Unless you live under a rock, you probably heard about the super-fun snowstorm we had over the weekend. It started Friday night and continued on through Saturday, finally stopping around 4 pm. Our grand total was somewhere over twenty inches; needless to say, this Bao was ridiculously excited about the whole affair.
Knowing I was going to be snowed in, I planned Three Meals: chicken tikka masala and the ravioli from the poll, and then a meal I found in February’s issue of Martha Stewart Living (I tried to find the recipes on the website, but they don’t appear to be up yet). I was a bit lazy and didn’t take pictures of everything, which is probably to your benefits as I suck with a camera.
Friday
- Croque monsieurs (or should we pluralize them to croque messieurs?)
- Potato salad with frisée, red wine vinaigrette
- Roasted pears and red onions
- Chocolate truffles
I have to give it up to Martha Stewart; this meal really did come together in an hour, which is impressive considering I got a dessert out of it. The croque messieurs, aside from having the highest fat content ever (half a pound of ham, half a pound of Gruyere, and then the bechamel sauce? oh boy…), were spiffaroo and toasted up quite well the next day. My father fell in love with the potato salad.
Saturday
- French onion soup with Gruyere croutons (it was a very Gruyere-themed weekend)
- Ricotta-Taleggio Ravioli with Wild Mushroom Sauce
The soup was easy-peasy (thanks Ina!), and packed a nice kick because there was a helluva lotta booze in it. It should probably be renamed ‘Drunken Onion Soup.’ I’ve sampled numerous recipes over the years, and this one is pretty authentic, though I like a hint of sweetness that isn’t present here. Very filling — next time I’ll just have this and a salad!
Now, the ravioli. Ed, I’m going to tell you the truth right now: I didn’t feel like making my own pasta, though I am quite capable of wielding a rolling pin. Instead, I took the Cheater’s Way Out and used wonton wrappers that, while the texture is not as nice as I would have liked, served me well enough. After all, if I was all floury and eggy from pasta making, I wouldn’t have been able to drink my bottle of wine without gooping up the glass. You were right about finding sheep’s milk ricotta (though I never really expected to find it to begin with), but I didn’t think there’d be a run on mushrooms before a snowstorm! I ended up using a combination of portobello, porcini, and cremini. Also, much to my chagrin, no pancetta or taleggio! Frustrating, but an understandable problem of living in the woods. However, I totally pulled a Julia Child and blanched bacon to remove the smokiness, and voila. Pancetta substitute! For the taleggio I used a creamy havarti to mimic the texture (I meant to add some blue cheese to give it taleggio’s zing, but I forgot).
The ravioli were pretty damn tasty, if I say so myself. Unfortunately using wonton wrappers made them ugly; one of my challenges should probably be THE PRESENTATION QUEST. Anyway, give these a try; you can find the recipe here.
Sunday
- Chicken tikka masala with brown rice
I love tikka masala, but as I was cooking for my parents, I was a little concerned that they wouldn’t care for it (no Indian stamp in their passport, you see). However! As always, my brave parents ate what I cooked, and they enjoyed it! Now they can say they’ve conquered some Indian cuisine, boosting their Fence Family Culinary Street Cred by a good ten points in my book. This recipe tasted pretty authentic to me (as in, not cloyingly sweet like you’d get in some Indian takeaways in England), and has a rather spicy aftertaste. If you don’t like heat, you may want to cut back on the cayenne pepper in the marinade. Much like the elusive taleggio cheese, my local stores didn’t stock garam masala, so I had to wing my own. Check out the Recipes section for the how-to on Bao’s Bollywood fare.
So there we have it! Quite an exhausting weekend of cookery. Keep up the good work on suggestions for my challenges, if you would be so kind.
There is nothing better than getting snowed in at the Fence household. All that was missing was a fried Bologna and Peanut Butter sandwich.
Purging is frowned upon in society, methinks. Don’t take my word on it, though!
I had to purge at L’Autre Pied. It’s fine, as long as you do it discreetly and don’t tell Tyra Banks.
Random observations:
I can usually get pancetta at a supermarket two blocks away and have it cut to the thickness I want, but I also keep some salt pork around for emergencies (and for beginning any number of French dishes), but it too has to have the salt blanched out.
Since I landed in a wheelchair, I can’t go marauding through Chicago looking for the ethnic goodies I want, so I’ve found some mail-order places to serve me. For spices, you might try http://www.penzeys.com They have quite a range of curries, incl. garam masala, as well as soup bases, several varieties of cassia and cinnamon, and . . . and . . . Worth a look anyway.
I’ve tried a number of places for cured pork, and my choice for bacon (and ham hocks and pig jowls) is Burger’s in Missouri: http://www.smokehouse.com but I haven’t been able to find a ham there that I like. For that, I go to http://www.harringtonham.com They’re in Vermont and use corn cobs for their smoke.
Burger’s has on offer two or three varieties of German ham and some prosciutto, but they don’t make their own. I can get good domestic prosciutto, made by Volpi in St. Louis. (Carando is also made in St. Louis, but the less said about it, the better. Surely someone in Queens makes a good slice of something other than pizza, but I don’t know. I’m told that a good prosciutto is made in Canada, but I’ve never tried it.
I never thought of wonton wrappers for ravioli but it’s a good idea. Still, before tortellini became widely available in the States, I used to make my own, with a chopped chicken/parmesan filling, and fresh pasta is hard to beat. I’m Polish, however, and the pasta of choice (noodles aside) is pierogi. My mother’s recipe for the dough has a couple of dollops of sour cream in it.
I guess I’ll stop here. You can tell I grew up with a rolling pin in one hand. The other hand held a sausage stuffer since we made out own kielbasa at home. More anon.
All meals were the best ever. Thanks Brian
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Ed – There’s actually a Penzey’s right across the street from my apartment. We went there last week and Brian bought some spices.
I didn’t realize how far Penzey’s now reaches. When I first started shopping with them, they were just outside Milwaukee and in a couple of Chicago suburbs. Amazing.