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
Hi Aunt Kay! Great blog posting. I am going to tell Beau about your blog since he's in this one. I am surprised you didn't mention any of my cooking mishaps! I would be happy to make another Julia recipe with you soon and of course, make more delicious cookies which I gobble up at my desk at work . :)
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