Thursday, December 19, 2002

We’re going to be on an abbreviated schedule for the next week and a half or so, what with the demands of Hell Week in bureaucra-land, and Christmas, whence I am going down to Texas to do in the remains of my figure with a week’s worth of good old Southern gustatory sin.  I hope that everyone enjoys their holidays. In the meantime, a few more minor developments from the J/J front.  Last night was Bifteck Hache a la Lyonnaise, Choux de Bruxelles a la Milanaise and Riz au Beurre.  Which sounds like a pretty impressive dinner after a long day, perhaps, but it wasn’t.  The Bifteck Hache, or “hamburger”, I’d already done.  I probably should have just gone the easy route and stuck some meat patties under the broiler, but I remembered this as a good recipe, and it is.  More trouble, obviously – you have to mince and sauté the onions and mix the meat with them, softened butter herbs and an egg before forming it into patties and sautéing it in butter.  But the meat gets so nicely browned – almost crisp – on the outside, and stays so nice and rare on the insides, and there’s so much butter. Overall, this was one of those dinners from the easy golden days of the Project, back before the murdering of lobsters was a blot on my soul, before I’d even conceived of the horrors of aspic, when French cooking was just about all butter, all the time.  The Choux de Bruxelles was Brussels sprouts blanched in boiling water, braised in butter, then browned in the oven with parmesan and swiss cheese.  And though it was not the best Brussels sprouts recipe I’ve ever had – honors on that one are split between Laura Colwin, whose Brussels sprouts cooked for an hour in the oven in lard is like manna from heaven, and Brussels sprouts shredded and quickly cooked with a bit of water, butter, and lemon juice, which I picked up from some book somewhere and which is fabulous – it was good, rich, simple.  Probably I overestimated Julia’s tendency to overcook – the sprouts wound up probably not meltingly tender enough.  The rice was just steamed rice – I did it JC’s way, and though it continues on a pain in my ass, I will say that it turns out reliable rice, and it has the advantage that it will not be hopelessly fucked if you forget it on the stovetop for a few minutes – tossed with melted butter.  I felt bad even counting it as a recipe.  But there it was, with a title and an ingredient list (“4 Tb butter”) and everything. A good solid meal eaten by a couple of exhausted motherfuckers.  7:53:25 AM    comment []