A farl, according to Merriam-Webster, is an oatmeal or wheat flour thin triangular cake from Scotland. Torrey posted this recipe and I made it for a healthy breakfast when my dad was visiting. There’s nothing sweet in the recipe, so honestly I wasn’t expecting a lot, but I knew if Torrey liked it it had to be good so I ventured forth.
Aside: I have discovered that I LOVE BUTTERMILK. That is all.
The farls came out thick, soft, crispy on the outside, and with a lovely flavor that really doesn’t need anything changed. The buttermilk did its work well! These would be perfect for simple and healthy breakfast entertaining. Just cut into triangles and put out all sorts of garnishes: butter, jam, soft cheeses, yogurt, honey, maple syrup, nutella, marmalade, clotted cream, some fruits.
I served them with butter and jam, and later, ate them with a soft Brie-like cheese and cured meats. Then I left town for a week, and when I came back they were still moist! Amazing. I dipped a piece in greek yogurt for a tangy snack. In other words, I highly recommend with anything you can think of.
Please continue for the recipe.
Please continue . . .
Am I the only one who feels inundated by Julia Child to the point where I’m taking it as a sign? Seriously, a friend sent me My Life in France to read over Christmas, I brought it with me to read on the plane, tucked it in my little seat pocket to start after the movie, and what was the movie on the plane? Julie & Julia. It was definitely a sign. Not inundated in a bad way, just in the kind of way where I feel like there’s a message trying to get through to me that I should follow her to Paris, go to cooking school, and scientifically produce French recipes for American cooks. Have you read My Life in France? It’s great.
So for a Christmas present for someone very hard to buy for (aren’t all men?) I made Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon, which is beef simmered with vegetables, onions and garlic in red wine and beef broth for several hours. As I explained yesterday, it was a huge deal for me to not only eat beef, but to cook it, and I had no idea what I was doing in the least. I was so busy trying to follow her directions to the letter that I completely neglected to take pictures, which is perhaps not so especially terrible because during the whole five and a half hour cooking process I kept laughing about how utterly useless my experience would be to anyone who knows anything about about cookery.
And here’s the thing – I feel sacrilegious writing this – the boeuf came out DRY. Like, it wasn’t that good. Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon wasn’t that good. It wasn’t bad, it just didn’t taste anything like the brilliance that was the Spotted Pig’s bone marrow-covered steak and it was really pretty dry.
Obviously totally my fault. I have no idea how meat that simmered in red wine and broth for three hours came out dry, but it did. So, feeling badly about myself, I have to admit I did a little googling and none other than Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa herself, made Boeuf Bourguignon that came out dry too! Here’s her quote:
“I never really liked boeuf bourguignon. After cooking for three hours, the meat was stringy and dry and the vegetables were overcooked.”
Exactly how mine came out! So she ignored Julia and created her own recipe. If I ever make beef again, I’ll try her version and report, but don’t hold your breath. I think I’ve officially overdosed on beef. We drank a lot of really good wine and the mini dinner party turned out lovely as a whole, but the dish was just so brown and so heavy and so brown that it kind of grossed me out. Beef isn’t very good for me anyway, right? So I’m back to my semi-veggie/pescatarian ways but still with total obeisance to Julia for her genius, which has not been marred at all by my failure. I’m sure Julia’s boeuf never came out dry, and maybe I need to go to Paris to find out how.
I. Cooked. Beef.
And ate it.
This is a very big deal.
Growing up with a vegetarian mama, I literally never ate beef in my life until a few years ago when I finally (lamely) rebelled by eating a bite of my then-boyfriend’s McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese. And it was really good. Clearly McDonald’s puts crack in their food because actual quality bites of beef that I occasionally stole from friends’ plates didn’t do it for me in the same way, and as a result I figured I just didn’t like beef that much.
Until I did a three day juice fast this December to recover from Thanksgiving and for three days I craved beef. THREE DAYS. Beef! What?!
Yeah, this stuff.
www.aimmeats.com/
From these cuties.
http://worthyourweight.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/cows.jpg
So after several days of resisting this craving with extremely incredible willpower, I went to the Spotted Pig for dinner, which is a fantastic gastropub in NYC, and as the fates would have it their special that night was a 13 ounce New York Strip steak with bone marrow sauce. Screw it, I said. I’m at the Spotted Pig and I’m going to try steak, and the bone marrow sauce will be an meat-eating bonus for my bona fides. I figured I would eat half and take the rest home; no no – I ate THE WHOLE THING. And could have eaten more. It was incredible. I highly highly highly recommend bone marrow on anything, especially steak after finishing a juice fast, and I highly highly highly recommend steak from the Spotted Pig any time.
http://weblogs.cltv.com/entertainment/tv/metromix/grilled_steak.jpg
I will say, though, I’ve lived in New York almost three years and can’t think of a single time I’ve encountered the “mean/rude New Yorker” stereotype. At the Spotted Pig, I discovered why: they’re ALL there! From girls at the bar who were rude for no reason to asshole investment bankers who seem to think everyone eating dinner around them wants to loudly hear about how many shots they took last night and how many hours they worked last week, it was pretty striking how an expensive/trendy pub atmosphere attracts the jerks.
Anyway, despite the clientele, I loved the food at the Spotted Pig and the next night I got steak in my Chipotle burrito bowl and promptly OD’d on beef for a while. Until I cooked Boeuf Bourguignon….Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon. Part II to come….
At our Christmas dinner, Joan made Chicken Marbella from the Silver Palate cookbook, which was so good I begged her to let me take a photo and put it up on BB&B!. She agreed, and pointed out how easy it is to make for a dinner party because it can bake while you do everything else. My favorite kind of main dish :)
Her only modifications from the recipe are to use bone-in breasts or thighs with skin rather than a whole chicken, so that each person can just take one rather than having to carve at the table – a genius ease-of-dinner-party tip – and she doubles the olives and the prunes. The recipe link is below. Enjoy!
Chicken Marbella from Silver Palate
