The World in My Kitchen (25 page)
Read The World in My Kitchen Online
Authors: Colette Rossant
I am always in charge of the stockings. This is what I like best. I roam the city choosing small, amusing, unusual, and often useless presents to fill the stockings. I hang them on the mantle piece, one for each member of the family, now seventeen. They are the first things we open in the morning before we have breakfast. The screams of delight of my grandchildren still resonate in my mind. Jimmy prepares breakfast. He is famous for his waffles. Since we’ve been married, now fifty years, Jimmy has always cooked breakfast on Christmas morning.
Christmas dinner is late at night. We all cook together. Marianne usually makes a soup. She makes a wonderful, pungent carrot and ginger soup. Thomas and I roast a goose, and I stuff the neck. This is a very old recipe that my French grandmother always made for Christmas. Juliette takes care of dessert, and Cecile, who half the time is vegetarian, cooks the vegetables. On this day, it is the only time where no one argues. Food in our family seems to still be the catalyst for bringing us together. We all sit, sixteen of us around a long table in the living room. It is the only time we eat there. As I look around the table, I remember that as a child I had never experienced this pleasure. Perhaps I have succeeded in my quest to create a real family, something I never had.
Two years later, Oliver, Thomas’s second son, is born.
CARROT SOUP
Peel, scrape, and cut in 1-inch pieces, 6 carrots. Place the carrots in a saucepan and cover with water and ½ teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and cook for 15 minutes or until the carrots are done. Drain the carrots, reserving the liquid. Place the carrots in a food processor with 1 medium onion; a 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut; 1 tablespoon of dried thyme, and 2 garlic cloves. Add 1 cup of the carrot water and puree. In a saucepan, bring to a boil 5 cups of chicken bouillon. Add the carrot puree and mix well. Correct the seasoning with salt and freshly ground pepper. Heat the soup, then pour it in 6 individual bowls. Top with 1 tablespoon of crème fraîche and garnish with 1 mint leaf.
Serves 6.
STUFFED GOOSE NECK
Preheat oven at 350°.
When preparing to roast a goose, first cut the neck skin of a 10-pound goose. Lay it flat and remove the veins and the fat inside the skin. Fold the skin in two. Start sewing it, using heavy thread in a darning needle, starting from the narrow end; leave the wider end open to stuff. In a bowl mix together 2 cups of pork sausages with 2 garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon of sage, 1 tablespoon of thyme, and 1 egg. Mix well. In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of butter. Add 2 shallots, chopped; the goose liver, cubed, and 2 or 3 chicken livers also cubed. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sautée for 5 minutes. Then pour over the livers 2 tablespoons of brandy and ignite. When the flame dies down, add the livers to the pork mixture and mix well. Stuff the neck and sew the last opening. Place the stuffed neck along side the goose. When the goose is cooked, remove the neck, let it cool, refrigerate, and serve as an appetizer, thinly sliced.
If you have too much stuffing, roll it like sausage, wrap it in foil paper, and bake it alongside of the goose.
ANNE’S BRISKET OF BEEF
Have the butcher trim most of the fat of a 5-pound beef brisket. Peel 6 garlic cloves and insert into the meat slivers of garlic. Place the meat in a large baking pan. Sprinkle with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper and 2 tablespoons of dried marjoram and thyme. Pour 2 tablespoons of dark soy mixed with 2 tablespoons of olive oil on the meat. Peel and thinly slice 2 medium onions. Spread the slices on top of the meat. Then add 3 cups of beef consommé to the pan. Cover the roasting pan with foil paper and bake in a 350° oven for 3 hours, adding more consommé if necessary. Remove the meat from the pan and thinly slice. Serve with the pan juices.
Serves 4.
KREPLACH
These kreplach are made with leftover brisket.
In a bowl, mix together 2 cups of flour with ½ teaspoon of salt, freshly ground pepper, and 3 tablespoons of oil. Mix well. In another bowl, beat 2 egg yolks with ½ cup of water. Add the egg mixture to the flour along with 1½ teaspoon of baking powder. Knead until you have a smooth dough. Roll the dough on a floured board as thin as you can.
Cut squares 3-inches on the side.
Cut the leftover meat in small cubes. You need about 2 cups of ground meat. Add some pan juices enough to moisten the meat. Then add 1 onion finely chopped and mix well. Correct the seasoning adding salt and pepper if necessary.
Place 1 teaspoon of the ground meat in the center of the square. Moisten the edges with water and fold the dough to form a triangle; press the dough down to seal the meat. Repeat this step until all the meat has been used.
In a saucepan bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Add the kreplach and bring to a boil, lower the heat to medium. Cook until the kreplach rise to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to a strong chicken soup.
Serves 4.
JULIETTE’S CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES
In a food processor place 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa, 2 tablespoons of brandy, ¼ cup of walnuts, 4 tablespoons of butter, cut in small pieces, 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons of corn syrup, 1 tablespoon of heavy cream, and a pinch of salt. Process all the ingredients until the mixture is a thick paste. Remove to a bowl. Wet lightly your hands and roll the cocoa mixture between the palms of your hands into small balls about 1-inch in diameter.
Place ¼ cup of nuts (almonds, pecans, or hazelnuts) in a food processor and process until chopped fine. Transfer the chopped nuts into a bowl. In another bowl place ½ cup of cocoa. Roll the balls first in the chopped nuts then in the cocoa. Place the truffles in a sealed container and refrigerate for 24 hours.
Makes about 30 truffles.
The past few years, many people have helped me go through difficult times. First, I want to thank the Bogliasco Foundation, which offered me a haven of peace and quiet to write this book; my friend Rosemary Ahern for her editorial help and suggestions; my very good friend and agent Gloria Loomis for believing in me; Peter Borland, my editor at Atria who has beautifully edited this book; and finally my husband, Jimmy, without whom this book would never have been written.
