Little Puffs of Magic

Tonight, I decided to try something new, something along the lines of savory baking, and I think I'm in love! These little puffs of magic that I created are Thyme Gougeres, and they are fluffy, light and delicious...and best of all, really easy to make!

I started off by reading the entire recipe because I wanted to make sure that everything was done according to instructions. I decided to set up my mise en place first, so that I could just add each thing as necessary without having to scramble. Butter, flour, salt, cayenne pepper, grated Gruyere, grated Asiago, and some thyme leaves, along with some eggs, and we were ready to go!

Okay, the first step was to boil a cup of water, with the 1/4 cup of butter. Once boiling, I poured the salt, cayenne pepper and flour into the pot and stirred vigorously until it all turned into a ball. It was kind of like a very large amount of roux, made very quickly!

From here, it was transferred to the standmixer, and stirred with the paddle attachment, with the grated cheeses, and then, one egg at a time, waiting until each was incorporated to add another. The recipe calls for a pastry bag, but I don't have one of those, so I decided to use another skill I have instead. Making a quenelle with two spoons, transferring a small amount of dough back and forth until it stays in a nice oval shape works just as well as putting all the dough into a pastry bag and piping it back out. 

So I made my quenelles, one after the other, until all the dough was gone and my baking sheets were full! I brushed some egg on each quenelle, sprinkled the last of the grated gouda, and thyme leaves on top, and into a 400 degree oven they went, for 25 minutes. 

While the gougeres were cooking, I worked on the main course: Sausage with Smashed Potatoes and Cornichons. It was perfect timing...it took about 25 minutes to make dinner, and 25 minutes to cook the gougeres, so everything came together at the same time. While dinner was delicious, the star of this meal were certainly the Thyme Gougeres! 

They were easy to make, delicious to eat, and the perfect tidbit to throw in a basket for entertaining. In fact, the recipe even says that you can make them in advance, and freeze them to reheat later! I might just be keeping a batch of these on hand all the time!

Steamer Clams and an Artichoke!

We're going to do things a little differently today. I don't have a "mise en place" picture to start off this post, because the recipe didn't really call for any prep work - amazing right? It was more measuring and combining, stirring and dipping...so that's exactly what I did. The recipe, "World's Best Fried Clams," comes from the Stonewall Kitchen Harvest cookbook. The menu mentions pairing these clams with a frisee and spring ramps salad, which I was really excited to try, but alas, I couldn't find either frisee lettuce OR ramps (I think I just missed the season for those) at the store. So instead, we had some more of those beautiful Globe Artichokes from Whole Foods ... STILL on sale!!

I don't know if I can commit to the title of this recipe, because I've had some pretty good fried clams in my day, but these were REALLY good, and I'll place them up there at the top, at the very least. While the recipe called for shucked steamer clams, I actually just bought a bag of shelled ones, and shucked them myself. I think it was probably much cheaper that way, and it's not difficult to get them out of their shells. You just need to come to terms with the fact that you are killing them as you do it. I know, I know...but I love raw oysters, and you do the same thing when you shuck those, so I've become a bit more heartless about the whole thing. Don't judge me! :)

So, I shucked the steamer clams and placed them in a bath of whole milk. They stayed there until I was ready to fry them, just soakin' it in! In another bowl, I beat an egg, and mixed it with a 1/2 cup of buttermilk, 3/4 cup of cornmeal, 1/4 cup of all purpose flour, some salt, some pepper, and a few splashes of hot sauce, such as Tabasco.

I poured an entire bottle of canola oil into a cast iron pan and set it to heat. I used little drops of leftover batter to test the oil. When the drop of batter bubbled and floated to the surface quickly, it was time to fry those clams! That's always a good way to test your oil, with a small amount of whatever you are frying...then you'll know if the heat is correct for that specific ingredient. Once the oil was ready for frying, I transferred the clams from the milk bath to the buttermilk batter and let them swim around for a minute...coating them thoroughly.

Frying the clams in batches, let them cook for about 2 minutes, and then spoon them out to a paper towel. I only did about 8 or 9 of them at a time, so it took a few batches to get them all cooked, but you get a more even fry if they aren't over-crowded and touching each other.

I threw together the ingredients for a tartar sauce: mayonnaise, capers, parsley, lemon juice, chopped cornichons, scallions, salt, pepper and a dash of hot sauce. That made a great dipping sauce for the clams. I also poured a little bowl of that Lemon-Tarragon Vinaigrette from the other day to use as a dipping sauce for the artichokes.

This meal was very refreshing, and worked perfectly for a hot evening such as this. It was light, yet filling, and totally easy to pull together.