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French Fridays with Dorie: Citrus-Berry Terrine
Friday again. Last week’s heat bubble popped, and the weather is back to normal summer instead of summer in hell. It’s 20 to 30 degrees cooler.
This week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie was a dessert called Citrus-Berry Terrine, which is a fancy name for French Jello Mold. OK, it wasn’t exactly French jello, as opposed to American jello. It was much more elegant. The terrine was based on “homemade” jello, made from gelatin and fruit juice, rather than an artificially flavored, heavily-sweetened box of Jell-O. Plus, the terrine was studded with fresh fruit: orange, grapefruit, and freshly picked berries.
I am a child of the 60’s and 70’s, so as most children raised in American suburbs during that time frame did, we ate plenty of Jell-O at our house. Cups of regular jello were a frequent snack. Then, there was the special occasion jello mold that appeared on the table for all holidays and special family dinners. My family’s was a strawberry-flavored Pink Jello Mold, which I still make (and enjoy) today.
The concept of homemade jello never occurred to me until I read a column in Gourmet magazine by Laurie Colwin. “Desserts that Quiver” made a real impression on me. Like she did, I brought home different kinds of fruit juice and boxes of Knox gelatin from the store and went to town. This essay can be found in her collection, More Home Cooking. (Sadly, Laurie Colwin passed away in 1992. She’s one of my favorite food writers.)
Back to the terrine… This was a lovely, refreshing dessert. The citrus was tart, and the berries were sweet, giving it a nice contrast. I made a half recipe, using a 5-inch square container. After supreming the orange and grapefruit, I squeezed the juice from the remaining membranes. Then, I made up the difference with grapefruit juice, which is our usual morning juice. Dorie said it would take about 2 hours for the gelatin to get to the consistency of egg whites. I missed the actual point of egg whites, and after 45 minutes, it was way past that. I added the fruit anyway, though I think the fruit would have mixed in better if the consistency had been a little runnier.
Last night, my friend Laury and I went to a delicious Persian restaurant for dinner. We passed on ordering dessert, and I served the terrine when we came back to my house. Howard declined to try it, but that was his loss. It was beautiful to look at (though difficult to photograph). Laury and I both enjoyed it. I think it could have been a tad sweeter, so when I make it next time, I would either add a little more sugar (there wasn’t much in the recipe) or use orange juice, which would definitely be sweeter than the grapefruit. I will also experiment with other fruits and juice flavors.
The Doristas are a creative bunch. I’m sure some of them experimented with the basic formula here, and I can’t wait to read about what they tried. You can check out their links at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes, but all the recipes are in the book, Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. It’s well worth adding to your bookshelf. (From someone with hundreds of cookbooks, this is a hearty recommendation.)
Next Friday: Slow-Roasted Tomatoes. Perfect for the season.
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.
A Plateful of Happiness 