Monday, January 13, 2003

“Retrench?!” The original plan for Sunday had been for a fish soufflé “from the haute cuisine.”  It seems to be a souffle into which is baked a whole flounder filet that has been poached in white wine, with a sauce mousseline, which I guess is like a hollandaise, rather. That was until we got the ATM and realized that due to some financial miscalculation I do not yet fully understand, we have thirty dollars in the bank. It seems a little crazy to spend ten dollars on fish when we only have thirty dollars to our name.  So, resourceful poverty-stricken haus frau that I am, I improvised.  We would have potato gnocchi – yes, a JC recipe -- with chicken livers, gratineed with cheese. I started by boiling the potatoes and ricing them in my ricer.  Yes, it’s true, I have a potato ricer.  Actually, it’s Eric’s – I gave it to him as a stocking stuffer one year.  We have used it approximately six times in five years.  But it’s kind of a groovy thing.  I riced the potatoes and set them aside in a pot.  I quickly sautéed some diced chicken livers.  (We will never have to eat our shoes as long as there are chicken livers – it’s amazing to think you can have a seriously good and good-for-you meal for, like, a dollar and half.  Here’s to liver of the avian variety.)  Then I made pate au choux – put half a cup of water in a pot with some butter, salt and pepper.  Boil slowly until the butter melts, take off the heat, beat in a half cup of flour.  Put back on the heat and stir around until the dough forms a mass and forms a film on the bottom of the pan.  JC says this will take 1 or 2 minutes, but for me it happened almost instantly.  Then beat in two eggs, off heat.  I beat the pate au choux, the liver, and some cheese into the potatoes.  I rolled big spoonfuls of the – very sticky – dough into log shapes.  I poached them for about fifteen minutes, until they’d swelled up pretty good. I drained them and put them in a buttered dish.  Sprinkled them with grated Swiss and butter.  Broiled them for a couple of minutes.  Served with a salad of tomatoes, red onion and basil. I’m beginning to think I’m becoming a worse cook instead of a better.  Not that the gnocchi were bad – they just weren’t really gnocchi.  They never got dry and puffy.  They tasted like cheese-n-liver mashed potatoes.  (Which is good, but…)  I’m not sure if I didn’t poach them long enough, or if I made a mistake with the pate au choux, or what.  Harumph. Tomorrow, Eric’s Spicy Monday (and Tuesday, more than likely.)  I’m off to LaGuardia Community College to garner the public’s opinion on what we should build at ground zero.  Sigh.  I’m gonna need that lamb and green chile stew when I get back, let me tell you…. 7:43:24 AM    comment []