Gâteau au Yaourt

I tried this recipe for Gâteau au Yaourt from Clotilde's blog and it's my new favorite cake. I really appreciate how easy it is to make. You don't need any fancy mixer; it's easy to make by hand. Plus, after my little foray into the world of Clafoutis, I'm obsessed with fruity desserts. This cake is really moist, light and not too sweet. Perfect with a pot of tea!

I’ll post my slight variation of the cake here, but you should read her post for the original Gâteau au Yaourt, which I hope to try soon. My variation has the same base as her Gâteau au Yaourt à la Framboise (i.e. with brown sugar) but uses chopped apples instead. Clearly, you can use any fruit you like. Avoid the urge to add cinnamon or other spices. You will really enjoy the simplicity of the yogurt, fruit and brown sugar; I promise! Go make this cake!

Yogurt Cake with Apples

½ cup plain unsweetened yogurt
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract
¼ cup oil
¼ cup ground almonds (almond flour)
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2-3 Gala, Golden Delicious or Pink Lady apples, peeled, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C/350 degrees F.
Combine the yogurt, oil and sugar in a large bowl. Add vanilla or almond extract and one egg at a time and stir to combine. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, almonds and baking powder. Stir the flour mixture into the yogurt mixture a little at a time until just combined. Do not over mix.

Pour 1/3 of cake batter into the bottom of a well-greased and floured round 9-in. cake pan or pie plate. Lay sliced apples over the batter in one crowded layer. Don't pile them too high or they won't cook down enough. Pour remaining batter over the apples covering them completely. Bake for 45 minutes. (The posted recipe says 50-60 minutes, but mine was well done at 50.)

Let cool 15 minutes or so before slicing. Dust with powdered sugar or a spoonful of whipped cream before serving. Serves 8.

*Evidently, if you can’t find almond flour or don’t want to grind your own, you can omit it without replacing it.

The Most Fabulous Recipe Ever...

I’m sure that by now everyone and their mother is aware of how much I love macaroni and cheese, especially all of those friends of mine who forwarded me the New York Times article about it. Enough already you temptresses!!!

I felt it was my duty then to actually try the recipe. The picture looked great. I’m guessing half the country fell off the low-carb wagon after seeing it. The article was basically calling most recipes for Mac ‘n Cheese pansy-ass because they don’t use enough cheese. I tried their recipe for the “crusty” macaroni and, to be honest, it wasn’t my favorite. Trust me, I do come from the school of “you can never have too much cheese” but this recipe was literally pasta with melted cheese on it. Crusty, it was, and incredibly greasy. I guess I’m just too fond of the creamy kind.

I’m quite certain that I’ve tried all the variations of Macaroni and Cheese. The one with a béchamel sauce made with cheddar and usually baked in the oven (with or without bread crumbs.) There is the stove top version that gets thickened with evaporated milk and an egg. Now I’ve made the all-cheese one and tried a variety of cheeses. I must say it’s been a beautiful journey. Everyone is going to have their favorite. Thankfully, I have enough room in my heart for all varieties.

Here's a picture to give you hunger pains...

Some Advice:

The baked variety requires a rather thin béchamel sauce since the cheese will further thicken the sauce. The mistake is to make a thick béchamel that becomes thicker with the addition of the cheese. My other recommendation is to use lots of extra sharp cheddar or it won’t taste cheesy enough, which I think was the complaint in the NY Times article. Also, you could layer half the combined pasta and sauce mixture in the casserole pan, add a layer of grated cheese and top with the rest of the pasta. So, I agree with the Times about needing to use more cheese than is generally given in most recipes.

I love bread crumbs on baked casseroles, but just be sure to sauté them in a little oil or butter first so that they brown in the oven. If you dump them on the casserole they will simply absorb your sauce and never brown.

My stove top version comes from a great cookbook called, The Bride and Groom First and Forever Cookbook, by Mary Corpening Barber and Sara Corpening Whitford, which is full of really great recipes for the basics. I played around with the amounts here and I use only an egg yolk, not a whole egg. I know you will love this recipe. It tastes really good and it can be made in the time it takes the pasta to boil.

Creamy Stove Top Mac 'n Cheese

2 cups dry macaroni or other small pasta
1 egg yolk
¾ cup evaporated milk (more may be needed)
½ tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp salt
Pinch of nutmeg
An aggressive amount of Tabasco
2 or more cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
*replace half the cheddar with aged gruyere if you want to play around.

Cook the pasta according to package directions in salted water. Whisk together the egg yolk and ¾ cup of evaporated milk. Add salt, nutmeg, mustard and Tabasco. Drain pasta when done and return back to the pan over low heat. Add cheese and milk mixture and stir to combine. The sauce will thicken and the cheese will melt completely as it heats. Stir continually. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding my cheese if needed. Add more evaporated milk if it gets too thick. Remove from heat and serve immediately. Serves 2.

You’ve now completed my grand summary of Mac ‘n Cheese. Good luck and my apologies to anyone on a diet. At least there's no picture. *Update 3/4/06, oh wait, sorry. Now there is.

Saint Valentine's Salad

In my ever present effort to expand my salad repertoire, I believe I've stumbled across something good.

Beets, baby. Maybe beets aren't that old-fashioned anymore, but I remember them as canned weird squiggly things that my Grandma would serve on a relish tray, along with cold sour pickles. I think those were pickled beets, actually. For a long time I found their scarlet seeping juices peculiar and was annoyed how they turned everything in their path that devastating pink color. Even when working with them last night I was scared my fingers would be forever pink. (The stain washed right off). Beets are actually amazing things. They happen to be very high in potassium and folic acid should you be looking for a nutritional excuse to eat them.

I've seen them around Paris, popping up on menus and are easy to find in grocery stores. A standard salade composée might include greens topped with grated carrots, corn kernels, and diced beets. They make for a perfectly sweet triptych when placed beside little mounds of carrot salad and celery rémoulade, where their striking color is used for optimal effect.

Try this pink salad with beets for your Valentine.

Apple and Beet Salad
with Honey Orange Vinaigrette

1 large beet (or canned beets are fine)
1 apple, sliced
1/2 head of romaine lettuce or 2 cups of mesclun greens
1/4 walnuts, toasted (optional)

3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar
2 Tbsp. orange juice
1 tsp. orange zest (optional)
1 tsp. honey
1 Tbsp. fresh mint, chopped

Combine all vinaigrette ingredients in a jar with a lid. Shake to combine.
Cook whole beet(s) in boiling water for 40 minutes or until tender and you can easily insert a knife (as you would with potatoes). Drain and remove peel. Slice beets and apples. Toast walnuts in a dry skillet until fragrant and lightly browned.

In a large salad bowl, toss lettuce, apples and beets together with as much dressing as you prefer. The apples will turn neon pink with this preparation. An alternate preparation leaving you without the snarky pink apples would be to toss the lettuce and apples with the dressing and then top the salad with the slice beets. I happen to like those sexy pink apples, but it's up to you. Garnish with more mint. Serves 2.

Quiche

There isn't anything I love more than a lunch made up of a hefty slice of quiche sitting next to a green salad and a glass of wine. I've made many quiches in my day and I always seem to have to search long and hard to find a recipe. There are so many recipes out there with so many different amounts (some only use 2 eggs, no cream, more filling, deep dish, etc.) that I seem to always scramble for a recipe when I'm craving quiche. So, I was motivated to find a great one; one I could call my definitive recipe.

I like a quiche with a nice balance between the egg and other fillings. 2 eggs are only going to fill up the quiche pan if you have lots of other filling (like a pound of onions), so that is something to consider, too. Quiches are simple to make and have a lot of potential for experimentation. Some fillings that are popular around Paris include: Spinach and Chevre, Veggie (diced carrots, leeks, etc...blah,) Onion or Leek, Onion and Bacon (of course!), Scallops, Salmon, Tomato and Zucchini, or Mushroom. Simply adding an unusual type of cheese and can make an interesting quiche. The key to any quiche (or most dishes, for that matter) is that each individual part should taste good. Bland mushrooms aren’t going to taste good just because they are surrounded by eggs and cheese, so season each step of the way.

Call it a New Year's resolution if you want, but I'm going to try and add more vegetables into my life. So, I decided to add broccoli to my quiche with caramelized onions and bacon. Baby steps...

Quiche à la Megane (Broccoli, Bacon and Caramelized Onion Quiche)

1 pastry crust (pâte brisée)
4 eggs
3 heaping Tbsp. crème fraîche, heavy cream (or half & half, if you must)
1 cup milk
1 medium sized head of broccoli, cut into 1-in florets
1/2 cup lardons/bacon
3 medium onions, chopped (I used 1 yellow and 1 red onion and it worked fine)
1/2 cup comté (or gruyere) cheese

Beat together eggs, crème fraiche or cream and milk. Add a pinch each of salt and ground nutmeg. (*note: I've seen recipes that say to use sour cream in place of crème fraîche, but I have not tried this and I find in some recipes they have very different reactions. Sour cream has a higher tendency to separate, I think, so I'm not vouching for it working. If you try it, let me know.)

A shortcut method for caramelizing onions:
Melt 1/2 Tbsp of butter and about that much olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the onions and stir. Cover the pan and let the onions sweat and soften for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Take off the lid (the onions should be soft at this point) and add a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar to the onions. Stir and turn up the heat to medium high. Let onions brown and stir occasionally for about another 10 minutes or until caramelized to your liking.

Blanch the broccoli florets in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes until just tender but not overcooked. Drain broccoli and pat with paper towels to absorb excess water. Sauté the lardons or bacon in a skillet until browned and crisp. Transfer bacon to a paper towel lined plate to drain.

Place crust in a 9-in. pie plate, letting edges drape over the sides for now. Arrange broccoli, bacon and onions in even layers on the pastry. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Slowly pour the egg/milk mixture over this so you don't disturb your broccoli. Gently fold the excess pasty over onto the filling, creasing a bit where necessary. I find this attractive and easier than making those fluted edges (which I suck at) that just get overly browned anyway. Bake in a preheated 400 degree F/200 degree C oven for 35 minutes (checking at 30 and maybe needing 40). The quiche is done when puffed, golden brown and an inserted knife comes out clean.

Also, try (my favorite!) Salmon and Spinach Quiche:
by flaking 1 (6-8 oz.) cooked salmon fillet, defrosting 1 cup of frozen spinach and layering those on the pastry before pouring on the egg/milk mixture. Sautéed leeks are also nice in this. Sadly, I never get to make this as my husband detests both salmon and spinach. Sigh…

Little Sandwiches

This is a cute little recipe for a sandwich. It’s sort of like a Croque-Monsieur.

Petit Pains au Lait avec du Jambon et du Fromage

2 small pains au lait, pain viennoise, or brioche
2-3 thin slices smoked ham, chopped
¼ cup gruyère, comté, or emmenthal (any cheese would work)
Milk or light cream

Carefully slice the tops off the bread (about ¼ off the top) and gently scoop out the inside of the roll. Put the torn bits of bread in a small saucepan, along with the ham, cheese and enough milk or cream to soften the bread. Stir over medium heat until the cheese is melted, adding more milk until it is well incorporated and kind of gooey, for lack of a better description. Put this filling back in the empty rolls and top with their petit chapeau. This is where the recipe stops, however, for a more attractive look, it would be great to top the sandwiches with a bit more cheese and pop them under the broiler until golden brown and serve without the hat. I’m sure this would work equally well with any sort of roll or baguette, but the smaller the better. Serves 2.