Simmer Till Done

Clotilde Dusoulier is, by any measure, living a pretty dreamy life. She resides in the beautiful Montmartre section of the all-beautiful Paris, where she spends her days working on the deliciously popular blog Chocolate & Zucchini.

Started in 2003 to give friends a break from “hearing about what she had cooked/eaten/baked/bought,” it catapulted into the emerging online food world, leading to a media flurry of articles, awards and ultimately, a book deal. Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen was published in May, 2007 and Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris followed in April, 2008. Clotilde still frequently blogs on all things edible - just in time for summer, she’s currently showing some very, very attractive pistachio gelato.

I decided to interview Clotilde after a recent a-ha! moment in Paris. Wandering through an outdoor food market, I came across an iced heap of small conch-like mollusks I couldn’t identify, but something about their swirly shells and meaty good looks rang a bell.
So that’s what they are! Bulots at the Place Maubert.

Bulots. Yes, I thought, bulots - kind of a whelk, and good with garlic.

Now I’d like to think I know plenty about cooking sea creatures, but in fact, I’d only recently learned about bulots on Chocolate & Zucchini. Some months earlier, I’d read how Clotilde had stopped at a market, and inspired by a similar briny heap, had scooped some up for a lovely lunch of steamed shellfish, greens and buttered bread. I remembered her pondering how fortunate they were to have so much good food so easily available, and in the market in Paris, surrounded by baguettes and bursting vegetables and silver fishes, I thought yes. A dreamy good life, indeed.

Clotilde noted that she was happy to help out on the shellfish ID, and could she contribute a slightly shortened Tell Simmer? Why, oui! Enjoy Clotilde right here at half-simmer; check out Chocolate & Zucchini for the rest.

What’s the most memorable breakfast you’ve ever had? What made it special?

It was at a chambre d’hôte (the French B & B) in a small castle in the South-West of France, where Maxence and I stayed a few summers in a row: breakfast was served in the garden, by the pond, and the host prepared something fresh and delicious every morning — for instance, there would be baguette and croissants from the village bakery, local cheese, butter, and cured ham, homemade jam, and a strawberry salad with sugar-dusted fritters. The B & B is no longer in operation, sadly, but the breakfast lives on in my mind.

You’re throwing a dinner party for friends on their first night in Paris. What will you serve?

The specifics depend on the season, but we’ll start with a pre-dinner drink and a few nibbles at the bar, before we move on to a simple main dish, most likely something stewed or baked that requires little last-minute attention and can be served family-style. Then we’ll have a cheese platter and a green salad, and we’ll finish with a scoop of homemade ice cream or sorbet, served with cookies of some sort. I received an ice cream maker for my birthday last year, and I don’t think I’ll ever tire of playing with it.

Don’t give two figs about homemade ice cream? Certainly you would if you could get such beautiful figs. Try Glace aux Deux Figues and see.

Tell me about your worst kitchen disaster.

The first few times I tried to make no-knead bread after Jim Lahey’s recipe. Everyone insisted it was easy and 100% fail-safe, yet I couldn’t get the recipe to work, in part because of the cup measurement of the flour. I produced a few bricks that ended up in the trash and shed a few tears of frustration, but I’m glad I kept trying because it really is easy and fail-safe — once you get the hang of it.

Three things that are always in your refrigerator:

Apples, fromage blanc (a yogurt-like fresh cheese), and strong mustard.

If you were a cocktail, what would you be?

A mojito.

Who inspired you to cook, and what’s the most important thing they taught you?

My mother and my paternal grandmother are the two persons who have most influenced my cooking, and perhaps the most important lesson they’ve taught me is that it is possible, and admirable, to find the energy and soul to cook for your family every day of every week, for your entire adult life.

Tags: chocolate & zucchini, Tell Simmer

I always enjoyed the sight of peaches piled in bowls and paintings. But I never liked to eat them.

I thought there was something wrong with me. Everyone else was in love with peaches.

It’s possible I never got over the watery fruit cocktail in the school cafeteria.

In my mind, those sad little cups cemented peaches as a mushy fruit, and I do not like mushy fruit.

So I grew not to love peaches, and in a nation of juicy peach lovers, I knew this was a great and terrible sin.

Then I became a baker.

And when the older bakers taught me to sprinkle in this and toss with that, I revealed my secret sin. They’ll bake into mush, I said.

They stared at me and laughed, sliding the fruit under buttery doughs and into the oven. Yes, but it will be the finest mush to ever sweeten your tongue.

And it was. The bakers had sweetened the deal by cloaking peaches in cobbler, and every working sunrise that summer, it smelled like heaven cooling on the racks. They proved to me that steaming, drippy magic resides in every peach.

It’s been love ever since.

———————–

Peach Cobbler with Blueberry Cream

peaches:

7 large peaches - peeled, halved, pitted and sliced
1/4 cup granulated sugar - blended with 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
finely grated zest of one lemon

topping:

2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
4 tablespoons cold solid shortening
1 cup pecan halves, roughly crushed
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream, blended with 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Lightly butter an 8-cup ovenproof baking dish that measures about 2 inches deep. Set aside, and preheat oven to 425 F.

In a large bowl, toss the sliced peaches with the sugar-cornstarch-spice blend and set aside for a few minutes. Toss the peach mixture with the lemon zest, then spoon peaches into the buttered baking dish, along with any juices from the bowl.

For the cobbler topping: Sift the all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the chunks of butter and shortening. Using 2 butter knives or a pastry blender, “cut” the fat into the flour until it’s reduced to small bits. With your fingertips, further reduce the fat to small flakes by dipping down into the mixture and crumbling it. Toss in 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and the pecan halves. Pour the cream-vanilla blend over the flour mixture and in a few quick strokes, use a fork to combine into a rough dough.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and gently knead a few times combine. Pat out dough approximately 3/4 inch thick. Using a 2 1/2 - to 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut biscuits from the dough, and place the biscuits on top of the fruit, overlapping slightly. Sprinkle the remaining 2 teaspoons granulated sugar on top of the biscuits.

Bake the cobbler on a rack in the lower third of the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees and continue baking for 20 minutes longer, or until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbly.

Serve cobbler warm or at room temperature, with ice cream or Blueberry Cream, below.

Blueberry Cream

1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/4 cup blueberries, chopped and smashed to release juices

In a small bowl, stir powdered sugar into sour cream to combine. Fold in smashed blueberries until fully blended. Refrigerate until served. Blueberry Cream will keep, covered and refrigerated, for several days.

cobbler adapted from Fruit Desserts

Tags: bakery days, baking, peaches, recipes

Happy 4th of July from here in Lawrence, Kansas!

Where people take the freedom to express themselves very seriously.

Where people are creative with their independence.

Where you can be the big kid in the neighborhood parade.

Where you can stick your tongue out and be who you are.

Happy 4th from all of us at the red, white and new old house! Have a wonderful time.

Tags: Cleo, holidays, Lawrence

It took a year to build the house and a little extra to finish this, but much like Neutrogena, the kitchen certainly got an energizing boost from copper.

The range hood and bar counter were made by a local metal artist who does incredible work. For him the actual fabrication was child’s play - dealing with people rabidly ready to finish a house was another matter. Continue Reading »

Tags: copper, kitchen

Lunchtime on the new kitchen bar.

What.

What?

Like I’m the only one trying to build a better Stouffer’s French Bread pizza.  Is it just a vain attempt to gourmet-ify and recapture the seemingly weightless bliss of my college snacking days, only to find I created one with more calories?   Could I be the only one who wants that?

I think not.

Tags: kitchen, lunch, pizza, Stouffer's