We get super-fresh chicken livers here, and I love them. This dish starts with shallots sautéed in herb-garlic butter. Add a tablespoon of Oro de Parma tomato paste, then deglaze with Marsala. Put the livers into the pan and cook gently. Make a sauce by adding rich chicken broth and porcini powder, and finish with a handful of parmesan and lots of chives and parsley. It’s rich-tasting but not stodgy.
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Here’s a 5-egg parmesan soufflé that’s baked flat; it puffs up and then retreats.
After cooling a bit, it’s rolled up around ricotta filling.
I mix in vegetables–sometimes fire-roasted peppers, asparagus, mushrooms. This time I used artichoke hearts chopped finely. Or you can just use ricotta and more parmesan for pure cheesy-ness. The rolled-up log is cut in 6 pieces, then sprinkled with more cheese and baked for 30 minutes. It emerges puffy and a bit crispy on the outside. Light as a feather, not breaking the calorie bank and goes well with a green salad or steamed asparagus.
Oh I know, the oven will be cleaned today…
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That looks delicious and I may try that.
She who did not run away came back from a visit to the brother who lives north of Hamburg last night.
So for our lunch we had pickled baked herring, (Backfish) north German style Fried potatoes gherkins, and asparagus that I pickled last week and a beer.
Yum!
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No photos (I was very busy), but I did make a Sauce Hollandaise on Sunday.
Completely from scratch, by a recipe from Johann Lafer.
I did enlist the help of mom’s Thermomix - one of the few use-cases where it’s really helpful.
It was nice, but nothing can hide the knowledge that it’s absolutely rich.
rich? a well made hollandaise (like yours) is a cholesterol bomb in a saucer 
yet…so enjoyable over eggs benedict or white asparagus!..
I still make it the way my grandmother taught me at 6 YO. Put 6 yolks in a double-boiler with a little vinegar. Whip constantly until they are warm and frothy, then slooooooooly add half a pound of cold butter, tiny cube by tiny cube. Finish with juice of one lemon, salt and white pepper. Booom!
Try the hollandaise as Bernaise, with added Scharlotten, Estragon (tarragon, I think it is called) and chives.
Lafer uses a shallot gently fried in butter with a bayleaf and crushed pepper and added 100ml of white wine reduced to half as an „flavorizer“.
The butter I added molten - I was under the impression that the butter and the eggs need to be roughly the same temperature.
It‘s four eggs and 250g of butter. You can almost feel the fat cells of your body absorbing the butter
I think Escoffier, who invented the mother sauces, would not approve of chives, bay or wine, but he also would not approve of cold butter. Grandmother used it as extra insurance against overcooking the egg and causing the butter to separate from it. It made a very thick rich sauce. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.
That’s the convenience of the Thermomix: keeps the temperature at 70°C
Correctamundo. I can’t live without estragon; I put a new one in the garden every year. (I found out the hard way that you can let it regrow for one year or maybe two, but eventually it comes back with no flavour at all and very coarse leaves-- who knew?)
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Dividing and harsh pruning is the key as its the young green shoots which provide flavour.
Having said that, I once bought a new, young plant with no flavour at all so now I break off a couple of leaves and taste them at the garden centre.
Thanks for the reminder - I need to get some more herbs.
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I had a huge bush of it in Alsace, where it was in a dry spot and there was sun galore. I always cut the bejabbers out of it every fall, and it tasted great for years. Here I probably have put it in too shady a place that’s also very damp. It was tasteless in 3 years. This time I’ll either grow it in a pot or put it in the sunny border next to the snapdragons.
In my last place, I made a Mediterranean herb garden and it was in full sun, but the herbs grew slowly, and lacked vigour.
One year, I dug the whole lot up, removed the soil and replaced it with old broken bricks, stones and building rubble and little soil and put the plants back.
The transformation in the health of the plants was amazing.
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A few years ago a carload of colleagues were in Crete, on our way to see an olive grove. The road was bordered by a rough rock wall in the blazing sun. They were surprised when I pointed out that it was overflowing with caperberry plants growing in almost no soil.
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Malta is lnown as the caper-island and they grow in the north of the island, along with masses of wild thyme.
I liked collecting them.
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Time to use up the salsiccia. Skin, crumble, and fry 300g, then add one small leek and one small red onion and sauté some more. Flame with Calvados. Pour in 200ml red wine and reduce to almost dry. Now don a hazmat suit. Add 700ml passata, 100g pomodori secchi (the leathery ones, not the ones in oil) in small dice, 2 tablespoons tomato paste, 2 cups water, another cup red wine. Season with fresh thyme, basil, oregano, brown sugar, black pepper, Maldon salt. Simmer ever-so-gently for 2 hours, stirring often to prevent catching. Wow. Makes 3 x 500ml, more or less.
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What is it called?
You can name it…I just made it up as I went along.