Creme caramel, no it is not creme brulee...

The other day I decided to make French onion soup and the obvious dessert for me was creme caramel.

Creme caramel is the French version of  custard or flan with caramelized sugar on the bottom ( unlike creme brulee which has a light crust of caramelized sugar on the top and a very different rich custard beneath).
It is a standard dessert in every restaurant in Paris. I spent eight years of my childhood in Paris. My mother loved this simple dessert and would try it whenever we ate out ( or that's the way it seemed to me.)

This recipe is straight from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Yes, her recipes have lots of steps and can be intimidating, just like life, take it one step at a time.

Lining the dish with caramel.

Ingredients
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons water

1) I use one large ceramic baking dish that holds at least 6 cups, you can also do small ramekins.
The recipe calls for the dish to be warm. I fill the pan it sits in with hot water while I make the caramel.

2) Place the sugar and water in a small heavy bottom saucepan and stir to dissolve the sugar.
3) Cook over moderate heat and allow to come to a boil. Watch it carefully !!

4) It will turn caramel colored fairly quickly.

5) When the sugar has turned color, remove the pan from the stove and pour into the dish which has been removed form the hot water, swirl it around so that it covers the bottom of the dish.

(Sidebar, cool thing...have you ever had a dessert with spun sugar ?? My sister used to make this fanciful yule log dessert complete with meringue mushrooms and spun sugar spider webs. It was impressive... you can use the caramelized sugar to make those spider webs.)

Making the custard. 
Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cup milk
1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks

1) Bring the milk with the vanilla bean if you are using one to just below a simmer in a saucepan.

2) Cover and allow to steep while you prepare the rest of the mixture.

3) For the next part you can use a Kitchenaid with a whisk attachment or do it by hand with a whisk.

4) Place the eggs and egg yolks in a mixing bowl, slowly mix in the sugar until light and foamy.

5) Continue beating while you very slowly add the hot milk ( minus the vanilla bean). This can be tedious and messy, just hang in there. Add the vanilla extract if you did not use a bean.

6) Strain the mixture into your dish with a sieve, this removes any weird little eggs bits or forgotten vanilla beans ;-)

7) Boil enough water to fill a baking pan that will hold your dish.

8) Place the pan and the dish of custard on the lower rack of your oven, then carefully pour in the boiling water.
9) Reduce the oven temperature to 325 and bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

10) I prefer to to serve my creme caramel chilled or at room temperature.  Either way it should rest for several hours or overnight in the fridge. Since I make it in a large dish, I don't bother to unmold the whole thing. Instead I scoop out the portions, serving them in small ramekins with the caramel sauce drizzled over. You can remover any caramel that sticks to the bottom with a tablespoon or two of boiling water.

The only problem with this dessert is that it disappears too quickly !!

Dutch Baby

I know, what an odd name and no I don't know why it is called that. I can tell you that is a great dish to make for a weekend brunch or breakfast treat. It's much like a giant popover, you can top it with fresh fruit and whipped cream or applesauce and yogurt like we do.

Dutch Baby

Ingredients:

1/3 c. butter
4 eggs
1 c. milk
1 c. flour

1) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2) Get out your eggs, flour and milk, your blender or food processor and your measuring cups. Things move quickly after step #3 so it's best to be prepared.
3) Put the butter in a 3 to 4 quart glass baking dish and set it into a 425 degree oven.

4) Put eggs in blender  and whirl at high speed for 1 minute.
5) With motor running, gradually pour in milk. Most blenders have a hole in the top for just this purpose.

6) Slowly add flour; continue whirling for 30 seconds.

(With a rotary beater, beat eggs until light and lemon colored; gradually beat in milk, then flour.)
7) Remove pan from oven with the butter melted and pour batter into the hot melted butter.

8) Return the pan to the oven and bake until puffy and well browned, 20 to 25 minutes.

9) While the dutch baby is baking you can prepare your toppings. I like to warm up some apple sauce, serving it with plain yogurt and maple syrup. That was how it was originally served to us. It would be great with fresh cut up fruit or whatever strikes your fancy.

10) It will puff up while baking then sink when you serve it. This recipe makes two to four servings depending on what else is on the menu.

 Do serve it hot from the oven !!

Molten Chocolate Cakes or Lava Cakes

Several weeks ago some friends came to stay with us for the weekend. Rex is a true chocoholic so I knew this would be the perfect time to try this dessert. Bob and I shared one our last night in Melbourne and I have been wanting an excuse ever since. I know molten chocolate cakes have been around for a while, I found this recipe on the New York Times website...they do make an impressive dessert to serve for guests.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup  butter, plus more to butter the molds
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, preferably Valrhona or some other high quality dark chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons flour, plus more for dusting

They carry Valrhona at Trader Joe's !!

1) If you are going to bake them right away, preheat the oven to 450 F. They can prepared in advanced but should be baked right before serving.
2) Prepare four ramekins or custard cups, buttering them and then dusting them with flour.

3) In the top of a double boiler set over simmering water, heat the butter and chocolate together until the chocolate is almost completely melted.

4) While that's heating, beat together the eggs, yolks, and sugar with a whisk or electric beater until light and thick.

Here's Rex beating the eggs and sugar. That is one happy guy !!

 5) Beat together the melted chocolate and butter; it should be quite warm.

 6) Pour the egg mixture into the melted chocolate and butter.

 7) Then quickly beat in the flour, just until combined.

8) Divide the batter among the molds. (At this point you can refrigerate the desserts until you are ready to eat, for up to several hours; bring them back to room temperature before baking.) Place the ramekins on a baking sheet.

9) Bake the molds for 5 to 6 minutes; the center will still be quite soft, but the sides will be set. And trust me they only need to bake for that long !!

10)  Invert each mold onto a plate and let sit for about 10 seconds. Unmold by lifting up one corner of the mold; the cake will fall out onto the plate. Serve immediately.

11) We served ours with a decadent array of ice cream choices, whipped cream would be good as well.

Rex picked out four flavors: chocolate, vanilla, salted caramel gelato and coconut bliss.

I found that I would have preferred splitting one of these very rich little gems.
A whole one was too much for me, I ate it anyway ;-)
And we were surprised to find that they are great the next day cold, they turn into a fudgy brownie-like cake !!

Garlic Aioli

I prefer aioli to mayonnaise, aioli has garlic and olive oil, mayo is made with a milder oil and no garlic, either way homemade is the best.

Once you try this it will be hard to go back to the stuff they sell in the store.

Ingredients

egg yolk
olive oil
fresh garlic
Dijon mustard
lemon juice
salt

Depending on how much you want to make, the proportions are one egg yolk to 1/4 cup oil.
I use one clove of garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard for that amount.

What makes this easy is the small food processor I use to make it.
It has little holes in the top to help the oil drip slowly into the egg mixture.

1) Start by chopping the garlic.

2) Add the egg yolks and Dijon mustard and whiz. One site I read suggests adding a teaspoon of water to help the egg yolks be more dilute.

 I  added some fresh basil leaves to this batch.

3) Once this mixture is well blended you can begin to add the olive oil. The holes in the top to the food processor will help you to add it slowly which is VERY important in the beginning. If you add it too fast it will not combine properly. I use a measuring cup with a spout to pour the oil into the top of the food processor.

4) I usually stop and check the mixture about halfway through adding the oil.
It will look like this.

5) Continue to add the rest of the oil. The mixture will be quite thick.

6) To thin it down and give it more flavor add lemon juice and salt. Start with a tablespoon of lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mix and taste. Continue to adjust both ingredients until you have the texture and flavor you want.

7) Use your aioli on sandwiches, in salad dressings, and sauces for asparagus or fish.
    It is best to use it up within a couple of weeks or less.

You can use this same recipe for making mayonnaise, omit the garlic and use a mild oil like canola or safflower. You can use vinegar instead of lemon juice to thin it at the end.

Zucchini Pancakes

It's time to get this blog back to it's foodie purpose after using it to share my travels with you.

I started cooking again two days after I returned despite my jet lag. 

I am not sure why I decided to look up zucchini pancakes...maybe it was the thought of making something different, the allure of those fresh cucurbits I had purchased at the farmer's market...

I must have looked at half a dozen recipes and some reviews of those recipes and here is what I came up with.

Zucchini Pancakes

Ingredients

2 zucchini or other summer squash

1 small onion
1  clove of garlic

1 egg

1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

fresh ground pepper to taste

fresh oregano
fresh thyme

olive oil for cooking

Preheat the oven to 300 F so you can keep the pancakes warm as you cook.

1) Grate the zucchini and the onion into a large mixing bowl. I added the garlic using my garlic squeezer, you could mince it instead.

2) Add one slightly beaten egg.

3) In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients. If you want to make this gluten free just use oat or brown rice flour and gluten free bread crumbs or cracker crumbs.

4) Mix the dry ingredients into the grated stuff. Finely chop the fresh herbs and add them.

Any fresh herbs with do, basil, chives, tarragon, parsley would work well too. Or dried herbs if that is all you have, maybe a 1/2 teaspoon of two different herbs.

5) Heat olive oil in a caste iron or saute pan over a medium heat. Be sure the oil is hot enough before you drop a 1/4 cup of batter into the pan. You can make them any size you want, mine were about seven inches across because that's what fit in my pan.

6) Cook them for them for 2 to 3 minutes a side. After two or three pancakes I added more oil.  Keep them warm in the oven on a baking sheet until they are all made.

7) Serve with toppings or plain. The right has a Greek yogurt with lemon and the left is a tomato almond pate. It turns out they are great by themselves as well. I served them with a beet and goat cheese salad.

 8) They are great cold later that same night and probably the next day for breakfast or lunch. I wouldn't know since Bob ate the leftovers before I could find out.