Over-the-Top Gougères

New Year’s Nibbles
Just when you thought all of the cooking and cleaning of dishes was done, here comes New Year’s Eve. I haven’t hosted a New Year’s Eve party in quite a while. In all honesty, the older I get the more I prefer to stay home on the couch in my jammies. Yes, there may be cocktails and, of course, there will be something to eat.

I feel like the more low-key your celebration is, the more over-the-top your food should be. I mean, if you can’t eat caviar while lounging in your sweats when can you eat it? Ten points to Hufflepuff if you decide to wear your best jewelry too. But what to eat?

I have always been a big fan of gougères. I can eat them one after the other. And, they are a personal tradition to serve for New Year’s Eve. Here is my favorite gougères recipe which I posted for New Year’s in 2020.

To ring in 2023, I’m trying this recipe from Food & Wine. The addition of smoked salmon and caviar will send these over the top—which is exactly what I am looking for!

Happy New year to you all! Raise a glass to a fantastic 2023!

Over The Top Gougères
Adapted from Food & Wine
Yields four servings Read more…

Classic Chocolate Mousse

It Mousse Be Love
When I was a kid, I would order chocolate mousse whenever it was an option on the dinner menu. I thought it was the height of sophistication until my eight-year-old eyes were opened to the wonder that is a well-caramelized crème brûlée.

Strangely, chocolate mousse is not a dessert option you see all that often anymore, at least not as a standalone. It is out there in the wild. But, you have to look for it. Sure, there are chocolate mousse cakes—but a single dish of chocolate mousse? Not really. And a Pot de Crème is not the same thing.

Perhaps it is time chocolate mousse made a comeback?

The hot summer months are a great time to give Classic Chocolate Mousse a try because all that is needed is a microwave and a hand mixer. No hot oven (or even stoves) is required. What is required is good quality chocolate. Not the stuff you eat in the afternoon that I like to refer to as rescue chocolate. Good quality baking chocolate like Guittard or Valhrona is key.

While I do like my chocolate mousse straight up, I will from time to time add flavor, like a little espresso or something boozy. Just be careful not to add too much or your chocolate will seize and become grainy and/or greasy.

Real legit chocolate mousse is rich and decadent. Real chocolate mousse is not melted chocolate combined with whipped cream. If you make it the right way, Classic Chocolate Mousse contains butter and eggs which give the mousse its silky fluffiness. Don’t be afraid of the fact that the eggs are not cooked. It’s not too different than the runny yolks of a fried egg. If you are concerned, just make sure that the eggs you use are pasteurized and you should be just fine.

Classic Chocolate Mousse Recipe
Yields 4 servings

Classic Chocolate Mousse is both rich and creamy, yet light and fluffy.
This is a classic chocolate mousse made French-style. It has less cream, an intense chocolate flavor, and a beautiful, creamy mouth feel.

Note that this recipe needs at least 5 hours in the fridge to set before serving. Read more…

Buche de Noel

Amuse Buche
There is nothing more quintessentially holiday than a Buche de Noel. For one, it’s only made this time of year. For another, it’s definitely a project dessert that you wouldn’t want to make all that often. Buche de Noel, or Yule Log, is essentially a French tradition that dates back to the times of Napoleon Bonaparte though these days they are everywhere.

My sister took a class a few years ago and there has been a yule log on our Christmas Eve table ever since. The class made a big difference in terms of how to make one. The real challenge is rolling and not breaking the cake. You can find great videos on the internet to help you along. This one is my favorite, probably because there is never a bad time for a little dose of Julia.

The good news is that even if you do have trouble with the cake rolling, you can just hide it with the frosting. And, if it is too far gone, just crumble it up and go with a trifle. Win-win.

There are any number of recipes out there to choose from if you do a quick search. Here is a good one…

Buche de Noel Recipe
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Yields about 12 servings

This one is a heavenly chocolate cake rolled with chocolate filling. Traditionally, Buche de Noel is decorated with confectioners’ sugar to resemble snow on a Yule log. Read more…

Chicken with 40 Cloves Of Garlic

Fall, Fires, and Garlic
September is a weird time in California. While the rest of the country is thinking about colored leaves, pumpkin spice, and has started pulling out their light sweaters, we here on the west coast are still battling 90-degree heat and, sadly, forest fires. What’s happening in Tahoe is heartbreaking. What would normally be a gorgeous Labor Day weekend to celebrate the last days of summer (at least according to the calendar) is now an ash-filled hazy orange nightmare. Makes talking about food trivial but, we still gotta eat…

There are a lot of reasons I chose this week’s recipe. First, this dish is the very essence of comfort food. French comfort food. With everything that is going on locally as well as across the globe, we could all use a little comfort right now. And, I think Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic will do just the trick. There are multiple versions of this classic dish, the most obvious being from Julia Child. I personally like my modified version of the James Beard’s classic.

Rosh Hashana starts Monday at sundown and for those who celebrate, this recipe is a tasty and flexible melt-in-your-mouth way to feed a small family or a large crowd depending on the size of your Jewish New Year feast. This is the second reason I chose this recipe.

The third reason is because you put it in a pot, throw it in the oven, and walk away for over an hour. (Preferably with a lovely, very cold glass of white wine). Since my daughter has practice that runs fairly late in the evening, a recipe like this is a great way to have a hot meal ready when she gets home and is ravenous.

Paired with crusty bread and your favorite salad on the side, this is a classic satisfying meal no matter what your reasons for choosing to make it.

That being said, thank you and Godspeed to our firefighters! L’shana Tovah to all who are celebrating. And, Go Falcons!

Chicken with 40 Cloves Of Garlic Recipe
Adapted from James Beard
Serves 8 Read more…