eG Foodblog: FrogPrincesse (2011) - From tartines to tikis

[FrogPrincesse]

kayb, Shelby, and johhnyd,

Thanks for the nice comments. They mean a lot, especially coming from veteran foodbloggers!

[FrogPrincesse]

It feels SO good to be back at home after a tough day at work, and to enjoy this wonderful cocktail.

This is a Trader Vic's Mai Tai, with the orgeat I made the other day. I used my favorite rum combination (La Favorite Coeur de Rhum + Appleton 12 year). The homemade orgeat takes it to another level.

Life is good again.

[Pam R]

I am also enjoying your blog immensely. Your kitchen is gorgeous and I'm envious of the large, airy room. What are your countertops? Love the colour.

[FrogPrincesse]

With our cocktails, we had French-style pupus.

Barely Buzzed cheese from Beehive, rubbed with coffee and lavender buds

Toma from Point Reyes

Sungold cherry heirloom tomatoes (from last week's CSA, but still delicious!)

Then, a tartine of homemade ricotta, with fleur de sel, mint, and saba.

[FrogPrincesse]

I am also enjoying your blog immensely. Your kitchen is gorgeous and I'm envious of the large, airy room. What are your countertops? Love the colour.

Thanks Pam!

The countertops are Ikea laminate in dark grey.

[FrogPrincesse]

While tonight's dinner is still cooking, here are some pictures of the making of the ricotta last night.

(My husband calls this another white blob story, after the fromage blanc, raita, and orgeat! )

Heating whole milk with citric acid and kosher salt to 185F - 195F

It has reached its temperature. Notice the tiny little curds.

It's time for a 10-minute rest.

After the resting period, it needs to be drained for about 20 minutes.

It looks dry enough for me (I like it still very creamy)

It's done!

[FrogPrincesse]

Here are some pictures of the original kitchen, per FauxPas' request.

The wall you see behind the oven no longer exists.

The remodel.

This photo, like the other recent photos, was taken standing where the wall used to be.

The framed area is now a bathroom.

[FrogPrincesse]

For our dinner tonight, we picked up a couple of dry-aged prime rib eye steaks from Siesel's, our favorite butcher shop. They're always really friendly there and take care of all my "strange" requests for unusual cuts of meats without giving me a hard time.

The shop is not huge but it carries a good selection, including the local breads from Bread & Cie, Stone beer, and El Indio chips, which is really convenient for us. They also have a deli and a small produce section.

Beef

Pork

Bacon & sausage section

[FrogPrincesse]

Before coming home, we also stopped by Specialty Produce to pick up our farmers' market bag. I have to explain that I realized this morning with horror and complete embarrassement that, with the excitement of the blog, I had completely forgotten to order my bag last Sunday. But they were nice enough to let me get one of their spare bags when I explained my situation.

This is what we received this week. Our daugther started devouring the plums almost immediately.

For tonight's dinner, I made a piperade inspired by the tomatoes, bell peppers, and garlic in the basket.

After frying some onions at low temperature, I added the sliced garlic, some salt, and a good amount of Espelette pepper.

After a few minutes, I added the chopped bell peppers and tomatoes, and let them cook at low heat until they became soft (about an hour).

[FrogPrincesse]

I seasoned the steaks with olive oil, salt, pepper and herbes de Provence, and let them reach room temperature.

I used a modified version of Alton Brown's method to cook them. I warmed a cast iron skillet in the oven for at least 30 minutes (longer is better) at high temperature, and cooked the steaks for 1 to 2 minutes per side for rare (me) to medium rare (him). It works because I had the steaks cut fairly thin (at least by American standards).

[FrogPrincesse]

Dessert with chocolate from our local chocolatier, and black emerald grapes from our farmers' market bag.

[FrogPrincesse]

As promised, here is the rest of the kitchen tour.

Our tiki drink station

The bar

(There is some overflow in the other cabinets)

The tea and coffee station

The Kitchenaid and a few of our dishes

The pantry, which is in the hallway in the back of the kitchen

[Kerry Beal]

With our cocktails, we had French-style pupus.

Barely Buzzed cheese from Beehive, rubbed with coffee and lavender buds

Loved that Barely Buzzed from Beehive - chocolot brought me some when she came for the chocolate conference - she is good friends with the cheesemaker. I was fortunate indeed - wish I could get it here.

Loved all those other pupus!

[FrogPrincesse]

With our cocktails, we had French-style pupus.

Barely Buzzed cheese from Beehive, rubbed with coffee and lavender buds

Loved that Barely Buzzed from Beehive - chocolot brought me some when she came for the chocolate conference - she is good friends with the cheesemaker. I was fortunate indeed - wish I could get it here.

Loved all those other pupus!

We really liked the cheese! The idea of a cheddar with coffee & lavender buds sounds strange on paper, but it really works.

[FrogPrincesse]

This morning, for a change, I had breakfast.

Homemade brioche with locally-made blood orange marmelade.

_{Corrected typo}

Edited July 8, 2011 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

I started making this brioche a couple of days ago.

Here is the process, based on Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Here are the ingredients. Normally, I would use honey from one of the vendors at the farmers' market, but I had run out.

The flour is added to a mixture containing lukewarm water, salt, yeast, eggs, honey, and melted butter. Yes, I measure the flour by volume, and this is only because this recipe does not need to be precise. The water content can always be adjusted to obtain the right consistency, which is supposed to be fairly loose. Otherwise I always use a scale for baking recipes.

I use my handheld mixer to make sure that all the flour is incorporated. The mixture does not have to be perfect, and this should take less than a minute (no kneading, just mixing!).

I finish by mixing the edges with a rubber spatula.

Here is what it looks like, before the first rise.

I use the proofing function on my oven. For dense batters, the setting is 125F.

Here is what it looks like after the first rise, which takes about an hour.

At that point, it went in the fridge until the next day.

_{Corrected typo}

Edited July 8, 2011 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[andiesenji]

That looks incredibly easy.

I love brioche and my recipe also requires resting in the fridge overnight. Much more flavor.

[FrogPrincesse]

On the second day (yesterday), when I took the dough out of the fridge, it had deflated a little.

I sprinkled some flour so the dough would not stick, lifted it out of the container, and cut off a large piece.

Then I formed the loaf and put it in the buttered pan.

It went in the oven again for its second rise.

[FrogPrincesse]

That looks incredibly easy.

I love brioche and my recipe also requires resting in the fridge overnight. Much more flavor.

It is indeed very simple and requires very little active time, just some planning.

It's also my experience that the flavor improves if the dough stays in the fridge for a few days before baking.

[FrogPrincesse]

After the final proofing step, I brushed the dough with an egg wash before it went in the oven.

35 minutes later, the brioche was finally ready and the house smelled wonderful !

For some reason, it cracked a little more than usual.

[andiesenji]

Naturally it cracked! It knew you were going to take a photo.....

Actually it looks like it is smiling. I can practically smell it.

I'm not going to bake brioche today but I am going to bake a loaf of bread from some ready-made mixes I have to use up.

[Genkinaonna]

Hmmm...I might have to get that book, I loves me some brioche toast for breakfast! Your kitchen is amazing. It's what I want to have when I grow up! And I like the concept of different produce from different farms for your CSA...ours are usually one farm exclusively so sometimes it's hard to get the kind of variety you want without doing two different baskets per week, which can get mighty expensive.

I love Barely Buzzed too...one of my favorite flavored cheeses.

Edited July 8, 2011 by Genkinaonna (log)

[heidih]

Your French style pupus were inspiring. Do you make your own baguettes as well? Also, I googled "saba" that you drizzled on the ricotta and did not come up with anything that made sense- can you elaborate?

As others have noted, you are inspiring me to attempt some simple soft cheeses.

I really really like the roll up doors on your storage areas. I detest clutter and will keep this in mind for a future kitchen idea.

Your brioche is lovely. My sole venture was with a James Beard recipe in the December 1979 issue of Bon Appetit that us very similar to the one you used but does not call for the aging of the dough. It was Saucisson en Brioche and I made it constantly for a number of years. I use the basic 5 minute concept for a simple loaf but would like to venture out. "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" has moved high up in my wish list.

[FrogPrincesse]

Your French style pupus were inspiring. Do you make your own baguettes as well? Also, I googled "saba" that you drizzled on the ricotta and did not come up with anything that made sense- can you elaborate?

As others have noted, you are inspiring me to attempt some simple soft cheeses.

I really really like the roll up doors on your storage areas. I detest clutter and will keep this in mind for a future kitchen idea.

Your brioche is lovely. My sole venture was with a James Beard recipe in the December 1979 issue of Bon Appetit that us very similar to the one you used but does not call for the aging of the dough. It was Saucisson en Brioche and I made it constantly for a number of years. I use the basic 5 minute concept for a simple loaf but would like to venture out. "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" has moved high up in my wish list.

Heidi,

I wish I did but I don't make my own baguettes. I make rustic no-knead breads that I cook in a cast iron dutch oven (Le Creuset), but obviously that would not work very well for baguettes. The bread for the ricotta tartine was from Bread & Cie, a local bakery (more on them later).

Saba is cooked grape must. It's rather sweet, and was used traditionally as a sweetener when sugar was more scarce. It's very good drizzled on a bitter salad such as treviso. It's called for in a few recipes in several books that I own, including Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin, and Babbo by Mario Batali.

It took me a while to find a place that carried it. I finally found it at the little store at Mozza (mozza2go), Batali's restaurant on Melrose in LA.

Here is an article on saba that was published in the New York Times.

Here is a picture of the bottle I have at home.

That Saucisson en Brioche sounds amazing! If you make it again, please post pictures on eGullet!

"Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" is worth looking into. So far I've only ventured into the peasant loaf and enriched bread sections, but the flatbreads are on my list too. Their website has a ton of information too, in addition to the excellent eGullet thread.

[Honkman]

Venissimo in Del Mar has Saba from time to time.