Estación Liceu

Proving Science: Crème Fraîche

We decided to go with the salmon and risotto in puff pastry for the main course on New Year's Eve but it requires crème fraîche, something I knew would be a bit difficult to find in our neck of the woods. I called around to the stores I thought would be mostly likely to carry it but no luck. It was like I was speaking Greek :-) Anyway, I found that it can be made at home by mixing whipping cream with buttermilk and letting it rest at room temperature... for two days. Um, leaving dairy on the counter for a coupla days makes me a bit squeamish so I had to research this.

Julia Child and my Bon Appétit cookbook both recommend almost identical methods so I emailed my former French adviser who knows everything. She emailed back with this information and reassured me that one can make their own c.f. When I read the info, there was some sciencey stuff about good bacteria keeping bad bacteria away and Bad Z wisely pointed out that the sauce will eventually be boiled so hopefully that would destroy any evil that managed to grow in the cream.

I followed the instructions, heating the cream to 105 degrees and stirring in some buttermilk. The c.f. is now culturing away on the counter (is "culturing" the right word? I think?), yay, Science! I will report on any interesting findings, if there are any.

Also, I think we are going to do a chocolate soufflé for dessert. Earlier, I was thinking of doing this and then found a recipe for one that has an Early Grey custard sauce on it. Earl Grey is the kind of tea I tend to drink in the morning and any cooking with tea sounds great to me so hopefully we can pull it off.

posted by Kelly @ 3:20 p. m.