This recipe is from Tante Marie, a famous French cook who, according to some “set new standards for French cuisine”. With a name like “Aunt Marie”, however, I find it rather difficult to believe that there actually was such a person. I could be wrong here, but it probably isn’t unlikely that the name was a creation of someone trying to sell a cookbook. Not that there’s anything wrong with that because the recipes that originated with Tante Marie’s French Kitchen(now out of print, I think) are some french classics.
Take this crepe recipe, for example. It is lighter than most, using a combination of water and milk in the batter. It comes together amazingly fast, is versatile and delicate in taste and texture. The crepes are also very easy to work with, which makes them ideal for rolling or folding around different fillings, both savory and sweet. This recipe was also chosen as the best pancake recipe by a group of chefs who include Nigella Lawson, Nigel Slater and Heston Blumenthal (of the Fat Duck) . I’m still partial to the fluffy american style of pancakes, but these are excellent.
Let me stress that you do not need a crepe pan to make crepes. All you need is a good skillet, lightly greased. I think that a lot of people have never made crepes at home because they thing they need special equipment to do it, but this is definately not the case. Once the batter is in the pan, use the handle to lift it up and swirl the batter around to create a crepe of uniform thickness.
My absolute favorite way to eat crepes is with jam, for either breakfast or dessert. The ones in the photo above have raspberry and cloudberry jam in them, and are topped with a bit of confectioners sugar. Other sweet fillings that are good are butter, sugar and lemon juice or Nutella and banana slices. For savory fillings, I recommend leaving out the brandy or vanilla extract, which is a good substitution if you do not want to buy a whole bottle of brandy to use one teaspoon. Try filling the crepes with peppers, cheese and shredded chicken or a sauté of peppers, onions and mushrooms, with or without feta cheese, for a great main course.

Basic Crepes

(recipe from Tante Marie)
200 ml. milk (2/3 cup)
100 ml. water (1/3 cup)
100 g. all-purpose flour (3/4 cup plus 2 tsp)
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp brandy (optional)

Place flour in a large bowl, add milk and water gradually, whisking until the mixture is smooth. Beat in eggs, salt, vegetable oil and brandy (or vanilla extract), if using. Make sure batter is very smooth, then set aside to rest for at least 20-30 minutes.
Heat a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly grease and pour a measure of batter onto the skillet (I used a scant soup ladel full, about 1/4 cup). Pick up the skillet and swirl the batter around until it even coats the entire bottom of the pan.
Cook until the edges come away from the pan and the top of the crepe looks almost dry, about 3 minutes. Turn and cook the other side for about a minute.
Fill with jam (or other desired filling) and serve immediately.
Makes about ten 10-inch crepes (can be doubled or tripled)

Mardi Gras is one huge party - there’s no denying it. One of the traditions of the celebration is a king cake. Generally speaking, the cake is actually a yeast-risen bread. Sometimes, it can be a sort of rich, danish dough filled with almond paste, but more often it seems to be a variation on a cinnamon bun, filled with sugary cream cheese. I know that the colors of the frosting are based in tradition, but I suspect that they are merely preserved because they’re festive and really dress up the bread. Everyone else dresses up in masks and fancy costumes - regardless of whether they are able to stay in them all night - so why not dessert?

I’ve never had a king cake before, but after checking out a Southern Living recipe, I decided to go with the cinnamon-swirl route and omit the cream cheese. Other recipes seemed more complex than I was willing to try, but I will (almost) never say no to a cinnamon bun. I decided to throw caution to the wind and come up with my own recipe.

The only problem I encountered in making this was that I didn’t give myself enough space to roll out my dough. As a result, some of the filling leaked out and turned into cinnamon-caramel on my baking sheet. Delicious, but not what I had in mind. Give yourself plenty of room to roll up the dough - like a kitchen table.

I deliberately kept the dough not too sweet to balance the icing and the filling, so the cake turned out to be balanced and delicious. It wasn’t any more difficult than making ordinary cinnamon buns and was really festive looking. I would definately consider making variations for, say, an Easter brunch or other spring gathering. I used skim milk, but using milk with a higher fat content will give you a slightly richer dough.

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For this month’s French themed Is My Blog Burning event, hosted by Cucina Testa Rossa, I wanted something simple. I also wanted to make a tart. Unfortunately, the two don’t always seem to go hand in hand, but with the use of some store-bought puff pastry, I was able to make a delicious, simple and very French tart.

Alsatian Onion Tart is a traditional dish from the Alsace region of France. And no wonder it is a favorite that has stood the test of time. You cannot beat the flavor of the ingredients and it is easy to make variations by changing the type of crust or adding a few flecks of flavor to the filling. My father speaks fondly of a pub he ate at in France that served nothing by beer and onion tarts.

The tart had a delicious, sweet onion flavor, though the pastry didn’t get nearly as crisp as I expected, due in part to the low oven temperature. Suprisingly, I actually really enjoyed it this way, as the onions seemed to meld fantastically with the buttery pastry. I made the tart both with and without bacon and it is excellent both ways. I prefet it without bacon, but it’s a matter of personal preference. The bacon makes the tart a bit salty, so take care not to over-salt. I lightly salted the top of the tart - the part without bacon - when I put it into the oven instead of adding salt to the onion mixture after cooking. This worked out perfectly. Don’t cook the bacon unti it is crisp, since it will cook further in the oven.

My only question about the recipe was about how much “4 very large onions” was? I wonder if my onions - which were over a pound each - constituted “very large onions” or were so large as to be in a class by themselves. I trusted my judgment, which led me to put them in the latter category and used only 2 onions. It turned out that I had plenty of onion to work with, so I’m giving the weight, not the number of onions, in the recipe below. The only change I made to the recipe was that I omitted the cream. Truthfully, I completely forgot to add the cream. I don’t think the tart missed it, but feel free to put it in.

I highly recommend reserving the cooking liquid when you drain the onions. You will have about 2 cups and it makes a fabulous addition for soups or as a cooking liquid for just about anything.

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There are many, many varieties of dessert that claim the name kuchen, from yeasted pastries to custard and fruit-filled pies. At its core, though, kuchen is simply the German word for “cake” and none of the delightful baked goods associated with it are misnamed.

This recipe is published in the French Laundry Cookbook - the gorgeous tome dedicated to the works of Thomas Keller - but I picked it up some time ago on the Amateur Gourmet’s site. The original version adds blueberries and has a slightly different spicing, though I really love the combination I used here. Mine has cinnamon and vanilla, in addition to nutmeg. The nutmeg really shines in this dish and I strongly recommend using freshly ground.

The unusual thing about this cake is that the batter is thick and stiff. It doesn’t fill the pan completely in its unbaked state, but rises high around the apples as it bakes. The kuchen is beautiful to look at. After it has cooled, the cake will shrink back from the apples slightly, so don’t be suprised when it happens.

Apples seem to pose a challenge to many chefs who don’t like the fact that they begin to brown as soon as you have sliced into them. Don’t bother tossing them in lemon juice or any other slightly acidic solution. The apples will brown in the oven, so it’s not necessary to try to prevent browning before they are cooked. In fact, a browner appearance to the fruit will probably be more appealing the the final dish. I used a combination of Fuji and Pink Lady apples for this kuchen. I think that a sweeter apple is a much better choice to compliment the light sweetness and spicing of the cake than a tart Granny Smoth-type apple.

The kuchen is best served warm, so slice it after cooling only for a short time or let it cool completely and reheat each portion in the microwave. I think it tastes just as good, perhaps better, on the second day. Top each warm piece with a dollop of whipped cream or a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, if desired.

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Roasting cauliflower is my favorite way to prepare it. It always seems incredible to me that such a boring vegetable can turn into something spectacular after a short time in the oven. Roasted cauliflower can convert even the staunchest non-cauliflower eater (like younger brothers). As much as I love it, though, even I need a change from time to time. Soup was the answer this particular time.

I had always heard that cauliflower could be used as a sort of stand-in for potatoes in soup, adding a creamy consistency and richness without the occasionally starchy heaviness of potatoes. Apparently, this is true, because my soup was creamy and rich, but not very heavy. Roasting the cauliflower, shallots and garlic gave the soup a depth of flavor – sweetness and intensity - that ordinary, stovetop cooking methods could not have provided in such a short time. In addition to enhancing the flavor, I could see little specks of roastiness in the final puree, which added a hint of interest to the appearance of the soup.

I did choose to add one potato to the soup, a Yukon Gold. The Yukon Gold potatoes have a beautiful, slightly gold tint and are creamier than other varieties of potato. As always, I like my soups on the thick side, so I did not thin this with very much milk. If you prefer thinner or more cream-enriched soups, feel free either to add an additional ½ cup of milk or to substitute the milk with cream. Serve this with bread and a salad for a fantastically comforting winter meal.

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Can ice cream every really be healthy? Or at least, not quite as bad for you?
I have concluded that this can only really be done if you take out what is truly (health-wise) objectionable about the dish: the cream. Skipping over any debate about whether something that contains no cream can legitimately be labeled as ice cream, this was one fine frozen dessert. It was smooth, creamy and rich tasting and - best of all - it doesn’t taste anything like tofu! It looked and tasted like ice cream. I daresay that it would hold up to some fairly stiff competition in the flavor department. The only giveaway is that it does not have that sticky, unctuous mouth-coating that “real” ice cream leaves behind.

Bananas and tofu have a similar thick, creamy consistency and seem to work well together. I thinned the mixture with vanilla soymilk and sweetened it with brown rice syrup. Brown rice syrup is a corn syrup-like natural sweetener that seems to be called for in quite a few vegetarian recipes and is available in natural foods stores. I debated about whether to add it or not, since the banana/tofu mixture tasted quite nice without it. Freezing foods dampens their flavors, though, so I knew that it would not taste as sweet after I froze it if I did not add some sweetener. Corn syrup would be a good substitute here. I considered using maple syrup, but I honestly don’t know how well the flavors would work with that substitution. The lemon juice doesn’t give a flavor to the final product, it just helps to prevent discoloration.

The miniature chocolate chips give you many more pieces of chocolate per serving than regular-sized chips and have the added benefit of being unlikely to jam up your ice cream maker, which is why I tend to use them in ice creams as opposed to chunks of chocolate. Coarsely chop up some normal chips to mimic the effect, or simply stir in full-sized chips at the end of the mixing. Chocolate and banana always make a great pair, so feel free to add a generous pour of chocolate sauce over each scoop before serving.

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