FFWD: Roasted Rhubarb

This is the first time I purchased rhubarb. It's not a staple in the house. I can't even remember the last time I had a rhubarb dessert (I know it paired well with strawberry, that's all I know :)).

This is very easy to prepare. Cut up rhubarb into 1 1/2 inch slices, toss with sugar and lemon. Let sit for 5 minutes until it's a bit juicy. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the sugar melted. Take off the foil and continue baking for a few more minutes until the juices are boiling and the rhubarb looks like it's gonna melt - like in the photo above.

FFWD: Warm Weather Vegetable Pot Au Feu

I have been absent from FFWD for a while. The last time I participated was March 10 for the Beggar's Linguini.

YIKES!

Realizing that, I thought I better start cracking so I made both the Vegetable Pot Au Feu and the Roasted Rhubard last weekend.

FFWD: Beggar's Linguini

We don't eat a lot of pasta, so when I saw this on the schedule, I thought I'd skipped it. But then  after speaking to my HCB/FFWD blogger gal pal Monica, who said: "pasta, yeah, what's not to love?" - I changed my mind.

Well okay in her defense, that's not her exactly words/sentence, but it's along the same "yeah let's make it!" lines.

In any case, looking at the recipe, I have to admit it looks interesting (I've never made pasta with dried fruits and nuts before.)

And most importantly - easy to whip up!

So I made this for lunch one Sunday afternoon.

I used whole wheat pasta, which is healthier and a bit tastier than regular pasta. Cooking time is a couple minutes longer, so no biggie.

A couple of minutes before the pasta finished cooking, I melt some butter over medium low heat until it started turning brown. Then add in the sliced almonds, dried figs, and golden raisins (I forgot to get pistachio). Once the almonds and dried fruits started getting brown, I added the pasta, salt and pepper. Stir everything up. Once they started smelling fragrant, I called hubby down for lunch and served with some grated parmesan.

Tasting impressions:
Hm.. it's not bad but it's really nothing special. While I do taste the beurre noisette flavor in the pasta, I feel like I'm eating buttery pasta, which is not very pleasant. So in the end we make sure we ate each bite of pasta with some almonds and dried fruits, just so we have other flavors in there. I'm sad to report that this dish - while super easy to prepare - probably will not make another appearance in the kitchen.

FFWD: Short Ribs in Red Wine (sans Port)

This week's selection from FFWD is short ribs in red wine and port. I was looking forward to this recipe. I have never cooked with short ribs before and it sounded so good (how could anything braised in red wine for hours taste bad? :)).

The ribs that I got happened to be humongous, 5 of them are already 2.2 pounds, so that's all I bought. I decided to keep with the recipe and use the same quantity of vegetables.

First the ribs are broiled in the oven for 10 minutes. Then the vegetables are sauteed until a bit wilted and soft. Next is the part where I'm supposed to pour in the wine and port, reducing it to half. I decided to forgo the port for a couple of reasons. One, it's expensive. Two, the last time I made something with port, it was too heavy and my stomach was unsettled afterwards.

Then pour in the beef broth, add star anise, rosemary, thyme, parsley, and celery leaves and bring it to a boil. Place the pot in the oven for 3 hours at 350 degrees.

The recipe calls for cooking it for 2 hours, but by the 2 hour mark, the meat were not as tender as I'd like them to be. So I cooked them for 3 hours until they looked like they want to fall off the bone.

Cooking them for 3 hours resulted in them vegetables to be super tender, so when I strained them out, they turned into puree. Add that to the fact that there are not that much liquid leftover, resulted in a dense sauce, so no sauce reduction needed. The sauce is chunky and not pretty but since I'm serving this just for myself and hubby, we care only that it taste good.

And oh boy it is good. The meat is so soft and tasty and they peeled off the bone clean. I served this with roasted fingerling potatoes and carrots.

FFWD: Green Beans with Pancetta

This week's selection from French Fridays with Dorie is Green Beans with Pancetta. I have only used Pancetta once - a long time ago - so I'm a bit curious as to how it would taste and how it would compare to bacon. Now bacon, that's a different story. I love bacon. In fact, I currently have some in the freezer :).

Anyway, back to pancetta. The recipe tells you to dice it and then saute on the pan. It does not, however, tell you to render the fat. Which basically means that once you get a nice pool of fat on the pan, you pour it off to a bowl. I like doing this with bacon as well. It makes them crispier, and also it's healthier. Ha, if you can call pancetta or bacon healthy, that is. But you would be amazed to see how much fat ended up in your bowl. I definitely do not want all that clogging my arteries.

While the pancetta is rendering, I boil some water. Once it comes to a boil, add some salt and throw in all the green beans. I set the timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, drain the green beans and immediately plunge it into a bowl of cold water with lots of ice. We are shocking the green beans so it stopped cooking. This also maintains their bright green colors.

Finally, leaving 1 Tbsp of the fat on the pan, add some butter, toss in the beans and cook, add in salt and pepper and stir in pancetta.

Tasting impressions:
It is pretty good. Green beans is one of the top favorite veggie in the house so am loving this one. As for the pancetta, it's not bad, but I still prefer bacon :).

FFWD: Chicken B'stilla

I was a little apprehensive about this week's selection. Mostly because the ingredients is all 100% chicken. I have nothing against chicken. My issue is that we don't eat that much meat. And there is nothing else in this dish, except for eggs of course, which again, is also protein and chicken-base.

So then I tried to think of what I could add to the recipe so I could use less chicken and at the same time  will not alter the taste so much. And it took me about 10 seconds before I figured it out.

MUSHROOM!

Problem solved.

This dish is easy but it has a lot of steps that require you to wait (chicken needs to marinate for 1 hour, then simmer for 1 hour, then cool down, etc). Not a big problem for me as I can do other things while waiting, such as making cakes for HCB.
I followed the recipe exactly, except for I used 4 chicken thighs (instead of 8) and about a pound of cremini mushrooms. I diced the mushrooms and sauteed them on the side with EVOO and butter. Then they are  added to the thickened broth along with the shredded chicken.

I did get whole wheat fillo dough instead of regular fillo dough. I didn't use to like whole wheat flour but now that I'm used to it I love the taste (it's healthier as well).

Fillo dough is a bit annoying to work with. It's so fragile and thin that it breaks when I try to drape it into the pan. Good thing that they're all covered with the filling anyway, so it doesn't have to be pretty.

With the addition of mushrooms, this recipe makes one 9 inch Chicken B'stilla and a mini 4 inch one. I like the mini one, it's so cute.

Tasting impressions:

We love this dish so much that I have made it twice (both times with mushroom). And it will definitely get made again many many times in the future :).

FFWD: Paris Mushroom Soup

I heart mushrooms. That's right. As cheesy as that sounds, I really do love mushrooms. Love it so much that I have cremini almost every week. Basically I try to incorporate it into anything I make. This week, for example, I made Chicken for Les Parreseux again (for the 3rd time). I roasted some mushrooms (coated with thyme, salt & pepper, and olive oil) to go along with the yummy chicken.

When I make some sort of stew (boeuf bourgignon, tangine, coq au vin) I always added a bunch of mushroom to the pot. Hm.. come to think of it, I have not made Coq Au Vin for a while.

Sorry, I digress. That's what happens when I'm hungry :). 

Let's talk about this dish, shall we?

It's so easy to make. Sautee onions and garlic, add mushrooms, broth (I used vegetable broth), and white wine. Simmer until tender, then puree.

I don't know about you guys, but I did not think pureed mushroom looks appetizing at all! The color is a bit depressing. And even after adding that big chunk of parsley for the photo, I still don't think it looks good.

But boy, this dish is tasty! Especially if you love mushroom as much as I do. And even if you don't, you should try it anyway. Why not? It's good for you. And at the very least, it will warm you up when it's freezing outside.

FFWD: Spiced Butter-Glazed Carrots

Would you believe me if I told you that I made both My Go-to Beef Daube and Leek & Potato Soup but forgot to take pictures of them?

In my defense, it was late and I got lazy, thinking that I would just take pictures of the leftover the next day, which of course never happened. Note to self, next time, just take a picture anyway, even if it's a crummy quality, because having some pictures is always better than no picture.

The beef daube was very good. It made me think of Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon. The only difference that I noticed was the turnips and the lack of pearl onions. The leek potato soup was good as well. Nothing special, but hearty, and it's a good thing to come home to a bowl of warm soup after a long day.

Anyway... I digress. Let's move on to this dish, shall we?

There could not be an easier dish to make. Melt butter, sautee 1/2 an onion and garlic until they soften. Then add the cardamom pods and ginger, saute a bit more. Add the carrots, mixing it good so they are all coated with the butter and spices. Add some chicken stock, bring to a boil, then let simmer for 10 minutes or until they soft. In my case, by the 10 minute mark they are very tender and fragrant.

Tasting impressions:
Very good and tasty. And healthy to boot. I made this with 6 carrots because that's all I have but next time I'll make a bigger batch of it.

FFWD: Sweet & Spicy Cocktail Nuts

This is Sweet & Spicy Cocktail Nuts from Dorie Greenspan. It is so easy to make and so good. Dorie said that this is one of those recipes that you can tweak as  you wish - try different spices and flavor combo - so you can truly make it your own.

I decided that I will follow her spices combo as is to see what it taste like. I've never made spiced nuts before, anyway. For the nuts I used cashews, walnuts, and pecans. Coat the nuts with egg whites. Then combined the spices: sugar, salt, chili powder, ground cinnamon, and cayenne. Mix everything together, spread on a silpat and bake.

1/2 hour later and voila! Yummy nuts that are quite photogenic :).

Tasting impressions:
Very very good. Crunchy and slightly sweet. I was being sparing on the cayenne and am finding there's not enough kick here, so next time will up the cayenne - and try other spices.

FFWD: Chicken for Les Parreseux

I have never made a whole roasted chicken before. I have made roasted turkey once for Thanksgiving, and have always had turkey for Thanksgiving that other people have made. I am never really a big fan of it though. It doesn't have a lot of taste and I ended up eating a lot more side dishes than the actual turkey :).

So when Laurie posted the Chicken for Les Parreseux as one of the 8 recipes to be voted for November menu, I did not vote for it. Roasted turkey, roasted chicken, they are both birds I figured, so if one is not very tasty, the other wouldn't be either. See how my method of deduction/conclusion went? :)

But alas, people voted for this one, maybe because November is Thanksgiving month? And so I thought, I might as well make it.

There is only 2 of us in the house, so I opted for getting a smaller chicken.

The good thing about a smaller bird is that it fits nice and snugly in my 5 qt Dutch oven.

Another good thing about getting a young chicken is the meat will be more tender.

I followed Dorie's instruction of roasting the chicken first for 40 minutes. Then added the vegetables.

As you can see, I did not follow her instruction of using just a couple of carrots and potatoes. Instead, I added a boatload of them. I think in total I used 8 carrots and 2 handful of fingerling potatoes.







I added dried rosemary and thyme all over the chicken, giving it a lot of seasoning. Once the chicken and veggies finished roasting, I made pan sauce by adding 2 cups of water and a teaspoon of chicken broth and scraping off all the burnt bits in the dutch oven. There wasn't any liquid left from the chicken, so I figured the chicken broth would be a good idea. Then I just let the liquid boil until it's slightly reduced.

You can see the potato gratin in the above picture. The tart on the left is Tart M....... which I will blog about when it comes to menu rotation.

Tasting impression:
This is so good! The chicken is very tasty and the sauce is delicious. The veggies goes along well with it and they are nice and soft. I am changing my mind now about roasted birds - well, at least roasted chicken. I am so going to make this again.

FFWD: Potato Gratin

This is Potato Gratin from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.

I made 1/2 recipe and ended up baking it in a small pyrex container. Making this made me realize that I need to get a pretty little baking container. Or it's just what I'm telling myself so I have an excuse to go shopping LOL.

Anyway, I digress...

This is so easy to put together, especially since I am only using 2 potatoes. First, chop some garlic then combined with cream and bring to a simmer over low heat. I added more garlic than the recipe called for as I thought it would make it more tasty.

Btw, it takes FOREVER to bring a cream to a simmer over low heat. I ended up cheating and played with the temperature a bit. First I do medium high, then medium, then low.

Next, peel the potatoes, then slice it pretty thin, about 1/8 inch. Then arrange the potatoes in the baking container, add salt and pepper, poured garlic cream, add some thyme, and finally my favorite step is to top it with a lot of shredded gruyere.

The gratin baked in about 1/2 an hour. When it's done, I turned the broiler on high for 5 minutes to get the top of it nicely browned.

Tasting impressions:
This is really really good. And super easy to make too. I made this with Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux (post coming next week) and they are perfect for each other. Totally meant to be!

FFWD: Marie-Helene's Apple Cake

This is Marie Helene's Apple Cake from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.

I made 1/2 a recipe and baked in a 7 inch pan with removable bottom. I used 3 different kinds of apples (Jonagold , Honeycrisp, and Golden Delicious). I know for 1/2 a recipe I should have used only 2 of them but I want to get a lot of variety in the mix.

This cake is super easy to make, probably one of the easiest cakes I've made. I don't even have to crank on the KA mixer and that's saying a lot.


Tasting impressions:
Hubby gave it a thumbs up and said it's really good. As for me, on the day of baking, I thought the cake was good but not special. The next day, the taste improves and I am changing my verdict. It is really good. I love that there are more apples than dough in there. The dark rum definitely adds a dimension to the taste. This one will be repeated for sure.

FFWD: Gougeres

Dorie Greenspan just released a new cookbook: Around My French Table and soon thereafter a new club was formed with the goal to to cook and bake from this book.

I have to admit I've heard of Dorie before but I am not familiar with her recipes or her cookbooks. This fabulous gougeres is the 1st recipe I made of her and I can tell you that I am in love with Dorie already!

Not only is these little puffy goodness are fabulous in taste (soft, moist, and so aromatic of gruyere), but they are so easy. I made 1/2 recipes and it took 20 minutes to prepare.

I was a little surprised that they turned out a bit yellowish, I got organic eggs and I think they are more yellow than regular eggs. I am also finding that they taste better at room temperature than straight out of the oven. It is more cheesy at room temp :).

Disclaimer: no recipe is posted for French Fridays with Dorie, per request from the publisher.