Brainstorming "The Ultimate French Burger"

Tomorrow is July 14. I'm pining for things French and the iron deficiency has me yearning for red meat. "Bastille Day" brings to mind family, picnics and national spirit. And it makes me hungry for a burger.

But how would we make a French burger? Oh, I feel a trip to Wegmans in my bones.

The ultimate French burger would have (play along)...

A brioche for the roll, with a perfectly shaped to fit the roll patty (not too thick not too thin) definitely rare... With some sort of creamy herby mustard sauce, a mild Camembert, hearty leaves of sorrel and maybe spinach or endive. I'm on the fence re: tomato or even scallions...and BIG steak fries with a side of au jus

My friends and my husband are encouraging me to make this bad boy, but it's a culinary creation that can't be rushed.

Mulling it about in my head. Brioche alone is a two day affair requiring 2 lbs of butter and a trip to the farm for eggs. Not to mention, finding the right Camembert to be strong but not too strong and the right meat to make a quality au jus...

My husband wants desperately to take me to Wegmans but the finances aren't proper for a splurge like this.

Chocolate crunch brioche

Cross your fingers. I found a chunk of brioche dough in the freezer. Freezing brioche dough does not seem to work for me. Patricia Wells, author of the Paris Cookbook, a cookbook I depend on for my brioche recipe, says you can freeze the dough for a month. My response is sure, you can freeze it, but don't expect it to rise.

Freezing finished brioche works much better.

But I regress... This brioche dough was from July. One of my best batches ever. Wells claims the dough can be frozen a month. It's been two. So I thawed the dough in the fridge, as directed, and plopped it in large balls in my pyrex dish (totally expecting them not to rise).

Now, I had my daughter slice some butter, about a pat for each ball. I took my chocolate crumb topping leftover from the chocolate almond streusel muffins and rolled each brioche ball in the topping and set it on top of the pat of butter.

My hope is that the very sticky brioche dough will keep hold of those crumbs that refused to stick to my muffins last week.

The problem is: I have no idea if bread and crumb topping *go.* We'll see.

That's why I say fingers crossed.

Recipe for the muffins and the original brioche can be found via the links.

Note: Hub and I loved them. Child preferred without crunchies.

Dinner Party

I am completely exhausted and I have one hour until it's time to set the table and two hours until time to start cooking dinner.

We started our day at Wegmans. I was thrilled to find a one-gallon glass sun tea pitcher for $5.99 but distraught to find pineapples were $3.99 and that cored pineapples were $5.99. That's nuts.

I spent $48.76, which I'm counting toward the August budget even though it's July 31. I was bummed about that until I remembered I bought the sun tea pitcher.

I bought:

• 2 pounds Wegman's butter, one salted, one unsalted, $1.50 each
• one pineapple, $3.99 (grrr)
• the large bottle of coffemate vanilla chai spice creamer, $2.99
• 2 pints heavy whipping cream, $1.49 each
• 3 packages of celestial seasoning tea (blueberry, almond, and berry), $2.29 each
• 1 liter of Orangina, $2.49
• 3/4 pound sliced ham from the deli, $4.31
• shredded gruyère (domestic?), $3.60
• smoked gouda, $3.47
• the sun tea jar, $5.99
• 3 lbs bananas, $1.09
• 6 ounces raspberries, $2.50
• strawberries, $2
• ground nutmeg, $2.99

Before we left, I made the pear soup and I had set the brioche out and shaped it. When we got home, I baked it and brewed iced tea (green with berry). Then we went to the liquor store for wine. My husband came home early for lunch, so we had leftover crêpes and then I prepped the pineapple crumble and the zucchini cakes.

At 3 p.m., I'll set the table.

At 4 p.m., I'll start the crôque monsieur.

When the crôque is in the oven, I'll fry the zucchini cakes. While we eat the first courses, the pineapple crumble will bake.

Recipes:
Follow these links:

• Brioche-- from The Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells, also should be accessible via 'French,' 'bread,' and/or 'brioche.'
• Chilled Pear Soup-- Vegan, eileen bresslin
  
• Zucchini crabbiless cakes-- The Imus Ranch Cookbook, 'vegan' (Deirdre Imus calls it vegan even though she used eggs because she has her own chickens) and zucchini
• Perfumed Pineapple Crumble-- Venez Diner, C'est Prêt by Dominique Malet, follow pineapple or French or the name of the book
• Crôque Monsieur-- obviously French, it's from The Barefoot in Paris Cookbook by Ina garten
• Rye bread-- clicking on rye will show you all my experiments with rye flour

My daughter made me a lovely four-course meal:
Tomato salad (pictured)
Piled-High Sandwiches
A cheese and egg platter
Chocolate-Carrot Crumble

Brioche and American Brie

My brioche, that I used lavender honey in the sponge, came out as the fluffiest brioche ever. Incredible, delicious, but perhaps too fluffy. We served with American brie, JIF natural peanut butter, Nutelli, Smuckers grape jelly and Trappist seedless raspberry jam.

I mentioned to my friend Jessica, who bought me the French cookbook, that I take my food very seriously.

"I know," she replied. "It's one of the things I like about you."

I froze three batches of dough for more brioche. Each should make slightly more than half of what I have pictured here.

Making Brioche

About once a week or so, one of my friends visits for "French movie day." Tomorrow is such a day. Normally, I try to make some nice food, but tomorrow I have to return to work after a month off. Yesterday I had jury duty, so my in-laws served pizza for lunch and I whipped up vegetarian sausage (Morningstar) sandwiches on homemade bread (wheat biscuit for the daughter, and the failed rye rolls for her father and I) and the Greenbean Caesar I made the night before. We ate the entire pound of greenbeans!

Today we have a fairly open day. I'm thinking of making some sort of burritos for lunch with the leftover beans from Sunday. And dinner might be Wegmans boxed mac and cheese with a vegetable as there is a summer reading craft project at the library that begins at 4 p.m.

I brewed some decaffeinated unsweetened tea. And my daughter and I started brioche. It may be ready for dinner tonight. If not, I had planned it as lunch for my friend. I have brie in the fridge that I bought at the warehouse club. It's American double cream brie, instead of French triple, but budget is important these days.

I can get about a 1/3 pound of real imported triple cream brie at Wegmans for about $5. At the warehouse club, about a pound of imported brie is $9. Slightly more than a pound of the American brie is $6.50.

My brioche process comes from the Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells. It's been listed in this blog before, click on 'French' or 'Paris Cookbook' or 'brioche' or 'Patricia Wells.'

My daughter took some photos of me starting the brioche. I have included some here.

The Week in Food

The week has passed by in a blur of decadence. Sicilian with artichoke hearts and black olives, Guinness Roast Beef sandwiches at Granny McCarthy's tea room, and Green Eggs and Ham (spinach omelet and ham on a roll) at Billy's Downtown Diner.

Last night we stopped by Park Avenue Market and got 2.25 pounds of chicken, beef cubes, a lemon, broccoli and coffee ($21.90). I made chicken français for dinner, with a bottle of Vouvray. There might be 1/4 pound of the prepared chicken left.

This morning, my husband made me this cute little egg and cheese sandwich on one of my homemade brioche. The brioche is starting to dry out so to warm it and use it for a sandwich like this provides a perfect way to refresh it.

On Wednesday, my mother-in-law made dinner. She made "Dinner in one dish" and cherry crumb pie. I was out shopping with my guest. Dinner in one dish is great comfort food/ hamburger helper style stuff. My mother-in-law got the recipe in home ec class back in the dark ages.

Flipping through my book to provide the recipe, I came upon hamburger stuffed bread. That might be one to make soon... 

Dinner in One Dish

All measurements are approximate. 

1 pound hamburger browned

1 onion (optional) chopped and fried

1 pound macaroni, cooked

1 can tomato soup

1 can water

2 tablespoons brown sugar

4 slices American cheese

4 slices bread

Combine onion, hamburger and macaroni. Add soup and water, stir in brown sugar (my mother-in-law sometimes uses tomato sauce but I think that changes the flavor). Place in ovenproof dish. Cover with cheese and hunks of torn bread. Cook in oven until soup warms and cheese melts. 

Brioche, part three

When I got up today and made it into the kitchen... (It was almost seven by then). I shaped and cooked the brioche.

I make my brioche small, so I get three loaves like the ones in the photo. The photo with Triple Fruit Jam is a loaf from the fall, and it's overcooked and not as fluffy as today's. Today's is the loaf with the Jammin' Organic Red Raspberry Jam. (Both from Wegmans.) Now, I would love some Brie with this warm brioche, but circumstances did not permit some Brie today. Sigh.

Shannon took a small, misshapen baguette with her to her grandmother's last night. It was her first attempt so it did not look French. But it tasted wonderful and from what I hear, her family devoured it. And they had chili, so it made a good compliment. 

Brioche, part two

We finished the first portion of the brioche around 11:30, so at two-ish, we punched the dough down and put it in the fridge... Here's the rest of the recipe:

6. Punch dough down. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, or at least 4 to 6 hours. It should double in size again. 

*At this point, the dough can be frozen. Punch in down, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and store in freezer. Will keep for one month. Thaw it in the fridge, still wrapped, leaving it overnight and use directly from the fridge. 

7. Butter two rectangular bread pans and set them aside. (I use three.)

8. Divide the dough into twelve equal pieces. (I use fifteen.) Roll each tightly into a ball and play six side by side in each of the pans. (I do five per pan.) Cover with a clean cloth and let dough rise until doubled in bulk, about one to one-and-a-half hours.

9. preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Egg Wash

1 large egg, beaten

1 tablespoon cold water

10. After beating the egg wash, lightly brush the brioche with the egg wash. Working quickly with sharp scissors, snip the top of each brioche in a criss-cross. Place pans in the center of the oven. Bake until loaves are golden. (And if you have it: Bake until the inside of the dough is 200 degrees F according to a insta-read thermometer, I don't.) About 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Put pans on rack to cool. Turn loaves out once cool. 

Bread exhaustion (Brioche 1)

Shannon wanted to learn to how to make bread so we started baguettes AND brioche this morning. I am exhausted, and we're only half way through the process. The baguette recipe has already been posted, click on French or bread to find it.

My brioche recipe comes from The Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells. When it gets done, we'll serve with jam and maybe get to the store for brie.

*Note: The recipe says to use a big old food processor with a wooden dough paddle. I don't have such equipment, so I have to do it all by hand. And it's hard work.

Brioche

Part One: The Sponge (in photo)

1/3 cup whole milk, warmed

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

2 cups flour

1 large egg beaten

1. In the mixer bowl, combine the warm milk, sugar and yeast. Let stand about five minutes until foamy. Stir in one cup flour and the egg. The sponge should be sticky and fairly dry. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup flour. Set aside to rest, uncovered, about 30 to 40 minutes. The sponge should erupt slightly, cracking the flour. 

Part Two: The Dough

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1.5 cups flour

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp

2. Add the sugar, eggs and 1 cup of the flour. Mix, just until ingredients come together. Still mixing, mix in the remaining half cup flour. Increase mixer speed once flour is incorporated and beat for 15 minutes, scraping down the sides. 

3. To incorporate the butter, work it until it is the same consistency as the dough. Place the butter on a flat work surface and smear with a dough scraper, bit by bit across the surface. The butter is ready when it is smooth, soft and still cool.

4. With mixer on slow speed, add butter one tablespoon at a time. When all the butter has been added, increase speed to medium high for one minute. Then reduce speed to medium and beat for five minutes. The dough will be soft and sticky.

5. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 2.5 hours. 

To be continued...

On French cookbooks and grocery budgets

My poire tarte tatin was a resounding success yesterday. The original recipe, as I mentioned in my post, came from Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris. (In the photo, on the left.) Most of my French recipes come from this book or The Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells. Everything else comes from random hits on the Internet. The Paris Cookbook has my brioche recipe, which is an all-day process. Garten has a brioche loaf that takes less time and is tasty, but brioche in a loaf is less fun.

Garten includes a variety of essays that talk about her experiences cooking and gathering recipes in France, all of which are very enjoyable. I lust after the cookware she mentions from E. Dehillerin (which does have a web presence).

After my class yesterday, I met with the professor and we had a conversation that I thought deserved to be recorded here. I had sparked the conversation with discussion of how my French exchange student considered everything in the U.S. "big" and I thought it an apt description of American culture. He's French, and he mentioned that Americans have no sense of aesthetics. He directly associated this with food.

"Have you ever noticed," he said, "when you go to someone's house to eat... It's never 'Did you eat well?' or 'How did it taste?'"

And I cackled, because I sensed his upcoming question.

"It's always, 'Did you have enough?'" I finished.

And he nodded.

"It doesn't matter what it looks like, or how it tastes, just how much there is," he said.

Something to think about. Supersize that.

I have no meal plan for today, yet. My husband took off of work today because I have to go to the office around the same time the furnace maintenance is scheduled. I have cash because I used my credit card to buy a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law that my father-in-law paid for. I'm hoping to spend about $50 at Aldi and round out some missing supplies. Then, I can take the other $50 bill and head to Wegmans for some specialty items. (Whole wheat flour, soy milk, Wegmans Mac N cheese in the box, and imported chocolate for a business meeting, but that's another post.) That left $38 for an office Christmas dinner my husband has to attend Tuesday. Isn't budgeting fun... The $66.67 I spent on groceries thus far this month represents 4.5 percent of our projected income for December. And I did stop at CVS yesterday and spent $12 on some bathroom items that normally would have fallen in with the groceries, except I needed them ASAP.