Gougères

Tags

apero, appetizer, Cheese, chou pastry, gougeres, gruyere, hors d'œuvres

The best way to describe gougères is to call them cheese puffs. Their dough, pâte à choux, is the same one you’d use for sweet cream puffs or profiteroles, but when the pâte à choux is destined to become gougères, you fold in a good amount of grated cheese. I use Gruyère, Comté, Emmenthal or sharp cheddar. These delicate bites originated in Burgundy and are traditionally served with a kir or a glass of champagne. Who am I to not follow tradition, so either a kir royale (cassis with bubbly) or plain champagne is my drink of choice with these cheesy puffs.

note:
Cook the paste until its dry. It’s important to cook the dough for a few minutes before adding the eggs; this dries it out and makes it more able to absorb the eggs.
Use the right number of eggs for your dough. Depending on your flour and the humidity of the day you are making the gougères, you might not need all the eggs. Add the eggs in three additions, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl before the next batch, and checking for doneness. If you scoop up a little bit with your spatula and let it slide back into the bowl, it should leave behind a little “V” of dough on the spatula.

Makes about 18

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 tablespoons (60g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup coarsely grated cheese, such as Gruyère or cheddar

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 210 C / 425 F
• Line 2 baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper
• Bring the milk, water, butter and salt to a rapid boil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan
• Add the flour all at once, lower the heat to medium-low and immediately start stirring energetically
• Keep stirring for a minute or two to dry the dough.  It should now be very smooth
• Turn the dough into the bowl
• Let the dough sit for a minute then add the eggs one by one while beating energetically.  The dough should become thick and shiny
• Beat in the grated cheese
• Using about 1 tablespoon for each gougère, drop the dough from a spoon onto the lined baking sheet
• Leave about 5cm / 2 inches between each
• Slide the sheets into the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 185 C / 375 F
• Bake for about 25 minutes until they are firm, golden and puffed
• Enjoy!

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Raclette in a pan / Raclette à la poêle

Tags

Cheese, fondue, potatoes, raclette, saucisse de morteau, sausage, winter foods

Raclette is essentially melted cheese, served over boiled potatoes with lots of ground black pepper, accompanied by small pickled onions and gherkins. The name comes from the French verb “racler”, to scrape, because of the way the melted cheese is scraped off the block.

A modern way of serving raclette involves an electric table-top grill with small pans, known as coupelles, in which to melt slices of raclette cheese. Generally the grill is surmounted by a hot plate or griddle. The cheese is brought to the table sliced, accompanied by platters of boiled or steamed potatoes, other vegetables and charcuterie. These are then mixed with potatoes and topped with cheese in the small, wedge-shaped coupelles that are placed under the grill to melt and brown the cheese. Alternatively, slices of cheese may be melted and simply poured over food on the plate. The emphasis in raclette dining is on relaxed and sociable eating and drinking, the meal often running to several hours.

However if you do not own such a grill, and I do not, there is still a way to enjoy this amazing dish. Simply use a sauté pan and voila – dinner is served, in all its all gooey and melting deliciousness.

Serves 3

Ingredients:

1 precooked smoked sausage (I used a saucisse de Morteau)
800 g / 1.7 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
1 small onion, diced
1 clove of garlic
8 slices raclette cheese
5 g / 1 teaspoon butter
Large pinch of Herbs de Provence
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Cut the sausage into bite sized pieces
Melt the butter in a sauté pan
Add the onion, garlic and the sausage and lightly brown
Boil the potatoes until almost cooked
Drain and cut into cubes
Add the potatoes to the pan
Add the herbs de Provence and cook all for about 5 minutes
Remove from the heat
Add salt and pepper
Add the cheese and cover with a lid to allow the cheese to melt
Serve with a green salad
Enjoy!

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Baked Vacherin Mont d’Or

Tags

Cheese, fromagerie d'Audrix, julian de savignac, jura, melted cheese, mont d'or, savagnin, trousseau, vacherin

For a simple yet stunning dinner or starter, I suggest a glorious melting moment with this oven baked oooey-gooey Vacherin Mont d’Or.

Called “the holy grail of raw milk cheeses”, Vacherin Mont d’Or,  is truly a spectacular cheese. They are only available from October to March and I have been waiting 9 months now to try this. You could not have imagined my excitedness on seeing one at my local local cheese monger, La Fromagerie D’Audrix, last Tuesday.

The origin of this cheese was a point of contention between the Swiss and the French for centuries. The Swiss versions are made from pasteurized milk. In France, you can get both versions; those made with lait cru (raw milk) and the pasteurized ones. (Tip: Go for the lait cru.)

after heating

after heating

Serve with good bread, some new potatoes, cornichons and to make a full meal out of it,  slices of ham or smoked sausage. Pair it with a a good, flavorful white wine (such as Arbois, Chasselas, Sancerre, Chardonnay, or Gewürztraminer). Better yet, try a wine from the Jura, the region the cheese comes from.

I went to my local wine store, Julian de Savignac, and they suggested a white Savagnin, a little known grape varietal, grown almost exclusively in the Jura, for something typical and unique or a chardonnay from Jura if I wanted to play it safe. I went for the Savagnin. What an interesting wine! It tasted almost like a very dry and fine sherry and that is no surprise as the wine spends almost 4 years in oak barrels, “sous voile”. Sous-voile (“with veil”, referring to the “veil” of yeasts that float on the developing wine, analogous to the “flor” of sherry) is wine made in the special Jura manner whereby winemakers allow controlled amounts of oxidation to produce a wanted specific result. The result is a very nutty, dry, yellow wine with tangy flavours. A perfect match. (The Trousseau, by the way, is a light red from Jura)

If you cannot find this glorious cheese, then you could substitute another washed rind cheese in a box, such as Camembert but it really will not be the same.

Serves 4 (as a starter) or 2 (as a dinner)

Ingredients:

1 ripe Vacherin in its wooden box, room temperature
2 teaspoons dry white wine
To serve:
450 g /  1 lb small potatoes, cooked whole
125 g / 4 oz cornichons
crusty french bread, preferably a walnut bread
1 or 2 smoked sausages (I used saucisse de morteau)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 375ºF /190ºC
Pierce eight-to-ten slits in the top of the cheese with a paring knife
Drizzle the wine over the top
Replace the lid and bake for about 20 minutes (until the cheese is hot and soft all the way through)
Put the cheese, in its box, on a large serving platter, uncover and pull back the top layer
Serve with the new potatoes, cornichons, sausage or ham and a delicious nut bread
Bon Appétit!

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