Sunday Feast № 45 | Sabayon or Zabaione, or an exercise in tenacity

After making potato and onion frittata, I was left with egg yolks. Unusual situation for me, since majority of the time it is egg whites, and I know what to do with those; add to them an egg or two and have eggs your way, sunny side up in my case, for breakfast, brunch, or lunch. I haven't made dessert in a while, and that is where egg yolks are used the most. I looked around and found an egg yolk based one in “The Little Paris Kitchen” by Rachel Khoo - champagne sabayon. I had prosecco though, which makes me wonder if this is now officially zabaione, the Italian version. However, as it turns out, that was the least of my worries.    First time around I took "To test, draw a figure 8 in the mixture with the whisk. If it stays put, then sabayon is ready." too literally, was too heavy handed, and most of all missed the timing when to take the mixture off the heat, and ended up with rather tasty and sweet and smooth but scramble. I overcooked it. Truth be told, I needed to research the required consistency when cooking as I knew that the final product was too thick and lacked the expected volume all that whisking should produce. Time to learn.    This YouTube video at 5:09 showed me what I should be looking for, and I tried again. To say that I was gun-shy next time around is an understatement. I kept on taking the bowl on and off the heat, and kept on whisking furiously. When it seemed to head in the right direction, I took the sabayon mixture off the heat and "threw" it into the fridge, then proceeded to deal with leftover egg whites.    When I came back to it, it decreased in volume and liquefied under a layer of breaking froth. I undercooked it. Yes, I took it off heat too quickly. To save it, off I went whisking over the heat again and persisted and watched till the consistency was definitely right, this is why I am not telling you how long the whisking takes. I have no clue. Also, serve immediately. While whisking, I thought how this is too much. All that changed after having a serving with raspberries and prosecco with raspberry syrup. I will master.

Sunday Feast № 44 | Festival des Pommes, with Honey Glazed Roast Pork with Apples as a Main Attraction

"An impressionistic tour of Normandy, where the apple is king and calvados completes the meal" said the subtitle to a story in Saveur magazine May 2016 issue. That also means apple cider, or as it was in my misreading of a recipe I locked onto - apple cider vinegar. Yes, that is what I used even though looking at the recipe again, it distinctly calls for just apple cider. Did the swap matter? No, it was super tasty just as the run through the ingredients promised.    If the photo here does not grab you, please ignore it, I was in a rush to eat and feed, and proceed with cooking your own. Absolutely worth it. All that butter and honey help, I'm sure. Also, if you happen to have those big size apples, three is enough. Pair it with apple, celeriac, and carrot salad and apple cider to drink. Finish off with after-dinner swigs of calvados. Life is good.

Sunday Feast № 37 | Goat Cheese Pistachio Prune Savory Cake

As Rachel Khoo notes in her video, often cake is taken as something sweet, but French do savory cake. Music to my ears as I believe that cakes are perfect breakfast food. Think of them as something similar to muffins. This one being savory has the lower guilt factor, if you will, and as such can be paired with egg done you favorite way - sunny side up in my case, till I truly master poached egg. The recipe is from "The Little Paris Kitchen" by Rachel Khoo, adjusted to use goat cheese instead of sausage, the way she does it in the video of her show.    Hopefully, unlike me, you can bake it at a setting specified in the recipe below, or twiddle with it all by baking at 345°F for 45 min then 340°F for 10 min then 350°F for 10 min then keeping it in an off-oven for 5 min for a total of 70 min.    Absolutely not necessary, but I guess I like to twiddle.

Sunday Feast № 15 | Leek and Potato Soup and Steak with Béarnaise Sauce, my first two-course French dinner revisited

It is fair to say these are not the first savory French dishes I have ever made. Skipping around the French onion soup, which to me is only French in name - no disrespect, it's just the context in which I learnt it - bœuf à la Bourguignonne is the most likely first. However, unlike the formidable stew, these two are coolly sophisticated in their utter simplicity. And the simplicity is why I revisit. There is room to play despite it.    Whenever I buy celery, it is not consumed quickly enough before it wilts. Quite ironic considering that celery is a pheromone missile to be used by men, yet this misfortune is fully attributable to celery's stringiness and watery taste. It languishes some for those reasons. And lack of dip. Hence, I double up on it when possible, before cutting the stalks into finger long pieces, standing them up in a water filled container and refrigerating to prolong their crispness, then crossing my fingers hoping this time they will be eaten before any decay. Freezing just does not work. Also this time around one medium potato was not enough, and the soup can handle another one. Clearing out some vegetable acumen? You bet! As for the heavy whipping cream, it's what I had on hand. Its consistency suits the purée.    With a steady supply of butter, I could have clarified the butter myself for the sauce. Previously I have, yet this time around a jar of ghee had just the right volume. Clarified butter and ghee are similar concepts that differ in production methods and resultant nuances in flavor and color. Liquid gold either way. Having a jar of the stuff ready, slightly warmed up so it's melted, is a good off-the-shelf stand by as the constant whisking of the eggs with the tarragon infusion over very low heat will give you a reborn respect for any saucier, and anything that feels like a shortcut is welcome. I bide my time fearing I scramble the eggs and then whisk some more to steadily incorporate the melted ghee. By the way, the ever slightly more golden ghee resulted in a brighter yellow sauce rather than the classic light yellow when clarified butter is used. All in the eyes of the beholder, I suppose. The Béarnaise spirit is still there, courtesy of the shallot and tarragon, with a slight cosmopolitan twist. Mine often turns out thicker than velveteen, so I do not strain it, although I can see how straining would make it more refined and I have some more try-and-error in my future. Do your time.    Now the fun speedy time.

Sunday Feast № 13 | Tarte au Citron: The "ooh la la" of Lemon Tart

I guess I could wax poetic about spring and sunshine and how lemons are yellow like the sun in child's drawing and awaken with their tangy freshness and tartness. All beautiful and true, but not quite were my head was at.    I have not made a desert in eons, and especially one that requires some layering where one layer is the dough, pastry dough. Dough can taste doughy if mishandled, and with mounts of sugar to boot, it's a disaster. "But lemons might help the "lemon"! Dress up the disaster!" Alas, that was just wishful thinking. Yes, I've made some baking mistakes. The best way to address this situation was head on, and try again, sweetly and lemon-y.    At $1 for 10 lemons, and more sugar types than my kitchen has seen not just in years but ever, the weekend called for a lemon tart with sweet pastry made from scratch. Reminiscent of pasta making, the flour well contained what became effectively a goop-y mess of butter, sugar, and eggs, all stuck to my fingers. Flour saved my perturbed sanity as the mix finally coalesced into a ball of smooth dough ready for chilling after I chilled myself and summoned patience. Exhale. Rolling it out - easy. Lining a tart tin with it - no problem. Shell baking - fingers crossed and exhale regardless. Mixing and pouring the filling - good to go. Final bake and cooling - not fast enough.   It was worth it. The recipe is from “The Food of France: A Journey for Food Lovers”. I stuck to one set of measurement units (grams and milliliters). It is baking after all where precision serves a novice or a scaredy-cat. Leftover pastry or filling? No worries! There are solutions for that. Now watch me go pro! OK OK. Not quite that ready.

Fun with the leftovers Filling Preheat the oven to 180°C/355°F. Using small oven proof cups or ramekins, spoon in the filling to fill each. Place the cups or ramekins in a baking dish and pour enough close to boiling or boiling water into the dish to come halfway up to the sides of the cup or ramekin. Cook for 25 min or until set. Remove from the oven and baking dish, cool completely and then refrigerate for couple of hours. Sweet pastry Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to thickness similar to that when rolled out for the tart. Cut out shapes - I cut 4.5 cm/~2 in circles, rolled the remains into a ball and rolled out again, cut circles and repeated as often as needed till all the pastry was used. Place shapes on a floured baking tray - they can be relatively close to each other but not touching - and bake for ~15 min or till golden. Remove and cool on a rack.

Sunday Feast № 1 | Eggs in Pots

Happy New Year, and if your December was full of boozy festivities or you topped it all off with a New Year’s Eve celebration that carried into the weekend, by this Sunday morning hangover and you may be well acquainted frenemies. It’s time for breakfast, to end that relationship and to ease into New Year, provided you can get up, stand up, and hold your food.       This is usually when I hear of cravings for greasy anything and “hair of the dog” remedy, and maybe there is credence to both, but personally I subscribe to a steady trickle of water and toast with honey, followed by an indulgence that will not weigh down my already suffering innards. No thanks to running, dripping grease fest, but eggs are good. Very good. Hello œufs en cocotte! Yes, you will challenge yourself a tad beyond quick frying or scrambling, treat that as part of the recovery process, but at a leisurely speed, which you will appreciate while you are hydrating, while that toast with honey is making you sweeter (oh, angel you!), and while your loved ones are asking for attention you literally do not possess this morning. Focus. You can stumble through it. If you have an oven with a glass door and a light, treat it like TV – just like the real thing, staring is welcome, in fact encouraged, as you get to know the water temperature and the time it takes to set the eggs to taste, so you can repeat not as a hangover breakfast but as part of weekend feast to start the day. The cream with eggs will hug your tummy just right.       The recipe is adapted for one egg from “The Little Paris Kitchen” by Rachel Khoo, so you can multiply it as needed and, just like Rachel, if you do not have ramekins, use ceramic cups instead.