profiteroles & bone marrow = licking the bowl clean

I have two recipes I feel like I need to share with you that we recently learned at school. Profiteroles & Byron Potatoes. One look at the pictures and you'll see why.

Besides those delicious concoctions we've also covered french omelets, roasted a whole chicken, and grilled salmon. Outside of school I went to the oldest street in Paris, ate bone marrow, and watched 4 Disney movies. It's been a pretty great 2 days.

First the recipes: (sorry the measurements are a little weird.. my recipes are in metric so I tried to convert them for you!)

Profiteroles Glacées, Sauce Chocolat Créme Chantilly
(Serves 12)

Profiteroles are really just a fancy name for choux pastry stuffed with ice cream and covered in chocolate and whipped cream. Obviously you can buy the vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce but it won't be nearly as good so be adventurous and make everything from scratch. I promise it's worth it! Read and learn... 

Choux Pastry

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

7T butter

1 pinch sugar

4 3/4 oz flour

4 eggs

1 pinch vanilla

Vanilla ice cream

2 cups milk

1.5 oz whipping cream

5 egg yolks 

4 oz sugar

2 vanilla beans

Chocolate Sauce

5 2/3 oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa)

1 1/3 oz sugar

3.5 ml water
2/3 oz butter

coffee extract (optional)

Chantilly cream

6.5 ml whipping cream

1 oz sugar 

vanilla 

kirsch (optional)

Start by making the vanilla ice cream: Split the vanilla bean into 2 and scrap the beans into a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together the egg yolk and sugar. This needs to be done vigorously because the sugar can burn the egg yolks if given enough time; this vigorous whisking turns the egg yolk and sugar light in color and is called 'blanching'. Next bring the milk and cream to a boil in a sauce pan. Add the vanilla beans to this mixture. 

Next, take the milk/cream mixture and add 1/3 of it to the egg/sugar mixture and then pour that all back into the rest of the milk/cream. We do this to make sure the hot milk/cream doesn't cook the eggs. This process is called tempering. Mix well. Strain through a chinois or a fine strainer.  Cool quickly in the freezer before churning. It is best to make this mixture and cool the day before so all your flavors develop but it's not necessary. Once cooled add the mix to an ice cream machine and churn! 

Now make the choux pastry: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Put the milk, water, butter, salt, and sugar in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Mixing only with a spoon, never a whisk. Once boiling remove from the heat and add the flour working the mixture into a paste. Put it back on the stove mixing with your spoon to dry out the excess moisture. (Only takes about a minute). Remove from the sauce pan and put it into a bowl. Mix in eggs a little a time making sure to not cook the egg. Once the dough has formed scrap it into a pastry bag and pipe it out onto a baking pan with parchment paper in little circles about 1.5 inches wide. Brush these little circles with egg wash (egg and a little water) to make it shiny. Put directly into the oven and they are ready when they turn a golden color. Lay them out on a cooling rack and cut in half to serve.

To make the chocolate sauce just add the chocolate to a bowl and melt over a double boiler (Pot with simmering water and a bowl over top that has the chocolate in it). Once melted add your butter to the warm chocolate to give shine, sugar to sweeten, water for volume, and coffee extract for flavor. Voila! 

Lastly, make the Chantilly cream. Whisk the cream until it forms stiff peaks or add to a mixer to do the work for you. (We don't have the luxury in school). Add the vanilla, powdered sugar and incorporate. The ending result should look like a whipped cream. Put into a piping bag to serve or you can just dollop it on the plate with a spoon.

To plate the dessert: Take the bottom half of one of your choux pastry and top it with the vanilla ice cream, put the lid of the choux pastry on top and spoon over the chocolate sauce. Pipe or dollop your whipped cream and sprinkle the whole thing with powered sugar. Enjoy! Licking your plate or bowl clean is acceptable.

Pommes Byron

(Byron Potatoes, Serves 4)

These potatoes are delicious and easy. Lucky for you! They are basically mashed potatoes topped with a cream sauce and cheese then baked. What more could you ask for?

The middle circle is the finished Byron Potato.

Mashed Potatoes

4 large potatoes, peeled and chopped

1.5 oz butter

salt, nutmeg

2 egg yolks

Cream Sauce 

1/4 cup cream

1/2 cup milk

1 oz beurre manié (equal parts water & flour mixed to make a dry paste)

pinch of salt

1 handful Gruyere cheese

Preheat the oven to 350F. Start by adding the peeled and chopped potatoes to a pot and adding cold water. Bring this water to a boil and add salt. Cook the potatoes until tender but not falling apart. Strain well. While hot add the butter, pinch of salt and nutmeg. Run the potatoes through a ricer. If you do not have a ricer just make sure to mix the potatoes very well so there are no lumps and they become velvety smooth. Add the egg yolks and incorporate. 

Put this mixture into a piping bag and pipe out circles about 2 inches thick onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you do not have a piping bag just spoon the potatoes onto the baking sheet. Take the back of a spoon or ladle and get it slightly wet. Press it on top of the potato circles to make a well for the sauce.

Now make the cream sauce. Bring the cream, milk and salt to a boil and add the beurre manié, a small amount at a time to thicken the cream mixture. Top the potatoes with the sauce. Top the sauce with cheese. Bake until cheese has melted and slightly browned. YUM!

Like I said, we also made salmon & roasted chicken. Here's some pictures of those. If you want the recipes just let me know! 

Saumon Grillé, Beurre Émulsionné á la Ciboulette

Poulet Roti et son Jus

Rue Mouffetard

I visited one of the oldest streets in Paris yesterday, Rue Mouffetard. It is situated in the 5th arrondissement and it dates back to the 1st century. It's mostly a pedestrian avenue filled with shops, cafés, and restaurants and it has a market at one end. The street was beautiful and I took a lot of pictures of food but unfortunately my camera died and I couldn't take pictures of the street itself. 

le fromage

marchand de vin

poissonnerie

 Moelle Osseuse

"But when you [...] get to chew on the bone it is something primordial. It takes us back to our ancient wild past as humans. It is a pure basic human pleasure and the basis of the truism 'the closer to the bone, the sweeter is the meat'." - Jennifer McClaglan, author of "Bones: Recipes, History, and Lore"

My favorite thing I did this week in Paris was try bone marrow. Ali, Elana, and I went out to dinner with Ali's new french love interest Damien for dinner. (Yes, I'm jealous she already has a french love interest). We were suppose to meet at 7:30, which turned to 8 which ended up being 9 because Damien was working. But, the waiting was well worth it. We went to this precious little restaurant by the Louvre. I wish I could remember the name. We had a glass of red wine at the bar while waiting for Damien and looked over the menu. We saw the bone marrow being presented to a table close by and it looked/smelled amazing. Ali and Elana had tried it before and it's one of Ali's favorite things so I ordered it. It was incredible. I've never tasted anything like it. You can eat it spoonful by spoonful or spread it on bread. It's good sprinkled with a little sea salt. I'm sure it freaks some of you out and honestly I was a little nervous but I promise you the first bite will win you over! 

 

Qustion du Jour

"Can you substitute Lamb for Ham in an omelet?"  

 Until next time.. Bonjour mon petit choux!