I’ve always been intrigued by the French word Clafouti, although, it is not a particulary attractive sounding word, it brings to mind something warm and delicious. To me, Clafouti is a custard-like baked French dessert that is typically made by baking fresh fruit (traditionally cherries) and a batter, somewhat similar to pancake batter, in a baking dish.
Having used the Julia Child cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, for many years, I turned to it again to find out about this dessert. According to Julia, Clafouti is a Flan. According to the dictionary, a flan is an open pie filled with sweet or savoury ingredients; also, a Spanish dessert of baked custard covered with caramel.
I have always been a big fan of Spanish Flan, I rate it just a few notches below Crème Brulee. But now I had to convince my poor tired brain to divide the Flan category into several sub-categories. (Why can’t life be easier on the elderly?) Here it is….Flan: 1. Sweet 2. Savory
I suppose that wasn’t too hard.
My next challenge was to take all of my hundreds of recipes that now suddenly fit into one of these two sub-categories and separate them accordingly. I found the sweet ones easily enough, I had them under “Desserts”. Then the real search began. I found most of them hiding in “Appetizers”, 3 dozen or so under “Brunch”, maybe 10 or 12 of them under “Vegetables” (such as Gratins).
My next step was to return to the research stage….There I was, joyfully reading about fresh Cherries and plump sweet Figs; juicy, drippy Mangoes, and big fat red Strawberries. I was so happy finding photos of these delicious fruits tucked gently into beautiful, rustic dishes, and baked into a rich creamy clafouti. Then it happened, Brussels Sprout Clafouti…was I surprised? Yes. Was I repulsed, YES! YUCK!!!!! .....But, I didn’t give up, because I remembered I had several recipes that suddenly fit into “savory”. One of them, My Crabmeat and Tomato Gratin was suddenly a Clafouti. All the work ahead of me!.....

Then it hit me. I was making work for myself, changing things that I already had in neat compartments. Why would I disrupt my thought process (I can hear my kids laughing at that one!) by trying to reorganize something that did not need to be reorganized?
So, here it is…. Flan is Flan! Gratins are Gratins! And finally, Clafouti is a French Cherry Custard Dessert. Period.

Julia Child's Clafouti

serves 6-8

1 1/4 cups milk

1/3 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup flour

3 cups cherries, pitted

1/3 cup sugar

powdered sugar

In a blender, blend the milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and flour. Pour a 1/4 inch layer of the batter in a buttered 7 or 8 cup lightly buttered fireproof baking dish. Place in the oven until a film of batter sets in the pan. Remove from the heat and spread the cherries over the batter. Sprinkle on the 1/3 cup of sugar. Pour on the rest of the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about for about 45 minutes to an hour. The clafouti is done when puffed and brown and and a knife plunged in the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, serve warm. Enjoy!

All photos from www.fotosearch.com

My Top 10 Perfect Foods

I decided to do a little Google-ing as research for today’s blog. You see, I have a list of foods that I feel are the “Perfect Food”, perfect for me. I thought it might be fun to see what other people think. So, I Googled it and figured I would see “the egg” and “milk”…but I got the following….
Acai…fruit from the Amazon's "tree of life"….
Salba… the seed of South America’s legendary salvia hispanica plant….
Hempseed…still legal here in the United States….

This is about the time I decided “they” don’t know how to pick “perfect foods.”
You see, my list goes something like this….

#1…Crème Brûlée
2.. Cioppino

3.. Polenta
4…Jasper’s Lobster Cappuccino
5.. Warm Homemade Ricotta Cheese
6.. Grilled Cheese Sandwich
7… My Mom’s Sugar Cookies
8… 1 ½” thick Rare Rib Eye Steak, grilled over an open flame
9… Havarti Cheese
10…Flourless Chocolate Cake

Of course, there is always fried chicken, lasagna, mashed potatoes with rich beef gravy, apple pie, eggnog, chocolate truffles, fried catfish and hushpuppies, etc. I suppose no one will ever accuse me of being into health foods! For some reason, Acai, Salba and Hempseed just don’t exist in my world.
Try this recipe and see if you don’t agree that it is #1 on my list for a good reason! Remember, Creme Brulee or "burnt cream" is satiny custard. It is served chilled yet glistens with a crisp caramelized sugar top, which when tapped with the back of a dessert spoon, shatters like glass, revealing that cool, vanilla-infused custard hidden below.

Crème Brûlée
8 egg yolks

1/3 cup granulated white sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup granulated white sugar for caramelizing

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Add cream and vanilla and continue to whisk until well blended. Strain into a large bowl, skimming off any foam or bubbles. Divide mixture among 6 ramekins or custard cups. Prepare an oven-going water bath by placing a paper towel in the bottom of a pan large enough to hold the six ramekins without touching. The towel keeps the ramekins from sliding. Put the ramekins in the pan and put on the center rack of the oven, then carefully fill the pan with warm water until the level reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Close the door and begin timing. Bake until set around the edge but still loose in the center, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave in the water bath until cooled. Remove cups from water bath and chill for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. When ready to serve, sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of sugar over each custard. Caramelize the sugar with a small hand-held torch or place the ramekins under the broiler until the sugar melts. Re-chill custards for a few minutes before serving.
Yield: 6 servings

All photos from www.fotosearch.com