Tonight, another recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Shrimp Mornay. First, the bechamel:

Ingredients

Directions

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan, blend in the flour with a wooden spoon, and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until butter and flour foam together for 2 minutes without turning more than a buttery yellow color. Remove from heat, and when bubbling stops, vigorously whisk in all the hot milk at once. Bring to the boil, whisking. Simmer, stirring, for 2 minutes. Season to taste.

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Might put aside my dislike of veal for this:

So simple, yet so easy to screw up …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWmvfUKwBrg

I’ll probably go through 8 or 10 eggs practicing this weekend. But they’ll all be eaten – I practice on my doorman and the rest of the building staff.

So the whole thing turned out delicious:

Turned it into a delicious mess:
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Making half the recipe using cod – this is not the precise recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1, but it is almost verbatim. I added a bit about meat glaze at the end – this is from the book.

Thon à la Provençale

3 pounds fresh tuna or swordfish steaks about ¾-inch thick
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil, divided
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup onions, peeled and minced
3 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup dry white wine or 2/3 cup dry vermouth
1 to 2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon butter, softened
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Remove skin from the fish, and cut into serving-size portions. Whisk together the salt, lemon juice, 6 tablespoons olive oil and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Arrange the fish in a large dish in one layer, pour marinade over the fish and marinate 1½ to 2 hours, turning occasionally. Drain the fish, and dry thoroughly on paper towels. Discard the marinade.

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Got this today – think I’ll do a quenelle this weekend … but we’ll see.

Too tired to put this up last night – it took 5 hours start to finish. I had forgotten that the stew has to spend 3-4 hours in the oven.  The finished product:

And yes – it was worth it. The result was delicious. The only change for next time is 2 pans for browning the meat – you can’t get a conventional stove hot enough to brown 3 pounds of meat at once. Complete recipe after the jump.
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