Ms. Glaze's Pommes d'Amour

How To Stuff Sausage: Boudin Blanc

God forgive me for this video. It will either get passed around the Internet as a valuable guide to making sausage or used in 7th grade sex education classes. Even if I do rot in hell, it was a lot of fun to make. Very Satisfying.

Stuffing sausage is a little like crafting. It takes time, some specific knowledge, and is more fun to do with at least one other person. I made the traditional French sausage, Boudin Blanc, but added foie gras and black truffles. Tse, my blogging friend from Chez Tse, made two different types of Italian sausage: sundried tomato & basil, and traditional pork. All of our sausage turned out delicious.

We bought natural sheep casings, or intestines, from our butcher. He loves me because I make my own saucisse. I'm telling you, if you really want to know the quickest way to a man's heart, make him sausage. He also offered us his favorite recipes and a few kisses behind the meat counter. What a ham! Sheep casings are smaller than hog or cow. Make sure to buy the size that best suits the recipe or style of sausage.

If you stick to the basic measurements, experimenting with sausage and flavors can be a lot of fun. For 1 kilo of ground meat add 20 grams salt and 4 grams ground pepper. I used ground veal in my boudin blanc so I had to add some ground fat back or pure pork fat to my mixture so it would taste juicy and survive the cooking procedure. Tse did not add any fat to her ground pork shoulder.

I recommend letting the sausages refrigerate for at least 4 hours and overnight if possible, before cooking so that all the flavors blend. We poached our sausages in barely simmering cooking liquid before browning in olive oil. Fresh sausage tends to be delicate, and I find that poaching them first insures they won't explode over high heat. Make sure to prick them several times before poaching.

Happy sausage stuffing!

Technorati Tags: how to make sausage, how to stuff sausage

Ratatouille Preview!

I just came back from viewing the Paris preview for Pixar's Ratatouille at Planet Hollywood on the Champs Élysées! Whooo-oooo!!!! C'est Adorable!

Many people have emailed me about the connection between Guy Savoy and the movie. I had no idea that the movie had anything to do with Monsieur Savoy until recently! So here's the scoop: the Pixar crew came to the restaurant four years ago to study how cooks work in a 3-star kitchen. They took detailed notes on the layout of the kitchen and the social interactions. They also went and visited other famous French kitchens including Procope, Tour d'Argent, Hélène Darroze, Tailevent, et Chez Michel.

Monsieur Guy Savoy has a small part in the French version of the film as a client ordering foie gras. It was funny to hear his familiar voice but see such a different character on the screen. Nonetheless, we applauded his performance. After all, he took his entire staff from his four Parisian restaurants to watch the preview in between lunch and dinner shifts! I'm not back officially at the restaurant yet, but they invited me along anyway. I guess I'm the token American along for the ride.

The movie is fantastic! It is so French – the Pixar team has captured everything that I love about Paris and everything I love about cooking in a restaurant in Paris. The ending for me was a little bitter sweet, only because I don't want to leave this city and I know some day I will have to. The movie sums up why I love it here. You'll have to see it for yourself to understand...

Technorati Tags: Guy Savoy, preview, ratatouille

How To Make Puff Pastry: Feuilletage

Note to self: never make a puff pastry video on a hot day, in 90˚F weather, after drinking a whole bottle of champagne! Whoo-eee!!!

Now that I've got that disclaimer out of the way, I can tell you about making puff pastry or Feuilletage with the fabulous blogger Tse of Chez Tse. We studied at cooking school together and later she joined me at Guy Savoy before interning at the famous patisserie, Pierre Hermé.

Puff pastry is easy. It really is. And it tastes better and bakes lighter than store bought dough loaded with hydrogenated oils. The ingredients are simple: flour, water, salt, and butter. If possible use beurre sec or "dry" butter that has a low moisture content and high fat content . It will make the process easier and help keep the flour from turning into a greasy mess. But, just to prove that regular butter can be used, we've chosen normal unsalted beurre for our video.

There are so many uses for puff pastry from easy fruit tarts to pastry shells for savory dishes. Make a big batch and freeze half!

For recipe click on "continue reading How to Make Puff pastry...."

Technorati Tags: apple turnovers, apples, apricots, chausson aux pommes, cooking videos, puff pastry, video

Salade de Carmine Braisée à l'Orange et Canard Fumé

I had smoked duck for the first time this weekend at a pizza restaurant of all places! I ordered a wild mushroom pizza with thin slices of smoked duck and it was delicious. I was so impressed with its flavor that I had to do some experimenting...

Smoked duck is a good substitute for bacon. It's salty and smokey in the same way with an added meaty-woodsy flavor and it's leaner. The baby radicchio is a terrific match for smoked duck and they both pair nicely with the sweetness of orange. I also tried a variation on Eggs Benedict substituting smoked duck for Canadian Bacon (I'll print that recipe next).

Inspired by the old French recipe Duck a l'Orange, I came up with a lighter variation. The smoked duck is quickly pan fried to render the little bit of duck fat on the slices. Then orange juice is added to the pan and reduced. Whole raddiccio is braised lightly in the duck-orange sauce and served alongside the duck slices with some fresh orange segments. Any remaining warm duck-orange sauce is mixed with a little tarragon vinegar and olive oil to create a tangy warm vinaigrette. Add a few herbs et Voilà!

Smoked duck can be served raw too (like smoked salmon or trout) but I like it warm with the fat crisped up. If it's overcooked it will loose it's beautiful red color and some of it's flavor. Duck does not taste good over cooked. Most wild fowl doesnt, for that matter, it turns livery and leathery.

Hope you enjoy this recipe and can find smoked duck slices in the super market!?!? For the recipe click on "Continue Reading Salade de Carmine...."

Technorati Tags: carmine, duck, orange, radicchio, recipe, salad

Back To Work

People keep asking me when I'm going back to work. I've been asking myself that same question. My lawyers have been asking the French government that question too. But now it seems that there is a ray of sunshine. It will take one month and then I'm back cooking away. This is great news for me, except that the restaurant will be closed for July and August so I have a little more waiting to do.

However, I've become accustomed to not working. I take hour long runs through the Bois de Boulougne everyday. I sip coffee after my runs at the lake in the park and chat with other runners. I stare out and ponder what I might blog about – it's a perpetual daydream!

I'm constantly thinking up new recipes and seeking out the freshest ingredients in the farmer's markets to try out my latest obsession. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't, but just having the time to try them out is a rarity. Cooking in a restaurant seldom provides the time to think about personal style and recipes. Most of the time I find I'm so focused on getting prepared and then cooking that I don't have time to discover my own style. Just for fun this week I've bought an ice cream maker, a pasta mill, and a deep fryer so I can experiment with things I'm not so familiar with.

Aside from my newfound creativiy, my fingernails have grown extra long and I take the time to polish them. The scars on my hands have started to blend in and I don't have dark circles under my eyes anymore. I've lost weight from running – or at least the beefy arms and thighs that come from lifting heavy pots and pan and running up several slights of stairs throughout the day. Lookin' good!!!

Really, I'm living this fantasy right now and all I want to do is be back in the kitchen slaving away, over a hot stove for next to no money, with people that yell and criticize, in work conditions that only insane people would enjoy.

Well, that's it. I must be insane.

Sometimes I only have these revelations when I'm writing. Hence the need to continue my blog therapy program.

I did not get the Top Chef spot, but I did make it on the casting director's radar and received personal email from her. She was very supportive which surprised me – I guess I figured she'd be more appathetic. It looks like they've taken the sous chef, Hung, from the Guy Savoy Las Vegas restaurant instead of me. The Top Chef film crew came to test him in the kitchen a week before I arrived in Las Vegas to cook, so I missed my chances. However, she did say she wanted to keep my email for the next round. We'll see...

I'm enjoying making my own cooking videos at home. It's fun to combine my two passions: theater and cooking. Then I can yell at my husband too when he messes up the lighting, or my close-up doesn't look good, or he's missed filming some part of the preparation that I can't repeat. Yes, in my own kitchen, I am my own diva, and I like that. He doesn't like that too much, but he gets to eat the results at the end and I've yet to hear a complaint!

For the next two months I plan to chase Moulins (wind mills) through France, drink wine, run, blog, make videos, visit back home, attend my sister's wedding, sail in Croatia, bicycle in Alsace, and cook for private parties and fundraisers in Paris and San Francisco.

It's amazing at how one can fill up the calendar without a real job! I've never been busier!!! Then come September it's back to the normal 3-Star grind.

Dîner d'Anniversaire!

It's not easy always being the older woman. The fear of loosing one's beauty and no longer being attractive feeds insecurity. Not to mention always having to be the mature responsible person in the relationship. But finally my husband has caught up with me in age! Yippeee!!!

Because my hubby is such a sweetie, I prepared a birthday dinner for him with fruit at the forefront. A fruit-a-licious menu! I love to use fruit in unusual ways. I like to barbecue it, roast it, and bake it with spices or condiments normally reserved for savory dishes. I'm sure I get this from my father who likes to salt everything from cantaloupe to watermelon, "Brings out the flavor!" he always says.

Appertif Kir Royal avec le Syrop de Fraise
Raviole d'Ananas Roti aux Chevre, Salade de Lardon
Rôti de Porc Aux Pruneaux et Des Légumes Rôtis
Fromage Bleu Avec du Pain de Figue
Clafouti Aux Cerise
Après Dîner Cognac

For the roasted ravioli, I sliced paper thin rounds from a whole pineapple. I stuffed two slices with a spoonful of pungent medium-hard goat's cheese and pressed around the edges to form the pasta. Then I brushed a honey-basalmic glaze over the top. Right before serving the raviolis are broiled to caramelize the glaze and melt the cheese slightly. The salad is comprised of mesculen, crispy lardon, and a vinaigrette of olive oil, sherry vinegar, and the warm run-off juices from the broiled pineapple raviolis.

Nothing could be easier than a pork roast stuffed with prunes. Just stick a long knife or sharp pick through the center of the roast and cram in the prunes. I sear the pork roast on all sides first and then place it in a baking dish with whole new potatoes, sweet potatoes (yes, I'm into pork and sweet potatoes right now!), whole spring onions, and fresh sprigs of rosemary and thyme. Roast everything together et Voilà you have a beautiful main course that allows the time to focus on guests.

Clafouti is simple to make and it does not contain a lot of sugar or flour. I like to soak the cherries in kirsch for an hour or two before adding them whole. Traditionally the cherries are not pitted for two reasons: it will turn the batter pink and they taste better baked with the pit in. I do advise warning your guests beforehand so no one looses a tooth. Substitute cherries for blanched apricots if desired. For the clafouti recipe see my old post Cherry Clafouti

The candles didn't stick to well in the clafouti, so I had to substitute some cakes to hold up those heavy, heavy numbers!

For recipes click on "Continue reading Diner Anniversaire!"

Technorati Tags: birthday menu, cherry, chevre, clafoutis, french, goat cheese, pineapple, porc roasted with rosemary and mustard, porc roti, rabbit, sweet potato

La Trilogie du Lait et du Biscuit

Do you lie awake at night thinking up recipes? Sometimes I get so obsessed with food that I can't sleep. My current obsession is flavored milk. It reminds me of childhood and going for sweet treats with my Mom to the Peninsula Dairy Store in Palo Alto where they once bottled milk and ice cream for delivery. The little shop still remains, but sadly the milk plant does not.

My hometown has an interesting milk history with so many dairy farms close by, so it's practically impossible not to be a milk lover. It would be equivalent to trying to find a Frenchman that doesn't like cheese – or wine for that matter. In fact, Palo Alto still employs one of the last milkmen on earth. (And no, we do not all look the same!)

The other day at my neighborhood parisian cafe, I was so crazy with this flavored milk idea that I ordered lait parfumé à l'orgeat (milk with orgeat) and then another with lait parfumé à fraise (milk with strawberry). I'm sure the waiter thought I was either pregnant or crazy. And then it just hit me: tiny glasses of neopolitan milk with three types of warm cookies!

What could be cuter than that? Strawberry milk with orange-lime zest cookies, rich chocolate milk with cinnamon spice cookies, and cold plain milk with double-chocolate cookies!

Normally when I bake cookies I eat half the dough and then half the cookies when they come out of the oven. I'm worse with brownies. I was so sick from eating cookie dough yesterday I had to take a long nap to sleep off the excess calories. Sugar does that to me; just puts me straight into a sleep coma. I've taken an excerpt for the master cookie dough recipe from the cookbook The Secrets of Baking. (indispensable pastry cookbook if you don't already have it). You'll have to purchase the book though for all her neat variations!

The flavored milk is straightforward. For the strawberry milk make strawberry syrup: roughly chop a basket of strawberries and place them in a small pot with 1/4 cup of sugar on medium heat. Let them cook down without adding water or anything. Once you see medium sticky bubbles, strain it and reserve the syrup. Then add it to your milk once it's cooled (or to a glass of champagne – equally delicious!). For the chocolate milk I make hot chocolate with the richest cocoa powder I can find and then chill it.

This recipe was really fun for me, a nice change from the cuisine world. Hope it inspires that inner child!

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Technorati Tags: biscuit, choclate milk, chocolate, cookies, fraise, strawberries

Côtelettes de Porc aux épices, Gratin de Patate Douce à l'Orange et au Gingembre

I've never seen sweet potatoes in Paris and when I spotted them today in the Monoprix (French Safeway) there were only two looking forlorn in a basket all by themselves. I had to save them. They're probably not in season. I don't even know if sweet potatoes have a season! I always see them year round back home – that's not saying much though is it?

I hold patate douce dear to my heart...

Ten years ago when I cooked in SF I used to take the last night train home after dinner service. We always got a free meal with our shift and I would package mine togo and trade the ticket lady, a Southern woman, my dinner for a free ride home. It was a good deal for both of us. The food was hot and delicious and I was poor. One ticket home was the equivalent to one hour's worth of work in those days. (Eeeek! That was a long time ago!!!)

There were always weirdos on the last train out of SF. Lots of drunks and druggies. I learned all the Caltrans code words for 'drunk' or 'jerk' as the conducters would radio back and forth to each other about the passangers. But sometimes, the ticket lady, needing a respite from all the chaos, would sit beside me, eat her free meal, and talk food. She was a soul food specialist and she luuuuuved sweet potatoes like no one I have ever met before. And although she had no desire to go back to the South, I still think she might be persuaded if some one offered a life long supply of sweet potatoes.

Sweet potato pie was her specialty and I still have her recipe – and no, you can't have it – I promised I wouldn't share it with anyone. But she also sang the virtues of sweet potato hash, sweet potatoes mashed, candied sweet potatoes (and yams too), and sweet potato chips. She even liked sweet potato raw. And so do I, but I don't know if you're supposed to eat it that way.

I can't eat a sweet potato today without thinking of her. I'm sure we'll both meet again some day in that sweet potato pie up in the sky. But for now, I'll leave you with a recipe for lightly spiced pork chops served up with some orange-ginger sweet potato hash in her honor.

Technorati Tags: Côtelettes de Porc, ginger, orange, patate douce, pork chops, rabbit, recipe, spice, sweet potato, sweet potato hash

Salade de Concombre et Radis

I normally don't write about salads. I don't know why not because when I first began cooking I was hired as garde manger at a lovely Italian restaurant in SF (Ristorante Ecco now closed).

Although Guy Savoy has influenced my cooking today and deepened my love and appreciation of French Cuisine, I always seem to fall back on memories of my first cooking job. Perhaps it is the muscle memory of making salads & starters ingrained forever in my hands that triggers some part of my brain when it craves ruffage. The salads we used to make – so beautiful – piled high with seasonal greens and vegetables. Then lightly dressed with the perfect vinaigrette and accompanied with some sort of cracker, cheese crisp or smoked fish.

Ten years ago in San Francisco special lettuces like baby arugula (rocket) and lolla rosa were not common. Now we don't even think twice when we see either of them on the menu or in the super market. But there was a time when the only options were: romaine, red lettuce, boston lettuce, and iceberg. Funny how the pendulum has swung the opposite way, I haven't seen an iceberg salad in years, and I don't think I'd want to unless it was smothered in Maytag blue with a thick slice of tomato!

This recipe is light and refreshing. Radishes and cucumbers are taking over all the markets in Paris right now and they are delicious on hot days. I love the cooling effect of sweet cucumbers and the kick that the radishes add. Pair them with a little mixed lettuce (frisée, mâche, rocket, radiccio, etc.) and some crumbs of blue cheese for a beautiful first course. The little radish slices always remind me of confetti which just makes the salad a little more festive in my mind.

For recipe click on "continue reading"...

Technorati Tags: concombre, cucumber, Ms. Glaze, radis, radish, salad