This recipe came originally from Cooking Light Magazine. It's very easy to make, and is very tasty (I've seen people eat it with a spoon, like preserved fruit). I will add a photo next time I make it, but it just looks like a cranberry-colored jam.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup port or other sweet red wine
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1 (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries
2/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2 teaspoon grated orange rind
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Orange rind strips (optional)
Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Add cherries, and cook 1 minute. Stir in cranberries; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until cranberries pop. Remove from heat. Stir in walnuts, grated rind, and extract. Garnish with orange rind strips, if desired. Cover and chill.
Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1/4 cup)
CALORIES 108(25% from fat); FAT 3g (sat 0.2g,mono 0.7g,poly 2g); PROTEIN 1.5g;
CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 11mg; SODIUM 2mg; FIBER 1.8g; IRON 0.3mg;
CARBOHYDRATE 19.7g
Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2005
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Posh Preserved Pears
After a false start, (I bought 10 Seckel pears and then put off doing anything with them for so long they were half-rotten so I had to throw them out and start again) I finally made a batch of preserved pears. I think I'm the only one in the household who likes canned pears, or fresh ones for that matter, so I expect to eat these myself.It was a recipe in the paper, and the photo accompanying it was so attractive I had to make it. The results of my concoction are less pretty (I think I overcooked the pears, so they are a bit disintegrated, clouding the liquid in the bottles), but they are still pretty, and the flavor is quite tasty.
Pears Preserved in Madeira with Bay
8-10 Seckel or Forelle pears
1 Tbl lemon juice
750 ml bottle of Madeira
1 cup sugar
1-2 cups water
8-10 fresh bay leaves (dry is okay if fresh is unavailable)
Peel, halve and core pears, and let them sit in a bowl of water with the lemon juice added while you prepare the liquid.
Bring the Madeira, sugar and water to a boil in a large pan. Add pear halves (with slotted spoon) and bay leaves. Turn down heat, and let simmer for 30-40 minutes until pears are tender but not falling apart.
Meanwhile, fill canning jars with boiling (or very hot) water and let sit.
When pears are cooked, empty the jars and spoon in the pears (if you want them to look pretty, try to slide them into the jar pointed end up). Remove bay leaves from the liquid, and let it come to a boil again. Ladle liquid over pears (enough that the top of the jar is all liquid, no pears showing). Slide bay leaves into jar, one leaf per pear.
Close jar and process. (I boiled the filled jars for 10 minutes, which has always worked for jam.)
Note: You can make this with other pears (Bartletts are said to be the best flavor; Bosc hold their shape nicely and have a spicier flavor that would blend nicely). You will need only about half as many pears. Do not halve the liquid, however -- you'll still need as much.
Variant: Substitute Port for Madeira, and a Vanilla Bean (or two) for the Bay Leaves. I think this would make a very sweet concoction, good for serving over ice cream. (I haven't made that version.)
Monday, October 20, 2008
An Update on the Distilled Wines
We had a friend over to celebrate Girl-Child's birthday last night, and -- because he was asking, nay, pestering -- we brought out the Vin de Noix (the fortified red wine infused with walnuts) and the Nocino (simply vodka infused with walnuts). The vin de noix is about 5 weeks out of distilling, the nocino only about 3. The vin de noix is really quite tasty, definitely stepping into port territory (not even sure we can taste the walnuts actually).
The nocino needs more aging, to be generous. Strongly flavored, it is also strongly bitter. We realized it needs to be filtered at least on more time -- gazillions of tiny black spots float in the liquid, so many we expect we accidentally confused pitchers and poured together one filtered and one unfiltered batches. The floating walnut bits probably make it more bitter than otherwise. So more filtering to come, and then some more time.
We are glad we have so many bottles of the vin de noix, however. Enough to give a few away, yet still have plenty to savor ourselves.
The nocino needs more aging, to be generous. Strongly flavored, it is also strongly bitter. We realized it needs to be filtered at least on more time -- gazillions of tiny black spots float in the liquid, so many we expect we accidentally confused pitchers and poured together one filtered and one unfiltered batches. The floating walnut bits probably make it more bitter than otherwise. So more filtering to come, and then some more time.
We are glad we have so many bottles of the vin de noix, however. Enough to give a few away, yet still have plenty to savor ourselves.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Vivi's Thunder is Stolen by The Bride
I, too, decanted our Nocino this past week, but didn't get around to blogging about it. The drink is quite raw (nicely said, Bride) but I think we like it more than the vin de noix, at least for now. It's bitter, but rich, intriguing.
I have a photo, however. It is a little over-exposed, but it shows off well the greenness of the liqueur. (That's a Girl-Child pottery doodad obscured by light in front.)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The Bride decants Vin de Noix, Nocino
Today, I decanted the Vin de Noix and the Nocino that I made a couple of months ago. I don't have a picture yet, but I'll post one when I do. It all tastes a little rough and needs some time to sit and mature. But that could be said of any of us. At the rate we drink, I estimate that they will last 5 years.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Vivi starts early (or late?) for Christmas
I've started macerating dried fruit for Black Cake, for Christmas. This is a variant of fruit cake, which you frost with fondant (in the English way). I got the recipe from the Houston Chronicle when I was there for our aunt's funeral. That recipe is one adapted by Nigella Lawson from Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking. I'll bet The Bride makes a variant even closer to something cooked a hundred years ago.
(green walnuts stewing in spiced vodka for Nocino left,
and dried fruit in rum and Manischewitz right)
The black cake seems a lot like Mom's old fruit cake recipe, with the additional step of soaking the fruit in spirits before you bake the cake, then store it in liquor-soaked cheesecloth for months before eating.
I've never made it, so I won't post the recipe now. Once it's proved, maybe I will.
(green walnuts stewing in spiced vodka for Nocino left,and dried fruit in rum and Manischewitz right)
The black cake seems a lot like Mom's old fruit cake recipe, with the additional step of soaking the fruit in spirits before you bake the cake, then store it in liquor-soaked cheesecloth for months before eating.
I've never made it, so I won't post the recipe now. Once it's proved, maybe I will.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Vivi Decants Vin de Noix
A few days ago we decanted the first batch of the vin de noix -- the San Francisco Chronicle version of the recipe. (Read about the infusion step here.) It took about 20 coffee filters, in five cycles of straining -- after starting with cheesecloth over a fine metal sieve -- to clear out the sediment. The half batch I made provided us with five half-liter bottles to give away, and one to keep for ourselves. (Bottles from Costco World Market.)
We aren't sure we like the flavor. It is definitely nutty, and a little sweet, and it lasts in your throat for a long, long time after swallowing. But it is rather bitter, too, and one dimensional. I though the flavor was all on the back of the tongue; HomoDomi all on the front -- either way, it was simple, changing over time, but always in linear fashion. (I am not a foodie, I don't taste "hints of blackberry and compost" in an expensive wine (see below), but this is the only way to describe the liqueur's flavor). We added one tablespoon of maple syrup to the batch, instead of more sugar, and that helped, a little.
I am told by The Bride that the liqueurs can and will change and deepen in flavor over time, so we'll give this a while. This recipe is interesting because you steep the walnuts in wine, and only add vodka and sugar when you decant it. In comparison, the Nocino (and the other vin de noix recipe that The Bride is making) steep the walnuts in the vodka and sugar directly. So I imagine the liqueur will have ample opportunity to flower in flavor as it ages.
About that "blackberry and compost" -- this is from Posh Nosh, a wonderful filler show (e.g., 10 minutes long, filling space between irregular length shows) on BBC a few years ago:
We aren't sure we like the flavor. It is definitely nutty, and a little sweet, and it lasts in your throat for a long, long time after swallowing. But it is rather bitter, too, and one dimensional. I though the flavor was all on the back of the tongue; HomoDomi all on the front -- either way, it was simple, changing over time, but always in linear fashion. (I am not a foodie, I don't taste "hints of blackberry and compost" in an expensive wine (see below), but this is the only way to describe the liqueur's flavor). We added one tablespoon of maple syrup to the batch, instead of more sugar, and that helped, a little.
I am told by The Bride that the liqueurs can and will change and deepen in flavor over time, so we'll give this a while. This recipe is interesting because you steep the walnuts in wine, and only add vodka and sugar when you decant it. In comparison, the Nocino (and the other vin de noix recipe that The Bride is making) steep the walnuts in the vodka and sugar directly. So I imagine the liqueur will have ample opportunity to flower in flavor as it ages.
About that "blackberry and compost" -- this is from Posh Nosh, a wonderful filler show (e.g., 10 minutes long, filling space between irregular length shows) on BBC a few years ago:
Saturday, August 30, 2008
The Bride Makes Vegetarian Curry: 3 Masala Beans
Here is another nice vegetarian curry. I'm giving the recipe as it appears in The Best-Ever Curry Cookbook, but I actually have never used the fenugreek in it. Someday I'll acquire some from Penzey's, but until then, it's good without. Two Weight Watcher points again and it's Core.
Masala Beans with Fenugreek
Serves 4
1 onion
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp chili powder
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 tomato cut in chunks, or use canned diced tomato
2 or 3 cups green beans, blanched
1 bunch fresh fenugreek leaves, stems discarded, or 1 TBSP dried fenugreek, also known as kasuri methi
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tbsp lemon juice
1) Roughly chop the onion. Mix together the cumin, coriander, sesame seeds, chili powder, garlic, turmeric, salt.
2) Put the chopped onion and spice mixture into a food processor or blender, and process for 30 to 45 seconds until you have a rough paste.
3) In a wok or large pan, heat the oil over medium heat and fry the spice paste for about 5 minutes, stirring to make sure it doesn't burn.
4) Add the tomato chunks, the blanched green beans, fenugreek and chopped cilantro.
5) Stir Fry the contents of the pan for 5 to 10 minutes until the green beans are the way you like them - a little crispy, but not too. Then, sprinkle in the lemon juice and serve.
Masala Beans with Fenugreek
Serves 4
1 onion
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp chili powder
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 tomato cut in chunks, or use canned diced tomato
2 or 3 cups green beans, blanched
1 bunch fresh fenugreek leaves, stems discarded, or 1 TBSP dried fenugreek, also known as kasuri methi
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tbsp lemon juice
1) Roughly chop the onion. Mix together the cumin, coriander, sesame seeds, chili powder, garlic, turmeric, salt.
2) Put the chopped onion and spice mixture into a food processor or blender, and process for 30 to 45 seconds until you have a rough paste.
3) In a wok or large pan, heat the oil over medium heat and fry the spice paste for about 5 minutes, stirring to make sure it doesn't burn.
4) Add the tomato chunks, the blanched green beans, fenugreek and chopped cilantro.
5) Stir Fry the contents of the pan for 5 to 10 minutes until the green beans are the way you like them - a little crispy, but not too. Then, sprinkle in the lemon juice and serve.
The Bride Makes Cherry Wine, Step two
The Cherry Wine I made last month is ready for step 2, so I strained and bottled it. Then, in a bit of a Martha moment, I made labels for it. It's a beautiful color and tastes lovely, although it's supposed to sit for a while yet before drinking. I saved the cherries and I'm going to macerate them for a while in a little kirsch and simple syrup, then make ice cream with them. I'm thinking the wine will make a nice Sangria.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The Bride Makes A Vegetarian Curry: Spinach and Potato Curry
Here is another favorite vegetarian curry. You can use frozen spinach or a package of baby spinach to save time. This one has 2 Weight Watcher points, and is Core. And, best of all, it can be made with ingredients you have on had - if you keep spinach in your freezer.
Spinach With Golden Potatoes
1 lb spinach, or any other greens, chard, tatsoi, kale, whatever
1 TBSP vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 TBSP fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped - optional
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne, optional
1/2 cup water
1) Clean and blanch the spinach in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes, then drain in a strainer and leave to cool. When it is cool enough to handle, squeeze out any remaining liquid. If using baby spinach or frozen spinach this step can be omitted.
2) Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and fry the mustard seeds until they begin to splutter.
3) Add the sliced onion, crushed garlic, and chopped ginger and the red pepper, if you are using it. Fry for about 5 minutes, until the onions are soft, stirring occasionally.
4) Stir in the potatoes, chilli powder, salt and water and cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more water if the water cooks down. You should have just a little bit on the bottom of the pan creating steam, but not drenching the potatoes.
5) Add the spinach to the pan. If you omitted step 1, the volume of the spinach may overflow the pan. Let it cook down for a minute or two and add the rest. Cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Add more water if necessary.
6) Serve with rice and plain yogurt.
Spinach With Golden Potatoes
1 lb spinach, or any other greens, chard, tatsoi, kale, whatever
1 TBSP vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 TBSP fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped - optional
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne, optional
1/2 cup water
1) Clean and blanch the spinach in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes, then drain in a strainer and leave to cool. When it is cool enough to handle, squeeze out any remaining liquid. If using baby spinach or frozen spinach this step can be omitted.
2) Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and fry the mustard seeds until they begin to splutter.
3) Add the sliced onion, crushed garlic, and chopped ginger and the red pepper, if you are using it. Fry for about 5 minutes, until the onions are soft, stirring occasionally.
4) Stir in the potatoes, chilli powder, salt and water and cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more water if the water cooks down. You should have just a little bit on the bottom of the pan creating steam, but not drenching the potatoes.
5) Add the spinach to the pan. If you omitted step 1, the volume of the spinach may overflow the pan. Let it cook down for a minute or two and add the rest. Cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Add more water if necessary.
6) Serve with rice and plain yogurt.
The Bride Makes Vegetarian Curry: 1 Aubergine Curry
I've been cooking vegetarian curries frequently this summer. They are low in calories and high in wonderfulness. I'm posting my two favorite recipes. No pictures, unfortunately. One serving is 2 WW points with or without mushroooms and without peas. Add the peas and it's 4 WW points. Any which way, it's Core. And it's really really really good whichever way you do it.
Roasted Aubergine Curry
4 servings.
2 large aubergine (eggplants)
2 TBSP oil (more or less)
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 TBSP fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 fresh red chili, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt
14 ounce can diced tomatoes, or 2 cups fresh tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 cup frozen peas, optional
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms, quartered, optional
1) Apply about 1 TBSP of oil to the skins of the whole eggplants by rubbing it in with your hands. Prick the sides with a fork. Place in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. When the aubergine is soft, it's done. Take it out and let it cool somewhat.
2) While the aubergine is cooling, heat the remaining TBSP of oil and add the black mustard seeds. Leave them for a minute or two until they start to sputter. Then add the chopped onion, garlic and chili pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the onion is soft. Add the ginger, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne and salt and stir through, allowing it to cook with the onions for another 2 or 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes.
3) While the tomatoes are simmering, return to the eggplant which is now cooled enough that you can handle it. Cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Discard the skin (and therefore 1 TBSP of the oil. Neat, eh?). Mash the flesh as best you can.
4) When the tomatoes have simmered for a while, add the aubergine mash and, if you are using the mushrooms and/or peas, add them now, too. Mix well. Reduce heat and cook for about 20 mnutes. Then add most of the coriander and stir through. At this point you can leave it to simmer at a very low temp until you are ready to eat it.
5) Serve garnished with the rest of the coriander and rice.
Roasted Aubergine Curry
4 servings.
2 large aubergine (eggplants)
2 TBSP oil (more or less)
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 TBSP fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 fresh red chili, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt
14 ounce can diced tomatoes, or 2 cups fresh tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 cup frozen peas, optional
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms, quartered, optional
1) Apply about 1 TBSP of oil to the skins of the whole eggplants by rubbing it in with your hands. Prick the sides with a fork. Place in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. When the aubergine is soft, it's done. Take it out and let it cool somewhat.
2) While the aubergine is cooling, heat the remaining TBSP of oil and add the black mustard seeds. Leave them for a minute or two until they start to sputter. Then add the chopped onion, garlic and chili pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the onion is soft. Add the ginger, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne and salt and stir through, allowing it to cook with the onions for another 2 or 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes.
3) While the tomatoes are simmering, return to the eggplant which is now cooled enough that you can handle it. Cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Discard the skin (and therefore 1 TBSP of the oil. Neat, eh?). Mash the flesh as best you can.
4) When the tomatoes have simmered for a while, add the aubergine mash and, if you are using the mushrooms and/or peas, add them now, too. Mix well. Reduce heat and cook for about 20 mnutes. Then add most of the coriander and stir through. At this point you can leave it to simmer at a very low temp until you are ready to eat it.
5) Serve garnished with the rest of the coriander and rice.
Friday, August 8, 2008
The Bride makes Walnut and Cherry Liqueurs
The Bride, following in Vivi's footsteps, has made two kinds of walnut liqueur. (Thanks for sending me the walnuts, Vivi and Girl child). The middle jar and the righthand jar are Vin de Noix and Nocino, respectively. I actually used the other recipe for the Vin de Noix, the one Vivi didn't use. It calls for 'bitter orange peel'. I'm working on getting it, but I just went ahead and made it without. And the Nocino on the far right - look how dark it has gotten. It started out clear with lovely green walnut quarters floating in it. I only made 1/2 recipe of each, because that's how many walnuts I had. If it's good, I'll have to get Vivi to send me more next summer.
The 2 gallon jar on the far left is Vin de Cerise, made from a recipe in the same French cookbook as the Vin de Noix recipe I used. This one we've made before and I love it. I highly recommend trying this while the cherries are available. I made the full 3 liters, but you could make less.
Vin de Cerise
3 liters of red or rose wine
1 kilo of black cherries
1/2 litre of vodka or eau de vie
500 grams of sugar
Crush the cherries (I put them in a strong plastic zip lock bag and smashed them with a flat meat tenderizer.) Leave the pits in place - much of the flavor comes from the pits. Put everything in a large jar. Mine is 2 gallons. Swirl the contents around every day for 15 days of maceration. After that, filter and put in bottles and let sit a little longer. The cherries that you filter out are really good with ice cream, once you pick the pits out.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Raspberry Cranachan (for Vivi from The Bride)
Raspberry Cranachan
This recipe is easy to make and full of flavor. You can use any soft fruit you happen to have. You can also adapt it as a breakfast dish, leaving out the whisky and substituting yogurt for part of the cream
3/4 cup oatmeal (not instant oatmeal)
1 pint raspberries
2 1/2 cups whipping cream
4 TBSP runny honey (a few seconds in the microwave will make it runny enough)
4 TBSP malt whiskey
Scatter the oatmeal on a baking tray and toast in a low oven or under a medium grill until golden. Watch it closely or it may burn.
Blend 50 grams of the raspberries in a blender until smooth. Whip the cream until stiff, then stir in the honey and whiskey and mix well but do not over-whip. Mix in 50 g of the oatmeal, then carefully fold in the raspberry purée to form a rippled effect.
Spoon the mixture into individual glasses or a serving dish, then scatter the rest of the berries and the remaining oatmeal on top.
This recipe is easy to make and full of flavor. You can use any soft fruit you happen to have. You can also adapt it as a breakfast dish, leaving out the whisky and substituting yogurt for part of the cream
3/4 cup oatmeal (not instant oatmeal)
1 pint raspberries
2 1/2 cups whipping cream
4 TBSP runny honey (a few seconds in the microwave will make it runny enough)
4 TBSP malt whiskey
Scatter the oatmeal on a baking tray and toast in a low oven or under a medium grill until golden. Watch it closely or it may burn.
Blend 50 grams of the raspberries in a blender until smooth. Whip the cream until stiff, then stir in the honey and whiskey and mix well but do not over-whip. Mix in 50 g of the oatmeal, then carefully fold in the raspberry purée to form a rippled effect.
Spoon the mixture into individual glasses or a serving dish, then scatter the rest of the berries and the remaining oatmeal on top.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Walnut Liqueurs
The Bride posted on her own blog, last fall, three recipes for walnut liqueur. It just so happens, we have friends with a huge walnut tree shading the back yard, and they offered us a step-ladder and welcome to as many walnuts as I could carry away (and come back and get more! Please! They drop from the tree, staining laundry on the line below it, attracting squirrels, and destroying tender plants. Not to mention, the dropping walnuts make a picnic in the backyard a chicken-little experience).
So, a couple of days ago, Girl-child and I picked 110 green (unripe) walnuts, more or less (she still occasionally leaves out 14 and 28, and sometimes gets confused at the transition from one decade to the next). We mailed about 30 to the Bride, and pulled out about 40 for me, and the rest will be used by our brother to make walnut oil for use in making his own paints.
Tonight, the children and I pulverized 18 walnuts for Vin de Noix, the recipe from the San Francisco Chronicle by Georgeanne Brennan (see The Bride's blog for details). The recipe calls for 35 green walnuts and 7 bottles of red wine! We don't need that much, so I halved the amounts. I had intended to use entirely local ingredients, to keep the terroire, but accidentally bought a California plonk, ur, I mean, wine, for the vin rouge. I don't think it will destroy the flavors. The photo shows the wine, some of the unpulverized walnuts and the pulverized walnuts soaking in the wine (for 40 days in a cool, dark place). On the first day of the children's school, I will strain and fortify it with sweetened vodka, and then bottle it and set it aside until we're ready to drink it.
Another 25 walnuts were more neatly cut into quarters, and then mixed with sugar, vodka, lemon zest, cloves and a cinnamon stick. It's so pretty! This is for an Italian version of the same liqueur, Nocino. No wine here, just the hard stuff (made in Oregon, too!). This bottle is supposed to sit in the sun, not in a cool, dark chat-bouton, for 60 days, at which point I will strain and decant it. This should be ready at the autumn equinox.
I'm eager to taste both of these. The walnuts have an unusual tart scent; the cutting board is stained yellow-green, but my fingers, from handling the pieces, are stained a beautiful dark brown, getting darker over the last hour. I would never have guessed that walnut stain comes from the green walnuts, not the ripe ones.
So, a couple of days ago, Girl-child and I picked 110 green (unripe) walnuts, more or less (she still occasionally leaves out 14 and 28, and sometimes gets confused at the transition from one decade to the next). We mailed about 30 to the Bride, and pulled out about 40 for me, and the rest will be used by our brother to make walnut oil for use in making his own paints.
Tonight, the children and I pulverized 18 walnuts for Vin de Noix, the recipe from the San Francisco Chronicle by Georgeanne Brennan (see The Bride's blog for details). The recipe calls for 35 green walnuts and 7 bottles of red wine! We don't need that much, so I halved the amounts. I had intended to use entirely local ingredients, to keep the terroire, but accidentally bought a California plonk, ur, I mean, wine, for the vin rouge. I don't think it will destroy the flavors. The photo shows the wine, some of the unpulverized walnuts and the pulverized walnuts soaking in the wine (for 40 days in a cool, dark place). On the first day of the children's school, I will strain and fortify it with sweetened vodka, and then bottle it and set it aside until we're ready to drink it.
Another 25 walnuts were more neatly cut into quarters, and then mixed with sugar, vodka, lemon zest, cloves and a cinnamon stick. It's so pretty! This is for an Italian version of the same liqueur, Nocino. No wine here, just the hard stuff (made in Oregon, too!). This bottle is supposed to sit in the sun, not in a cool, dark chat-bouton, for 60 days, at which point I will strain and decant it. This should be ready at the autumn equinox.I'm eager to taste both of these. The walnuts have an unusual tart scent; the cutting board is stained yellow-green, but my fingers, from handling the pieces, are stained a beautiful dark brown, getting darker over the last hour. I would never have guessed that walnut stain comes from the green walnuts, not the ripe ones.
What The Bride is doing with the home made ricotta
With the home made ricotta I made this afternoon, I am making the following pasta. I'm going to use a whole wheat pasta for health, but since I used whole milk and cream for the ricotta it's probably futile. I'm serving it with a sliced tomato salad with a garlicky dressing, and green beans from Appleton Farm.
Lemony Ricotta Pasta with Basil
from Apartment Therapy, the Kitchen blog
Serves 6
1 lb good quality pasta in a short twisted shape such as gemelli or penne
2 cups of home made ricotta (or a 15 ounce package of good store bought ricotta)
1 cup freshly grated good quality Parmesan
2 TBSP olive oil
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil, sliced thing as in a chiffonade.
Set a pot of water to boil. When it boils add a few teaspoons of salt and the pasta.
Stack the basil leaves and Roll them into a tube, then cut very thinly into strips. Put aside until the end.
In a metal bowl wide enough to fit over the top of the pasta pot, mix together the remaining ingredients. excluding the basil.
When about 2 minutes remain in the pasta cooking time, put the bowl over the pot and slowly stir the ricotta and other ingredients. You will see it loosening as you stir. When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain it and add the basil to the bowl of sauce and toss with the pasta.
Because this recipe is so simple, everything depends on using the best quality, fresh ingredients.
Yum.
Lemony Ricotta Pasta with Basil
from Apartment Therapy, the Kitchen blog
Serves 6
1 lb good quality pasta in a short twisted shape such as gemelli or penne
2 cups of home made ricotta (or a 15 ounce package of good store bought ricotta)
1 cup freshly grated good quality Parmesan
2 TBSP olive oil
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil, sliced thing as in a chiffonade.
Set a pot of water to boil. When it boils add a few teaspoons of salt and the pasta.
Stack the basil leaves and Roll them into a tube, then cut very thinly into strips. Put aside until the end.
In a metal bowl wide enough to fit over the top of the pasta pot, mix together the remaining ingredients. excluding the basil.
When about 2 minutes remain in the pasta cooking time, put the bowl over the pot and slowly stir the ricotta and other ingredients. You will see it loosening as you stir. When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain it and add the basil to the bowl of sauce and toss with the pasta.
Because this recipe is so simple, everything depends on using the best quality, fresh ingredients.
Yum.
Home Made Ricotta from The Bride
Also not a Cordon Bleu recipe, but good, while we are trying to figure out what to do with this blog.
Home Made Ricotta
2 quarts whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3 TBSP fresh lemon juice
Bring the milk, cream, and salt to a rolling boil over medium heat, stirring frequently so it doesn't burn. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil over. When it is boiling, add the fresh lemon juice and reduce heat to low. Stir constantly until it curdles - 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
Pour into fine cheesecloth or a linen dish towel draped over a colander or sieve. Leave for 1 hour, until the liquid has drained out. Longer if you want it firmer. Store in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Makes about 1 quart of cheese, depending on how long you actually leave it to drain.
Home Made Ricotta
2 quarts whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3 TBSP fresh lemon juice
Bring the milk, cream, and salt to a rolling boil over medium heat, stirring frequently so it doesn't burn. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil over. When it is boiling, add the fresh lemon juice and reduce heat to low. Stir constantly until it curdles - 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
Pour into fine cheesecloth or a linen dish towel draped over a colander or sieve. Leave for 1 hour, until the liquid has drained out. Longer if you want it firmer. Store in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Makes about 1 quart of cheese, depending on how long you actually leave it to drain.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Marlene's Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam
5 cups cut-up rhubarb
4 cups sugar
Stir. Let sit over night. Bring to boil, add 1 small package of strawberry jello and grated rind of one orange.
This is good, really really good.
(from Mom, Marlene's sister-in-law)
This is not in any way a Cordon Bleu recipe, as it involves only one pan and one bowl, does not go into great detail (or, to be specific, any detail) about what to do with the jam (i.e., processing it). Also, I doubt Cordon Bleu depends on jello or artificial flavoring.
However, it is really, really, good. And very easy to make.
4 cups sugar
Stir. Let sit over night. Bring to boil, add 1 small package of strawberry jello and grated rind of one orange.
This is good, really really good.
(from Mom, Marlene's sister-in-law)
This is not in any way a Cordon Bleu recipe, as it involves only one pan and one bowl, does not go into great detail (or, to be specific, any detail) about what to do with the jam (i.e., processing it). Also, I doubt Cordon Bleu depends on jello or artificial flavoring.
However, it is really, really, good. And very easy to make.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Desultory Cordon Bleu from Vivi
Over the last couple of weeks, we've slacked off a lot on Cordon Bleu, for a number of reasons. One of the household is formally On A Diet (and others of us are informally following suit because we really need to anyway). Money is tight, this tax month, and Cordon Bleu meals tend to be pricey. And I haven't been that interested in cooking (I've had a cold), nor in the meals as presented.
However, we have done some. I made a cheese soufflé a week ago Saturday, that was quite tasty. I've never made one before, and it was both surprisingly easy, and fun to watch bake.
(through the oven door, Before....and After)
And it was very tasty. I used the called-for cheese, a Conté, basically a French Swiss cheese (with no holes), which I got at Trader Joe's for cheap. Stinky, but very nice melted with a lot of eggs.
Then, on Wednesday this week, I made the dessert for Lesson 16 (for which I have not made the other dishes), Pêches, Poires, et Pruneaux au Vin Rouge (Poached Fruit in Red Wine). I used pears and prunes, as called for (but no peaches, as they are out of season, and you can't even get them from Mexico -- which of course, we wouldn't do anyway, for environmental reasons). It calls for madeleines alongside, which I was excited about, because I've never had madeleines.
I really ought to read more of Proust before I try writing a send-up. By "more" I mean "any".
I actually did first experience this dish at our aunt's house, but I can't remember anything at all about the meal or the visit, except that we had pears poached in red wine. I had never eaten anything so sophisticated. To be honest, I remember more delight in being treated as a grown-up than in the flavor combination -- the pears were fruit after all, not chocolate or ice cream, and the wine tasted very, well, winey -- I didn't drink wine in those days, and certainly didn't like red wine. But, my, I felt urbane, eating that dessert.
My tastes have changed dramatically. Everyone quite liked the pears (not the children -- the pears and prunes are fruit after all, not chocolate or ice cream, which they chose instead). I used, I fear, the cheapest Shiraz from Australia that I could find, not the Burgundy called for, but it didn't seem to make a difference. And I forgot entirely to serve the madeleines! (which I had purchased, not made.) I want to make the dish again, if only to get those literary cookies on the table.
For those without the recipe, it's essentially a bottle of red wine, 10 oz. red currant jelly (no sugar), 12 peppercorns, and a cinnamon stick. Let it boil for 5 minutes, then poach the peeled and cored fruit (6 pears and 6 peaches, and 24 prunes) for 15 minutes. Let the whole mixture cool together, and serve. They have you soak the prunes in water for 20 minutes ahead of time, but I had purchased fresh, soft prunes, and after 5 minutes they were half dissolved.
(By the way, they are now called not prunes, but dried plums, as Baby Boomers hope to differentiate their middle age digestive issues from those of their parents').
We will have a guest for dinner on Sunday, so it will be another Cordon Bleu day. I haven't yet decided whether to cook from Lesson 16 (Carrot Soup and Breaded Veal Scallops -- I'll use Eggplant -- with Milanaise Sauce and Spaghetti), or Lesson 17 (Duck Breasts with Pears). If I do the former, we could have the Poached Pears again (this time remembering the madeleines). Otherwise, it will be Pots de Crème (and it's hard to bypass Pots de Crème, particularly when they are vanilla, chocolate and coffee flavored. It's not a fruit dessert, after all).
However, we have done some. I made a cheese soufflé a week ago Saturday, that was quite tasty. I've never made one before, and it was both surprisingly easy, and fun to watch bake.
(through the oven door, Before....and After)
And it was very tasty. I used the called-for cheese, a Conté, basically a French Swiss cheese (with no holes), which I got at Trader Joe's for cheap. Stinky, but very nice melted with a lot of eggs.
Then, on Wednesday this week, I made the dessert for Lesson 16 (for which I have not made the other dishes), Pêches, Poires, et Pruneaux au Vin Rouge (Poached Fruit in Red Wine). I used pears and prunes, as called for (but no peaches, as they are out of season, and you can't even get them from Mexico -- which of course, we wouldn't do anyway, for environmental reasons). It calls for madeleines alongside, which I was excited about, because I've never had madeleines.
Every time I encounter Pears poached in Red Wine, something about them, perhaps the spicy, sweet-sharp scent of the dark syrup, reminds me of Mother Bleu's eldest sister. She served them for dessert once, for Mother Bleu and me. I was a callow girl in her mid-20's, unworldly, still full of hopes and dreams not yet set adrift by so-called "polish" or refinement.
I really ought to read more of Proust before I try writing a send-up. By "more" I mean "any".
I actually did first experience this dish at our aunt's house, but I can't remember anything at all about the meal or the visit, except that we had pears poached in red wine. I had never eaten anything so sophisticated. To be honest, I remember more delight in being treated as a grown-up than in the flavor combination -- the pears were fruit after all, not chocolate or ice cream, and the wine tasted very, well, winey -- I didn't drink wine in those days, and certainly didn't like red wine. But, my, I felt urbane, eating that dessert.
My tastes have changed dramatically. Everyone quite liked the pears (not the children -- the pears and prunes are fruit after all, not chocolate or ice cream, which they chose instead). I used, I fear, the cheapest Shiraz from Australia that I could find, not the Burgundy called for, but it didn't seem to make a difference. And I forgot entirely to serve the madeleines! (which I had purchased, not made.) I want to make the dish again, if only to get those literary cookies on the table.
For those without the recipe, it's essentially a bottle of red wine, 10 oz. red currant jelly (no sugar), 12 peppercorns, and a cinnamon stick. Let it boil for 5 minutes, then poach the peeled and cored fruit (6 pears and 6 peaches, and 24 prunes) for 15 minutes. Let the whole mixture cool together, and serve. They have you soak the prunes in water for 20 minutes ahead of time, but I had purchased fresh, soft prunes, and after 5 minutes they were half dissolved.
(By the way, they are now called not prunes, but dried plums, as Baby Boomers hope to differentiate their middle age digestive issues from those of their parents').
We will have a guest for dinner on Sunday, so it will be another Cordon Bleu day. I haven't yet decided whether to cook from Lesson 16 (Carrot Soup and Breaded Veal Scallops -- I'll use Eggplant -- with Milanaise Sauce and Spaghetti), or Lesson 17 (Duck Breasts with Pears). If I do the former, we could have the Poached Pears again (this time remembering the madeleines). Otherwise, it will be Pots de Crème (and it's hard to bypass Pots de Crème, particularly when they are vanilla, chocolate and coffee flavored. It's not a fruit dessert, after all).
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
How to fix sauces that 'break'
A while back, we had problems with a sauce 'breaking' and kind of had to fudge the results. I've just learned what to do when your sauce breaks, so I thought I'd post it here. This is from Apartment Therapy - The Kitchen blog.
If your sauce is just starting to break, little droplets of fat will start to form around the edges of the bowl. When you see this, hold off adding more fat for the moment and add a little liquid instead. Use a teaspoon or two of whatever liquid you've used as a base (like water, wine, vinegar) and whisk vigorously. The sauce should tighten up in a few seconds and the fat droplets will get suspended back into the emulsion. If the sauce isn't thick enough yet, you can pick back up with adding the fat one teaspoon at a time.
If your sauce has broken completely, the fat and liquid have separated and the sauce will look grainy and thin. To save this one, you need to take a few extra steps. In a separate bowl, whisk together one egg yolk and a teaspoon of whatever liquid you've been using as a base. Whisking constantly, add the broken sauce to this egg yolk one teaspoon at a time. This will form a fresh emulsion and a new stable sauce. If you're making a warm sauce and the eggs start to cook, unfortunately there's not a lot you can do to save it. If you're down to your last egg or stick of butter, you can strain out the curdled egg and begin a new sauce using a fresh egg and the old sauce as we describe above.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Spring Doldrums?
Very little activity on HotDish recently. I haven't had time to update the menu to the next lesson (which is Cheese Souffle, Poached Salmon Trout and a Clafouti made with Cherries). The menu is rather high in eggs, as usual, and because it was Easter Weekend, we were already rather overrun with egg dishes of other sorts, so we've put it off a week.
Instead we had a good old traditional meal -- for Thanksgiving, that is: turkey and stuffing, roasted vegetables, salad, with coconut cream pie for dessert. I used the Cordon Bleu method for cooking the turkey, turning it every 30 minutes, and it was a splendid bird. I also sort of roasted the veggies a la Cordon Bleu, except I refused to pre-cook everything (which I should have done, because in the end we had to hold dinner 15 minutes for them to finish).
Instead we had a good old traditional meal -- for Thanksgiving, that is: turkey and stuffing, roasted vegetables, salad, with coconut cream pie for dessert. I used the Cordon Bleu method for cooking the turkey, turning it every 30 minutes, and it was a splendid bird. I also sort of roasted the veggies a la Cordon Bleu, except I refused to pre-cook everything (which I should have done, because in the end we had to hold dinner 15 minutes for them to finish).
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Ne pas Cordon Bleu -- Cordon Au'Vert!
A day late and a dollar short, but here's my entry for the St. Patrick's day feast we ate last night. Green beer, corned beef and boiled veggies, with homemade Irish Currant Loaf with lots o' butter on the side. (I don't know why the recipe for the bread isn't called Irish Soda Bread, because it's identical, aside from being half whole-wheat, and not calling for the optional caraway seeds.)
And a moment of silence in memory of Father Bleu, who would have turned 85 today.
And a moment of silence in memory of Father Bleu, who would have turned 85 today.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Not-Quite Real-time Cordon Bleu blogging by Vivi
Saturday night
I started Lesson #14 Saturday night after finishing dinner and dishes. I couldn't find any candied orange peel (for the orange ice cream) at the store, so I decided to make my own. I hadn't looked very hard -- I remember Blithe making candied citrus peel (was it grapefruit or orange?) in married student housing in St. Anthony Park, back in The Day. I also started the old-fashioned No-Knead Bread, (since my copy of the infamous Artisan Breads in 5 Dollars a Day hasn't come in from the library yet) so I had to get that stirred together 18 hours before second rise.
Sunday morning
This morning I completed the candied orange peel, which then required to air-dry for an hour (end of Joy of Cooking recipe) and then to macerate in Cointreau for another hour (beginning of the Cordon Bleu recipe -- I used my homemade 44 instead of Cointreau). Then I took a break from Cordon Bleu and made Breakfast Burritos for the gang who go out to play soccer at 8:30 a.m. every Sunday (from a recipe in The Week magazine).
Sunday afternoon
Half the afternoon was spent badgering, urr, encouraging Boy-Child to write up his Science Fair project.
The other half seemed to go to making the Orange Ice Cream. First the base, which was egg yolks, sugar, and hand-squeezed orange juice (no diary in this ice "cream"). Then the chilling of the base. Then the freezing in the ice cream making machine (which has a place of honor on a drop-down shelf built by the resident Bleus Brother, outside the back door). Then the continued chilling of the thickened ice cream in the freezer.
And then the pureeing of the strawberries for the sauce. I used frozen (the fresh are hit -- bullseye hit -- or miss, these days). The recipe calls for something like 1 cup of confectioner's sugar with the puree, but remembering that Cordon Bleu is often too sweet for my taste, I used perhaps 1/4 of that (after ascertaining that the puree did need some sweetening). And It Was Good.
As early afternoon slid into late afternoon, I baked the No-Knead Bread and started on the main dishes for dinner.
Late afternoon, early evening
I'm still not having much luck with mussels. The Coquilles Saint Jacques Dieppoise was supposed to be mussels, shrimp and scallops -- but I discovered that the stink in the fridge was that every single one of my mussels were dead by the time I went to cook them. I bought them only yesterday, but I guess Fred Meyer is not the place to buy mussels. (Also, they were picked up early in my shopping run, and they may simply have gotten too warm while I finished my purchases. I feel badly for all those wasted little lives.) In the end, the dish was good, but I think it would have been better with the mussels -- the sauce (in Lesson #6) of mussels, shallots, butter, wine and parsley was amazing.
However, the Foie de Veau (or in my case, Pork Loin Chops) was delicious, and quite easy to make (relatively speaking). It is sautéed meat, with a sauce of the drippings in the pan seared with apple cider vinegar and beef broth (supposed to be veal stock, but you take what you can get). On the side, roasted potatoes and apples. Really really good potatoes and apples, and the meat was delicious, too. I fried up one slice of calf's liver, to try. We all dutifully tasted it (including, surprisingly Girl-Child, who hated it, but at least she tried), and gratefully returned to the pork. The sauce was perfect with the dark flavor of the liver, but you have to really like liver (which I don't).
The Porc au Vinaigre et aux Deux Pommes gets very high marks from the whole household, on a par with our very favorites, the Truite Amandine and the Fish Cassoulet.
Sunday night
We finished off with the ice cream, in its pool of strawberry sauce. It didn't entirely freeze hard, but even in softserve format it worked particularly well. I do not as a rule care for fruit ice creams, yet I went back for seconds, and even for thirds, and now am doubting I will ever fit into a nice dress for Daughter-of-The-Bride's wedding in only 2.5 months.
We think this dessert would be especially good in deep summer, when it's very hot outside -- on one of those days when we take hours to drift through dinner, and drink a whole pitcher of Sangria between us.
I started Lesson #14 Saturday night after finishing dinner and dishes. I couldn't find any candied orange peel (for the orange ice cream) at the store, so I decided to make my own. I hadn't looked very hard -- I remember Blithe making candied citrus peel (was it grapefruit or orange?) in married student housing in St. Anthony Park, back in The Day. I also started the old-fashioned No-Knead Bread, (since my copy of the infamous Artisan Breads in 5 Dollars a Day hasn't come in from the library yet) so I had to get that stirred together 18 hours before second rise.
Sunday morning
This morning I completed the candied orange peel, which then required to air-dry for an hour (end of Joy of Cooking recipe) and then to macerate in Cointreau for another hour (beginning of the Cordon Bleu recipe -- I used my homemade 44 instead of Cointreau). Then I took a break from Cordon Bleu and made Breakfast Burritos for the gang who go out to play soccer at 8:30 a.m. every Sunday (from a recipe in The Week magazine).Sunday afternoon
Half the afternoon was spent badgering, urr, encouraging Boy-Child to write up his Science Fair project.
The other half seemed to go to making the Orange Ice Cream. First the base, which was egg yolks, sugar, and hand-squeezed orange juice (no diary in this ice "cream"). Then the chilling of the base. Then the freezing in the ice cream making machine (which has a place of honor on a drop-down shelf built by the resident Bleus Brother, outside the back door). Then the continued chilling of the thickened ice cream in the freezer.And then the pureeing of the strawberries for the sauce. I used frozen (the fresh are hit -- bullseye hit -- or miss, these days). The recipe calls for something like 1 cup of confectioner's sugar with the puree, but remembering that Cordon Bleu is often too sweet for my taste, I used perhaps 1/4 of that (after ascertaining that the puree did need some sweetening). And It Was Good.
As early afternoon slid into late afternoon, I baked the No-Knead Bread and started on the main dishes for dinner.Late afternoon, early evening
I'm still not having much luck with mussels. The Coquilles Saint Jacques Dieppoise was supposed to be mussels, shrimp and scallops -- but I discovered that the stink in the fridge was that every single one of my mussels were dead by the time I went to cook them. I bought them only yesterday, but I guess Fred Meyer is not the place to buy mussels. (Also, they were picked up early in my shopping run, and they may simply have gotten too warm while I finished my purchases. I feel badly for all those wasted little lives.) In the end, the dish was good, but I think it would have been better with the mussels -- the sauce (in Lesson #6) of mussels, shallots, butter, wine and parsley was amazing.
However, the Foie de Veau (or in my case, Pork Loin Chops) was delicious, and quite easy to make (relatively speaking). It is sautéed meat, with a sauce of the drippings in the pan seared with apple cider vinegar and beef broth (supposed to be veal stock, but you take what you can get). On the side, roasted potatoes and apples. Really really good potatoes and apples, and the meat was delicious, too. I fried up one slice of calf's liver, to try. We all dutifully tasted it (including, surprisingly Girl-Child, who hated it, but at least she tried), and gratefully returned to the pork. The sauce was perfect with the dark flavor of the liver, but you have to really like liver (which I don't).The Porc au Vinaigre et aux Deux Pommes gets very high marks from the whole household, on a par with our very favorites, the Truite Amandine and the Fish Cassoulet.
Sunday night
We finished off with the ice cream, in its pool of strawberry sauce. It didn't entirely freeze hard, but even in softserve format it worked particularly well. I do not as a rule care for fruit ice creams, yet I went back for seconds, and even for thirds, and now am doubting I will ever fit into a nice dress for Daughter-of-The-Bride's wedding in only 2.5 months.We think this dessert would be especially good in deep summer, when it's very hot outside -- on one of those days when we take hours to drift through dinner, and drink a whole pitcher of Sangria between us.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Back on track?
Yo, mes soeurs! Are we back on track for this weekend?
Frankly, I'm not so sure about the Foie de Veau -- intrigued, but I expect in this household, a main dish of calf's liver for 6 will have, after everyone has eaten their fill, about 5.5 servings left over. I am thinking of cooking one calf's liver (beef liver, actually) this way in a small side pan, and substituting another meat for the rest of it. Perhaps pork chops (I know, it seems a travesty, but the flavors would probably go together nicely) or maybe pork tenderloin?
But the starter and dessert sounds good! The meal needs a veg and a starch, from my point of view, too. Easy enough.
Any thoughts?
Frankly, I'm not so sure about the Foie de Veau -- intrigued, but I expect in this household, a main dish of calf's liver for 6 will have, after everyone has eaten their fill, about 5.5 servings left over. I am thinking of cooking one calf's liver (beef liver, actually) this way in a small side pan, and substituting another meat for the rest of it. Perhaps pork chops (I know, it seems a travesty, but the flavors would probably go together nicely) or maybe pork tenderloin?
But the starter and dessert sounds good! The meal needs a veg and a starch, from my point of view, too. Easy enough.
Any thoughts?
Monday, March 3, 2008
Irritably Crediting Cordon Bleu with Taste
Perhaps the primary lesson I appear to have learned so far from cooking the Cordon Bleu, is how bad food can taste when it's poorly cooked, or cheap. I am now halfway through my trip away, in a small town. I would expect that a small town would have one good restaurant, but I haven't found it yet. The recommended seafood restaurant used frozen vegetables in its seafood wine sauté, and the wine was cheap and the seafood may have been frozen too. I don't think I could have told before that the food needed something. Another's fish fry had bland batter and too much of it. I bought some locally cooked sandwich bread and have been eating in my room but the bread has as much taste as cardboard. The canned soup I'm eating lacks that extra dimension in the broth.
I have just this evening learned of an apparently superior Mexican restaurant in town. I will try that tomorrow.
How will I stay down on the farm, now that I've tasted Paris?
I have just this evening learned of an apparently superior Mexican restaurant in town. I will try that tomorrow.
How will I stay down on the farm, now that I've tasted Paris?
Monday, February 25, 2008
Hiatus on Cordon Bleu?
I will be away for the next two Sundays (and chose to pack and watch the Oscars this Sunday rather than cook). Will you sisters be proceeding forward or catching up and re-visiting favorites in the meantime?
I'll be back and ready to cook on March 16 -- although I may substitute an entirely different main dish for the Calves Liver (due for Menu 14). I believe I will face a mutiny if I serve Calves Liver to this household.
We haven't written Cordon Bleu poetry for a long time. Perhaps we could blog some for the next couple of weeks.
I'll be back and ready to cook on March 16 -- although I may substitute an entirely different main dish for the Calves Liver (due for Menu 14). I believe I will face a mutiny if I serve Calves Liver to this household.
We haven't written Cordon Bleu poetry for a long time. Perhaps we could blog some for the next couple of weeks.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Vivi briefly mentions Lesson #13
Really quick -- a week ago, I made the Duck with Garlic, Tomatoes and Olives. It is very easy, and very tasty. Note that the recipe serves 4, not 6, as every other recipe in the book does. (We invited RJ over, and the meat was a little stretched. We had no leftovers.)I was disappointed before cooking the dish, because I prefer sweet sauces with duck, and this is not. But even so, this was really good, and I want to make it again. We had lots of sauce left over, which I couldn't figure out how to use, so I recommend serving it with rice or noodles. We ate it with a loaf of half-whole wheat No-Knead Bread, which was quite good for soaking up sauce.
I skipped the Marinated Sea Bream with Fresh Dill, and served cheese (some gruyere, some stilton with apricots, and some other that was on hand) and another packet of the gravlax I made and froze last September.
Instead of the Crêpes with Red Currant Jelly (which I will make in future), I finally made the Riz à l'Imperatrice (or Empress Rice Pudding), according to the directions in Lesson #12. Cook rice in water briefly; cook it the rest of the way in milk. Macerate dried fruit in kirsch. Make a crème anglaise, add gelatin and whipped cream to make a bavarian cream. Fold the cooked, cooled rice, the macerated fruit, and the bavarian cream together, slop into a charlotte pan and chill.
But you're not done yet. Melt red currant jelly, add gelatin, and then pour it over the unmolded pudding, and let chill some more before serving.
My bavarian cream wasn't setting, so I folded everything together and put in the charlotte pan anyway. This meant (I reverse-engineered later) that the rice sank to the bottom, leaving a 2-inch layer of simple bavarian cream at the top of the pan.
That meant that when I unmolded it, the heavier rice part squashed down the lighter cream, making the pudding into kind of a turban shape (the Texan said it was a crown, thank you).
It is very rich, and the red currant jelly adds something to the flavor, offsetting the rich blandness with a slight sharp crispness. Still, I think I like my rice pudding the old-fashioned, just-cook-rice-in-milk way. Others (Girl-Child, resident Brother) loved it.
Note about the fruit. The recipe calls for "candied fruit", and I just don't think that means the candied orange peels, crystalized citron, and alien-green-colored cherries and pineapple that we find here. I spent some effort trying to find the sorts of candied fruit that we saw in southern France, (photo taken at the Nice Old City Market in 2004) but to no avail. In the end, I used a mixture of raisins, currants and chopped apricots. I love raisins in rice pudding usually, but this blend didn't work. The apricots and raisins essentially melted, the currants didn't soften despite hours in kirsch and then pudding.Next time someone I know goes to France, I'm requesting they buy me a small packet of candied fruit, and I'll try making (my own version of) rice pudding with them. nudge nudge wink wink
Sunday, February 17, 2008
The Bride Makes Jelly Smiles
Not Cordon Bleu, but fun. Start by halving 4 or 5 blood oranges and squeezing out 3/4 cups of juice or thereabouts. Then with the edge of a spoon, scrape out the insides of the halves down to the white and set the on a tray. Do try not to damage the shells too much, as you will need them.
In a bowl, put one package of unflavored gelatin in 1/4 cup of cold water for a minute. Heat the orange juice until nearly boiling and add sugar or honey to taste, if needed. Mix the juice into the gelatin, then fill as many of the orange halves as you can. I filled 5. It's OK if they don't fill to the top exactly, they can be trimmed later.
Chill for 3 hours, then slice into smiles.
Recipe from Apartment Therapy the kitchen, online
Friday, February 15, 2008
Roast Chicken Redux (The Bride)
In Menu 1 we roasted a chicken. The recipe is almost the same as the way I always cooked chicken, except that the chicken was trussed and cooked in a small baking pan, and turned every 20 minutes. OH, and I always used a lemon, but the CB recipe had thyme.
Ever since then, I've trussed every chicken I've roasted - just for practice. Last night I followed the menu #1 recipe exactly. It was so easy this time - I hardly had to look at the book. I'm getting to be an old hand at trussing.
Next time I'm going to use thyme AND lemon. That should be nice. And I like the lemon-y goodness in the reduced juice at the end.
I bought a pineapple today and I'm going to make the pineapple sorbet from an early menu over the weekend. I may not hollow out the pineapple this time, though.
Ever since then, I've trussed every chicken I've roasted - just for practice. Last night I followed the menu #1 recipe exactly. It was so easy this time - I hardly had to look at the book. I'm getting to be an old hand at trussing.
Next time I'm going to use thyme AND lemon. That should be nice. And I like the lemon-y goodness in the reduced juice at the end.
I bought a pineapple today and I'm going to make the pineapple sorbet from an early menu over the weekend. I may not hollow out the pineapple this time, though.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Vivi logs in on #12
Not much to say, after the Bride's accurate summation. We quite enjoyed our own version of fricassee (also made with chicken breast -- bone-in halves in our case). We had it with fresh fettucine (purchased, not homemade) which was really tasty. And the usual green salad and an apple salad on the side (and strawberries for the children). Very easy, very flavorful.Why is this dish not a chicken stew? Or is fricassee another word for stew? Oh...Google can help. Look up "define: fricassee" and the many results include:
[French] stew made of chicken or veal cut into pieces and cooked in a gravy. Though chicken is the most common form of this type of stew, fish, vegetables, and other meats are prepared in this manner.
From recipegoldmine.com
and A white stew. From foody.com .
Which sort of applies, too. It's a little too colorful to entirely call "white" but the meat was white.
I haven't made the rice pudding yet, which I am looking forward to doing with the full trimmings, holding back on none of the gazillion steps nor the fat (and curious to see if it tastes any better than our plain ordinary rice pudding). I may put that off until this weekend, however, and make a chocolate heart-shaped Valentine's cake for the week night dessert.Sisters, a suggestion
Vivi and Peaceable - how about if we don't do menu 13 this coming week. Instead, let's use the time to revisit things which we have already done. I'm feeling that I'd like to review some things that either didn't work out, or that we especially liked. And it gives Peaceable some extra time to catch up.
I can't remember exactly when we started, but it was before Thanksgiving, so we've been galloping forward for 3-ish months. It seems like a good time to stop and reassess what we've learned.
Then, we can move forward the next week.
Any thoughts? Any other ideas?
I can't remember exactly when we started, but it was before Thanksgiving, so we've been galloping forward for 3-ish months. It seems like a good time to stop and reassess what we've learned.
Then, we can move forward the next week.
Any thoughts? Any other ideas?
Monday, February 11, 2008
The Bride finds Menu 12 Ho-Hum
No pictures because, frankly, it wasn't that special. I didn't do the Oeufs, used chicken instead of veal and canned broth instead of home-made (tasted great) and made a different, simpler rice pudding (less decorative, but divinely flavored). I served it with whole wheat couscous, not home-made fettucini, which I couldn't have eaten. But the result was, as The Son of COG pointed out, no different than our usual meals.
Therein lies the rub: if I cook the recipes as written, I can't eat them. If I make changes to be more consistent with our diet, they are not special.
I have no idea what to do about this. Does anyone else have any brilliant insights?
The Jacques Pepin rice pudding, was fabulous. Extremely simple to make, amenable to those watching their calorie intake, and delicious. It was, if possible, even easier to prepare than regular rice pudding. Here's the recipe:
Old-Fashioned Rice Pudding with Dried Fruit
4 cups whole or nonfat milk, plus additional milk if needed
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup long-grain white rice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
3/4 cup diced (1/2 inch) dried fruits (raisins, apricots, figs, apples, cranberries, cherries etc.)
3/4 cup yogurt or sour cream (optional)
1) Bring the milk, sugar, vanilla to a boil in a saucepan. Add the rice, mix well, and bring back to the boil. Cover, reduce teh heat to very low, and simmer for about 40 minutes, or until the rice is very soft. The mixture should still be soup at this point; if it is not, stir in enough milk to make it so.
2) Add the lemon rind and dried fruits to the pudding, mix and set aside until it has cooled to room temperature. At this point much of the extra soupiness is absorbed and it's wonderfully creamy.
3) Spoon into four dessert dishes. If desired, top each dessert with 1 or 2 TBSPs of yogurt or sour cream.
Therein lies the rub: if I cook the recipes as written, I can't eat them. If I make changes to be more consistent with our diet, they are not special.
I have no idea what to do about this. Does anyone else have any brilliant insights?
The Jacques Pepin rice pudding, was fabulous. Extremely simple to make, amenable to those watching their calorie intake, and delicious. It was, if possible, even easier to prepare than regular rice pudding. Here's the recipe:
Old-Fashioned Rice Pudding with Dried Fruit
4 cups whole or nonfat milk, plus additional milk if needed
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup long-grain white rice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
3/4 cup diced (1/2 inch) dried fruits (raisins, apricots, figs, apples, cranberries, cherries etc.)
3/4 cup yogurt or sour cream (optional)
1) Bring the milk, sugar, vanilla to a boil in a saucepan. Add the rice, mix well, and bring back to the boil. Cover, reduce teh heat to very low, and simmer for about 40 minutes, or until the rice is very soft. The mixture should still be soup at this point; if it is not, stir in enough milk to make it so.
2) Add the lemon rind and dried fruits to the pudding, mix and set aside until it has cooled to room temperature. At this point much of the extra soupiness is absorbed and it's wonderfully creamy.
3) Spoon into four dessert dishes. If desired, top each dessert with 1 or 2 TBSPs of yogurt or sour cream.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
The Bride looks for a Dunnett link to Cordon Bleu
According to the Cordon Bleu entry in Wikipedia:
"The origin of the school comes from L'Ordre des Chevaliers du Saint Esprit, an elite group of French knights that was created in 1578. Each member was awarded the Cross of the Holy Spirit, which hung from a blue ribbon. According to one story, the group became known for their extravagant and luxurious banquets, known as "cordon bleu." While these dinners ended with the French Revolution, the name remained synonymous with excellent cooking.
At least that's one theory proposed. In 1578 - Lymond would have been.... what? in his 50's? Surely a Marshal of France, even one living in Scotland, would have been dined with them sometime.
"The origin of the school comes from L'Ordre des Chevaliers du Saint Esprit, an elite group of French knights that was created in 1578. Each member was awarded the Cross of the Holy Spirit, which hung from a blue ribbon. According to one story, the group became known for their extravagant and luxurious banquets, known as "cordon bleu." While these dinners ended with the French Revolution, the name remained synonymous with excellent cooking.
At least that's one theory proposed. In 1578 - Lymond would have been.... what? in his 50's? Surely a Marshal of France, even one living in Scotland, would have been dined with them sometime.
Menu 12: The Bride Tinkers with the Menu
Here's my plan: the oeufs are not happening. The veal fricassee is going to be a chicken breast fricassee, with no fat added. And the Empress will not be so happy about the Riz, but she will be thinner. I'm making a Jacque Pepin rice pudding with dried fruit recipe which is more consistent with my diet, but which also sounds very nice and is made in a similar, but much simpler way. I'll post the recipe I'm using later.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Vivi does The Timewarp, and cooks from #22
We had a pork roast in the freezer, which I am trying to clear out. The Longe de Porc des Pruneaux of lesson 22 calls for a loin, and this was a boneless leg, but I figured once a porc always a porc.
It was delicious -- as good as the best fish we've had via Cordon Bleu. You stuff the (supposed-to-be butterflied) pork with fresh prunes. Brown the meat and roast over veggies, as you would roast a chicken. Use the drippings and a curious caramel made with vinegar instead of water to make a sauce, and then serve surrounded by more prunes that you have plumped up with, of all things, Ceylon tea.
I also made the Oeufs Mollets Florentine, sans oeufs, as a side dish. No picture because it wasn't all that beautiful, but it tasted very good. In typical Le Cordon Bleu fashion, the recipe called for boiled spinach which you squeeze dry, then sauté in heaps of butter, and then broil (with the hard-boiled eggs) with Mornay sauce in a buttered pan. Instead, I boiled the spinach, squeezed it, then threw it in a non-stick pan with just enough Mornay sauce to taste great. I think it would be better still if you just steamed the spinach, then served it with the Mornay sauce on the side. You could of course, leave out the Mornay sauce, but then it's just plain cooked spinach and I wouldn't be writing about it. The spinach was a great side dish with the pork.
We also had, for the record, Pommes à l'Anglaise, and an apple salad. And also for the record, my Mornay is too thick, more a dough than a sauce. Something I'll have to work on.
I'm going to make the fricasee tomorrow, using beef instead of veal. And the rice pudding on Wednesday, our next Dessert Night.
For comparison purposes, by the way, here is Boy-child's chosen menu.
It was delicious -- as good as the best fish we've had via Cordon Bleu. You stuff the (supposed-to-be butterflied) pork with fresh prunes. Brown the meat and roast over veggies, as you would roast a chicken. Use the drippings and a curious caramel made with vinegar instead of water to make a sauce, and then serve surrounded by more prunes that you have plumped up with, of all things, Ceylon tea.
I also made the Oeufs Mollets Florentine, sans oeufs, as a side dish. No picture because it wasn't all that beautiful, but it tasted very good. In typical Le Cordon Bleu fashion, the recipe called for boiled spinach which you squeeze dry, then sauté in heaps of butter, and then broil (with the hard-boiled eggs) with Mornay sauce in a buttered pan. Instead, I boiled the spinach, squeezed it, then threw it in a non-stick pan with just enough Mornay sauce to taste great. I think it would be better still if you just steamed the spinach, then served it with the Mornay sauce on the side. You could of course, leave out the Mornay sauce, but then it's just plain cooked spinach and I wouldn't be writing about it. The spinach was a great side dish with the pork.
We also had, for the record, Pommes à l'Anglaise, and an apple salad. And also for the record, my Mornay is too thick, more a dough than a sauce. Something I'll have to work on.
I'm going to make the fricasee tomorrow, using beef instead of veal. And the rice pudding on Wednesday, our next Dessert Night.
For comparison purposes, by the way, here is Boy-child's chosen menu.
Peaceable plugs away and completes #8
I made the onion soup from menu 8 on Friday night, a fairly straight-up recipe. It was pretty, though... well, not so much dull as very delicate. I think the onion needed to be sauteed a bit longer, and we needed better cheese. But the soup had great potential and didn't break the points budget. It was definitely an example of what The Bride observed in an earlier thread--many of these recipes are ways of serving plain foods in fancy ways. Onion, bread, wine, cheese. What could be simpler?Tonight, I made the Truite aux amandes, although, alas, in the end it turned into Truite sans amandes because I remembered the almonds only after we sat down to eat. The little bag of almonds sitting in the ingredients pile next to the butter, parsley and lemons might as well have been left in the shopping cart at Lunds. Oddly, I remembered the slice of lemon. I remembered the parsley garnish. Evidently my subconscious was stunned enough at the prospect of sauting almonds in 10 TBL of butter that it just drew a blank. In addition to forgetting the butter-sauted almonds, I reduced the fat content of the recipe by using butter-flavored canola spray instead of 3 Tbl of butter plus 1 Tbl of oil. I'm sure that the flavor would have been much richer with butter and nuts, but it was good without it too.
Arthritic, hobbled Hobbes was like a cat-possessed. The trout seemed to put a spirit of youth in him. He performed acrobatic feats to reach the counter where I was preparing the trout. When I stood up to get the salt, he moved like a flash and almost got some off my plate.
We served the trout with the pommes à l'Anglaise, roast asparagus and delicious baguette made from "artisan bread in five minutes a day." I had a French white, and Tom had a red.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Returning to Creme Anglaise
In Lesson 12, we make a Crème Anglaise as part of making a Bavarian Cream as part of making a rice pudding. (Typical recipe, I'm learning -- rather than just the tasty rice pudding we know and love, we're going to make it vastly more difficult. I am really looking forward to this dessert, however, and I hope it will taste scrumptious.)
Anyway, Reader Blithe tried an experiment of her own, using the Jamie Oliver recipe. She commented about it after the entry Vivi Gets Back on Her Feet. I'll quote the recipe here, with formatting. I'm going to try this version (with 2% milk) this weekend. (Picture from another blog. That's Jamie O, not Blithe.)
Jamie Oliver's Crème Anglaise (via Blithe)
500ml (2.1 cups) milk (he uses whole but I only had 2%)
565ml (2.39 cups) thick cream (or 2 cups + 6 Tablespoons, or 1.2 pints)
6 Tablespoons of sugar
8 egg yolks.
He infuses the milk, cream and 4T of the sugar with a vanilla pod, then the remaining 2T sugar are whisked with the egg yolks. Then the hot milk is gradually added. The whole mix goes back into the pan and is cooked only briefly (5-10 minutes on low heat). His instructions are to remove it from the heat as soon as it coats the back of a spoon.
Blithe says:
This made a runnier custard than I like but the texture was superb - like thick silk. I poured the leftovers into a jug and that has thickened to what I would call a "normal" custard, still pourable but thick. I also didn't have a vanilla bean so I used 2 teaspoons of natural extract, added just before taking it off the heat.
Anyway, Reader Blithe tried an experiment of her own, using the Jamie Oliver recipe. She commented about it after the entry Vivi Gets Back on Her Feet. I'll quote the recipe here, with formatting. I'm going to try this version (with 2% milk) this weekend. (Picture from another blog. That's Jamie O, not Blithe.)Jamie Oliver's Crème Anglaise (via Blithe)
500ml (2.1 cups) milk (he uses whole but I only had 2%)
565ml (2.39 cups) thick cream (or 2 cups + 6 Tablespoons, or 1.2 pints)
6 Tablespoons of sugar
8 egg yolks.
He infuses the milk, cream and 4T of the sugar with a vanilla pod, then the remaining 2T sugar are whisked with the egg yolks. Then the hot milk is gradually added. The whole mix goes back into the pan and is cooked only briefly (5-10 minutes on low heat). His instructions are to remove it from the heat as soon as it coats the back of a spoon.
Blithe says:
This made a runnier custard than I like but the texture was superb - like thick silk. I poured the leftovers into a jug and that has thickened to what I would call a "normal" custard, still pourable but thick. I also didn't have a vanilla bean so I used 2 teaspoons of natural extract, added just before taking it off the heat.
Vivi swans around Menu 11
Sunday was the Super Bowl. Curiously, the three adult women watched the game. The Brother stuck his head in the room occasionally; Boy-child got excited and bored and ran outside to play his own game of football; and Girl-child, somewhat predictably, preferred her Princess video game to the Match of Champions.We all participated in the Nacho pig-out, however. No Cordon Bleu that night.
I made the vegetables on Saturday, actually. They weren't that difficult (although did use every pan in the house). I only made the leeks, and carrots, and green beans instead than cauliflower. I used canned rather than fresh winter tomatoes, and halved the marinade recipe. The leeks were surprisingly good, and of them all, those are the ones I'd happily make again.
The sole was excellent, as I expected it to be. I have made something like it before, without the extra butter-lemon sauce. I have not completely mastered sauteing at high heat without burning the butter, however. Had to go through two butter melts, and filled the main floor with burnt greasy smoke.
My swans. I don't know why, but they did not puff in cooking -- the pastries in the photo are all about 1.5 inches long (you can see how long and graceful the swan's neck is -- the recipe called for an S shape 2 inches long). Not only were they almost too small to manipulate, they were heavy in texture. I'm sad about this, because the gruyère puffs cooked perfectly, and I had really been looking forward to the playful form of the dish.My chantilly cream was stiff peaks when I beat it, but it softened before I got to the assembly, and the whole thing was a sweet but soupy mess. But the swans, delicate and tiny, were pretty.
So I made two swans only, and turned the rest into éclairs. Because the pastry didn't puff, there was no air holes to squeeze cream into, so I just spread it between pastries and hoped the chocolate would camouflage the mess.Here are the possible reasons the pastry didn't puff: I could not get the dough to the point described: "shiny and the dough slowly drips off the spoon in a point". I added almost the full 4 eggs called for, and finally gave up when it was shiny and the dough slowly dripped off the spoon in a sort of roughly pointy thick glop.
So: too much egg? Not beaten hard enough? Too dry (needed more egg?) Cooked too fast on the stove? (Perhaps the element was too hot.) Or was it that I used insulated cookie sheets, so the heat distributed evenly, when it shouldn't have? Is pàte a choux trickier than I realized, and hard to make on a rainy day with high humidity? Or am I just a bad pastry chef -- I certainly have had some disasters this last month or so.
Lesson 11: Preparing sole, marinated vegetables
Petits Légumes à la Grecque
(Marinated vegetables with lemon and coriander)
Sole Belle Meunière
(Pan-fried sole with nut-brown butter and mushrooms)
Cygnes Chantilly
(Choux pastry swans)
Cooked about Sunday, February 3, 2008
(Marinated vegetables with lemon and coriander)
Sole Belle Meunière
(Pan-fried sole with nut-brown butter and mushrooms)
Cygnes Chantilly
(Choux pastry swans)
Cooked about Sunday, February 3, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
Peaceable cheats on #7
Have you have noticed how very fat-filled these recipes are? Jeez. I calculated the points total for the Pintadeaux and, alone, it used up my entire weeks worth of points. And the profiteroles, so highly recommended, yummy looking, are even worse. I might as well just eat a stick of butter and skip the effort. The dessert? The Strawberry Bavarian cream...mmmmm but pure heavy cream. So tonight I put down my foot and said nuts to Cordon Bleu directions. I just winged it.
Skipped the profiteroles. Later. Skipped the Strawberry bavarian cream for now. Ditto. I'll definitely try both of these for the techniques eventually. But tonight I concentrated on the Pintadeaux au chou. And I cheated on that. I skipped all butter. Skipped the Polish sausage. And I skipped the lardons. Used local cabbage and skipped all the prep.
We would see lardons for sale at the Carmes market. Neat to know that one can make them, those yummy, salty bits of fat, but no, I will never use them. And frankly, the pintade that we bought in France--a wonderful dark meat flavor--is not replicable here. The closest thing to it, I believe, is dark chicken meat. So instead of a whole bird, I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs.
I sauted the onions and carrots in their own juices, added the cabbage, bouquet garni, salt and pepper, etc., and let it simmer for an hour.
While that was simmering, I fried four slices of low-fat bacon and mixed the chicken thighs (8 of them) in the bacon grease, and slathered them with garlic, thyme (overlooked the bay leaf), salt and pepper and roasted them, along with some yam chunks for 1/2 hour.
Then I served up the vegies with the roasted chicken breasts alongside. The vegetarian got a sweet cabbage dish which she ate with a slice of the Breadman's latest loaf. The meat eaters got a flavorful dish that was only 6 points. Okay, so it wasn't Cordon Bleu, but it was tasty.
A note from our administrative sponsor
Hi Sisters -
I'm establishing a new category system, so that we can find old entries more easily and quickly. This seems a little more important now that one of us is out of step with the others (for unblameable reasons, no judgement is intended on my part) so that at a quick glance one might be able to pull all entries about a specific menu together to compare and contrast.
Thus, henceforward, would you label your post with the Menu number (i.e., "Menu #") (or numbers if you refer to more than one menu). And also (because maybe this will become relevant later) the main foodstuff you are writing about. It doesn't have to be exhaustive, just what is the important part of your entry. Also, feel free to add categories as necessary -- for instance, perhaps we need a "veal substitutions" category for the entries about veal vs. beef, pork and chicken.
For example, the Bride's latest entry might be labeled "Menu 11, Sole [or fish?], Choux pastry, Near Death Experience" (for the Geezer and Son, that is).
I will go back and over time amend the past entries so they aren't left out. I welcome any help on that task offered by sisters with a little time on their hands.
I'm establishing a new category system, so that we can find old entries more easily and quickly. This seems a little more important now that one of us is out of step with the others (for unblameable reasons, no judgement is intended on my part) so that at a quick glance one might be able to pull all entries about a specific menu together to compare and contrast.
Thus, henceforward, would you label your post with the Menu number (i.e., "Menu #") (or numbers if you refer to more than one menu). And also (because maybe this will become relevant later) the main foodstuff you are writing about. It doesn't have to be exhaustive, just what is the important part of your entry. Also, feel free to add categories as necessary -- for instance, perhaps we need a "veal substitutions" category for the entries about veal vs. beef, pork and chicken.
For example, the Bride's latest entry might be labeled "Menu 11, Sole [or fish?], Choux pastry, Near Death Experience" (for the Geezer and Son, that is).
I will go back and over time amend the past entries so they aren't left out. I welcome any help on that task offered by sisters with a little time on their hands.
Geezer and Son Strangled with Piping Bag - Details On News at 10
The Bride's Statement to the Police:
OK, I knew it was SuperBowl Sunday and I even thought about doing the Cordon Bleu menu later in the week. But, the Geezer doesn't follow football and The Son of COG, when consulted, said to go ahead with the meal. It sounded good, he said, and we had to 'eat something.' I did not,then, hear the hollow echo of faint enthusiasm in those two words, though I hear it now.
Later, when The Son began to prepare nachos - thereby, interrupting the 2 separate bakings of the two sorts of swan parts - I should have listened to the inner promptings of my heart and stopped. And when he asked that the meal be delayed until 8pm, to give the nachos time to digest, I should really have stopped.
But no, unwisely, I continued. I had completed Legumes a la Grecques (using a Jacques Pepin version of the recipe which was simpler) earlier in the afternoon. But the choux pastry, with the piping and baking and assembly of the several swan parts took a lot longer than you'd think.
In all, I was in the kitchen cooking for about 3 hours (not counting the Legumes). I was alone all that time, except when The Son made his nachos (which were delicious, btw) and a bit later, when the Geezer came in to tell me that he had ordered a new lens for his camera and to express annoyance that dinner was delayed till 8, because he needed to eat sooner. So I agreed to cook a separate meal for him and to prepare the Son's later, as already negotiated. The COG came into the kitchen once more to ask when dinner would be ready and to pour himself a drink. I said under 15 minutes and he left again, with the drink.
I baked the swan parts, let them cool and then cut the bodies and wing bits into the correct order, and, then, cooked the mushrooms and the potatoes before beginning the fish. The preparation of the fish was straight-forward. The fish (which were fillets- couldn't get them whole) cooked quickly and I put plates out for the COG and myself, and called him to dinner. When he didn't come after a few minutes, I sat down and ate by myself.
Just as I was finishing my fish, the Geezer appeared and wondered why I hadn't waited for him. The Geezer ate his cold fish by himself, while I went to prepare and plate The Son's dinner and take it to him in the tv room. And then to finish the swans.
At about 8:15, The Son brought his plate back into the kitchen, explaining that he was too full to eat it and would have it tomorrow for lunch. At this point I was piping whipped cream into the swans and assembling them. The Son asked why I hadn't waited until after 8 as we had agreed, to prepare his meal. I pointed out that it was after 8 and The Son replied that I had actually served him at 7:55.
Continued for a few more minutes to pipe the Damn Swans, then decided it was pointless to continue. I took a picture of my swans (or loch ness monsters) and went to my computer to look upload it. Thereafter, checking my email, I found something the COG had forwarded to me while I was cooking. It was entitled 'The Minimalist Guide to Housework,' from the Zen Habits blog.
After that, everything went black. I have no memory of what I did with the piping bag or what happened to the COG and the Son.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Swans or Loch Ness Monsters - You Decide.
The Bride's Swan Pastries were not a complete success. They look more like little Loch Ness Monsters. But it was fun making them and, with the correct pastry tips, they'd probably look pretty good by the third attempt.
Who invented the recipe for choux pastry? What a weird (though satisfying) recipe.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Lesson 10: Sautés
Crème Vichyssoise
(Chilled Cream of Potato and Leek Soup)
Poulet Sauté Basquaise
(Chicken, Basque Style)
Riz Pilaf
(Rice Pilaf)
Tarte aux Pommes
(Apple Tart)
Cooked about January 27, 2008
(Lesson 9 has been postponed until spring)
(Chilled Cream of Potato and Leek Soup)
Poulet Sauté Basquaise
(Chicken, Basque Style)
Riz Pilaf
(Rice Pilaf)
Tarte aux Pommes
(Apple Tart)
Cooked about January 27, 2008
(Lesson 9 has been postponed until spring)
Soup: Though Vichy is a city in central France, this chilled leek and potato soup is said to be the creation of a French chef working in the United States in the early years of this century. It has since returned to France, where the term vichyssoise is occasionally applied to cold soups in general. At Le Cordon Bleu, only the whites of the leeks are used in making the soup and they are mixed with only a small amount of potato to produce a creamy texture and refreshing taste.
Chicken and Pilaf: Dishes in the Basque style typically contain bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and ham -- and this one is no exception. Basque dishes can also be quite spicy (especially when they are seasoned with a local chili called piment d'espelette instead of pepper). At Le Cordon Bleu, a French version of the classic Turkish pilav (pilaf in French) accompanies the sauté.
Apple Tart: An apple tart can be as simple or as complicated as you like. At home in France, it is often made by layering thin-sliced apples over pie dough, dotting them with butter, sprinkling with sugar, and baking -- that's it. This Cordon Bleu apple tart is slightly more elaborate, but baking the dough blind and giving it an egg glaze before garnishing it ensures that the crust will never be soggy.
Chicken and Pilaf: Dishes in the Basque style typically contain bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and ham -- and this one is no exception. Basque dishes can also be quite spicy (especially when they are seasoned with a local chili called piment d'espelette instead of pepper). At Le Cordon Bleu, a French version of the classic Turkish pilav (pilaf in French) accompanies the sauté.
Apple Tart: An apple tart can be as simple or as complicated as you like. At home in France, it is often made by layering thin-sliced apples over pie dough, dotting them with butter, sprinkling with sugar, and baking -- that's it. This Cordon Bleu apple tart is slightly more elaborate, but baking the dough blind and giving it an egg glaze before garnishing it ensures that the crust will never be soggy.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Just desserts, Peaceable's menu #6
The mussels on Sunday were delicious, but we left the Vanilla Bavarian cream with raspberry coulis for Monday. I had no trouble with the consistency of the cream, the coulis was divine, and we found the combination very tasty.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Vivi Cooks #10 over Two Days
I started with the Vichyssoise and the Apple Tart on Sunday, and cooked the chicken and the rice pilaf for dinner last night. I had expected the soup to be too light for a Sunday meal, so served it with lots of bread and cheese and a salad, but we hardly touched the cheese (though the bread was used for soaking up the remains of the soup).We are a potato-leek soup household, and this version of potato-leek soup was particularly good. I was surprised how much it sticks to your ribs, after pureeing and then sieving out the solids -- of course, the cup of crème fraiche doesn't hurt, for flavor or rib-sticking. I should add that we cheated and ate it warmed, not chilled. It is January, people!
The Apple Tart was also divine, although we philistines added cinnamon over top, and whipped cream. The applesauce filling was a surprise, but very nice. I'd like to try the whole thing with pears (and pear-sauce) or in late summer, with applesauce filling but mixed fruit over top. I'm sure that's the basic operations at the Cordon Bleu.The Chicken, Basque-style was also very tasty. Brother asks at every meal how much work the dish was to make, and takes effort into account alongside flavor. In other words, the Guinea Hen dish, while tasty, was marked down due to the vastly more than usual number of pans and pots to cook, and the hours and tediousness of preparation. This Basque Chicken, however, was really no more difficult than any pan-fried chicken. (Well, aside from the usual Cordon Bleu extra pans and warming plates.)
I really liked the Rice Pilaf, more so apparently than the Bride did. Easy and aromatic. I too made it with brown rice (but ran out, so about 1/3 of the rice was brown Jasmine rice, so perhaps that helped the aromaticity). The recipe called for a huge amount -- I didn't think about that when I was cooking. However, it is plain enough that we can serve the leftovers with other food later this week.
Monday, January 28, 2008
The Bride Triumphs Over Pots and Pans, Menu 10
Why do these recipes take so many dishes and pots and pans? I can't believe the carnage that remains in my kitchen after each meal. And I didn't even attempt the Vichyssoise this time.However, the Poulet Basquaise was really good. It was the kind of meal I often cook, but it was particularly delicious. It also dirtied several pans and platters and left the cooktop (where it spattered) looking horrible.
The rice pilaf was ho-hum on its own, but a pleasant accompaniment. Maybe it would have been better had I used the recommended butter and white rice. Brown rice and a judicious omission of butter from the chicken and rice, made it healthier. I think some saffron might have been a nice addition.
The apple tart was also really delicious - the under layer of applesauce with a bit of vanilla and sugar - added an important depth of flavor without making the crust soggy. It also dirtied yet another pan. I cleaned the cooktop surface before making the apricot glaze (another dirty pan and strainer) for the apple tart, so you see a pristine background for this picture. I will do that method again, despite the extra step of making applesauce, because it was worth the effort.
I used the food processor to make the pastry and to slice the apples evenly. Yah, technology!
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