I probably should have read through the ingredients more carefully and really tried to imagine these when I was planning my menu for the week. I trusted Dorie when she said that this made eight main course servings, and only needed a salad as an accompaniment. I was talking to my mom when I was making them and she also didn't think they sounded like a main course. She asked if I was serving them alongside grilled fish, which actually would have been a good idea. I told my mom the book said they were a main course and I was sticking to it. After Paul had a couple of bites, I had to start reading aloud the part of the book that insisted these were a main course. I told him they were called farcous in French, and he made some terrible joke about someone playing a "farce on you." He also asked where the sauce was, so I read him aloud the part that specifically said a sauce might be a good idea if you were serving these as an hors d'oeuvre, but made no mention of a sauce if you were serving these as a main course.
Well, we didn't think these were substantial enough for a main course, and we also thought they definitely needed a sauce or something. They tasted fine, but weren't anything special and we were both pretty hungry afterward. This recipe also touched on one of my culinary pet peeves. I am happy to "add salt and pepper to taste" when it's something that I'm willing to taste, but I can't stand when recipes for things you really don't want to taste raw--like hamburgers or pancakes--call for adding salt to taste. I had no clue how much to add, and didn't want to taste the raw batter to find out. I ended up putting what seemed like a lot (I didn't really measure but it was probably at least a teaspoon), and these tasted totally flat to me. Paul said they weren't that bad, but they definitely could have used more salt. These weren't too hard to make and would be a perfectly fine side dish, but I really doubt I'll be pulling out this recipe again. Oh well, at least I liked everything else we made in April...On to May!
These were really good dipped in the tomato sauce from last week's roulades.
ReplyDeleteBut - no, I can't see where these would serve 8 as a main course either.
Have a nice weekend.
Jora, have you seen Dorie? She is thin as a reed and probably eats like a bird. Sooooooo her idea of an entree and yours or mine might be different. I cannot imagine a French mama serving this to her family as a main course either. But, as a side or an appetizer with lots of goop on top, I think its yummy. I would suggest you re-group and try again.......maybe. I'm not going to do a cod-and-spinach-roulade do-over so maybe I shouldn't be lecturing you about try, try again. I doubled down on the swiss chard and slathered on the sour cream and thought it was a fun side served with a substatial salad. But, if you enjoyed all the other April recipes then that's great also.
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing about the seasonings, a little guideline please. I ended up tasting the batter. We really liked these, but we had them with last week's fish.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not main course material - you'd have to eat a lot of them to fill yourself up! And, yes, they were definitely better with some kind of sauce. They were interesting, but they're not quite good enough to stand on their own!
ReplyDeleteThese seem to be hit-or-miss for most people. Kudos for trying them!
ReplyDeleteHe he, I actually completely forgot to add salt until I had already made a batch. Talk about flat!
ReplyDeleteI thought of these as more of a side, too. Maybe if you had a really substantial salad with a lot of protein, but otherwise, definitely a side dish.
ReplyDeleteI agree salt to taste is only for dishes you would actually taste. I found these really filling and had no problem with them as a main course, but I was a vegetarian for a long time and I'm used to the idea of an all vegetable meal like this.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I though Dorie's serving size of overly optimistic. I served these as a main course, but it didn't make 8 servings. On the other hand, I also found them rather blah, so it was more servings that I wish I had. I've been eating leftovers for days. My favorite topping so far was scrambled eggs, making them more like a side dish.
ReplyDelete