Speculoos Fruit Crumble

Crumble…gotta have it…it’s just one of those things! People love crumble so much, if it’s not on the menu, that’s it, they’re not getting any dessert. I have to say, I love it too. It’s not the most original dessert out there, but when it’s well done (fruit’s not too sweetened, crumble is cooked through — not raw! -) it really always satisfies. I’m convinced that people order it in restaurants because somewhere they feel that it’s healthy, but I’ve had guests assure me that no, they just love it! And it’s the perfect seasonal dessert, too, of course. Whatever fruit looks good, just top it and bake!

So how to make myself more engaged by baking crumble after crumble? I’ve must have literally made thousands of them. Dorie Greenspan, one of my strongest muses, provided an excellent option this past fall: add crushed Speculoos!

What are Speculoos, you ask, and why would I want them in my already-divine crumble? Speculoos are a kind of European ginger snap, my friends, and they are as addictive as any cookie you could want to eat. Crumbled up, mixed with soft butter, and then mixed into your crumble topping, they take the dessert to a whole new level: spicy, warm, yummy with winter fruits like apples and cranberries.

Crumbling stuff up into your crumble … why didn’t I think of this before???

Apple-Cranberry-Speculoos Crumble

 

Apple-Cranberry Speculoos Crumble

8 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 c fresh cranberries

1/2 c sugar

1 T cornstarch

pinch salt

1 t cinnamon

pinch freshly grated nutmeg

1 T lemon juice

-Toss all of the fruit together in a large bowl and set aside for the juices to release while you make the topping.

Topping:

1/2 lb butter, melted and cooled

3 1/2 c all-purpose flour

1 c oats

1 c sugar

1/2 c dark brown sugar

1 t cinnamon

1 t mixed spice for baking

pinch salt

-Toss all ingredients quickly together in a large bowl so that the butter is evenly distributed and mixture looks dry, not in big clumps:

If you don’t want to use the Speculoos, you can stop at this point, put the fruit in the baking dish and top with the crumble. Bake at 375F until well-browned and bubbling (don’t take it out until you’ve got bubbles coming from the middle of the crumble, not just the edges; underbaked crumbles are one of my nemesis!) This is a delicious crumb topping, and by far the best recipe of all that I have tried over the years.
But, if you’d like to take things up a notch, by all means, let’s get the Speculoos in there!

You can buy Biscoff cookies, or these Trader Joe's look-alikes, or just use a nice gingersnap that you make or buy in the supermarket

For this quantity of crumb topping, use one package of cookies and one stick of soft butter.

Any heavy kitchen tool will crush these up efficiently. I like to keep a few large chunks so no one forgets that this is a Speculoos Crumble!

Use any heavy implement that you have to hand, a rolling pin, a hammer, express yourself… and crush the cookies in a large metal or wooden bowl with authority until they are crumbs with some nice chunks remaining. Now you have to thoroughly smush the butter into the cookie crumbs, making sure that you evenly distribute the butter. Dorie Greenspan actually just put this topping onto the crumble and baked it. I tried this originally and it is really good and different, a nice change from the crumble doldrums. But it’s a bit sweet (even for me!) with all of those cookies, so I thought it might be nice to mix it into the topping and cut the sweetness a bit. Voila! The Ultimate Crumble…Soft butter mixes into the cookie crumbs with a lot of messy, sticky hand action!  Mix these into your other crumbs and load on top of the fruit in the baking pan Combine the two toppings and then sprinkle generously on top of the prepared fruit and bake. Any extra crumb topping can be frozen for the next time you are in the mood to bake dessert. They also make a nice topping for pumpkin muffins, if you’d like to try something different, but I guess that’s another story…

What do we know about Korean food??

We’re aware that this is a French restaurant!! But we actually love to cook everything, and “Manger! Boire!” night is such a great way for us to share the other things that we know, besides French cuisine and pastry!

Living in London and studying pastry at Le Cordon Bleu in the mid 90′s, I somehow got mixed up with a band of Korean boarders living with a Korean family… long story…but what an amazing discovery for me: Korean food! I happily devoured fabulous meals at their communal table, coming early and staying late to cook, cook, cook with the lady of the house. Her English was sparse, but we smiled at each other, cooked, and smiled some more. I took copious notes and ended up thanking them when it was time to go with a lasagna dinner (their requested dish: never saw a group of people get so excited about lasagna and garlic bread…I was surprised until I realized that it was probably the amount of GARLIC in everything that they were loving! garlic being an integral ingredient in Korean food). We made breakfast, lunch and dinner together and I have to say, I never felt so healthy and energetic as during this time when I ate mostly Korean food! Very light, savory, full of garlic, ginger, chilies and fermented pickles, this cuisine is definitely among our favorites. It’s a huge cuisine with a vast history, and so different from other Asian cuisines. We’re looking forward to showing what we know about Korean food to our guests this Thursday night!

 

Beet “Tartare”

It may sound like we’re saying Beef, but it’s actually vegetarian Beet “Tartare,” a delicious salad or spread — fresh beets that have been cooked & then seasoned like a traditional “Steak Tartare” — that we’ve been getting lots of recipe requests for. The idea for the dish comes from one of our most reliable recipe-providers, Patricia Wells. We’ve made it with local Heirloom beets of all colors, or just with regular red beets, and it’s always just wonderful. As part of our “Autumn Trio” with Mushroom-Walnut Pate & Home-made Fromage Blanc, it’s a pure winner!

1 lb beets, roasted or boiled until cooked through, then cooled and grated or shredded

2 shallots, chopped

½ c chopped parsley

2 T Dijon mustard

½ clove minced garlic

1 T chopped capers

Dash Tabasco

Dash Worcestershire

-Mix all together and taste for seasoning. Use mayonnaise to taste, if desired, to bring together and give a little creaminess. Let rest at least 1 hr before serving.

 

What’s a Posset?

Lemon-Lavender Posset

It has become a summer tradition here to serve this simple and refreshing dessert. I have so many requests for the recipe, I’ve decided to post it so that you can astonish your guests this summer with something that is so easy and delicious! It’s an old-fashioned, creamy English dessert made without any eggs or gelatin, which can be infused with any herb or citrus. Try using fresh thyme or rosemary instead of lavender and let me know how it comes out.

Lemon Lavender Posset
makes about 6, depending on your ramekins

2 1/4 c Heavy Cream
3/4 c sugar
1 T Lavender Flowers
-Bring to boil and let simmer for 2-3 minutes to slightly thicken the cream

1/2 c Lemon Juice
1 T lemon Zest
1/2 t vanilla extract
pinch salt
-Add the rest of the ingredients off of the heat, stir well, strain and pour into jars/ramekins. Let set in fridge at least 4 hours or overnight.

Escolar, What’s the Story?

If you want to know more about this delicious fish, that you really shouldn’t eat, you can read it at this link: Escolar - Wikipedia

We’ve carried this fish occasionally, and eaten it ourselves here and as “White Tuna” at other restaurants, and it’s so delicious and popular, you’d never imagine that it could make you sick, but it can. Not lethally, and not everybody, but you can be uncomfortable for a period of time for sure.

It’s getting harder and harder to find fish that you can feel good about serving. We stopped carrying shrimp a long time ago; now we get it only when it’s from a sustainable, good practice, American farm. That’s it. No Thai shrimp, no trawled shrimp, no way. Mercury is a big issue, overfishing is a big issue, unhealthy fish farming practices is a big issue. Oil spills? other environmental degradation? You really have to think before you buy. We are able to get sustainably farmed salmon, but even that is shifting now and we’ve had to change companies because we lost trust in our former “Organic and Sustainable” fish company. Line-caught Massachusetts Cod has been very good and reliable, as has Mediterranean Bronzini.

High-end restaurants like our favorite, Le Bernardin, charge a tremendous amount of money and serve fantastic fish, but that’s what you have to do these days more and more. With all of the problems out there in the sea, it’s not obvious for people who can’t afford to spend that kind of money every time that they want to eat fish. And it’s a shame when a fish that is so consistently fresh and delicious as escolar turns out to be, quite apart from all of these external factors, not, in fact, a good eating fish after all. We really wanted everyone to know about the situation.

 

“Passion on the Vine” by Sergio Esposito

I can’t wait to thank one of my favorite wine-loving guests for this book that I’m finishing up right now, by Sergio Esposito, famed NY Italian wine merchant. It’s a fantastic read and it contains, among other wonderful things, by far the best clarification I’ve ever read as to why you want to drink “organic” wine.

We once were hosting a party at the restaurant, serving two white wines. One was our house Chardonnay, which is an extremely pleasant Burgundy from a small producer, and the other was one of my favorite whites, an excellent deal called “Evolution,” from Sokol-Blosser in Oregon. It’s a blend of nine white grapes which literally dances on the tongue: it’s delicious, pure and balanced, and happens to be made by a woman who is, along with being a very high-end Oregon Pinot Noir producer, a passionate advocate of organic and sustainable viticulture. At this party, one gentleman approached the bar for a glass of white wine for his wife. After I told him the two choices (” French Chardonnay or an Organic blend from Oregon?”) he replied, “the chardonnay; my wife won’t drink organic wine, it’s bad.” What could I say? First lesson in sales, the customer is always right, and it’s not my place to contradict. But I was so sad. The other wine is not bad, but the Evolution is really something special. How to help people understand organic, biodynamic and sustainable wines better??

Now, I write “organic” because it’s so hard to categorize wine production by one label, and many organic wines aren’t even labeled as such (see above if you’re surprised, even the Evolution isn’t labeled organic though she drives her tractors on biodiesel!!). But it’s true that just as in the food world, organic can be pretty hard to define. There are other terms, like “sustainable” “minimal intervention” “biodynamic” “salmon-safe,” and it gets pretty complicated. I guess I’m just happy when I’m choosing wines for my list if I know that the grape-grower/wine-maker is paying attention to tradition, respect for the land, respect for the consumer, and if their goal is for the wine in the glass to be a conscienciously-made, pure expression of the grapes, without flavor additives, pesiticides, or other chemicals getting in the mix.

Now here’s where our friend Sergio Esposito comes in to help us understand the goal of organic viticulture. Of course I recommend reading the book, but I’ll just quote here some of what he says and see if anyone wants to argue with me. It takes a kind of devotion and commitment to make wine this way; Esposito describes “This courage of conviction — the determination to make a drink that directly contradicts convention because you believe in its unerring and morally necessary authenticity…” I would love people to come around to thinking that it’s certainly worth trying these wines…at least give them a taste! There may be plenty of bad organic wine out there, but there’s plenty of other bad wines out there too, no??? Esposito quotes one winemaker, describing the process of producing biodynamic wines:

“What is wine?…Wine is a family of bacteria, which together make life. This life — in the form of thousands and billions of fermentations — takes a simple grape to a wine. In every berry, we have everything a wine needs to develop….there are more than a thousand things you can legally add into your production process. You can add drugged-up yeasts and banana flavor if you want…. If the thing that makes a wine unique is its terroir, then the wine must taste like the earth from which it came….if you work in real agriculture, things are unpredictable. You can’t send your e-mail with the exact day of bottling…If you need to work in this chemical way, maybe you’ll one day…be really happy but your wine will be soulless, and why did you become a winemaker in the first place?”

Though my reduction simplifies things a bit far, it gives a good idea of the direction of the discussion and the details included in the book are eye-opening and exciting.

About two-thirds of our list is made by producers who are committed to making their wines in a radically clean, conscious, “organic” way…I’d love some day for it to be the whole list, and I think it can be. Too many people are changing their ways, going back to traditional methods, and seeing fantastic results. At a certain point, labels aren’t useful…we’ll let the wines speak for themselves.

Why not buy 1/2 a bottle of wine for 1/2 price?

I was reading in a food magazine recently about top sommeliers and one of them was talking about this idea, as a courtesy to others in the restaurant industry: why not let someone try a bottle that’s on the wine list, 1/2 a bottle for 1/2 price? It sounded like a great idea for me: less risk to the customer and the ability to conceivably try a couple of different wines with dinner. However, there is no way I could manage opening up the whole list this way: too much craziness and probably too much waste! So what we’ve been doing the last couple of weeks has been to offer a few of our wines this way, and we’ll keep changing/rotating them. We have beautiful, heavy-bottomed glass bottles to serve the wine in called “Pot Lyonnais” which are under a 1/2-litre (the wine rations for the silk workers of yore in Lyon).

People really seem to “get it” so far! I’m so pleased: we have so many little gems on our wine list, and this is a great way to discover them. If you want to, try a glass or a half-bottle; if you love it, buy another half (it’s the same price, anyway!) or try something else. We’re going to have a lot of fun with this in the summer. Next time you’re in the restaurant, be sure to check out our “Wine Discoveries” and let me know what you think!

Rhubarb Custard Pie…sigh…

I always say, and it really is true, that it’s impossible to pick my favorite recipe. There are just too many good things in the world to make and we’re forever discovering new ones, which is the best part. But I have to admit, Rhubarb Custard Pie is definitely deserving of a spot in my Top Ten. I watched Pete cut the rhubarb for me the other day at Woven Roots Farm and my mouth just started watering then and there. Probably my first taste memory is of jumping over a stone fence at the age of 3 1/2 with my big brother and his friends, and grabbing stalks of rhubarb out of the garden and eating them, raw, on the spot (until the farmer came and we scrambled away!)! I loved it then and I love it now. There’s one in the oven as I write, making the kitchen smell too good…if you see some rhubarb around, grab a bunch and try one!

Rhubarb Custard Pie

(from Bloodroot restaurant, see their website for their incomparable cookbooks)

Preheat oven to 400. Prepare a pie crust and line the bottom of one 9 in tart pan with a removable bottom (you can do this the day before and let the crust chill to lessen shrinkage). I like to par-bake this crust for about 8-10 minutes before filling, weighed down with some pie weights/beans/etc., but it’s not obligatory.

Slice 7 large stalks of rhubarb (3 cups) 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick. Set aside.

In a bowl, beat 4 eggs until foamy, then whisk in 1/4 c all-purpose flour, 1 1/3 c sugar, 1/4 t salt, 1 t vanilla, and beat thoroughly with a whisk.

Spread rhubarb into tart shell, top with custard, then I like to do as I was taught and top with a lattice crust: roll out more pie dough, cut into 3/4 in wide strips, lay over top of pie, then lay another layer on the diagonal over the first layer (makes a pretty effect without having to weave the lattice strips. Bake at 400 for first 10-15 minutes, then lower temp to 350 and bake until puffed and browned and set when jiggled (about 30 mins.)

Acknowledgments…??

Wow, I just finished reading a fantastic cookbook!
Yes, I read cookbooks like I read novels, is that strange??
Anyway, I’ve been devouring this book over the last couple of days, after a trip to Boston to check out “Flour” bakery. A small sampling of their delicious pastries drove me to grab a copy of the owner, Joanne Chang’s, cookbook since I can’t just go to Flour bakery whenever I want to (but if any of you are going to Boston, don’t miss it!) and I was hoping that the recipes would be as good as the real thing.
So far, a couple of tested recipes haven’t disappointed and there are many, many more that I can’t wait to try. But really what inspires me is the book itself; it’s so well-written and smart and fun. Will I ever write a cookbook? I have no idea. The thought of it daunts me, but it’s true that I do have a lot of great recipes…
If I never get to write a book, though, then I’ll never get to write “Acknowledgments.” I love reading “Acknowledgments.” It can be so moving, particularly after finishing a book that includes as much love, hard work and intelligence, and that brings you into the author’s life, as a book like the Flour Bakery cookbook does.
So just in case I never write a cookbook, I thought I’d write some “Acknowledgments” for Chez Nous, our restaurant, for the occasion of our sixth anniversary, and mine and Franck’s 10th anniversary:
I’d like to thank Selma Miriam and Noel Furie of Bloodroot restaurant, for letting a fledgling cook and baker into their kitchen and sharing their hard-earned cooking and baking smarts with me, along with their general wisdom and love, as well as letting me into their lives & their gardens.
I’d also like to thank Michael Finehirsch, who I only worked with only for a short time at Wheatleigh, but who not only introduced me to a completely new way of thinking about pastry — flavor combinations and techniques that blew me away — but who remained a key mentor for me in my first years working in professional pastry kitchens. Ditto for Jill Rose, who also remains the person responsible for the existence of Cakewalk Bakery, and that of Chez Nous, and therefore an incredibly special person in our lives.
Michel Roux Jr. at Le Gavroche in London: Franck’s most important mentor and a tremendous educator and chef in every sense of the word. Working in that kitchen, you can be sure that you are learning from the best: the right way to do things, the hard way, to be sure, but you come out on the other side so strong and carrying the knowledge of generations of top professionals. Thank you so much.
Our staff at “Chez Nous.” What can I say? Our customers remind me daily of how amazing our staff is. Michele, our sous-chef, constantly makes us smile with her talent, drive and humor. Raphael, our manager, brings his warmth and intelligence to work every day, and has indelibly made a mark on the quality of the service at Chez Nous. The caring and hard work that all of our staff contribute provides us with the energy we need to feed off of and to keep working to improve and challenge our vision for the restaurant.
I really did learn to cook and bake at my Nana’s side, and our entire family benefited from her talent and generosity in the kitchen. My parents were never more supportive of me than the day that I told them that I was stopping my graduate studies in literature to become a pastry chef. I think somewhere they must have always known that I’d caught that bug from Nana and it was going to have to surface at some point. I continue to be grateful for their unflagging support, not just for me, but now for Franck as well.
Franck, my husband and now business partner, without whose support I never would have survived such difficult challenges as being the pastry chef at The Point, at Le Gavroche, and opening my own bakery, and then our own restaurant. His talent and unrelenting drive are the inspiration for our daily work at the restaurant. My love and respect for him, now at our 10th anniversary, are unwavering. Our son Jolyan, now three, gives our work new significance and our lives new sources of joy. Merci!
Phew! at least the hard part of my some-day book has already been written, right?!!?

Flourless Chocolate Devastation Cake

I often say that I could just put one dessert on the menu, and nobody would mind, and it would be this one. (I guess we’d have to keep the Blondie Sundae, too, as that has its share of fans!) I have to give credit for the original recipe to my friend and fellow baker, Jill Rose, who generously shared it with me years ago. I don’t know how many I’ve made since! It’s a bit late for Passover, but it doesn’t matter. This cake is great any time. Everyone loves it. Trust me, I know!

Flourless Chocolate Devastation Cake

1 9 inch cake
Heat oven to 325 F

Melt over simmering pan of water (not too hot!):

1 lb. 2 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate
1 + 1/3 sticks unsalted butter

Mix together by hand with a whisk:
10 eggs
1 1/3 c sugar

Combine chocolate mix and egg mix in a large bowl and mix thoroughly, then pour into greased 9 inch pan lined with parchment on bottom. Bake in a water bath for 25-30 mins, until sides look dry but middle still shiny & jiggly. Let chill overnight then release with a sharp knife and turn out onto cake plate, remove parchment circle and flip onto serving plate.

Bon appetit!

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