I wanted to make something special for my daughter Kristin. She loves those wonderful bread bowls filled with chowder or bisque. Personally, I prefer a bisque which has a smoother and less ‘extended’ composition. My bisques are basically pureed seafood with cream, brandy and wine, mirapoix and thickened with rice.
Sauteing the seafood helps to extract the many and wonderful flavors and I use my favorite seasonings along with Thyme and Rosemary. Recipe to follow.
Roger Freberg
PS. I dedicate this to my daughter Kristin and Lane Kiffen the new Head Coach of the Sc Trojans! FIGHT ON!!!!
I have always learned in recipe development that many great works are made with much trial and error. However, like all great endeavors they are often built on the works of others. If you know what was in the mind of the recipe’s creator then you might understand some of the trade offs that went in it’s creation. Sometimes, the today’s substitute has no resemblance with the original creation. Chicken TetrazinniandBeef Stroganoffare not the same thing with different meats and they never meant to be created with Mushroom soup.
Many recipes you find are the result of a committee. One chef says it should have this or that for ease in preparation, another will say that certain ingredients must be substituted due to cost and a few might throw in some products for no reason that they are a sponsors own preference. Why should we be bound by any of these constraints if indeed you wish to make something extraordinary? As said in the “Last Holiday”:
“the SECRET of Life is BUTTER!”
I would add, that it also contains wondrous cheeses, meats, cream and many long forgotten spices.
So, before you splash in that recipe some condensed milk, replace it with heavy cream … before you make that pie with cinnamon alone, think about how more delicious it might be with hints of nutmeg, cloves, cardamon? Have you ever tried ‘savory?’ or ‘fenugreek?’ in anything?… and there is so much more.
I am always amused at how simple recipes often intimidate… when there really is no reason.
Baked Alaska is a simple cake and ice cream dish with a flare for meringue and sometimes a little showmanship of lighted dark rum! If you look closely in the top right part of the above photo collage, you will see the flames rising from dark rum splashed on top of the meringue.
The brownie cake base was a simple one and I am sure your own nutty and heavily chocolaty version would probably work well. I prefer using a heavy cake as it needs to support the weight of a couple of quarts of ice cream. I used three mixed flavors of ice cream pressed together in a Neapolitan style. The superior meringue was thetraditional one we use in all our pies.
Family Chefs Clowning around while making Meringue
As a child I loved the shear extravagance of a ‘Baked Alaska.’ My grandmother would make this on those very rare occasions when my grandfather would actually allow her to cook… but since she had been a professional chef, I think he thought she had done her bit. However, I was always grateful when we would cook.
So, it’s cold outside and around the country and what do my daughters want on new year’s day? Obviously, they want Baked Alaska. Technically, when you splash a little brandy on it and set it on fire it is referred to as ‘Bombe Alaska.’
The version we are working on is elegant in it’s simplicity … and I confess, we stole the idea from an ex-army wife … who knows how to feed and entertain a lot of folks? Our version has a brownie cake bottom, a mixture of ice creams formed in ribbons on top and all covered with our wonderful meringue! I’ll put up pictures soon.
As most folks know, I am not a five minute chef… but this simple, easy recipe appealed to me… and it reminds me of my youth!
