French Fridays with Dorie ~ Mushroom Cappuccinos with Dorie's Golden Gougeres

Food Blog Grand Opening!!! Confetti Everywhere!!!! French Friday's with Dorie Greenspan is finally here! Dorie's brilliant cookbook "around my french table" is packed full of over 300 recipes and waiting for fresh new food markers to appear on each and every recipe. Whip out your mixing spoons, dust off your Dutch ovens, bring your appetite, and start cooking!

Amazon is just a click away to buy "around my french table"!

Dorie is just too cute! So are all her friends who created the French Fridays with Dorie blog site! A warm and enthusiastic Thank You to Rachel, Joel, Alison, Travis, and Laurie for creating and achieving the bright, easy to navigate, informative, and fun site!

Dorie is just as excited as the rest of us who have just tried our very first recipe. She picked our opening 4 dishes for the month of October and we are baking her first choice, one of Dorie's favorites to share with friends: gougeres!

Starting with a cream puff pastry dough, adding Gruyere and a spot of sharp cheddar;

baking into round puffs of golden, crispy perfection;



served with steaming hot cups of mushroom cappuccinos (Bouillon de Champignons Comme un Cappuccino, recipe by Michelin 3-star chef Alain Chapel);

and filled with a family recipe of Pacific shrimp salad.

The anticipation wrapped around being a part of an excited group (more like blogging family) of people like myself who cook from the heart, always excited to share with family and friends, just tickles me. Many of us have been baking together out of Dorie's "Baking from my home to yours" and have become friends along the way.

We are excited to welcome new members and Thank you Dorie for letting us share in your spotlight with the newly published work-of-art: around my french table.

Thank you!!!!! =0)

What a warm and fuzzy feeling to have on an early Friday morning.

Mushroom Cappuccinos

(recipe by Alain Chapel; printed in Oct./2010 Saveur magazine)

(Project Foodie website will also have the recipe)

"To foam the broth, use the steamer attachment on a cappuccino machine, or froth it in a blender." (Alain Chapel, Saveur, Oct. 2010; pg. 98)

Ingredients:

6 T. butter

1 lb. button mushrooms, halved

8 oz. mixed mushrooms, such as oyster, shiitake, and blue foot, thinly sliced, trimmings reserved

1 oz. dried shiitake mushrooms

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Kosher salt, to taste

Cayenne pepper, to taste

12 crayfish tails, cooked and shelled, or 4 oz. cooked lobster meat, cut into bite-size pieces

4 sprigs fresh chervil or tarragon

Directions:

Heat 3 T. butter in a 3-quart high sided skillet over medium heat. Add button mushrooms and mushroom trimmings and cook, stirring often, until they release their liquid, about 10 minutes. Add 3/4 ounce dried shiitakes and 4 cups of water; boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until liquid has reduced to 3 cups, about 10 minutes. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a 2-quart saucepan. Strain broth, pressing mushrooms with the back of a spoon to extract liquid; discard solids. Add cream to mushroom broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until flavors meld, about 10 minutes. Season broth with salt and a pinch of cayenne and set aside.

In a spice grinder, grind remaining dried shiitake mushrooms to a fine powder. Transfer mushroom powder to a small skillet over medium-high heat and toast, swirling pan constantly until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Transfer mushroom powder to a small bowl; set aside.



Heat remaining butter in the skillet over medium heat. Add mixed mushrooms, season with salt, and cook, stirring gently, until tender, 4-5 minutes.

Add crayfish, season with salt, and cook until hot. Remove pan from heat and set aside.


To serve, foam reserved broth on high speed in a blender or with the steamer attachment on an espresso machine. Mound crayfish mixture in 4 teacups or small bowls, and ladle in broth. Spoon foam on top, dust with mushroom powder, and garnish with chervil.