We are a bunch of Minnesotans who like to cook, eat, and try out new recipes. Each month one of the six of us (the club size is limited) takes it in turns to act as host and command the recipes to be made by the others. It's been going on for many years (we'll fill you in on the history later). But for now we felt it was high time we started chronicling some of our gastronomic goings-on for the sake of posterity if not wide interest.
Here you may find useful recipes, photos of how they actually turned out, comments on whether we'd go through the effort again, and snipes about failed experiments. Each event is lovingly crafted and planned (we often clean house especially), and sometimes there is a theme. More on that later.
Who we are:
Jolee Mosher
Nancy Miller
Jeff V
Marianne Combs
Philip Blackburn
Preston Wright
Philip says Hi
nice rump
This is Preston
Separated at birth?
These are Jeff and Marianne
No spinach in those teeth
This is Nancy
Surveying her empire
This is Jolee (with Ani)
Off to tea with the Venturas
2 comments:
19th Century Denmark.
The story revolves around two sisters, Martine and Phillipa, living on a remote island. Their Father is the village priest and founder of a tiny Lutheran sect with a strict devotion to Puritanism and piety.
Although Martine and Phillipa are both given opportunities to leave the island and find fame and fortune in Europe, they remain with their Father and in service to the Lord.
One day a woman named Babette turns up at their door. Babette has been sent by a man who was once a suitor to Phillipa. He asks the sisters to take Babette into their home in order to escape the revolution in France. They do not know of Babette’s past, that she was once one of Paris’s greatest chefs.
Babette is resigned to a simple daily life of cleaning and cooking – the main dish being a soup made out of stale bread and dried cod.
But one day Babette receives a note. Much to her surprise she finds that she has won the lottery and come into a great fortune. This news comes upon the 100th birthday of the sisters’ Father who passed away some time ago.
While the Sisters are fully prepared to bid Babette goodbye and to see her take her wealth back to Paris, Babette surprises them and the village with plans to create a celebration feast. Only Babette carries the secret that she is a great chef.
It is that feast that becomes the centerpiece of this film.
Babette goes down to the waterfront to greet the boat when it arrives with her special order; bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne and other fine wines, live quail and fist-sized, pungent black truffles. To the horror of the onlooking villagers, a huge, live snapping turtle is hauled from the boat.
I am rapt with anticipation as I watch Babette and a young boy prepare the special meal; plucking the feathers from the quail and preparing the pastry “sacarphogus” in which the birds will roast.
A special guest is attending dinner this evening, a decorated officer in the French army. Surely he will appreciate the gourmet feast that Babette has prepared.
But the villagers are not so sure as they sit down at the table. Hasn’t God taught us that fine French food is evil? Is it not a sin to partake in the mind-numbing effects of wine? Wine should only be drunk in the celebration of communion in the church.
Babette’s feast was made up of the finest dishes and wines served at her restaurant in Paris:
Potage a’la Tortue
(Turtle Soup)
§
Blini Demidoff au Caviar
(Buckwheat cakes with caviar)
§
Caille en Sarcophage avec Sauce Perigourdine
(Quail in Puff Pastry Shell with Foie Gras and Truffle Sauce)
§
La Salade
(Salad Course)
§
Les Fromages
(Cheese and Fresh Fruit)
§
Baba au Rhum avec les Figues
(Rum Cake with Dried Figs)
And after prayer, the dinner begins. The wine is opened and poured, the turtle soup ladled into each bowl. Next, tiny pancakes garnished with odd looking, fishy smelling little black eggs. Ah, a quick look of surprise in the eye of the French Officer. Caviar! And Champagne!
And then, as the guests are beginning to sip another glass of vintage wine, the aroma of something special wafts through the dining room; “Caille en Sarcophage avec Sauce Perigourdine.” It is a masterpiece. One of the finest of the finest of classical French dishes served only in Paris’s finest restaurants. Tender, gamey quail stuffed with foie gras and encased in a puff pastry shell, swimming in a pool of black truffles hand-picked in the Perigord region of France. Rare bottles of “Clos de Vougeot” are poured into crystal goblets.
Dinner ends with a fabulous rum cake with glaceé and fresh fruits.
How can this be, the Officer asks himself. I know of only one chef, a woman, and a genius, who served these dishes at a luxurious meal I had in Paris. Could it be her, tonight?
Hi,
I hope to see posts on some of the club's former members and meals! And please visit my blog at:
www.duckfatandpolitics.blogspot.com
Your former dining companion,
Patrick
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