Task: Concombres au Beurre (Baked Cucumbers) and Coquilles St. Jacques a La Provencale (Scallops Gratinéed with Wine, Garlic, and Herbs).
According to Julia, most cooked cucumbers turn to mush. Her recipe, however, i supposed to be the best way to cook them: "We have found the following method delicious, and suggest it for all cooked cucumber recipes." She instructs the cook to slice the cucumbers in half, remove the seeds, slice the halves into this strips, and then cut the strips into 2-inch pieces. The cucumbers are then marinated in sugar, slat, and vinegar. After about an hour, they are tossed with butter, basil, salt, and pepper in a baking dish and baked in the oven for about 1 hour on 375 degrees. The scallops are floured and sautéed in a skillet with butter and oil. Once lightly brown, white wine, thyme, a bay leaf, onions, and garlic are added in the skillet. The mixture is allowed to simmer for 5 minutes. Afterwards, the scallops are spooned into small baking cups and covered with cheese. When it is time to serve, they are broiled for 3 minutes to melt the cheese and heat the scallops.
Verdict: This meal was a complete success! Lori described it as her favorite one yet. It was quite simple to make, and yet it had a sophisticated feel to it. The only real mistake was that I had an accident melting butter. I know that sounds silly, but I am convinced it was karma. I have not noted it yet in this blog, but I made a vow with myself not to use the microwave at all for any of these meals. So far I have stayed true to that promise...until last night. In order to melt butter, i popped it in the microwave. Not paying attention to how long I had set the time for, I began working on something else. Suddenly I heard a loud pop and realized what I had done. When I opened the microwave I saw that the inside had been coated in a nice thick layer of butter. Mmmmmm.
Below is the final product from last night's meal:
1 comment:
yum yum yum yum yum!! this was one of my faves!
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