Tuesday, January 28, 2003

I find myself occasionally flipping through my cookbooks with longing and lust.  Old paramours, sexy young things, mysterious strangers.  Hazan, Prudhomme, Kennedy, LaGasse.  The bulging curves of my overstuffed recipe file, neglected and going to fat in a cabinet.  I think of DeGroot and I touch myself….  I’ve been cooking with Julia for five months now, and I am happy, most of the time.  But is it wrong that my eyes dance along other covers, that my stomach growls for chorizo and etouffee and pancetta?  But faith is all about strength.  I will soldier on, and I will never leave you, Julia.  Until day 366.  Then, I’m afraid, I’ll be gone like a shot. Dinner was Supremes de Volaille a Brun, Riz Duxelles, and cabbage.  I started with the preparations for the rice with mushrooms.  Finely diced half a pound of mushrooms and squeezed the liquid out of them in the corner of a towel.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this crazy world, it’s that it always takes longer to dice mushrooms than you’d think.  But I did it, and browned them over medium heat with butter and oil, stirring in some minced shallots there at the end.  I set those aside and started making the rice.  I did it the Julia way – my husband and I have dubbed it “Bitch Rice.”  Boil it for ten minutes, drain, then wrap in a towel and steam for twenty minutes. While that was happening Eric shredded the cabbage for cabbage like we usually make it – stuff the cabbage in a pot with a little water, a couple of tablespoons of butter, and some crumble oregano.  Get the water to a simmer, then cover and simmer for seven or eight minutes.  Stir in some parmesan cheese before serving.  Needless to say, this is not a Julia recipe – the cabbage isn’t nearly cooked enough for her tastes.  I love it.   For the chicken breasts sautéed in butter, I clarified two sticks of butter, which just means melting it and pouring off all but the white junk that falls to the bottom, which you discard.  About half of it I poured into a skillet, and began to heat until it was good and hot.  I salted and peppered the breasts and dredged them in flour before throwing them into the hot butter, three minutes per side, more or less.  Basically this is deep frying in butter.  If I had all the butter in the world I’d have clarified more and fried them in a bigger pan, so they had a bit more room – I think they had a little trouble browning because they were too crowded.  Will do that next time.  Then I took the chicken out, poured in a bit more clarified butter, and let it heat until it turned a golden brown.  Then, off heat, I stirred in lemon juice and parsley.  Problems with the sauce – first, though the butter didn’t burn, the precipitate from the chicken – flour, mostly, I assume, did, which left the sauce with a burned color, if not taste.  Secondly, and probably part of the same problem – I let the butter get too hot, and when I through the parsley in, it basically fried.  Got crisp, I mean.  Which is a little odd in a sauce. I warmed up the mushrooms and tossed them with the steamed Bitch Rice and some more butter. It was all pretty good – Monday night food.  I do like the way that Julia, She of the Liquified Vegetables, never lets you overcook your chicken – these breasts were, as usual, moist, with just the faintest hint of pink in the center, which I prefer, salmonella not being a huge concern of mine.  And, you know, they were deep fried in butter.  The rice was not as much of a success, mostly, I think, because we’d recently bought a big ole’ bag of Uncle Ben’s at the Costco, and I fear that converted rice doesn’t take to the Julia treatment.  It was okay, but it would have been better if I’d just cooked the rice like a normal person.  Cabbage was good; always is.  All pretty good – but is that enough?  Julia, I hate the way I’m thinking. Duck section coming up pretty soon.  That should bring back the spark.  Even if it does leave us shambling off to the poorhouse. 7:49:00 AM    comment []