Super Bowl Gougères

There are some exciting cookbooks around right now. My daughter, who knows her mother's tastes extremely well, gave me a bunch for Christmas. I love reading them- you learn so much when you read everything the author has to say. Little hints and ideas scattered about in the books. My first post-holiday read has been the award winning Zuni Cafe Cookbook.

Those of you on the west coast no doubt know all about it. But for everyone else, here's a little history I culled from the book:

Billy West opened Zuni Café  in 1979, with a huge heart and exactly ten thousand dollars. He chose the name Zuni, after the native American tribe, and decided to offer mostly simple and authentic Mexican food. Two years later, Billy hired Vince Calcagno to help run his struggling café. They made a success of this rather improbable restaurant and in 1987 Billy and Vince asked Judy Rodgers to be chef. She was confident that the owners' affection for France and Italy, and for traditional food, would sanction lots of experimentation and change. She asked Billy and Vince for a brick oven which ushered in a litany of dishes and introduced patrons to Zuni's very special whole roasted chickens. The Zuni caesar and their bread salad are two more of their iconic dishes -- and their ricotta gnocchi.

And about the author:

Award-winning chef Judy Rodgers, a fixture in the San Francisco food world, has been at Zuni Café since 1987 as chef and co-owner. She was a very lucky exchange student at Les Frères Troisgros in Roanne, France in the early seventies. It was then that she fell in love with cooking and the world of restaurants.
''BREAD is my favorite starch,'' Judy Rodgers said. ''I even thought about writing 'The Stale Bread Cookbook'." Ms. Rodgers uses leftover bread to make puddings, toasted garlicky slabs called ''chapons'' and the warm salad that accompanies her restaurant's roast chicken. ''The bread salad is a little like stuffing on the side,'' she said. Judy was fortunate enough to work at Poilane Bakery in Paris for a while. No wonder bread is a favorite with her! Judy won Chef of the Year from the James Beard Foundation in 2004.

It was nearly impossible to narrow it down to just one recipe... I have little yellow notes stuck all over in the book. Sadly, there are very few photos, but I loved the photo of (what Judy calls) New Year's Eve Gougères with Arugula, Bacon, & Carol's Pickled Onions. These little sandwiches looked so good I couldn't resist and thought they might make a  delicious appetizer for Super Bowl parties.  I mean, who doesn't love bacon, onions and cheese? You can make the gougères ahead of time and warm them up before serving. And make the pickled onions a week ahead. You are going to love the pickled onions because they can be used on  burgers, with fried fish, with a steak sandwich or even on a BLT.

My photo is not as gorgeous as the one in the book, but I can tell you that it tastes every bit as good as the Zuni Cafe's does. I loved the bits of crunch from the baked Gruyère.

Super Bowl Gougères
Adapted from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 cup water
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 large eggs, cold
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 ounces Gruyère, diced into 1/4 inch cubes (about 1/2 cup)
12 slices bacon
1-1/2 ounce arugula, washed and drained
1 cup Carol's Pickled Onions (recipe below), drained

Method:

Preheat oven to 400°.
In a 2-4 quart saucepan, bring the water, butter and salt to a simmer over medium heat. Add the flour all at once and stir vigorously until the mixture masses and detaches itself from the sides. Reduce the heat to low and cook, beating constantly (you need a really strong arm for this) until the batter is stiff and shiny looking. Remove from heat and beat in the cold eggs, one at a time. The mixture will resist addition; you'll find yourself cutting through and slapping together slabs of slippery warm paste until it finally absorbs the egg and becomes sticky again. Repeat with each egg.

The final mixture should be no hotter than tepid. Add the black pepper and Gruyère.
Use a heaping tablespoon of batter per gougère and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. You will need a second spoon to scrape it into a peaky mound. If you're good with a pastry bag you can make perfect little gougère rounds. I prefer the irregular shapes. Bake until firm and brown, about 25 minutes. Some bit of cheese will ooze and form a delicious crispy edge on the gougères. Open one to make certain it is done inside; it should be tender and moist but not mushy. You can always put it back in oven...simply turn off the oven and let it finish cooking in the ambient heat.

Meanwhile, cut the bacon into 3 inch segments and panfry or roast. Drain on towels.

Serve the gougères warm from the oven (or reheated) split through the middle and overstuffed with bacon, pickled onion and peppery arugula.

Carol's Pickled Onions

Ingredients:

12 firm yellow onions, no more than 2-1/2 inches in diameter
1-1/2 cups white wine vinegar
1-1/2 cups water
2 generous tablespoon sugar
2 bay leaves
1 small dried chili

A few whole black peppercorns
salt

Method:

Peel and slice the onions into rings about 1/8 inch thick. Separate into rings.
Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, bay leaves, chili pod, peppercorns and salt in a small saucepan. If you like things hot, but the chili pod in half before adding. Bring this mixture to a simmer, turn heat up to medium and add the onions. Gently stir the crowded onions while they return to a simmer. Simmer for 1 minute.
Pour the onions and brine into a wide bowl or glass container. Cool They will turn glassy as they cool. Cover and store in the refrigerater.

I know we are all thinking of Haiti this week and keeping them in our prayers. Please do all you can by donating at:  http://www.redcross.org/