Bonsoir!

Today we celebrate wild ginger, the 6th day of Ventôse. It turns out that wild ginger is not even related to the cultivated ginger we eat nowadays and according to Wikipedia, is quite toxic.  It’s rhizome supposedly tastes similar to ginger root, so one wonders how the Jacobins were consuming wild ginger.

I’ve decided to use traditional ginger root and have made candied ginger. It will leave you feeling less sea-sick and is a welcome addition to ice cream, tea and trail mix. There are a bunch of recipes online, but they are all basically the same.

Candied Ginger 

1/2 pound of peeled and sliced ginger

1/2 pound of sugar

First, peel the ginger and slice thinly, with a mandolin, perhaps. Place in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for 20 minutes, or until the ginger seems tender. Pour out the liquid, but reserve it. Back in the pot, add 1/4 cup of the ginger liquid and the sugar. Cook until the liquid seems to have evaporated. Pour out onto a baking sheet and let cool. Enjoy!

Welcome to Ventôse, Windy month in the French Republican Calendar. We are officially halfway through this crazy project of cooking as much of the calendar as possible. Six more months to go (as well as some sans-culottides days at the very end of the year)!

Today, we celebrate the billy goat. Did we know that Thor’s chariot was pulled by goats? At any rate, I’m celebrating Billy goat Day of Windy month with a goat curry from Meera Sodha’s Made in India.

Goat and Potato Curry 

1 3/4 piece of ginger

4 cloves of garlic

1 fresh green chili

salt

4 tbs canola oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

1 cinnamon stick

1 large onion, sliced

2 lbs goat shoulder

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground tumeric

1 1/2 cups vegetable stock

3/4 lbs potatoes

1 tsp chili powder

Heat the oil in a large pot and then add the cumin seeds, peppercorns and cinnamon stick. Cook for a minute and then add the sliced onion. Cook for 5 minutes. Chop the ginger, garlic and green chili. Add to the pot and cook for about 10 minutes.

Add the goat, coriander, cumin and tumeric. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce to a simmer and cook until the goat is falling apart. I cooked it for about 3 hours.

Then, peel the potatoes and cut into bite-sized cubes. Add to the goat along with 1 1/2 tsp of salt and the chili powder. Cover and continue to cook until the potatoes are tender. Enjoy!

I couldn’t bring myself to cook a rabbit for Hare Day (25 Pluviôse), so I celebrated the day with vaguely bunny-shaped cream puffs instead. You’re safe this year, bunny in our back yard! The month of Pluviose tapered off with flora that I couldn’t easily translate into edible dishes. We’re skipping over: lichen, yew tree, lungwort, couch grass, woad and knotgrass (among others). From a reputable Icelandic source, their lichen is still being used for edible products.

I filled the bunnys with pastry cream, but vanilla ice cream would be just as good.

Cream Puffs

Choux Paste

1 cup sifted flour

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup whole milk

8 tbs butter

1/2 tsp salt

4 large eggs

Pastry Cream 

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbs flour

2 tbs cornstarch

4 large egg yolks

1 1/2 cup milk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

To make the puffs, we’ll make choux paste. Heat the oven to 400. In a large saucepan, combine the water, milk, butter and salt. Bring to a boil and then add the flour. Mix vigorously until combined. Continue to cook and stir for another minute. Transfer to a bowl and let the mixture cool for 5 minutes. Then, beat in the eggs one at a time.

For the pastry filling, mix the sugar, flour, cornstarch and egg yolks until pale yellow. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk to a simmer. Temper the egg mixture by slowly whisking in the hot milk into th eggs. Then, pour everything back into the pan and cook, whisking constantly until the mixture starts to bubble. Then, cook for 45 to 60 seconds more. Scrape the custard into a clean bowl and add the vanilla. Cover with a piece of wax paper and refrigerate until ready to use.

Put the choux paste into a pastry bag or a ziplock bag with one corner cut out in a 1-inch hole. On a baking sheet with a silicone mat, pipe out spheres about 2 1/2 inches wide and 1 inch high. Bake for 15 minutes at 400, then add some bunny ears (if you like) and return to a 350 oven for 20 minutes. Poke a hole in the bottom (or side for bunnys) and return to a turned-off oven to continue drying. When cool, fill with pastry cream using a pastry bag or ziplock bag. Enjoy!

To celebrate Rainy Cow Day (15 Pluviose), we’re keeping it simple with some steak au poivre. I’ve adapted Julia Child’s recipe and added some Sichuan peppers into the mix with regular black peppercorns.

In trying to find the origin of the dish, I ran into some questions of who invented the dish. According to the Larousse Gastronomique:

The origins of steak “au poivre”, a steak coated with crushed peppercorns or served with a peppercorn sauce, are controversial. Chefs who claim to have created this dish include E. Lerch in 1930, when he was chef at the Restaurant Albert on the Champs-Elysees; and M. Deveau in about 1920, at Maxim’s. However, M.G. Comte certifies that steak “au poivre” was already established as a specialty of the Hotel de Paris at Monte Carlo in 1910, and O. Becker states that he prepared it in 1905 at Palliard’s!

Steak au Poivre

2 tbs of peppercorns (I used Sichuan and black)

2 to 2 1/2 lb of steak

1 tbs butter

2 tbs minced shallots or green onions

1/2 cup of stock

1/3 cup of cognac (I used brandy)

3 to 4 tbs of butter

Press the peppercorns on both sides of the steak. Heat a tablespoon of oil and a tablespoon of butter in a large pan and cook the steak for 3 to 4 minutes on both sides. Remove to a plate and keep warm. Pour out the fat in the skillet and add butter and shallots and cook for a minute. Add teh stock and boil it down on high heat . Then add the cognac and boil for a minute or two. Add in the butter a half-tablespoon at a time. Pour the sauce over the steak and enjoy!

Today, we’re celebrating two days of Pluviôse together – Broccoli and Bay Laurel (12 and 13 Pluviôse). Bay laurel trees give us bay leaves and were also used to make the laurel wreaths of classical times. It is also the root of “baccalaureate” and “poet laureate” and the latin name for the tree is: laurus nobilis.

We’re traveling back to 1903 and using a recipe from Auguste Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire. Here is recipe #4067 in Le Guide:

Chou-fleur au Gratin

Cook a cauliflower divided into bouquets in the usual manner, drain well and heat in a little butter to dry out any remaining moisture. Arrange the bouquets in a suitable-size round bowl to re-form it to its original shape, filling the centre with a few tablespoons of Sauce Mornay. Coat the bottom of a gratin dish with Sauce Mornay and demould the cauliflower on top. cover completely with more sauce, sprinkle with a mixture of grated cheese and fine dry white bread crumbs, and with melted butter, and gratinate.

This recipe falls in the category of “Cauliflower and Broccoli” and Escoffier says that cauliflower and broccoli can be used interchangeably in all recipes in the category. Escoffier’s Sauce Mornay (bechamel with melted gruyere and Parmesean) will give us some creamy and cheesy broccoli.

Broccoli Gratin

1 1/4 cup milk

1/4 onion with 1 bay leaf stuck to it using 2 whole cloves

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

2 tbs butter

2 tbs flour

1 whole head of broccoli, cut up into florets

4 tbs grated Parmesean (divided)

2 tbs grated gruyere

2 tbs panko bread crumbs

First, cut up the head of broccoli and boil several cups of water in a medium pan. Boil the broccoli for 3-4 minutes, then drain. In a separate pan, combine the milk, onion/bay/clove and nutmeg. Simmer for 15 minutes, then discard the onion/bay/clove.

In a separate pan, melt the butter, then whisk in the flour. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Slowly whisk in the milk mixture and bring the sauce to a simmer, whisking frequently until thickened (8 to 10 minutes). We are at bechamel! Add 2 tablespoons of Parmesean and the Gruyere and whisk until melted. We are at mornay!

Heat the oven to 400. In a baking dish, spread some of the sauce mornay. Arrange the broccoli in an even layer and then pour the rest of the sauce over the broccoli. Top with remaining Parmesean and bread crumbs. Cook until the top is golden brown 5-8 minutes.

In the spirit of the Gregorian calendar’s February 14th and the Jacobin calendar’s 27 Pluviôse, I have decided to doubly celebrate hazelnuts!

I’m celebrating 27 Pluviôse, Hazel Tree day of Rainy month in the French Republican Calendar a little early so that our two hazelnut recipes are back to back. They both use the same hazelnut paste as their base, so if you’ve made the paste, might as well make this tart as well! I will circle back to some of the dates I’ve skipped over in Pluviôse in the next few posts. So, today, we will be using some more of that hazelnut paste and making Rose Levy Beranbaum‘s Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse Tart. Could be good for a Valentine’s treat, just sayin’.

Chocolate Hazelnut Tart 

Crust 

4 tbs butter

2/3 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

3 tbs sugar

1/2 cup of hazelnut paste

1/2 large egg, whisked

1/4 tsp vanilla

In a food processor, pulse together the sugar and butter. Then add the hazelnut paste and mix for 10 seconds. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until blended. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and pulse until blended.

Spread the dough in a tart pan and push it up the edges. Dust the dough with flour. Refrigerate for an hour.  Preaheat the oven to 375. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Remove, let cool completely.

Filling 

3/4 cup of heavy cream

1/2 cup cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup hazelnut paste

1 tbs of muscovado sugar or dark brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

In an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream until thickened. Put the whipped cream in a bowl and in the mixer, whisk the cream cheese, hazelnut paste, sugar until smooth. Mix in the vanilla. Beat in 1/4 cup of whipped cream. When mixed, then fold in the rest of the whipped cream. Spread the filling in the baked tart crust. Refrigerate for an hour.

Ganache Glaze

4 ounces semi sweet chocolate

1/4 cup plus 2 tbs heavy cream

2 tsp Frangelico

In a small saucepan, warm the cream. When simmering, add the chocolate and turn off the heat. Whisk until the chocolate is melted. Whisk in the Frangelico. Let the glaze cool completely before spreading over the filled tart.