Hot Plate! (A Weekend of Cooking and Spending)

RAIN AND SOUP

     For five days the rain poured and the cold wind howled every night. Weather like this makes me want to eat soup—chicken soup to be exact. I looked up a recipe from the same book as my failed beef and stout dish, Complete Comfort Food, and found a recipe for chicken soup with dumplings. I have never had chicken soup with dumplings before so I’m not exactly sure what the dumplings are typically made of. This recipe called for Matzo meal to make the dumplings. I browsed through the baking aisle of Safeway because, to me, that would be the logical place to put them. I found Masa meal and said to myself, “hey they’re close in name so this must be it!” I couldn’t bring myself to buy it because my inner voice, my cooking angel or guide told me to call my friend Molly who loves to cook. She told me where to get the Matzo meal and voila! Kitchen disaster averted.

        I didn’t realize that soup would take that long because I started the dish at 9 p.m. so that I could have some for lunch the next day. I had already started, when I realized that I had to simmer the darn thing for 3 hours! Add that to the time I had to prep… ugh! You would think I would learn by now to read ahead.

     The soup turned out okay. I substituted a few things. The soup called for parsley, but I hate parsley, and had garlic as an option but I LOVE garlic. The Matzo balls were a little bit weird in texture for me. This was my first time tasting them. I invited my friend Amanda over for a soup dinner because she only eats chicken. I would invite her over for Boeuf Bourguignon (Beef Burgundy), but I seriously think she only eats chicken -- which is something I will never understand. One of these days I’m going to take her to a restaurant where chicken is not on the menu :).

     Back to the soup, I think I would prefer my dad’s Chicken Tinola, a Filipino chicken soup with thin rice noodles and green papaya.

The book where I got the chicken dumpling soup recipe

WHOLE FOODS

     I went to Whole Foods Friday to get some dessert and cheese for Amanda’s visit. The moment I stepped into Whole Foods, I could feel the pretentiousness thick in the air. I felt like the shoppers could sense that I ate at McDonalds, ate foods with preservatives in them, don’t eat organic and I don’t make a six-figure salary. Although, I have to confess that I love Whole Foods because they offer a taste of the high life and what it’s like to eat gourmet and fine food all the time. You won’t see Captain Crunch Cereal or Kraft Cheese (the kind in the cellophane – that would be blasphemous at a place like Whole Foods).

     I walked away with Raclette cheese, two ready made chocolate mousse desserts, chocolate granola snacks, ready made orzo spinach salad and a bag of baked cheese puffs. I spent $50. I can’t say it was worth every penny, but I can say that all of it was delicious.

ARMED AND READY

     The kitchen is like a battlefield (you may now sing Love is a Battlefield substituting “love” for “kitchen”) and any cook has to be armed and ready. Over the weekend I went shopping for some kitchen tools. I went to the Le Creuset Outlet and purchased a 7.25 quart and a 4.5 quart pots. I got a great deal. The pots have some slight imperfections but the lids fit snuggly, which is important. I initially was going to buy one a Sur La Table, but that was incredibly expensive. At the outlet, I paid half of what I would’ve paid at regular price. I also bought some Kitchen Aid silicon tongs and spoons because I have gotten yelled at twice (by my brother and Molly) for using metal spoons on their Dutch ovens. My brother doesn't know this, but when I burnt the beef with stout dish, I took a knife and scraped the burnt parts off the bottom of his pot! He would be super pissed if he found out I did that.

     Armed with my Dutch ovens, proper cooking tools and my new cute apron from Anthropologie, I am ready to take on the heavy weights.

BOEUF BURGUIGNON – THE HEAVY WEIGHT

     Julia Child’s Boeuf Burguignon is as hard to cook as it is to say or spell. This is the most labor-intensive dish I have made thus far. Here’s a jest of what you do:

Fry bacon then remove

Brown beef in bacon fat then remove

Sautee carrots and chopped onions in bacon fat then remove

Remove fat

Return into pot and stir in flour

Put in oven for four minutes then remove

Stir in more flour, add herbs, wine and beef stock

Put in oven for 2:30 – 3:00 hours.

While beef is in the oven, brown mushrooms in butter and olive oil (but you can not crowd the mushrooms. I found this to be very true but also take a lot longer to brown half a pound of shrooms).

In another pan, braise pearl onions in beef stock, butter oil and herbs.

Once the beef is cooked, strain the sauce into a separate dish

Simmer the sauce and skim the fat.

Add mushrooms and pearl onions to the beef

Finally add the thickened sauce to the beef and simmer for 3 minutes

     WHEW!!! I’m exhausted. With directions like that I think it is justified that I got a bit confused. After I browned the beef and veggies, I couldn’t tell if I was suppose to mix them together. I did, then realized I shouldn’t have, so then I picked out ALL of the chopped onions and carrots! Then I had second thoughts and put them all back! Ugh!

     The end result was good—but not great. For the amount of work you have to do, I was expecting weak in the knees eyes rolled back good. I was expecting a food orgasm. However, I did eat the dish with rice the next day and it tasted much better. Julia Child was right, braised meats taste much better the day after.

     There are much simpler recipes for Beef Burgundy. I think I’ll try Tyler Florence’s recipe because he hasn’t steered me wrong so far. I’m having a lot of fun cooking and learning a lot but my ass is getting bigger and my food belly is growing… I can feel my clothes getting tighter as I write. I also have so much leftovers! I need to start hosting more dinner parties. Here's some pictures. 

You're suppose to pat the meat dry or else it won't brown. I did that, however, I don't think the meat browned the way it should have. This step is crucial to this dish. I think I need to eat Beef Burgundy at a restaurant to compare.

Mushrooms browned in butter is soooo yummy... I could snack on it.

Boeuf Bourguignon... I think mine had too much sauce because the pictures on the web doesn't look like the meet was swimming in sauce.

(Note: What I learned from cooking this dish is when pouring wine in a measuring cup, do NOT hold it close to your face to read the measurement because the wine splashed really hard and bam! Wine on my face and in my eye... which of course stung.)

THE SCORE

     I've decided to stop keeping score because it's become apparent that winning or losing is not as clear cut. For instance, my chicken dumpling soup was a successful failure. I think the execution was a success (as in no major disasters) but the end result was okay. Maybe it's the recipe, maybe it's me... but it's hard to tell.

     Next Challenge...

     As much as I like French cuisine and their love for cooking everything in bacon and butter, I think for my next cooking challenge I'm going to try to make some Asian dishes just so I can balance my food consumption with some healthier options.

Happy eating and cooking everyone!