soupnancy

Pavlova, and a side of rhubarb

Now this is a cook’s dessert, ie. Oh so simple and delicious!

Defining Pavlova loosely: Meringue, some whipped cream plus fruit.

rhubarb vanilla grass pavlova and sorbet, clover strawberry shortbread

fresh rhubarb from the garden

It’s rhubarb season, and I love rhubarb, a tart veg-fruit of which I have an abundant supply in the back yard, so no-brainer – rhubarb pavlova goes on the menu. Besides, I have cooked rhubarb just about every other way in the past few weeks.. In the process, I have also drank quite a bit of fresh rhubarb juice, yum (just chop rhubarb, toss with a bit of sugar, let sit in fridge or freezer, drain and drink, while using the rhubarb in recipe!) Which made me think I should be doing a rhubarb post.. But since everyone else in the food media has rhubarbed out the rhubarb thing before it even really came into season here, I will focus on the pavlova, especially after seeing so many plates licked clean on the weekend. This dessert was the hit of my rhubarb series. It can only get better too, as the first Quebec strawberries, rhubarb’s favourite partner come into season.. To think that I had temporarily forgotten about Pavlova or the usefulness of meringue altogether; it came back to me when I had to test a meringue recipe for my cookbook judging.. I am happy to have rediscovered it but because it is just so darn good, and a terrific vehicle for summer fruit.. It is versatile, open for inspiration and it is one of those desserts that is actually doable at home, or for cooks who aren’t necessarily pastry chefs like me.

When layered, the three simple components of sweet and crispy (the meringue), soft and rich (the Chantilly ), and sweet and sour (the fruit garnish) come together to dance and sing spring once assembled. The result is something greater than the sum of the parts – Pavlova is decadent, but it tastes light.

Now to make it..

First off, try not to choose a rainy day. (I hope this is not a recipe deal breaker for you..)

Then you make your meringue, cook it, let it dry out.

Make a fruit compote or salsa… I made both, and a coulis and gelée too, to have contrasts of fresh and cooked flavours, smooth and jiggly textures, but that’s not necessary.

What is necessary is fruit is some form, even fresh is fine, and making a Chantilly , or whipped cream flavoured with vanilla or flavour of choice. I used vanilla-grass, you can do whatever you want, even add a shot of liqueur.

Pile it all on the meringue, dig in.

It can look as nice as you want it (if you make mini meringues and pipe your toppings), or you can go free form and make one big one family style- but most importantly, you can trust that it will taste great and wow your guests, be they sophisticated gourmands or little ones.

For 8-12

Meringue

4 egg whites

1 cup of sugar

pinch salt

pinch cream of tartar

Whip whites with pinch of salt and cream of tartar to foamy, soft peaks, add sugar and continue beating to stiff peaks. Pipe closed coils with a rim 2-3’’ in diameter onto a silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cook for 1 ½ hr- 2 at 200F or until dry, not coloured. Let cool in oven. Store in an airtight container if not assembling right away.

Chantilly

1 c whipping cream

2 Tbsp sugar or to taste

1 vanilla bean or drops of aroma of choice

Rhubarb compote

Cube a bunch of rhubarb stalks, 4-5. Stay away from the leaf ends (toxic). Toss with 1 cup or so of sugar. Let sit for an hour or so.

Remove the accumulated juice and reserve to adjust the consistency (reserve rest for another purpose). Cook up half the rhubarb, add a couple of handfuls of strawberries and some of the juice, cook down to compote (10min). Season with a pinch of salt, a squeeze of lemon and honey (or Labrador tea syrup) to taste.. Allow to cool, stir in the fresh rhubarb (the other half).

What's cooking

The dish - Gravelax

It’s spelled so many ways I don’t know which is right. But what it is, is cured salmon, (or any fish nowadays) that gets a salt/sugar/spice treatment and is eaten as such, somewhere between cooked and raw, silky and toothsome, easy to love.

This was one of the first recipes I gravitated towards and attacked as a young cook; my first experiments date to even before cooking school. So it was also one of the first dishes I felt I mastered because I made it so much, and maybe because my boyfriend at the time LOVED it. The original recipe involved a cure of fine salt and sugar, some brandy, pepper and allspice, lots of dill of course, pressed for three days. Served with some mustardy homemade mayo with dill and some blinis or toast (at the time), I didn’t think it could get any better.

Nonetheless, as I grew as a cook, I had a lot of fun playing around with the recipe and eventually did get bored.. In fact, I broke up with the dish when I broke up with the guy, suddenly having no desire to go there anymore. It also happened that at that time in nineties restaurant food trends, ‘smoked’ was coming back in, as was everything raw, and so all the restaurants I was working in were into smoking their salmon or serving it fresh in tartare, cured was out. I was all about it. To shake it up every now and again, I’d riff on the smoked, even go to gravelax, but with gin and juniper, with mirin, soy, ginger and coriander, with vodka, citrus and fennel, with maple, cider and tea, with coarse salt and brown sugar instead of regular salt and sugar, I’d go for a shorter intense cure, a longer un-pressed cure, anything but the classic I once loved. Most were successful, but somehow, none measured up to that first taste memory. I suspected it had more to do with matters of the heart than my evolution as a cook, but no matter.

Fast forward ten years. In parallel with my current tendency towards tradition and simplicity, and because enough time has elapsed that the original association with that ex-boyfriend is dead, I am ready to revisit that old recipe.

The only thing I’m doing differently is using arctic char, and maple brandy and some maple syrup (it is maple season after all). And I’ll probably serve it with a maple enhanced mustard condiment and something crunchy and fresh, maybe glaze it, we’ll see.. but that’s only because this is a restaurant and so a few extra touches are in order; it should be great on it’s own. With toast and mustardy mayo like in the old days.

Gravelax off to cure

cured char (end pieces ready first)

char, maple cured and smoked, root veg remoulade with crinkleroot maple mustard, amaranth and pickled daisy buds

Gravelax

Enough for a party (or breakfast and lunch for a week for two)

1 Salmon filet (around 3lb net), preferably wild or organic

3/4 c sea salt

1 c sugar

1/2 c maple syrup

2oz brandy

2 bunches dill

3T peppercorns, crushed

1T allspice, crushed

Clean filet if it’s not already done (debone, trim). Slice filet in two. Mix salt, sugar and spices together with brandy and maple syrup to make a slurry. Layer filets with salt mixture and dill (make a sandwich with skin outward) with some slurry and dill in between, under and over. Cover with saran wrap and weigh down with another baking dish with tomato cans or whatever you have. Let sit for 2-3 days, flipping at least once. For a thick salmon filet or a whole fish, 3 days is better. My char is thin, so two will be enough. Rinse off, dry and slice. It will keep for a week or so.

A la minute version:

Slice fresh (sushi-grade) salmon thinly on a plate. Add a generous splash of maple syrup, a scant splash of brandy, and a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Brush on (with a pastry brush) to evenly distribute. Sprinkle with sea salt, a generous amount of cracked pepper and a scant crack of allspice and some chopped fresh dill. Cover with saran wrap and press down so that there is no exposure to air. Let sit for an hour or two, serve. Squeeze with lemon or serve on side.

What's cooking - Ingredient

The holy egg

duck eggs

To follow up on my Ode to the egg for Easter (last year) http://soupnancy.squarespace.com/blog-journalessays/2007/4/6/my-easter-egg.html,

Lets get cooking..

Here are some of my favourite ways with eggs at home: see recipes below for.. 

• Gaby’s cheddar scrambled eggs
• Oeuf en cocotte with truffle and tomato
• Frittata
• Bread pudding with berries and chocolate

And some other Easter recipes..

• Baked Ham  http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/241636   Following a similar method, you could use a bottle of red wine or cider, 1 cup of maple syrup instead of the sugar and honey, and add some spices (a few cloves, thyme, bay and black peppercorns)..
• Roast leg of lamb http://www.saveur.com/food/2000/roast-leg-of-lamb-15965.html

• Roasted lamb shoulder – I love doing something similar but with Morrocan spices, and a stuffing using more spice with caramelized onions, olives, raisins, almonds and olive oil to bind.. http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2007/11/slowroasted_shoulder_of_lamb_rubbed_with_rosemary_anchovy_and_lemon_zest.php 
• Italian Easter egg bread http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/106188
• Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce http://www.saveur.com/food/classic-recipes/asparagus-with-hollandaise-sauce-1000031047.html  In case you’re dying for something crunchy and green..

Gaby’s cheddar scrambled eggs

Gaby is a wonderful lady I worked with many years ago before I went to cooking school. She was a jolly great cook, putting out 30+ home style lunches back in the day of the Grumpy’s power lunch all by herself. She made the best soups, but her cheddar scrambled eggs stuck with me because she amazed me by making them in the microwave (you only dirty one dish). I think they are better in the pan, but in a jiff, I will occasionally pull out her trick. The key is too use a low power (50%) for 3 minutes (for 3 eggs), a little less or more depending on the quantity. She would just mix all the ingredients together, cover and zap, stopping to stir once or twice. But still, I think the only way hers were so good even in the microwave had a lot to do with the generous amount of cheese and butter. I make them quite a bit lighter, so I find I have more control in the pan.

Gaby's cheddar scrambled eggs

2-4 portions

6 eggs

a squirt of milk

salt and pepper to taste

Tabasco

Butter 2 Tbsp or more

1/2 cup of grated Medium aged cheddar cheese

Whisk eggs with salt, pepper and a squirt of milk or cream. Add a tablespoon of butter to pan and once somewhat hot, add eggs. Lower heat and cook gently, stirring regularly (the more you stir, the creamier they will be). I like curds, so I don’t stir too much, just enough to keep it from caking. When the curds are formed, but still very moist ( a minute or two later), add the cheese and remaining butter and shut off. Allow to sit to finish cooking to desired doneness.

Oeufs en cocotte

oeuf en cocotte with tomato and smoked salt, fiddlehead salad

8 p

8 duck (or hen) eggs

1/2c heavy cream

drops truffle oil

salt and pepper

Tabasco or chilli paste

2 tomatoes, blanched, peeled seeded and diced

salt and pepper

pinch sugar (if necessary)

1 Tbsp good olive oil

drops good balsamic vinegar

Combine cream with truffle oil, salt and pepper, Tabasco or chilli paste. Break eggs into ramekins. Top with a teaspoon of truffle cream. Cook covered in a water bath at 300F for 20-25min until set but still giggly.

Serve with coarse salt and tomato fondue. Fresh tomato salsa or roasted tomato (confit) would be good too. For an extra decadent garnish, add crumbled bacon, sliced ham or smoked duck. This makes an elegant appetizer, or a light lunch or dinner with baguette and salad.. Sometimes I add sautéed mushrooms or some surprise in the bottom before baking for another layer of flavour.

Frittata

I can’t possibly write one recipe for this. I’ve never made the same one twice. Basically, it’s just an omelette with stuff, baked into a round or square format so that you can cut it into wedges or little squares and serve warm, at room temperature or even cold, eaten out of hand.

You start with eggs, calculate 1-2 per person. Then you choose the stuff, ie. the garnish and some cheese. When it comes to garnish, I would say onions are a must, plus some other vegetables to liven up the mix, and maybe some salty meat like bacon or pancetta or proscuitto or chorizo (although optional). For vegetables, anything in season, anything you like is good, sweet peppers are one of my favourite additions. Something green like spinach or asparagus is nice too. Cooked potatoes are the classic Spanish tortilla (omelette) garnish. I even use toasted bread as a base sometimes, making it good finger food once room temperature. Flavour wise, tomatoes are always welcome, although best added late.

One of my favourite old time catering items was a ratatouille frittata. In another restaurant I worked in, we used whatever good leftovers we had on hand to make the frittata of the day (grilled vegetables, caponata, tuna, smoked salmon, pizza toppings, you name it) always for delicious results. Onions and olives, Broccoli and sun dried tomato, ham and swiss chard, the options are endless. Just keep the amount of garnish to less than half that of the eggs or it won’t hold together. Cheese is not absolutely necessary, but it helps the structure wise and even a bit really boosts the oomph factor. Choose a good melting cheese, ie. something firm like an aged Quebec cheddar or Fetard or Baluchon or a Gruyere or a little Parm. Goat cheese is good too, but in that case you would use less or maybe in combination with a hard, mild cheese. Figure about 20g a person or per 2 eggs (say a good pinch of grated cheese), a cup for a medium pan.

In any case, you need to stew, roast or sauté (in other words, cook) the vegetables or meat garnish you will be using first. Then in a greased pan or baking dish, you place the vegetable garnish, then the mixed eggs, top with the cheese and bake. For a small party (say up to 8), the fastest, easiest way is to sauté your onions and peppers or whatever veg or meat in a fry pan until cooked, then add the egg mix, stirring a little; when it starts to set, you add the cheese and stick it in a 325F oven (or less if you’re not in a rush) until it’s set (anywhere from 10-30 min depending on the size and temp). Pull out, let cool slightly and slice up. Serve with a salad and some good bread. An 8” pan will hold 6 large eggs, a 10-12’’ pan with hold twice that. For anything bigger, use a baking dish.

I hate writing ‘real’ recipes, but maybe you’re dying for a proper one, there are plenty out there, so here you go..

A tasty frittata (potato, onion and sausage) http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/a-tasty-frittata-recipe.html

Asparagus frittata http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/002019asparagus_frittata.php

Frittata with bacon, fresh ricotta and greens http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/233142

Bread pudding with chocolate and blueberries

12 x 3oz portions

8 yolks

1 cup of sugar

2 cups of milk

2 cups of heavy cream

1 vanilla bean or flavouring of choice

1 small loaf of dry country bread (or day old baguette)

125 g blueberries

½ c couverture chocolate pistoles (or chocolate chips)

pinch salt

squeeze lemon and/or orange

Cube bread. Gently heat cream, milk, pinch of salt and half of sugar with vanilla bean or flavouring of choice. I like to use Labrador tea or wintergreen or spices like star anise, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg or almond paste.. When scalding, shut off, let sit for a few minutes. Meanwhile, break eggs, whisk yolks with remaining sugar and slowly whisk in hot cream mixture, strain. Pour over bread cubes and mix. Let sit for an hour or overnight (refrigerated) until the bread has soaked up most of the liquid. The mixture should be thick but pourable or at least scoopable. Add a little extra milk or cream or maple syrup to loosen up if necessary. Mix in blueberries and chocolate pieces, spoon into buttered ramekins (or a buttered baking dish). Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake in a 325F oven for 30-40min or until set.

making bread pudding

bread pudding ready to bake

What's cooking

The dish - Polenta fries

While everyone else is in a rush for spring, I’m holding on to winter.. This week though, I had no choice but to get thinking ahead. The Voir needed my thoughts on maple, so I pumped out my menu for the sugaring off season, and then for another upcoming media event, I had to deliver my spring menu.. I let myself get all dreamy and put myself there momentarily. Knowing me, I’ll want to change it all when the time comes – I hate making menus so far in advance.

Besides, the reality is that it’s still full-on winter, which I actually have no problem with. I’d rather stay put and celebrate that, make the most of it. There are so many winter activities I haven’t yet fully taken advantage of, and many favourite winter dishes I never got around to cooking. One of those is Polenta..

polenta fries (oven baked)

venison two ways, wild mushrooms and polenta fries

I love polenta, aka cooked cornmeal mush. It’s one of my comfort foods in every form, whether soft like porridge, firm and fried, creamy and rich with cheese, or layered with roasted veg and mushrooms in casserole form.. Every time I make it, I end up eating a ton before the dish is even done; burning my fingers and tongue with my over eager taste tests is always a part of the polenta process.

However, I’ve noticed that polenta is generally not a winner menu item, so I don’t make it as often as I would like. Even if I know that I could turn people around, the fact is, polenta is never going to be as likeable as mashed potatoes here, so why fight it too much. I do need to put it on my menu every now and then though, and since its perfect winter fare, I decided to go for it before the snow started melting, but to put it out there in one of its most approachable forms – as fries!

Basically, you make a rather neutral and stiff polenta (between 2 to3:1 ratio of liquid to polenta), cool it, cut it and fry or bake. The polenta sticks could be breaded (flour, egg wash, breadcrumbs) before frying for extra textural crunch, which is probably best if you’re making it on the creamy side. Polenta is a blank canvas, in that you can use the amount of liquid you want depending on the desired texture, vary the type of liquid, and add whatever flavourings depending on your inspiration. The more liquid, fat and added ingredients, the softer it will be. For a stiff polenta (the kind of inedible roll you see in stores) something along the lines of a 2:1 ratio of fine cornmeal and water is at play. A decadent molten version in a high end restaurant may involve something closer to a 4 or even 5:1 ratio, including perhaps stock, cream, butter, truffle oil etc. Because polenta is bland, it’s tempting to load it with cheese, fat and flavourings, and to push the 3:1 ratio, which is fine if you’re serving it soft, but then it gets trickier to make fries.

First of all, a fine to medium polenta (cornmeal) is best for this kind of recipe. For straight up polenta, I prefer a coarsely ground type. For the liquid, I personally like to use a mixture of water and milk because the taste is clean, not too rich, it lends a firm texture without being ultra stiff. I use a little cheese, just enough to pump up the umami, not enough to make the mixture rich or difficult to work with. After all, it is a side to be served with meat and sauce. I might take a different approach if it was in a starring role. But then again, I don’t really like flavouring my pasta dough either, leaving that to the sauce, both for the sake of practicality and for contrast. Same goes here.

Either way, making polenta is easy, but you can’t stray too far from the stove. Bring your liquid to a boil, add some flavourings, stir in the polenta in a steady stream while mixing constantly with a whisk. I generally add some butter or good oil, a pinch of chilli, maybe some sautéed garlic and some thyme or not. Switch to a wooden spoon once it thickens up. Keep stirring regularly over low heat for 10-20 minutes or until the polenta pulls away from the sides of the pan. Then you add the cheese and season to taste and pour it out into a container to cool.

Polenta is great with meat and meat jus, so to accompany a juicy steak, a braised dish or stew, also with sausages, anything tomato based, mushrooms or just on it’s own. It’s fun to play around with too.. Polenta, a true comfort food, and a dear winter companion, is there for you.

Polenta fries

4 p

1 c fine cornmeal

1 1/2 c water

1 1/2 c milk

pinch chillies

pinch salt

1 Tbsp butter

½ c grated Parmesan or other sharp aged cheese

s.q. lemon juice

Prepare an oiled or buttered 8x10’’ baking dish. Bring liquid to a boil, add butter, chilli and salt. Slowly pour in polenta while whisking. Lower heat and stir regularly for about 10 minutes. When polenta has lost its gritty texture, is holding together and pulling off the sides of the pan, add the cheese and season to taste with a squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper. If it’s unmanageably stiff, add a touch of milk or cream, but it should be thick. Pour quickly into a greased hotel pan, cookie sheet, or glass dish, cover with saran wrap and smooth surface with a spatula or another baking dish on top. Put in the fridge until cool and solid. Cut into sticks 1cm wide. Dredge in flour and fry at 350F or space out on a baking sheet with a little extra olive oil (or boletus oil) and put in a hot oven (400F) for 20min or so, turning once or twice until crusty and golden.

Other polenta recipes :

• Increase the liquid and add extra, butter, cheese, or heavy cream to make a soft purée to replace mashed potatoes with a meat dish.
• Or add 1/2 cup cream or milk, some sautéed mushrooms, roast vegetables or sausage in a casserole dish, top with extra butter and cheese and bake for a hearty vegetarian meal.
• A mushroom polenta dish I posted last year:

http://soupnancy.squarespace.com/whats-cooking-recipes/2006/11/1/more-mushroom-recipes-home-style.html

What's cooking

The dish - Duck gnudi

'Gnudi' means ‘nu’ or ‘naked’, and here, it refers to a naked filling. I forget when and where I came across this; it went from a scrap of paper to the back of my mind a while ago now. When I saw it, I remember it consisting of greens with ricotta and egg, as in a ravioli without the pasta wrapper. I believe it was poached and then pan-roasted, but anyway, I loved the idea and decided I wanted to try it out one day with sea spinach. It’s not as if it’s anything revolutionary; like I said it is filling. More accurately, it’s a dumpling; add some flour or starchy potato and it is gnocchi, add bread and it’s fancy turkey stuffing, add meat and it’s a meatball. In any case, there was something about the naked name, so catchy and cute, and the appealing notion of straight stuff with no excess dough, most appropriate for certain dishes.

However, good ideas come and go, and I never got around to doing it, almost forgot about it. Until I was composing my duck event menu and looking for something to float in my soup, which of course is a duck broth. I love consommé au naturel, especially if extracted from duck carcass, but customers might find it boring. I have done the traditional stuffed pasta, noodles of all kinds, wild rice, the royale garnish, various vegetable garnishes, blah. I considered making duck egg noodles (but that’s still noodles) or doing a stratiatella with duck eggs, maybe some sea spinach and parmesan, but although delicious, what a mess it is to look at, and what a waste of consommé really. Since meatballs are the rage, I thought of doing duck balls, maybe even duck-matzo balls. No, that would be too heavy. What I wanted was for the consommé to remain intact, clear and flavourful, with a small separate package of flavour to surprise the guests. In came the gnudi idea. Maybe, I could deliver spinach, egg and parmesan without muddying my consommé.

So I mixed the wilted greens (plus some cooked garlic and shallot) with the ricotta, and added the eggs. Seeing that it is a duck menu, I decided to add some ground duck meat to the mix, and a little parmesan to bind. I dusted them in flour and poached them. They turned out just as I had imagined - a cloud of spinach, cheese and duck. If I whipped the egg whites separately, I could perhaps make them even lighter, more like a mousseline.  Even as is, I could brown them in a bit of butter for extra umph, or poach them in my broth. But to keep the flavours clean and my broth grease free, I prefer to poach them on the side and add them to my soup. I sautéed a few up on the side for myself with a drizzle of boletus oil – wow. They would be terrific as a main course, topped with some extra cheese, some more duck, or ham and tomatoes, or some lemon zest, parm and olive oil.

shaping the gnudi

tasty floaters

If you want to make my gnudi, go ahead; you could use ground pork or veal or even leave out the meat altogether and add more cheese. The moral of the story is - next time you’re making meatballs, consider lightening them up with some ricotta and greens, or if you’re making ravioli or manicotti, maybe skip the pasta making and stuffing steps. Naked is kind of fun, and easy.

Duck gnudi

12p  (or 6 main)

1 cup wilted greens (spinach, chard, kale, mustard greens ..), 6 cups fresh

s.q. butter/olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 French shallot, minced

2 cups ricotta

2 duck eggs (or 3 eggs) 

200g ground duck (or chicken, veal, pork..)

¼ c freshly ground parmesan

salt and pepper

pinch nutmeg

Sweat garlic and shallot in olive oil or butter over low heat for 5 min or so. Optional: Deglaze with a splash of white wine or lemon. Cool.

Blanch greens in lots of salted water, refresh, drain and squeeze dry. Chop.

Drain ricotta in a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth to get rid of excess moisture.

Mix all ingredients together.

Form into little balls, dust in flour.

Poach in boiling water (gently) for 3 minutes. Lift out and put on a greased tray or in a casserole dish (don’t stack).

Serve as is with a pat of butter, in a broth or sauce, or pan fry in with butter, topped with herbs and parmesan.

What's Cooking

The Dish - Confiture de lait

You may have heard of Dulce de leche. It’s been a flavour in fashion with North American chefs and in cooking magazines for some time, because it has been adopted as an American favourite thanks to the Latin American influence. Mexico , Argentina , Paraguay , Chile , Uruguay , Cuba , etc etc – they all have their versions. Haagan daz even has a Dulce de leche ice cream on the market.

When I first heard of Dulce de leche five or six years or seven years ago (I can’t remember), I was intrigued. Before I had a chance to taste or experiment with this flavour, I came across a Québecoise girl, the girlfriend of one of my fellow cooks at l’Eau, who spoke to me of her mom’s ‘confiture de lait’. With some further exploration, I realized that Quebec culture had its own dulce de leche. It turns out that it’s pretty much the same thing – caramelized milk, or milk reduced down to a caramel. A little more digging indicated that it all likely stems from Normandy and people forgetting their morning hot milk on the stove.

To make confiture de lait or Dulce de leche, some sugar is added to milk to help the process unless you are using condensed milk as they do in many Latin American countries. It is reduced down to the point of color change. Often some butter or white chocolate is folded in at the end to add complexity, but this last step is a modern addition as far as I can tell. Maybe because the milk we have now is less complex in itself. Or maybe because we can’t help but improve on old recipes; we want to do more things with it besides butter toast, or because we typically don’t have condensed milk in our cupboards. In any case, its milk and sugar = caramel that tastes like toffee. Even the English incorporated into their tradition in the form of Banoffee pie!

Why confiture de lait? Well, a little while ago, I was reviewing some old inspirational menu-notes of mine, when I came across the confiture de lait thread on my ‘things to try’ list – I had totally forgotten about it. Yet, it’s just the kind of thing I love – so humble, yet so exciting, because it’s so widespread but not understood, there’s a story behind it and plus, I’ve never done it. It was time to give it a go.

Since I had recently done a cooking session with Patrice Demers where he made a white chocolate yogourt mousse to top a grapefruit Campari hibiscus salad (with litchi granite), I thought I might combine some of both in my dessert for the weekend – I loved the idea of cutting the sweetness of white chocolate with tangy yogourt. I had also seen a very appetizing modern version of the millefeuille somewhere (that until then, I always associated with that horrible Vachon cake), so now I had all the components I needed: Confiture de lait, crispy pastry, some fruit on the side; add some wild flavours, and I’d be all set.

I made a confiture de lait à la Québecoise (as opposed to Mexican) well because I am Québecoise. Then I added white chocolate at the end and whisked in some yogourt. White chocolate is already so sickly sweet, add milk caramel (it’s almost redundant actually) therefore the yogurt was mandatory (Thanks Patrice). I flavoured it with vanilla grass (foin d’odeur), an aromatic wild herb that I often use in dessert preparations. I suppose you could use any flavouring that you would in a flan or crème anglaise, a shot of liqueur like Amaretto or Frangelico comes to mind, chai spices, or ginger. Anyway, I then layered it puff pastry with a tart compote of wild berries (partridgeberry, blueberry, blackberry, elderberry ) and served a sorbet of the same berries on the side. It was a hit, maybe not like a chocolate hit, but still, I was encouraged.

So I kept it it around for another week but refined it a little. I used phyllo for a crisper element, less like a traditional millefeuille, but more reasonable for me (since puff pastry is super labour intensive if you want to make it yourself) and plus, phyllo tastes lighter so I figured I could layer it more, play around some with the presentation. It ended up being 3 (x5) layers, very delicate and crisp and assembled à la minute with confiture de lait and berry coulis holding it all together, I was happy.

plating millefeuille of confiture de lait and wild berries

confiture de lait-vanilla grass millefeuille with wild berries and sorbet

As you can see, I’m having fun here, but it’s just a fling; I will have moved on to something else by next week, but still I like the whole Dulce de leche thing. My conclusion however, is that it is best on its own - on toast, with pound cake, kind of like jam or icing. Even if it tastes great everywhere, it’s too subtle to be mixing with all kinds of things – it just becomes indistinguishable. I could have made pastry cream and served a caramel sauce alongside, and no one would have known, maybe it would even have been better. That doesn’t mean that confiture de lait or Dulce de leche is not a great thing. Not only is it extremely versatile, but it has history, and it’s dear to so many people around the world. I just love that Quebec has a common recipe to Latin America, all thanks to our careless, yet adventurous French ancestors or conquerors. To me, that makes it that much more interesting, worth trying and worthy of a post.

Back to the kitchen: Think about all the possibilities.. We could flavour it with traditional flavours like vanilla or cinnamon or coffee or exotic flavours like tonka bean, passionfruit or licorice … We could use brown sugar instead of plain sugar. We could kick it up a notch with some booze (in Latin America , rum would be a natural), but any brandy or liqueur would be good. We could use cream, a combination of milk and cream, or just milk. We could use coconut milk. We could make it thick and spreadable, light and fluffy, or thin it out to make a sauce. We could use it as icing on a cupcake or as jam on toast. We could use it as a filling like pastry cream… Or we could make ice cream with it by just adding it to cream - you don’t even need yolks – see epicurious recipe http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/238431.

My recipe for Confiture de Lait (Milk caramel or Dulce de leche), based on various others and tests:

1 L of milk (or 3 cups of milk and 1 cup cream –better!)

1 1/2 cup sugar (300g)

1 vanilla bean (or a generous pinch of cinnamon, or I used 20g vanilla-grass)

1 tsp baking soda

a good pinch of salt

Combine all and reduce slowly (1+ hrs) until it looks and smells like a light caramel.

Remove.

At this point, you can whisk in a pat of butter or a spoon of honey, or some chocolate depending on what you think you want taste-wise, what texture you are in the mood for, and what you are using it for. The butter or chocolate will make it more decadent as well as thicken it up once cold, which is good for a spread, but if you want a sauce, then thin it down with cream after. If you add yogurt like I did, wait until it cools slightly. Keep refrigerated. On my last night of service, I folded in barely sweetened Chantilly (whipped cream) to it and loved the results (very mousse like), would make a terrific crepe filling or trifle component.

Serve with toast, crêpes or croissant. Or serve in a bowl with berries or with pound cake or butter cookies and berries or a fruit coulis.