In this NY Times article, the minimal approach to kitchen equipment is approached. I agree with quite a lot of it, in principle, but disagree with some of the attitudes. Why? I will tell you another day, point by point.
Today I’ve blogged quite enough.
Add comment May 9th, 2007
Never let it be said that I do not practice what I preach. Sunday lunch included all of my hot buttons.
The original plan was to have an extensive antipasto course, loosely based on the Puglian experience. I planned on canellini with lemon juice and oil, tarallini I’d brought back with me, hummous because one diner couldn’t eat the meat, Arabic bread I had in the freezer, olives, and those tiny baked potatoes because I had finally found the real ones.
The first course was to be crema di pomodoro because one guest asked for it. That seemed light enough to follow a big antipasto.
The second course was to be roast leg of lamb served with a contorno of purea di fave secche or puree of dried fava beans.
The dessert would be something made out of last year’s fruit in the freezer, so I went to look, took out peach pie filling I froze last October and on the spot decided to use sour plum sauce as well, as a sauce f or the meat. I realize many of you don’t have a freezer full of these things, but you have very close relatives to them in your supermarkets, which I do not. Anyway, I staggered out of the garage with my arms piled with lamb, breads, peaches, plums and tomatoes– all of which I had frozen at some time. My neighbor, Amelia, had to pick up the things that fell off my arms while I opened the door. Shopping at home isn’t any easier than shopping at the Coop.
I forgot to drain the broth off the fave before pureeing them. They became soup. With the addition of a splash of Tabasco and some Fleur de Sel Gris they became good soup. So the first course became two soups instead of one.
I decided that since we would not have the fave with the lamb, the canellini needed to become a contorno, and the potatoes as well. So I popped the canellini into the oven with sage leaves and garlic thus making them fagioli aglii uccelletti. The potatoes needed no different treatment to be a contorno.
With the two soups sitting made up at the back of the stove, I slashed into the leg of lamb and removed the thigh bone. That’s really easy. Removing the hip would be hard and messy, so I didn’t remove it. I also removed the tail I found attached, because I had a killing vision or it popping up in the roasting and pointing at us like an accusatory finger at the table. Uh, no.
In the space left after removing the bone, I rubbed a seasoning paste of lemon peel, lemon juice and Moroccan spices. I bought this, but when I don’t have it, I make my own with lemon and cumin and paprika. It’s the paprika that makes the following photo look so bloody. It isn’t the meat. That rubbed in, I stuffed the space with peeled shallots that were in the vegetable bin for months. Then I remembered that there were about 2 tablespoons of raisins sitting in Marsala wine in the cupboard, so I threw those in, too. This is what it looked like at that point. The bone on the right is what I removed.
Then I went looking for my trussing needles. Whoops! I must not have moved them here. Hmmm… well, there are some bamboo skewers among the chopsticks… maybe? I faked trussing needles by pushing the skewer through, then cutting it off at the not pointed end, allowing me to make three needles from each skewer. Then I laced kitchen string around them like a ski boot lacing. Like this:
The string just zigzags. I rubbed more of the paste over the meat before I took this photo, as you can see.
Then I put the lamb into a slow oven, 325°F or 160°C, and cooked it until it was well done, versus the rare I prefer. I thought that the shallot could have been parboiled before using them. They were still a bit crunchy when done.
Saturday I finally found the real teensy potatoes! They were at the organic vegetable store and the fellow carefully picked out the smallest ones for me. These are just the size of a man’s thumb and are terrific. I made quite a lot more of them this time, a whole kilo in a larger soufflé dish and using half a box of coarse sea salt. Can you see how much smaller they are? And that they are the long, baking potato type?
They went into the oven with the meat, but in the end I needed to briefly raise the oven temperature to 400°F or 200°C to finish them, once the meat was out and resting.
I buttered a large, flat baking dish and poured the thawed peach mixture into it. I had also thawed a package of phyllo dough to top it, but I left putting that on it until later. I prepared the antipasto ingredients, which were all pre-made, in the antipasto server my club gave me for my birthday one year. I cut the various breads up and wrapped them in a napkin with the tarallini and put them on the table.
I began to think we’d actually have a meal to eat by that time. For the sauce I dumped half of the thawed sour plum sauce into a sauce pan and added a peeled clove of garlic. When I tasted the plums they seemed clovey, so I dropped in three whole cloves as well. I put it onto a burner set at simmer and ignored it until it came to a boil, then killed the flame. The lamb was done, so after it had rested I used a very sharp knife to carve the boned area. The boning makes carving a much more attractive and simple thing. I tented it with aluminum foil to keep it warm. I carefully scraped all of the pan juices and crusty bits into the plum sauce and re-lit the fire under it.
My guests arrived– and no, they are not all ladies and wouldn’t like to be called that, but it sounded better in the title– and the antipasto was already on the table with the wine and water. I didn’t photograph any of that, because I find it impossible to serve alone and photograph, too. I could ruin the food and my reputation!
I served the crema di pomodoro first. 
Then I served the velluto di fave, which is what my fava beans had become. No photo exists, but it resembled the purea from last month except no peppers.
The lamb was served with a bowl of the warm plum sauce, and I loved it. Here are the finished potatoes. Just look how tiny they are. They were a big hit– and yes, that is another of the antique-looking dishes by our local artist.
When the meat course went onto the table, I quickly cut and painted melted butter onto 8 layers of Phyllo dough, put it on top of the peaches, wrinkling it slightly to fit it, and threw it into the oven set at 375°F or 165°C. The smell was very nice accompaniment to lunch.
This is how one serving looked.
I was satisfied. Fifteen minutes before the guests arrived I woke eg up in the USA and bragged, “I did a Julia! I managed every disaster and made a meal anyway.” She answered, “Show me the money.” She’s a bit cranky at 6:45 AM.
Add comment May 9th, 2007
