Profiteroles at Cafe du Soleil - Photo by Philippe Touitou

Profiteroles are one of the most popular desserts at Cafe du Soleil, especially during the hot summer months. They have the elements of any great ice cream dish – ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. The French add a nice crisp “pate a choux” (which literally translates to “cabbage pastry” , based on the shape of the cooked product). It’s an easy dough to make at home once you get the hang of it. There really are few pitfalls so please try it with confidence. Even though the recipe may look complicated – it’s not. At Cafe du Soleil we serve them with two sauces – white and dark chocolate, but you can just as easily serve it with one.

After seeing the beautiful photo above done by Philippe Touitou I dare you not to try this recipe!!

Profiteroles aux Deux Chocolats

Serves 6 – Pastry recipe makes about 12 large “Choux Puffs” so you will have an extra 6 for another round of profiteroles, or fill with whipped cream and dust with powdered sugar for cream puffs! They freeze well but you should “recrisp” them in oven after defrosting.

Pastry:

1/2 cup water

2 ozs butter, unsalted

pinch salt

1/2 cup (about 2 1/2 ozs) all purpose flour

2 large eggs

Profiteroles:

6 large scoops of your favorite vanilla ice cream

2 cups whipped cream

strawberries, powdered sugar, and mint for garnish

Chocolate Sauces:

Dark:

4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate,  finely chopped (better quality chocolate = better sauce)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup light corn syrup

White:

4 ounces white chocolate

1/2 cup heavy cream

Method:

Choux pastry:

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set up a heavy-duty mixer with the paddle attachment.

Combine the water, butter, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, add the flour all at once, and stir rapidly with a stiff heatproof spatula or wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and the bottom of the pan is clean, with no dough sticking to it.

Enough moisture must evaporate from the dough to allow it to absorb more fat when the eggs are added. Continue to stir for about 2-3 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary to prevent the dough from coloring. A thin coating will form on the bottom and sides of the pan. When enough moisture has evaporated, steam will rise from the dough and there will be the nutty aroma of cooked flour.

Transfer the dough to the mixer bowl and mix for a minute to release some of the heat from the dough. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each egg is completely incorporated before adding the next one; scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Place the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip. Pipe 12 disks about 2 1/2 inches across and about 1/2 inch thick on the baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch between them, as they will expand when baked. You may need an additional baking sheet in order not to crowd them too much.

Bake the puffs for 10 minutes, turn the sheet around, turn the oven down to 350°F, and bake 15 minutes more. Remove one puff and break it open: It should be hollow inside and not gooey or eggy; if it is still moist, return it to the oven and check in 5 minutes. Cool the puffs completely on the baking sheet. Store in an airtight container until serving time.

Chocolate Sauces:

Technique is the same for both sauces (minus the corn syrup in the white chocolate sauce) -

Place the chocolate in a metal bowl.

Combine the cream and corn syrup in a small  saucepan and bring to a simmer. Pour the liquid over the chocolate and allow it to sit for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the chocolate has melted. Whisk to combine. Allow the sauce to cool slightly, then pour into a bowl or other container.

To serve:
Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Warm the chocolate sauces in a double boiler or a microwave. Split each profiterole in half,  and warm on a baking sheet in the oven until crisp.

Place bottom half of each puff on serving plate. Place a large scoop of ice cream in the bottom half of each profiterole and top with the lid. Spoon the sauces over and decorate each plate with a generous amount of whipped cream, a few strawberries, powdered sugar, and mint.

Now tell me what could be bad about that?!!!

Frisee Salad with Smoked Bacon Lardons

This is a classic Bistro dish and it really exemplifies the simplicity of great bistro food – good ingredients, strong flavors, and fairly unfussy preparation (even for the home cook). I like to think of this dish as all the flavors of a great breakfast in salad form – kind of the best of both worlds.

Endive Roquefort Salad - Photo by Philippe Touitou

Here’s an easy and appealing  salad for the cooler weather. This is a salad that works well with many different combinations of ingredients. You can substitute Chevre if you prefer, or a different kind of cheese. You could also add some dried cranberries or some apples (or both) to give some extra color and flavor. And you could use a different kind of nut (I like pecans or pistachios).

Unlike many salads this one goes well with a glass of red or white wine due to the roquefort cheese.

I’m not bothering to give you a traditional recipe here since this is a pretty simple dish. I’ll give you an easy Dijon Vinaigrette recipe (following a traditional 3 parts oil: 1 part vinegar ratio). I’ll throw in a couple pointers on putting the salad together, then you’re on your own so have fun making some interesting combinations!!

Dijon Vinaigrette:

Makes 2 1/4 cups

4 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar (preferably imported)

1/4 cup Sherry Vinegar

1 cup Vegetable Oil (replace 1/4 cup veg. oil with walnut oil if desired)

1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste

Water as needed to thin

Method – In a blender combine mustard and vinegars. Drizzle in oils until blended. Season with salt and pepper, add water to thin if needed. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For assembling the salad:

Cut your endive into julienne strips or crosswise as desired. Toss with a squeeze of lemon juice to prevent discoloring. Add vinaigrette (not too much) and cheese. Toss well and garnish with walnuts.

"Perfect" Roast Chicken at Cafe du Soleil, photo by Philippe Touitou

You may have heard some Chefs say that in order to judge a prospective cook’s abilities they ask them to prepare a simple roast chicken. While I have never seen this done in an actual professional kitchen, there is something to be said for stripping away the bells and whistles that some chef’s rely on. Respect for proper techniques and the sophistication of knowing that great products should not be overwhelmed would certainly be qualities I would appreciate in any cook.

I rarely use the word perfect for anything. Occasionaly, though, I like to step out on a limb for a particular subject, and proclaim that I know what perfection is and that I know how to achieve it. In the case of roast chicken, I first encountered perfection when I began working with David Leiderman to reopen Chez Louis Bistro in midtown Manhattan. David’s roast chicken epiphany came when he first visited L’Ami Louis in Paris. There, they roast the finest Bresse chickens to juicy crispiness in a high-heat wood-burning oven. They serve them with a garlic potato cake, and when you hear David describe it you want to hop the next flight to Paris to indulge.

David developed some steps to reproduce the L’Ami Louis roast chicken back here in the US which I will share with you here. Taken separately they are quite common culinary techniques. Combined together they produce a “perfect” roast chicken!!!!

Perfect Roast Chicken:

Note: Since Bresse chickens are hard to find in the US (and extremely expensive if you do find them), I use Murray’s brand Free Range Chickens. I prefer the 3 1/2 # size.

1) BRINE – Brine chickens for about one hour in a solution of 1 cup Kosher salt per gallon of water. Remove and pat dry.

2) MARINATE – Prepare a marinade of chopped fresh tarragon, thyme, and rosemary, chopped garlic, and enough vegetable oil just to make a spreadable mixture. Spread marinade on inside and outside of chicken and marinate for a few hours or preferably overnight.

3) SMOKE – This step is optional and is an attempt to recreate the slight wood flavor that a wood-burning oven would impart to a roast chicken. Cover the bottom of a heavy roasting pan with wood chips (apple is best), and place on top of a medium flame  until the chips begin to smoke (you need a well ventilated kitchen, or you can bring it outside after removing from the heat). Turn off burner, place a wire rack over chips, and place chicken on rack. Cover with an inverted roasting pan of the same size, or with aluminum foil. Let smoke for about 10 minutes. You can do this step and then refrigerate chicken again until ready to use.

4) SEAR – Pat chicken skin until dry. Heat a heavy roasting pan on a high flame until very hot. Add a few drops vegetable oil, then sear chicken on all sides until nicely browned. Alternately if you have a gas or charcoal grill at hand you can sear the chicken on that until lightly charred.

 5) ROAST – This should be done on the highest setting of your oven. For most ovens this is 550F. Yes, the chicken will splatter the oven a bit, but this is the way to get a nice crisp skin. The chicken does not need additional seasoning before roasting. Place chicken in your roasting pan, and set on medium shelf of oven. You may need to cover the tips of the legs with aluminum foil to prevent them from burning. Roast the chicken for about 30 minutes. Test doneness by inserting a metal thermometer into the spot where the leg joins the body. When the thermometer reads 150F remove chicken from oven and “carryover” cooking should bring it to 160F. You should let the chicken “rest” for 10 – 30 minutes before carving. Don’t cover chicken with foil at any point in the roasting or “resting” periods.

 Carve, and enjoy!!!

At Cafe du Soleil we serve the roast chicken with roasted garlic rosemary potatoes, whole roasted garlic, and romesco sauce.

Daurade Roti at Cafe du Soleil - Photo by Philippe Touitou

I love roasting fish whole. The preparation is simple and the results outweigh the minimal effort. You just need to have a willing audience – willing to stare their dinner in the eye, and willing to tackle the bones as they eat.

It’s relatively easy to find whole fish at most fish markets. Ask them to scale the fish for you, trim the fins and tail, and remove the gills. This dish will work well with many kinds of fish. Pictured is a Daurade (Sea Bream) imported from the Mediterranean. These fish have become more common in recent years with the rise in aquaculture. They are farm raised in Greece and shipped here quickly so they are usually very reliably fresh. Another excellent imported farm-raised fish is the Branzino which is a Mediterranean Sea Bass.

Other fish to try are Red Snapper, Black Sea Bass, Farm-Raised Striped Bass, and Domestic Sea Bream, also known as Porgies.

The preparation is the same for all. Season the fish inside and out with salt and pepper, and a light drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Stuff the cavity with fresh or dried herbs (I like thyme and fresh bay leaves if you can find them) and slices of lemon and tomato. Place on an oiled baking sheet or baking dish, and roast in the oven at 400F for about 10 to 15 minutes.

The best way to tell if it’s done is an old trick I learned in restaurants over the years – you pull on the finbone closest to the head of the fish. You should just barely be able to pull it away from the flesh. This makes alot of sense since if you can’t pull it away it means the flesh is still raw at that point (try pulling a bone from a raw fish and you’ll see what I mean), and if you can pull it away too easily it means the resistance is gone and it’s overcooked.

Drizzle the fish with some more EVOO and you’re ready to serve. You don’t really need a sauce with this, but here are a couple suggestions:

When you remove the fish from the oven and transfer it to your serving dish, pour a little white or rose wine into the baking dish, place it on a burner, and scrape up any bits that may have stuck to the dish while letting the wine reduce a little. Add a knob of butter if desired and serve on the side or pour over the fish.

Alternately you could prepare a light beurre blanc (see my beurre blanc post of March 15, 2008 for a recipe) and flavor it with capers and lemon, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

Also in the photo you can see a lovely row of baked Provencale Vegetables on the platter with the Daurade. This makes an excellent accompaniment. Rather than give an exact recipe I’ll just describe how they’re made:

Saute some sliced onions and red peppers in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and chopped garlic to tatse, and spread over the bottom of a baking dish. Slice zucchini, yellow squash, tomato, and eggplant into uniform slices, then layer (alternating the colors) on top of the pepper onion mixture. Season the whole with salt and pepper, drizzle generously with EVOO, and add some chopped fresh thyme. Cover with foil, and bake at 350F for about 20 to 30 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Uncover the foil and bake another 10 minutes or so until they are slightly browned on top.

I hope you’ll try these dishes – and if you do, I hope you enjoy them. Comments and feedback are always welcome.

Bon Appetit!

This is one of my favorite desserts at Cafe du Soleil – it’s so light that it makes the perfect ending to a big meal. This same sabayon technique can be used for savory dishes. You would just make the Champagne sabayon described below, omitting the sugar in both the sabayon and in the whipped cream. And I usually add a little finely chopped shallots in with the yolks and Champagne. Spread over steamed asparagus (or lump crabmeat and asparagus), sprinkled with a little grated Parmesan cheese and browned under the broiler, it makes a very professional looking (and great tasting) appetizer.

Mixed Berry Gratin with Champagne Sabayon            Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

Ratio                 Weight               Volume          Ingredient

1 part                4 ozs                     (4)             Egg Yolks, XL

1 part                4 ozs                 (1/2 cup)      Champagne,       

1 Tbsp/yolk       4 Tbsp              (1/4 cup)       Sugar, Granulated

Add-Ins:          1 cup                 Whipped Cream (lightly sweetened)

                         2 cups               Mixed Fresh Berries

                                                   Fresh mint for garnish

Method:

1)       Fill a medium saucepan half full with water and bring to a simmer.

2)       Combine yolks, Champagne, and sugar in a medium stainless steel or heat resistant glass bowl. Whisk together for a few minutes until well blended.

3)       Place mixing bowl over simmering water (it should not touch the water) and whisk for about 10 – 15 minutes until the mixture about triples in volume. Don’t let the mixture get too hot or it will scramble the eggs (in other words if you see steam rising from the surface it’s getting too hot). The finished texture should be like lightly whipped cream.

4)       The sabayon can be served warm at this point, or chilled.

5)    When cold, fold in whipped cream and set aside. This can be made well in advance if you like and kept cold until ready to use.

6)    While the sabayon is chilling, clean berries and arrange           decoratively on four plates.

7)       When ready to serve, place plates in a 350F oven to warm for about 2 minutes. Remove from oven and spoon sabayon mixture evenly over the berries. Place plates under the broiler until sabayon is lightly browned, or use a blowtorch to brown them as you would for a Crème Brulee. Garnish with fresh mint sprigs.

When I was 18 I spent a year in Devon, England studying music at Dartington College of the Arts. If you are ever in that part of England you should pay a visit to this beautiful part of the UK. The college was located at Dartington Hall which is now run as a conference center and bed and breakfast. You can visit the estate without staying there. The college has apparently moved out of the estate. It has a fascinating history.

Dartington Hall Homepage

Dartington College of Arts Homepage

Dartington Hall on Wikipedia

 My family had a long history at Dartington. My fathers’ mother taught piano there at the grade school, my mother was a voice student at the college, and it was there that my parents met. So it was an amazing experience for me to be there for a year before going to cooking school at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. I took lessons in oboe, voice, and classical guitar. I sang in the choir in the amazing Great Hall, and I took music theory classes and the like. All of this is a prelude to the story of my spring break trip of that year abroad. While my fellow students were partying hard I took my trusty moped and hopped the Channel ferry to France arriving in Roscoff, Brittany. I cut a diagonal swath through France (I’ve never calculated the distance but boy was my ass sore!) ending up in the Alps. From there I took a night train to Rome arriving on Good Friday. Not being a very religious person I was oblivious to the ramifications this holiday had on accommodations in Rome!! I finally managed to find a shared room in a pensione through the help of a guide at the train station who amazingly did not rip me off.  But I digress…… The point is, while I was traveling through France I was finally tasting all the exciting and fabulous flavors of French cooking firsthand. I had read about many of these dishes and tried to cook some of them at home from Julia Child’s books. But here was the REAL DEAL. Being a student I was on a very tight budget. I stayed at Youth Hostels whenever possible and I chose restaurants mostly based on their low priced menu. But when I got to Lyons (which was the first big city I had come upon – I saved Paris for later) I had trouble finding a restaurant that met my budget. So I wandered around and finally found a place that had a main course listed for 28 Francs or so. That was about $6.00 then (1980) which seemed a little low, but I actually didn’t even know what the item was. Well it turned out to be a Daurade and it was served with the most delicious sauce I had ever tasted (even better than hollandaise which was my favorite up to that point). I figured out when I got to cooking school that it had been a beurre blanc (white butter sauce). And I learned how to make it for myself!!The funny ending to the story is that the Daurade actually cost me about 128 Francs (they must have left off the 1 on the menu in front). After recovering from the sticker shock (I could have gotten several full meals elsewhere for the price of that one fish), I figured, Well it was worth every Franc!  So here is a basic recipe for Beurre Blanc.Make it. Memorize it. It seems rich but you don’t need a lot on your plate.It lends itself to many variations of flavorings. Change the wine, change the vinegar, add herbs, add purees, do what you want with it.  

Beurre Blanc – White Butter Sauce – Yield about 1 cup sauce which will serve 4-6 as an accompaniment to grilled fish.

 Reduction:

½ cup White Wine                                                       

½ cup White Wine Vinegar                                   

½ cup   Shallots, Peeled and Chopped              

½ # Butter, Unsalted,                                                               

the best you can afford                                                 

Seasonongs:

Salt and Pepper to taste           

Method:

Combine wine, vinegar, and shallots in small saucepan, bring to boil, reduce until almost dry. Cut butter into small cubes, whisk into reduction off heat a few pieces at a time. Season to taste

Heavy Cream can be used as a stabilizer if you need to hold the sauce for a time before serving. I like the purity of the sauce without it. For ½ # butter you would use about 2 Tbsp. cream, add it to the reduction, bring to a boil, then add the butter as above.

This week we will depart from the theme of ratio cooking to present a spectacular winter dish that could make for a very different kind of Super Bowl Party – especially handy if your local market has sold out of chicken wings!  Even though it looks like a really impressive dish – it is easy to prepare so don’t be put off. Most of the work comes in procuring the ingredients then it’s a breeze to put it together.

When I was 23 I worked for 6 months in Alsace, France, which was a fantastic experience. I loved the combination of hearty German style cooking prepared with the finesse and sophistication of French techniques. And the wines from that region are really among my favorites. Pinot Blanc, Reisling (not sweet as many people assume), Gewurztraminer – these are all wonderful with many kinds of food besides Choucroute. They have a perfect sweet-sour balance, which makes them very refreshing in warm weather, yet they have enough body to be satisfying on a cold night with a huge steaming platter of Choucroute!  

If you want to make it an even more authentic French evening you could be really contrarian and serve this hearty dish without turning on the TV at all!

The video shows a short clip of our presentation for the Choucroute at Cafe du Soleil. The Sous Chef  is Abel Pena.

Do try to get the best sausages you can for this dish. I serve this dish every Thursday night during the winter months at Café du Soleil and I get my sausages from Salumeria Biellese. They are delicious! www.salumeriabiellese.com. I’m not sure if they ship outside of the city but you can contact them and find out. If you are in the New York area stop by their store – it’s a trip back in time.

You should also buy good sauerkraut for this dish. In New York fresh sauerkraut is available at Schaller & Weber, 1654 Second Avenue (86th Street).  If you want to be self-sufficient and get a great product as a result you can make your own:

Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe.

Just remember that will take 2-3 weeks to cure. You can also use a packaged Sauerkraut from the supermarket  - it will work just fine.

And last but not least – you should use Alsatian wine to cook this dish and to drink with it. Unlike some foodies I don’t usually recommend cooking with the same wine I am drinking, mostly because the delicacies of a good wine are usually lost in a cooked dish. But in this case you do want the slight sweeteness of the Alsatian wine to provide a counterpoint to the acidity of the sauerkraut.

Alsatian Choucroute/Choucroute Alsacienne

Serves 8- 10 or more depending on your appetites

Sauerkraut:

4 # Fresh Sauerkraut

3 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

2 Onions, medium, cut in half and sliced thinly across the grain

4 cloves Garlic, chopped

½ bottle Alsatian wine (see above for different types)

1 Tbsp Juniper Berries

1 Tbsp Whole Cloves

1 tsp. Whole Black Peppercorns

3 Bay Leaves

Salt to taste

Meats:

8-10 Smoked Pork Chops, about ½” thick, on the bone

1 # Smoked Slab Bacon, cut into ½” by 3” pieces

8-10 Fresh Veal Sausages (Boudin Blanc)

1# Strasbourg Sausages (Saucisse de Strasbourg)

4 –5 Blood Sausages (Boudin Noir) – optional

Fresh Thyme for garnishing platter

Chopped Parsley for garnishing

2-3 # Boiling Potatoes, peeled, cut into ¼’s and steamed or boiled

Method:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Heat the oil in a 5 qt. heavy stockpot or saucepan and cook the onions over medium heat until soft. Add the garlic and sauerkraut and combine with the onions. Cook about 5 minutes more, then add the wine, spices, bay, and salt. Bring to a boil then simmer about 30 minutes.

Transfer half the sauerkraut into a large roasting dish or aluminum pan. Place the meats on top of the sauerkraut and then cover the meats with the remaining sauerkraut. Cover with aluminum foil. Place in the oven to bake for about 30 – 45 minutes until the meats are heated through. Note that all of the meats are already cooked when you buy them (with the exception of blood sausage – but that cooks quickly and will fall apart if overcooked). You are really just heating everything up and melding the flavors together.

You can keep the dish warm in the oven at this point until you are ready to serve it.

To serve:

Transfer the sauerkraut to a large serving platter in a heaping mound. Arrange the meats decoratively on top of the sauerkraut. Arrange the potatoes around the platter and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Decorate with fresh thyme sprigs and serve to great applause!!

Have a great time making and eating this dish – and, as always, please leave a comment or question. Remember, the Chef’s Got Your Back!

This Sponge Cake recipe is the one that opened my eyes as to how you can (and should) simplify a recipe to make it easier to remember. More importantly, in doing so I think it takes some of the fear away from trying to make a seemingly complicated dish.

This recipe has many variations and uses. The same formula can be used as a plain but delicious Vanilla Sponge Cake, the cake for a Jelly Roll, the cake for a Christmas Yule Log, a Chocolate Sponge Cake, etc.

Here’s what you need to remember:

For One 8” Cake or One Cookie Sheet

6 Eggs, Extra Large

6 ozs. Sugar

6 ozs. Butter, unsalted

6 ozs. Flour

That’s the basic recipe.

You can memorize that easily, and the only thing you need to remember besides that is to add a pinch of salt, and a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. If you are making a chocolate sponge just add 2 heaping Tbsps. of cocoa powder.

The recipe that I illustrate below is the Chocolate Sponge Roll which I will be using to make my Yule Logs on Tuesday. 

OK so besides the formula you obviously need instructions on how to make the cake. If you are like me then you can remember techniques quite easily. I’m fine on my own once I have made something after having been shown how to do it properly.

One way to simplify communication in baking is by categorizing each type of cake based on the method of preparation.

This cake is made using the Sponge Method. So once you have made this cake you will have mastered one of the major cake methods!

1.    Preheat oven to 350 F.

2.   Warm the eggs, sugar, and vanilla in your mixing bowl. Do this by immersing the bowl in hot water but be careful not to let the eggs cook at all – you just need to bring them to about 110 degrees which should just feel warm to the touch. Warming the eggs increases the amount of air that you can whip into them.

3.   Melt the butter in a saucepan.

4.   Sift the flour and salt together (with the cocoa powder if using).

5.   Whip the eggs at high speed about 5 minutes – you cant over-whip them because they will reach a certain height in the bowl and then they wont go any higher.

6.   Remove the whisk from the bowl and, using a rubber spatula, fold in one third of the butter, and one third of the flour. When adding the flour try to add it slowly so that it forms an even layer on the surface before you begin your folding.

Repeat until all the butter and flour are incorporated. Don’t over mix; it’s OK if there are small lumps of flour in the batter.

7.    Pour the batter into your cake pan or cookie sheet (buttered and sugared). Spread batter evenly in pan.

Bake about 30 minutes for an 8” cake, or about 10 minutes for a sponge roll. Either way a toothpick or knife inserted into the cake at the center should come out clean.

8.   Turn cake out onto a cooling rack and cool to room temperature. 

I hope that the way that I have presented this recipe will take the fear out of trying it. Please send me feedback as to how it could be simpler, or if more explanation is needed in any area.Let me know if you tried it and it worked out well, or if you had any problems. 

Remember:

Cooking should be One Part Knowledge and Two Parts Fun!