My next challenge cookbook is The Chez Francois Cookbook by Jacque E. Haeringer. I have no idea where I got this or why.
There were many tasty-looking recipes, some not-so-tasty (Calves Brains with Black Butter, anyone?). All of the vegetable dishes looked like they were supposed to be garnishes for the main protein. Didn't want to do one of those. And I'm not about to tackle a French dessert.
So I narrowed it down to Shrimp and Scallops in Aromatic Broth, or the Châteubriand. The beef dish looked really good, but I didn't feel like making all the garnishes - carottes et petis oignons glacés, haricots verts sautés, les champignons à blanc, pommes sautées Lyonnaise, tomates provençale, and Béarnaise sauce. So I went with the seafood.
You julienne celery, carrot and leek, shred onion, and simmer them all in water, wine, red wine vinegar, s&p, and a bouquet garni for 30 minutes. You drop in the shrimp and scallops, remove the pot from the heat as soon as it returns to a boil, and serve.
I had roasted some garlic and mixed it with butter, to slather on a fresh baguette. I figured you can't have broth without crusty bread to dip into it.
But that's assuming that the broth was good. It wasn't. This dish was so bad that I removed the shrimp and scallops, sink-pigged the nasty broth, and tried sautéeing the seafood quickly in my garlic butter and a dusting of paprika. Still sucked. Hubby said it tasted like dishwater. He was right.
So we had garlic bread for dinner. The dogs had shrimp and scallops.
1 comment:
I would have simmered the broth for 60 minutes not thirty. You essentially are making a vegetable stock. Possibly you didn't have enough vegetables.
also the shrimp or scallops could have had a bad member or two. You are boiling them in vegetable stock instead of plain water, but that is the basis for a lot of shrimp dishes.
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