A hit and a miss for Vivi, Lesson #5

Like the Bride, I cooked Lesson #5 across a couple of meals -- the fish cassoulet one night, and the salad and dessert another night (with a different main dish).

The Hit...
The Cassoulet de Poissons is possibly the best single dish we've had so far (tying with the Roast Chicken, but that is so familiar it almost doesn't count). Superbe! My experience with cooking fish is limited and wary -- I've cooked a lot of salmon, sole and scallops; have been known to experiment with crab, sushimi (if that counts), halibut and cod. I cooked trout caught by notre père in my teens, but nothing since then, and, while I've ordered a few other fish and seafood in restaurants, I've never had monkfish or even heard of whiting. (What little I know about monkfish -- that it is an anglerfish -- gives me the creeps. The anglerfish moment in Finding Nemo was truly terrifying. I don't want to eat anything that looks like that!)

For this recipe, I used Idaho farm-raised Rainbow Trout (whiting -- Merlangius merlangus -- are an Atlantic and Mediterranean fish). Unable to get monkfish (also an Atlantic fish, but I've seen it for sale around here), I used wild-caught Arkansas Catfish. (The fish seller said that the nearest thing to monkfish in flavor and texture is lobster! It's called the "poor man's lobster" in fact. Maybe someday I will have to try it.)

A note about economy: Although whiting is now becoming chi-chi, according to Wikipedia, it used to be considered food for pets. And monkfish, of course, is the poor man's lobster. The point made by The Bride holds -- these are dishes in which the main ingredients are simple and plain, even cheap (in theory, in France - here, the substitutions were trés cher).

The Miss...
I have cooked sponge cake before, and genoise, and angel cake -- I've baked the whole gamut of cakes. This sponge cake was flat, leaden, heavy, lumpy -- all in all, catastrophe. I believe I may have accidentally measured in an extra quarter cup of potato flour, but that doesn't seem to be enough to explain the thickness of the batter -- the yolk-sugar-flour mixture was clumpy (I whipped two extra egg whites to compensate for it, but it made no difference -- I still couldn't fold it all in to be smooth).

Even so, some of the eaters, notably the younger ones, liked the cake and asked for seconds and thirds. I found the flavor to be one-note, and the crème anglaise (unflavored) almost boring.

I froze the second paving tile -- urr, layer -- and plan to use it in a trifle, where the heaviness of it may be masked or even a benefit. The extra crème anglaise was excellent spooned over mincemeat pie, however.




And one hit down the foul line...
As a final note, I made the Summer Salad recipe sort of sideways, using frozen artichokes (in quarters, so they formed a layer under the rest rather than individual "dishes") frozen green beans and plain lettuce rather than endive (not available). Like Peaceable, I couldn't bring myself to slather on all that mayonnaise on the vegies, so I plopped a bunch on the top and served the rest on the side. It looked splendid.

However, we did not think the salad anything particularly special -- it was just a crunchy summer salad, much the style we often eat, but with lots more raw cauliflower (which is not a popular vegetable in the household). We've been eating up the leftovers for lunch with ordinary salad dressing, and the mayonnaise on sandwiches.