Clafoutis

A couple of months ago I found a collection of recipes for, so they said, simple but extraordinary French food. I forgot where I found that collection, I forgot about all the dishes but one - clafoutis. A custardy goodness that really is trivial to make, yet the result is nothing short of extraordinary. I cannot believe I was not familiar with that.

Basically, all there is to clafoutis is a simple custardy batter that one bakes slowly with some fresh fruit. The classic seems to be a cherry clafoutis, which I tried immediately using frozen cherries. My mom happened to be visiting and she was seemingly in heaven.

I got a box of very nicely ripened ataulfos mangoes, speculating that mango clafoutis may be the thing to do. Mango has a nice mix of sweetness and acidity that I expected to go very well with the custardy batter. A short poke around Google search, and I quickly learned that I was not the first person to have this idea. I decided to make a simple basic variety of clafoutis, and next time I might play with adding some grated ginger and other goodies, and possibly baking it in individual ramekins.

If you have gluten intolerance, clafoutis is still within reach. Instead of using all-purpose flour, use gluten-free flour. If you are fortunate to have a grain mill, I recommend a making millet four and combining it with almond flour. It does change the texture - I think to the better.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. For gluten-free version use gluten free flour. I used 1/2 cup almond flour and about two TBS millet flour. 
• 1/3 cup sugar, or honey. 1/4 cup is likely enough.
• 1 cup milk. Buttermilk adds to the experience.
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Recommended: rind of one lemon and juice of the same lemon
• Optional: 1/2 cup fresh coconut or 1/3 cup shredded coconut. Blend at high speed with milk for a completely smooth texture.
• 1-1.5 cup fresh or frozen pitted cherries for classic clafoutis, or 2 -3 mangoes, peeled, cut into about 3/4 inch chunks, or pineapple chunks
• Recommended: A splash of grand mariner
• 1-2 TBS butter or coconut oil

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F. Set a 10 inch cast-iron skillet on a medium heat on a stove. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, the flour, and the sugar. Gradually whisk in the milk, this way it will be easier to keep the batter smooth. Also add vanilla and lemon rind.

Add the oil or butter to the skillet, when it melts, add the cherries. Stir gently and cook just enough for the fruit to warm up some, maybe for a minute or two. Pour in the batter.
Note: If you are using pinepple, you may choose to brown it a bit, or even sprinkle lightly with sugar and then brown

Bake for 40 minutes until the custard is set and the clafoutis is nicely browned on the top.

Serving:

I prefer clafoutis at a room temperature, dusted with powder sugar You might like it either hot or cold, you never know until you try.

Cream of kohlrabi

I agree that kohlrabi has an odd name. According to Wikipedia the name kind of means cabbage turnip, and is popular in German speaking countries and Vietnam. Now we know.

Typically we ate it cubed in vegetable soups, though raw and roasted are both tasty way to consume this vegetable. When I was growing up, we would only eat the root. Eating green leaves was never even considered. It took many years and a move across the ocean to start to appreciate the goodness of leafy greens!

This is a full-meal cream of kohlrabi with no cream. I added some carrots, steel-cut oats and cooked kidney beans to add some carbs and boost the fiber, even though kohlrabi itself already has lots of fiber. Extra smooth tofu is there for proteins, onion and garlic help with the depth of flavor, and lemon balanced everything out nicely.

With any cream of X soup, I have learned that having the best blender one can afford makes an enormous difference. We have been using our VitaMix for almost 10 years now and every time we make a soup, we still marvel in its smoothness. The VitaMix run has not been totally issue free, we are on the second blending jar and I replaced the potentiometer, but the motor is still going as strong as when it was new.

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of kohlrabi, I used 4 roots and also the leaves
• a handful of carrots, brushed or peeled, and chopped roughly
• a handful of quick-cooking steel-cut oats; use rolled oats if that is what you have in the pantry
• a handful of cooked kidney beans
• 3-4 cups of low-sodium vegetable stock, chicken stock works fine too
• 1 medium size onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 package (11oz, 300g) of extra-soft tofu (Soondubu), liquid discarded
• juice of one medium-sized lemon
• vegetable oil or coconut oil, a couple of TBS

For mise en place chop kohlrabi roots, no need to peel them, just wash them well. Wash and chop roughly kohlrabi leaves. Also clean and chop the onion, carrots, and garlic.

In a 3 to 4 quart pan heat the oil, add onions, season with a pinch of salt, and sautee until the onions soften a bit.

Add chopped carrots and chopped kohlrabi root, sautee some more until the vegetables start to soften.

Add the garlic and sautee for another minute.

Add the vegetable stock and steel-cut oats, cover, bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the chopped kohlrabi leaves, cover the pot and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Transfer the soup to your blender.

Add tofu and cooked beans.

Add lemon juice.

Blend until smooth. Taste, add salt if necessary.

Serve in a bowl with some nice garnish. I used pine nuts and a touch of pumpkin seed oil - the green-on-green combination worked well.