My Madison Bistro

I first started playing with choux dough back in college. At the time, my idea of cooking involved a bag of frozen mixed vegetables and a sauce packet. My roommates and I would cut up chicken, then stir-fry the chicken, add the veggies, add the sauce, and let it simmer for a bit. Whomever wasn’t involved with the stir-fry would take care of making rice. It was several steps up from boxed pasta dinners and ramen noodles, and we felt quite virtuous when we made those meals.

When I baked, however, I brought out my cookbooks and started to really have fun. My first experience with choux resulted in chocolate éclairs. As you might imagine, those went over rather well in an apartment occupied by three young women. Next up was a lemon curd filling, with the finished puffs tossed in powdered sugar.

I never ventured to the savory side while in college, and it wasn’t until two or three years ago that I first made gougéres. I had high hopes, but I was a little overzealous with the eggs and cheese, and they didn’t retain their shape. I also used a recipe that utilized the food processor; that extra step keeping my hands away from the choux resulted in my not paying close enough attention to the dough; as with any dough, you really can’t blindly follow a recipe and you must pay attention to how the flour absorbs moisture. Since that kitchen embarrassment, gougéres have been on my To Do List to make again.

Continue reading “Gougéres”

Tags: Cheese, choux

After the holidays, I spent some time perusing old food magazines, especially the winter issues. I found this recipe from Molly Wizenberg’s column in Bon Appetit, and the bars sound fun and tasty, and I was ready to try something different.

I almost had all of the ingredients, but because I only had light brown sugar, I added just a little blackstrap molasses to up the molasses flavor.

The scent wafting from the oven was amazing. I’ve had a love affair with coffee for years, and though I don’t often indulge in toffee, every now and then it just hits the spot. I grew more impatient to try these bars as their scent invaded more of my home. Finally! I was able to take them out of the oven and cut them, but I couldn’t wait until they completely cooled before trying one.

Continue reading “Coffee Crunch Bars”

Tags: chocolate, espresso, toffee

When I first received my copy of Back to Basics, I knew that someday I would make the goat cheese tart. I mean, it has some of my favorite components: puff pastry, goat cheese, caramelized onions, parmesan, thyme…add a glass of wine, and life is perfect.

I originally made this recipe last year for the Barefoot Bloggers, which I was eventually a drop-out of. Someday, I might rejoin, but I’ve made so many of Ina’s recipes already that I’ve had commitment issues.

If you haven’t tried these yet, do so! With a glass of crisp white wine, they are the perfect weekend lunch.

Continue reading “Tomato & Goat Cheese Tarts”

Tags: Barefoot Contessa, caramelized onions, tarts, tomatoes

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and has a wonderful 2010.

In 2010, I’m looking to do things a little differently on My Madison Bistro. As you may have noticed, 2009 was rather heavy on the dessert posts, and it’s time to get back to what this blog was supposed to be all about. For Christmas this year, I received The Country Cooking of France by Anne Willan. I couldn’t be more excited to start cooking from this book, and I plan to document my efforts on the blog. I suppose it needs to be pointed out that French country cooking is not necessarily simple food. Many of the recipes are time consuming, so we’re looking at possibly cooking from this book every week or two at the most.

That’s not to say my only posts will be from that book, however. Whenever something interesting comes up, of course it will end up here…but I don’t want to go back to feeling the need to post every other day, because frankly, I got a little burned out this summer; I started making tacos once a week and even drank protein shakes for two meals a day to avoid cooking. So, the posts may not be as frequent as they once were, but I’m hoping to make these posts really count.

And now, it’s time to decide what to cook first…