A Tale of Books and Beef Ragout

February 25, 2020Leave a comment

The second half of my Disney inspired trip through France has landed me in one of my favorite movies from childhood Beauty and The Beast. Our favorite book loving princess lives in a small town in late 18th century France. This as it turns out is an interesting time for French Food.

Fun Facts:

It was the beginning of something called Cuisine Bourgeoise. The type of cooking done in middle class homes during that time. The beginning of this trend in cooking began before the French Revolution in 1691. A chef named Francois Massailots “Le Nouveau Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois” or The New Royal and Bourgeois Cook. It was a book that showed the middle class how to make some of the same dishes made in the royal court.
In 1746 another French chef under the Francois Menon published “La Cuisiniere Bourgeoise.” It was after that the cuisine bourgeoise became less about presenting royal cuisine to the middle class, and more about teaching them how to use the ingredients they can actually afford in delicious ways.

The Menu

So when it came to deciding what foods to try for a Beauty and The Beast menu I had a few options. I wanted to use the mentions of food that actually occur in the film, but also use affordable available ingredients in delicious ways like the middle class would’ve had to. So I wanted to start like all good days start with breakfast. In the beginning we see a lady in the market yelling about needing six eggs. So I was thinking some sort of plate of mini egg cups. Eggs, milk, chives, bacon and cheese all baked in the oven. An easy affordable farm stand breakfast. I also want to try and make french baguette. It’s a delicious crusty bread that I’ve never made before, but is a vehicle for many amazing flavors.

After the more home made items for breakfast we move into items with slightly more technique. Lumiere’s big ballad “Be Our Guest” where he puts on a tremendous food show with the kitchen staff mentions many items. We have cheese souffle, hot hors d’oeuvres, beef ragout, flambeed dessert and tea. Thanks Lumiere for all the options! So we are going to try a gruyere souffle which in itself is terrifying. There are trained pastry chefs that don’t do souffle, but we here in the Bottomless Chips kitchen are going to try. We are also going to do what’s called a palmier. A french pastry shaped like a butterfly. We are going to try and fill it with some sort of savory filling. Then we are going to do a beef ragout for our fancy dinner with a tarte tatin for dessert. Maybe pear or peach. Then if we are still up for baking I might do some soft of tea cake. Either chai or earl grey. Something that lends itself well to baking.

I’m excited to see what comes of our culinary trip through France. I hope to find success in all our food adventures in the coming days, but I could also just be a sad baker covered in flour and cheese and wine by the end of it. Wish us luck!

Bon Appetit!

Inspired by Cinderella

February 20, 2020Leave a comment

A look at Cinderella Through Food

The story of Cinderella is set roughly in late 17th century France. The sad look at a young rich girl who suffers the death of her mother and ends up becoming the kitchen maid in her new step mothers house. A closer look at the cuisine of that time showed me a couple of things.

Fun Facts

The first is that the 17th century saw the advancement of haute cuisine or high cuisine. A focus on ingredients and quality of food became more important then an abundance of food. There’s a record of a banquet held by Catherine De Medici that put somewhere near 66 roast birds on the table.
Catherine brought Florentine chefs to France and with them they brought not only technique the French cooks had not seen, but also the use of forks as a utensil. The Italians had been doing it for many years prior, but the French thought it was a silly way to eat.
This time also saw the publishing of La Varenne’s cookbook “Le Cuisinier Francois”. This is credited as the first truly french cookbook.
We also see a book published by Francois Massialot called “Le Cuisinier roial et bourgeois” that saw the first recipe for marinade in print in 1691.
A look at what the peasants of the time were eating told me they were eating seasonally and preserving what vegetables they could for the off season. Also if they were lucky to own a piece of land large enough to hold a cow on they had access to milk and cheese. The meat they butchered and ate was salted and cured to preserve it.

Making The Menu

What I would like to accomplish with the Cinderella inspired menu is something that starts off light and quick and moves into a heavier sit down meal. I want to try and bring the theme of high cuisine into a home cook kitchen in a way that teaches something about French cuisine without being intimidating. Which means I as a fellow home cook have to find some way to make it less intimidating first.

Breakfast will look something like a savory filled pastry or light egg dish. Then show case a couple different salad and sandwich options for lunch. I want to make them not only home cook friendly but family friendly. After that I want a heartier but still beautifully plated dinner. Something with fresh veg and a deliciously cooked protein. Possibly a chicken roulade of sorts. Something with cheese because who other then my seven year doesn’t like cheese?

Then a light dessert. The first chantilly cream was whipped into existence right about this time so possibly a cream puff. I had never made them until recently and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the whole process is. We can then turn that same dough we would use for that cream puff and make it into a savory cheesy snack. Something that could’ve been served at the ball where Cinderella wooed the prince for the first time.

We will do some Recipe Labs here in the Bottomless Chips kitchen and see what we can come up with. Successful recipes will be posted and I will definitely share what I learned from the failures as well. Every cooking experience teaches us something whether we succeed or not.

Kid Approved Broccoli

February 17, 2020Leave a comment

Ingredients

2 heads broccoli
4 tablespoons butter
1 tsp. finely chopped rosemary
2 tsp. salt
4 cloves minced garlic

Directions

Cut broccoli heads into florets.
Heat pan on low (burner level 3) with 2 tablespoons butter.
Put the broccoli in the pan with half your garlic and rosemary.
Stir to coat the broccoli in the butter and spices mixture. Cook for four minutes.
Add the rest of your butter and spices and stir in again. Cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Tip: You don’t wanna cook it till its lost all its crunch. You may need more or less time depending on your oven. My seven year old boy inhaled his whole portion and told me it was the best broccoli he has ever had.

Cheese Enchilada Casserole

February 15, 2020Leave a comment

Ingredients

12 corn tortillas
1 package spanish rice (any brand)
1 can black beans
1 small can red enchilada sauce
1 red bell pepper
2 cups shredded mexican cheese blend

Directions

Preheat oven to 350
Cook rice according to package instructions.
While rice is cooking open can of black beans and dice bell pepper into half inch pieces.
Mix pepper and beans into bowl with rice.
Open up enchilada sauce.
Place six tortillas on bottom of 13 x 9 pan.
Put half your beans and rice mixture on top.
Put 1 cup of cheese blend on top of that.
Pour half the can of sauce evenly over the mixture.
Put your other 6 tortillas on top of the mixture.
Now place the other half of your bean mixture on top of tortillas.
Pour other can of sauce over beans.
Top with 1 cup of cheese blend.
Cook for 20-22 minutes. Until cheese is melted and tortillas are cooked.
Top with salsa, sour cream, chopped avocado or whatever you like.

Fresh Pico de Gallo

February 14, 2020Leave a comment

Ingredients

3 roma tomatoes
1/2 white onion
1 jalapeno pepper
1 limes worth of juice
1/4 chopped cilantro
1/4 tsp salt

Directions

Dice tomatoes into 1/2 inch pieces
Dice onion into 1/4 inch pieces
Dice jalapeno small(1/8th of an inch…maybe…truthfully I didn’t measure the pieces)
Finely chop your cilantro. (Nobody wants to bite into a stem piece)
Combine every thing into a large bowl and juice your lime over the whole thing. Sprinkle salt and combine.

Slow Cooker Pork Ramen

February 14, 2020Leave a comment

Ingredients

7 cups chicken stock
3 lb. pork shoulder
2 inch piece of ginger grated
5 cloves minced garlic
1/4 tsp. salt
1 yellow onion
1/2 cup button mushrooms
2 bunch baby bok choy
soy sauce for seasoning
sesame oil for seasoning
garlic chili paste for seasoning
green onion
ramen noodles
4-6 eggs

Directions

Put sesame oil and salt in a non stick pan on medium high heat. Brown the fat layer on the outside of the pork shoulder. Roughly five minutes. Put the pork in the slow cooker.
Dice yellow onion and cook for 3-4 minutes in the same pan. Put in the slow cooker.
Roughly chop the mushroom and put it in the slow cooker.
Mince the garlic and peel and grate the ginger. Roughly chop the bok choy. Put it all in the slow cooker.
Put in the chicken stock.
Cook on low for 8-9 hours.
In the last half hour pull out the pork and shred into small pieces. Put it back in the broth.
Put in soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic chili sauce to taste.
During the last half hour of cooking boil 4-6 eggs (depending on the amount of servings) for 5-6 minutes. The white will be cooked, but the yolk will remain slightly soft. Chop the green onion.
Cook the ramen according to the package instructions.
Place the ramen in your serving bowls. Spoon ramen broth over noodles and dress with soft boiled egg cut in half and green onion.

Bottomless Chips Steak Fry

February 13, 2020Leave a comment

Ingredients

2 large russet potatoes
2 tablespoon olive oil
salt
pepper
1/2 tsp. Oregano
1/4 tsp. Parmesan Cheese
1/4 tsp. Red chili flake

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut potato in half and cut each half into four triangle shaped steak fries. Each potato should make eight fries. Place olive oil and spices into bowl and lightly toss fries in seasoning. Place fries on baking sheet and cook for 25 minutes. Flip them half way through so you get that delicious crispy outside on both sides. Serve with whatever dipping sauce you like.

Potato Chips

Who made them first?

So today I decided on a whim to try and make potato chips at home. I’d never done it before so in my search online I discovered that air fryer BBQ chips would be the easiest one for me to try. I had all the spice ingredients in my pantry and an air fryer I hadn’t used in awhile. All I needed was the potatoes. This is gonna be easy were the words ringing in my head as I dumped to large russet potatoes worth of burnt chips in the garbage.

Defeated I decided to turn my failure into a learning experience. Where do potato chips come from? What I found out was that in 1853 a chef by the name of George Crum was working at the Moon Lake Lodge in New York. A wealthy customer named Cornelius Vanderbilt happened to be in that day. He ended up sending his order back saying the fries were cut too thick. George in response cut and fried thin sliced potato shavings and sent the order back out. To his surprise Cornelius Vanderbilt loved it.

He began selling them in New England under the name Saratoga Chips and Potato Crunches. He eventually opened up his own restaurant putting baskets of those chips on every table. Unfortunately due to the nature of the time George was not allowed to patent his culinary genius due to being half black and half native american.

Chips From The Trunk

In 1895 a man named William Tappenden began manufacturing potato chips in his home kitchen and selling them to local grocers in Cleveland Ohio. As far as my research states he was the first person to sell what he called Saratoga Chips wholesale.

In 1920 in the southern united states a man named Herman Lay (yes Lays chips Herman Lay) began delivering his version of Saratoga chips out of the trunk of his car. His company grew quickly due to a strange claim that potatoes were an aphrodisiac. Clearly false but if you’re making money who cares right?

Keeping It Fresh

Before 1926 if you wanted to have potato chips outside of a restaurant you had to eat them out of barrels or tins. Then Laura Scudder tasked the employees of her potato chip company with an extracurricular task.

“Take sheets of wax paper and make a bag to keep our chips fresh.”

She had success! Laura Scudder and her company revolutionized the way Saratoga chips were sold across the country. The other thing she gifted the chip game with was a freshness date on the bag. Thanks Laura!

Is It All True?

Is the legend of a passive aggressive dish coming out of a kitchen in New York really the true origin? Not entirely it seems. A doctor by the name of William Kitchiner published a cookbook with a recipe for fried potato slices in 1822. An attempt to make a potato dish slightly healthier. Who knew potato chips were supposed to be a health food?

In Conclusion

So there you have it. The legend of the potato chip began either in 1853 with George Crum in the Moon Lake Lodge, or with William Kitchiner in his cookbook promoting proper nutrition. I suppose you should go with what your heart tells you. Mine says chips are amazing and snacking hasn’t been the same since.

Sources:

enchantedlearning.com

mashed.com