Mike's Birthday!

The Menu:
Heirloom tomato tart with olive/anchovy tapenade and goat cheese.
Mixed greens with basil vinaigrette
1950s style veal cutlets
linguine with fresh tomato sauce
fruit tart

I love Mike's birthday. His request for the occasion was "let's not mention it at all" which I interpreted as "go totally nuts."

Here are my liner notes:
Course 1
For the tapenade: soak 6-7 anchovies in milk for an hour and then rinse twice in milk. This takes a little of their intensity out and also cuts the oiliness. Combine in a food processor with 1/4 tsp dijon mustard and about a 1/4 cup nicoise olives. I used oil cured and I don't think that was the right thing to do because that brings its own very strong flavor which I felt interfeared. Combine on prebaeked sheet of puff pastry with your beautiful heirloom tomato slices which you have roasted at 250 in the over for an hour. Dot with goat cheese. Reheat. It's intense tasting even in little squares so I served with simple salad. This is only a slightly pared down adaptation of a French Laundry recipe.

Course 2
Now, I did make veal despite my fervent personal commitment to veganism but I realize many take issue with this. Please note that I think this could be made just as sucessfully with chicken cutlets. What you need is a three part dredging system and an oven warming at about 200. Dredge in flour, 2 eggs beaten, and then a mixture of about 1/2 parmesian, 1/2 breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, fresh chopped rosemary:








Have a watermellon supervise.







Then in some olive oil which you've heated until sizzling hot, pan fry the cutlets only about 3 minutes each side. Total cooking time for veal per piece is 5 minutes tops. You want a nice golden crust and the key to this I think is having a thick pan which will not vary wildly in temperature as you flip, remove, add more pieces. Transfer to the warm oven on paper towels.

I served this with a tangle of pepper linguine topped with a very simple sauce of chopped tomates, red pepper flakes, roasted garlic (when I roasted the tomatoes I threw a head of garlic in the oven along with). Serve your cutlets with a generous sqeeze of lemon, capers, and serve with lemon wedge.

Course 3
This is the fruit tart of death and destruction! I made it once disasterously the week before and it basically spontaniously combusted and melted at the same time and everyone just shook their heads and gathered up their coats. Since then I have been determined to get this right and the only really difficult thing is the patisserie creme. Too thin, and what you have is a creme anglaise, too thick and you've made custard. I think I got it right by following, to the letter, the Barefoot Contessa recipe which calls for cornstarch. Here, basically, is how you do it:
-beat 6 egg yolks and a 1/4 cup of sugar until it falls back into the bowl in a ribbon. Stir in three tablespoons of cornstarch.
-bring to a boil 2 cups of milk and add it, whisking, to your eggs.
-transfer egg/milk mixture back to pot you were just using
-cook, stirring constantly on medium high heat for about ten minutes
-bring to a boil and then turn heat to low and cook for a few more minutes
- remove from heat and add 1/4 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp almond extract (if you like)
Now chill thoroughly, I even let mine go over night, but cover with platic wrap directly on top so a skin doesn't form.
-make either a shortbread crust or a graham cracker crust, freeze it if the latter, top with the patisserie creme, and cover generously with fruit. In the shops this is usually seen covered in some sort of clear gel but I don't like that. Does anyone? Not the greatest picture, but comme ca: