Oie Rôtie aux Pruneaux

Roasting a goose sounded like quite an adventure, especially considering I’ve never even eaten goose before! I love duck and truly wanted to cook a duck instead, but they were nowhere to be found at any of my local grocery stores, so goose it was. This recipe calls for the goose to be stuffed with prunes that have been stuffed with foie gras. First, the prunes are soaked in vermouth and bouillon and then the liquid is reserved for the sauce. Since I was unable to find liver paste, foie gras, at the grocery store, I simply sautéed the goose liver with shallots and skipped the step of blending it with the liver paste. The liver was then stuffed into the prunes.

The most difficult part of roasting the goose was defrosting it. I was on a short timeline and placed the bird under cold running water for about four hours. I could tell as soon as I opened the package that this was going to be a greasy adventure. Geese have a lot of fat on them including a thick layer of subcutaneous fat. Once the bird was defrosted enough to extract the neck and innards, I cut out as much of the extra fat as possible from around the openings. The cavity of the goose was really quite large and the 40 or so prunes only lined the bottom. The recipe then instructs that the bird be trussed much like the whole chicken from a prior post. I felt quite efficacious completing this step from memory, especially since the needle was much more slippery given oily goose. Unlike the chicken, MAFC instructs the cook to prick the skin all over the goose before drying it and placing it in the roasting pan. There is no explanation for this step, but my guess is that it has something to do with helping to dissolve the layer of fat under the skin during basting. The authors also instruct basting with boiling water instead of with the juices from the bird to help with the dissolution of the fat. In fact, the excess fat that accumulates in the pan during roasting should be suctioned out with a bulb baster and discarded. There was so much fat that I filled two empty olive jars!

The goose was roasted in the pan for about two and a half hours with basting every 15 minutes and turning the goose to a new side every once in a while. After the bird finished cooking and was moved to a platter, the rest of the fat was extracted from the pan leaving the brown roasting juices. The next step is where I made my first major mistake of this blog. The instructions indicate that the pan should be placed on the stove, the prune juices added, and the mixture brought to a boil. However, I do not have a metal roasting pan and had been using a ceramic lasagna dish which immediately cracked when placed on the hot burner. I was able to salvage the juices in a sauce pan, but the dish had to be discarded. I knew better than to put that dish on the hot stove, but in my hurry and focus on the literal instructions of the recipe, I ignored my common sense. Anyway, the sauce finished boiling down in the pot with some additional port wine and butter. Quite delicious!

Whole 9lb goose!

The wings do not have much meat

Never much of a bird carver (see previous post about quartering a raw chicken), slicing the meat was one of the most challenging aspects of this meal.  In my defense, the ligaments were quite tight and taking off the legs was rather difficult. Somewhat as expected, the goose tasted like duck but slightly tougher and oilier. The prunes were an excellent paring with the meat.

To accompany the goose, I made frozen peas – a dish I did not expect in such a fine French cookbook! The peas were simply thawed and boiled in a pot with a little butter, shallots, chicken stock, and salt and pepper. The result was sweet and savory.

I also made Julia’s recipe for Purée de Pommes de Terre à l’Ail, or garlic mashed potatoes. I’ve made garlic mashed potatoes numerous times as it is one of my all-time favorite dishes. Usually, I roast the whole head (or two) of garlic in olive oil in the oven and then extract the cloves, a process which gives them a rich flavor. MAFC offered a different technique. The authors instruct the cook to separate the garlic cloves (two heads worth), boil them in water for a couple minutes, and then peel them and cook the cloves in butter on low heat for about 20 minutes. Flour is then added to the cooked garlic until it “froths with the butter” and then boiling milk is beaten into the mixture. The recipe suggests blending the garlic and milk or pressing it through a sieve, but I felt my fork mashing was sufficient to break apart the garlic.

 

Mashed potatoes with bits of parsley

I must admit that I became a little lazy with the boiled potato portion of this recipe. After the quartered potatoes boiled down, I was supposed to put the potatoes through a ricer, beat the purée over moderate heat for a few minutes, and then beat in more butter, salt, and pepper. I understand that the reason for beating the potatoes over heat once they've been mashed is to evaporate the water left in them, but I've learned from other cooks that simply placing the potatoes back in the hot pot after they have been drained and mashing them on the turned off burner works just as well. So, that’s what I did. Finally, the garlic sauce was mixed into the potatoes along with some parsley before serving. The recipe also called for adding cream to the potatoes, but since I did not have any on hand, a little butter and milk was substituted. This recipe involved more modifications to the MAFC instructions than I usually like to make, but I’m so stuck in my own ways of making garlic mashed potatoes that I felt like taking a number of liberties. I don’t think these potatoes had quite as much flavor as I would have expected, perhaps because of the way the garlic was prepared, or it may have been due to the lack of cream. Regardless, the goose gravy certainly helped compensate for any blandness.

The whole meal!

Plated with prunes

My friends Jennifer, Jason, and Xinying joined me to help consume this 9lb goose. Jennifer and Jason went to great lengths to find plum wine to accompany the meal. I have never been a huge fan of sweet wines but this wine was perfectly delicious and well paired with the goose and prunes. We finished the meal with a serving of moose tracks ice cream – distinctively not French but one of my favorites. We had a wonderful time with this meal and as you may expect from three psychology graduate students and a prosecuting attorney, the conversation often turned to issues related to the practice of forensic psychology. Also, the DSM 5 may or may not have made an appearance at the table to discuss nuances of the changes made to our diagnostic system of mental illnesses…

We ate a good amount of the bird for dinner, but the next day I was able to extract even more meat from the crevices of the goose. With the leftover meat (after I had my fill of nibbling), I made a modified version of cassoulet, a bean and meat stew from the south of France. I first tasted this dish on a day trip to Toulouse when I was studying in Montpellier. A friend and I made the trip and spent the day wandering the city just to wait for dinner time when we could try the duck and cassoulet famous to that town.  The version in MAFC is much more complicated than I was prepared for and included bacon fat (I don’t eat pork products). So, I simply cooked down some onions, carrot, and garlic and then simmered the mixture in white wine and vegetable stock. Then, I added canned white beans and the goose and seasoned with thyme. I ate a little of the result, but saved most of it in the freezer for later. I can’t wait for an occasion to eat the leftovers – the cassoulet turned out to be the perfect warm, hearty dish I love!

I'm afraid cassoulet does not look as attractive as it tastes

Due to a later dinner, I was forced to rely on artificial light this week for the photographs. As previously mentioned, I find poultry difficult to photograph well and this bird did not brown evenly on the back (but I assure you it was fully cooked) making it look even less attractive. Next week I’m back to the land of lakes!

Poulets Grillés à la Diable, Salade Niçoise, and Mousseline au Chocolat

In French, diable means “devil,” but I’ve also heard that à la diable means “any which way.” Regardless, this dish was devilishly good. The recipe calls for a small chicken quartered. The chicken ended up in four pieces, but one future goal of mine is to discover a more graceful way of dismembering a whole chicken… The chicken pieces were first broiled and basted with butter for ten minutes on each side. Then, a lovely slathering of a mustard dip comprised of Dijon, shallots, herbs, pepper, and the basting fat was applied to each side of the chicken and the pieces were rolled in bread crumbs. The recipe calls for fresh bread crumbs, but I’m always looking for ways to using my left over matzo meal from Passover. I was afraid that the stale matzo crumbs (or maybe they just tasted stale because it is matzo – it’s often hard to tell) would dry the chicken, but this was absolutely not the case. Another 20 minutes under a low broil and basting every few minutes, and the chicken was finished. Compared to the whole roasted chicken I prepared a few weeks ago, this recipe was very easy and efficient. The meat was incredibly juicy and tender and the extra mustard made an excellent dipping sauce. Julia and the other authors of MAFC emphasize that this dish is flexible as it can be prepared ahead of time or eaten cold.

Poulets Grillés à la Diable

I only spent about three hours in Nice one time between trains on the way to Italy, so I have no idea what a true salad in Nice is like. I’ve had Salade Niçoise once or twice in the U.S. and love this chunky alternative to most American salads. In theory, it looks like a simple dish with large pieces of a few vegetables, some tuna, and olives strewn atop, but there are several steps and cooking techniques used in this preparation so it took some time. The recipe from MAFC calls for boiled potatoes which are sliced and layered at the bottom of the serving dish and drizzled with a vermouth and stock mixture until the liquid is absorbed. Then the potatoes are seasoned with a vinegar, mustard, and oil dressing and topped with parsley. The potato dish at this point constitutes Julia’s Pommes de Terre à l’Huile (French potato salad). The Niçoise salad requires the arrangement of Boston lettuce leaves around the outside of the bowl and following on top of the potatoes: blanched green beans, large slices of tomatoes, and two boiled eggs quartered. The recipe gains its Mediterranean flair with chunks of canned tuna, olives (I used kalamata olives), and anchovies. I knew my guests were not terribly fond of anchovies so those were served on the side. Finally, the whole salad got another sprinkle of vinaigrette with herbs (I had some fresh basil from my garden). The resulting salad is heaping and attractive with many layers and colors. While there are a number of steps that go into this salad, the most difficult part was trying to serve it from the bowl without completely falling apart! As an avid salad eater, this is absolutely a dish I will make again in the future.

The potatoes are at the bottom I promise!

You can see the anchovies on the salad and mustard sauce at the back.

While the chicken and salad were excellent, the real tour de force for this week was the Mousseline au Chocolat. A number of years ago, I had dinner at with a friend at his grandmother’s house and she made chocolate mousse served from martini glasses. I thought this was such a classy and creative idea that I have wanted to try it ever since. Because the recipe calls for refrigeration for several hours, I made the dish the night before, which was a good idea because it was quite a process. The most difficult aspect of this dish was that I did not have the correct kitchen equipment for some of the steps and had to improvise a bit. For instance, metal bowls would have been preferable for melting the chocolate and heating the egg yolks, but I had to substitute glass and a large ceramic bowl for a few steps.

Equipment aside, first egg yolks, sugar, and orange liqueur are beaten together until pale yellow and thickened. I then continued to beat the eggs over a pan of simmering water until it becomes foamy and hot. Then, it is beaten over cold water until it is cooled and thickened to mayonnaise consistency. Next, the recipe calls for semi-sweet baking chocolate to be melted with a few table spoons of coffee over a double boiler. The authors call for a stick and half of butter to be melted with the chocolate, but I made the decision to use a third of the recommended amount and the final product was still perfectly rich and creamy. As a side note, I love how shiny chocolate becomes with the addition of butter! After the chocolate is mixed with the egg yolks, the third step is to beat together egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks are formed. The whites are then gently folded into the rest of the batter to create the fluffy mousse consistency. I also love the light squishing sound that egg yolks make when they are folded! Finally, I plated the mousse into martini glasses and refrigerated overnight. To serve, I beat some whipped cream with a dash of vanilla extract and placed a dollop on each dessert.

My friends Rachel and Jaime joined me for this meal. Rachel brought strawberries which were a lovely accompaniment to the mousse (see below). We decided that the mousse was extraordinary and perhaps better than many other pleasures.  Each of these dishes was fabulous individually and will definitely make reappearances in my kitchen in the future.  

In regards to the photography, an earlier dinner was conducive to more natural light, but I still think I need to invest in a tripod. I've decided that of the food I've made so far chicken is the most difficult to photograph and make it look attractive. Something about brown lumps that just don't show up well in pictures. 

Be prepared for more poultry next week!

Quiches

Butter, and shortening, and cream, oh my! This week I ventured into the baking realm of French cooking with two variations on quiche. The process began with two batches of pâte brisée, a basic pastry dough and pie crust. I've mentioned previously that I decided not to have any qualms about reducing the amount of fat that most of these dishes require, but I've learned that with baking one should always follow the recipe - at least the first time. Six ounces of butter and four tablespoons of shortening per crust later, my dough was ready. MAFC describes a process called fraisage which is a final blending of the dough by pressing through the dough on a flat surface to stretch it out and blend the fat and flour thoroughly. The authors describe this as a process rarely used by American cooks but a technique that distinguishes the French pastry. As with any pastry dough, the instructions emphasize working quickly and keeping the ingredients chilled to maintain lightness.

After refrigerating the dough overnight, I rolled it into a large circle with the method described in the cookbook. I have always had trouble maintaining an even consistency with rolled dough, so the instructions in MAFC were enlightening. The authors instruct flouring the work surface and rolling the dough with strokes away from you to about one inch from the far edge and turning the dough between strokes. Thus, one roll away, turn the dough 90 degrees, one roll away, turn 90 degrees... I repeated this process roughly 30 times to reach the size dough I needed to fill the pans and more flour was added occasionally to the underside to prevent sticking. Another challenge I've always faced with dough is transferring it from the counter to the pie dish. The instructions indicated the method with which I was most familiar, flipping part of the dough onto the rolling pin to lift it, and a new idea, folding the dough into fourths before laying it on the mold and unfolding it. I tried both and must say the folding was much easier to manage. Glad to learn something so useful!! Regarding the molds, Julia recommends straight edge pans with removable sides as this keeps the edges vertical and less liable to collapse. I only have one spring-form pan so one quiche was made in that dish and the other in a regular pie pan. Both required a quick pre-bake with a lining filled with beans to prevent rising of the center of the crust.

One aspect of French cooking that I've noticed differs greatly from American cooking is emphasis on fewer main components of a dish. For example, in the U.S. I've seen many quiches that have broccoli, potato, bacon, onion, and mounds of cheese all in one pie. On the contrary, French quiches emphasize one vegetable at a time and minimal cheese. The same concept is true for Americanized versions of paninis, omelettes, and crêpes - we like to stuff our food with everything at once! The quiche recipes in MAFC range from cheese only to perhaps three main ingredients. I chose quiche aux poireaux (leek quiche) and quiche aux fruits de mer (seafood quiche - any shellfish was recommended and I chose shrimp for my version because I had some on hand). For the leek quiche, the leeks were boiled for over 30 minutes in a tiny bit of water and butter; however, they turned out a little tough and probably could have used more time. The vegetable was mixed with a combination of cream, eggs, and topped with a little Swiss cheese in the dish. The seafood quiche had shallots and shrimp sautéed in a dab butter (finally a place I was able to reduce the quantity!) and deglazed with vermouth. In addition to the cream, eggs, and Swiss cheese, this recipe also called for some tomato paste. I was a little wary of the shellfish quiche as I had never heard of it and tomato paste sounded like an odd component - but it turned out to be our favorite!

Leek quiche in the spring-form pan

Look at those straight sides!

Shrimp quiche

 The sides of both shells shrank during the pre-baking phase and I'm not entirely sure why. My ideas are 1) the thickness of the dough was uneven, 2) the dishes were buttered too well in areas, and 3) there was too much butter in the crust that it did not harden well enough.

Gooey layers of quiche!

I thought the quiches were quite creamy and I would consider using a less fattening milk next time. The crust was also rather buttery and would likely turn out just as flaky with less fat.

Nestled together.

 In addition to the quiches, I also made a light salad to cleanse the palate between bites. It was simply chopped romaine with a vinaigrette of olive oil, balsamic, and Dijon I learned while living in France. The lettuce was certainly needed to cut the richness of the pastry and creaminess of the filling!

Fresh Alabama peaches!

This week's meal was my first Sunday luncheon and I was joined by my friends Lisa, Morgan, and Bryan. We finished with some fresh Chilton County peaches to accompany the remaining drops of mimosas (not pictured because we drank them eagerly!). After lunch, we played a round of Settlers of Catan, a complex game similar to Monopoly but much more suspenseful. The game quickly dissolved into fascination with building architectural structures with the playing pieces... but I won the real game! The daytime meal also meant that I could optimize on the natural sunlight for my photography which I think made a big difference. I especially like the first photograph - mysterious leek quiche... All in all we had a lovely afternoon with some new dishes and friendly competition.

In other news, I also made some juice pops this week with lemonade and fresh slices of strawberries. I had never added fruit to my frozen juice before and I was so glad that they didn't all sink to the bottom. Great afternoon snack on these hot Tuscaloosa days! And pretty too!

Suspended strawberries

Poulet Poêlé à l’Estragon

Julia and her colleagues describe this recipe as "a lovely method, as the buttery aromatic steam in the casserole gives the chicken great tenderness and flavor." Roasted chicken is one of the staples of a good cook and it is a centerpiece of French cooking. I have never cooked a whole chicken before - usually opting for the rotisserie chickens so readily available in the grocery stores these days. This recipe took a couple of hours and involved several steps but it was well worth the work. The current variation has the chicken stuffed with tarragon and roasted with more tarragon in the casserole dish.

The process began with "trussing" the chicken, or tying the legs and wings to the body for more even cooking and a tidy presentation. This process required the purchase of a long weaving needle and some string, so now I feel committed to using this technique again! MAFC gives detailed instructions with illustrations to show how to complete the two ties. One tie pierces the tail end and fastens the drumsticks while the second tie secures the wings "akimbo" to the body cavity and neck fat. Then, the daintily entwined bird gets a light browning on all sides in a large casserole dish. Here is my tied and browned bird.

You can see the trussing string woven in there.

Then the whole chicken went in the casserole on top of some lightly cooked carrots and onions with extra tarragon for good measure. The covered dish was baked for about an hour and 20 minutes as prescribed for this 3 pound bird. I basted it twice with the cooking juices to ensure maximum juiciness... and to catch a couple of good whiffs in the process. Once the bird finished cooking, I removed it from the pan and made light sauce with the cooking juices, beef stock, and corn starch in wine. The sauce was then strained to remove the aromatics and garnished with fresh tarragon leaves. I ended up snacking on the leftover carrots and onions from the pan as they had a hearty flavor - tasted just like Thanksgiving!

The recipe recommended whole broiled tomatoes tossed with parsley (tomates grillées au four) as a lovely accompaniment. The tomatoes were very easy and just required cutting out the stem, sprinkling the hole with salt and pepper, then brushing with olive oil and baking in a shallow, oiled dish for about 10 minutes. I've never been a huge fan of broiled tomatoes but these had just the right amount of seasoning to bring out their fresh juiciness. I think the key was to use firm tomatoes so their skins lightly cracked when they were done. Bonus - first recipe to call for olive oil instead of TONS of butter! 

 Finished chicken garnished with tomatoes

I also made a gratin dauphinois (scalloped potatoes) as recommended by the authors. The recipe is for a simple layering of potatoes, cheese, butter, and seasoning with boiling milk poured on top. I had never seen instructions to place the dish on the stove and bring the milk to a simmer before placing in the oven and I'm still not entirely sure the reasoning for this step. Then, it was placed in the oven for about 30 minutes until the milk was absorbed and the top was lightly browned. The dish made a strange spider-web looking cheese formation around the outside edge so I opted not to take a picture of the whole platter. Here is the final meal. 

My dear friends Michelle, Rachel, and Al joined me and brought wine and a fresh side salad to balance the meal. The wine aided in conversation about our families and the efforts to see those who live great distances away.  I'm so proud of these girls for finishing their first year in our graduate program and what they have accomplished already! We all agreed that all the food turn out well. I expected more of the tarragon flavor in the chicken, which was juicy and perfectly cooked, but the herb certainly shown through in the sauce. The potatoes had just the right amount of moisture and creaminess while still maintaining their firm texture. We ended the meal with some chocolate pound cake and ice cream I had left over. Overall, everything went well and there are not many revisions I would have made to the cooking process. I was very proud of my handiwork with the chicken and look forward to replicating this recipe in the future and trying some of the other variations in MAFC.  

On the photography end, I took many more pictures this week than previously, but many of them turned out rather blurry. While I have tried to steady my arms on secure surfaces, I do believe the next step will be to purchase a tripod if I am going to be serious about this endeavor. 

I'll be traveling next weekend and will be unable to do an entry. I'm hoping for a simple gathering the following week after I host another large party...