We had our friend George and his lady-friend Anna around to celebrate his birthday last night. I like to cook for our friends, especially when there is a birthday involved. We had a lovely time and there was some pretty good food to go around. We broke it up at about 2AM after a good bit of merriment. The candles on the cake read "You're Old"
I invented the soup recipe. I had been dying for some parsnips, as they are just now coming into season. Nothing beats some parsnips with a little honey thrown in to bring out the natural sweetness. If you haven't tried parsnips (I'm talking to you USA!) go out and buy some immediately. They are like carrots, only sweeter. Roasting them with some honey is about the best it gets.
The main is an old French bistro classic: Steak au Poivre and fries. Both recipes appear in Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, which I HIGHLY recommend.
The dessert also features a key ingredient coming into season: apples. We have been jonseing for some apples; a warm apple dessert at this time of year with the caramel custard that went on top is delicious.
Starter: Parsnip and Thyme Veloute
olive oil
7 large parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks of somewhat equal mass
5 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 liters chicken stock
salt and white pepper, to taste (don't be stingy!)
3-4 tablespoons honey, to taste
6-8 sprigs thyme, leaves only, to taste
284 milliliters double cream
Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large soup pot. When hot, add the garlic and stir around to prevent sticking. Cook for about 30 seconds, until nice and fragrant. Add the parsnip chunks, season with salt and pepper and continue to cook, stirring frequently (so nothing sticks to the bottom and burns) putting just a bit of color on the parsnips, about 4-6 minutes.
Add the chicken stock and bring the liquid to a boil. When boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and let it bubble away gently, covered, for 20 minutes or so, just until the parsnips are cooked through and are pierced easily with a knife.
Remove from the heat and add the thyme and the honey. Using a hand blender, puree the mixture until smooth. Add the cream and blend again to incorporate. Check the salt, pepper, honey and thyme levels and adjust as necessary.
Pass through a sieve and serve in warm soup bowls. Alternatively, you could chill overnight and serve the next day, as the flavors will have melded nicely.
Main: Steak au Poivre and Les Halles Frites
Steak au Poivre
4x225 g steaks
56 ml olive oil
56 g freshly cracked peppercorns
112 g butter
25 ml good Cognac
110 milliliters strong dark veal stock, (right now, you really could use a tiny bit of that demi-glace I told you to keep in your freezer)
salt and pepper
COOK THE STEAKS
Preheat the oven to 425°P/220°C. Moisten the meat very slightly with oil, then dredge each of the steaks in the crushed peppercorns to thoroughly coat. Don't be shy with the pepper. Heat the remaining oil in the skillet over high heat. Once the oil is hot, add 2 ounces of the butter.
Place the steaks in the pan and brown on all sides, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook to desired doneness, about 5 to 7 minutes for rare, 10 minutes for medium rare, and so on. Remove the pan from the oven and remove the steaks from the pan to rest. Have I told you yet to always rest your meat after cooking? I've told you now.
THE SAUCE
Return the skillet to the stovetop and carefully stir in the Cognac. As much fun as it is to create a column of flame as you add flammable material to an incredibly hot pan, it's not really desirable or necessary especially in a home kitchen. Unless you're a pyromaniac, I recommend carefully adding the Cognac to the still-hot pan offthe flame, stirring and scraping with the wooden spoon to get every scrap, every peppercorn, every rumor of flavor clinging to the bottom of the pan. Now place the pan on the flame again and cook it down a bit, by about half. Stir in the veal stock (and demi-glace) and reduce over medium heat until thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Whisk in the remaining butter and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately with French fries or sauteed potatoes.
VARIATION
Incredible as it seems, this dish used to be a tableside standard at many restaurants, meaning waiters would prepare the dish in the dining room over Sterno, usually with great panache-and to inadvertent comic effect. My friend Jack used to order it just so everybody else in the dining room would go home smelling like his dinner. Often, waiters would sneak in a touch of heavy cream, ensuring a richer, easier, faster thickening of the sauce. As well, they'd sometimes offer the variation of a steak Diane, which was essentially the same dish but with a spoon of Dijon mustard and a touch of cream whisked into the final sauce.
Les Halles Frites
4 Idaho potatoes, big, long ones
2.5 liters peanut oil
salt
STEP ONE: PREP
Fill a large bowl with ice water. Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1/2 inch thick sticks. Put them immediately into the bowl of ice water to keep them from oxidizing. Leave them in the water anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight, then rinse well in cold water to take out much of the starch.
STEP TWO: BLANCH
In a deep fryer or heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil to 280°F/140°C. Cook the potatoes in batches, about 6 to 8 minutes for each batch, until they are soft and their color has paled from opaque white to a semitranslucent white. Do not get impatient and yank them out early. Remove them from the oil with the skimmer or wire basket and spread evenly on the baking sheet. Let them rest at least 15 minutes.
STEP THREE: FRY
Bring the oil up to 375°F/190°C. No hotter, no cooler. Fry the blanched potatoes in batches for 2 to 3 minutes each, or until they are crispy and golden brown. Remove from the oil with the skimmer or wire basket, shake off the excess oil, and ...
STEP FOUR: SERVE
...immediately drop the fries into the other large bowl, which has been lined with a clean, dry towel. Add salt to taste and whip out the towel. Toss the fries around in the bowl and serve while still hot.
Dessert: Apple Crumble with Hazelnuts and Caramel Custard
FOR THE APPLE COMPOTE:
juice of 1 lemon
2 kg Bramley apples
300 g caster sugar
50 g unsalted butter
1-2 spent vanilla pods, i.e. with their seeds scraped out (optional)
FOR THE CRUMBLE:
100 g plain flour
50 g granulated sugar
pinch ground cinnamon
50 g unsalted cold butter, diced
50 g toasted hazelnuts, lightly crushed
FOR THE CARAMEL CUSTARD
165 g caster sugar
150 milliliters double cream
375 milliliters whole milk
1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped (optional)
25 g cornflour
4 large egg yolks
First, make the caramel. Heat a heavy-based pan until it is very hot. Gradually add 100g of the sugar, a little at a time, so that it melts immediately on contact with the hot pan. As the sugar melts and caramelises, tilt the pan to swirl and mix the caramel. When the caramel turns a dark terracotta colour, pour in 100ml of the cream, protecting your hand from the steam with an oven glove. Tilt the pan again to mix the cream with the caramel. Remove from the heat and pour through a fine sieve into a wide bowl. Leave to cool completely.
Put the milk, and vanilla seeds if using, into a pan and slowly bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, mix the remaining 65g sugar and the cornflour together in a large bowl. Add the egg yolks and beat to a smooth paste, then stir in the remaining 50ml cream. Just as the milk begins to bubble up the sides of the pan, take off the heat and slowly pour it onto the egg yolk mixture, stirring continuously. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a clean pan and stir over a low heat until thickened. Increase the heat and bring to the boil, stirring all the while. Simmer, stirring, for 4-5 minutes to cook out the cornflour.
Pass the custard through a fine sieve into a bowl and cover the surface with cling film to prevent a skin from forming. Allow to cool completely. Once cooled, mix the caramel into the custard, using a hand-held stick blender, until smooth.
FOR THE DISH
First, prepare the apple compote. Add the lemon juice to a large bowl of cold water. Working with one at a time, peel, core and chop the apples and immediately immerse in the bowl of lemon water to prevent them from discolouring. Drain well and pat dry with kitchen paper.
Put the chopped apples in a wide pan with the sugar, butter and vanilla pod(s) if using. Cook over a medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes until the apples are just soft, but still just holding their shape. Remove the vanilla pod(s). (If making the apple doughnuts on page 198, reserve a quarter of the compote for the filling; otherwise use it all for the crumble.)
Spoon the apple compote into a shallow ovenproof dish, about 23cm in diameter, and leave to cool completely.
For the crumble, put the flour, sugar, cinnamon and butter into a food processor and pulse for a few seconds until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Alternatively, rub the butter into the dry mixture with your fingers. Stir in the crushed hazelnuts, then spread a layer of crumble over the apple filling. Chill until ready to cook.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Stand the dish on a baking sheet and bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown and crisp on top. Spoon into individual bowls and serve with warm caramel custard.
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