Catch Up: French Fridays: Chicken AND Pumpkin Flans. It's the Two-fer.

In an effort to stay ahead..ah, enough with the excuses. Here are Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux (the Lazy Ones Among Us) and Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flans, both from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan. I have to keep this short and sweet in order to catch up.
The chicken? Good roast chicken. Acutally, GREAT roast chicken, the best roasted chicken I've had, maybe ever, but I think that honor is because the chicken was just processed by the folks at Red Dirt Ranch here in NC. The freshest, juiciest, nicest...everything.

Here's the thing with the recipe. I used a dutch oven, but that didn't really give me enough space for the veg to go in...next time, this is going into a roasting pan...But the veg that did get nicely roasted here...that was really good..

The flans? I loved them, but G wouldn't try them...nor would B--she doesn't like gorgonzola. Their loss. These are rich and smooth. The blue cheese is a great touch and the pecans (I prefer to walnuts) are great for texture...I didn't have great ramekins--not the right size, I'd say...I'd love these in my creme brulee dishes--very shallow with a good ratio of nutty cheese topping to pumpkin flan...And they are gorgeous...

Both recipes very simple. I'm having roast chicken (from Red Dirt) again because it tasted that good...
This week is a good one to try the cake AND the potatoes...oooh, in fact, maybe the potatoes will go nicely with the roast chicken tonight...even though there's  no one here to eat dinner with me tonight. Doesn't mean I won't cook!

Side note: I made stock with the chicken bones right in the dutch oven I used to roast the chicken. Best. Stock. Ever..Brown and rich. Now that? That I would do again.
Side SIDE note: So I made the chicken  in a shallow roasting pan? Let's just admit Dorie got it right. It did splatter everywhere. Note to self: Trust the Dorie.

Need to see other results? Check out French Fridays with Dorie.

Marie-Helene's Apple Cake for French Friday's with Dorie

Yum. Make that apple RUM cake. This ends up being chunks of apple just held together by the barest bit of buttery rummy batter.

And it works.What more can I say? The apples look like a tile mosaic in the slice of cake, they are packed together so...When I mixed the apples into the batter, I was thinking: uh oh. I did it again. Too many apples for the batter.

WRONG.

This cake is so simple and so fabulous...everyone should know how to make it.
Check out other blog posts about Marie-Helene's Apple Cake on French Fridays with Dorie while we cook our way through Around My French Table.

Officially Autumn

Guess what we did last night? This was the fall out...part of the evening I love every bit as much as the carving....

Friday's Hachis Parmentier on Monday

(Guess the title should really read "Friday's Hachis Parmentier Made on Monday, Posted on Wednesday)

Rush rush rush rush.
Cook cook cook cook.

I was trying to get this done BEFORE I headed out to get my daughter from dance class, and it just wasn't going to happen.

So I left it in the oven, turned the oven off, and headed out the door for about a 30-minute round trip.

Came home, relaxed. Had this waiting, along with some kale (thanks, MM!!) cooked with lots of garlic and sprinkled with balsamic.

This is comfort food as it is meant to be. I loved the mashed potatoes with gruyere. I loved the sausage crumbled up with the beef...I loved the veg, which I left in...because Dorie said I could.

I cooked it all in my black cast iron skillet, workhorse that she is...We could easily have fed 6 people, 8 if we'd had more sides...super generous meal...oh, and great leftovers.

Check out links at French Fridays with Dorie,
and, of course: BUY THE BOOK!

Chocolate Covered Burnt Caramel with Sea Salt

Why yes, I DID see almost all of my best college friends this weekend. Why yes, a photo of a candy IS the first thing I manage to post...

But who wouldn't??

I am SO working on recreating this. And you are all getting homemade candy from me for Christmas.

Gougeres: Catching Up is Sweet (or Savory)

See the spiky cheesy goodness of a gougere hot out of the oven.

I couldn't pass up an excuse to make gougeres. I realize that French Fridays will be easier for me because I pretty much have all the ingredients for the savory recipes...I just do. That baking on Tuesdays With Dorie just wore me out with the sweet ingredients I didn't have...never a chance to do a quick baking session.

Gougeres? Simple. Bring milk and water, salt, butter to the boil. Add flour all at once and stir HARD. (It ends up looking like mashed potatoes). Then put that batter into mixing bowl. Beat with paddle, adding eggs, one at a time. Then beat in 6 ounces of the BEST grated cheese you can imagine. Spoon (or ice cream scoop) onto trays. Bake until golden brown.

Eat one hot. Eat another one hot. Try not to eat them all. Give a big batch to office staff. Knock on neighbors' doors (yes, PLURAL)...take them to rooftop and give them to friends while savoring sunset and a glass of wine. Offer to random passers by...take the to game night and force players to enjoy...finally hide one so you can savor the custardy, cheesy, salty goodness of the gougere one last time.

But then? Don't remember how easy they are to make. Don't make them again and eat THEM for dinner instead of a proper dinner tonight.

Just don't.

DO Check out other blogs and photos at French Fridays with Dorie..
And of course, buy the book!

French Fridays with Dorie: Gerard's Mustard Tart a.k.a. Dorie Greenspan Makes the Best Pie Crust of Anyone, Anywhere, Ever.

Is the title too much? Too bad. Because any time I have EVER made a Dorie G crust, it's been awesome...and therefore I come to think of myself as one awesome pie crust maker. And the sum of the parts on this mustard tart is greater than the whole...no, not kidding.

I made the dough. My impatience does not allow me to let it rest in the fridge at 7 p.m. So I made it.

Rolled it out between two sheets of parchments (oh, another awesome trick I have learned from Dorie)...

...then I froze the dough in the tart pan while the oven heated up to 425. Then I partially baked it--I, for one, always go the extra minute or two, because I do love a crispy crust, so it got 20 minutes with the foil and an additional five without the foil. Perfect.

The shell is delicate. Which is good. But bad if you can be a bit cavalier with your baked pastry crust---as I was. The shell shrank from the pan a bit, and instead of moving the pan, I held the pan by the rim, touch the crust..and cracked this little bit.

Ruh roh. Would the custard seep out and make it ...awful? I balled a bit of foil up and wedged it under the rim so the custard tipped ever so slightly away from that crack (you can see the edges of the foil in that photo above). Problem solved.

There's not a ton of custard in this. I was lucky enough to have rich rich rich Lakeview Farms Home Delivery cream (I have to shake it up to incorporate that heavy cream back into the liquid) to use with my eggs.

I also made way too many carrots and leeks..I used three, just like DG says, but she never says: 3 carrots, cut into matchsticks (you should have about 3 cups)....And yes, I should know better. But I love leeks and I love carrots. I couldn't edit them out of the tart shell.

So I didn't. In the end, maybe not the prettiest mustard tart of the lot.
But it has to be in the running for one of the best tasting, I'm sure of that...That combo of just enough mustardy custard, the leeks and the sweet carrots? Heaven. (Changes I'd make? I'd slice  the leeks crossways and dice the carrots. The long, slender cuts just pulled everything off the tart shell..)

Check out how others did at French Fridays with Dorie, and BUY THE BOOK.