So the Romertopf/clay baker thing really works? Hmm, Valentines' Day is just around the corner ....
A friend just emailed me yesterday about a clay baker available at Ikea - that it was bigger than his two Romertopfs that he had gotten a thrift shop.
Too bad, no Ikea in New Mexico - as he also is pleased with how they work.
SORREL SAUCES FOR FISH, VEAL AND EGGS
This is also from Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book (my copy is a paperback from 1981 - 616 pages!). Let's see if I can do it with fewer typos than I made last evening...
Quoting -
Sorrel sauces can be made in three ways. In every case you start off with a puree of sorrel. Wash the leaves, cut off the stems, and leave them to drain. When more or less dry, cook them for a few minutes in a good tablespoon of butter, stirring until they turn to a dark green mass. You can chop the leaves beforehand if you like, but it is hardly necessary.
1) To make the simplest sauce of all, bring 8 fluid ounces (250 ml) whipping cream to the boil, stir in sorrel to taste off the heat and add a few spoonfuls of juice from the fish or meat cooking pan. Season to taste. If the fish was grilled, add a little water to the juices and boil them up vigourously to give you a spoonful or two of flavoured liquor. If the sauce is to go with eggs, just stir in a knob of butter.
2) Add sorrel puree to a small amount of creamy bechamel sauce. Flavour again with the fish or meat juices, or a knob of butter.
3) Add the puree to a hollandaise sauce*. A superb sauce for salmon.
* she gives a recipe for that if anyone wants to see it.
Back with Sorrel omelettes on another post.
SORREL OMELETTES
also from Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book
Sorrel is one of the best flavourings for an omelette. Its sharpness goes beautifully with eggs. There are two ways of tackling the recipe:
1) The usual French style. Cook two good handfuls of sorrel in a tablespoon of butter, until they flop to a puree. Season. Make omelettes and put a tablespoon of the puree into the middle of each one before flipping it over and on to the plate. Avoid putting too much sorrel in; think of it as a flavouring rather than a filling.
2) Boulestin gave this recipe from the south of France. 'No omelette done with cooked sorrel can compare with it.'
First prepare the sorrel. Pick two or three handfulls, choosing young leaves. Wash them and cut away the thick stalks and ribs. Dry the leaves, then put them one on top of the other and roll them up. With scissors snip half-way down the roll, then across in thin slices. Snip down the rest of the roll and slice again. You should end up with small pieces that are not too juicy. I find scissors better for this than a knife or parsley mill. Beat 8 to 12 eggs in a bowl with salt and pepper. Add the sorrel, with a finely chopped clove of garlic and a little chopped chervil. Make one large omelette or several small ones; keep the mixture on the thick side so that the surface sorrel barely cooks. This gives the omelette a 'peculiar acid taste, extremely pleasant and fresh.'
Parsley mill???
What meal suggestions would you have for a crowd of family gathered for a skiing trip?
Approximately 30 people.
Please consider high-altitude changes to recipes, as well. I don't have much experience there.
DrewDad wrote:What meal suggestions would you have for a crowd of family gathered for a skiing trip?
Aside from the usual servings of guilt, grief, sarcasm, and contempt.
Whoops. Better make it something sweet... I seem to be a little bitter today.
So, tell us more - are you flying or driving? Room to pack stuff in the car?
Will there be any kind of kitchen and utensils in it?
(thinking, oh, crock pot... not that I know about crock pots).
Will everybody be out and about all day?
Driving, but picking up local groceries.
Full kitchen with utensils.
I'm thinking maybe ham & mashed potatoes....
I imagine a few will remain around the house during the day, but I'm focusing on evening meals here.
jespah wrote:So the Romertopf/clay baker thing really works? Hmm, Valentines' Day is just around the corner ....
Absolutely, jespah! It takes very little time to adjust to their little idiosyncracies ... like the need to soak them before cooking & using the oven from cold rather than preheating.... but once you get the hang of them, they're terrific! And very useful. Great for roasting chickens & I like not having to add oil or butter (or reducing the quantities drastically, at least) in most recipes. The flavours seem more intense to me than when the same dishes are cooked in a casserole.
(Perhaps I could become a PR person for Romertopf? :wink:
)
SORREL:
Thank you for those recipes, osso.
So sorrel goes well with cream & in white sauces. And with eggs. Ah.
I was
wondering what would act as a balance to the sourness/tanginess! That makes good sense. I get it!
I'm much more familiar with bitter greens (love em with a passion!). I think I'll try an sorrel omelette soon. Sounds good!
When I made that soup - I used to have quite the sorrel patch - I only added half and half, being fat freaked at the time... and probably less than 4 tablespoons.
But, I often don't add cream/dairy at all to cream soups, liking them before the cream adding part. In this case I think some dairy balance is a good idea.
SORREL:
Yes, I'm the same, osso, most vegetable-based soups (especially if the ingredients are in great shape & aren't "tired") are delicious in their simplest form.
And yes, after the little experimentation I've done with sorrel, I agree it needs a counter to the tang. Otherwise, it could be quite a
pucker-inducing experience!
Thing is, I found that sorrel taste rather addictive. I did used to use the younger leaves, as I had a great selection of leaves to pick from...
Early days and pretty unfamiliar territory for me, osso. But seeing as it's growing so well, I figure that I may as well take advantage of the situation!
I may end up addicted, too!
LEMON MYRTLE
I have passed the message along to a quality supplier of lemon myrtle (and other unique Australian spice flavours.
www.cherikoff.net and
www.dining-downunder.com
I told him some people may be looking for these flavours in the US. He advises me he is In LA at present and will be contacting Penzeys tomorrow.
My guess is if you have a penzys near you and call their customer service line it may yield a result.
Thanks, msolga and osso, I'll look into the clay baker thingie (can you presoak them in something other than water, like water laced with lemon juice, or is that too weird or would it burn in the oven?).
DrewDad -- if anyone's got a programmable crock pot (the kind that shift to warm once they're done with the prescribed cooking time), that could work out nicely. A large hunk of meat, preferably something that's cheap and can be tough, can usually be fantastic in a crock (I've found that chicken is odd, the crock seems a little too hot for chicken, but beef or pork should work nicely). Root vegetables are good, too, taters, turnips, that sort of thing. Carrots are okay but will be cooked down a lot, can end up very stew-y (not that there's anything wrong with that). Plus you need some sort of seasoned liquid in there. There are plenty of spice envelopes you can buy for this very purpose if you don't want to pack spices -- Lawry's makes decent ones, so does French's.
If there's no crock pot, something baked might be good, assuming someone will be around to turn it off as needed. Maybe lasagna?
I think that high altitude mainly affects cake and bread-type baking. Is that assumption correct? Does anyone know? Bueller?
Do you use a crock pot for vegetables as well? Especially with vegs, vitamins and other trace nutrients get (totally) lost.
I don't know about altitude. I heard it affected cooking, and when I first got to Albuquerque (5,000 ft.), I overcooked - guess what? - ossobuco, since I kept cooking it and cooking it, missing the point at which it might have been edible by a mile. (The gravy was ok....)
Since that debacle, I haven't done much bread or cake baking - and haven't noticed any serious difference from the near sea level california coast for regular baking. But.... you will probably be skiing at higher altitude than this.
CLAMS
Believe it or not, I've never cooked clams (or mussels, either) before. The other day at the fishmonger's I noticed how inexpensive they were & made a mental note to find some good recipes & have a go. Advice please: what's a good, safe recipe for a novice clam cooker? I was thinking of a garlicky pasta sauce, perhaps? Or, if any of you have a tried & true, not too complicated recipe you'd care to share ....?
Also, when cooking clams, what are the dos & don'ts?
