6 small ramekins or souffle dishes with butter. Line the dishes with the cabbage leaves, allowing them to overlap so that when the sausage mixture is spooned onto them, they can be folded over to make a little package.

In a medium-sized bowl, beat the eggs with the cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir the sausage mixture into the egg mixture and mix well. Divide the mixture among the lined ramekins and fold the overlapping leaves over the top. Don’t worry if the mixture leaks out around the leaves.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the ramekins in a deep baking pan large enough to hold them all. Pour warm water around them so that it comes 3/4 of the way up the sides. Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 1 hour, or until the Gnafron has set and the top is firm to the touch. If the tops begin to brown or get too dark, place a sheet of foil over the tops. It’s okay if the tops get golden brown.

To Make the Garlic Cream:

While the Gnafron bakes, make the garlic cream. In a small heavy pot, combine the garlic, sugar, salt and a splash of water; cook over medium-low heat for about 2 minutes. Add a splash of white wine, allow it to cook down for 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, add the cream, and warm it for about 3 minutes. Turn the heat off and allow the garlic to steep in the cream until the Gnafron comes out of the oven. Reheat the garlic cream over low heat, the cream will be slightly thin. Remove and discard the garlic.

To serve, run a knife around the sides of the ramekins to loosen the mixture. Turn out onto a platter or individual plates or serve in the ramekins. Serve with a little garlic cream drizzled over or around the Gnafron. Sprinkle with a little reserved andouille if desired.

Printable recipe

This is a perfect Spring dish, especially if you have fresh peas, asparagus and chives. I can lay claim only to the chives from my herb garden. It is Barefoot Blogger Thursday and thanks goes to Kimberly of Indulge & Enjoy for choosing this recipe from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics Cookbook. Risottos are so versatile and I love the flavor combination in this version. It is full of leeks, fennel, the spring vegetables and a wonderful creamy mixture of mascarpone cheese and lemon. Risotto is inherently creamy so the mascarpone is just guilding the lily, but in a good way. It does require attention though, so be prepared to spend time at the stove stirring. It is very much worth it.

SPRING GREEN RISOTTO

1/1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts ( 2 leeks )
1 cup choppped fennel
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
2/3 cup dry white wine
4 to 5 cups simmering chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 pound thin asparagus
10 ounces frozen peas, defrosted, or 1 1/2 cups shelled fresh peas
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest ( 2 lemons )
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese, preferably Italian
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
3 tablespoons minced fresh chives, plus extra for serving

Heat the olive oil and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and fennel and saute for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender. Add the rice and stir for a minute to coat with the vegetables, oil, and butter. Add the white wine and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until most of the wine has been absorbed. Add the chicken stock, 2 ladles at a time, stirring almost constantly and waiting for the stock to be absorbed before adding more. This process should take 25 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the asparagus diagonally in 1 1/2 inch lengths and discard the tough ends. Blanch in boiling salted water for 4 to 5 minutes, until al dente. Drain and cool immediately in ice water. (If using fresh peas, blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes until the starchiness is gone.)

When the risotto has been cooking for 15 minutes, drain the asparagus and add it to the risotto with the peas, lemon zest, 2 teasoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Continue cooking and adding stock, stirring almost constantly, until the rice is tender but still firm.

Whisk the lemon juice and mascarpone together in a small bowl. When the risotto is done, turn off the heat and stir in the mascarpone mixture plus the Parmesan cheese and chives. Set aside off the heat for a few minutes, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve hot with a sprinkling of chives and more Parmesan cheese.

Printable recipe

Blogging has many benefits. Among them is meeting other bloggers. Add to that meeting other bloggers and being asked to dinner. Last summer I met fellow blogger Penny of Comforts of Home and Lavender Hill Studio. You can read about our get together here. Not only do we share a name, but we are both from Michigan originally and now live very close to each other. Penny and her husband live in Asheville and have been working on remodeling their new home. I have been following her progress on her blog and was so excited when she emailed and invited my husband and me to dinner. Her house is even more beautiful in person. She is a very talented decorator and her home is warm and welcoming. She is also an excellent cook.

Our dinner was Cornish Hens with Pancetta, fresh asparagus, and roasted baby new potatoes. The cornish hens were absolutely delicious and the presentation was stunning. They were stuffed under the skin with mascarpone cheese and pancetta was draped over the top. They were succulent and flavorful. My picture below does not do them justice. Here’s the thing about being a blogger. There are no etiquette rules for our obsession with snapping pictures of food. I usually have to take several pictures to get just the right angle and lighting. It just didn’t seem right to be standing in Penny’s dining room, shooting picture after picture while everyone was waiting to eat. So I shot just one. It will have to do. The other two pictures are courtesy of Penny. She is a blogger. She understands.

You can’t get much better than that. I love Penny’s plates too.

Printable recipe

I have had a passion for chocolate croissants ever since I saw the movie It’s Complicated. In the blogging community there has been much talk about this movie. The design bloggers are thrilled with the house because it is another beautiful set design by Nancy Meyers and her group of professionals. These are the same people who brought you the beautiful Hamptons house in Something’s Got to Give. I am also a fan of the design aesthetic and find myself looking at the details of interiors of houses in my favorite movies. What is so great about It’s Complicated is that there is so much eye candy that pleases both cooks and designers. Just take a look at Meryl Streep’s kitchen in the movie. She is planning on having her architect, played by Steve Martin, redesign it.

Would you trash this kitchen? I wouldn’t. It is charming and quirky and suits her family well. There is even a dent in the refrigerator door that you can see when you watch the movie. The story behind that is that when the refrigerator was deliverd to the set, they discovered the dent and wanted to send it back, but brilliant minds intervened and said “Why shouldn’t she have a dent in her refrigerator? She raised three kids. Real people have dents.”

But to get to the heart of this post, I have to tell you that my favorite scene in the movie was when Meryl Streep took Steve Martin to her bakery after hours and fixed him chocolate croissants.

Here they are eating Croque Monsieurs. I do not have a picture of the chocolate croissants, but the scene was evocative. It was late at night and they were hungry. They were “really” hungry. She offered him anything on her bakery menu and he chose chocolate croissants. The scene of her cutting and stuffing the croissants with chocolate was nirvana. Their enjoyment was even better. I became obsessed. But I haven’t had time to make croissants from scratch until now.

Life has been “complicated” and with the trip back to Lake Lure there have been other priorities. But yesterday morning I decided that it was time to tackle them. The recipe that I used was in From Julia Child’s Kitchen. It is a lenghthy recipe that goes on for pages and I don’t want to repeat it all here. There is a very similar recipe on the web at All Recipes which will get you the same results. To make them chocolate croissants just add 1/2 ounce of shaved chocolate to each one before rolling up.

Croissants are nothing more than a yeast dough that incorporates layers of butter. The butter is layered in by a folding process. The below picture shows the dough ready for its third turn. The butter is already between two layers of dough.

The top third is folded to the middle.

Then the bottom third is folded over it; like folding a letter.

It is then turned a quarter turn, rolled and folded again. There are many steps along the way when you can put it in the refrigerator and forget it. After the fourth turn and fold you can weigh it down and put it in the refrigerator for up to two days.

The final step is cutting the triangles of dough, sprinkling them with chocolate and rolling them up. They are ready for the final rise and baking, or you can freeze them. I chose to freeze six and bake the other six.

Although the process took me two days, there was very little real hands on time required. Now that I have done it, I will definitely be making chocolate croissants again. Who knows, maybe I can open a bakery like this one.

No, actually I don’t think I am up to that. And maybe making croissants from scratch is too complicated. But I certainly hope my garden looks like this.

Dream on!