Un dîner Tout Robuchon

A very good friend of mine was in town this week and I invited him over for dinner last night. After flipping through quite a few cookbooks, I opted for 3 recipes from my favorite one: boeuf au paprika à la hongroise (goulasch), gratin de pommes de terre and gâteau au chocolat. Simple, hearty food, which I was sure my friend would appreciate after a week of being flown to all corners of Asia...

Tout Robuchon (aka the Holy Bible)

I chose to cook goulasch as it needs to simmer for quite some time, and this would be a good opportunity to try my brand new Le Creuset Doufeu cocotte, recently bought at a basement sale in CWB. I had been looking for this model for a very long time. The lid is shaped so that cold water and ice cubes can be poured in it, and the condensation inside drips on whatever you're cooking and keeps it moist. There is also less of a need to open the cocotte to check the food is not burning or sticking to the bottom of the cocotte, which keeps the juices inside and concentrates the flavours. Not really needed for a dish such as goulasch (as you want to make plenty of sauce to use it for a few days over pasta etc...) but I had an urge to play with my new toy...

This white gem is a home cook's best friend...


I particularly like it that the Robuchon goulasch recipe calls for the meat and spices to be fried in lard before being put to simmer. It made a huge difference on the taste compared to other goulasch recipes I have tried before.

We started the evening with an apéritif and some nibbles (Joselito iberico de Bellota and petites saucisses cocktail au piment d'Espelette Rougié) - quite yummy. Rougié is a brand that keeps going up in my rankings. I still think their foie gras needs some work, but pretty much everything else (saucisses, pâtés...) has enjoyed a drastic improvement in quality over the past 10 years and the brand has gone from supermarket *yawn* to (almost...) high-end. Good job guys.

My friend was kind enough to bring over some wine, which we started sipping after a bit of decanting. Lots of tanins... my friend looked a bit disappointed with it, so we checked the WOM vintage guide and found out it was probably too young to be drunk just yet... knowing this came from a (seemingly) reputable HK wine shop, I'll go kick them one of these days for recemmending this... Still, the wine supported the goulasch quite well.



Boeuf au paprika à la hongroise (goulasch)


The original recipe calls for green peppers, which I replaced with red as I find these complement the paprika a lot better. It also only included cumin seeds and marjoram on top of the paprika, to which I added caraway seeds (compulsory in a goulasch if you ask me...), a sprig of thyme and a bay leaf. Yes I know what you are thinking right now, who am I to correct the Master's recipes lol... I did not have time to prepare some home-made beef stock, so I bought some organic ready made beef stock, which did the trick. I chose chunky slices of beef shin for this dish (love this cut of meat, lots of collagen, perfect for stews) imported from Canada (as I do not buy US meat on health grounds and it's almost impossible to find Aussie beef shin in HK - at least CitySuper never seems to have any...). Other ingredients included onions, peeled diced tomates, garlic, flour, tomato paste, red wine and, of course, salt and pepper.  



Gratin de pommes de terre


Here the Master's recipe goes downright crazy, as it asks you to pre-cook the potatoes in a mixture of milk and crème fraîche (until there, fine) but asks you to pour the crème into the boiling milk - which really looked silly... I was like - "But it's going to curdle..." and then the other half of my brain went "Who are you to discuss the Master's instructions", so I proceeded as instructed and ... it did curdle, dammit. I ended up poaching the potatoes just in milk, and finished the gratin with a bit of diluted crème before putting it into the oven. The result was still delicious, and it did its job of mopping as much goulasch sauce as possible.

Gâteau au chocolat - live from the oven...

Set to cool...

This recipe is almost flourless (1 tablespoon for 100gr chocolate / 3 eggs / 65gr butter / 65gr almond powder / 65gr confectioner's sugar) and the result is a nice moist texture. It contains no baking powder, but the addition of the egg whites en neige ensure the cake stays light. This recipe would make a good base for a cupcake.

We helped the cake glide down with a few shots of Bijofu Yuzu liqueur, recently brought back from Tokyo by another good friend. This was absolutely delicious. Not very strong on the alcohol (8% only) but it was extraordinarily fragrant. All the tangy fruitiness of the yuzu had been preserved, there was some pleasant bitterness (from the rind I would think) and just the right amount of sugar. My friend had recommended to drink it on ice, but we chose to have it on its own, straight from the fridge, and it was just brilliant. I have quite a lot left so I will definitely try some on ice next time.