Ok, so the other day I was going on about undervaluing high school chemistry and how it could have been so much more fun and interesting if they incorporated experiments with food into the curriculum. Yesterday, I was reading the May issue of Food and Wine and saw that Michael Pollan’s new book 
is essentially about this subject – transforming foods via fire, water air and earth – aka chemistry. The other day I mentioned a couple of the miraculous transformations we take for granted every day – whipping eggs and developing a fond, but gosh let’s see, there are foams, caramels and caramelizations, reductions, searing, cerviche, masceration, and various and sundry other fascinating transformations in the kitchen to think about. And, so today, as I am still stuck in my fascination with Paris (and, as Ryan says, they are going to block me from the Le Bristol facebook page because of my obsession with Fa-roun, apparent correct spelling of his name), I ask the question, wouldn’t French class be a whole lot more exciting if we focused on the food thing? Well, for me, definitely, yes.
Fa-roun
Everything sounds better in French anyway – take for example Aubergine – sounds better than “Purple” or “Eggplant”, doesn’t it? Who makes up these words in English, anyway?
Monday night’s Baked Eggplant and Chicken Parm……..this is a Gratin as well.
I am “into” my culinary verbs in French now – somehow these weren’t of much interest in my high school and college French. Gratter – to scrape and gratiné – to form a crust or skin. In my world these days, I am all for a lot of vegetable and fruit Gratins – but sans gluten! So, I am taking some recently discovered recipes and working on them………
So, when I was reading the May issue of Food and Wine, I came across a recipe for Sweet Potato and Goat Cheese Gratin. I’m going to try this tonight but, it’ll be Gluten and added sugar free. As my dear Mom used to say, where there’s a will, there’s a way:
SWEET POTATO AND GOAT CHEESE GRATIN – adapted from David Kinch (Food and Wine May 2013)
4 tblsp unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tblsp no sugar added orange marmalade – such as St. Dalfour -100%Fruit
1 small garlic clove, minced
8 oz fresh goat cheese, softened
salt and freshly ground pepper
3 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced lengthwise, 1/8″thick
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts, such as pecans (watch these to make sure they don’t burn – but at 275F, and covered for first hour, I think they will be ok)
Preheat oven to 275F and brush a large baking dish with 2 tblsp of the melted butter. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, cream, marmalade, and garlic and bring just to a simmer. Remove from the heat. Whisk in the goat cheese and season generously with the salt and pepper.
Line the bottom of the baking dish with a slightly overlapping layer of the sweet potatoes. Top with 1/4 cup of the goat cheese cream and spread evenly. Repeat the layering with the remaining sweet potatoes and cream, pouring any excess cream on top; you should have about 5 layers.
In a small bowl, combine the nuts with the remaining 2 tblsp of melted butter and scatter over the sweet potatoes. Cover the casserole with a sheet of buttered foil and bake for one hour. Remove the foil and bake for 1 hour longer, until the sweet potatoes are tender and the top is golden. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.
Note: I’d add some herbs to the cream mixture once it is off the heat – like tarragon or thyme.
Check out Anne Willan’s Spring Gratin recipe as well. This is not gluten-free, but I am going to work on it.
ow.ly