Cooking
Time is a no-go area for me at the moment. It's just not available somehow. Don't know why, but it's a fact. Still, I can't bear the idea of not being in on this IMBB?, as already mentioned, hosted by Derrick of An Obsession with Food. Afterall, IMBB? was one of the main reasons I joined in on the blogging thing. So I'm doing a cheats version this time round - I actually made this dish about a year ago for a dinner I did for my Dad and stepmom's bridge club and on looking through my folder of digital photos, this sprang out - and you know, it may not be a layered terrine, but it's a terrine and I layered it Big Mac stylie, so I thought I could convince myself that it fit the theme of Terrine: Layers and Layers! in a decent way!
The components are actually very classic, I just put them together in a not so classical manner. The foie gras terrine I got from a Danish cookbook called Svinkløv Badehotel. The bread part is a brioche from a Danish food magazine and then I did sweet pickled yellow tomatoes and a tomato marmalade for garnish - and as you can tell from the picture, it was served with lamb's lettuce as well.
So I'm gonna cheat even more and just give you links to a foie gras recipe and a brioche recipe - not tried and tested by me - again, apologies for my laziness, but biochemistry is screaming at me! As for the tomato marmalade, I'll be a good girl and give you that - it's an adaptation of a tomato and chili jam from Peter Gordon's The Sugar Club Cookbook:
500 g. very ripe tomatoes, washed
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
300 g. golden caster sugar (I actually used half muscovado)
50 ml. red wine vinegar
50 ml. sherry vinegar
Blend half the tomatoes and the garlic to a fine purée in a blender. Don't strain this, as the seeds provide the pectin that will make the jam set (which mine didn't do exactly, but still) Put the purée, sugar and vinegars in a deep pot and bring to the boil slowly, stirring all the time. When it reaches boiling point, turn to a gentle simmer and add the remaining tomatoes, which you have cut into 5 mm dice, seeds, skin and all. Skim off foam and cook gently for 30-40 minutes , stirring every 5 minutes to release the solids that settle on the bottom. Also, be sure to scrape the sides of the pot during cooking, so everything cooks evenly.
When it's done, pour into warmed glass jars and allow to cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge or a cold larder for later use.
Mine actually got a little on the too sweet side (Does a thing like that even exist??) so feel free to juggle it around!
For the pickled tomatoes:
500 g. tomatoes (I used small yellow ones)
1/4 dl sugar
1 dl vinegar (I used half elderflower vinegar and half plain white vinegar)
1 dl water
1 vanilla bean
Put everything but the tomatoes in a pot and bring to the boil. Pierce the tomatoes with a cake taster or something of the like, then add to the "syrup" and boil for 3-5 minutes. Store in a glass jar.
(And please, please, if you feel like trying any of this and found this too hastily blogged and you're full of questions - comment me, and I'll try and answer as soon as possible!)
Now lemme see yours - I actually found this theme a bit hard on the imagination and research front! But I'm still in on the next one!
- Salmorejo Cordobes:recipe
If I said "cold Spanish soup" would you think of the liquid salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and onions--Gazpacho? Two years ago when Lee and I were in Andalucia we encountered two other fantastic cold Spanish soups that are easy to make and wonderfully refreshing...
- Imbb 9 Is Coming!
Derrick at An Obsession with Food will be hosting IMBB 9: Layers and layers, with the theme of terrines. If like me you have no experience with terrines, check out Derrick's post which includes a "terrine primer" with lots of ideas and helpful information....
- Developing A Dish: Foie Gras Confit With Pickled Beets
"Be a little crazy and a lot daring." Jack and Joanne urged us guests to bring a new, untried dish to their holiday party. I took up the implicit challenge and thought about what I might bring to their gourmet feast. I turned over ideas on my walk to...
- Imbb 9: A Tale Of Two Terrines
I'm obviously excited about the theme for this edition of Is My Blog Burning? At least, I'd better be, since I'm the one who suggested we all make terrines. I originally planned to make a bread pudding and raisin butter terrine, an idea...
- The Best Sweet Chili Sauce Evah!
(For an updated version - with better pictures! - please check this post.) So you're probably going: why on EARTH would I want to slave over my own chilisauce, when there are so many nice brands out there, that are even cheap? Well, I for one do,...
Cooking
IMBB? #9: Layers and Layers! Foie Gras Terrine Burger
Time is a no-go area for me at the moment. It's just not available somehow. Don't know why, but it's a fact. Still, I can't bear the idea of not being in on this IMBB?, as already mentioned, hosted by Derrick of An Obsession with Food. Afterall, IMBB? was one of the main reasons I joined in on the blogging thing. So I'm doing a cheats version this time round - I actually made this dish about a year ago for a dinner I did for my Dad and stepmom's bridge club and on looking through my folder of digital photos, this sprang out - and you know, it may not be a layered terrine, but it's a terrine and I layered it Big Mac stylie, so I thought I could convince myself that it fit the theme of Terrine: Layers and Layers! in a decent way!
The components are actually very classic, I just put them together in a not so classical manner. The foie gras terrine I got from a Danish cookbook called Svinkløv Badehotel. The bread part is a brioche from a Danish food magazine and then I did sweet pickled yellow tomatoes and a tomato marmalade for garnish - and as you can tell from the picture, it was served with lamb's lettuce as well.
So I'm gonna cheat even more and just give you links to a foie gras recipe and a brioche recipe - not tried and tested by me - again, apologies for my laziness, but biochemistry is screaming at me! As for the tomato marmalade, I'll be a good girl and give you that - it's an adaptation of a tomato and chili jam from Peter Gordon's The Sugar Club Cookbook:
500 g. very ripe tomatoes, washed
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
300 g. golden caster sugar (I actually used half muscovado)
50 ml. red wine vinegar
50 ml. sherry vinegar
Blend half the tomatoes and the garlic to a fine purée in a blender. Don't strain this, as the seeds provide the pectin that will make the jam set (which mine didn't do exactly, but still) Put the purée, sugar and vinegars in a deep pot and bring to the boil slowly, stirring all the time. When it reaches boiling point, turn to a gentle simmer and add the remaining tomatoes, which you have cut into 5 mm dice, seeds, skin and all. Skim off foam and cook gently for 30-40 minutes , stirring every 5 minutes to release the solids that settle on the bottom. Also, be sure to scrape the sides of the pot during cooking, so everything cooks evenly.
When it's done, pour into warmed glass jars and allow to cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge or a cold larder for later use.
Mine actually got a little on the too sweet side (Does a thing like that even exist??) so feel free to juggle it around!
For the pickled tomatoes:
500 g. tomatoes (I used small yellow ones)
1/4 dl sugar
1 dl vinegar (I used half elderflower vinegar and half plain white vinegar)
1 dl water
1 vanilla bean
Put everything but the tomatoes in a pot and bring to the boil. Pierce the tomatoes with a cake taster or something of the like, then add to the "syrup" and boil for 3-5 minutes. Store in a glass jar.
(And please, please, if you feel like trying any of this and found this too hastily blogged and you're full of questions - comment me, and I'll try and answer as soon as possible!)
Now lemme see yours - I actually found this theme a bit hard on the imagination and research front! But I'm still in on the next one!
- Salmorejo Cordobes:recipe
If I said "cold Spanish soup" would you think of the liquid salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and onions--Gazpacho? Two years ago when Lee and I were in Andalucia we encountered two other fantastic cold Spanish soups that are easy to make and wonderfully refreshing...
- Imbb 9 Is Coming!
Derrick at An Obsession with Food will be hosting IMBB 9: Layers and layers, with the theme of terrines. If like me you have no experience with terrines, check out Derrick's post which includes a "terrine primer" with lots of ideas and helpful information....
- Developing A Dish: Foie Gras Confit With Pickled Beets
"Be a little crazy and a lot daring." Jack and Joanne urged us guests to bring a new, untried dish to their holiday party. I took up the implicit challenge and thought about what I might bring to their gourmet feast. I turned over ideas on my walk to...
- Imbb 9: A Tale Of Two Terrines
I'm obviously excited about the theme for this edition of Is My Blog Burning? At least, I'd better be, since I'm the one who suggested we all make terrines. I originally planned to make a bread pudding and raisin butter terrine, an idea...
- The Best Sweet Chili Sauce Evah!
(For an updated version - with better pictures! - please check this post.) So you're probably going: why on EARTH would I want to slave over my own chilisauce, when there are so many nice brands out there, that are even cheap? Well, I for one do,...