french

Galettes Bretonnes, golden butter cookies from Brittany

maki — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:42:10 +0100

When it comes to cookies, I like them rather plain and not overly sweet. This traditional cookie from the Bretagne (Brittany) in France is so plain and simple, that the ingredients really shine. It is made of flour, sugar, egg, and the famously delicious salted butter (beurre demi-sel) of the region. Somewhat related to shortbread or sablé cookies but not as rich, for me they are almost the perfect cookie, and very more-ish.

The salted butter is the key to this cookie’s distinctive nutty, buttery sweet-salty flavor. The best salted butter from the Bretagne and other regions along the Atlantic in France are creamy-fresh and rich, with little glistening crystals of salt still visible. If you can get a hold of really good salted butter, you can use traditional recipes and the cookies will turn out the way they should. If not, some adjustments need to be made. So, I would recommend following the variation of the recipe that meets your butter quality.

(You might see something called galettes bretonnes au sarrasin. These refer to a thin crêpe or pancake made out of buckwheat (sarrasin) flour, usually served with a savory filling. I love those too, but these article is about the cookie galettes bretonnes.)

Recipe 1: Galettes Bretonnes

Version 1: Use this version if you can get really good salted butter with a slightly cultured taste.

250g / 8.8 oz / about 2 U.S. cups all purpose or cake flour (cake flour preferred)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
120g / 4 oz / 1/2 cup minus 2 Tbs. sugar
120g / 4 oz / 1/2 cup / 1 stick salted butter, softened
1 ‘large’ egg, plus 1 egg for glazing
1-2 Tbs. milk if needed
Additional flour for your working surface and the rolling pin

Version 2: Use this version if you are using supermarket-level salted butter, but you don’t want to mess with adding salt and so on (see Version 3).

Add to Version 1:

Large pinch of good quality coarse sea salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Version 2: Use this version if you don’t have access to good salted butter, and want to replicate the salty/cultured taste as closely as possible.

250g / 8.8 oz / about 2 U.S. cups all purpose or cake flour (cake flour preferred), plus 2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
120g / 4 oz / 1/2 cup minus 2 Tbs. sugar
120g / 4 oz / 1/2 cup / 1 stick unsalted butter the best you can get, softened
1/2 tsp. regular salt
1/2 tsp. coarse salt
1 ‘large’ egg, plus 1 egg for glazing
1-2 Tbs. buttermilk or sour cream (sour cream is richer of course)
Additional flour for your working surface and the rolling pin

Equipment needed:

Rolling pin
Baking sheets
Parchment paper or silicon baking liner
Pastry brush

The method for all 3 versions is the same.

Sift together the flour and baking powder.

Mix together the sugar, salt (if applicable) and butter. Add the flour mixture and rub well into the butter-sugar mixture with your fingers. Add the egg and vanilla if you’re using Version 2, plus just enough milk or buttermilk so that the dough comes together cohesively. Form into a ball, flatten and wrap in plastic.

(If using a food processor or mixer, you can combine the butter, sugar and flour mixture first, then add the liquids. Don’t overmix this dough after you add the liquids or the cookies will be a bit to tough.)

Chill the dough for at least an hour, until firm. This dough is quite soft so this chilling step is very necessary.

Heat the oven to 180°C / 355°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon liners.

Flour your work surface and a rolling pin. Roll out the dough to about 3mm / 1/8 inch or so thickness. Cut the dough out into shapes. Put the cut out dough onto the lined baking sheets.

To prevent the cookies from puffing up in the middle, press down with the tines of a fork, or prick with a fork. (Traditionally the cookies are pressed with a pretty pattern.) (Note: I actually forgot to do the pressing bit for the cookies in the photo! Tastewise they don’t change much, so you can omit the pressing part if you don’t mind the slight dome in the middle of each cookie.)

Beat up the extra egg and add a few drops of milk. Brush the surface of the cookies with this eggwash. (You can just use the yolk with a bit of milk, which would give you a deeper golden glaze. You can also add a pinch of salt for an extra bit of saltiness.)

Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the baking sheets. Bake for another 5-7 minutes, until the cookies are a golden brown on top.

Cool completely on a rack - these are cookies that taste a lot better when cooled and crispy, rather than soft from the oven. Store in an airtight container.

Makes 48 small, 36 medium or 24 large cookies

Cookies on your Christmas tree? A cautionary tale

A few years ago, way before this blog was even a glimmer in my eye, I decided that I was going to decorate our Christmas tree with iced spice cookies. I was inspired by the gorgeous photos of large trees covered with big iced cookies shaped like Christmas ornaments and penguins and such that appeared in - yes, you might have guessed, Martha Stewart Living.

Once I committed to this, I had to see it through. Our tree wasn’t huge, about 6ft / 180cm or something tall, but it took ages to make enough big cookies to adequately cover it, even though we also decorated the tree with several glass ornaments, not to mention the fairly lights. I was baking cookies and icing the beasts for a solid week. I made about 200 cookies in total in the end: about 150 of them ended up on the tree, 20 or so fell and crashed while I was trying to hang them, and the remaining ones ended up as gifts, wrapped in cellophane.

When the tree was finally decorated with all those cookies, it really looked spectacular. (The photos were taken on a pre-digital camera…and the photos are packed away in boxes, awaiting our soon-I-hope move.) Besides looking great, it smelled wonderful too.

My plan for those cookie-ornaments was to serve them with coffee after a Christmas party. I imagined the scene…friends gathered around the tree, picking their favorites…the village church bells ringing in the background…as I lovingly touched one of the hanging cookies.

What greeted my fingers was…soggy sponge. The icing side was ok, but the exposed cookie side was almost wet. Dismayed, I inpected the other cookies. They were all the same - heavy with moisture. I took one off and bit into it. Ugh! It had absorbed Essence of Pine from the live tree. I spat it out.

I don’t remember what I did serve at that party, but it certainly wasn’t Soggy Pine Cookies. Thankfully, the cookies did manage to hang on the tree until we put it all away a week or so later.

So…if you do plan to have cookies or other edibles on your tree, use an artificial tree, wrap your goodies tightly in cellophane or something, or - well, just have some airtightly-packed reserved. (Besides the moisture, there’s also critters to consider…)

This is my last post on Just Hungry until after-Christmas. Happy Holidays to you all!

Ratatouille

maki — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 16:18:29 +0200

Although ratatouille seems synonymous with summer, perhaps because it comes from sunny Provence, I think it's really a dish to make right now, in early fall. This is when the essential ingredients - eggplants (aubergines), fresh tomatoes, zucchini (courgettes), sweet onions, and peppers - are all at their peak. You can get all of those things year-round nowadays of course, but vegetables in season are always just a bit sweeter.

Even the humble eggplant, which doesn't seem as season-sensitive as tomatoes, are at their peak in the fall. In Japan, there's a saying, akinasu yome ni kuwasuna which means "Don't let the daughter-in-law eat fall eggplants". There are two theories to where that saying came from: one is that eggplants are so delicious at this time of year that the poor daughter-in-law shouldn't be allowed to partake. The other theory is that eggplants are considered to be "cooling" vegetables, and women who want to become pregnant should not eat food that cools the body. In any case, fresh, tender eggplant that isn't over-mature and full of hard seeds is really delicious.

A really great ratatouille is not a vegetable stew, as some cookbooks say - it's more like a vegetable casserole. Each vegetable is pre-cooked, then brought together for the final simmering. Because of the preparation involved, making a proper ratatouille takes about 3 1/2 hours from start to finish, making it a great weekend project. Get the freshest ingredients you can in the morning, and put them together as ratatouille in the afternoon, to eat for dinner or for lunch the next day.

The smells that fill the house while you're cooking this are irresistible.

This recipe has the traditional Provençal flavorings of thyme and oregano, but you can also give it all kinds of twists, some of which I've described in the variations.

Ratatouille is very versatile. It can be a condiment, a side dish, a pasta sauce, or even a sandwich filling. Here I have made a ratatouille sandwich with brebis, a kind of fresh sheep's milk cheese. Goat's cheese also works very well.

My version of ratatouille is a bit less oily than some other recipes, since I pre-salt three of the vegetables to expel some of the moisture before cooking. I also pre-roast the eggplant and the peppers instead of sautéing them. This has another benefit - while those two vegetables are cooking in the oven, I have the stovetop free to deal with the three others. There are a lot of steps to follow, but it's not technically challenging to do.

Incidentally, I am really looking forward to the Disney/Pixar movie Ratatouille next summer. If you haven't yet, go watch the trailer now! Then come back and read on for the recipe below the fold...

Ratatouille

This is the easiest amount to make for me since I don't have a very large kitchen. It makes about 5-6 cups of ratatouille. You can double the amount if you want to - I wouldn't make less, since it seems a bit pointless to put so much effort and time into making a tiny portion. (Ratatouille will last in the refrigerator for at least a week, and freezes pretty well too.) The point is to have an equal amount, in weight, not volume, of the five vegetables. I've given approximate volume amounts in case you don't have a kitchen scale and want to eyeball it.

500g / a bit more than 1 lb. eggplant (aubergines) (About 8 cups raw after slicing)
500g / a bit more than 1 lb. zucchini (courgettes) (I like the green ones for color contrast) (About 4 cups raw after slicing)
500g / a bit more than 1 lb. large sweet onions (About 3 cups raw after slicing)
500g / a bit more than 1 lb. sweet red or orange peppers (About 4 cups raw after slicing)
1-kg / a bit more than 2 lbs. of ripe red tomatoes (this will become less once it's skinned and de-seeded) (After skinning and de-seeding and chopping, about 3 cups)
4 garlic cloves
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 bay leaves

Equipment needed/recommended:

A kitchen scale
A saucepan or pot
A large sauté pan or wok
A sharp knife and a chopping board
A spatula
5 bowls or receptacles large enough to hold your 5 basic vegetables
A glass oven casserole dish, or a shallow oven-safe pan with a non-reactive surface (enamel, ceramic or glass)
Paper towels or clean kitchen towels
Cooking parchment paper
Aluminum foil
A large spoon, or a turkey baster

Fill the pot/pan with water and bring to a boil.

If you have very large eggplants, cut it into half or quarters lengthwise. Slice about 1/2cm - 1/8th inch thick. Put into a bowl, and sprinkle with a little salt all over. Toss.

Slice the zucchini to the same thickness, more or less, as the eggplant. Put into another bowl, sprinkle with a little salt and toss.

Slice the onions very thinly. Put into yet another bowl, and sprinkle with a little salt all over. Toss.

Leave all of the above vegetables about 20 minutes.

Put the tomatoes whole into the boiling water. Take them out after about 40 seconds. Peel off the skins, halve and scoop out the seeds. Chop roughly and weigh them.

De-seed and slice the peppers. Spread on a paper-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with a little olive oil. Prepare another baking sheet with paper, for the eggplant.

Peel and then chop the garlic very finely.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C / 350°F.

Drain the eggplant. Take handfuls at a time into a clean kitchen towel or several layers of paper towels, and squeeze out the moisture. Spread on the other baking sheet that you've prepared, and sprinkle with a little olive oil.

Put the eggplant and the peppers in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until tender but not crispy. Stir around once or twice during this time. (The peppers may need an additional 5-10 minutes, depending on how thinly you sliced them.)

Drain and squeeze the zucchini and the onions in the same way as the eggplant.

Heat up your sauté pan or wok with a little olive oil. Fry the zucchini in the oil until lightly browned. Remove.

Add the onion to the pan (plus a little more oil if needed), and sauté until limp and translucent. Remove.

Put in the garlic, and sauté briefly. Add the tomato pulp, and break it up with a spatula. Add the bay leaves, thyme, oregano, and freshly ground pepper. (No salt -remember you've already used quite a lot to draw out the water in the vegetables.) Simmer for about 10 minutes over medium-high heat. Take out the bay leaves.

In the meantime, your roasted vegetables should be done. Remove them from the oven. In your glass or ceramic casserole dish, put in half the onions in a layer. Follow with a layer of zucchini, then eggplant, then pepper, then the tomato pulp. Repeat for the rest of the vegetables. (You can reserve a few of the eggplant and zucchini slices to decorate the top.)

Cover the casserole dish loosely with foil, and place on a baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes at the same temperature (180°C / 350°F).

Take the foil off, and make a flat ball out of it. Carefully put it under one corner of the casserole dish, to tilt it up slightly. Make a dent in the opposing corner. It will quickly fill up with liquid. Take that liquid with a spoon or a turkey baster, and baste the vegetables (meaning, pour the liquid back over the top of everything). Put the dish and baking sheet back in the oven. Continue baking and basting every 15-20 minutes until the liquid is has reduced down to less than half of what you started out with. This may take an hour or more, depending on how juicy your vegetables were. A glass casserole dish makes it easy to see how much liquid there is. If the top starts to get too brown, put a piece of foil loosely over it. This basting and reducing is the most tedious part of the whole process, but it really helps to concentrate the flavors.

Take out of the oven. Carefully tilt the dish and pour off as much remaining liquid as you can. Put the liquid into a small pan and reduce over a high heat, stirring, until it's syrupy. Pour back over the vegetables.

Let stand for at least 20 minutes before serving. It's also delicious at room temperature or chilled.

Variations and serving ideas

Asian-flavor ratatouille: omit the thyme, oregano and bay leaves. Add a piece of ginger when you sauté the garlic. Season with a little soy sauce, and sesame seed oil. Alternatively, add about 1/3 of miso loosened up with some hot water to the tomato mixture before assembling for baking.
Add some cooked bacon pieces to the baking dish (this makes a great one-dish meal served on pasta)
Make some small round croutons from a slice baguette by spreading them on a baking sheet and sprinkling with oil. Serve the croutons with the ratatouille.
Serve with rice - either plain or a pilaf.
Add some lemon juice to well-chilled ratatouille, and serve with greens of your choice (arugula is great)

For the ratatouille and brebis or chevre sandwich, halve a crusty loaf, sprinkle the cut sides with olive oil, and toast or grill. Pour a couple of tablespoons of any liquid that you can scoop up from the ratatouille onto the bread. Pile on the ratatouille (room temperature is best), and add some pieces of cheese. (The one I used here came in little balls.) You can grill this if you like at this point, or just have as-is. You can also press it into a panini. To bring to work or on a picnic, press together well and wrap tightly in wax paper. The ratatouille flavor will have penetrated the bread nicely by lunchtime.

IMBB 23: Brandade de Morue

maki — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 22:33:13 +0100

This is my entry for Is My Blog Burning #23, hosted by Cucina Testa Rossa. The theme is Vive La France. I cogitated over this for a while, but settled on something extremely simple to make, figuring that the other entries might go more elaborate. I'm also a bit cooked-out at the moment due to the Masterchef cooking! But anyway...onwards we go.

The picture above is a little misleading. The star of the show is not the golden brown crêpes. It's the unprepossessing little bowl of white sauce. This is a Provençal staple called brandade de morue. It hasn't become as trendy around the world as other delicious sauces from this much lauded region such as tapenade or pistou, but is, in my opinion, one of the most delicious tastes in the world.

It's possible that brandade de morue is not as renowned because its star ingredient is salt cod. Any seafaring culture has a tradition of heavily salted fish, and since cod has always been a popular fish, there are variation of salted cod everywhere: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and of course France. Marseilles was at one point the major salt cod manufacturing point for the whole of Europe, and it still produces a lot of it. Salted fish does not really fit well into our modern lifestyle, since it needs an extended period of soaking. I love the taste of it though, coming from a culture (Japanese) that has always relied on salting and drying to preserve seafood. I also love the slowness of it: soaking the fish overnight, planning ahead for the meal that it will be the basis of. It's an entirely different experience from popping a frozen dinner tray into the microwave.

Making a brandade is so easy with our modern food processors and mixers, it's almost not a recipe. The one key to it is to soak the fish in cold water beforehand for at least 24 hours, changing the water several times, to reconstitute the cod and to remove much of its salt. You should also use a good, fruity olive oil, preferably from Provence (but any good extra virgin olive oil will do). A brandade can be used for any number of things: as a dipping sauce for raw or steamed vegetables; on crusty bread; even as an interesting pasta sauce. Here I have used it as a stuffing for crepes. This isn't very traditionally Provençal I admit, but the very first time I had brandade was in a creperie in the small, charming town of Grillon, in the northern part of Provence. It was simply spread onto a large, crispy Galette Bretonnière (a buckwheat crêpe from Brittany) which was folded over at the edges, the dark brown lacy edges framing the white sauce so inticingly. One mouthful, and I was a brandade convert for life. It is salty, just slightly fishy (but in a good way, like the freshest anchovies, but less so), garlicky, and full of fruity olive oil flavor, with the slight acidic edge provided by the creme fraiche, that elevates it to the highest level of taste.

As for a wine to accompany a meal with brandade, why not a rosé? There are many rosés in Provence; light and refreshing, to cut through the sometimes intense flavors of the food of the region. Nothing is quite as evocative of summer as a chilled glass of rosé and a meal redolent of olive oil and garlic. The one we had on hand is Domaine de Montine, from the Tricastin region, which is near Montélimar, the self-proclaimed nougat capital in the northwestern corner of Provence.

This area is not nearly as touristy as southern Provence, but I almost prefer it over the more famous areas near Arles or Aix or Marseilles. If you want to see the Provence cliché of lavender fields stretching out as far as the eye can see, go to the north.

Brandade de morue

200g / 7 oz. piece of salt cod
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil, preferably from Provence (it should be a bright green, and mildly flavored)
4 garlic cloves
150g / 5 oz. creme fraiche

Soak the salt cod in cold water, changing the water several times, for at least 24 hours beforehand.

Gently poach the drained cod in water to cover for about 10-15 minutes.

Take out the cod, let it cool and take off the skin if there is a skin. Carefully go over it and pick out any bones.

Roughly flake the cod into the bowl of a food processor or mixer, with the garlic cloves. Pulse to chop it up, then add the olive oil and creme fraiche. Puree intil smooth. The consistency should be that of thick mayonnaise. Add a little more olive oil if necessary.

This makes about 2 cups. Store any left over sauce well covered in the refrigerator, and use up within a few days.

For the crêpes, please refer to this recipe for a good all-around version.

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