My daughter Karen had visited Emeril’s famous place in New Orleans… Delmonicos. For those who don’t know, Delmonico’s has a favored status among those who love culinary history. The Delmonico’s in New York produced a wonderful cookbook that every fine chef wants to own. The cookbook is called ‘the Epicurean.’ Even Emeril has one on display.
While Karen was at Delmonico’s, she tried an interesting twist on an ancient dessert called bread pudding. The difference is that it was made with Gingerbread.
However, I made my Gingerbread bread pudding differently, allowing the gingerbread to only be one of the breads used in the mixture ( the others being: croissants, apple spice muffins and sour dough bread. The technique isn’t really all that unusual if you remember what bread pudding was really all about. Its purpose was to allow the chef to utilize all of the extra unused bread scraps that a kitchen might produce… including but not limited to: cake, muffins, rolls, french loaves and (my favorite) croissants! Besides, for bread pudding, I tend to allow my spices to take control of the gingerbread… so diluting this with other breads only makes sense.
What do you want to eat on your birthday?
it only looks like a turkey... it's a TURDUCKEN!
One of the nice traditions we have in making a birthday special is that the person being celebrated is given their choices for the day. This gave me time to pause and think about my own upcoming birthday. I am also painfully aware that I had planned many culinary wonders for the holidays that never were developed and the various ingredients lay in my 3 freezers.
I had planned our version of what Chef Paul Prudhomme made famous… the Turducken.His recipe is very nice but I’d leave out the eggplant and remove the skin from the inner birds. BTW, I am very fond of Louisiana Cooking be it Chef Prudhomme or that of Chef Emeril John Lagasse and found autographed cookbooks by both for my daughters Karen & Kristin’s Cookbook collections. I had to insure that I had everything I needed!
For our Turducken: Turkey, Pheasant, Goose and Duck... and I have plenty of Chicken elsewhere!
Most people shy away from this wonderful dish, in part because many find deboning the birds a rather physical task. However, if you take your time and do it the day before… it is rather simple.
Each bird should be accompanied by its own stuffing! With so many wonderful stuffings out there, you can choose just the right one for each bird! Chef Prudhomme recommends an Andouille corn bread stuffing which is perfect even if you only make a turkey! Other stuffings that are fun are versions of wild rice, cashew, and mushroom and saffron. There are some fun stuffings for the smaller birds made from ancient grains that don’t over power… but add interest as well.
One thing you might consider is to place strips of bacon between the string lattice you made and the turkey… this is often referred to as ‘banding’ and adds a lot to the experience.
So, now all I have to do is wait to put this all together and celebrate something… oh yeah, my birthday!
Rarely, do I take the time to read fiction. In truth, not a lot captures my interest. I read Thomas Thibeault’s new book in two long sittings…. it ended far too soon for me. It had everything one might need for an action movie trifecta: World War II, stolen treasure and Nazi’s. Although I bought a hard cover… you can buy a kindle version as well.
Another book is called the Monument Men from which an upcoming George Clooney movie is based. Read both to get a feeling for the time.
As all great story tellers, Thomas Thibeault in Balto’s Nose, weaves the lessons of history, personal conflicts and redemption in a tale told by an older man to his not-so-young grandson as both wrestle with modern life.
Biscottis are not something everyone likes to make, they prefer to spend a buck or two for 250 calories of high caloric disappointment.
I decided to make my own biscottis to reduce the calories but increase their absorption of coffee while in use. Absorbing the maximum of highly caffeinated coffee makes it for me!
