Creme Brulee

Prep Time: 15 Min
Cook Time: 35 Min
Ready In: 6 Hrs 35 Min
Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 egg yolks
• 4 tablespoons white sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) and line the bottom of a large baking pan with a damp kitchen cloth.
2. Bring a large pot of water to boil. While water is boiling, combine cream, 1/4 cup sugar and salt in saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally 4 to 5 minutes, until steam rises. In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks and vanilla until smooth. Pour hot cream into yolks, a little at a time, stirring constantly, until all cream is incorporated. Pour mixture into four 6 oz. ramekins.
3. Place ramekins on towel in baking dish, and place dish on oven rack. Pour boiling water into dish to halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover whole pan loosely with foil.
4. Bake 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until custard is just set. Chill ramekins in refrigerator 4 to 6 hours.
5. Before serving, sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar over each custard. Use a kitchen torch or oven broiler to brown top, 2 to 3 minutes.

A Glimpse at Recipes of The Past: Gateau Grand Marnier - Orange Liqueur Cake

Gateau Grand Marnier - Orange Liqueur Cake
recipe from A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Pride 1965

This unfrosted cake, saturated with orange juice and orange liqueur, is a special favorite, marvelous with tea or coffee. This recipe came from a little inn in Lorraine, a province of France noted for its fruits and liqueurs, and where the rum-saturated cakes known as babas were invented.



Ingredients for cake:

• 1 cup butter + one more tsp for greasing a pan
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp Grand Marnier
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 cup sour cream
• grated rind of 1 orange
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Ingredients for topping:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup Grand Marnier
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds

Direction:
1. Preheat oven to moderate 350F.
2. Cream butter with sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in egg yolks, one at the time.
4. Add Grand Marnier.
5. Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda.
6. Add dry ingredients to butter, alternating with sour cream, beginning and ending with dry ingredients and mixing until smooth.
7. Stir in grated rind of orange and chopped walnuts.
8. Beat until stiff egg whites and fold into batter. Pour batter into a greased 9-inch cake pan.
9. Bake in the moderate oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until cake tests done.



Topping:
Combine sugar, orange juice and Grand Marnier. Pour over hot cake while it is in pan. Sprinkle with almonds and let cake cool before removing from cake.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Garbanzo Beans and Coriander

This combination of cauliflower, garbanzo beans and coriander works well in this richy flavored  winter soup.



CORIANDER For Good Boys and Girls from The Spice Cookbook 1964

"Trough your current spice shelf may not include coriander, it may soon become part of your repertory of spices. If you are devoted to frankfurters, real Indian curry, or like a nip of gin now and then, you are already acquainted - if unknowingly - with coriander seeds. For generations, coriander has been known to good boys and girls who have been rewarded with old-fashioned pink or white candies,known as "comfits." To reach the coriander seed at the center of these comfits requires a great deal of sucking and tumbling between teeth and tongue. But once the hard sugar shell is penetrated, there is the treasured seed.
Coriander is another of those timeless meat-magic-and-medicine, good-for-man-or-beast spices whose history stems from earliest times. With the rise of civilization the coriander plant, native to the Mediterranean, developed into a product of world-wide trade. It grew in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; it was among the medicinal plants mentioned in the Medical Papyrus of Thebes - written in 1552 b.c. - and it was placed in Egyptian tombs some 3000 years ago.
All Sunday-school students will recall that the Children of Israel, on their long trek to the Promised Land, were nourished by manna,..."which was as coriander seed....And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans and made cakes of it; and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil."
Coriander is a small seed, ranging in color from white to yellowish brown. The seeds are almost round, having alternating straight and curving ridges, and vary in size from 1/8 to 3/16 of an inch in diameter. Coriander has a pleasing aromatic taste, suggesting to some a combination of lemon peel and sage, and to others a mixture of caraway and cumin."



Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1 head cauliflower, cut coarsely
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 14-ounce can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 6 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• ½ cup half and half or cream (optional)
• cilantro for garnish

Directions:
Preheat an oven to 350ºF. Place the cauliflower in a baking pan.  Drizzle 2 tablespoons of the olive oil onto the cauliflower, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to coat lightly. Bake in the oven until tender, 35 minutes.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onions, garlic and coriander and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft, 10 minutes.  Add the cauliflower, garbanzo beans, stock and enough water just to cover the cauliflower by 1-inch. Bring to a boil and simmer 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Puree the soup in a blender until very smooth. Add the half-and-half and season with salt and pepper. If the soup is too thick, add water to correct consistency.
To serve, heat the soup and ladle into bowls. Garnish with cilantro and serve immediately.

The Noncollapsible Cheese Souffle with Mushrooms and Wasabi

Souffle Demoule Mousseline
This recipe adapted from 
The Noncollapsible Unmolded Cheese Souffle
by Julia Child from The French Chef Cookbook, 1961



"Most souffles are prima donnas in the kitchen: they have to be baked just so, and served just when, and are always trembling on the verge of collapse. They are the boss of things, not you. Here's a recipe that turns the tables on the souffle, and puts you in command: you can keep it warm in the oven, you can reheat it, and best of all, you can serve it unmolded so it makes a splendid effect, standing serenely on its platter."



Preliminaries:

• A Baking Dish to hold the souffle dish
• A 2-quart straight-sided baking dish 4 to 5 inches deep, for the souffle
• 1/2 Tbs softened butter
• 2 Tbs finely-grated cheese (recipe calls for Swiss cheese, I used Parmesan)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put enough water in the baking dish so it will come at least halfway up the souffle dish; place dish of water in lower third of oven (remove souffle dish). Spread butter inside souffle dish, being sure bottom is especially well-coated; roll cheese around in dish to cover bottom and sides.



The Souffle Sauce Base:

• 2 1/2 Tbs butter
• Heavy-bottomed saucepan
• A heavy-bottomed 2 1/2-quart soucepan
• A Wooden spoon
• 3 Tbs flour
• 3/4 cup hut milk
• A wire wisk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• A pinch of nutmeg (I did not use nutmeg, I used Wasabi 1/4 tsp)

Melt butter in pan. Stir in flour with wooden spoon and cook slowly, stirring for 2 minutes without browning. Remove from heat, let cool a moment, then beat in all hot milk, stirring vigorously with a wire wisk. Boil, storring for 1/2 minute (my mixture was way too thick to do anything like "boil," so I just turned on the heat for a moment. I doubt this did anything, but it made me feel like I was following directions.) Remove from heat, beat in salt, pepper and wasabi (or nutmeg).



Adding Eggs To Sauce Base:

• 3 eggs + 3 extra egg whites
• A Clean, dry bowl
• A Wisk or mixer
• A Pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 cup coarsely grated cheese (Julia said swiss cheese, I used 1/2 cup cheddar + parmesan, and 1/2 cup cooked chopped shitaki mushrooms)

  

Break the eggs one by one, dropping the whites into the clean bowl and beating the yolks into the hot sauce. Add the 3 extra egg whites to those in the bowl, and with a clean, dry whip or electric mixer, beat them for a moment at moderate speed until the begin to foam. Add the salt and cream of tartar, and beat at top speed until egg whites hold in a mass in the beater, and when beater is lifted the egg whites form stiff peaks with slightly drooping points.
Stir one fourth of the egg whites into the hot sauce, to lighten it. Stir in the cheese and mushrooms; scoop the rest of the egg whites on top. Fold the egg whites into the sauce, using a rubber spatula and plunging it down through the center of the mixture, drawing it to the side of the pan, turning it, and lifting it out.You will thus bring a bit of the sauce up over the egg whites, and prevent the whites from collapsing. Fold rapidly, turning the pan as you go; the whole operation should not take more than half a minute.

Baking:
I will paraphrase the author's lengthy instructions:
Pour into prepared dish, place carefully into pan of water, then bake at 350F for 85 minutes.
The souffle is now baked, quite brown on top and much softer on the bottom -- I'd place it in the lowest rack of the oven next time. But! It's pretty delicious. Very cheesy and eggy, soft with crispiness on top and edges. I will definitely try again, with spinach or some other addition.

Serve the souffle with tomatoes, or shellfish sauce, or with cooked peas, asparagus tips or chicken livers. A dry white wine, such as a Riesling, would go nicely, along with French bread and tossed green salad.