Oh So Colson

I really like making cake with yogurt and I like eating it for breakfast. It’s unique flavour probably arises principal flavouring ingredient is yogurt. But it isn’t necessarily the principal ingredient if you start to examine the different recipes that are available either by typing ‘yogurt cake’ in a search engine or by searching through one’s cookbooks. Indeed, this cake seems to be ‘de mode’ from what I can tell from reading various blogs devoted the topic of food and eating. This cake also seems to have originated in France from every account that I’ve come across. I couldn’t find it in my copy of the Joy of Cooking but I found it in the Silver Spoon (Italy’s classic cookbook for housewives) and in a cookbook by Nigella Lawson, and another on Turkish food by Claudia Roden. Lawson’s version is called “Baby Bunts” and her version requires melted butter, bunt tins, and the resulting cakes are subsequently removed from their tins and iced in lemon icing.

I first came across a recipe for this cake in a book written by Marcelle Hazan (who writes about Italian cuisine) but her recipe differs from that published by Clotilde Dusoulier (in her book titled Chocolate and Zucchini) whose recipes are predominately French. I’ve used both recipes several times. Both have different quantities of similar ingredients but Hazan’s has some fundamental differences. Her recipe entitled “Yogurt and Sambucco” rather than just a Yogurt Cake consequently it contains Sambucco. It like the recipe in Dusoulier’s book has oil but almost half of the volume of flour is cornflour (not cornstarch). Hazan’s recipe also contains one more egg than Dusoulier’s recipe and has triple the quantity of the flavourings. Dosoulier recommends adding one teaspoon of vanilla and possibly a tablespoon of rum, while Hazan recommends three tablespoons of Sambucco. Furthermore, Dusoulier’s recipe uses double the quantity of yogurt. I’ve found several recipes which use oil including one by Dorie Greenspan who seems to be, from the baking and cooking contingent who have blogs, as a ‘good cook who specialises in desserts’. Her recipe for yogurt cake utilises extra-virgin olive oil but although it probably gave the cake an interesting flavour when combined with lemon zest (or rosemary) but I really don’t like the greasiness that the oil causes in a cake’s texture. The cake will taste terrible if the baker concerned doesn’t know the age and the quality of the oil. The character of the cake, I suspect, probably changes if virgin olive oil is used since it probably shifts from a delicate cake that can be accompanied perhaps by fruit and even cheese to something that’s savory. The oil probably provides a high level of ‘moistness’ to the cake which is good but it can also be achieved by melted butter. I prefer moist cakes I dislike greasy oily cakes since I associate cakes which have that ‘glossy look to them’ with mass produced cakes found in chain supermarkets.

Both Hazan’s and Dusoulier’s recipes work and taste delicious even if you swap the oil for melted butter. I’d recommend both recipes since they are versatile, easy, and are delicious regardless of any little changes in the choice of additional flavourings: grated lemon zest, chocolate, orange zest, vanilla, orange juice, Cointreau, rosemary, vanilla etc. All of the recipes that I’ve found have the same basic ingredients but vary in the type of the oil, the number of eggs, the flavours used, and whether self-raising or plain flour are used and whether the flour component contains cornmeal and not just wheat flour.

Today I was reminded of just how delicious black pudding is but tragically I think it has a dreadful reputation for many.

This delicious sausage, often called blood sausage, causes horror in the eyes of friends when I’ve mentioned the idea of eating such an item. However, it shouldn’t be shocking since it’s in reality a perfectly reasonable concept that one would use the blood of an animal in a sausage. A sausage is after all only an organ that contains animal flesh as well other ingredients necessary to create the sausage. so, why not add blood? Regardless of where this item is made it takes the shape of a link sausage and contains pork flesh mixed with blood which gives that distinctive colour. It has several names such as blutwurst in Germany, boudin boir in France, Morcilla in Spain, botifarra in Catalyna, blood pudding in England. It doesn’t have a metallic taste at all but it has a complex flavour which is good on its own or behaves as a complement to other ingredients. The recipe used clearly depends on where the sausage is made and a variety of ingredients is added changes according to geographical region that the sausage is made. Ingredients such as black pepper, cayenne pepper, mace, herbs, oatmeal, coriander, onions, cream, can be added to the of blood and all the other basic ingredients used in each regional recipe.

Why should people dislike this sausage? Well, perhaps this reaction is connected to one one’s cultural background of what is good to eat and what isn’t. Indeed, the chapter on meat and sausages in the book of Classic American cooking doesn’t contain any mention on blood sausage or black pudding. I like it when a few slices are fried in the same pan for breakfast with eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and possibly even fried bread. This would be accompanied by a pile of buttered toast and large cup of tea. Perhaps if you had this everyday it would be a recipe for a heart attack but its part and parcel of a good English fry up. However, black pudding is scrumptious when it’s grilled and served on a bed of sweet sliced, peeled and cored apples which have been cooked in sausage fat. Elizabeth David describes this recipe in her book on French Provincial Cooking. While white and dark blood sausages, called botifarra, in Catalunya is a crucial ingredient in many of this region’s dishes. Indeed, nothing can be substituted for it.

Check out the blood sausage dish at: Le Reservoir, 9 (I think) rue Duluth, Montreal, Quebec.

I don’t understand why people have to fiddle around with the recipe of this incredible dessert. This recipe comes from Provence (France) where it is made with cherries (the pips are kept in the cherries) and it contains heavy cream, some vanilla, milk, eggs, sugar and according to some recipes perhaps a bit of Calvados or Kirsch. I can understand why people change the fruit since it’s not always possible to find cherries in the middle of the winter (for example) and sometime cherries are incredibly expensive. However, one should note that when one changes the fruit then the name of this dessert changes to “flognarde” sometimes spelt ‘flaugnarde’. It is always cooked in a baking dish in the oven.

But there are two things that horrify me when it comes to clafoutis recipes (a) the addition of larger than necessary quantities of flour and (b) vegetables! Ah…what is worse? Anyhow I’m going to tackle both ‘crimes’ - well, they are crimes in my mind. Why ruin a delicate dessert containing fruit, cream with a little sugar which sates one’s desire for something sweet, but not overpowering, in the midst of summer. Summer is usually the time when there’s an abundance of fruit of some sort of another…and whilst you know that it’s a good idea to eat fresh fruit…something sweet sounds good and somewhat preferable to fresh fruit. This dessert resolves that problem of eating the fruit which is good for you and sating your desire for something sweet.

What is becoming of this divine but simple dessert, from Provence,  described in delightfully by Elizabeth David and Claudia Roden? Both clearly state that it contains very little flour as flour is known to diminish the flavours of the other ingredients. The quantity of flour in their recipes is quite small and in the case of a recipe by Claudia Roden, that I’ve tried, only 1 tablespoon should be used. I’ve tried this recipe using different fruits and a couple of recipes by Elizabeth David as well. None of them call for vast quantities of flour. I found that various recipes exist for this dessert on food blogs and in cook books often request up to a cup of flour (8oz American). Indeed, in the cookbook entitled “Diane Clement at the Tomato” the recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups (310ml) of flour! Ah…my next question is why bother putting so much fruit when the flavours of the fruits suggested to be included are gentle and delicate. Such a vast quantity of flour only smothers the delicate hints of such summer fruits such as peaches, pears, nectarines, cherries, blueberries, strawberries etc. This isn’t a dessert that should be neatly sliced and placed on a dish with some coulee of fruits neatly swirled beside the slice. Clafoutis is a dessert which solves the problem of an overabundance of fresh fruits but provides the palate with a delightful combination of custard and cooked fruit. Enough! I can only conclude that this incredible quantity of flour is designed to prevent the serving from sliding around or over the edges of the plate. My answer: don’t be greedy in one serving and just ask for some more. This is custard not a cheesecake and it is not supposed to be solid. So, don’t even think of adding gelatine to this recipe! If you want it to be solid so that it can be sliced and then jsut add more eggs. But if the chef concerned can’t cope with the concept of additional eggs since they’re concerned about too much too many calories the answer is easy. Just only eat a little bit of it each day and make the enjoyment of the dish last a few days. Savour the flavour and don’t gulp it down in one go. 

As to the question of vegetables?? I’ve been reading number of blogs and it seems as if the ‘in thing’ is to put vegetables in this dessert and to remove the sugar?! Why? I don’t understand. My only conclusion is that those concerned who are including vegetables do not know that a vegetable clafoutis is really a tortilla (from Spain) with vegetables without the sugar, vanilla and the flour. This ‘tapa’ as its commonly called is also called tortilla de patatas, tortilla Española, or Spanish omelette. There are also many regional variations of this classic dish once you start to explore the possibilities. It traditionally has eggs, milk, potato and it can contain green or red peppers, chorizo, courgettes or zucchinis depending on your geographical location as well as diced ham and peas. It’s really easy to make and does not require cooking in the oven. Maybe people would rather introduce vegetables to the clafoutis and to remove the sugar because making a tortilla requires hot oil, a frying pan, and a longer more involved process in contrast to the clafoutis which can be mixed, poured into an oven proof dish, and left to cook on its own in the oven. Maybe those people who have cooked a savoury clafoutis, I shudder at the thought of adding a vegetable to this dish, don’t know about how easy it is to cook a tortilla.