I will try the pastry. We now have a local source for lard from Kansas Angus grass fed beef. Lots of world turning upside down on that one!
Off topic but beefy, I made your and Bruno’s beef pot roast using the mirepoix dice rather than just sliced/quartered cuts I have used in the past and the result was pure delicious! So much in fact my husband of almost 50 years, AKA The Carnivore, under the guise of doing the after dinner dishes raided the pot for more beef!
Of course I discovered the assault the next night when I started to prepare dinner with the almost non left overs! What would Bruno/Julia do? After briefly thinking of adding another corpse to the dinner table, I reached for the dried mushrooms from Oregon (USA) and after a soak I chopped them and added to the pot, reduced the soak water and in it went. Yum! Then one more salute to France, I added a generous amount of Cognac. Served the now shredded beef mushroom “gravy” over the miraculously surviving left over mashed potatoes and my husband was surprised there was so much beef left!!! You and Bruno saved another murder.
Fun fact: Oregon has (Colorado following this year) started offering guided mushroom therapy. I’ll keep my mushrooms in my kitchen!
Remarkable restraint in not putting your husband in the pot but how you covered for its reduced content sounds delicious! Challenges like yours can produce exciting dishes! So pleased to hear the Bruno mirepoix makes a difference.
Obviously conflated tallow and lard! Both on decades of OMG you can’t eat that heart attack making mess. But here we are again! I put both in my shopping cart with a great Covid remains: a delivery service of local to regionally grown foods.
What an amazing place you have landed in with access to so many wonderful products. BTW that picture of you in the cookbook with your pan on fire matching your red hair is fabulous. Red clogs would complete the look!
I don't think I've ever seen tallow in a supermarket, though it was available in butcher's in the north of England when I was young. Just a portion of lard - or tallow, I suppose - lightens pastry. And it's natural, unlike the chemical confection that is margarine, so popular in cooking.
As ever an informed and wide ranging piece as ever. But I am one person lucky enough to have tasted this tart and it is seriously to die for! Not that I could ever reproduce its glory even with this helpful recipe.
No-one is terrible at any part of cooking, I don't believe. But once the fear takes over, it's hard to pull something off. Some are terrified of souffles, which are just a load of fluff folded into a bechamel sauce (an extra egg white or two beyond recipe instructions can help). There are those with genuinely hot hands that melt the fats in pastry, which can be resolved by using two table knives to chop the fats into the flour then one knife to stir the water in, keeping finger involvement to a minimum bringing of the pastry to a ball at the very end. More commonly, though, it's a problem of fear. I believe I can't make cakes. And so I can't.
I will try the pastry. We now have a local source for lard from Kansas Angus grass fed beef. Lots of world turning upside down on that one!
Off topic but beefy, I made your and Bruno’s beef pot roast using the mirepoix dice rather than just sliced/quartered cuts I have used in the past and the result was pure delicious! So much in fact my husband of almost 50 years, AKA The Carnivore, under the guise of doing the after dinner dishes raided the pot for more beef!
Of course I discovered the assault the next night when I started to prepare dinner with the almost non left overs! What would Bruno/Julia do? After briefly thinking of adding another corpse to the dinner table, I reached for the dried mushrooms from Oregon (USA) and after a soak I chopped them and added to the pot, reduced the soak water and in it went. Yum! Then one more salute to France, I added a generous amount of Cognac. Served the now shredded beef mushroom “gravy” over the miraculously surviving left over mashed potatoes and my husband was surprised there was so much beef left!!! You and Bruno saved another murder.
Fun fact: Oregon has (Colorado following this year) started offering guided mushroom therapy. I’ll keep my mushrooms in my kitchen!
Remarkable restraint in not putting your husband in the pot but how you covered for its reduced content sounds delicious! Challenges like yours can produce exciting dishes! So pleased to hear the Bruno mirepoix makes a difference.
Obviously conflated tallow and lard! Both on decades of OMG you can’t eat that heart attack making mess. But here we are again! I put both in my shopping cart with a great Covid remains: a delivery service of local to regionally grown foods.
What an amazing place you have landed in with access to so many wonderful products. BTW that picture of you in the cookbook with your pan on fire matching your red hair is fabulous. Red clogs would complete the look!
I don't think I've ever seen tallow in a supermarket, though it was available in butcher's in the north of England when I was young. Just a portion of lard - or tallow, I suppose - lightens pastry. And it's natural, unlike the chemical confection that is margarine, so popular in cooking.
I'm starting a red clogs fund...
As ever an informed and wide ranging piece as ever. But I am one person lucky enough to have tasted this tart and it is seriously to die for! Not that I could ever reproduce its glory even with this helpful recipe.
Yes you can! Have a go - it's a doddle!
I am TERRIBLE with pastry. I can bake almost anything else you can think of, but my pastry is shocking.
No-one is terrible at any part of cooking, I don't believe. But once the fear takes over, it's hard to pull something off. Some are terrified of souffles, which are just a load of fluff folded into a bechamel sauce (an extra egg white or two beyond recipe instructions can help). There are those with genuinely hot hands that melt the fats in pastry, which can be resolved by using two table knives to chop the fats into the flour then one knife to stir the water in, keeping finger involvement to a minimum bringing of the pastry to a ball at the very end. More commonly, though, it's a problem of fear. I believe I can't make cakes. And so I can't.