Fine French Food

Fine French Food
April 27, 2008

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.

Classic French Menu
Soup Course: Cold Vichyssoise, WINE: Pinot Grigio
Appetizer/Fish Course: Salmon Rillettes, WINE: Sauvignon Blanc
Entrée: Coq au Vin
Roasted Fresh Asparagus
Crusty French Pistou Bread

WINE: A Pinot Noir or Beaujelois
French Salad with Vinaigrette
Dessert: Bananas Foster, WINE: Robert Mondavi Muscato d'Oro

I'm not under the alkafluence of inkahol that some thinkle peep I am. It's just the drunker I sit here the longer I get.

Vichyssoise
House & Garden- September 1962

Ingredients:
2 cups finely diced raw potatoes

4 tablespoons butter
6 leeks, cleaned and cut into 1 inch pieces
3 cups chicken bouillon
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly

ground black pepper
A dash of nutmeg
1 ½ to 2 cups sour cream or heavy cream

Chopped chives

Preparation:
Cook the potatoes in salted water to cover until just tender. Melt the butter in a skillet and cook the leeks gently, tossing them lightly for a few minutes. Add the chicken bouillon and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer the leeks until tender. Add the potatoes to the leeks and the broth and season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Put this mixture in the blender. (You will need to blend it in two lots) Blend for 1 minute, or until smooth. Chill.

When ready to serve, mix in sour cream or heavy cream. Garnish with chopped chives.

Salmon Rillettes
The Last Minute Party Girl: Fashionable, Fearless, and Foolishly Simple Entertaining

Ingredients:
1 celery stalk, sliced thin
1 onion, sliced thin
1 leek, sliced thin
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 cup white wine
1 lemon, halved
6 ounces king salmon fillet
2 ounces crème fraîche (or sour cream or a cream and sour cream combo)
2 tablespoons minced chives
3 tablespoons lemon extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:
Bring a large pot of water to a simmer. Add the celery, onion, leek, peppercorns, bay leaf, wine and lemon and simmer for 25 minutes.
Then add the salmon. Cover the pot, remove it from the heat, and let it stand for 10 minutes.
Remove the salmon and chill it in the refrigerator. Discard the vegetable water.
In a food processor or by hand, whip with salmon with the crème fraîche, chives, and olive oil, and add salt and pepper to taste. Keep the spread chilled until you're ready to serve.

Gourmet /n./ Anyone whom, when you fail to finish something strange or revolting, remarks that it's an acquired taste and that you're leaving the best part.

Coq au Vin
Alton Brown, Food Network.com

Ingredients:
24 to 30 pearl onions
4 chicken thighs and legs, or 1 (5 to 7-pound) stewing chicken, cut into serving pieces
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons water
6 ounces salt pork, slab bacon, or lardon, cubed
8 ounces button mushrooms, quartered
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 (750-ml) bottles red wine, preferably pinot noir
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 medium onion, quartered
2 stalks celery, quartered
2 medium carrots, quartered
3 cloves garlic, crushed
6 to 8 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cups chicken stock or broth

Preparation:
Cut off the root end of each pearl onion and make an "x" with your knife in its place. Bring 2 to 3 cups of water to a boil and drop in the onions for 1 minute. Remove the onions from the pot, allow them to cool, and then peel. You should be able to slide the onions right out of their skin. Set aside.
Sprinkle the chicken on all sides with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the chicken pieces, a few at a time, into a large (1 or 2-gallon) sealable plastic bag with the flour. Shake to coat all of the pieces of the chicken. Remove the chicken from the bag to a metal rack.
Add the 2 tablespoons of water to a large, 12-inch sauté pan over medium heat along with the salt pork. Cover and cook until the water is gone, and then continue to cook until the salt pork cubes are golden brown and crispy, approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the salt pork from the pan and set aside.
In the same pan, using the remaining fat, add the pearl onions, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and sauté until lightly brown, approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the onions from the pan and set aside. Next, brown the chicken pieces on each side until golden brown, working in batches if necessary to not overcrowd the pan. Transfer the chicken into a 7 to 8-quart enameled cast iron Dutch oven.
Add the mushrooms to the same 12-inch sauté pan, adding the 1 tablespoon of butter if needed, and sauté until they give up their liquid, approximately 5 minutes. Store the onions, mushrooms and pork in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Pour off any remaining fat and deglaze the pan with approximately 1 cup of the wine. Pour this into the Dutch oven along with the chicken stock, tomato paste, quartered onion, carrots, celery, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf. Add all of the remaining wine. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Place the chicken in the oven and cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until the chicken is tender. Maintain a very gentle simmer and stir occasionally.
Once the chicken is done, remove it to a heatproof container, cover, and place it in the oven to keep warm. Strain the sauce in a colander and remove the carrots, onion, celery, thyme, garlic, and bay leaf. Return the sauce to the pot, place over medium heat, and reduce by 1/3. Depending on how much liquid you actually began with, this should take 20 to 45 minutes.
Once the sauce has thickened, add the pearl onions, mushrooms, and pork and cook for another 15 minutes or until the heated through. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary, remove from the heat, add the chicken and serve. Serve over egg noodles, if desired.
Cook’s Note: If the sauce is not thick enough at the end of reducing, you may add a mixture of equal parts butter and flour kneaded together. Start with 1 tablespoon of each. Whisk this into the sauce for 4 to 5 minutes and repeat, if necessary.

Be happy for this moment, for this moment is your life

The Reluctant Gourmet's Basic Mustard Vinaigrette

Ingredients:
1 glove of garlic, smashed
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
5-6 tablespoons oil (vegetable, corn, canola, olive or some combination)
pinch of dried parsley
pinch of dried thyme
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Preparation:
In a clean jar or small bowl, add the vinegar, garlic, mustard and mix well. Slowly add the olive oil while either whisking or stirring rapidly with your fork. Add the parsley and thyme, salt and pepper, taste and adjust seasonings.

A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.

Banana's Foster
Brennan’s New Orleans Cookbook

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons Brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 each Ripe banana, peeled and sliced
1 dash Cinnamon
½ ounce Banana liqueur
1 ounce White rum
1 large scoop Vanilla ice cream

Preparation: Melt butter and brown sugar in flat chafing dish. Add banana and sauté until tender. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Pour in banana liqueur and rum over all and flame. Baste with warm liquid until flame burns out. Serve immediately over ice cream. Makes 1 – 2 servings.

There is no love sincerer than the love of food.