Text 33599, 71 rader
Skriven 2015-11-25 03:02:36 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: back at Ian's 542
=========================
A meal to celebrate Ian and Jacquie's return, made by us.

Tomatoes in walnut vinaigrette - end of season fruit from 
the garden, good local walnut oil, a bit of red wine 
vinegar I think, herbs also from the garden.

Magret with apple and Calvados sauce, sauteed spinach
- I scored the skin of the duck breast almost to the flesh 
and cooked it skin-side down for about 20-25 minutes over 
a very low flame until substantial fat had rendered out 
and the skin was nicely brown and crisp. Removed them,
poured off the fat, and wilted apple slices (from the 
garden). Removed these and returned the magrets flesh=side 
down until cooked rare; reremoved them to a warm place and
made a sauce with chicken/duck stock, white wine, and
Calvados Busnel. Meanwhile, about a pound of spinach got
wilted in some duck fat with garlic and a touch of salt.
Magret sliced and plated on hot plates, sauced, spinach
garnish. Magnifique if I may say so myself.

Poulet fermier a la creme aux morilles - I'd taken down
the chicken earlier, cutting up the breast meat for spicy 
stir-fry for later and jointing the rest into two each
thighs, drummers, and wings, reserving the carcass and
wingtips for stock. The chicken parts got browned in fat
- there wasn't enough fat on this free-range bird so I
augmented its own with that from the magret -, then
covered with sauteed onion (thyme and touches of sage and
oregano), covered, and shoved in the oven for an hour.
Dried morels soaked, rinsed, and squeezed dry. Afterward,
chicken braising juice was combined with morel liquid
and a bunch of cream and reduced to a sauce, the whole
combined, plated, served with black trumpet pasta that
had been discovered at Carrefour the other day and some
crusty bread. 

Cauliflower - steamed, sauced with stock and white wine
reduction with a dollop of creme fraiche. I'd have done
something else (this was too much like the chicken
treatment) but forgot the stuff until the meal was almost
ready to serve, as I don't tend to think about vegetables,
and how much can you do in ten minutes?

A Meursault Genevrieres 01 (Mikulski) was sort of on the
edge - it was still tasty and fruity, but not enough acid
remained to stand up to the richness of the creamy course,
and it hadn't been designed to go with the duck (though it
went better there). I ended up drinking it by itself and 
eating most of my food wineless.

Ian had pulled out all the stops with a bottle of Tokaji 
6 Puttonyos Szepsy 1996, which turned out with its apricot
notes and unending depth to be one of the most astounding
stickies I've ever had (and there were more to come during 
this trip). Apparently he's looking to drink up some of
his treasures; I think I'll be back within a year or two;
and Lilli is leaning on me to do so as well.

I made a simple bittersweet chocolate mousse - I'd bought
some Poulain (made by CadburyMondelez) 47% and had thought
to mix it with Casino house brand (made by Natra Onati) 64%,
but Ian nixed that and brought out his stash of Cacao Barry,
which he buys in quantity. We tried the Mexique 66%, which
seemed a little acid before settling on I think Excellence, 
anyway a mellow about 50% cooking chocolate with a pronounced
coffee aspect. In retrospect maybe Mexique would have worked
better with the wine. The usual suspects, melted chocolate,
egg yolks, heavily whipped heavy cream, no added sugar beyond
what was in the Excellence, and it was still too much.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Check Out Doc's QWK Mail  Via Web BBS > DocsPlace.org  (1:123/140)