Brie-licious

So the dish that really stole the show at Cathy's party was a Brie en Croute her sister made. Her sister divulged that it was actually a Paula Deen recipe. I tracked it down on Food Network.

The appetizer basically involves topping a wheel of brie cheese with fruit preserves and walnuts, wrapping it in pastry puff and baking it so the cheesy gets all melty and delicious. I'm not kidding you. This is amazing.

See for yourself.

To serve it, you just put the whole loaf out and slice it like bread.

Off the beaten blog path

Did some more off the global adventure path cooking today, this time for my friend Cathy's surprise birthday party.

The idea was to bring some sort of munchie, and I figured finger foods are always appropriate for parties. I decided to go with a mushroom and leek quiche recipe I came up with a few years ago. To make this dish even more party-licious, I make the quiche in little muffin tins so they are individual and handheld and no one has to worry about forks and knives or anything.

Although, I feel like my meager contribution paled in comparison to the rest of the food at the party. Cathy's sister put out quite the spread. It turns out not only is she a big foodie, but her significant other is a chef. I call that cheating,

Either way ...

Ingredients:

4 tbsps. butter
1 package baby portabella mushrooms, chopped
1 large leek, chopped (both white and green part; you will probably only use half)
6 eggs
2 1/2 cups half and half
2 cups grated gruyere cheese
salt
pepper
nutmeg
1 package pre-made pie crust

What to do:

Start by melting the butter in a frying pan. Add the leek and mushrooms and cook until tender.

In a mixing bowl, mix the eggs, half and half and cheese. Beat with a handheld blender until smooth. Then add the veggie mixture, some salt and pepper and about 1 tsp. of nutmeg and whisk until combined.

Using a glass, cut the pie crust into circles that will fit into the muffin tins. When the muffin tins are all crusted, pour the quiche mixture into them.

Cook for about 40 minutes and 350 degrees. You want the top of the quiche to be a golden brown color.

An experiment with potatoes au gratin

I deviated a little bit this evening from my international cooking routine to whip up a side dish for my friend Cathy's nifty birthday party (Happy Birthday Honey :)

The word on the street was that her daughters were making steak, so I thought I'd put together a potatoes au gratin. It's a simple enough dish, but I'd never made it before. And when I started looking for recipes online I wasn't very happy with any of them. I wanted a cheese that would be full of flavor, and off the beaten path. Not just your typical cheddar.

So I reviewed a bunch of recipes and did what I've been doing quite a lot of these days - made up my own. It was a toss up in the end between using a Gruyere and this cheese called Dubliner that a friend turned me on to when he brought it one time we were fishing (yes fishing with me typically looks like a wine and cheese party).

Dubliner is an Irish cheese named - big surprise - for the city of Dublin. It reminds me of a sharp cheddar, but is also has a nutty flavors like swiss. I combined it with some parmesan. I used quite a bit of cheese because it just seemed yummy.

Here's how I did my potatoes au gratin:

Ingredients:

About five red potatoes

One yellow onion

Two blocks of Dubliner cheese, shredded (about four cups)

One half block Parmesan cheese, shredded (about one cup)

Salt

Pepper

3 tbsps. butter

3 tbsps. flour

1 cup half and half

1/2 cup Chardonnay

What I did:

I start by peeling and slicing all of the potatoes into extremely thin rounds. I also slice the onion into thin half circles. Then I start layering the potatoes in a 9 by 13 baking dish, placing bits of the onion in between the layers.

I start the sauce by melting the butter in a saucepan. When the butter is melted, I add the flour and mix until combined. Then I add the milk and stir until combined and season with salt and pepper. I add the cheese (reserving some for a topping) and stir until melted. I stir in the wine and cook until well combined.

When the sauce is done, I pour it over the potato layers and lightly shake the pan to make sure it all gets coated. Then I cover it with tin foil and stick in a 350 degree oven and cook for about 1 hour. You want the potatoes to be tender and the sauce to be thick. Toward the end of the cooking, uncover, sprinkle with remaining cheese. You can also put it for a few minutes under a broiler so the topping gets crispy (watch to make sure it doesn't burn though).

I let mine sit over night and it was great the next day!

There are no pictures of this one because I didn't think of it before I took it to Cathy's. But there will likely be an encore presentation : )

An amendment on the potatoes au gratin: I tried a second batch later in the week to get rid of the copious amounts of potatoes and cheese I purchased. This time I used gruyere and the dubliner cheese. I think I liked the combo version better. Just a nice, sharp contrast. Oh and that time I used red onions, which lended a different flavor.