Tag Archives: tarragon

Ricotta tart with tarragon, smoked gouda and roasted mushrooms

Posted on by
Reply

ricotta tart

Mushrooms smell so good when they’re roasting. It really does make your house smell like a holiday. And their nice, meaty, roasty flavor goes so well with smoked gouda! We’d been eating soups and stews and saucy dishes all week, and yesterday I cracked! I made something with a crust! Because I’m crazy! Actually, it’s because I bought some fresh ricotta at Trader Joes earlier in the week, and I was eager to use it. And I bought tarragon earlier in the week, and I was eager to use that as well. I like tarragon with eggy cheesy meals, something about its bright surprising flavor harmonizes well with comforting foods. And this tart is comforting, but also complex and delicious and even elegant. And also fairly easy to make! It has a toasted walnut crust (because walnuts and tarragon play so nicely together) which makes especially good Isaac crackers. All-in-all, a nice winter meal, with potatoes roasted with garlic and rosemary, and a crisp arugula salad.

Here’s Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, by Thelonius Monk.
Continue reading →

Roasted butternut pudding soufflé

Posted on by
2

Butternut squash soufflé

Not a pudding, not yet a soufflé, but tasty nonetheless! I saw a recipe in a very very old cookbook for squash pudding. It sounded good, but a little stodgy. So I thought I’d lighten it up a bit with some sneaky soufflé-making techniques. And I added some goat cheese and tarragon, because I think they taste wonderful with butternut squash. The result was something between a pudding and a souffle. I baked it in a large flat bowl, so that it would have a good crispy-outside to soft-inside ratio. It never got as impressively lofty as a normal soufflé, but it was quite delicious. It had a pleasing, comforting texture, perfect for a day of freezing rain, and the flavor was subtle and complex in a way that made you want to keep eating more and more. Serve it with something green and crunchy and flavorful, like an arugula salad.

Here’s New York Herald Tribune, by Martial Solal from A bout de souffle. I know, I know, but it’s a killer track!!
Continue reading →

Roasted chickpea & tarragon pie

Posted on by
6

This pie is full of flavors and textures!! It’s got roasted chickpeas, mushrooms and shallots! (All together they turn out pleasantly crispy/substantial/soft.) It’s got spinach sauteed with hot red pepper, garlic and lemon! It has smoked gouda! It has a flaky lemon-pepper crust! And it has tarragon!

And it all works beautifully together. Although it looks and tastes complicated, it’s really fairly easy. Being so handsome and deliciously impressive, this would make a nice holiday meal for the vegetarians in your life. I made the edge of the crust quite tall so that you could pile your holiday mashed potatoes right on top.

Since Christmas is A-Coming, we’ll let Leadbelly tell you all about it.
Continue reading →

White bean & tarragon pie

Posted on by
6

White bean tarragon pie

It’s handsome and delicious! This pie has a filling of white beans, mushrooms and tarragon, and an oatmeal-pecan crust. You’ll have to forgive my enthusiasm, because I wasn’t sure how it would work out, but it was really really tasty. A number of strong flavors combined perfectly, so that nothing seemed out of place or in your face. Tarragon is a bit of a prima donna herb – it can be a little too prominent. But its lovely hint-of-anise/hint-of-lemon flavor shined perfectly in this pie. The dough, with pecans and toasted oats, is not as hard to work with as it might sound, but it does lend itself to this simple & forgiving form. You just roll it out and then fold it up like an envelope. And it makes wonderful crackers!

Here’s Les McCann’s Oatmeal.
Continue reading →