Category Archives: French Fridays with Dorie
French Fridays with Dorie: apple-gorgonzola quiche
Is it Friday, again, already? I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about making this week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie: Apple-Gorgonzola Quiche. I like the ingredients, individually. In fact, I had all the ingredients on hand. I just couldn’t imagine how the final product might taste, which I typically like to be able to do. The bonne idée for Quiche Lorraine seemed more appealing, but it would involve shopping, and so I went with the assignment straight up.
To add to my ambivalence, my husband doesn’t do fruit in his dinner, so a quiche with apples wasn’t going to get eaten by him. I wasn’t up for eating it alone, but the perfect opportunity for sharing came up. The local football team, the New England Patriots, is one of the contenders in this weekend’s Super Bowl. We organized an office potluck yesterday, and my contribution was the French Friday quiche. Not exactly macho football food, but it got eaten.
The flavors in this seemingly odd quiche really worked, much to my surprise. I was afraid it might be sweet, but it was quite savory. I’m not even sure I would have known the apple was there if I hadn’t cooked it myself. (I think I could even have tricked Howard, or just neglected to tell him the full list of ingredients.) The onions and gorgonzola were the primary flavors. I threw in a handful of toasted walnuts, which added an earthy note.
I really do love quiche. While I’m not sure that I’d make this version again, I’m glad this recipe reminded me that I should make it more often.
If you want to see what the other bloggers thought of this week’s recipe, check out their links over at French Fridays with Dorie. If you want the recipe, you can find it in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table
Next week is another recipe that I’m unsure about: Nutella Tartine, but I’ll give it a go and maybe have another pleasant surprise.
French Fridays with Dorie: Broth-Braised Potatoes
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is, in Dorie Greenspan’s own words, an intriguing twist on a dependable dish. The dish? Broth-Braised Potatoes, in other words, a twist on boiled potatoes.
First, broth is simmered with some flavor boosters: lemon zest, garlic, bay leaf and a few sprigs of thyme. I used some homemade turkey broth from the freezer, and, miraculously, sprigs of thyme I found in my herb garden, sheltered under some leaves. (The rosemary was finally killed by cold weather.) The potatoes were added to the pot, and simmered until tender, about 20 minutes for me.
I had half a dozen small, but not baby, red potatoes, so I made half a recipe. To emulate the look of fingerling potatoes, I cut the potatoes into quarters lengthwise before cooking them. Then, because the liquid didn’t cover all the potatoes, I wasn’t sure that I should have halved the broth after all. However, the recipe is called braised, not boiled potatoes, and at all worked out in the end.
Simple in execution, surprisingly interesting in flavor, I can see these potatoes taking a place in the “simple side dish” repertoire at my house as an alternative to steamed potatoes drizzled with olive oil.
To see what the other FFwD bloggers did with their potatoes, check out their links here. The recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table.
Happy French Friday!
A Plateful of Happiness 