For the next few classes, we're learning about different types of poultry. Cornish hen is on the menu this week (since I couldn't find guinea hen at the butcher). According to Wise Geek, the term "Guinea hen was used to refer to these small poultry servings but Cornish game hen has become more popular."

The Cornish hen is a plump all-white meat bird. Its original breeder was Alphonsine "Therese" Makowsky. Here is a video explaining the history of the Cornish hen. There is another theory that chicken mogul Donald John Tyson created the Rock Cornish game hen by cross-breeding White Rock hens and Cornish hens in 1965.

Cabbage and Other Vegetables
Again, this recipe calls for many pots. In Saucepan #1, the cabbage is blanched. Mon petit chou. I love boiled cabbage that's then drizzled with butter. Its subtle flavor is very comforting. In this dish, it's blanched and served along with the carrots and onions and plays its supporting role very well.

In Large Casserole #2, the onions are cooked until tender, and then the carrots are added. The cabbage joins the milieu along with a Bouquet Garni and 2½ cups of water and this mixture simmers for about 1 hour.

Poultry
I rinsed and dried the Cornish hens with paper towels and then threw a garlic clove, a thyme sprig, and a bay leaf in each cavity and seasoned them with salt and pepper. After trussing, they were ready for Roasting Pan #3 and a 425˚F oven for about 30 minutes.

Bacon
While the hens were roasting, I prepared the bacon. Although the recipe called for lardons, I used bacon strips. Using Twitter, I asked how people like to cook their bacon and got these answers: Since my oven was taken up with the roasting hens, I used the stove to cook the bacon this time. For this recipe, I cut the slices into 1-inch strips, blanched them in Saucepan #4 (but probably could have reused Saucepan #1 to save on one dish) in boiling water for 1 minute to take away the extra saltiness and drained them in cold water. Then, in Frying Pan #5 I fried them in some butter and oil until they were golden and almost crispy. [I'm not sure I really needed to use the butter and oil since bacon has enough fat on its own.]

Polish Sausage
Polish sausage from Butcher Boy Meats in Regina, Saskatchewan with some dill cream cheese and table water crackers was a staple when I was in university. I haven't been able to find Polish sausage that tastes as good as theirs yet. This sausage was tucked into Sauté Pan #2 along with the vegetables, bacon and hens, and cooked along with everything else for awhile. Once everything had finished cooking (about 20 minutes later), I sliced up the Polish sausage and dinner was ready.

Recipe

Serves 6

1 medium head green cabbage
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, sliced
¼ pound carrots, sliced
1 Bouquet Garni
Salt and freshly ground pepper
¼ pound slab bacon, sliced ¼ inch thick
2 guinea hens, 2 pounds each (I used Cornish hens)
2 cloves garlic
2 sprigs fresh thyme or ¼ teaspoon dried
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons softened butter
¾ pound Polish sausage
You can find the recipe for Pintadeaux au Chou (Guinea Hen with Cabbage) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home or a similar recipe here. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
The mixed meat medley was nice. I liked the Polish sausage and bacon coupled with the Cornish Hens, which added extra flavor to this delicate meat. The Cornish Hens were tender and delicious. Because the hens are braised in the pot with all the vegetables with the lid on for the last bit, the skin got soft. Next time I would finish the hens in the oven instead and merge the two dishes at the table. Again, too many dishes to be practical, but tasty all the same.

Next Week (March 4)
• Fricassée de Poulet à l'ail et à la Sauge (Chicken Fricassee with Garlic and Sage) pages 324-325

My Favorite Dish
This week, Michelle from Big Black Dog, who is part of the Whisk Wednesdays group, suggested showing off our favorite dish. Since I started food blogging, food props have become a passion and more fun to shop for than clothes or shoes. Here is my favorite dish which was given to me by my mom. The snowflake dish represents some of my first photos, which were taken on the snowbanks on my back deck last Spring.

Gifts
Michelle from Big Black Dog, who has an amazing list of chef's tips ready to share, set up a little swap among the participants in Whisk Wednesdays. Here is what I received from Jessica from Have We Met? who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. I have been eyeing this slate cheese plate at our local bookstore for quite some time and she must have read my mind. The heavy cheese knives are lovely too with their crackled look. Thank you, Jessica!

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $1,110.03 + $11.01 (hens) + $8.95 (other ingredients) = $1,129.99
($3.33 per serving)

Butter used so far: 9 pounds, 22 tablespoons

. . . . . . . . . .

::Whisk Wednesdays::
We're cooking our way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, we try to find a suitable substitution. Find out more here.

The base of this bar is a shortbread cookie with a hint of coffee and cinnamon followed by a layer of melted chocolate and a sprinkle of caramels on top. Instead of buying Heath bars (which aren't typically available in Canada although The Candy Store in Ottawa imports them) or Skor bars, I made my own caramels and pulverized them in my food processor.

One of the best take aways from this recipe was lining the pan with aluminum foil. The liner makes it easy to remove the cookie base from the pan and put it on a cutting board saving your nice pan from the sharp edges of your knife. I also learned a bit more about Heath bars vs Skor bars. Check out my poll on my right sidebar and let me know your favorite treat.

Recipe

Makes 1 9x13 pan

For the Base:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder or finely ground instant coffee
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup (packed) light brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 ounces bittersweet or premium-quality milk chocolate, finely chopped

For the Topping:
6 ounces bittersweet or premium-quality milk chocolate, finely chopped
¼ cup Heath Toffee bits (I made my own caramels)
You can find the recipe for Caramel Crunch Bars in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or here. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger!

Click here for the recipe for Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels.

Tasting Notes
How can you go wrong with shortbread, chocolate and caramel chunks. It would be fun to play with the shortbread base, but why mess with perfection?

Recipe for Next Week (March 3)
Chocolate Armagnac Cake — The Cake That Got Me Fired on pages 279-281 chosen by Lyb of And then I do the dishes.

Instead of veal stew, this is fish stew with a delicious white-wine cream sauce and a bunch of perfectly cooked vegetables.

Vegetables
In typical French cuisine fashion, I had to prepare all the vegetables separately. Well, actually the pearl onions and peas were allowed to share a pot, and technically the carrots, turnips and mushrooms shared the frying pan (although separately), much like bathing kids, one at a time. The green beans had their own pot to blanch in. So, three pots later (two if you think ahead and blanch the pearl onions/peas and green beans in the same boiling water), the vegetables were cooked and sat on the sidelines while I finished the fish.

Fish and Sauce
Monkfish is an ugly, large bottom-feeder fish. It has a firm texture and a delicate taste that is said to be "poor man's lobster". I was lucky to find some at my local fish store, but other bloggers in our Whisk Wednesdays group had trouble sourcing it. It turns out this fish is one that is overfished or caught in a manner that results in high levels of bycatch. I didn't know this until after I bought it, and my fishmonger said he gets it in every week from the Atlantic. I'll have to investigate this further if I make this again.

I fried the cubed fish in some butter. After it was browned, the fish rested on the side while the shallots cooked in more butter. Then I made a bit of a roux with some flour and the butter from frying the shallots. This cooked for a bit to remove its floury taste. To deglaze the pan, I used some white wine.

I returned the fish to its sauce to finish cooking along with some extra water for added moisture and a Bouquet Garni for added flavor. After simmering for 10 minutes, I removed the fish and set it aside while the sauce simmered for another 20 minutes. By adding the fish first, you're adding more flavor to the sauce, much like using a fish stock would. But you don't want to overcook the fish, so it is removed and the sauce gathers more flavor and mellows the acidity from the wine.

Liaison
After removing the Bouquet Garni, I added the hot sauce slowly to the liaison of cream and yolk, making sure not to curdle the egg. Then I returned everything, including the petits légumes to the pan and warmed it all up (avoiding any bubbles or boiling so that the sauce would not separate). With a sprinkle of parsley, thyme or chervil, this fish dish was ready to eat.

Recipe

Serves 6 (I halved the recipe.)

3 ounces carrots
3 ounces turnips
3 ounces green beans
Salt
3 ounces shelled green peas
12 pearl onions, peeled
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Freshly ground pepper
3 ounces button or quartered large mushrooms, trimmed, rinsed, and dried

1¼ pounds monkfish fillets
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ large shallot, chopped fine
2½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ cup dry white wine
1 Bouquet Garni
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 egg yolk
½ cup heavy cream
Chervil or parsley leaves for garnish
You can find the recipe for Blanquette de Lotte aux Petits Légumes (Monkfish in White-Wine Cream Sauce with Vegetables) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
I loved this fish stew (even better than the veal stew we made earlier). The smooth, creamy sauce with its morsels of vegetables was delicious! And monkfish is a very nice tasting meaty fish. It doesn't have the fishy smell or taste that some fish have. I'm sure this recipe would adapt well to chicken too. Next Class
Pintadeaux au Chou (Guinea Hen with Cabbage) pages 44-45

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $1,083.72 + $17.49 (monkfish) + $8.82 = $1,110.03
($8.77 per serving)

Butter used so far: 10 pounds

. . . . . . . . . .
This week, Kayte from Grandma’s Kitchen Table thought we should all share our cookbook holders, just for fun. We were discussing via email where we put our cookbooks while cooking or whether we print off the recipe or use a cookbook holder. I often just put the book on the counter since my cookbook holder often has a pile of ready-to-try recipes in it waiting for me (leaving no room for a book).


After reading this post, my mom sent me a picture from her kitchen. No recipe holder needed. Scotch tape on the knob of the cupboard . . . and a 44 year old recipe (which happens to be my favorite birthday cake recipe — Mahogany Chiffon Cake from the vintage Betty Crocker's New Picture Cookbook, 1961)!


Another Blanquette de Lotte post
Lucy's Kitchen Notebook's Man in Kitchen - Blanquette de Lotte

Cooking en papillote means putting the ingredients inside a parchment paper pouch and baking it in the oven. The paper holds in the moisture while cooking. This moisture flavors the fish along with the aromatics and liquid to make a tender and subtle tasting meal. This is a good method for any delicate fish and can even be used for chicken, vegetables and fruit. Before baking the fish in its pouch, the fennel is sliced and pan-fried in butter and then spooned into each pouch. By far, this is one of the simplest recipes so far!

Here is Alton Brown's episode about this cooking method: The Pouch Principle.

Here is a great article about it: The Envelope, Please: Cooking En Papillote.

Recipe

Serves 4

2 x ¾ pound snapper fillets
2 large bulbs fennel
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
16 fresh basil leaves
4 tablespoons dry white wine
4 teaspoons Pastis or Ricard (optional)
You can find the recipe for Snapper with fennel en papillote in the book Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cook Home Collection. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
This was a very easy dish to make and would be great for entertaining since you can prepare it ahead of time. However, I prefer fish with sauce, and there wasn't a sauce with this one. I loved the fennel though. This dish is perfect for Valentine's Day since the shape of the parchment is a heart. Also, since it's enclosed in an envelope, it would be a perfect Oscar Party meal.

Next Class
Blanquette de Lotte aux Petits Légumes (Monkfish in White-Wine Cream Sauce with Vegetables) pages 408-409

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $1,063.16 + $14.19 (fish) + $6.37 = $1,083.72

::Whisk Wednesdays::
We're cooking our way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, we try to find a suitable substitution. Find out more here.

While watching the Grammy's Sunday night and working on this post, I was reminded of one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs: "I Am a Rock".

I pretend to be an island most of the time, choosing to be very independent and private. Last week, while riding on a school bus for a field trip with my daughter's Grade 4 class, I was reminded how social children are. They relish the time they have to share their thoughts, ideas, and experiences with each other every chance they get. The bus was noisy with their giddiness and excitement for life.

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about." —Angela Schwindt

Maybe it's the fact that I spent the first four years of my life on a floating island in the South Pacific (Papua New Guinea) that I have a fascination for islands. And this culinary version of a floating island is the perfect dessert. It is now my favorite dessert and the one I would have at my "last meal". I can't believe it took me this long to taste it, but now that I've made it three times this past week, I won't have to live without it again!

Floating Islands versus Snow Eggs
There is some discrepancy about what Floating Islands (Île Flottante) are versus Snow Eggs (Oeufs à la neige). In my research, I found Floating Islands to be one large island that is baked in the oven in a bain marie and typically contains toasted almonds. Snow Eggs are individual egg-sized meringue puffs that are poached in either simple syrup or milk. To confuse the issue even more there is another version of a French Floating Island that is a liqueur-sprinkled sponge cake spread with jam, and topped with nuts and whipped cream, surrounded by a pool of custard.

After making Dorie's version of Floating Islands, I decided to try making the Floating Islands and Snow Eggs from my vintage 1971 Grand Diplôme Cooking Course book.

Both Floating Islands and Snow Eggs are made up of three components: crème anglaise, meringue and caramel. Each element on its own is delicious, so I knew together they would be amazing.

Crème Anglaise
Crème anglaise contains sugar, yolks, milk, and vanilla, but it can be flavored with all sorts of delicious things such as cardamom, rum, chocolate, ginger, chamomile, brandy, Grand Marnier, espresso, or even stout! Crème anglaise is a stirred custard as opposed to a baked custard. It must be stirred constantly so that it doesn’t curdle at the bottom of the pan or overcook. Because it’s stirred, it doesn’t thicken as much as a crème brulée or crème caramel which thickens in the oven.

It’s a rich, smooth sauce that can be served warm or cold. It is also common as a base for making ice creams.

Meringue
Meringue is simply sweetened egg whites. You can use superfine sugar since it dissolves faster, but I just used regular sugar. The salt helps stabilize the meringue. After poaching half of the meringue puffs, I folded in some red food coloring to the remaining meringue mixture to make pink ones.

To shape the islands, I used my 1-tablespoon ice cream scoop. I also tried a larger ice cream scoop, but they puffed up too big. And I tried using two spoons to shape an oval, but found these were oddly-shaped and puffed up too big as well. Whatever method you use, you should know that they expand quite a bit when poached in the milk.

Caramel
Caramel shouldn't be that hard to make. However, I made it three times this past week and only once did it work. The first time, I let it get past a perfect amber color to a point where it started to smoke and burn. The next batch hardened too quickly before I could get it on a floating island. Finally, the third one worked. (I also supplemented with store-bought caramel sauce from a plastic jar for some helpings of floating islands.)

Joe from Joe Pastry did a whole segment on making your own caramel with pictures, and here's a video showing how to make caramel.

Recipe

Makes 6 servings

For the Crème Anglaise:
2 cups whole milk
6 large egg yolks
½ cup sugar
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the Islands:
2 cups milk
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
¼ cup sugar

For the Caramel (optional)
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup water
To make the crème anglaise: Bring the milk to a boil.

Meanwhile, put the yolk and sugar in a heavy saucepan and whisk vigorously until thick and pale, 2 to 3 minutes. Still whisking, drizzle in a little of the hot milk — this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won't curdle. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remaining milk. Put the saucepan over medium-low heat and, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, cook until the custard thickens, lightens in color and coats the spoon (this can take 10 minutes or so) — if you run your finger down the spoon, the track should remain. For this recipe, the crème anglaise should be cooked until it reaches 180˚F on an instant-read thermometer.

Immediately remove the pan from the heat, strain the custard into a bowl and stir in the vanilla extract. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the custard to create an airtight seal and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, or for up to 3 days. (The crème anglaise will improve with at least on overnight rest.)

To make the islands: Spread a clean kitchen towel on the counter near the stove and have a large slotted spoon at hand. [The towel will help the floating islands drain after poaching.] Put the milk in a wide saucepan and bring it to a simmer over low heat.

Meanwhile, put the egg whites in the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or use a large bowl and a hand mixer. Beat the whites on medium speed just until foamy, then beat in the salt. When the eggs turn opaque, increase the mixer speed to medium-high and add the sugar about 1 tablespoon at a time. Whip until the meringue is firm but satiny and still glossy.

You have two options in shaping the islands: you can just scoop up some meringue — specifically, an amount about twice the size of an egg — in which case you'll have the equivalent of a rocky volcanic island, or you can smooth the meringue to get a manicured island. For the smooth look, use a large oval spoon to scoop up the meringue, then use another large oval spoon to very gingerly transfer the meringue from spoon to spoon a couple of times to form a smooth oval.

Either way, one by one, lower the islands into the simmering milk, adding only as many islands as you can fit into the pan without crowding. Poach the meringues for 1 minute, gently turn them over and poach 1 minute more, then lift the islands out of the milk and onto the towel. Repeat until you've poached 12 islands. Put the puffs (which will have inflated when poached and will deflate when cooled) on a wax paper-lined baking sheet and chill them for at least 1 hour, or for up to 3 hours.

To make the optional caramel: Decide whether you want to serve the meringues in one large bowl or six individual bowls, and have the bowl(s) at hand.

Right before serving, stir the sugar and water together in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat, bring the sugar to a boil and cook without stirring, swirling the pan occasionally, until the caramel turns a pale gold color, 6 to 8 minutes or so. Pull the pan from the heat and let the caramel cool just until it is thick enough to form threads when it is dropped from the tines of a fork. (If the caramel hardens, rewarm it slowly over low heat.)

Either pour the crème anglaise into a large serving bowl and top with the meringue islands, or make six individual servings. If using the caramel, working quickly, dip the tines of a fork into the caramel and wave the fork over the floating islands to create threads that will quickly harden.

Serving: Once the dessert has been assembled, it should be served immediately.

Storing: You can make both the crème anglaise and the meringue puffs in advance and keep them chilled, but the assembled dessert won't keep.

Notes
You can also find the recipe for Floating Islands in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or here. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger!

You can find tips about this recipe here.

Ideas for variations to flavor the meringue: lemon, orange, lime or even espresso

Tasting Notes
Now that I've eaten three batches of Floating Islands and Snow Eggs, I'll have to put these recipes aside for awhile. It's just too hard for me to leave them alone since I'm the only one eating them at our house! I loved the caramel with this dessert and not the chocolate that I tried for one plate. I found the chocolate overpowered the delicate taste of the Snow Eggs. This is also a great dessert to make ahead and assemble just before serving. There is still one more recipe I'd like to try: Fernand Point's recipe in Ma Gastronomie for Île Flottante, which contains egg yolks in the meringue mixture. But I'll have to wait before making any more batches of this delicious dessert.

"May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us."
— St. Theresa's Prayer (sent to me by Kate from Aapplemint on a day when it was just what I needed to read)

Recipe for Next Week (February 17)
Devil's Food White-Out Cake on pages 247-249 (the cover recipe) chosen by Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater.

A few other links to Floating Islands or Snow Eggs
• Béa from La Tartine Gourmande's Pistachio Floating Islands and Vanilla Cardamom Snow Eggs
• Helen from Tartelette's Strawberry and Vanilla Floating Islands

My Tuesdays with Dorie Trivia
Since I got to pick this week's recipe, I thought I'd share with you a bit of my TWD trivia. It's been a wonderful year meeting other food bloggers who share their passion about baking (and cooking). Thanks for making this year a great one for me!

• I joined March 25, 2008 and made another of my favorite desserts that week: Caramel-Topped Flan

• I've made 46 desserts from Baking: From My Home to Yours and have loved most of them.

Apple Cheddar Scones
Arborio Rice Pudding
Berry Surprise Cake
Black-and-White Banana Loaf
Blueberry {Saskatoon/Raspberry} Sour Cream Ice Cream
Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread Cookies
Buttery Jam Cookies
Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake
Caramel-Topped Flan
Carrot Cake
Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler
Chocolate Chunkers
Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops
Chocolate Pudding
Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte in a Popsicle
Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes
Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters
Crème Brûlée
Dimply Plum Cake
Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie
Florida Pie
Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake
French Chocolate Brownies
French Pear Tart
Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread
Gooey Chocolate Cake
Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies
Granola Grabbers
Kugelhopf
La Palette’s Strawberry Tart
Lenox Almond Biscotti
Linzer Sablés
Madeleines
Marshmallows
Mixed Berry Cobbler
Peanut Butter Torte
Pecan Honey Sticky Buns
Peppermint Cream Puff Ring...Swan
Pumpkin Muffins
Quintuple Chocolate Brownies
Rugelach
Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins
Summer Fruit Galette
Thanksgiving Twofer Pie
The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart
World Peace Cookies

An Award
I received an award called the Lemonade Award - When Life Give You Lemons, Make Lemonade from Gretchen of Canela and Comino. I feel very honoured!