A Commentary on the Passing Scene by Robert Paul Wolff rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
Thursday, December 13, 2012
CULINARY ADVENTURES
Ever since Susie and I took the plunge and bought our Paris apartment eight years ago, I have been the cook. Over the years, I have developed a small repertory of dishes of which I am inordinately proud, as only a mediocre amateur chef can be -- grilled quail, hazelnut encrusted rabbit, five spices duck legs, coquilles St. Jacques, dorade royale [a lovely white fish], tuna, swordfish, paupiettes provencale [a cheat, these, inasmuch as they are delicious little concoctions of turkey, bacon, and farci already prepared by the local butcher]. Today, urged on by Susie, who in the day was truly a great cordon bleu cook, I bought skate at the market [or "raie,"as it is called in France.] Skate is a really scary looking thing, lying there at the fishmonger's stall as though it was ready to fly into your boat and bite you. I found a fairly simple recipe online, and tomorrow night I shall try it. Who knows, if this works, I might even try my hand at escargots!
Soon we may have to call you Madame Maigret.
ReplyDeleteHey! You gotta post the recipes!
ReplyDeleteThe skate recipe is just something I found on he web. Here is the url:
ReplyDeletehttp://fishcooking.about.com/od/fishfilletrecipe1/r/skate_bbutter.htm
As for the other recipes,I can post those if anyone actually cares.
Happy boning.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Paris (on rue Paul Bert, in the fabulous 11th) there was in the nearby covered market (on of the few left--Marché d'Aligre)a woman who specialized in offal. Her paupiettes with sweetbreads were wonderful.
That market also produced a genuine Proustian moment; the chicken purveyor had asked if I wanted my chicken "preparé" (=gutted, headed, and footed (defeeted?)), "oui", I said, as I glanced over at the cheese stand. Moments later I was transported back to the Bronx circa 1955. The chicken monger was singeing the pin feathers over a bunsen burner, producing the well-remembered odor as my mother was similarly employed over the open gas burner of our stove; she having picked out a live chicken at Bathgate market and which, after the ministrations of the lowly flicker at the market, still needed some work.