I got a Julia Child recipe book for Christmas. Ok I got THE Julia Child recipe book for Christmas. I immediately set out to try out the hallmark dish of the book (and the movie --- pretty good flick I must add) --- boeuf bourgignonne, and have made it several times since. I also tried the Bavarian Cream... which is well worth the effort. And I'm sure I'll talk about those in later posts when I make them again.
I was leafing through the cookbook the other day with my friend Jamon and we of course had turned to the dessert section (I'm rather partial to sugar). I also had a hunkering for cherries. Jamon had told me he'd had a clafouti and didn't really care for it much... but then again, he told me that about Boeuf Bourgignon, and he'd done a 180 on it after I'd cooked him some. So, after a few weeks of thinking... and thinking... and thinking... about it, I decided to make it. After all, Julia claims that it is a super simple dish. Sometimes the simplest ones are the tastiest.
Clafouti [Cherry Flan]
from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking
3 cups pitted black cherries
1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 Tb vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
Basically you are supposed to blend all the ingredients (except the cherries) in a blender, pour a bit of batter in the bottom of a 7-8 cup pan (I used an 8x8" square pyrex dish), get that a bit cooked, pour the cherries in, shake 1/3 cup granulated sugar over the cherries, and pour the rest of the batter over it. You're then supposed to bake it at 350 for about an hour.
Well, her variation sounded interesting... Clafouti à la Liqueur... in which you soak the cherries in 1/4 cup kirsch (a cherry liqueur) and the 1/3 cup sugar for an hour, then put the rest in, but omitting 1/4 cup of the milk and the 1/3 cup sugar you're supposed to shake on top. (See here for a champion blogger's discussion on kirsch.) I decided to try it.
Pitting the cherries was kinda fun. I didn't feel like spending $10 on a cherry pitter (I'd just bought the kirsch), and after googling some other people's experiences, I just opted to use some scissors to pop them out. I poked a hole in the bottom of the cherry, then pushed the pit out from the top after removing the stem. It actually went really quickly, and though I was sad to see those cherries with holes torn in them, I figured my teeth would thank me for removing the pits. I stirred the kirsch and the sugar together, then poured it over the cherries. I also read somewhere on google (sorry citation police, I have no idea where) that soaking the pits in the kirsch mixture would add a sort of almond undertone to the dessert. I figured, what the heck.
While I soaked it, I made some dinner, relaxed, and started this blog.
I dusted off the blender and whipped up the batter. It's a bit on the runny side. I coated the bottom bit and put it in the oven to create the cake bottom (I guess that's what I am supposed to be doing with it) while I extracted the pits from the cherry mix. I think next time I'll either omit the pits, or put them in cheesecloth so they can't wander back up inside the cherries. I thought the batter bit would be done, but it wasn't, so I waited a bit longer. I might have made it too thick, but after maybe 7 minutes it came out pretty firm. I put the cherry syrup mixture on, then poured the rest of the batter, and popped it in the oven.
An hour later... and the clafouti is out of the oven. Don't be alarmed when it falls after you take it out--- Julia assured me that it's supposed to be that way.
VERDICT: *really* good. The cherries still are firm and have that really good crunch to them, and the custard really complements the dish. It's very best eaten right out of the oven. And it was really easy to make... just pit the cherries, and blend the rest of the ingredients together. I might try it without the kirsch, to see if there is a big difference in it, but it tastes REALLY good. I'll be making this again.
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