Friday, December 18, 2009
Table of Contents
Find out what I'm doing and why I'm doing it on my 9/12/9 blog. A listing of Julia's recipes, inlcuding the page number where they can be found in her cookbook, The Way to Cook, the post date and their 'thumb' is found on the 9/16/9 post. A listing of my recipes and where they can be found is on the 9/26/9 blog. Thanks for tuning in. Bon Appetit.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Pot Roast Wars: Julia vs Kay
Second Wednesdays this month was Julia's Pot Roast. As usual her recipe was majorly fussy requiring a whopping 5 pounds of bottom round, trussing, an herb bouquet and an entire bottle of 'a good red jug'. I didn't mind that last part, but the rest seemed like a lot of extra work.
The first hitch came when I asked the butcher for 5 pounds of bottom round, which was more than anyone had ever ordered before, so he had to go cut it especially for me. I foolishly didn't specify that it needed 1/8 inch of fat, so it came with only the lean. I didn't want to complain, and originally I thought that maybe it would be okay, but eventually I was back at the butcher seeing if I could buy some fat. I couldn't, but they dug some out of I know not where and gave it to me for free. So now there was a reason for the trussing, to tie on the fat.
Then the meat needs to be dried and painted with oil. Then it needs to be broiled so that it is nicely browned all over. Then the onion and carrots have to be chopped and sauted and added to the meat along with that jug of red and an equal amount of beef broth, a cup and a half of tomatoes the herb bouquet which included interestingly, peppercorn, allspice berries, cloves, thyme, garlic, parsley and bay leaf. Finally the entire pot is brought to a boil on the top of the stove and then put in the oven to braise for 2.5 to 3.5 hours with a sheet of aluminum foil over the roast plus a lid on the pan. Begin the braise at 400 degrees and then after 15 minutes reduce the temperature to 325. And even now you are not allowed to sit back on your laurels, now you need to turn that monster every half hour so that a different part of him is exposed and out of the liquid.
And for all of this extra effort do you actually get a superior product? I didn't think so. The end result seemed to me to be a bit dry. That could have been at least in part remedied if there had been plenty of gravy, but there was only 3 cups of gravy, which is a meager amount to serve with 5 pounds of meat.
But Kay's Pot Roast, which I have adapted from a recipe given to me by my good friend Joy McManus, begins with a 2-3 pound chuck roast and does its braising in the slow cooker, so once it is in and the lid is on, you can go on your merry way for the next ten hours. First roughly chop 1 onion and throw it in the cooker and plop the roast on top of it. Then cut up a 14 oz. can of cajun style stewed tomatoes (another type would work just find, but I think these add a little pizzaz) and spread them around the outside of the meat. Next add 2 peeled carrots and 1 peeled and chopped potato. Of course, I wanted to include the 'good red jug', but I only needed 2 cups of it and a half cup of beef broth. Then the secret ingredient, 2 packets of onion soup mix, one sprinkled on the meat and one on the broth. I get Lipton's but I am sure others would work fine too. (Each box includes two packets, so use the whole box.)
At the end of the 10 hours remove the meat from the pan and keep warm. Separate the vegetables from the broth and degrease using one of those pitchers with the spout that comes out of the bottom. Pour the remaining liquid (without the fat) and all the vegetables into a blender and puree for several minutes until totally liquified. Then pour it through a large mesh sieve (to catch any surviving chunks of vegetable) and you have 4 to 6 cups of nutritious and delicious gravy without having to make gravy! And the winner of the Pot Roast Wars-definitely Kay.
The Bottom Line:
Julia's Pot Roast-Thumbs Down
Kay's Pot Roast-Thumbs Up
The first hitch came when I asked the butcher for 5 pounds of bottom round, which was more than anyone had ever ordered before, so he had to go cut it especially for me. I foolishly didn't specify that it needed 1/8 inch of fat, so it came with only the lean. I didn't want to complain, and originally I thought that maybe it would be okay, but eventually I was back at the butcher seeing if I could buy some fat. I couldn't, but they dug some out of I know not where and gave it to me for free. So now there was a reason for the trussing, to tie on the fat.
Then the meat needs to be dried and painted with oil. Then it needs to be broiled so that it is nicely browned all over. Then the onion and carrots have to be chopped and sauted and added to the meat along with that jug of red and an equal amount of beef broth, a cup and a half of tomatoes the herb bouquet which included interestingly, peppercorn, allspice berries, cloves, thyme, garlic, parsley and bay leaf. Finally the entire pot is brought to a boil on the top of the stove and then put in the oven to braise for 2.5 to 3.5 hours with a sheet of aluminum foil over the roast plus a lid on the pan. Begin the braise at 400 degrees and then after 15 minutes reduce the temperature to 325. And even now you are not allowed to sit back on your laurels, now you need to turn that monster every half hour so that a different part of him is exposed and out of the liquid.
And for all of this extra effort do you actually get a superior product? I didn't think so. The end result seemed to me to be a bit dry. That could have been at least in part remedied if there had been plenty of gravy, but there was only 3 cups of gravy, which is a meager amount to serve with 5 pounds of meat.
But Kay's Pot Roast, which I have adapted from a recipe given to me by my good friend Joy McManus, begins with a 2-3 pound chuck roast and does its braising in the slow cooker, so once it is in and the lid is on, you can go on your merry way for the next ten hours. First roughly chop 1 onion and throw it in the cooker and plop the roast on top of it. Then cut up a 14 oz. can of cajun style stewed tomatoes (another type would work just find, but I think these add a little pizzaz) and spread them around the outside of the meat. Next add 2 peeled carrots and 1 peeled and chopped potato. Of course, I wanted to include the 'good red jug', but I only needed 2 cups of it and a half cup of beef broth. Then the secret ingredient, 2 packets of onion soup mix, one sprinkled on the meat and one on the broth. I get Lipton's but I am sure others would work fine too. (Each box includes two packets, so use the whole box.)
At the end of the 10 hours remove the meat from the pan and keep warm. Separate the vegetables from the broth and degrease using one of those pitchers with the spout that comes out of the bottom. Pour the remaining liquid (without the fat) and all the vegetables into a blender and puree for several minutes until totally liquified. Then pour it through a large mesh sieve (to catch any surviving chunks of vegetable) and you have 4 to 6 cups of nutritious and delicious gravy without having to make gravy! And the winner of the Pot Roast Wars-definitely Kay.
The Bottom Line:
Julia's Pot Roast-Thumbs Down
Kay's Pot Roast-Thumbs Up
Monday, December 7, 2009
For The Boys-There Is Nothing Like A Meatloaf
One of my guests actually said it was the best meatloaf he had ever eaten. Of course, he is in line to be my son-in-law, so his motives could be called into question. But even if his accolades were suspect, everybody else was grabbing extra slices off the platter too, so maybe it was the best.
At least it was the best I have ever made. Not that there was anything too different from any meatloaf recipe out there, but as is often the case with Julia, she takes a normal everyday recipe and makes it the best that it can be.
Her meatloaf calls for 2 pounds of lean hamburger and one pound of ground pork to be combined with 2 cups of diced onions, 2 pureed cloves of garlic, 2 eggs, 1/2 c. beef bouillon and 1 cup of bread crumbs. It also calls for 3/4 c. shredded Cheddar cheese, but The Main Eater refuses all sustenance that has been contaminated with cheese, so ours was cheese-free. I can only imagine how great it would have been if it had been included.
There are only two items that set hers apart from all the other meatloaves you have ever been subjected to. First, the onions were sauteed before being added to the mixture which mellowed them nicely. Plus I diced them in my food processor, which mulched them more than diced them, and enabled them to be totally incorporated into the fabric of the loaf. The second difference was the spices. I have always been satisfied with salt and pepper, but she also includes 2 t. each of thyme and paprika and 1 t. each oregano and allspice. The end result was a finer texture and more flavor.
Thank you Julia.
The Bottom Line
Beef and Pork Meatloaf-Thumbs Up
At least it was the best I have ever made. Not that there was anything too different from any meatloaf recipe out there, but as is often the case with Julia, she takes a normal everyday recipe and makes it the best that it can be.
Her meatloaf calls for 2 pounds of lean hamburger and one pound of ground pork to be combined with 2 cups of diced onions, 2 pureed cloves of garlic, 2 eggs, 1/2 c. beef bouillon and 1 cup of bread crumbs. It also calls for 3/4 c. shredded Cheddar cheese, but The Main Eater refuses all sustenance that has been contaminated with cheese, so ours was cheese-free. I can only imagine how great it would have been if it had been included.
There are only two items that set hers apart from all the other meatloaves you have ever been subjected to. First, the onions were sauteed before being added to the mixture which mellowed them nicely. Plus I diced them in my food processor, which mulched them more than diced them, and enabled them to be totally incorporated into the fabric of the loaf. The second difference was the spices. I have always been satisfied with salt and pepper, but she also includes 2 t. each of thyme and paprika and 1 t. each oregano and allspice. The end result was a finer texture and more flavor.
Thank you Julia.
The Bottom Line
Beef and Pork Meatloaf-Thumbs Up
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sauteed Zucchini is a Hard Sell
I think almost everyone I know hates zucchini. Unfortunately they grow pretty easily around here so it gets to be hard to avoid them.
For her Grated Sauteed Zucchini recipe Julia recommends 6-8 of the 8-inchers. They need to be washed, the ends lopped off and after 10 seconds in the food processor you have a mountain of zucchini shreds. Mix 1/2 t. salt into the mountain, set it in a colander and let it "steep". Shortly it will begin to shed green water, and after 15 minutes and some gentle squeezing you will have an amazing amount.
Next add 3 T. butter to a frying pan set to high, after it begins to foam add 2 T. chopped shallots and shortly after that the zucchini. Toss them for a few minutes until just tender and serve immediately.
This recipe was okay. Of the four of us eating two refused to eat more than a micro-taste and he other two of us thought it was good enough, but it would be hard to imagine ordering it in a restaurant. However, a dish may still get a 'Thumbs Up' rating if I could imagine someone who liked the ingredients thinking it was good enough to make it again. Based on that I think it's a winner.
Grated Sauteed Zucchini-Thumbs Up
For her Grated Sauteed Zucchini recipe Julia recommends 6-8 of the 8-inchers. They need to be washed, the ends lopped off and after 10 seconds in the food processor you have a mountain of zucchini shreds. Mix 1/2 t. salt into the mountain, set it in a colander and let it "steep". Shortly it will begin to shed green water, and after 15 minutes and some gentle squeezing you will have an amazing amount.
Next add 3 T. butter to a frying pan set to high, after it begins to foam add 2 T. chopped shallots and shortly after that the zucchini. Toss them for a few minutes until just tender and serve immediately.
This recipe was okay. Of the four of us eating two refused to eat more than a micro-taste and he other two of us thought it was good enough, but it would be hard to imagine ordering it in a restaurant. However, a dish may still get a 'Thumbs Up' rating if I could imagine someone who liked the ingredients thinking it was good enough to make it again. Based on that I think it's a winner.
Grated Sauteed Zucchini-Thumbs Up
It's Thanksgiving So We Have to Make Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Surprisingly Julia and I make Mashed Potatoes almost the same. I'm actually feeling a little smug about it.
She begins by directing her students to purchase Russet potatoes, and although I use Yukon Gold pototoes for everything, I picked up a 10 pound bag of Russets. One thing is for sure, you can save a lot of money by following her recipe, because the Russets cost $3 for 10 pounds and Yukon Golds would have been about $1/pound. We both agreed that they should be peeled, washed, quartered, put in a pan, covered with salted water (1.5 t.salt/quart of water) and then brought to a boil. She recommends boiling them for 15 minutes and I tasted them at that point and determined that they needed another 3 minutes. Normally I would have boiled them for about 25 minutes, until they were exceedingly soft, but this is her cookbook, so I let her make the decision. But it was wrong.
After draining she suggests her students return them to the pan and place them back on the burner for a minute to dry them out. Following that I put them into the mixer and began beating them with the wire whip attachment. Since I was only using about 4 pounds of potatoes I added 1/2 cup of heated milk and 2 T. of butter while they were mixing. But despite 10 minutes of mixing they were still a bit lumpy. This would not have been the case if they had boiled 25 minutes, instead of 18.
To make the 'mashed potatoes' into 'garlic mashed potatoes' you must peel an entire head of garlic and simmer the cloves in 1/2 cup of cream for at least 10 minutes. Then puree it in the blender and add the entire mixture to the potatoes while they are still in the mixer.
The result has a garlic aroma and a vague garlic flavor which is both delicate and delicious. If you prefer a more dynamic garlic presence you might want to use 1.5 to 2 heads of garlic.
The Bottom Line
Garlic Mashed Potatoes-Thumbs Up
She begins by directing her students to purchase Russet potatoes, and although I use Yukon Gold pototoes for everything, I picked up a 10 pound bag of Russets. One thing is for sure, you can save a lot of money by following her recipe, because the Russets cost $3 for 10 pounds and Yukon Golds would have been about $1/pound. We both agreed that they should be peeled, washed, quartered, put in a pan, covered with salted water (1.5 t.salt/quart of water) and then brought to a boil. She recommends boiling them for 15 minutes and I tasted them at that point and determined that they needed another 3 minutes. Normally I would have boiled them for about 25 minutes, until they were exceedingly soft, but this is her cookbook, so I let her make the decision. But it was wrong.
After draining she suggests her students return them to the pan and place them back on the burner for a minute to dry them out. Following that I put them into the mixer and began beating them with the wire whip attachment. Since I was only using about 4 pounds of potatoes I added 1/2 cup of heated milk and 2 T. of butter while they were mixing. But despite 10 minutes of mixing they were still a bit lumpy. This would not have been the case if they had boiled 25 minutes, instead of 18.
To make the 'mashed potatoes' into 'garlic mashed potatoes' you must peel an entire head of garlic and simmer the cloves in 1/2 cup of cream for at least 10 minutes. Then puree it in the blender and add the entire mixture to the potatoes while they are still in the mixer.
The result has a garlic aroma and a vague garlic flavor which is both delicate and delicious. If you prefer a more dynamic garlic presence you might want to use 1.5 to 2 heads of garlic.
The Bottom Line
Garlic Mashed Potatoes-Thumbs Up
Sunday, November 22, 2009
I'm Not Sure About These Asparagus
I wasn't going to make a Julia today. But we were having asparagus anyway, and she has a master entitled 'Plain Boiled Asparagus', so I decided to get it out of the way. Obviously my attitude could use a little work.
My friend Pam introduced me to baked asparagus a while back and they are totally delicious. Just line them up on a cookie sheet in a single layer, not touching each other, dribble on a little olive oil and salt and bake them at 450 degrees for about 8 minutes. So that was what I really wanted to make, and who would ever want to make something that had "Plain Boiled" in the title anyway?
There are two things that set her "Plain Boiled" apart from anyone else's. First she considers it a waste to bend them until they break and then throw away the 'butt' end (her word not mine). And second, she makes you peel the stems, which really made me wish that I had bought fat asparagus instead of a bunch that could almost have passed for green beans. But other than that, she just has you drop them into boiling salted water for 4-5 minutes. Make sure they are done by tasting one to confirm that it is just barely cooked through and still possesses a crunch. Then dress them up with a sauce or butter.
But in order to find this a wonderful preparation you would have to like your vegetables crunchy, and I prefer them soft.
The Bottom Line
Plain Boiled Asparagus-Thumbs Down
My friend Pam introduced me to baked asparagus a while back and they are totally delicious. Just line them up on a cookie sheet in a single layer, not touching each other, dribble on a little olive oil and salt and bake them at 450 degrees for about 8 minutes. So that was what I really wanted to make, and who would ever want to make something that had "Plain Boiled" in the title anyway?
There are two things that set her "Plain Boiled" apart from anyone else's. First she considers it a waste to bend them until they break and then throw away the 'butt' end (her word not mine). And second, she makes you peel the stems, which really made me wish that I had bought fat asparagus instead of a bunch that could almost have passed for green beans. But other than that, she just has you drop them into boiling salted water for 4-5 minutes. Make sure they are done by tasting one to confirm that it is just barely cooked through and still possesses a crunch. Then dress them up with a sauce or butter.
But in order to find this a wonderful preparation you would have to like your vegetables crunchy, and I prefer them soft.
The Bottom Line
Plain Boiled Asparagus-Thumbs Down
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Rest of Second Wednesday
Besides our totally delicious Roast Leg of Pork we also dined on Blanched Brussels Sprouts and Roasted Red Potatoes.
There was considerable trepidation when it came to the Brussels Sprouts. The Smart family felt they could share one between the four of them. Several of my family members stated unequivically that it would be over my dead body that one of 'those' crossed their lips. Undaunted I purchased two giant stalks of them. They come either in little bags of about 25 or these foot and a half long stalks with about a hundred on them. Since everybody was so sure they were going to hate them I figured I had better be prepared with extra because they would probably just love them.
That didn't exactly happen. Those who already loved them thought they were the best they had ever eaten and those who knew they would hate them did.
Julia's recipe is pretty simple. Make sure you buy them when they are fresh as evidenced by their being both firm and bright green. Prepare them by trimming the stems, removing any wilted or loose leaves and puncturing the ends of the stems with a cross about 3/8" deep. Then plunge them into at least 6 quarts rapidly boiling salted water (1.5 t. salt per quart of water) and boil uncovered at least 4 minutes. At 4 minutes take one out, cut it open and taste for doneness. It should be easily pierced by the knife and tender but not overly soft when eaten. Mine took about 6 minutes to get there. At this point she makes them wonderful by folding them into several tablespoons of melted butter.
My family's Roasted Red Potatoes can actually be made with either white or red potatoes as long as they are the little ones. Wash them and remove any unsavory spots and cut the larger ones in half so that the pieces are all approximately the same size. Put them into a baking dish and add enough olive oil that all the potatoes are coated with it. Then liberally sprinkle them with Johnny's Seasoning Salt and bake at 350 degrees for an hour. I guarantee you'll love em.
The Bottom Line:
Blanched Brussels Sprouts-Thumbs Up
Roasted Red Potatoes-Thumbs Up
There was considerable trepidation when it came to the Brussels Sprouts. The Smart family felt they could share one between the four of them. Several of my family members stated unequivically that it would be over my dead body that one of 'those' crossed their lips. Undaunted I purchased two giant stalks of them. They come either in little bags of about 25 or these foot and a half long stalks with about a hundred on them. Since everybody was so sure they were going to hate them I figured I had better be prepared with extra because they would probably just love them.
That didn't exactly happen. Those who already loved them thought they were the best they had ever eaten and those who knew they would hate them did.
Julia's recipe is pretty simple. Make sure you buy them when they are fresh as evidenced by their being both firm and bright green. Prepare them by trimming the stems, removing any wilted or loose leaves and puncturing the ends of the stems with a cross about 3/8" deep. Then plunge them into at least 6 quarts rapidly boiling salted water (1.5 t. salt per quart of water) and boil uncovered at least 4 minutes. At 4 minutes take one out, cut it open and taste for doneness. It should be easily pierced by the knife and tender but not overly soft when eaten. Mine took about 6 minutes to get there. At this point she makes them wonderful by folding them into several tablespoons of melted butter.
My family's Roasted Red Potatoes can actually be made with either white or red potatoes as long as they are the little ones. Wash them and remove any unsavory spots and cut the larger ones in half so that the pieces are all approximately the same size. Put them into a baking dish and add enough olive oil that all the potatoes are coated with it. Then liberally sprinkle them with Johnny's Seasoning Salt and bake at 350 degrees for an hour. I guarantee you'll love em.
The Bottom Line:
Blanched Brussels Sprouts-Thumbs Up
Roasted Red Potatoes-Thumbs Up
Who Ever Heard of Fresh Ham?
I mean, if it isn't fresh then what is it? It turns out that almost all pork legs are cured and become what we refer to as hams. But if they are not cured, they are still hams, and in that case they are 'fresh'. However don't plan on just picking one up at the grocery store the next time you're there, because they need to be ordered ahead and they are not small. Mine was 20 pounds, which at $1.59/lb. was more than a turkey would have cost, but much less than many other main courses I have purchased-and this one could have easily fed an army.
This dish needs to start two days before you eat. That is when you make the 'rub' and rub it all over your leg. My rub, which was Julia's rub, consisted of 1/4 c. of salt, 1 t. fresh ground pepper, and 1/4 t. each of paprika, sage, thyme and allspice. After rubbing, place the leg in a closed plastic bag and refrigerate until ready to bake.
When the big day finally arrives brush the leg with vegetable oil, set it on the rack in a roasting pan and put it into a preheated oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, basting every 5 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and cover the leg with an 8" x 10" piece of pig fat or an equivalent amount of thick sliced bacon that you have blanched for 10 minutes. After 2.5 hours add a chopped carrot, a chopped onion and 5 cloves of garlic to the pan and make sure you baste the entire leg with the accumulated pan drippings every 20 minutes until done. Julia says that should be in about 22-25 minutes per pound. In my case that would be at least 440 minutes or 7+ hours. Dinner is planned for 7:30, so I put him in at 11:15 which should get him out of the oven at between 6:15 and 7:00, which should allow plenty of time for him to 'rest' for a half hour and me to make the sauce.
She recommends letting him cook until he reaches an internal temperature of 155 degrees and directs us to begin taking his temperature after 3 hours. At 3 hours he was at 140 degrees and by the time he had been cooking for 4 hours he was done. After I got done with my heart attack I read her 'ahead of time note' which says we can keep him warm in an 120 degree oven for up to an hour before serving. In this case I kept him warm for 3 hours and he was still delicious. Not dry, not over- done, just great.
To make the sauce she requires us to brown the bones with some carrots and onions in peanut oil. But my bones were still in my pig and my butcher didn't have any to sell, so I bought 2 pounds of pork ribs, certainly not the most economical method, but at least it worked. After browning I whisked in a little flour, 3 cups of chicken broth, 2 cups of port wine, 2 stalks of celery, 2 seeded, peeled and chopped tomatoes, and an herb bouquet consisting of fresh rosemary, bay, sage and thyme, and allowed it all to simmer for 3 hours. After simmering, all the vegetables, bones and meat are strained out of the sauce. In addition, after removing the leg from the roasting pan the juices are poured into a fat separator and after separating the non-fat juices poured into the sauce. Then I added half a cup of port wine to the roasting pan, put it on a burner set to medium and allowed to cook for a few minutes to loosen the stuck on bits in the bottom of the pan and added that to the sauce as well. It is ladled onto the sliced pork after plating.
As is frequent with Julia's recipes, this one is a bit fussy, but the end result was wonderful.
The Bottom Line:
Roast Leg of Pork-Thumbs Up
This dish needs to start two days before you eat. That is when you make the 'rub' and rub it all over your leg. My rub, which was Julia's rub, consisted of 1/4 c. of salt, 1 t. fresh ground pepper, and 1/4 t. each of paprika, sage, thyme and allspice. After rubbing, place the leg in a closed plastic bag and refrigerate until ready to bake.
When the big day finally arrives brush the leg with vegetable oil, set it on the rack in a roasting pan and put it into a preheated oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, basting every 5 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and cover the leg with an 8" x 10" piece of pig fat or an equivalent amount of thick sliced bacon that you have blanched for 10 minutes. After 2.5 hours add a chopped carrot, a chopped onion and 5 cloves of garlic to the pan and make sure you baste the entire leg with the accumulated pan drippings every 20 minutes until done. Julia says that should be in about 22-25 minutes per pound. In my case that would be at least 440 minutes or 7+ hours. Dinner is planned for 7:30, so I put him in at 11:15 which should get him out of the oven at between 6:15 and 7:00, which should allow plenty of time for him to 'rest' for a half hour and me to make the sauce.
She recommends letting him cook until he reaches an internal temperature of 155 degrees and directs us to begin taking his temperature after 3 hours. At 3 hours he was at 140 degrees and by the time he had been cooking for 4 hours he was done. After I got done with my heart attack I read her 'ahead of time note' which says we can keep him warm in an 120 degree oven for up to an hour before serving. In this case I kept him warm for 3 hours and he was still delicious. Not dry, not over- done, just great.
To make the sauce she requires us to brown the bones with some carrots and onions in peanut oil. But my bones were still in my pig and my butcher didn't have any to sell, so I bought 2 pounds of pork ribs, certainly not the most economical method, but at least it worked. After browning I whisked in a little flour, 3 cups of chicken broth, 2 cups of port wine, 2 stalks of celery, 2 seeded, peeled and chopped tomatoes, and an herb bouquet consisting of fresh rosemary, bay, sage and thyme, and allowed it all to simmer for 3 hours. After simmering, all the vegetables, bones and meat are strained out of the sauce. In addition, after removing the leg from the roasting pan the juices are poured into a fat separator and after separating the non-fat juices poured into the sauce. Then I added half a cup of port wine to the roasting pan, put it on a burner set to medium and allowed to cook for a few minutes to loosen the stuck on bits in the bottom of the pan and added that to the sauce as well. It is ladled onto the sliced pork after plating.
As is frequent with Julia's recipes, this one is a bit fussy, but the end result was wonderful.
The Bottom Line:
Roast Leg of Pork-Thumbs Up
Sunday, November 15, 2009
My Dad Turns 82 and His Birthday Cake Sucks
Geniose. That's the name of the cake I advise you never to try. Apparently its name means it originated in Genoa, so no wonder Columbus went looking for new turf.
The interesting thing about the Geniose is that it does not use any leavening agent. Instead the baker first whisks 4 large eggs with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 t. vanilla over a pot of almost simmering water until it is frothy and warm to the touch. Then begin beating with a mixer at moderatly high speed for 8 to 10 minutes until the mixture triples in volume. I was very worried about this step but it happened just as Julia had predicted. Next begin sifting in the flour, which is a combination of 1/2 c. cake and 1/3 c. all-purpose flour. The trick here is to sift a bit in, and ever-so-gently fold it into the egg-sugar batter without deflating it, and then repeat until all the flour is incorporated into the batter. The final step is folding a bit of the batter into 6 T. clarified butter and then returning the butter-batter into the main mixture, again without reducing the volume. While it appeared to be in the extremely tricky category it went off without a hitch and came out of the oven just perfectly. That is, unless you count eating.
But I didn't know about that yet. Instead I plowed right ahead with the Italian Meringue frosting. A meringue is made by beating egg whites, first a slow speed until they foam, adding a bit of cream of tarter and salt, and then continuing to beat at high speed until they form soft peaks. The harder part of this recipe, making the sugar syrup, involves combining sugar and water and boiling them to the soft ball stage. I rely on both my candy thermometer and the practical test (dropping a drip into a glass of water to see if it puddles into a 'soft ball' on the bottom)to confirm that my syrup has reached the proper state. When it has, remove it from the heat and begin dribbling it into the egg whites while beating them at fairly high speed. You are done when the syrup has been totally incorporated into the egg whites and they are both glossy and standing tall.
Julia says that French cakes are single layer, so I doubled the recipes to make a more standard American cake. Then I cut both layers in two and discarded one, to make a 3-layer cake. To assemble the cake I took the first layer, dripped a tablespoon of embibing syrup (made by boiling a few tablespoons of rum with 1/4 c of sugar and 3/4 c of water), added a huge dollop of meringue, followed that with another layer, syrup, dollop and a layer of blackberry jam, and finally the last layer with just syrup and meringue.
It did look good. At least it looked good when it left my house, but 4 hours later when we were eating it the frosting had lost its edge and the whole thing was looking a bit dilapidated. But that was the least of its problems. Because in addition to looking past its prime it was dry, coarse and tasteless.
So I searched the internet to see if other bakers were making this cake with similar results. And they were. Some were having technical problems, which I did not, but pretty universally people say it is a lousy cake. Some had tried it with all cake flour, which I had considered, but they said the results were the same. This cake may well have been what Marie Antionette was referring to.
The Bottom Line:
Genoise Cake-Thumbs Down
The interesting thing about the Geniose is that it does not use any leavening agent. Instead the baker first whisks 4 large eggs with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 t. vanilla over a pot of almost simmering water until it is frothy and warm to the touch. Then begin beating with a mixer at moderatly high speed for 8 to 10 minutes until the mixture triples in volume. I was very worried about this step but it happened just as Julia had predicted. Next begin sifting in the flour, which is a combination of 1/2 c. cake and 1/3 c. all-purpose flour. The trick here is to sift a bit in, and ever-so-gently fold it into the egg-sugar batter without deflating it, and then repeat until all the flour is incorporated into the batter. The final step is folding a bit of the batter into 6 T. clarified butter and then returning the butter-batter into the main mixture, again without reducing the volume. While it appeared to be in the extremely tricky category it went off without a hitch and came out of the oven just perfectly. That is, unless you count eating.
But I didn't know about that yet. Instead I plowed right ahead with the Italian Meringue frosting. A meringue is made by beating egg whites, first a slow speed until they foam, adding a bit of cream of tarter and salt, and then continuing to beat at high speed until they form soft peaks. The harder part of this recipe, making the sugar syrup, involves combining sugar and water and boiling them to the soft ball stage. I rely on both my candy thermometer and the practical test (dropping a drip into a glass of water to see if it puddles into a 'soft ball' on the bottom)to confirm that my syrup has reached the proper state. When it has, remove it from the heat and begin dribbling it into the egg whites while beating them at fairly high speed. You are done when the syrup has been totally incorporated into the egg whites and they are both glossy and standing tall.
Julia says that French cakes are single layer, so I doubled the recipes to make a more standard American cake. Then I cut both layers in two and discarded one, to make a 3-layer cake. To assemble the cake I took the first layer, dripped a tablespoon of embibing syrup (made by boiling a few tablespoons of rum with 1/4 c of sugar and 3/4 c of water), added a huge dollop of meringue, followed that with another layer, syrup, dollop and a layer of blackberry jam, and finally the last layer with just syrup and meringue.
It did look good. At least it looked good when it left my house, but 4 hours later when we were eating it the frosting had lost its edge and the whole thing was looking a bit dilapidated. But that was the least of its problems. Because in addition to looking past its prime it was dry, coarse and tasteless.
So I searched the internet to see if other bakers were making this cake with similar results. And they were. Some were having technical problems, which I did not, but pretty universally people say it is a lousy cake. Some had tried it with all cake flour, which I had considered, but they said the results were the same. This cake may well have been what Marie Antionette was referring to.
The Bottom Line:
Genoise Cake-Thumbs Down
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The McGillicuttys Try Another Julia
When cooking a Major Julia organization is essential. The McGillicuttys visited for our first Tuesday meeting again last week and Mrs. McG was still dieting. But Julia rose to the occasion and dinner was an all-thumbs-up extravaganza. The menu was Chicken Soup, Broiled Fish Steaks with Lemon Butter Sauce, Cole Slaw, Wild Rice with Mirapoix, Pots of Berries for dessert and many bottles of wine to encourage the creative juices.
The broiled fish steaks began a couple of months ago in northern California when my friend Pam bought a number of tunafish from a fisherman while he was still on the boat. She began canning, hundreds of cans later she was despairing, and eventually dragged several bags of fillets over to my house with the warning that they needed to be cooked or frozen that day. Cooking was out of the question so into the freezer they went until a week ago when she called to warn me that the freezing time was running out too, and I had better get to cooking.
Julia advocates trimming everything but the most pristine looking parts of the fish, which in this case, since the tuna had been frozen for a couple of months, was quite a bit. Then rub it with olive oil, salt lightly, and put it in a casserole with 1/8 inch of French vermouth. Broil it 2" below the element for 2 minutes, slather on some butter, and continue broiling for a few more minutes, being careful to remove it from the heat when it is cooked through but still springy and juicy.
To make the Lemon Butter Sauce add the juice of 1/2 lemon to the casserole after removing the fish. Scrape up all the fish bits that are stuck to the casserole, transfer the whole lot to a saucepan and boil it down until it is syrupy. Then begin adding cold unsalted butter, a tablespoon at time, and whisking them into the broth. When 4 tablespoons are incorporated into the broth remove from the heat, taste and season if necessary, pour over the fish and serve.
I made the mirepoix by frying 2 pieces of bacon, removing the meat and sauteing 1/2 cup each finely diced carrots, onion and celery (as always only the tender inner stalks) in the rendered fat, then dicing the reserved bacon and adding that too. I firmly believe that everything but ice cream is improved by adding a few pieces of bacon. Julia's recipe doesn't call for it, but I recommend you add it anyway.
While you are making the mirepoix simmer 1.5 cups wild rice in 3 cups of water for 15minutes and drain. One half hour before you are ready to serve add 1/3 cup French vermouth and the blanched wild rice to the mirepoix. Let it boil for a minute and then add enough chicken stock to cover the rice by 1/4" and simmer covered for about 15 minutes. As always, taste your product and if it needs a little more liquid to soften it, salt to season it, or butter to make it more heavenly, then add them.
The Pots of Berries is my own invention and an easier and more delightful dish would be hard to imagine. You may use any combination of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries or strawberries and they may be either fresh or frozen. Begin by gently simmering the berries, uncovered, until they are reduced by about a third. Then add 1.5 T sugar (or to taste) and 1 T tapioca and continue to simmer for another minute or so. I then pour the mixture into 1/2 cup ramekins and chill. When serving I usually pass a can of spray whipped cream and everyone tries to see who can get the most impressive mound on their 'pot'. Whipped cream is like bacon and butter, they almost always improve whatever you add them to.
The Bottom Line
Broiled Fish Steaks-Thumbs Up
Wild Rice with Mirepoix-Thumbs Up
Pots of Berries-Thumbs Up
Chicken Soup-Thumbs Up (see 11/6/9 posting)
Cole Slaw-Thumbs Up (see 11/9/9 posting)
The broiled fish steaks began a couple of months ago in northern California when my friend Pam bought a number of tunafish from a fisherman while he was still on the boat. She began canning, hundreds of cans later she was despairing, and eventually dragged several bags of fillets over to my house with the warning that they needed to be cooked or frozen that day. Cooking was out of the question so into the freezer they went until a week ago when she called to warn me that the freezing time was running out too, and I had better get to cooking.
Julia advocates trimming everything but the most pristine looking parts of the fish, which in this case, since the tuna had been frozen for a couple of months, was quite a bit. Then rub it with olive oil, salt lightly, and put it in a casserole with 1/8 inch of French vermouth. Broil it 2" below the element for 2 minutes, slather on some butter, and continue broiling for a few more minutes, being careful to remove it from the heat when it is cooked through but still springy and juicy.
To make the Lemon Butter Sauce add the juice of 1/2 lemon to the casserole after removing the fish. Scrape up all the fish bits that are stuck to the casserole, transfer the whole lot to a saucepan and boil it down until it is syrupy. Then begin adding cold unsalted butter, a tablespoon at time, and whisking them into the broth. When 4 tablespoons are incorporated into the broth remove from the heat, taste and season if necessary, pour over the fish and serve.
I made the mirepoix by frying 2 pieces of bacon, removing the meat and sauteing 1/2 cup each finely diced carrots, onion and celery (as always only the tender inner stalks) in the rendered fat, then dicing the reserved bacon and adding that too. I firmly believe that everything but ice cream is improved by adding a few pieces of bacon. Julia's recipe doesn't call for it, but I recommend you add it anyway.
While you are making the mirepoix simmer 1.5 cups wild rice in 3 cups of water for 15minutes and drain. One half hour before you are ready to serve add 1/3 cup French vermouth and the blanched wild rice to the mirepoix. Let it boil for a minute and then add enough chicken stock to cover the rice by 1/4" and simmer covered for about 15 minutes. As always, taste your product and if it needs a little more liquid to soften it, salt to season it, or butter to make it more heavenly, then add them.
The Pots of Berries is my own invention and an easier and more delightful dish would be hard to imagine. You may use any combination of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries or strawberries and they may be either fresh or frozen. Begin by gently simmering the berries, uncovered, until they are reduced by about a third. Then add 1.5 T sugar (or to taste) and 1 T tapioca and continue to simmer for another minute or so. I then pour the mixture into 1/2 cup ramekins and chill. When serving I usually pass a can of spray whipped cream and everyone tries to see who can get the most impressive mound on their 'pot'. Whipped cream is like bacon and butter, they almost always improve whatever you add them to.
The Bottom Line
Broiled Fish Steaks-Thumbs Up
Wild Rice with Mirepoix-Thumbs Up
Pots of Berries-Thumbs Up
Chicken Soup-Thumbs Up (see 11/6/9 posting)
Cole Slaw-Thumbs Up (see 11/9/9 posting)
Monday, November 9, 2009
Super Slaw
It is hard believe that Julia actually has a master recipe for Cole Slaw, then I guess she also has one for boiled rice, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. But while her boiled rice was right off the rice box, her cole slaw is breaking new ground.
Not only does it include the traditional shredded cabbage, but also a smattering of celery, carrots, scallions, bell pepper, cucumber, parsley and apple. My traditional slaw also includes a grated apple, so I wasn't too surprised by that, but the rest of the vegetables had never been a part of any cole slaw that I had ever eaten. But the celery was only the inner most tender stalks, the cucumber was peeled and seeded, then they were all properly diced and sliced by my new best friend, Mr. Kitchen Aid Food Processor, and the end result was non-traditional but good.
However, when it came to the dressing I think she went too far. She has a 'preliminary flavoring' consisting of mustard, vinegar, salt, sugar, celery seeds and cumin seeds that you mix with the vegetables and then let stand for at least 1/2 hour. This allows the cabbage, etc to 'exude' moisture that you drain off prior to adding the other dressing, made from mayonnaise and sour cream. The delay meant that The Main Eater and I were having cole slaw for dessert. Actually we were alright with that, but those cumin and celery seeds were a deal breaker for us, so we decided to give it another try the next night without the seeds.
Way better. Julia also recommends not mixing the mayo/sour cream dressing into the cole slaw and instead serving it on the side so that those who are watching their calories can still partake. I didn't think that worked too well as it is somewhat thick for easily mixing on your plate, but hallelujah, it tasted better without it anyway. So ditch the seeds, the mayo and the sour cream and eat up. It has the trifecta: good, good for you, and low in calories.
The Bottom Line
Cole Slaw-Thumbs Up
Not only does it include the traditional shredded cabbage, but also a smattering of celery, carrots, scallions, bell pepper, cucumber, parsley and apple. My traditional slaw also includes a grated apple, so I wasn't too surprised by that, but the rest of the vegetables had never been a part of any cole slaw that I had ever eaten. But the celery was only the inner most tender stalks, the cucumber was peeled and seeded, then they were all properly diced and sliced by my new best friend, Mr. Kitchen Aid Food Processor, and the end result was non-traditional but good.
However, when it came to the dressing I think she went too far. She has a 'preliminary flavoring' consisting of mustard, vinegar, salt, sugar, celery seeds and cumin seeds that you mix with the vegetables and then let stand for at least 1/2 hour. This allows the cabbage, etc to 'exude' moisture that you drain off prior to adding the other dressing, made from mayonnaise and sour cream. The delay meant that The Main Eater and I were having cole slaw for dessert. Actually we were alright with that, but those cumin and celery seeds were a deal breaker for us, so we decided to give it another try the next night without the seeds.
Way better. Julia also recommends not mixing the mayo/sour cream dressing into the cole slaw and instead serving it on the side so that those who are watching their calories can still partake. I didn't think that worked too well as it is somewhat thick for easily mixing on your plate, but hallelujah, it tasted better without it anyway. So ditch the seeds, the mayo and the sour cream and eat up. It has the trifecta: good, good for you, and low in calories.
The Bottom Line
Cole Slaw-Thumbs Up
Friday, November 6, 2009
The Art of Simplicity
As I have mentioned in past postings, Julia and I come from different sides of the ocean when it comes to soup. Hers are light with an emphasis on the broth and accompanied by no more than a smattering of vegetables. They are meant to be an introduction to a meal, not the meal itself. I, on the other hand, usually feel that if I am going to the trouble to make a soup that has required more than a little time and effort to prepare it, that it deserves top billing, and should not be trivialized as a 'starter'. But I may be coming around to her way of thinking.
A few days ago I tried her Chicken Broth. It is actually the very first recipe in her book, so it has called to me many times over the past few months. She directs her reader to get 2 quarts of cooked and/or raw chicken meat, bones and scraps, put them into a 3 quart saucepan (I would use a bigger pan), cover with water plus one inch, add 2 tsp. of salt and, optionally 1/2 cup each chopped onion, carrot, celery and 8 stems of parsley. She also directs us to chop up the bones, which is much easier with chicken bones than with those lamb bones. And just as she did with the scotch broth she has us skim the scum off as it rises to the surface for a few minutes and then sit back and relax while it simmers for 1.5 hours. When it is done simmering strain it through a sieve and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight so the grease can rise to the surface, harden and be easily plucked off before using the broth.
And using the broth is easy. If your soup requires more meat than you salvaged after straining the broth add chicken breast to the stock and simmer until it is done, shred it, and return it to the broth. Then add 1 cup each finely diced onion, carrot, the white part of a leek, the innermost tender celery stalks, and 1/2 cup French or Italian vermouth. Simmer for 4 - 6 minutes, then remove it from the heat and let it steep for at least 20 minutes before serving. As always, taste and correct the seasoning before serving.
The Bottom Line
Chicken Broth-Thumbs Up
A few days ago I tried her Chicken Broth. It is actually the very first recipe in her book, so it has called to me many times over the past few months. She directs her reader to get 2 quarts of cooked and/or raw chicken meat, bones and scraps, put them into a 3 quart saucepan (I would use a bigger pan), cover with water plus one inch, add 2 tsp. of salt and, optionally 1/2 cup each chopped onion, carrot, celery and 8 stems of parsley. She also directs us to chop up the bones, which is much easier with chicken bones than with those lamb bones. And just as she did with the scotch broth she has us skim the scum off as it rises to the surface for a few minutes and then sit back and relax while it simmers for 1.5 hours. When it is done simmering strain it through a sieve and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight so the grease can rise to the surface, harden and be easily plucked off before using the broth.
And using the broth is easy. If your soup requires more meat than you salvaged after straining the broth add chicken breast to the stock and simmer until it is done, shred it, and return it to the broth. Then add 1 cup each finely diced onion, carrot, the white part of a leek, the innermost tender celery stalks, and 1/2 cup French or Italian vermouth. Simmer for 4 - 6 minutes, then remove it from the heat and let it steep for at least 20 minutes before serving. As always, taste and correct the seasoning before serving.
The Bottom Line
Chicken Broth-Thumbs Up
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The Final Leg for the Leg of Lamb Is-
Scotch Broth. Julia actually specifies using raw lamb bones for her broth, but I had the remains from the roast of a couple of weeks ago, so I hoped that I could count the first few steps as having been completed during the roasting that I had done then. Which brought me to the simmering phase.
She directed me to cover the bones plus an inch with water, bring to a boil and stand at the ready to skim off the accumulated scum. This is an assignment she regularly gives her students, but I always take offense to the idea that my broth could be producing scum. I assume that she must be refering to the wisps of foam that form, which are definitely not scum, but nevertheless I dutifully skim them off. When they stop forming I add some chopped celery and garlic plus some rosemary and bay leaf and let it simmer for about four hours. At that point it is strained and refrigerated over night to allow the fat to rise to the surface and harden for easy removal.
The next day I added a half cup each of barley and chopped onion and chopped carrots and simmered for an additional 15 minutes. The recipe also called for adding a cup of fresh tomato pulp just before serving (made by dropping a fresh tomato in boiling water for 10 seconds, peeling it, gently squeezing out the juice and seeds, and then dicing the remainder) and as always reminded me to correct the seasoning.
After much correcting I finally realized that there was not enough seasoning in the world to give this broth a worthy flavor.
The Bottom Line:
Scotch Broth-Thumbs Down
She directed me to cover the bones plus an inch with water, bring to a boil and stand at the ready to skim off the accumulated scum. This is an assignment she regularly gives her students, but I always take offense to the idea that my broth could be producing scum. I assume that she must be refering to the wisps of foam that form, which are definitely not scum, but nevertheless I dutifully skim them off. When they stop forming I add some chopped celery and garlic plus some rosemary and bay leaf and let it simmer for about four hours. At that point it is strained and refrigerated over night to allow the fat to rise to the surface and harden for easy removal.
The next day I added a half cup each of barley and chopped onion and chopped carrots and simmered for an additional 15 minutes. The recipe also called for adding a cup of fresh tomato pulp just before serving (made by dropping a fresh tomato in boiling water for 10 seconds, peeling it, gently squeezing out the juice and seeds, and then dicing the remainder) and as always reminded me to correct the seasoning.
After much correcting I finally realized that there was not enough seasoning in the world to give this broth a worthy flavor.
The Bottom Line:
Scotch Broth-Thumbs Down
Saturday, October 24, 2009
What do the Bite of O'Dea & Julia Have in Common?
Pasta Salad. It was there with a lot of other food you would probably prefer not to eat but nevertheless find huge helpings of it on your plate. Don't get me wrong here, I love pasta, but I don't think salads are its finest hour usually lacking in flavor and squandering calories, and Julia's is more of the same.
My good friend and O'Dea parent, Laura Girardot, invited me to bring a dish, drink some wine and buy some raffle tickets at last night's annual event. Several hundred ladies and I all loaded up plates with obscene amounts of food in preparation for winning some of the hundreds of raffle prizes. Incredibly I won so many times that one participant commented later that I would be a fool if I didn't stop for a lottery ticket on the way home. Apparently I am.
My dish to share was Pasta Salad with Fresh Tomato and Basil. The master in this case was simply how to cook the pasta, with several recipes appearing on the next page with different ideas on how to use it.
She recommends using any pasta except the macaroni type because those with holes may fill up with an overwhelming amount of dressing. The cooking directions are the same as you find on any box of pasta: bring 8 quarts of water to boil, after it boils add 2T salt and 1T olive oil and the pasta. Boil it uncovered until it is perfectly done, determine this by tasting pieces frequently as it nears the recommended cooking time listed on the package. When it is ready drain it in a colander and then gently shake it to ensure that all the water has been removed. Then immediately add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to which you have added a little salt and pepper and maybe a clove or two of pureed garlic.
As soon as the pasta has cooled down you are ready to continue with any recipe you choose. The Fresh Tomato and Basil recipe calls for the pasta to be flavored with a few tablespoons of viniagrette, for which I chose the bottled Bernstein's Italian Dressing and Marinade. First I lined my salad bowl with Rainbow Swiss Chard and then dumped in the pasta, made a well in the center which I lined with fresh basil that I had shredded with my Ulu knife. An Ulu knife is an Alaskan native tool that looks very similar to a pastry blender, but with a curved blade instead of the thin metal rods. You use it by rocking back and forth on a slightly hollowed out cutting board.
Next I filled the hollow with Julia's Fresh Tomato Relish, for which I chose several varieties of heirloom tomatoes. They needed to be peeled, which is fairly easy, just drop them into boiling water for 10 seconds and when they come out core them and the skin comes right off. Next slice them in two the fat way and gently squeeze to remove the juice and seeds. I found this method worked fine for the juicier varieties, but the meatier ones needed help from my pinkie. When they were as dry as a tomato can get I diced them and gently mixed them with 1T diced shallots, 1T red wine vinegar, 1T olive oil and salt and pepper.
Finally I sprinkled about 6 oz. of feta cheese around the edge of the pasta and added a sign telling all the ladies about my blog and how much I would appreciate a comment from them. Here's hoping.
The Bottom Line
Cooked Pasta for Salads: Thumbs Up
Pasta Salad with Fresh Tomato and Basil: Thumbs Down
Fresh Tomato Relish: Thumbs Down
My good friend and O'Dea parent, Laura Girardot, invited me to bring a dish, drink some wine and buy some raffle tickets at last night's annual event. Several hundred ladies and I all loaded up plates with obscene amounts of food in preparation for winning some of the hundreds of raffle prizes. Incredibly I won so many times that one participant commented later that I would be a fool if I didn't stop for a lottery ticket on the way home. Apparently I am.
My dish to share was Pasta Salad with Fresh Tomato and Basil. The master in this case was simply how to cook the pasta, with several recipes appearing on the next page with different ideas on how to use it.
She recommends using any pasta except the macaroni type because those with holes may fill up with an overwhelming amount of dressing. The cooking directions are the same as you find on any box of pasta: bring 8 quarts of water to boil, after it boils add 2T salt and 1T olive oil and the pasta. Boil it uncovered until it is perfectly done, determine this by tasting pieces frequently as it nears the recommended cooking time listed on the package. When it is ready drain it in a colander and then gently shake it to ensure that all the water has been removed. Then immediately add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to which you have added a little salt and pepper and maybe a clove or two of pureed garlic.
As soon as the pasta has cooled down you are ready to continue with any recipe you choose. The Fresh Tomato and Basil recipe calls for the pasta to be flavored with a few tablespoons of viniagrette, for which I chose the bottled Bernstein's Italian Dressing and Marinade. First I lined my salad bowl with Rainbow Swiss Chard and then dumped in the pasta, made a well in the center which I lined with fresh basil that I had shredded with my Ulu knife. An Ulu knife is an Alaskan native tool that looks very similar to a pastry blender, but with a curved blade instead of the thin metal rods. You use it by rocking back and forth on a slightly hollowed out cutting board.
Next I filled the hollow with Julia's Fresh Tomato Relish, for which I chose several varieties of heirloom tomatoes. They needed to be peeled, which is fairly easy, just drop them into boiling water for 10 seconds and when they come out core them and the skin comes right off. Next slice them in two the fat way and gently squeeze to remove the juice and seeds. I found this method worked fine for the juicier varieties, but the meatier ones needed help from my pinkie. When they were as dry as a tomato can get I diced them and gently mixed them with 1T diced shallots, 1T red wine vinegar, 1T olive oil and salt and pepper.
Finally I sprinkled about 6 oz. of feta cheese around the edge of the pasta and added a sign telling all the ladies about my blog and how much I would appreciate a comment from them. Here's hoping.
The Bottom Line
Cooked Pasta for Salads: Thumbs Up
Pasta Salad with Fresh Tomato and Basil: Thumbs Down
Fresh Tomato Relish: Thumbs Down
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
What Exactly is a Capon?
According to Julia it is a chicken 5 1/2 to 7 pounds. I generally refer to those as simply a large chicken. I have tried to make her recipe for roasting one before but was stymied by the fact that the chicken I had intended to roast turned out to be cut-up, meaning it could not be trussed, and hence, could not be roasted.
She begins by directing the cook to remove the wishbone, but I couldn't figure that part of it out, so I proceeded to the "first thrust". This involved inserting the huge trussing needle, in this case a carpet needle, through the carcass under the knee and out the other side. This is followed by turning the wings 'akimbo' (wasn't sure exactly what that meant) and spearing both of them plus the neck skin and ending up where you originally started at the first knee, then tie the two ends together. The next and final thrust begins at the ankle end of one leg, proceeds through the end of the breast bone and continues on through the other ankle, circles back through the tail and then is tied with the beginning end. In both cases the intent is to close cavity openings and secure the chicken's limbs to his body to prevent those parts from drying out during the roasting.
Next the skin is massaged with butter and then and put into a 450 degree oven, breast side up. After 10 minutes turn him onto his right side and salt. In another 10 minutes baste and then turn him onto his left side. Ten minutes later baste again and lower the temperature to 350 degrees. In another ten baste again and ten later toss into the bottom of the pan a chopped onion and carrot while you are basting. In ten more return the guy to his original position, salt, baste, and continue basting every ten minutes until his thighs are tender when pressed, legs move easily in their sockets, and his juices are yellow when he is picked up and drained. Then let him rest 20 minutes before carving to allow the juices to retreat back into the flesh. Of course, during his rest period you should throw a tablespoon or two of diced shallots into the roasting pan and saute with a half cup each of chicken broth and white wine, letting it reduce while scraping up the goodness left from the roasting. This sauce can be made perfect by adding a couple of tablespoons of butter and served along with the carved bird.
Julia then begins a detailed description of how to properly carve a capon. But by then I had had enough-it was time to eat. Unfortunately she would not allow me to perform my 'is it actually done' test, which is to stab him deep in the thigh with a fork and watch to be sure that all the juices that run out are clear. If I had done that I would have seen that not all the juices were clear and I would have put that guy back in the oven for ten minutes. But Julia would see this as a sacriligious waste of precious juice, and since I am doing a year of Julia, I relied on her testing methods, which are frankly less accurate.
The result was that I felt some of the meat was a bit short of done and I refused to eat it. The Main Eater charged on fearlessly with no ill effects whatsoever.
Beyond that, this was a huge amount of work and fussing for precious little benefit. I believe that a chicken can be washed, salt and peppered in the cavity, baked for an hour at 350 degrees, stabbed in the thigh to confirm doneness, and then eaten. All this trussing, basting, worrying and carving is time that can be better spent doing almost anything else.
The Bottom Line
To Roast a Large Chicken or Capon: Thumbs Down
She begins by directing the cook to remove the wishbone, but I couldn't figure that part of it out, so I proceeded to the "first thrust". This involved inserting the huge trussing needle, in this case a carpet needle, through the carcass under the knee and out the other side. This is followed by turning the wings 'akimbo' (wasn't sure exactly what that meant) and spearing both of them plus the neck skin and ending up where you originally started at the first knee, then tie the two ends together. The next and final thrust begins at the ankle end of one leg, proceeds through the end of the breast bone and continues on through the other ankle, circles back through the tail and then is tied with the beginning end. In both cases the intent is to close cavity openings and secure the chicken's limbs to his body to prevent those parts from drying out during the roasting.
Next the skin is massaged with butter and then and put into a 450 degree oven, breast side up. After 10 minutes turn him onto his right side and salt. In another 10 minutes baste and then turn him onto his left side. Ten minutes later baste again and lower the temperature to 350 degrees. In another ten baste again and ten later toss into the bottom of the pan a chopped onion and carrot while you are basting. In ten more return the guy to his original position, salt, baste, and continue basting every ten minutes until his thighs are tender when pressed, legs move easily in their sockets, and his juices are yellow when he is picked up and drained. Then let him rest 20 minutes before carving to allow the juices to retreat back into the flesh. Of course, during his rest period you should throw a tablespoon or two of diced shallots into the roasting pan and saute with a half cup each of chicken broth and white wine, letting it reduce while scraping up the goodness left from the roasting. This sauce can be made perfect by adding a couple of tablespoons of butter and served along with the carved bird.
Julia then begins a detailed description of how to properly carve a capon. But by then I had had enough-it was time to eat. Unfortunately she would not allow me to perform my 'is it actually done' test, which is to stab him deep in the thigh with a fork and watch to be sure that all the juices that run out are clear. If I had done that I would have seen that not all the juices were clear and I would have put that guy back in the oven for ten minutes. But Julia would see this as a sacriligious waste of precious juice, and since I am doing a year of Julia, I relied on her testing methods, which are frankly less accurate.
The result was that I felt some of the meat was a bit short of done and I refused to eat it. The Main Eater charged on fearlessly with no ill effects whatsoever.
Beyond that, this was a huge amount of work and fussing for precious little benefit. I believe that a chicken can be washed, salt and peppered in the cavity, baked for an hour at 350 degrees, stabbed in the thigh to confirm doneness, and then eaten. All this trussing, basting, worrying and carving is time that can be better spent doing almost anything else.
The Bottom Line
To Roast a Large Chicken or Capon: Thumbs Down
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Julia's First 'Second Wednesday'
My grandfather, Cecil Cyril Shore, immigrated to Seattle from California's San Joaquin valley with his wife and three daughters while my mother was still in high school. She and her two sisters all married local boys and each had three children of her own which made nine of us first cousins who grew up here. Of the nine of us, seven still live here and have produced fourteen additional Shores and more of the next generation are arriving all the time. Everyone who cares to attend is invited to dinner at my mom and dad's house on the second Wednesday of each month. I make my famous spaghetti, Mom makes her famous green salad with seafood and garlic bread (see 9/29/9 blog)and we all sit around, drink wine, eat too much and then commence to bragging and lying.
But now I'm cooking Julia for a year, so spaghetti and is out and legs are in. She has several 'masters' that involve cooking whole legs and even though The Main Eater can hold his own against all comers in the eating category he can't eat a whole leg. Well, except chicken, but not a lamb or pig, so I am recruiting Shores, who also count many legendary eaters among their ranks. Their first assignment came last Wednesday when they took on Roast Leg of Lamb, Potatoes Dauphinoise and Braised Endive.
I am trying very hard to be better organized for these events, so I made a list of each task, when it needed to begin and then joyfully crossed them off as they were accomplished. Nevertheless, as dinner hour approached and things were, as usual, not complete, I began to despair. That's when I met Ian Stone. He is a friend of my daughter Alyss, and since it was her birthday she had invited a few brave friends to mingle with the hoards of Shores that evening.
The problem I ran into was actually not of my making. I blame Julia. She said that a 7-8 pound leg of lamb should roast at 350 degrees 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours and then rest for 20 minutes before carving, meaning it should go into the oven at 5:00, which it did. Well it looked like a heap of meat to get done in that amount of time to me, but who am I to argue with her? It turns out that I should have because dinner had been promised for 7:00 PM and the main event wasn't ready to exit the oven until 8:00, which put dinner on the table at 8:30. Again.
I ran into a similar situation with the Potatoes Dauphinoise (French for scalloped potatoes). She gives specific instructions for using Yukon Gold potatoes, slicing them 1/8" thick, putting them into a casserole 1 1/2" - 2" deep and adding boiling milk to 3/4 of the way to the top of the dish (also salt, pepper, butter and pureed garlic) before baking them for 25 minutes at 425 degrees. They were done just when the lamb was done, which was about an hour after they were supposed to be done. And, sad to say, they might not have been worth the wait.
The Braised Endive is made with Belgian Endive, which appears on your grocer's shelves as dainty pale-green oblong heads, usually covered by a blanket. That is not to protect them from the cold but because exposure to light makes them develop a bitter flavor. In fact they are grown in the dark much the same as commercial mushrooms are grown. But despite the fact that they are a delicate type of lettuce, Julia braises them in water, salt, lemon juice and (of course) butter, for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. As she so often does, she starts the recipe by having the cook bring the dish to a boil on top of the stove. I was then directed to wait for the liquid to reduce by half, cover it with buttered wax paper and put it in the oven at 325 degrees for the remainder of the cooking time, or in this case, until the liquid was evaporated. They were delicious.
But back to the lamb. In addition to roasting the leg Julia also recommends making a sauce by stewing the bones for a few hours with garlic, onion, rosemary, celery, parsley, chicken broth and French vermouth. When the lamb came out of the oven I invited Ian to taste the sauce and make some suggestions. It turns out that his family owned the Captain Whidby restaurant on Whidby Island for 3 generations and that he cooked his first Thanksgiving dinner when he was just twelve years old! In other words he knows his way around a sauce. So he suggests salt, pepper, and vermouth and dumping the whole mess into the roasting pan to absorb the remaining goodness from the roast and accompanying vegetables and then straining it all through a sieve and just like that a wonderful sauce was born. He then proceeded to carve the roast, pronounce the potates done, and the next thing I knew people were eating. Thank you Ian.
The Bottom Line:
Roast Leg of Lamb & Sauce-Thumbs Up
Potatoes Dauphinoise-Thumbs Down
Braised Endive-Thumbs Up
But now I'm cooking Julia for a year, so spaghetti and is out and legs are in. She has several 'masters' that involve cooking whole legs and even though The Main Eater can hold his own against all comers in the eating category he can't eat a whole leg. Well, except chicken, but not a lamb or pig, so I am recruiting Shores, who also count many legendary eaters among their ranks. Their first assignment came last Wednesday when they took on Roast Leg of Lamb, Potatoes Dauphinoise and Braised Endive.
I am trying very hard to be better organized for these events, so I made a list of each task, when it needed to begin and then joyfully crossed them off as they were accomplished. Nevertheless, as dinner hour approached and things were, as usual, not complete, I began to despair. That's when I met Ian Stone. He is a friend of my daughter Alyss, and since it was her birthday she had invited a few brave friends to mingle with the hoards of Shores that evening.
The problem I ran into was actually not of my making. I blame Julia. She said that a 7-8 pound leg of lamb should roast at 350 degrees 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours and then rest for 20 minutes before carving, meaning it should go into the oven at 5:00, which it did. Well it looked like a heap of meat to get done in that amount of time to me, but who am I to argue with her? It turns out that I should have because dinner had been promised for 7:00 PM and the main event wasn't ready to exit the oven until 8:00, which put dinner on the table at 8:30. Again.
I ran into a similar situation with the Potatoes Dauphinoise (French for scalloped potatoes). She gives specific instructions for using Yukon Gold potatoes, slicing them 1/8" thick, putting them into a casserole 1 1/2" - 2" deep and adding boiling milk to 3/4 of the way to the top of the dish (also salt, pepper, butter and pureed garlic) before baking them for 25 minutes at 425 degrees. They were done just when the lamb was done, which was about an hour after they were supposed to be done. And, sad to say, they might not have been worth the wait.
The Braised Endive is made with Belgian Endive, which appears on your grocer's shelves as dainty pale-green oblong heads, usually covered by a blanket. That is not to protect them from the cold but because exposure to light makes them develop a bitter flavor. In fact they are grown in the dark much the same as commercial mushrooms are grown. But despite the fact that they are a delicate type of lettuce, Julia braises them in water, salt, lemon juice and (of course) butter, for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. As she so often does, she starts the recipe by having the cook bring the dish to a boil on top of the stove. I was then directed to wait for the liquid to reduce by half, cover it with buttered wax paper and put it in the oven at 325 degrees for the remainder of the cooking time, or in this case, until the liquid was evaporated. They were delicious.
But back to the lamb. In addition to roasting the leg Julia also recommends making a sauce by stewing the bones for a few hours with garlic, onion, rosemary, celery, parsley, chicken broth and French vermouth. When the lamb came out of the oven I invited Ian to taste the sauce and make some suggestions. It turns out that his family owned the Captain Whidby restaurant on Whidby Island for 3 generations and that he cooked his first Thanksgiving dinner when he was just twelve years old! In other words he knows his way around a sauce. So he suggests salt, pepper, and vermouth and dumping the whole mess into the roasting pan to absorb the remaining goodness from the roast and accompanying vegetables and then straining it all through a sieve and just like that a wonderful sauce was born. He then proceeded to carve the roast, pronounce the potates done, and the next thing I knew people were eating. Thank you Ian.
The Bottom Line:
Roast Leg of Lamb & Sauce-Thumbs Up
Potatoes Dauphinoise-Thumbs Down
Braised Endive-Thumbs Up
Friday, October 16, 2009
The Babe's Birthday
Alyss turned 23 this week and she did not want a Twinky Cake to celebrate, in fact she did not want a cake at all, but she has a mother so she will have a cake. Julia is a bit skimpy on her cakes, only listing two master recipes, the Spongecake and Genoise. The Spongecake was listed first in her book so that's where I started.
Right off the bat I was a little perplexed by the size of the cake. She recommends slicing it in two, which I could not understand. Why cut it in two when you can just make it in two cake pans? Unfortunately I did not find her list of equipment until 8 pages and two cakes later, when I discovered that she uses 2" cake pans. They are on my list to pick up this weekend, but meanwhile the spongecakes were baked in the standard 1.25" pans that we all have.
She starts you out creaming the sugar,egg yolks and vanilla. Then you continue by beating the egg whites with some cream of tartar, salt and sugar until they form stiff peaks. The interesting part is that at this point you begin taking turns folding the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and then sifting in a little flour. And I am serious about the 'little' part. The entire cake only takes 9 tablespoons of flour! When it is all folded together, add a few tablespoons of tepid melted butter and pour it into your greased and floured pans.
Unfortunately after baking they were only about 3/4" high, which isn't high enough to be a cake you are proud of, so I made a second round of cakes. It seemed like it was becoming a big job.
But that was before I began the frosting. Julia doesn't even have a 'master' for frosting, but she does include some recipes, so I chose the French Butter-Cream appearing on p. 468 in The Way to Cook. I knew I was into BIG COOKING when step one directed me to make a sugar syrup by cooking it to the soft ball stage. I always rely on the thermometer for this because I never have the self assurance to confidently proclaim 'soft ball stage' before it has progressed on to 'hard ball stage', which is also 'start over' stage. When your syrup is ready pour it in a steady stream into a previously beaten mixture of 2 eggs and 6 egg yolks. While you are pouring you need to also be mixing furiously with your wire whip to keep the eggs from cooking and the syrup from hardening. Yikes! Pretty soon I had a big glob of hardened syrup hanging onto the end of my whip so I quickly poured it all into my stand mixer and mixed away until it was, incredibly, perfect. Now you have to beat this mixture over barely simmering hot water to heat the eggs enough to cook them and save your guests from salmonella. She didn't suggest a double boiler and I wasn't smart enough to realize I needed one until I had tried unsuccessfully to get it hot enough with various other contrivances. Finally it was hot, and then you have to turn around and beat it over ice cubes to get it cold enough to add an entire pound of butter without melting it.
This was lots of work. Everyone who looked at the cake gained a pound and those of us who ate some gained more. It tasted good, and the entire thing got eaten, but I thought it was a bit dense, which I blamed on the fact that I baked them in two pans, creating more surface area which allowed for more drying out.
The Bottom Line
Spongecake-Thumbs Down
Right off the bat I was a little perplexed by the size of the cake. She recommends slicing it in two, which I could not understand. Why cut it in two when you can just make it in two cake pans? Unfortunately I did not find her list of equipment until 8 pages and two cakes later, when I discovered that she uses 2" cake pans. They are on my list to pick up this weekend, but meanwhile the spongecakes were baked in the standard 1.25" pans that we all have.
She starts you out creaming the sugar,egg yolks and vanilla. Then you continue by beating the egg whites with some cream of tartar, salt and sugar until they form stiff peaks. The interesting part is that at this point you begin taking turns folding the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and then sifting in a little flour. And I am serious about the 'little' part. The entire cake only takes 9 tablespoons of flour! When it is all folded together, add a few tablespoons of tepid melted butter and pour it into your greased and floured pans.
Unfortunately after baking they were only about 3/4" high, which isn't high enough to be a cake you are proud of, so I made a second round of cakes. It seemed like it was becoming a big job.
But that was before I began the frosting. Julia doesn't even have a 'master' for frosting, but she does include some recipes, so I chose the French Butter-Cream appearing on p. 468 in The Way to Cook. I knew I was into BIG COOKING when step one directed me to make a sugar syrup by cooking it to the soft ball stage. I always rely on the thermometer for this because I never have the self assurance to confidently proclaim 'soft ball stage' before it has progressed on to 'hard ball stage', which is also 'start over' stage. When your syrup is ready pour it in a steady stream into a previously beaten mixture of 2 eggs and 6 egg yolks. While you are pouring you need to also be mixing furiously with your wire whip to keep the eggs from cooking and the syrup from hardening. Yikes! Pretty soon I had a big glob of hardened syrup hanging onto the end of my whip so I quickly poured it all into my stand mixer and mixed away until it was, incredibly, perfect. Now you have to beat this mixture over barely simmering hot water to heat the eggs enough to cook them and save your guests from salmonella. She didn't suggest a double boiler and I wasn't smart enough to realize I needed one until I had tried unsuccessfully to get it hot enough with various other contrivances. Finally it was hot, and then you have to turn around and beat it over ice cubes to get it cold enough to add an entire pound of butter without melting it.
This was lots of work. Everyone who looked at the cake gained a pound and those of us who ate some gained more. It tasted good, and the entire thing got eaten, but I thought it was a bit dense, which I blamed on the fact that I baked them in two pans, creating more surface area which allowed for more drying out.
The Bottom Line
Spongecake-Thumbs Down
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
First Tuesday with Anna & Steve
We have a business meeting with our good friends and business partners, Anna & Steve Magillicutty (names changed to protect the innocent) on the first Tuesday of each month. The meeting is technically supposed to be at their house but they, conveniently, have no kitchen, so here we are. Since we're here and I'm doing a year of Julia, this month might as well be fabulous. Oh, one more caveat: Anna is a committed Weight Watcher, so everything must be low fat, low calorie and high fiber.
Last night's dinner was:
Appetizer: Cantaloupe wrapped in fat-trimmed Parma ham paired with Prosecco
Soup: Low-fat, homemade Chicken Vegetable Soup paired with Pinot Grigio
Entree: Scallops simmered in white wine; brown and wild rice and carrot and celery sticks with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and basil
Dessert: Red pears and Honey Crisp apples
If you haven't already tried Parma ham go directly to the deli. It is delicious. But so is cantaloupe and I am not sure either of them are improved by putting them together-not to mention that the trimming, peeling and wrapping become exceedingly tedious.
The soup was great. The broth was salvaged from the Chicken Simmered in White Wine from the night before and the vegetables and chicken added in accordance with Julia's Chicken Vegetable Soup recipe. I regularly make very good soup, but I may tend to over do the vegetables and her light delicate recipe is delicous.
The scallop recipe called for them to be simmered in white wine and shallots for 2 minutes, steeped in the broth for 10 minutes, then removed and the broth reduced until thickened and poured over them before serving. However, by then I was tired of waiting and one never knows how long this reduction thing is going to take so I just served them 'au naturel'. Unfortunately scallops alone have a very light flavor and without the additional boost from the sauce they were essentially tasteless.
The rest of the meal: the carrots, celery, tomatoes, pears, apples and rice (available in the bulk foods section of Central Market in Shoreline) were all served as they were born, which was perfect.
The Bottom Line
Cantaloupe Wrapped in Parma Ham-Thumbs Down
Chicken Vegetable Soup-Thumbs Up
Scallops Simmered in White Wine-Thumbs Down
Last night's dinner was:
Appetizer: Cantaloupe wrapped in fat-trimmed Parma ham paired with Prosecco
Soup: Low-fat, homemade Chicken Vegetable Soup paired with Pinot Grigio
Entree: Scallops simmered in white wine; brown and wild rice and carrot and celery sticks with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and basil
Dessert: Red pears and Honey Crisp apples
If you haven't already tried Parma ham go directly to the deli. It is delicious. But so is cantaloupe and I am not sure either of them are improved by putting them together-not to mention that the trimming, peeling and wrapping become exceedingly tedious.
The soup was great. The broth was salvaged from the Chicken Simmered in White Wine from the night before and the vegetables and chicken added in accordance with Julia's Chicken Vegetable Soup recipe. I regularly make very good soup, but I may tend to over do the vegetables and her light delicate recipe is delicous.
The scallop recipe called for them to be simmered in white wine and shallots for 2 minutes, steeped in the broth for 10 minutes, then removed and the broth reduced until thickened and poured over them before serving. However, by then I was tired of waiting and one never knows how long this reduction thing is going to take so I just served them 'au naturel'. Unfortunately scallops alone have a very light flavor and without the additional boost from the sauce they were essentially tasteless.
The rest of the meal: the carrots, celery, tomatoes, pears, apples and rice (available in the bulk foods section of Central Market in Shoreline) were all served as they were born, which was perfect.
The Bottom Line
Cantaloupe Wrapped in Parma Ham-Thumbs Down
Chicken Vegetable Soup-Thumbs Up
Scallops Simmered in White Wine-Thumbs Down
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
I fixed you 3 Julias so sit down and eat
No matter how hard I try to plan ahead I still seem to find myself behind the 8-ball. About 3 weeks ago I bought an organic chicken at the Sunday market, the kind that had a great life until somebody whacked his head off, and threw it into the freezer. Yesterday I planned to make Julia's roasted chicken and took him out to thaw. While he was getting ready I read Julia's instructions which included trussing, which is sewing up the neck and hind end of the bird to keep stuffing in and keep the limbs close to the rest of the bird so that they don't dry out before the rest of the bird is done.
So, off to the store. Of course all the store has is the equipment to truss a turkey which isn't going to work at all because it doesn't include a needle, just these metal hooks to hold the skin together, but I buy them anyway. I hate that store.
When I get back I dump the thawed chicken out of the bag into the sink and much to my surprise a bunch of chicken pieces fall out-and there isn't going to be any need for trussing because there isn't going to be any roasted chicken. I consider despair but instead decide to consult the cookbook again to see what options might be available for chicken pieces. Unbelievably there is a master recipe called Chicken Simmered in White Wine for which I not only have all the equipment I also have most of the ingredients. Let's cook.
It is in the easy as pie category and requires leeks, carrots and celery to be washed, trimmed, peeled and julienned and then put into a pot along with the chicken pieces, 1.5 cups of dry white wine, salt, pepper, tarragon, bay leaf and then chicken broth added to cover it all. Simmer 25 minutes and eat. When we got to that point the Main Eater commented that when the Queen of England comes to dinner I should fix something else because I make a lot of stuff that takes a whole lot better. It is possible that it would have been better if I had actually used chicken broth, but all I had was beef broth so that may have effected the flavor some, even though I maintain that the flavor is very similar. Also I simmered it about 45 minutes instead of the 25 and that may have contributed to the breasts being a bit dry. I usually eat the dark meat which is rarely dry no matter what you do to it.
In addition to the chicken we also had steamed rice, or as Julia calls it, "Plain Boiled Rice" and blanched broccolli. Her recipe for rice is very similar to the one on the rice box: 2 parts water to 1 part rice, salt to taste and add a little olive oil or butter if you want. But them all together in a pan with a tight fitting lid, bring to a boil for 2 minutes, turn the heat down to low for 18 minutes, taste to be sure it a almost done, and then remove from the heat and let it stand for another 5 minutes. Use a fork to fluff it and transfer it into the serving dish because a fork will not break the rice grains. Delicious. One important thing with rice is to measure the water and rice accurately using the same measuring cup for both of them.
She recommends blanching broccoli because steaming it deminishes the color. Cut the flowerettes into smallish pieces that are similar in size and peel the stems if you are not cutting them off. Be sure there is enough water in the pan to cover the brocolli, salt it, and then bring to a rolling boil. Now add the broccoli and boil for 4 minutes and then drain immediately.
I will probably use all these recipes again. The chicken is easy, fast, relatively inexpensive and low calorie which puts it into the trifecta + category. In addition the broth can then be used to make a soup the next day. While there was nothing particularly different about the rice directions they were exact, easy to follow and resulted in a great product. Blanching the broccoli was faster than my normal steaming and may well have brought out a more vibrant color.
The Bottom Line
Chicken Simmered in White Wine-Thumbs Up
Plain Boiled Rice-Thumbs Up
Blanched Broccoli-Thumbs Up
So, off to the store. Of course all the store has is the equipment to truss a turkey which isn't going to work at all because it doesn't include a needle, just these metal hooks to hold the skin together, but I buy them anyway. I hate that store.
When I get back I dump the thawed chicken out of the bag into the sink and much to my surprise a bunch of chicken pieces fall out-and there isn't going to be any need for trussing because there isn't going to be any roasted chicken. I consider despair but instead decide to consult the cookbook again to see what options might be available for chicken pieces. Unbelievably there is a master recipe called Chicken Simmered in White Wine for which I not only have all the equipment I also have most of the ingredients. Let's cook.
It is in the easy as pie category and requires leeks, carrots and celery to be washed, trimmed, peeled and julienned and then put into a pot along with the chicken pieces, 1.5 cups of dry white wine, salt, pepper, tarragon, bay leaf and then chicken broth added to cover it all. Simmer 25 minutes and eat. When we got to that point the Main Eater commented that when the Queen of England comes to dinner I should fix something else because I make a lot of stuff that takes a whole lot better. It is possible that it would have been better if I had actually used chicken broth, but all I had was beef broth so that may have effected the flavor some, even though I maintain that the flavor is very similar. Also I simmered it about 45 minutes instead of the 25 and that may have contributed to the breasts being a bit dry. I usually eat the dark meat which is rarely dry no matter what you do to it.
In addition to the chicken we also had steamed rice, or as Julia calls it, "Plain Boiled Rice" and blanched broccolli. Her recipe for rice is very similar to the one on the rice box: 2 parts water to 1 part rice, salt to taste and add a little olive oil or butter if you want. But them all together in a pan with a tight fitting lid, bring to a boil for 2 minutes, turn the heat down to low for 18 minutes, taste to be sure it a almost done, and then remove from the heat and let it stand for another 5 minutes. Use a fork to fluff it and transfer it into the serving dish because a fork will not break the rice grains. Delicious. One important thing with rice is to measure the water and rice accurately using the same measuring cup for both of them.
She recommends blanching broccoli because steaming it deminishes the color. Cut the flowerettes into smallish pieces that are similar in size and peel the stems if you are not cutting them off. Be sure there is enough water in the pan to cover the brocolli, salt it, and then bring to a rolling boil. Now add the broccoli and boil for 4 minutes and then drain immediately.
I will probably use all these recipes again. The chicken is easy, fast, relatively inexpensive and low calorie which puts it into the trifecta + category. In addition the broth can then be used to make a soup the next day. While there was nothing particularly different about the rice directions they were exact, easy to follow and resulted in a great product. Blanching the broccoli was faster than my normal steaming and may well have brought out a more vibrant color.
The Bottom Line
Chicken Simmered in White Wine-Thumbs Up
Plain Boiled Rice-Thumbs Up
Blanched Broccoli-Thumbs Up
`
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Twilight Bunco
Every year about this time my neighbor and I hostess a party where we wine and dine a bunch of our friends and then try to take all their money in a dice game called Bunco. Unfortunately they usually end up taking all our money, but the more important thing is that we have a hilarious evening with a bunch of whooping and hollering and carrying on.
This year, in deference to the fact that we live around the corner from vampire central (Forks), we asked Edward to supply the meat which I used to make the celebrated dish from the Julia movie, Boeuf Bourguignon, accompanied by a green salad, garlic bread (in case Edward was still hanging around) and Julia's French Puff Pastry with raspberries and whipped cream.
As has happened so often in this quest, the first thing I discovered was that I didn't have all the equipment. Some of her recipes list 'Essential Equipment' and in the pastry recipe she listed a rolling pin 16"-18" long. I just assumed mine was in that vicinity until I measured it and got the bad news that in fact it was only 10". So off to the store, and then the next store and then the next store and finally at the 5th store, Bed Bath & Beyond, they had a monster 18-incher for only $8. While I felt like like a victor for having located one at a reasonable price I had also squandered almost 2 hours and what had been an ample time budget and I was once again approaching a critical situation.
The first item on my cooking agenda was the French Puff Pastry. Since I have become better acquainted with Julia I have come to expect some butter to be part of most of her recipes, but this pastry was literally half butter! The ingredients are 6.5 sticks of unsalted butter, 4 cups of flour and a little salt. That's it. You begin by dicing all the butter into little mini cubes, and then putting them with the flour into your mixer using the flat beater attachment. I didn't even know what a 'flat beater' attachment was, but after Googling it, I was extremely pleased to discover that I had one. And I think that turned out to be my undoing.
Julia was quite proud to have developed a recipe that utilized a mixer instead of the traditional hand method, and of course I was quite happy to be using the mixer instead of doing all that mixing by hand, but now that I have a greater understanding of the recipe I think all that hand mixing may be the key to success. The essence of this dough is many many alternating layers of flour and butter which are acheived by mixing them, rolling them out, folding it over, rolling it out again, folding, and so on. She actually suggests that the final product, the result of 6 turns, consists of at least 730 leaves of dough. While I don't quite understand the math behind that figure, I now realize that since it does not contain any leavening, the thing that makes French Puff Pastry puff up is the fat melting into the many layers of flour and causing them to become rigid, thereby creating many impossibly thin distinct layers separated by air and drenched in butter. Delicious, except that mine didn't really puff that much, which I believe was caused by the mixer overly mixing the flour and butter. It was, sad to say, a 'do over'.
Not so the Boeuf Bourguignon. The master recipe in this case is Zinfandel of Beef, or beef stewed in red wine. She recommends a fat-trimmed 3-4 pound roast of either round or chuck because they tend to maintain their shape during an extended simmer. The meat is cut into 1-2 inch cubes, dried with a paper towel, and browned in vegetable oil. Next saute the carrots in the same pan and then put it all into a large pot, adding tomatoes, smashed skin-on garlic, bay leaf, thyme, salt and lots of red wine-until it is deep enough to cover the meat. Simmer 2.5-3 hours, strain the broth, reserving the meat, and discard the vegetables. To thicken the broth whisk in a Buerre Manie, a paste made by combining 1 T butter and 1 T of flour per cup of broth, adding it to the stew and then briefly returning it to a boil.
While this completes the stew, but it does not make it Boeuf Bourguignon, which requires a couple of more ingredients. The first is 24 tiny white onions, which need to be skinned, (boil for 1 minute, shave off the root end and the skin will come right off) sauteed in clarified butter and finally simmered in a little chicken broth for 25 minutes. The second is 3 cups of mushrooms, which should be quartered and then fried at a high heat in a little olive oil and butter. Plop both of these into the stew and now you have Boeuf Bourguignon. And it lives up to its reputation.
I also served my family's famous garlic bread and I will include my recipe for that here too. Melt 1.25 sticks of butter in a sauce pan and add at least 4 peeled and mashed cloves of garlic, allowing them to saute for several minutes. Remove the garlic and apply the butter with a pastry brush to a baguette sliced lengthwise. Then broil it a couple of inches from the broiler until it is browned but not burned, watching it the whole time or it will certainly end up burned rather than browned.
The party turned out great although it was not without incident. We had barely begun to play when another of our neighbors dropped by to announce that a couple of emergency vehicles were down the street at my parents' house with their lights flashing. Luckily that turned out to be indigestion rather than a heart attack and play resumed shortly. Then, as I was preheating the oven to bake the pastry, some of the players (and the smoke detector) noticed that the air was getting fairly dense. That turned out to be the result of a grease fire in the oven caused by butter run-off from the garlic bread. That disaster was also narrowly averted and in the end the Bunco Babes loved all the food because even flat French Puff Pastry tastes delicious with fresh raspberries and whipped cream.
The Bottom Line
Zinfandel of Beef: Thumbs Up
French Puff Pastry: Do Over
Garlic Bread: Thumbs Up
This year, in deference to the fact that we live around the corner from vampire central (Forks), we asked Edward to supply the meat which I used to make the celebrated dish from the Julia movie, Boeuf Bourguignon, accompanied by a green salad, garlic bread (in case Edward was still hanging around) and Julia's French Puff Pastry with raspberries and whipped cream.
As has happened so often in this quest, the first thing I discovered was that I didn't have all the equipment. Some of her recipes list 'Essential Equipment' and in the pastry recipe she listed a rolling pin 16"-18" long. I just assumed mine was in that vicinity until I measured it and got the bad news that in fact it was only 10". So off to the store, and then the next store and then the next store and finally at the 5th store, Bed Bath & Beyond, they had a monster 18-incher for only $8. While I felt like like a victor for having located one at a reasonable price I had also squandered almost 2 hours and what had been an ample time budget and I was once again approaching a critical situation.
The first item on my cooking agenda was the French Puff Pastry. Since I have become better acquainted with Julia I have come to expect some butter to be part of most of her recipes, but this pastry was literally half butter! The ingredients are 6.5 sticks of unsalted butter, 4 cups of flour and a little salt. That's it. You begin by dicing all the butter into little mini cubes, and then putting them with the flour into your mixer using the flat beater attachment. I didn't even know what a 'flat beater' attachment was, but after Googling it, I was extremely pleased to discover that I had one. And I think that turned out to be my undoing.
Julia was quite proud to have developed a recipe that utilized a mixer instead of the traditional hand method, and of course I was quite happy to be using the mixer instead of doing all that mixing by hand, but now that I have a greater understanding of the recipe I think all that hand mixing may be the key to success. The essence of this dough is many many alternating layers of flour and butter which are acheived by mixing them, rolling them out, folding it over, rolling it out again, folding, and so on. She actually suggests that the final product, the result of 6 turns, consists of at least 730 leaves of dough. While I don't quite understand the math behind that figure, I now realize that since it does not contain any leavening, the thing that makes French Puff Pastry puff up is the fat melting into the many layers of flour and causing them to become rigid, thereby creating many impossibly thin distinct layers separated by air and drenched in butter. Delicious, except that mine didn't really puff that much, which I believe was caused by the mixer overly mixing the flour and butter. It was, sad to say, a 'do over'.
Not so the Boeuf Bourguignon. The master recipe in this case is Zinfandel of Beef, or beef stewed in red wine. She recommends a fat-trimmed 3-4 pound roast of either round or chuck because they tend to maintain their shape during an extended simmer. The meat is cut into 1-2 inch cubes, dried with a paper towel, and browned in vegetable oil. Next saute the carrots in the same pan and then put it all into a large pot, adding tomatoes, smashed skin-on garlic, bay leaf, thyme, salt and lots of red wine-until it is deep enough to cover the meat. Simmer 2.5-3 hours, strain the broth, reserving the meat, and discard the vegetables. To thicken the broth whisk in a Buerre Manie, a paste made by combining 1 T butter and 1 T of flour per cup of broth, adding it to the stew and then briefly returning it to a boil.
While this completes the stew, but it does not make it Boeuf Bourguignon, which requires a couple of more ingredients. The first is 24 tiny white onions, which need to be skinned, (boil for 1 minute, shave off the root end and the skin will come right off) sauteed in clarified butter and finally simmered in a little chicken broth for 25 minutes. The second is 3 cups of mushrooms, which should be quartered and then fried at a high heat in a little olive oil and butter. Plop both of these into the stew and now you have Boeuf Bourguignon. And it lives up to its reputation.
I also served my family's famous garlic bread and I will include my recipe for that here too. Melt 1.25 sticks of butter in a sauce pan and add at least 4 peeled and mashed cloves of garlic, allowing them to saute for several minutes. Remove the garlic and apply the butter with a pastry brush to a baguette sliced lengthwise. Then broil it a couple of inches from the broiler until it is browned but not burned, watching it the whole time or it will certainly end up burned rather than browned.
The party turned out great although it was not without incident. We had barely begun to play when another of our neighbors dropped by to announce that a couple of emergency vehicles were down the street at my parents' house with their lights flashing. Luckily that turned out to be indigestion rather than a heart attack and play resumed shortly. Then, as I was preheating the oven to bake the pastry, some of the players (and the smoke detector) noticed that the air was getting fairly dense. That turned out to be the result of a grease fire in the oven caused by butter run-off from the garlic bread. That disaster was also narrowly averted and in the end the Bunco Babes loved all the food because even flat French Puff Pastry tastes delicious with fresh raspberries and whipped cream.
The Bottom Line
Zinfandel of Beef: Thumbs Up
French Puff Pastry: Do Over
Garlic Bread: Thumbs Up
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Hot Salsa
I sent Adrienne a text this morning consisting of one word, "Market?". About 6 seconds later there are footsteps on the porch. Apparently we had already made plans a week ago to can salsa today so it was convenient that I was ready to go. The Ballard Sunday Farmers Market is a lovely place with beautiful vegetables and fruits and flowers and musicians and everybody in a great mood, but it is not a fast place to shop. It also does not have all the stuff you need, so including the other stores and the coffee shop we had 3 hours invested before we ever saw the inside of a kitchen.
This salsa recipe came from the wife of a printer who did some work for me a couple of decades ago. Everybody has a great recipe for something, so make sure you get it from them. This recipe will make about 6 pints and if you decide to can it you should put it into hot clean jars and process it in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
A Big Shout Out to Sue!!
Thanks for tuning in.
This salsa recipe came from the wife of a printer who did some work for me a couple of decades ago. Everybody has a great recipe for something, so make sure you get it from them. This recipe will make about 6 pints and if you decide to can it you should put it into hot clean jars and process it in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
8-10 large ripe tomatoes, peeled
2 large red onions
2 green peppers
1 red pepper
2 Anaheim peppers
3 Jalapeno peppers
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 can tomato paste-6 oz
1 T salt
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 t. chili powder
2 T fresh cilantro or 1/2 t. dried (or to taste)
1/2 t. strong oregano (such as Mexican)
To peel the tomatoes drop them into boiling water for 1 minute, promptly remove them and put them into ice water and the skins should slip right off. Unfortunately dicing them will still be tedious. Next chop the peppers and onions. A food processor works fine for this but you will need to do some additional hand chopping to get the long thin slices to a shorter length. Then put all the ingredients into a pan large enough to hold them, such as a stock pot, and bring to a simmer for 30 minutes being ever watchful that it does not burn on the bottom.
A Big Shout Out to Sue!!
Thanks for tuning in.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Kay's Recipes
Pickled Beans. 9/14/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Neiman Marcus Cookies. 9/15/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Canned Pears. 9/23/9 Blog. Undecided
Twinky Cake. 9/23/9 Blog. Thumbs Down
Caprese Salad. 9/26/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Hot Salsa. 9/27/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Garlic Bread 9/29/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Pots of Berries 11/10/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Roasted Red Potatoes 11/17/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Kay's Pot Roast 12/14/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Neiman Marcus Cookies. 9/15/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Canned Pears. 9/23/9 Blog. Undecided
Twinky Cake. 9/23/9 Blog. Thumbs Down
Caprese Salad. 9/26/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Hot Salsa. 9/27/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Garlic Bread 9/29/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Pots of Berries 11/10/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Roasted Red Potatoes 11/17/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Kay's Pot Roast 12/14/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Julia's First Dinner Party (@ Kay's)
Menu
Caprese Salad
Baguette with Olive Oil & Basalmic Vinegar
Braised Whole Salmon
Celery Victor
Saffron Rice
Poached Pears
Lemon Sorbet
This was a lot of cooking. I began with the Lemon Sorbet. Julia says the only difference between a sorbet and a sherbet is the speaker, 'sorbet' users being snootier than 'sherbet' users. You can see which I am.
Nobody should make both Lemon Sorbet and Poached Pears in the same day because they both require lemon zest and zesting is a tedious task. It requires the cook to peel just the colored part off the skin of a citrus fruit, leaving the white part of the rind behind. Julia recommends using a vegetable peeler. I thought I knew better and started out with a grater, but eventually surrendered to her expertise and went the peeler route. Either way it takes longer than you want to spend.
After securing your zest from 4-6 lemons you combine it with 1 cup of sugar in a blender for 2 minutes, then add 1.5 cups of water and continue to blend for another 2 minutes. Next put that mixture plus an additional cup of sugar into a saucepan and bring to a boil until the sugar is completely dissolved. Now remove it from the heat; add 3 cups of water and 1 cup of lemon juice that you have extracted from the lemons that you previously zested. Set the pan over a bowl of ice water and stir several minutes until well chilled. Whisk in 2 egg whites that you have beaten until foamy and then put the entire mixture into your ice cream maker. I use a Donvier which has a canister filled with this miracle liquid that you just keep in the freezer. When you want to make ice cream you take it out, fill it with your ice cream mix and then turn the crank several turns every 3 minutes for about 45 minutes.
Immediately after the Sorbet I got onto the Poached Pears. Julia lists Apple Compote as the Master Recipe here, but if you refer to the next page she lists the pear variation, which was my choice. I used Bosc pears, because of their firmer texture and after my lengthy lesson in how to tell when a pear is ripe last weekend, I feel like I am an expert in testing the base of the stem for readiness. The pears are peeled, leaving the stem on and slicing a bit off the bottom to flatten them out so they will sit nicely in the pan, and then poached in a syrup made of 2 c dry white wine, 2 T vanilla extract, and the zest and strained juice from 2 lemons. Bring the syrup to a boil to dissolve the sugar, lower the temperature to below simmer, which ended up being about 150 degrees on my candy thgermometer, and then add the pears for 12-15 minutes. Let them cool in the syrup for 1/2 hour and then refrigerate until serving, reserving the syrup to spoon over the fruit on the plate. The fact that I shaved off the bottom was insignificant due to the fact that they floated while cooking which resulted in one side of them being slightly off color. That could probably have been prevented by adding some Fruit Fresh to the syrup.
Still at a dead run, but mightily glad I was done with zesting I started on the Celery Victor. Julia has a different view of celery than I have been exposed to in the past, which is that you only use the hearts. So in this case, the recipe called for 1/2 head per person. All the tougher, stringier stalks are discarded, the tops of the heads cut down to 8", then the remaining innermost tender stalk is split in half and the root end of the stem shaved, being careful to keep the halves intact. The Master Recipe called for a Mirepoix, which is a handful each of diced onions, celery and carrots sauteed until soft in 2 T butter and seasoned with thyme, salt and pepper. The dish is assembled by spreading half the Mirepoix in the bottom of a buttered rectangular baking dish which is close in size to the area required by the celery. Next put the celery in the baking dish, cut side up, salt, and then spread the remaining Mirepoix over the celery. Add chicken stock to 1/3 of the depth of the celery and top with a piece of buttered wax paper. Bring to a boil on the stove, cover tightly with aluminum foil and transfer to a 350-degree oven for at least 30 minutes. Cool in the simmering liquid an additional 30 minutes, then drain reserving the liquid, and place on a serving dish, cut side up.
Now boil the reserved liquid until somewhat thickened and then add 2 t wine vinegar, 1 T Dijon mustard and 1 T diced shallot. Follow this by slowly whisking in 1/3-cup olive oil and then pour over the celery. Let it marinate, basting if necessary, at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours. Then scrape off the remaining marinade, turn cut side down, and garnish with pimentos and anchovies laid in 'X' patterns across the celery and chopped capers, parsley and hard-boiled egg, mixed together, and laid around the ends.
Finally we are on to the Braised Whole Salmon. The first thing I didn't want to do was remortgage my house to buy the salmon, so I started by calling around to the local stores to see what they were charging for fresh whole salmon. The local QFC won hands down with fresh wild-caught Coho (Silver) at $3.99/lb. Julia says a whole salmon should arrive at the table well dressed, with its head and tail on, and I had purchased cucumbers to garnish the transition area from head to flesh, but the fish was already headless, it was too late to find it somewhere else, and once again I was learning the hard lesson of planning ahead.
This recipe begins by sauteing 2 cups of sliced onions and 1 cup each of sliced carrots and celery in 6 T of unsalted butter. While that is cooking wash the salmon inside and out, dry, and oil the outside with a "tasteless cooking oil" such as canola, and salt the inside. When the vegetables are cooked, taste and season them with salt and pepper.
To make this dish you will need a pan large enought to hold the fish, that has a rack. (Of course I didn't have one, so I headed back to the store.) Remove the rack from the pan, lay out a piece of cheesecloth about 4 feet long, place the rack in the center of it, oil it, lay the salmon on it and wrap the salmon and rack together with the cheesecloth, and put them in the pan. Then place the vegetables around the fish and add an herb packet, which is made by tying together a bundle of fresh parsley, fresh thyme and a bay leaf. Pour in 3-4 cups dry white wine and enough chicken stock to a depth of 1". Now heat to a simmer on top of the stove, cover with aluminum foil, and transfer to a 350-degree oven for approximately 45 minutes or until the temperature reaches 150 degrees.
Until this point this recipe had seemed pretty straight forward, but I ran into trouble getting the fish out of the pan intact. The fish was too heavy to grab the cheesecloth and lift it out, the liquid was too hot to put my fingers in to lift the rack and I couldn't figure out how to get any tool under the rack and lift it out, so I ended up burning my fingers and again wondering why in the heck I didn't plan ahead. In addition I had figured that my salmon at 5.5 pounds minus its head, must need to cook the whole 45 minutes because Julia had called for a 4-6 lb. salmon including the head. But it was too done to remain intact by the time I was done removing its skin and bones, so I ended up scrunching it together to be fish-shaped, when in fact it had been reduced to a pile of fish meat.
The final installment of the Braised Whole Salmon was the sauce. The recipe called for boiling the braising liquid down to 1 cup and then adding 1 cup of heavy cream and continue boiling for another couple of minutes and then pouring some of the sauce over the salmon and serving the remainder in a bowl. But I had at least 4 cups of braising liquid and after boiling it down for a half an hour, and still having a long way to go before it was reduced to 1 cup, I took a cup out of it and added the cup of cream. It think the result was less tasty and too thin and in retrospect I would have had another glass of wine and waited it out.
The other items on the menu: Caprese Salad, Saffron Rice and Baguette with Basalmic Vinegar and Olive Oil are not Julia recipes, but are delicious and easy to make. For Caprese Salad slice tomatoes, preferable heirloom, and add a fresh basil leaf and slice of mozzarella cheese, preferably buffalo mozzarella, and a light sprinkling of salt. I buy the package of Vigo Saffron Rice and just make it according to package directions. I currently prefer Mezzetta first cold press Extra Virgin Italian Olive Oil and Napa Valley Naturals cherry wood aged Basalmic Grand Reserve Vinegar with my sliced fresh Baguette (slender loaf of French bread).
We, The Main Eater and I, were pleased to host my brother Bill Gustavson and his fiancee, Pam Senter to our first Julia Dinner Party. We all loved the starters, the Caprese Salad and Baguette. I got rave reviews for the Celery Victor from Bill and Pam. The Main Eater liked it as well until he had the misfortune to bite into an anchovy, but personally I despise cooked celery and while I did try a few bites, it is hard to embrace a food that you just can't stand. Everyone was actually the most enthusiastic about the salmon, probably because they hadn't seen the picture of what it was supposed to look like in Julia's book and because they are used to having salmon overcooked. Everyone but me finished off their pears and I thought the syrup was delicious, but I am not a fan of soft fruit and a poached pear is bound to be soft. My greatest dinner moment was the lemon sorbet, which was topped with a couple of spoonfuls of Aquavit, a Norwegian liqour, and is the only Julia recipe from this dinner that I will make again.
The Bottom Line
Caprese Salad: Thumbs Up
Baguette with Olive Oil and Basalmic Vinegar: Thumbs Up
Celery Victor: Thumbs Up
Braised Whole Salmon: Thumbs Down
Saffron Rice: Thumbs Up
Poached Pears: Thumbs Up
Lemon Sorbet: Thumbs Up
Bon Appetit
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Of Pears and Twinky Cakes
So yesterday was pear canning day. As is so often the case, the first thing that happens is we realize that we should have been getting going on this a few days ago. Well actually a few weeks ago would have been even better because then we could have harvested my neighbor's pears (instead of allowing them to rot on the tree and then bomb my husband's tomatoes). But that ship had already sailed, so we were out shopping for pears. First we hit the Ballard Sunday market, which had lots of pears, but no ripe pears. Then we stopped at Top Banana which had some ripe pears, but not enough, and so it went before 5 stops and 2 hours later we were finally ready to get started.
While the pear shopping expedition had not furthered the cause of getting going on the canning early it had given us the opportunity to discuss pears with lots of grocers. Produce sellers can be a passionate group when it comes to pears and after too much discussion with lots of people we decided to can red pears, which are ready when the top is slightly soft. They seemed to have a sweet good flavor yet a somewhat firmer texture, which is important because pears have to process (can-speak for cook) for a half hour which can easily lead to extremely soft canned pears. In fact that is why I hate canned pears, they are too mushy.
But Adrienne and Sue want to can pears and I hate to miss a party, so pretty soon we are all up to our eyeballs in peeled pears and jars and syrup. Ever mindful of calories we choose a very thin syrup which is made by mixing 1 cup of sugar with 4 cups of water and bringing it to a boil. While the syrup is cooking fill the canner at least half way with water so it can be heating too. Then get to peeling and coring and halving those pears. As soon as the pears are prepared rinse them off and start filling jars (to about 1 inch from the top) as they will begin to deteriorate soon after they are peeled. I think it is easiest to use wide mouth jars because you have more room to manipulate the fruit inside the jars. After the pears are in the jars add the hot syrup, up to one half inch from the top. Make sure the lip of the jar is clean, put on a lid that has been softening in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes, put on the screw band hand tight, then set it in the rack which is resting at the half way point in the canner. When the rack is full, usually 7 jars, gently lower it into the hot water, bring to a boil, cover and process for 30 minutes. The gently boiling water must continue to cover the tops of the jars throughout the processing, and you may end up having to add some, so it is best to have another pot of boiling water on the stove. If you end up having to add water which is not boiling, do not count the time when the canner is not boiling as part of the 30 minutes. When they are done lift the rack out of the canner and place the jars on a towel on the counter to cool and listen for the totally satisfying 'pop' as they seal.
However, this is not all that is going on. Even though my kitchen has pear goo and syrup from one end to the other, I still have to make a Twinky Cake. It is Jeff's birthday and for my birthday he gave me (incredibly) a Twinky Cookbook. It was a sweet idea, but frankly I haven't quite known what to do with it. If anybody ever gets married it has a rather unique Twinky Wedding Cake recipe, but so far that hasn't been needed. So his birthday was really the perfect opportunity to use the cookbook and maybe somebody who buys a Twinky Cookbook would actually like something made from it. Of course it requires a bundt cake pan, which I don't have, so like all projects this one starts at the tool store. But beyond that it is easy as pie.
You buy a box chocolate cake mix and 6 twinkies. Make the cake according to package instructions, and pour half of it into the bundt cake pan. Then cut the Twinkies in half and stick them into the pan, cut side down, all around the cake, then pour the rest of the batter into the pan, covering the Twinkies, and bake according to package instructions. The only problem was that all the Twinkies floated to the top so there wasn't going to be any surprise Twinky layer in the middle.
Back to the store. Buy another cake mix and another box of Twinkies. Try again only this time cram those puppies into the bottom of the pan. They don't dare move. But when we eat the cake, the suprise Twinky layer doesn't have any Twinky filling, which apparently has melted out of the Twinkies and become part of the cake, but what is a Twinky without filling? Hugely disappointing.
While the pear shopping expedition had not furthered the cause of getting going on the canning early it had given us the opportunity to discuss pears with lots of grocers. Produce sellers can be a passionate group when it comes to pears and after too much discussion with lots of people we decided to can red pears, which are ready when the top is slightly soft. They seemed to have a sweet good flavor yet a somewhat firmer texture, which is important because pears have to process (can-speak for cook) for a half hour which can easily lead to extremely soft canned pears. In fact that is why I hate canned pears, they are too mushy.
But Adrienne and Sue want to can pears and I hate to miss a party, so pretty soon we are all up to our eyeballs in peeled pears and jars and syrup. Ever mindful of calories we choose a very thin syrup which is made by mixing 1 cup of sugar with 4 cups of water and bringing it to a boil. While the syrup is cooking fill the canner at least half way with water so it can be heating too. Then get to peeling and coring and halving those pears. As soon as the pears are prepared rinse them off and start filling jars (to about 1 inch from the top) as they will begin to deteriorate soon after they are peeled. I think it is easiest to use wide mouth jars because you have more room to manipulate the fruit inside the jars. After the pears are in the jars add the hot syrup, up to one half inch from the top. Make sure the lip of the jar is clean, put on a lid that has been softening in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes, put on the screw band hand tight, then set it in the rack which is resting at the half way point in the canner. When the rack is full, usually 7 jars, gently lower it into the hot water, bring to a boil, cover and process for 30 minutes. The gently boiling water must continue to cover the tops of the jars throughout the processing, and you may end up having to add some, so it is best to have another pot of boiling water on the stove. If you end up having to add water which is not boiling, do not count the time when the canner is not boiling as part of the 30 minutes. When they are done lift the rack out of the canner and place the jars on a towel on the counter to cool and listen for the totally satisfying 'pop' as they seal.
However, this is not all that is going on. Even though my kitchen has pear goo and syrup from one end to the other, I still have to make a Twinky Cake. It is Jeff's birthday and for my birthday he gave me (incredibly) a Twinky Cookbook. It was a sweet idea, but frankly I haven't quite known what to do with it. If anybody ever gets married it has a rather unique Twinky Wedding Cake recipe, but so far that hasn't been needed. So his birthday was really the perfect opportunity to use the cookbook and maybe somebody who buys a Twinky Cookbook would actually like something made from it. Of course it requires a bundt cake pan, which I don't have, so like all projects this one starts at the tool store. But beyond that it is easy as pie.
You buy a box chocolate cake mix and 6 twinkies. Make the cake according to package instructions, and pour half of it into the bundt cake pan. Then cut the Twinkies in half and stick them into the pan, cut side down, all around the cake, then pour the rest of the batter into the pan, covering the Twinkies, and bake according to package instructions. The only problem was that all the Twinkies floated to the top so there wasn't going to be any surprise Twinky layer in the middle.
Back to the store. Buy another cake mix and another box of Twinkies. Try again only this time cram those puppies into the bottom of the pan. They don't dare move. But when we eat the cake, the suprise Twinky layer doesn't have any Twinky filling, which apparently has melted out of the Twinkies and become part of the cake, but what is a Twinky without filling? Hugely disappointing.
The Bottom Line
Canned Pears-Too early to tell
Twinky Cake-Thumbs down
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Recipes from Julia Child's Cookbook
The Way to Cook
Soups
Chicken Stock/Broth: p. 4 See 11/6/9 Blog. Thumbs Up.
Rice and Onion Soup Base: p. 6
Veloute Soup Base: p. 8
Leek and Potato Soup: p. 13
Brown Beef Stock/Beef Bouillon/Broth: p. 14
To Clarify Stock: p. 15
All Purpose Chowder Base: p. 20
All Purpose Mediterranean Soup Base: p. 24
Breads
Dough for French Bread & Hard Rolls: p. 38
Whole Wheat Country Bread: p. 44
Spiced Brioche Dough for Bread Etc.: p. 48
Rosemary’s Classic Pizza Dough: p. 53
Eggs
To Hard Boil & Peel Eggs: p. 62
To Poach an Egg: p. 64
To Scramble Eggs: p. 66
The Tossed Omelette: p. 68
Individual Timbales of Fresh Corn: p. 70
Cheese Soufflé: p. 72
Vanilla Soufflé: p. 76
Fin Fish & Shellfish
Broiled Fish Steaks: p. 82. See 11/10/9 Blog. Thumbs Up.
Fish Steaks Braised in Wine with Herbal Fresh Tomato Sauce: p. 84
Braised Whole Fillet of Salmon in Wine and Aromatic Vegetables: p. 85
Fillets of Sole Poached in White Wine: p. 88. See 9/13/9 Blog . Thumbs Up
Whole Salmon Braised in Wine: p. 94 See 9/26/9 Blog. Thumbs Down
Whole Roasted Fish: Trout Meuniere: p. 97
Fillets of Sole Meuniere: p. 98. See 9/15/9 Blog. Thumbs Up.
Stove Top Poaching: p. 101
Lobsters: Steaming: p. 105
Peeled Skewered Shrimp: p. 109
Scallops Sautéed with Garlic & Herbs: p. 115
Scallops Poached in White Wine: p. 116. Blogged 10/7/9. Thumbs down.
Oysters Broiled in Garlic Butter: p. 119
Mussels Steamed in White Wine: p. 120
All Purpose Fish Mousse: p. 124
Poultry
Sautéed Chicken: p. 137
Ragout of Chicken & Onions in Red Wine: p. 141
Chicken Simmered in White Wine: p. 144. See 10/6/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Broiled Butterflied Chicken: p. 154
Broil-Roasted Turkey: p. 158
To Roast a Large Chicken or Capon: p. 163. See 10/21/9 Blog. Thumbs Down
Traditional Roast Turkey: p. 168
Brown Turkey Stock: p. 173
Meat
Sautéed Beefsteaks: p. 192
Sautéed or Pan-Fried Hamburgers: p. 199
Sautéed Ham Steaks Simmered in White Wine: p. 206
Sautéed Calf’s Liver: p. 208
Broil Roasted Sirloin Steak: p. 210
Scotch Broth: p. 215. See 11/1/9 Blog. Thumbs Down. NAM
Broiled or Barbequed Spare Ribs: p. 216
Roast Prime Ribs of Beef: p. 218
Roast Leg of Lamb: p. 224 See 10/20/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Roast Leg of Fresh Pork: p. 228 See 11/17/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Braised Whole Ham: p. 230
Zinfandel of Beef: p. 236 See 9/29/9 Blog. Thumbs up
Boeuf Bourguignon: p. 237. See 9/29/9 Blog. Thumbs Up. NAM
Pot Roast of Beef: p. 243. See 12/14/9 Blog. Thumbs Down
Beef & Pork Meat Loaf: p. 251 See 12/7/9 Blog. Thumbs Up.
Pork Sausage Meat: p. 257
To Corn Your Own Beef: p. 260
Vegetables
Blanched Broccoli: p. 269. Seel 10/6/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Steamed Cauliflower: p. 270. See 9/15/9 Blog. Thumbs down
Blanched Brussels Sprouts: p. 274. See 11/17/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Blanched Green Beans: p. 276
Cooked Chopped Spinach: p. 278
Steamed Artichokes: p. 279
Plain Boiled Asparagus: p. 284 See 11/22/9 Blog. Thumbs Down
Cabbage Steamed in Wedges: p. 288
Steamed Shredded Cabbage: p. 289
Steamed Whole Eggplant: p. 291
Grated Sautéed-Steamed Beets: p. 293
Grated Sautéed Zucchini: p. 294 See 11/30/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Braised Celery, Mirepoix: p. 297. See 9/26/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Braised Endives: p. 299. See 10/20/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Stuffed Onions: p. 302. See 9/13/9 Blog. Thumbs Down
Braised Cabbage Rolls: p. 304
Whole Cooked Chestnuts: p. 310
Ratatouille: p. 317
Homemade Mashed Potatoes: p. 320 See 11/30/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Potatoes Dauphinoise: p. 322. See 10/20/9 Blog. Thumbs Down
Plain Boiled White Rice: p. 327. See 10/6/9 Blog. Thumbs Up
Wild Rice Braised with Mirepoix: p. 330. See 11/10/9 Blog. Thumbs Up.
Pressure Cooked Beans: p. 332
Open-Pot Bean Cookery: p. 332
Cooked Lentils: p. 337
To Cook the 3 Kernels: p. 339
Cooked Polenta: p. 342
Salad
Oil & Lemon Dressing: p. 350
Tossed Green Salad: p. 351
Fresh Tomato Relish: p. 359-NMA. See 10/23/9 Blog. Thumbs Down
Cooked Sliced Potatoes for Salad: p. 361.
Machine Made Mayonnaise: p. 363
Cooked Pasta for Salads: p. 367. See 10/23/9 Blog. Thumbs Up.
Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes & Basil: p. 368-NMA. See 10/23/9 Blog. Thumbs Down
Coleslaw: p. 375. See 11/9/9 Blog. Thumbs Up.
Pastry Dough
Butter Dough for Pastries & Pie Crusts: Pate Brisee Fine: p. 381
French Puff Pastry Dough: p. 389 See 9/29/9 Blog. Redo
Choux Pastry: p. 396
All-Purpose Crepe Formula: p. 405
Desserts
Fresh Lemon Sherbet: p. 414. See 9/26/9 Blog. Thumbs Up.
Applesauce: p. 424
Oven Baked Apple Slices: p. 428
Apple Compote: p. 441. See 9/26/9 Blog. Thumbs Up.
Crème Anglaise: Custard Sauce : p. 446
Cakes & Cookies
Spongecake Batter: p. 457. See 10/16/9 Blog. Thumbs down
Genoise Cake Batter: Pate a Genoise: p. 458
Sweet Pastry & Cookie Dough: Pate Sablee: p. 489
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Cookies For Beau-More Fish For Me
My neice, Chelsea Jamison, and I have been making and sending cookies to her friend, Capt. Beau Harer currently serving in Afghanistan with the US Army. I was planning to make the single cookie recipe that Julia classified as "Master", but it is a sugar cookie and seemed like it would have a hard time comparing to the incredible Neiman Marcus cookies that Beau has gotten used to receiving from us, so that was put on hold for another day. This recipe came to me over the internet several years ago and it is the most extremely luscious chocolate cookie that has ever been created. Special note to Beau: Imagine how great these cookies would be if they weren't 2 weeks old. For anyone who is interested, the recipe is at the end of this blog.
But what I really wanted to report on was my next two master dishes, which I made last night. It is hard to imagine that she rates 'Steamed Cauliflower' that high, but then she did have a couple of flourishes for a dish that I routinely make a couple of times a month anyway. After my rousing success with Poached Sole in Wine Sauce the other night I decided to stay with fish for my second outing and make Sole Meuniere.
She recommends that the Cauliflower be broken into flowerettes and then the stems peeled before steaming. This was not too onerous a job and may have added a bit of polish to a somewhat ordinary presentation. But the more interesting instuction was to steam it for only 3 to 5 minutes. This seemed ludicrous to me as I would normally cook it for about 15 minutes, but I dutifully tasted it after 3 minutes and it was still raw, then I tasted it again after 5 minutes and there was precious little change so I left it steaming. I finally took it off at 9 minutes and still felt it was far from done. In addition to The Main Eater and our neice, our daughter Alyss was also in attendance last night and the vote was tied at 2 all. Both Chelsea and Russ preferred the harder cauliflower while Alyss and I thought it way underdone.
Sole Meuniere is another name for fried fish. Julia recommends drying the fillets, salt and peppering them, dredging them in flour just before frying (taking care to shake off all the excess), and then frying them in hot clarified butter (made by melting butter and then using the yellow liquid and discarding the white solids) for a couple of minutes per side. The only complication I encountered was flopping the fillets into the pan without paying attention to where the grease might spatter, in this case all over my hand, but the learning curve is pretty steep on that one so I doubt I will make that mistake again. All in all this was a simple recipe, quick and inexpensive to make, and everyone but me loved it. I thought it was okay, but it seemed somewhat plain.
Neiman-Marcus Cookies
2 c. butter
24 oz. chocolate chips
4 c. flour
2 c. brown sugar
2 t. soda
1 t. salt
2 c. sugar
1-8 oz. Hershey Bar-grated
5 c. blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 t. baking powder
2 t. vanilla
Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and soda. (If you have a dough hook beater for your electric mixer it will probably work better than the whisk type beater.) Add chocolate chips and grated Hershey Bar. Roll into balls, place 2" apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes @ 375 degrees.
But what I really wanted to report on was my next two master dishes, which I made last night. It is hard to imagine that she rates 'Steamed Cauliflower' that high, but then she did have a couple of flourishes for a dish that I routinely make a couple of times a month anyway. After my rousing success with Poached Sole in Wine Sauce the other night I decided to stay with fish for my second outing and make Sole Meuniere.
She recommends that the Cauliflower be broken into flowerettes and then the stems peeled before steaming. This was not too onerous a job and may have added a bit of polish to a somewhat ordinary presentation. But the more interesting instuction was to steam it for only 3 to 5 minutes. This seemed ludicrous to me as I would normally cook it for about 15 minutes, but I dutifully tasted it after 3 minutes and it was still raw, then I tasted it again after 5 minutes and there was precious little change so I left it steaming. I finally took it off at 9 minutes and still felt it was far from done. In addition to The Main Eater and our neice, our daughter Alyss was also in attendance last night and the vote was tied at 2 all. Both Chelsea and Russ preferred the harder cauliflower while Alyss and I thought it way underdone.
Sole Meuniere is another name for fried fish. Julia recommends drying the fillets, salt and peppering them, dredging them in flour just before frying (taking care to shake off all the excess), and then frying them in hot clarified butter (made by melting butter and then using the yellow liquid and discarding the white solids) for a couple of minutes per side. The only complication I encountered was flopping the fillets into the pan without paying attention to where the grease might spatter, in this case all over my hand, but the learning curve is pretty steep on that one so I doubt I will make that mistake again. All in all this was a simple recipe, quick and inexpensive to make, and everyone but me loved it. I thought it was okay, but it seemed somewhat plain.
Neiman-Marcus Cookies
2 c. butter
24 oz. chocolate chips
4 c. flour
2 c. brown sugar
2 t. soda
1 t. salt
2 c. sugar
1-8 oz. Hershey Bar-grated
5 c. blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 t. baking powder
2 t. vanilla
Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and soda. (If you have a dough hook beater for your electric mixer it will probably work better than the whisk type beater.) Add chocolate chips and grated Hershey Bar. Roll into balls, place 2" apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes @ 375 degrees.
The Bottom Line
Steamed Cauliflower-Thumbs Down
Sole Meuniere-Thumbs Up
Neiman Marcus Cookies-Thumbs Way Up
Thanks for reading. K
Monday, September 14, 2009
So What if Julia Doesn't Pickle Beans
There are those who think pickles are better than candy. I'm not one of them, but my daughter Adrienne is and she suggested that we get busy and make some last weekend. Well Julia has not one word to say about preserving foods but luckily my good friend Pam is an expert. Pam is a fairly amazing woman who could just have easily have lived in the pioneer days as now. She can hunt it, shoot it, catch it, skin it, butcher it, smoked it, grow it, can it and cook it. Both Adrienne and I have apprenticed under her in the past and this year decided to try it on our own.
So to make pickled beans you have to start with the freshest ingredients possible. Pam would start her day at the U-Pick field, but Adrienne and I chose to begin with a latte at the Ballard Farmer's Market. After tasting all the beans at the market we bought 28 pounds of the freshest imaginable plus 2 bunches of equally fresh dill and a jar of already peeled garlic.
We prefer wide mouth pints for our beans, and assuming your jars are already clean, they should be put in the dishwasher, without soap, and the cycle started. Then the beans should be dumped into the sink with cold water, rinsed, and cut to fit into a jar with the pointed end down and the cut end extending to about 3/4 inch from the top of the jar. In addition the dill needs to be washed and the flower ends cut off and put in a bowl and the same thing done to the feathered parts, plus the garlic cloves cut in half. While those tedious task are going on make brine out of 1 quart of 5% cider vinegar, 2 quarts of water and 3/4 cup canning salt, brought to a boil and left to barely simmer on the stove. Next fill your canner full enough that the water will completely cover the jars plus another inch, and get that boiling.
Now take the jars out of the dishwasher as needed (the cycle doesn't need to have finished) and put 3 half cloves of garlic and a small handful of the feathered dill plus 1/8 t. red pepper flakes in the bottom of each jar. Then beautifully fill the jars with the beans so that they are all standing on end and add a dill flower to the top. Just before you get 7 done, put the lids in very warm water to soften the sealer. Then fill the jars with enough brine to just cover the beans but not completely full, making sure none of the dill is protruding onto the lip of the jar (which would effect the seal). Then place a lid on the top and secure it in place with a hand tightened screw band. When all 7 jars are ready, and the canner is boiling, put the rack in the canner resting at the half way point and gently load the jars into the rack (being ever careful not to spill boiling water on yourself). Then gently and carefully lower the rack to the bottom of the canner, put the lid on it and set the timer to 5 minutes. When the time is up carefully raise the rack and set it and its contents on a towel placed on your counter top. When they have cooled just enough to take out of the rack, set them to cool and begin your next batch. One of the great joys of canning is listening for the 'pop' as they begin sealing, which will begin in about 15 minutes. The jars should be stored in a cool dry place and will be ready for eating in about a month. The 28 pounds of beans will make about 60 pints of fabulous pickled beans. Any jars that do not seal should be discarded.
So to make pickled beans you have to start with the freshest ingredients possible. Pam would start her day at the U-Pick field, but Adrienne and I chose to begin with a latte at the Ballard Farmer's Market. After tasting all the beans at the market we bought 28 pounds of the freshest imaginable plus 2 bunches of equally fresh dill and a jar of already peeled garlic.
We prefer wide mouth pints for our beans, and assuming your jars are already clean, they should be put in the dishwasher, without soap, and the cycle started. Then the beans should be dumped into the sink with cold water, rinsed, and cut to fit into a jar with the pointed end down and the cut end extending to about 3/4 inch from the top of the jar. In addition the dill needs to be washed and the flower ends cut off and put in a bowl and the same thing done to the feathered parts, plus the garlic cloves cut in half. While those tedious task are going on make brine out of 1 quart of 5% cider vinegar, 2 quarts of water and 3/4 cup canning salt, brought to a boil and left to barely simmer on the stove. Next fill your canner full enough that the water will completely cover the jars plus another inch, and get that boiling.
Now take the jars out of the dishwasher as needed (the cycle doesn't need to have finished) and put 3 half cloves of garlic and a small handful of the feathered dill plus 1/8 t. red pepper flakes in the bottom of each jar. Then beautifully fill the jars with the beans so that they are all standing on end and add a dill flower to the top. Just before you get 7 done, put the lids in very warm water to soften the sealer. Then fill the jars with enough brine to just cover the beans but not completely full, making sure none of the dill is protruding onto the lip of the jar (which would effect the seal). Then place a lid on the top and secure it in place with a hand tightened screw band. When all 7 jars are ready, and the canner is boiling, put the rack in the canner resting at the half way point and gently load the jars into the rack (being ever careful not to spill boiling water on yourself). Then gently and carefully lower the rack to the bottom of the canner, put the lid on it and set the timer to 5 minutes. When the time is up carefully raise the rack and set it and its contents on a towel placed on your counter top. When they have cooled just enough to take out of the rack, set them to cool and begin your next batch. One of the great joys of canning is listening for the 'pop' as they begin sealing, which will begin in about 15 minutes. The jars should be stored in a cool dry place and will be ready for eating in about a month. The 28 pounds of beans will make about 60 pints of fabulous pickled beans. Any jars that do not seal should be discarded.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Pam's Pickled Beans
Sunday, September 13, 2009
As the Scouts say ,"Be Prepared"
I do not consider myself a 'novice cook' however there are some lessons that I seem to need to repeat over and over. After posting yesterday's blog I was determined to begin my cooking sojourn immediately. So I grabbed my cookbook, my husband, my basket and beat feet down to the Pike Place Market. My husband, also known as The Main Eater, had to drive because I needed to plan my dinner on the way. The result was rushed, disorganized and somewhat less than satisfactory.
I decided to make Fillets of Sole Poached in White Wine found on page 88 of the book and Stuffed Onions from page 302. The sole was both straight forward and relatively easy but the onions much less so.
Our first stop was the wine shop for a white French vermouth that I have noticed in many of Julia's recipes. The sommelier didn't stock it but recommended an Italian vermouth that he said was very similar. Who knows what Julia would have said but I bought it. Then to the fish monger for the sole, the bakery for the white bread for making bread crumbs, the dairyman for the heavy cream and butter, and various green grocers for the lemons, Walla Walla sweet onions and shallots. Of course it is a crime to visit the market and not pick up a $5 bouquet of fresh flowers. Also, as an afterthought I also stopped at Delaurenti's which is rumored to have the best chocolate chip cookies in the city. We ate those in the car on the way home and it would be hard to turn one down.
On arrival back home I began to organize myself. When making a meal that takes more than a minimum of thought I regularly write down the various tasks associated with each dish, estimate how long they will take to accomplish and then list them according to start times. That way I know what I need to be doing and when I need to be getting on it.
That's when I noticed that the Stuffed Onions needed to boil before peeling, then boil again for 15 minutes, then get stuffed and finally bake for 1.5 hours! Dinner was obviously a ways off. Thank goodness that I had bought an additional bottle of wine.
The initial boiling was to make the skin removal easier, which is pretty easy anyway, and in retrospect it probably would have saved time to just peel the suckers and be done with it. I was a bit apprehensive about digging the centers out with a melon baller and making sure to leave 3/8" worth of onion but that turned out to be fairly easy too. So while the onions were in their 10-15 minute preboil I got busy with the stuffing.
To begin with you dice a cup of the onion that you have previously removed with the melon baller and saute it in 2 T of butter. Then you blend in a cup of cooked rice. Cooked rice? Yikes! Thank goodness The Main Eater and I had East Indian food the night before and had brought home the left over rice or this dinner would have been a really long way off. Then you add 2 T of bread crumbs. I searched that cookbook from stem to stern but could not locate any difinitive directions on how to create bread crumbs which I normally buy in a shaker at the grocery store. Luckily the internet was also available and some nice cook somewhere advised just slicing the bread and baking it for a few minutes at 350 degrees, putting it in a baggy and rolling it with a rolling pin. Worked like a charm. But then it turned out that the parsley I had intended to use from the garden had gone to seed, that I had forgotten to buy basil and the Swiss cheese I thought I had in the refrigerator was actually gorgonzola. My enthusiasm was definitely at a low ebb. But necessity is the mother of invention so I substituted the gorgonzola, moved past the basil and parsley, got those babies stuffed and in the oven, and turned my attention to the fish.
That required buttering the bottom of the baking dish, dicing the shallots and dumping half of them in the bottom of the pan, laying out the sole fillets on top of the shallots, salt and peppering the fish, throwing on the rest of the shallots, pouring in enough dry white French (or in this case Italian) vermouth to cover the fish 1/3 of the way up and topping the whole thing off with a buttered piece of wax paper (buttered side down). Then bake it for 6 or 7 minutes at 350 degrees. A piece of cake after sweating through those onions.
So how did it all turn out? I'm pretty sure the Stuffed Onions turned out pretty much like Julia intended them to, at least mine looked about the same as hers did and they met her tests for readiness. The stuffing was pretty tasty, but neither The Main Eater nor I really liked eating large pieces of soft onion. In addition it was a huge amount of work and I think that the work ought to correlate with the greatness of the dish, which in this case it did not. The Fillets of Sole Poached in White Wine however, was delicious, easy, fast, relatively cheap and pretty low in calories. In other words, perfect.
I decided to make Fillets of Sole Poached in White Wine found on page 88 of the book and Stuffed Onions from page 302. The sole was both straight forward and relatively easy but the onions much less so.
Our first stop was the wine shop for a white French vermouth that I have noticed in many of Julia's recipes. The sommelier didn't stock it but recommended an Italian vermouth that he said was very similar. Who knows what Julia would have said but I bought it. Then to the fish monger for the sole, the bakery for the white bread for making bread crumbs, the dairyman for the heavy cream and butter, and various green grocers for the lemons, Walla Walla sweet onions and shallots. Of course it is a crime to visit the market and not pick up a $5 bouquet of fresh flowers. Also, as an afterthought I also stopped at Delaurenti's which is rumored to have the best chocolate chip cookies in the city. We ate those in the car on the way home and it would be hard to turn one down.
On arrival back home I began to organize myself. When making a meal that takes more than a minimum of thought I regularly write down the various tasks associated with each dish, estimate how long they will take to accomplish and then list them according to start times. That way I know what I need to be doing and when I need to be getting on it.
That's when I noticed that the Stuffed Onions needed to boil before peeling, then boil again for 15 minutes, then get stuffed and finally bake for 1.5 hours! Dinner was obviously a ways off. Thank goodness that I had bought an additional bottle of wine.
The initial boiling was to make the skin removal easier, which is pretty easy anyway, and in retrospect it probably would have saved time to just peel the suckers and be done with it. I was a bit apprehensive about digging the centers out with a melon baller and making sure to leave 3/8" worth of onion but that turned out to be fairly easy too. So while the onions were in their 10-15 minute preboil I got busy with the stuffing.
To begin with you dice a cup of the onion that you have previously removed with the melon baller and saute it in 2 T of butter. Then you blend in a cup of cooked rice. Cooked rice? Yikes! Thank goodness The Main Eater and I had East Indian food the night before and had brought home the left over rice or this dinner would have been a really long way off. Then you add 2 T of bread crumbs. I searched that cookbook from stem to stern but could not locate any difinitive directions on how to create bread crumbs which I normally buy in a shaker at the grocery store. Luckily the internet was also available and some nice cook somewhere advised just slicing the bread and baking it for a few minutes at 350 degrees, putting it in a baggy and rolling it with a rolling pin. Worked like a charm. But then it turned out that the parsley I had intended to use from the garden had gone to seed, that I had forgotten to buy basil and the Swiss cheese I thought I had in the refrigerator was actually gorgonzola. My enthusiasm was definitely at a low ebb. But necessity is the mother of invention so I substituted the gorgonzola, moved past the basil and parsley, got those babies stuffed and in the oven, and turned my attention to the fish.
That required buttering the bottom of the baking dish, dicing the shallots and dumping half of them in the bottom of the pan, laying out the sole fillets on top of the shallots, salt and peppering the fish, throwing on the rest of the shallots, pouring in enough dry white French (or in this case Italian) vermouth to cover the fish 1/3 of the way up and topping the whole thing off with a buttered piece of wax paper (buttered side down). Then bake it for 6 or 7 minutes at 350 degrees. A piece of cake after sweating through those onions.
So how did it all turn out? I'm pretty sure the Stuffed Onions turned out pretty much like Julia intended them to, at least mine looked about the same as hers did and they met her tests for readiness. The stuffing was pretty tasty, but neither The Main Eater nor I really liked eating large pieces of soft onion. In addition it was a huge amount of work and I think that the work ought to correlate with the greatness of the dish, which in this case it did not. The Fillets of Sole Poached in White Wine however, was delicious, easy, fast, relatively cheap and pretty low in calories. In other words, perfect.
The Bottom Line:
Poached Sole in White Wine Sauce
Stuffed Onion
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Julia Visits the Pike Place Market
My mother and my sister have almost the same birthday so that creates a lot of stress for me around the end of February each year. In 1995, faced with this annual dilemma again, I was intrigued to read that Julia Child would be having an autograph party at Sur La Table at the Pike Place Market in Seattle to sign her new book, The Way to Cook. So I conspired with my mother to buy a copy for my sister and with my sister to buy a copy for my mother which didn't leave me with enough money to buy a copy for myself so I got a signed bookmark. We knew the meeting would be brief but we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to at least glean a little knowledge from her so we debated between asking her how to keep the pie crust on a lemon meringue pie from getting soft and what restaurant she recommended in the market. Lunch was looming so that won out and she acknowledged that she like Maximilien's, the little French restaurant at the southwest corner of the market just past the fish tossers. Just as she promised, lunch was delicious and our lemon pies have continued to languish with soggy crusts. Following lunch the cookbooks disappeared onto the bookshelves at my mom and sisters' homes and I promptly lost my bookmark. Neither of them have ever reported making a dish from the books.
Fast forward to last weekend when our friend Summer and my husband and I went to see the new movie Julie and Julia. You probably know all about it, but in case you don't, it is about this young woman, Julie Powell, who dreams about being a writer while she languishes in a dreadful customer service job answering insurance claim questions. Eventually she decides to make all of the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, (around 600) in one year and blog about it. The movie then switches back and forth between Julia (played by Meryl Streep) and her life living in France, learning to cook and writing about it, and Julie and her life, which of course ends with her getting famous.
In the days following the trip to the movies I began wordering whatever happened to theose cookbooks. I asked my mom if she still had hers and if it would be alright if I borrowed it. It was still in a near virgin state and incredibly that elusive bookmark was even still holding a spot next to the front cover.
It is written as a more modern cook's how-to book incorporating both modern technology and time and waist saving techniques. This latter was especially helpful as I couldn't imagine how she ended up being average sized after hearing Meryl Streep exclaim over and over, "I just love butter".
It is divided into chapters on soup, bread, eggs, fish, poultry, meat, vegetables, salad, pastry, desserts and cakes and cookies. Each chapter has a number of 'master recipes' ranging from a paltry 3 in cakes and cookies to 23 in vegetables. She believes that once the novice cook has mastered the masters that she can then utilize that skill and wisdom to create the other recipes in the chapters. Okay.
So why do I care? Well it turns out that I am closing in on my 60th year and would like to commemorate it in some way. When I turned 50 I walked 500 miles in one month and I certainly don't want to do that again, unless it is around the deck of a cruise ship. So I'm thinking of something somewhat the opposite of excessive walking-excessive eating preceeded of course, by excessive cooking. Julia has included exactly 100 master recipes in The Way to Cook and I intend to accomplish all of them before my 60th birthday, August 24, 2010.
Tune in to see how it all turns out.
K
Fast forward to last weekend when our friend Summer and my husband and I went to see the new movie Julie and Julia. You probably know all about it, but in case you don't, it is about this young woman, Julie Powell, who dreams about being a writer while she languishes in a dreadful customer service job answering insurance claim questions. Eventually she decides to make all of the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, (around 600) in one year and blog about it. The movie then switches back and forth between Julia (played by Meryl Streep) and her life living in France, learning to cook and writing about it, and Julie and her life, which of course ends with her getting famous.
In the days following the trip to the movies I began wordering whatever happened to theose cookbooks. I asked my mom if she still had hers and if it would be alright if I borrowed it. It was still in a near virgin state and incredibly that elusive bookmark was even still holding a spot next to the front cover.
It is written as a more modern cook's how-to book incorporating both modern technology and time and waist saving techniques. This latter was especially helpful as I couldn't imagine how she ended up being average sized after hearing Meryl Streep exclaim over and over, "I just love butter".
It is divided into chapters on soup, bread, eggs, fish, poultry, meat, vegetables, salad, pastry, desserts and cakes and cookies. Each chapter has a number of 'master recipes' ranging from a paltry 3 in cakes and cookies to 23 in vegetables. She believes that once the novice cook has mastered the masters that she can then utilize that skill and wisdom to create the other recipes in the chapters. Okay.
So why do I care? Well it turns out that I am closing in on my 60th year and would like to commemorate it in some way. When I turned 50 I walked 500 miles in one month and I certainly don't want to do that again, unless it is around the deck of a cruise ship. So I'm thinking of something somewhat the opposite of excessive walking-excessive eating preceeded of course, by excessive cooking. Julia has included exactly 100 master recipes in The Way to Cook and I intend to accomplish all of them before my 60th birthday, August 24, 2010.
Tune in to see how it all turns out.
K
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