Fall Wine Dinners Coming Up! Save the Dates!

Hello there, watch this space for more info on 3 great wine dinners coming up this fall.

Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015 — Organic Wine Dinner with Berkshire Organics

Join us for a celebration of all things local and organic with Andrew Bishop of Oz Wines! Andrew focuses on finding delicious, organic, hand-made wines from all over the world. He personally knows most of his producers and can explain their growing and wine-making practices to us as we savor the flavors of the wines paired with our own cuisine. The menu will be seasonal and feature as many fantastic local ingredients as we can get our hands on, working in conjunction with Berkshire Organics in Pittsfield, who will be the retailer for the dinner. They will be offering a discount on the wines to anyone who is interested in purchasing them after the meal.

 

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015 — Italian Wine Dinner with Kimera Imports and Queensboro Wines

A trip over the border from France to Italy for all of us! We hope you can join us for an exploration of artisanal Italian wines paired with a delicious seasonal Italian meal. Importer George Schwartz will be on hand to present personally-selected wines from his portfolio “The mindset of the company is to follow purity, typicity, logic of place and price, and to represent super quality wineries across the country.” We look forward to this peek into an extraordinary catalogue of Italian wines!

 

Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015 — Rhone Valley Winemaker Dinner with Spirited, Lenox

This wine dinner will feature Monsieur Eric Bonnet, the winemaker & owner of Domaine Bastide Saint Dominique winery in the Rhone Valley. Eric crafts delicious, complex wines (reds & whites) ranging from Cotes du Rhone Villages to Reserve Chateauneuf-du-Papes. We feel confident that our Chez Nous cuisine will marry well with M. Bonnet’s incredible wines!

 

 

 

Dark Chocolate Pot de Creme

I have written before about how much I need and love my pastry gurus, and Joanne Chang of Flour bakery is certainly one of them. Right now I’m getting inspired by her newest book, Baking with Less Sugar, but her first cookbook, Flour, is one that I have used for so many delicious desserts here at the restaurant. For Franck and I, working on our own in the wilds of Western Massachusetts, it’s like having a fellow friend/pastry geek to talk shop with when I open up such a smart and useful book.

One of the most popular desserts which it inspired, and somehow one of the most requested desserts in Chez Nous history, is the Dark Chocolate Pot de Creme. This decadent and unassuming little dessert is truly sublime on every level: incredibly rich flavor and smooth, luscious texture. Not only is it a winner, but it’s also incredibly easy to prepare. No baking in the oven in a bain-marie necessary: Joanne ramped up the amount of chocolate so that the dessert sets on it’s own like a dream in it’s little cup in the fridge. A perfect make-ahead, never fail dessert!

Dark Chocolate Pot de Creme, adapted from Flour, by Joanne Changbest pot de creme

Makes 5 desserts

180 ml ½ and ½

220 ml heavy cream

4 oz bittersweet chocolate

4 yolks

75 g sugar

½ t vanilla

¼ t salt

2 T Kahlua, or other chocolate-friendly alcohol of your choosing

-Boil cream and milk in a heavy-based saucepan, whisk together yolks, sugar and salt, then slowly temper in (pour over gradually) the hot milk/cream, whisking contantly to avoid curdling the eggs. Pour everything back into the pot and slowly bring up to barely simmer. Off of the heat, add the chocolate and whisk in to melt, as well as the vanilla and the Kahlua. Strain through a fine seive and pour into jars. Allow to set in the fridge before serving.

 

“The Wine Blog” reviews Chez Nous-Bodegas Francos Espanola Wine Dinner

http://thewinehub.blogspot.com/2014/10/bodegas-franco-espanolas-is-what-rioja.html

Alchemy Initiative’s review of Chez Nous’ Gluten-Free Baking Class!

http://alchemyinitiative.org/gluten-free-baking-at-chez-nous/

Rachel Portnoy, a pastry chef, and her husband Franck Tessier, a French chef, used to eat a diet filled with gluten. But after learning that Franck’s blood glucose levels were too high and he was at risk of developing diabetes, they cut gluten from their diet. Being chefs and restaurant owners, Rachel and Franck have done lots of research and experimentation to perfect gluten-safe and gluten-free recipes.

stovetop

Rachel graciously welcomed us into their kitchen and shared three of her recipes and the tricks she has gleaned from the last couple years of serious gluten-free baking experimentation.

mixing macaron

We started out with macarons. Macarons are a classic French confection – a ganache, buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two meringue biscuits. They are light and oh-so heavenly!

French baking is notoriously difficult- requiring delicacy, precision and finesse. Now French gluten-freebaking… that is a real challenge! Luckily Rachel is super passionate about what she does and she seems to like a good challenge.
whipped macaron

Rachel encouraged everyone to be hands-on… You have to feel it to know if it is just right. Here we are testing the stiffness of the merengue. Looking good!macaron piping4

Piping was a new technique for most of the class and everyone took a turn. While Rachel’s tray was filled with straight lines of perfectly-sized and shaped circles, ours was of a lovely art piece of learning! They did seem to smooth out as they baked…

macaronsmacaron-passionfruit

We filled half with a passionfruit filling and half with chocolate ganache. Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside and just the right burst of sweetness. Divine!macaron1

Blondies were up next. The Blondie Sundae (with rum raisin sauce) is the most popular dessert on Chez Nous’ menu- and they have a gluten or gluten-free option. Rachel’s gluten-free blondie recipe is below.blondies-rachelblondie mixblondie1

Our last dish was profiteroles. A profiterole is a cream puff or choux à la crème- a choux pastry ball filled with whipped cream, pastry cream, custard, or ice cream.
smiling

We got another chance to test out our piping skills- definite improvement! piping profiterole2

So Much to Do in the Berkshires, boston.com

http://www.boston.com/travel/new-england/much-the-berkshires/zWrq7pC6Aa1HBkEo7v5tkO/gallery.html

 

So Much to Do in Berkshire County

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The Menu Changes Every Day!

Check out the menu displayed here online to give you as idea of what’s cooking at Chez Nous these days. The menu changes every day to show off what’s freshest and most delicious. Merci!

Dark Chocolate Espresso Mousse Torte

Photos by Greg Nesbit Photography

I have what I like to refer to as my “pastry gurus. ” These are the recipe-writers who not only care enough to only publish recipes for things that are yummy, but also to write their recipes and edit them so that they WORK. Many people tell me that they don’t like to bake, that it’s hard. It’s true that there are a few tricks and things that are helpful to know when you go to bake, and it’s also true that if you forget something, you usually can’t correct it later (not like throwing the carrots in once the stew’s boiling). But generally, my theory is that people think that baking is hard because so many recipes are badly written, or badly edited, and will NEVER work, no matter who you are and how good you are at baking. Wrong proportions, left out steps, never mind just recipes that I believe no one’s even tested (seriously, sorry folks).

Certain magazines are wonderful, and they have test kitchens who make sure that none of us has to go through a melt-down of our own, or throw expensive ingredients in the garbage, or look silly in front of guests when our hard efforts in the kitchen look like crud or taste like it. And certain bakers are gifted at writing up beautiful, delicious recipes reliably and consistently. These are my gurus. Dorie Greenspan and David Lebovitz are two of these special and wonderful people. Since Franck and I are on our own here for the most part, working in the kitchen and developing menus and ideas, we really need these gurus to keep us inspired, give us fresh new recipes, and not waste our time with things that won’t be good. Check out any books by these two that you can get your hands on, they are all fabulous. And my latest favorite dessert, the Chocolate-Espresso Mousse Torte, is actually a marriage between two recipes, one from each of them.Choc-Torte000

After making approximately 2,000 Flourless Chocolate Devastation Cakes, I was beginning to get a little bored. Never mind that I could continue to make & sell Flourless Chocolate Devastation Cake into eternity and no one would complain, I just wanted something different, more interesting, and equally wonderful to bake. Since my goal these days is to keep everything gluten-free, that had to figure into my search. Dorie and David, I believe, travel in similar circles and both spend all or much of their time in France, so I wasn’t surprised to find a couple of great-looking flourless chocolate desserts that had quite a few similarities between them on their websites. It only took a couple of tries to work together the two recipes into what I believe is the ultimate Chocolate Espresso Mousse Torte. Served with a squeeze of Salty Caramel Sauce, all of the flavors explode in your mouth, but the dessert itself has a lightness to it, it literally disappears on your tongue. It’s remarkable that something so richly flavored can have such a lovely, light texture. The Flourless Devastation will remain beloved by many, but for me, this cake’s depth of flavor and unique texture make it something special. I hope you agree!

Chocolate Espresso Mousse Torte

The only other thing that this beautiful dessert needed was some crunch. I looked around for something in my repertoire that was crunchy and gluten-free and came up empty-handed. The crunch in the photo, and what we serve at the restaurant, is a simple and delicious mix of our wonderful 65% bittersweet chocolate, and a gluten-free cereal that we buy at the supermarket. Spread thin on a piece of parchment paper and let set in the fridge and voila! crunch!

 

-makes 1 8” cake

10 oz dark chocolate, chopped finely

1/3 c heavy cream

1 large espresso/1 T espresso powder

5 eggs

Pinch salt

1/2 t vanilla

1/3 c sugar

1 stick soft butter

Line an 8″ cake pan with parchment. Heat oven to 325F. Bring cream to a boil and pour over to melt the chocolate with the salt, vanilla & espresso in a large mixing bowl. In the bowl of a mixer with a whip attachment, whip eggs and sugar to thick ribbon, triple the volume. Stir soft butter into chocolate mixture until smooth, then fold in the egg mixture very gently. Pour into prepared cake pan and place pan in a larger pan with warm water coming up about half way to make a bain marie. Bake about 20 minutes until the edges look dry and the middle is still a bit shiny, but set. Cool thoroughly then chill overnight before running a knife around the edge to release the cake.

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Tuscan Lemon Almond Torte

Photos by Greg Nesbit Photography

Everyone knows how I feel about secret recipes: they’re against my religion! Enjoying a dish and then requesting the recipe is just the highest compliment you can give. And some things are just so wonderful, they have to be shared. I received this incredible recipe from an extremely talented pastry chef with whom I worked in DC at Lespinasse in Torte111996-97, Caroline. She and I worked the pastry “line” together every night, plating elaborate desserts and enjoying the rush of service together. I was totally green in the industry, and couldn’t have been placed next to a more perfect person to train me. She taught me how to use a squeeze bottle of sauce and put it right back where it was, so we wouldn’t waste time looking up to grab it the next time. Together we perfected spooning identital egg-shaped quenelles of ice cream and sorbet onto a beautiful silver platter quickly enough so that the 7th flavor was plated before the 1st ones started to melt (an order of 4 ice cream & sorbet samplers for one table was a particularly riotous challenge for us). She, together with our boss Jill Rose, taught me that attention to detail is what changes something good into something great. These lessons have stayed with me, and I teach them to every student who comes through our kitchen. These women were talented, and I was so lucky to be in their hands so early in my career.

But the recipes…oh my goodness…the recipes! We made some amazing stuff in that kitchen: Lemon-lavender chiboust (the inspiration behind my popular Lemon-Lavender Posset), Ginger Souffles, Coffee macarons. I gained skills and confidence with every new recipe. So much of what I learned still peeks its head into something new that I might try today: a variation on a theme, a new twist. There are some recipes that are so perfect, however, you just don’t want to mess with them at all. This cake, for me, is perfect. Caroline actually used to make it at home and bring it in for me; it wasn’t on the menu. It was just the most divine, sublime, meltingly delicious cake I’d ever had and she would provide me with occasional fixes, taunting me that someday she would share the actual recipe. It actually came from a fantastic San Francisco restaurant where she had previously worked, called Oliveto. I don’t know where it was before that, or who exactly had the genius idea to schmear a load of tart and creamy lemon curd on top of a delicious almond cake batter, scatter it with sliced almonds, and then bake everything together into a bubbling, browned, rustic pan of deliciousness. I just don’t know. But I thank them with all my heart. Please enjoy my most favorite cake:

 

Lemon Curd

You can buy a jar of lemon curd to put on the cake, or you can make a batch yourself. The only change that I made to the original cake recipe (ah ha! there’s always something, no??) was to use my own lemon curd recipe, given to me by some very proud and capable English farm women with whom I worked at the Sussex University farm shop when I was a student there. Betty was so generous to share this gorgeous lemon curd with me: the winner of the local Women’s Institute award, no less. Enjoy the rest of the batch on toast, in tartlettes, or just keep making Tuscan Lemon-Almond Tortes, like I do…it keeps well in the fridge or the freezer for many weeks (if it lasts!).

6 oz lemon juice

zest 3 lemons

2 1/4 c sugar

pinch salt

1/2 lb butter

4 eggs

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, place the butter, sugar, salt, lemon juice and zest. Over medium heat, let butter melt and gently bring contents of the pan to a simmer. Whisk the eggs in a medium-sized bowl. When mix is boiling, take off of the heat and drizzle a bit onto the eggs, whisking quickly to avoid scrambling the eggs (a helper can be useful at this point). Once the eggs are warmed quite well, whisk them back into the pan and return the pan to medium heat. Whisk constantly until entire mix comes to simmer to sterilize the eggs and thicken the curd. Take off the heat and strain into a heat-proof container. Allow to cool and then refrigerate until you’re ready to make the cake.

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Tuscan Lemon-Almond Torte

The rustic look of this cake pleases me just as much as the cake itself. It’s so unusual, I had to feature it when I first opened my bakery, Cakewalk, in Lee, MA in 2002. I just loved the contrast with the highly decorated and precisely-cut and designed things that were typically in a bakery case. You just schmear the curd on with a spatula, scatter the almonds over, let it bubble and brown in the oven every which way: each one looks different and irresistible with no fussing over it. I wasn’t sure if it would hold mass appeal, but I just wanted to see it in the case next to all of the traditional cookies and tartlettes. And I shouldn’t have doubted: this cake was a huge seller every day at the bakery from day one. I have made this recipe with good results with Jeanne Sauvage’s gluten free flour blend, as well as with Einkorn flour. Use the same amount as the cake flour indicated.

Oven 325, makes One 9 inch cake

Line spring form pan: butter, parchment, butter

1/2 cup almond fl.

1 cup cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 oz soft butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla ex.

2 eggs

2/3 cup lemon curd

1/3 cup sliced almonds

-Prepare the pan with the parchment liner to prevent sticking. Preheat the oven and start creaming the butter in the mixer with the flat beater, then add the sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. The mixture will get very fluffy, double the volume. Sift the dry ingredients together. Add the vanilla to the mixer and then fold in the sifted dry ingredients. Scrape into the prepared pan and spoon 2/3 cup of lemon curd onto the mix. Spread out the curd over the top of the batter, leaving about 1/2 in border. Scatter 1/3 cup sliced almonds over the mix and bake for about 25-30 minutes, until a tester is clean (it’s hard to test! I usually put the tester in at a sharp angle to go underneath the curd as best as I can to see that the batter under the curd is cooked). The cake will be set in the middle, bubbly and brown. Take out of the oven and allow to cool thoroughly before slicing into it. It is actually one of those rare cakes that tastes even better after a day or two.

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New Edible Berkshires Einkorn Article by Rachel Portnoy

DISCOVERING EINKORN: A GRAIN THAT GOES AGAINST THE GRAIN

February 14, 2014 ·

discoveringEinkorn

By Rachel Portnoy Recipe by Franck Tessier
Chefs and owners of Chez Nous Bistro, Lee

What is einkorn? Why should I eat it? How can I get it? How do I cook with it? These are questions that we are answering over and over again.

Imagine a time when concepts such as slow food, seasonal cooking and farm-to-table didn’t exist. That’s just the way all food was. Can you remember a time before food was sold pre-packaged in dubious plastics, sealed off and cut off from any connection—physical or spiritual—to the nourishing earth that provided it?

I guess it’s this yearning for something real—something nourishing not just physically, but spiritually—that is at the heart of our curiosity about the ancient grain einkorn.

And it is, of course, much more than that: Wheat has been at the heart of Western culinary culture for millennia. The cultivation of wheat was arguably one major factor in early humans shifting from nomadic existence to a domesticated civilization. (Whether the grain was first beloved for brewing alcohol or for baking bread is where the argument lies.) We love products made with wheat; we’ve been raised with them and they are delicious.

discoveringEinkorn2
li Rogosa holding a sheaf of einkorn.

But modern wheat has been transformed into something unrecognizable to its ancestors. It’s been modified into the category of modern foods that depend on intense agricultural interventions in order to survive, and is largely indigestible to many people now. And, although I never had thought of this until I tasted bread and pastries made with einkorn, modern wheat doesn’t have much flavor anyway.

Enter into the picture local farmer, seed-saver and anthropologist Eli Rogosa, a leading authority on the history and cultivation of ancient grains. Eli grows einkorn and other rare and ancient grains, selecting for strength and adaptability to our Berkshire climate, and educates people about alternatives to modern wheat.

Is einkorn wheat? Genetically speaking, no. All modern wheat evolved from wild emmer, though now it has been so intensively crossbred that, under a microscope, its structure appears far more complicated than that of emmer. Einkorn comes from a distinct species, different from wheat, a wild grass referred to as wild einkorn. Eli calls einkorn a “neolithic grain.”

Our bodies literally evolved with these ancient grains as nourishment, and our bodies still find its simple, unhybridized genetic structure easily digestible. The way that it grows makes its nutrition easily accessible, and its nutty, delicate flavor makes it addictive.

So how does einkorn differ from quinoa—another highprotein ancient grain that has gained popularity? Both grains are delicious alternatives to wheat, high in protein and other minerals, but einkorn has gluten and quinoa doesn’t. Einkorn enables us to produce foods that resemble the things we were raised on and still love: wonderful and sustaining breads and pastries, pastas and pizza bases. You have to really play with any of the gluten-free flours or grains to achieve this.

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Einkorn sourdough

Another advantage to einkorn is that it doesn’t spike your blood sugar the way that wheat and many common gluten-free flours do (rice, tapioca, etc.). Unless you bake with teff flour, amaranth, chickpea, quinoa or bean flours, you are using something with a high glycemic index that can encourage sugar cravings and overeating. The healthier glutenfree flours are more complicated to work with than the rice flours, making it hard to achieve something resembling our favorite wheat treats.

Einkorn, while not gluten-free, produces a natural gluten that is considered “gluten-safe” for many people, and therefore is a fantastic alternative for those limiting their consumption of modern wheat.

So many people are curious about einkorn. Maybe they read about it in the book Wheat Belly, by William Davis MD or maybe they’re hungry for new and delicious “real foods.” This wild plant has survived millennia, and though it (like all wheats, in fact) is not native to North America, it adapts brilliantly to our climate: high yielding, resilient in heavy rains, not susceptible to diseases and mildews.

Under Eli’s careful cultivation, selecting the strongest, highestyielding plants and saving their seeds, harvesting by hand with a sickle and meticulously hulling and preparing the grain, we are the lucky benefactors of einkorn, and millennia of farmers’ conscientious and determined work under this principle. It’s about survival, ultimately: The strongest grains, the best producers, are the ones with which humanity will thrive, inspiring us with their resiliency and integrating us with our history and our earth.

We have a seasonal menu at our restaurant, giving us lots of opportunities to develop new recipes using einkorn. The flour is incredible for baking, but we love working with the whole grain, as well. You can use it in a grain salad, as a pasta or barley substitute in a soup, or prepared—as we often do—in the style of a risotto. Though the key ingredient to classic risotto is rice, many cooks have been using the same technique with different grains (I’ve even seen recipes for finely diced potato “risottos”).

Einkorn’s wonderful flavor and texture, as well as its sustaining nutrition, makes it an obvious choice for a risotto-style kind of treatment, endlessly adaptable to seasonal variations.

Just start with einkorn grain that is soaked overnight, and you will find that it cooks up in the same 45 minutes as a traditional risotto.

ChezNousBistro.com

Rachel Portnoy is a pastry chef and co-owner of Chez Nous Bistro in Lee, Massachusetts, with her husband, Franck Tessier. She arrived in Lee 11 years ago and opened Cakewalk Bakery, which she sold in 2005. She now spends her time running the restaurant and developing recipes for delicious desserts that don’t include modern wheat.

RECIPE

Einkorn “Risotto” with Caramelized Garlic & Oven-Roasted
Tomatoes Topped with Pan-Seared Scallops and Pesto

Salade Lyonnaise: Red-Wine Poached Egg & Salad

Photos by Greg Nesbit Photography

We may not think as often about salad for dinner in the winter. In summer we love to make large composed salads with hard boiled eggs, a piece of seared fish, boiled small red potatoes. The lightness and the freshness are perfect for the season. But what about salad for dinner in the winter? Why not? The classic Salade Lyonnaise is delicious, and could easily be a one-dish meal on a cold night. A balanced combination of hot and cold, rich and light, this salad is a treat either as an appetizer or a main course. A heavier leafy green is a good base for the salad; the traditional frisee can hold up to the warm bacon and egg, and its bitterness cuts a nice contrast to the heavier ingredients. If you don’t care for all frisee, you can mix it with some shredded romaine for an equally refreshing base for your lovely red wine poached egg.

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Classic French Red Wine Vinaigrette

makes 1 1/2 cups

2 T dijon mustard

1/4 c red wine vinegar

3/4 c oil oil

1 shallot, minced finely

salt, pepper

-Whisk together vinegar, mustard, shallot, salt and pepper. Gradually whisk in the oil to form an emulsion. Scrape into a jar or container and store in the refrigerator. This dressing will keep in a container in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

Salad Components

Assemble your salad components for the desired number of people:

Frisee or other sturdy salad green

Fresh eggs (preferably organic farm eggs)

enough red wine in a saucepan for the eggs to be completely immersed to poach

Thick bacon strips cut into 1/4 inch batons, sauteed until crispy

Toasted baguette slices to hold the egg

Slices of pancetta, baked in a 300F oven for about 10 mins, until crispy

Bring the wine to simmer, season with salt, pepper and a bay leaf.

Break egg into individual ramekins, swirl the simmering wine in the pan and pour egg in when it’s rotating well. The wine should never boil with the egg in it.

While the egg is cooking, toss salad with vinaigrette, flip the egg in the wine carefully, poach until desired doneness, approx. 2-3 minutes. If the white is not cooked, the egg might break when you take it out, but you still want the yolk to be runny. Put the crouton on the top of the salad, scatter warm bacon around, carefully remove the egg and blot it on a piece of kitchen paper, and place it on top of the crouton. Top with a slice of crispy pancetta. Can drizzle with red wine reduction if desired.

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