There is nothing new in the culinary world, ever.
So last night I am knocking around in my kitchen. Bored, burning off the last two weeks with the help of beer and cigarettes, Goodfellas rolling on TV. It was nice. There's not a lot of food in the house, but I was hungry. I dig through the fridge, find some gruyere that I had shredded a few days prior. Then of course, there was the beer, which is a homemade Liberty Ale that came out a little on the sweet side (the sugars didn't convert properly on the second fermentation). Then i have some small red potatoes laying around.
Okay, fine, I can pull this off. Cheese, beer and potatoes? No sweat. Sounds like dinner.
So I minced a few cloves of garlic, throw it in a snappy new sauce pan Ma got me for the birthday that just passed. I pour in half a beer and bring it to a simmer. Then I stir in the cheese, a little course ground mustard, some sage and thyme. It's a mixture than has the texture of a light creamy soup, not quite a sauce. Okay, potatoes. Well, little red potatoes cook in a flash, so I figure I can essentially poach the potatoes in the beer and cheese, and the relesed starch will thicken the soup into a sauce. About 15 minutes later the potatoes were ready, but I had to thicken with a beurre manier, which is a sort of dry roux you make in your hand with equal parts butter and flour. And it tastes really good. Very rich. Very French. Really, really good. I mean crazy good.
And I'm thinking to myself, I've never heard of this. I'm a genius. I've developed a totally new way of cooking little red potatoes in beer and cheese. Really, the inspiration came from fondue, but good artists borrow, great artists steal - so whatever, babe. I'm giving this confection a snappy French name, pommes gruyere confit au bier, considering what I'll do with the James Beard awards, etc.
Just to be sure I am in fact a genius, I Google 'potatoes cheese beer'.
I made a goddamn soup that people have apparently been making for about 500 years. The only thing I did differently was thicken the mixture down to make a sauce of it, and likely some other jackass has thought of that - I mean, really, what is a sauce but a thickened soup? Big deal. Say it with a French accent if you like. It's still a good recipe, and history backs that up. Serve it up with a roast game bird and you're set. Hit it with a dash of worcestershire and serve it with a beef or lamb roast and you got something.
Now, a gasoline confit of iPod thief, that'd be a good trick.
Did I tell you I invented cereal? I also invented hamburgers, milk, pasta and cookies. I invented the internet, God and cars. I built the first rocket, made the moon it landed on and coached astronauts on catch phrases that would stick. Theory of relativity? All me.
So last night I am knocking around in my kitchen. Bored, burning off the last two weeks with the help of beer and cigarettes, Goodfellas rolling on TV. It was nice. There's not a lot of food in the house, but I was hungry. I dig through the fridge, find some gruyere that I had shredded a few days prior. Then of course, there was the beer, which is a homemade Liberty Ale that came out a little on the sweet side (the sugars didn't convert properly on the second fermentation). Then i have some small red potatoes laying around.
Okay, fine, I can pull this off. Cheese, beer and potatoes? No sweat. Sounds like dinner.
So I minced a few cloves of garlic, throw it in a snappy new sauce pan Ma got me for the birthday that just passed. I pour in half a beer and bring it to a simmer. Then I stir in the cheese, a little course ground mustard, some sage and thyme. It's a mixture than has the texture of a light creamy soup, not quite a sauce. Okay, potatoes. Well, little red potatoes cook in a flash, so I figure I can essentially poach the potatoes in the beer and cheese, and the relesed starch will thicken the soup into a sauce. About 15 minutes later the potatoes were ready, but I had to thicken with a beurre manier, which is a sort of dry roux you make in your hand with equal parts butter and flour. And it tastes really good. Very rich. Very French. Really, really good. I mean crazy good.
And I'm thinking to myself, I've never heard of this. I'm a genius. I've developed a totally new way of cooking little red potatoes in beer and cheese. Really, the inspiration came from fondue, but good artists borrow, great artists steal - so whatever, babe. I'm giving this confection a snappy French name, pommes gruyere confit au bier, considering what I'll do with the James Beard awards, etc.
Just to be sure I am in fact a genius, I Google 'potatoes cheese beer'.
I made a goddamn soup that people have apparently been making for about 500 years. The only thing I did differently was thicken the mixture down to make a sauce of it, and likely some other jackass has thought of that - I mean, really, what is a sauce but a thickened soup? Big deal. Say it with a French accent if you like. It's still a good recipe, and history backs that up. Serve it up with a roast game bird and you're set. Hit it with a dash of worcestershire and serve it with a beef or lamb roast and you got something.
Now, a gasoline confit of iPod thief, that'd be a good trick.
Did I tell you I invented cereal? I also invented hamburgers, milk, pasta and cookies. I invented the internet, God and cars. I built the first rocket, made the moon it landed on and coached astronauts on catch phrases that would stick. Theory of relativity? All me.
