Pâtisserie Rhubarbe

One thing that makes me really, really happy is when my friends become pastry chefs. 

When I lived in Paris 6 years ago, my apartment was directly above a pâtisserie, which meant ungodly smells would waft in through my bedroom window at all hours of day and night. And in the morning I could essentially roll out of bed, down the stairs, and before my eyes were even fully open, have a chocolatine in my hands. Why I ever left that place, I still wonder. Anyway, just before I left Paris, I met a fabulous girl named Kat. We recently reconnected on facebook and it turns out she ended up going to pastry school in Paris! And that she now works at a gorgeous little pastry shop in Montreal called Pâtisserie Rhubarbe. So since Sunday was my grandmother’s birthday and I was in Montreal for the occasion, it was a perfect time to visit Kat AND get a cake for my mami.

It was so nice to be in Montreal. My dear lovely aunt Marie Anne who works at La Maison du Roti prepared the most exquisite birthday brunch with wild boar & fig pâté, pâté en croute with rabbit and hazelnuts, and a heart throb of a cheese called Le Secret des Lys (The Secret of the Lilies), from Bourgogne. After we ate, my aunt and I talked about food and cats for about 4 hours straight. That's my idea of a perfect afternoon.

As for dessert, well, as you might imagine it is quite difficult to choose only one cake at Pâtisserie Rhubarbe… Plus I was feeling slightly intoxicated and distracted by the sight of all the OTHER pastries (!) In the end I went for the gateau choco-citron (and a necessary box of macarons). The cake was composed of 3 layers of pure bliss: a brownie-like bottom layer, a lemon-curd middle layer, and a velvet smooth chocolate mousse as a top blanket. I have never experienced a lemon & chocolate combination like this before, and let me tell you that I almost shed a tear when I ate the last bite. I would like to crawl inside that cake and live there, forever and ever... but more importantly, my grandmother loved it too! Bonne fête mami! Merci Patisserie Rhubarbe!

Pâtisserie Rhubarbe from Kitchen Vignettes on Vimeo.

While I don't have a recipe for you today, this lemon chocolate combo thing is really something that deserves further exploration... here are some recipes from 2 of my favorite blogs that would be well-worth trying: Foodiva's Lavender-Honey-Cardamom-Lemon Dark Chocolate Tart and Cannelle et Vanille's Chocolate and Meyer Lemon Love. Ooh la la!

Chicken Soup (The Medicine)

Well, I sure didn’t think I'd be talking about plain old chicken soup in my second week of blogging. I was aiming for something a wee bit more glamorous. But the thing is, I have got myself a nasty mcnasty flu the likes of which I have not experienced since I was a kid. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t planning to blog at all this week, but today I mustered up the strength to crawl out of my cave and made a huge pot of chicken soup… simple, basic chicken soup, the cure of all ailments. And maybe it’s just because I’m so sick, but it’s been tasting like the best thing in the world to me (despite its not-so-handsome appearance as you may notice in the video). I’ve been sipping it all afternoon in the hammock, between snoozes, a bit of knitting, and reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (a MUST-READ for any food lover). Maya, my roommate’s dog came sauntering over and I gave her a little chicken skin. At first she didn’t like it. But then she sort of clued in to the deliciousness and I captured our ensuing interactions on video. To tell you the truth, I’ve always been a big-dog-person, and not very appreciative of little dogs, until I moved here that is, and met Maya.

She pretty much stole my heart from day 1. Now, I realize that to some of you this video may seem like terrible canine etiquette (feeding the dog as I’m eating) but just so you know her mommy did say that I could. 

Maya and the Chicken Soup from Kitchen Vignettes on Vimeo.

CHICKEN SOUP (THE MEDICINE)

Broth:

Organic chicken (ideally a whole chicken, but I used a bag of wings and it was great)

Fresh sage, parsley, a head of garlic, lots of ginger, and salt & pepper

Garnish: Fresh-squeezed lime juice & chopped cilantro

Gently simmer everything together for a couple hours, until the chicken meat falls off the bones. Ideally separate the meat and strain out the broth (but I didn’t even have the energy to do this, hence all the skins & fat I had in my bowl to give to Maya). Squeeze in lots of lime juice and serve which fresh cilantro. C’est tout.

Gooseberry (or any berry!) Cobbler

Gooseberry cobbler is very special to me. My mom used to make it every summer. It was her signature summer dessert. She wouldn’t put very much sugar so the berries were always bright and tart, and the dumpling dough’s sweet softness soothed the zinging tastebuds. A great marriage of opposites.

On one of my visits home, a few months after my mom died, I opened the freezer door and found a container of gooseberries from our garden. A note was scribbled on top: “To make cobbler when Aube comes home”.

I still have an ache in my heart when I think of my mom putting those berries aside and writing that note. She didn’t get to make that cobbler, so I dug out her recipe, and made it myself. Now I think of her whenever I make it. In this photo you can see her cooking and singing in her kitchen.

In the great cobbler versus crumble versus crisp debate, it’s a very close call, but I am of the opinion that cobbler takes the cake (excuse the pun). Except that this Apricot Berry Crumble and this Cherry, Blackberry, and Almond Crisp could have the power to sway me to the other side.  

You can make cobbler with pretty much any berries. I was just in Norfolk County this weekend where the cherries and blueberries are at their prime. Peaches also make superb cobbler! And for the gluten-intolerants out there, this recipe works beautifully with a gluten-free flour mix. My mom used to sometimes make a gluten-free version not because anyone was gluten-intolerant but just because she liked the texture.

Gooseberry Cobbler from Kitchen Vignettes on Vimeo.

GOOSEBERRY COBBLER

Berries: 

4 cups of berries or chopped fruit

1 cup sugar (more or less depending on berries)

Dough: 

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

½ cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 cup milk

Mix all dry ingredients. Cut in butter. Add milk, and mix gently together to form soft dough. Don't overmix. Mix berries and sugar in a pan, and drop dough by spoonful on berries. Bake around 30 min in a 350F oven. And voila!

Some notes on the recipe: I ended up being short on gooseberries so I used red and black currants as well. If using juicy berries like those, add 1 or 2 teaspoons of cornstarch or tapioca flour to the berries so that the juices aren’t too runny. Also, 1 cup of sugar may be too much for sweeter berries like bluberries or strawberries so adjust sugar depending on your berries of choice.