Saturday, January 8, 2011

FFwD (overdue): Boeuf en daube & Speculoos

These were made in December but somehow all the getting back to work stuff made it difficult to post!

Boeuf en daube:  Excellent recipe!  It does make a lot of servings, though, so if there aren't a lot of you (and you don't want to eat it for 5 days in a row like we did!), I'd cut the recipe in half.  Substitutions I made:  only had 1/2 red onion, whiskey instead of cognac, Merlot instead of Syrah or other fruity red wine, sage instead of parsley.  The most difficult part of this recipe for me was trimming the meat.  Also, I hadn't really counted on how much there would be so I had to move everything from the dutch oven (where I'd sauteed) to a big roasting pan.  The combination of the parsnips (instead of potatoes) and the hint of the whiskey flavor made this just enough different from Mom's pot roast to feel like something new.  May try again next time in a slow cooker!  And when Dorie says "fork tender," that's just what it was-- moist, tender, tasty!

Speculoos:  This was a very, very messy recipe and I'm still not sure why.  I had stuff all over the kitchen (mostly flour) by the time I was done.  The dough is very difficult to work with.  I'd already read the hints from others and thought I was prepared but the dough stuck to everything (including my Silpat).  I finally gave up trying to make flat circles to stick in the fridge and rolled the dough up (like a Sushi roll) instead.  I had doubled the recipe so I made four 9-12 inch logs wrapped in wax  paper to stick in the fridge.  After an hour cooling off, I was able to take the logs out of the fridge (one by one).  I sliced them with a very sharp knife and put them on the cookie tray for baking.  I tried slicing with different thicknesses and found that I much preferred the very thin slices.    The dough does spread quite a bit (about doubles in size on the tray) so you need to leave room between the circles of dough.  The thin slices came out crispy like Anna's Ginger Thin cookies.  With the thicker slices, I was expecting, I think, something more like a shortbread but the dough will cook up very hard (makes it good for dunking but wasn't what I wanted).  Sandwiching them with Nutella was excellent and really gave a different flavor profile.  I was convinced I'd never try these again but my mom *loved* them and they disappeared quickly.  Next time, I'll slice them all as thin as I can (and maybe pat them out a little thinner while the dough is cold and easy to handle).  I think that some creative shaping of the dough log may also make it possible to have scalloped edges.

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