la.foodblogging

booze and butter

Okay, we’re probably all feeling the pinch. So here is one way you can dine like royalty on a budget.

Take Oscar night.

Who doesn’t want to party a little while they watch their favourite actors and filmmakers sashay down the red carpet and onto that glitzy stage?

Tomorrow my menu will include:

1. bubbly
2. pate & crostini
3. blini & smoked salmon
4. Nigella’s Lamb Shank stew
5. mini Pavlova

Here’s how to do it.

Shopping List for 1, 2 & 3.
Trader Joes:

Pick up a couple of bottles of Prosecco (light Italian bubbly) — $5.99 apiece.

You’re also going to need some Bellweather Crème Fraîche and perhaps some chives.

Get some good quality butter, too – I like the Kerrygold Pure Irish butter.

It helps if you already have some liqueur on hand…

Shopping List.
Gelsons:

Get some fresh chicken livers– 4oz = $0.48. Yep – 48c

NB — get 5oz so you can trim it down to 4oz.

A couple of slices of smoked salmon– 1/3 lb = $6.00 – more than enough.

A baguette or batard for the crostini. I like La Brea bread for this.

yeah, these little buggers are nasty au naturel!

Here are your recipes:

PATÉ, CHICKEN LIVER

NB general ratio of livers to butter is 3 : 2 [or in this case, 4 : 3]

Ingredients:

3 oz butter, unsalted
4 oz chicken livers
1 T liqueur (e.g. brandy, grand marnier)
¼ t salt

optional – a little crushed garlic
thyme leaves (no stems)

Method:

Soak livers in lukewarm water for about ½ hour.

Cut off yucky bits and sinew.

Fry livers in a bit of the butter on a slow - medium heat for about 5 mins or so until golden on the outside but pink in the middle.

[NB – you’re supposed to then push it through a food mill, but if you’ve trimmed your livers well before cooking, and are only making a small amount like this, you might be able to get away with skipping this step as you will lose a lot of your livers. I’ll edit this post later, if necessary.]

Deglaze pan with your liqueur, then add this liquid to food processor with remaining butter, cubed, and pulse until smooth.

Refrigerate in small pots. If you want, you can cover surface with a little clarified butter to prevent oxidation.

NB — make this pate the day beforehand, then bring out of the fridge about an hour or so before you want to eat it to let it get to room temp.

BLINI (aka Pikelets)

Ingredients:

1 cup self-raising flour
1 or 2 Tablespoons superfine (aka caster) sugar
1 egg
¾ cup milk,
35g /1 oz melted butter
extra butter for greasing

Method:

Sift the flour and sugar into a large bowl.
Whisk together the egg, milk and melted butter in a small bowl and then gradually mix this into the flour mixture until well combined.

Heat a large frying pan greased with butter over low-medium heat. Add tablespoonfuls of mixture to the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes or until lightly golden on each side.

When cooking pikelets, bubbles will begin to appear as the pikelet is cooking. This is good! And once there are a few bubbles all over the pikelet you should turn it over.

Cook your pikelets / Blini in advance. They should not be hot (just room temperature) when you use them.

Top blini with a small piece of smoked salmon, a dollop of crème fraîche and a few snipped chives.

Enjoy! Or please comment with your own suggestions!

Other recipes:

Nigella’s Lamb Shank stew

Pavlova

Happy cooking!!

By MaxMillion (see more of her posts). Max Million is the nom de 'net of Pauline Adamek. Born in Sydney, Australia, Pauline has lived in Los Angeles for the past thirteen years and finds it agrees with her. She has been reviewing films and filing celebrity-based interview articles since 1991, and has filed stories from various international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. She completed a family cookbook and has also written novels for 8-12 year olds. She is the creator and host of ArtsBeatLA.