Forlorn Hope Menu For March 2020

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Pink And Green Dream

March is tough, even for the tiny club (and I am a founding member) that adores cold and gray weather. You get these warm days and then a freeze. The sun comes out and your bulbs blossom and then you get a glacial sleet.  Our first post on the Forlorn Hope month of March explains it all. This year, instead of trying to find a menu that features what you might forage at a local market, which is usually radishes and rutabagas, I am going with  a Pink & Green theme. It’s almost an Early April Fool’s Menu.   The terrine can be made one day ahead and behaves well in the refrigerator. The salad is based on one I learned from a French chef years ago, long before avocados became ubiquitous on just about everything.   The blood orange ice cream with its blood orange caramel sauce is from a cookbook from Joyce Goldstein who had a marvelously creative restaurant called Square One in San Francisco.  She now serves as a restaurant consultant and continues to write about food.

A Surprising Salad

This is a delightful and light combination that can be made as a large salad on a platter or as individual servings.  You  can make the suprêmes and keep them covered in their juice a day in advance. Not so much with the avocado. Cutting citrus into suprêmes is a nifty knife skill to have. They are much nicer to eat than just sliced cross sections of an orange or a grapefruit. Look at these instructions and practice making them for a fruit salad.The knife I use is the Messermeister tomato knife or a classic small chef’s knife.  I use micro-greens as the base, since they are so abundant now at local markets as well as grocery stores. Pink pepper corns when used as a garnish give any light dish a delightful peppery and sweet taste – their flavor is diminished if you cook with them.  They are much softer than black peppercorns and crush easily in a mortar and pestle. Just to clear up some pink peppercorn myths, they are actually not a peppercorn, but rather the dried berry of two somewhat related bushes. One is the Schinus Molle or Peruvian Peppertree (Baie Rose on French spice labels))  and the other is Schinus Terebinthifolia native to Brazil (Baie Rose De Bourbon on French spice labels). Both species are considered safe to eat by the FDA after a somewhat contentious history in which the French government threatened to sue the US when pink peppercorns were banned here. As members of the cashew family, people who are allergic to that nut may have a similar reaction to pink peppercorns. That’s about the extent of their danger. You can also toast some shelled pistachios and add that to the final garnish.  If you can purchase the Sicilian Bronte pistachios, they are much more flavorful and greener than the ones from California or Iran. Toast them in a frying pan over medium low heat, and add them with the crushed pink peppercorns. 

Pink Grapefruit & Avocado Salad With Pistachio Oil

2020-02-20 22:24:13

Serves 6

Pink and Green but a winter salad that I watched a chef in France make.

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Ingredients

1. 3- 4 pink grapefruits
2. 3 ripe but unblemished avocados
3. enough microgreens to plate 6 servings
4. Good quality Pistachio oil
5. Pink Peppercorns, lightly crushed for garnish
6. Toasted shelled pistachios for garnish
7. Fleur de Sel or Maldon Flake Salt

Instructions

1. Peel the grapefruits and segment the slices into "suprêmes".
2. Peel the avocados and cut slices to a similar size as the suprêmes.
3. On each plate, arrange a small handful of microgreens to make a nest.
4. In a circle, lay alternating slices of the grapefruit and the avocados.
5. Drizzle with pistachio oil, a sprinkling of salt and garnish with a few toasted pistachios,crushed pink peppercorns.

Notes

1. This salad can be easily made on a platter and served to guests or be part of a buffet.

By Nancy Pollard

Kitchen Detail https://lacuisineus.com/

Salmon, Peas, Scallops, Oh My

This terrine was a  colorful shocker when I first made it from the  Best Of Gourmet 1991 . This was one volume of a rich series from the staff’s favorites from the previous year. So in this case, it would have been picked from the magazines of 1990.  Peas and scallops form the base of the terrine, and chunks of skinned salmon fillet are folded in. The Gourmet Editors offered a chive butter sauce to serve it warm or a tzatziki sauce if you serve it at room temperature. You can actually make this the day before and refrigerate it.  I would not freeze it as the terrine gets a bit weepy when defrosted. The little pinkish skinned potatoes are color coordinated to suit our desperation Forlorn Hope color scheme.  Toss the  steamed potatoes with the beurre blanc (including the shallots) and then garnish each slice of the terrine with some of the remaining sauce. 

Salmon,Scallop and Pea Terrine

2020-02-20 18:49:00

Serves 6

Serve warm in the winter or at room temperature in the summer. A bright looking and subtle terrine.

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Ingredients

1. 3/4 lb sea scallops, rinsed, drained and patted dry
2. 1 cup shelled fresh or frozen peas, cooked until tender, drained and cooled
3. 1 tbs lightly beaten egg white
4. 2 tbs heavy cream (not ultrapasteurised)
5. 1 tsp fine sea salt
6. 1/2 tsp dried tarragon
7. 1 lb skinless salmon fillet, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Instructions

1. In a food processor, puree the peas and scallops until the mixture is almost smooth.
2. Add the egg white, cream, salt and tarragon - then puree mixture until smooth.
3. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and fold in the salmon chunks.
4. Set up a roasting pan with warm water - I put it on low heat on the stove to pre warm the water.
5. Transfer to a buttered 1 quart rectangular buttered terrine mold or loaf pan and put it in the water bath.
6. Bake in a preheated 375F oven for 30-45 minutes.- my terrine is enameled cast iron so it takes a bit longer than a metal loaf pan.
7. Remove the terrine or loaf pan from the water bath and remove lid or foil and paper as well.
8. Allow the terrine to stand at room temperature for 10 minutes and then carefully pour off the excess liquid.
9. Invert the terrine onto a platter and serve with a sauce of your choice or with an excellent extra virgin olive oil.

Notes

1. You can bake this dish one day ahead but keep it covered and chilled.
2. Allow it to come to room temperature before serving
3. I slice this terrine and plate it or slice it and lay out on a platter. .

By Editors of 1990 Gourmet Magazine

Kitchen Detail https://lacuisineus.com/

Winter Fruit For A Spring Dessert

While we both love Italian gelato,  my husband  and I are split on sorbet and granita.  I love them both and he can’t stand either. But we are united in our affection for blood oranges. So here is a uniquely delicious compromise in a cookbook that we sold in the shop along with others written by Joyce Goldstein: Blood orange ice cream with blood orange caramel sauce.  I have never had great luck in getting creamy non-egg yolk ice cream (cornstarch, xanthan gum are the usual stand ins), so just bear with me and Joyce on the nine yolks! I  made a pistachio praline powder from this recipe for  pistachio brittle  featured  on Spruce Eats as a garnish. Their recipe gives the option for light corn syrup or Lyles Golden Syrup. If you can purchase it, for me Lyles Golden Syrup has a better flavor than corn syrup.The ice cream will have a brighter flavor if you squeeze your juice from blood oranges, but I have used bottled blood orange juice (with no additives and not made from concentrate).  Keep some small shards of the brittle for Forlorn Hope mood emergencies with tea or coffee. Goldstein’s idea for a blood orange caramel sauce is inspired. I have even used it as a glaze on pound cakes.  You can add water to it in a saucepan over medium low heat to get the consistency desired. 

Blood Orange Ice Cream & Caramel Sauce

2020-02-20 20:19:46

An unusual and delicious ice cream - and make the sauce!

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Ingredients

1. 2 cups blood orange juice (12 oranges)
2. 4 cups heavy cream
3. 1/2 cup caster sugar
4. grated zest of 4 blood oranges
5. 9 egg yolks
6. 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or 3/4 tsp Vanilla Essence from Grasse
7. For The Blood Orange Caramel Sauce
8. 2 cups caster sugar
9. 1/4 cup water
10. 1 cup blood orange juice

Instructions

1. Heat the juice to boiling in a saucepan and boil until it is reduced to 1 cup.
2. Mix the cream, sugar and 3/4 of the zest in a saucepan and heat until barely simmering - you will have to stir to help dissolve the sugar.
3. Remove from heat and allow to stand for 10 minutes
4. Whisk the yolks until completely blended.
5. Whisk 1 cup of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolks and then add the rest of the cream mixture, while whisking.
6. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until the cream is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon - I use my thermometer and remove from heat when it reaches 160-170F.
7. Never allow the mixture to boil.
8. Strain the custard into a mixing bowl.and stir in the reduced juice, vanilla and remaining orange zest.
9. I cool my mixture in the fridge for several hours or in freezer in less time - you want the mixture to be completely cold when you stick your very clean finger down the center.
10. Freeze in an ice cream maker following the instructions of your machine.

For the Blood Orange Caramel Sauce

1. Combine the sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and caramelize - don't over stir as that inhibits the caramelization.
2. Pour the juice into the caramel off the heat.
3. The sauce will harden, but stir over low heat and it will become smooth.
4. I always add the zest even though she indicates that it is optional.
5. You can warm it over hot water if it solidifies.

Notes

1. The ice cream will keep in the freezer covered tightly in a container for about a month.
2. The sauce lasts indefinitely (also covered) in the fridge.

By Joyce Goldstein

Adapted from The Mediterranean Kitchen

Adapted from The Mediterranean Kitchen

Kitchen Detail https://lacuisineus.com/

Note: The recipe above calls for Vanilla Essence from Grasse. We recommend you pick it up from our friends at Simply Gourmand!

Nancy Pollard

After owning one of the best cooking stores in the US for 47 years, Nancy Pollard writes a blog about food in all its aspects – recipes, film, books, travel, superior sources and food related issues.