22 June 2010

Saturday Night Fever


(Pic from bbcgoodfood.com)

On Saturday night, we took a little trip back to the 70s. There is back-story - we have been watching the current Australian series of MasterChef, and last week three contestants had to cook Beef Stroganov without a recipe. One contestant was eliminated because she used the wrong cut of beef and also used nutmeg (!) instead of paprika.

This created a minor kerfuffle, as people argued about the ingredients for a TRUE Stroganov. I amused myself by consulting the ever-opinionated Jane Grigson (who uses mustard and NO tomato paste) and also Larousse Gastronomique (also mustard). The kids decided we had to cook it - but the paprika version.

Spouse then decided that he wanted Bombe Alaska for dessert. I pointed out that a) it's winter; and b) I didn't have time to make the ice cream from scratch. He was unmoved. So we compromised - I used bought ice cream (vanilla and chocolate) but then also made a strawberry ice cream by adding gently cooked (with sugar) fresh strawberries to some of the vanilla. So we had a neapolitan Bombe Alaska, with blowtorched meringue ... We did take a photo, but sadly the dog ate the camera USB cable (true) so I can't show it. (I note also that some recipes for Baked/Bombe Alaska include cake, but we didn't.)

I don't even like Beef Stroganov very much, but I did enjoy the homemade pasta (parsley and black pepper fettucine) that my brother helped me crank out.

It was quite a relief on Sunday to have split pea & ham soup after all that excess ...

2 comments:

Wendy said...

Even though I remember the 70s well, I've never eaten Bombe Alaska. Your pasta sounds delicious. Who needs Stroganoff?! I can believe that Scout ate your cable. It's as bad as those marauding macaques chewing up about 6 of my market bags, then later chewing through EVERY electrical cable of the tools JF stupidly left outside one night. (Whoever heard of nocturnal monkeys anyway?)

Tiffany said...

That's funny - I remember eating it once as a child, so I wonder who it was with ...