Neiman Marcus Pear Galette with Caramel Sauce, Exquisite!

I know that most of you know that I attended a French culinary school, but I promise you, the  ease of making these pear galettes with caramel sauce has nothing to do with a French cooking school. This recipe is delicious, and easy to make. You can do this. And, after you make this, you will want to turn this easy pastry into ideas of your own. Believe me when I tell you that I am already carried away by the thoughts of what I can do with this basic recipe.

By the way, I’d like to change the name of the caramel sauce to, “Oh my gosh, you won’t believe how good this sauce is!”

Neiman-Marcus food. The first time I ate there was on a business trip to Dallas. I was staying at a beautiful downtown hotel for a week. I wanted to visit Neiman’s while there and arrived at the store late one morning.

Yes, I shopped, but I also looked. Just looked, especially at the beautiful evening gowns. Some of them weighing more than 25 pounds because of the jewels or beads. Most of them over $25,000.00. I found the lifestyle promoted by the store to be so different than our stores in Charleston.  I was fascinated.

While there, one of the women that I spoke with asked me if I’d had lunch in the dining room, and I had not, so curiously I went there. I decided to have lunch and that was the first time I had eaten Neiman’s famous chicken salad. At my cozy table, I was first served a small cup of  consommé.  After the consommé the famous chicken salad was served in a small, orange gelatin ring. It was delicious. Since that time, I’ve been smitten and make the chicken salad often.

This particular recipe for the galettes came from Neiman Marcus Taste, Timeless American Food. The galettes in the book are served with coconut ice cream on top, but I didn’t make it because I didn’t need it to make this an excellent dessert. I also hope the chef won’t mind that I’ve modified the recipe for the galettes based on what I could find at my own market. Most of this change is a matter of what we have available here, versus restaurant food.

Here we go-

For the pear galettes:

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed according to package directions (available in the frozen food section of grocery store)

6 teaspoons almond paste-as listed in original recipe if you can find it, but it was not available when I checked, so I used an almond paste bar (found at World Market in my town) and cut about a tablespoon for each pastry, or enough to roll out very thin, and place on the top of each puff pastry round to within 1/4 inch of the edge

lemon juice

2  firm Bartlett or Anjou pears, peeled, cored, and very thinly sliced (put sliced pears in lemon juice until ready to place on the pastry round)

3 tablespoons white or natural sugar

3 teaspoon unsalted butter (1/2 teaspoon to top easy pastry)

1/3 cup warmed apple jelly

To prepare the galettes, line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Lightly roll out any creases in the puff pastry. Use a knife to cut 6 circles of puff pastry, each about 5 inches across. Place each puff pastry round on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread 1 teaspoon of the almond paste, leaving a 1/4-inch border around each pastry.  *I could not find almond paste, so  I rolled out a very thin piece of almond paste from the bar and placed it on the pastry rounds to within 1/4-inch of the edge of each pastry. Place thin slices of pear on top of the almond paste. Sprinkle each pastry with a half tablespoon natural sugar, or white sugar if natural sugar is not available. Place 1/2 teaspoon butter in middle of each pastry. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly brown. When lightly brown, remove the baking sheet from the oven, and turn the oven to broil. Leave the oven rack where it was when baking. Use a pastry brush and brush melted apple jelly all over the top and side of each pastry. WATCH closely. Put back in the oven until the pastry starts to become deep golden brown, as you see in the photo. Remove to a rack until ready to serve with the caramel sauce. To serve, put caramel sauce on the bottom of each dessert plate. Place the galettes on top of the caramel sauce. Add a scoop of ice cream if you wish.

Caramel Sauce

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 cup heavy cream (warmed)

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

To make the caramel sauce, add the sugars, and corn syrup to a heavy pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Continue to cook until the mixture begins to brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the heavy cream, lemon juice and butter and keep stirring until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use, and reheat to use with the pears.

 

Cream of Long Grain & Wild Rice Soup, Dash of Curry!

I love this photo of my dining room table bathed in warm sunlight on a winter day. I want to curl up on the window sill and take a nap. I would if I were a cat. Instead, I think I’ll have something else to keep me warm. A bowl of this wonderful cream soup. It’s elegant enough to serve on a Sunday dinner table, and hearty enough to keep you warm on this cold, cold January day.

The recipe for this soup is one that I adapted from Southern Living Christmas. It makes about 12 cups of soup. I often make this and put the leftovers in canning jars and put them in the freezer. All I have to do to reheat is to take the jar out of the freezer and let it thaw overnight in the refrigerator, but even that is unnecessary, you can just remove the screw off lid, and place the jar on a saucer, put in the microwave and reheat the soup.

To serve with the soup, I have included a beet salad recipe with raspberry vinaigrette. There will be another post featuring the best Galette de poire à la sauce Caramel, or known in English as pear Galette with caramel sauce, coming up right after this. You will find it very easy to make. This recipe is adapted from Neiman-Marcus.

Stay warm. Eat warm. Enjoy.

Cream of Long Grain & Wild Rice Soup

1 (8-ounce) package of (seasoned) Vigo Long Grain White & Wild Rice

1/4 cup butter

1 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup thinly sliced celery

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon dried chervil, or parsley

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

6 cups chicken broth

2 cups half and half* see note below

2/3 cup heavy cream

Cook rice according to package directions. While the rice is cooking, melt the butter in a large Dutch oven. Add the onion, celery, salt, pepper, mustard powder, and parsley. Cook until the vegetables are tender.

Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the flour, to the vegetable mixture, and cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Gradually whisk in the chicken broth, cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture has thickened. The soup will not thicken until it comes to a boil.

Stir the cooked rice into the chicken broth mixture and add *half and half and heavy cream. Cook until thoroughly heated, and thickened. Remove from the heat. Serve with a dash of curry or sherry. Makes 12 cups.

*I don’t usually have half and half in my fridge, but always have milk and heavy cream. Use can use 1 cup milk and 1 2/3 cup heavy cream. Never add it cold. Warm it slightly in the microwave before adding it to the soup mixture.

                       Citrusy Beet Salad with Baby Greens, Feta, Raspberry Vinaigrette

Add anything else you like to this salad. Oranges, toasted sliced almonds or pecans, grapes, or any other fruit you like and make this your own salad.

4 medium beets

Olive oil

6 cups baby salad greens

1 (8 ounce) container Feta cheese or goat cheese

2-3 tablespoons orange juice

2 tablespoons grated orange zest

Raspberry vinaigrette (recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 350º.

Wash the beets until all dirt is removed.

Cut the beet tops even with the beets, and trim the bottoms. Rub each beet with olive oil.

Place the trimmed beets on foil in an oven proof dish. Cover with foil and bake for 45-60 minutes or until the beets are tender when pierced with a cake tester or fork.

Remove from the oven to cool.

When ready to peel, put on rubber gloves, otherwise your hands will be stained deep red from the beet juice. Often the beet skin will peel right off, but if not, peel the beets by using a knife to cut as close to the meat as possible.

Cut the beets into slices or cut each beet into 4 wedges.

Salt to taste.

Prepare 4 salad plates by placing 1½ cups baby greens on each plate. Place the beet wedges or slices in the center of the greens. Crumble feta or goat cheese cut into cubes and distribute among the four salad plates. Drizzle the beets lightly with orange juice, and then drizzle with Raspberry Vinaigrette. Add a small amount of orange zest over each salad. Serve chilled.

Raspberry Vinaigrette:

I would like to tell you that I created this delicious recipe, but I didn’t. I’ve had it for so many years that I don’t remember where it came from, but it has added delicious flavor to many salads, and to many dinners in my personal chef business.

1/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves, or jam

¼ cup vegetable oil

4 teaspoons rice vinegar

4 teaspoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon dry white wine

1 teaspoon Country Dijon Mustard

In a small bowl, mix the preserves, vinegars, white wine, and mustard. Slowly drizzle the oil into the vinegar mixture while whisking. Better yet, use a jar to mix the dressing and store in the refrigerator in the same jar. On occasion I don’t have any white wine open to use, so I substitute white wine vinegar.

Watch for this dessert in the next post. You don’t want to miss it!

 

January, and it’s as cold as can be out there. Today, for some reason, I thought about a dish that I have not made in years. Grillades and Creamy Grits!  A dish that is usually served farther South in New Orleans, it is heart-warming and tummy filling. It will sure make you feel warm on a cold winter night in South Carolina.

The original recipe for grillades is steak, but I by-passed the tenderizing process by using cube steak. It has already been tenderized. This was the idea of Joyce Logan. She and her husband Jim, an attorney in Anderson, SC, were faithful attendees of my cooking classes at Judy Booker’s Kitchen Emporium. Joyce died of cancer years ago, and I always think of her when I’m making this dish. She was a lovely and sweet friend.

The recipe is below, and if you don’t have the fresh ingredients called for in the recipe, it is so easy to substitute dried ingredients from your pantry. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did tonight.

Grillades

6 small single servings of cube steaks (about 5 ounces each)

2 teaspoons of salt

2 teaspoons black pepper

1/2 cup oil, divided

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 large sweet onion

1/2 large green pepper

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/4 cup chopped celery

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 chopped fresh parsley or 1/8 cup dried parsley

1 teaspoon dried thyme or two sprigs fresh thyme sprigs

1 cup beef broth (I always keep Better than Beef Bouillon in my fridge and mix 1 teaspoon with 1 cup water instead of beef broth)

1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes with garlic and onion (I used Del Monte)

1 teaspoon sugar

2 bay leaves

Salt and pepper both side of the cube steaks. Heat 5 tablespoons oil in a Dutch oven. Fry cube steaks in the hot oil until brown on each side.  Do this in batches if necessary. Take the cube steaks out and set aside.

Add the remaining oil to the Dutch oven. Add the flour, scraping the pan. Cook over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly so the flour does not burn. Stir in the chopped onions, peppers, celery, garlic, parsley and thyme. Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly,  until vegetables are tender.

Stir in the beef broth, tomatoes, sugar and bay leaves. Add the cube steak back into the liquid and bring to a boil. Cover, and reduce heat. Simmer for 1-1/2 hours or until beef is tender. Stir often so that steak does not stick to the pan. Discard the bay leaves before serving. Serve over creamy grits, recipe below.

Creamy Grits

3 1/2 cups water

1/2 salt

1 cup stone ground grits (I used a brand called, Charleston’s Own, natural grits. This is a finer texture than the very large stone ground grits)

2/3 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup grated pecorino-romano cheese (use your favorite cheese)

Bring water and salt to a boil and whisk in grits. Bring back to a boil, cover and turn heat down to low.

Cook for 10 minutes. Add heavy cream and continue to cook, stirring often. Check the grits during the last 25 to 30 minutes for salt, and adding it to taste. Taste during this time to make sure the grits are creamy and not gritty. You will know the difference. When ready, add the cheeses. Cover and let sit another 5 minutes before serving. This will make the grits even creamier.

When ready to serve, divide grits among six serving bowls. Top each serving with  steak and gravy. Serve with a  salad of mixed baby greens with Italian Reserve Dressing, and French bread. Stay warm my friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Delicious Peach Cobbler

Happy New Year! It was a short 2016, so the first day of the New Year it seems appropriate to post dessert first. This recipe, which I didn’t give the proper credit to when I first posted it on my Facebook page yesterday, was the inspiration of my sister, Margaret Ann.

Margaret Ann is a wonderful cook. Period. She owns a small farm in Tennessee and takes her cooking seriously. No matter what she cooks it will be better than what I cook. Her perloo’s are out of this world, and her cornbread dressing is to die for. So, when she gave me a recipe for peaches in crescent rolls, I had no doubt about the goodness. BUT, my sister used a lemon-lime soda drink and yesterday when I decided to make this dessert, I didn’t have any soft drinks other than Coca-Cola. Therefore, the only alternative was the juice from the peaches. I just wish I’d thought to do what my friend, Ellen Thompson does to her peach pies and cobblers. She adds a drop or two of almond extract and that would have taken this dish to another level, and I will do that next time. Just so I don’t forget, and so you can try it too, I’ve added it to the recipe below!

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch pie plate with non-stick cooking spray.

Ingredients:

1 (8-ounce) package crescent rolls (I’ll bet you could use puff pastry too)

1 (15.25 ounce) can peach halves

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Cinnamon

Natural sugar

Remove crescent roll dough from package and section into triangles. Drain the can of peaches, saving all the juice. Cut each peach half in half. Place a peach section on the large end of the triangle and roll up just like you were rolling a crescent roll.  Place in the pie plate, and continue until all rolls are used. If you have any peach sections left over, add them to the plate between the rolls. Mix the peach juice with 1/4 teaspoon almond extract. Pour the juice over the rolls. Sprinkle rolls with cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until rolls are brown on top. Serve with heavy cream.

The juice from the peaches, along with cinnamon and natural sugar were the perfect sweetness. I enjoyed it very much, and ate it in the tradition of our grandfather, J.M. Rogers, who ate his cobblers, pies and fruit with a couple of spoons of heavy cream.