Another Reason To Give Thanks

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I thought I'd nip in with some good advice for the holiday.  Thanksgiving, although it is by far and away my favorite holiday, can be stressful, what with families gathering (nobody pushes your buttons faster than family), distance travel (and isn't airline travel a joy these days?), the short turnaround, and cooking/eating/drinking far too much.

The ticket is to keep it simple. Well, as simple as possible, anyway. 

In that spirit of simplicity, let me just say "Gougères."  

Gougères are cheesy little puffs that can take the place of heavy dinner rolls on your Thanksgiving table. They have far more flavor than rolls and they are light, so they don't take up space in your tummy that might otherwise be filled with pie - let's face it, it's really all about the pie, am I right?

They can be made ahead and the dough frozen, then popped into the oven about 20 minutes before dinner is served. I used this recipe from the San Francisco Chronicle. The Chron may not be a world-class newspaper but it takes its food recipes seriously. I made these on a leisurely Saturday morning in less than an hour, baked a few as a test batch and froze the rest of the dough to be baked for Thanksgiving dinner.

My Beloved, Cora and I all tried them and we all approve. Mine didn't look like the picture in the paper, sadly - much flatter and spread out - but they tasted terrific. The slightly crisp outside and creamy middle of these two-inch treasures reminded me of popovers, only gentler, smaller and filled with herbs and pepper to complement the cheese. They are buttery enough not to need more butter, redolent with herbs and black pepper. In a word, killer.

You can also use them as appetizers at a cocktail or dinner party - heaven knows, no appetizers are needed on Thanksgiving. Imagine how impressed your guests will be when you whip out of the oven fresh, warm cheesy puffs - they're going to think you are serious competition for Martha Stewart or Ina Garten. 

2012 has been a tough year for me and My Beloved, filled with bad news of several kinds seemingly every time we turned around. Still, we are grateful for his beautiful daughters, their handsome spouses and our gorgeous grands. We are happy to have good relations with our families and our neighbors. We thank heaven each day for the goofy and lovable dog who came to live with us almost four years ago. We have dear friends whom we cherish and who return our aloha. We know how lucky we are to live where the weather is mainly friendly. We aren't wealthy but we have enough. 

In my view, gougères are just another reason to be thankful.


Fontina & Herb Gougères, from the San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, November 4, 2012

Makes about 4 dozen

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup whole milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
Kosher salt and ground pepper, to taste
1 cup grated Fontina cheese (you can use other cheese and herb combos, too)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
5 eggs

Bring the butter, milk and 1/2 cup water to boil in a medium saucepan. Turn heat down to medium; add the flour and a pinch of salt and pepper all at once. Stir vigorously to combine and continue to cook about 1 minute more, stirring constantly, until the dough has formed a ball and leaves a thin film on the bottom and sides of the pot. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. 

Transfer dough to a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Add the cheeses and oregano, and beat on low speed to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition just to incorporate, and scraping down the sides of the bowl, if necessary.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. If you have a pastry bag, transfer the dough to a bag fitted with the large round tip; pipe the dough in rounds about 1-1/2 inches in diameter onto the baking sheet. If you don't have a pastry bag, use an ice cream scoop to form the rounds. (I used a plastic baggie with the tip of one corner cut off and it worked well).

If you are baking them right away, space them about 2 inches. If freezing for later, you can pipe them close together. Use a wet fingertip to push down and smooth out any peaks on the rounds. 

For freezing, place the baking sheet in the freezer for at least 1 hour, until the balls are hard and easy to handle. Peel the gougères off the baking sheet and place in a zippered freezer bag to store up to 1 month.

To bake: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the gougères (straight from the freezer if you have frozen them) on a parchment- or silpat-lined baking sheet, spaced about 2 inches apart. Bake for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for another 15-18 minutes until golden, turning the tray about halfway through to ensure even cooking. Remove from oven and serve warm.

Note: If baking without freezing, be sure the gougères are at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheet, and bake for a slightly shorter time.

Gougères, Take Two

Remember those gougères I raved about back on November 13th?  Well, I made them again to take to Thanksgiving dinner. Since they are little puffs of flavor, I thought they'd be more welcome at the feast than heavy dinner rolls. When they came out of the oven, there were ooohs and aaahs from the assembled guests - they look quite dramatic and difficult which, of course, they are not.  Everyone took one to taste while they were still hot, tossing them from hand to hand to cool before breaking in to the herb-scented middle and taking a bite. Lots of compliments. Nicely rewarding for the cook, I must say.

Still, Thanksgiving being the feast that it is, we had so many dishes to try that there were actually some gougères left over, so the daughters, who had cooked all the rest of the meal, wrapped them up to send home with us.  When I discovered them yesterday, I did a happy dance right there in the kitchen, as I had been thinking that they'd make great substrates for turkey sandwiches.

And, they did. They were only about the size of silver dollars, but they made tasty little sandwiches with a small slice of turkey, a dab of cranberry sauce and a leaf of lettuce. The herbal flavor added to the pleasure of what is to my mind the very best part of Thanksgiving - the sandwiches the next day.  

While we were enjoying our sandwiches, I remarked that if I made the next batch a tad bigger, they'd make great slider buns, both lighter and more flavorful than regular slider buns. So, now I'm all fired up to try making them bigger. In the meantime, these smaller ones would be a great way to surround different nibbles for holiday parties - crab salad, rare roast beef, ham and cheese, the ideas are endless.  And we are hosting a holiday party this year, so I'm glad I know how to make some easy canapés, thanks to Take Two of the gougères.

Freezer Burn Is Not All Bad

I posted about these gougères 'way back around Thanksgiving of 2012 when I made them for my family celebration and froze the extra ones for another day. In my manic emptying of pantry and freezer prior to the start of destruction/construction in the kitchen, I found these and decided I'd better use them up - after all, they were probably well past their use-by date in any case and may even have been a little freezer-burned.

So, I popped them, still frozen, onto a baking sheet and baked them for dinner. Hard to believe, but they actually improved in the freezer. The cheesy taste of the fontina was much more pronounced and they stood up higher and lighter in the oven than my first batch. They also browned better, the tops getting all crisp and crackly while the interiors were like popovers, soft and stretchy.

So, here's the recipe link again but, if you make them, freeze the whole batch first and wait a long time before enjoying them. It makes all the difference.

Rivoli

Welcome to the most serene dining room in the Bay Area. That's how I always feel whenever I am treated to dinner at Rivoli on Solano Avenue in Albany/Berkeley (the border between the two towns is unclear to me). I love the smooth, matte wooden tables, the gorgeous Heath pottery of the table settings, the wood ceiling with square apertures for the soft round light fixtures, the soft browns of the walls and seats, and most of all the huge glass window that looks on to a secret garden.

To get to this room, you must traverse a narrow passage past the kitchens and the wine racks. As you enter, the maitre d' calls "Guests in the hall!" to alert the servers that there are novices on the way down. You get a tantalizing glimpse of gleaming bottles and busy kitchen before the passage opens up into this calm, inviting dining room. Whoever designed the restaurant understood that juxtaposition of busyness and peacefulness, and how it sets the mood immediately for leisure and relaxation.

This time, we were seated in the far corner away from the window in a comfy corner banquette, which I really loved, as My Beloved was close and we had the whole view of the dining room to enjoy. We were walk-ins this time but even when we make a reservation, I will ask for that table. We arrived early on a Wednesday evening, but by the time we left every table was filled and the hum of conversation was lively. One of the pleasures of the dining room is that all the tables are well spaced - no shimmying through to sit down, and conversations can be private if you like.

The menu is all about what's fresh and local today. I won't bore you with a complete rundown; suffice it to say that every entree featured something summery, and likely it will have changed by the time you go, anyway. 

I chose the gougères as my starter, since I can't seem to make them well at home. They were light as a cloud and oozing a little Gruyere cheese, resting on a pool of sweet corn mornay sauce. Subtle flavors, but perfectly complementary, and beautifully cooked.

I chose chicken, shrimp, clam, and mussel adobo with paella rice as my main dish, but the "salad" that came in between was truly the highlight of the evening. Nothing was wrong with the adobo - it was wonderful and the portion so large I had to bring home half - but this salad of fresh green beans, lightly roasted marcona almonds, and ripe peach slices was simply perfect. 

The green beans had just a little crunch left in them before they were tossed with a tart-but-not-overwhelming vinaigrette. The almonds were roasted (I suspect) with just the oil they come in - there is something about toasted almonds and green beans that just sings! Add to that the slices of yellow and white peaches, perfectly ripe and sweet, and resting on a little puddle of today's ricotta cheese. Oh.My.God. This salad is something I will make at home for guests - it's easy enough, and it would make a satisfying lunch all by itself. The genius was in knowing that these ingredients would all work so well together, and in preparing each element perfectly.

Let me digress for a minute to tell you about My Beloved's gazpacho salad. I had trouble deciding between it and the peach salad but, happily, he chose the gazpacho and gave me bites. Actually, to say he gave me bites is to neglect to tell you that I commandeered his bowl after the first bite and scraped up the last little bit, it was so good. I'd have licked that bowl if I hadn't had my mother's ghost on my shoulder whispering "Remember your manners!" 

That's another dish I will try to replicate at home. The gazpacho was puréed finely and poured into the bottom of a soup bowl, then large chunks of heirloom tomato, cucumber, pickled red onion, and garlic toast were placed on top. We loved the contrast of pureed soup and chunky bites on top, and the whole dish was so fresh and "now" that I'd swear everything was picked that morning.

I asked for a menu as a keepsake, but the truth is that I didn't want to forget a single ingredient when I try to replicate those two salads at home. 

As if those weren't good enough, the sommelier actually found good wines to go with dishes as diverse as these salads, a fish course, and chicken adobo - a rosé for him and a light red for me.

If you live in the Bay Area, or are coming for a visit, I can recommend a trip to Albany/Berkeley to sit in that lovely dining room and consume a wonderful meal. And, on the way out, don't forget to stop in the hallway by the kitchen and tell the young chefs how delicious everything was. Their faces light up with smiles of true delight, almost as wide as the smile on your own face.