Giving Thanks for Potato Gratin

Would you just look at these beautiful (but shunned) potatoes? Sometimes potatoes don't get any respect. If you can believe it, these fantastic potatoes were actually dis-invited from my family's Thanksgiving celebration! Just like that. How rude! I mean really! To invite potatoes to a dinner (a holiday dinner no less!) and then at the last minute rescind the invitation is almost unforgivable I should think. I'm sure Miss Manners would make short work of the offending hostess. Thankfully, there was just enough time for these potatoes to make other plans. And by other plans, I mean come to my house for dinner last night. 'Cause, like when you are this good, you will be in high demand, evidently.

My family likes to take turns hosting Thanksgiving. Correction, we actually don't like to take turns. Truthfully, most of us really wish that someone else would just do it every year -- but since this is not an option -- we take turns. Its not that we don't like to cook. Most of us do. Its just that planning out such a feast takes a lot of time and money and well... most of work and for some reason each year they decide to have Thanksgiving on a Thursday. Tres inconvenient! We all still live somewhat close to each other so it is usually no chore to at least contribute to the celebratory meal. This year it was Mom's turn to host. She has an amazing kitchen that is fun to cook in so I was quite excited to show up, slice up some potatoes and render this dish au pif. (My new favorite French word!) During the pre dinner run-up discussions I knew that these potatoes were on the docket for the October's French Friday's with Dorie. Sooooo.... I offered to bring these to Thanksgiving and kill two birds with one stone. Were it not for this family meal I would have probably skipped this assignment as I'm not sure how I would have otherwise divested myself of 8 servings of calorie abundant potatoes. (Work is always a great place for me to pawn off the baking and sweets but how strange would it be to show up with a dish of potatoes to share in the office lunchroom at 8 in the morning?)

When Thanksgiving was at my house just two years ago I served Ina's version of this dish. She makes it with fennel and it got rave reviews. Right then and there I decided that fennel was "secret factor" and I would forever after make it that way. Once they took a bite everyone seemed to forget the last 45 years of Mashed Potatoes supporting role at the meal! Surely Dorie's version would be as good too so I convinced myself to put forth the dish for consideration by the judges. So Mom heard my side dish pitch and she accepted. Potato Gratin was granted an invitation to the ball. Mom also extended an invitation to Cranberry Tart who had been begging to attend -- knowing how much I dislike Pumpkin Pie. Then, last night, Mom called to 'touch base'.

"So I've decided that you shouldn't bring the potatoes after all. We are having stuffing and, well... that is enough carbs. People don't really want carbs."

Really? Evidently Ina's recipe was so good Mom really did forget the 45 years of mashed potatoes and gravy we have had every year since I can remember. "People don't want carbs"? Seriously? On Thanksgiving? Given that I'm somewhat of a carb watcher every other day of the year I kinda like to think that carbs are what this day is all about. You know, showing our appreciation for them and all that. Showing atonement for not really eating all the carbs we could have during the year, we make up for it on this carb sacred day. I have to admit I was a bit upset but not because she was exercising her fair rights to decide what to serve at her dinner table but because I had already (gasp) invited The Potatoes. How was I going to un-invite them now with only one day left to make new plans? What was I going to tell them? They were so cute sitting at my house sitting pretty, minding their own business, waiting in the baking dish I had selected for the occasion. (And the photograph!)

8 servings of Potatoes can't be relocated on a whim and my day after Thanksgiving plans were already set in stone. Before The Potatoes could realize the slight I set out to make them for that night's meal. They really only take minutes to make. As you can tell from the pics below, I decided to split up the dish into two dishes since there were just the two of us and I had no time to invite the usual suspects. (They know who they are.)

Look what Mom missed out on:


This time at the FFwD kitchen I felt liberated. Now that I no longer had to coordinate with the 'don't change the menu at Thanksgiving' sensibilities of anyone, I decided to mix it up a bit with the recipe. Up until now I had been trying to stick fairly close to the recipe as printed without any tweaks. I just tend to like to give a recipe a fair shake before I get all "Top Chef" on it. (I mean, if you have never even tasted a Semolina Cake how the heck are you going to know that just about any tweak you make will make it taste more interesting?) Just about everyone I know has had Potato Gratin one form or another. Many Doristas made it earlier in the month and several of them said it needed some punching up. Some said the final product wasn't cheesy enough. Now that The Potatoes were liberated from the pressure of being Thanksgiving fodder and also because I had just a little "well we'll show YOU" attitude I decided to 'turn up the volume'. I love Gruyere cheese but it can be a bit flat all by itself and it can practically disappear sometimes. So did a couple things I knew from past experience with mac and cheese that would up the cheese factor. First, I added about a 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of dried mustard powder to the cream. Secondly, I sprinkled in about 2 tablespoons of crumbled Gorgonzola (left over from the pumpkin flans) into the mushroom layer. (See photo below.) Just enough Gorg to spike the flavor of the Gruyere that I also put in between layers. (Dorie only calls for this on the top for some reason. ) Liberty!

So where did the other oven-ready dish of potatoes go? Into the freezer to see another day. So after the leftovers are long gone, and after the indignity of being turned away from the tabe is gone, these spuds will will resurrect...and have the last laugh.

Into the freezer they go to see another day. And for THAT, I give thanks.

(As a footnote to this tale (which was written just before Thanksgiving, I would like to say that potatoes, no matter how grand, are not the stars of the table but are instead supporting players. And as good as these were, they would not have stolen the show which Mom filled with wonderful food as she is no slouch in the kitchen either. The absence of any one dish will have little effect for a feast as abundant as ours is. Turns out Mom did serve potatoes, just not mine. She invited Mashed Potatoes behind my back and, well, if I had brought The Potatoes it would have been just awkward!)

Caramel Topped Semolina Cakes.

I wasn't really all that excited about this week's French Fridays with Dorie assignment: Caramel Topped Semolina Cake. I suppose that if this were an American Idol act Judge Randy would say, "Check it out man, I was a bit wacked about cereal in a pastry but your ok dawg. Not great, but ok." Paula would gush about how pretty the caramel topping was. Simon, on the other hand would be having none of it. "This was your worst performance of the competition. Completely uninspired yet full of potential. " This dessert would never win the chance to move on and compete in Paris.

As far as recipes go this one is fairly easy. If you can let Cream of Wheat cool down in its pot and break an egg you can make this. (If I find a link to the recipe on line I will post it here but in the meantime you can either email me or buy the book if you want it.) I seem to be stuck on the idea of following these French Friday recipes just as they are written even though I can quite often think of easy tweaks that would "turn up the volume" (as The Ina would say.) Since I now have a full box of Cream of Wheat in the pantry and since its not something I would ordinarily eat (but don't want to throw out) I'll probably end up working this recipe a bit just for kicks. Even so, I doubt this will make it to dinner party status no matter what I do. But how do dark rum-soaked raisins sound instead of plain golden? A dash of cinnamon and a chopped apple in the mix, garnished with toasted walnuts?

Stay tuned. This one might try to re-enter for a chance to compete in Paris.

Sis. Boom. [bundt!]

Perhaps you've seen her in the comments section of this blog now and then? Mary, the Food Librarian? I'm pleased to have her as my blog friend but she is also an actual, bona fide food blog celebrity -- if there is such a thing. She is an actual librarian who has one of the most amazing (and prolific) baking blogs I've seen on the net. And, like me, she diligently takes her offerings to work to share with her fellow workers -- only her office mates must be the luckiest co-workers on the planet since she bakes on a near-daily basis. While I've been inspired by her several times to bake muffins over the years I have up until now avoided her stock in trade: The Bundt Cake.


So why now? Well today, believe it or not, is National Bundt Cake Day. Last year I just shook my head in disbelief as Mary celebrated it by treating the blogasphere to 3o bundt cakes in 30 days. This year Mary is closing in on her 40th birthday so dementia must be setting in as she has inexplicably decided to do it once again this year! It has been quite fun to see every sort of bundt imaginable pop up on her blog. She can get quite creative and somewhat liberal inside her definition of a bundt cake but given how many she has to do each year it is forgivable. And fun. I think my favorite this time around was the "Croquembundt", a bundt cake made from dozens of cream puffs. (I have a storied past with the dessert -- I hope to one day get my mojo back enough to make a croquembouch again. Stay tuned!)

I know this will be somewhat is shocking...but... if I am to be honest with you, and you know I always am, this year I hadn't really planned on celebrating National Bundt Cake Day. I know, right? Where was my holiday spirit? I've been quite busy and my company doesn't give us the day off as a paid holiday so there wasn't really a lot of time to plan. I suppose that is part of the appeal of bundt cakes as they don't really require all that much planning and just about zero time for decorating. (Maybe that is why Mary likes them so much?) Had I planned ahead I doubt that I would be making a pumpkin based bundt since sweet pumpkin isn't really my thing but felt the tangy cranberries would be a good offset to it.

So what changed and put me in the mood? Yesterday I woke up thinking about a good friend of ours whom I hadn't gone to visit in a long time and I was feeling a bit guilty. Then while scrolling through Mary's abundtant offerings this "bundt season" I could no longer ignore the festive spirit and decided right there to make a bundt, bring it to my friend, and have a nice visit. Surely a friend can forgive you your brief absence if you arrive offering up your bundt?


My bundt pan is probably one of the oldest pans I own. It was my grandmother's and there is absolutely nothing special about it except that it is quite special to me. I'm stocked to the gills with All Clad now but I'll never get rid of this pan. It is one of those old, cheap, supermarket pans made of a thin aluminum which has a tendency to overcook the outside of each cake it holds. The only cake I can remember her making in it is a so-called "famous" pecan rum cake which made every holiday season. THAT, will be a post for another day as today it is National Bundt Cake Day and Mary, this one is for you! (Check out Mary's bundt pan collection here!)

Sis. Boom. [bundt!]

• 2 cups AP flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 15 oz can pumpkin
• 1/3 cup peach preserves (use any you have. Apple butter is good too.)
• 1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped
• 1 cup pecans
• turbinado sugar (for topping)

Center rack and preheat oven to 350. Liberally butter a large bundt pan. Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of turbinado sugar evenly around the bottom of the pan and then sprinkle 1/4 cup of the chopped pecans on top. Mix it up a bit with a fork. This will be a crunchy topping to the cake when inverted. If you want to glaze the cake, skip the sugar and just put in the pecans. I did both this time. Since the cake was a gift I wanted more pizazz.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, pinch of salt, ginger, and allspice in a bowl and whisk to combine. In a stand mixer with paddle cream the butter with both sugars until light and fluffy and volume doubles. Add eggs one at a time and let mix in before you add the next egg. Lower speed and blend in vanilla, then pumpkin, preserves. Slowly add the dry ingredients while mixer is on low and stop mixture just when they are incorporated. With a rubber spatula finish the mixing and scrape the bowl. Fold in the cranberries and remaining pecans. Scrape into the pan and use spatula to even the top.

Check cake after 1 hour with a knife. If it comes out clean take out of oven. If not, keep it in for 10 more minutes or until knife or skewer comes out clean. Cool on a rack before inverting. Cake can be glazed when it is at room temperature.

Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flan

I nearly didn't have time for this week's French Friday's with Dorie item. I'm really squeaking this one in! Had I not made it in time I wasn't going to beat myself up over it, however. I'm sure my blog pals, The Doristas, would forgive me. Surely they would understand how hard it can be too work in the assignments to your weekly schedules. I know they would understand. The three remaining items in this month's French Fridays With Dorie assignment hadn't really left me inspired. After finishing last week's Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux the dishes for November remaining include a potato side-dish I've already served in one form or another for at least fifty times, a desert whose main ingredient is more associated with baby food than cuisine, and this: Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flan.

I've written before before about how I'm not much of a pumpkin pie fan and by extension -- pumpkin desserts of all stripes. Now, I adore pumpikin as I do all squash but I don't particularly "get" the urge to smother it in cinnamon and sugar. I do make an exception now and then for a muffin or a bread this time of year as they are not only unavoidable but make good currency at the office. By and large, however, it is savory pumpkin for me all the way or not much at all. Pumpkin Flan? Yuk. Gorgonzola in flan? Eew. I suppose I figured out soon enough that this particular 'flan' had nothing in common with dessert and was supposed to be savory. Dorie was presenting it to us as an an appetizer after all and not a dessert. Reading the recipe I still couldn't figure out how I would want to work it into any menu I was planning so my enthusiasm somewhat waned.

Then I realized there was a really good reason to relent and make this recipe. The book, Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan, specs out using 6 six ounce ramekins and in my cabinet I only had, well, none. I had plenty of ramekins but hardly any two were alike. I have no idea where they all came from but this dish gave me the perfect excuse to go shopping. I can't have Sis Boom readers aghast at my uneven set of ramekins now could I? Blogging comes with responsibilities! I stuck with the classics and my dear readers will probably end up seeing these quite a bit in the not so distant future as one way to dress up a dish easily is to break it down into single servings. Which is ironic because if there were anything at all I would be inclined to change about this week's dish to would be to skip the ramekins altogether and make this in a low ceramic baking dish and put it out at a buffet. ( Oh, and I think I might try this again with just a hint of sage in the base...)

And while we are on the topic, the recipe doesn't even yield 6 servings. It yields four if you use the suggested 6 oz cups. And not four because of the usual "I ate a ton of it while making it" excuse but four because the cookbook editor must have skipped recipe testing this one. If so, he didn't know what he was missing.

(Update: We asked not to post the recipe in our posts for FFwD but invariably Dorie will release the recipe herself . When she does, I update to post it here. Follow this link to Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flans. )

Chocolate Malted Whopper Drop Cookies

Halloween this year left us with a big, sad bowl of unloved Halloween candy (see below). Each year as Halloween shifts towards being more of a holiday for adults fewer children show up at our door. And yet I keep buying more than enough bags of candy, perhaps out of the fear that we will somehow run out and will be forced to turn off the lights and cower in the back bedroom hoping that door bell won't ring. Last week, when only the third group of trick-or-treaters showed up at 8:45 PM I knew there would be no more. I opened the door, stared at the bowl, and then grabbed the largest handful I could for each of the lucky children. The kids were overjoyed at my generosity but the cadre of moms standing behind them just glared at me and gave me their "WTF?!" look.

I contemplated the bloat that remained in the bowl and decided I either had to create a challenge to re-purpose the treats for eventual office or friend giveaways or I had to walk them immediately down to the corner dumpster where I couldn't even think of fishing them out of the trash. I chose the former. I really should know better than to buy treats that I personally like.

I purchased Whoppers malted milk balls, Kit Kat chocolate bars and Milky Ways. . . they were the only candy available to me at 5PM Halloween night and coincidentally, personal favorites. I had been tempted to just sit the night out but at last minute I was informed that my mother-in-law was coming over for dinner and cowering in the dark was not going to be an option. Therefore, candy. You can't have a dinner party with youngsters coming to your door and not have anything to give them. That kind of sours the mood.

Under normal circumstances I don't think I would ever make these cookies. As much as I like the taste of malted I much prefer more conventional ingredients for baking. These, however, were quite good. The recipe is Dorie's and was done to death several years ago by the Doristas during their Tuesday adventures so if you wish to make it there are ton's better examples of what you are in for if you Google it. Bake them on the low side of 350 and keep an eye out for browning on the bottoms. These get better the next day as they get chewier. Do yourself a favor and eat these with a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Its how malted wants to be enjoyed.

Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops
adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My House to Yours

• 1 3/4 All Purpose Flour
• 1 cup malted milk powder
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp.
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 2 cups chocolate covered malted milk balls, coarsely chopped
• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped. (or one cup chocolate chips)

Preheat your oven to 350º. Set up a few baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, malted milk powder, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside. Beat the sugar with the butter until creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Then the vanilla.Beat in half the flour mix, just until incorporated. Then the milk. Then the rest of the flour mix.Stir in the whoppers and chocolate chunks.

Place heaping tablespoons of the dough on the baking sheets, about 2″ apart. Bake for about 12 minutes, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and from front to back halfway through.

Next up: Kit Kats, Pay Days, and Milky Ways. Hmm.....ideas anyone?

Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux

I was paging through "Around My French Table" with my husband and giving him French lessons. I only know the food words so when I do go to Paris as long as I stay in restaurants I'm ok. Anyway, I was telling him that "les paresseux" meant "lazy people". When I then told him that for our Sunday dinner I would be making Dorie Greenspan's Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux he dryly muttered that that true les paresseux would just go to Costco and buy one of those already roasted birds. So smart the man I married, right?

I won't castigate those who go for those poor birds that sit there in the market deli cases for hours covered in their salty flavorings. They can be quite good and I do think Costco does them the best. We all 'go there' from time to time. Too damn convenient. But after reading this month's FFWD assignment and then cooking the bird I somewhat wondered why most modern cooks seem to have plainly lost the ability to roast a chicken? Its one of the most basic cooking skills there is and also one of the most rewarding -- yet it is becoming a thing of the past. This exercise served to remind me that while it might be easy to pick one up at the market, it will never compare to anything like this.

And this was just the 'lazy' version. There are probably as many roast chicken recipes as there are kitchen cooks in the world. There are many benefits to roasting your own that you can't get with either the supermarket roasted or package of chicken parts. You can get a bigger bird that will either feed more or last you longer, making it a much more economical endeavor in the long run. Additionally, there are those pan juices and sauces you can make from! Just try that with that pair of boneless breast of chicken halves! Practically priceless is the incredible smell that takes over the whole house as the chicken roasts. And the carcass! Once picked over you can make your own velvety chicken stock that will far outweighs anything you can buy. (Just ask The Ina. Don't you get a kick out of how each time she calls for chicken stock in a soup or stew she has to tell us yet again how much better home make is than canned. We know already!)

This particular recipe calls for resting the bird on slices of bread in the bottom of a dutch oven. As the bird cooks, the fat drips into the bread, then gets crisp. She recommended mashing then spreading the cooked livers over this crispy goodness. I mashed the liver with one of the softened garlics from inside the bird and I have to tell you that this tasty treat alone is worth never picking up a preroasted bird from Costco ever again. Seriously. It was that good and this bonus treat alone might be enough to displace what had been my 'go to' recipe for roast chicken ever since Ms. Fig taught me her infamous Beer Can Up The Butt Chicken.

And unless the French eat their roasted chicken right out of the roasting pan and use paper plates I don't see what is so lazy about this endeavor!

Cinnamon Ice Cream

That Marie-Hélène's Apple Cake I made last week was so easy and delicious that I've made another one already! The surprising and somewhat unexpected reason why it has been such a winner around here however, is the fact that it doesn't call for cinnamon. You see, cinnamon is not something my entire family agrees on and probably never will. Its not like we come to blows over it but my Persian in-laws just don't think of it as the fall/winter dessert treat that we more Anglo types do. In their neck of the woods cinnamon is more commonly used as an ingredient in savory dishes such as Loubia Polo, a tomato cooked rice with beef and green beans. Without the presence of sugar (and perhaps nutmeg) cinnamon takes on a nearl completely different and exotic flavor profile. The Persian palate just doesn't connect to cinnamon at dessert time. (Doost na daraand!) As far as we're concerned here in Western Culture, the spice is the hallmark of so many fall desserts and apple dishes in particular that it is hard to think of any apple dessert without it. I stopped making desserts with cinnamon in the interest of family harmony and that pretty much wiped out the apple repertoire. Enter: Marie-Hélène.

Many of my fellow Dorista's (the name I coined for those of us committed to either baking or cooking our way through her various books) resolved their cognitive dissonance over the cake's lack of cinnamon by just, well, adding it into the recipe anyway! Some of them even added a dash cinnamon's fall cousin, nutmeg and a crumble! I personally thought these well meaning Doristas were missing the whole point of this dessert's simple appeal. Then I read of one Dorista's more elegant solution: serve it with a scoop of David Lebovitz' cinnamon ice cream! I knew immediately that I had to make not only a batch of this but also another one of Marie-Hélène's Apple Cakes to accompany it. Everyone could have what they wanted once again! And I did witness my mother-in-law pushing the scoop off her plate to a willing receiver seeking seconds! Family harmony once again!

Cinnamon Ice Cream
(Adapted from David Lebovitz, The Perfect Scoop)
Note: The modifications I made to David's' recipe were to accommodate for my only having one cinnamon stick (which I needed for garnish!) but a ton of ground cinnamon on hand. Also, I've found that I prefer the cooked custard recipes in his book a little less yolky and creamy than his.

• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 1.5 cup of whole milk
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1.5 cups of heavy cream
• 5 egg yolks

Toast the cinnamon to bring out its flavor by putting it small, dry nonstick skillet, over low heat. Keep the skillet moving just until the cinnamon becomes fragrant. Take off heat to avoid burning the cinnamon).

Warm the milk, sugar, salt and cinnamon and 3/4 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan
over medium heat whisking until cinnamon is incorporated the cinnamon into the liquid. While milk mixture warms set a bowl over another bowl filled with ice and place the remaining cup of cream into the now chilling bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. You will be adding the cooked custard to this later.

In a separate bowl whisk together the egg yolks then slowly pour the warm milk mixture into
the egg yolks, whisking constantly to avoid the eggs scrambling. When completed, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon or heat proof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir. The custard is done when it becomes thick and coats the spoon so that you can run your finger across the coating and have the coating not run.

Pour the custard through the strainer into the cream. Stir until chill in an airtight container in the refrigerator before placing in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.