Showing posts with label Class 15. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Class 15. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Whisk Wednesdays—Salade de Poulet aux Epinards (Spinach Salad with Chicken)

Salade de Poulet aux Epinards (Spinach Salad with Chicken) in a rice bowlVinaigrette is versatile — it can be used as a sauce or marinade, but it's most commonly used as a dressing on salad. In this recipe, the vinaigrette is used as a marinade on the mushrooms and as a dressing for the salad.

Note to brides: Do not order a Raspberry Vinaigrette on slippery butter lettuce for your wedding dinner! It may end up on your future mother-in-law's dress {or worse, yours!}.
"If you pour oil and vinegar into the same vessel,
you would call them not friends but opponents."
—Aeschylus
Oil & Vinegar
Oil — I used an extra virgin olive oil. {BTW, don't store olive oil in the refrigerator. It gets hard, and you have to wait a long time for it to pour again! I thought I was being so smart. Ha!} Use the best oil you can afford, but not something with a lot of taste since you don't want it to overpower the other ingredients.

Vinegar — I used a cider vinegar, but you could use any flavored vinegar (such as balsamic, sherry, or raspberry) or even citrus juice, such as lemon or orange juice. Don't use plain old white vinegar. Vinegar is made from the fermentation of alcohol {so that's why you should save any leftover red or white wine…if there's any to be saved!}.

Cooking {and baking, for that matter} is all about emulsions. A vinaigrette, which is usually a ratio of 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, is a temporary emulsion. Normally, oil and water (in this case, vinegar) don't mix. By whisking them together vigorously and adding the oil slowly, you create a temporary emulsion, not a permanent emulsion such as mayonnaise or hollandaise. If a vinaigrette separates, it's easy to just shake it or whisk it again to combine the ingredients. A bit of mustard or honey helps stabilize the vinaigrette and keep it emulsified.

Making Vinaigrette
To make a vinaigrette, first mix the vinegar and aromatics (for this recipe, chives and shallots). Then slowly whisk in the oil. {You can use a blender, food processor or shake it in a jar if you don't want to do it the old-fashioned way.}

Tip: It's best to use oil and vinegar that are at room temperature. After whisking, let the mixture sit for up to 3 hours at room temperature to marry the flavors together.

You can store vinaigrette in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to one week.

Here's a video showing how to make a vinaigrette.
"To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist —
the problem is entirely the same in both cases.
To know exactly how much oil one must put with one's vinegar."
—Oscar Wilde
Playing Around

Rice Paper bowlIf you read my post on Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops, you'll know that I was at the most amazing restaurant over the weekend called Plus Minus Café in Mont Tremblant. I was inspired by the salad that was served in a rice bowl, so I asked the waiter how the salad bowl was made. He satisfied my curiosity…

salade from Plus Minus Café
from the menu at Plus Minus Café

Take rice paper and dunk it in a large vat of a deep fryer and use a ladle or spider to form it. So, I went home and tried it. At first I was a little wary of deep frying since I'd had some trouble with hot oil over-flowing my pot before! I bravely tried it again, and it worked. Once the oil reached 350˚F, I carefully lowered a sheet of dry rice paper between my spider and a spaghetti ladle. {I wish I'd had one of these!} In less than a minute, the rice bowl was fried and ready to be dried and filled with salad.

I also tried baking a rice bowl. I sprayed a heat-proof bowl with cooking spray. Then I dipped a piece of rice paper in water to soften it. After a minute of soaking, I carefully laid it into the bowl. After baking it at 400˚F for 5-10 minutes, it was crisp and translucent.

Greens and Sardines
Go Greens MesclunFor the salad part, the recipe called for spinach. But why go with boring old spinach when you can eat flowers along with 30 or more other different greens? I found a bag of these delicious greens at the Byward Fruit Market that sells some of the most exotic fruit and vegetables you can find in Ottawa. The bag of greens I picked up contained pansies, nasturtiums, and every imaginable leaf and petal that you can eat. Plus it looked pretty!

Chicken or sardines? The recipe called for sardines. After my fiasco with anchovies, I wasn't ready to stomach sardines this week. A chicken salad sounded much more elegant! After marinating it in lime juice, shallots, and salt, and pepper for about an hour, I grilled it on the barbeque.

Recipe: Salade de Poulet aux Epinards (Spinach Salad with Chicken)

Salade de Poulet aux Epinards (Spinach Salad with Chicken) mise en place
Click to enlarge image

You can find the recipe for Salade de Poulet ou Sardines Crues aux Epinards (Spinach Salad with Chicken or Sardines) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with this week's recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!
Vinaigrette made without the use of potassium sorbate, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate, calcium disodium EDTA, or soya lecithin.
Salade de Poulet aux Epinards (Spinach Salad with Chicken) in a rice bowlTasting Notes
This was an easy meal and everything came together without a lot of dishes! The fact that you can eat the bowl makes it extra fun, and a bit of crunch in the salad is just what's needed. I also sprinkled some sea salt on top of the salad to kick up the flavor.
"A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better
than steak with someone you hate."
—Proverbs
Next Week (September 17)
• Éstouffade de Boeuf Provençale (Braised Beef Casserole, Provence Style) page 139-140 {discussion of braising and stewing, page 140}

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $734.85 + $15.09 (salad) + $2.80 (vinaigrette) = $752.74

Butter used so far: 7 pounds, 27 tablespoons




Print Friendly and PDF
10 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Whisk Wednesdays—Brochet au beurre blanc (Whole Poached Pike with White Butter Sauce)

Poisson au beurre blanc et rouge (Poached Fish with White and Red Butter Sauce)

Poisson au beurre blanc et rouge (Poached Fish with White and Red Butter Sauce)

Beurre blanc (burr BLAHN or burr BLAHNGK), which means "white butter", is a classic French sauce that turns half a pound of butter into something "light" and delicious. It's similar to Béarnaise sauce {without the tarragon or eggs} since it's a reduction of vinegar or white wine and shallots into which butter is whisked in, but it's a little easier since no eggs are involved. Again, we're emulsifying this week!

This recipe called for brochet, or pike. The River Loire, which is the longest in France, is home to numerous fish, including pike. Unfortunately, the Loire River is too far from Ottawa and pike was not to be had. After seeing numerous recipes with beurre blanc over a variety of fish, I decided to go with our favourite — Salmon with a beurre blanc — and for a color difference — Sea Bass with a beurre rouge.

A bit of history

There is some controversy about the history of beurre blanc. One theory is that the Anjou region is the birthplace of this sauce...

Recipe

Click to enlarge image

Poisson au beurre blanc recipe image

Poisson au beurre blanc (Poached Fish with White Butter Sauce)You can find the recipe for Brochet au beurre blanc (Whole Poached Pike with White Butter Sauce) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link).

Tasting Notes

Beurre blanc is delicate, light, and full of fat! But it's so much easier than making a Béarnaise...

Running total: $711.62 + $4.50 (court bouillon) + $12.55 (fish) + $6.63 (beurre blanc) = $734.85

Butter used so far: 7 pounds, 27 tablespoons

Poisson au beurre blanc et rouge (Poached Fish with White and Red Butter Sauce)Beurre blanc (burr BLAHN or burr BLAHNGK), which means "white butter", is a classic French sauce that turns half a pound of butter into something "light" and delicious. It's similar to Béarnaise sauce {without the tarragon or eggs} since it's a reduction of vinegar or white wine and shallots into which butter is whisked in, but it's a little easier since no eggs are involved. Again, we're emulsifying this week!

This recipe called for brochet, or pike. The River Loire, which is the longest in France, is home to numerous fish, including pike. Unfortunately, the Loire River is too far from Ottawa and pike was not to be had. After seeing numerous recipes with beurre blanc over a variety of fish, I decided to go with our favourite — Salmon with a beurre blanc — and for a color difference — Sea Bass with a beurre rouge.

{Confession time: Although I should have practiced my fish filleting, I chose the easy route and bought fillets ready to poach. I did, however, buy a trout that needs knife attention and will give that a go sometime this week.}

A bit of history
There is some controversy about the history of beurre blanc. One theory is that the Anjou region is the birthplace of this sauce and that it was first served at the restaurant "La Poissonnière" in Anger. The more popular theory is that around the beginning of the 20th century, a cook named Clémence Lefeuvre served this sauce at her restaurant "La Buvette de la Marine" on the banks of the Loire River near Nantes. The legend says that she meant to make a Béarnaise sauce but forgot to add the tarragon and egg yolks.

A bit of butter Beurre blanc is mostly butter, so it's important to use one you like. No margarine allowed! Jean-Yves Bordier makes the "best butter in all of France”. He comes highly recommended by many foodies, including Clotilde Dusoulier and David Lebovitz.

Butter sculptureSince Bordier's butter isn't imported to any stores in Ottawa, I decided to try my own taste test and gathered up all the varieties of butter I could find in the Byward Market in Ottawa. I found seven varieties: three unsalted and four salted. Then, at home, we enjoyed a taste test. {Have you ever tasted seven different butters at one sitting?!}

Click to enlarge image
Butter taste testI was amazed to find each one had its own distinct flavor and qualities. One tasted acidic, another nutty, one was bland, another rich. There was also no agreeing on which one was best, so I made the executive decision as the "chef" and picked my favorite unsalted one to use in the beurre blanc sauce (Saputo Unsalted at $5.99 a pound, which is $1.50 more than the brand I usually buy!).
"It was the best butter,”
the March Hare meekly replied
— Lewis Carroll
Most beurre blanc sauces call for unsalted butter, but I read one post by Ms. Glaze's Pommes d'Amour where she uses salted butter without fail. {I'll have to give that a taste test someday.}

A bit of cream…or not
Traditional beurre blanc doesn't include cream, but many recipes (including the one in Le Cordon Bleu at Home which uses crème fraiche) include it to help stabilize the sauce and guard against the sauce breaking. The cream provides more emulsifying power. {You can find out more great science facts behind this sauce in Cookwise by Shirley O. Corriher.}

If cream is added, the sauce is called Beurre Nantais.
A bit of wine
I made both a beurre blanc using white wine and white-wine vinegar and a beurre rouge using red wine and red-wine vinegar. The pink salmon had the the beurre blanc, and the white sea bass was ladled with beurre rouge.

Beurre blanc et rougeFor the beurre blanc, I used Muscadet (Muss-ka-day), which means "wine with a musk-like taste", and it's the wine usually used in this sauce. It's a dry French white wine made in the Loire Valley near the city of Nantes that uses the Melon de Bourgogne grape varietal. I was able to find a good bottle of Muscadet at a reasonable price at my local wine store.

For the beurre rouge, I used a rosé from the Languedoc region in France.

"Le vin est la plus saine des boissons."
"Wine can be considered with good reason as the most healthful
and the most hygienic of all beverages."
— Louis Pasteur (printed on the cork of the Muscadet)
A bit of know-how
The first step in making beurre blanc is reducing the shallots, wine, vinegar, thyme and bay leaf until it's a syrupy glaze. Once you have the glaze, let this mixture cool for a bit and remove the thyme sprig and bay leaf. [If called for in the recipe, add the cream or crème fraiche. I used cream since I didn't have any crème fraiche.] Then slowly whisk in the softened butter, a bit at a time. Whisk constantly. Take the pan on and off the heat to whisk in the butter without melting it. Make sure you don't let the mixture boil or it will separate, and it cannot be re-emulsified at this point. Taste. Add salt. Taste. Add more butter if it's too acidic. Taste.

The sauce will separate above 58ºC (136ºF) and solidify below 30ºC (86ºF).
When you whisk cold butter into a hot sauce, it's called monter au beurre (mounting a sauce with butter). {I tried making this sauce once with cold butter and once with softened butter and found it much easier when the butter was soft. I had to use the heat more often and whisk more vigorously when I used the cold butter.}

Traditionally, the sauce is not strained. If the shallot is chopped fine enough, it doesn't distract from the texture of the sauce.

Beurre blanc is best served immediately, but can be held in a thermos or over a simmering water bath. If re-heated, it will break easily. Since it doesn't contain eggs there isn't the same worry of bacteria growth that you have with Béarnaise and Hollandaise.

To save time if you're entertaining, you can prepare the reduction of shallots, wine, vinegar, thyme, and bay leaf ahead of time and whisk in the butter just prior to serving.

A bit of variety
To change the taste of beurre blanc, you can use all sorts of different flavors in the reduction or whisk in one of the compound butters mentioned last week instead of plain unsalted butter. I used the Maître d'Hôtel compound butter in a third version that I made, which definitely gave it a flavor boost. Here are some other ideas for flavoring beurre blanc.

A bit of entertainment
Here's a great video showing how to make beurre blanc.

A bit of fish poaching
To cook the fish, the recipe calls for a court bouillon, which is a fancy name for cooking broth. After you've brought the broth ingredients to a boil and simmered them for about 15 minutes to marry the flavors, you let the mixture cool a bit before adding the fish. {I threw the pot into the refrigerator to speed up the process since I was running behind.} Add enough water to cover the fish, put the lid on and bring to a boil. Remove the pot from the heat and let cook for about 30 minutes, covered. Pretty simple.

Recipe" Brochet au beurre blanc (Whole Poached Pike with White Butter Sauce)

Click to enlarge image
Poisson au beurre blanc (Poached Fish with White Butter Sauce)You can find the recipe for Brochet au beurre blanc (Whole Poached Pike with White Butter Sauce) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link). To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with this week's recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
Beurre blanc is delicate, light, and full of fat! But it's so much easier than making a Béarnaise. I enjoyed the beurre blanc made with the compound butter, but my husband liked the beurre rouge best. These sauces definitely make plain, old, boring fish more delicious to eat! Too bad about the calories!

Next Week (September 10)
• Salade de Sardines Crues aux Epinards (Spinach Salad with Fresh Sardines) page 197-198 {discussion of Vinaigrettes page 55}…Just so ya know: I won't be using the sardines!

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $711.62 + $4.50 (court bouillon) + $12.55 (fish) + $6.63 (beurre blanc) = $734.85

Butter used so far: 7 pounds, 27 tablespoons
. . . . . . . . . .

More to Explore:





Print Friendly and PDF
10 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Whisk Wednesdays—Steak Mirabeau (Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Anchovy Butter)

Steak Mirabeau (Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Anchovy Butter) Steak Mirabeau (Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Anchovy Butter)Sharp, briny, stinky. That’s anchovies and olives for me. I’ve tried to like these foods, but I still avoid them. This week, the curriculum that I’m following called for a discussion of compound butters, and the only recipe in Le Cordon Bleu at Home that contained a compound butter was Steak Mirabeau. The steak part was great, but the anchovy butter…not so good. So, I decided to make a bunch of other compound butters to have on hand and compare.

Compound Butters
Compound butter is a fancy name for flavored butter. They’re a quick and easy way to add a burst of flavor to meat or vegetables. Michael Ruhlman has a great description in his book Elements of Cooking.

There are some standard compound butters, but the possibilities for flavoring butter are endless. Some famous compound butters are garlic butter, Maître d’Hôtel butter, and Escargot butter. 101 Cookbooks has some interesting ideas for flavor combinations. For this Mirabeau steak, the recipe called for anchovy butter. {Mirabeau means the dish has anchovies and olives.}

Compound butters don’t have to be just savory. You can also make sweet compound butters such as Honey butter or Orange butter, which contains orange zest, orange liqueur, orange juice, and icing sugar.

When making compound butter, don’t melt the butter in the microwave. You want room temperature butter, not melted butter. After adding the flavorings, you can roll it in wax paper, parchment paper, or plastic wrap and return it to the refrigerator to set. You can store it in the freezer for up to one month and slice off what you need.

Tips: If the compound butter is frozen, you can grate it onto the meat or vegetables. Another tip was to tie up compound butter in cheesecloth and rub it over corn on the cob.

Click to enlarge image
Compound ButtersWatch a Pro
Although simple to make, I found a video showing how to make compound butter.

Café de Paris Butter
One famous compound butter is called Café de Paris butter. It consists of about 20 different ingredients all whipped into the butter, including herbs, spices, mustard, marjoram, dill, rosemary, tarragon, paprika, capers, chives, curry powder, parsley, shallots, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and anchovies. According to this article, in 1941, Freddy Dumont created this compound butter at the Restaurant Café de Paris in Geneva. It became such a hit that it became difficult to get a reservation. It is described as “artery-clogging, chin-glisteningly good.”

Café de Paris in GenevaSides
The best parts of this recipe were the side dishes, especially the fried onions. After slicing the onions into ¼-inch rings, I sprinkled them with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. Then, I soaked them in milk for 20 minutes. After drying them with a paper towel and dredging them with flour, I deep fried them in 360˚F oil until they were brown and crispy.

The other side dish was baked tomatoes. I just pierced the tops with an “x”, sprinkled them with salt and pepper and added a dollop of butter. Then, I baked them in a 400˚F oven for 10-15 minutes. They taste sweet and gooey after baking.

If you like anchovies and olives, you can wrap an anchovy around a pitted olive for a touch of elegance as a garnish. A fistful of watercress adds some color, crunch, and spice to the plate as well.

Recipe: Steak Mirabeau (Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Anchovy Butter)

Steak Mirabeau mise en placeYou can find the recipe for Steak Mirabeau (Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Anchovy Butter) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link). To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with this week's recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
“Hold the anchovies” {and olives}!
As you can tell, I wasn’t fond of this steak à la Mirabeau! However, I did enjoy the Tarragon and the Escargot compound butters on my tenderloin. And the fried onions were easy and delicious and one side dish I will have to make when there are more mouths to feed since they are not good for the diet at all! I’m looking forward to trying my sweet compound butters on muffins or pancakes and making that artery-clogging Café de Paris butter soon!

With that, I'll leave you with an award-winning haiku...
first date–
the little pile
of anchovies

—Roberta Beary,
from The Unworn Necklace (Snapshots Press, 2007);
Frogpond (Winter 2007), 1st Place,
Haiku Society of America’s 2006 Gerald Brady Senryu Contest
(found here)
Next Week (September 3)
• Brochet au beurre blanc (Whole Poached Pike with White Butter Sauce) page 307-308 {discussion of Beurre blanc (Emulsified butter with shallots) page 192}

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $669.38 + $30.82 (2 steaks) $11.42 (Mirabeau, onions, tomatoes) = $711.62

Butter used so far: 7 pounds, 11 tablespoons {I didn't add all the pounds of butter I used in making all the different compound butters this week since only a 1/4 of a pound was required for the recipe. Just thought you'd like to know if you're playing along and counting your cholesterol points!}

More to Explore:

 




Print Friendly and PDF
10 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)