Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

This is actually part 2 of my previous post.  On the same evening that I made the Pork Tenderloin with Grapes, I made this Potato Cake with Garlic and Parsley.  They are both recipes from Mimi Thorisson on her blog Manger.  If I had been in my Lake Lure Kitchen this potato cake would have looked better.  It is because I have the perfect mold for it there.  View the following video to watch Mimi’s husband Oddur making this dish along with a steak and you will see what I mean.  Here is the link.  What I really needed to mold the potato cake was my Charlotte Mold.  I have had my tin-lined charlotte mold for many years and it comes in handy for many purposes.  Here is a link to one of my favorite desserts using it.

 But if you don’t have a charlotte mold, you can do as I did here in Florida and use a 2 quart round oven proof casserole.  I sprayed mine with olive oil spray.

This potato cake was excellent. I used the duck fat that I bought in France last year in which to fry it.  The duck fat has been in my freezer just waiting for the right application.  There is nothing better than potatoes cooked in duck fat.  Here is a source if you would like to order it.  But you could also cook the potatoes in a mixture of butter and olive oil.  It was an added bonus to be able to saute the potatoes ahead of time and put them into the mold to be finished in the oven at our convenience.  The potato cake is just right for 4 people.  Just cut into pie shaped wedges and serve.  The cooked garlic and parsley on top are the finishing touch and make for a beautiful presentation.  Your friends will love you.  And for all of you guys out there,  Oddur Thorisson’s video on a perfect date night dinner would be a perfect recipe for a Valentine’s day dinner.

POTATO CAKE WITH GARLIC AND PARSLEY

5 large potatoes
6 garlic cloves (sliced fine)
2 handfuls of chopped parsley
1 tbsp butter
8-10 tbsp duck fat
Salt & Pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Start frying on a medium heat the sliced potatoes with one tbsp butter for 8 minutes. Pour 8 tbps (or more if you wish and according to your taste) of the duck fat onto the potatoes and continue frying till cooked and golden. You’d be surprised at how fast it cooks with duck fat. Flip potatoes constantly. Add salt. By 20-25 minutes they should be cooked. Put potatoes in a small cake mold and press gently with a potato masher or a large spoon so the potatoes take a good shape. You don’t want to mash the potatoes, just press them. Place in the oven for 5-8 minutes.  While in the oven, fry the garlic in the potato pan until it is just browned.

Take the potato cake out of the oven, remove from mold and place on a serving plate. Put the chopped parsley and fried garlic on top. Serve immediately.

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There are so many fascinating websites out there in the ether right now.  I can remember when blogging was a small fraternity or sorority of likeminded people.  Now bloggers are everywhere.  I am always discovering new sites.  One site that, to me, is very interesting comes from a French woman named Mimi Thorisson.  Her blog is called Manger, as in the French word meaning “to eat”.

Mimi is a stunningly beautiful woman of French and Chinese heritage.  She lives with her husband (who is a photographer), her children and at least 14 dogs in a charming home in the Medoc region of France.  With a background in writing for publications and extensive traveling all over the world, she brings a knowing eye and mind to her food blog.  Her husband Oddur Thorisson”s photographs are works of art and her recipes are impeccable.  I have enjoyed getting lost in her world.

Mimi made this dish with chasselas grapes.  These are wine grapes, although they are suitable as table grapes as well.  Since chasselas grapes are native to France,  I just substituted regular seedless grapes that are readily available here.  The pork tenderloin is sliced into 1″ pieces and cooked with shallots, wine and the grapes.  This was a quick and easy dish to pull together.  We loved it.  Mimi has been featured in Bon Appetit magazine and has a cookbook coming out in September 2014.

PORK TENDERLOIN WITH GRAPES (Adapted from Manger by Mimi Thorisson)

1 Pork Tenderloin, sliced into 10 to 12 1-inch pieces
1 cup each red and green grapes
2/3 cup white wine plus 2 tablespoons for the end
3 shallots, sliced finely
1/8 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Unsalted butter for frying
1 tablespoon olive oil for frying

Slice shallots finely and fry in 1 tablespoon butter for 5 minutes on a medium heat.  Add wine and lower heat – reduce until nearly totally absorbed.

Add the grapes to the pan with a little knob of butter and cook for 2 minutes until glossy.  Set aside.

In another pan, heat olive oil, and 1 tablespoon butter and fry the pork pieces for 3 to 4 minutes on each side.  Season with salt and pepper.  Remove filets from pan, add chicken stock and scrape to deglaze pan.  Add the 2 extra tablespoons of white wine and 1/2 tablespoon butter.  Reduce for 2 minutes on high heat. Return meat to pan, lower heat and add the shallot and grape mixture.  Cook for a few minutes to reheat and meld the flavors. Serves 2 to 4.

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In the throes of winter, in my mind, I am enjoying a nostalgic trip back to our summer in France last year.  Our French friends Carole and Laurent (2nd and 3rd from left) graciously welcomed David, me, and our friends Tulin (center)and Dave (on right), into their home in Tours.  We had many fine meals with them.  Carole is a wonderful cook.  Her magret of duck cooked in peaches is sublime, as is her fois gras and ratatouille.  But I have been thinking most about her stuffed vegetables.

The stuffed tomatoes and peppers turned out to be a collaboration between Carole and Tulin; a little bit French from Carole and a little bit Turkish from Tulin, who is originally from Istanbul.  I wish that I had paid more attention to the ingredients that they used.  I was a bit jet-lagged at the time. All I know is that every bite of the casserole was eaten with relish.

When I attempted to duplicate this dish, I used peppers and zucchini because they are readily available this time of year.  I avoid tomatoes in winter.  My inspiration was a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis.  Now we have an Italian spin.  But I guess the point is that many cultures have recipes for stuffed vegetables.  Whatever the cuisine, there is great flavor in stuffed vegetables.  And I was able to taste again, the wonderful food that we shared last summer.

I am calling these stuffed vegetables “Provencal” because of the bright colors, the use of olive oil, garlic and herbs, and because visiting sunny Provence was one of the highlights of our trip. Bring a little Provencal sunshine to your table as well.

STUFFED VEGETABLES PROVENCAL

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, grated
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
  
• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons ketchup
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano
  
• 1/4 cup dried plain bread crumbs
  
• 1 pound ground turkey, preferably dark meat
• 2 zucchini, ends removed, halved lengthwise and crosswise
• 1 orange bell pepper, halved and seeded
• 1 red bell pepper, halved and seeded
• 1 green bell pepper, halved and seeded
• 1 1/2 cups marinara sauce
  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. 
  
  Lightly drizzle the olive oil into a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish.Whisk the onion, parsley, egg, ketchup, garlic, salt, and pepper in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the cheese and bread crumbs. Mix in the turkey. Cover and refrigerate the turkey mixture. 
  
  Using a melon baller or spoon, carefully scrape out the seeds and inner flesh from the zucchini, leaving 1/8-inch-thick shells. Be careful not to pierce through the skin. Fill the zucchini and pepper halves with the turkey mixture, dividing equally and mounding slightly. Arrange the stuffed vegetables in the baking dish. Pour the marinara sauce over the stuffed vegetables. 
  
  Bake uncovered until the vegetables are tender and beginning to brown and a thermometer inserted into the filling registers 165 degrees F, about 45 minutes. Transfer the stuffed vegetables to a platter and serve.Printable recipe

I am in love with this cake.  A Gateau Breton is a butter cake from the Brittany region of France.  It is dense, rich and very buttery.  This variation of the cake includes lightly toasted walnuts, ground and incorporated into the batter.  Magnifique!

The recipe was in the book On Rue Tatin; Living and Cooking in a French Town by Susan Herrmann Loomis.  This book has been around for a long time.  As a matter of fact I read it years ago.  But on a recent trip to the library, I picked it up again.  Because of our two trips to France, and the time that we spent in Normandy I looked at it with a fresh eye.  Susan’s historic home is in the Normandy village of Louviers.  She currently offers cooking classes in her charming converted convent home on Rue Tatin.  She also has a website.

This walnut gateau breton is like no other cake that I have eaten.  It is very similar to shortbread.  The amount of butter in it is astounding.  It is not a light cake.  It is very dense and, did I mention buttery?  It is perfect with red wine or with coffee or espresso.  It is traditionally marked on the top with a criss-cross of fork marks.  The ingredients are few and simple.  No need to get out your mixer.  But I do recommend that you use a good quality butter.

I highly recommend this book.  It is the tale of buying and restoring an historic home and learning to live in a small village while cooking in a picturesque kitchen.  There are recipes at the end of each chapter.  The last recipe featured is, of course, a Tarte Tatin.  The Gateau Breton was made to please and influence the local priest.  You can read the book to see if it worked.  Check out “My Favorite Reads” from Amazon on my sidebar if you are interested in ordering On Rue Tatin. 

WALNUT GATEAU BRETON

1/2 cup walnuts, lightly toasted
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
7 large egg yolks
16 tablespoons salted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.  Butter and lightly flour a 9-inch cake pan.

Place the walnuts and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind so that most of the walnuts are finely ground but not anywhere near a paste.

In a large bowl, whisk together 6 of the egg yolks and the remaining sugar until the mixture is blended, just a few minutes; there is no need to use an electric mixer here.  It will be thick and yellow but shouldn’t form a ribbon.  Slowly whisk in the walnuts and sugar, then the butter.  Sift the flour over the mixture and whisk it in just until the mixture is homogeneous.  Don’t overmix the batter or the cake will be tough.

Whisk together the remaining egg yolk and 2 teaspoons water to make an egg glaze.

Turn the batter, which will be quite stiff, into the prepared pan and smooth it out.  Lightly but thoroughly paint it with the egg glaze.  Using the back of the tines of a fork, deeply mark a crisscross pattern in the top of the cake, going three times across it in one direction, then three in another. (The marks in the cake will fade, leaving just their trace on the top of the cake.)

Bake in the center of the oven until the cake is deep golden on the top and springs back slowly but surely when it is touched, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Using a knife or cake tester isn’t recommended as it always comes out looking slightly damp because of the amount of butter in the recipe.

Remove from the oven, transfer the cake to a wire tack, and let cool for about 10 minutes before turning out of the cake pan.  Let it cool thoroughly before serving.

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Because it has been so cold in Florida and because I have been reading so many blogs from the more frigid regions of our country, I just had to pull out the slow cooker to cook something long and slow all day; something that would perfume the house and build an anticipation for the satisfying meal to come. I had a chuck roast freshly defrosted from the freezer and several different recipes for crock pot beef to choose from. I ended up combining several.   What I was looking for was intense flavor to offset the richness of the beef.  The balsamic vinegar went a long way in achieving that goal.  There are some recipes for slow cooker beef that include dried onion soup mix and cream of “whatever” soup.  I try to stay away from those recipes.  The additive ladened products just seem to intensify over long cooking, in my humble opinion. And not in a good way.

The ingredients I used were simple; beef broth, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and a bit of ketchup.  The resulting beef was succulent and delicious.  The sauce was especially good.  It was so good in fact that for lunch the next day I made a “Dip Sandwich”.  The tender beef and juices made for a marvelous sandwich.

The sandwiches would be great for a super bowl party.

CROCK POT BALSAMIC SHREDDED BEEF

1 4 to 5 pound chuck roast
1 tablespoon of canola oil
1 large onion, halved and sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup beef broth
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
Red pepper flakes to taste, 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon

Place 1 tablespoon of oil in a heavy bottomed skillet.  When hot, add chuck roast and cook until browned on one side.  Turn, add onions and garlic to pan along with the meat.  Cook on second side until it is browned and onions are softened.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Place browned meat. onions and garlic in a slow cooker.  Mix together the remainder of the ingredients and pour over beef.  Cook the beef, covered in the slow cooker on a low setting for 7 to 8 hours.  Remove beef to a plate.  Shred it with two forks and return to slow cooker to combine with the juices.   Serve.

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