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yrmencynI have found the man I am going to marry, and he is me. Why did I choose myself for a spouse? Because I can cook tastiness like a motherfucker. Today, I blatantly stole two recipes, the main dish from The Amateur Gourmet, and the dessert from David Lebovitz. Because I have no respect for the normal course of things, I made dessert first.
See, I was wandering about the internet today, and I stumbled across a recipe David Lebovitz had up for chouquettes. They're basically little creme puffs, really. Not that big of a deal, frankly, except that I don't really bake so well. I'm all about wet methods on the stove... that oven business is always a little scary.
So, you start out by melting the butter etc on the stove and then quickly stirring in the flour, 'til it comes together. Like so:
Then you beat in the eggs (which, by the way, if your weird roommate has unaccountably taken to buying extra-large eggs apparently without understanding that that does nothing but fuck up every single recipe i the world: only use 3), and I gotta say: use a fork. Trust me on this one. I had this odd experience of seeing a wad of dough lying in a puddle of egg yolk on my kitchen floor... don't ask.
But! then eventually you end up with these delicious little things, after piping them out and sugar-coating them. And Owen, your oven thermometer was useful again, showing that my oven runs hot anywhere above 400F on the knob (this may also explain the gratin issues last weekend). And they are moist, and delicious, and we loves them:
So then I made a variation on The Amateur Gourmet's 40-Clove Chicken, which I think he may have lifted from Ina Garten. This pains me, because I despise the Barefoot Contessa, but good eats is good eats, no matter the provenance. Really, he's got the process shots and all on his site, so I don't feel like I need to duplicate that here. I'll just show you one of my final shots, because it was gorgeous:
My variations, in case you're interested: scaled down to about a pound of chicken, thighs (2.99/lb at Whole Foods, and I ADORE the thigh; chicken breast is bland like nobody's business). I had no cognac, and that's not really me anyway, so I just used some Bushmill's. Yeah, bitches. Whiskey! I need to learn to get over my fear of burning alcohol off, though, cause I nearly got drunk on the atomized alcohol when I added the liquor (off the heat, people, never add high-proof liquors on the heat). Served it over a pasta shape that I have never heard off in my life, strozzapreti. They look like little s-shapes from the side (as you can see above).
I licked my plate clean. I couldn't stop, it was so rich in delicious flavor. Ach!
Congrats, Chloe Dao. You are America's next great fashion designer. I'm still a Dan Fan, but his collection had some issues. I really couldn't deal with his weird almost-riveted elements, which were just so... vulgar. (This is a joke long-time Runway watches should get, especially if they read TWoP). Top Chef, the new show from Bravo? Uh... I'll give it another chance next week, since first eps are weird and hard, but my current feeling: shite.
See, I was wandering about the internet today, and I stumbled across a recipe David Lebovitz had up for chouquettes. They're basically little creme puffs, really. Not that big of a deal, frankly, except that I don't really bake so well. I'm all about wet methods on the stove... that oven business is always a little scary.
So, you start out by melting the butter etc on the stove and then quickly stirring in the flour, 'til it comes together. Like so:
Then you beat in the eggs (which, by the way, if your weird roommate has unaccountably taken to buying extra-large eggs apparently without understanding that that does nothing but fuck up every single recipe i the world: only use 3), and I gotta say: use a fork. Trust me on this one. I had this odd experience of seeing a wad of dough lying in a puddle of egg yolk on my kitchen floor... don't ask.
But! then eventually you end up with these delicious little things, after piping them out and sugar-coating them. And Owen, your oven thermometer was useful again, showing that my oven runs hot anywhere above 400F on the knob (this may also explain the gratin issues last weekend). And they are moist, and delicious, and we loves them:
So then I made a variation on The Amateur Gourmet's 40-Clove Chicken, which I think he may have lifted from Ina Garten. This pains me, because I despise the Barefoot Contessa, but good eats is good eats, no matter the provenance. Really, he's got the process shots and all on his site, so I don't feel like I need to duplicate that here. I'll just show you one of my final shots, because it was gorgeous:
My variations, in case you're interested: scaled down to about a pound of chicken, thighs (2.99/lb at Whole Foods, and I ADORE the thigh; chicken breast is bland like nobody's business). I had no cognac, and that's not really me anyway, so I just used some Bushmill's. Yeah, bitches. Whiskey! I need to learn to get over my fear of burning alcohol off, though, cause I nearly got drunk on the atomized alcohol when I added the liquor (off the heat, people, never add high-proof liquors on the heat). Served it over a pasta shape that I have never heard off in my life, strozzapreti. They look like little s-shapes from the side (as you can see above).
I licked my plate clean. I couldn't stop, it was so rich in delicious flavor. Ach!
Congrats, Chloe Dao. You are America's next great fashion designer. I'm still a Dan Fan, but his collection had some issues. I really couldn't deal with his weird almost-riveted elements, which were just so... vulgar. (This is a joke long-time Runway watches should get, especially if they read TWoP). Top Chef, the new show from Bravo? Uh... I'll give it another chance next week, since first eps are weird and hard, but my current feeling: shite.
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 05:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 05:21 am (UTC)"Using two spoons, scoop up a mound of dough with one spoon roughly the size of a George Bush's brain (or about the size of a walnut)"
*snort*
no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 05:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 05:41 am (UTC)however, best overall entry goes to Erin, for her pooping entry.
thanks and try again tomorrow!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 06:33 am (UTC)you write really long posts about what you had for dinner. and for some reason, i often end up reading the whole damn thing.
you must come to IN, and cook for me.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 06:57 am (UTC)That question/idea would be a lot easier to evaluate if only THE BLOODY PROGRAM WOULD GIVE ME A YEA OR A NAY DAMMIT. Not that I'm impatient or anything.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 06:33 pm (UTC)*(i realize I don't actually need to apologize on behalf of the creative writing department at IU. but i'm sympathetic to your cause).
no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 01:10 pm (UTC)I yelled YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY when Chloe won. I really felt bad for Daniel though. After the Q&A bit, and the judges weren't very kind to him, he looked like he was going to cry. I did love him rolling his eyes while Santino was talking, though.
Also... I tried to watch Top Chef and was just so bored. I'm also thinking it deserves another chance, once the competition gets weeded out a bit. I think I'm just jaded on these types of shows now. Project Runway's contestants had such chemistry with each other... as a group they were fun to watch. Of course Top Chef's contestants aren't going to be BFF right off the bat, but I kind of get the feeling they're not ever going to be either. We'll see. Maybe.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 01:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-09 11:39 pm (UTC)I utterly agree with you on the chix thigh issue. If I'm gonna cook chicken, it had damn well better taste like chicken.