Sunday Dinner
For the past couple of weeks I have been drooling over Rue Franklin's fall menu. It all sounds so delicious, but considering they aren't open on Sunday and I wanted to cook it myself, I decided to make an Autumn French meal. I was going to do a three course, but I thought that sounded a bit extravagant for just me. Plus I didn't really have the time to make an Apple Galette on top of the other two things I was cooking. I took both of the recipes from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. Which I highly recommend for anyone who likes classic French Bistro cooking with a bit of unrefined commentary from the writer.
For the first course I made a pot of Onion Soup. This recipe includes lots of onions obviously, port, balsamic vinegar, a heart attack inducing amount of butter, slab bacon (which Wegmans does not have freaking have!), bouquet garni, crouton, and a mound of Gruyere. I find any dish that requires me to use a butane torch is all that much more pleasurable to make. I have a really shitty gas broiler in my dwelling and the torch is necessary to get that nice brown on the cheese.
Second course was Coquilles St Jacques. Basically this dish is dry scallops, again a ton of butter (this is French food after all), more heavy cream than a human should consume in one sitting, Fumet, shallots, chives and some champagne.
Both of these dishes are quite simple to make. The hardest part really is getting my crummy equipment to cooperate. It's a real PTA to get that nice brown color on my scallops with a beat up sauté pan and gas range that just doesn't put out the required amount of Btu's for the job.
For the first course I made a pot of Onion Soup. This recipe includes lots of onions obviously, port, balsamic vinegar, a heart attack inducing amount of butter, slab bacon (which Wegmans does not have freaking have!), bouquet garni, crouton, and a mound of Gruyere. I find any dish that requires me to use a butane torch is all that much more pleasurable to make. I have a really shitty gas broiler in my dwelling and the torch is necessary to get that nice brown on the cheese.
Second course was Coquilles St Jacques. Basically this dish is dry scallops, again a ton of butter (this is French food after all), more heavy cream than a human should consume in one sitting, Fumet, shallots, chives and some champagne.
Both of these dishes are quite simple to make. The hardest part really is getting my crummy equipment to cooperate. It's a real PTA to get that nice brown color on my scallops with a beat up sauté pan and gas range that just doesn't put out the required amount of Btu's for the job.
