I’ve never thought so before, but this Julie and Julia book is driving me nuts. Julie annoys me because she takes stabs at Republicans every chance she gets and she thinks infidelity is okay. I truly can’t stand her. I’d kill her if she were my friend.
Anyway, I’m to the part where she’s about to give up the “Project” altogether, but before she does, she makes a few more dishes. The first is a plain broiled chicken with sauce Diable and Chou-Fleur en Verdure(puree of cauliflower and watercress with cream, she explains). For dessert she makes Charlotte Malakoff aux Fraises. Who cooks like this? Three complex recipes a night? I can’t even fathom.
Use with broiled chicken, lamb and pork. Escoffier makes a good bottled variety.
1 cup BROWN SAUCE
1 onion, finely chopped
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/2 cup red wine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
Saute onions and garlic in butter, add wine, and simmer for 4 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.
Charlotte Malakoff aux Fraises
From Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Serves 8 to 10 people
1 quart fresh strawberries
1/3 cup orange liqueur
2/3 cup water
24 single ladyfingers
1/2 lb. softened unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange liqueur
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 1/3 cups pulverized almonds
2 cups chilled whipping cream
Hull the strawberries. Wash them quickly if necessary, and set on a cake rack to drain thoroughly.
Line the bottom of a 2-quart cylindrical mode with a round of unbuttered waxed paper.
Pour orange liqueur and water into a soup plate. Dip in the ladyfingers, one by one, and drain on rack. Line sides of mold with ladyfingers. Reserve the remaining dipped ladyfingers.
Cream butte rand sugar together for 3 to 4 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Beat in orange liqueur and almond extract. Continue beating for several minutes until sugar is completely dissolved. Beat in the almonds.
Whip the cream until the beater, drawn across the top of the cream, leaves light traces. Fold the cream into the almond and butter mixture.
Turn a third of the almond cream into the lined mold. Arrange over it a layer of strawberries, heads down. Cover them with a layer of ladyfingers. Repeat with another layer of almond cream, strawberries, and ladyfingers. Fill the mold with the rest of the almond cream and a layer of ladyfingers if there are any left. Trim off ladyfingers around edge of mold, and press the trimmed off bits into the top of the cream. Cover mold with a round of buttered waxed paper , set a saucer over the paper, and place a 1 lb. weight on it. (I used cans of beans.) Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight. The butter must be chilled firm, so the dessert will not collapse when unmolded.
When ready to serve, remove the waxed paper. Run a knife around the inside of the mold, and reverse dessert on a chilled serving platter. Peel waxed paper from top, and refrigerate dessert until serving time. Decorate with strawberries an accompany with whipped cream or strawberry sauce.
barenakedchefsaidso.com 