At long last, the crème fraîche post. I've been sitting on this one for forever, trying to use it in different ways. Crème fraîche is heavy whipping cream that has been fermented like yogurt. It is most affiliated with Parisian cooking as the cream from outlying villages, in getting shipped to the big city, would lightly ferment in the course of the journey. That's the food origin mythology anyway.... It keeps for atleast 10 days in the fridge. While ultrapasteurized cream seems to basically keep forever (I have some from December in my fridge that I use, I'm writing this towards the end of March) regular whipping cream doesn't last much after it's sell by date, that's why I first started making the stuff.
Making it is pretty simple and forgiving. You have to heat up milk to make yogurt as it does something to the protein structure. Cream is all fat, no protein, so it's easier. Warming it to room temperature on the stove is best, but using cold cream is fine, too, it will just take longer. So, the jist of the recipe is 1 pint of cream (preferably Straus pasteurized, but Organic Valley ultrapasteurized does work), stir in 2T of buttermilk or yogurt (seems like the bacteria in buttermilk lead to thicker crème fraîche, but could just be the nature of my current yogurt culture), let it sit in a pilot-light-warmed oven for however long it takes -- between overnight and 24 hours or so.
I've used it in sherbets
I,
II; adding a bit to savory sauces
I,
II; a dollop on a
taco; and the dollop on the side thing with
persimmon sorbet. The dollop on the side thing was excellent, and is it's suggested use in french cookbooks (dollop with fresh fruit, though). The contrast between sweet fruit and cool/creamy/fatty/lightly sour crème fraîche is epic. Not blogged about, but the 4th night of my brother being here just now, after plowing through all of the baja flour tortillas, we did those dried ravioli from TJs (which are remarkably good when you are camping, and still pretty good if you are not) with garlic/olive oil/1c red sauce and 1c crème fraîche. Good.
Anyway, here's a partial list of recipes from cookbooks I have. You'll notice some recipe trends. This list is by no means complete as some authors do their index based on ingredients (Jamie O, yeah!) but some base them only on the name of the dish (most others, boo!). Lots of stuff to try out....
-vanilla bean crème fraiche ice cream ; Patricia Wells at Home in Provence p. 289-apple tart w/ dollop of crème fraiche on side ; MtAoFC p. 637-noodles a la crème ; la Bonne Cuisine p. 570-dollops; Jamie's Kitchen p.183, 148-smoked salmon, lemon, and crème fraiche sandwich; Jamie's Dinners p. 92-baked potato w/ crab, crème fraiche, spring onion, chili, and mint; JD p.12-baked trout and potatoes with a crème fraiche, walnut, and horseradish sauce; Naked Chef Takes Off p. 163-cilantro and crème fraiche salad dressing; NCTO p.80-crème fraiche and grilled lemon salad dressing; Happy Days w/ the Naked chef p.114-marinated mozzarella in crème fraiche with lemon and marjoram; HDwtNC p. 93-medallions of beef w/ morels and marsala w/ crème fraiche sauce; HDwtNC p. 196-potato salad w/ smoked salmon and horseradish crème fraiche; Jamie at Home p. 186-mussels steamed w/ fennel and crème fraiche; Cook w/ Jamie p. 254-pan-fried scallops w/ lentils, crispy pancetta, and lemon crème fraiche; CwJ p.250-calabacitos con crema; Essential Cuisines of Mexico p. 228-chiles rellenos de elote con crema; ECoM p. 213-elote con crema; ECoM p. 225-tostadas de crema y guacamole; ECoM p. 90-maroilles cheese tart; Food Lover's Guide to France p. 93-salmon w/ lentils, bacon, and horseradish cream; FLGtF p. 120-thin crusted cream, onion, and bacon tart; FLGtF p. 123-pumpkin tart from millancay; FLGtF p. 153-graten dauphinois chez lily et gaby; FLGtF p. 217-gallette bressane; FLGtF p. 245-onion tart from catton-grammont; FLGtF p. 247-marjolaine pere bise (chocolate cake); FLGtF p.258-lamb charlotte with red pepper sauce; FLGtF p. 304-mouclade; FLGtF p. 501-pile ou face's rabbit with rosemary; Food Lover's Guide to Paris p. 24-morels and comte cheese on grilled toast; FLGtP p. 40-rabbit with mustard; FLGtP p.59-broiled gratineed chicken; FLGtP p. 64-fricassee of chicken with morels; FLGtP p.113-verlet's apricot tart; FLGtP p. 113
moon set
ants/sycamore
fire grate
interesting shapes, sycamores
see the face?
oak bark
pea?
My uncle is a professional photographer, for his nature photos he often places a leaf in the foreground to add interest. I always thought that was cheating. One of these is legit, I flipped the other...
I really like rack-focus photo pairs #1
the happy kind of poppy
I really like rack-focus photo pairs #2
I love the thin skin of polenta starch that forms on the side of the pan. It's tasty, and it looks cool.
New Orleans intrigues me. Not the drunken tourist version. The food culture. The music culture. Paul Prudhomme's cooking style is huge to me. Just now I heard an NPR piece about a new show on HBO called 'Treme.' It sounds pretty awesome.
Harry Shearer does a show on NPR called 'Le Show' and he often talks about New Orleans. His shows around when Katrina hit are heartbreaking parts of I, all of II. {Alas, streaming from the KCRW website stinks, they are also available from his website, search for the 25 Aug and 4 Sep 2005 shows}. The 25 Aug was one day before Katrina hit. He plays the song Louisiana 1927 by Randy Newman, and discusses evacuating New Orleans. The 4 Sep show is stunning. I've learned a ton about New Orleans listening to him, the history and tradition associated with the non-touristy part of Mardi Gras is fascinating (e.g., 3 Feb 2008 is about Mardi Gras Indians, 31 Jan 2010 has a bit with pianist John Cleary, 3 Sep 2009 is about the Army Corps of Engineers/levees). This American Life also did a couple of great post-Katrina shows I,II. Float On by Modest Mouse featured prominently in one of them.
Update: this morning Morning Edition also had a piece on 'Treme.' It wasn't as interesting as the All things Considered last night, but it was still quite listenable.
Clearly the best article ever to appear on OnionAV. Way more info than wikipedia could ever dream of.... history of the show, discussion of each doctor, pics, video. Love.
I've watched this twice now, and just love it. The movie is executed well, but the underlying source material is truly fascinating -- This American Life did a full show about Mark Whitacre in 2000. Basically it's about Archer Daniels Midland (industrial farming) and price fixing and the FBI. With those plot points you'd think it would be a thriller, but it's not, it's a comedy, with cartoon-ish music and semi-cartoon-ish acting. And it really works. The trailer gives a good representation of the movie.
I'm blatantly ripping off the post title from a npr music blog. Stole the pic, too. The post is about Justin Vernon from Bon Iver playing with his high school jazz band in a benefit concert, which I mentioned a while back, but the npr post about it is much better. A recording of the concert is available in mp3 form at Amazon; I got the last song yesterday (Satisfied Mind) and it's great. That song also appears on the sixth Johnny Cash American Recordings album. Great song, and this is a nice version.
Didn't know about this project till NPR covered it this weekend. They also recorded a 'tiny desk concert' of 3 songs in the NPR studios. The interview was great and I really liked the songs they played. The album is coming in the mail....
Didn't take any pics last night, it's kinda lame to interrupt the flow of a party with a camera. This is this morning. Pasta trays piled up, otherwise not a very exciting pic...
Really cool bit with the frontman from Sigur Ros on All Songs Considered. In the first 12 minutes they discuss Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Audrey Hepburn.... I just love listening to an icelandic accent.
Made this before, but not since the blog began. Super tasty; relatively simple; looks complex-ish, but it's easy == a winner. The recipe is from 'the Little Saigon Cookbook' by Ann Le. I quite like the book, it has stories behind the dishes which makes everything more personal and interesting. We had the cripy coconut and turmeric crepes with a ground beef filling, a salad plate with arugula and spinach from S Bee's garden and mint from mine (more herbage and veggies would have been nice, but it's too early in the season), and Nuoc Cham -- the traditional dipping sauce.
Crepes:
Saute the garlic, add kale, shrooms, beef. I added the rest of the coconut milk to the pan too, probably would have been better served to save it for something else, but no biggie.
Making it is pretty simple and forgiving. You have to heat up milk to make yogurt as it does something to the protein structure. Cream is all fat, no protein, so it's easier. Warming it to room temperature on the stove is best, but using cold cream is fine, too, it will just take longer. So, the jist of the recipe is 1 pint of cream (preferably Straus pasteurized, but Organic Valley ultrapasteurized does work), stir in 2T of buttermilk or yogurt (seems like the bacteria in buttermilk lead to thicker crème fraîche, but could just be the nature of my current yogurt culture), let it sit in a pilot-light-warmed oven for however long it takes -- between overnight and 24 hours or so.
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