G is for Gougères

Everyone I speak to seems to think that choux pastry is a pig to make.  It's not.  There are just a couple of things to remember. Once you've got those in your consciousness, it's easy, can be bulked up and is very versatile: think beignets, eclairs, gougères, Parisian gnocchi, profiteroles...

I think it's because there is a series of steps to follow that puts people off, but really...have a go...surprise yourself.

Of these luscious lovelies, one of my all-time-favourite freezer standbys is gougères. I typically quadruple the recipe below and then (once cooled) divide them up into bags of 20-ish to bung in the freezer.  They freeze beautifully and only take 3½ mins @ 200℃ to defrost and warm back up without them browning any more.

I recommend making a small batch first as then you can see for yourself the consistency that the mixture needs to be before making masses.

Gather:

• 125 mls water
• 40 gms butter, cubed
• 70 gms plain flour
• 1 teaspn mustard powder
• 90 gms grated cheese*
• 2 large eggs, beaten but kept separate
• S&P

* Any hard cheese will go, but I mostly use Comté, Gran Padano or Gruyère.

Then...

1. Heat the oven to 220℃. Put a layer of baking paper over a baking sheet and spray lightly with veggie oil
2. Season the flour in a bowl and sprinkle over the mustard powder and move to the side of your hob
3. Bring the water and the butter to the boil quickly
4. As soon as it's boiled, dump in the flour mix and beat over a low heat
5. It needs to stay on the heat being beaten until it's come away from the sides of the pan and is one big, smooth ball.  This may be quite quick OR take a bit of time depending on how much water has evaporated
6. Take off the heat and leave to stand for a couple of minutes to allow to cool
7. [At this point, I put the dough in a stand mixer]
8. Once cool enough so the eggs won't scramble, whisk in one egg until incorporated and then repeat
9. Add in the cheese.  You can also add in some finely chopped fresh herbs with the cheese if you like
10. Put the thick batter into disposable piping bags / freezer bags^
11. If you find your mixture's quite runny at this stage, put the bag in the fridge to firm up a bit as the mixture needs to be a bit stiff to be piped
12. Snip off the end/a corner of the bag and pipe cherry-tomato-sized blobs about 1"/2.5 cm apart onto the greased, papered tray until it's full
13. If you still have left, put (back) into the fridge until the first batch is nearly cooked
14. Put some cold water in a small bowl, dip your finger into the water and (gently) flatten the dough hook left by the piping so it's a smooth ball.
15. At this stage you can sprinkle on a bit more cheese, but I usually don't bother
16. Put in the oven for 10 mins @ 220℃ during which stage they'll puff up 
17. Then turn down the oven to 190℃ for 12-15 mins to crispen up (so they don't go flat when you take them out) and brown 
18. Remove and leave for a couple of minutes before taking off the baking paper. Repeat the steps from no. 12 with any remaining mix.
19. Serve warm from the oven or leave to cool, guarding with a wooden spoon for sneaking hands, and bag up for the freezer

^ if you don't have either, teaspooning the mix onto the tray is also okay although the end result isn't as neat.

See!  It wasn't that difficult!!

If it was, the mistakes will be:

Dough mix too runny: not boiling off enough water or using very large eggs
Dough mix too thick: boiling off too much water or using medium eggs

Either can be solved mid-recipe by either putting the dough in the fridge for the butter to re-harden OR adding a little (whole) milk.

Soon you'll be baking up my kinda batches!

G is for Goose

I'm posting this using a photo from a couple of years ago because I know that in two days time when I finally heave the goose out of the Aga that I will not take a picture.

Our goose is being cooked in the roasting oven of our Aga (approx. 240ºC) for three and a half hours*.

To prep, I cut off some of the excess fat around the neck without cutting into the skin.  I then put an onion (peeled and chopped into quarters), a big handful of sage and half a lemon in the bird.  I don't stuff any bird as (a) it cooks quicker and (b) it's much easier getting the stuffings out of a square casserole dish--if you use good ingredients there's more than enough taste.

I then prick the skin with a carving fork, being careful not to pierce the flesh and then season well.  I then put a butter paper on the top of the goose (to stop the foil sticking) and cover the whole bird with a foil tent before putting it (on a roasting rack, in a roasting tin) into the oven.

About half way through cooking, I take out the tin and transfer the whole bird to a new roasting tin using big lifting forks pictured below, recover with the foil and put it back in the oven.

This is because a goose is incredibly fatty and gives off the most phenomenal quantity of fat.  The fat in the first roasting tray can aside to cool before you decant it into containers to freeze and use for your roast potatoes in the new year, with the usual amount used for the roasties for that day.

25 minutes before your goose's cooking time is up take off the foil tent to allow the skin to colour.

Once cooked, leave the bird to rest on the carving board for 15 minute.  That 15 minutes allows me to pour off the latest rendered fat, and use the meat juices to make the gravy.  I don't have goose stock so I tend to use a mix of chicken and pork stock as the base.

* Mine is a 13 lb goose.  A 10 lb goose would take three hours.  A temperature gauge should reach 74ºC.