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Archive for the ‘Elegant Austerity Foods’ Category
Elegant Pot au Feu
In Beef Stew, Elegant Austerity Foods, Elegant Cookery, Elegant Culinary Photography, Elegant Survivalist, Pot au Feu, Pot Roast, Simple Elegance on 09/10/2011 at 6:35 amM-J’s Autumn Potato Salad
In Autumn Potato Salad, Elegant Austerity Foods, elegant cuisine, Elegant Potato Salad, Elegant Salad on 08/10/2011 at 10:00 am
M-J’s Elegant Autumn Potato Salad
Like the potato salad that my Swedish grandmother used to make for me, this dish relies upon some bacon, vinegar, and an onion.
Peel, quarter and boil eight medium sized potatoes, or ten small ones. Salt the boiling water. Alternatively, add some Maggi or Knorr chicken bouillon powder.
Boil the potato chunks for fifteen minutes. Drain but do not rinse them. In your cooking pot, sauté eight strips of bacon, finely chopped. Remove the bacon bits with a slotted spoon. and reserve in a small bowl or cup. Empty out half of the bacon fat. Add two tablespoons of vegetable oil (I use peanut oil) and two tablespoons of vinegar (I use malt vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar). If you have it, a tablespoon of concentrated apple juice can be added to this dressing mixture. You will adjust the vinegar and oil to your taste after the initial mixing of all ingredients. Add the potatoes, one finely diced small onion (red, white or yellow), and one diced, unpeeled apple. Grind some pepper into the mixture for taste, and check for salt. Mix gently. Serve lukewarm or at room temperature for best flavor.
Boil the potato chunks for fifteen minutes. Drain but do not rinse them. In your cooking pot, sauté eight strips of bacon, finely chopped. Remove the bacon bits with a slotted spoon. and reserve in a small bowl or cup. Empty out half of the bacon fat. Add two tablespoons of vegetable oil (I use peanut oil) and two tablespoons of vinegar (I use malt vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar). If you have it, a tablespoon of concentrated apple juice can be added to this dressing mixture. You will adjust the vinegar and oil to your taste after the initial mixing of all ingredients. Add the potatoes, one finely diced small onion (red, white or yellow), and one diced, unpeeled apple. Grind some pepper into the mixture for taste, and check for salt. Mix gently. Serve lukewarm or at room temperature for best flavor.
~~Recipe and Photo of Autumn Potato Salad Copyright M-J de Mesterton, 2008
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Harvest Pot au Feu
In Elegant Austerity Foods, Elegant Survivalist on 08/10/2011 at 8:40 am
An autumn pot au feu with beef and sausage, home-grown vegetables, herbes de Provence, and Burgundy wine makes a hearty meal or two. Cooked over low heat for several hours, the flavours blend and the meats become tender. I didn’t have bacon at hand, so I substituted it with sausage, which of course is optional.
©M-J de Mesterton
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Cornish-Style Pasties
In Cornish Pasty, Economical Elegant Recipe, Elegant Austerity Foods, elegant cuisine, Elegant Luncheon, How to Make Pasties on 09/06/2011 at 8:38 am
M-J’s Cornish-Style Pasty
Cornish Pasty Made by M-J de Mesterton
I’ve been making Cornish pasties since the age of 20. My mother wrote a book about the pasty and its history which was published in 1990, but my method and ingredients differ from hers. The following is my pasty (pronounced “pass-tee”) recipe: I will not formally transcribe my recipe and method for making pasties, because I never use measurements. I can tell you, however, that they are made with a short crust containing both butter and lard, water, a teaspoon of malt vinegar, and unbleached, plain white flour. Since salted butter is used in the dough, add just a dash of salt to it. I add sea-salt and hand-milled pepper to the filling, which consists of four raw, uncooked ingredients, all diced very finely: tri-tip steak, which is always well-marbled and never tough; ordinary, high-starch brown-skinned potatoes, turnips, butter bits, and white or Spanish onions. The finely-diced beef and vegetables are tossed together in a mixing bowl with the salt and pepper before being laid upon the dough, dotted with butter and enclosed. The edges are crimped, either on top or on the side of the pasty, and a couple of well-placed slits are made in the top to allow steam to escape. The final product is brushed with a beaten egg mixed with a teaspoon of cream. The pasties are then baked in a very hot oven for close to one hour. Once the pasties have cooled for about twenty minutes, serve with an oil-and-vinegar-dressed lettuce salad. Offer Cornish cream, Spanish or Mexican Crema, or sour cream as an optional condiment. The pasties depicted here, which I made, are the optimum size for a meal; the dough for them was shaped into a ball about half the size of a woman’s closed hand, then was rolled out and cut around a 7″ luncheon plate. Making giant pasties just isn’t elegant, nor is it traditionally Cornish. I also make miniature pasties for parties, by using a tin can or the bottom, inner ridge of the same luncheon plate as a cutting guide. These mini-pasties are easily eaten by hand with a cocktail napkin to catch any pastry-flakes. For a basic short-crust guide, please see my Elegant Apple Pie recipe.~~Recipe and Pasty Photos Copyright M-J de Mesterton
