Wednesday, January 08, 2003

On Monday I brought Galettes Au Fromage (Cheese Wafers) to work, and left them out in the kitchen.  They were a hit – obviously these people had never had a good South Texas style cheese-n-rice krispy biscuit.  Tuesday I made Amuse-Guele au Roquefort.  I made them at seven o’clock in the morning, because that’s the kind of idiot I am.  The recipe is simply a matter of needing together a half pound Roquefort with four or five tablespoons of butter, minced chives, minced celeries, a big dash of Worcestershire sauce, some pepper and some cayenne.  Then you make the stuff into balls and roll them in breadcrumbs flavored with minced parsley.  They would have been pretty good, too, except I hadn’t gone for the gourmet, $19.99 per pound Roquefort at the Whole Foods over the weekend, and it turns out Long Island City ain’t got Roquefort.  So I had to make to with crappy “blue cheese”, which was salty as a son of a bitch.  So, they weren’t as much of a hit.  Though my note in the kitchen made a splash – “Please eat my Roquefort Balls.  They’re in the fridge.”  Ah, yes, no humor like the inadvertent. Dinner Tuesday was Supremes de Volaille Archiduc, Chicken Breasts with Paprika, Onions, and Cream.  A very familiar kind of dish, nothing haute about it.  In fact, Eric’s been making a dish almost exactly like this for years, only with pork chops, which recipe he got out of Peter Franey’s 60-Minute Cookbook.  Only a couple of steps are different, and both, it winds up, refine the taste a good deal. First, JC asks you to mince 2/3 cup onion, and boil it.  Which instruction provoked a good deal of resentment – “Boiling onions? Puh-leese!” – but which I think did have the effect of smoothing out the taste of the sauce in the end.  Simply boil it for one minute, then drain and rinse with cold water.  Then cook in a covered casserole, on very low heat, with butter, a tablespoon of paprika, and a bit of salt, for ten minutes or so.  Turn the chicken breasts briefly in the onions and paprika and butter, cover them with a round of wax paper, then cover with the casserole lid and stick them in the oven for seven minutes or so.  The second refinement comes at the end, when the chicken breasts are done.  Take them out of the sauce and set aside, covered.  Then put in a fourth cup stock and a fourth cup Madeira, port, or vermouth, and boil down.  I used port, for a change of pace, and because it was there on the shelf in front of me, staring me in the face.    When that’s boiled down, add a cup of cream, and boil that until thick. It was, I must say, absolutely excellent.  The port seemed to add another layer, smoky but smooth.  MmMmMm M M M.  We ate the chicken breasts napped in the sauce.  I proceeded to eat leftover sauce off a wooden spoon dipped into the casserole for the rest of the night. Yeah, that diet thing’s gonna happen.  Any day now.   Postscript: So, you Buffy fans will notice I haven’t been writing on the subject of late.  I gotta tell you, it’s been tough.  It’s terrible watching a great, beautiful thing wither and die before your eyes.  Last night there was a moment or two.  But still.  You can make what arguments you like about what they’re doing this season, the twists and turns, etc…, but when it comes down to it, the jokes fall flat, the actors look like they don’t want to be there, and if I have to hear another twenty-two year old actress put on another phony accent from another point on the globe, I’m gonna fucking scream.  On the upside, season three is out on DVD.  So I’ll stop screaming now. 7:22:30 AM    comment []