This past Saturday, some neighbors in the ‘hood were hosting a big party outdoors. I could smell the barbeque smoker, and no doubt, they were enjoying food in the outdoors. In my kitchen, I was busy preparing a French meal that required indoor tools. I had invited two friends who I will be traveling to England and France with in the upcoming months. I was inspired by seeing the recent Julia Child movie to make one or two of her dishes. I picked up Julia’s cookbook, co-written in the late 1990s with Jacques Pepin, and found her recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon.

The first course was inspired by a recent cooking class I took centered on the use of in-season, heirloom tomatoes. I adopted a recipe that was used, first published in Bon Appetit magazine, with tomatoes and shrimp. I served it with a tomato water cocktail (tomato water and cold vodka).

• Baby spinach, washed and spun dry
• minced shallot
• large shrimp
• garlic (lots)
• fresh herbs (thyme)
• variety of heirloom tomatoes
• salt, pepper
• EVOO
• dijon mustard mayonnaise
• balsamic vinegar

First, chop up your tomatoes and let them drain, salted, in a colander. This “firms” them up. Later, I mix the tomatoes with the vinegar, shallot, and freshly cracked pepper.

The shrimp get marinated in garlic, EVOO, herbs, and some of (now) salty tomato water.

Arrange a bed of spinach, top with tomato mixture, cooked shrimp (flash sauté with the marinade), a “line” of Dijonnaise, and top with EVOO. It was fresh, delicious, and satisfying.

The beef dish was made according to the recipe, and I was dissatisfied to find some beef cuts were dry, others very moist. I used a 275 degree oven (recipes call for 300-325), but things still dried out. I think maybe 250 for another hour (perhaps the last hour, stirring, and leaving the top partially off to reduce the sauce) would be the way to go. More experimenting is called for.

I served everything over some very (good and) creamy mashed potatoes, infused with roasted garlic.

The mushrooms and pearl onions (use frozen) were made separately, and they tasted divine(ly).

Our dessert was the best part, to some diners, but I neglected to photograph it. It is a pity.

Using Patrick O’Connell’s recipe for white chocolate mousse, I made two mousses: white and dark chocolate. This is not an easy recipe; his mousse is meringue-based. You beat eggwhites (I used pasteurized whites), and then drizzle-in a sugar syrup. I think I needed more syrup (it didn’t seem to incorporate as well). I used this base mixture, along with whipped cream, to augment my two batches (5 oz. each) of melted chocolate. Since the syrup and sweetened chocolate already has a lot of sugar, it helps to use a tangy sauce.

I made a sauce out of reduced mangostine and passion fruit juice. After reducing the juice, stir-in some fresh, cold pats of butter before refrigerating it. The sauce became a base on the plate. I used canelle-techniques for the dark mousse and a piping bag for the white.

We ate well.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 2:41 pm and is filed under French, In the Kitchen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.