Cooking from "A Girl and Her Pig" (April Bloomfield)

[FrogPrincesse]

A few of you have mentioned on various threads that you were cooking from April Bloomfield's A Girl and Her Pig. I just got the book a few weeks ago at my favorite used bookstore and just started using it. I thought it would be good to capture our creations from the book in one spot.

The first thing that caught my eye was the Asparagus with Parmesan Pudding and Prosciutto. This little Parmesan pudding is the bomb! The pudding is mostly heavy cream with some milk, plenty of Parmesan, garlic (I used fragrant green garlic from my CSA) and eggs. It's easy to make and has fantastic flavor. It can be made in advance and reheated. I made it in individual ramekins so I could make a few extra ones for another meal.

It's excellent with asparagus as suggested in the book. The asparagus and prosciutto are placed on top of a nice big grilled piece of bread rubbed with olive oil. We ended up spooning the pudding over the asparagus as I was nervous about trying to unmold it in one piece.

It is also wonderful as a side dish with steak.

What other recipes have your tried?

[ChrisTaylor]

The seven vegetable soup is very good.

[FrogPrincesse]

Lamb chops with chimichurri

Because it is paired with lamb, this chimichurri variation uses mint and parsley (but she suggests other versions as well). Also included are thinly sliced shallots, garlic and habanero. Everything is mixed with olive oil and we wait long enough for the herbs to "get to know each other".

The lamb chops are pounded before they are grilled at high heat. They are served topped with the chimichurri (to which a little bit of lemon juice is added at the last minute) and a side of roasted peppers. We also had summer squash from our CSA.

You end devouring the chops with your fingers and it's delicious.

She demonstrates the recipe here.

[eternal]

No pictures but have made the baked eggs with anchovies at least three times and they are delicious. I just can't seem to time it right so where the whites have solidified but the yolks are still runny...

[FrogPrincesse]

No pictures but have made the baked eggs with anchovies at least three times and they are delicious. I just can't seem to time it right so where the whites have solidified but the yolks are still runny...

Are these baked in little ramekins? Baked eggs (or, as we call them in French, oeufs en cocotte) are hard to get just right but they are indeed delicious.

[FrogPrincesse]

Another recipe that I have enjoyed recently is the Swiss Chard with Olive Oil.

I like the simplicity of the recipe and the big flavor. She boils the stems first (cut into 1- to 2-inch pieces), then adds the leaves, drains them, adds them into a serving bowl where she just dresses them with olive oil and grated fresh garlic that she tosses with her hands, with a squeeze of lemon juice to brighten things up.

Full recipe here.

[FrogPrincesse]

I made Chef April Bloomfield's Chicken Adobo last night. It was ready in a little bit over an hour. Very flavorful and rustic - she does not peel the garlic or the ginger.

With jasmine rice

The recipe is available here for those who don't have the book.

[eternal]

No pictures but have made the baked eggs with anchovies at least three times and they are delicious. I just can't seem to time it right so where the whites have solidified but the yolks are still runny...

Are these baked in little ramekins? Baked eggs (or, as we call them in French, oeufs en cocotte) are hard to get just right but they are indeed delicious.

yep. def oeufs en cocotte style

[FrogPrincesse]

The chocolate-orange cake with bourbon caught my eye when I was looking for a chocolate dessert for a dinner party. Dark chocolate paired with orange zest and a generous amount of bourbon, what can go wrong...

I was a litle nervous about burning the alcohol off a full cup of bourbon. I just used an old pot and hoped for the best. It took more than 10 minutes. The key was to resist the temptation of giggling the pot as it just resulted in a microspray of vaporized bourbon. Without pot giggling, things were quite uneventful. My pot did not look too great at the end though so I was just glad I had not used a nicer one!

This dessert has no cream or milk. A syrup is made with the reduced bourbon, simple syrup and orange zest. I used what I thought was a cara cara orange for the zest, later realizing it was a pink grapefruit (!). But I thought that since grapefruit and bourbon work wonderfully well in one of my favorite cocktails the Brown Derby, everything should still be fine, and indeed it was.

The chocolate (she insists on 70% so I used Valrhona guanaja) melted with the butter in a bain marie was mixed with the bourbon syrup, and then added to the eggs beaten in the stand mixer.

Sliced it is dense and dark and reminded me of a marquise cake, which is essentially a dense chocolate terrine that is served cold. Unlike the marquise which is not cooked, this cake is cooked in a bain-marie, which did not seem to alter the texture very much. When sliced, it remained creamy and melted easily on the tongue. It was a good use of high-quality chocolate and bourbon. Using pink grapefruit zest ended up being fine (I compensated by grating madarin zest on top since I was out of oranges) but orange would be slightly brighter. This inspired me to make a Brown Derby cocktail with the appetizers so we started and ended the meal with bourbon and grapefruit.

Edited March 12, 2013 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

The summer succotash is very photogenic but I thought that it was a little too heavy with the heavy cream. I prefer a lighter version.

[Okanagancook]

Made the marinated red peppers with peppers from my garden. Excellent. Nice and tart with the use of sherry vinegar and the sauce gets to a nice consistency using her method of massaging the peppers with all the other ingredients.

[FrogPrincesse]

Okanagancook,

I haven't tried April Bloomfield's version, but I love marinated red peppers. Plantes Vertes made another version recently (here).

[nice cookbook collection by the way! ].

[Okanagancook]

I took a picture of them for you FP. It's the sauce that makes these a little different and that sherry vinegar is really nice and tart. April suggests to eat these with roasted roma tomatoes which I didn't have so we had them on top of a mixed green salad and cherry tomatoes.

Tomorrow I'm trying the roast lamb shoulder which I'll try to remember to take a picture of.

[FrogPrincesse]

Thanks for the picture. That looks really good!

[Okanagancook]

Made the braised lamb shoulder last night. Mine was just over a pound compared to the 6 pounder called for in the book. So I cut down on the other ingredients but followed the method. It was quite nice, not earth-shattering.