The liveliness of my cooking tonight...
Jan. 5th, 2013 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
debgeisler...is appropriate to my level of still-sick energy: making ersatz demi-glace.
True demi-glace requires equal portions of Sauce Espagnole and beef or veal stock, with some added herbs (in the form of a bouquet garni), then reduce for an hour and a half. Emeril Lagasse offers a classic version.
However, we're reading Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, which offers a much easier version: 3-to-1 stock (dark, beef or veal) to red wine, plus some chopped up shallots.
We had stock (thawed at New Year's Eve for a port and wine reduction, but not re-frozen...'cuz the freezer's too full). Had wine (some leftover, and we uncorked a bottle of something Italian for the remainder). Had two large and one small shallot.
Toss the shallots, cleaned and chopped, in with the wine. Bring to boil over high heat and reduce by half. Add the beef stock (in our case, 3 quarts stock to 1 quart wine). Bring to simmer and leave. it. alone. For quite a while, or until it's reduced to a rich brown loveliness. (Every now and then, I bestir myself to go over and look at it.)
When reduced enough, strain through a colander lined with cheese cloth. Cool in a bowl set into an ice bath.
Then use the Julia Child trick: fill ice cube trays (where did the ice bath come from, anyway?) with cooled stock. Freeze, then toss cubes into a zip-lock bag for storage (because we have a self-cleaning freezer and we don't want to see the demi-glace disappear). To add richness to soups, stews, and sauces, use as many cubes of demi-glace as appropriate.
While not the true demi-glace mother sauce, Bourdain claims that this will certainly do the trick (and means we don't have to make half of the stock into a Sauce Espagnole, first). We're certainly willing to give it a shot, since we're working with leftover stock, anyway!
True demi-glace requires equal portions of Sauce Espagnole and beef or veal stock, with some added herbs (in the form of a bouquet garni), then reduce for an hour and a half. Emeril Lagasse offers a classic version.
However, we're reading Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, which offers a much easier version: 3-to-1 stock (dark, beef or veal) to red wine, plus some chopped up shallots.
We had stock (thawed at New Year's Eve for a port and wine reduction, but not re-frozen...'cuz the freezer's too full). Had wine (some leftover, and we uncorked a bottle of something Italian for the remainder). Had two large and one small shallot.
Toss the shallots, cleaned and chopped, in with the wine. Bring to boil over high heat and reduce by half. Add the beef stock (in our case, 3 quarts stock to 1 quart wine). Bring to simmer and leave. it. alone. For quite a while, or until it's reduced to a rich brown loveliness. (Every now and then, I bestir myself to go over and look at it.)
When reduced enough, strain through a colander lined with cheese cloth. Cool in a bowl set into an ice bath.
Then use the Julia Child trick: fill ice cube trays (where did the ice bath come from, anyway?) with cooled stock. Freeze, then toss cubes into a zip-lock bag for storage (because we have a self-cleaning freezer and we don't want to see the demi-glace disappear). To add richness to soups, stews, and sauces, use as many cubes of demi-glace as appropriate.
While not the true demi-glace mother sauce, Bourdain claims that this will certainly do the trick (and means we don't have to make half of the stock into a Sauce Espagnole, first). We're certainly willing to give it a shot, since we're working with leftover stock, anyway!
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no subject
on 2013-01-06 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
on 2013-01-06 04:36 am (UTC)Dinner - that was a bit more ambitious, but we both wanted veggies. So we made a Salade Niçoise, using the recipe in the Joy of Cooking. We reduce the ingredients, make enough for two to have a substantial dinner, and get lots of veg and protein from one meal. I'll post the recipe anon. :-) (It's also not tough...but, while it's a one-pot meal, it's a 3-bowl one!)
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on 2013-01-06 04:59 am (UTC)My friend Kate Schaefer, December 26th: "From October 15 to about December 7, I had a respiratory complaint which we characterized progressively as a cold, a bad cold with a nasty cough, bronchitis, and walking pneumonia (in modern medicine, they call it atypical pneumonia, but it's still a brontosaurus to me). The treatment was push fluids and rest, push hot fluids and rest, push hot fluids and rest and antibiotics and albuterol, push hot fluids and rest and albuterol and inhaled steroids and are you sure you understand the concept of rest? At which point my butt spent significantly more time in bed, and my lungs miraculously got all better."
I grok that cooking is something you do for comfort, and that I hardly have the street cred to suggest that anyone else might benefit from learning how to rest. But I do find myself hoping your Sunday is a thoroughly restful one.
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on 2013-01-06 02:55 pm (UTC)Today, we'll do laundry, make some chili, etc. but Mike's running the errands, and I'll be spending much of my time drinking (water and tea) and sitting on the couch. Mike did the grocery shopping yesterday when it became clear to me that I'd run out of pep...and he's taking good care of me today, too. :-)
Sounds
on 2013-01-07 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2013-01-08 03:32 pm (UTC)Anyway, thanks for the cubes idea! Limited freezer space here and that works great. I'm always needing it for my french onion soup or lamb stew. Mmmm now I'm really hungry.
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on 2013-01-08 04:00 pm (UTC)We may try Bourdain's French onion soup, which calls for a brown chicken stock. Our chicken stock is always white (since we turn about 1/3 of it immediately into soup), but I suspect the brown will be just as versatile. Then add in some of the beef demi glace as a grace note for richness. :-)