New croque monsier madeleine recipe,

This recipe was modified from Martha Stewart's savory madeleine, makes 220 mini's.  I quartered the recipe amounts and added ham and cheese and a dash of nutmeg.  I also used white pepper instead of black pepper,  honey, instead of sugar (didn't have any) and coarse grain cornmeal, polenta, hoping for crunch. I guess it is different enough to be called my recipe now.

2T butter, browned
1/2 c AP flour
1/4 c polenta
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/8 t white pepper
1/8 t nutmeg
1 T honey
1 large egg
1/2 c whole milk
80 gm ham
80 gm gruyere

Resting 3 hours (would have been 1 hour, but I need to run errands)

The batter is looser than the last recipe, the brown butter smells great.

Used cooking spray. Cooked @ 425 for 12 minutes.

They carmelized nicely, maybe a little less time next time and a lower temperature, like 400 or 350.  The batter was at room temp.  They came out less floury than the last recipe, but corny tasting.  I will increase the flour and decrease the cornmeal.  The crunch was nice.  The ham and cheese get a little lost in the madeleine, but maybe others will like it that way.  I tend to like "in your face" flavors.  Maybe I will put in a couple dashes of liquid smoke, larger pieces of ham or a stronger flavored ham.  I will also grate the cheese coarser, not on microplane.

2 savory profiterole recipes, need to test and consider fillings

For the profiteroles:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 5 eggs
• 1 tablespoon assorted chopped fresh herbs, such as chives, tarragon and basil
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In a medium saucepan heat butter and milk over high heat until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in salt and pepper. Combine flour and baking powder and add to milk mixture all at once, whisking and then stirring until mixture pulls away from sides of pan and forms a ball of dough. Remove from heat and turn into a bowl.
Using an electric mixer, add eggs, 1 at a time, making sure each egg is completely incorporated before adding the next one. Add herbs and lemon zest and stir until incorporated.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer mixture to a pastry bag with no tip and pipe out 16 generous, golf-ball sized portions of dough. Bake for 10 minutes, until puffed up and then reduce temperature to 375 degrees and bake until golden brown, and pastries feel light to the touch and are dry inside, about 25 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack. Using a spoon, slice off the very top of the profiteroles and fill

Gougere Recipe (Savory Cream Puff Appetizers)

09.14.10 by Jackie

Gougères are savory choux pastry (pâte à choux salé in French) appetizers made with cheese. For this version, I made a light pastry dough with Parmesan and Triple Cream cheeses, baked them to form hollow puffed balls and filled them with pistachio pesto flavored cream cheese, mushrooms and red bell peppers.

We hosted a dinner party this evening and these cute little bites were perfect finger foods. Next time you host a cocktail party or buffet, you might want to prepare savory cream puffs. They can be prepared in advance and assembled at the last minute. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields: 40 appetizers

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup homemade vegetable stock (click on the link for the recipe), warm
1 teaspoon Provence herbs
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
¼ cup Triple Cream cheese
¼ teaspoon black pepper
6 eggs
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 cup cream cheese
6 tablespoons pistachio pesto (click on the link for the recipe)
2 tablespoons heavy cream (or milk)
1 tablespoon capers, drained
1 tablespoon pistachio oil
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
¼ cup red bell pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed and finely minced
2 teaspoons olive oil

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

For the savory choux pastry dough:

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low; you don't want the butter to burn. Add the herbes de Provence. Bring the heat up to medium-high (the butter should be hot and golden) and add the flour. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon for approximately 3 minutes. The flour should absorb the butter instantly and form a paste. Stir well until incorporated and add the warm vegetable stock in 3 stages. Decrease the heat while constantly stirring for about 2-3 minutes. Add the Triple Cream cheese and reduce the heat to low. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Allow the mixture to cool; you could spread it on a flat surface to hasten the cooling time.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with sugar until you get a pale yellow foam; the texture of the eggs will be thicker. Add the eggs and 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese to the flour mixture in 4 stages and whisk until fully incorporated.

Transfer the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a round tip.

Line two baking trays with silicone mats or sheets of parchment paper.

Pipe 40 dough balls. Make sure to space them about 2 inches apart so that they don't touch each other as they will expand when they bake. Using your finger, flatten the tip by moistening it with water.

Bake for 5 minutes at 375°F; lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for another 25 minutes until puffed and golden.

Remove from the oven and cut the puffed balls in half horizontally. Allow to cool completely.

For the herbed cream cheese:

Reserve about 1 tablespoon of pistachio pesto.

In a bowl, combine the cream cheese, capers, pistachio pesto, pistachio oil and heavy cream. Mix well.

For the sautéed mushrooms and red bell peppers:

In a small non-stick pan, heat the oil. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the red bell peppers and toss for about 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a platter and let cool for about 10-15 minutes.

Assembly time:

Place the bottom slice of the gougère, outer crust side down. Pipe or spoon the herbed cream cheese. Fill with 2 slices of mushrooms and a few pieces of red bell pepper. Close with the top piece of gougère. Top with a little mound of herbed cream cheese. Garnish with a piece of red bell pepper for a nice contrast in color. Drizzle with the reserved pistachio pesto. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese.

Repeat until all the ingredients are used.

Serve at room temperature.

Bon appétit!

Tips

To make a roux (thickening agent made with flour, fat and a little liquid), I always use all the ingredients at the same temperature, so make sure to heat the vegetable stock in the microwave for about 2 minutes (or in a saucepan), so it's warm. If you get lumpy pieces in the sauce, don't hesitate to use a hand blender.

It's important to whisk the choux pastry dough well until the eggs are fully incorporated in between stages before adding more eggs. That way the texture of the dough will be smoother and  more homogeneous.

BOUCHE DE NOEL recipe

BOUCHE DE NOEL recipe

I really like this recipe, mainly because it is partly from Papa Jacques Pepin, the Dean of my school.  I am thinking about making it into smaller, individual logs for selling at holiday time.  Perhaps in mini madeleine pans, two layers, pastry cream filling and a nice frosting, maybe not buttercream unless I can make a tasty one.  The pastry cream can vary in flavor to make variations.

croque monsier madeleines, need to test

Croque Monsier Madeleines

Ingredients for 16 madeleines

• 150 g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 30 ml milk
• 3 T butter, melted, but not hot
• 60 g gruyère cheese, finely grated
• 60 g ham, minced
• dash nutmeg

• salt and pepper

Mix flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Mix eggs and milk in another bowl, then add to the flour and baking powder. Carefully add butter and mix lightly until a smooth but sticky dough. Add gruyère, ham, salt, pepper and nutmeg, mix well to combine all ingredients together. Taste the dough and adjust seasoning.  Caution, raw eggs in dough.

Place in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Butter madeleine molds, and fill each with with dough but not up to the top, only 3/4 filled. Place in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 10-15 min, or until the madeleines have risen and became golden.

To make a Croque Madame I could add hard boiled egg or an extra egg yolk to the mix.

Other variations would not be too difficult.

I tested this recipe with a couple variations from the above: 45ml milk, no salt and dash white pepper.  This dough turned out very thick and hard to press into madeleine molds.  They puffed up to nearly double and tasted floury.  I wasn't happy with the results, but still did a variation and added a hard boiled egg to the remaining batter and made 8 croque madam madeleines.  Same result and not much added flavor from egg.

Back to the drawing board. . . .

http://www.auntiechef.com/sell/?

http://www.auntiechef.com/sell/?

Went to Chicago had awesome food and wine. I can't remember what I made Tuesday for dinner. I made Tuna steaks on Wednesday. I served it with 4 sauces. Sirrcha and mayo, soy, an herb mustard pesto I made a while ago and a hoison-wasabi sauce (with soy). I also made quinoa like sushi rice, with vinegar. It was really good. I will use that application again for more grains.
Thursday I made etouffe with shrimp and chicken. I browned the chicken thighs and removed then I sauteed and lightly carmelized celery, carrot, onion and red bell pepper. I added flour and got it a little golden brown and then added beer, Old Speckled Hen. I reduced that a bit and added crushed tomatoes then put the chicken back in. I put in two bay leaves and simmered it for an hour and a half. I took out the chicken and let the sauce reduce. At the very end I put the chicken back in to warm up and added the shrimp at a low temperature to cook. I served it with sushi rice. Yum. I think I will make etouffee ravioli with what's left.
Saturday was not as big of a hit. I marinated flank steak in garlic, Italian herb seasoning (I made), oo and red wine. I wrapped it around grilled egglant, sauteed mushrooms, pepperocini, parsley and a little parmesan. I browned it and braised it. Like a Matambre, an Argentinian recipe. It was good, but I should have simply grilled the steak and used the reduced marinade as a sauce. But that would have been too easy. I served it with quinoa mixed with eggplant, mushrooms, red wine vinegar and goat cheese. I red in a cookbook this weekend that vinegar should be used like salt or pepper and adjusted at the end of dish just like salt or pepper.
Tuesday I remember aspargus roasted in duck fat. What was the meat???
Sunday was a pizza. I finally got a crispy crust, at least for a ww crust.
i think it was lamb chops Tuesday night. Simple prep and grilled. Yum. No starch.
OK, Sunday was pizza with eggplant and mushroom from Saturday, pepperocini and this awesome Virginia ham I got from FD. I put shredded mozz and jack cheese on it and topped it with garlic powder and my italian seasoning blend. Yum. It was probably one of the best I have made, in recent memory.
This week I have chicken thighs marinating in the freezer with store bought sauces: curry, mexican and asian. I still have ravioli and smoked salmon in the freezer, too. Maybe a meatless dish this week. . . doubtful.

Yesterday was a snow day, so I made chilli. I have made it throughout the years varying the way my mom made it: onions (cut in half then wide slices), canned stewed tomatoes, ground beef and kidney beans. Yesterday I made it perfectly. I sauteed onions, portabella mushrooms and red bell pepper with salt. I added 90% lean ground beef and a lot of chili powder and cumin and more salt. When the meat was cooked through I added about a half a box of beef broth, reduced to nearly a syrup. I then added San Marzano tomatoes crushed by hand and more chili powder and cumin. I let that cook all together for about an hour then added black beans, adjusted seasoning and cooked about 1/2 hour more. I adjusted the salt at the end. It turned out great.

Last night's dinner was lamb chops, got them a perfect medium rare, marinated in lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, evoo, thyme and black pepper. The marinade is Ellie Krieger from FN, but I substituted thyme and black pepper for oregano. I liked it. I used S&P on lamb before grilling. I made a mustard mint sauce on the side from Rachel Ray: mint, stone ground mustard, ww vin, honey and evoo. I was able to balance the salt and sweet, but it turned out very vinegary. It was OK on the lamb and veg, better as a salad dressing. I won't make it again.
I also made roasted sweet potato, turnip, cippolini onion and cauliflower. I just added S&P and evoo. Roasted the veg for 45 minutes at 400degrees. I stirred them a couple times. They turned out good, I could have subtracted about 5 minutes in the oven. They weren't mushy, but on the verge. I didn't account for carryover. I was pleased with the taste. My favorite was sweet potato. Steve liked the turnip the best.

Saturday night's family meal was breaded veal scallopini, unremarkable, zucchini strands with thyme-butter, good (I will make again) and some rough cut round pasta from Sardinia I picked up at Essex Market. Laurent had made a truffle sauce with mushroom stock which, to me, saved the dinner since I had a little trouble with the veal. Cooking the breaded veal was like crepes. The first couple ones are disaster then thet progressively get better until you have one perfect one. I was unispired by the veal. I thought of making a roll-up, but it didn't seem worth it. It was not one of my better meat nights.

I also made a dessert, dulce de leche bread pudding. I made it A - Zed, as Laurent put it. I baked some sweet bread with orange zest in my bread maker (BTW I did make the seeded bread with whole wheat and bread flour, I had to make it twice. The first time it was a crumbly bunch of rock. The second time was better, a real loaf, but pretty dense. I think I am having problems with yeast amout and salt). It wasn't very sweet, but had a nice orange zest thing going. I used the recipe from Delish.com. I decreased it by a third, used the dulce de leche brought to me by Laurent's brother and sister-in-law from France, used half cream and half skim and no chocolate. I thought it was pretty good, it had a nice caramel flavor and crispy bits. A vanilla topping would have been nice. I would have melted choclate or vanilla icecream in the fridge for a topping if I had any. Maybe I could have added some salt, too.

Super Bowl Sunday I did some "football food".I have been wanting to do barbeque ribs for awhile, but I am not a huge fan of them so an opportunity would have to be right in my face to make them. They were on sale at FreshDirect. I used Neely's recipe and marinated them in a dry rub of paprika, sugar and onion powder for almost 24 hours and added Kim's spice rub and some extra salt to the ribs and baked them 3&1/2 hours at 275dgrees in the oven. The ends were a bit like jerky. The flavor was too sweet for me and only the fat was tasty to me. I researched how to cook them in the oven and the couple recipes I had were all low and slow with no instruction as to whether to wrap in foil or cover so I just left them exposed. Maybe next time I will cover with foil. I think that's what I may make for Easter in Boston. I have made nearly every dish for a crowd I can think of.

I also made a pretty healthy black bean salad with tomato, avocado, purple onion, lemon, chili and cumin powder and green Tabasco. I would have rather used lime, cilantro and jalapeno instead of lemon and powdered spices, but its too damn cold right now to run out and get those things. It was still good and it is a nice add to lettuce salad and smoked salmon. I love avocado!

Steve and I love Angelina's Pizza Bar. We have had good pizza and a good brunch. We sampled some new menu items. The smoked salmon pasta with a cream sauce was unremarkable, but it would appeal to the masses. The homemade pasta was a nice suprise, a little mushy, not quite done. Steve's spicy mussels with squid in pasta was a little tasteless and a little too hot. The mezza-luna (half pizza, half calzone, literally) was interesting. The good stuff was inside the calzone and the pizza part was just sauce and cheese, still tasty. The should fold the pizza part over the calzone.

Last night I made dinner in a crock pot. It has been a long time I have broken that out to actually cook in it and not just keep things warm. I browned one pound of boneless leg of lamb, placed it in the crock. Then I carmelized a carrot, couple celery stalks and two shallots (out of onions). I deglazed with some of the Bermuda sherry stuff and poured that over the lamb. I put the carmelized veg into cheese cloth with thyme, parsley, bay leaf, third of a head of garlic, black peppercorns, I think that's it. I put in two quarts of turkey stock, one of them was cut with some tomato puree, in the crock, poured a bag of dried garbanzo beans and five merguez sausages. I placed the cheesecloth bundle in and left for the day.
For dinner I threw out the cheesecloth bundle, strained the sauce and poured some caraway seeds over the lamb and beans. I reduced the sauce and boiled two strips of bacon in it to give it more meat flavor because it was very beany. I strained the sauce when it got full flavored (1/4 cup) and then whisked in dijon mustard. The dijon and the bacon took care of the beany flavor. I think next time I would soak the beans overnight, discard the water, then add to the pot.
The "Crockpot Cassoulet" turned out pretty good. Steve loved it. I need to find more meat for the leftovers.

I did not cook yesterday. Instead I went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant not too far from here. Been wanting to try it. No reservations, cash only. It was fabulous, wishing I had gone there sooner. I had a grilled calamari salad over couscous with pinenuts and raisins, not my favorite preparation of couscous, but it worked for this dish. No additional seasoning needed, that is a big deal. Steve had grilled octupus salad over chick peas and potatoes, he enjoyed it, I found it to not really go together, the chickpeas were hard, the potatoes soft, the octupus was good, his needed more seasoning.
The entrees were fantastic. I had a veal chop with polenta, roasted root vegetables, and broccoli rabe. The polenta was the best I have ever had. It was creamy and flavorful, quite suprising. The veal chop was done well, too. The root veg were great, no cliched sugar addition. The sweet potatoes were even inspiring and I am not much for sweet potatoes. I will be making these at home, salty. Broccoli rabe was good, not bitter. I will also be making the polenta (glad I got some last week). I think I will add mascarpone cheese.
Steve's dish was the better of the two. He had chicken rolitini stuffed with zucchini and provolone. The chicken was browned all over. It was suprisingly fantastic. I usually view chicken on menus as obligatory for the unadventurous palate. I will only order it if it is a novel production (I am a chicken-snob). I will be pounding out some chicken breasts before the month is out.

Whole wheat pizza dough. . .I know it would turn out better if I added some AP flour. Its just so much healthier and more filling 100% WW. I don't know that I will ever get a crispy WW crust. I have been thinking that I could make WW bread with some AP so it doesn't weigh a ton and added seeds: caraway, sesame, fennel, wheat germ, etc. It would add more fiber. It would be like those new multi grain tortilla chips that have less corn flour. I guess I could do the same with pizza dough.

I have been thinking about this. Whole Foods sells their own pizza dough. They can make a killing on that: flour, water, yeast, sugar and oil. Cheap, cheap, cheap to make! They also sell their own bread crumbs, a half quart = $4!!! I must research this more.

Anyhow, pizza was good: cheese, canadian bacon, pepperocini, artichoke hearts. Two pieces and that's all I need. I am getting used to eating less, hopefully it will show in my gut some day.

Four n'Friends had an interesting talk on Sunday. Many start up business questions answered. Now we just need to figure out what we are providing. We are going to do catering and food products, but we need to start somewhere, with something simple and the rest will come. I am still for Farinata and Hummus. I really think we need to focus on health, as well as, cultural diversity. We have to start somewhere and these two items, to me, are easy, different, appeal to a large demographic (with a boost from the health conscious and health compromised) amd taste good.

I am dragging my feet a little on the catering only because we have no logo to put on business cards and a website. Our service will be more marketable if it is more memorable, the name is great, but some people need a visual, too. Maybe four horizontal lines in red, blue, white and black or yellow. Maybe a fruit or veg w/ four seeds inside, a baguette four marks on top, a sun with four rings, four different symbols. Not sure.

I passed my Food Safety Course today. So, at least that is taken care of.

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Checklist for Starting a Business | Company Activities & Management > Company Strategy from AllBusiness.com

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Last night I made a bay scallop ceviche. I used blood orange, tarragon, lime, s&p, oo, a little ww vinegar. It was good. My first idea had been grapefruit and tarragon, but hubby got put on a statin for cholesterol and grapefruit is out of the picture for him. It was a very delicate flavor. I like the full flavored ceviche with cilantro, chiles and limes more, but I think there is an application for these flavors. I think next time I will use mustard, either ground or dijon in it, maybe I will do that later with the remaining scallops. Then I will reduce the remainder of the sauce for a fuller flavor to be used on fish.

I also made a bacon-shallot cream sauce to go with some shrimp ravioli "fra diavolo" Steve and I made a couple weeks ago with the remainder of a seafood feast we had for New Year's Eve. I can't remember the entire recipe for the shrimp stuffing except, a spicy tomato sauce I made and reduced with San Marzano tomatoes, s&p, red pepper flakes. I chopped up shrimp and folded it into the sauce when it had cooled and stuffed ravioli using Tyler Florence's pasta recipe.

The cream sauce was an experiment. I had no cream and it was too cold to go out and get some so I melted some 1/3 less fat cream cheese and added skim milk to it to the desired consistency. It worked out. I sauteed bacon and shallots, deglazed with saome white wine and reduced to a syrup, then added the "cream". I simmered it with the bacon and shallot as not to let the "cream"separate. I little s&p, it turned out to be a nice accompaniment to the spicy ravioli, garnished with chives.

I actually made a dessert, too. I made a low fat orange polenta cake recipe from my cookbook "Fresh". I halved the recipe so I wouldn't have to go to the store for more eggs. I ced the cupcakes with a cocoa icing I made from 1 stick butter, 1 cup confectioner's sugar and unsweetened cocoa powder. I set the cupcakes in a pool of blood orange juice to serve. Pretty good for low fat. We didn't feel comatosed after dinner. Not to say real cream in the sauce and oil in the cake would not have been fabulous, but that would have been almost too easy.

I think it is best to use dried portabellas for stock and not eating, at least the ones I have.

I finally made a pate brisee. Used the recipe in "Savory Baking". It worked out well. I used half of the batch to make a quiche. It turned out nice. I used skim milk instead of cream to make it lighter (in calories). I will do it again. I used 4 whole eggs to 1 & 1/4 cup skim. It filled my quiche pan perfectly, will have to measure diameter. In the quiche was one crown of blanched broccoli, 1/4 c cooked diced canadian bacon and 4oz grated light havarti. I made the pie crust really thin, by accident really. It seemed to work. I baked it at 300 degree for 45 min.

I wish I would have written this down. I baked up four chicken breasts I had frozen with a marniade. What I remember and what I tasted was: truffle salt, dijon mustard, lemon olive oil, maybe pepper. I thawed it in the fridge, baked on baking sheet, covered chicken with foil at 425 degree till done (used a thermometer). It is extremely good. I just wish I could think of some gourmet uses for baked chicken. Oh well, it works on a salad.

The clafouti was a creative recipe, but just OK. I think it would do much better as it original, dessert. "Savory Baking" is an interesting cookbook, but the author is afraid of seasoning. Keep that in mind if you have this cookbook. I will still experiment out of it.

Tonight is Osso Buco. I intend to add some dried portabellas. I also made italian seasoned madeleines from "Savory Baking". I added extra Italian Seasoning, my own mix: dried oregano, basil, marjoram, garlic, into the batter and extra salt. The flavor is pretty good, I will use them as croutons for the sauce from Osso Buco.

Today: Mushroom Clafouti from "Savory Baking" added canadian bacon, measured shallot and rosemoary , added more salt,
Hanger Steak marinated in oo, shallot, and sherry stuff from Bermuda.
I found out a Clafouti is essentially a fruit or veg, historically a fruit, macerated, mixed with cream and topped with a cakelike topping that repeats the main ingredient.