We Are Never Full » pastry

Gothic Architecture for Your Palate: Pâté en Croûte d’Amiens

Jonny — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:23:44 +0000

Every now and then I’ll sit through one of those “secrets of the ancient world” shows on the History Channel. You know, the ones in which they have modern experts try to “decode” how the pyramids or the hanging gardens of Babylon were constructed using graphics that make you feel like you’re watching B-roll from The Da Vinci Code, and where, before every commercial break, there’s some sort of cliff-hanger like “Coming up, how this building ought never to have stood!”

So it was this past week, when shortly after the birth of our son, I was rocking him gently to sleep with one eye on a TV show about how Europe’s gothic cathedrals were built. Focusing on the massive limestone spires of the cathedrals of Notre-Dame d’Amiens, St. Pierre de Beauvais and Notre-Dame de Paris, this show was among the more interesting of its genre as not only did it deal directly with how modern architects are trying to prevent these houses of God from collapsing under their own weight, but it also brought back memories of our trip earlier this year to the Picardy region of northern France when we visited the first of these.

While the nave of St. Pierre de Beauvais did in fact collapse because of architectural over-reach, which its foreshortened and incomplete appearance reflects, Notre-Dame d’Amiens stands perilously intact as among the largest of its kind in the world. Sitting on the highest point in town, it can be seen, as was intended, from miles around. At night, it is so illuminated by floodlights that the visitor might be forgiven for thinking it is heralding an alien invasion.

When these giants of devotional architecture were being erected, they were in competition with one another for the title of the grandest monument in the country, but if competitive historic structural design isn’t your exactly bag, there is plenty else to appreciate about Amiens, including a feat of construction every bit as daring, but much more toothsome, than those stonemasons of yore managed. For Amiens, as Picardy in general, is famous for its duck products, and in particular for a fascinating multi-meat confection of duck, rabbit, pork and chicken livers all sealed-up crustily in a layer of savory pastry.

In truth, this was my train of thought. Fatigued as I was by several sleepless nights and hungry for something corporeally rewarding, the enduring might of colossal 13th-century cathedrals was far less intriguing than Jane Grigson’s recipe for pâté en croûte d’Amiens. Moreover, I was even more drawn to it because its preparation seemed to be easy enough for my addled senses to follow. Even after butchering and stripping the duck and rabbit carcasses, it didn’t feel like a lot of work, nor did the very basic pastry recipe cause any pain, persuading me, momentarily, that perhaps this parenting lark isn’t so tough after all.

However, pulling the rich, golden-brown terrine from the oven, and hearing my mother-in-law comment that in spite of the recent arrival of our firstborn I was willing to waste time preparing such a dish in place of a easy greasy take-away dinner, I snapped at her rather meanly, that given the level of the strain I was under, and some fried crap in a tray just wouldn’t cut it. I subsequently apologized, and had my nerves not been so frayed by weariness, I would have replied much more civilly, perhaps saying that in this pâté en croûte, I, like the structural engineers on the History Channel, had found a temporary solution to crushing gravity.

Pâté en Croûte d’Amiens (Duck & Rabbit Pâté) (serves 10-14/makes 2 terrines)
(from Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery by Jane Grigson)

Ingredients

For the pâté:

1 duck with its liver
2-3oz foie gras or chicken livers
1/2lb rabbit meat
1/2lb lean ground pork
4oz meat stock
1/2 teaspoon flavorless gelatin/aspic
4oz Madeira
4oz brandy or eau de vie
2 medium eggs
salt, black pepper, thyme and bay
1/2lb mushrooms (optional)
enough pork fat to cover the bottom of the terrine (optional)

For the pastry:

8oz plain flour
2oz lard +2oz butter or
4oz butter at room temperature
cold water
large pinch salt

Recipe

Bone the duck and the rabbit, or have the butcher do it for you.
Make the short crust pastry by sifting the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and then rubbing the fat into it until crumbs fall.
Add enough water to bring the dough together to make a smooth dough. Knead lightly and place under plastic in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes
In a large bowl mix the duck, rabbit, livers and pork with the seasonings (salt, pepper, bay, thyme) together. (test seasoning by sauteing a pinch of the mixture and tasting)
Heat the brandy in a saucepan and set alight (careful!) before pouring it over meat mixture.
Add eggs, Madeira wine and half the warmed meat stock mixed with half the gelatin.
You may put the meat mixture through a meat grinder at this point, but I left it chunky because I prefer it that way.
(Optional) Line the terrine or baking dish with strips of pork fat and then pack in the rest of the meat.
Add the pastry lid, brush well with a beaten egg and make one or two holes before baking in a 300F/150C oven for an hour and a half.
Mix the remaining warmed meat stock with 1/4 teaspoon gelatin
Allow pâté to cool completely before using a funnel inserted into the holes you made prior to baking to pour in the meat stock/gelatin mixture.
Allow gelatin/aspic to set up for at least two hours before serving.
Enjoy with crusty bread, cornichons, salad, and Dijon mustard, and wash down with red, white or pink wine, or even a sparkling cider from Normandy.

What to Do with Leftover Cheese? Make a Mixed Cheese Tart, Darn It!

Amy — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:03:36 +0000

A few weeks ago we were lucky to receive a serious amount of free cheese from Ile de France. You’ve most likely seen their brie, goat cheese or St. André (which I could rub all over my body it’s that good) in your supermarket but they have so much more to offer. I only wish my grocery store carried all their cheeses. They also just redid their website and it’s an excellent way to get over 500 cheese recipes or just peruse the various cheeses they offer. After chomping down on the many cheese samples Ile de France mailed us (a vast variety including Chaumes, St. Albray, Goat and Brie) , we had alot left over. We’re kinda cheese fiends and when we’re feeling in the mood to eat cheese, we’ll go to our local shop and go a bit overboard. The cheese drawer will pile up until I can barely close it. This is never a good thing. Weeks later I’ll check out what’s at the bottom of the drawer to find shriveled bits of piave, way over-ripe, acidic smelling camembert or moldy tomme. I’ll often chop off mold or use the shriveled bitsto grate as pasta toppings, but often I’ll say a prayer, shed a tear and throw them into the garbage. It burns a hole in my heart every time!

But this time I just couldn’t see all that cheese go to waste, even if much of it was free. What about all the starving kids in China (Will that one work on my future child? Sure as hell didn’t work on me!)?! So I scratched my head and thought about what I could do. Mac and Cheese? No. Cheese Log? It ain’t Christmas. Mixed Cheese Tart? But I’ll have to use my oven and it’s so damn hot! Ok, let’s to a cheese tart. I am very glad I did and I highly reccommend you doing the same with all your leftover chese bits. Hard cheese, soft cheese, triple creams, stinky cheese – they’ll all go great in a cheese tart. Not to mention you won’t have to worry anymore about the starving kids in China.

MIXED CHEESE TART (AKA “LEFTOVER CHEESE” TART)

For the Pastry:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 sticks of butter, room temperature (I made my pastry by hand)
1/2 glass of water, very cold
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the Tart Filling:

2 1/2 cups of grated or finely chopped cheese (we used bits and pieces of Goat Cheese with herbs, Chaumes, English Cheddar, Munster d’Alsace and Mimolette)
1/4 cup of butter (or 1/2 stick)
1 cup of whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon
3 eggs, beaten
pinch of salt and pinch of freshly ground pepper
optional: handful of chopped fresh chives
optional: 8 to 10 tomato slices

What to do:

Make your pastry by hand or in the food processor, chill for 1 hour then roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness and fit it into an ungreased pie mold or 9-inch springform pan (which is what we used). Blind bake for 12 minutes at 400 degrees.
Make your filling, starting with melting the butter slowly in a pan then whisking in the flour. Continuing to whisk, add the milk slowly and combine, stirring constantly until the mixture is thick. Take off heat.
Add the cheese and heavy cream. Whisk. Add the beaten eggs, salt and pepper and chives. Whisk.
Add your optional tomato slices to the bottom of your blind baked pastry, overlapping in places to try and cover as much of the bottom as necessary. Pour the filling into the pie pan, leaving a bit of room to grow at the top (don’t overfill). You may have more filling than necessary. In fact, we had a bit extra pastry and filling, we ended up making a few small tarts using a muffin tin.
Optional: beat an egg and brush on the outside crust of the pastry so it won’t burn.
Put back in the 400 degree oven and bake tart for 45 minutes to 1 hour (until it is no longer wet in the middle and has browned on the top – use a knife or a skewer to test that the middle of tart is done). Depending on how much filling you use, eyeball the cooking time, may need a bit more, may need a bit less.

Chestnut Custard Tart, Full of Christmas Cheer – Recipe 4

Jonathan — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:51:36 +0000

During the cook-a-thon that was the weekend before Christmas, in which my wife and I got our first real glimpse of just how hard professional chefs have to work, I turned out something of a rarity for me, and thus far, unique to this blog – a dessert. Touring the food blogosphere (hmm, starting to dislike that word almost as much as the word “foodie”), we notice that there are a lot of bakers out there with all kinds of recipes for coconut cake, brownies, muffins, crumbles, brittles and pies, in sharp contrast to our savory-only approach. The reason is that neither my wife nor I are hugely into sweets. I mean, we like them, but the prospect of making a cake and eating the whole things ourselves is off-putting because we know we’ll be sick of it after a couple of slices. For example, a month or so ago, I was craving muffins one Sunday and so I made a dozen cranberry muffins. I ate two that day and recently found the rest of them sporting blue and green hair styles that would have made the Sex Pistols jealous as they moldered away in a cake tin.

So, I must tell you that I am not the world’s best baker, which I hope is of some consolation to the food fans among you who daren’t bake because it seems too daunting a prospect. And, on the few occasions I do get my dander up and decide it’s time to butcher another recipe my mother could have turned out perfectly in her sleep, it is often bread (I refer to my comments about the lack of good bread in America below), and sometimes scones or muffins. Only very, very occasionally, will I try a pie or a tart. In fact, I think the last time I made a pie was about six months ago. It was a French apple tart and I made it with no rolling pin, no spatula and no oven, and the pain of making it has put me off trying another dessert since. (Needless to say, said tart had more in common visually with the face of a particularly zitty teenager than the recipe I was following.) But this past weekend, full of the festive spirit, and perhaps a couple of lunchtime sherries, I decided that since we were up to our elbows in eggs and flour (for the pasta) I might as well make a pie.

Riffing off the recipe for the French apple tart, (but replete with the right tools for the job this time), I skipped the apples and replaced them with a chestnut puree that I’d found at the supermarket in a dusty old can and bought on impulse. I always associate chestnuts with Christmas whether they’re in a stuffing, simply fire-roasted and cracked with a glass of sherry, or used in desserts because to me they impart one of the signature scents of the season. Real bakers, if you’ve bothered reading this far, feel free to smirk, or even guffaw, because all this really was was a pasty crust slathered with pastry cream (similar to a creme anglaise, or to you British readers, just vanilla custard), and then topped with the chestnut puree and finished with a shake of powdered sugar. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the sliced tart, so I’ve made a really weak attempt to recreate it in cross-section in photoshop (see above). Honestly though, in a season when a lot of desserts are heavy, full of seasoned, dried fruits, candied ginger and other spices, this one, if not exactly light given the butter and eggs, is clean-tasting, simple and straight-forward to prepare, and, perhaps most importantly to me, was widely acknowledged to be a success, which increases the chances that I’ll make it again some time. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the sweet pastry dough:
1/2 cup (4oz) room temperature unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 cups of all-purpose (plain) flour, sifted
1 whole egg
1/2 cup confectioner’s (icing) sugar
1/8 tsp baking powder

For the pastry cream/custard:
2 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean or 2-3 tsp of vanilla essence
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp plain flour, sifted
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
6 to 8 tablespoons of chestnut puree

4 egg yolks

Recipe:
For the pastry:

In a bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Using an electric mixer on low, beat until smooth.

Add the egg and beat until creamy. With a spatula, fold in the flour and baking powder, then beat with the electric mixer, again on low, until dough is evenly mixed and clings together.

Shape dough into a ball, cover in plastic wrap (cling film) and refrigerate for at least two hours. (mine was in the fridge overnight)

Bring to room temperature before use.

For the pastry cream/custard::

In a large bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar with a whisk. Whisk in flour and set aside.

In a large saucepan over high heat, combine the milk and the vanilla and bring to a boil.

As soon as milk boils, remove from heat and whisk half of hot milk into egg mixture.

Return milk to burner. As soon as milk comes to boil again, add eggy-milky mixture and whisk vigorously.

Stir mixture over high heat until it thickens and starts to boil again.

Remove from heat, pour into a bowl and press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the custard to stop a skin from forming.

Allow to cool completely before using.

Assembling it:

Preheat oven to 350F / 175C.

Remove dough from fridge and allow to come to room temperature.

Flour work surface and rolling pin before turning out dough. Roll dough into a rough circle, about 1/4 inch thick and wide enough to line a 10-inch pie dish. Pick up dough by rolling it around pin, and the lay onto pie dish.

Press dough gently onto dish and trim edges with a knife. Remove custard from fridge and immediately, using a spatula, dump in pastry cream/custard and smooth it so about 1/2 inch deep.

Then, very carefully do the same with the chestnut puree (or topping of your choice), making sure not to disturb the custard. It’s best to do this when custard is still cold as this makes it less likely that you’ll mix the puree and custard together while you spread one on top of the other.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes, or until chestnut puree has bubbled, thickened and looks shiny. Allow to cool thoroughly before serving at room temperature sprinkled with powdered sugar and with scoop of vanilla ice cream or dollop of whipped cream.

Accompany with your digestif of choice. I like a cognac or a calvados (French apple brandy).

Then, feel proud that you’ve made a great dessert, and bask in the warm glow while friends and relatives congratulate you!

CHECK OUT SOME OTHER POSTS YOU MAY ENJOY: