a classic french dish cooked to impress

in my last post i mentioned the coq au vin. i realize it was kinda pointless to post that lil' blurb but the smell was just so kick ass and i was alone in my apartment and didn't have anyone else to share it with!

so now, here it is. another classic french dish attempted. another smashing success. (toot! toot!)

although i now own mastering the art of french cooking i decided to go with a recipe i found in bon apetit.

first things first. check out this kick ass new dutch oven i treated myself to.



although i adore my single woman's dutch oven (thanks what's for dinner!!) and have put it to good use it was time for an upgrade. i picked up this 5 3/4 quart chantal talavera at tj maxx. yes, le creuset is my dream and they even had some at tj maxx (marked WAY down from their original price) but i had to ask myself, why spend $120 when you can spend $50? someday i'll own a le creuset. just not yet.

so into the delightful new single woman but cookin' for a crowd's dutch oven went 4 whole chicken legs, chopped carrots, celery, onions, some fresh thyme and a couple of bay leaves.



then i added a bottle of cheap red wine to the mix.



then i stuck it in the fridge to marinate over night. look at those chocolate stouts. mmmmm.



here is something else sweet. a friend helped me set up a new bank account and as a promotion they offered $50 in free groceries. woohoo! i stocked up on some pantry essentials!



after marinating all night i took the dutch oven outta the fridge and let it come up to temperature on the counter before sticking it on a hot stove.

in the meantime i tackled the pearl onions. whew. what a pain in the neck! i boiled some water and dumped the onions in for about 2-3 minutes. then i drained them and dumped them right into a bowl of cold water. i cut off the root end and according to various sources the onions should just pop right out when you squeeze 'em. some popped right out. others did not. this took a few minutes.



next i quartered some 'shrooms.



i set aside the onions and the mushrooms and pulled the chicken out of the pot.



i patted the chicken dry with paper towels, seasoned them with a lil' salt and pepper and then set them aside. i put the dutch oven on the stove top over medium low heat to heat it through.



i sauteed the onions and mushrooms in a lil' butter over medium heat.



once they were tender (about 7 minutes or so) i took them out and then fried up my bacon.



once the bacon was brown i removed it from the pan, crumbled it up and added it to the bowl of 'shrooms and onions. then i wiped out my skillet and browned the chicken over medium-high heat.

this smelled SO good. really, really good.



once the chicken was nice and brown i added it back to the
pot o' goodness.



now it was time to just walk away and let it simmer uncovered.

here it is when it just started simmering.



and here it is again after about an hour and a half.



at this point i removed the chicken to a plate and drained the entire pot over a big bowl. i added the chicken and the liquid back to the single woman but cookin' for a crowd's dutch oven. what of the other trimmings? they went down the disposal. they left their flavors in the liquid and it was time for them to say goodbye.

i added the mushrooms, onions and crumbled bacon to the mix and warmed it through over medium heat.



then i packed it up and headed over to my dad's. my secret boyfriend eric ripert suggests serving coq au vin over noodles and julia and company suggest serving it with parsley potatoes and buttered peas. i decided to serve it over garlic smashed potatoes.

i roasted a bulb of garlic with a lil' olive oil and some salt and pepper for about 40 minutes or so. then i squeezed the cloves out of their skins and roughly chopped them.

i made pretty traditional smashed potatoes (butter, milk, salt and pepper) and then smashed in the chopped roasted garlic for that lil' something extra.

and here is my coq au vin over garlic mashed potatoes.



this was really, really good. the chicken just came right off the bone and we lapped up the sauce with a nice crusty hunk of french bread.

mmm. mmm. mmm.

man, french cooking is tops!!

wish you were here

man oh man. i wish you all could smell the wonderful smells that have taken over my entire apartment. as i post this update a big pot of coq au vin is simmering on my stove.

it smells sooooooooooo good.

i am making it to take out to someone i love very much for a celebratory dinner.

i'll let you know how it turns out!

homecookin' for librarians

every year the university library i work for hosts a chili and soup cook-off. last year i entered for the first time and served up my kale, chorizo & potato soup. i love that soup and i got a ton of compliments but apparently the namby pamby judges thought it was "too hot." ppppfffftttt!!!!

so this year i wanted to tone down the spice and serve up something a lil' more homestyle. some real homecookin' that would stick to the librarians' ribs.

i went with my grandma's tried and true ham pot pie. this is a time honored tradition in our family. any time there is some leftover ham my gma will make a big pot and the whole crew gathers and slurps it up.

last year i decided to start collecting family recipes so i asked gma for the ham pot pie recipe. she told me that there was no recipe and i should just come over and watch her make it. so i watched and i took notes and i decided to try it out for the first time on the librarians.

here are my notes.



saturday i headed up to the west side market for provisions. i picked up half of a smoked bone-in ham that was about 7 pounds. now, this is way too much ham. my gma usually just uses holiday leftovers but this was the smallest one i could get and besides bigger is usually better!

once i got home i chopped a large yellow onion into thick slices. i put the onions and the ham into my big stock pot and covered it with cold water. i put it on the stove and simmered it for about 7 hours until the ham was falling off the bone.

here it is after a few hours. it doesn't look like much now but just wait!



once it was falling off the bone i took it off the heat, let it come to room temperature and then stuck it in the fridge for 2 days.

monday night after work i skimmed the layer of fat of the top and pulled the ham out.



i chopped the ham against the grain into big chunks then i added it back to the stock. actually i added about 2/3 of it back to the stock and froze the rest. i put it on the stove on medium heat and got to work on the rest of the elements.

homemade noodles seemed a little intimidating. i suggest a breckenridge vanilla porter to help with that.



the notes i made said, "3 eggs - beat to very light." hmmmm. i took this as, "beat the hell out of the eggs." so i did.



then i added a lil' salt and a couple of tablespoons of ice water and whipped it some more. i added 2 cups of sifted flour and "worked it with my hands."

this was the stickiest stuff ever!



with my clean hand i called gma. she said, "add some more flour. you need a lot of flour."



after i figured out the dough i kneaded and rolled and then laid it out on cookie sheets. i used a pizza cutter to cut the noodles.



when the soup was hot (but not boiling) i added the noodles a few at a time - stirring constantly so they wouldn't stick. i cooked these for a while and in the meantime sliced and peeled five big russet potatoes. then i added those to the soup.



this simmered some more until the noodles were all plumped and floating and the potatoes were cooked through and just starting to fall apart.



so this was my library chili and soup cook-off entry. i took third place. actually fourth since there was a tie for second. more importantly though - i got a TON of compliments and i took home an empty crock pot. one woman even told me that the noodles were just like her mom used to make! woohoo! apparently my co-workers have better palates than the panel of judges!

what can i say? sometimes i like to toot my own horn.

playin' ketchupor is it catsup?

the fancy french eggs have really come a long way. man oh man. i think i have eaten them every sunday morning for the last month. ha! delicious!

so good in fact i had to show them off for a few of my friends. a couple of weeks ago we had a giganto snow storm. giganto.
here's proof:

(thankfully this is not my car but it was just a few blocks away.)

the day before the giganto snow storm everyone at my work was buzzin' about a possible snow day. the university rarely grants us snow days so i didn't want to get my hopes up too high. but then the news was calling for it and everyone was talking about it and i couldn't help but be sold.

after work i went to acme for provisions.

i picked up eggs, heavy cream, maple sausage links, OJ, beer (mmmm.....) and wine - the essentials. then i sent out the message, "yo! if it's a snow day and you are within walking distance come over. i'm making breakfast!"

i was sad when i went to bed cuz it didn't seem too bad out but then bright and early at 6:30 am i got the emergency text with those precious, magical words, "the university will be closed today."

woohoo!!

i got into the kitchen after going back to sleep for a while and by 11:00 served up fancy french eggs, cheesy scrambled eggs, toast with strawberry jam, sausage links, pancakes, duck fat potatoes and vegan potatoes.

i put on the coffee and some friends brought over their flasks (jamison [thanks stormin' norman] and tullamore dew [thanks viper]). and when those ran out we took a step down and poured jim beam into our coffee.

six brave, hungry souls took on the elements and we pigged out, said again and again how we couldn't believe how much fucking snow there was, watched a boy named charlie brown and played buzzword and uno.

it was a pretty fucking kick ass snow day!

in other cooking news i pulled out an old standby for super bowl sunday.

pulled pork.



mmmmm. this is after about 5 hours at 300 degrees. i reduced the juice by half and added it to my trusty mustard/cider vinegar sauce. i served it on super cheap white buns and it was a hit. of course. slow roasted pork slathered in a vinegary sauce? come on. it's a no brainer.

here are some cool photos.





this is mike and jeff's super meat party aka venison jerky makin' party. i tasted the finished product. mmmmm.

here are some of the fixin's for the cioppino i made the other night. man oh man. i LOVE this stew. you can use just about whatever seafood you can find and it is super, super easy. and delicious of course.



gentle ben had the day off so he headed to the west side market and later some crazy latin fish market for the sea creatures. he couldn't get little neck clams so he got those gigantic ones. he also picked up some bay scallops, shrimp and mussels. one of my dearest old friends and his red headed lady friend brought the last essential item - the wine.

when ben got to my house the mussels were all opened. this kinda freaked me out. i consulted the joy of cooking and they said to stick 'em in the freezer. if they closed up they were good to go. if they stayed open they were deadly! well, not deadly but not good either. not a single one of those damn things closed. rats. no go on the mussels for safety's sake.

and here it is. mmmmmm. so good. so very, very good.



ben also picked up a baguette which i stuck in the oven so it could get nice and warm and crusty. we slathered butter on chunks of bread and sopped up the broth between bites of clams and shrimps and scallops. yum.

and now for a side note - a bit of vanity. lots of friends and family say, "i love your blog!" yet no one ever leaves comments except my fellow bloggers, the viper, the shitetarian and xenia.

you can leave a comment every now and then. it would sure make me feel nice and maybe give me some kind of reason to continue this blog other than my own nerdom.

that is all.

fancy french eggs and simple french soup

i am obsessed with all things french right now - especially cooking. i am reading two books about french cooking and i just ordered julia child's famous cookbook
"mastering the art of french cooking."

in honor of one of my childhood heroes - hell, present day hero - i attempted two of julia's recipes recently. (did you know she didn't even start cooking, like at all, until she was 36?! f'n amazing.)

anyways, two frenchy recipes a la julia child: oeufs en crocotte and potage parmentier.
aka, fancy french eggs and simple french soup.

first, the eggs.

to start i buttered four ramekins and layered a lil' cheese on the bottom. now, since it was not yet payday and i was low on provisions i didn't have any fancy cheese. all i had was this:



a weight watchers cheese stick that kp left for me a few days back.

it's not gruyere (which i have since used and is absolutely heavenly) but hey - ya' work with what ya' got. so instead of foregoing cheese i cut up a cheese stick. i'm not too proud.

then i cracked an egg right into each ramekin.



then i topped each one with about 1 1/2 TBLs of heavy cream, a lil salt and pepper and the rest of the cheese stick.



i put them in a baking dish and poured boiling water into the dish until it reached about halfway up the ramekins.
a water bath if you will.

then i cooked them in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

man oh man. mmmm. mmmm. mmmm.



again, due to the low provisions i only had two pieces of (almost stale) bread and one was the heel. i gave my guest the whole slice and i took the heel. this was fucking killer. really, really killer. i have made these like 4 times since this virgin voyage. i have used gruyere, blue cheese and i hope to use spinach in the bottom one of these days.

make these eggs now. right now.

on to the soup - potage (not "portage." sheesh!) pamentier.

it's a combo of like the simplest ingredients but it is pretty kick ass when they come together. all you need is potatoes, leeks, water, salt and pepper and a lil' heavy cream. no joke.

so i chopped the potatoes into cubes (skins on) and washed and chopped the leeks.



then they went into my stock pot with like 3 or 4 cups of water and salt and pepper.



this simmered about 45 minutes or so until the potatoes were fork tender. this is at about twenty-five minutes.



once the pots are tender you mash everything in the stock pot with a fork or potato masher. then right before serving you stir in a lil' heavy cream.

i topped the soup with a lil' shredded gruyere and some fresh chopped parsley. we also had some goat cheese so we spread it on some toasted french bread as an accompaniment. délicieux!



since you can't fill up on potage parmentier alone (and the eggs were long gone since we ate them around 9am) we also had a rump roast.

oh man. look at this baby. dumas never disappoints.



mike was in charge of the entree and side dishes (my sole responsibility was the soup) and he rubbed the roast down with salt and pepper and then poked a few garlic cloves into slits all around it.

this went into a 275 oven to roast for several hours. in the meantime he made an awesome sauce with chopped mushrooms and pearl onions.





i'm not sure what all was in there but it cooked on really low heat for a really long time and was freakin' delicious.

we also had a lil' braised cabbage to round the meal out.

all in all last saturday was a culinary delight!

what baby wants baby gets

i have a friend with a bun in the oven. i wanted to make dinner for her and her lil' bun.

i told her i had two russet potatoes and a bag of frozen peas but it was up to her to pick the protein.

her response, "i can do whatever, though i am shying away from anything that is cooked rare or medium rare right now as i find it unappealing. i'm also a little on the fence with fish, unless it is deep fried, in which case, i'm all fucking over it."

how's about fish 'n chips?

her response, "god i love you. fried fish is my passion right now."

hahaha! fish 'n chips it was!

i spent a few minutes surfing the interwebs since i'd never made fish 'n chips before and in the end went (mostly) with alton brown's recipe.

i stopped by klein's seafood after work and grabbed some cod. through my research i learned cod was the number one choice but haddock would've been the second choice. since klein's is tops they had delightful fresh cod.
here it is after i cut it into smaller pieces.



i rinsed and dried the fish, wrapped it in plastic wrap and kept in the fridge until i was ready to bread and fry. i whipped up the beer batter using a whole bottle of left hand brewing's sawtooth ale. alton suggested a "brown beer" but i thought a nice ale would be good. plus i wanted to drink the other five!

alton suggested safflower oil for frying but i didn't have any of that. i did have some butter flavored crisco though so i melted it down in the single woman's dutch oven. here it is coming up to temperature
(i was waiting for 350 degrees before starting the chips).



alton said to fry the chips in batches just for a few minutes until they were "pale and floppy." yikes! my preggo friend and i agreed that nothing pale and floppy sounded very good but we trusted alton so pale and floppy it was.



i drained the chips and let them cool to room temperature before bringing the oil up to 375 degrees and frying them again. once they were nice and brown i put them on a wire rack/cookie sheet in the oven at 200 degrees to stay warm.

next - the fish. here is my set-up.



i brought the oil back up to 350 degrees. i dredged the cod in flour before submerging it in the beer batter and then it went right in the single woman's dutch oven.



i turned the fillets often to be sure they were nice and brown on all sides. i drained the finished pieces on a wire rack before serving.

and here it is. my first go at fish 'n chips.



see those weird lumpy things to the left of the peas? those were my attempt at hush puppies. although the fish 'n chips were a major victory the hush puppies failed. i don't know. too corn-mealy. better luck next time on those i guess.

me, my friend and her lil' bun enjoyed this dinner while watching ninotchka. what a movie!! great garbo is my latest old hollywood crush. seriously, watch this film. it was excellent!