I finally got around to making coq au vin for Lin last night, and it was
quite good. I followed Alton Brown's recipe fairly closely, so I can
recommend that recipe to anybody who wants to try it for themselves. As an
appetizer I made a mushroom-asparagus-cheese puff-pastry [censored]. We also had
warm French bread and a beet-orange-fennel salad that was dressed with
Meyer-lemon-infused olive oil and strawberry-champagne vinegar. We were
going to have profiteroles for dessert, but were too full.
Today I made a bastardized French onion soup, following the method described
by Kate B here:
Message-ID: [email hidden]
(Essentially, I used Lynne Rosetto Kasper's brodo, Thomas Keller's
onion-cutting technique, and RFC's crockpot long slow caramelizing of the
onions.)
Both Lin and I had big bowls of the soup (which was really good), so we were
barely able to address the rest of the meal, which was pan-seared ostrich
steaks with Cumberland sauce, roasted sweet potatoes, and steamed broccoli.
Once again, we were too full for dessert, and it was time to dole out candy
to the urchins anyway. Maybe we'll have those profiteroles later tonight. I
made the choux-pastry puffs yesterday; I plan to fill them with lemon-drop
ice cream, drizzle them with passionfruit syrup, and serve them with a
liqueur glass of Mandarin Napoleon.
Bob