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An opinionated blog beginning with advice on how to create the ultimate French sauces 

Braised Lamb Shank with Herb and Vegetable Au Jus

10/22/2021

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​Intro: I love the lamb shank because of the almost magical transformation that occurs as the shank, a cut of meat full of tough connective tissue, is slowly braised to tender perfection.
As the shank-along with herbs and vegetables-braises in the oven it creates a thin and flavorful sauce called Au Jus (literally "with juice" in French). The au jus provides a wonderful source of extra flavor for your guests to dip the lamb into.
The parmesan thickened polenta that the shrank sits on adds creaminess to the dish as well as adding little bit of a northern Italian accent to the shanks.
 

                    Steps to making Lamb Shanks

​1) Sear your shanks. In almost smoking oil, sear the lamb shanks, two at a time, on all sides until golden brown and  then remove and set them aside
2) Sauté your vegetables, strain out the oil, add your red wine and replace your shanks.
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Searing your shanks, two at a time
​3) Add chicken stock and the herbs and let the shanks braise in the oven for about two hours.
4) When the shank are done remove them and strain out the garlic, onions, carrots, and herbs. (You can tell when the shanks are done because the meat will loosen from the bone and be tender to the touch. Also the bone itself will start to become ivory-colored). 
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Shank pulls away from the bone: it is done
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Braised Lamb Shank

Terms related to lamb shanks:

​Au Jus- Braising liquid or juice.Braising- Method of sautéing a protein and then cooking it in its own juices along with added liquid(s). 
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Cheese Soufflé

10/13/2021

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Intro: Cheese Soufflé is a savory cake that uses egg whites to expand cheese into a velvety cloud. As with most soufflés, please make sure to serve it quickly form the oven before it loses volume. 

​Steps to making Cheese Soufflé

1) Make your roux and whisk in the milk.
​2) Stir in the cheese. (I really like Emmental for this dish). 
Picture
Making your roux
 3) Fold egg yolks and cheese mixture into stiffly-beaten egg whites.
4) Pour into lightly greased ramekins and bake until the soufflés puff up and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. 
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Stiff peaks
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Cheese Soufflé garnished with paprika and herbs 

Term related to Cheese Soufflé

​Roux- A mixture of equal parts fat to flour that are cooked together. 
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The Italian Egg Frittata with a dash of French

10/1/2021

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Intro: The Frittatas is a classic Italian dish that incorporates eggs and cream (or milk) and other ingredients together to make what (I think) resembles an open-faced omelette. This dish is often served warm or at room temperature.
​ 
Being the Francophile that I am, I made two changes to the frittata to give it both an Italian and French theme. 
 
First, eliminate the extra liquids from the eggs. I believe adding cream or milk robs the eggs of their rich flavor and color and keeps the eggs from rising to their potential height and puffiness. 
 
Second, serve the dish right from the oven. Instead of serving at room temperature, serve the dish piping hot, so the eggs do not have a chance to deflate as the air leaves them.
 
The result: An enhanced frittata with more egg flavor, a golden color, and a soufflé-like texture.

Making the Frittata ​

​1)   Fry the filling. Fry the mushroom and/or vegetables together until they are cooked through.
2)   Add your eggs and cook everything. On a low flame, add the eggs and slowly heat the egg mixture, and from time to time tilt the cooked part of the frittata away from the sides of the pan to ensure that the raw eggs slide to the sides and cook evenly. Use your spatula to keep the cooked eggs in place. (See picture below).
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Tilting the eggs so that the frittata cooks evenly.
3)  Finish in the oven. When the bottom of the omelette is cooked, flip it, top it with cheese, and finish cooking it in a 400 degree oven.
4)  Serve your frittata. After the eggs puff up nicely, remove form the oven and serve immediately.
 
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Cheese is added on top
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"Frenttata"
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Chicken Coq au Vin

9/21/2021

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​Intro: Chicken Coq au Vin means "rooster in wine" so it gives the cook a great opportunity to show off their favorite wine when they make their main course. (I personally love French burgundy).
For this dish I serve one half chicken per guest: each guest gets an airline chicken breast with the bone in and a de-boned chicken leg. Because of the large chicken portions, I do not add a starch, but the chicken is accompanied by bacon, mushrooms, Cipollini onions and carrots.

                       ​Preparing Chicken Coq au Vin

1) On ah medium heat, cook the bacon until it just begins to crisp, and remove the strips but leave the oil in the pan. 
2) Add the chicken breasts and boneless legs (skin-side down and away from you) and sear them. Remove them and sear your Cipollini onions and mushroom caps. 
3) Drain the oil,  and add return the chicken and bacon back to the pan. 
4) Add the burgundy and demi glace and place the pan in the oven until the chicken is done.  
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                                                                 Removing from the oven
5) When the chicken is done, remove the ingredients from each pan and make your sauce. Do this by placing the pan on a high flame and add your baby carrots and thyme sprigs. 
6)  Let the sauce reduce (and simultaneously cook the carrots and capture the flavor of the thyme sprigs) until it is creamy in consistency. The sauce will be quite dark in color.
 
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                                                                       Reducing your sauce
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                                                                 Chicken Coq au Vin
 
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The Rolled Omelette

9/12/2021

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Which is superior, the Rolled Omelette or the Folded Omelette?
​

I believe that the rolled omelette is superior in both flavor and appearance to the folded omelette.
Flavor-wise the rolled omelette has a soft, smooth texture that centers more on the eggs that compose it than the other ingredients inside of it. Conversely, the folded omelette just calls for eggs to be used to hold the filling together. (Also the eggs in the folded omelette are often diluted with milk!).
Concerning appearance, the rolled omelette looks prettier on the plate than its folded counterpart because it has more height than the folded omelette which just lays flat on the plate. 

Making the Rolled Omelette

1) Mix your eggs and filling ingredients together in a bowl and place everything in a cold pan with oil. ( I recommend that you use a small amount of filling because too much will make the omelette difficult to roll. I like to use cheese and herbs because they are soft).

2) On a low flame slowly heat the egg mixture, and from time to time tilt the cooked part of the omelette away from the sides of the pan to ensure that the raw eggs slide to the sides and cook evenly. Use your spatula to keep the cooked eggs in place. (See picture below).
​
3) When the bottom of the omelette is cooked, flip it and finish cooking it on the other side. 
​
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                            Tilting the cooked part of the eggs away from one side side of the pan.
4) Place the omelette on a cutting board and snuggly roll it. 
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                                                                         Ready for rolling
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                                        Rolling the omelette (Yes, it is as easy as it looks!)
5) Plate your omelette. (I like to cut it in half to highlight the rolling pattern). 
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                                          Rolled Ommelette with Mornay sauce over  potatoes.
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Rack of Lamb with Corncake

9/2/2021

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​This dish requires a great deal of preparation time but the payoff is definitely worth while.  Yes, this dish requires that you do a lot of preparation before the meal: you must prepare the lamb demi, sear the lamb, and prepare the corn cakes and mint butter in advance. The good news is that  you have little to do once it is time to serve your guests. At mealtime, all you need to do is pop the rack in the oven, wait a few minutes and then pop the corncake in the oven and make sure that you have your demi heated and mint butter ready to go.  

First Step: Make Your Corncakes
​

1) Combine you corncake mix, then wrap and refrigerate it for at least an hour. 
2) Portion and form your corncakes and place them back in the fridge. 
Picture
Corncake Mix 
Picture
Portioning your cakes

Second Step: Sear Your Rack and Brown Your Corncakes
Note: each rack feeds two people.

​1) In almost smoking oil, sear the lamb racks on both sides until brown. Throw out the olive oil that you used to sear the lamb and keep the pans to cook the racks in later.
 
2) Also, in very hot oil, brown your corncakes on both sides.

Picture
Searing the lamb racks
Picture
Browning the cakes

​Time for dinner: Pop your Rack and Corncakes in the oven
 

​1) When it is time to cook the racks, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and place the racks and then the corncakes inside. (Start your corncakes after your racks because the cakes will take about twenty minutes to cook and even a rare rack will take 25 minutes in the oven). When the racks and cakes are done set them aside.
 
2) Make your mint butter sauce. Throw out the grease from the pan you used to bake your lamb, deglaze it with brandy, add the demi-glace and whip in your mint butter. (The sauce should be caramel-colored and creamy in consistency). 
Picture
Mint butter 
​3) Portion the racks and serve. After the racks have rested for at least five minutes, cut each rack into two pieces so that each guest gets the equivalent of two double chops. Sauce the perimeter of each plate, and intertwine two chops over an individual corncake. Garnish and serve. 
Picture
Rack of Lamb with Corncake
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Gruyère Cheese and Mushroom Custard Tart

8/26/2021

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Intro: This Cheese and Mushroom Tart is an appetizer that is nice start to a meal because it offers the earthy flavors of mushrooms and the creaminess of cheese inside of a flakey and  buttery  pastry dough. Sound familiar?
It should, because the cheese and mushroom tart shares some key similarities and differences with my last blog's Fruit Tart.
  • The similarities are that both tarts can be made before your guests arrive and they are made from the same dough.
  • The differences:
    • The cheese tart is savory and therefore should be served before the meal (as opposed to after it)
    • While both tarts use the same dough, the cheese tart bakes with the filling inside of it instead of being filled after it is cooked.
    • The dough amount is  halved for the cheese tart and so instead of being formed into four large 8-ounce ramekins they are formed into the four smaller muffin holes of a standard muffin pan.
    • Lastly, there are no rice weights or egg-wash needed for this recipe.
 
The pastry dough recipe is first and the cheese and mushroom filling follows it.
 
A quick reminder.  When making your tart shell make sure to keep your counter well-floured (to prevent the dough from sticking to it) and the dough well chilled (to make it easier to handle). 

​Pastry Dough for the Cheese and Mushroom Tart
 

1) Mix your ingredients. Add the butter and vegetable oil to the dry ingredients and break the dough  up into pieces with your fingertips.
 
2) Slice in your water. Make  a well in the center of the dough, add cold water and slice the dough in quick short strokes until the water is thoroughly incorporated into the dough.
 
3) Shape your dough. Gently roll the dough into a ball, place on floured counter, and form into a cylinder shape.
 
4) Chill your dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
5) Portion your dough. When the dough is thoroughly chilled place on the counter and cut and scale 4-1 ounce portions. 
​
6) Roll your dough. Flour both your rolling pin and counter and roll each dough portion-one at a time-until it is about 1/8 inch thick. Make sure to keep flour under the dough as you roll it so it doesn’t stick to the counter.     
 
7) Form your dough into four muffin cups of a muffin pan. Carefully pick up your dough with either a pallet knife or other flat tool and gently place the rolled dough over 4 muffin cups and push the dough down into the cups so they fit the holes' shape and come to the top and over the lip.
 
8) Score the lips of your dough inside the ramekins.
 
9) Set the pan aside and make your filling.
Picture
Scoring the edges
Cheese and Mushroom Filling 
​1) Sauté vegetable oil and diced mushrooms on a medium flame until the mushrooms are soft. Set aside.
 
2) In a separate pot make a roux with equal parts butter to flour. Cook the roux until it becomes a medium brown color similar in appearance to wet sand.
 
3) Turn off the heat and slowly whisk in the hot cream. The mixture should thicken quickly. Leave the heat off from now on.
 
4) Add a beaten egg to the mixture by tempering it. To temper the egg, add a little of the cream sauce to it and mix the ingredients together before adding the egg to the large batch of cream sauce.
(Tempering your egg prevents it from scrambling when you add it to the cream sauce).
 
5) Give the sauce a good whisking to remove any stubborn lumps and then stir in the cheese, parsley, salt, cayenne, and mushrooms.
 
6) Spoon the mixture into the 4 muffin tins evenly just below the lip of each one.
 
Picture
Tempering the egg
7) Place in a 425 degree oven for 12 minutes. The crust along the edges of the tarts should be browning and the tart filling should be puffing up.
 
8) Cover with aluminum foil and cook an additional 10 minutes until the tarts are puffed up and are golden brown.
 
9) Remove from the oven, let them cool slightly, and then gingerly pop them out of the holes with your fingers or by slicing around the edges with a paring knife.
 
10. Allow them to sit at room temperature for at  least a half hour before serving so the custard has time to set.
 
11. Garnish with equal parts cream to sour cream and chopped parsley. 
​
Picture
Ready for the oven
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Gruyère Cheese and Mushroom Custard Tart

Terms related to tarts:

Score- Small cuts in pastry dough that add eye-appeal and also allows some steam to escape.
 
Tempering- The process of warming raw eggs before they are added to a hot liquid by first slowly adding some of the hot liquid to the eggs before they are incorporated into the bulk of the hot liquid. This process prevents the eggs from scrambling.
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Desserts

8/19/2021

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Fruit Tart with Gran Marnier Vanilla Cream
​

​Intro: I love this dish to finish a meal because the tart is flakey and buttery and it is topped with a large dollop of whipped cream and berries. Another plus is that you can bake your dough before your guests even arrive and then whip the topping right before you serve it.
 
When making your tart shells make sure to keep your counter well-floured (to prevent the dough from sticking to it) and the dough well chilled (to make it easier to handle).

Pastry Dough for the Fruit Tart ​

​1) Mix your ingredients. Add the butter and vegetable oil to the dry ingredients and break the dough  up into pieces with your fingertips.
 
2) Slice in your water. Make a well in the center of the dough, add cold water and slice the dough in quick short strokes until the water is thoroughly incorporated into the dough.
 
3) Shape your dough. Gently roll the dough into a ball, place on floured counter, and form into a cylinder shape.
 
4) Chill your dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Picture
Tart dough ready to refrigerate
​5) Portion your dough. When the dough is thoroughly chilled place on the counter and cut and scale 4-2 ounce portions.
 
6) Roll your dough. Flour both your rolling pin and counter and roll each dough portion-one at a time- until it is about 1/8 inch thick. Make sure to keep flour under the dough as you roll it so it doesn’t stick to the counter.     
 
7) Form your dough into the ramekins. Carefully pick up your dough with either a pallet knife or other flat tool and gently place the rolled dough over a ramekin and push it down into the ramekin so it fits the ramekin's shape and comes to the top and over the lip. Repeat the process for all four ramekins.

Picture
Rolling out your dough
​8) Score the lips of your dough inside the ramekins.
 
9) Add rice weights and bake. 
 
10) Egg-wash your dough. After 12 minutes remove the rice weights and egg-wash the shells.

11) Finish baking.

Picture
Brushing with egg wash
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Tart fresh from the oven

Vanilla Cream Topping
​

​1. Whip the ingredients together. Put the cream, vanilla, sugar and Gran Marnier in a bowl and mix with a hand mixer for about 2 minutes until thickened into a frosting consistency.
 
2. Fold in your berries. Add the berries and gently mix together to create the tart filling.
 

Picture
Fruit Tart with Gran Marnier Vanilla Cream
​​

​Term related to desserts:
 

​Rice Weights- Oven-proof bean bags full of rice that are placed on tart dough in order to keep the dough from puffing up when it is baked. (You can also use homemade rice weights by filling tin foil with rice).   
 
Score- Small cuts in pastry dough that add eye-appeal and also allows some steam to escape.
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Bread Rolls

8/13/2021

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​Intro: While bread is ubiquitous in French culture, it is usually used sparingly at mealtime and guests are given one portion which they are expected to use throughout all the upcoming courses. (I like the French's system of bread portioning because it keeps the guests from loading up on bread so that they don't spoil their appetite for what is coming ahead).

Why Bread Rolls over Loaves?

​ 
I like to serve bread rolls instead of bread loaves at meals for two reasons. First, in my experience, roll dough is easier to handle (for beginners) than loaf-sized dough. Second, it is   easier to handle once it comes out of the oven: you just pop the rolls  onto a plate with a little garnish and a slice of butter and then serve them.
 
The Upcoming Caramelized Onion Rolls recipe not only offers a great tasting roll, but it also only calls for a small amount of handling and a minimum of ingredients. 

How to make Caramelized Onion Rolls
​

​1) Activate your yeast. Pour honey and yeast into warm water and lightly mix it until it dissolves. Let it sit for ten minutes. You will know that the yeast has activated when it has a strong odor and the water bubbles up.
 
Picture
Yeast is activating
​2) Mix your yeast with the flour mixture to form your dough and then knead it.
 
Knead your dough by pushing the dough away from you with your dominant palm. Next, pick up the dough from the counter by either of the dough's edges, drop it back on the counter and then push the edge away from you. Keep repeating the process until the dough becomes less sticky and smoother. 
Picture
Kneading your dough
3) Put it in a bowl and let it rise for an hour.
 
4)  Punch your dough, add caramelized onions, knead it, portion it, and knead the portioned dough.
​
Picture
Punching your dough after first rise
Picture
Caramelized onions added to the dough
​5) Let the portioned dough rise a second  time and then bake your rolls.
 
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After second rise: ready for the oven
6) When they the rolls are done, brush the top of the rolls with melted butter or olive oil and serve.
​
Picture
Picture
Caramelized Onion Rolls

​Term related to bread:
 

​Kneading- The process of handling yeast-fermented dough so that the yeast is fully incorporated into the dough ensuring a proper rise. The dough is first pushed away from the user, picked up by an edge, and then dropped back on the work surface so that the edge can now be pushed away from the user. The process is then repeated until the dough becomes less sticky and smoother.
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Appetizers

8/7/2021

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The Poached Pear Appetizer 
​

Intro: Wine is heavily influential in French cooking and all the entrées that I have gone over (in these blogs) has wine in them in one form or another. However, the influence of wine doesn't stop with the entrées- it extends to plenty of other courses, including our focus this week, the Poached Pear Appetizer.
​The upcoming dish uses 2 types of wine, red and white, and they are both used to flavor and color the dish through the process of poaching.
Use any type of table wines for this dish but please do not use wines that you would not drink or serve. 

The Poached Pear Appetizer in four steps
​

1) Poach your pears. In separate pots, combine your two red and white wine poaching liquids and add your peeled and cored pears. Bring them to a simmer and poach them until they are soft but keep their shape.
Picture
Poached Pears being removed from the stove
​2) Make your red wine reduction. Take the red wine pear poaching liquid and reduce it until thickened.
Picture
Reduced red wine
3) Make your thyme dressing. Whip together your thyme dressing and dress your greens. 
Picture
Dressed greens being placed behind the pears
4) Plate your dish: 
​
Picture
Poached Pear Appetizer

Term related to appetizers:
 

Poaching- To simmer submerged food in liquid. 
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    Chef Brent

    Brent Littlefield has worked as a chef de cuisine, pastry chef, saucier, and sous chef, for more than 25 years in San Francisco, San Diego, and Las Vegas. 

    b_littlefield123@yahoo.com

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