Nothing to do with perfume, and I'm not sure if this is meant to help Kevin or taunt him (if you missed his clafoutis tale, go here), but Third Shift in Las Vegas made a lovely peach (I think it is peach?) clafoutis, and then in a nod to recent perfumery trends, an apparently disgusting lychee clafoutis. Me, I'd never even heard of clafoutis, but I feel like we should start some sort of clafoutis contest...
Update: see the Easy Clafoutis recipe.
Note: image via Third Shift in Las Vegas.
Awww! *sniff* My first off-blog trackback. I'm verklempt.
Hee hee, link away. Yes, it is peach season here in Virginia, this was made with white peach. I am all for something like Iron Chef: clafoutis, who can make fruity floral clafoutis with a heartnote of tiare flower and a musky dry-down. 
Hey, you bake, we link
Seriously, what do these taste like, anyway? Like pie? Cake? Something else? I must know since I am *never* going to cook one.
Not pies, not cake, not custard, not flan, even, despite several folks who said it was like a thick sort of custard. I've been thinking here for 5 minutes and I can't describe what it tastes like. But gosh, it's so easy you CAN make one, it's a farm dish, doesn't require any finesse. Let me dig out and post the recipe. Yes, you will make one, it's as easy as pancake batter. (Unless you buy the refrigerated pre-mixed just-pour pancake batter in a bottle, in that case there's no hope for you.
TS: this is the most edible-looking clafoutis I've seen…now if you can make something tempting with herring you are a MIRACLE WORKER! (at least to MY taste buds), Kevin
Um, I don't do pancake batter either, sadly. I used to love to cook but once I had a child and *had* to cook on a regular basis, I started to hate it. It is just another chore to me now. If we want pancakes, we go to a diner…
I MUST draw the line at herring clafoutis. An all-star team of Brillat-Savarin, Escoffier, Montagne and Larousse couldn't pull that off.
Hee, you know I'm just kidding.
Now, now, don't diss the herring around here. I grew up on the proceeds of the little fishies – my dad runs North America's largest sardine canning plant. Actually, I really don't like herring, but I love to see my dad's enthusiasm for his work. He's a real nerd about sardines. The plant smells terrible, because they process the innards of the larger ones and heads and tails for salmon feed, but he always rubs his hands together gleefully and says: “The smell of money!” He wears the colognes I buy him, but I can't imagine they compete.
LOL — everyone has their own smell of money, don't they?
I love herring in sour cream sauce, but that is the only way I can stand it. I don't think I've ever even eaten a sardine. They are different fish, aren't they? Not even sure.
The sardine is always a fish in the herring family. The North American canned sardine is almost always the Atlantic herring. The smaller, potbellied kind you sometimes see canned from Europe is just a different, rounder species of herring called a “brisling” or sprat. All the weird things you learn….
That's the most beautiful clafoutis. White peaches? You live in Virginia? Um … how long's the drive from the D.C. area? ;-D
The Danes love the herring too…around Christmas time and also Easter, big lunches with lots of herring–pickled, curried, and sour cream…all with a large shot of Aquavit. The Danes tell the foreigners thats how you make the fish 'swim' down your throat.
Never tried clafoutis…but I bet you could actually make something delicious with white peaches and then scenting the batter with orange blossom water? Working on the dry down….haven't come up with that yet!
Herring? With sour cream sauce? Now were talking! That's what my Mom and Grandma in Berlin used to make. Lovely!
Now that is soooo lovely looking, I can almost smell it through the screen. Congratulations, Third Shift.
i've done my share of clafouti-cooking, and none of mine looked like this one, either. Mine look like I stirred them with a hand-grenade. They are an egg and ricotta mixture (with sugar, etc.) poured over fruit and baked. Mine always look haphazard, but they are yum-eee. Peach is the best, although I won't turn my back on cherry, apple, pear, But never herring, clam, watermelon or lychee.
–Q
Robin, French pancakes are nothing like American ones. And clafoutis doesn't take like pancake.
No, just was responding to “as easy to make as pancakes”
No patchouli, please
Oops, I meant to write 'taste' not 'take'. Sorry.
Ah,. sorry. Reading (and writing) too fast tonight (it's 3.30am here).
It is a glorified pancake batter, that is what it is. Ina Garten on the food network made a fabulous one with pears and pear brandy that was to die for! In fact I have been making it monthly just so I can get out the cool brandy bottle with the whole pear in it! Yum! The recipe is TOO easy…
Hi there,
It's a bit far out, you have to drive to Delaplane, I have a peach orchard visit that I have to offload from the camera to blog. When I get some time today I'll bring up the clafoutis recipe and you'll all see how easy it is.
Never heard of one till I found a recipe in the Hartford Courant, where I used to work. I had ricotta in it, eggs, other ingredients, and when I tried baking it, it was deeee-lish. Didn't look as lovely as the picture, though.
Ricotta in clafoutis? Mon dieu!!!!! C'est-ne pas possible!!! The secret to superb clafoutis — and yes, Virginia, there really is such a thing — is to go heavy on the fruit and eat it piping hot from the oven with lashings of a harmonious high-end fruit liqueur (Grand Marnier is sensational with peaches) and great blobs of fresh, lightly sweetened whipped cream laced with Tahitian vanilla! Ta-da!!! That's the way we do it in Canada, with our rich French legacy. . .Check out Julia Child's first volume for the basic, no-fail recipe. And use GOOD, ripe fruit, naturellement!
Have to butt in to say you guys are even pickier about clafoutis than you are about perfume, LOL — if she wants to put ricotta in her clafoutis, let her be
You can indeed put anything you like in your clafoutis, but you can't call it 'clafoutis'. It's a different beast. LOL!
Just because Lanvin called that new perfume Rumeur, when it's got nothing to do with their famous old one, doesn't mean that we should all do it. Thin end of the wedge and all that…
Now see, I am happy to spend hours happily discoursing on why fragrance companies should not “reuse” old names, but ricotta in clafoutis simply doesn't bother me in the least. But apparently I'm alone on that — very surprised at how many comments this article has generated!
Ricotta in clafoutis, R., is the equivalent of ketchup on Caesar salad. No one said it couldn't be done, but it just ain't a Caesar salad anymore!!! Know what I'm saying? P.S. While I wouldn't call it a clafoutis per se, the idea of a ricotta-based baked fruit dessert sounds yummy — dare I say, perhaps an improvement over the *real* thing??!!!! Sound like something those smart Italians would do. . .And yes, for a fragrance site, it's amazing what opinionated foodies we seem to be! xo
LOL — none of you foodie police can come over when I'm cooking, 'kay?
Kay. But when you're out of the kitchen and your ricotta clafoutis is on the table, I'll come over with the Grand Marnier and whipped cream!!
Thanks. I DO bake, and I WILL make it. BTW I grew up in Northern Virginia, and anyone who has not eaten a white peach has not truly lived.
Off topic, but — I offered to make an elderly neighbor a cake for his birthday, what would he like? He said, pineapple upside down cake. I said … gee, do you like any other kind of cake? Nope. Sigh. I made it and it was fine (he was thrilled) but … yuk.
Third Shift, that is a beautiful clafoutis. I'm envious of your pastry skills. I am sure it tastes just as wonderful as it looks. My question to the group is, what is the proper fragrance to wear while eating clafoutis?
HA — the likelihood of my baking a clafoutis *ever* is very slim. But you're welcome to drop by with the GM & whipped cream anyway!
Tam Dao gets my vote. But only when eating black olive clafoutis.
(YES, I'm not kidding, I found that recipe on epicurious.com!) LOL
Hold the whipped cream.
Oh come on….
Only with the olives
It does sound yummy. What could we call it?
Apples are called for in the ultra-traditional French recipes, though prune plums would be delightful too. This rendition reminds me of an old and easier southern recipe for “peach pudding,” which calls for an entire stick of butter. Melt the butter in a deep baking dish, add the sliced peaches, pour on gobs of sugar and whatever spices and extracts (vanilla or almond) you like, top it off with a flour and milk batter (it might have a litle baking soda in it). As it bakes, the batter seeps to the bottom, and voila! a moist peach “pudding”. Will have to root around to find the recipe. A foody fragrance would put me off, however.