Successful! Leek and Potato Soup

Forget the last one happened. Call it intelligence, call it talent, or call it my new Le Creuset Dutch Oven, but I figured out Leek and Potato soup. It's actually a really simple formula, and kinda makes me feel dumb for not figuring it out the first time.



Ingredients:
Leeks
Potatoes
Heavy Cream
Salt to taste

The formula is:
1 cup solids to 1 cup liquid to 1 Tb Heavy Cream

Therefor, if you have like a potato and a leek, you would do 1/2 cup Potato, 1/2 cup Leek, 1 cup water, 1 Tb Heavy Cream.

Or, if you're feeding a huge Italian family, you would use 50 cups Potato, 50 cups Leek, 100 cups Water, and 100 Tb Heavy Cream. Or just go to a restaurant because no one has a pot that big.

Cut up and clean veggies, put them in a pot with water. Boil until mushy gushy in your tushy. Buzz it with an emersion blender or in a food processer or a food mill or between your teeth if you're EXTREME. Add cream and salt to taste.

Leek and Potato Soup

According to Julie Powell, this is the "simplest" recipe to make in Julia's book, but "simple" isn't the same as "easy." Now, when I first read this, I thought she was just trying to sound philosophical. But she was right. Witness me mess up a three ingredient soup.



Now to my credit, her directions say "2 quarts of water." Who thinks in quarts? I then ran to Barnes and Noble and read another of her books that fixes that measurement and calls it 6 cups. Uhm. Thanks Julia. There will be a retry on this one.

Ingredients:
2 Lbs Potatoes
2 Lbs Leeks
6 Cups Water
6 Tb Cream
Salt to taste... or the salt from my disappointed tears.

Peel and cut up potatoes, cut up and clean leeks. Throw everything in a pot and boil until soft. Buzz it with an immersion blender, or in a food processor or food mill. Add some cream, season with salt. Hopefully enjoy it more than I did.

Or if you're Steve, suggest adding bacon and cheddar cheese and make Jenny cry.

Coq au Vin

I asked Jessica what she wanted to make this week, and she said "Coq au Vin." But I thought it would be too expensive because there are two kinds of booze in it. I suggested a few more things - some French, some German, some American - and it always came back to Coq au Vin. So, we went to the liquor store, bought the crappiest six dollar jug of Burgundy we could find, and proceeded to light my dutch oven on fire. Enjoy.



Ingredients:
3-4 Pounds Chicken (we used boobies, you can use whatever you want.)
4 oz Bacon (about 5 strips.)
A shallot (in place of Pearl Onions... read Julia's recipe if you're confused.)
1/4 Cup Cognac
3 Cups Burgundy
Chicken Stock to cover
A bay Leaf
2 Cloves Garlic, mashed
1 Tb Tomato Paste (the recipe says 1/2 Tb, but Jessica made me put more. Peer pressure.)
3 Tb Flour
8-10 Oz Mushrooms (we used baby bellas)
A shit ton of butter... I think we finished off a stick by the end of it.
Salt and Pepper

Boil the bacon for 10 minutes to get rid of the smokey flavor. Saute in a dutch oven with butter until crispy. Remove. Try not to eat too much of it.

Salt and pepper your chicken and sear both sides in the bacon fat. Add bacon back in, throw in a diced shallot. Cover and cook for five minutes. Turn the chicken to its other side and cook for five more minutes.

Grab a lighter and your Cognac, laugh maniacally, and set the chicken aflame. Then freak out and shake the pan around until the flames are gone. Add your wine and chicken stock, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Saute up some mushrooms, fo' shizzle. You can probably do whatever vegetable you want, but Julia said mushrooms. So it has been written, so it will be done. Make a paste of butter and flour.

Take chicken out of the pot and reduce the sauce to about 2 cups or until you're sick of waiting. Throw in paste and whisk vigorously. It'll be thick and saucey now.

Add everything in - chicken, mushrooms, whatever else - and let stand for a few minutes to baste in its majesty. Eat.

Roast Chicken

Every food blog has to have this post. I think it's in the rule book. This is Roast Chicken with Lemon, Rosemary, and Garlic. It's as basic and delectable. And I made it up as I went along, but the recipe is under the video... so we can pretend I knew what I was doing before hand. I promise, it was delicious.



Ingredients:
A Chicken (I used like a four pounder)
3 Cloves Garlic (minced)
3 Cloves Garlic (whole)
A Lemon
2 Tb Buttah
3 Sprigs Rosemary
Salt and Peppah

Hardware:
Cast iron skillet, mortar and pestle (or the back of your knife), kitchen twine.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Make a compound butter out of 3 cloves of garlic, one sprig of rosemary, the butter, and salt. (I did this in a mortar and pestle because I'm Sur la Table's bitch, but you can smoosh the garlic with your knife, cut the rosemary really small, and smash it all together with a spoon violently, wishing you had a mortar and pestle.) Rub half under the skin of the bird's breasts and the rest anywhere else. Salt and pepper all over the place. Massaging the bird's back is not required, but she'll appreciate it. Tie the legs together. Insert probe thermometer at the biggest part of the boobie.

Cook for 20 minutes, then lower the oven to 350. When the thermometer reads 165, take the birdie out of the oven and let rest for 10 ish minutes under a little foil house. Create foil bed and couch, if you see fit. Carve and nom.

Also - check out Hilah Cooking. She rocks. Hilah Cooking

Apple Tarte Tatin

So I'm completely obsessed with Julie and Julia. I've read the book twice, read the sequel (which kind of ruined the first, but whatever.), read "My Life in France," and watch the movie an embarassing amount of times. In honor of my obsession, I decided to make ANOTHER recipe that was featured in the movie - Apple Tarte Tatin. To give myself credit, I've wanted to do this long before the movie came out - Gordon Ramsay made it on one of his shows and made it looks simple at 30 seconds long. Oh, was he wrong.



Yea, my pan was too big so my tart turned into something resembling baked apples on a cracker. But whatevs.

Sole Meurniere

Tonight I made Sole Meurniere... I hope that's spelled right. It's a very fancy sounding dinner that maybe costs ten bucks for two people. PS - I do not like fish. At least cooked. Sushi is great, but I've never liked the "fishy" taste of fish. Let's see how this turns out.

Ingredients:
3 Sole Filets
Zest and Juice of a lemon
Parsley
2 ish Tb Butter
Salt, Pepper
Flour
Asparagus



Retrospective thoughts: I am in need of a better lemon zester or microplane and a fish turner if I'm going to keep trying to make fish. And a potato ricer. But that's just because Grandpa says you need one to make gnocchi.

Cheese Souffle

This is, by far, the most difficult thing I think I've tried to do. A cheese souffle, for one.



One thing I've been thinking about: All of these fancy, schmancy French dishes are probably stupid expensive in restaurants, but let's look at what it actually took me to make a cheese souffle.

A tablespoon of butter.
A tablespoon of flour.
Some scraps of cheese.
Two eggs.
A splash of milk.
A stick of wood.
A piece of cloth.

Oh... woops, I left the last two in Anatevka. But you get the point - why so expensive, Restaurants? I made this at home for about 3 bucks. Make it yourself, people.

Boeuf Bourguignon

After buying "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," it's almost silly not to make Boeuf Bourguignon. So, here's my attempt.



Recipe ideas for later - Molten chocolate cake, cheese souffle, apple tart tatin... any ideas?

((EDIT: Apparently, it's pronounced "key-aunti," not "shee-auntie." Thank you, Harrison.))

Rolled Omelette

Wooo!!!!! That's all I have to say.



Afterwards, I tried to recreate the experience for Steve, and ended up breaking his omelette in half. Oh well. It was Diner worthy nonetheless.

Ingredients - 2 eggs, salt, pepper, 1 Tb butter, lots of arm muscles.

Artichokes with Hollandaise Sauce

So I started setting up to videotape myself making Artichokes with Hollandaise Sauce, and got very angry at my day, so threw the laptop back at the couch. But, things that happened:

I discovered I LOVE artichokes. Where have they been all my life?

However, Alton lied when he said that the stem of the artichoke tastes as good as the heart. Lies. It tastes like wood. Unless I didn't peel it far enough.

I made a perfect hollandaise. Perfection. Too bad I, apparently, do not like hollandaise. But I am very proud of how it turned out.

I got my first cooking-related injury. I was cutting the fuzzies (actually called the "choke," but it just looks like hair.) off of the artichoke heart, and my finger got in the way. I now cannot do dishes because putting water on my finger stings hardcore.

Overall, a nice turn to an otherwise rather frustrating day.