July 30, 2003
well, we're off
Dear Readers:
Well, we're off. This is my last night in San Francisco. We're moving to Irvine tomorrow. We'll be there for a week, then we're off to Australia for a month, whereupon we'll return and get ready for school.
I won't be blogging from Australia, as my server will be offline until I return. I've rendered Confabulist.com statically, however, and sometime tonight I'll give it to a friend of mine to host, so after a few days -- he is moving, too -- it will continue to be available until I get back.
When I return, I'll have a lot of culinary stories to tell, I'm sure, so I'll pick up where I left off, and I have a few innovations planned to boot. So stay tuned. It was nice having you. Have a good month and I'll see you soon.
-- Orion
July 30, 2003 in old_site | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 22, 2003
cauliflower and stilton soup recipe
Saturday, Rebecca and I had the pleasure of having lunch at Jeanty at Jack's, a great French Bistro in downtown San Francisco. One of the highlights of our visit was the Soupe du Jour, a Cauliflower and Bleu Cheese Soup. Bone-white, rich, and mild, it was an elegant, filling soup. Since cauliflower season is just coming on, I decided to take on the challenge of making such a soup the very next day. Here's the result of my first attempt.
Cauliflower and Stilton Soup
Ingredients
for the soup:
2 slices of thick cut bacon (or 3-4 thin) 5-6 cups cauliflower florets (1 to 1 1/2 large heads?) 1 large Yukon Gold potato, diced 1/4 cup flour 3 cloves of roasted garlic nutmeg cayenne pepper 6 oz stilton milk
for the dumplings:
3/4 cup breadcrumbs 3/4 cup panko 1 egg 1/2 tbsp butter, melted 1/2 to 3/4 cup cooked fish or shellfish meat, shredded
Directions
In a deep pan suitable for cooking soup, render the fat from the bacon slices. Remove the bacon from the pan, leaving the fat. Saute the diced potato and the cauliflower florets (as well as the garlic if you're using raw garlic) for five minutes, then add the flour and cook a bit longer. Add the stock, crumbled bacon pieces, 1 cup of milk, 1/4 tsp each of nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and black pepper. Cook for twenty-five minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally to make sure that it's not burning on the bottom.
While the mixture is cooking, prepare the fish dumplings. Feel free to use almost any kind of fish or shellfish you have around -- salmon, scallops, crab, lobster, should all work fine. I had a single Steelhead Trout filet in the freezer, so that's what I chose, and it worked fine. Mix all of the listed ingredients together. Don't be afraid if there's some clumping due to the small quantity of wet ingredents. Add milk in 1/8 cup batches, stirring through, until the mixture coheres enough to form small balls. Roll into 1/2 inch balls.
Once the cauliflower mixture is finished cooking, blend in batches and put back into the original pan. Add milk to thin to desired consistency. (After blending, the mixture may be like a thick porridge. Add a little milk until it's more pudding-like, then add a bit more.) Add the fish dumplings, submerging them completely. Crumble the stilton and stir through. Cook on low heat for ten more minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Thoughts
There are many differences between my soup and the Jeanty at Jack's version. Some were intentional. The dumplings, for instance, were my addition, inspired by some research I did into similar soups. Other differences were not by choice. The Jeanty soup is completely white. All of their ingredients are probably white or clear. This made for a very elegant soup, but one which was beyond my humble kitchen. They must have used a consomme or a white chicken stock, I imagine. (Actually, it could have been a clear vegetable stock, I suppose.) I had none of these things, so I used regular chicken stock, and the brand that I use is quite yellow. As a result, my soup was light tan in color, rather than white. Similarly, they probably used white pepper. I thought I had some, but I could not find it. (I need a better system for spice organization!) My soup, therefore, had little black specks sprinked throughout.
Both in taste and texture, too, I thought my soup was a bit heavier, perhaps betraying the bacon fat and potato, neither of which, I suspect, were present in the Jeanty version. I also think that my soup has more bleu cheese than theirs, and is spiced more heavily. But I am satisfied with my choices in all of these cases. Heavier though it is, I think my soup is fairly well balanced. And it is not overwhelmed by the Stilton or the spices. (In fact, we both thought that the Jeanty version could use a little more bleu cheese.)
Finally, the restaurant soup likely benefited from the inclusion of onions or shallots, both of which are verboten in my kitchen due to Rebecca's strong feelings about them. If you're following this recipe, feel free to add an onion -- chop it and saute it in the bacon fat before you add the other ingredients.
This is a good soup. It's cheap, hearty, and flavorful. Check it out.
June 22, 2003 in old_site, recipes, soups_stews | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 20, 2003
some places you never thought you'd be
I haven't been talking much about graduate school applications since I took the GRE and started applying in earnest. I'm not the superstitious type, but maybe somewhere inside I didn't want to jinx anything. Now that everything's completely decided, though, I can discuss what's happening without fear of recrimination from whichever twisted pixies are charged with yanking the rug out from under you just when you think you've got everything worked out. I hope.
Rebecca and I will be attending the University of California at Irvine this fall. It's a great compromise for our chosen majors (Computer Science for me, Urban Planning for her), so we're happy about it academically. But I must say that we had our doubts about its location. You have to admit, Orange County isn't on a lot of people's List of Favorite Places in the Universe. (This is a personal belief which I maintain despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.) And, having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and being a current resident and fan of said Area, I must admit to my own set of prejudices to overcome related to Southern California.
Last month, we took a road trip down to Irvine to see if it would be a livable situation for us. We visited the school and investigated our housing options.
Irvine's history -- what there is of it -- is pretty interesting. In the late 1900's, a rancher named James Irvine acquired 110,000 acres in the area that is now Irvine. He incorporated this land into the Irvine Company. In the 1940's and 1950's the Irvine Company began offering some of this land for urban development. But it wasn't until 1959, when the government of California asked for 1,000 acres of the land to build a new university, that full-scale urban development began. That development was masterminded by the Irvine Company.
As a result, Irvine is a vast, neatly planned, suburban sprawl. This goes against the grain of a San Franciscan such as myself. Even Irvine's poorer areas have a cartoony feel to them -- Compton cum Walt Disney -- that creeps me out a little bit.
(You can read more about the history of Irvine here.)
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But any negative feelings about the area were forgotten when we visited the school. The UCI campus is beautiful. (Click on the pictures on the right for examples.) The people were friendly, and the facilities ample. We're planning to stay right off campus so we can continue to avoid driving. This seems quite possible, as there are a number of apartment complexes right at the edge of campus that seem nice. (Never mind the fact that they were all built an are all owned by the Irvine Company, so there's no real competition between them; let the price gouging begin!) There are decent grocery stores in walking distance -- it'll be a leg up on where we are now in that regard. As far as the surrounding areas: fortunately, the University is on the southern edge of Irvine, and it's isolated from the rest of the city by the San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh Reserve. The marsh is not only an important stopping point for many species of birds during migration, but it serves an important buffer zone that insulates the school from contamination from the rest of Orange County. And on the south side, the only thing that separates UCI from the coastline is a few miles' worth of Newport Beach, which is not such a bad place, if a little yuppity. |
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I'm beginning a whole new chapter in my life. I've been spending a lot of time hammering out the details, but hopefully I'll be posting more and more as I make accomplishments and as interesting things happen.
Oh -- and I have some particularly interesting plans for this website. Stay tuned.
May 20, 2003 in old_site | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 14, 2003
rabbit stew recipe (aka rabbit bourguignon)
The two words came to me in a dream: "Rabbit Bourguignon". I'd never heard of such a thing, but it wasn't too hard to imagine: Rabbit chunks braised in a golden elixir, the essence of a fine white Burgundy, accompanied by cubes of potatoes, hordes of mushrooms, and scattered bits of bacon. Just a bit of everything that is Right and Good in the world.
Calling this "Rabbit Bourguignon" could be considered controversial. After all, a quick Google search for the term turns up exactly zero hits for recipes for a rabbit braised in white wine. Typical stews a la Bourguignonne are made with red Burgundy. I briefly considered changing the name to something generic, such as "Rabbit braised in white wine" or just plain "Rabbit Stew". But then I had an insight. In my rabbit stew fever dream, the golden liquid made my mouth feel exactly the same way it does after drinking a great white Burgundy. I decided to keep the name. (Some further investigation showed that I wasn't far off base.)
And that's also why I specify a "white Burgundy" in the recipe below, as opposed to just "white wine". I don't know about you, but when I cook with white wine, it's usually Sauvignon Blanc. And I just don't think that's right for this recipe. I know, I know, the Burgundy will be more expensive. But I really do think the soul of this dish is better expressed with that wine. I haven't tried it with both; this could all be foolishness. Yet I am convinced. Such is the power of dreams.
I'd like to make another plug for The Cook's Thesaurus, which I've found to be an very useful reference. In this case, I used it to figure out which potatoes are best for soups and stews.
Rabbit Bourguignon
Marinade:
1/4 cup olive oil 3 tbsp. herbs de provence 1/2 cup Cognac 1/4 cup Madiera white wine to cover, about 2 cups
3 lb rabbit thighs 12 oz thick-sliced bacon 4 medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes (or some other low-starch variety; see here) 1 large rutabaga 1 large turnip 1 medium onion 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 bottle white Burgundy 2 cups chicken stock 1/2 cup Cognac 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper 2 bay leaves
3 cups mushrooms, sliced 2 medium-sized carrots, sliced 1 1/2 stalks celery, sliced 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or to taste) 1 tbsp brown sugar
Place the rabbit and the marinade ingredients in a one gallon resealable plastic bag. Marinate in the refrigerator for two hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Cook the bacon in a large dutch oven. Cook in batches as necessary, draining the fat from each batch. Meanwhile, peel and chop the potato, rutabaga, and turnip, and onion into bite-sized pieces. Remove the rabbit from the marinade, reserving the liquid. Flour each piece and brown in a bit of bacon fat. Set aside and let them cool. Next, saute the chopped root vegetables and the garlic in bacon fat.
Cut the rabbit into bite-sized pieces. Put the rabbit, the root vegetable mixture, and the bacon back into the dutch oven. Add the wine, stock, Cognac, bay leaves, and pepper. Bring to a boil on the stovetop, then put into the oven for 45 minutes.
Peel and chop the carrots into bite-sized pieces. Chop the mushroom and the celery. Saute all of the vegetables in bacon fat until the mushrooms lose their water. Remove the stew from the oven. Add the vinegar and the sugar. Taste for salt, pepper, sugar, and vinegar content (be careful!). Add the vegetables to the stew and return to the oven for 30 more minutes.
Pour stew into heated bowls. Just before serving, swirl in 1-2 tbsp. of heavy cream.
I'm definitely on to something here. The flavor wasn't quite as intense as I'd wanted, but otherwise, it was exactly as I'd imagined it. Got rave reviews at dinner.
In the future, I might try:
Using 1.5 times as much stock and wine and reducing it together before adding it to the solids
Using half veal stock and half chicken stock
Making rabbit stock
Adding homemade half-dried tomatoes
Using fresh herbs -- I didn't have any on hand
Adding peas
Adding walnuts
April 14, 2003 in main_dishes, old_site, recipes | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 22, 2003
boulevard restaurant review
Rebecca and I managed to get a last-minute, late-night reservation last night at Boulevard.
I went to Boulevard when I first moved (back) to California three years ago. I had a pork chop, I remember, and a glass of some Napa Syrah or another. And it was so good that for the next four months, whenever I went out to eat, if the restaurant had a pork chop (or loin or tenderloin) offering and a Syrah by the glass, I'd get it. I tried hard to repeat the experience, but nothing quite measured up.
Since then, I've often referred to Boulevard as my favorite restaurant. Yet until last night, I hadn't been back. Perhaps to shield myself against disappointment?
Speaking of experiences that can't be reproduced, my crab cake/Chardonnay obsession, though waning, was still strong enough to distract me from the Oxtail Tart I was eyeing. (No, I don't mean our waitress.)
I've been trying to have this experience again, with little success. Sometimes the wine isn't up to snuff; other times it's the food.
The Patz & Hall Chardonnay was smooth, spice-laden, and rich. The crab cake, while it had all of the flavors I was looking for, still didn't have enough oomph for me. Better than the Paul K entry, but still not the crab cake of my dreams. Especially at the price.
I know, I know, I told you to Never Order The Steak. (See here, toward the bottom of the page.) But this is what the waiter recommended based on my preferences. Which were admittedly slated heavily toward the red meat end of the spectrum, I'll admit. I probably should have been more open to poultry, but you know, sometimes...
But I don't regret my choice. The filet was fantastic -- spiced just right, cooked just right, and in great company. The roasted tomatoes were some of the best I've had, and I loved the potatoes, though Rebecca found them a little firm. If I'd had this when I first moved out here, it would have meant four months of filet mignon instead of pork chops.
"What kind of wine would you recommend with the Peanut Butter Pie?" I asked the waiter. It's a bit of a challenge. Chocolate isn't the easiest food to match with wine. Then there's the general problem of matching wines to desserts -- you need a wine that's a bit sweeter than the dessert, which means you must be pretty familiar with how sweet your wine offerings are and exactly how sweet the desserts are. Finally -- though this is a far lesser issue -- there's the peanut and banana flavors to be concerned about.
"Well, let me see. There's the Banyuls...and, um...the Banyuls. Yeah, that's about it."
I sat there for a moment, trying to figure out what he'd said. I was sure I'd misheard.
"Ban-yuls," he said. "It's a fortified wine from southwestern France. It's main claim to fame is that it goes well with chocolate. I assumed it was a bunch of PR hype. I'm being convinced otherwise."
If I'd have tasted the Banyuls blind, I'd have picked it as a Port, albeit a strangely flavored Port. I did seem to go unusually well with the dessert.
Which dessert, by the way, was fantastic. Pure chocolatey, peanut- buttery goodness.
Service was excellent. I've always liked the ambience. And the food, while not the revelatory experience I'd had the first time, still held an epiphany or two.
Rating: **** 1/2
March 22, 2003 in old_site, restaurants | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 11, 2003
chicken crepes florentine
Chicken Crepes Florentine
OK, I don't know how florentine these crepes are per se, but, uh, they do involve spinach.
Ingredients
Frozen spinach Chicken thighs Cognac White wine Tomato sauce Chicken stock (low salt) Fresh herbs (thyme and sage recommended) Fresh garlic, diced Crimini mushrooms, chopped Dried chantrelle mushrooms Ham, proscuitto, or pancetta, diced Premade crepes (or make your own!)
Directions
Soak the chantrelles in 1 1/2 cups of warm water for a half an hour or so. Meanwhile, put the chicken stock and herbs in a pan and reduce by half. Remove the herbs and set the reduced stock aside. Remove the chantrelles. Strain the soaking water through cheesecloth. Reduce it by half and set it aside. Heat the frozen spinach through.
Salt and pepper the chicken thighs and cook them in a saute pan. Shred the thighs and set aside the meat.
Chop the chantrelles. Saute them along with the diced ham and the garlic in the saute pan used for the chicken. Add them to the same container as the spinach and mix them together.
Deglaze the pan with white wine and cognac. Let the alcohol burn off. Add the mushroom water and the chicken stock. Add just a touch of tomato sauce. Don't overreduce; instead, thicken lightly with cornstarch. Whisk in some butter at the end -- however much your inner dietician will permit.
Wrap the filling in the crepes. (Microwave for one minute if using the premade variety.) Spoon the sauce on top, and serve.
This is my attempt at a "weeknight" crepe recipe -- hence the use of convenience foods such as frozen spinach and premade crepes. It turned out quite elegant, but it wasn't nearly as quick as I thought it would be -- it still took me an hour or so to prepare.
The sauce was promising, but there is still room for improvement. Next time, I may omit the tomato sauce and go for a pure chantrelle/chicken/white wine flavor. The consistency was acceptable, but I wish it was creamier. Ideally, I'd just use heavy cream instead of cornstarch to thicken it, but frankly I can't afford to buy a whole new wardrobe, so I'd just as soon not jump up two pant sizes. Fat free sour cream might take the sauce in a different -- but good? -- direction. I'll have to mull it over.
March 11, 2003 in main_dishes, old_site, recipes | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 06, 2003
restaurant review: paul k
Rebecca's father was in town this week. Last night we found our way to Paul K, a much-discussed new restaurant in the Hayes Valley area.
Passable. A bit sparse. The crab cake was a bit small to be a centerpiece, and the accoutrements, while pungent, lacked volume. I was hoping for something a bit more luxurious and substantial.
I found the ragu and the mushrooms to be rather bland. The potatoes were fine, but unremarkable. I want to get that out of the way, because I will spend most of the rest of this section lauding the duck.
This is the best duck I've had in recent memory. Quite possibly in contention for the best duck breast I've ever had. Supple, tender, and flavorful -- this is what duck should be like. The last few duck breast entrees I've had just haven't been up to this standard. Preparing a duck breast is ostensibly simple, but can easily go awry. It can be too chewy, too cold, too cooked, too bland. What I had last night was none of these. This, my friend, was one kick-ass duck.
The sauce was admirable, if not stellar; it provided a fruity acidic bite and sweetness that complemented the duck nicely.
The Heron Lake was recommended to us by our server, and it proved to be quite up to snuff. A bright, vibrant Pinot Noir, but instead of the tartness and astringency that often accompanies such a wine in this price range, the Heron Lane was soft and approachable. Make no mistake, this is not the most subtle or complicated wine. But it is food friendly and drank very well with our duck as well as Rebecca's father's roast chicken.
Sumptuous.
The service was friendly and prompt and the ambience enjoyable. I felt that the food was uneven. Even so, the peaks manage to justify the plateaus. There's a lot of promise in Paul K.
Rating: 4 of 5
March 6, 2003 in old_site, restaurants | Permalink | Comments (0)
January 31, 2003
ZAP 2003
I attended the annual
Zinfandel Festival held by ZAP
last weekend, and I'm just now sobering up enough to write
about it.
It wasn't that long ago that I thought the world of Zinfandel. When I was first acquiring a taste for wine, Zins were definitely my favorite. Huge, highly extracted ink-black wines with an aroma you could smell from the next table.
I don't drink much Zin anymore. There are many reasons for this. My tastes have since diversified quite a bit, for one. Further, I usually drink wine with food these days, so I prefer wines that pair better with the food I eat. And ultimately, I think I burned out a bit on the big, oaky, jammy Zins of my youth.
Nevertheless, I'm not completely beyond the charms of a rich, viscous Zin, so I never pass the opportunity to go to Zap. Fifty bucks, all you can drink from hundreds of different Zinfandel producers. That's right, hundreds. This year there were over three hundred different wineries represented.
No wonder, then, that so many people show up for it. The picture you see above is only a third of one of the lines (there are two).
Last year I tried to make a brief note for every wine that I tasted. This is an exersize in folly at an event like ZAP. For one thing, it's a real pain to try to juggle your wine glass, your baguette (they give you one at the door), any cheese or other snacks you might have picked up, your digital camera (if you have to take pictures for your website), and a tablet and pen. As a result, you'll want to context switch as little as possible. Second, ZAP is mostly about fun. After a few tastes, you'll find it difficult to care whether or not the Zin you're tasting merits 2 1/2 stars or three full stars, or whether those are raspberries or loganberries you're tasting, or whether the finish is "moderate" or "full". Finally, after about an hour or two of tasting, your palate will be so numb that your glass could be half full of tar and it wouldn't stop you from having a good time.
So I adopted a different strategy this time:
Only take notes on the wines that really knock your socks off, or are unique in some way. Otherwise, just drink and enjoy.
Stop and talk to people. Talk to the pourers, especially at smaller wineries, where the person pouring your wine is likely to be the winery's owner or winemaker or both. Talk to other visitors. Exchange notes. This is very important, because you don't want to go to the same places year after year, but at the same time, there's too much cruft just to spend the whole day visiting wineries at random. Just a few conversations with right strangers, though, will net you enough suggestions to fill up the rest of your day.
Don't be afraid to spit. There, I said it. Now generally, in wine drinking as in life, I fall on the swallow side of the spit-or-swallow controversy. But if you're going to be on the make for a full three and a half hours, as I was, you need to preserve some of your faculties. And quite frankly, half of the stuff you'll be drinking won't be that interesting. Save the brain cells for the wines that really turn you on.
Give up on making it to all your favorite places. When confronted with the bustling crowds and the bewildering number of wineries, the temptation is to say "Oh -- Foofoo Vineyards. I like their stuff," and head over and taste a wine that you just had a whole bottle of two weeks ago. The best ZAP experiences are the new ones, where you taste something completely unexpected and new. Like I said in point #2, ask around. Ask the people pouring what they like. Ask the people around you. Chances are, you'll run across some great stuff -- maybe even a new favorite!
Spelletich
I had the opportunity to ask Timothy Spelletich how he got into the business. His reply:
Still, Timothy remains optimistic. Things seem to be going well for them, and, as he says, "There's nothing else I'd rather do."
Timothy also had some interesting things to say about making wine in California:
You can read more about the Spelletichs here.
Tres Sabores
Julie Johnson Williams of Tres Sabores must definitely take the Purple Ribbon for Best Concept this year. Ms. Williams owns Johnson Ranch Vineyard in Napa Valley. The fruit from this vineyard used to go into Frog's Leap Zinfandels, which winery she co-owned. Recently Julie, as she puts it, "decided to downsize." She instead gave the fruit to three different winemakers to make three different Zins from. Hence, "tres sabores", or "three tastes".
What a concept! Drinking the three side by side allows one to sample the power that a winemaker's decisions have over the final product. And the wines themselves are great. The only downside is that there are only 700 cases en toto. So seek it out while you can, and buy one of each!
Fun was had by all, or at least by me. Too bad ZAP is only once a year. But if you need your mass-tasting fix sooner, there's always Rhone Rangers, which tastes California wines using Rhone varietals such as Syrah, Grenache, and Viogner. It's somewhat smaller and more varied than ZAP. Don't miss it! Your tongue will thank you, even if your liver won't.
Some excerpts from my tasting notes:
| 2000 | Titus Mendocino Redwood Valley | Red fruit, softer than the Titus Napa Valley of the same vintage. "There's almost a grenadine flavor", says Phillip Titus, who poured my wine. "We added 15% Petite Sirah to darken the fruit a little bit." Only 600 cases of this available (as opposed to 2000 cases of the Napa Valley). They are, remarkably, the same price. | $24 | |
| 2000 | Renwood Grandpere | Red fruit -- raspberries. Higher in pitch and thinner in tone than most of the wines you'll find at ZAP, Renwood's wines (and the Grandpere in particular) offer an interesting alternative. The Grandpere is in this case softer and more approachable than the Fiddletown, which Renwood is also serving up here. The Grandpere doesn't have the same rough kick on the finish that the Fiddletown does; instead it lingers softly on the tongue. | $32 | |
| 2001 | Truchard Zinfandel | The 2000 was not quite as concentrated as I'd hoped for, but I liked the flavor a lot. The 2001 may improve upon it in both categories. Strong cigarbox and spice flavors and smells. This is a cigar-smoking wine if there ever was one. (Note that the price below is an approximation; this wine was not yet released at the time of tasting.) | $30 | |
| 2001 | Spelletich Alviso Vineyard Zinfandel | (Note that this could have also been the Tim & Edie's Vineyard Shenandoah Valley Zinfandel. My notes are unclear on this point.) Huge and weirdly attractive. Spicy -- like a pepper -- as well as sweet, with a strong aroma of nutmeg & other earthy spices. Like having General Tsao's Chicken atop a slice of pumpkin pie. I feel strangely compelled to seek it out. | $25 | |
January 31, 2003 in events, old_site, wine | Permalink | Comments (0)
January 21, 2003
malaysian lamb stew
I am a cooking machine. Who darest challenge me? Menu for tonight:
Okay, so it wasn't a "vinaigrette" -- it the persimmon chutney I made on Sunday, slightly thinned. It made a satisfactory dressing on the salad. Not spectacular, but it got the job done. Which job, in this case, is encouraging the consumption of actual vegetables, which are normally missing from our diet.
This stew is based on a fascinating recipe of James Peterson's; his version of a traditional Malaysian dish. I've never made any Malaysian-influenced food before; this was a gentle and interesting introduction, however authentic or inauthentic it may be. I enjoy it when a dish that I make is both well-received and unlike anything I've ever made before.
Ordinarily would take a bit too long to be weeknight fare, but I was home just early enough to start the lamb braising and still have everything done by 8:00.
Ingredients
3 small lamb shanks, or 1 lb lamb shoulder 5 cloves of garlic 2 cups chicken or beef stock 1 eggplant, peeled and cubed 1 14 oz. can tomatoes 1 onion 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger 1 cup lentils 1 cup coconut milk 1/8 cup white wine vinegar
Curry spices
1 tsp. Cumin 1 tsp. Coriander 1/2 tsp. Cardamom 1/2 tsp. Allspice 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
Preparation
Brown the lamb in olive oil. Add three garlic cloves, 1/2 cup of wine, and two cups of stock. Braise the lamb in a covered pot on the stovetop for two hours, skimming occasionally. Turn the shanks halfway through braising.
Saute two chopped cloves of garlic and the onion in butter in a medium-sized pot over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the curry spices and the ginger and saute for 5 more minutes.
Pull the lamb out of the braising liquid and set aside. Pour the braising liquid into the pot with the garlic and onions. Add the lentils, tomatoes, and eggplant. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, pull the meat off of the shank and shred it. Throw away the bones and fat.
Puree the stew in a blender and, if you like, strain it through a medium-mesh strainer. Stir in the coconut milk, the lamb, and the vinegar. Season to taste (it will likely need salt). Let sit for 10 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally.
Take my advice: buy (or make!) some naan before you make this dish. Nothing else will do. Well, except maybe some Roti Canai.
(Just for good measure, click here for an interesting article on Indian breads of all kinds.)
January 21, 2003 in old_site, recipes, soups_stews | Permalink | Comments (0)
January 19, 2003
rabbit redux
Farmer's Market
I spent $200 at the grocery store on Saturday. This is unsurprising, considering that I haven't made a real shopping trip since before I left town for the holidays. What is surprising is that I felt the need to go to the Farmer's Market yesterday. I spent maybe $35, but at the Farmer's Market, $35 goes a long way. For instance:
Ten ripe persimmons: $1.00
Enough wild greens for 7 salads: $2.50
Two largish Dungeness crabs: $6.00
While I was buying the crab, I noticed a bin of mackerel nearby. Ever since acquiring Peterson's Fish & Shellfish I've wanted to mess around with mackerel. I looked at the sign: $1.00/lb. They looked to be about a pound each, so I asked for three pounds. After a moment, I was handed a bag with at least 10 mackerel. (Apparently I am a very bad judge of weight.)
Every time I go to the Farmer's Market, I think: why do I ever buy produce at the grocery store? Convenience is the answer, but the premium paid is quite extravagant considering that I have a Farmer's Market within walking distance that, with a little foresight and a willingness to contribute an hour and a half on Sunday mornings, can serve to satisfy all of my produce needs.
When I got home, I cooked and froze the crabs and made persimmon chutney. Then Rebecca and I had sex and played videogames until it was time to start thinking about what to make for dinner.
This is the life, I tell you.
I rarely make salads. The salads I grew up with were mostly banal constructions -- vegetable barriers which had to be surmounted before one could get at the main course.
As an adult and a foodophile, I now know that building a truly successful salad requires sensibilities that I do not posess in large amounts: economy, balance, style. Salad-making, I've always thought, is very Japanese; food reduced to its barest essentials. Breathtaking when successful, but the slightest misstep is glaringly obvious.
Nevertheless, I've come full circle to the situation I faced in my youth. I need more vegetables in my diet, and salads are one of the easiest ways to do that. So I must resist my own laziness. With you as my witness, I pledge that if I ever catch myself throwing random greens and chopped vegetables into a bowl, dousing it with Ranch, and serving it up to someone, then ... I'll cut off my own hand. Er, a finger. No, that would make it too hard to cook. How about a toe? Maybe the little one.
Though this salad needs work, I think I'm on the right track. The sweetness of the grapefruit contrasts nicely with the strong, salty mackerel flavor.
I had a lot of trouble coming up with a rabbit dish to follow up the Rabbit Pie. I tried to think of what I wanted out of a rabbit dish. I kept coming around to rabbit and mushroom ragouts in creamy, roux-thickened, brandy- and madiera- laden sauces. Throw a crust on that and what do you have? Rabbit Pie. I was stuck in a rut.
I still think that ragout is the best way to present rabbit. That way you get the subtle gamy flavor and pleasant texture distributed through as much food as possible.
The other major direction for rabbit dishes is with a tomato-based sauce. I'd been resisting this, thinking that tomatoes would overwhelm the taste of the rabbit. If your game meat is too gamy, I suspect that a tomato sauce is a good idea. Otherwise, I'd say to avoid it.
But I couldn't think of anything else. Then I remembered a wierd recipe I'd run across a few months ago involving rabbit, tomatoes, and figs. Sure, why not?
Here's what I improvised:
Ingredients
1 large rabbit or 2 lb rabbit meat 1 rib of celery 1/2 c diced ham 6 dried figs 1 14 oz can tomatoes 2 tbsp tomato sauce 8 oz chopped fresh mushrooms 2-3 cloves garlic, chopped fresh basil, chopped
Preparation
Chop rabbit into bite-sized pieces. Mix a cup of flour with salt, pepper, and sugar and coat the rabbit pieces with it.
Saute celery, diced ham, and garlic in olive oil. Add the mushrooms and dried figs. Once the mushrooms have lost their water, remove all ingredients from the pan.
Add more olive oil and a third of the rabbit. Saute until browned, making sure to keep the bottom of the pan reasonably clear of accumulation from the flour. Repeat for the other two portions of the rabbit.
Deglaze the pan with wine. Return the vegetables to the pan. Add the tomatoes and the basil and stir. Add half of the stock. Stir occasionally to avoid burning. Add the other half of the stock and stir.
Serve over polenta.
This dish was fairly successful. Sufficiently different from the pot pie so as not to attract unwarranted comparison, and moderately healthier, response was positive enough that I may experiment with it further. In the future, I think I'll focus on freshness and discreteness of the flavors rather than trying to cook them together. I'll still use dried figs, but I will parboil, peel, and chop fresh tomatoes instead of using canned. I won't saute them with everything else, but sprinkle the over the dish afterward. I won't flour the rabbit. I'll nix the tomato sauce and opt for something thinner but with more bite.
The Macrostie Chardonnay was excellent. At $15, it's a revelation. It's got all the earmarks of an over-the-top California Chard: 100% Malo, 1/4 new oak, Hungarian wood -- but in the end, what you taste is lush tropical fruit and spices, with just enough oak and butter to fill it out.
January 19, 2003 in main_dishes, menus, old_site, recipes, salads | Permalink | Comments (0)
rabbit pie
The Tasty Kind
I bought Rebecca rabbit for Christmas. No, not the furry kind -- the tasty kind.
Rabbit is one of those foods that makes you wonder why people eat chicken. Rabbit has so much more character. Why isn't it all over the place? Is it the cuteness factor? Obviously you don't get as much yeild from a rabbit as you do from a chicken, so there's the cost factor. Still, you can get rabbit thighs for $6/lb. over the 'net, and tenderloin for $9/lb., so it's definitely worth considering as an occasional alternative to the bland bird.
Of course, you can always buy a whole rabbit at your local butcher or gourmet market. We tried this once. Talk about your pain in the ass. Not much is more trying to my little brain than attempting to debone a small animal that hasn't been bred for yeild. The only more annoying cooking experience I can think of is the time I tried to skin and filet an eel with a spoon.
(Okay, it wasn't a spoon, but it was a knife so dull we let the neighbor's two year old play mumbly peg with it.)
So do yourself a favor and plonk down the $35 for six pounds' worth of rabbit thighs (or just $50 for 6 lbs of 2 oz tenderloins!). Make all of your chicken dishes. They'll taste twice as good, have 3/4 of the calories and half the fat. (Well, the meat will, anyway.) Or try some exotic new recipes. You'll have a great time. I am.
'Tis the Season
I thought I'd kick off our little rabbit season with a dish that is fairly unhealthy and somewhat complicated, but had all the earmarks of sublime comfort food. Mr. Pot Pie -- Frozen Food Aisle Veterean, Uninformed Bachelor's Delight -- meet Mr. Bunny Rabbit.
The filling for this recipe is based loosely on one by Gloria Ciccarone-Nehls, Executive Chef at the The Big 4 in the Huntington Hotel on Nob Hill. (I've never been.) She appears to have a fondness for game; I've seen a lot of interesting recipes for alligator, ostrich, buffalo, and so forth with her name on them.
Rabbit Pot Pie With Biscuit Crust
Filling:
2 c. Fresh wild mushrooms Baby carrots Golden beets Other root vegetables, such as turnips 2 1/2 lb rabbit meat, or 1 very large rabbit
Dried mushrooms (porcini, chantrelle, etc.) 1 medium onion 1 c. Madiera 1/2 c. Cognac 3 c. cream
Bisquik Milk Eggs
Butter Flour Salt Pepper Fresh sage and thyme Other fresh herbs Minced garlic Chicken stock
Marinate the rabbit for a few hours in a mix of cognac, garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, and fesh herbs.
If you're using dried mushrooms, start soaking them just before you begin the next step.
Braise the rabbit in a mix of chicken stock and the marinating liquid. If you're using a whole rabbit, poor soul, you'll need about an hour and a fair amount of chicken stock. If you're using thighs or loin, check it after fifteen minutes or so -- actual braising time will depend on the size and thickness of the pieces.
(If you are using a whole rabbit, you should probably complete the rabbit-related sections of the recipe first, rather than interlacing them with the rest of the preparation as I've done below, because it takes longer to cook and it will take you forever to get the meat off of the bones.)
While all the braising is going on, put some water on to boil. Then, in another pot, saute some sage and any other fresh herbs along with the onion and garlic in olive oil until the onions are soft. Chop the dried mushrooms and add them, then add the Madiera, Cognac, one cup chicken stock, and cream. Reduce the sauce by half, then turn the heat down.
By this time, the water should be boiling. Quarter your root vegetables and parboil them along with the baby carrots, golden beets, and whatever else you've got. Take care not to overcook. Dice the vegetables.
When the rabbit is done, strain the braising liquid and put it in the freezer for later use. Chop the rabbit into bite-sized pieces and set aside.
Make a roux from 6 tablespoons of butter and 6 tablespoons of flour. Cook it lightly and add it to the reduced sauce. Stir it through. The sauce should now be just about the thickness of the horrible chicken pot pies found in the frozen food section of the grocery store. (If it's too thick, add some of the braising liquid.)
Saute the shallots in butter. Add the fresh mushrooms briefly. Add the chopped vegetables and the rabbit and stir, then remove from the heat.
Prepare the biscuit mix now. (Just follow the directions on the box; I won't repeat them here.)
Fill each of the individual tins halfway full with the filling. Pour the sauce over each, then mix in with a fork. Pour the biscuit mix over the top and put into a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.
I was so right about this recipe. It's gorgeous. We couldn't stop eating.
I still have 9 pounds of rabbit left in my freezer. This is going to be fun.
January 19, 2003 in main_dishes, old_site, recipes | Permalink | Comments (0)
January 08, 2003
Impromptu Dinner Party
Impromptu Dinner Party
I enjoyed hanging out with my friend Joe over New Year's, so last weekend I suggested that we get together on Saturday and do some wine tasting and maybe some cooking. It turned into an impromptu dinner party. We met at 4 to discuss possible dishes, went to the wine store by 4:30, made it to the grocery store by 5:45, made it to his place by 7, and served dinner by 9. The menu:
I've been on a fish/shellfish cake kick ever since the company party. I think I'm mastering one basic approach. I need better control over the frying temperature to get a nice even browning on the outside, but other than that I've been making them consistently well. Easy and quick to make, and they use ingredients that can be found in most any kitchen (with the possible exception of the panko). A useful addition to the repertoire.
(And while we're on the topic of breading, see this fascinating page in the wonderful Cook's Thesaurus.)
The salad was simple but quite excellent -- very refined. Joe found some fantastic grapefruit and made a very balanced dressing from sherry vinegar and olive oil.
The Puligny-Montrachet was a little disappointing. It was a younger and considerably less expensive brother of the wine that I had at the company Christmas party. Perhaps with a few more years under its belt it might approach the kind of complexity that its older sibling had. At this age, though, it was just a well-balanced Chardonnay. It's still more expensive than domestic Chardonnay. I might have prefered the two bottles of the Kendall-Jackson "Great Estates" I could have gotten for the same price.
We decided we wanted lamb to eat, but couldn't settle on a preparation. When someone mentioned "Shepherd's Pie", we considered the matter settled, as it rendered the preparation of side dishes unnecessary.
Neither of us had ever made a Shepherd's Pie in recent history. (I think I made one once around seven years ago for a girl I was trying to get into bed; she didn't sleep with me, so it couldn't have been that good.) But it didn't matter, because it was easy as, er, pie. You make some mashed potatoes (truffled, parmesaned, or garliced is good). You cook some ground red meat (beef is fine, but lamb is better) and fresh spices. You parboil some nice tender vegetables. You optionally make a small amount of gravy, perhaps a pan sauce from the drippings of the ground meat. Then, in a casserole, you put the meat and vegetables down, pour the gravy on top, and apply a thick layer of mashed potatoes. Throw it in the oven until the potato crust browned on top and everything is heated through.
We wanted to use braised lamb shank instead of ground lamb, as in this recipe, but wisely decided we didn't have time. I'll do that when I make this again, though.
Joe found some great baby vegetables, including some near-dazzling golden beets.
This is another useful addition. It's a great party recipe because of its one-dish-meal nature and because it scales effortlessly.
Once again, few details on the wine. I apologize; I don't have the bottles in front of me, and it's been a few days at this point, so I've forgotten most of the names. It was a pretty wine, a nice expression of Grenache. It may have been a little feminine to pair with this dish, but I wasn't complaining.
January 8, 2003 in menus, old_site | Permalink | Comments (0)
January 06, 2003
the company party
I'm back in town, back at work, and blogging again. I have a few things to say about the holidays, but I realized that I haven't even had a chance to talk about the Company Christmas Party, which happened the day before I went out of town. I'll start there.
The Company Party
Our company party was remarkable for one reason: the wine. The standard Company Christmas party is dominated by people who, if they drink wine at all, feel perfectly comfortable ordering a glass of "the red", which they will inevitably remark is "pretty good" but "a little dry". If you have any taste for wine at all, you are faced with the unenviable task of choosing between the Talus Chardonnay and the Sutter Home Merlot. (The answer to this dilemma is clear: you drink beer.)
Not so this time. The president of our company is a big Burgundy fan, and he knows his wine. When I told him about The Wine House's 25th Anniversary sale, he went nuts. He and I and another wine fan from the company went together to buy wine for the party. When we got there, he said, "We each have $200 to spend. Go get the good stuff."
Mind you, our company only has 25 employees. Expected attendance at the party was less than 50 people. Not all of them are wine fans. In this circumstance, $600 can get you a lot of great wine.
And great wine was gotten. Burgundy was easily the most represented region, providing such wines as the 1999 Domaine Lamarche Grands Echezeaux and the 1998 Domaine Thierry Violot-Guillemard Pommard Rugiens. We also had some great Bordeaux whose names I regretfully do not remember. And there was a concession to California Cabs: someone (not me) bought a bottle of Silver Oak.
The big surprise for me came with the crab cakes. I love crab cakes, and ate them almost exclusively that evening, as there seemed to be a limitless supply. But the Burgundies and Bordeaux were an inappropriate pairing. Fortunately, the company president had had a bit more forethought that ourselves and purchased two bottles of a 1995 Puligny Montrachet -- $80 bottles that were on sale for $50 each. Incredible. Especially with the crab cakes. Fortunately for me, no one seemed to be drinking white wine (although I persuaded several people to try it), so I pretty much had it all to myself. I holed up in the corner, snarfing crab cakes and chugging Puligny Montrachet like I was on death row and it was my last meal.
I just wish I knew which Puligny Montrachet it was. On second thought, it's probably best that I don't know. I might start selling off things I need.
January 6, 2003 in events, old_site, wine | Permalink | Comments (0)
December 18, 2002
winter hiatus
Confabulist.com is on hiatus for the holidays. I'll be in upstate New York for Christmas. I plan to resume writing by the 1st. See you then!
May you have some great food this holiday season.
-- Orion
December 18, 2002 in old_site | Permalink | Comments (0)
December 01, 2002
the sweet, bacony smell of success
Don't have much time to chat, but I thought you might want to know that Saturday's post-Thanksgiving dinner party seemed to go over well. I may go through the preparation of some of the dishes in later entries, but for now, here's the menu:
Originally I'd planned to make just the Crab Corn Chowder, since the regular corn chowder recipe uses chicken stock and we had an ichthyophagous guest, but Rebecca likes the original a lot and encouraged me to make both.
Truth be told, they both came out kind of weird. The crab version was kind of lemony. It's amazing what just a little too much lemon zest will do. The sun-dried tomato version tasted kind of...southwestern. All in all, a bit of a disappointment, considering how refined these soups have tasted when I've made them in the past. But still quite edible.
I can't comment on exactly how well the wine went with the dish, as I was in the kitchen prepping for the next course while this one was served. But the idea was to match the sweetness of the corn and the creaminess of the ...cream with a wine that was smooth, full, and had just a bit of residual sugar. A second choice would have been a malolacticized California Chardonnay, but since I was serving a Chablis with the next course, I decided to diversify a bit.
I made this dish earlier in the week as I was desperately casting about for a second course after many failures. It exceeded my expectations quite a bit. Rebecca says this second try was even better.
It consists of three items stuffed into a puff pastry shell: slices of king salmon filet, a diced red pepper and mushroom mixture thickened with beurre manie, and a simple salmon-sage mousse. I found some great mushrooms this time: a mix of cinnamon cap and portabello. This gave much more character to the mixture than the previous effort.
I still can't make a decent curry cream sauce to save my life, however. Not sure what I'm missing, but evidently it's something very, very important.
I served my first try at this recipe with the white Cotes du Rhone that I served with the previous dish. It didn't pair well at all. In this case, the slight sweetness of the dish and the creaminess of the sauce seemed to demand an acidic bite to cut through it. The Becasonne seemed cloying and sticky. But I still wanted a wine with some richness, so I went with this very nice Chablis.
I thought the pairing was a success. The placement left something to be desired, as the Becasonne is bolder and richer and the Chablis, subtler, suffered a bit from being served right after it. If I had it to do over again, I may have gone for more contrast and served a Sauvignon Blanc or something with this course.
The same recipe as the one I made a few weeks ago, with some of the mistakes corrected. It still doesn't do justice to its source material, my friend Eman's Bourguignon. But it was pretty good. It seemed to draw raves from the invitees.
For the pescetarian I seared a sea bass filet and served it with a mango salsa.
I asked one of the guests to bring a Burgundy to serve with the Bourguignon, and he brought this lovely Rouget. Silky, earthy and spicy, it was the perfect counterpoint to the dish.
Golden raisins were nowhere to be found. The produce guy at Whole Foods murmured something about small harvests in Turkey this year or something; I didn't care. I was distraught. I was forced to use Thompsons Seedless. It just didn't turn out the same. (Listen to me whine! Pretty good, eh?) Actually, the raisins were only part of the problem. Wish I knew what the other part was. The first time I made this it was fantastic. I was convinced it was nearly as good as the goat cheese dish I'd had at the Laundry. Not true of this version.
Overall, though, the menu was a success. No major disasters, and a couple of strong entrees. I promise to give the Wellington recipe in a later entry, as it's easy to make but can be quite dazzling. As long as you promise to improve on the sauce and send me the recipe.
December 1, 2002 in menus, old_site | Permalink | Comments (0)
November 28, 2002
the bitter -- no, the bland taste of failure
Dramatic Failures
I'm having some people over on Saturday for a post-Thanksgiving dinner. I had some great ideas for the menu, but I've been experimenting with them one by one over the past month and most have been dramatic failures. Here's one example:
Lobster Mashed Potatoes
Sounds like a great idea, right? I like lobster. I like mashed potatoes. Two great tastes that taste great together! What's not to love?
(In all fairness, I must point out that I didn't come up with the concept. It's been done plenty of times before; see for example here and here.)
Here's what I did:
- Steam lobster for 4 minutes using 1/2 bottle of dry white wine. - Put lobster in a bowl of ice water to stop it from cooking further. - Remove tail meat, body meat and put in the fridge. Remove tomalley and set aside. Remove evil stomach sac and throw away. - Make "lobster butter": put some shells, some of the tomalley, some herbes de provence and two sticks of butter in a small pan and put in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or so. - Meanwhile, boil the potatoes. - Make lobster stock: put some other shells and herbs along with the drained lobster juices in with the steaming liquid, along with more white wine if necessary, and reduce. - Cook the lobster meat briefly in some of the lobster butter. - Mash the potatoes. Use the stock, the lobster butter, some cream, and some truffle oil in the potatoes.
When I first tasted them, I thought not bad; this could work. The lobster flavor stood out just enough to make it interesting. But by the time we had them with dinner, they'd changed. They tasted bland, bland, bland. The lobster was overcooked and the potatoes had no trace of lobster flavor. Worse yet, they tasted grainy. I think this is because I'd substituted the lobster stock for much of the cream.
I made several mistakes during preparation, but even though I could possibly do things a bit better, I decided not to serve it at my Thanksgiving dinner. It just didn't show enough promise.
Beet-cream sauce
The lobster dish had one saving grace: the sauce served with it. Ironically, the sauce was thrown together as an afterthought and was the product of several mistakes and poor choices.
I'd intended to create something along the lines of Keller's Red Beet Essence, which I'd had at the French Laundry. But that sauce begins with beet juice, which my local store does not carry. So I just bought some beets, sure that I could make something similar using the raw materials.
I decided to start by roasting the beets. (To do so, just coat them liberally in olive oil, salt and pepper, and put them in a pan in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour or until a knife slides easily through them.)
I then peeled them and ran them through the blender. It seemed like the right thing to do.
I peered into the blender. I saw beet mush. Far too thick to be a sauce. "Fine," I thought. "I'll strain it."
I poured the contents of the blender into a strainer. The beet mush just sat there, defiantly, refusing to strain.
I used the back of a ladle to lightly work the beet puree through the strainer, taking care not to force it through. I threw away the remaining beet matter, about 1/4 of the original volume. But the puree that remained was still far too thick to be a sauce.
What could I thin it with? White wine seemed like a good choice. I combined equal parts beet puree and white wine in a saucepan and left it over medium heat for a few minutes; just long enough for the alcohol to burn away. I added salt and pepper to taste. It wasn't bad. Pretty good, actually. But it was still a bit too rough-edged.
So I took it off the heat and stirred in a few tablespoons of heavy cream to mellow it out. The sauce turned a bright fuscha. I wasn't sure how to take that.
The resulting sauce is very flavorful. The color is quite distinctive, so it can be a powerful element in the presentation of a dish. It's easy to make, and I imagine it can be prepared well in advance. (Just don't stir in the cream until just before serving.)
I'm glad to be able to add this sauce to my small but growing arsenal.
Seafood and the Circus
So, tonight: dinner at Waterfront, and then Cirque Du Soleil. Seafood and the circus -- call it a non-traditional Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to it. Have a great holiday.
November 28, 2002 in old_site, recipes, side_dishes | Permalink | Comments (0)
November 10, 2002
Beef Bourguignon
If you've never made Beef Bourguignon before, you owe it to your stomach to do so. It's more than just beef stew. Although it takes some time and costs a little more than you'd expect, it's not very labor intensive and takes next to nothing in the way of cooking skills. And it's absolutely delicious.
Even (or perhaps especially) if you've made similar dishes without the Burgundy, the brandy, or the bacon, you should give it another try with a recipe similar to this one. Your taste buds will thank me. (And I must say I'm looking forward to that!)
Beef Bourguignon--//--2 bottles of red Burgundy 3/4 cup brandy 3 cups of beef broth 1 1/2 lb fresh mushrooms 2 small Turkish bay leaves 1 frond of rosemary 2 beef marrow bones 2 tbsp brown sugar 3 oz tomato paste (about 1/2 can) salt and pepper 3 1/2 lb of boneless chuck, cut into large cubes 12 oz thick cut bacon 3 large carrots 4 celery stalks 3 large russet potatoes 1 large sweet onion 8 garlic cloves Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slather the marrow bones with vegetable oil and brown in the oven for 10 minutes or so, turning them over halfway through. Peel and cube the potato, peel the garlic, and chop the onion. Cut the bacon into 1 inch pieces. Put 1/3 of it back into the refrigerator. Cook the bacon in a large dutch oven. Set the cooked bacon aside. Reserve most of the fat, leaving the rest in the bottom of the pot. Thoroughly salt and pepper the cubed beef, then dredge in flour. Brown the beef in bacon fat in three batches, adding more fat to the bottom of the pot between batches. Once the beef is done, smash the garlic with the heel of your hand and cook the potatoes, the onion, and the garlic in the bacon fat. Remove them from the pot and set aside. Remove the pot from the heat for a moment. Add the brandy add deglaze the bottom of the pot (putting it back on the heat). Add one cup of beef stock and reduce the mixture by 3/4. Put the marrow bones at the bottom of the pot. Add the two bottles of wine, the other two cups of stock, the bacon, the beef, and the potato/onion/garlic mixture back into the pot, and add the tomato paste and the sugar. Make a boquet garni from the bay leaf, rosemary, and fresh thyme (if you have it), and add to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil, then put in the oven. After two hours: quarter the mushrooms, and slice the carrots and the celery. Fry the remaining bacon in a pan. Remove the bacon from the pan. Cook the vegetables briefly in the bacon fat until they just begin to soften. Add the vegetables and the bacon to the pot. Continue cooking the mixture in the oven for another two hours. After this period is over you may, if you wish, remove the solids and continue cooking the liquid on the stovetop to reduce it further. Serve over fresh linguini.
Some notes:
Don't skimp on the wine. Try this recipe at least once with real Burgundy from Burgundy. You're putting two bottles in, so the flavor of the wine will likely do more to determine the flavor of the dish than anything else that goes in. And Burgundy isn't cheap, I know, but if you have a decent wine store accessible to you, you should be able to find something drinkable for around $12/bottle. Expect it to be the most expensive component of the meal. But don't fret. Served with linguini, it should comprise about eight servings, which brings the total cost per serving down to around $5 or $6, which isn't so bad.
Serve it with a Burgundy. If you don't know what you like in Burgundy, or don't want to spend much money, just buy three bottles of the wine you're cooking with instead of two.
Full disclosure:
I forgot my plans and added the vegetables at the beginning of cooking. And they were, as you'd expect, a bit too soft in the end. Make sure to add them in the middle of cooking.
I actually used part of an elk roast instead of beef, but the meat was too lean and was, in the end, mealy and flavorless. I should have suspected this, having had this problem before, but I thought maybe things would be different if I cooked it longer. Apparently not. Stick with fattier cuts from fattier animals; they'll stand up better to long braisings.
The marrow bone part is entirely optional. I don't even know if this is how you're supposed to use marrow bones exactly. (Theoretically, I think you're supposed to get the bones cut for you at the butcher's, then roast them and scoop out the marrow.) But I saw them in the grocery store, but I was in a hurry, and figured what the hell. Plus one of the butchers assured me that she just roasted the bone and then put them in with whatever she was cooking. Next time, though, I think I'll have them split it for me.
Bon appetit!
November 10, 2002 in old_site, recipes, soups_stews | Permalink | Comments (1)
November 06, 2002
getting it all done
Finally, it's all overwith -- the GRE, and the damnable scavenger hunt. And I feel great. It's like the entire world is moving in slow motion now. Everything is low-effort. All problems are non-problems. Each day feels like two.
The last few days of planning for the hunt were a frenzy of activity. We worked for seven hours Thursday night after work. We took the day off on Friday and worked nearly twenty hours on it, and then worked in the morning Saturday right up until we had to meet the organizers to help set things up. And we were finding problems up until the last minute.
So I was really worried going into it. And things didn't start off well. After the starting gun, I got several phone calls immediately. I'd phrased one question wrong, leading everyone to get the wrong answer to a relatively simple question. Another team had gotten lost from the get-go due to poorly worded directions. A third team didn't have a critical item in their starting pack.
But after rectifying those initial problems, amazingly, everything seemed to work out. The flood of phone calls abated. There were, in fact, only two more; one of them a simple problem to resolve, and the other, user error.
And in the end, as everyone trickled in, they told us they'd had a great time. That our game was among the best they'd ever played. And the organizers (who played our game -- despite having invented this particular format, they'd never played it themselves) said that it was a high point in their careers.
I'm already starting to nostalgize the horrible workload. Every day after work and every weekend we slaved over that damn game...right until the last minute we were still finding problems...but it all came together in the end! Everyone loved it! And I took my GRE and I did great!
No matter. Yes, I'm glad we did it. But I'm never doing it again.
Time to refocus. Here's what I need to get done now:
Writing my personal statement.
Getting the rest of my applications together. In particular, getting my transcripts sent and my letters of recommendation written.
Selling my car. I've been ignoring this. If I'm going to do this, I need to pick up the pace while it can still make some financial difference.
Plan the Post-Thanksgiving dinner.
I don't think I have any other real priorities right now. It's great to have so little to do -- by comparison, anyway.
I can't wait until school applications are done. I have a couple of projects I'm eager to start.
November 6, 2002 in old_site | Permalink | Comments (0)
October 30, 2002
gre preparation tips
I took the GRE this morning. It's been a long time coming. Damn am I glad it's over.
My math score exceeded my expectations. I'm very happy about that. My verbal score, while still fairly high, wasn't as good as I'd anticipated. Since I'll probably be applying to Computer Science departments, that's less important. I don't think I did very well on the analytical writing section. I'm not sure how important that is. (Ed. note: The author wound up doing just fine on the analytical section.)
By and large, though, I'm happy with my performance. My preparation, though spotty and undisciplined, was mostly sufficient.
Here are some tips based on my personal experience that you may find useful if you're preparing for the GRE. This is written mostly for adult students returning to school after a potentially long hiatus, as was the case with me. The tips are haphazardly presented and poorly worded, I realize. In addition, they are math-centric, as that's where most of my preparation was focused. Hopefully there's a little useful information for everyone.
Start Early, Ease Into It
Plan to start studying at least six months out. That way you don't have to cram all of your preparation into the last month or two. Furthermore, you'll have time to judge whether or not you've truly internalized the material. This is particularly important for returning students.
(Don't despair if you don't have six months. You don't really need six months; I just wish I'd done it slowly over a longer period of time rather than intensely at the end. It would have been far less stressful that way. I did my preparation in less than two months.)
Buying Books
When I thought about spending money on GRE books, the normally inactive neurons in my brain responsible for frugality started firing. "Why don't I just buy books over Ebay?" I thought.
I'm not saying this is a bad idea. You should just be aware that not all GRE books are created equal. First, be aware that the composition of the GRE does change over the years. Buying old books is not necessarily a bad thing, but you can't rely on them exclusively. In addition, the GRE format has changed since certain editions. Books that are a few years old will give you problems oriented towards a 30 problems in 30 minutes pacing, which is very different from the current format of 28 problems in 45 minutes.
(Additionally, of course, as of October 2002, the format of the analytical section dramatically changed, becoming an analytical writing section instead, and completely invalidating the sections devoted to analytical preparation in older books. If you're not aware of this change, you should definitely read about it on the official GRE site.)
Second, some books just suck. Maybe they're just not geared toward high performers, or are trying to be all things to everyone. But I went through a couple of books that didn't even mention some of the more difficult problem types.
In particular, the 2000 Arco GRE was a complete waste of money and time. In the early stages of my preparation, when I was getting 75% on the practice tests from some other books, I was getting 95% and higher on the Arco tests. Eventually I stopped working out of the Arco book altogether.
Books that I had good luck with include:
o GRE: Practicing to Take the General Test, the book of sample exams published by ETS, was indispensable. Don't even think about going without.
o I found Kaplan GRE Math Workbook to be a halfway decent math review. There's a lot of cruft -- you'll probably want to ignore all of the "basic" and many of the "intermediate" problems -- but in the end it's probably worth the $12.
Obtaining Software
Given that the GRE is a computer-based test now, it's surprising that there isn't a ton of similar computer-adaptive testing software out there for praciticing. Of course, each of the major test prep companies (Kaplan, Peterson, etc.) offers online GRE CATs (computer adaptive tests). But it's not always clear what you're getting for your money, and generally speaking, those companies use the CATs as a carrot to try to draw you into purchasing additional prep services from them. I'm not saying that you shouldn't use them. Presumably their material is at least passable.
I preferred tests that I could download to my hard drive and peruse at my leisure to the online services provided by the major companies. Unfortunately, there aren't that many tests out there like that. The two that I used primarily were:
PowerPrep (the sample ETS tests): This is the online test package that you can download for free from ETS, the organization that writes the actual GRE. It's the best gauge of your preparation, and you can't beat the price. Since there are only two tests, here's how I'd suggest using them: Take toward the beginning of your preparation. The score will tell you where you're at and help set your expectations appropriately. Take the other one toward the end of your preparation. (Actually, take them both -- you'll probably have forgotten the first one by then, if you've given yourself at least a few months to prepare. But don't take them any more often than that.)
800score: This company sells five downloadable computer adaptive tests for $18. One math section is available for free so you can see what you're getting. I found these to be worth my while.
It's important to note that these tests -- the math sections, anyway -- are more difficult than the actual GRE, and near as I can tell, the scoring is more aggressive (you're penalized more for wrong answers). At first I was very disappointed -- frightened, even -- by my performance on these tests. It was only after taking the ETS-supplied tests that I realized that I would not have to commit seppiku to avoid dishonoring my family.
Whether the difficulty level is intentional I don't know, but I found it to be helpful -- having a target to shoot at that was above the level of the actual GRE meant that I spent more time working on the things that I found to be difficult, rather than patsy problems and busywork. It also meant that I had a much lower stress level during the actual test.
The important thing to remember is to use these practice tests as benchmarks, not as the primary material for your preparation. You should use static material -- GRE prep books, etc. -- to study. The practice tests should serve to prepare you for the format. Space them out at regular intervals throughout your months of practice. Take a verbal section here, and a math section there, maybe once a week or so. I, for one, was always tempted to take another test right away if I did poorly. Don't yeild to that impulse -- it won't do you any good in the long run. Your computer adaptive tests are precious; don't abuse them.
Studying for the Verbal Section
Unfortunately, I didn't take a single practice verbal test or do any verbal preparation whatever until two days before my test. What I would have done, though, if I'd been a bit more proactive and had a little more time, would be to start studying vocabulary at the very beginning. There are a lot of good vocabulary lists available on the web for free, e.g., here. Download a bunch of them. Delete the words that are in your working vocabulary -- words that you actually use. Leave words on the list even if you know what they mean but don't use them. You can always take them off later. Use the edited, compiled list as your basis for study. There's a lot of good information out there on vocabulary preparation, so I won't rehash it. The aforementioned site also has links to decent preparation software.
The only way that I can think of to prepare for the reading comprehension questions is to take sample GRE tests.
Studying for the Math Section
Personally, I feel that good preparation can have more of an impact on your scores on the math section than anywhere else on the GRE.
Studying for the math section, if you're a returning student or a even a student who majored in a non-technical discipline, will have two phases. The first one is deficiency. You'll need to remember all of the high school math that you never use. You'll need to brush up on ratios and fractions, factoring, and all that nonsense. This really shouldn't take too long. Take a few practice tests, go through a few diagnostic tests in the books you bought. Figure out what you've forgotten (or never knew) and commit it to memory. That's it. The math itself is not complicated or difficult.
The second phase is the longest, most difficult, and most crucial. It's here that you face the real obstacles to getting a high GRE score. And the only solution is enlightented practice. Each time you take a practice test in a book or on the computer, you must go back through and diagnose your errors.
The primary skills you must develop through practice are:
o Pacing -- Unless you're mathematically gifted, you must pay close attention to your pacing strategy for taking the GRE. Pacing the CAT is very different from pacing a paper-based test, since all problems on the CAT are not equally important. There's a lot of information out there on CAT pacing that covers the subject more completely than I could, so I won't offer specific strategies here.
Once I'd implemented a basic pacing strategy, I found that the major obstacle for me was my own nature. I'd be working on a problem and know in the back of my mind that I was taking too long, I'd find myself thinking, "I can do this problem. I know how; I just need a little more time!" It was hard for me to sacrifice a problem that I knew how to do even if I was way off of my pace. (The strange nature of GRE scoring makes assessing whether or not to give up on a problem even more difficult.)
Only by practicing -- primarily on CATs -- can you get a good internal sense of how long to take on a problem and understand when to give up. The 800score tests are good because they have a built-in pacer that lets you know how far off pace you are, and when you're reviewing the answers, it shows you which questions you took too long on.
o Number Sense -- The GRE is easiest if you have an intimate relationship with numbers. This is not the case for me, nor is it the case for most people. The good news is that you can significantly improve your relationship with numbers in ways that will help your GRE score with a little investigation and practice.
Many problems on the GRE are quite workable via longhand, but are much simpler if you know a bit about the numbers involved. As a classic example, I've seen problems on practice tests that require you to calculate the length of the third side of various triangles as part of the solution. Often the lengths of the sides of these triangles are all whole numbers less than 20. There aren't that many of those! Memorizing them is not too much trouble.
Other simple examples:
o Knowing (and by knowing I don't simply mean "being able to calculate") the relationship between a circle's radius, its circumference, and its area
o Being able to tell if an arbitrary number is divisible by k, where k < 12
o Knowing various methods of judging whether one fraction is larger or smaller than another, and being able to pick the easiest method for the situation
One approach that I used is to read through the "tips and tricks" section of every GRE preparation book I could get ahold of. You'll likely be aware of most of the information, but every book will have at least a few choice bits. Write those bits down on flash cards and go through them periodically. If necessary, compile some sample problems that exercise those specific skills.
There a number of websites devoted to number sense. I wish I'd stumbled upon them while I was studying for the GRE -- I imagine they'd be a great aid if you were starting early enough. Some of the sites focus primarily on doing basic calculation, but even this could be very helpful. Probably most of the time you spend on the GRE Math will be performing calculations by hand. You have much better uses for that time, the more that you can reclaim for actual thinking or careful reading, the better.
The primary obstacles to a high GRE score, having factored out knowledge (of the problem types) and skills (such as those mentioned above) include:
o Misreading -- If you're anything like me, in the heat of taking the test will elicit a large number of errors. You will see right angle indicators where none existed or omit them when they are present. You will see "square" when the problem clearly says "rectangle" and decimal points will move around as though they were insects. The only way to avoid these kinds of errors is to take your time and read the problem carefully, whether you're under time pressure or not. This isn't as easy as it sounds. Diagnosis of your errors under test conditions is the only way to be sure you're not fooling yourself about the degree of your misreadings or any other errors.
o Calculation Error -- Screwing up the basic math is another major source of error. Having good number sense will help with this. So will good pacing, so you will be under less time pressure.
Note that once you pass the "deficiency" stage of your preparation, you should take tests from books as though you're taking a CAT. Observe strict time limits. Don't change answers once you've written them down. Don't skip problems and go back to them, even if you have time at the end. (It's fine if you want to go back after you've scored the test and work any problems you skipped.)
Studying for the Analytical Writing Section
I made a big mistake in eschewing practice of the analytical writing section. The main reason I did so (besides lack of time and general focus on the Math section) is lack of objective feedback using criteria similar to the ETS judging criteria.
What I should have realized is that pacing is crucial. It's important to have a good feel for the timing of writing a 30 or 45 minute essay. If you're in school and you take essay tests with some regularity, this may not be an issue. If you're like me, and you haven't written a timed essay in seven years, you should pay some attention to this.
There are plenty of sample questions on the web. Review ETS' judging criteria and write a few, periodically, under test conditions. Review your essay as objectively as you can. This is the very least you can do for your analytical writing preparation.
If you wish to have a more objective judge, there are GRE prep services which will give you a sample question and judge the result using the ETS criteria for around $20.
Good luck on your GRE!
October 30, 2002 in best, old_site | Permalink | Comments (16)
October 28, 2002
ups and downs
Scavenging Time
Sometime last week I woke up to discover that the scavenger hunt we agreed to plan had completely taken over my life. Three times as much work as I thought it was going to be, it's begun to consume every waking moment, despite the fact that I'm taking my GRE on Wednesday the 30th, and I haven't even done one single verbal sample test. I feel spread way too thin. I need some downtime. I'll be so glad when this week is over and I've put the hunt and the GRE behind me.
I take it all back
Despite all of the tiresome work on the Hunt punctuated by occasional guilty feelings over not studying for the GRE, the weekend did have a couple of high notes. One was some oh-my-holy-jeebus, eyes-rolling-back-into-your-head, please-god-please sex. Jesus. But, you know, since that happens all the time with me, it's really no big deal.
Vieux Telegraphe
The other high point in anotherwise difficult weekend was this: My friend Eman invited me over Sunday night. He'd finally decided to hold his Vieux Telegraphe tasting. Vieux Telegraphe is a great wine from Chateauneuf du Pape, itself a particularly interesting village in Southern France which you can read more about here. Chateauneufs are, like many wines in the area, dominated by Grenache and supplemented with Syrah and Mourvedre, but as many as thirteen different grapes can be used in the wine, resulting in complex very distinctive wines.
Eman and friends had managed to accumulate bottles from the 1999, 1998, 1996, 1988, and 1980 vintages. I went out on a brief foray for the 1997 and 2000 vintages, but was unsuccessful.
We tasted them in reverse chronological order. I thought the 1980 was a little past its prime, although I warmed to it as the evening progressed. The 1988, I thought, was perfect, and probably represented the wine at its peak. Smooth, placid, and mature, with ground coffee, cola, and toffee flavors. Grenache is such a strange, beautiful grape!
The 1996 was also very good, but didn't show the complexity of the older vintage. The 1998 was huge, unwieldy, and not ready to drink. (Don't get me wrong, though -- I still enjoyed the experience!) It'll be a great wine, I think, in five or six years. The 1999 was...odd. There were definite "eggy" flavors that interfered with my enjoyment of it. I don't know if there was a problem with the bottle -- maybe some hydrogen sulfide? -- or whether this odor will go away as the wine gets older, but either way, this was my least favorite of the bunch.
You can read an interesting article on the producer here.
Kermit Lynch, the importer of Vieux Telegraphe, is an importer of some reknown; see here and here for instance. He's written several interesting books, including Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyers's Tour of France. He has a shop in Berkeley that I have yet to visit. I've made a mental note to go check it out.
Beef Bourguignon
To accompany these great wines, Eman prepared a huge pot of Beef Bourguignon, using a recipe of his own which featured bone marrow, homemeade beef stock, and a good bit of Cognac. It was fantastic. I now understand that anything that I've every had as "Beef Stew" is but a distant parody of a good Beef Bourguignon. I think I need to experiment with this.
October 28, 2002 in old_site | Permalink | Comments (0)
October 20, 2002
harry potter jelly bellies
The following is a review of the new Harry Potter Jelly Bellies, or "Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans", as they are branded and distributed. I have confined my review to the flavors which are not present in the standard Jelly Belly distribution, as there is no need to spill more ink lauding Green Apple or Banana and reviling the hated Buttered Popcorn, as is done with the advent of each Jelly Belly vintage.
Booger: A little greener than perhaps it should be, and the occasional flecks of dark brown make you wonder just what it is that this person had up his or her nose. The overall flavor, however, is a bit of a disappointment; perhaps a little bit salty but also sweet and almost minty in a way that actual boogers most certainly aren't, and one is inevitably led to the conclusion that Bertie is here relying upon the mental image of booger consumption to supply the gross-out factor. Rating: D
Black Pepper: Somewhat closed and inaccessible upon first bite -- at least relative to my expectations of the flavor -- the Black Pepper bean soon opens up into sweet, spice-laden black pepper flavors. Well executed, though one imagines it not much of a challenge to create. A solid effort nevertheless, and -- unlike some of the other flavors -- there's a chance that this one could make the crossover into the standard distribution. Rating: B
Vomit: This bean is quite disgusting. While lacking the acidic bite of actual vomit, the bean is surprisingly successful at evoking the revolting chunky miscellany of the experience. The flavor does not immediately recall the taste of vomit, but it is nauseating enough that, in more psychologically suggestive types, it might actually serve as an emetic. I feel compelled to give it two scores: the first to indicate the pleasure that I took in the experience, and the second to evaluate Bertie's success in recreating an experience that all of us have had and few care to remember. Rating: D-/B+
Earwax: Like Booger, this flavor is a yawner. It's doubtful that the creators of this bean were even attempting to recreate earwax, which although I cannot vouch for its flavor, has a distinctive odor which is not even alluded to by this bean. Probably they had a failed experimental recipe for one of the other flavors and asked themselves how they could market it, considering "Toejam" and "Sputum" before settling on Earwax. They should have given the whole thing a miss. Rating: D
Spinach: One imagines what Bertie is going for here is the flavor of frozen or canned spinach -- and in this respect, it's a success. This beans opens up strong and the spinach flavor carries all the way through to the finish. rating: B
Sardine: Oily, briny, fishy -- and with that unnamable flavor that one can find nowhere else -- this is an impeccable re-creation of the experience of eating canned sardines. Bertie has created the consummate savory bean. If you can only try one of Bertie's new releases, make it this one. One wishes for a letter in the alphabet preceding "A" in order to give a fair rating to this masterpiece. Bravo! Rating: A++
Grass: Anyone who has ever actually eaten grass knows that its flavor, while not exactly pungent, is very distinctive and sticks on one's palate. Someone should have forced this bean's designers to do some grazing as research. Overly sweet and with only vague weedy flavors, a bean which should have been strongly suggestive of summer chores (and, by extension, summer vacation), this bean's slight vegetal flavors force the eater to stretch for their own mental associations. An excellent idea flubbed in execution. Rating: C-
Dirt: Redolent of potting soil and minerals, this is a masterstroke. Starting with a subtle clay note, the Dirt bean explodes into earthy, loamy flavors. There's even a siltiness to the texture that I originally thought was entirely psychological, but now I'm not so sure. Bertie has managed to take everything good about eating dirt -- and none of the bad things -- and concentrate it into this bean flavor. Rating: A
Read other people's experiences here, here, here, and here.
October 20, 2002 in best, old_site | Permalink | Comments (12)
October 09, 2002
elksperiments
Doing it right this time
I'm not a very experienced cook. I've never made my own puff pastry dough, prepared a meringue, or baked a souffle. And I don't have a stable of recipes ready for every occasion. What all of this means is that every time I throw a dinner party or have people over for a holiday, I must come up with a menu and try it all out first. Because even the simplest-seeming dishes are sure to have some tricky bit that can trip me up.
In addition, I'm too stubborn to just follow a recipe out of a book. Despite the fact that I have very little cooking knowledge, I have ideas that I find it difficult to repress.
This means that the weeks preceding the event are usually a flurry of cooking, testing, and revising. It also means that sometimes everyone in the house is sick of a particular dish by the time the dinner party arrives -- and we have to eat it again.
On top of it all, I've been very bad about keeping records of my dry runs. As a result, The final meal is sometimes not as good as the practice meal.
I have a dinner party planned for the Saturday after Thanksgiving, as you may already know, and I plan to do it all differently this time. For one thing, I'm starting earlier. This will enable me to spread the practice sessions out so that no one gets sick of the dishes. And I'm going to be more diligent about recording my efforts this time.
[I must admit that I've already slacked off in this respect. this entry is being written many days after the fact, and I did not take notes at the time, so the details will be fuzzy. But I'm drawing a line in the sand. I'll be good from now on!]
Elksperiments
Last week the only dish I knew that I wanted to make for Thanksgiving was a roast of some kind -- either some kind of venison or wild boar. Since I've made a wild boar roast once before -- although I daresay I could do it much better this time -- I decided to go with venison. I liked the idea of an elk roast, so I found a place with decent pricing to order from. They sell an inexpensively priced roast (shoulder, I thought) as well as sirloin butt roast. I figured I'd order the cheap one, and if it works out, get the more expensive one for the actual party.
The meat arrived on Saturday. I'd ordered around seven pounds' worth, which looked to be about nine to twelve servings, so I cut it into three chunks and put two in the freezer and one in the refrigerator for later.
Poivrade
One thing I'd decided to do was give my copy of James A. Peterson's Sauces its first outing in my kitchen. If you're unfamiliar, it's a classic reference text on sauce-making. I've used it before for general guidance, but I've never actually tried to make a sauce out of it. This is because the recipies -- in the true French culinary tradition -- are an extraordinary amount of trouble. Some of them require four whole cows, two thousand dollars' worth of equipment, and take a team of twelve more than twenty-three days to make.
Okay, maybe not that much trouble. But any recipe that takes over four hours and requires you to make a stew and throw out all of the solids in order to make a sauce is a bit heavyweight for everyday cooking, ne c'est pas? But that's French cooking. If the volume of solids that you throw away isn't at least three times the volume of what you retain, it wasn't invented by a Frenchman.
Not that I'm saying they're wasteful. Most of the time we're talking about bones, shells, and trimmings, or at worst, cheap and plentiful vegetables. It's just that the sheer volume of what you must have lying around in order to make some of these things is staggering. It's tough to find two recipes you can make without owning a walk-in refrigerator.
Anyway. After skimming the book a few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to make a version of Grand Veneur sauce, which is itself a variation on Poivrade. Let me paraphrase the process for you:
Peterson's Poivrade recipe begins the day before you make your meal, with you marinating the roast you're to cook. The marinade has its own recipe. Obviously, I didn't have time to do that, but fortunately Peterson suggested white wine as a substitute for people lacking foresight or planning skills.
Next, you are to brown some beef or veal trimmings in a little oil in a large stockpot, then add bunch of aromatic vegetables -- carrots, celery, and onions/shallots/leeks if you're not cooking for Rebecca -- and saute. Next, you add a quart of stock, some vinegar, and some of the marinade you used for the meat (or white wine, you slacker). Cover and let it cook for three hours, skimming oil and scum off of the top as you go along.
Starting the Elk
About three quarters into that process, I decided to start roasting the Elk.
Now my primary experience with roasts has been with pork shoulder. Typically I'll braise a pork shoulder in the oven at 160-170 degrees for a few hours, depending on how large it is. So I pretty much did the same thing with this one. I used a braising liquid similar to the one I use for pork. But I figured it would only take maybe an hour and a half, because it was only a two and a half pound roast. And I'd done a little homework -- I knew that elk is extraordinarily lean and would cook quickly. I wish I'd paid more attention to that point.
Some recipes suggested that you put strips of bacon over the roast to baste it as it cooks, because it's so lean. I didn't have any bacon, so instead I poked some holes in with a knife and worked in some duck fat. Then I stuck it into the oven, intending to check it in an hour and see how it was doing.
Poivrade, part deux
So you've let three hours and 212 degrees work their magic on your beef and vegetable mixture. What you have now is something akin to a weak beef stew. And now you're ready to begin making the sauce.
You begin by straining out all of the solids from the stew and throwing them away. Add some veal demi-glace and more of the marinade to the stew. Reduce, reduce, reduce. Then add ten or fifteen cracked peppercorns to the mix and cook for ten minutes. Strain the mixture again. Then continue to reduce until the mixture has appropriate body. Expect this part of the process to take another hour or more.
And how much sauce are you expected to have after doing all that work, and adding a quart of this and two cups of that and a cup of this and 1/2 cup of that?
Two cups.
Mein Gott. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't reduce it that far, and wound up with four or so cups of Poivrade. I know, I know, it probably would have been twice as good if I'd made half as much, but you know, it's also been good to have the sauce with nearly every meal I've had this week.
Elk again
After an hour I checked on the elk. Using my handy instant-read digital meat thermometer -- an indispensable kitchen tool for the omnivore, by the way -- I determined that the roast was about 160 degrees. Just perfect! Hey, stop laughing. It's not funny. It would have been perfect if it was a pork roast.
Instead, it was dry and chewy and totally gray. Later I read that elk should be cooked in the 130-140 degree range at most, leaving it rare to medium-rare. (That is, unless you're going to all the way and roast it for hours and hours in order to break down the connective tissue. And that might be an option for a shoulder roast, but there's absolutely no reason to do that for a sirloin butt roast or another good cut of meat, and I wanted to try out the method that I'd actually be using in the meal.)
Yeah, I know, I should have known this. Oh, well -- there were two more elk roasts in the freezer; I'd have two more tries to get it right.
Next was the matter of the braising liquid. Normally, with a pork roast, I make a simple sauce from it. I decided to do the same thing and see which was better, and whether or not the Grand Veneur sauce was really worth all of the trouble.
Sauce Grand Veneur
Making Grand Veneur from a Poivrade is a simple matter. Thicken the Poivrade with starch (or, as is traditional, blood). Add some currant jelly. Let it cook down some, take it off of the heat, and whisk in some cream.
And it was soooooo good.
Let me tell you friends, this is the first time I've made a sauce that could rival many a restaurant sauce. I had Rebecca and Darrell taste both sauces with the elk without telling them which was which, and the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the Grand Veneur.
Excellent. Now I just need to get the roast right.
October 9, 2002 in main_dishes, old_site, recipes | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 24, 2002
thanksgiving plans
Add another project to my growing list. I've started thinking about Thanksgiving. Rebecca and I already have plans for Thanksgiving day -- we're going to Cirque du Soleil -- but I want to have some people over another day. Probably Saturday, to give their stomachs some time to recover from their meal on Thursday.
Since everyone will have already had their fill of turkey and whatnot, I'm adopting a specialized strategy: small portions, distinctive flavors, unusual dishes. Here's some of what I'm considering:
Main Dish
Sauces
o Grand Veneur (translated here.)
o Chantrelle cream sauce based on the braising liquid (if applicable)
Soon I'll post some ideas for side dishes, desserts, and what have you. (If you have some ideas, send me some!)
September 24, 2002 in old_site | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 18, 2002
my delinquency
I know, I know, I've been delinquent. I don't think I've ever been this inactive with this journal.
But I have my reasons! You may already know some of them from previous entries; and here are a few more:
Tasting Group
For one thing, I've found a new wine tasting group. Every other week they taste six to ten wines in the $30 range. The guy who runs the group consolidates everyone's tasting notes into a master report, which he then posts to the web.
Brian and his girlfriend have both been attending for awhile. I think he told me about it, but I'd forgotten. It should be a lot of fun! It seems like a good group. Several of the members are much more experienced than I am, but others are greener.
The tasting I attended was of 2001 German Reislings. Not my favorite wines, but I did learn a few things. Added a new aroma/taste to my vocabulary: "petrol", or "tar". It's an aroma that I've always smelled -- and liked -- in Old World whites, but have never been able to put to words.
This reminds me -- I've been meaning to put all of my tasting notes up on this site for some time. Maybe next month.
Rebecca's Birthday
Rebecca's birthday is this weekend. Well, we're celebrating it this weekend, anyway. I thought I had everything squared away until (a) the restaurant I'd planned to take her to, Boulevard, was booked for Saturday night a week in advance, and (b) I got a call yesterday from the place that I'd ordered her main gift from, saying they were having problems with their supplier and wouldn't have any more for three to five weeks.
So now I'm faced with the task of trying to get reservations at a great restaurant on Saturday night. On a Wednesday. In San Francisco. Admittedly, this isn't as hard as it was two years ago. Back then, we would have had to drive to Monterey or file official documents to change her birthdate.
Nevertheless, it's not going to be easy. For Saturday night, I'll try Farallon instead, and if I can't get reservations there, I may go with our fallback -- and one of our favorite restaurants -- Isa. Or I may take a totally different tack, surprise her, risk it all. I'm like that; I live on the edge.
Then there's the matter of the main gift. Now I must get someone who has what I need in stock and can overnight it to me, and hope that nothing goes wrong. Not that it really matters if it doesn't make it in time, or I don't get the best of reservations. Rebecca's not one of those annoying people who has significant expectations of others on their birthday. If we have to eat spam off of paper plates in Yerba Buena, that's fine, as long as there's a cheese course for dessert.
September 18, 2002 in old_site | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 09, 2002
what a hassle
I've got a lot going on right now.
GRE
I finally scheduled my GRE, and I have two concerns. First is that I have less than a month left before I take it, and despite the fact that I've known that I had to take it around this time of year for at least four months now, I've done very little to prepare for it.
The second concern is that because I waited so late to sign up, I had to make a difficult choice. I could either take the test in a few days -- someone had cancelled, opening up a slot in an otherwise-filled schedule -- or take it in October. As in after the format changes and the analytical section changes to a writing section, deprecating a full third of what little study I have done.
I decided that I want t