Will's Eats

Cáfe du Métro

Lunch Thursday. At approx St Suplice metro entrance on Rue de Rennes. Pave de boeuf, mustard sauce, avec frites. I keep ordering this cut of meat even though I don't really like the toughness/texture that I always encounter. Hoping for a decent one someday I guess.
The resto's fine though and has free internet access (ask for a card with a PIN code for 30 free minutes)
Wine: Cotes de Bourg
€21

And I still have to get the hang of pictures with the PDA's cam. I am too close to the food it seems.

BHV

BHV
Originally uploaded by willsong.

Have arrived in Paris in anticipation of starting Basic Cuisine next week at Le Cordon Bleu.

First step, shopping for some items not included in the stuff they supply: notebooks, pens with waterproof ink, heat resistant gloves, bandages…

Le Train

Le Train
Originally uploaded by willsong.

Here's the train pulling into the station. I'm on the way to the airport (via train & metro) to go to Paris.

Daquoise

Or Dacquoise

Larousse spells it sans the 'c'; thus, Daquoise - but the most prevalent
spelling is DaCquoise out here in the internet (about 50 times more
occurences).
Marjolaine seems to be spelled 'marjolaine' (no change) and is strikingly similar.
Succés has an accent on the 'e' and is not much different.
Progrès has a left leaning accent on the 'e' and is pretty much the same.

And a progrès is what I actually was making - a base for a cake/torte.

Although brain fatigue set in and I did it with walnuts instead of almonds (accidentally; I was shelling walnuts for something else amidst all the meringue-making, was interrupted and subsequently grabbed the wrong bowl).

Recipe:
2x 20cm (8") Successful Progressive Dakquoise
Oven at 175c/350f
Parchment paper the bottom of the 20 cm rings

A:
50 grams icing sugar
80 grams ground nuts (almonds! optionally walnuts/hazelnuts; superfine [flour-like])
B:
75 grams egg whites (about 2 1/2 large)
20 grams sugar

Mix A together
B: Beat egg whites 'til holding some shape
Add sugar in 2 stages to whites; beat until glossy but not dry

Fold 1/4 of B into A to 'temper' the nuts/sugar mix.
fold A into B gently

Pipe the result into the 2 rings in a spiral (from the center outwards); if you're realy good you'll be able to forego the rings and pipe freehand directly onto parchment [good luck].

Bake 20 minutes; until browned. Cool on a rack. Pop out of rings and remove parchment. Bag the discs and freeze for a couple of hours (or 2-3 days) (helps to dry them out I think).

When I use them to make the cake I'll coat them with a simple syrup to keep them from sogging up too much from the cake ingredients (which will be lemon mousse).

Derived from Food Management: Recipe for Lemon Mousse Cake.

Boulangerie Jour 4

Boulangerie Jour 4
Originally uploaded by willsong.

Croissants, pan madre, chocolate croissant things, dinner rolls, pain au main; and "ear of wheat" baguette.
Last day and lots of stuff was produced.
Only 2 photos of bread since, on day 1 of the class, at the very end of the day, my camera abended!
This one was made, instead, with my web cam.

No, I am not a good photographer at all.

L'Escargot

L'Escargot
Originally uploaded by willsong.

L'Escargot is on Rue Montorgueil, 38. I encountered a fellow boulangerie student while out shopping at Mora and he was kind enough to invite me to lunch.
Very nice atmosphere; good food.
I'm not certain but I believe the tab was €200-ish.

I think I owe someone a lunch (or two).

Brioche

The classic Parisian pleasure-bread I think.
Day 3 of the course. Didn't come out quite as beautiful as some of my colleagues - but not too bad. Good colour.
Doesn't have the bump in the top center because I failed to "emphasize" it enough. Next time I'll be less gentle.
Brioche freezes quite well.

Walnut Bread

Walnut Bread
Originally uploaded by willsong.

What I've been doing...
went to Paris and did the 4 day Boulangerie course at Le Cordon Bleu. Loads of fun; great group of people; and chefs & assistants.
This was my walnut bread from day 1.

Veal Marsala

What I actually did...

3 filetes of veal (ternera lechal) [scalopines] do you know; what they do to those animals? - - Yes, I do and there are worse things out there. Let's fix those first.
flour, seasoned [salt & pepper]
dredge (good word that) filets in flour - get a good complete coating but doesn't have to be thick
mushrooms (300gr before cleaning [10 oz for the metrically impaired]), slice sauté shrooms in a little oil, eventually generating their liquids
1/2 c chicken stock (caldo), adding a little powdered veal stock to strengthen it (I didn't have beef stock)
pour mushers' liquido into the stock
1/2 c Manzanilla (didn't have Marsala wine) into mushrooms on high heat;
let it boil down to almost nothing
pour the stock in; lower heat to barely simmer

Now,
large frying pan with 50/50 oil & butter; let butter foam and subside (but not burn)
hi heat - fry filets to brown them (they don't have to cook through), one or 2 at a time unless you have a huge pan; set them aside
1/2 c Manzanilla to deglaze pan; boiling away the alcohol
strain the resultant mixture into mushroom sauce ('cause it was a bit messy/chunky & had some burnt bits)
pour the mushroom sauce back into the big pan;
put the filets into the pan too
add about 1/2 c chicken broth to get the level of liquid 1.2 way up the filets
simmer vigorously for 5 minutes - turn once - while preparing the salad and some vermicelli to accompany it all
remove filets to serving plate - cover with foil while doing finishing the sauce
2/3 c kwark (sour cream) and nata (regular thick cream) that I had in the fridge and had to use up;
- -add cream(s) to sauce gradually.

It is now no longer Veal Marsala but has become Veal something else;
- - maybe Veal Cream Manzanilla (Marsala).
Pour sauce over filets (after removing the foil of course!)

Looks loverly doesn't it?

Maybe 30 minutes, tops; which for me is record time for any sort of a meal.

Posted originally by e-mail (as text) but it didn't process the html at all.

The World

Places I've been (& yes, I know it overruns the navigation on the right - sorry):

create your own 'visited countries' map or check out their Costa Rica travel guide.
The little tag line / advertising is the price of having them deliver the map for me. No too bad I don't think.

Google Content Blocker

Not at all a food related entry - but... I laughed. Google Content Blocker
And, I'm testing posting via e-mail.

Civet of Wild Boar

A grand success. Although when I described it as what amounts to "Wild Pig in Chocolate Sauce" the looks were incredulous.

I used Bourdain's recipe from the Les Halles cookbook (more or less); substituting great big shallots for the onion, doubling the garlic, using filets instead of shoulder and forgetting to pat dry the meat after dumping everything in the colander. All in all about typical for my ability to follow a recipe. Oh yeh - I also failed to properly brown the meat - pulling it off before it really showed good color 'cause I was worried about overcooking the filets.
I'd been talking about this recipe with some people who love good food but find it "too complicated" to do at home. I told them that they probably have all the ingredients (except the meat) in their cupboards at home - it's not complicated.. All it takes is some technique. That's the difference between Bourdain and the commoner - that, and a hell of a lot of Attititude.

And, despite my creative approach to following the recipe, a reasonable success.

Welcome to the 1000 Recipes Bunch

Welcome to all those who are finding this by way of 1000 Recipes. Sorry that it's not updated often. I'm having a spell of laziness. That, and the fact that my ThinkPad T30 was in the shop (again) and I've been using a borrowed X40 for the last 2 months. Now that I've got my machiine back maybe I can get everything copied back over to it. . . . . except that the 4th time I started it up I got a mysterious "Fan Error" message - which worries me.

Hell, even if it was updated it wouldn't be all that interesting.

You want a good food blog? Try The Amateur Gourmet.

Update on ThinkPad: Apparently a "Fan Error"can occur if you have

an old, tired, battery and
a dying internal backup battery

Or so I'm told. I haven't ordered new ones yet since I'm trying to figure out whether the cost is justified versus buying a new machine.

1000 Recipes

I'm on for book 18 from 1000 Recipes.
Book 18's mailing list is:

The fabulous FoodNerd newly ensconced in Chicago IL
Rachel-Wyoming MI
Kathy-Ontario Canada
Stefanie-Redmond WA
Jill-Vancouver BC Canada
Maureen-Kinross WA Australia
Willson from Will's Eats Madrid Spain
Lisa-San Francisco CA
Cara-West Vancouver BC Canada
Bart-Paris France
Nathan from Reality Food Network-Chicago IL
Brandon from Brandon Eats-Richmond VA

Book 18's not in the mail yet - I don't think. Looking forward to it. Better start planning my pages.

Yes from the Cordon Bleu

Looks like I've been accepted to Le Cordon Bleu - Paris! Eek!

Now, only have to pay for it and spend the next "n" months being nervous about it.

On chef2chef.net I commented that maybe they'll accept anyone who is:

Willing to pay and
Not a total loss in the motivation/background arena

Actually, I feel very fortunate to get in. As a 'mature' student I'm sure it'll be loads of fun to be around a lot of young people with tons of energy.

I'm in the summer session of the Basic Cuisine Certificate program which packs the usual 10 week schedule into only 5 weeks. I sure hope I can hold up under the (inevitable) pressure.