Around My French Table (82 page)

TO MAKE THE MERINGUE:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, dust the inside with sugar, and tap out the excess. Wrap the base of the springform pan in aluminum foil—you'll need to use two pieces—so the bottom is fully encased and the foil comes up the sides of the pan. Have a roasting pan at the ready.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt at medium speed until they turn opaque and just start to thicken. Continuing to beat, gradually add the sugar. When the sugar is incorporated, add the vanilla and then beat until you have whites that hold firm peaks but are still glossy. Scrape the meringue into the pan and, using a rubber spatula, gently spread it so that it fills the pan—you might need to cajole it to the edge of the pan; smooth the top. Put the springform in the roasting pan, fill the roasting pan with enough hot water so that it comes halfway up the sides of the springform, and carefully slide the roaster into the oven.

Bake the meringue for about 40 minutes, or until it has risen (it will rise above the top of the pan) and is firm to the touch. Remove the roasting pan from the oven and very carefully lift the springform out of the water bath. Pay attention—the foil may be holding some hot water. Put the springform in the sink, remove the foil, shake out any water that might have seeped in, and then replace the foil. (The butter and sugar lining the pan form a syrup that can be drippy, so it's good to keep the foil in place until you're ready to serve.)

Let the meringue cool to room temperature, then chill it for at least 1 hour.
(The meringue can be refrigerated for up to 4 hours.)

When you're ready to serve, put the pan back in the sink and remove the foil and the sides of the springform. If any syrup has formed, spill it out. Using two large spatulas or pancake turners, lift the meringue onto a cutting board. The easiest way to cut the meringue into wedges is to treat it like an angel food cake and use a pronged angel-food slicer or a table fork, piercing the "cake" with the tines until you can lift away a wedge.

For each serving, spoon enough crème anglaise over the bottom of a dinner plate or a shallow soup plate to cover it, and settle an island in the crème sea. If desired, add a small scoop of ice cream and a drizzle of sauce. Serve immediately, with dessert spoons or soupspoons.

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

SERVING
Baked meringue afloat in crème anglaise is a thing of beauty unto itself, but if you want to go all out, put a small scoop of chocolate ice cream alongside the meringue and finish the dessert with just a drizzle of hot fudge or caramel sauce.

STORING
The meringue can be made up to 4 hours ahead and kept chilled, and the crème anglaise, which should be served cold, can be prepared up to 3 days ahead, but everything must be assembled at serving time, and leftovers cannot be saved.

BONNE IDÉE
Milk-Poached Meringue Puffs.
Spread a kitchen towel out on the counter near the stove and have a large slotted spoon at the ready. Bring 2 cups whole milk to a boil in a saucepan. Beat 4 large egg whites in a large bowl with a pinch of salt, and when they're opaque, gradually add ¼ cup sugar and beat until the whites are firm and glossy. Scoop up some meringue—you'll be able to make 12 islands—and drop the puff into the simmering milk. Add a few more puffs (don't crowd the pan), and poach for 1 minute. Gently flip the puffs over and poach for 1 minute more. Lift the puffs out of the milk and onto the towel. When all the puffs are poached and cooled, transfer them to a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and chill for at least 1 hour, or for up to 4 hours.

A
S OLD-FASHIONED AS RICE PUDDING,
or
riz au lait,
is, it is never out of style in France. Little children grow up on it, adults crave it for comfort, and bistros all across the country serve it year-round. At Guy Savoy's chic bistro Atelier Maître Albert, across from Notre-Dame, rice pudding is served in beautiful little canning jars. At the trendy Parisian bistro Itinéraires, the rice pudding is served in martini glasses with a little surprise at the bottom—caramel sauce, which was the inspiration for this recipe. And in a rustic bistro in the mountains surrounding the French Alpine village of Megève, the rice pudding was brought to the table in a bowl as big as a washbasin. Our instructions: take as much as we wanted.

I like to use Arborio rice for pudding because, precooked for 10 minutes in water, then cooked in milk, it becomes wonderfully creamy yet retains just the slightest bit of chewiness. However, you can make the pudding with long-grain white, basmati, or jasmine rice—just keep an eye on the pan, because the cooking times will vary.

Riz au lait
is often served unembellished, especially at home, but like vanilla ice cream, its plainness makes it a good match to sauces and fruits. Here I pair it with apples (or pears) in a caramel sauce—I love the two together—but you can also serve the pudding with a fruit coulis, caramel sauce (
[>]
), a drizzle of maple syrup, or fresh berries.

TO MAKE THE RICE PUDDING:
Bring about 3 cups water and the salt to a boil in a medium to large saucepan. (I like to use a narrow 4-quart pan for this.) Stir in the rice and boil for 10 minutes. Drain, and rinse out the pan.

Put the milk and sugar in the pan and bring to a boil. Stir in the rice, reduce the heat to medium/medium-low, and cook at a steady simmer, stirring frequently. Pay particular attention at the beginning, because the milk has a tendency to bubble up exuberantly and will bubble over even a tall pot if you don't catch it and stir it down in time. And be vigilant during the last 10 minutes, so you don't burn or overcook the rice. The pudding should cook for 30 to 50 minutes—I'm giving you a lot of leeway because you might be using a wide pan in which the milk boils away fast. Cook until the rice is very tender, the pudding has thickened a little, and most of the milk has been absorbed. Don't cook until all the milk has been absorbed—if you do that, you'll have a stiff pudding. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract—this really is a matter of taste. If you're going to chill the pudding, you should use more extract than if you are serving it at room temperature, since cold mutes flavors.

Scrape the pudding into a heatproof bowl, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface, and let cool to room temperature; the pudding will thicken as it cools. If you'd like, you can chill the pudding.
(The pudding can be refrigerated, tightly covered, for up to 3 days.)

TO MAKE THE APPLES:
Cut each apple from top to bottom into quarters and core the pieces. Slice each quarter lengthwise into 3 or 4 pieces, each about ¼ inch thick, then cut each piece crosswise into thirds. Set aside.

Sprinkle the sugar into the center of a medium nonstick skillet. Moisten with a splash of lemon juice and turn the heat to medium-high. When the sugar melts, bubbles, and starts to color, either tilt the pan or stir the sugar with a fork or wooden spoon. As soon as the sugar is a nice amber color, pull the pan from the heat. Stand away because the mixture will spatter, and add the butter, swirling to mix it in.

Put the skillet on medium heat, pour in the cider, and add the salt. Bring the cider to a boil, then add the apples. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes, or until the apples are tender. Pour in the heavy cream and boil for 1 minute more, then turn the apples and caramel sauce into a heatproof bowl and allow to cool. The apples are ready to serve when they are just slightly warm or at room temperature. (Don't taste them as soon as they're cooked: the caramel is dangerously hot.)

Put a little of the caramel sauce in the bottom of each bowl or glass, top with rice pudding, and finish with apples and a little more sauce. If you'd like, add a dollop of whipped cream.

MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

SERVING
I usually arrange individual servings of this dessert in the kitchen, layering the caramel sauce, rice pudding, apples, and more sauce in small bowls or glasses, but sometimes when I've got a lot of people around the table, I set out the pudding and apple bowls and let my guests serve themselves. Either way, I like to top off the dessert with whipped cream.

STORING
The pudding can be made up to 3 days ahead and kept, tightly covered, in the refrigerator. The apples are really best the day they are made, but leftovers will keep in the fridge for a day or so; warm them gently before serving.

M
Y FRIEND MARIE-HÉLÈNE BRUNET-LHOSTE
is a woman who knows her way around food. She's a top editor of the Louis Vuitton City Guides (and one of the restaurant critics for the Paris edition), so she eats at scores of restaurants every year, and she's a terrific hostess, so she cooks at home often and with great generosity. There's no question that she's a great cook, but for me, she's the most frustrating kind of cook: she never follows a recipe (in fact, I don't think there's a cookbook to be found on her packed bookshelves), never takes a note about what she does, and while she's always happy to share her cooking tips, she can never give you a real recipe—she just doesn't know it.

I've watched her in her kitchen, in the hopes of nabbing a recipe by observation, but it's impossible. Like so many really good cooks, Marie-Hélène starts off with a set of ingredients that could be annotated and recipeized, but once she starts mixing, stirring, boiling, baking, or sautéing, she makes so many mid-cooking adjustments that you just have to throw up your hands and content yourself with being the lucky recipient.

And so it was with this apple cake, which is more apple than cake, rather plain but very appealing in its simplicity (the chunks of apple make a bumpy, golden top), and so satisfying that we all went back for seconds. Despite knowing that it was futile, I asked for the recipe, and of course, Marie-Hélène didn't really know.

"It's got two eggs, sugar, flour, and melted butter—oh, and rum," she said. "I mix the eggs and sugar together, and then I add some flour, some butter, some flour, and some butter." When I asked how much flour and butter, I got a genuinely apologetic shrug, and when I asked what kind of apples she used, the answer was,
divers,
or different kinds.

Since there were only a few major ingredients, I thought I could figure out the recipe—and I did! (Although not on the first—or second—shot.) I've added baking powder to the mix (and I have a feeling Marie-Hélène might have too) and a
drizzle
of vanilla, which you can skip if you want. What you don't want to skip is the pleasure of having
divers
apples. It's really nice to mix up the fruit, so that you have some apples that are crisp, some soft, some sweet, and some tart.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter an 8-inch springform pan. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and put the springform on it.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl.

Peel the apples, cut them in half, and remove the cores. Cut the apples into 1-to 2-inch chunks.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they're foamy. Pour in the sugar and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in the rum and vanilla. Whisk in half the flour and, when it is incorporated, add half the melted butter, followed by the rest of the flour and the remaining butter, mixing gently after each addition so that you have a smooth, rather thick batter. Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the apples, turning the fruit so that it's coated with batter. Scrape the mix into the pan and poke it around a little with the spatula so that it's evenish.

Slide the pan into the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean; the cake may pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and let rest for 5 minutes.

Carefully run a blunt knife around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the springform pan. (Open the springform slowly, and before it's fully opened, make sure there aren't any apples stuck to it.) Allow the cake to cool until it is just slightly warm or at room temperature. If you want to remove the cake from the bottom of the springform pan, wait until the cake is almost cooled, then run a long spatula between the cake and the pan, cover the top of the cake with a piece of parchment or wax paper, and invert it onto a rack. Carefully remove the bottom of the pan and turn the cake over onto a serving dish.