Tim and Sue - Pastor @LTCC - French Rustic

Tim and Sue are coming over for dinner tonight and we are excited. The playlist is inspired by the rustic approach to French cooking, sometimes called Bonne Femme.

Salade

One hour before serving. On small plates, bed of spinach, thin sliced radish (Daikan), apple and oatmeal. For dressing, Greek yogurt, cinnamon, cloves, sugar to taste, raspberry vinagrette. Leave small plates on table.

Also, take the quiche out of the fridge to come to room temp.

Elk Bourguignon

30 minutes before serving, heat on low using smallest burner. I know, I know, I am getting in a rut. Same as the last Elk Bourguignon, but a very small batch. Serve in bowls on top of salad plates. When done, remove plates and bowls. Replace small plates.

Quiche Lorraine

Crust: 

This is going to be the tricky part. They sell gluten free pastry crust at Hagen's, but I am going to try to wing this. I will make the pastry part of the dish on Monday in case it breaks really bad. The inside is muy facil. The pastry is generally cooked at 425 degrees, the filling at 325.

Filling:

 6 slices uncured Winco turkey bacon, cooked and diced, it is much easier to cut the bacon right after cooking
 1 onion, diced
 3 eggs, whisked in separate bowl, Al and his family gave me some fresh eggs, they will be perfect
 1 cup milk
 1/4 cup powdered milk
 1/4 teaspoon salt
 1 1/4 cups shredded Kraft Italian 5 cheese
 1/4 cup cheddar cheese powder
 1 tablespoon all-purpose GF flour

Suggest, small servings, leave quiche on table. Leave small plates on table.

Coq au Creme Fraiche

Two days before serving assemble all ingredients in an airtight bag, let the flavors mingle

1 skinless, boneless chicken breast half, I use the Costco rotisserie, cut the breast off the chicken as soon as you get home and let it cool
3/4 cup gluten free pasta cooked to al dente
2 green onions chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic
 2 cremini fresh mushrooms, sliced
 1/2 cup creme fraiche
3 teaspoons sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

After putting the fish in the oven, immediately empty contents of bag into skillet, pull the chicken breast, place on a cutting board, cut into eight pieces. place in sauce 3 minutes before serving.

Serve in covered porcelain dish.

Poisson en Papillote

As soon as we greet Tim and Sue, put the fish in the bag, set oven to 325. I love fish cooked in a bag. The afternoon of serving I prepared the bottom of the bag, with a bit of salt, herbes de provence, and cheese powder, put some more powder in a bowl with sliced almonds. I will dry the fish on a paper towel before placing in the bag.

I am not going to serve a starch with this course, but will cut up a bright red pepper, they had some stunning ones at WinCo. I will also prepare butternut squash cubes in advance.

Serve in a covered porcelain dish.

Longe de Porc Fumé

Even the uncured hams tend to have all sorts of chemicals. So let's make our own, well more of a brined pork than a ham. Start with a minimally processed pork tenderloin. Then I made the brine, salt, sugar, and spices and will let it sit three days before putting it in the Trager.

Originally I was going to serve it with rice spiced with herbes de provence, but now I am thinking about burning a few potatoes. In fact, I think I will give them ten minutes in the smoker as well.

Gel d'Citron Abricot

Squeeze juice of 2 lemons, save the peels. Take a third lemon and harvest the zest. Place in blender with 1/2 cup dried apricots, 3 tablespoons of sour cream, I did fat free, that quiche is rich. I packet of unflavored gelatin. Microwave, place in the lemon peels to harden.

GF Vanille Brownies au Chocolat avec sauce au Chocolat Cerise

I made up two batters, a very lightly sweetened GF pancake mix and a GF brownie mix. Both batters are a bit too moist using egg white. Heat a skillet, alternate the batters, after the second layer, put some chocolate chips on top an broil till they are soft. The bulk area of WinCo has some 65% cacao round buttons that are perfect for this. Add a new layer, with a chocolate chip. Cool.

The reason the vanilla batter has almost no sugar is the sauce we are going to put on the top. In a blender put 1/4 cup of dried cherries and 1/8 cup half and half, ( I had to add some more half and half to get the mix the blend properly. I added a 1/2 teaspoon of cane sugar, 10 of the chocolate buttons and three pitted dates. This is best created just before serving, once you put it in the fridge it will start to set up. The picture is just before we added the sauce.