The happiest I've been

Not in forever, but in a long time. You might ask "when?". Well that's pretty easy: when I was preparing these beautiful shallots in order to caramelize them. At that moment (which was tonight), there was nothing more peaceful to me than looking at them and nothing else. I love how food can make me forget about ... Well everything. When I'm thinking about recipes, when I'm basting shallots (not the correct term for shallots, I know - at times I just like to talk like a posh motherf*****), when I'm thinking about what to pair with what, that honestly is the most important thing to me in the world.

 

 

So today I dreamed about creamy polenta with parmigiano, grilled veal, shallots and carrots from the oven and a delicious (maybe over the top for a weekday - however Thursday night is semi weekend, you gotta have some faith) beurre blanc sauce (probably fake, since I just did whatever) with sage. And a ton of butter - as in beurre blanc, as in "crap I got the recipe wrong and added double the butter". Then you just gotta think: there's nothing better than butter. When you drip a spoon of butter over each shallot, giving each and every single one of them the same amount of love.

Isn't that what food is all about? You feel like "Mmm I'd love to have whatever-the-best-f'ing-creamy-filling-cosy-winter-dish-in-the-whole-world". And then you think about what that is to you at that moment. As you can see on the pictures: this is what it was for me tonight. And maybe a bit too much wine.

Tonight (I gotta admit: sometimes I'm too much of a girly-girl - although I hate the word) it was about more than the food. It was also about clothing. Bought a new dress yesterday in the best store in the world (COS, that is) and wore it today while I was cooking. Felt as if it was picture perfect: my new beloved dress, the most fulfilling food and a glass of wine, just me being me and it all was just fine.

Wanna know the recipe for a night of the same amount of fun? Then please, read on.

Ingredients for 2

Shallots
1/2 kg of shallots
3 tablespoons of butter
1.5 tablespoons of muscovado sugar (the recipe just said "sugar", but then I was like: "f*** this s*** - caramel is brown so I'll use whatever I have that comes closest to brown sugar - the legal kind)
1.5 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1/4 tablespoons of sea salt
1/4 tablespoons of freshly ground black pepper

Carrots
8 small carrots
Olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Polenta         ! Disclaimer: my supermarket forced me to use some kind of instant polenta, since they didn't have anything else. I am NOT OK with this. I repeat: NOT OK. I hate everything instant, besides miso soup maybe. I won't be giving you the polenta recipe I used, but one I'm sure about that it works (source - Dutch only, but Google Translate is your friend: click!)
1.5 liters of water
1 tablespoon of salt
Olive oil
150 grams of polenta (please, don't use the instant kind)
50 grams of parmigiano cheese (of course, I would even have cheese without polenta - never polenta without cheese)

Veal
2 veal cutlets

Sauce
Butter
White wine
Fresh sage

How to proceed?

Shallots

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2. Take the peel of the shallots, but keep the rest of the shallot intact: keep top and bottom.
3. Melt butter in pan. Once melted, add shallots and sugar.
4. Toss to cover shallots.
5. Let simmer for 10 min on medium heat, without a lid. Stir occasionally.
6. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir and put in an oven dish. SAVE the sticky bits that are in the pan - in other words: don't wash the pan.
7. Put in the oven for about 15-30 min (until they look caramelized, but still soft in the middle).

 Carrots

1. Take an oven tray and line it with parchment paper.
2. Wash the carrots, but leave on the peel.
3. Put carrots on tray, drizzle some olive oil on top. Pepper - salt.
4. Put in the oven until they are in between crispy and tender or whatever kind of bite you like. I'd say between 20 to 30 min.

Polenta

1. Prepare as mentioned on package.
2. When done: add some more butter and parmigiano.
3. Give it a good stir.

Veal

1. Heat a grill pan.
2. Put olive oil on each slice of veal. Pepper - salt.
3. Make sure the pan is hot enough. This is where I went wrong - as you can see on the picture: no grill "marks".
4. When the pan is hot enough: put in the veal, 2 min on each side.

Sauce

1. Take the pan with the shallot residue.
2. Add butter and sage and let it brown for a bit.
3. Add white wine and let the alcohol cook away.

 



Put everything on a plate - et voilà! Bon appétit!

Please promise me to try the shallots. They're so good. Let me know when you did?

Love,
Julie