Bread Dumplings--Bread Recycling

I cannot speak for others, but in my culture bread has always been a symbol of hospitality and kindness, and throwing it away is considered a sin. Therefore I always feel very uncomfortable when a perfectly good bread becomes stale and there is not much to do with it. I collect all bread remains in a paper bag and use them for breadcrumbs (so useful for lining the baking tins) or use it for different dishes in which soaked white bread is needed.

But as I already said many times we are bread lovers, so I often have good breads at home. Many of them, especially an Italian ciabatta or a French baguette, or the one I make myself, become dry very quickly. Last month, I found a huge bag of stale bread in my pantry and it came to me that it could be used to make dumplings. I dug out the recipe to make it again and also did a little more research on that subject.

Surprisingly, my research yielded a lot of interesting recipes. For example. I learned that stale sweet bread can be turned into attractive desserts, very popular in France and England. Unfortunately, I almost never buy sweet bread or even a typical American toast bread. My recipe for today works with any European style bread, that has no sugar, or virtually no sugar in it. It is particularly worth trying if you happen to collect more stale bread than you know how to use.

Those dumplings can be served as a dish in itself or be done without mushrooms and served as meat accompaniment. Those who like hearty meals can add also fried bacon to the dough or put some fried bacon on top with instead or in addition to the mushrooms. If you are curious of that dish but do not have stale bread you can use breadcrumbs, although they have usually a little bit of sweetness that can be detected in those dumplings.

My favorite version was the vegetarian one, served with melted butter or shredded Parmesan, and accompanied by crispy cabbage or lettuce salad.

Stale Bread Dumplings
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
2 and 1/3 cup breadcrumbs (11 oz),
1/2 cup shredded cheddar,
8 oz white cup mushrooms,
2 eggs,
1/2 onion, thinly chopped,
1/2 cup table cream,
salt and pepper,
2 tbsp olive oil.

Preparation:
1. Wash mushrooms and grate them on a grater with large holes.
2. In a frying pan heat the oil, add onion, and fry it on a medium heat until transparent.
3. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper, and continue to fry for 5-8 minutes, until water evaporates and mushrooms become lightly gold. Take the pan from the heat and let it cool down.
4. Put the pieces of dry bread in a food processor and pulse them several times, until they make breadcrumbs.
5. Place the breadcrumbs in a large bowl and add mushrooms with onion, cream, cheese, and egg yolks.

6. Beat egg whites into a stiff foam and add to the dough. Using hands mix all the ingredients until they form a homogenous dough.
7. Form dumplings about one-inch wide and two-inch long. Place them on a board sprinkled lightly with flour.

8. In a large pot boil water with a tbsp of salt. Throw in dumplings and cook them for about 3 minutes from the moment they rise to the surface. Drain them on a colander.

Serve with melted butter or shredded Parmesan.

and with fresh salad.

Fennel and Goat Cheese Gratin--Finally a Succes!

There is a recipe in my folder, which I clipped out from an English magazine almost twenty years ago, and all these years I have meant to try it, but somehow I have never managed to.

It was presented by a well known chef and on the photograph it looked very appetizing. Finally, last week I got all the products and made it! And the dish turned out to be one of my biggest culinary disappointments. It was inedible. I will not go into details, but let me just say that the dish was bitter and dry--an absolute disaster. And I would not advise anyone to bake radicchio.

I was very frustrated, threw away the final product, and could only regret that I had not made a salad of it, as usual.

The next dish on my "finally made it" list came from another well known chef, Mario Batali, Gwyneth Paltrow's favorite. It was fennel gratin, a popular Italian dish. Sounded delicious, but who knew how this would turn out. I was pretty apprehensive after my first try. I knew fennel and ate it many times, but somehow never made it myself. It has always tasted delicious, but I was afraid of it strong anise aroma, which could be overwhelming if fenel is used as the main ingredient.

Finally, the moment of trying came when at my Whole Foods store I saw beautiful, light green fresh fennel bulbs. I bought two and decided to make gratin of them. The preparation was quick and easy, and the dish came out wonderful. Fennel was delicate, the sauce creamy, and goat cheese on top gave it an extra twist. A perfect spring vegetarian dish, to be accompanied by a crispy salad.

Fennel and Goat Cheese Gratin
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
2 large fennel bulbs,
2 tbsp butter,
1 1/2 cup milk,
1/4 tsp salt,
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg,
ground pepper,
1/2 cup fontina cheese,
6 oz of fresh goat cheese, sliced.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Boil water with a spoon of salt in a medium pot.
3. Trim away stalks from the fennel leaving only the light parts and cut into slices.
4. Blanch fennel in boiling water for about 10 minutes, and drain when tender.
5. In a saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add flour, mix, and cook for about 2 minutes.
6. Add milk whisking constantly. Cook stirring continuously for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens.
7. Season the sauce with salt, nutmeg, and pepper.
8. Place fennel in a 10 inch baking dish and cover with sauce.

9.Place slices of goat cheese on top and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until bubbles.

Let it cool slightly, and serve with bread and salad.

Crème Brûlée--Coconut Flavored

Crème brûlée. I don't think I have ever met anyone who did not like it. It is probably the most favorite dessert among women. Whenever I am having a restaurant dinner with my girl friends we always look for it in the menu. But unfortunately it is not always equally good. As with any such classic desserts there is always a little secret in making it perfect.

The best crème brûlée I have ever had was at the Ritz Carlton restaurant in Pentagon City. I am not sure they still have the same chef and if that crème brûlée is still on their menu, but ever since I had it, every time I dip my spoon in a ramekin filled with that creamy yellow delight I am hoping it will taste exactly like that one. It was a coconut crème brûlée but without any coconut flakes. It was unimaginably creamy and delicate, just with a hint of the coconut flavor.

I have been searching many recipes, trying to imagine if any of them could possibly have what I was looking for. It did not have to be exactly the coconut crème brûlée, but it had to have the same smoothness and richness. I think that the secret of the good crème brûlée lies in getting the right proportion of eggs and cream, so that the eggs, which are so important in that dessert, do not dominate the taste. Another secret of course is in getting the right method of preparing it.

Yesterday, I made crème brûlée according to a recipe from a very old British Good Housekeeping magazine. Actually, there were two recipes, one for a basic crème brûlée and another one for a coconut crème brûlée, which I decided to do first.

Last night I served it for dessert to my friends. And although it was mainly a male company, they all liked it very much. I admit that the taste of it was amazing--all the ingredients blended into a wonderfully delicious cream which contrasted nicely with the crunchiness of the burned sugar crust. But those who did not try the Ritz Carlton crème brûlée, could not notice that it missed a little bit of that perfect smoothness.

Crème brûlée requires many egg yolks, but in the end it does not taste too "eggy". Save the whites in refrigerator--they can be used in many other desserts.

When preparing crème brûlée, you must observe two rules that are critical for its quality. First, pay attention not to boil the egg and cream mixture--you need to stop heating it just before the boiling point. Also, make sure to bake it properly, so it achieves the right consistency--not to loose but not over baked. The whole preparation takes some practice, but the result is worth the sin.

Crème Brûlée Coconut Flavored
(Makes 6-8 servings depending on your ramekins size)

Ingredients:
6 eggs yolks
2 and 1/3 cup (one British pint) of heavy whipping cream,
1/4 cup sugar,
2 oz (one cup) of coconut cream powder,
6-8 tsp brown sugar.

Preparation:
1. Put egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl and, using a whisker or electric mixer, beat for about 2-3 minutes, until they become pale.
2. Pour the cream into a medium saucepan, add the coconut cream powder and mix well.
3. Heat the mixture until it is hot but take it off the heat before it reaches the boiling point.
4. Whisking continuously pour the hot cream into the yolk mixture and transfer it (the custard) back to the pot.
5. Cook over the medium heat, whisking continuously until the mixture thickens, but again do not let it boil because the custard will curdle. The right consistency is when the custard coats the spatula.

6. Preheat oven to 300F.
7. Take the custard from the heat and pour into the ramekins. Place them in a roasting tin with high walls. Pour hand-hot water into the tin, half way up the height of the ramekins and place it in the oven.
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes, but as the temperature is not always accurately displayed you have to judge it yourself when you stop--the cream should be set but still slightly wobbly, although not runny. If in doubt, you may bake it for a little longer.

9. Take from the oven, cool down, and later refrigerate. Steps 1-9 can be made even a day ahead and the baked custard can kept in the refrigerator overnight.
10. Sprinkle (one teaspoon per ramekin) of brown sugar on top each of the baked custard it melt under the hot broiler. Watch this process carefully, as the sugar may burn easily--it should be melted and brown.

11. Cool slightly and serve.