Chufi

I just wanted to say that thanks to your post Abra, I bought some chestnut honey when I was in France last week. It's heavenly. (ofcourse I did not remember that you said that Italian chestnut hony is even better. Now I want to try that.) It's hard to describe the taste, it's such a velvety and round flavour. Like eating liquid flowers! I just had some drizzled over greek joghurt. Your blue cheese recommendation is next!

Yes, I read your reports on that trip when researching for mine! I actually wanted to eat at the Chalet Bleu in Autun, but it was closed on the days we were in Autun. We were in Burgundy for the second time en we really enjoyed visiting the Hotel Dieu in Beaune, the Autun Cathedral and the Musee Rolin for the second time. The cathedral in Autun, with Gislebertus Tympana and the capitols, is absolutely wonderful. So yes, it was a trip that had everything: history, romance, food & wine, and art!

Warm salad of flageolet beans, tiny meatballs, sauteed shallots and lots of basil. Served with gruyere/mustard toasts. Leftover strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert.

yes, I knew that.. but for some reason, I always thought that gizzards meant everything: heart, liver, stomach etc. Another translation trap! Oh well, live, eat and learn! I always think it's fun to order something without knowing exactly what it is. Although I made a big mistake once when I ordered Rognons de veau in Paris, thinking I could not go wrong with veal.. I was not prepared for the kidneys that arrived. But my husband ate them with gusto!

Chicken baked with a mustard/cream/white wine/ cheese sauce, the sauce made with mustard and wine brought back from our trip to Burgundy. Served with roast potatoes, steamed broccoli and tomato salad. Strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert

A couple of years ago we visited a little hotel (actually, a chambre d’hote) in the Morvan, a national park in Burgundy. We were so taken by the chateau, the owners, the wonderful countryside and the great food this region has to offer, that this year we decided to go back for our 10th wedding anniversary. We had a wonderful week that was centered around the enjoyment of good food and good wine. Our goal was to eat simple but well – which is not difficult in the Bourgogne. Here’s the report of our trip (with lots of pictures). We started in Beaune, the lovely town in the heart of the Burgundian wine country. Our first night in Beaune we had a very nice dinner in a little restaurant called Le Vieux Vignerons. I had never had Oeufs en meurette before, but have always been intrigued by this dish. Poached eggs in a red wine sauce seems an unlikely combination.. but oh boy was this good. Very rich but very more-ish, I could have had another plate of that! My husband ordered a Salade au gesiers confits, although we both had no idea what gesiers were. I tasted some and decided it was definitely something from the inside of a chicken (I looked it up later and now know that they’re the chicken’s stomachs). Very tasty. The salad was served with a syrup of sweet sherry, not very Burgundian maybe but it went well with the gesiers. For the main course my husband had sweetbreads (Ris de veau persille), he loves sweetbreads and always orders them when he sees them on a menu. I had lamb cutlets that were spread with course Dijon mustard and grilled. It was some of the sweetest lamb I ever had, even the fat (that I normally don’t like) was so sweet it tasted like marrow, and I had to restrain myself or I would have eaten it all. dessert: Crème Brulee flavored with the local Pain d’epices, a kind of gingerbread. Yum! Next day I had made a reservation for lunch at Ma Cuisine (thanks to some recommendations for that place I found on Egullet). The menu du jour was 18 Euro for 3 courses, very good value for an exeptionally good meal. Starters: Rillettes de maqueraux for my husband, and Terrine de campagne with fig compote for me. The mackerel tasted very light and fresh, the terrine was deliciously rich. After that, we both had the Filet de Lieu Aioli. I did not know what lieu was, translated it’s pollock, but I have no idea what that would be in Dutch. I don’t think I ever had it though. A good fish, firm and tasty. The fish was perfectly cooked, served with braised tomatoes, and a pungent, yet creamy and velvety aioli. We drank a half bottle of white Pernand Vergelesses with it which was a good combination. I already had my eye on the dessert table, here’s what we had: Tarte aux amandes and Tarte au chocolat. The chocolate tart was divine, it still had the lingering warmth from the oven, the chocolate was still a little bit wobbly. A very intense and dark chocolate flavor. Served with a cool vanilla custard for contrast. After lunch we drove to the little village of Pernand Vergelesses to see where that wine was made. Here are the vineyards: The next day we went on to the Chateau de Vareilles. This is in the Morvan, Parc naturel Regional in the middle of Burgundy. The Chateau: This area is absolutely beautiful. May is certainly a great time to visit – spring was just transgressing into summer, everything was green and luscious. The creamy coloured Charolais cattle, with baby calves, roaming the meadows yellow with buttercups – that sort of thing! Very idyllic. Breakfast in the Chateau. Fresh fruit, fresh bread, and different cheeses every day: The Morvan, with it’s forests and hills and tiny villages, is ideal for hiking. We went on a long hike and took our picnic lunch: baguette, a little chevre, saucisson au poivre. Everything tastes better when you’re lying in the grass, watching the clouds drifting by.. For dinner that night we went to the town of Autun to the Hotel du Commerce et Touring, a restaurant recommended to us by the owner of the Chateau as “a place where the French go to eat”. First course: Jambon persille, one of the regional specialties, for me; and in the background my husbands Oeufs en meurette. The Oeufs were not as good as the ones I had in Beaune, but it was interesting to taste the different versions. The sauce was actually a bit sour, as if the wine had not been cooked long enough? The Jambon was very good, the parsley aspic had a nice tang which made it light and fresh-tasting. For main course my husband had Coq au Vin, which was perhaps not a great choice because it featured a sauce almost identical to his Oeufs en meurette, and I had a grilled steak also with a red wine sauce. Both were served with french fries. Red Rully which was very good with the meats. Dessert was a cheese plate for me and a pear tart for my husband. The cheese was a bit too cold and not very special. Next day, after a long hike, we had a late lunch in our room at the Chateau.. baguette, but a different cheese (this one was called Reves de Nuits) and a different sausage: saucisson de l’ail – garlic sausage. That night, dinner at the Chateau. It’s not really a restaurant, but the guests can have a home cooked dinner here almost every night. The Chateau is owned by a Dutch/Belgian couple who take care of their guests very well and make them feel exceptionally welcome. This evening was the actual day of our wedding anniversary, and not only had they decorated our room and put a bottle of wine and some glasses on the bed, they also laid our table with beautiful tableware and crystal, flowers and candles which made us feel very special. Aperitifs: Ratafia de Bourgogne, a sweet liqueur made of grape must and marc de bourgogne. First course: Cream of chicken and leek soup. Like a Vichysoisse, but with strong chickenflavor and bits of chicken in it. Second course: Salmon with a lemon/caper sauce. The salmon was cooked to perfection, which is not easy to do if you’re cooking for 10 people all on your own! Dessert: Chocolate ice cream and chocolate mousse in a chocolate basket. These were brought to the table with sparkling candles, hence the foil (to support the candles) Cheese plate: St Augur, a chevre that I forgot the name of, and Epoisses, the Burgundian specialty. The wine for dinner was a Meursault. Next day we went to the tiny little village of La Chapelle sous Uchon for lunch, to this picturesque little place, la Grousse. Frieda from the Chateau recommended this which was a good thing, because we never would have found it otherwise: I ordered Grenouilles au Pouilly Fusse. I had never tasted frogs legs before but I loved them and I licked clean every single little bone! They were served with a lovely creamy wine flavored sauce, that had lightly sauteed tomato and shallot to balance the richness. Really a lovely dish. My husband had some hearty country fare: Rotie de veau avec endives braises - Roast veal with braised begian endive, in a buttery wine sauce. Desserts: Chocolate cherry cake, and gratin of pears with croutons of the famous pain d’epices. A couple of hours later it’s time for dinner again.. First course: Feuilletee de chevre. Tangy goatscheese in crisp puff pastry. Main: Filet de poulet de Bresse, sauce a l’orange. Moist chicken breasts with a slightly sweet sauce, served with wedges of quiche. A bottle of Hautes-Cotes de Nuits went down really well.. For dessert my husband had the tarte Bourdalou, almond pear tart with chocolate sauce This tart was so good that one hour after dinner he requested another piece! and I had the cheese plate: Fourme D’Ambert, Delice de Bourgogne, Mont d’or. Delice de Bourgogne is an extemely buttery cheese, melting in your mouth, delicious indeed! A glass of marc de Bourgogne to help digest all of that and unfortunately, the next day we go home. One bonus of travelling by car, is that you can bring all sorts of good stuff home with you. Here’s the loot: Ratafia de Bourgogne, some interesting wines (some of them ready for drinking, others for the cellar), a couple of jars of terrine, mustard from Dijon, chestnut honey, and chocolate. There are so many more good things to eat that we did not have time for. I guess that means we have to go back!

I think you all are right that I can improve my pizza with a stone.. still, that does not explain why tonight's pizza was far less good than other pizza's I have made in this oven without a stone. The only thing I did different today was refrigerate the dough, so that seemed like the reason.

Time for pizza. I was very excited about this cook-off. A couple of monhts ago I have been experimenting with pizza dough, rising times, oven times, etc. I made a lot of good pizza and some great pizza, even without a pizza stone or peel. The pizza I made today was the least succesful of them all. Wat happened? I used the dough I have been using for some time now. I made it this morning, let it rise for about 90 minutes. Then I punched it down a bit and put it in the fridge. I let it come to room temp before assembling the pizza, but I have to say it had not risen much that time. Maybe I should have left it longer, and let it rise more the second time? Preheated the oven to 500 F. and put a baking sheet in to heat up. Prepared my 2 small pizzas on a board (asparagus, chorizo, mozarella and tomato) and let them slide onto the very hot baking tray. Then I cracked an egg on top. Baked for 6 minutes. Something weird happened. I had stretched the dough pretty thin but in the oven it puffed up a lot and became spongy and bready. Took a long time to cook properly. Too long, as you can see on the finished pizza: the egg is very overcooked but the dough isn't.... Also, strangely enough, even with the chorizo it tasted sort of bland. I think the main problem though was the dough. It should have been much warmer and more risen before assembling. Next time..

I am glad you are enjoying yourself! Smaakevolutie means evolution (change/development) of taste. I think it means that the taste of the beer changes (and often deteriorates) once it's bottled, and that some beers ae brewed in such a way that they are still yeasting when they are bottled, so that the change in taste is intentional. As much as I love good beer, I don't know much about it, so i could be completely wrong about this keep drinking and reporting Christopher!

Steamed salmon, potatoes mashed with spring onions and thinly sliced mushrooms that were sauteed in lots of butter, green salad with pumkinseedoil-dressing.

I have pizza planned for tomorrow. Chorizo, green asparagus and eggs. Can't wait.. A question about the dough. I only ever made pizza dough a couple of hours before baking (1 rise). Now I'm reading about keeping the dough in the fridge overnight for 'slow fermenting'. What does this do exactly? Or is it just for convenience? If I want to make pizza tomorrow evenning, could I start the dough now and what would be the best procedure?

I think this is just a perfect dinner. What a wonderful, balanced combination of flavors! edited to add my own dinner of the day, which was much less glamorous: penne pasta with a leek, chestnut mushroom & porcini sauce, flavored with Marsala, and with lots of Koninglander blue cheese crumbled in. Very satisfying. And I'm about to have some Earl Grey flavored chocolate for dessert!

slkinsey, I just love the one with the fried egg. I just had dinner but I could eat that right now.. I might copy that idea later in the week when I finally have time for baking some pizza!

what a great idea, I can imagine the tangy joghurt working very well and making it much lighter. Will have to try that!

Hertog Jan Meibok

Khorest with Rhubarb (persian meat stew): Saute 2 sliced onions in butter. Add 2,5 pound of chopped braising beef and brown. Add a couple of strands of saffron, 1 1/2 cup of light stock, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, salt and pepper. Slowly simmer for 1 hour. chop up 1 bunch of parsley and a couple of sprigs of mint, and add to the stew. Simmer for 30 minutes or longer, until the meat is tender. Cut up 5 stalks of rhubarb and add them to the stew towards the end of the cooking time, cook for 20 minutes longer. (this is adapted from Nesta Ramazani's Persian Cooking. She makes it with lamb)

Well, now I have to admit I cheated a bit. The best thing would be to start out with real onion confit. But as I needed my oven for cakes and stuff, I had to make a quick confit on the stove (1.5 kilo of onions, very slowly cooked with olive oil, butter, marsala, and dried thyme for a couple of hours) This I mixed with 6 eggs, a couple of handfuls of grated parmesan, and 350 ml. milk. Bake in a waterbath in a medium oven for 30 minutes. This is a recipe by Anna Thomas and this is the way she makes it, but it's better with the real onion confit!

Don't know if it is all over Europe, but in Austria it is very traditional for guests to bring fresh cut flowers. Also, there, the birthday person typically hosts dinner for everyone at their house, or they are the host if the group goes out to dinner at a restaurant. ← Oh yes gifts are very important. People make a wishlist beforehand. I gave mine to my husband and he told my friends.. and I got very lucky this year! We do the fresh flowers also. They can be a bit of a nuisance for the hostess... if you are juggling food and drinks and coffee etc, the last thing you want to do is arrange several bunches of flowers! And it is considered bad form to leave the flowers in their wrapping paper until later.

please don't tell my husband that I just found another interesting forum on EGullet that I now will have to check daily!!! I am very intrigued by all the beers you're describing. A lot of them I've never heard of, I think they are many American brews? I love good beer and discovering new ones. Here in Amsterdam, you can do that 2 ways: there are specialty beer shops, that sell nothing but beer (and I bet they sell lots of the stuff that is mentioned on this thread) or you go to a bar that specializes in beer, they will have many different ones on tap and lots more in a bottle. Is it like that in the US?

I think that's an interesting cultural difference. In the Netherlands, it is actually pretty common to invite people to your house on your birthday, and provide food and drink (which can range from 5 bowls of crisps and 2 bowls of peanuts and lots of beer when you're a student, or risotto gratin for 22 when you're me ) When we were on our roadtrip in the US, and eating out every night, we were very suprised that almost every other night, there was a birthday dinner going on in the restaurant! Not to mention the birthday lunches we witnessed in between!

Oh, I love this cook-off! When we went to New York last fall we had pizza at Grimaldi's. It was the best pizza I ever had and after that, I became obsessed with pizza baking. I was very much a pizza-novice at the time and I still am: no pizza stone, no baker's peel. Still through trial and error and weeks of pizzabaking I learned a lot. Guess I should go and look up the notes I made and see if i can recreate the Final Version that I came up with!

well, yes, I did. And no dishwasher... it took me 2 hours, not too bad!!

250 grams of mascarpone and 200 ml. of cream, whipped together with some vanilla and sugar. I love mascarpone..

using the leftovers from last nights birthday buffet for 22 , I made risotto cakes: not a great picture but I want to show off my new blue plates! Yay!

Monday was a long, long day of shopping and cooking. Did I mention that I don't drive, do all my shopping by bike, and then take it to our apartment on the 5th floor (no elevator)? I made 24 of these (this are the leftovers) to take to work on my birthday. They were served with whipped cream: And here are some pics of the party. i didn't take many because it was a bit hectic! some of the appetizers: onionconfit custard with thyme and parmesan little yorkshires with roastbeef, horseradish cream and watercress things with bread and muffins: lentil puree, green pea and mint & creamcheese spread, tomato chutney, cheeses. There were also nuts, olives, and radishes to nibble two giant pans of risotto gratin. The risotto was made with bacon, rosemary and courgette, and finished under the grill with lots of brie. It was very rich, creamy and very delicious: served with two salads: tomato- fennel- basil, and a salad of roasted cauliflower, mixed with chickpeas and lots of parsley, with a lemon dressing: Finally, dessert: white chocolate cheesecake with raspberry sauce, and pistachio cardamom lemon cake topped with strawberries and cream: All in all it was a big succes, there was lots and lots of food and I still have some leftovers in the fridge (risotto cakes tonight!) People were happy and that's the most important thing!