a whisk and a spoon

Everyday Dorie: Christiane’s Dinner-Party Terrine

When I think of a terrine, I think of chunks of pork or duck and pistachios held together in aspic jelly…not my speed. Imagine my delight to discover that Christiane’s Dinner Party Terrine is a veggie and egg situation, more like a crustless quiche than a meat and nut terrazzo floor. Here, an egg custard with bits of scallion, red pepper and herbs gets baked in a loaf pan and sliced terrine-style.

The recipe uses nine eggs and calls for an amount of heavy cream that, for me, is reserved pretty much only for sweet treats like ice cream or eggnog. I decided to cut it back to five eggs (and use a smaller pan) and replace about two-thirds of the cream with milk. The finished custard, baked in a water bath, was still plenty silky, and the smaller loaf took less time in the oven to set.

With no plans to throw a dinner party this week, I enjoyed slices of terrine with the suggested raw tomato and herb sauce and some salad for lunch during the week.

For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.

Everyday Dorie: Savory Bread Pudding

‘Tis the season for delicious smushy carbs, so to keep myself from going on an all-out November bread bender, I decided to use this Savory Bread Pudding with loads of caramelized onions and Emmental cheese as a replacement for our normal Thanksgiving stuffing. That was kind of a bold call on my part, as I’ve been told many times that the only good stuffing is Stove Top! In case of a revolt, I scaled the recipe down to make just a loaf pan’s worth (I still got eight portions!), which cut into nice slices when the pudding firmed up. Since this was going with our turkey dinner, I made a couple of seasonal flavor mods…my own “playing around” version, if you will. I used all of Simon & Garfunkel’s favorite herbs and I also added a fat scoop of pumpkin puree in place of some of the dairy in the custard. I had to toss in a little bit more bread, too, as it didn’t look like it would be able to soak up all the liquid.

And the verdict was: yum! It for sure took longer to make than Stove Top, with the caramelized onions and the soaking of the bread, and it required a water bath, but it was totally great with gravy, and I got no complaints.

For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.

Everyday Dorie: Herb-Butter Chicken

Herb-Butter Chicken is just what is sounds like– chicken with an herby compound butter that’s smeared underneath the skin to flavor and baste the meat as it roasts in a Dutch oven. I used chopped parsley and tarragon in my butter blend, chives instead of scallions and added some mined garlic along with the lemon zest and s&p. I swapped the bread that Dorie uses as a base under the chicken with some halved baby potatoes, but I kept the sliced onions.

We are a household of just two, so my “big” Dutch oven is only 3.5 quarts. I brought home a small chicken (under 4 lbs) that fit nicely in it, and checked it a bit early. The herbs sort of stayed in pockets under the chicken skin (because I didn’t do a great job of really getting it spread around), but having all that butter melt into the meat made it really moist. And the drippings at the bottom of the pan were delish and flavored the creamy potatoes and silky onions so nicely. This is an easy way to roast a chicken– getting that butter under the skin is kind of an icky task, but after that you really don’t have to do much else to it– and you can customize the butter, flavoring it however you like.

For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.

Everyday Dorie: Sole Meunière with Onion-Walnut Relish and Giverny Tomatoes

In the book, this is a Flounder Meunière with Onion-Walnut Relish, but it’s easier for me to find local sole, which Dorie says is traditional anyway, so I just used that. Fish is something I mostly save for eating out, since I usually mangle it, but this meunière preparation couldn’t be easier to cook. Just lightly dredge your fish fillets in four and quickly pan fry them in butter. Dorie goes a step further than the basic lemon and parsley finish by adding a flavorful relish of anchovies, onions, walnuts and toasted bread cubes. This made a pretty nice Sunday dinner, and it’s one I’ll make again.

There are a handful of recipes in the book I’ve skipped– mostly red meat ones that I just won’t eat, and also some that I do want to try but was too lazy to make when posting time came around. Now that we only have a few months of cooking left to go, I’ve been wondering how I can squeeze in some of these. I had two nice tomatoes from the greenmarket on the counter and while I’d passed on the slow-roasted Giverny Tomatoes last month, I figured they’d make a good side dish for the fish, with some modifications. Rather than flavoring them with lime, I used lemon to match the fish (and I left out the extract, just using lemon juice and zest). I also used much less sugar (maybe about 1/2 tsp total) than the recipe called for and added some dried thyme. Finally, I skipped blanching and peeling the tomatoes….they cooked for so long, their skins just slipped right off in the end. They were delicious, as was the olive oily tomato juice in the dish.

For the recipes, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked the fish.