Mimi's Fruit Salad

Better late than never! This is my mom's famous fruit salad.

1 can of pineapple chunks or tidbits
1 can of mandarin oranges
1 box of Jello cook-and-serve vanilla pudding (instant will not work)
And whatever other fruit you want to throw into the salad - I recommend strawberries, blueberries, grapes, cherries, apples, and/or cantaloupe

Drain pineapple juice into a sauce pan, add the pudding mix, add water or juice if pineapple juice in can is not enough for pudding mix, and bring to a boil. Cool and add to assorted fruits.

- Margot

Steak au Poivre

This is the full recipe from the William Sonoma cookbook. For the appetizer, John cooked one steak and made the sauce. He cut up a baguette into 3/4" pieces and toasted the pieces, then placed thin strips of the steak and a little sauce on top of the bread.

½ cup black peppercorns
4 New York strip steaks, about 1 lb each and 1.5” thick
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, plus extra as needed
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 shallots, minced
3 Tbsp cognac or high quality brandy
½ cup full-bodied red wine
1 cup beef stock or prepared low-sodium broth
½ cup heavy cream
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Fresh flat-leaf parsley springs for garnish

Using a mortar and pestle, spice grinder, or the coarsest setting on a pepper mill, crush the peppercorns until coarsely cracked. Sprinkle the pepper evenly on both sides of the steaks and press it into the meat, using your hands or the flat side of a cleaver blade. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes.

Select one large frying pan or two smaller frying pans big enough to fit the steaks without crowding. Melt the butter with the oil over medium-high heat until bubbling, about 1 minute. Add the steaks and sear on one side until browned, about 4 minutes. Turn the steaks and sear on the other side until browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 125°F for rare or 135°F for medium rare, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer the steaks to a warmed platter and cover the platter loosely with aluminum foil.

Add the shallots to the pan and sauté, adding more butter if needed to prevent sticking, until softened, 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat, add the Cognac/Brandy, and flambé. When the flames disappear, add the wine, bring to a boil, and cook until lightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Add the stock, return to a boil, and cook until reduced by half and thickened to a saucelike consistency, about 5 minutes longer. Whisk in the cream and mustard and simmer for 1 minute longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Transfer the steaks to warmed individual plates and spoon some of the sauce over each serving. Garnish with the parsley and serve at once.

Dinner around the World - Sunday, April 25th!

After a fantastic feast last weekend, it's time to plan our next dinner! I think the same time next month--Sunday, April 25th--will work. As has been our newly-established tradition, people can start to trickle in at 5:00 for drinks, and we'll serve dinner around 7:00.

I'll send out an email with my address and phone number, so please forward it if you notice anyone is missing.

*drumroll*

And our theme? Dinner around the world!!!

Now who has that list of countries..... :)

Raw salmon marinated in sake and the true secret 100% french crepe recipe!

No time for a comic this time... so i took pictures with my phone during the process...

Raw salmon marinated in sake with sushi rice:

- salmon, without skin, cut in slices of about an inch long (waow! i'm using english unit!). Try to buy salmon already without the skin because it's a pain in the ass to get the skin off and you need really sharp knifes otherwise it will transformed in "mashed salmon"... Ask if the salmon has already been frozen and if not, you might want to freeze it before consuming (you guys are fish expert not me, you probably know better why)
- sake
- soy sauce
- rice vinegar
- sushi rice
- sesame seeds
- scallions
- white sugar (forgot on the picture)


Preparation of the salmon:

• let the salmon marinate in a a mixture of sake and soy sauce for about 30 minutes. The salmon should be covered by the preparation. I used about 3 times as much sake as soy sauce.

How do you know if it marinated long enough? There is only one technique...

• chop the scallions in thin slices and grill the sesame seeds in a pan without oil at very high temperature until the seeds get brown (seriously, raw sesame seeds taste really blend, it's better to grill them before eating).
  

• Once the salmon is marinated, get rid of the juice. Place it in a bowl and mix it with the chopped scallions and the grilled sesame seeds... And it's done!
  

Preparation of the sushi rice:

• Before cooking the rice, you have to rinse it in cold water at least 4 times or until the water is totally clear! It is very important! For better result you can also let it soak in cold water for an hour.
• Put the rice in a pan (be sure to have a lid that fit the pan) with cold water: 1 cup of rice for 1,5 cup of water, and put it on high heat. Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat, cover, and let it cook during 20 minutes. During the process, do not remove the lid. When it's done, stop the heat, remove the lid and let the rice stand in the pan for 10 minutes.
• Prepare in a bowl the sushi-su (mixture that is going to give the vinegar taste to the rice) using (for about 3 cup of rice) 0.5 cup of rice vinegar and 2 tea spoon of sugar and 0.5 tea spoon of salt, and add it slowly to the rice. It's ready!
  

If you want to use it to make sushi, let it cool down before rolling.


The true secret 100% french crepe recipe:



wooops, seems like i forgot the sugar again on the picture...

Ingredients for 4 people:
- 3 eggs
- 250g of flour
- 20cl of cider
- 30cl of milk
- 2 table spoon of sugar (taste better with brown sugar)
- if you want, some spices that make you happy (i used cinnamon in those ones)
- a little bit of salt

The important thing is to not form lump while mixing the flour... I normally start with mixing the eggs with the sugar and beat them until the preparation gets creamy and double volume. Then i add the flour little by little. If it gets too hard to stir, add a little bit of liquid and continue to add the flour until you added it all and finish by adding the rest of the ingredients. Finish with the spices and let the preparation stand for AT LEAST one hour. You can also add a little bit of melted butter to avoid the crepe to stick to the pan while cooking. Be sure to grease the pan before cooking your crepe otherwise you will break them while trying to turn them up.

If you are in need of comics and have some french knowledge (or not), you can check the blog of Guillaume Long, an excellent french comic writer, and especially his notes about crepes here, here and here.

Francesinhas and Mushrooms with Madeira wine

Mushrooms with Madeira Wine

Wash and slice white mushrooms. In a pan, heat 1 table spoon of olive oil and 1 table spoon of butter. Add a chopped large garlic clove. Add the mushrooms and cover. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let cook for 15min then add half a cup of Madeira wine, cook without cover for 15 minutes. Cover again and cook for 1h in low heat. If the liquid evaporates, add boiling water.

Francesinhas

Ingredients:

For the sauce:
1 beer or 2 glasses or white wine or a mix of both
2 bay leaves
1 table spoon of butter or margerine
1/2 cup of Port or Brandy
1 and 1/2 table spoons of flour
4 table spoons of tomato sauce
1/2 cup of milk
hot sauce
salt
pepper

For the sandwich:

8 slices of bread
ham
cheese
franks
linguiça
pork or beef sandwich steak

vegetarian option:
substitute the meat for spinach, mushrooms and/or egg

To make the sauce, start melting the butter and combine the flour and later the milk to make a rou. Add the other ingredients, season to taste and let it cook until it thickens.
Make a sandwich with the ingredients, leave some cheese to top it and pour the sauce very hot over it and serve immediately.

Booze Bash:)

Shoobully Doobully!
Hello everyone~
Looking forward to the next spread coming later this month. We might be coupon-cutting grad students but dammit we will eat well one day a month! And hell, apparently this month we are getting zoinkered at the same time. I promise to deliver a dessert that embodies the true essence of sugar plus schnappsy...but I can't promise that after having drank while making it, it will taste any good!
Eleni

March Pot Luck

Hello everyone, Leanne here. Sorry for my delay in posting the details for this month's pot luck. I will be hosting it at my house with the assistance of Brent and our housemate Jenn. The theme, in case anyone has forgotten, is BOOZE. We will be having it on March 27th, you can start coming at 5pm and we can plan to eat around 6 or 6:30 if that works for everyone.

Our house is on the right and it is a yellow cape code style house. Let me know if anyone wants directions. It takes about 25- 30 minuets to get here from South County. You can park on the street or in our driveway if there is room.

We will be making the carnivore main course. We are probably making a pork tenderloin with a wine sauce, but it is not definite yet. I will let you all know when I decide for sure. I think we should have someone make fun drinks, like Juleen did last time. I can make them if no one else has any ideas. We have a blender here if needed.

I believe the only dishes claimed so far are:
dessert: Eleni
Appetizer: John and Margot

Post what you want to bring and any suggestions as well as if we need to change the time at all. Hope to hear from you all soon!!

-Leanne