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Thomas Keller's "Bouchon" Cookbook


Bond Girl

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I have made the salmon with the buerre blanc which was really great. I have also done the lentil salad and the beet salad and for Christmas I made the glazed vegetables. All really good. I absolutely love this cookbook, the recipes are great and the pictures are just beautiful. Comes in a close second to French Laundry Cookbook when it comes to food porn. :biggrin:

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I feel the same way towards French Laundry Cookbook, which is why I did not get it. If I don't feel I am capable of making the recipes successfully then I won't buy it. Don't get me wrong, it is a gorgeous cookbook, but I agree, Bouchon is far more accessable, even if the recipes are more involved. I have had a great deal of success with the recipes in Bouchon.

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I'm about to get started on the Chocolate Terraine with custard sauce and pistachios from Bouchon.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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I have Braise! too, although I haven't cooked anything from it yet.

Chocolate Terraine with Creme Anglaise and Pistachios:

gallery_6080_205_113519.jpg

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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I eased myself into cooking from this book by making the recipe for "cocktail sauce" to serve with steamed shrimp on Christmas Eve. I got so many raves from my family and friends!

Tonight I made the potato and leek soup for my husband and mother-in-law. We ate it hot (though I have the leftovers chilling to try cold tomorrow). Everyone loved it!

I am so anxious to do the quiche but, after reading all of the posts here, plan to get the ring mold first!!!!!!! :rolleyes:

Donna

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It is incredibly rich. It's like a very thick, but silky mousse. A little of this goes a long way! It's also dead simple, if you discount shelling and peeling a whole bunch of pistachios, which is kind of a pain.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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It is incredibly rich.  It's like a very thick, but silky mousse.  A little of this goes a long way!  It's also dead simple, if you discount shelling and peeling a whole bunch of pistachios, which is kind of a pain.

Marlene,

At the Punjab market in Stoney Creek you can get pistachios already shelled and peeled quite reasonably.

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Thanks, Kerry! I'll have a look since I've got a rack of lamb with a pistachio crust I want to do, but I wasn't looking forward to peeling and skinning more pistachios!

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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Can someone tell me why it's necessary to caramelize 8 lbs of onions when only 1 1/2 cups goes into the soup?  The recipe says to reserve the remainder for another use - sure it's nice to have caramelized onions around, but I am not getting the reasoning.  (Yea verily, not seven, not nine, but eight shall be the number of pounds...)

a) The added mass helps keep the temperature stable and the sugars in the onion from burning and turning bitter.

b) It takes so damn long you might as well do a big batch to make it worth your while

PS: I am a guy.

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I have Braise!  too, although I haven't cooked anything from it yet.

I think this week I am making the lamb with rogan josh and I may do the Thai chicken because I want to try the lemon and corriander basmati rice that goes with it. I think it may become one of those things that I find other dishes to use it for as well as the Thai chicken.I have really mastered the skill of braising but I enjoy this because of the different types of spices and things that Boulud uses. Even some of the deserts and side dishes sound wonderful!

Marlene your terrine looks too good for words!! :biggrin:

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I'm getting very annoyed! I'm making the Bouchon quiche recipe again, and for the second time I'm having a bit of problem with the crust. When I parbake, the overhang of the crust falls off. It's as though it melts. The first time it happened, only part of the overhang fell off, so the crust was still OK to fill. This time, not only has the overhang fallen off, but it looks like an inch or so of the sides have slid down the pan.

Any ideas what may have gone wrong? I used 1 tablespoon less water than the recipe calls for, because the dough came together (and was a little sticky) after I had added only 3 tablespoons. The last time I made this, I thought the problem may have been due to undermixing (I could see some butter in the dough, and according to the recipe there shouldn't be any visible bits of butter). This time, I made sure to mix the dough very well, so there were no visible bits of butter at all.

I also used a food processor instead of a stand mixer, since I have the former but not the latter. And I use a non-stick pan, which is smaller in diameter but higher than the pan called for in the recipe (the volume is almost the same as the pan used in the recipe).

I'm a bit perturbed, but if anyone could give me an idea of what might have gone wrong, I'd much appreciate it!

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This time, I made sure to mix the dough very well, so there were no visible bits of butter at all.

this could partially be the problem prasantrin. Overmixing makes the dough elastic and it might shrink when baked, hence the breaking and slipping. Also I'm guessing the non-stick pan is helping the dough to slip.

I use a food processor too when making it since I have no stand mixer either. Although I always use all the water and the dough comes out perfect. So, maybe the flour is a bit off with you.

Do u measure it or weigh it? I always weigh it, so if u have a scale try doing that.

Make sure when u put the dough in the pan, you do not stretch it into place but lay it in gently, especially in the corners.

Last tip I would give you is to make sure it is very cold/rested when blind baking it.

good luck, this quiche is worth all the work.

E. Nassar
Houston, TX

My Blog
contact: enassar(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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did the roast chicken tonight.

gallery_6080_205_119695.jpg

And served it with buttermilk chive mashed and sauteed green beans. Not shown is the pan gravy I made with the drippings rather than making a chicken jus.

gallery_6080_205_73838.jpg

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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This time, I made sure to mix the dough very well, so there were no visible bits of butter at all.

this could partially be the problem prasantrin. Overmixing makes the dough elastic and it might shrink when baked, hence the breaking and slipping. Also I'm guessing the non-stick pan is helping the dough to slip.

I use a food processor too when making it since I have no stand mixer either. Although I always use all the water and the dough comes out perfect. So, maybe the flour is a bit off with you.

Do u measure it or weigh it? I always weigh it, so if u have a scale try doing that.

Make sure when u put the dough in the pan, you do not stretch it into place but lay it in gently, especially in the corners.

Last tip I would give you is to make sure it is very cold/rested when blind baking it.

good luck, this quiche is worth all the work.

I used flour with 8g protein/100g. I couldn't decide which to use--the 12g protein/100g or the 8g, so perhaps I should try using the 12g next time.

I was worried that I was overmixing, but the "no visible bits of butter" make me want to mix more. I think when i mixed it, the butter got too soft because it started to come together in a ball (a little) even before adding the water. I'll try again with a little less mixing.

I weighed the flour, but wasn't sure which weight/cup of flour to use (4 or 5oz per cup?) so I used 4.5 oz per cup. Was that too little?

The next time I'm in Osaka, I'll look for a ring such as that suggested for making the quiche. They're a bit hard to find in Japan, but I would imagine the restaurant supply area would have them!

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to try again tonight. Because of the lower sides of the crust, I had to use less filling in my most recent version. Thus it was not as creamy and rich as past versions I've done. It's still good, but not as good. (It's almost gone, though, so it's not too bad!)

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For a dinner party tonight, I made the Raspberry Napoleon:

gallery_6080_205_6627.jpg

Edited by Marlene (log)

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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No, I didn't make the puff pastry. I get all butter puff pastry in sheets that have already been rolled out.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Made the Cauliflower Gratin last night as a side for dinner. Pretty involved process for a side dish but very delicious.

gallery_44782_4164_131261.jpg

I have dough made for the crust of the quiche recipe in the fridge, bought the needed ring form, now......just to get up the courage to roll the dough, carefully place in the ring form and just hope it bakes without making holes that the filling will flow through!!!!! A project for this evening. Wish me luck! :wacko:

Donna

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despite what that idiot ruhlman says (and thomas and the rest), i had fine luck making the quiche with a springform pan ring. the MOST important thing is not trying to roll the dough out too thin. that's very hard to resist because the pastry is so wonderful to work with you want to keep rolling forever. but it really needs to be about 1/4 inch thick. look at the picture in the book and you'll see that it is quite thick. and, of course, bake it on a jellyroll pan just in case you screw up.

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I made the wild mushroom quiche the other day for breakfast at my Mom's inn, and despite my best efforts to screw it up, it came out delicious.

I had to make two, and despite only having one cake ring, I found a springform pan around the same size (couldn't have been more than 2 1/4 inches high. The dough is so easy to work with, and rolled out beautifully. The first problem came when I went to blind bake it. I only had enough beans for one, and unfortunately had used the last of my rice the night before. The smart thing to do would have been to bake them separately, or go to the store, but it was cold out, so I split them between the two. This led to some puffing around the sides, and well as the crust getting a little too dark.

A crack did appear in one of them, and I was pissed to find out I had thrown away the left over dough that I had saved just in case. So when it came time to fill, a lot ran out. The other one didn't leak too much. So I messed up a bit, but the taste was still great. Most of the guests loved it (some apparently didn't eat mushrooms, so just picked them out), and my mother thought it was the best quiche she's ever had. I really want to make the Roquefort one, but I think it might be a bit too strong tasting for some guests.

Definitely would make this again though. So far I've cooked about 10 things from this book, and every one of them has turned out stellar.

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Through all of the trepidation....I did do it and it did not leak at all.....THE QUICHE!!!! Did forget the part where I was to rest the dough in the fridge after placing carefully into the ring form but, luckily, I hope, the dough was not too warm. So, baked it as directed, cooled it while making the filling, and NO leaking at all. Even with filling completely with beans, the crust did come away from one side a bit, though.

This is after the bake (just out of the oven). It is the leek and roquefort filling.

gallery_44782_4164_2445.jpg

It looks a little more brown in the picture than it was. Will cool and refridgerate until tomorrow, then cut off the overhanging crust. Am anxious to try it!!!! Planning to try the other fillings as well (in the future) and making up new ones IF this is as wonderful as everyone says.

Donna

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