RogueChef
“It IS all about the TASTE”
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Rémoulade
In several recent posts I’ve mentioned rémoulade as a dipping sauce for various appetizers.
The event was at a local tavern / restaurant, (surprise, surprise), but one of the snacks server was a wonderful zucchini chip, breaded, deep fried, and hit with a touch of sea salt. These were so good the rémoulade dipping sauce, (while delicious), was not needed.
As one can guess, the loyal fan club has noted that I have not demonstrated my ability to produce said flavored emulsion… It is not very hard, but does take a bit of skill, technique, and luck…
Rémoulade, invented in France, is a popular condiment in many countries. Very much like the tartar sauce of some English-speaking cultures, rémoulade is often mayonnaise-based.
Although similar to tartar sauce, it is often more yellowish, often flavored with curry, and sometimes contains chopped pickles or piccalilli. It can also contain horseradish, paprika, anchovies, capers and a host of other items.
While its original purpose was possibly for serving with meats, it is now more often used as an accompaniment to seafood dishes, especially pan-fried breaded fish fillets and seafood cakes.
As I am sure some wag will point out my method is a bit of a cheat, and I will point said wag to a large mixing bowl and a strong whisk so they can prove their superiority in building emulsions, as they create the mayonnaise from scratch…..
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Cold Leek and Potato Soup – Vichyssoise
An old Jewish proverb says, “Worries go down better with soup.”. And I do agree, But It is also 90 degrees today, and the last thing I want to eat is hot soup, and the last thing I want to do is cook hot soup.
When the weather is hot and steamy, I need something with a chill. If the soup is also creamy with a certain savoriness, then it can only be cold leek and potato soup – or Vichyssoise if you’re following Julia….
Vichyssoise is a thick soup made of pureed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock. It is traditionally served cold, but can also be eaten hot.
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Croque Madam, Ham and Cheese Sandwich with Egg
A lovely bistro style brunch sandwich.. Perfect to serve on a lazy weekend morning…. (like we ever have any of those, but this is still great as late morning dish to delight my wife)
According to About.com the word croque comes from the verb croquer or “to crunch”. So a Croque-Monsieur roughly translates to “Mister Crunchy”. The feminine version, a “Croque Madam”, includes a fried egg. This classic French bistro sandwich is a great way to use up leftover ham.
In this I use focaccia for my bread as it already has a mixture of cheese and herbs, I thin sliced / shaved some ham, sliced some Gruyère, and made a basic béchamel sauce. (Read the latter as a sawmill gravy minus the sausage).
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Meatless Mondays – Hollandaise Sauce
One of the treats I partook of in the UK was Eggs Benedict. Poached eggs on an English muffin with back bacon or ham and covered with Hollandaise sauce.
Wikipedia Says:
Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion of egg yolk and butter, usually seasoned with lemon juice, salt, and a little white pepper or cayenne pepper. In appearance it is light yellow and opaque, smooth and creamy. The flavor is rich and buttery, with a mild tang added by the seasonings, yet not so strong as to overpower mildly-flavored foods.
Hollandaise is one of the five sauces in the French haute cuisine mother sauce repertoire. It is so named because it was believed to have mimicked a Dutch sauce for the state visit to France of the King of the Netherlands. Hollandaise sauce is well known as a key ingredient of Eggs Benedict, and is often paired with vegetables such as steamed asparagus.
Hollandaise is also known to be rather tricky to assemble, but after a bit a badgering I did manage to get a chef to show me this trick.
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Basque Style Chicken
One of my global clients are having their annual planning meetings this week, it is with a rather interesting twist of faith that one of the directors from the U.K. office was vacationing in the U.S. last week and as such was able to attend this meeting when the rest of the office was left to participate via video conference.
Why is this so important? Because said director and I had a brief discussion of how chicken is cooked on the Iberian peninsula. The method is similar to the Italian “Hunter Style” or Cacciatore, but leans more on bell and hot peppers than on tomatoes.
Coming from the Basque region, which is located in the southwest of France and extends into Spain, this is a simple and rustic recipe, that yeilds a dish that is truly greater than the sum of it’s parts.
The region includes the western part of the Pyrenees as well as the coast along the Bay of Biscay, which looks out on to the Atlantic ocean. It is both a mountainous and coastal region, and has its own distinctive history and cooking traditions that are somewhat different from the rest of France, which features lots of seafood, garlic, and olive oil and tends to be a bit spicier than most French cooking. As with all good French cooking, the emphasis is always on quality, fresh ingredients.
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Chicken Fricassée
It is a funny half hot / half cold day, where in the morning you want a hefty jacket, in the afternoon you want a t-shirt, and by early evening you are back in the bomber jacket…
My tastes are that way as well, I wanted a heavy breakfast, a light lunch and a meal with staying power for dinner.
I remember a wonderful dish I had at a local french restaurant, it was a chicken, broken down and browned then simmered in a broth along with vegetables to make a really wonder full sauce. Think similar to a beef stew with really big chunks of meat and veggies… The gravy was so thick and wonderful I was soping it up with the french bread on the table. (Yes, I know it sounds soo uncivilized, sooo unsheik, but it seems everyone else at the table was doing the same thing….)
Do note: Do not try this with boneless chicken breast, it just does not work well…
Wikipedia says:
Fricassee or Fricassée is a catch-all term used to describe a stewed dish typically made with poultry, but other types of white meat (like veal, rabbit, or Cornish game hen) can be substituted. It is cut into pieces and then stewed in gravy, which is then thickened with butter and cream or milk). It often includes other ingredients and vegetables.
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Lyonnaise Style Potatoes
As the weekend approaches, and I consider how I will execute my splurge meal, I have this taste in the back of my mouth for steakhouse style steak. My favorite steakhouse, which is no longer in business, served a magnificent steak with creamed spinach and potatoes lyonnaise.
Wikipedia says:
Lyonnaise potatoes is a French dish of sliced pan-fried potatoes and thinly sliced onions, sautéed in butter with parsley and possibly other seasonings. “Lyonnaise” means “from Lyon”, or “Lyon-style”, after the French city of Lyon. The potatoes are par-cooked before sautéeing for the best results.
So how to execute… I really do not want to par-boil the potatoes, maybe a sautee then finish in a ripping hot oven. Traditionally butter is used as is heavy cream, and onions.
It is spring and the Vidalia onions are fresh, so I’ll go with those, and perhaps some fresh garlic, maybe just for a twist a tablespoon of bacon drippings, (one could omit that for the vegetarians), and just maybe, maybe a bit of shreadded cheese, a Maasdam cheese to be exact.
I got to try this Dutch version of Swiss cheese, and became the proud owner of a half pound. It is a cheese that is nutty and sweet, but softer than Emmental (Swiss) due to a higher moisture content, and tends to melt smoother. Just for kicks I’ll add a bit of parsley from my counter top garden, (The parsley is becoming a jungle.)
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Leftover Gumbo…
I opened the lair’s refrigerator/freezer, looking for a inspiration for today’s’ post, and discovered the fridge was FULL!. There was roast chicken, roast pork, chuck steak, and smoked prime rib, there were veggies by the basket, beans by the bucket and stock by the gallon. (Apparently, one of the lair’s eating machines had moved out, and my meal portioning had gone awry.. Sorry I missed that one.. )
So I started to sort things out, some items had passed their consume by date and were relegated to the dumpster, others, (a lot of others), were approaching that date and were to be used or disposed of quickly. Now, what to do with ham, beef, chicken, veggies, cooked rice, chicken and beef stock…..
Only one answer STEW! oooorrrrr Maybe a gumbo, (a stew thickened with a roux)
Background
A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Vegetables ( carrots, potatoes, beans, peppers and tomatoes etc.), and meat (poultry, sausages and seafood), a liquid, (chicken stock, beef stock, beer, wine) along with seasoning and flavorings are cooked at a relatively low temperature (simmered, not boiled), to allow flavors to combine.
Stewing is suitable for the least tender cuts of meat that become tender and juicy with the slow moist heat method, which makes it popular in low-cost cooking. Cuts having a certain amount of marbling and gelatinous connective tissue give moist, juicy stews, similar to chuck steak..
Stews are thickened by reduction or thickened with flour, either by coating pieces of meat with flour before searing, or by using a roux, as in a gumbo.
Gumbo is a stew originating in Louisiana which is quite popular. It consists primarily of a strong stock, meat and/or shellfish, a thickener. called a roux and made from fat and flour, and the vegetable “holy trinity” of celery, bell peppers, and onion. The gumbo is traditionally served over rice.
The real way to do this is low and slow, and that spells crock-pot. I have one of slow cookers with a removable metal liner so I can brown / saute items on the stove top and them move the liner into the cooker for the low and slow part. The real magic of this dish is the creation of gelatin from collagen. (Do see my discussion in “A Roast for all Seasons“, I’ll not quote it here)
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