The dish is named for Lake Pontchartrain, the source of many crabs. The idea has long been favorite by waiters as a way of transforming a seemingly ordinary (but perhaps quite good) fish dish into something special, even though the addition of crabmeat to dishes is now very common. In the most ambitious versions, the crabmeat is jumbo lump or-even more spectacular-a whole small soft-shell or buster crab. The crabmeat is typically awash in a simple brown butter or beurre blanc sauce. Pontchartrain, adj.-Around New Orleans, a dish described as Pontchartrain style is served with crabmeat scattered on top of the main item (usually a fillet of fish, fried or broiled). The nearest restaurants are a bunch of chains in Morgan Hill, eight miles away as the crow flies. But you'd never get up there except on a horse or maybe with an all-terrain vehicle. These are steep, tree-covered volcanic mountains whose western flanks hold some excellent vineyards and wineries. The creek is at about the 2500-foot altitude, on the eastern side of Cow Hill. Soup Bowl Creek runs through a valley in the Coastal Range in California, eighteen miles west of San Jose, California. That's the same idea, made with the geese raised for foie gras is made in France. As good as a confit of duck is, even better is confit d'oie. Some other outstanding versions come from the Pelican Club, Lilette, Marigny Brasserie, and Muriel's. The local gold standard for duck confit has long been Gautreau's, which served the melt-in-the-mouth savory as an appetizer. (Thus the restaurant that used to serve a half duck may now be getting two entrees out of what used to be one entree.) If you're lucky, you get both on the plate. Since the breast cooks at a different rate, many chefs now grill the breast and make a confit of the legs. Obviously, this is a delicious item, and a great way to use the duck legs. Meanwhile, the inside of the dug leg becomes extraordinarily tender inside and almost melts in the mouth. When it was time to eat it, the duck was broiled or baked, and the fat that saturates it makes it crisp on the outside, in sort of the same way bacon becomes when cooked in its own fat. After it was cooked, it remained in a jar with the fat and could hold up that way for months, without refrigeration. Originally, this was a way of preserving duck meat. A confit of duck is made by cooking duck pieces-most commonly leg quarters-in the fat rendered from the duck skin. It will turn the shells a little brown, telling you at a glance which ones in the refrigerator have been boiled. The Old Kitchen Sage Sez: When you boil eggs, use standard (not expensive) balsamic vinegar in the boiling water. As a long-time user of fountain pens that make bold strokes, I observe. Hancock's birthday inspired the naming of January 23 as National Handwriting Day. He was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence, as any schoolchild knows. He became a fervent American revolutionary when one of his ships, carrying a full load of wine, was seized by the British. Today is one of two days called the birthday of John Hancock, whose handwriting was so rococo that he has become almost the patron saint of elaborate penmanship. His winery, Buena Vista, lives on (in name, anyway) to this day. But ultimately his efforts brought him fame as the Father of California Winemaking. He had lots of problems, mainly because the endemic root louse called phylloxera was killing the non-resistant European vines. Agoston Haraszthy, a native of Pest, Hungary, arrived in Sonoma, where he had a good deal of vineyard land, with about 100,000 vines. On this date in 1862, the first European-variety wine grapevine cuttings arrived in California.
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