Domesticity

Domesticity Culinary Adventure

(Book by Bob Shacochis)

May 10, 2008

MENU ADDITIONS:

Appetizers/cooking munchies

Cheeses we don’t normally buy

Fruit

Crackers

Drinks

Wine

Shrimp Salad Bahia – p276

Serves 4

2 lbs Medium-sized shrimp

1 Green bell pepper, cut into thin strips

1 Stalk celery, sliced thin

½ cup Green onions, sliced thin

4 cups Spinach leaves [Spinach was too dry and heavy, try Boston or mache]

3 Plantains, sliced into 2-inch strips [would be better if cubed or maybe even just coins so they cook through]

2 Limes, plus ¼ cup lime juice [double all these dressing ingredients as you need more dressing for the lettuce]

½ cup Unsweetened shredded coconut

¼ cup Fresh cilantro, chopped

1 tsp Crushed red pepper

1 tsp Ground cumin

1 TB Sugar

½ cup Olive oil

De-vein and shell the shrimp, then cook in a little salted water until they turn pink; remove from heat, drain and set aside.

In a small glass mixing bowl, prepare a lime dressing by combining lime juice, red pepper, cumin, sugar, and 1/4 cup olive oil. Blend well.

In another bowl, combine shrimp, green pepper, celery, onions, and cilantro, stir in [half the] dressing, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Arrange spinach leaves on individual salad plates. [Toss with the rest of the extra dressing first.] In a frying pan, brown plantain slices in ¼ cup olive oil. [Do one batch at a time and don’t crowd so they cook through.] Drain. Divide shrimp salad in portions on each bed of spinach. Cut limes into wedges; squeeze two of the wedges on fried plantain slices. Arrange plantains and remaining wedges around shrimp salads. Sprinkle with coconut shavings.

Grilled Duck Wellington with Porcini Mushrooms - p284

Serves 4

4 Duck breasts (2 whole magrets - $11 for two at Whole Foods) – I bought two whole ducks at KS for about $10 each and cut them up (and confited them in large pot, not oil or liquid, med/low heat for 3 hours or so)

2 TB Olive oil

Salt and pepper To taste

1 sprig Fresh rosemary

1 oz dried porcini mushrooms

1 sheet Frozen puff pastry, thawed [don’t thaw well in advance or it gets too soft and needs refrigeration]

1 Egg

1 tsp Milk

Rub flesh side of breasts with olive oil and salt and pepper, then chop rosemary and sprinkle it on. [We forgot this and did it after cooking, which may be even better. And we doubled up on Rosemary by accident, which was nice…maybe have still been about a sprig though.] Grill breasts (over a fruitwood fire, if possible) for 3 to 4 minutes each side (about half the time you normally would to cook them through). Remove from heat and allow to cool. (It’s not necessary to precook the duck breasts on the grill, but that process makes them all the more tasty, and in any case a few minutes’ precooking, by whatever form you can manage, is advisable, so that in the long run you can avoid a situation where you know the pastry’s done but you have your doubts about the meat filling.)

Meanwhile, re-hydrate dried porcini in 1-1/2 cups of water for about 45 minutes. Drain off porcini stock and save for sauce (recipe follows). [Remove the skin from each breast….it was too chewy inside the pastry and the grease caused the pastry to get soggy] Slice each cooled breast into halves, vertically. Lightly flour a cookie sheet, a large cutting board or a countertop area. Unfold thawed pastry sheet and press it out with a rolling pin until its length and width are each about 4 inches longer. With a butter knife, cut pastry into four squares. Place the halves of one breast in each square, with a line of porcini between two pieces. Blend egg and milk, brush edges of squares with mixture, then fold edges over, pinching them together to form a pocket. Flip each pocket onto a large [greased] baking sheet or dish so that the seams are hidden, then glaze the round pastry top with egg-and-mil blend. Bake in a preheated oven at 375° for 15 to 20 minutes, or until pastry shells are golden brown. Serve with Ripley’s Secretive Sauce.

Ripley’s Secretive Sauce

1 cup Red wine

2 cloves Garlic

1 Bay leaf

1 TB Chopped shallots

1 sprig Fresh Thyme

4-5 leaves Fresh Basil

4-5 leaves Fresh Tarragon

1 cup Porcini stock

1 tsp Salt

¼ cup Heavy cream

In a large saucepan, bring to a boil over low heat the wine, garlic and herbs, and boil until the volume is reduced by half. Add porcini stock and salt, return to a low boil and again allow the volume to reduce by half. Remove from heat, blend in cream, arrange duck Wellington on a serving platter, pour sauce on platter so you have an archipelago of pastry islands and serve.

Tivoli Torte – p214

Serves 10-12

This is very delicate with light flavors. Serve with champagne or light sparkling fruit water/juice.

TORTE

½ cup Softened butter

¼ cup divided, plus 3-1/2 Tb Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract

7 Eggs, room temperature

2/3 cup All purpose flour

3 TB Cornstarch

1/3 cup Semisweet chocolate chips [use a high-quality, more flavorful chocolate instead]

2/3 cup Sour cream

½ tsp fresh lemon juice

FROSTING

1/3 cup Semisweet chocolate chips [use a high-quality, more flavorful chocolate instead]

1-1/2 TB Softened butter

3 TB Sour cream

½ tsp Vanilla [I think adding almond too would add some lovely flavor!]

1 cup Confectioner’s sugar

½ cup Whipping cream

12-14 Fresh strawberries

In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and ½ cup of the sugar, add vanilla, and beat until smooth. Separate egg whites from yolks and slowly add yolks to butter mixture, beating until creamy. Mix flour and cornstarch together and gradually pour into bowl, mixing until all ingredients are blended thoroughly. Divide batter in half, putting one portion into another bowl.

Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler and mix into one portion of the batter. Set both vanilla and chocolate batters aside. Beat egg whites until they thicken and peak, then gradually add ¼ cup of the sugar, beating at high speed until the mixture stiffens. Fold half the whites into the vanilla batter, the other half into the chocolate batter.

Preheat broiler. In a greased 9-inch springform pan [put parchment on here too…then take off the pan bottom before serving otherwise it’s hard to cut and get up], spread ½ cup of the chocolate batter evenly across the bottom. Place pan 5 inches below flames and flash-cook for 1-1/2 minutes. Remove from broiler, spread ½ cup of the vanilla batter over the cooked chocolate layer and broil for 1 minute [or less, watch carefully] or until the batter turns golden. Repeat process until both batters have been used up, probably 6-8 layers.

Combine sour cream, the remaining 3-1/2 tablespoons of sugar and lemon juice and spread over top of torte. Broil for 1 minute. Cool for 20 minutes, then remove the side of the springform pan and set the torte on a cooling rack.

To make frosting, melt chocolate chips in a double boiler. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining butter, sour cream and vanilla extract. Slowly add confectioner’s sugar and mix with beater until creamy and smooth. Frost sides of torte, put remaining frosting into an icing bag and pipe a ring around the rim of the torte, then a smaller inner ring (about 3-4 inches in diameter) in the center.

Beat the whipping cream until stiff. Clean the icing bag, fill with shipping cream and pipe a second ring on the inside edge of the first. Fill inner circle with piped cream. [Remove from pan bottom.] Wash and hull strawberries. Crown center with a whole strawberry, tip up. Halve remaining strawberries and arrange between inner and outer circles, tips pointing inward. Chill at least 2 hours.