Apple Bread Pudding

This recipe calls for all the usual suspects that are found in bread pudding, namely sugar, milk, fresh or dried fruits and some dry bread cubes. I made my apple raisin bread pudding using stale bread that has been sitting on the kitchen counter. The dryness of stale bread is actually an asset in preparing bread pudding, because the dry bread will soak up a good deal of flavor. If you buy a lot of bread and sometimes don't use all of it, this recipe might be helpful for you. It was amazing how fast these little mini loaves of bread pudding disappeared!

Bread pudding to me is a perfect breakfast food, similar to pain perdu, or French toast. I also often enjoy it for le goûter de 4 heures, which in English translates to "4 p.m. snack". As a child, this was my favorite time of the day! My childhood memory of a typical "4 heures" would be a piece of warm baguette with a piece of chocolate, an apple and chocolate milk. If you ask any French kid, that's pretty normal but it doesn't seem to be this way in America. The juice box and supermarket candy bar that most American kids eat (including my little sisters-in-law), definitely don't compare.

Kumquat Breaded Baked Tofu

Kumquat breaded baked tofu is the result of one of my various culinary experiments. I pan-fried pieces of tofu, covered them with a crust of bread and baked till golden. Tofu is a blank canvas that will absorb any flavor. By drizzling the puffed baked tofu with a ginger kumquat sauce, the complexity of the flavor matched the complexity of the texture of the dish.

After making my breaded version of Frenched rack of lamb, I thought it would be fun to make a vegetarian alternative. My little munchkin and I went to the garden and picked a basket full of mini kumquats, and it occurred to me that a kumquat persillade crust would go great with tofu.

Experiments don't always go the way you want them to, but judging by how quickly Lulu and the girls devoured the dish, I'd say it worked out all right. Give it a try, and don't be afraid to add your own twist!

Yorkshire Pudding (Popover)

Yorkshire pudding batter contains very basic ingredients that I'm sure are already in your kitchen; eggs, milk, flour and oil (or fat drippings). The final product is greater than the sum of its parts, and there are few things more dramatic than a basket full of Yorkshire pudding.

Food has an incredible ability to evoke memories, and for me, Yorkshire pudding really takes me back in time to my childhood vacations in England. I stayed 2 years in a row at Tracy's house during Easter break in 1989 and 1990. It's been almost 20 years since the last time we met but we've kept in touch ever since. Tracy is an amazing cook, and I have fond memories of her delicious meals. A typical dinner would be roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, some greens and carrots and a wonderful banana mousse. Tracy, if you're reading, send my love to your lovely girls Emily and Alice!

Buttermilk Biscuits

Unlike sour cream biscuits, the buttermilk biscuits I make "only" call for butter. No shortening. The result is an intensely nutty flavor; however the biscuits don't rise as much without shortening because of the natural water content in butter. It's a worthwhile tradeoff.

I absolutely love buttermilk biscuits. We don't have them in France, so my first experience with them was in the US. It was quite a revelation. Biscuits are great with gravy, but I find them so flavorful that I often make a batch and eat them as is.

Cornbread Dressing

The trick to making good cornbread stuffing is to cut the cornbread into bite-sized cubes and then to sear them a bit before adding them to the vegetables and stock. The reason for this is that cornbread is much more crumbly than croutons, and will fall apart if not treated beforehand.

I made my cornbread dressing with commonly used winter and root vegetables, such as carrots, turnips, celery and button mushrooms to keep it very simple and not overpower the homemade cornbread itself. Cornbread is after all the star of the show. You can also repeat the flavors from the cornbread in the stuffing itself.  Roasted jalapeño, bits of corn and cheddar cheese would work, though I would use shredded cheese in that case.