To use the cracklings, scoop them out and warm them in a frying pan, then spread on toast.Thursday, April 19, 2007
Concentrated Goose Stock Glaze And Cracklings Covered In Rendered Goose Fat
To use the cracklings, scoop them out and warm them in a frying pan, then spread on toast.Goose Stock Reduced To Concentrated Glaze
Look, you can hold the jar sideways and it won't budge.According to the cookbook I used, it can be kept several weeks and if it develops mold you are supposed to pull the glaze from the jar, rinse it under water and stick it back in. I'm not sure how I feel about that, so I think I'll aim to use it in a timely manner before I need to make such traumatic decisions.
Goose Confit
A side view before congealing. Note that the goose is elevated from the bottom on broken bamboo skewers so that the fat envelops the goose.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Goose Confit, Day One
Most kitchen projects I can manage with my son lingering in the kitchen, save for things that involve frying or rendering fat. I do have a pressure mounted gate (also helpful for keeping our scrap pleading little dog away whilst I cook) however, some preparations go best when I am not required to continually poke my head around the corner asking;
“What are you doing Dannypants?” (Yes, I do realise that I need to find another nickname for him as he’s likely to be mortified should I ever call him “Danny pants” in front of “the guys.” I suppose Babycakes is out as well?).
Around three PM, he finally could take no more (though he begged “few more minutes”) and I sent him off for a nap whereupon he fell asleep within seconds, hands stuffed down his trousers (apparently a male thing that begins in the toddler years). I extracted his hand, tucked his favourite bear beneath his arm and draped blanket round his shoulders-then literally ran to the kitchen to begin work on the goose.
As I suspected, my upper-body strength is not what it used to be and the actual cutting-up of the pieces to salt and press took just under an hour. Numbness in my fingers didn’t help much either. Fortunately, I didn’t suffer any knife mishaps, though I did get quite a splash with duck fat during the rendering process that I never would have known happened had I not witnessed the splash. I have so little sensation in my fingers (some of them anyway) that scalding fat doesn’t even register. I rinsed my finger beneath cold water and I think luck will give me but a tiny blister for my troubles.
I seasoned the cut-up pieces for the confit following the recipe for preserved goose in Julia Child and More Company. She suggests a mixture of juniper berries, papper, thyme, allspice, ground bay leaves, and coarse salt. I seasoned the pieces (2 breasts W/bones, lower wings, drumsticks) sealed then in an airtight bag and then placed them in a large casserole dish which I weighted with a large tin of tomato juice and a couple of jars filled with water. I’ll let this sit a couple days as I will be unable to deal with it today due to scheduling. An extra day of salting, as I understand it is fine. For longer salting, Child suggests tripling the salt and soaking the duck for an hour before preparing it.
I chopped the skin and fat from the rest of the carcass and wings to render for fat. This took far longer than I would have anticipated based upon my experience with the chicken fat a couple weeks ago. Closer to 1 hour and 45 minutes total. I was careful with the heat though (Child keeps warning, nearly obsessively about scorching the fat) so perhaps I carried the process out a bit longer than necessary. The cracklings I chopped, mixed with leftover salt/herb mixture and placed in a jar with a tablespoon of rendered goose fat over it. It is sitting in the icebox waiting for some crusty bread to spread it on. I know, that’s not “heart-healthy.”
The carcass and organs went into a pot with celery, carrots, bay leaves, pepper, salt, thyme, onion, garlic and a generous handful of fresh, flat parsley. It made a wonderful stock which I will clarify further today before deciding whether to reduce it further into a solid or freeze it as is.
My main concern with preparing a confit was the cost of the goose-what if I ruined a $35.00 bird? While I realise that a family of three can spend more than that for dinner out at a not-very-expensive restaurant, we do not typically dine outside the home (my last meal out was breakfast last Mother’s Day, a year ago May) and to my mind, $35.oo is quite a bit of our food budget. Once I began reaping the by-products of the bird, I realised that a whole goose can be quite economical, provided you do not waste a bit of it. I’m sure when I have 2 cups of rendered goose fat with which to sauté baby turnips or potatoes, I will feel that the ordeal of preparing a goose was worth the effort. Save for the pain in my neck (due to a long time herniated disc problem) that started-up after an hour of chopping and boning a large game bird. Eh, that’s what painkillers and muscle relaxers are for.
I’m a bit concerned that even with two cups of rendered fat, I may not have enough for cooking the goose. Child suggests keeping lard handy, but pork is out of the question in our half-Jewish household. I really don’t care to compensate with Crisco, and am half considering buying a duck today just for rendering the fat. I can use the meat in an Asian dish I’ve been meaning to try (which my husband loves) and it certainly wouldn’t go to waste. I wonder though, just how much fat one duck would yield? See how these things get out of hand? One day you’re making goose confit and the next thing you know, you’re buying extra ducks to complete the recipe. And then the preserved duck, once it is sitting in the icebox-am I obligated to make a cassoulet? I’d have to make my own sausages as well since pork is out. Lamb perhaps? Hmm.
I have an appointment with a “specialist” today to try and determine just how ill I am. Sounds like fun, I know. They gave me an absurdly early appointment which will be a delight getting into the city during rush hour as we live a good fifty miles away. I’ll be toting my small child along as well. Somehow, they neglected to send-out the medical history forms, insurance, etc. so when the snotty (and yes, she truly was) receptionist called to confirm my appointment, she instructed me to arrive an additional fifteen minutes early. Might as well leave at sunrise. I have a very strong sense that I am about to be subjected to what I call “the medical mill” whereupon I will be sent for numerous, unnecessary tests to tell me pretty much that which is already known. That’s the way they do things here. The snooty receptionist duly informed me that I would be required to show evidence of medical insurance before I could be seen. It was so terribly tempting to retort;
“Yes, I know, feral dogs could rip me limb from limb but without the requisite proof of insurance, you’d be forced to leave me bleed to death in the waiting room.” I didn’t of course, though someday I’m afraid I’ll no longer be able to restrain my contempt and begin giving utterance to the resentment that’s been stewing for some time now. Oh, the things I’d love to say sometimes. For the present, I simply repeat things back to people in the same sing-song-as though speaking to a dim-witted-child tone that people who perceive themselves to be “important” take when speaking to the likes of me. Perhaps I should just look the next person that takes that tone with me in the eye and ask them outright if they are brain injured. Sheesh, I shouldn’t have to deal with this when I’m ill and have better things to be doing-like preserving duck into a confit.
I’ve had three hours of sleep, I’m sure that will help my already cross mood and curt manner.
“What are you doing Dannypants?” (Yes, I do realise that I need to find another nickname for him as he’s likely to be mortified should I ever call him “Danny pants” in front of “the guys.” I suppose Babycakes is out as well?).
Around three PM, he finally could take no more (though he begged “few more minutes”) and I sent him off for a nap whereupon he fell asleep within seconds, hands stuffed down his trousers (apparently a male thing that begins in the toddler years). I extracted his hand, tucked his favourite bear beneath his arm and draped blanket round his shoulders-then literally ran to the kitchen to begin work on the goose.
As I suspected, my upper-body strength is not what it used to be and the actual cutting-up of the pieces to salt and press took just under an hour. Numbness in my fingers didn’t help much either. Fortunately, I didn’t suffer any knife mishaps, though I did get quite a splash with duck fat during the rendering process that I never would have known happened had I not witnessed the splash. I have so little sensation in my fingers (some of them anyway) that scalding fat doesn’t even register. I rinsed my finger beneath cold water and I think luck will give me but a tiny blister for my troubles.
I seasoned the cut-up pieces for the confit following the recipe for preserved goose in Julia Child and More Company. She suggests a mixture of juniper berries, papper, thyme, allspice, ground bay leaves, and coarse salt. I seasoned the pieces (2 breasts W/bones, lower wings, drumsticks) sealed then in an airtight bag and then placed them in a large casserole dish which I weighted with a large tin of tomato juice and a couple of jars filled with water. I’ll let this sit a couple days as I will be unable to deal with it today due to scheduling. An extra day of salting, as I understand it is fine. For longer salting, Child suggests tripling the salt and soaking the duck for an hour before preparing it.
I chopped the skin and fat from the rest of the carcass and wings to render for fat. This took far longer than I would have anticipated based upon my experience with the chicken fat a couple weeks ago. Closer to 1 hour and 45 minutes total. I was careful with the heat though (Child keeps warning, nearly obsessively about scorching the fat) so perhaps I carried the process out a bit longer than necessary. The cracklings I chopped, mixed with leftover salt/herb mixture and placed in a jar with a tablespoon of rendered goose fat over it. It is sitting in the icebox waiting for some crusty bread to spread it on. I know, that’s not “heart-healthy.”
The carcass and organs went into a pot with celery, carrots, bay leaves, pepper, salt, thyme, onion, garlic and a generous handful of fresh, flat parsley. It made a wonderful stock which I will clarify further today before deciding whether to reduce it further into a solid or freeze it as is.
My main concern with preparing a confit was the cost of the goose-what if I ruined a $35.00 bird? While I realise that a family of three can spend more than that for dinner out at a not-very-expensive restaurant, we do not typically dine outside the home (my last meal out was breakfast last Mother’s Day, a year ago May) and to my mind, $35.oo is quite a bit of our food budget. Once I began reaping the by-products of the bird, I realised that a whole goose can be quite economical, provided you do not waste a bit of it. I’m sure when I have 2 cups of rendered goose fat with which to sauté baby turnips or potatoes, I will feel that the ordeal of preparing a goose was worth the effort. Save for the pain in my neck (due to a long time herniated disc problem) that started-up after an hour of chopping and boning a large game bird. Eh, that’s what painkillers and muscle relaxers are for.
I’m a bit concerned that even with two cups of rendered fat, I may not have enough for cooking the goose. Child suggests keeping lard handy, but pork is out of the question in our half-Jewish household. I really don’t care to compensate with Crisco, and am half considering buying a duck today just for rendering the fat. I can use the meat in an Asian dish I’ve been meaning to try (which my husband loves) and it certainly wouldn’t go to waste. I wonder though, just how much fat one duck would yield? See how these things get out of hand? One day you’re making goose confit and the next thing you know, you’re buying extra ducks to complete the recipe. And then the preserved duck, once it is sitting in the icebox-am I obligated to make a cassoulet? I’d have to make my own sausages as well since pork is out. Lamb perhaps? Hmm.
I have an appointment with a “specialist” today to try and determine just how ill I am. Sounds like fun, I know. They gave me an absurdly early appointment which will be a delight getting into the city during rush hour as we live a good fifty miles away. I’ll be toting my small child along as well. Somehow, they neglected to send-out the medical history forms, insurance, etc. so when the snotty (and yes, she truly was) receptionist called to confirm my appointment, she instructed me to arrive an additional fifteen minutes early. Might as well leave at sunrise. I have a very strong sense that I am about to be subjected to what I call “the medical mill” whereupon I will be sent for numerous, unnecessary tests to tell me pretty much that which is already known. That’s the way they do things here. The snooty receptionist duly informed me that I would be required to show evidence of medical insurance before I could be seen. It was so terribly tempting to retort;
“Yes, I know, feral dogs could rip me limb from limb but without the requisite proof of insurance, you’d be forced to leave me bleed to death in the waiting room.” I didn’t of course, though someday I’m afraid I’ll no longer be able to restrain my contempt and begin giving utterance to the resentment that’s been stewing for some time now. Oh, the things I’d love to say sometimes. For the present, I simply repeat things back to people in the same sing-song-as though speaking to a dim-witted-child tone that people who perceive themselves to be “important” take when speaking to the likes of me. Perhaps I should just look the next person that takes that tone with me in the eye and ask them outright if they are brain injured. Sheesh, I shouldn’t have to deal with this when I’m ill and have better things to be doing-like preserving duck into a confit.
I’ve had three hours of sleep, I’m sure that will help my already cross mood and curt manner.
Monday, April 16, 2007
An Indian Inspired Meal
Although today is our anniversary, we only first picked up the goose for the confit yesterday-so our celebratory dinner will have to be on the weekend as the goose still needs to be boned, salted and weighted in the fridge for a couple days before I can even begin the real work of it. I admit, the project is a bit ambitious for my energy level at the moment, but once I purchased the goose, there was not really a good way to back out of the commitment. Slow and steady, I’m sure it will go ok.
This evening I prepared an Indian style dinner with a bread that was supposed to be Naan, but instead turned into some sort of ghee based scone. It was very, very strange, though L. really insists that he likes it and will not permit me to discard the leftover. I also made Samosas which I ended up preparing the dough with half plain yoghurt and half crème fraiche as I ran out of yoghurt. Guess what? It was fantastic. The main courses were yellow dal cooked with onions, garlic, olive oil and spices. Also on the menu were small red potatoes cooked with onions, oil, peas and spices. I’ll provide the recipes as I made them, mistakes and all, though I really wouldn’t encourage anyone to try the naan as I prepared it. Thinking about it, I probably used the melted butter a bit too warm and it curdled the yoghurt slightly changing the texture. It was very, very cake-y. Still, I suppose if you’re not expecting it to be naan, and just want an unusual bread that defies description, perhaps it is worth trying after all.
Naan:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons ghee or clarified butter
½ cup plain yoghurt
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
ghee for brushing the tops.
Mix flour and salt. Add everything else (except the extra ghee for brushing) and mix well. Cover with a damp towel and let rise about 4-5 hours. The dough will be very sticky, so toss a baking sheet with cornmeal or semolina to facilitate easier removal. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spread the naan dough out into two long rectangles. Brush tops with extra ghee and bake about ten-fifteen minutes or until golden brown. Cool on racks.
Yellow Dal
1 lb. yellow split dal well rinsed and soaked overnight
¼ cup olive oil
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/8 teaspoon turmeric
½ cup finely chopped flat parsley
¼ teaspoon cumin
black pepper
salt
1 teaspoon coriander (ground)
pinch of cinnamon
Fenugreek (optional)
Pinch of cayenne
water
Cook the dal by placing them in a large pot covered with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook 5-6 hours until soft and falling apart. Drain and refrigerate until ready to use.
In a large frying pan, sauté the garlic and onion over low heat until soft. Add the spices and the dal and cook over low heat, periodically adding water to thin it. You will likely need about ½ a cup total, depending upon how long you let it cook and how much evaporation/reduction takes place. It is largely a matter of taste. I served mine over jasmine rice, and therefore wanted a bit more soupy texture. Served alone with flatbread, you may prefer a thicker texture.
Potatoes
I followed essentially the same spices as above, though I omitted the parsley, cayenne and cinnamon. I added freshly cooked peas as well. I par-boiled small red potatoes for about five minutes and gave them a cool water rinse before slicing them and placing them into the oil and spices. Cook until quite soft over low heat (olive oil will burn if you try to fry with it). Be patient, in about half an hour, the potatoes will develop a lovely brown crust.
My recipe for Samosas may be found HERE in the archives.
This evening I prepared an Indian style dinner with a bread that was supposed to be Naan, but instead turned into some sort of ghee based scone. It was very, very strange, though L. really insists that he likes it and will not permit me to discard the leftover. I also made Samosas which I ended up preparing the dough with half plain yoghurt and half crème fraiche as I ran out of yoghurt. Guess what? It was fantastic. The main courses were yellow dal cooked with onions, garlic, olive oil and spices. Also on the menu were small red potatoes cooked with onions, oil, peas and spices. I’ll provide the recipes as I made them, mistakes and all, though I really wouldn’t encourage anyone to try the naan as I prepared it. Thinking about it, I probably used the melted butter a bit too warm and it curdled the yoghurt slightly changing the texture. It was very, very cake-y. Still, I suppose if you’re not expecting it to be naan, and just want an unusual bread that defies description, perhaps it is worth trying after all.
Naan:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons ghee or clarified butter
½ cup plain yoghurt
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
ghee for brushing the tops.
Mix flour and salt. Add everything else (except the extra ghee for brushing) and mix well. Cover with a damp towel and let rise about 4-5 hours. The dough will be very sticky, so toss a baking sheet with cornmeal or semolina to facilitate easier removal. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spread the naan dough out into two long rectangles. Brush tops with extra ghee and bake about ten-fifteen minutes or until golden brown. Cool on racks.
Yellow Dal
1 lb. yellow split dal well rinsed and soaked overnight
¼ cup olive oil
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/8 teaspoon turmeric
½ cup finely chopped flat parsley
¼ teaspoon cumin
black pepper
salt
1 teaspoon coriander (ground)
pinch of cinnamon
Fenugreek (optional)
Pinch of cayenne
water
Cook the dal by placing them in a large pot covered with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook 5-6 hours until soft and falling apart. Drain and refrigerate until ready to use.
In a large frying pan, sauté the garlic and onion over low heat until soft. Add the spices and the dal and cook over low heat, periodically adding water to thin it. You will likely need about ½ a cup total, depending upon how long you let it cook and how much evaporation/reduction takes place. It is largely a matter of taste. I served mine over jasmine rice, and therefore wanted a bit more soupy texture. Served alone with flatbread, you may prefer a thicker texture.
Potatoes
I followed essentially the same spices as above, though I omitted the parsley, cayenne and cinnamon. I added freshly cooked peas as well. I par-boiled small red potatoes for about five minutes and gave them a cool water rinse before slicing them and placing them into the oil and spices. Cook until quite soft over low heat (olive oil will burn if you try to fry with it). Be patient, in about half an hour, the potatoes will develop a lovely brown crust.
My recipe for Samosas may be found HERE in the archives.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Friday Cakeblogging-Birthday Edition
This week’s edition of Friday Cakeblogging is in honour of Jenn’s (Musings From Baby Jail) 30th birthday. As my son pointed out, we don’t have any party hats, which just seems wrong, so when he gets up from naptime, we’re going to see what we can piece together with construction paper and ribbon. We’re going to toast her good health as well, though the only thing I have in the house to toast with is a bottle of Mogen David blackberry wine left over from Passover. I do have a bit of lemon cordial I made at New Year’s still in the fridge, but it has such an overwhelming odour of lemon it is a bit like drinking window cleaner. Actually, given that it is a combination of vodka, lemon peel and superfine sugar-I probably could clean windows with it.
The cake is a jumble of things as I haven’t been grocery shopping in a while. Still, as a former US Defence Secretary once said-“You go to the kitchen with the ingredients you have” (well, it was something like that-I’m paraphrasing). I scraped the last ½ cup of cocoa powder out of an ancient box in the back of the cabinet and started baking. Although the filling of the cake is orange, I used maraschino cherries to decorate with (as well as leftover Easter candy) because I thought they looked festive, and if nothing else, a Birthday cake ought to look festive.
So again, happy birthday and many happy returns and hopefully you will get the card I sent ages ago soon (#@!!&**^!@Canada post!).
(As I am baking this for a Canadian, I thought it would be polite to include a conversion chart. I foolishly thought I’d do the conversion in my head, as I used to know and use metric all the time. Unfortunately, that was long ago, and I wasn’t much of a baker then. I really ought to get a kitchen scale and offer the ingredients by weight as that is most accurate and this blog reaches readers all over the world. At any rate, my apologies if using US measures seems arrogant as that is not the intention-I’m just lazy).
*************************************
1 teaspoon 5 ml
60 drops 1 ts
1 tablespoon 15 ml 3 teaspoons 1 tb
16 tablespoons 1 c
1 cup 237 ml
2 cups 1 pt
1 pint 473 ml
4 cups 1 qt
1 quart 946 ml
2 pints 1 qt
4 quarts 1 ga
8 quarts 1 peck
1 gallon 3.78 litres (or 3785 ml)
1 fluid ounce 30 cc -- 2 tb
1 cup 240 ml
1 1/2 fluid ounces 1 jigger -- 3 tb
1/8 litre 6 2/3 tablespoons
WEIGHT EQUIVALENTS
1 ounce 28.4 gm
1 pound 454 g
1 pound 16 oz
1 kilogram 2.21 lb -- 35.3 oz
1 gram 0.035 oz
*************************************
For the cake:
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
¾ cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/16th teaspoon salt
½ cup Canola oil (because Jenn is Canadian. If you make it for an American, by all means, go ahead and use soybean-that was a joke. Gee whiz, I shouldn’t have to point that out).
1 cup hot coffee
1 cup milk
2 eggs
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix the dry ingredients. Add the rest in a well and mix thoroughly but not too the point of being over mixed. The batter should be lumpy.
Place in a greased pan (I would use parchment paper on the bottom-but that’s me)
Pour into cake pans-don’t fill past half-way. If you have left-over batter use it for a few cupcakes. A 9x13 sheet cake pan would comfortably accommodate all the batter.
Bake 35 minutes or until toothpick tests clean in centre.
Cool in pans for about 20 minutes. Then on racks. While cake cools, prepare orange filling.
Orange Filling:
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
Mix all in a heavy pan. Bring slowly to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil an additional minute (keep stirring). Remove from heat. Chill before spreading.
Ganache
(Even spell check didn’t know that one. Until a few years ago, most of us just called this chocolate glaze).
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons corn syrup
16 ounces semi-sweet (or bittersweet) chocolate chopped into small bits (food processor makes this easy).
1 tablespoon vanilla
Heat the cream and corn syrup until they begin to boil. Pour over chocolate in a large bowl. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Using a good whisk (don’t even bother with the cheap flimsy ones) beat until smooth. Make certain cake and filling are cold (let the assembled cake sit in the refrigerator. Place cake on a rack atop a cookie sheet. Pour on a small amount of ganache to cover any crumbs. Let it set five minutes. Then pour the ganache on and spread with a good spatula. When set, remove to a plate and set in the refrigerator to harden. If you have a good amount of ganache still sitting in the bottom of the cookie sheet-place it in a bowl in the fridge and let it harden. Then roll it into balls and dust with cocoa or nuts and you have truffles. Sort of.
The cake is a jumble of things as I haven’t been grocery shopping in a while. Still, as a former US Defence Secretary once said-“You go to the kitchen with the ingredients you have” (well, it was something like that-I’m paraphrasing). I scraped the last ½ cup of cocoa powder out of an ancient box in the back of the cabinet and started baking. Although the filling of the cake is orange, I used maraschino cherries to decorate with (as well as leftover Easter candy) because I thought they looked festive, and if nothing else, a Birthday cake ought to look festive.
So again, happy birthday and many happy returns and hopefully you will get the card I sent ages ago soon (#@!!&**^!@Canada post!).
(As I am baking this for a Canadian, I thought it would be polite to include a conversion chart. I foolishly thought I’d do the conversion in my head, as I used to know and use metric all the time. Unfortunately, that was long ago, and I wasn’t much of a baker then. I really ought to get a kitchen scale and offer the ingredients by weight as that is most accurate and this blog reaches readers all over the world. At any rate, my apologies if using US measures seems arrogant as that is not the intention-I’m just lazy).
*************************************
1 teaspoon 5 ml
60 drops 1 ts
1 tablespoon 15 ml 3 teaspoons 1 tb
16 tablespoons 1 c
1 cup 237 ml
2 cups 1 pt
1 pint 473 ml
4 cups 1 qt
1 quart 946 ml
2 pints 1 qt
4 quarts 1 ga
8 quarts 1 peck
1 gallon 3.78 litres (or 3785 ml)
1 fluid ounce 30 cc -- 2 tb
1 cup 240 ml
1 1/2 fluid ounces 1 jigger -- 3 tb
1/8 litre 6 2/3 tablespoons
WEIGHT EQUIVALENTS
1 ounce 28.4 gm
1 pound 454 g
1 pound 16 oz
1 kilogram 2.21 lb -- 35.3 oz
1 gram 0.035 oz
*************************************
For the cake:
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
¾ cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/16th teaspoon salt
½ cup Canola oil (because Jenn is Canadian. If you make it for an American, by all means, go ahead and use soybean-that was a joke. Gee whiz, I shouldn’t have to point that out).
1 cup hot coffee
1 cup milk
2 eggs
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix the dry ingredients. Add the rest in a well and mix thoroughly but not too the point of being over mixed. The batter should be lumpy.
Place in a greased pan (I would use parchment paper on the bottom-but that’s me)
Pour into cake pans-don’t fill past half-way. If you have left-over batter use it for a few cupcakes. A 9x13 sheet cake pan would comfortably accommodate all the batter.
Bake 35 minutes or until toothpick tests clean in centre.
Cool in pans for about 20 minutes. Then on racks. While cake cools, prepare orange filling.
Orange Filling:
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
Mix all in a heavy pan. Bring slowly to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil an additional minute (keep stirring). Remove from heat. Chill before spreading.
Ganache
(Even spell check didn’t know that one. Until a few years ago, most of us just called this chocolate glaze).
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons corn syrup
16 ounces semi-sweet (or bittersweet) chocolate chopped into small bits (food processor makes this easy).
1 tablespoon vanilla
Heat the cream and corn syrup until they begin to boil. Pour over chocolate in a large bowl. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Using a good whisk (don’t even bother with the cheap flimsy ones) beat until smooth. Make certain cake and filling are cold (let the assembled cake sit in the refrigerator. Place cake on a rack atop a cookie sheet. Pour on a small amount of ganache to cover any crumbs. Let it set five minutes. Then pour the ganache on and spread with a good spatula. When set, remove to a plate and set in the refrigerator to harden. If you have a good amount of ganache still sitting in the bottom of the cookie sheet-place it in a bowl in the fridge and let it harden. Then roll it into balls and dust with cocoa or nuts and you have truffles. Sort of.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Prednisone Blogging
If I'm going to gain twenty pounds, it had better be with food I actually enjoy consuming.
Still waiting to find out if the Grim Reaper is at my door. I'm starting my second 20 day mega-course of steroids in a month's time. I figure, with the Methotrexate making me want to puke most of the time, maybe the whole weight gain thing will end up a draw.
Obviously, one's ideas about meal planning change a bit when faced with debilitating illness and medication that makes one consume large quantities of food. Oh sure, I was going to be good-I even made a pot of brown rice and have plain, unsweetened yoghurt in the ice box. And it was going well, really. Until my husband reminded me that we have an anniversary next week and he'd like me to make a goose confit. Goose! I mean, duck, ok I could manage that-but a preserved goose! Oh my stars.
Certainly, I agreed. Look, if the poor man after all he's had to put up with lately wants a jar of preserved goose meat at the ready-I'm not going to deny him. It isn't a terribly difficult thing to do, but it is awfully time consuming. Then, there's the problem of salt-peter which is apparently an ingredient used in making explosives as well as preserved meats. It is no longer readily available at the pharmacy and you can figure no one (in the "everything's changed" America) is going to believe I'm making Goose Confit to celebrate our anniversary. So yes, I'm going to need to find an appropriate substitution that won't result in having me designated a goose-preserving-confit-eating terrorist.
Anyway, I just wanted to point out that if I go from posting recipes for dulse and endive salad to orange curd filled chocolate gateaus-it's the prednisone fueling it.
Still waiting to find out if the Grim Reaper is at my door. I'm starting my second 20 day mega-course of steroids in a month's time. I figure, with the Methotrexate making me want to puke most of the time, maybe the whole weight gain thing will end up a draw.
Obviously, one's ideas about meal planning change a bit when faced with debilitating illness and medication that makes one consume large quantities of food. Oh sure, I was going to be good-I even made a pot of brown rice and have plain, unsweetened yoghurt in the ice box. And it was going well, really. Until my husband reminded me that we have an anniversary next week and he'd like me to make a goose confit. Goose! I mean, duck, ok I could manage that-but a preserved goose! Oh my stars.
Certainly, I agreed. Look, if the poor man after all he's had to put up with lately wants a jar of preserved goose meat at the ready-I'm not going to deny him. It isn't a terribly difficult thing to do, but it is awfully time consuming. Then, there's the problem of salt-peter which is apparently an ingredient used in making explosives as well as preserved meats. It is no longer readily available at the pharmacy and you can figure no one (in the "everything's changed" America) is going to believe I'm making Goose Confit to celebrate our anniversary. So yes, I'm going to need to find an appropriate substitution that won't result in having me designated a goose-preserving-confit-eating terrorist.
Anyway, I just wanted to point out that if I go from posting recipes for dulse and endive salad to orange curd filled chocolate gateaus-it's the prednisone fueling it.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Banana Bread With Currants
Everyone thinks their banana bread is superior, don’t they? Clearly, mine is, and here’s the recipe.
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 ripe bananas-mashed
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup zante currants (soaked and drained)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x5x3 loaf pan
Beat oil and sugar together. Add eggs and banana. Add sifted dry ingredients, milk and extract. Mix well and add the currants.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for one hour. Cool in pan. Cool completely before cutting. I serve mine with honey or jam.
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 ripe bananas-mashed
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup zante currants (soaked and drained)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x5x3 loaf pan
Beat oil and sugar together. Add eggs and banana. Add sifted dry ingredients, milk and extract. Mix well and add the currants.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for one hour. Cool in pan. Cool completely before cutting. I serve mine with honey or jam.
Butter Bunny Biscuts
I particularly like these cookies as they are not very sweet, and are quite simple to make. They are versatile and can be cut into shapes and decorated.
You Will Need:
1 cup softened butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder.
Cream together the butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Add the extract. Slowly add the flour until well mixed (you may need to finish this by hand). Wrap dough tightly in waxed paper and chill until firm.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Roll out dough to 1/16th inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutter and place on ungreased sheets. Bake five to seven minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
You Will Need:
1 cup softened butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder.
Cream together the butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Add the extract. Slowly add the flour until well mixed (you may need to finish this by hand). Wrap dough tightly in waxed paper and chill until firm.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Roll out dough to 1/16th inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutter and place on ungreased sheets. Bake five to seven minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Happy Easter
Danny decorates an egg with crayons before dunking it in dye. look how closely he's paying attention.
Oooh, Brightly Coloured Eggs! For Me?
The photograph is from Danny’s first Easter in 2005. Still sleep deprived and in well over our heads, the two new parents decided to stay up even later and colour Easter eggs for our baby. He was interested for about five seconds before falling asleep.
Last year, we skipped the ordeal of dyeing eggs altogether.
This year, I’m stuck in bed ill. My husband is in the kitchen hard boiling eggs and preparing to do all the work himself. I do hope Danny spends a few minutes enjoying them before tearing into his Easter basket.
Did I mention that bright and early Monday morning workmen are coming to replace our roof? Let’s see-bedridden, dog that will bark hysterically at every noise, toddler missing naps-yeah, that’s going to be great. At least I’m getting rest this weekend.
I did however, want to wish everyone a Happy Easter.
Friday, April 06, 2007
What To Do With White Asparagus And My Sidebar Links?
(Cross-posted at F16's Don't Kill People, 500 Lb. Bombs Kill People)
No cake this week.
I have a jar of lovely white asparagus chilling in the refrigerator and I may not be able to sleep knowing it is there. I’d indulge in one or two spears, but I know my lack of restraint would see the entire jar gone rather quickly. I don’t actually know what I’m saving them for. Other than cold on a salad, I can’t think of many uses well suited to the packaged variety of asparagus. I doubt it would withstand much sautéing. Any suggestions would be welcome.
I really do need to update my sidebar links as many of the blogs have gone defunct over the past year. That’s a shame, as some of them were awfully enjoyable reads. I have this habit of checking back now and then to see if any rise like a phoenix from the ashes, but am rarely surprised with a new post.
As regular readers know, I maintain a cooking blog. I don’t make a fuss over presentation or photography. When I first began painting years ago, I had it in mind that I’d mix my own raw pigments. That’s more complicated than it sounds as one needs all manner of protective masks and gloves as the particulate matter in some of those cobalts and cadmiums are toxic. One day, at my favourite art supply store, I was picking up some raw pigment and linseed oil (I was in my gloss stage) and the sales asked me rather directly;
“Are you an artist, or a chemist?”
She was perfectly right. It wasn’t saving me any money mixing my own pigments and the tubed paints were far better than anything I could produce. It was, largely, an exercise in geekery. From there on, I bought paint in tubes like everyone else and devoted my energies to “making art.” I feel much the same about food photography. While I do own a light table, and many lovely tablecloths, I cannot imagine devoting the time required to posing the gastro-porn when I could be cooking. My favourite cookbook has no illustrations incidentally.
That said, a number of more talented cooks than I are able to do justice to their culinary skills with their photography and knowledge of light settings. If you have never visited Nordljus and marvelled at the photography, I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so. It is a truly magnificent blog.
Another favourite is Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once. I’m always astounded by the recipes and photography there, as well as Haalo’s lovely writing.
For bread baking, The Fresh Loaf has been a tremendous help.
If you enjoy cookies (like, who doesn’t?) My Little Kitchen is a fun read as Cathy works her way through a cookbook one recipe per week.
Over the next few weeks, I hope to change the format at the cooking blog so that it is simpler to access old recipes. I also plan to do a bit of link-updating around here. Feel free to mention any blogs I ought to be reading, but have overlooked.
When I was expecting, I kept a food diary of everything I cooked/ate. The idea was that it would be a fun thing for Danny to have when he’s older-a sort of "This is what you’re made of" type of joke. After I developed gestational diabetes (I’m told that happens quite a bit with "older" women) it became less interesting as I had to measure and count each thing that I consumed. I’ve thought about posting some of it, maybe as an "on this date, I ate" type feature. I wonder, would that be interesting to anyone, or is that just too weird a concept?
Anyway, changes ahead at both blogs.
No cake this week.
I have a jar of lovely white asparagus chilling in the refrigerator and I may not be able to sleep knowing it is there. I’d indulge in one or two spears, but I know my lack of restraint would see the entire jar gone rather quickly. I don’t actually know what I’m saving them for. Other than cold on a salad, I can’t think of many uses well suited to the packaged variety of asparagus. I doubt it would withstand much sautéing. Any suggestions would be welcome.
I really do need to update my sidebar links as many of the blogs have gone defunct over the past year. That’s a shame, as some of them were awfully enjoyable reads. I have this habit of checking back now and then to see if any rise like a phoenix from the ashes, but am rarely surprised with a new post.
As regular readers know, I maintain a cooking blog. I don’t make a fuss over presentation or photography. When I first began painting years ago, I had it in mind that I’d mix my own raw pigments. That’s more complicated than it sounds as one needs all manner of protective masks and gloves as the particulate matter in some of those cobalts and cadmiums are toxic. One day, at my favourite art supply store, I was picking up some raw pigment and linseed oil (I was in my gloss stage) and the sales asked me rather directly;
“Are you an artist, or a chemist?”
She was perfectly right. It wasn’t saving me any money mixing my own pigments and the tubed paints were far better than anything I could produce. It was, largely, an exercise in geekery. From there on, I bought paint in tubes like everyone else and devoted my energies to “making art.” I feel much the same about food photography. While I do own a light table, and many lovely tablecloths, I cannot imagine devoting the time required to posing the gastro-porn when I could be cooking. My favourite cookbook has no illustrations incidentally.
That said, a number of more talented cooks than I are able to do justice to their culinary skills with their photography and knowledge of light settings. If you have never visited Nordljus and marvelled at the photography, I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so. It is a truly magnificent blog.
Another favourite is Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once. I’m always astounded by the recipes and photography there, as well as Haalo’s lovely writing.
For bread baking, The Fresh Loaf has been a tremendous help.
If you enjoy cookies (like, who doesn’t?) My Little Kitchen is a fun read as Cathy works her way through a cookbook one recipe per week.
Over the next few weeks, I hope to change the format at the cooking blog so that it is simpler to access old recipes. I also plan to do a bit of link-updating around here. Feel free to mention any blogs I ought to be reading, but have overlooked.
When I was expecting, I kept a food diary of everything I cooked/ate. The idea was that it would be a fun thing for Danny to have when he’s older-a sort of "This is what you’re made of" type of joke. After I developed gestational diabetes (I’m told that happens quite a bit with "older" women) it became less interesting as I had to measure and count each thing that I consumed. I’ve thought about posting some of it, maybe as an "on this date, I ate" type feature. I wonder, would that be interesting to anyone, or is that just too weird a concept?
Anyway, changes ahead at both blogs.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Veggie Matzo Lasagne
Yeah, I know what you're thinking-but it was actually pretty good.
You Will Need:
4-5 sheets of plain matzo
2 cups prepared spaghetti sauce
olives/artichoke hearts (optional, of course)
1 cup mozzarella, shredded
1 cup provolone, shredded
Layer it in a baking pan and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.
I did not think the soft matzo would withstand the added weight of ricotta, so I served cottage cheese as a side, which provided a nice balance. The meal passed the Danny Seal Of Approval Test, wherein he devoured an entire plate (unusual for him with most meals).
You Will Need:
4-5 sheets of plain matzo
2 cups prepared spaghetti sauce
olives/artichoke hearts (optional, of course)
1 cup mozzarella, shredded
1 cup provolone, shredded
Layer it in a baking pan and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.
I did not think the soft matzo would withstand the added weight of ricotta, so I served cottage cheese as a side, which provided a nice balance. The meal passed the Danny Seal Of Approval Test, wherein he devoured an entire plate (unusual for him with most meals).
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Much Like Haggis, Chopped Liver Is OK...
...if you can get past the smell.
Whoo-weee, that stuff is stinky.
...And What Am I? Chopped Liver?
When the request came for chopped liver, I smiled (whilst gagging intellectually) and said “sure.”
I grew up in a home where consuming organ meat was part of the routine and lucky kid that I was, suffering from chronic anaemia-I was given seconds. I have no doubt that the childhood diet led to seventeen years of adulthood as a vegan. This was something I did not look forward to preparing. No one can say I’m not a sport.
It should be pointed out that for chopped liver, one uses chicken livers. For some bizarre reason, coarsely chopped hard-boiled eggs are also part of this delicacy. I’m going to warn you ahead of time-the smell is assertive. Luckily, the smell of chopped onion sautéing in chicken fat should help mask the odour of bloody organs. I realise I’m not making this sound very appetising, am I?
The recipe may be found HERE.
(If 6 tablespoons of chicken fat sounds like a lot-you're right, it is. I used about 4 instead).
A final note-this should be served very well chilled. If you feel compelled to mould it into the shape of a chicken for the sole purpose of serving-up the head on a plate-go for it (and share photos!).
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Passover Brownies With Orange Juice
This evening’s dessert is a great improvement over the disaster I baked yesterday. The recipe comes from The New York Time Heritage Cookbook, edited by Jean Hewitt.
The addition of orange juice (in this case, freshly squeezed) gives these brownies a pleasant flavour.
You Will Need:
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup matzo cake meal
1 tablespoon potato starch
5 tablespoons powdered cocoa
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup chopped nuts (I omitted these)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Beat sugar and eggs together. Add oil. Combine the dry ingredients with orange juice and stir into batter. Beat well. Pour into a greased 13x9x2 pan. Bake 35-45 minutes (mine took 40) until it tests done. Cut squares while still warm.
Schmaltz (rendered chicken fat)
Can you smell the heart attack? Seriously, this isn't health food (and yes, I did discard the cracklings, though I'm sure I'll hear about it from my spouse who would eat those things if left to his own impulses).
The best detailed recipe I've found for the process may be found HERE (at the bottom of the page. Of course, if you wish to make chopped liver as well, don't let me stop you.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Potato Kugel (Pudding)
Passover potato kugel tends to be a bit heavy as it relies on matzo meal to bind it. It took me a number of years to get just the right balance, but I think this year’s effort was just about the best I’ve made. In years past, I’ve made it in attractive moulds, but this year I was looking for ease of preparation.
You Will Need:
6 large baking potatoes
1 large onion
¼ cup matzo meal
1 ½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 1 ½ quart baking dish. Grate potatoes and onion. Add everything else and mix well. Bake for 1 hour until browned and top is crisp. Serve with applesauce or sour cream for a milchig meal.
You Will Need:
6 large baking potatoes
1 large onion
¼ cup matzo meal
1 ½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 1 ½ quart baking dish. Grate potatoes and onion. Add everything else and mix well. Bake for 1 hour until browned and top is crisp. Serve with applesauce or sour cream for a milchig meal.
Matzo Balls
Funny thing about this chicken soup is that I degreased it. I know it does not appear that way in the photo, but I really did. What’s more, I pulled most of the fat and skin off before cooking so that I can render them for schmaltz to use in the chopped liver later this week (thankfully, with all my health problems of late, high cholesterol isn’t one of them).
My chicken soup was pretty standard in that I cooked an old fowl slowly with carrots, onion, celery, bay leaves, garlic peppercorns, Italian parsley, thyme, rosemary and salt. Nothing super-secret or unusual.
Pretty much the same story with the matzo balls-simple. People get obsessive over their dumplings. An Anthropology student could have a grand time writing about all the magical properties people attach to their precious soup and its preparation. Well, no dancing about the pot and singing folk songs here. I don’t try anything fancy like club soda or any of the other tricks people insist will make the dumplings lighter. I don’t know, maybe I lack imagination. Anyway, here’s the recipe.
You Will Need:
3 eggs
2 tablespoons oil
½ cup broth or water
½ teaspoon baking powder
salt and pepper to taste
Optional-1/4 teaspoon dried minced garlic
Mix eggs, oil and water together. Add matzo meal, baking powder, salt and pepper. Mix well and refrigerate for ten minutes. Boil a pot of salted water. Wet your hands and make balls (you should get about ten) and toss into the boiling water. Cover and reduce to simmer. Let cook 30 minutes. Transfer to soup when done.
Happy Passover
I’m afraid the Passover chocolate/mocha sponge cake was a bit too cloying to be enjoyable to anyone but my two year old son. It wasn’t that attractive either. It was very, very “eggy.” Not my sort of thing at all (I never liked custard pies for the same reason), but tomorrow I’m making macaroons which I already know I like. I’m going to skip posting the recipe for this as I really wouldn’t want to be responsible for anyone trying it.
I understand that cakes for this holiday are destined to be a bit heavy as the matzo cake flour and potato starch do not lend themselves to light and airy cakes-but this was outright gross.
Still no tablecloth this year as I do not quite trust Danny to leave it alone. Today was the first day that he ate all three meals sitting in a regular chair at the table. He’s tall and doesn’t have trouble reaching, and lifting him up to the highchair was killing my back anyway. Believe me, it is a very nice milestone. He can drink from a regular glass now as well, though there was no way I would let him have a glass of grape juice sitting on beige silk upholstery. Hey, I’m not stupid.
It’s strange, how the more my illness progresses, and the less able I am to eat without becoming sick-the more I enjoy and value my time spent cooking. Please, don’t write-in to offer psychiatric assessments. It isn’t a martyr thing of “oh, look how I still cook for my family” because if I didn’t feel like cooking-I wouldn’t. My spouse is perfectly capable of cooking and is in fact, pretty talented. Rather, I really do find it an enjoyable hobby and it is one of the few things I am still able to do. The beauty of preparing food is that it can be done a small bit at a time. Learning to dice an onion, go sit down, check the laundry, peel a carrot, go sit down, etc. was a big step in time management for me. I can understand why people have a difficult time preparing a meal after work-trying to do everything at once, and keep up with the dishes would be horribly exhausting.
I do have some valuable advice regarding Passover. Keep a second bottle of kosher wine in the refrigerator. It is only 11% alcohol by volume and makes a terrific “spritzer” with seltzer water. Sure, you can cook with it (1 cup concord grape wine and a bottle of prepared chilli sauce tossed over a beef brisket and cooked slowly at a low temperature is just about the best treatment you can give a tough cut of beef. It works well on beef ribs and chuck roast as well) but contrary to popular belief, it may be consumed as a drink.
I understand that cakes for this holiday are destined to be a bit heavy as the matzo cake flour and potato starch do not lend themselves to light and airy cakes-but this was outright gross.
Still no tablecloth this year as I do not quite trust Danny to leave it alone. Today was the first day that he ate all three meals sitting in a regular chair at the table. He’s tall and doesn’t have trouble reaching, and lifting him up to the highchair was killing my back anyway. Believe me, it is a very nice milestone. He can drink from a regular glass now as well, though there was no way I would let him have a glass of grape juice sitting on beige silk upholstery. Hey, I’m not stupid.
It’s strange, how the more my illness progresses, and the less able I am to eat without becoming sick-the more I enjoy and value my time spent cooking. Please, don’t write-in to offer psychiatric assessments. It isn’t a martyr thing of “oh, look how I still cook for my family” because if I didn’t feel like cooking-I wouldn’t. My spouse is perfectly capable of cooking and is in fact, pretty talented. Rather, I really do find it an enjoyable hobby and it is one of the few things I am still able to do. The beauty of preparing food is that it can be done a small bit at a time. Learning to dice an onion, go sit down, check the laundry, peel a carrot, go sit down, etc. was a big step in time management for me. I can understand why people have a difficult time preparing a meal after work-trying to do everything at once, and keep up with the dishes would be horribly exhausting.
I do have some valuable advice regarding Passover. Keep a second bottle of kosher wine in the refrigerator. It is only 11% alcohol by volume and makes a terrific “spritzer” with seltzer water. Sure, you can cook with it (1 cup concord grape wine and a bottle of prepared chilli sauce tossed over a beef brisket and cooked slowly at a low temperature is just about the best treatment you can give a tough cut of beef. It works well on beef ribs and chuck roast as well) but contrary to popular belief, it may be consumed as a drink.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Braised Lamb Chops With Mushrooms In Wine
We really enjoy lamb at our house, and this time of year it is a particular treat. Our grocer had shoulder chops for a reasonable price so I purchased two without any idea what I’d do with them.
Loin chops I simply prepare in a frying pan with a bit of oil, but shoulders need a bit more work to become tender. After gauging the amount of work I felt like putting into dinner after being out all day, I turned to the web for ideas. The recipe I prepared-lamb chops braised with mushroom and wine sauce, may be found HERE.
It was very simple to prepare (less than an hour from start to finish) and the results were excellent. I have repeatedly had good luck with the recipes I’ve found at Southern Food About.com
So often, the recipes found on the web are untested, or incomplete. I have not found that problem at Southern Food and I encourage readers to check there for recipes that might not, to one’s mind be particularly “Southern”. It’s not all fried chicken and collard greens, you know?
About halfway through dinner, my husband asked if I was tired.
“No, not really. Why?”
“Could you go out and get some more of these?”
How’s that for a ringing endorsement?
*Also pictured, carrots and glazed turnips, mashed potatoes whipped with butter and heavy cream, and herbed toast. I served the meal with a bottle of absurdly inexpensive (four dollars) Cabernet.
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