Babette's Feast

Last night I went to a book group discussion of Isak Dinesen's short story Babette's Feast. But the fun part about this book group is that it meets at Whole Foods and involves a cooking demo! First we had a short discussion of the story (or movie, seems a lot of folks watched the movie instead of reading the story) and then on to the cooking demo. Narit Yadin, a chef who teaches other cooking classes at this Whole Foods, demonstrated two different recipes inspired by the feast in the story. The first was a Chicken Sarcofage which is basically puff pastry wrapped around marinated chicken and mushrooms. Even though I didn't eat the chicken, it was a good method and could easily be adapted to include potatoes or other veggies instead of the chicken.

The second dish was a delicious beet and carrot blini. Blinis are little yeasted pancakes and the beet and carrot salad just went on top of them with a little crème fraîche. They were SO good! She roasted yellow beets and sauteed some carrots and ginger and shredded it all together and added some orange juice and vinegar and it was so delicious. Thankfully there were lots of blinis and not too many people so I got to sample a couple of them. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of my own, but trust me, the color of the golden beets and carrots was so bright and festive that I would certainly consider making this for guests.

It's rare that I post photos that aren't my own, but here is a nice shot from this food blog to show you what the blinis look like before the topping is put on:

This is the recipe she used, adapted from this website.

Blinis Demidof a l'Oobleck

Yeasted pancakes with gingered carrots and beets

Theater Oobleck adapted the blini recipe from Sheila Lukins' ``All Around the World Cookbook.'' The topping is their own.

1 teaspoons active dry yeast

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3 1/4 cups warm milk

4 eggs, separated

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4-inch chunk fresh gingerroot, grated

4 medium beets, tops removed

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

2 tablespoons orange juice

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 cup grated carrots

Clarified butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Crème fraîche

In a large bowl, stir together the yeast, 1/2 cup of the flour and 2 cups of the milk. Cover and set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes. Let the remaining milk cool to lukewarm.

Beat the egg yolks and stir into the yeast mixture with the remaining milk and flour and the 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the batter. Cover and let rest in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.

Roast the beets till tender (an hour or so). Peel, then grate the beets and combine them with the vinegar, orange juice and sugar. Set aside in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over low heat, saute the ginger and carrots in clarified butter till just warmed through. Season with salt and pepper. Let cool. Once cooled, combine beets and carrots.

Heat a nonstick skillet, brush lightly with clarified butter and cook a few blini at a time. Make them 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Cook for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, then flip and cook the other side about 1 minute, until puffed and golden.

Serve warm, topped with crème fraîche and the carrot-beet mixture. Makes about 40 blini, 10 to 15 servings.