Everyday Dorie: Potato Tourte
March 8, 2019 at 5:54 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, groups, other savory, savory things, veggies | 10 CommentsTags: savory, tourte
I thought about not making the Potato Tourte this week for Cook the Book Fridays. It’s not that a potato gratin wrapped inside puff pastry isn’t appealing to me. It’s that it’s too appealing to me. I decided that if I made about half a recipe (which I totally eyeballed) in one of my 6-inch pie plates, then things wouldn’t spiral too out of control.
There are certain things that I am notoriously stingy with. Parchment paper is one…I will re-use a piece until it basically turns to ashes on a sheet tray. Puff pastry is another. There is no trimming of excess and there is never waste. I decided to allocate one half of a sheet of puff pastry to this project (the other half I’m saving intact for something else later this month). I wanted my top crust to look great, so I cut that round first. Then I patchworked the bottom crust in with the rest of the sheet and the off cuts from the top round. It looked kind of crazy pre-filling, but seems to have worked fine. I popped all that in the fridge while I assembled my oniony, garlicky herb mix (using fresh parsley, basil puree that I keep in the freezer and dried thyme) and my butter bits (which I actually grated so I could disperse them more evenly) and lemon strips (which I also actually grated) and mandolined a couple of yukon golds without any incident (I did not soak them in water). It didn’t take too long before everything was stacked and egg washed and in the oven.
For the final third of the baking time, cream gets drizzled into the steam vent in the top. I had a fair amount of butter bubbling and sizzling out of the tourte and onto the baking sheet, so I decided to only use a couple of tablespoons of cream instead of the half cup I otherwise would have. It seemed to be telling me it could barley contain all the fat that was in it already. Hahaha.
This is truly delicious. I served it with a bitter radicchio salad and a glass white wine to cut through the richness. Not only do you get the beautiful layers in the puff pastry, put also beautiful layers of creamy herbed potato. As yummy as this was for dinner, I’m looking forward to brunch leftovers tomorrow.
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.
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Honey-Blue Cheese Madeleines
March 5, 2019 at 2:59 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
I like the chance to break out my madeleine pan, and here’s an interesting reason– Honey-Blue Cheese Madeleines. A sweet and savory combo, Dorie says she was inspired to create these mads after enjoying blue cheese and honey together on a cheese plate at a wine bar. That in turn inspired me to pair them with some typical cheese plate accompaniments: a few slices of pear (mine were poached) and some dried fruit and nuts. Vin santo, too, although I think they’d go nicely with most wines, or with a dirty martini, if that’s your jam. These are “cocktail cookies,” after all.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and please join us if you haven’t already.
Everyday Dorie: Sweet Chili Chicken Thighs
February 8, 2019 at 2:06 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, groups, savory things | 8 CommentsTags: chicken, savory
It’s Sunday and that means I’m two days tardy for Cook the Book Fridays. Please forgive me, and know that these Sweet Chili Chicken Thighs will make an excellent Sunday supper, so I think I actually just solved your dinner problems for the evening. It’s an easy one-pot meal (although getting out a second pot for rice isn’t a bad idea) of chicken thighs braised in a sweet and spicy, sticky sauce made from Thai sweet chili sauce, white wine, soy, Dijon and Sriracha.
I tampered a bit with this recipe, but only in the order in which I cooked off the ingredients. If I had used boneless, skinless chicken thighs here, I may have gone ahead and done it as written, which is to sauté onions, garlic and ginger in oil in a Dutch oven, remove them while browning the chicken thighs and add them back in so everything braises together in the sauce. But I used chicken thighs with the bones and skin. These render a lot of fat when you brown them, and I wanted to sauté my aromatics in that delicious liquid gold, rather than just discard it. Schmaltz is not to be wasted, so I browned the chicken thighs first (starting skin side down, then flipping them) to render it out. I removed the thighs to a plate and carried on cooking the”onions and friends,” as Dorie says, before adding back the chicken with the sauce to braise.
Rice is the natural thing to help soak up the extra sauce on these thighs, and I added a little furikake sprinkle to mine and some quick rice wine vinegar pickles on the side. Maybe I mish-moshed cuisines a little, but all was devoured, and I don’t think anyone minded. P.S.: Dorie says this also works well with pork tenderloin.
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 (spoiler alert: we all did!).
Everyday Dorie: Potato Chowder Lots of Ways
January 11, 2019 at 3:15 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, groups, savory things, soups, veggies | 13 CommentsTags: savory, soup, vegetables
Well, it’s officially frigid here and all I want to make for dinner is soup. Luckily, Cook the Book Fridays picked Dorie’s Potato Chowder Lots of Ways for the recipe of the month. I like the “lots of ways” bit because it pretty much tells me I’ll have room to improvise, which I usually do anyway but having permission is a refreshing change. Hahaha. I actually didn’t really veer too far off base here, just a few tweaks and some flavoring and topping customization. This is really a potato and onion chowder, using just about every allium you can think of: yellow onions, leeks, shallots and garlic. Any not on this list can be added as a topping. I first pre-crisped some turkey bacon bits in my Dutch oven and set them aside for garnish. As the alliums cooked down all soft and sweet, I seasoned them with Old Bay. My dad used to have a boat on the Chesapeake, so I love that stuff. I never peel potatoes if I don’t have to, and didn’t see a reason to here, so I left the skins on mine.
I don’t always love how I feel after eating soup with a cream base, so I skipped the cream here and instead stole a couple of ladlefuls of soup out of my pot (the liquid with some potatoes and onions) and whizzed it really smooth in my blender. I stirred that back into the soup to give the base a thicker, velvety texture and then added about 1/4 cup of 2% milk just to give it a slightly lighter, more chowdery, color. Because I’d been restrained with the dairy in the soup, I felt no guilt when adding a blop of crème fraîche as a topping. Also on top of the “my way” chowder, I sprinkled those bacon bits, some sliced scallion and some tiny potatoes that I crisped up in olive oil, crouton-style. Delicious. I will definitely try this chowder other ways as the season goes on.
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: Roasted Squash Hummus
December 14, 2018 at 10:21 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, groups, savory things, snacks, veggies | 14 CommentsTags: savory, vegetables
You know I’m having an exciting Friday night when I’m writing up a blog post about hummus! At least this Roasted Squash Hummus has a little something different going on. In place of the traditional chickpeas, this hummus gets its body from a roasted squash. Of course there’s tahini and lemon, but also some cool ingredients like za’atar and pomegranate molasses. I used a small carnival squash, and although Dorie just has you mash together the ingredients with a fork, I put everything into my mini food processor and gave it a whiz. I plated it up with a smear of thick yogurt, drizzles of olive oil and more pom molasses and a sprinkling of toasted pumpkin seeds. It’s earthy and creamy with a touch of sweetness. This was more interesting than my normal Sunday football food, and I thought it made a nice dip for veggies and pita chips.
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: Maple-Syrup-and-Mustard Brussels Sprouts
November 9, 2018 at 12:01 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, groups, savory things, veggies | 19 CommentsTags: savory, vegetables
I was never the kid who pushed away the dish of brussels sprouts. In fact, they were always a highlight of Thanksgiving dinner, right up there with stuffing! I know…weird, right? When I make sprouts at home, I usually just simply roast them with a little s&p. Sometimes I shred and sauté them. I’m always happy to try out something new, though. These Maple-Syrup-and-Mustard Brussels Sprouts are steamed first and then they’re finished off in a skillet, where they take on some color before being combined with the maple and mustard and some crispy bacon (of the turkey variety for me). They’re sweet and savory and a little zingy. And steaming is a really easy way to cook them, so I don’t know why I haven’t done it before. I have a little container of leftovers that I plan to heat up and top with a fried egg, and I’m so looking forward to it!
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.
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Cranberry Five-Spice Cookies
November 6, 2018 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 7 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory
When these Cranberry Five-Spice Cookies were being floated around in the month’s nominations, I didn’t realize that they are in the “cocktail cookies” section of the book. This is the section where the cookies lean more savory than sweet…nibbles to go with a glass of wine or an aperitif. These ones have the texture of sugar cookies, but they are only very lightly sweetened, and are flavored with tart fresh cranberries, salty peanuts and Chinese five-spice powder, an exotic mixture of ground cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds, star anise and Szechuan pepper.
A lot of times, I like to cut roll-out cookies like these into squares rather than rounds so I don’t have any waste. I sprinkled these with a little mix of extra sugar, salt and five-spice before baking. Even though they weren’t quite what I had in mind when I cracked open the book to make them, I did like them. I thought a bit of spreadable goat cheese on top went rather nicely.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
My Newest Gougères from Everyday Dorie
October 26, 2018 at 7:37 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, groups, savory things, snacks | 20 CommentsTags: choux, savory
In case you can’t tell from the over four hundred posts I’ve written, dedicated to the over four hundred recipes I’ve made from her books, Dorie Greenspan is one of my favorite cookbook authors. Anytime she comes out with a new title, I can’t wait to dive in, and of course that’s the case with her beautiful brand-new Everyday Dorie! I have at least two dozen recipes I need to get down to business with soon, but I’m beginning with what she calls “My Newest Gougères,” and I’m making them along with the Cook the Book Fridays group. They’re starting today to cook their way though Everyday Dorie, and I’ll join in as often as I can.
Gougères are made with choux paste, one of my favorite things to make. This newest version is a cheese puff not only loaded with cheese (of course), but also chopped nuts and a bit of Dijon mustard. You can play around with the cheese and nuts. I went pretty classic with a Gruyère and walnut combo. These make a great salty, cheesy snack to have with a glass of rosè. The nuts give them more substance than other gougères I’ve made. I have some more in the freezer and I think they’ll go really nicely with a bowl of tomato soup, too.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (you can even watch her make them in this video), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group kicks this one off!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Rosemary-Parm Cookies
August 7, 2018 at 12:46 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory
I like baking savory cookies because it gives me an excuse to open a bottle of wine. Hello apéro! A drink, a snack and a podcast make getting the rest of dinner on the table less of a chore. The Rosemary-Parm Cookies are from the “cocktail cookie” section of the book. They are savory shortbread cookies, delicate and crumbly, and flavored with parmesan, pecans and rosemary. I cut mine into (imperfect) squares rather than rounds so I wouldn’t have any waste, and sprinkled them with a bit of extra grated cheese before baking. They’re salty and cheesy, and I can verify that they go quite nicely with white wine!
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Bee’s Sneeze Nuggets
February 20, 2018 at 6:49 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
I am a big fan of the at-home apéro hour. I like to have just a splash of wine and a little something to nibble on while I’m preparing the rest of dinner. Makes prep time more fun. Usually I’ll go for boxed crackers with my cheese, but when the TWD pick is a “cocktail cookie,” things get a bit more exciting. These Bee’s Sneeze Nuggets are inspired by the flavors of a cocktail that’s a spin on a traditional bee’s knees. They’re flavored with gin, honey and lots of lemon, and lean savory rather than sweet. After I mixed the cookie dough and patted it out, I wasn’t sure how big to cut the nuggets. I made them really small and I love how they held their shape, rising up instead of spreading out. They look like tiny biscuits–so cute! (I’ve gotta add that I think nuggets this small would be great floating in thicker soups, in place of croutons or oyster crackers…mental note.)
You can dip them in some extra honey on the side, but to help control stickiness, I glazed each nugget with a dab of honey while they were still warm. Then I ate them with olives and cheese. A proper bee’s knees cocktail would probably be an appropriate drink choice, but due to an incident years ago (I will spare you the details), I am not a big gin drinker, so I went with red wine.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and please join us if you haven’t already!
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