Category Archives: French Fridays with Dorie
French Fridays with Dorie: Lemongrass-Coconut Braise
As I sit here writing today’s post, all I can say is that if you live on the East Coast, what’s with this heat? We thought we were leaving the Boston area heat behind by escaping to the lake in Maine, but as I follow the temperatures today, it’s just as hot here as at home. Ugh!
I found this week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie, Braised Lemongrass-Coconut Pork, to be a seasonal challenge. A stew with root vegetables just didn’t feel like the right thing to be eating when you’re stuck under a “heat dome”, temperatures in the high 90’s for days. I have eaten more ice cream this week, 4 times already, and, true confessions, I don’t even like ice cream that much. (I know, it’s not normal. I’m also not a huge chocolate fan.)
My version is more of interpretation on the theme than a strict following of the recipe, though it does have the same structure. I kept with spirit of Dorie’s recipe so the sauce and flavorings were the same. I used chicken thighs because Howard made ribs over the weekend, and I was just plain “porked” out. I also took inspiration from the season’s vegetables and used steamed green beans and raw red and green pepper along with cherry tomatoes instead of the more autumnal ones suggested. I just realized I didn’t add anything from the onion family. I think I should have included some diced onion chunks, briefly stir-fried. I served this stew over jasmine rice, in a bowl.
This one will go in the “OK” category. It was fine, but lacked excitement. It wasn’t quite Thai, it wasn’t quite Indian, it definitely wasn’t French. Even though I used hot curry powder, the flavors weren’t as strong or as interesting as they could have been. I’m not sure whether I will play around with this to try to make it more to my liking, but there are so many recipes out there to try, I think I’ll just move on. (To be fair to the dish, I don’t mean to dis it, but it just wasn’t 90-degree-weather fare.)
Next week’s recipe is intriguing: a mixed berry terrine. I’ve never made anything like it before. I know I’m the only one in my house that will eat this one, so I either have to figure out how to make a mini-version, or find someone who wants to share it with me.
For this cooking group, we don’t share the recipes, but if anything looks good to you, you can find it in Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. Of course, you are welcome to cook along, any time you like. We’re here every Friday at French Fridays with Dorie. (Note that, this week, the server is probably down until the end of the weekend…)
If you are under the heat dome with me, stay cool this weekend. It looks like the temperatures will go back down on Sunday.
French Fridays with Dorie: Cold Honeydew-Blueberry Soup
As I mentioned last week, I wasn’t sure what I’d think of this week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie. Usually, when I read a recipe, I have some sense of what it will taste like. Cold Melon-Berry Soup combined ingredients I like into an end result I had trouble imagining.
Where I live, this week was unbearably hot. I live in an un-air-conditioned house, so going to work was a pleasure. We have lots of fans, but after a while, blowing warm air around seems counter-productive. Cooking, or even working in the kitchen, was not.
Though the weather was perfect for cold soup, it took me all week to work up the energy to try it out. Also, the instructions to chill the soup for 2 to 6 hours didn’t mesh with my schedule. I wasn’t sure whether it would suffer by not chilling long enough or chilling too long. If I made it before I left for work, it would chill all day, at least 10 hours. Or if I made it right before dinner, it wouldn’t be that cold. I probably worry too much about nothing.
Dorie’s recipe calls for cantaloupe and strawberries, but I let the fruit at the store speak to me. The honeydew and blueberries looked much more appealing. Half the melon is pureed into soup, and the other half is scooped into balls. Lime juice, fresh ginger, and a pinch of salt enhance the puree.
This definitely wasn’t my favorite recipe from the book, but it was better than I expected. It was like fruit salad soup. I found the flavors interesting, and I loved the colors, the contrast of the pale green melon and the bright blueberries.
I’m looking forward to reading what my fellow FFwD bloggers thought about this week’s recipe and how they tweaked it. Check out their links at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes, but consider getting your own copy of the book, Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. Maybe you’ll even want to cook along with us on Fridays.
A Plateful of Happiness 