I made that!

In the fall I did an internship with Tartine bakery in the Mission district (maybe you’ve heard of it?). While I mostly worked in the pie & tart shells station, occasionally I worked what’s called “the morning bake” shift. It starts at 4.30am (ick) and among the things being made are the gougeres. Tartine does many many things well, and gougeres are one of them. Today I’m gonna try to remember how it’s done. Gougeres are basically a cheese puff, made from pate choux, same dough that’s used for cream puffs and eclairs. Tartine kicks up the eggs and fat in the recipe, to get the most tender puff I’ve ever tasted.

Pate choux is a crazy dough, and a super fun one to make. You start by melting butter with milk and salt.

Once the butter melts and it’s about to boil, you throw in some flour. You (using a wooden spoon if you’re following the rules) beat the mixture in the pan with the heat on, making sure it doesn’t burn. You do that for a few minutes, basically until your arm gives up.

Once it’s time, you start beating the eggs in. If you’re feeling hard core you can do this in the pan, using the aforementioned wooden spoon. I prefer to do it in the kitchenaid mixer. I just run the mixer with the paddle attachment and beat the eggs in one by one, until it’s smooth and shiny.

Then I mixed in some cheese, fresh thyme & black pepper.

Then it’s off to the piping bag! At tartine the gougeres are these intimidatingly large bowling ball sized monsters (oh yes, and they’re good), but I’m gonna make little bite sized ones. A little egg wash and a sprinkle of cheese, to give them a nice crust.

And then I bake them until they puffed up and got all crispy.

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Don’t judge, but I’m just not really a fan of  St. Patrick’s Day. Maybe because I’m not much of a drinker, or maybe because San Francisco turns into one giant frat house. Probably both. So this year I decided to cook. And I was thinking lamb. My feelings about lamb are mixed (alongside the fact that I have mixed feelings about eating meat in general. Well, except pork maybe). When I lived in Australia it seemed like the only thing I ever ate was lamb cutlets, and I loved it. But since being back, I’ve slowly lost interest in the taste. Now the flavor just seems incredibly intense. So tonight gave lamb another shot. And what better way for lamb to prove itself than a humble Irish stew.

I bought what looked like a very large pile of lamb shoulder meat and threw it in the pot with some cooked onions, garlic, thyme and stock.

I covered the stew and popped it in the oven for an hour, then added some carrots, potatoes, barley & cream. Then it baked for another hour. In the meantime I made a loaf of whole wheat Irish soda bread. Since I was also baking a dessert, I had to borrow my landlord’s oven to get all this baking done. I really like Irish soda bread, possibly because it’s the only bread I do well. Which could be a sad thing, since it doesn’t even have yeast in it, but it’s so yummy!

Shane brought a bunch of Irish cheeses and it was a great starter. And then there was the stew.

Definitely a stew to show off some lambiness. So straightforward, and yet…I still don’t love lamb. My favorite part of the whole dish was how the potatoes and carrots were cooked perfectly, nice and soft, but still had their shape. Does this make me vegetarian? That all I cared about were the vegetables floating around in all that meaty juice? Possibly. But I suspect I would have felt differently if it had been a beef stew.

Now it’s official. Spring. I got my first batch of asparagus in my veggie box this week. Only took me about 3 hours to decide what to do with it.

One of my favorite discoveries this year was this: souffles are easy. Super easy. I spent many years intimidated by their quirky ways. It probably doesn’t help that the first time I attempted souffle it was for a surprise birthday party with 19 guests.  If you think serving a souffle to a friend before it falls is scary, try doing it to 19 people. It was an intense night involving an oven that didn’t quite close (or get very hot) and a trip to Walgreens to clean out their supply of toaster ovens. There were a few different recipes on the menu, and only one kicked ass. And it’s the one I still use today. Martha Stewart – that lady knows what’s what. That night I learned that if you have a good base recipe, souffles can absorb any flavor you want. Tonight I wanted my asparagus, and I wanted a quick dinner, so asparagus souffle it was.

First I blanched the asparagus for about 90 seconds to soften it up a tad. Then I sliced it into thin rounds (since it needs to get held up by some egg whites in a bit, the pieces need to be a manageable size).

I prepared some ramekins by coating them with butter and bread crumbs. This may seem like an unnecessary step, but the bread crumbs act like little steps to help the souffle hoist itself up as it gets hot.

Then I prepared my souffle base by making a quick roux and mixing it with egg yolks, spices, cheese & the asparagus rounds. Traditionally souffle’s involve Gruyere, but I usually just throw in whatever cheese I have in the fridge. Tonight was a mix of Dubliner, Parmesan & Goat cheese. Get crazy, it’ll taste good as long as it’s tasty cheese.

I whipped up the egg whites into an  almost stiff meringue and folded that into the base.

17 minutes in a hot oven and we had perfect little souffles of cheesy asparagus heaven!

RECIPE (adapted from Martha Stewart):

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 teaspoons dry breadcrumbs
12 ounces of any cheese you like, a good mix is always a good idea.
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
6 large egg yolks
12 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
– Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place rack in center. Generously butter bottom and sides of 6 small ramekins with 1 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted butter. Sprinkle bread crumbs in dish, swirling to thoroughly coat the bottom and sides.
– Grate cheeses into a small bowl and combine. Set aside.
– Melt the remaining 2 1/2 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Whisk in flour and mustard, and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 to 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in milk, and cook until thick and smooth, an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and season with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper & nutmeg. Pour souffle base into a large bowl. Whisk in egg yolks a few at a time until smooth. Stir in cheese until well incorporated.
– Use a whisk (or whatever machine you have) to whip 12 whites until you ALMOST have stiff peaks form.
– Quickly mix about 25% of the meringue into the souffle base. Then gently fold in the rest into the souffle base just until incorporated. Pour into souffle dish, and bake for 17 minutes. Serve fast before it sinks.