Simmer Stock - Recent Scripts

Articles from September 2002:

Sauce Bolognese ››:

I have this theory stewing in my mind of late that Italian cuisine is the most sophisticated and refined cuisine in the world. While the French perfected restaurant cooking, and the Chinese turned food preparation into an art form, Italians perfected food. Sauce Bolognese is Prima facie evidence of this.

Sauce Bolognese is a ragu, which pretty much means stewed meat sauce (despite what you may gather from reading the labels of that stuff you find in the supermarket, real ragu does not contain high fructose corn syrup). Over the past few years I've heard more and more chefs and food writers call the sauces that result from cooking dishes such as chicken cacciatore, or even beef stew, ragus. But with Sauce Bolognese the sauce is the point, not just a pleasant side effect. I like to call it the sixth mother sauce (the five mother sauces—sauces upon which all other sauces are based—as defined by the French—are Bechamel, Velouté, Hollandaise, Espagnole, Mayonnaise and Vinaigrette), Sauce Bolognese is the result of long cooking over low heat of meat, mirepoix, tomato, milk and wine. To this basic sauce you can add an infinite variety of ingredients—mushrooms, peppers, anchovies, garlic, spinach, just about anything you can find in your refrigerator—to come up with the sauce that's just perfect for whatever you're cooking. Best of all, unlike all the other mother sauces, Sauce Bolognese freezes very well, meaning you can make big batches ahead of time.

MOREon Sauce Bolognese...

Posted in scripts on Sep 28, 2002 @ 01:56 PM [2 Comments on Sauce Bolognese]

Squash Soup (Winter Squash, That Is) ››:

The secret to soups made with winter squashes is roasting the squash before adding it to your soup stock. Some recipes say you can microwave the squash, which is fine if you're into something that tastes like the gruel fed to orphans in Dickens novels. Yep, roasting the squash adds a good hour and a half to the cooking time, but, it's soup, durnit! Since when was soup supposed to be a quick dish? What roasting does is caramelize the sugars and remove a bunch of moisture (which makes up the most of any vegetable), resulting in concentrated flavors that enhance, rather than just thicken, the soup.

Mixing in some cream at the end brings the soup to a whole new luxurious level. But, it's not needed if your goal is to simply satisfy your guest with some honest cuisine.

MOREon Squash Soup (Winter Squash, That Is)...

Posted in scripts on Sep 21, 2002 @ 10:54 PM [0 Comments on Squash Soup (Winter Squash, That Is)]

Lazy Sunday French Toast with Fresh Fruit Topping ››:

It's been a while since I've added anything breakfast related to Simmer Stock. To remedy that situation we present this morning's lazy Sunday breakfast—French Toast with Fresh Fruit Topping.

The secret to good french toast is the bread. Egg batter breads like brioche or challah work best. And stale bread really does work better than fresh. My guess is that stale bread can absorb more of the tasty egg based soaking liquid which easily replaces some of the bread's lost moisture (it's easier for new moisture to move in if the old moisture has moved out).

MOREon Lazy Sunday French Toast with Fresh Fruit Topping...

Posted in scripts on Sep 01, 2002 @ 12:34 PM [0 Comments on Lazy Sunday French Toast with Fresh Fruit Topping]