FFwD: Chicken B'stilla

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This is one of those recipes that I been waiting to make from Dorie’s book, so when I saw it go up as the choices for our January FFwD group, I did a happy little dance.

Dorie gives us a quick historical lesson on the dish by telling us that this dish is one of the legendary dishes of Morocco that the French has adapted and made their own. Upon further investigation on my part, some say that Arabs brought it to Morocco from the Middle East, and some even venture to say that because of the delicate pastry sheets that incase it, specifically from Persia.  This dish has been around!  But whoever took the first crack at this dish; it is known today as typical of Morocco and highly regarded as a national dish of that country.

This elaborate meat pie is traditionally made with pigeon or squab, since squabs are often hard to get, chicken is more often use as the substitute.  Another substitute is using the phyllo sheets as the blanket that covers this entire filling.  In morocco they use a combination of crisp layers of the crepe-like warka dough, also known as Feuilles de brick, which is a thinner cousin of the phyllo dough.  In some cases you can find them in Middle Eastern markets or simple buy it online via amazon.com.

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FFwD: Gnocchi a la Parisienne

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I been so absent from my French Fridays with Dorie group, I confess that I totally have skipped a whole month – thank god for their rules which are so forgiven, unlike my other cooking clubs. I love when you can cook without the pressure of being kicked out.  Plus, the December recipes choices were all over the place, and you had to choose what to cook and on what week, which I did not like AT ALL, it felt somewhat disconnected. I hate to be given a choice to do a specific task, the reason I like cooking clubs is because I’m being told what to cook and on what date – a bit of structure is good in my chaotic life – and the fact that I can compare my experiences with all the others participating cooks that are cooking the same thing is the highlight of making it in the first place.

So I was so glad to see that in January, the group was back to the old format.  And the recipe this week was Gnocchi a la Parisienne.

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GCC: Menu 14 - Croque Monsieur and Apple Charlotte

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This past week’s Gutsy Cook menu choices took me back to my numerous trips to France when I lived in Europe.  From France I give you the famous Croque Monsieur.  And from further north – England, the Apple Charlotte.

Since I was pressed for time (which lately it has been happening more and more - aggggghhh!!!), I skipped the charlotte and made only the Croque Monsieur.

If you are ever in France this sandwich can be found all over the country, while to some it may be a simple hot ham and cheese grilled sandwich, the French take to another level all together and fancy it up.  First by using Gruyère cheese (and you guys know how I love that cheese) and coating it with a Béchamel sauce, which once more has cheese in it, turning it to Mornay sauce, then into the broiler it goes and out comes this hot, cheese, toasty goodness.  Once you have one, you are pretty much guarantee to never see a grilled ham and cheese the same way again.

The best part is that the Mornay sauce stores well in the refrigerator, which makes perfect to make some extra, store and then when you craving that ham and cheese, you can whip this up in less than 10 minutes and feel all French-like.  We made this recipe four times so far, and as I write this I’m eating my fifth.

But there is more, you can actually top this, how?

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