A Very Tasty New Years Eve....

What: An Elegant French New Years Eve Dinner

Where: My apartment, NYC

Elegant Set Table for a Very Elegant MealThis Search takes me to my apartment in NYC. It is New Years Eve and I have prepared an extravagant French dinner for 15 guests. The menu, based on recipes taken from Julia Child's: "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," is as follows:

HORS D'OEUVRES: Pate and Cornichons
AMUSE BOUCHE: Caviar on Brioche Toasts with Creme Fraiche
APPETIZER: Oeufs en cocotte (softly cooked eggs with cream)
FIRST COURSE: Lobster Thermidor (a gratin of lobster, served in it's shell with butter, cream, cheese and mushrooms)
MAIN COURSE: Filet de Boeuf Braise Prince Albert (Braised filet of beef stuffed with truffles and foie gras), Potatoes Dauphinois (cooked with butter, cheese and beef stock) and Braised lettuce
CHEESE COURSE: w/port tasting
DESSERT: Millefeuilles (napoleons with pastry cream)

The very talened Mickey Mayo of Mayo Studios (who also designed my website: www.misselisabeths.com) designed these wonderful menus for the eveningSeveral weeks before New Years Eve, Matt suggested we host a fancy French dinner party. I was intrigued. I love hosting dinner parties, especially extravagant elaborate ones. And I had never before cooked a single thing from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." (Buy it on Amazon) I felt guilty about this and I'd been meaning to try one of Julia's recipes out for a while. Particularly after reading Julia Child's inspiring "My Life in France." (Buy it on Amazon)

I went through this culinary bible, page by page, narrowing down the menu as I went along. I knew, as soon as I read the recipe for Lobster Thermidor, that I had to prepare it. It sounded so crazy and hideously complicated. I just couldn't resist. Who the hell makes Lobster Thermidor? What the hell is Lobster Thermidor? Read on.

6 lobsters in my sink, awating certain deathAnd then there was the Filet de Bouef Braise Prince Albert. I wanted this meal to be special, extravagant, memorable. And nothing says extravagant like foie gras, truffles and filet mignon. This dish, comprised of a whole tenderloin stuffed with a mixture of foie gras, shallots, cognac and madeira, along with chunks of truffles, then tied, lined with pork fat, and braised in beef stock and sauteed vegetables, was to be the centerpiece of the meal.

Tenderloin stuffed with foie gras and truffle mixture, ready to be tied...Tenderloin all tied up, with a strip of pork fat sealing the slit. Mmmmm, pork fat.I chose side dishes that I thought would go well with the meal (actually Julia suggested serving the beef with the "braised lettuce"). The starter of eggs cooked in cream served in individual ramekins was inspired by that very same dish I had as my first meal in France during European Vacation Part 2 (see blog post). It took me a while to decide on dessert, but I finally settled on homemade Napoleons. This happened to be one of Matt's favorite desserts, and I was also eager to make homemade Puff Pastry, something I hadn't made since culinary school (I'll post the recipe for this soon). My menu was complete.
Unbaked Potato Dauhpinoise. As you can see, butter and cheese played a large part in this dinnerA week before the dinner, I went on vacation to St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands (blog post to come!). We were coming home the night before this massive feast. I knew that as soon as we got home, that I had to start cooking immediately and not stop until the meal was on the table the next night. So while I was on vacation I studied the menu and recipes, reading through them over and over again. I visualized the meal--from chopping the vegetables, to cooking each component of every dish, to plating and serving the dinner. And I made lists--and a schedule--of every task that needed to be accomplished.

NEW YEARS EVE SCHEDULE:
Take my advice here. It may sound crazy (and ok, maybe I'm a tad OCD), but if you are ever planning to host a major dinner party, I highly recommend meticulously going through and imagining the meal and making a detailed schedule. When it's game time, you can get right down to business. It will make the whole affair less stressful and ultimately much more enjoyable for you.

Thanks to my brother, Peter, when I arrived home the night of December 30th (after a 5 hour delay in the San Juan airport), all of the ingredients I needed for the dinner were waiting for me. Including 6 boisterous live lobsters. I threw down my bags, rolled up my sleeves and got right to cooking. Within 2 hours, the lobsters were killed and dismantled, vegetables were chopped and cheeses shredded. I had laid a solid foundation for the marathon cooking day ahead.

My sister, Caroline and our friend, Brien, cracking the eggs into ramekins for the Oeufs en CocotteI woke up at 6:30 am. And from 6:30 am, until 7:00 p.m. when the first guest arrived, I cooked like a mad woman. I was well organized and focused, but it was intense and a little bit frantic nonetheless.  

Wine ShrineI had asked John Humphreys, a very talented Sommelier who was, at the time, working at Union Square Wines and Liquors (he has since moved to Vestry Wines) to pair each course with red and white wine. And he did a FABULOUS job. For the first course, Oeufs en Cocotte he selected a lovely, faintly sweet 2008 Scheurebe Kabinett. Unfortunately, fearing that my oven had broken and the eggs were totally raw, I left the eggs in the oven for an extra 5 minutes and they were tragically overcooked--basically hard boiled eggs in cream. It still tasted great, but was certainly not as Julia intended. Despite my failure, the wine cut the richness of the cream wonderfully, and the dish was, though not perfect, very tasty.

Tasty spoonful of eggs in creamThen came The Lobster Thermidor. This dish was VERY time consuming. You cook the lobster, split it in half, remove all the meat, chop up the meat, push the tomalley and coral (roe) through a sieve and then make a crazy sauce with that plus egg yolks, cream and various other seasonings, cook the lobster in butter, then cognac, then mix it with the sauce, return meat to empty shell, top with cheese and butter, and bake. Woah. You have to be mentally prepared to embark on this recipe. Also, it's important to note that I cut down on Julia's suggested cooking time, feeling that boiling the lobsters for the full 20 minutes called for in the recipe would result in tough and chewy lobster meat. I cooked them for about 12 minutes, and the end result was perfectly tender and moist.

The Glorious Thermidor. It's hard to believe so much work went into that little lobster shell.Luckily, all of this insane work produced what was pretty much unanimously agreed to be the best lobster dish of all time. John paired it with a wonderful Chardonnay (Louis Latour Montagny Premiere Cru La Grande Roche 2006) that was really excellent. And damn this lobster was DELICIOUS. Creamy and rich, it almost tasted like a big hearty lobster bisque. Incredible dish. If you're ever looking to blow people's minds, and you've got some time on your hands, make Lobster Thermidor.

Though the Thermidor was the stand out dish of the evening, the Filet de Bouef Braise Prince Albert was also pretty awesome. The dish was accompanied by my new favorite red wine, the very reasonably priced and flavor packed: Chateau Cote Montpezat Cuvee Compostelle 2005, The meat was juicy and tender with the gentlest lovely gaminess from the foie gras. The sauce covering the beef was deep, rich, beefy and unctuous and really brought the whole dish together. Accompanied by the delicate Potatoes Dauphinois, (thinly sliced potatoes cooked with cheese and beef stock) and the braised escarole (which, to be honest, was not worth the effort) this made for a fantastic and very special main course. We were living very large.

The main plate--Beef, Potatoes and Braised EscaroleWe then moved on to a small cheese course (overkill? Hell's no. Everyone loves cheese!) and then the Napoleons. The crispy napoleons were smothered with layers of sweet and creamy pastry cream and drizzled with excellent dark chocolate. As my first attempt at making homemade Napoleons, I did pretty well.
An elegant photo to suit an elegant dinnerMy first experience cooking from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" was a very memorable one. Intense cooking, complicated recipes, but excellent results. It was a wonderful way to ring in 2010, STUFFED with great food and wine. I hope you'll try cooking from this book if you never have--it's an experience.

Happy Belated New Year! 

If you want to have an interesting dinner party, try introducing a Theremin into the mix. It's a very bizarre instrument. Here's Justin, making some crazy sounds.

Eating my way through Paris, France

What: European Vacation Part 2
Where: Paris, France

Savoring the last bite of Butter and Sugar crepe on the streets of Paris....The second part of this vacation takes me on a Search to the magical wonderful city of Paris. We were very sad to leave our fabulous apartment in Barcelona, though grateful to take a break from the massive amount of ham we had been consuming. Eating in Spain, as noted in the previous post, is intense, and we were ready to sample some new cuisines.

We knew it was totally crazy to go to Paris. Though it was only about an hour and half from Barcelona, we would be there for less than 24 hours. Certainly not enough time to spend in the second best city in the world (my hometown, NYC, of course being #1). But the lure of crepes and buttery pastries and outdoor cafes was too much for us to resist. We had to see this great city, if only for a moment...

The River Seine, Eiffel Tower in the distance.We arrived at the Hotel Beaubourg at 2:00 p.m, threw down our bags and left immediately. We were hungry! I hadn't settled on a lunch place, so we wandered around Le Marais (a hip, exciting area of Paris) looking for somewhere to grab a quick bite. Our plan was to just get a baguette and some cheese, but when we found La P'tite Casquette (26 Rue Beaubourg, PHONE: 01 40 27 08 31) and the charming owner, Isabelle, beckoned us in we decided to relax and have a nice Parisian lunch. Isabelle was really sweet and explained the menu to us in perfect English. It turned out she was friends with a woman who worked as a chef at Cafe Luxembourg, a nice restaurant on the Upper West Side that we have been to often. Small world.

Outside of restaurant La P'tite CasquetteI started with dish of Oeufs en Cocotte, basically a dish of barely poached eggs swimming around in a cream and leek broth. Matt had a lovely crepe like concoction called Douceur Italianne that was filled with eggplant, pesto, mozzarella cheese and chopped tomatoes. For our second course, I had a Parisian version of a stir fry--flavorful chunks of chicken braised in soy sauce and herbs, with tender sauteed haricot verts. It was comforting and yummy. Matt had an artery clogging dish of tiny, dime sized ravioli cloaked in an impossibly thick cream sauce reminiscent of a classic Alfredo. We didn't want a whole bottle of wine (it was lunch, after all), but Isabelle opened a nice bottle for us and told us we could pay based on how many glasses we drank. It was a delightful meal and we were well fortified and ready to take on the city.

We set off on what was possibly the fastest tour of Paris in history. Walking briskly through the beautiful streets we admired the oh-so-Parisian buildings and the lovely river Seine. We tore through Arrondisement after Arrondisement (basically neighborhoods). On our way, we passed one of the most famous cooking supply stores in the world: E Dehillerin. This was a favorite store of Julia Child, and it is filled with all sorts of cookware goodies. In her memoir "My Life in France" (Buy it on AMAZON!), which I happened to be reading while on this trip. Julia Child describes E. Dehillerin as "the kitchen-equipment store of all time...stuffed with an infinite number of wondrous gadgets, tolls, implements, and gewgaws..." If you love to cook and you're in Paris, this place is worth a visit. I bought a gorgeous spatula there that was so expensive I thought it must be lined with gold. But it is one hell of a spatula. I know I will be cooking with it for the rest of my life.
Outside famous cooking supply store, E. DehillerinInside the crazy world of E. DehillerinTo be in Paris for even a few hours is to see a fairy tale come to life. It is such a magical place with so much character and so much life. Every corner we turned we would smile and look at each other, thinking "this is so...Paris!" From the buildings, to the beautiful people, to the river Seine with the Eiffel tower in the distance, there really is no place like Paris.

We sampled three exciting treats on our marathon tour. The first, a cone of rum-raisin Berthillon ice cream. Berthillon is a famous ice cream producer in Paris and this is some very special ice cream. The best place to get it is in on Ile Saint Louis, a charming little neighborhood. There are dozens of cafes selling the Berthillon brand--this is THE neighborhood to go if you've got a craving for some great ice cream. The creamy rum-raisin was seriously spiked with rum and plump, rum saturated golden raisins.
Me admiring the cone of Berthillon rum raisin ice creamThen there was...the crepe. We had to have a crepe! We passed a stand where a woman was making crepes to order (these little stands are all over the streets). We ordered the butter and sugar crepe, simple as can be. The crepe-lady squeezed out the batter into the crepe pan and spread it out with a wooden tool used especially for this purpose. She created a paper thin buckwheat dough. She topped the crepe with a heap of butter and a sprinkling of coarse sugar and expertly folded it up into a little butter sugar bundle. Man, they know how to live here.
Crepe maker in action making our butter and sugar crepeDuring our outing, We happened to stumble upon a famous Bread bakery called Poilane. In "My Life in France" Julia Child also visits this bakery in order to film the baker making his famous baguettes for her television show. This is a tiny bakery. The walls are lined with breads and pastries, and the comforting smell of freshly baked crossaints and baguettes envelops you as you as you step inside. You can see the kitchen in the back, with bakers hard at work producing the finest quality baked goods imaginable. We ordered a single slice of sour dough bread, because it looked so perfect, which the shop owner simply cut from the loaf and weighed out, and a magnificent apple tartlet which was crumbly and flaky and delicious.
Outside of the famous Poilane BakeryPerfect apple tartlet from PoilaneWe allowed ourselves a brief half hour break to sit outside at a cafe and have a cup of coffee. This is a very Parisian thing to do. We watched the people walk by, thinking about how lucky we were to be sitting at a cafe in Paris. But the clock ticked on and there was not time for much reflection. It was nearly time for our Dinner in Paris.

It was quite a challenge choosing a restaurant for one night in Paris. Paris has so many restaurants and so many of them are so good! There are dozens of Michelin starred places, where you can spend over 300 Euros per person. But the beauty of Paris is that you can also go to a wonderful old bistro, spend a lot less money, and still have an incredible meal. Perhaps some day we will go back and sit down for a 5 hour dinner at the fanciest place in Paris. But for this trip, there was nothing more perfect, no place more classically Parisian, or more satisfying and delicious, than Chez L'Ami Jean.

Chez L'Ami Jean is a crazy, frenetic place. It is packed with people talking loudly and eating voraciously. The waiters hustle around balancing dishes, pouring wine and chatting with customers. The menu is entirely in French and we did not understand a word of it. We had no choice but to let our waiter guide us and basically decide our menu. And I'm glad we did. It was game season in Paris, and I probably would never have gotten the dish of Partridge, Foie Gras and Marrow, had our waiter not insisted. Nor would Matt have gotten the Pork Back wrapped around some sort of ground pork meat mixture, also accompanied by foie gras and a giant bone filled with marrow.

Wonderful bottle of wine from Chez L'Ami JeanWild mushrooms in Crock pot from Chez L'Ami JeanPartdrige, foie gras and marrow at Chez L'Ami JeanThe partridge was served pink--very pink--almost rare, and was mild but a little gamey and tasted of the woods and of a true wild bird. The pork was fatty and decadent, perfectly seasoned. The Pommes Puree that accompanied our dishes was unlike any mashed potatoes we had ever had and was probably more butter than potatoes. In fact, it may be insulting to call them something as humble as a "mashed potato." Stunning. Along with a starter of sauteed wild mushrooms served in a crock pot, and a lobster salad topped with a luxurious cream sauce, this was a perfect Parisian meal. The speciality of the house was actually their dessert--a rice pudding served in a giant bowl along with a wooden spoon. We actually did not order this dish because we were, believe it or not, too full (gasp!). Thank goodness, we became friends with the people at the neighboring table and we were offered a taste. Served with homemade granola and a sort of caramel custard, this was a dessert that should not be missed, no matter how much partridge you may have eaten. If you happen to go to Chez L'Ami Jean, please make sure you order the Rice Pudding.
Our kind dining-neighbors who let us sample the extraordinary Rice Pudding at Chez L'Ami JeanAfter dinner, we walked to the Eiffel Tower. As soon as we arrived, the Tower lit up and began to sparkle with thousands of lights. We were full and satiated with the deliciousness and wonder of this city. A glorious ending to a glorious 12 hours in Paris. Now, off to Dublin...

the Eiffel Tower, shining at midnight