Pork Roulade, Simple and Elegent.

Mission criticle:

You have a pork loin sitting in the fridge.  Questions arise in you mind.  What do I do with this? How Did it get here?  Do I chop it into medallions? Do I grill it as is? Do I toss it in the slow cooker and make pulled BBQ pork (8 freaking hours later and only 1 until we actually want to eat)? WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS THING???

Check it out: Pork Roulade!  Oh ya, nothing to it and satisfyingly tasty!

Pork is one of those tough meats to cook because it has a tendency to come out as dry as the Sahara.  And if I know my environmental studies, that's pretty freaking dry!  Hense the reason I never really liked it growning up except for in tamales or pasole (I've never met a breaded chop that I could cozy up to).

Le Pichet! (Part 2)

Greeting, friends!
In my absence I completely spaced my follow-up to the posting on taking a visit to Le Pichet in Seattle. Well, here it is:

One Thursday evening, after my friend Ryan and I did Happy Hour at the Matador, we decided to get in a real meal. Well, at the thought of this we settled on being adventurous and checking out Le Pichet.

Upon our arrival, Le Pichet certainly portrayed the vision of a true French Bistro. Atmosphere is everything. The patrons were very laid back, chatting over plates of cheese and olives, bottles of wine and bread. I must say, Anthony Bourdain's rule is that eating the bread at a restaurant is a bush league move, designed to keep you full and away from the really good stuff. But what can I say, a good crusty French bread is divine, and we put down two baskets of it with butter and hearty pours of Knob Creek bourbon.

Le Pichet! (Part 1)

I am so excited I am literally ready to jump out of my skin! But I digress.... It has recently come to my attention (Thank you Kim Glidden) that there is such a place in that ever so close emerald city, Seattle, that specializes in the French bistro fare I have been searching for.  A place were I will be free to pursue my gastronomic adventures in discovering and enjoying the foods and many cultures that makes up our strange and awesome world.  Enter Le Pichet.

Dinning With Elegance.

Last night I finally had the opportunity to start on a menu from the "Le Cordon Bleu at Home" book I spoke about in an earlier blog.  I wanted to begin utilizing this book to develop my culinary prep skills, but alas, life, and work, gets in the way.  Since I had all day yesterday (when I wasn't cleaning my apartment), I picked up what I needed from the store to start lesson one in the book.

Lesson One from "Le Cordon Bleu At Home"
Concombre a la Menthe- Cucumber Salad with Mint
Poulet Roti- Roast Chicken (I made a tapenade stuffed chicken breast instead)
Petits Pois a la Francaise- Spring Peas with Lettuce, Chervil, and Onions
Salade des Fruits- Fresh Fruit Salad with Cointreau (I chose to make Jacques Pepin's Apricot Popover instead)
Follow the "Read More" link to see what transpired!

Le Cordon Bleu for me and you.

Le Cordon Bleu is the premier and most famous culinary school in the world. Located in Paris, France, Le Cordon Bleu has been producing some of the world's best chefs and cooks for almost 115 years!
Recently I stumbled across a book that was written as the first English publication of recipes, menus, and techniques taught by the school, "Le Cordon Bleu At Home".  The book is broken into 3 sections: beginner, medium , and advanced.  From there it is broken into lessons that are full dinning menus. Essentially the book follows the culinary outline of the school's syllabus.  I can't believe this was out there and I didn't even have a copy!
This book is a fantastic bit of reading.  It teaches the reader basic skills of the kitchen from roasting, to utilizing a Bein Marie (A Bein Marie is a water bath used for cooking delicate foods in the oven), and many, many more.  True, it is not entirely illustrated with every single recipe in the book, otherwise it would be even bigger and heavier than what it already is (553 pages), but it does have some fantastic photos as well as a great catalog in the back that is fully illustrated on how to accomplish certain tasks.  I fully plan to buy this book for myself when I get the chance, and recommend you pick it up, or at least check it out from the library.

Madeleine Who?

Madeleines, also know as “French Butter Cakes” are a treat for anyone who likes sweet and lightly cakey cookies (let’s see a show of hands out there! Don’t be shy.)
My inspiration for these little darlings actually came one day a few years back when I was watching “Le Transporteur”, “The Transporter” for us Americans. The woman who was saved in the movie made these little cakes for her hero one morning. At that point I knew I had to find out what these were. It took me 2 weeks just to track down the special molds for them. You can find them online, or were I did at “The Pacific Chef “in Bellingham, WA.

Madeleines hail from Commercy, France. Louis XV named these petite cakes after his father-in-law's pastry chef, Madeleine Paulmier and were soon introduced to the court of Versailles by Louis' wife. Needless to say the swept all of France off it's feet in a short time. It is a mystery to the French, and myself, why these little cakes have never truly caught on here in the states. They are everything you could possibly ask for in a cookie: light, sweet, and distinctively classy!

Crepes With "Latin Panache"

Last night I came home from work with a determined mindset to clear out some room in my freezer and cabinets. According to some friends of mine (Kevin and Mandy), I have more food than any one person can eat (Funny for two people whom live the "Mother Hubberd's cupboard's are bare" scenario day in and out). Lately I have been in a "French" sort of mood after a fantastic book I read by Mireille Guiliano and the Julia Child reruns I have been watching. What follows is the creation, born from leftovers and whatever was in the freezer and cabinets, that I have yet to come up with a catchy name for, so if you may have one, please do not hold back.