Success: Domaine Saint Luc's Cake aux Olives by Patrica Wells

I just adore Patrica Wells.  I have been following her career since the late 1980s and have used two of her books as if they were my bible (Food Lovers Companion to Paris and FLC to France). These books not only have restaurant recommendations and food history but also recipes from the areas and restaurants she frequents.  Call me jealous, I would love her job, to visit all areas of France, eat and then write about it!  She is my rockstar of all rockstars.  She is the only author whom I have collected all of her books and read from them often.

She also offers courses and in fact some friends from Seattle were able to join her in Provence for one such course.  They sat down to a lunch seated next to Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) who is apparently a good friend of Patricia Wells.  They said that Ina was warm, charming and funny, but that Patricia was a bit stiff.  They made it clear that she was not rude, mean or nasty, just that she was not as warm as they expected.  Oh well, warm, cold or in between, I think she is AMAZING and so are her books!

So I had some friends over the other day and needed an easy first course.  So after much reading I decided to try Patricia's savory olive cake, titled: "Domaine Saint Luc's Cake aux Olives"

The recipe called for Nyon's olives, which as I am currently in California, I did not have available to me.  Nyon's are small black shiny olives from the south of France.  They are mildly salty and slightly bitter.  I was going to just pick up some black olives from Trader Joes, when I found some Cerignola olives at Whole Foods.  Cerignola olives are giant green Spanish olives.  Mild in flavor and slightly salty.

From Well's book, The Paris Cookbook, I decided to serve it sliced using the tomato sauce that she references from the same book.  Simple clean and easy.  I made the cake the night before and served it at room temperature on top of the heated tomato sauce.

Now I must tell you, the cake as it came out of the oven was HEAVEN!  Slightly salty but light and fluffy.  When I served it the next day I was worried that it might firm too much and loose the light fluffiness.  I was surprised that it did not, all of my guests commented on how light it was.  However, they also commented that it was a wee bit too salty.  I think this is because of the olives I used.  If I had used the Nyon's or even the basic black olives from Trader Joe's it might have been just perfect.  I did make the dish again for Michael and he loved it, we like salt.


Domaine Saint Luc's Cake aux Olives
8 servings
from The Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells
4 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 ounces (1 cup) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Swiss Gruyère cheese
1 scant cup black Nyons olives, pitted and halved lengthwise
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
About 1 cup homemade Tomato Sauce (optional)
1. Butter a 6-cup loaf pan (preferably nonstick) and set it aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt, and stir to blend. Slowly add the eggs, whisking to incorporate. Whisk in the milk, cheese, olives and oil. Set aside for 2 hours to allow flour to absorb the liquids (making for a lighter cake).
3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
4. Stir the batter to blend once again. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Place in the center of the oven and bake until firm and golden, about 30 minutes. Serve at room temperature, sliced and cut into cubes. Or to serve as a first course, slice and serve with tomato sauce.


Tomato Sauce by Patricia Wells
Makes about 3 Cups
1/4 Cup Extra virgin olive oil
1 Small white onion minced
3 Cloves garlic minced
Healthy pinch Sea Salt
1-3/4 pounds Crushed tomatoes in puree
Several springs of parsley, bay leaves and celery leaves
1. In a large unheated saucepan, combine the oil, onion, garlic and salt and stir to coat with oil.
2. Cook over moderate heat just until the garlic turns golden but does not brown, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. If using whole canned tomatoes, place a food mill over the skillet and puree the tomatoes directly into it.
4. Crushed tomatoes can be added directly from the can.
5. Add the herb bundle, stir to blend, and simmer, uncovered, until the sauce begins to thicken, about 15 minutes.
6. For a thicker sauce, for pizzas and toppings, cook for 5 minutes more.
7. Salt and pepper for seasoning as needed.
8. Remove and discard the herb bundle.


SUCCESS!

Fail: Chocolate Pot de Creme The Balthazar Cookbook

I love Balthazar Restaurant in New York, every time I have been I inevitably run into some working there who I worked with in the 1990s in San Francisco.  So they treat me nice, I like the space and while the food is not mind blowing it is typically consistently good.  So several years ago I bought their cookbook when it came out and it has sat on my shelves collecting dust ever since.

Yesterday I had a lunch for some friends so I decided to make Chocolate Pot de Creme, who doesn't love this dish?  It also happens that I found these really cute ramekin/pots over the weekend and wanted to use them.


One of the nice things about Pot de Creme is that it usually needs to be made the day before so it can set up / cool in the fridge.  This gave me the opportunity to test it out before I served it, and am I glad I did.


As I get further into this blog what I am finding is that someone has written and critiqued just about every recipe out there. I am often tempted to read comments, suggestions, tips, etc, but more than often don't so I am not swayed to correct any problems in advance.


I went to the market and bought the products to make these little guys.  I was very careful to follow all of the instructions closely, as a kid my sister worked in a small chocolate shop so I knew how tempering was such an issue. I was very VERY careful to slowly introduce the hot chocolate creme to the egg yolks so they would not cook.

I filled the pots carefully and then I put them into my version of a bain marie which was nothing more than a roasting pot filled with water covered with aluminium foil.  Now, what does this mean?  Well it means that you cannot look at them without taking the foil off, which means that the cooking process suddenly ends and restarting can be a bummer.  So I made sure the oven was at 250F with both the oven control and a separate thermometer.  I also had two timers set so it would cook the exact prescribed time, 1 hour 15 minutes.

At the exact time I took them out of the oven, removed the foil and alas they were wet and runny like water.  Not what they should have looked like according to the recipe.  So I had seen somewhere that when you take them out they are not set, that they have to cool so I let them come down to room temperature and then placed them in the fridge, 4 hours later I had cold chocolate creamy water!


So, I stated all over, but after reading other peoples comments on line, and looking at many different recipes, I decided to crank up the oven to 350F and added an extra 1/2 hour of cooking time.  And voila, this time they were perfect.

Everyone enjoyed them and they set up perfectly.  On both occasions I got to lick the spatula after I was done filling the pots and the taste and texture reminded me of fabulous chocolate pudding from my childhood.  So all in all the ingredients worked for this recipe but the cooking time and temperature are suspect.


INGREDIENTS for 6

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 ounces Valrhona semisweet chocolate, coursely chopped (I used 1/2 Valrhona and 1/2 Sharffen Berger 70% chocolate)
6 large egg yolks

METHOD
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, combine the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla.  Whisk to combine and bring to a boil over a medium heat.  Add the chopped chocolate and whisk until melted.  Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs yolks.  In a slow steady stream, add the chocolate-cream mixture, whisking until smooth.  Divide the mixture among 6 ramekins, small custard bowls, or espresso cups (about 6 ounces each) and place them in a large casserole or high-sided baking dish.

Make a bain-marie (or water bath), by pouring cold water into the casserole so that it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins or custard bowls.  Cover tightly with foil and bake on the center rack for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The custards shouls jiggle slightly in the center when finished.

Let cool to room temperature then place in the regrigerator.  Serve cool.

FAILURE!