Cuisine: French

An-End-of-the-Season TOMATO GRATIN 3.0 by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

There are stll decent, ripe tomatoes at our petite Farmers’ Market in South Boston. To be sure, they are really winding down. I keep making this dish every week because it is so delicious and so simple to assemble.

As I have made it a few times I have refined my technique and found the best ‘hack’ is to preslice the tomatoes and lay them out on paper towels to absorb excess moisture. Either do this step a couple of hours before you want to assemble and bake the gratin, or do it the day before and leave them in the fridge overnight.

A ceramic/glass/porcelain gratin dish works beautifully for this recipe — I used a porcelain quiche dish. It is 10-inches in diameter and about 2 1⁄2-inches deep. It is deep enough to build 3 layers of sliced tomatoes, which I found, after having made the gratin three times, to be the perfect number of layers!

A French Hamburger: with Caramelized Onions & Brie on Brioche by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan.

I recently watched a very old episode of Julia Child on WGBH in which she made French hamburgers and proclaimed that the French were equally fond of hamburgers (‘bifteck hache’). In her version diced onions, egg and dried Italian (I know - Italian!) herbs were mixed into the ground beef and the patties were lightly floured and pan-seared. In my version, there’s slow-cooked caramelized onions, classic mushroom duxelles (‘mushroom
hash’), Dijon mustard and Brie cheese; classic French flavors that are very reminiscent of French Onion Soup.
Note: In the picture, I stacked two finished burgers on top of each other…just for effect!!

Parfait…. Your Way by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

The genesis of this recipe began with a couple of very ripe ‘Hachiya’ persimmons. (The ‘Hachiya’ variety is heart-shaped. The ‘Fuyu’ variety is squat and looks like a tomato) I scooped out the flesh and pureed it in the food processor and this thick and delicious puree became the base of my multi-layered parfait.
My alternating layers were: homemade vanilla pudding (recipe below), sliced toasted almonds,
blackberries, granola, crushed cookie crumbs and dark chocolate chips.

A Double Chocolate Pudding for you & your Valentine by Chef Laura Brennan

This is an old-fashioned pudding, stirred on the stove, but for only 10 minutes or less. The ingredients are few: sugar, cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate, milk, cornstarch, and a bit of vanilla extract. Feel free to add a tablespoon or two of your favorite spirit: maybe rum or Kahlua…
Or, if you are feeling very French, a splash of Chartreuse or Cognac would be very Ooh La La!

Maître D’hôtel Butter – a flavored finishing butter by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

‘Tis the season for roasted beef tenderloins, sirloin steaks and juicy prime ribs. And if you don’t have a French chef at your disposal to make a classic Bordelaise sauce for you, don’t despair! Make this easy, flavorful (‘compound’) butter, roll it into a log, chill and slice it into disks to melt on your meats.

French Potato Salad- a piquant mayonnaise-free by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

 There are many variations of a non-mayo-based potato salad. My family made a ‘German’ version that incorporated crumbled bacon and used the rendered bacon fat as an integral part of the dressing.

Christopher Kimball and his merry gang of cooks at Milk Street Kitchen make an ‘Austrian’ version with vinegar, chicken stock and caraway seeds. And I have dubbed this version ‘French’ because it is similar in flavor to the classic ‘Salade Niçoise’; which typically contains tuna, haricots verts (French, thin green beans) and hard-cooked eggs.

This ‘French’ Potato Salad is light, bright and crunchy with a slight acidic or piquant tang. And without the mayonnaise coating it is sure to be a safe part of a cook-out buffet.

A note about potatoes. Most mayo-based potato salads use a red bliss or new potato. These are known as ‘waxy’ potatoes. They keep their firmness when cooked. I made this potato salad with Yukon Gold potatoes which are starchier than a red potato but not quite as starchy as an Idaho potato. I prefer the creamier texture. Excellent served with any grilled meat or fish: chicken, pork, beef or shrimp for example. This recipe makes a big batch, enough for sharing!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwich

This sandwich is a riff on the classic French Chicken Cordon Bleu. In the original, a boneless chicken breast is stuffed with cheese and ham, then coated in bread crumbs and pan-fried. This sandwich version adds a sauce; a remoulade, (think French tartar sauce), melts the cheese on top of the crispy-cooked chicken tenderloins and drapes thin-sliced ham on top. brioche bun adds more crunch and ‘mouth-luxury’! 

French Onion Brisket by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

NEWS  FLASH !!  

Braised Beef Brisket meets French Onion Soup.  One pot.  Makes its own Sauce.  Delicious and Easy.

(The work is in slicing the onions and in being patient enough to let them caramelize slowly to their full browned glory.)

Roasted Cauliflower, Cumin & Coconut Milk Soup by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

I taught classic French cuisine at the famed and now defunct Cordon Bleu Cooking School.  In our curriculum was the classic ‘Madame du Barry’ Cauliflower Soup. Her special relationship with Louis XV accorded her sufficient status to have a dish named after her.

The classic cauliflower soup involves several French cooking techniques, ample prep time and generous amounts of butter and cream.   The result is a pure white, rich, creamy and delicious soup.

My version is centuries more modern.  It’s vegan, gluten-free, has fewer ingredients and derives its depth of flavor from pre-roasting & caramelizing the cauliflower and the addition of the earthy spices:  cumin & coriander.  Coconut milk adds dairy-free richness.

And best of all, it’s quick cooking (comparatively)!

Classic French Potato Gratin by Foodie’s Markets Chef Laura Brennan

I had chores to do after school and thankfully one of them was dinner prep. That was more enjoyable than say…folding clothes.  One of my Irish-German aunts taught me how to make ‘scalloped potatoes’:  sliced potatoes layered in a rectangular glass Pyrex dish with milk, margarine(!), salt and pepper.  No cheese or other flavors as I recall. Usually served with ham.  It was yummy, but the milk always curdled a bit rendering it more utilitarian than beautiful.  (Some recipes add a sprinkle of flour, but we never did.)                      Fast forward fifteen years and I’m enrolled in The Modern Gourmet Cooking School in Newton Center.  And we make a layered potato dish with a beautiful name: “Gratin Dauphinoise”.  The ingredients, in addition to the potatoes; more thinly and evenly sliced, now include a fine parsley-garlic mix (‘persillade’), heavy cream, salt, fresh ground white pepper & nutmeg and often gruyere cheese.  WOW!

I’ve continued to make many more potato gratins in my long career.  And in a nod to healthier eating, I don’t use heavy cream any more.  I think half-and-half has enough milk fat to prevent curdling.  It’s still a rich dish, worthy of a special occasion. For Easter, I’m serving this gratin with roast pork, so I’m flavoring the cream (that bathe the potatoes in the oven) with Dijon mustard, fresh thyme sprigs and crushed garlic cloves.  The infused cream will subtly flavor the potatoes and the top will be beautifully browned. It will be a delicious and elegant addition to the Easter buffet.