Monthly Archives: March 2015
(not veal) pork marengo {ffwd}
It makes me sad to say it, but with this week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie, we begin the countdown of the final 10 recipes in the book. I won’t get overly reflective yet, but it is hard to believe the end of this journey is in sight.
This week, spring’s been in the air. There are still huge mounds of melting filthy snow, but the air is different. I think I can smell the lovely scent of dirt. In the transition from winter into spring, a bowl of stew can still be satisfying if it’s not too heavy or light. Veal Marengo fits that bill.
Marengo is an old French classic, created by Napoleon’s chef to celebrate victory in the Battle of Marengo. It might be classic, but I’d never had it before. I made some adjustments to it to suit our tastes, but I think it probably tastes close to the original.
We seldom eat veal, so first thing, I swapped out the veal, using chunks of pork tenderloin instead. I also thought the recipe was stingy on the vegetables. Come on, 12 pearl onions, 8 mushrooms, and 8 potatoes for a dish that serves four? I added about a pound of onions, a pound of mushrooms, and over a pound of fingerling potatoes.
To start, the meat is tossed in seasoned flour and browned in oil. Then, onions are sautéed then simmered briefly with diced tomatoes, tomato paste, white wine, and a bouquet garni. The meat is added back and cooked in a low oven until the meat is tender.
In the meantime, the onions are glazed in butter, the mushrooms are sautéed, and the potatoes are boiled, then glazed in butter. Finally the onions and mushrooms go into the skillet for the flavors to meld for a few minutes.
The Marengo is served with potatoes on the side (or in our case, around), sprinkled heavily with parsley.
We both enjoyed this meal. Howard said it reminded him of something else I’d made, but couldn’t remember what. Maybe he was thinking of the osso buco, which was tomato-based, though had different seasonings and vegetables?
To see how the other Doristas interpreted this recipe, check out their recipes here. You can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. If you haven’t bought the book yet after all this time, what are you waiting for?
cabbage and foie gras bundles {ffwd}
With just a handful of recipes to go before the French Fridays with Dorie crew finishes cooking all the recipes in Around My French Table, some of the recipes left are where they are in the lineup due to deliberate procrastination. A case in point would be this week’s choice: Cabbage and Foie Gras Bundles.
As it turns out, this elegant starter might be even simpler to put together than its name describes. Foie gras is wrapped in boiled cabbage leaves and steamed to warm the liver.
I’ll admit that I felt great ambivalence on this one. I wasn’t inclined to make a major investment in ingredients, so I didn’t put much effort into searching for the foie gras terrine. When we made the coddled eggs that called for foie gras mousse, I had great luck with the chicken liver mousse from Trader Joe’s, so I just bought that again. Of course, I didn’t read the recipe header where Dorie said to use a terrine made with whole foie gras not chopped or mousse. Oops.
My misadventure continues. The first step is to boil the leaves to soften them enough to be able to wrap up the foie gras into bundles. I couldn’t find Savoy cabbage, though I’m sure the softer, more tender leaves of Savoy would have been easier to separate from the head. Leaves on the regular green cabbage I bought are stiff. As I removed each leaf off my head of cabbage, it tore.
So, I have torn cabbage leaves and the wrong kind of foie gras terrine. Next step, I wrapped thick slices of liver mousse in the softened cabbage leaves. Fortunately, those cabbage leaves are more forgiving than I thought and I had bundles, ready to steam.
Nothing really needs further cooking. The steaming step is intended to warm the filling. The mousse being more delicate than what was really called for, I only steamed the bundles for 2 minutes. Now, transfer to the plate, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with fleur de sel. Voila!
Howard’s been trying to get me to make his grandmother’s stuffed cabbage for years. These bundles are Not Your Grandmother’s Stuffed Cabbage, but they are tasty. Howard really liked them. I don’t know that I’d make this again, but it was worth trying.
If you want to see what my French Friday friends thought of their bundles, check their links here.
After our starter, we enjoyed leftover Chicken Parmentier from the latest Everyday Dorie column in the Washington Post. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should!
A Plateful of Happiness 