Day 34 - Three Dishes Using Three Recipes (2-6-2010)

Today we made Artichauts Au Naturel ( Whole Boiled Artichokes), Sauce Hollandaise (Hollandaise Sauce), and Filets de Poisson Bercy aux Champignons (Fish Filets Poached in White Wine with Mushrooms).

The fun part was not only cooking the artichoke, but learning how to eat it!! I have never had artichoke before, and did not know how good it is. One thing I learned is not to stick your finger in the artichoke heart because it really hurts to take it back out!! (I will post pictures later so you will know what I'm talking about.) You dip the artichoke leaves in the Hollandaise sauce and it is absolutely divine.

The fish was good, but this family doesn't seem to like mushrooms very well. The mushrooms seemed to overpower the taste of the fish.

Thanks Julia.....

Day 6 - Three Dishes Using Eight Recipes

Today we had a huge day of cooking!!



We started our day with Oeufs a la Fundue de Fromage (Poached Eggs on Canapes with Cheese Fondue Sauce). This dish used three recipes. One for the poached eggs, one for the canapes, and one for the cheese fondue sauce. The eggs looked very disgusting. We cracked them and put them in the water. They immediately spread out and and became gloppy and weird. After a few tries the eggs started looking better. We think the eggs were too old.



Next we made the cheese fondue sauce. The recipe required chopping shallots (which is a type of onion). I had never done this before. I didn't know how much it stings!! The sauce was very tasty!!



Then we made the canapes. Canapes are actually slices of bread fried in clarified butter. We had never clarified butter before. The canapes were very crunchy and yummy. We put the eggs on top of the canapes and then covered it with the cheese sauce and put it under the broiler. It was a great breakfast!!



For dinner, we made Filets De Poisson Poches Au Vin Blan (Fish Fillets Poached in White Wine). We started by making a fish stock by cooking down leftover fish parts from the fish market. It totally ruined the lovely cheese sauce smell. Then, we made the fish fillets poached in white whine using the fish stock. I made my dad cut the onions. The fish was very tender and tasty. This dish used three recipes.

For dessert, we made Creme Plombieres Pralinee (Caramel Almond Cream - a cold dessert). First, we left the almonds in the toaster oven for too long and they got burnt. Our second batch of almonds turned out well. Then we tried making the caramel. The first time, it got all dried out and nasty. The second time, it turned into sugary goop that wasn't quite caramel. It just didn't work!! We put the almonds into the sugary goop. They tasted really good. We made the cream, put the almonds in and refrigerated it. It was a great dessert!!

Thank you Julia for the great recipes!!