The Comparison Dinner

In just 3 weeks Joe, myself and our dear friends and traveling companions leave for our trip to Southern France... so.... Saturday night I cooked a french dinner, Julia Style.  I wanted to set the mood for the trip and to have a dinner that we could compare my cooking with Julia against the authentic French cooking we will eat on our trip.

It was a complete success.... I'm still smiling from the positive feedback and reactions I received from my guests.  The looks on their faces when they are eating or enjoying good food tells the whole story.  There were moments of snarfling, followed by uncontrollable ummmmmming, followed my moments of complete awe and silence before the snarfling began again.  

I am so proud of that dinner, and catching Joe's eye across the table several times while we were eating, I saw he too was so proud of me.  Catching Joe's eye and seeing his pride in my accomplishments is the BIGGEST compliment I could ever get.  I was so giddy with excitement with what I saw and heard around the table.... I just wanted to squirm a chair jig undetected in my seat!  LOL LOL  And trust me..... a Chef and/or Cook ALWAYS knows without words being said, just by watching peoples expressions as they eat, or what is or isn't left on someone's plate, and by the amount of food left (if any) in the serving dishes if the food was good, adequate or simply just bad.

The menu was... a Cheese Plate Appetizer, Fennel and Frissee Salad, French Onion Soup, Beouf Bourgingnon (French Beef Stew) and of course Queen of Sheba Cake.  I cooked from 8:00am - 7:00pm, they ate from 6:30-8:30.  Joe served delish wines throughout the dinner to go with each course.  I was completely spent and exhausted after that 12 hour cooking jag...... but I was so blissfully happy for those 12 hours, I had no idea I had been cooking for 12 straight hours...... and Joe will verify.... I truly cooked for 12 straight hours.

For the cheese plate, I had a small square 5" plate (red) with a different slice of cheese in each corner (Gruyere, Manchego, Hot Spice, and 5 yr aged Gouda) , 5 grapes clustered in the center, with a tiny dollop of two different flavors of honey on opposite sides and then 2 pecan halves and 2 walnut halves on opposite sides.  I made some french bread toastettes to go with.  I had these nibblet plates set table side for the guests to enjoy with their first glass of wine as I finished up the last touches to dinner.

The Fennel and Frissee salad I made up on my own, but was inspired from a salad Joe and I had at the restaurant Via Vita on our anniversary.  I used the same square 5" square plate (yellow) and in the center I had a fist size mound of chopped frissee lettuce, topped with thinly sliced fennel bulb, 2 mandarin oranges on top, a few pine nuts scattered on top of that, and for a garnish I placed a stem of the fennel leaf on top.  I made a lemon citrus vinagrette that I spooned on top.  It was soooooo light and fresh.... I could eat this salad all day long!  However...... the only thing I would do over with this salad, is.... I would have served it after the french onion soup instead of before.  It was such a fresh and cleansing of the palate kind of salad, it would have been better served between the two heavy dishes of french onion soup and the beef bourgingnon.

The French Onion soup......  was simply...... WOW!!!!!  This is the 2nd time I have made this soup, this time was better than the last because I made the beef stock from scratch instead of using canned stock.  This soup could and probably should be served as a meal all on it's own because it is so rich and hearty.  It takes an hour to cook the onions down to the right consistency.  Then it takes another hour to simmer with the broth, then another 30 minutes in the oven after you have composed the soup bowls and then 5 more minutes under the broiler to brown the cheese on top.  To compose the soup bowl, place two french bread toastettes in bottom of bowl, place a couple slices of swiss cheese (I used gruyere) on top of toastettes, ladle soup on top to brim of bowl (you must use an oven crock kinda of bowl..... thick, heavy and preferably with a handle), then you pile up..... and I do mean PILE UP..... grated swiss cheese on top of the soup from edge to edge, so that when the cheese melts down the sides of the bowl it creates a seal.  After baking in the oven for 20-30 minutes in the middle of the oven at 350, place the bowls on top rack of oven, crank oven up to broil and brown the cheese for about 3-5 minutes.  The soup itself is like a very rich creamy and cheesy beef broth with a hint of sweet onion.... does not taste like a mouth full of onions at all.  It simply melted in your mouth!

The Beouf Bourgingnon was made with chuck roasts I chopped up (Julia's suggestion) which was browned, then braised in the oven for 4 hours in beef broth (which I made from scratch).  I put baby carrots (the fancy kind with the tiny stems on top) on top of the beef stew so that when it was finished cooking, the carrots on top were beautiful and tender and had soaked up some of the broth flavors.  I removed the meat pieces onto the center of a large serving platter and ladled on the gravy sauce over the beef.  While the beef was cooking, I roasted some new potatoes, braised baby onions, sauteed mushrooms, blanched and then sauteed fresh green beans in butter with a squirt of lemon juice and sprinkle of kosher salt on top.  After placing the meat in the center of the platter, I arranged the rest of the vegetables around the meat making a very colorful presentation....... the carrots at one end, mushrooms next to carrots, onions on other side of carrtos, green beans on side of onions, potatoes on the opposite end of platter from the carrots.  I placed this platter in the middle of the table and we served ourselves 'family style'.  I had a gravy boat full of the sauce from the beef stew and french bread to go with the dinner.  It was like Sunday dinner french style! It looked sooooo BEAUTIFUL.  I should have taken a photo!!!!  Oh well..... was too busy thinking about digging in instead of photographing the display!  LOL

And then of course...... dessert was the now famous Queen of Sheba cake, which...... each cake I make is better than the last one!  I actually made an interesting discovery this time when I made the cake.  I had been using a 9" cake pan, not realizing that the 'standard' cake pan size differs.  While watching her DVD of the Queen of Sheba cake show the other day, I noticed that her cake looked smaller round but higher on the sides.  After some quick reference research, I discovered she used an 8" cake pan.  So I went out and bought a couple of 8" pans, made the cake and ........ what do you know!......... the cake was smaller around, but thicker and the center was finally the perfect consistency I had been trying to produce by adjusting my oven temp and cooking time.  While my 9" cakes were bombdiggity...... the 8" pan made a SIGNIFICANT difference and the bombdiggity level went to bombdiggity-diggity!  LOL LOL

Julia made each recipe in her cookbooks several times..... as in at least 10-20 times before she would give her final approval for the methods and ingredients used.  Just making that one tiny adjustment in the Queen of Sheba cake, made me 'get it' with all the repetition on trying recipes.  I'm still a fledgling learner in the baking department, and baking is certainly more 'exact measure' methods vs cooking which is just a pinch of this and that and measurements don't have to be exact at all.  Now if I can only master the dang french bread making..... it continues to be a challenge!  But until I do..... thank goodness for the artisian breads available in your local Krogers!

Final comments..... honestly.... this meal, the taste of the flavors and the beautiful presentation of each dish.... you would have thought you were in a 5 star restaurant..... it really was that good and it was really picture perfect pretty.  Julia..... I think I see you smiling down on me..... I think you saw my complete joy in preparing this meal and my complete joy in presenting this meal to people I wanted to make feel very special.  Thank you sooooooo much for your inspiration, your constance guidance and introducing me to the world of french cooking!  

Bon Apetite