GCC: Menu 11 - Gruyere Tart

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This past weekend the Gutsy Cook menu included this tart, a Carrot and Orange soup and Arugula Salad with Parmesan.

As you can see, I played lazy and only did the tart.  But, after reading Raymond’s take on the soup, I think I may have to back track and cook up some carrots!

The whole menu was totally on the fence up until Sunday. I had spent Friday and Saturday baking up about 7 dozens of cookies for my first cookie exchange party (recipes and post coming) so, my kitchen and I were taking a break from eachother.  But, on Sunday as I was whipping up my brunch menu, and felt something was lacking, so I took a look and decided to include this tart in the list of things to serve.  I came together pretty quickly.

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GCC: Menu 5 - Braised Oxtail with Wine and Herbs and Polenta

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Braising is the classic cooking technique for food to be browned in hot fat, then covered and slowly cook in a small amount of liquid over low heat.  It’s ideal for preparing tough cuts of meat, such as beef short ribs and pork shoulder, oxtail, shanks and many more.

This method dissolves collagen from the meat into gelatin, to enrich and add body to the liquid. Braising is also very economical, as it allows the use of tough and inexpensive cuts, and efficient, as it often employs a single pot to cook an entire meal.  Most braises follow the same basic steps.

The food to be braised is first seared to brown its surface and enhance its flavor. If the food will not produce enough liquid of its own, a small amount of cooking liquid that often includes an acidic element, such as tomatoes, beer, or wine, is added to the pot, often with stock. The dish is cooked covered at a very low simmer until the meat is fork tender. Often the cooking liquid is finished to create a sauce or gravy

For the Gutsy Cook choice this week we had the Braised Oxtail with wine and herbs and instead of pairing it with the most likely candidate of mashed potatoes, we took it one step further and instead choose to cook polenta as the perfect side dish.

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GCC: Menu 4 - Wild Mushroom Tartlets

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After last weeks difficulties with the Empanadas, I was a bit worried going in with the Gutsy Cook menu.  First it involved making another dough for the tarts, Hollandaise sauce (A first for me) and my cooking schedule this past weekend sort of exploded all over the place, up till late saturday I was not even sure I was going to be able to make them at all.

But, once I’m committed to something, its hard for me to say no.

So, I started with a bit of research about dough that gets used for the tartles and found that the recipe in the Kitchen Bible is pretty standard to everything that is out there.  In fact it was the same recipe in 5 different cookbooks that I use to cross-reference.

Relief flow through me.  This was going to be a piece of cake.

And it was.

The dough is pretty easy, if you use your handy food processor, which forever and ever will be my go to for making pie crust, tart dough and anything that involves the words “until it resembles coarse bread crumbs”.  Because, I’m sorry, but I don’t think making this by hand I will get to the point of feeling it resemble coarse nothing.

So, into the food processor it went and 3 minutes later it was in the refrigerator taking a chill.  The dough was a complete success, rolling it out and placing in the tart baking shells went smoothly and no swearing was heard from the kitchen.

I was crossing my finger that this was going to be the theme - EASY.

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