Around My French Table (76 page)

Put all the ingredients except the fruit in a large saucepan, turn the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. As soon as the liquid boils, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the syrup for 5 minutes.

Carefully drop the apples or pears into the pan and bring the syrup back to a simmer. Cover the pan and cook until the fruit can be pierced easily with a thin knife, 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the fruit; check early and often. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the apples or pears to a bowl.

Turn up the heat and boil the syrup for another 10 minutes, at which point you'll have about 1¼ cups. Pour the syrup over the fruit, cover, and let cool until slightly warm or at room temperature.

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

SERVING
The fruit can be served, with its syrup, when it's just slightly warm or at room temperature. You can certainly serve the fruit cold, but the flavors are fuller when it's on the warm side.

STORING
You can make the fruit up to 3 days ahead. Pack the fruit and syrup into a covered container and refrigerate.

BONNE IDÉE
When the weather is warm, you can use the basic syrup (with or without the spices, although I'd keep the vanilla) to poach stone fruits like plums, apricots, or cherries—just keep a close watch on these soft fruits, because they cook faster than apples or pears.

R
HUBARB'S A WIMP.
It's tall and straight and firm on the stalk, but give it a little heat, and after a couple of minutes, it's gone to mush. It is much more appealing when it retains a little of its natural structure, as it does when it's roasted, the simplest method I've ever learned to prepare rhubarb so that it cooks through, sweetens, and stays almost intact.

Served with a little cream or yogurt, roasted rhubarb is the kind of sweet you'd have after a weekday meal. But spoon it over a slice of cake—the Visitandine (
[>]
), for example—and this homey dessert becomes company fare.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the rhubarb into pieces about 1½ inches long, and toss them into a baking pan that will hold them comfortably. (I use a Pyrex pie plate.) Sprinkle over the sugar and zest and stir everything around until the rhubarb is covered with sugar. Let the mix rest for 5 minutes, or just long enough for a little syrup to start to develop.

Cover the pan with foil and roast the rhubarb for 15 minutes. Take a peek, and if the sugar isn't almost completely melted, stir, re-cover the pan with the foil, and roast for a few minutes more. Once the sugar is melted, take off the foil and roast the rhubarb for another 5 minutes, or until the syrup is bubbling.

Remove the pan from the oven and let the rhubarb cool just enough for you to taste it. If you don't think the mix is sweet enough, add a little honey.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

SERVING
You can serve roasted rhubarb warm, at room temperature, or chilled; under yogurt, heavy cream, or crème fraîche; over ice cream; under, over, or around cake; or on its own. It's also good with rice pudding (
[>]
).

STORING
The rhubarb can be refrigerated in a covered container for at least a week.

W
HILE AMERICANS OF ALL STRIPES
tend to turn snobby at the mere mention of gelatin, the French accept gelatin with the same equanimity with which they accept salt and pepper: as just another ingredient. Gelatin is a staple in the French pastry kitchen, where it's used to stabilize whipped cream, make Bavarian cream, and hold up a mousse destined to go between layers of cake. À
la maison,
it's often used to make fresh-flavored, rather elegant gelées, the Gallic version of homemade Jell-O.

When the weather turns warm, gelées appear more often, sometimes savory, but usually sweet and fruity, like this terrine that straddles the seasons. While it's got lots of berries, its base is citrus. Like most gelées, it's beautiful.

BE PREPARED:
You'll need to chill the gelatin mixture for 2 hours and the terrine for at least 4 hours.

Put a double layer of paper towels on a cutting board and spread the citrus pieces out on the paper. Cover with another double layer of towels and set the pieces aside until you're ready for them. If the paper gets very wet, change it.

Put the cold water in a large bowl, sprinkle over the gelatin, and let it soften.

Meanwhile, bring the juice and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour some of the juice over the gelatin, gently stir to dissolve, and then stir in the rest of the juice. Put the gelatin mixture in the refrigerator and let it chill, stirring occasionally, until it thickens slightly, about 2 hours. You're looking for a mixture with the texture of egg whites.

Rinse a 9-×-5-inch loaf pan with cold water and shake out the excess. (I use a Pyrex pan.) Gently stir the citrus segments and the berries into the lightly thickened gelatin mixture, and scrape everything into the pan. Jiggle the pan a little to settle the gel, and chill for at least 4 hours, or for up to overnight.

When you're ready to serve the terrine, dip the pan into a bowl or sinkful of hot water for a few seconds, and run a blunt knife around the edges of the pan. Wipe the pan and unmold the terrine onto a platter.

MAKES 10 SERVINGS

SERVING
The terrine should be served in thick slices. If you'd like, you can dress each serving with more berries (I like to serve it with cold berries, which I toss with a pinch of sugar just before I spoon them out) or pour over a spoonful or two of sweetened pureed raspberries.

STORING
The terrine can be kept covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. If you've got some gelée left over, press a piece of plastic wrap against the cut surface before you cover the terrine.

E
VEN IF THIS WEREN'T WONDERFULLY GOOD—
and it is—I'd want to make it just because it's so much fun to serve. Essentially a large, buttery, flaky, salty-sweet rectangular cookie with a pretty little crosshatch pattern on top, it is put in the center of the table, and guests serve themselves by reaching over and breaking off pieces of the sweet. Yes, it's messy—it's impossible for this to be a crumbless endeavor—but everyone, young and old, easygoing and stuffy, likes it. For neatness's sake, you could break the cookie up in the kitchen, or you could even cut it into cookie shapes after you roll it out, but that wouldn't be as amusing, would it?

Called
broyé
in French, meaning crushed, the cookie is a tradition in the Poitou region, a part of western France where butter is prized. Butteriness is one of the cookie's defining characteristics, and saltiness is another—it's undeniably salty, and now and again, you can even feel the salt on your tongue. In France, the cookie is made with
sel gris,
a moist, slightly gray
(gris)
sea salt with crystals that are large enough to be picked up individually. If you can't find
sel gris,
go with kosher or another coarse salt.

BE PREPARED:
The dough should be chilled for 1 hour.

Put the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Drop in the pieces of butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal—you'll have both big pea-sized pieces and small flakes. With the machine running, start adding the cold water gradually: add just enough water to produce a dough that almost forms a ball. When you reach into the bowl to feel the dough, it should be very malleable.

Scrape the dough onto a work surface, form it into a square, and pat it down to flatten it a bit. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill it for about 1 hour.
(The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months.)

When you're ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

Remove the dough from the fridge and, if it's very hard, bash it a few times with your rolling pin to soften it. Put the dough between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper and roll it into a rectangle that's about ¼ inch thick and about 5 x 11 inches; accuracy and neatness don't count for a lot here. Transfer the dough to the lined baking sheet.

Beat the egg yolk with a few drops of cold water and, using a pastry brush, paint the top surface of the dough with the egg glaze. Using the back of a table fork, decorate the cookie in a crosshatch pattern.

Bake the cookie for 30 to 40 minutes, or until it is golden. It will be firm to the touch but have a little spring when pressed in the center—the perfect break-up is crisp on the outside and still tender within. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and allow the cookie to cool to room temperature.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

SERVING
If fun is what you're after, bring the break-up to the table whole and let everyone break off pieces big and small; if order suits you better, break up the cookie in the kitchen and serve the pieces on a plate.

STORING
You can make the dough up to 3 days ahead and keep it in the refrigerator, or you can wrap it airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months. The baked cookie will keep in an airtight container for about 3 days.