Dinner in the Yellow House

Merry Christmas

The only thing that could make standing in a long lineup bearable -- even, dare I say it, fun -- is that it is Christmas Eve and the lineup is at the butcher and an adorable young apprentice is serving treats on a tray wearing a Santa Claus hat and constantly wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

Which is to say that I did not forget to pick up the turkey this time.

I doubt I will get a moment to post more tonight or tomorrow, even though I have lots to write about.  Even now, my family is anxious for me to come away from the computer and attend to their myriad Christmas Eve needs. 

So, Merry Christmas to you and yours!  I hope yours is merry, delicious, and most of all, peaceful.

(Above, my picky-but-no-longer-vegetarian-eight-year-old works on our Christmas Eve yule log)

Latkes and Applesauce

My friend Anna will shout "LATKES! LATKES! LATKES!" in her livejournal, but will not deign to post a latkes recipe on her blog.  So it falls to me, the unqualified gentile, to post a latkes recipe. 

I got this out of a picture book that my children love called, appropriately, Latkes and Applesauce: A Hanukkah Story. 

1.  Grate 6 medium potatoes, 2 medium carrots, and one large onion, in that order so your eyes don't sting longer than necessary.  Put the gratings in a huge bowl and stir in 2 eggs, 1/4 cup of matzo meal, and plenty of salt and pepper. 

2.  Heat vegetable oil in a pan till it's quite hot, then plop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the pan and shape them nicely with a heatproof spatula.  Cook until browned, then flip.  Keep the latkes hot in a 250-degree oven while you finish the rest. 

The recipe in the Joy of Cooking for applesauce was too long and had too many ingredients.  I took the very lazy route and three 3 pounds of cored, peeled and chunks Gala apples in a pot with 1/4 cup of margarine (we are out of butter!)  and cooked them over low heat for the time it took to make the latkes, adding about a cup of water and 3-4 tablespoons of brown sugar during the process.  At the end, most, but not all, of the chunks had turned to mush.  I was actually quite pleased with the result, considering that I used no apple juice or spices.  It tasted extremely appley, and I liked the chunkiness. 

A friend of the yellow house is celebrating her first Hannukah without her mama, so we made these for her.  Oh, who am I kidding?  While feelings of goodwill toward our friend may have initially inspired the latke-making, we made these to eat ourgreedyselves, and also managed to save a plateful for our friend.

I'm not going to lie to you: all that peeling and coring and chopping and grating makes this meal a bit labour-intensive.  But it's a real crowd-pleaser here; M'hijo couldn't be bothered with utensils and ate his portion -- applesauce and all -- with his fingers.

 

Cassoulet and Mercurey

The first time I had cassoulet was at a 50th birthday party for the painter Carol Frank, who is a friend of my dad's, when I was sixteen years old.  The theme of the party was A Moveable Feast, and the host read bits from the book while his helpers served us the dishes described in the text.  This was the same night that I first made the acquantaince of raw oysters and I've loved them ever since.  My memory of the cassoulet, however, was of a rather bland, unpleasantly beany dish; I couldn't understand why all the adults were crazy about it.

I next tried the classic dish in my own kitchen, following a recipe from the my inaugural cookbook*: Reader's Digest's Eat Well, Stay Well.  It's not a glamorous volume but it was just right for me at the time and I still use several recipes from it. The Reader's Digest cassoulet is certainly not authentic but it is tasty, and definitely has the gist of what a cassoulet is supposed to be.  With some crusty bread and cheap red wine, it warmed our bellies on many a cold night during our stint in freezing Waterloo, Ontario.

When I lived briefly in France, I tried the ultra-lowbrow canned cassoulet from the Miniprix.  It was basically the equivalent of Heinz pork and beans but I reasoned that since everything in France tasted better, even the frozen and canned food, it would probably be good.  Nope, I was wrong.  There are reasonable canned cassoulets, but the cheapest one on the shelf really is bad, it's Frenchness notwithstanding.

This weekend I finally hit the cassoulet jackpot. We picked it up from Choux Choux, and paired with a bottle of 1999 Champs Martin Premiere Cru Mercurey and a baguette from House, it made a memorable Friday night supper.  I'm not exactly sure what all was in the cassoulet but my  best guess is this: haricots blanc, Toulouse sausage, duck confit, and salt pork.  A very carnivorous meal!

The Mercurey was delicious:  lots of spiciness and hardly any tannins (it's age may have had something to do with that) and not much fruit.  So, definitely different from the sweeter and fruitier Oregon and California Pinots that tend to reside in the Yellow House liquor cabinet.  Tobias called it "flawless" and who am I to argue?  I thought it perfectly complimented the cassoulet, especially the duck.

Victoria people:

If you would like to order a cassoulet from Choux Choux, they only do them from time to time so it's best to call ahead (382-7572).  As for the wine, well, the Champs Martin Premiere Cru is a little on the pricey side here in the Great White North: our friend Jeff picked ours up for less than half the price in San Francisco.  You might try the also delicious Chateau de Chamirey Mercurey, which you can get at the Oak Bay liquor store.  It's still a special occasion wine, at 40 dollars, but cassoulet is a special occasion, at least in my book.

 

*The first cookbook I cooked from in my early days in the kitchen, just after I got married.

German Apple Pancake for the first day of Advent

Tomorrow is the official start of Advent, but several factors contributed to our celebrating a day early:

• My spouse, Tobias, leaves for London this afternoon
• The kids' advent calendar -- I splashed out on a fancy Playmobil one this year -- starts today
• Doing anything fancy for breakfast on a church morning is not something I want to contemplate.  It's all I can do to get the children and myself washed and dressed in a timely fashion

Last year I bought the Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking issue but didn't make even one thing out of it.  M'hijo was just one last December and holiday baking was not really something I could manage at the time.  But this year he's much more self-reliant and I'm hoping to make several things from the magazine.  This German apple pancake was the first. 

Which Apples?

The article accompanying the recipe talks about apple choice, indicating that McIntoshes are absolutely the wrong kind to use, and Granny Smiths and Braeburns are the best.  Well, what I had in my fruit bowl was 2 BC Braeburns, 1 Gala and the last apple of the year from our big backyard tree, which is an unknown but very, very tasty red, sweet-tart variety that I love.  This wasn't quite the 1.5 pounds I needed, but luckily our SPUD order came last night, and included a couple of Pink Ladies, and I added one of them.  So, quite a melange of apples, and you know what?  They turned out great.  None of them lost their shape, in fact, they were pleasingly firm in the final dish, and there was a really nice, strong appley flavour. 

The Recipe

This is really easy to make!  I cracked open the magazine at about 7:40 am and we were sitting down to a delicious hot, aromatic, and cozy breakfast at 8:20am. 

1)  Peel, core and slice your 1.5 pounds of apples.  1/2 inch slices are recommended in the magazine.  As you can imagine, I did not get out a ruler, but sliced 'em like I like 'em. 

2) In a 10-inch cast iron or nonstick pan, heat 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter till it sizzles.  I used salted; the world did not collapse.  Put it in the apples, along with 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.  And here is why Cook's Illustrated rocks: cook for 6 minutes if using cast iron, and 10 if using regular nonstick!  And also, heat the oven to 500 degrees if you're using nonstick and 425 if you're using cast iron.  Aren't they smart?  They think of everything!  You should probably stir the apples around while they cook.

3) Now get out two bowls and a whisk.  Into one, put 1/2 cup of flour, 2 tablespoons of granulated white sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and whisk it.  Into the other, put 2/3 cup of half-and-half, 2 large eggs, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and whisk that.  Add the liquid to the dry, and whisk until you have a smooth, lump-free batter.   

4) When the apples are golden and there's a nice brown sauce at the bottom of the pan, take it off the heat at add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.  I forgot this step and the the pancake was still great, so don't feel too bad if you have no lemons.   

5)  Pour the batter over and around the apples and pop the skillet into the oven, turning down the temp to 425 if you're using nonstick.

6)  After 18 minutes you will have a beautiful custardy, appley treat that you can flip over onto a serving platter and dust with icing sugar.

For our start of Advent celebration, Mother Nature cooperated with her own dusting of white stuff onto our back porch.  We turned off the lights in the kitchen and watched the snow while we polished off the whole, big German pancake, Canadianized slightly by the addition of maple syrup.

In our tradition, the first candle in the Advent wreath, which will be lit tomorrow morning, symbolizes hope.  In the spirit of Advent, then, I wish all DITYH readers a hopeful week.