Cloudy with a chance of meatballs (+ madeleines)
Mousse, too. There's so much I've loved here in Paris, thank you for letting me share it with you.
Bonjour! Bonjour!
This is it — it’s almost fly-away time for me. Time to return to Connecticut. Time, if I’m lucky, to see spring unfold. Again. I saw the start of plum blossoms in Tokyo. Magnolias in Paris. And, with luck, there’ll be that near-illusory tinge of green haloing the willows out my kitchen window. And forsythia.
But before we get there, there’s the back-and-forthing from home to airport to home, and the tug and click-clack of all those baggage wheels. We bought an extra suitcase in Tokyo — we needed it after ticking off things on our family’s please-buy list. You’d be surprised how much space Kit-Kats take up. Also those cute Monsters that I bought at the 10th Anniversary show in Paris. (Please don’t show them to Gemma and VV — they’re meant to be a surprise.)
Mad about meatballs
I know I might not seem the type, but I love meatballs. I love the meatballs I made to go with spaghetti (don’t judge the oats before you try them) in Everyday Dorie [Bookshop // B&N // Amazon ] and the Gingery Turkey Meatballs that can float around in soup or get sandwiched in a burger bun. And I’m crazy about the Jumbo Hoisin Meatballs with Gochujang Glaze from Peter Som’s book, Family Style [Bookshop // B&N // Amazon] I sent you the recipe back in October and I’ve been making them ever since. A couple of weeks ago I made them “straight” (meaning I served them with rice) for a dinner with Jane Bertch and Bake From Scratch’s Brooke Bell and Brian Hart Hoffman — scroll down to see the sweet fun that ensued. (And the madeleines.)
And then I made the meatballs last week for some French friends, knowing that the flavors would surprise them. Also knowing that they’d like them and would call the meal original — a word that, depending on the context, the tone of voice and the curve of an eyebrow, can be taken to mean delightful or weird. Since plates were wiped clean with bread, I went with delightful. For that meal, I made smaller-than-jumbo meatballs and set a do-it-yourself table (another original idea) that included a pitcher of the gochujang sauce (my friends had never had gochujang or hoisin), a bowl of quick-pickled cucumbers, sliced mangos, a mix of Greek yogurt, parsley, cilantro, mint and lemon zest and juice, a plain green salad dressed with tofu-miso dressing and a bowl of pitas hefty enough to hold everything. It was fun. It was tasty. And it was original.
Mad about madeleines
I discovered that Brian Hart Hoffman (who’s launching a Substack) adores madeleines when we went on a fabulous madeleine crawl together in Paris. And he’s not shy about proclaiming his love to the world. Here’s a video of Brian dancing around his kitchen while he makes the madeleines from Anytime Cakes [Bookshop.org // Barnes & Noble // Amazon].
And here he is, chez moi on meatball night with a tray of homemade madeleines from a recipe he’s been working on for a while now. WOWOWOWOW they were terrific!
They were big (jumbo was the evening’s theme), with a beautiful inner sponge, a hint of orange blossom and a perfect glaze that coated both the scallops and the proud bumps. They were so good! And while I told Brian about how I had oven-dried leftover madeleines, I never got to play that game on his — we polished them off! Scroll down for a link to my recipe for mads and some playing around suggestions.
And oh, before you ask: Brian’s embroidered sweater is from Lingua Franca, and the message, “Brian is in the kitchen,” is the punchline of a well-known joke that comes from a kid’s English book that was used in France for decades. Brian is in The Kitchen is also the name of the Substack he will be starting soon — follow him here if you don’t want to miss the launch.
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And crazy about mousse, too
Since Brian and I hadn’t conspired before dinner, it was delicious serendipity that he brought the madeleines because they were the perfect go-along for what I’d cued up for dessert: Chocolate mousse. The mousse was a first for me — it was store bought! For years, I’d heard that Chapon makes luscious mousse and for years, even though the shop is minutes from my apartment, I’d see people wandering down the street happily spooning Chapon mousse out of a paper cone, but I didn’t join them. My loss. The mousse was really, really good. Now I’ve got two-readymades I can depend on: Chapon mousse and Picard’s mashed potatoes.
I was delighted to discover that Chapon’s shopping bag includes a recipe for chocolate mousse. Of course, it was impossible for me not to make it — it was great! Annotated recipe coming soon.
Random deliciousness from Paris
It was — as it always is — delicious to be here. And so much of the delicious fun spun around seeing friends. Old and new. There was a dînatoire at Jane’s where I met Erica Wides, whom you might know as The Chefsmartypants Academy. A cocktail party featuring my friend Hélène Samuel’s spin-around pork, Pig & Piq (I could have eaten that whole thing solo). A lunch at Mokonuts — you know how much I love Moko’s desserts — with the elegant Grant Gibson.
[⬆️ spin-around pork, Pig & Piq]
A meal at Le Rigmarole, a singular (yes, original, in the original sense) restaurant with an ever-changing menu that reflects what the chefs love to make at the moment (oh how I’d missed the chefs and their food!).
A catch-up with our old friend Juan Sanchez at the new bistrot Patine. A goroke with potatoes from Mille et Un that reminded me of a Japanese curry bun.
And a lip-smackingly delicious meal made by Akira Sugiura and Masayoshi Haraguchi at their pop-up at Pochana. If you ever see a pop-up by either of these chefs, book a table as quickly as you can — they’re so talented.
When I write to you next week, I’ll be back in Connecticut, where it appears that all my hopes of a second spring may be dashed — Michael just read me the weather forecast: Cloudy with a chance of snow. Oh well. This will be good practice for me — with the never-ending swirl of disastrous news getting more ferocious, I’m trying to do that thing where I focus on what I can control. I’m not good at and I’m not getting much better, but I think I can manage the weather with meatballs and mousse.
📚 📚 📚 You can find more recipes in my latest books, Dorie’s Anytime Cakes, Baking with Dorie, and Everyday Dorie.
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EXTRA BUTTERY-VANILLA MADELEINES
Before Dorie’s Anytime Cakes was published, I sent a special newsletter to paid subscribers with a preview of my madeleine recipe and notes on how I tested it. When you click through you can see the test pictures and find a fully updated recipe — open for a limited time to all subscribers. Also, when I first did the post, I recorded the recipe, something I’d forgotten I’d done. If you like hearing me tell you about the recipe, let me know and I’ll give it a try again soon.
what an excellent dinner party menu.
My goodness! You’ve had quite a time during this trip to Paris. I love meatballs too, and here’s a fun connection. My son and daughter attended a school in Brooklyn where the author, Judy Barrett, wrote CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS! A very creative drama teacher turned the book into a delightful musical where my son, Max, played “the big cheese,” complete with a rubbery cheese head we ordered from Wisconsin! Very fond and fun memories. You and Michael travel safely and, who knows, maybe this is the summer we will meet up in CT!❤️❤️