A Mighty Boosh (De Noel)

Working on Thanksgiving and Xmas Roulades.....thinking of finishing in superglossy chocolate glaze with gold painted chocolate leaves and swirl decorations. Long, thin and petite; a super rich and powerful but small and elegant chocolate slice when served...

More Mid Mod Cookies

2011 Xmas Assortment, (ordering info along with Chanukah Assortment at www.patisseried.com/seasonal)

Mid Century Modern Holiday Assortments

Available for the first time this holiday season! Christmas assortment and Chanukah available - Chanukah pictured

leftovers

Had 2 scallops leftover in freezer from the weekend. And a squash. It was also real blustery and dank outside today, and for the first time November felt like November. It's coming....................wintertime.........................anyway the soup helped.

most beautiful houseplant

Distracted by the beauty of new houseplant, she's a black cardinal philodendron.

Sophie's Bat Mitz, aftermath!

It all was so beautiful, Soph was amazing. Pictured, the cookie process! (the adult favors), The chocolates (fresh spearmint meltaways, toffees, and caramels) for the tables, chocolate pretzels for the kids favors.

Apple Bavarian Torte

Layer of brown sugar cake soaked in white wine sugar syrup, topped with thick apple compote, then creamy sour cream vanilla bavarian creme. On top of that a thin layer of spiced cider glaze. Surrounded by a white chocolate wall and topped with spun caramel shards and dried apple slices. Served with Vanilla Creme Anglaise and Caramel sauce. Eaten with some beautiful Calvados on a crispy fall night and we ended up dressed like this. Was taster testing this dessert for Thanksgiving.

Coulibiac (the step x step)

 See recipe in part deux! and have all parts ready.
 Roll brioche into 2 very thin rectangles, about 12" x 20", and place one on parchment lined sheet pan. Then, do below to the one on the pan.....

Then, top with layer of raw baby spinach and top
that with the filets of salmon, then see below, add small butter pats. Top with another layer of baby spinach, another pipe of mousse down the whole shebang.

Egg wash around whole thing and top with other rectangle of dough. Slit tiny vents all the way down. press sides of brioche together all around to press out any air
pockets.

Slice off extra dough and make it look pretty. Seal all the edges together very well. You can cut out shapes or stripes to glue on top, or make a tail. Then, you can bake (again see part deux!) or put in fridge for later baking that day.

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Halloween Coulibiac, Part Deux

Between The Buttons Dancing Party
"A one enchanted evening filled with sweethearts" (Tommy) a warm and fuzzy fall Halloween weekend dinner. To make it happen, make a Coulibiac, and invite over beautiful friends. It can't hurt to have a surplus of masks, (wild and domestic animals are fun), a bottle of great champagne, some Cambozola and pears and walnuts, several bottles of Chardonnay, a bloody gothic Beet and Red Cabbage soup, a kindly friend who brings a large bottle of Calvados (to accompany the apple mousse Bavarian cake and which might incite a dance party, see above)....so a turntable and great records are good, too.
Parts: brioche, mousseline, salmon, spinach.....champagne beurre blanc

Brioche- dissolve 1 1/2 t yeast in 1/4 c warm water, set aside.
warm 1 1/2 c milk with 6 T butter, 2 T sugar, 1t kosher salt, when room temp whisk in 3 yolks.
Add to yeast. In lg bowl or food processor, add slush, and mix in 4 1/2 c flour. knead until smooth, rub outside of dough w butter or olive oil and set aside, covered, to rise until doubled. when doubled, punch down and rise again. After second rise you can freeze dough til needed, or begin to assemble Coulibiac.

Mousse: food processor, add 3 oz salmon filet, 6 oz large scallop, 4 oz peeled and deveined shrimp.
(acutally can use any seafoods or combo you'd like) process til smooth, add 1 egg, about 8 churns of fresh ground pepper, kosher salt, chopped chives, 1 T lemon juice, process again. Add 1/2 - 1 cup heavy cream (to your liking) and whip for a minute. stir in about 2 more oz. of shrimp, cut into chunks. Spread into container and chill at least 6 hrs.

Get about 1 1/2 pound salmon filets, skinned. And about a bag of baby spinach. 
put an egg and some milk in a cup and whisk for the egg wash, grab some extra butter......and you can begin to assemble your beast!

Roll out brioche into 2 rectangles that are quite thin. layer first the mousse, then a layer of spinach (raw) then the salmon filet or filets down the center, more spinach to cover, more mousse. Spread egg wash around creation and top w other piece of brioche.  Pinch all around to seal, then poke holes all along the top, and press the shape together to expel all inside air. Brush the outside with egg wash. You can cut out tiny shapes to decorate with the extra dough. (At this point you can put in fridge for about 6-7 hours, but let sit at room temp for 1 hour before baking.) Or, just bake in a preheated 400 oven for 20 mins, turn down to 350 and bake 10 mins more. Cool for at least 30 mins at room temp. Slice into slices of beautiful beautifulness.......serve with sauce.

Any version of classic Beurre Blanc (butter, shallots, wine or stock) is delicious, we used a champagne base.
Instead of putting rice in the Coulibiac, we a wild brown rice mushroom onion pilaf, made with a bit of fish stock. It really tied the room together, and the oven roasted zucchini, yellow squash and carrots made the plate gloriously colorful.

                                                        

the little caprese yellow tomato salad (bounty=18 tomatoes!)

Tree Cookies

 For Sophie's upcoming Eco-themed Bat Mitzvah. We discussed pale green tones, and a tree on her favors for her environmental theme.

rockin little yellow tomaters

Our little yellow tomato plants are suddenly bursting with bounty! We may actually be able to make a salad, instead of eating them one at a time as it was all summer.

Those jelly slice candies that mom used to serve for Rosh Hashana

Known in France as Pate De Fruits, and made from real fruit purees! So much superior. I never liked those jelly candies from Manaschevitz. These were made with bitter orange and apricot, using gelatin instead of pectin as the setting agent. They came out really lovely.

Castle of the Pope

Friday nite Bob Burrows treated us to dinner @ the cozee French Bistro Monet, because Tommy wallpapered their new bathroom. The highlight of the night was the 2005 Guigal Chateaneuf-Du-Pape. (This one) grown in pebbles and red clay, Chateaneuf-du-papes are Rhone blends of Grenache, Syrah and Mouvedre, and they're totally unctuous and enticing and totally not wines you'd drink everyday cuz they are $. This one was so delicious that eating with it wasn't necessary, it was the food. It smelled amazing, was rich and smooth and slightly spicy and voluptuously warm in the after finish in your throat and anyway I highly recommend for a real exceptional evening if your menu includes things meaty or creamy or cheesy................here's a link to buy at not a bad price - http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1056363

Fall begins...

With a nice inexpensive wine from Spain....the 2009 Artazuri Grenacha. Wine Advocate gives it 91 points but we just thought it tasted really good. Eaten with cornbread and Tommy's mom's red beans and rice recipe, rocked up with some sauteed shrimp on top. Also, testing out tiger mask.

hot peppers hanging

in various stages of drying out in the kitchen. The plant is going crazy. It's going to be a spicy fall, eats wise...

Cheesecakes in tiny pots

With Organic Michigan Tart Cherries - for Sarah's bridal shower. With tinted white chocolate (pink) spears

Strange Love

Kirk Douglas's early films Film Noir night on Turner Classic Movies paired with Eggplant Parmy. First film was "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" with Barbra Stanwyck. Douglas played a lawyer turned drinker over his tormented unrequited love for Barbara S, who was in love with Sam!! Oh, Sam!! Madness ensued, as well as posed ceremonial smoking of hundresd of cigarettes. That film Followed by "Out of the Past" with Robert Mitchum, which began really amazingly but I was fading by the middle. Double features are tough! Perhaps it was the Eggplant, all that cheese and Cabernet. Parmy tips: slice the eggplant thinly. have three deep bowls in front of you - one for 1 egg beaten with about 1/4 cup of water, one for some wheat flour, one for some cornmeal. Slide slice of eggplant into the flour, shake off, the egg, shake off, then the cornmeal. repeat with 1/2 the slices, placing them on a sheet pan. Have the oven heated to 400. Place about 2 slices mozerella on top of each piece of eggplant, then top with another slice of eggplant, using the remaining 1/2 of eggplant. (Basically, sandwiches). Bake for about 40 minutes, flipping once during baking, til crispy on the outside. sauce: Used up a bunch of roasted tomatoes I had in the fridge, which was delicious - just heated them with some wine, garlic, herbs, salt, dash sugar and pureed....but any sauce is ok even Paul Newman. boil about 4 sheets of lasagna. assemble whole melange with sauce and cheese and devour, OR to get arty: take a beautiful biscuit cutter and cut perfect circles out of each sandwich, 3 per person. Put some sauce on a plate, followed by some grated Parmesean and Mozz. Top with a circle of eggplant. more sauce. a slice of noodle. more sauce, a bit more cheese and another sandwich, like a tiny lasagna. finish with sauce, sprinkle of cheese and fresh herbs. Viola!

aug 30, 2011

a fun and festive 43rd! Ken and Dixie's card,the tomato foccacia, lovely Carol, the Purple orchid from Tommy, the Mango Mousse torte = splendid night