Florida Agenda

This is a French cake that celebrates the Epiphany: The day when the Three Kings visited the baby Jesus. As part of French tradition, a bean or small china “feve,” or favor, is hidden in the cake. The person who finds the “feve” in his or her slice becomes king or queen for the day. We had this tradition in Ireland for Halloween and the “favor” was a ring.

• 1/4 cup almond paste
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter,
softened
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 packs of frozen puff pastry,
thawed
• 1 egg, beaten

Place the almond paste in a food processor with about half of the sugar, and process until well-blended. Then add the butter and the remaining sugar and process until smooth, then blend in 1 egg, vanilla extract, almond extract, flour and salt. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.

Roll out one sheet of the puff pastry. Keep the pastry cool, don’t knead or stretch it. Repeat with the second sheet of pastry.

Refrigerate both sheets.

Mound the almond filling onto the center of the pastry that is on the baking sheet. Leave about 1 1/2 inch margin at the edges.

Wet the margin with a little water so as it’ll stick together. Don’t forget the little favor in the filling! Place the second sheet of pastry on top, and press down the edges to seal. Beat the remaining egg with a fork, and lightly brush onto the top of the galette. Use a knife to make a criss cross pattern in the egg wash, and then prick several small slits in the top to vent steam while baking.

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven until the top is a deep golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Eat it warm… You are the chef!

Artichauts à la Barigoule or Artichoke Hearts Stewed in Olive Oil is a typical Provençal dish and this recipe comes from Vero’s Aunt Lilian, who would buy her veggies from the local market in “Bormes-les-Mimosas,” the most beautiful small Provençal village in the south of France. Drink an ice cold dry Rosé wine with this dish…yum.

1/2 lemon, zested and juiced, plus 4 thin slices
4 medium sized artichokes
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
10 button mushrooms
6 cloves of garlic, smashed
2 small carrots, cut into 3″ pieces
1/2  a cup  of white wine
1 tbsp. butter
1 cup smokey lardons
1/4 tsp. cracked coriander seeds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 olives, pitted and halved
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/8 tsp. paprika or piment d’Espelette

Combine lemon juice and 6 cups water in a large bowl. Working with one artichoke at a time, use a serrated knife, and cut off leaves by making a crosswise cut about 1 1/2″ from where the stem meets the base; discard leaves. Cut away the tough outer leaves remaining on the base until you reach the inner yellow leaves. Using a peeler, remove green outer layer from the stem and base. Trim off bottom 1?2″ of stem. Use a spoon to scoop out fuzzy choke from center of artichoke. Halve the trimmed artichoke and  transfer to the lemon water.

Your trimmed artichoke should look like a lollypop. Split the “lollypop” in half length ways .
Drain artichokes. Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add artichokes cut side down, along with mushrooms, garlic, lardons and carrots. Cook, stirring, until brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Add lemon slices, wine, butter, and coriander and bring to the boil. Reduce wine by half, 3–4 minutes. Add enough water to just cover vegetables, again bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until vegetables are tender, 12 to15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and taste. Using tongs, transfer artichokes, carrots, and mushrooms to a bowl. Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce 8 to 10 minutes, and then return everything to the pan and heat through. Garnish with lemon zest, parsley, and paprika. You are a chef!

If you are in France, no matter which region, no matter where you eat, you will most likely be offered the divine French dessert Mousse au Chocolat. No matter how it looks on paper, “Mousse” is the French word for “foam.” You can find hundreds of different versions of the original recipe for this chocolate delight in cookbooks everywhere. Some boast fancy ingredients like alcohol, peppermint, oranges or even marshmallows. Some are made with complicated directions that use three or four different bowls. I always play around with recipes, so here’s what I’ve come up with:

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sifted cocoa
2 tbsp Baileys® Irish Cream or similar liqueur
2 cups heavy whipping cream
¼  tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until blended thoroughly. Then beat in the cocoa and Irish Cream. (If you‘re concerned about illness caused by consuming raw eggs, I suggest putting the mixture in a “bain Marie” and heating for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.)

In a different bowl, whip cream and vanilla until it holds stiff peaks.

Stir in approximately 1/2 cup of the whipped cream to lighten the cocoa mixture.

Fold in remaining mixture gently. Divide into individual servings and chill for about an hour. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and garnish with chocolate shavings or a confectioner coffee bean….you are a chef!

Scallops, “Coquille St. Jacques” in French, are also known as “King scallops,” “Saint James’ shell” in the British Isles, and here in the states as “Sea scallops” and “Bay scallops” for the smaller ones.

In France, the species is protected and is considered quite a luxury food. The “whole” shell fish is served there, the round fleshy white piece, or the muscle, as well as the delectable “coral” or roe. It looks like a red /orange half moon and I think is the best, tastiest part. Vero’s mum would get them at Christmas and we’d eat them raw, thinly sliced, like “Carpaccio” with lemon juice and a hint of fresh ginger. In this recipe, we’ll cook ‘em.
• 1 pound fresh bay or sea scallops
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Flour, for coating
• 1/2 stick of unsalted butter, divided
• 2 large chopped shallots
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• ½ glass dry white wine
• 1 lemon cut in half

If you’ve got bay scallops, keep them whole. If you’ve got sea scallops (the bigger ones), cut each one in half horizontally. Season with salt and pepper, toss in the flour, and then shake off the excess.

In a large thick assed sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter over high heat until sizzling and add the scallops, all in one go. Lower the heat to medium and allow the scallops to brown lightly on one side without moving them, about 1½ minutes, then turn and brown lightly on the other side. Again 90 seconds, total. This is important cause you don’t want rubbery overcooked scallops.

Melt the rest of the butter in the pan with the scallops, and add the shallots, garlic, and parsley, which you have chopped nice and fine. Sauté for two more minutes, tossing all the seasonings with the scallops. Add the wine, and cook for one minute more, (this is called “deglace”) and taste. Serve immediately with a squeeze of lemon juice. Ratatouille or rice Pilaf goes well with this dish. You are a chef!

Vero, my partner was born in Ardèche where the cliffs go as high as 1,000 feet. The river Ardèche is the largest natural canyon in Europe, and there are dolmens and menhirs, that were erected thousands of years ago. We have canoed down the Ardèche many times, and pâté was almost always in our back pack with a fresh baguette and bottle of Côtes du Rhône. Never in my wildest dreams
did I think I’d be giving the recipe to Americans in South Florida!

Pâté (pronounced pah-TAY) can be a smooth “mousse’’ or a chunky “terrine”. Be it one or the other pâté is simply a mixture of seasoned, base ingredients. Beef, pork, liver, seafood, wild game, poultry, and vegetables are all candidates for pâté. It may be served hot or cold, molded or unmolded, and is usually served as a first course or appetizer. Pâté can be cooked in a crust too, in which case it’s referred to as pâté en croûte.

• ½ lb ground pork
• ½ lb ground veal
• ¼ cup of chicken livers
coarsely chopped
• 2 eggs
• Chopped parsley
• 1 onion, chopped small
• 1 clove of garlic chopped small
• Salt and pepper
• 1 pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 small glass of dry white wine
• 1/2 cup butcher block black pepper• 1 packet of gelatin

Preheat your oven to 395 °.

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients (except the butcher block black pepper which is for the garnish) and finish with the white wine. Transfer to a greased cake mould and bake for 75 minutes. Make the gele. Add the black pepper to the gele and pour over the top of the pâté. Allow to cool and refrigerate overnight.

Loosen the pâté from the mould using a knife and wrap in cling film. You can freeze a portion too, for later munchies. Serve with baguette, or your favorite bread, or crackers.

You are the chef!

Jean Doherty is the Chef and Owner of Le Patio Restaurant in Wilton Manors 954-530-4641

Jean Doherty

Some chefs have taken to naming any dish of thinly sliced protein ‘Carpaccio,’ but this dish was originally made with raw beef. It was first served in “Harry’s Bar” in Venice, Italy. Harry’s Bar? Yes, a strange name for a Venetian bar. As the story goes, Harry Pickering, a heavy drinker and son of some rich guy from Boston, borrowed money from a bartender.

He paid the bartender off some years later tenfold. Enough for the bartender to open his own establishment in 1931 which he called Harry’s Bar.

Harry’s Bar has been frequented by loads of famous people – Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Orson Welles, and Woody Allen among them.

In 1950, the countess Amalia Nani Mocenigo ordered raw meat (apparently by doctor’s orders) and the dish was named Carpaccio by Cipriani the owner–in reference to the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio, because the colors of the raw meat and mustard sauce reminded him of paintings by Carpaccio.

• 8 to 10 ounces beef tenderloin from
the tip end of the roast
• Salt and Freshly ground black pepper
• Shaved Parmesan
• Fresh raw button mushrooms
(optional)
• Capers
• Freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Extra virgin olive oil

Roll your meat in plastic cling film, make it round or rectangular; you are the chef. Pop it in the freezer and freeze the beef until almost frozen, about 1 1/2 hours (this makes it easier to cut into very thin slices). Using a large sharp carving knife, or a slicer, slice the beef as thinly as possible. Arrange the beef slices on a serving platter, or directly onto individual plates. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, the capers and the parmesan shavings. Most chefs serve a small rocket (Arugula) salad or fries with this.

Jean Doherty is the Chef and Owner of Le Patio Restaurant in Wilton Manors (954) 530-4641

By Jean Doherty

Ossobuco means “bone with a hole” in Italian. It is usually eaten with polenta or mashed potatoes. My favorite is with pastas. After all, it is an Italian dish. The garnish on this dish is a “Persillade” which is a mixture of parsley, garlic, and oil, and sometimes vinegar, lemon juice or zest.

• ¼ cup olive oil
• Enough flour to coat your veal
• 1 bouquet garni
• 4 1½ -inch-thick slices of veal
hind shank
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup onion chopped
• ½ cup carrot chopped
• ½ cup celery chopped fine
• 1 teaspoon garlic chopped
• 1 bottle dry white wine
• 1 can Italian plum tomatoes,
chopped with juice
• 1 cube beef broth
• 1 cube chicken broth

Pat the veal shanks dry with paper towels to remove any excess moisture, they brown better when they’re dry. Secure the meat to the bone with kitchen twine.

Season each shank with salt and freshly ground pepper, and dredge the shanks in flour, shaking off the excess. In a thick assed pot heat the olive oil until it smokes.

Add veal to the hot oil and sauté until brown, about 3 minutes a side, then transfer the veal to a platter. In the same pot, add the butter and sauté the onion, carrot, celery and chopped garlic over a medium heat. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes.

Then add the wine (One quarter of the bottle should do; you have the rest; you are the chef!) and reduce it by simmering it while scraping the browning residues stuck to the bottom and sides loose with a wooden spoon.

Add the chopped tomatoes with their juice, the bouquet garni and both stocks to the pot and bring to a simmer. Return the veal to the pot and cook for about 2 hours or until the meat feels very tender when prodded with a fork and a creamy sauce has formed. If, while the Ossobuco is cooking, the liquid in the pot becomes insufficient, add a little water, as needed.

The level of cooking liquid should always be about 3/4 the way up the shank. You should have more than enough. I like fresh tagliatelle with my Ossobuco. That way I can sop up all that delicious sauce.

Finish with chopped garlic, parsley and lemon zest.

Most moder n recipes for apple pie require an ounce or two of sugar, but the earliest recipes didn’t. There are several possible reasons: Sugarcane imported from Egypt was not widely available in 14th century England, where it cost between one and two shillings a pound – roughly the equivalent of about $50 a pound in today’s prices.

Or, the absence of sugar in early recipes for apple pie may instead indicate that the medieval English did not have quite as sweet a tooth as their descendants. Perhaps, as in some modern “sugar-free” recipes, the juice of the fruit was intended to sweeten the pie. This open-faced tart is typically French.

The glaze will not only sweeten but will beautify the tart.

• 4 Granny Smith apples

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, small diced

• 1/2 cup apricot jam

• 1 rectangle of puff pastry

• 2 tablespoons Calvados, rum, or water

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place the dough on the prepared sheet pan and refrigerate while you prepare the apples. Peel the apples and cut them in half through the stem. Remove the stems and cores with a sharp knife. Slice the apples crosswise in 1/4-inch thick slices. Place overlapping slices of apples diagonally down the middle of the tart and continue making diagonal rows on both sides of the first row until the pastry is covered with apple slices (I don’t use the apple ends so as the arrangement looks even and delicious to the eye, but you are the chef). Sprinkle with the full 1/2 cup of sugar and dot with the butter … OR use the whole apple as I did in the photo and make individual tarts which are gorgeous too!

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the pastry is browned and the edges of the apples start to brown. Rotate the pan during cooking. If the pastry puffs up in one area, cut a little slit with a knife to let the air out. Don’t worry! The apple juices will burn in the pan but the tart will be grand! When the tart’s done, heat the apricot jam with the Calvados and brush the apples and the pastry completely with the mixture. Loosen the tart with a metal spatula so as it doesn’t stick to the paper. Allow to cool and serve warm or at room temperature.

Bon appétit!

Jean Doherty is the Chef and Owner of Le Patio Restaurant in Wilton Manors (954) 530-4641

I was lucky to spend 36 years in Lyon, which has been known as the French capital of gastronomy. This is due, in part, to the presence of many of France’s finest chefs in the city of Lyon and its surrounding areas. This reputation also comes from the fact that two of France’s best known wine-growing regions are located near Lyon: Beaujolais to the North, and Côtes du Rhône to the South.
My first encounter with delicious food was in Lyon when I was 17 years old. This is a typical “Lyonnais” special… simple yet “ab fab.” In Lyon, they use “piss en lit” (translated literally “pee in the bed” and is in fact Dandelion leaves) but frisée will replace that nicely. This is for one serving, so do your math for the number of guests.

• A handful of fresh frisée lettuce,
torn into bite sized pieces
• 2 strips bacon
• 1 teaspoon chopped shallots
• 1 slice French or Italian bread and a
little butter to make buttered croutons
• 1 poached egg
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cook two strips of bacon on medium heat until done, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, let drain off excess fat on a paper towel. Once cool, chop.

Cut a slice of French or Italian bread into cubes. Toast on medium high heat in a small saucepan with a teaspoon of melted butter. Don’t stir the croutons unless to turn to a different side, once one side is toasted.

Poach the egg. Bring about an inch of salted water to a boil in a small, deep skillet, then lower heat to barely bubbling. One at a time, break eggs into a shallow bowl and slip them into the bubbling water. Cook eggs for 3 to 5 minutes, just until the white is set and the yolk has filmed over. Remove each egg with a slotted spoon and drain briefly on a paper towel.

Layer the frisée, bacon, shallots, and croutons on a salad plate. In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Pour dressing over salad. Top with the poached egg.

You are the chef!

Jean Doherty is the Chef and Owner of Le Patio Restaurant in Wilton Manors (954) 530-4641

Alfredo is a sauce made from cream tossed with Parmesan cheese and butter destined to accompany pasta. As the cheese melts, it emulsifies the liquids to form a smooth and rich coating on the pasta. It was named by an Italian restaurateur at his restaurant Alfredo on the Via della Scrofa in Rome. Of course, it may be mixed with any other ingredients, such as broccoli, parsley, cream, garlic, shrimp, or chicken.

As the story goes, di Lelio’s restaurant became famous when Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks stopped in and fell in love with the dish “Fettuccine al burro” while on their honeymoon in 1927. To express their gratitude, they gave him a golden fork and spoon along with a photo of them eating in his restaurant. He proudly displayed the photo on the wall. Pickford and Fairbanks served his dish to their friends and associates when they returned to Hollywood. Word about the new dish quickly spread.

Alfredo di Lelio retired in 1938 and sold his restaurant. The new owner kept the restaurant’s name, menu, traditional recipes, photos on the wall, and everything else; as of 2011, the restaurant is still in business under the name Alfredo alla Scrofa.

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 cups freshly grated
  Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add cream and simmer for five minutes, then add garlic and cheese and whisk quickly, heating through. Stir in parsley and serve.

Use your preferred Pasta ‘cause “you are the chef!”

Jean Doherty is the Chef and Owner of Le Patio Restaurant in Wilton Manors (954) 530-4641