French Country Cooking

Chris and I took a cooking class at a cute little shop called Olives 4 You in Wheaton last Saturday.  It was French Country Cooking and it was taught by a lovely chef by the name of Stephanie Brocardi.  I'll be honest part of me enjoyed the class because Stephanie reminded me of my French teacher in high school Marilyn Hejnosz; who could seamlessly go from speaking French like a Parisian to English from the North side of Chicago without batting an eyelash.  My French is rusty at best but hearing Stephanie speak to her father before class started brought me right back to high school days.  A lot of the measurements in these recipes are in weight rather than volume.  This is for consistency as cup sizes can vary while 100 grams is 100 grams regardless of how much room it takes up.  Stephanie suggested getting an inexpensive kitchen scale.  I'll dust off my WW scale!  LOL

The class was a great combination of demo, loose lecture and hands on assembly.  Here is the menu for the afternoon.

MENUFrom Provence:Goat Cheese and Roasted Pepper NapoleonFrom Lorraine:QuicheFrom Bordeaux:Flank Steak Marchand de Vin (made with a hearty red wine and shallots)From Savoie(French Alps)Tartiflette(potato,cheese and bacon gratin)From Normandie:Sweet Apple Pastry with Salted Butter Caramel


I am torn between which dish I liked the best.  I am a maniac about goat cheese, love quiche, was shocked at how rich the sauce was on the flank steak, wanted a 9 inch pie dish of the tartiflette, and was incredibly proud of my little apple purse (bourse).  Recipes and photos to follow.


I'll start with the recipe for the Apple Bourses.  Stephanie included the recipe for puff pastry.  She also said that if we were pressed for time to find puff pastry that was made with ALL BUTTER.  She was then kind enough to say that Trader Joe's has puff pastry made with all butter.  Those of you reading this who know me, know I don't have a lot of patience.  For those of you who don't know me, I don't have a lot of patience.  But, I think puff pastry is something that might be worth the time and effort.  Maybe someday when I will the Mega Millions lottery, I can quit my full time job and cook and bake to my heart's content...until then, it's off to Trader Joes's I go.








Apple Bourse


4 large gala apples
1/3 C. slice almonds
1/3 C. brown sugar.


Core, peel and slice the apples.  Then, over high heat in a skillet, brown the apples until they are golden on the outside but still crisp on the inside.  Then brown the almonds and sugar in the pan juices.  Mix the apples, almonds and melted sugar together in a bowl 


Take the Trader Joe's puff pastry and if it's not pre-cut into circles, cut it into 5 inch around circles. Place a tablespoon or so of the apple mixture in the center of the dough circle.  with a pastry brush that just touches the water in a cup (be sure to shake off excess), paint along the edge of the circle.  Then gather the puff pastry in one hand and holding the first hand still, use your other hand to fold the dough in and out to form gathers.  When you get all the way around the douch, pinch dough about an inch below the top.  Refer to photos if my instructions aren't clear.  Place bourses on parchment lined baking sheet and paint with a pastry brush dipped in beaten egg.  Again, shake excess from brush, you don't want to drown your bourse.


You can do this with a whole apple too.  Bake a cored, peeled apple in a 325 degree oven for 20-30 minutes.  Be sure to leave a little bit of apple at the bottom when coring so that when you fill the whole apple with the nut mixture, it doesn't leak out in baking.  For a whole apple, you will want to use square pieces of puff pastry.  When you gather the dough around the apple, you will want to cut sort of a tongue and groove in the dough so that you can fold them together and the dough doesn't pop open.


Bake the bourses at 375 degrees till puff pastry is golden brown.




Apple Bourse with Caramel Sauce

Caramel Sauce

400grams sugar

400grams heavy cream

30grams salted butter

In a dry pan, heat your sugar on low heat until it melts.  Then add your cream and butter, stirring constantly until smooth and bubbly.

 Apple Bourse before baking

Puff Pastry

OK--you need to have 2 days ahead of you with not a lot to do except keep an eye on your dough and roll it out periodically.  Make your pastry, then fill it with something and bake.  Then call me to come over and have some!

390grams flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

90grams cold unsalted butter

210ml cold water

300grams softened unsalted butter

Sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl.

Cut the cold butter into small pieces and then cut the pieces into the flour until the mixture crumbles.

Add all the water at once in a well in the center of the dough, mix until all the flour is incorporated.  Do not knead.  Dough should be somewhat sticky.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead the dough a few times by hand, rounding it into a ball.  Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and chill overnight.

Prepare the softened butter by placing it between two sheets of plastic wrap.  Use a rolling pin to roll the softened butter into a rectangle.  Dough and butter should be of approximate consistency.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a rectangle.  Brush away any flour from the dough's surface.

Peel plastic wrap from the butter.  Position the butter in the center of the rectangle and fold the four edges of the dough over the butter, stretch the dough if necessary to cover all of the butter.  Roll the dough out into an even rctangle, keep the corners of the dough at right angles.

Brush loose flour from the dough's surface.  Fold the dough in thirds, like a business letter.  This completes the first turn.  Chill dough for at least 1 hour then rotate dough 90 degrees so that the folded edge is on your left.  Roll out and fold again; returning to chill at least an hour.  Puff pastry requires 5 turns.

 Apple Bourse out of the oven

 Goat Cheese and Roasted Pepper Napoleon

OK, if you have had napoleons before, my guess is they have been sweet; puff pastry with custard or pastry cream in layers.  The ones we made in class are savory and oh so good.  In my world, you can and should put goat cheese on everything.  We made a layered appetizer with roasted peppers, goat cheese with pesto in between layers of fried potato chips.  You can sub sweet potatoes or beets for the potato if you choose.

75grams goat cheese

1 tsp. pesto

1.5lb. sweet peppers

1/2 small onion

4 medium Idaho potatoes

chopped garlic

Slice the potatoes thin with a mandoline and fry then until crisp in a blended oil.  Your blend should be olive and something else--perhaps grapeseed oil.  Then finish in a 400 degree oven to dry them out  Mix your pesto with the goat cheese and set aside.  Saute peppers, onion and garlic for just a minute or two and then transfer to a lipped sheet pan and roast them in a 400 degree oven until the veggies are tender.  Remove from the oven and put the pepper mixture in a bowl with some balsamic vinegar.  

Put your goat cheese mixture in a pastry bag or ziploc bag with a corner cut out.  Place a chip down, add a tablespoon or so of the pepper mixture then a chip then the goat cheese mixture then another chip.  Press down gently to get everything to set.  Top with some balsamic glaze which is some balsamic vinegar which is cooked down to a syrup consistency.  Eat with a big smile on your face.

Quiche Lorraine

They say real men don't eat quiche.  Chris ate his and it was good!

500grams flour
200 grams butter
1/3 tsp. salt
185grams water

Crumble flour, salt, and softened butter together.  Add water and knead, form into a loaf and refrigerate to let do rest.  Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into 4-5 inch rounds.

Filling
1 quart whole milk
8 eggs
1/4 tbsp. salt
1/4 tsp. dried garlic
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tbsp Parmesan
1/2 C. shredded Swiss cheese
8 slices bacon or ham sliced into ribbons

Beat eggs with milk, salt, nutmeg, and dried garlic.  dough in a ramekin, pressing down into the corners and forcing dough up the sides.  Add the meat and shredded Swiss into the ramekin.  Ladle egg mixture over meat and cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until set.

This recipe will make 12 small quiches or 2 large pie pan sized quiches.  Bake the large quiches for 45 minutes to an hour or until set.

Potato Tartiflette

I will be honest, I just like saying tartiflette.  This may be the potato dish we serve on Easter.  We'll put it in a baking dish and cube the potatoes instead of individual servings like we did in class.

8 medium Idaho potatoes

1/2 C. cream

8 slices bacon 

Brie or Reblechon cheese

White wine if desired

Cook bacon strips and set aside.  Boile potatoes with skins on until tender.  Cool for a bit and then peel and slice them.  Layer your pan starting with potatoes and starting with cheese.  Rim your pan with cooked bacon.  Pour cream and a bit of white wine over the top.  Bake at 375 until cheese on top is golden brown and the sauce is bubbly.

You don't find a photo of the flank steak Marchand de Vin we made because it smelled so good I ate mine before I took a photo.  

Flank steak

2 medium shallots

2 C. red wine (Bordeaux)

3/4 C. demi glace

2 tbsp. butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Sear your flank steak to medium and set aside to rest.  Meanwhile, chop your shallots and cook your wine and demi glace together until the sauce starts to thicken.  Add the butter to make sauce silky.  Strain if you wish then pour sauce over steak and enjoy!

If your in the Wheaton area (or if not, it's worth the drive), take a ride to Olives 4 You at 1720 N. Main St Wheaton, IL 60187 ph. 630-510-9000.  Or visit the website--  olives-4-you.com   You'll want to take all of the classes!  They also have many great pastries, sandwiches, hummus, tapenades, oh yeah and OLIVES!