Louisiana Beef with Watercress and Beef Mayonnaise, Rice Pudding with Chantilly Cream

Two weeks on and I am ready for my next attack on The Book. I have chosen the first recipe from the Beef, Veal and Lamb section, Louisiana Beef. I plan on serving this alongside Beef Mayonnaise.

The first batch of beef mayonnaise became beef egg soup. Like a trooper, I chucked it down the sink and am about to make a second round. Basically (ha!), onion, garlic and celery is fried in a lot of pepper then blitzed together with 1 egg, beef stock and sunflower oil. I put the onions and stock in the freezer, my theory being that those ingredients being too hot were the reason the first batch stayed as liquid. Could be this mayonnaise malarkey is more complicated than I thought, though. Or, heaven forbid, Chef got the measurements wrong?? No, it has got to be my fault. But then again, most mayonnaise recipes do not put whole eggs but only egg yolks...

The beef was good but I overcooked it - combination of too hot an oven and that I read Chef's instructions to roast the meat for 3 hours, rather than checking to see the cooking times for the actual weight of the joint. It has been so long since I have cooked, I have stopped being instinctive. Instead I have been a slave to the cookbook and what should have been a lovely, moist piece of meat instead became tough. It looked great on the outside, though!

The rice pudding was nice though a little al dente to touch, the egg whites giving a fluffy consistency on top. The Chantilly Cream was quite boozy with a slug of brandy and Grand Marnier in it. Interestingly it is a mix of dairy cream and sour cream - I had never thought about mixing those creams before.

Both courses will taste better over the coming days as the flavours sink in. I would definitely cook both again - but I might have to give up on the beef mayonnaise!!

Blackened Fish and Basic Cooked Rice

Well, if I am going to start making the recipes in Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen I figured I may as well start at the top.

So what did I decide to make this very first time? Only the great master's signature dish, of course, Blackened Fish! With Basic Cooked Rice, the staple of every Cajin citchen!

Unsurprisingly, I have hit the buffers on my first run so I have created some rules for the tasks ahead:

• first, it is to be expected that as I live in Blighty, I will not be able to buy all the necessary ingredients that are required to create the cuisine of Louisana in my home. I shall not beat myself up about this. So what if I cannot find "onion salt"? I shall just rely on my jars of Joe's Stuff and Gumbo File to get me through these little difficulties.


• second, checking that I have bought all my ingredients before I leave the shop would be a good idea.
  
• third, whenever I am cooking from the Book, I must listen to cajun or zydeco music (courtesy of Last.fm) and have the Bourbon Street webcam on view to get me in the mood.


• fourth, I should remember to read the recipe before I start in order to avoid later disappointment when I do things in the wrong order.


• finally, a glass of wine will help smooth things along when I realise everything will not go to plan. Laissez Les Bons Temps Roulez!

Chef recommends redfish or pompano for Blackened Fish. Neither variety was available at the fish counter of Selfridges but no matter, I had never heard of them anyway. I chose red snapper instead. Red snapper sounded like it might be similar and is certainly more exotic than salmon which was Chef's alternative choice. But I find salmon to be a little boring. Gosh, already I am having trouble following instructions. This does not bode well.

The basic thrust of the recipe for Blackened Fish is to heat the skillet pan to a very high temperature, smother the fish in butter and a mix of various spices, and voila! Ideally this fish would be cooked on a barbeque, Chef talks about heating the pan to a temperature where there is ash. Ash?!?!?? Of course, I do not have a BBQ. Plus, I did not have some of the vital ingredients for the spice mix like onion salt, garlic powder and cayenne pepper. Man, this project is going to be harder than I thought. I need to get me some equipment and supplies...

The basic rice was easy to prepare since I had most of the ingredients save for the green pepper which I forgot to buy when I was in the shop. It all came together quite nicely. Unfortunately, the rice looks bland in the photo and no wonder - the pepper would have made it look more zeppy!

I was pretty pleased with the results actually. The fish was spicy and good to taste while the rice was copious and fluffy. All round, not a bad first effort.

I am travelling a lot the next few days and will be in Venice next weekend. My project will have to go on hiatus even before I have hardly started. No worries, Chef will be with me.

In the beginning there was Prudhomme

Alright, I am a shameless copyist.

I finished reading Julie & Julia yesterday morning having been woken at 6am by an alarm clock that had forgotten to switch itself off. Couldn't sleep so I finished the book. What a marvellous idea the Julie & Julia Project was. A 29 year old secretary going nuts in outer- Mongolia Long Island City (well, do you know where Long Island City is?? - ha! Knew you didn't!!) decides to cook all the 560 something or other recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days. Julie writes a blog chronicling her efforts and in the process learns not to sweat the small stuff and to Master the Art of Joy. Joy - that is the word that she uses. Joy, that is what I want, every day of my life.

Scrawling out of my bed, I ate 2 crumpets for brekkie and mused about the book while watching the superlative Come Dine with Me. This TV show celebrates the dinner party. Dinner parties were something I used to do before I moved to Clapham 7 years ago and decided in my wisdom to buy a flat that does not have room for a dining table. I used to cook for 14 people at a time when I was in my 20s - now I am lucky if I cook a slice of toast for myself. It is pitiful.

I decided to track down Julie's original blog on the web. I was entirely successful in this task. Perusing through some of the early entries, I came across this quote which has now, dear reader, sent me off on my barmy quest:-

"You know, I have alway considered Paul Prudhomme a martyr to the culinary arts. Can I ask any less of myself?"

Paul Prudhomme, Paul Prudomme... of course. The great Louisiana chef who brought Cajun cuisine to the masses. Paul Prudhomme has always lived subterraneously in my mind. I have even stood a few times outside his restaurant in New Orleans looking in and wondering what his food would taste like.

I bought a copy of Prudhomme's definitive work, Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen when I was last in New Orleans. Of course, living in said flat with no dining table, I have never cooked a single thing out of it. That is when the idea kerneled in my mind. A-ha! I said to myself. This can be my project , my homage to Julie Powell, Paul Prudhomme and the beautiful city of New Orleans that I love so much. I will make the recipes from Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen and re-create that Louisiane ambience in south-west London.

Well, I will try to. I cannot cook as often as Julie could, and I will only blog here infrequently, but it will be a project. A project just like Julie & Julia.

I am a loon.