Monthly Archives: February 2011
French Fridays with Dorie: Orange-Almond Tartlets
This week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie was billed as a good choice for Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, my Valentine and I don’t have compatible dessert preferences. His preference is for anything chocolate. My preference leans more towards tarts and other fruit desserts. When I mentioned that I was making an Orange-Almond Tart this week, he turned up his nose.
On the other hand, this recipe was very appealing to me. It was a tart, it was fruit, and the frangipane filling sounded great.
The tart had several components, the crust, the filling, and the fruit. Each of the different parts needed time to chill or otherwise rest. That made it workable for me to prepare the crust and filling and orange slices one night and quickly put them together for dessert the next.
Because Dorie said the tart was best eaten the day it was made and I had no occasion this week to be bring a full-sized dessert somewhere to share, I chose to use my mini-tart pans to make crusts for three personal tarts for me. I made and consumed one little tart earlier this week. And I’ll make the others during the weekend.
I enjoy making pastry crusts. Cutting a stick of butter into small pieces used to be the most tedious step, until I figured out this method. I cut the stick of butter into quarters, but cutting it in half lengthwise, then turning it and cutting in half lengthwise again. Then, keeping it together as a stick, I slice the entire stick using the handy-dandy butter slicer like the one my mother used to use to make butter slices for guest dinners. Voila! Small pieces of butter! Often, I’ll spread them around on the cutting board and put it, butter and all, into the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes for the butter to firm back up before proceeding.
The shortbread crust came together easily in the food processor, and then I pressed it into my mini-tart pans. I’m not afraid of a rolling pin, but I loved the tactile step of working with the crust this way. The crusts went into the freezer for the night.
The almond filling was awesome. Such a fancy looking filling for such little effort. I’ve made a similar filling before with almond paste, but this was much easier, with even nicer flavor, and I didn’t have to make a special trip to the store for ingredients.
I was a little surprised that the fruit was more of a garnish that part of the filling. I filled my tartlet with the almond filling and arranged the oranges on top. The filling was too firm for the fruit to nestle. For the full tart, the recipe called for 4 oranges. On my mini-tart, I could only fit the slices from less than half an orange on top. It was fine, but I’m just saying it surprised me that I didn’t use much fruit after all.
End result? I give this tart an A++. It was everything I like about a dessert. In the looks department, I impressed myself. , The tart looked like I had picked it up at an upscale bakery, not made it in my own kitchen.
I’m excited that I can experiment this weekend with the two mini-tart shells I have left. I think I’ll try one fruitless, just the frangipane with sliced almonds on top. Maybe my Valentine will even try that one.
I know I’ll use both this crust recipe and the filling in other desserts that I make. I’m thinking the filling would be great made with hazelnuts instead of almonds. The tart has displaced the Speculoos as my favorite recipe from Around My French Table so far. I think it’s so funny that my favorites from this book have been desserts because I am much more of a cook than a baker.
As always, I look forward to seeing what my fellow bloggers from French Fridays with Dorie have done with this week’s recipe. Check out their links at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes for this cooking group, but if you’re tempted, buy the book, Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table and consider joining the cooking fun.
A Ray of Sunshine in a Snowy World
The weather is getting to be a boring topic, but I’m so sick of winter that I have to say it. I don’t usually feel this way. I’ve always preferred winter to summer because I really don’t like to be hot. However, I don’t remember a winter in recent memory with this much relentless snow. It’s wearing me down and tiring me out. Even so, I wanted to share some of my favorite snow photos from this weekend.
My disdain for winter has come on gradually. In fact, about two weeks ago, when I read the following fabulous quote in the newspaper, it made me laugh, and I quoted it for days:
“There’s no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.”
We spent a good part of the weekend on snow remediation. We are fortunate that despite all the snow, and ice dams on the edges of the roof, we don’t have any leaks in the house. One activity involved shoveling the roof of the one low part of our house. My primary responsibilty was standing at the foot of the ladder, prepared to call 911 if Howard fell. I did take a turn on the ladder when his arms tired, but he worked at this harder than I did. When it warmed up Sunday, Howard cracked through the inch-thick coating of ice on the driveway and pathways, and I helped move the ice chunks onto the snow piles. I’m definitely not the main brawn for these tasks, but I am a very good helper.
It’s the sheer volume of snow that’s overwhelming. We live on a very busy road, so a lot of the snow that gets cleared from the road, ends up in our not-very-big front yard. Look at it all! My friend Lauren sent me a link for the The Boston Globe’s Shaq-o-Meter, to measure our snowfall. I have to admit that it made me laugh. Check it out.
It’s been so cold that the snowpiles haven’t really had a chance to diminish between storms. The backyard snow gauge more than 2 feet, so only about half of the overall snowfall has melted or sublimated.
What counteracts the winter doldrums, besides a getaway to tropical climes? Soup always works for me. We still have bags of carrots and parsnips in the refrigerator from our Winter CSA, so I wanted to use those. This is a very simple soup with great flavor, color, and texture, at least to me. I made a bisque with similar ingredients a couple of weeks ago, but this recipe is completely different.
This soup is garnished with parsnip chips and scallions. Always liking to make the most of my ingredients, I used the thin ends of the parsnips that were a little too skinny to peel. I gave them a good scrub and sliced them thin.
I used dried dillweed because I didn’t have any fresh herbs on hand. This would be even better with fresh dill.
Carrot-Parsnip Soup
Serves 6
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1 lb parsnips, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 lb carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 quart chicken broth
2 cups water
½ tsp dried dillweed
Salt & pepper to taste
Garnishes:
- Parsnip Chips:
- ½ cup parsnip slices, using the well-scrubbed ends of the parsnips or a whole parsnip
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 scallions, sliced thin
Heat the oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add the onion. Cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender. Keep an eye on them to be sure they don’t brown too much or burn. You can cover the pot, trapping moisture in the pot, or add a little of the water, to keep them from burning.
Add chopped parsnips and carrots, chicken broth, water, and dillweed. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, and simmer for 45 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
In the meantime, make the parsnip chips. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a small skillet. Add the parsnip slices and cook until lightly browned, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a paper towel to drain.
Remove the pot from the heat. Let it cool down for about 5 minutes. In batches, puree the soup in the blender until smooth. Season to taste.
Reheat if necessary. Serve garnished with parsnip chips and scallions.
A Plateful of Happiness 