mis en possible

I love food. I love French food, rich food, and lots of it.

However, there comes a time when that will catch up to a person. Sadly, it caught up with me a few years ago, I just hadn’t realized it yet.

So I’m trying to alter my diet such that it’s significantly more healthy. I’m not doing a ‘fad diet’ or even any particular diet, just watching what I eat, when I eat, and how much I eat.

How’s it going? Meh. I’m sticking to my guns, but the food could leave a bit to be desired. When you consume a very unhealthy amount of butter, going to a scant tablespoon or so of olive oil for similar dishes changes things. In any event, baked chicken, pasta with saute of squash, zucchini and tomato, rice with steamed broccoli and saute of mushrooms, non-sugary cereals, whole grain breads. I feel better, which I guess is encouraging.

The first ’shot worthy’ dish is not the most impressive dish I’ve ever come up with. That’s angel hair, tossed with a scant bit of olive oil, a wee bit of white wine in the vegetable saute (batonettes of squash and zucchini, diced tomato and diced onion), and a bit of parm cheese over the top (not much!), and finished with a squeeze of lemon juice and some parsley chiffonade.

I ate it. Heather liked it. Zoe devoured it. It’s not the prettiest dish ever, but then again, I’m not going for pretty.

I’m in a rut cooking-wise as well as elsewhere. We’ve been doing a lot of pasta lately and none of it very fancy, just functional. Last week I got sick and I can never get up the energy to cook while I’m sick and I’ve been preoccupied on the weekends getting the back yard ready for summer. To top it all off, my foot gives me some serious trouble after standing on the hard kitchen floors for more than about 20 minutes.

So, all excuses aside, I’ll just leave off with a few pics… the first of my soup and the latter two of Heather’s bread and biscotti.

The first dish is yet-another-attempt at getting a pure white soup. I don’t know what my fascination is with creating a pure white soup but I want to and I want it to taste good. When some smoked paprika was added as a garnish, this dish was not only smooth but had this wonderful smokey flavor (oddly enough) that played well against the richness of the soup.

I’ve not the foggiest what I put in here beyond white wine, celeriac, cauliflower, white vegetable stock, onions, garlic, cream, a russet potato, white pepper and white truffle oil (hrm, that might be it… make up some good ratios, cook until everything is tender, then blend the heck out of it, and add the cream and oil last, after the blending, garnish with the paprika and some microgreens… might work). Anyway, this is the first pure white soup where I went back for seconds, thirds, and fourths.

On to the pictures of the baked goods…

Oh, and why don’t we throw in a picture of one of my favorite drinks… Coron Pere & Fils 2004 Burgundy:

I made this recipe for just me seeing as very few other people I eat dinner with regularly (Zoe, Heather) will go near a chunk of meat let alone a leg of lamb. In technique land, I tried the roast-then-braise to develop a few different flavors, skipping any sort of ’sear’ step at all. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, honestly. I have a love-hate relationship with lamb, and this way… this is on the side of the love.

1 Lamb Shank ~1.5 lbs, frenched, surrounding layer of fat still intact
1 bottle of red wine (I used Coron, Pere & Fils Burgundy, 2005)
2 large white onions, sliced
4 carrots, sliced
4 stalks of celery, sliced
1 qt of beef stock
2 tablespoons of lamb demi-glace (beef if you don’t have that)
12 cloves of garlic, peeled and cracked
1/4 cup all purpose flour
4 sprigs of rosemary
8 stems of flat parsley
Greek (kalamata) olive oil
salt and pepper
1 dozen uncracked black peppercorns
1/2 stick of butter

2 quenelles Horseradish Creme Fraiche (below)

Start the oven heating to 475 degrees. Immediately after starting the oven, take the shank directly from the fridge and salt and pepper liberally. Lightly coat with olive oil. Place shank standing up in a large (8qt or so) dutch oven. When the oven is up to temperature, place the dutch oven with the shank inside, uncovered on the bottom rack. Roast for 90 minutes.

Pull the dutch oven out and carefully set the shank aside on a plate. Place the dutch oven on a burner and turn it on medium to medium-high heat. There should be enough oil in the bottom to do the rest but if there isn’t add a bit more oil.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.

Add the onions and saute until they are clear. Add the carrots and celery and saute for another 5 minutes. Very important that nothing burns (brown OK, black bad). Try and scrape up any bits on the bottom of the pot.

Evenly distribute the flour over the aromatics and saute for another 2 minutes.

Add 3/4ths of the bottle of wine, bring that to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Add the garlic. Reduce to 3/4ths liquid volume of what you started with, scraping the sides and bottom to make sure nothing is burning to the bottom.

Add the shank back in, add the beef stock, the demi-glace, peppercorns, rosemary, parsley. Add a bit of salt to the liquid. The amount of beef stock may vary — you want to leave a little bit of the meat exposed but it should be about 3/4ths covered in liquid.

Bring that to a simmer and cover, placing it back into the oven. Let it braise for approximately 90 minutes or until it starts to fall off of the bone.

When it’s done, pull out the put, VERY carefully set the shank aside (on another plate) trying to keep it all together (if you don’t care about appearance, don’t worry about that little bit). Take 4-6 8oz ladles and strain it through a fine-mesh sieve into a 12″ (or so) saute pan over medium heat.

Bring the sauce to a simmer and let it simmer until it’s reduced by half. Whisk in the butter. Re-season as necessary.

Plate the lamb shank and ladle the sauce over the shank, then add the quenelles of the horseradish sauce.

The last 1/4th bottle of wine? Goes really good with the shank.

Horseradish Creme Fraiche
1/4 cup grated fresh horse radish
8 oz creme fraiche
4 tablespoons kalamata olive oil
Salt and white pepper

Gently whisk together the grated horse radish, olive oil and creme fraiche. Add a pinch of salt and a few pinches of white pepper and whisk until it is almost the consistency of a light butter. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.