Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Chez Thomas

Offering the finest fair in all of Beaumont isn’t exactly a difficult achievement, but we here at Chez Thomas are proud of our creations none the less. Last night, I invited my very best friends (also known as guinea pigs) over for a dinner party to try out a couple of new dishes I had been itching to try.

I’ve been holding off on buying a Dutch Oven for years. The good ones are just so expensive. There’s just so many uses for them, and since my main course called for cooking in a Dutch Oven; I splurged. I’m now the proud owner of a 7 quart Le Creuset in flame orange and red. And yes, it’s very wrong that I’m this happy about a cooking vessel. I’m okay with that.

My new pride and joy!

The main course was Coq au Vin, which I had never prepared before. True to its reputation, creating this dish requires some serious planning. Although I have to hand it to Alton Brown for creating a recipe that allows you to do most of the cooking and cleanup days in advance. All that remains on the day of service is to roast the dish for a few hours and then to prepare the sauce. Which means the cook can partake in the conversation and the wine without worrying too much about the cooking!

The lucky diners...

I have to say that the Coq au Vin turned out just perfect. The meat was extremely tender and very flavorful and the wine sauce was absolutely delicious. My only regret was not being able to make more servings! Next time around, I’m gong to have a white roux standing by to help thicken the sauce. Try as I might with the suggestion of mixing flour with butter then adding it to the sauce; it still was too thin.

Dessert was a Crème Brulee Tart, recipe courtesy of Wolfgang Puck. Wow. Just wow. The Crème Brulee turned out absolutely perfect, although I had problems getting the tart shells just right. I did not have a blow torch on hand, so I used the oven broiler, which turned out to be a mistake since it turned the Crème Brulee into soup. Delicious soup, but not the consistency I was going for. And what’s the deal with a vanilla bean costing as much as $12 at the store? That’s the only downside to this recipe.

Plenty of champagne and wine!

As always, the night was full of conversation, wine and great friends becoming even greater. It’s difficult to get everyone’s schedules together so that we can spend an evening together, but when it happens, it’s nothing short of magical! I’m already looking forward to next time!

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Living a Movie

I am literally living "Office Space" at the moment. That's why there hasn't been any posts recently. Perhaps when things calm down, but that doesn't seem to be in the near future.