Monday, May 27, 2019

Happy Memorial Day!



This gave me chillbumps. How proud we are of our military! Thank you all, past and present, for your service and devotion to the USA!

I love that this presentation also provides the lyrics. I was surprised by how many I didn't know.

On this Memorial Day, what could be better than a French recipe? I made a clafoutis this week. If you're not familiar with them, they're sort of a pancake batter poured over fruit and baked. In true European fashion, this isn't as sweet as a lot of American desserts. But I love how easy and simple it is. Preparation time is almost nil, except for the 3 minutes that you're supposed to whisk the batter. Next time I'm using my immersion whisk and letting it do the hard work. Bet it comes out the same.

The recipe I followed came from Alix de Montille and was published by Food and Wine. I followed most of the instructions, except I swapped out raspberries for frozen cherries. And instead of lemon zest, I used dried lemon peel and the juice of half a lemon.

I saw some other recipes that use six eggs. Maybe they also use a much bigger pan. Mine was 8 inches across the bottom and 9 inches across the top. It worked perfectly. Unfortunately, I only got one picture of it! 

Some recipes are good guides for a particular dish and this is one of them. It would work well with other fruits like berries or figs. Fresh fruit is always better, but I was excited that the frozen cherries worked so well. You will have about 6-10 cherries left over. This is now my go-to clafoutis guide.

Clafoutis
based on a recipe by Alix de Montille 

1 8-9 inch gratin dish

1 10 ounce bag frozen dark cherries
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon lemon peel
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk

1. Thaw the cherries. When they are soft, cut them into halves, being sure to check for any pits. Place each cherry, cut side down, in the baking dish so that the dish covered with them. Don't crowd them, but fill the dish.

2. Preheat the oven to 350. Butter the baking dish and melt the 3 tablespoons of butter.

3. Mix together the flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in the eggs and cooled butter. Whisk in the lemon peel and lemon juice. Whisk in the milk. Whisk for three minutes. 

4. Pour over the cherries.

5. Bake thirty minutes. It should be set and golden.

Serve with sweetened whipped cream or dust with confectioner's sugar.

Sweetened Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat the cream until it begins to hold a shape. Add the vanilla and the powdered sugar. Whip into the cream.




5 comments:

  1. thanks for the medley krista! John will be marching today in our town parade--he still fits into his uniform:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is not exactly food-related (much as I love French food), but this piece made me recall something I noticed the first time I traveled in France, in 1971. I rode both trains and le Metro, where there were usually small signs that said "Reserve aux mutiles de la guerre" (forgive me if I've mangled the spelling and lost a few accents), which translates to "reserved for those disabled by the war.) A small reminder.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely. I haven't made one in ages. Perhaps it's time.

    I think you might want to reverse steps 1 and 2. Don't you want to butter the pan before putting the fruit in?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have heard of this but didn't know what it was. Thanks Krista. I love the cover of the book too.

    ReplyDelete