The recipes prepared for this week's assignment for
Whisk Wednesdays are from Class 25, Menu 2:
Longe de Porc aux Pruneaux (Roast Pork Loin with Prunes) and Mousseline de Céleri Rave (Creamed Celery Root Purée). They can be found in the cookbook Le Cordon Bleu at Home on pages 122-123.
This week's LCB recipe for the Roast Pork Loin with Prunes was a big hit with everyone here. The guys all like roasted pork and were excited to see it on the menu. They were not a bit disappointed with the prune stuffing and sauce. (When studying the menu, I read the ingredients of the sauce: pan drippings, water, vinegar, sugar, and wondered how this was going to be an enhancement to the meat. Believe me, it was.) Can't describe the taste, sort of sweet and sort of not, lots of depth of flavor from the pork, carrots, onions, garlic, herbs, prunes, cooked together in the roasting pan, the sauce was amazingly good and complimented the pork ideally.
I will make this again and again as the recipe was easy and the guys really enjoyed it.
Really, buy the book, start cooking from it...you will be amazed at how easy it can be and how much your cooking will change.
Before I started cooking with this book my food was good, at least my family thought so, and I figured I was a fairly good cook. Since I have been cooking with this book and this Whisk group, my cooking has improved immensely. The flavors are deeper/richer, the techniques I have learned help bring out the best in the ingredients, and it is all a lot easier than you can imagine. If there are concerns about calories, I will say this: one is happier (even the guys) with smaller portions because the food is filling and satisfying. The French are a bit fussy, but the results are definitely worth it.
The second dish was Creamed Celery Root Puree and to be honest, was not such a big hit. I enjoyed it, Mark was sort of "iffy" on it, and the younger guys decided they didn't want to eat their portion, although they did try it. I had never had celery root before.
Celery root is one of those vegetables you see at the grocery store and wonder what on earth people do with it, what it tastes like, and how you would even begin to prepare it. I thought it was quite exciting to put one of these in my cart like I actually knew what I was doing, etc., and proceed to the checkout line where the lady next to me said, "I have no idea what that is or what you do with it." I was tempted to pretend that I did, but I said, "Neither do I, but I am going to find out."
I like trying something new as long as I am not in it for too much of a commitment or expense. This filled both those requirements. It was incredibly easy to prepare...not as daunting as it looks: first you chop the green stuff off, then you peel the brown stuff off with a vegetable peeler or knife, and when you are left with just a big white globe, you dice it up, boil it tender, drain the water, dump it into the food processor, process, add a little butter, salt, pepper, and cream fraiche, and that's it. Very easy.
I think the guys were all expecting mashed potatoes and while this had the consistency of that, the slight celery taste it has threw them off a bit and they decided that they were missing the mashed potatoes, so it didn't really have fair a chance. I liked it, not for every day, but it was enjoyable. Would I make it again? Yes, I think I might, as an interesting side dish for something like a holiday meal...something a little different.
It was so nice this week to go out and snip my own herbs as the recipes called for rosemary, thyme, and I used chives for topping the celery root puree. I missed that a lot over the winter. This year I planted herbs that I knew I would be using for LCB recipes, so I'll have what I need each week.
If you would like to see how the other Whisk Wednesday members fared in this class, click here, and then on the Whisk Wednesdays connect to individual bloggers, or better yet, come and join us! Shari has the ingredients posted on her site at the click, so while we can't post the recipe instructions, you can at least look at the ingredients, and I bet you can figure out a lot of it from there.
Next Week's Assignment:
The next few assignments are Menus, so we are going to make the menu for one meal (hopefully), but then post each dish separately in its own week as posting it all at once seemed a bit much, following the schedule below.
Class 25: Menu #2 (Make in one session, if you can, between May 19 and May 26)
• Salade de Foies de Volailles Tiedes (Salad of Warm Sautéed Chicken Livers) pages 306-307 (Post Wednesday, May 27, 2009)
• Longe de Porc aux Pruneaux (Roast Pork Loin with Prunes) and Mousseline de Céleri Rave (Creamed Celery Root Purée) pages 122-123 (Post Wednesday, June 3, 2009)
• Savarin aux Kiwis et aux Fraises (Rum Savarin with Kiwis and Strawberries) pages 409-410 (Post Wednesday, June 10, 2009)