Cocido Castellano

Literally it means :: boiled (in Spanish). And it is. A traditional Spanish winter dish.

Today's dinner starts by boiling a big pot of water and throwing things in at irregular intervals.
1) Water, beef bones, ham bone, pork fat, ham end, unsmoked bacon (smoked has too strong a flavor)
2) after an hour add garbanzos (soaked overnight in salt & water; then toss out the water) [maybe in a cheescloth bag to keep them from breaking up)
3) another hour, add chicken, sausage
4) another hour, add carrot
5) 1/2 hour, add potatoes
constantly skimming the skum off the surface and keep simmering through hte whole process until the garbanzos are done. If the potatoes aren't ready yet haul out the garbanzos and carry on cooking).
Separately cook 2 or 3 morcilla (they're too strongly flavored to go into the big pot with the rest). By cook I mean poach then slice and fry.
Chop and cook a bunch of Savoy (french) cabbage - do this while the rest is cooking and, when almost finished everything, reheat it by sauting in a pan with some oil and a couple of cloves of sauted garlic.
Strain the pot, keeping both the liquid and the meats/veggies. Put the solids on a platter; pour some liquid over to help keep them warm and prevent drying out. Set aside.
In the liquid you toss a couple of handfuls of vermicelli and make a soup.

An impresive quantity of meats,veggies, soup, and lots and lots of pots and pans get dirty.
This as just to give and idea; it's not really a recipe.
Anyway… it turned out well. Quote: "Maybe better than grandmother's". And that is high high praise (but don't let abuela see the blog).

More Morcilla & Morcilla Mousse

Family is still away so real food is not being prepared around here. It seems I cook best for an audience. So, had more morcilla (black pudding sausages). Yesterday it was Morcilla de Burgos; today it's one each of rice and onion. Cook in just-about boiling water for 15min. When/if they float to the top pop the skins with little knife pricks to avoid them bursting. Slice and fry to crisp up.
Been thinking about the Saturday dinner and looking for a Morcilla Mousse recipe. Have not found one - not even with an assist from the helpful people at Chef2Chef .
Dessert will maybe be a simple Sables Pistachio with Chantilly (a recipe that I learned at LCB Paris).

Morcilla

Spanish blood sausage; boudin; black pudding. That was dinner tonight.

Bought Burgos style morcilla (w/ rice & onion in it) at the supermarket. Just cover in a pan with simmering water - - 15 minutes. Remove, allow to cool slightly (10 min). Slice into 1cm pieces - -which are then sauted in just a touch of oil (use the same pan as was used for boiling). One pan meal/snack. Simple as can be.

Have planned next week's dinners and shopped for it all in one blow (although I far prefer to shop daily). It's going to be:
- Cocido
- Entrecot w/ Brussel Sprout in Bechemal; fries
- Trucha / trout ; rice
- Asado de vaca / a roast; roast small potatoes

- Friday's my day off, leftovers, and practice / prep for Saturday which is a dinner party (basically they're coming to eat my cooking - - my 1st "presentation" dinner).
So far:
Canapes
- Keller: Parmigiano Reggiano Crisps with Goat Cheese Mousse
- Some sort of cracker with Morcilla/Boudin Mousse

Salad de Rucola/Rocket avec foie gras

Something done with meat, French style, and a significant sauce
Potatoes au gratin
Veggie

A desert - nonspecific

Let it thus be said....Lots of work still to do.

Filet pieces Provencale

Didn't get around to anything interesting; just busted open a box of vegetable puree. Added pepper, olive oil, tabasco and a little creme fraiche.
That was lunch & will also be the starter at dinner.
The main for dinner was a quick fry of some defrosted filet pieces I found. Very top quality meat; just some bits and pieces I had left over from when I cut a large piece of meat into little filets. They're quite thin bits, maybe 1 cm thick, 3-5 cm long/wide.

Salt & peppered the meat & then sprinkled some Aromatic Herb mix for meat (Herbes aromatiques pour viandes) that I got from the Ateliers Monastiques de l'Etoile of Bethléem (Paris)- sort of a Provencale mixture.
Then the usual start: pan, olive oil, smash a clove of garlic and chop a bit - fry lightly. Toss meat into pan. Fry/brown overall; midway add a dash of cayenne. Remove meat; set aside. 1/4 glass of red wine to deglaze the pan; splash in some Lea & Perrins while reducing; return meat juices to the mix; reduce some more; pour result over meat. Eat.

The meat will come out cooked all the way through but not tough at all because it was such a great cut to start with. The flavor depends on the garlic, wine, L&P combo - because it was frozen the meat flavor's not on top.

Reading: Cross Stitch : Diana Gabaldon

Looked at the Ritz Escoffier school page. 6 weeks at 980€ a week, and you can take them one at a time.
This, against the 7.000 € for LCB Paris at 5 weeks (continuous intensive; versus the regular pace of 10 weeks)

No real food today

The family's all out of town today but rather than using the free time to prepare something experimental and very special I had nothing but cheese, yogurt & cereals/granola the whole day. Shall think of something more exciting for tomorrow. Really should take the opportunity to test an idea or two.
At a minimum I could practice making Bechemel or Hollandaise (or, as some are wont to say, Netherlandaise)

Was down at the beach place

and painting the door frames. Getting some sun. I love lying stretched out in the sun on January 2. It's the next best thing to going swimming in the sea on Jan 1 (when other than Polar Bear swims).

Just finished: Stranger in a Strange Land (revised edition): Robert Heinlein
Currently reading: The Men and the Girls: Joanna Trollope

Thinking of applying to LCB Paris for the Summer Intensive Culinary.

Dinner, blindingly simple: Penne pasta w/ Tomatoe Sauce: saute garlic, onion; salt;(strained?) tomatoe, oregano, Fresh Basil, tomatoe paste/concentrate, pepper, cayanne; Salchichas (cooked separately); cooked off the bits of the salchichas with just a touch of red table wine and put into the sauce.

Not very active... am I

I'll get around to it one of these days.
There have been some decent food experiences recently and I know I'm going to regret not writing them up.
Like the semi-spontaneous lunch last Sunday for 7; creoled fish with a Thai influence.

Maxim's - Aérogare Orly Ouest

- Gateau de chevre avec jabon
- Pellegrino (water) - Pain ordinary
- St Nicolas de Bourgueil 2002 "Vignoble de la Jarnoterie" (Loire)
Entree: Emince de maquereaux vinaigrette de tomate au jus de volaille (little triangles with minced herring; vinagret had tiny perfect cubes of tomatoe & spring onion(?))
Plat: Carré de Lapin Roti avec Confit de Aubergines ++ excellent (one little roasted rabbit leg and a rack of ribs)

Les Dessous de la Robe

4 rue Bertin-Poirée 75001 (M) Chatelet
Lunch -
Pre: Salmon salad - 2 big spoons worth -mousse-like. Thought it a bit dry. Dressing on the salad greens was a well balanced lemon/mustard.
Main: Melon & Chevre salad. More greens, tomato & cucumber too. The chevre with melon combo didn't quite catch my interest.
Wine: The blanc de jour - Wanted more than a glass but less than a bottle. They don't have pichets so they open a bottle and you pay for what you drink.
Dessert: Tarte de pomme de grand mere. A flavor, subtle, that I did not figure out. Some other type of fruit I'm sure - kiwi?
Failed to ask.

Cafe in a nice little glass with assorted chocolate, cookies, cinnamon, sugars &c.

I had a seat where I could see straight into the kitchen and the one fellow in there worked sharply, cleanly, hygenically, and smoothly. It was interesting to watch. I went at 2:00 (not at the lunchtime peak) so it was pretty easy-going... maybe more a typical deranged kitchen at 12:30.

They're closed for dinner on Mondays.

Fair price, lovely decor, good service, good presentation, v.good wine, food... I'll go back and see if they do better.

Roti Chicken on Sunday

Spent the last couple of days sickish. Flu-like. No posts.

It seems that here on Rue Belle Feuilles that Sunday's the day to pop over to the shop to get your spit-roasted chicken. Lines at the two places that have them can run a 1/2 hour long. Get there before 1:30 - they close early.
I prefer the shop of the right (Boucheries Fillion).

I got 2 herbed poulet for dinner (4 persons) and then over to the bakery for a couple of baguettes (Boulangeries Paul). Chicken 14€, bread 0,80€ each.

Wet the outside of the [paper] bags the chickens come in and stick them in a low-heat oven. Meanwhile, I cooked the Max Havelaar (fair trade) biological agriculture whole grain rice.

Red wine from the Catalan region of France @ Monoprix about 3,50€

No veggies as I was lazy and we ate late anyway (23:00).

Headed to Dehillerin later (Rue Coquilliere @ (M)Chatelet)

Paris

For the umpteenth time in Paris. So far, been to McDonald'd (Victor Hugo) for a coffee, muffin (unexpectedly filled with chocolatey stuff) and use of their free wifi. Going out later to do today's shopping for dinner. But since it's 1:00 I ought to do something about dejuener too. I'd like to find a little, traditional, brasserie and have steak-frite avec vino maison - as is my wont on my 1st day here.

Not spellchecked

New York

My first favorite thing when I moved to New York was the sound of the creek that I could hear from the windows of the apartment babbling out back of the property.
My second favorite thing about that apartment was the old-fashioned bathtub that was actually deep enough that these days they'd be selling it as a home-spa. The water came up to your shoulders.
The third favorite thing was the water pressure. That bathtub (long and deep) filled in about 4 minutes.
As an ecologically-minded type of person using that amount of water all at once felt, at times, hyper-consumptive, if not wasteful, but boy oh boy was it ever nice. I made up for it by taking the train into the city most of the time; instead of using the car.

Note: post is very much predated ; loosely related to a "later" post that I actually wrote earlier.
It is supposed to fall into a 1998 date but the new blogger wont let it. I'll try a few differnt dates and see what works. e.g 12/31/2000 (nope) - 31/12/2000. Oh, okay. That's alright then. it must be because of the day/month sequence. I'll try 1998 again.

Central Café

Out to Central Café for a bit of jazz and then out for tapas - all night long; and well into the morning. Madrid can be quite a lot of fun.

Amsterdam

So, it's off to Amsterdam! Goodbye Toronto. Welcome the next adventure.
Also a test of inserting really old posting dates

Town Inn

Arrive at this place June 17th, 1974 to start my illustrious career at IBM. The first day of work at IBM I reported to the Vancouver Airport, got on a plane and was sent to Toronto (and this long-stay "hotel") to learn to fix typewriters.

Which only made sense ("corporate" sense that is) since I had, at the time, already 6 years of programming experience. Therefore in the usual corporate fashion I was set on an entirely different career path for a number of years. Got back into programming professionally about 8 years later.

Lived here, in downtown Toronto, for about 4 months. In 2008, 34 years later, it looks about the same as it did in '74.