Hell of a day in the kitchen. My friend Devon, who is currently living
here -- I wrote about him in glowing terms a few days ago becuse he's
like one of my sons -- went away for a couple of days yesterday. My
daughter Madeleina came home from university but had to return there
today for somthing, so her live in boyfriend, Adrian, didn't come.
Madelaina and I had a great meal of salmon with sliced red peppers,
garlic, green onions, ginger, and Sesame oil on a bed of fresh spinach,
watched a movie — something with Matt Dillon with a mustache that was
REALLY wordy and I finally gave up — and then I went to bed.
Today, with Devon gone and Madeleina going to be gone for a few hours, I
wrote a couple of recipes in the cook book I'm trying to get done, sang
for everyone, stretched my back, wrote a blog piece or two, looked for a
story for my newspaper, the Fort Worth Weekly, that I want to write,
and then thought that I really felt like cooking.
What I wanted
to cook was Sauce Espagnole, the basis for every damned French beef
sauce, stew, soup, and anything else. It's a beef stock reduction done
twice and it takes a lot of veggies, work, patience.
I thought
I'd make that while I was cooking my fajita stew for dinner. that
requires yellow jasmine rice. And then Boots the wonder dog's food,
chicken livers, meat trimmings and a chicken leg had to be cooked as
well. And I only have two working burners on my stove. So it was gonna
be a day.
For the Espgnole, I bought about 10 pounds of beef soup
bones with lots of marrow. I put those in the oven at 350 for two
hours. Took them out, hammered them to loosten the marrow, then threw
them in a stock pot with one head of organic celery, two organic sweet
onions, 20 teeth of rough cut fresh garlic, five organic carrots, slice,
and olive oil.
When all was brown, I added 6 liters of water,
sea salt and cracked black pepper, brought it to a boil, then reduced to
simmering.
While that was cooking, I trimmed the flank steak
for the fajitas, a painstaking task, then marinated them in garlic,
olive oil, fajita seasoning, black pepper, Peruvian achiote for color
and taste, and white vinegar.
When the beef stock was done —
reduced to 2 quarts after 3 hours — I strained it. Then I put 20 more
fresh garlic teeth, two more onions, four more organic carrots, another
head of celery, a half pound of Baby Bella mushrooms, a half-pound of
very good ham, chopped, a full brace of parsely, chopped, four fresh
beefsteak tomatoes and 6 ounces of the best tomato paste I can buy into
the stock pot. I added the stock I'd made after the veggies browned,
then added four quarts of organic grass fed beef stock (I was cheating a
little, okay?????), brought it to a boil, then reduced to simmer. It's
been on for three hours and probably has five more hours to go to reduce
to one pint, which is what I am after.
While that was cooking, I
cut the marinated flank steak into 1/4 inch slices and put them into a
pot with their own marinade, plus two more heads of garlic. Thirty
minutes Iater I added two onions slices into half-circles, achiote and
white vinegar. Let that cook for half an hour, then put it on the back
burner and started the yellow jasmine rice.
When the rice was
cooking I stirred everything, washed all the used pots and strainers,
got the chicken/duck food ready, fed the outside birds hummingbirds.
When the rice was nearly done I put it on one of the non-working
burners and started the dog food: A chicken leg, beef trimmings and a
pound of chicken livers.
When Madeleina comes home soon, I'll put
the fajita mat back on the fire, add the red, orange, yellow, green
peppers, the scallions, veggie stock, and later, a bunch of chopped
cilantro. Vinegar to taste.
Also mde smoothies, a peruvian juice
drink. I'm freaking tired. Feel like I was back in a Manhattan
restaurant kitchen. Dang. But I still feel good.
I hope you all eat well tonight. Nice way, if slightly frantic, to spend a day now and then. Just you and veggies.