Tuesdays with Dorie - Berry Galette (Peach and Strawberry Gooseberry Galette)

It is nice to be hosting “Tuesdays with Dorie” this week together with Lisa of Tomato Thymes. Every first and third Tuesday of each month, members of this online baking group take on the task of baking and reviewing one of the recipes chosen from the book “Baking with Julia” by Dorie Greenspan. This week we will both host the recipe for the Berry Galette on page 377, a recipe that was contributed by Flo Braker, author, teacher and baker extraordinaire, that David Lebovitz calls "my favorite baker in the world".

A Galette is a term used in French cuisine to designate a variety of flat, round and free-form cakes with different kinds of fillings. They can be open-faced with the edges of the crust turned in and folded around a delicious fruit filling such as the Berry Galette here, or, as with the famous Galettes des Rois, they are baked in a double-crust form with a nut filling. I always bake Galettes des Rois ("King Cake") on January 6th of each year and hide a porcelain figurine inside (see my post of February 4, 2012). The filling for the Fruit Galettes can be all kinds of different berries, peeled stone fruit, plums, pears or apples. Best to go with what is in season at the time you are making the Galette.

The first step for today´s recipe is, of course, the  preparation of the Galette Dough. It requires only a few ingredients. All you need is sour cream, flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, butter and some ice water. The dough can be made by hand or in a food processor. I always make my pie dough by hand, that is just the method I like best. The Galette Dough has to be chilled for a good two hours before it can be rolled out (personally, I believe overnight is even better). So there is plenty of time to prepare the fruit filling of your choice. I chose to make two different Galettes and hence doubled the recipe for the dough.

The recipe is enough for two small Galettes or a large one. Since I had a quite a few dessert testers all lined up and waiting, I opted for the larger version. For the first Galette I chose to use peeled ripe peaches for the filling. To the fruit I added homemade vanilla sugar (no honey) and finely chopped rosemary and dotted with ice-cold butter. Adding herbs to cakes, pies and cookies is delicious and adds another layer of flavor to baked goods but it also helps to reduce the abundant growth of herbs in my garden. While the first Galette was in the oven and I started to smell the wonderful mix of peaches with rosemary, I remembered the first cake I baked with a fruit-herb combination, it was a blueberry lemon-thyme cake and I entered the recipe in a national cake competition.

For the second Galette I chose to go for a gooseberry-strawberry version, a flavor combination I grew up with and still love, it reminds me of the jams that my grand-mother used to make. To that filling I also added the vanilla sugar and the ice-cold butter. I believe that gooseberries are a bit "under-appreciated" these days. While they can be eaten raw, they are wonderful in cakes and jams or even in savoury dishes such as chutneys. I was a bit hesitant at first to add strawberries to the Galette. But I decided to leave the strawberries whole and give this fruit combination a try as a filling for the Galettes. And I am glad that I did.

The addition of cornmeal to the dough gave the Galettes a nice, rich golden color and a bit of a crunch. The coarser the cornmeal that you use in this recipe, the more rustic the crust will be. The dough was very easy and came together in no time. But I found it to be somewhat on the wet side and, as I mentioned before,  it definitely needed to chill for at least two hours, or even longer. I had no fruit leakage problem and the filling set up nicely but only after the Galette had time to rest for a while, just like a regular pie.

The taste testers all loved these Galettes. They liked both versions and enjoyed them plain or with lightly whipped cream to which I added some crème fraîche. The Peach-Rosemary Galette had just the right sweetness. It was filled with lots of ripe summer peaches and the rosemary added a nice aromatic touch. The  taste of the Gooseberry-Strawberry Galette transported me right back to those days in summer that I spent at my grand-mother`s house, enjoying a slice of bread slathered with her gooseberry-strawberry jam. The taste of the sweet strawberries pairs ever so nicely with the tartness of the gooseberries. Just be careful not to obverbake. The strawberries should still be bright red and juicy and the gooseberries should just "collapse" ever so slightly.

 I thought that both Galettes made wonderful picnic fare and we took them along to our family outing. They both held their shape quite nicely, I even manged to transfer them to some vintage pie pans for picture taking.

Since it is still summer/vacation time we decide to take our picnic fare to Maria Laach Abbey, a Benedictine abbey with vast picnic grounds and gardens.



It is one of my favorite places to visit and not a long drive from our home. The abbey structure dates from between 1093 and 1177. Today, the well-preserved basilica with its six towers is considered to be one of the most beautiful Romanesque buildings in Germany. It is siuated on the shores of a volcanic lake and just a few miles away from the Rhine river.



The Benedictine Monks that live in Maria Laach run a bookstore, a nursery, and an orchard. While visiting, you can admire their ornamental blacksmith works of art and the amazing sculptures or visit their bell foundry. They run a store where you can buy honey, fruit, jams, jellies and a lot of other wonderful products created with produce that grows on the Abbey`s grounds.



It is an amazing place to visit and although I felt a bit awkward when taking the picture of my Peach-Rosemary Galette in front of my favorite fountain, the Lion´s Fountain in the Abbey´s so-called "paradise" (courtyard with a peristyle), it still felt like there was no place better suited than this to take a picture for my blog on such a special occasion.

Berry Galette

Makes 4 to 6 servings

This, as heirloom cookbooks used to say, is a keeper. It is so simple and inviting and so enjoyable to construct that you´ll find yourself turning to it frequently. It´s called a galette because it´s flat, open-faced and free-form - the crust is rolled into a circle, the filling is piled in the center, and the edges of the crust are turned in and ruffled. The filling can be mixed berries, as suggested here (if you include strawberries, don´t include many as they´re too watery), peeled soft fruits, like peaches or apricots, or, in fall and winter, tart apples or sweet pears.  

1/2 recipe Galette Dough (page 371), chilled

1 ½ cups mixed fresh berries (or cut-up peeled fruit)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Put the dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll it into an 11-inch circle that´s about 1/8 inch thick. Since the dough is soft, you´ll need to lift it now and then and toss some more flour under it and over the top. Roll up the dough around your rolling pin and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.

Spread the berries over the dough, leaving a 2- to 3-inch border. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the sugar over the fruit and drizzle on the honey if you´re using it. Cut the butter into slivers and scatter it on top of the fruit. Fold the uncovered border of dough up over the filling, allowing the dough to pleat as you lift it up and work your way around the galette. (Because you´re folding a wide edge of dough onto a smaller part of the circle, it will pleat naturally - just go with it.) Dip a pastry brush in water, give the edge of the crust a light coating, and then sprinkle the crust with the remainig teaspoon of sugar.

Baking the galette
Bake the galette for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and crisp. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the galette rest on the sheet for 10 minutes. Slip a wide spatula or a small baking sheet under the galette and slide it onto the cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, cutting the tart with a pizza wheel or a sharp knife.

Storing
The galette is best eaten the day it is made.

Galette Dough

Makes enough for two 8-inch galettes
The cornmeal in this wonderfully buttery dough not only gives it a bit of crunch, it makes it crisp enough to stand up to soft and syrupy fillings and sturdy enough to be rolled to extreme thinness. You can use this dough to line a tart pan, but it is particularly well suited to rustic tarts called galettes-flat, open-face, free-form tarts whose edges are folded over the filling like the ruffled top of a drawstring purse.
The dough is made quickly either by hand or in a food processor and produces enough for two galettes. Since it is equally good with sweet and savory fillings, you might make the Cheese and Tomato Galette (page 429) to start a meal and the Berry Galette (page 377) to finish one.

3 tablespoons sour cream (or yogurt or buttermilk)
1/3 cup (approximately) ice water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 6 to 8 pieces

TO MAKE THE DOUGH BY HAND, stir the sour cream and 1/3 cup ice water together in a small bowl and set aside. Put the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and stir with a fork to mix. Drop the butter pieces into the bowl, tossing them once or twice just to coat them with flour. With a pastry blender, work the butter into the flour, aiming for pieces of butter that range in size from bread crumbs to small peas. The smaller pieces will make the dough tender, the larger ones will make it flaky.
Sprinkle the cold sour cream mixture over the dough, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork to evenly distribute it. After you´ve added all of the sour cream, the dough should be moist enough to stick together when pressed; if it´s not, add additional cold water, 1 teaspoon at a time. With your hands, gather the curds of dough together. (You´ll have a soft, malleable dough, the kind you might want to overwork.)

Chilling the Dough
Turn the dough out of the bowl and divide it in half. Press each piece of dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

TO MAKE THE DOUGH IN A FOOD PROCESSOR, stir the sour cream and 1/3 cup ice water together in a small bowl; set aside. Put the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in the work bowl of a processor fitted with the metal blade; pulse to combine. Drop the butter pieces into the bowl and pulse 8 to 10 times, or until the mixture is speckled with pieces of butter that vary in size from bread crumbs to peas. With the machine running, add the sour cream mixture and process just until the dough forms soft, moist curds.

Chilling the Dough
Remove the dough from the processor, divide it in half, and press each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours.

Storing
The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for a day or two, or it can be wrapped airtight and frozen for a month. Thaw still wrapped, in the refrigerator. It is convenient to roll the dough into rounds, place parchment between each round, and freeze them wrapped in plastic; this way, you´ll need only about 20 minutes to defrost a round of dough at room temperature before it can be filled, folded into a galette, and baked.

"J'aime la galette, savez-vous comment ? Quand elle est bien faite, avec du beurre dedans.
Tralalala (...) Puis avec de la pâte Puis avec des oeufs Puis avec des amandes"

 ("I like galette, do you know how? When it is made well, with butter inside. And with dough And with eggs And with almonds"), 
French Children´s Song, entitled "J´aime la Galette"

To see how fantastic all the summery Galettes from the other talented members of the Baking with Dorie Group turned out, please click here!

For more information on the Maria Laach Abbey, go to www.maria-laach.de

Dorie´s Recipe and my Photo were published in a Dutch Magazine - Some Days Life is just a Bowl of Cherries

There are those moments when it feels like Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries.

Back in May of this year, the chosen recipe for French Fridays with Dorie was the “Lyonnaise Garlic and Herb Cheese” (or, in the Netherlands: "Verse Kaas met Kruiden op z´n frans"). Well, I was quite excited that my photo caught the attention of a Dutch gardening magazine ("Groei & Bloei") and was published in their August edition!

So in order to celebrate the occasion of my first ever published photo, I decided to bake a Cherry Vanilla Cake with Almonds and then enjoy the moment while eating a slice of this summery and wonderful cake and sipping a cup of East Frisian Tea, a tea with "a malty, strong, spicy and highly aromatic" flavor, which happens to be my favorite black tea.



Cherry Vanilla Cake with Almonds
("Kirschkuchen mit Vanille und Mandeln")

Ingredients for the Cake

160 grams (one cup) AP flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
60 grams (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature plus some for greasing the baking dish
180 grams (3/4 cup) super fine sugar
½ package pure vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract (homemade if possible - please see Note for instructions)
2 eggs (L), organic or free range if possible
80 ml (1/3 cup) "thick" buttermilk (I use buttermilk from a farm cheese store – they have this wonderfully “thick" buttermilk – but you can substitute yogurt or sour cream but try to use an organic dairy products if possible)
about 35-40 cherries or 350 grams (depending on the size) of sweet/black cherries, pitted

Ingredients for the Topping

2 tsp coarse sugar
½ package pure vanilla sugar (homemade if possible)
2 tbsp slithered almonds

To serve

whipped cream, crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream

Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
2. Generously grease a pie dish (I used my Creuset oven-proof dish) with butter and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla sugar (if using) and mix until pale yellow.
5. Add in eggs one at a time and mix until well combined (add the vanilla extract now if using).
6. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in two additions - alternating with the buttermilk and stir just until combined.
7. Pour batter into prepared baking dish.
8. Carefully place the pitted cherries on top of the cake batter and with the palm of your hand carefully push them into the batter.
9. In a small bowl mix together the ingredients for the topping.
10. Bake the cake for 20 minutes.
11. Scatter the topping on top of the half-baked cake – be careful not to burn yourself!
12. Bake for another 20-25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

Note: you can also skip the pre-bake and scatter the topping over the unbaked batter right away, almonds will then be more browned

13. You can serve the cake warm or at room temperature.

It was nice to savor the moment and be a bit amazed by the fact that this world has become a small place indeed. American author, French recipe, Dutch magazine and German blog...

This experience was nice but I also wanted to send a big - Thank You! - Merci! - Dank U Wel! - Danke! - around the globe for letting me be part of this unique French Fridays with Dorie group. I joined this group only a few months ago and have enjoyed every moment of participating in the baking and cooking adventures.

On some Days Life is just a Bowl of Cherries!

Note

Homemade Vanilla Sugar
Since Vanilla Sugar can be a bit difficult to find in stores it might be best to make your own and keep it in a jar. It has an almost indefinite "shelf life" and the taste is worth the little effort it takes to make your own. You can add it to your baked goods by simply substituting vanilla extract by vanilla sugar.

Ingredients
two cups superfine sugar
one vanilla bean (from Madagascar or Hawaii)

Preparation
Put the sugar in a glass jar and split the length of the vanilla bean and cut into sections.Place the sections into the sugar. Shake, cover and store in a cool and dark place for about two weeks before using.


Sources
Bowl from "Adelheid Werkstatt des wahren Glücks" at www.adelheidladen.de
Oven-proof dish from "Le Creuset" at www.lecreuset.fr
East Frisian Tea from www.teagschwendner.com
Dutch Gardening Magazine "Groei & Bloei", August 2012, www.groei.nl

French Fridays with Dorie - Tomato-Cheese Tartlets

This week´s recipe for the French Friday`s with Dorie group is Tomato-Cheese Tartlets.

This is an easy enough recipe. It is like an “Insalata Caprese” served on a puff pastry round. All you have to do is cut out some rounds of a store-bought puff pastry dough, place on a baking sheet, dock the dough rounds, weigh them down with a second baking sheet and bake for fifteen minutes or until the rounds turn crisp and golden. Then arrange a few slices of fresh tomatoes, a bit of mozzarella and a basil leaf on a bed of some tapenade or pesto, drizzle some olive oil over and sprinkle the tartlet with some pepper and salt to taste.

Since we have eaten our share of “Insalata Caprese” this summer, it was time to add a bit of a different touch to the tartlets. So I cut out smallish rounds of the puff pastry (five inches) and after they had baked for twelve minutes, I served them with one slice of red tomato, some “Mozzarella di Bufala”, one slice each of just grilled summer squash and eggplant, a basil leaf, two slices of miniature orange tomatoes, a dot of homemade black olive tapenade and basil flowers. Served with a few drops of extra virgin olive oil, freshly ground black pepper and some sea salt, they received raving review.

This recipe is a keeper, leaves tons of room for different interpretations as to the toppings and is extremely easy to put together. The tartlets can be served as an appetizer or as a side dish and would be perfect for a buffet because although they are best when served right away, they do keep for a while at room temperature.

What a wonderful recipe to have  in your recipe file for the summer time so you can heap summer´s bounty on a small piece of puff pastry. Of course, you could also serve these tartlets in fall/winter time when the toppings could be adjusted to the season to include such wonders as different pestos or sundried tomatoes and different kinds of olives.

To see how the other Doristas prepared their summery Tomato-Cheese Tartlets, please click here.

Herbed Spätzle - And a Marble Cake in a Weck Jar - "Kräuterspätzle - Und Mamorkuchen im Weck Glas"

Different recipes for Spätzle (a type of egg noodle of soft texture) can be found in the cuisines of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Alsace and South Tyrol. In Germany, Spätzle are largely considered a "Swabian speciality" and are generally associated with the German states of Baden-Wuerttemberg (“Baden-Württemberg”) and Bavaria (“Bayern”). The word “Spätzle” is the Swabian diminutive of “Spatz”, literally meaning "little sparrow”.

Basic Spätzle dough typically consists of very few ingredients namely, eggs, flour, and salt. Sometimes water or milk is added to produce a thinner dough. Traditionally, the Spätzle are made by scraping dough off a wooden chopping board ("Spätzlebrett") into boiling salted water where they are cooked until they rise to the surface. They are then skimmed and kept warm. Since this traditional method requires quite some practice, a number of different devices were invented to facilitate the Spätzle making process. Some resemble a strainer/colander, or a potato ricer ("Spätzlepresse"), a food mill or a coarse grater ("Spätzlehobel"). Whichever method you choose, all of these devices still require you to drop the dough into steaming hot water.


Herbed Spätzle – „Kräuterspätzle“

Ingredients
(serves two – double or triple if you please)

2 tbsp fresh Italian parsley
2 tbsp chives
1 tbsp fresh thyme
200 grams AP flour
some fine sea salt
4 eggs (L)
100 ml olive oil
80 grams of freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
60ml homemade chicken stock (or store bought low-salt chicken broth)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
some freshly ground black pepper

Special Equipment

A spätzle maker (“Spätzlehobel”), a potato ricer, a food mill or a colander with 1/4 inch holes

Preparation

1. Wash the herbs, dry well and put half of the parsley aside.
2. Chop the remaining herbs finely.
3. In large bowl combine the flour, chopped herbs and a pinch of salt.
4. With a wooden spoon stir the eggs into the dry ingredients and continue stirring until the batter becomes homogenous.
5. Cover the dough with saran wrap and let it rest for about thirthy minutes at room temperature.
6. Heat the olive ol in a pan and briefly fry the remaining parsley. Let it drain on paper towels and set aside.
7. After the batter had time to rest, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil. Reduce heat to medium. Place rimmed baking sheet close by.
8. Working with 1/2 cup batter at a time and using flexible rubber spatula, press spaetzle batter through 1/4-inch-wide holes of spaetzle maker or colander.
9. Boil until the spaetzle rise to the surface. Using skimmer, lift the spaetzle from the pot. Drain and place on a baking sheet.
10. Continue until there is no more batter left.
12. In a large skillet bring the stock to a simmer over medium-high heat and stir in the ice-cold and cubed butter until the sauce starts to thicken.
11.  Add the parmigiano and the spaetzle and stir gently until heated through.
12.  Season with some freshly ground pepper and serve adding a few fried parsley leaves as a finishing touch.

You can serve the Herbed Spätzle on their own, with a mixed salad or alongside sausages, chicken or some pork schnitzel. For the pork schnitzel I use pork tenderloin cut into medallions, dusted with flower and coated with eggs mixed with Dijon mustard and homemade bread crumbs. I fry the schnitzel in some oil and serve them with lemon wedges and some Dijon mustard.

Spätzle are always a big hit at our house, whether I make the herbed version, the regular version, with some swiss cheese and spinach or lightly fried in butter. Just make sure to rinse off your cooking utensils immediately after cooking. First rinse with cold than with warm water, otherwise the remains of the batter “will turn into cement” as one of my favorite cooks once said.


And for dessert why don´t you try baking your favorite Marble Cake recipe in a Weck jar…

…and do not forget to drizzle some chocolate over the finished cake. Baking in Weck jars of different sizes works very well and is a lot of fun.The cake always stays moist and has a nice rustic look, just the right dessert for a spaetzle and schnitzel dinner!

Guten Appetit! -  Enjoy!

Tuesdays with Dorie - Blueberry-Nectarine Pie

Today`s recipe for the Tuesdays with Dorie group is „Blueberry-Nectarine Pie“, a recipe that was contributed by baker Leslie Mackie.

The Blueberry-Nectarine Pie is a double crust pie filled with delicious blueberries and ripe nectarines and made with a flaky pie dough topped with turbinado sugar. The first step in this recipe is, of course, the  preparation of the flaky pie dough with a mix of really cold unsalted butter and vegetable shortening ( I used ice-cold lard), flour, salt and ice water. The dough can be made by hand, in a mixer or a food processor. I always make my pie dough by hand, that is just the method I like best. The pie dough has to be chilled for a good two hours before it can be rolled out. So there is plenty of time to prepare the filling of blueberries and nectarines.

The filling is cooked for a minute or two and then cooled before it gets added to the pie. I had never used that method in my pie making before. The filling consists of blueberries, nectarines, sugar, some AP flour, sea salt and freshly grated lemon zest. Only part of the fruit is cooked briefly and than the rest of the fruit gets added to the filling. That way you can easily adjust the sweetness of the cooked fruit All that is left to do is to let the filling cool.

After the dough has chilled and the filling has cooled, you roll out half and fit it in the pie plate (I used a glass pie plate).Then you add the filling, dot with butter, roll out the second half, trim, fold, crimp, brush with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar and bake until the crust is nicely browned and the filling is bubbling .

After the pie had time to rest you can enjoy a slice or even two with some vanilla ice cream!

I loved the flaky pie crust, it was easy to prepare and easy to roll out and it browned nicely in the oven. The taste testers all loved this pie especially with a bit of vanilla ice cream. They thought that the mix of blueberries and nectarines was wonderful, even better than just blueberries. I will be making this pie again – this recipe by Leslie Mackie is a definite keeper.

Our hosts for today's recipe are Hilary of Manchego´s Kitchen and Liz of That Skinny Chicken Can Bake - a big Thank You to both our gracious hosts!

To see how wonderful all the pies from the other talented Doristas turned out, please click here!

French Fridays with Dorie - Lemon Barley Pilaf

This week´s recipe for the French Friday`s with Dorie group is Lemon Barley Pilaf. My grandmother used to put pearl barley (“Perlgraupen”) in her soups and I used to love the taste and the texture of the barley. I still do. There are two different kinds of pearl barley available in the stores, you can choose between fine or coarse barley. For this recipe I bought the fine barley – personal preference and it looks a tad more elegant.

There are only a few steps involved in the preparation of this recipe. You start by sautéeing the onion in a tablespoon of unsalted butter, then you add the barley to the onion and cook it for a few minutes. Then you cook the barley further by using homemade chicken broth and water. To the broth you add the bay leaf, simmer for 30 minutes, stir in the peas, scallions, lemon zest or, in my case, lemon olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and you are done.

I believe the most difficult step when preparing this recipe was to decide what to serve the pilaf with. I decided to serve it alongside perch with tomatoes and fennel. The taste testers loved their lunch and really liked the pilaf with the fish.

Perch with Tomatoes and Fennel

Ingredients (serves four)
(adapted from Everyday Food July/August 2012)

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 large fennel bulbs, thinly sliced lengthwise, plus fronds or fresh dill for serving (optional)
fine sea salt
freshly ground pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
6  large tomatoes, peeled, cored and diced
1 1/2 pounds perch (or another fish of your choice such as halibut) cut into eight pieces/fillets

Preparation

1. In a large skillet heat the oil and add the fennel. Cook, stirring frequently, until nicely browned, 6 to 8 minutes then season the fennel with salt and pepper.
2. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Set aside.
3. In the same skillet, add the tomatoes and cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to soften and release their juices, 5 to 7 minutes.
4. Briefly brown the fish on both sides (about one to two minutes per side).
5. Take the perch out of the pan and place it on top of the tomato mixture and season with salt and pepper.
6. Cover and cook until the fish is just done, about 8 minutes (depending on how thick the pieces/fillets of fish are). You could also transfer the pan to the oven instead.

To serve, divide the tomatoes and fennel among four plates, top with perch and sprinkle with fennel fronds, if desired. And do not forget to serve the wonderful lemon barley pilaf alongside!

We all enjoyed the taste of Dorie´s  lemon barley pilaf very much. But I guess, once again, we are not the most impartial of taste testers because we like barley served as a side-dish, we like it in our soup and we like it cold as a salad.

This is a recipe that is easy to put together and it leaves a lot of room for some wonderful “interpretations” such as adding different seasonal veggies, some leftover chicken, herbs from the garden, etc. So, yes, I will be making this again.

Have a great weekend!


To see how the other creative Doristas prepared the Lemon Barley Pilaf, please click here.

Percoche Clafoutis

A few days ago while shopping, I saw these fuzzy peachy looking fruits with firm flesh. I had never noticed them before but they looked wonderful. So I bought a few and brought them home. The sign in the store read “Pfisich Aprikosen” (“peach apricots”), so I did a bit of research and discovered that they are actually called “percoches” and are indeed a cross between a peach and an apricot. They do look like giant apricots because of their color and because the peel of the fruit feels like an apricot but, at the same time, the fruits have the size of peaches. The flesh of the “percoches” is firm and less juicy than the flesh of regular peaches, they taste sweet and a bit tart at the same time.

For purposes of comparison, I put some apricots next to the “percoches”. A really interesting fruit and a nice choice if you are looking for something a bit different from the usual peaches, nectarines or apricots.

After the taste test, the next question was what to do with these fruits other than eating them raw, of course. The search proved to be a bit more time consuming than I had anticipated but I finally came across the inspiration for this dessert on an Italian blog. I guess somebody out there thought it was time for me to finally improve my Italian language skills again…it has been a while since I took these classes…In any event, it seems that these fruits grow in Italy and there are very few recipes that use “percoches” as a main ingredient. But this dessert is wonderful. It smells great, it tastes delicious, it has a rustic appeal and it is easy to prepare. So it will be a French recipe for some Italian fruits and I like it!

While by tradition, a clafoutis is a rustic French baked dessert with a custard-like batter similar to a pancake batter and specifically made with black cherries, you can create many clafoutis variations called “Flaungardes,” which include other fruits such as plums, prunes, blueberries, rhubarb or apples. But since the talented Italian baker that inspired this recipe called her dessert  " Clafoutis di Percoche", I decided to keep the title, and besides, I  believe that "Flaungardes" is not a commonly used expression.

Percoche Clafoutis
(as inspired by an Italian recipe from “cosacucino”)

Ingredients

1200 grams (about 2.5 pounds ) percoche, sliced but not peeled (about five fruits – you can also use peaches, nectarines or apricots in this recipe)
200 ml (7/8 cup = one cup minus 2 1/2 tbsp) whole milk, room temperature
400 ml (1.7 cups = two cups minus 5 tbsp ) half and half
6 eggs (L)
200 grams superfine sugar (7 ounces)
1 package of pure vanilla sugar or 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
40 grams (1.5 onces) of unsalted butter, melted and cooled and some more for greasing the ovenproof dish

For serving
powdered sugar (optional)

Preparation

1. Mix together the milk, the half and half, the eggs, the sugar, vanilla, the salt and the melted butter.
2. Butter an ovenproof baking dish or a cast iron pan (rather “lavishly”).
2. Pour the batter in the prepared 10 cup baking dish or pan (I used a large dish and doubled the original recipe) but you can use a smaller dish and half the recipe).
3. Place in the oven and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius) for about 45 minutes to an hour.
6. The clafoutis is done when it is puffed and golden and a small knife plunged in the center comes out clean.

Serve while still warm with a dusting of powdered sugar if you wish and some lightly whipped cream, crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.

"Uno non può pensare bene,

dormire bene,

se non ha mangiato bene."

(Virginia Wolf)

Styrian Potato Salad with Cucumbers - Steirischer Kartoffelsalat mit Gurken

Today I am posting a recipe for an Styrian potato salad. Styria (Steiermark) is a state (Bundesland), located in the southeast of Austria.

When I was a child, we used to spend our summer vacations in Austria - I loved the Austrian mountains, the lakes, the castles, the people and the food. Peolple used a lot of local produce in their recipes. They got cheese from the local cheese maker, fruits and veggies from the local farmers and honey from the neighbour. "Local" or "regional" was a way of life then, not a fad. Be that as it may, I remember the glorious food I ate in Austria vividly and nowadays I regularly prepare Austrian and Bavarian dishes for us. My family thinks they are delicious.

The recipe I chose for today´s post is a wonderful recipe and it is perfect for summer. It contains no heavy mayonnaise but, as is typical for Austrian or Bavarian potato salads, the cooked potatoes get coated with a warm dressing containing a homemade beef broth, onions, bacon and some other delicious ingredients.

As far as the Styrian aspect is concerned, I should add the following. Although the salad is wonderful without a “Styrian touch”, it does add another layer of flavor and makes it all the more special, so, just before serving, you can add a few drops of the famous Styrian pumpkin seed oil ("Kürbiskernöl"), toasted pumpkin seeds ("Kürbiskerne") and cress (or omit the cress and add flat leafed parsley).

Pumpkin seed oil is derived from cold-pressing roasted, hulled seeds of the certain varieties of pumpkins, most commonly the Styrian pumpkin. It is a specialty of Styria, a region that encompasses southeast Austria and nearby regions of Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary. Cultivation of the Styrian pumpkin began in the late 1600s. Pumpkin seed oil has a rich green color and a nutty flavor and makes an excellent addition to the traditional Styrian salad dressings.

You can pair the potato salad with rustic meatballs ("Fleischpflanzerl"), schnitzel, chicken cutlets or on its own with pretzel ("Bretzel") or a country style loaf of  bread ("Landbrot").



Recipe for Styrian Potato Salad with Cucumbers (Steirischer Kartoffel-Gurken-Salat)
(serves 4)

Ingredients for the Potato Salad

1.5 pounds medium boiling potatoes, scrubbed well
2 Kirby cucumbers (or one English cucumber)
fine sea salt
5 bacon slices (5 ounces), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cup finely chopped onions
1 tbsp unsalted butter
6  tbsp white wine vinegar
½ cup beef broth (homemade if possible)
1 tbsp coarse-grained mustard (I used coarse-grained Dijon mustard)
3 tbsp sunflower oil (walnut oil is also wonderful particularly if you are not going to add the pumpkin seed oil “as a finishing touch” later on)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp sugar
flat leafed parsley, finely minced (optional)

To add the “Styrian touch” (optional)

Pumpkin seeds ("Kürbiskerne")
Pumpkin seed oil ("Kürbiskernöl")


Preparation

1. Boil potatoes in salted water until tender when pierced with a paring knife, 20 to 25 minutes (depending on the size of the potatoes). Transfer to a cutting board. Let cool. Peel and then slice thinly and set aside.
2. Peel cucumber(s), halve and seed with a small spoon. Then slice thinly, transfer to a medium bowl. Mix with two pinches of sea salt so that the salt can draw out the moisture from the cukes.
3. Roast the pumpkin seeds (if using) in a dry non-stick pan until they become fragrant. Set aside.
4. Cook the bacon in a heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until golden and crisp, about 8 minutes. Add the chopped onions to the bacon and cook for three minutes more.
5. To the bacon mix, add the vinegar and the broth, then whisk in the mustard and cook for three minutes on moderately high heat.
6. Then add the sunflower oil to the pan, whisking constantly. You now have a hot dressing.
7. Immediately pour the hot dressing over the cooled and sliced potatoes and mix carefully but well.
8. Drain the cucumber slices and add them to the potato salad. Then add some freshly ground pepper and salt to the salad.
9. Put in the fridge for about two hours. After the two hours adjust seasoning if necessary and add some more pepper and salt to taste..
10. Just before serving, add a few drops of pumpkin seed oil, pumpkin seeds and cress (optional).

Guten Appetit! - Enjoy!