Moules-Frites

French Fries with sautéed clams and selfmade mayonnaise.

Today saw three completely novelties. For the first time I've made my own fries, my own mayonnaise and cooked clams!
Clams and fries were from 1000 recipes and are usually eaten together as Moules-Frites in Belgium and Northern France. I guess it's their fish'n'chips or our currysausauge.

Mayonnaise was from "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking."
Mayonnaise like hollandaise is a process of forcing egg yolks to absorb a fatty substance, oil in this case, and to hold it in thick and creamy suspension.

Mayonnaise is a really easy thing to make, when your arm muscles are fit and healthy! I was surprised how easy it went, but I think my upper arm will have twice its size tomorrow. Seems like I gotta work out or start buying my mayonnaise ... well, luckily I don't like it at all and usually have ketchup. But this time we were out of ketchup and the idea popped into my mind.

The clams ... yes ... I'm still not sure how I got them in first place. 1,5kg of mussels cooked in 1l of white wine and seasoned with 150g butter. It was just too much wine for me. I prefer drinking it to pouring it over some poor clams, who are too dead to actually get drunk.
It tasted just sour and alcoholical.

Fries didn't work out as well. They didn't get crunchy ... or at least a little tasty. Plus I put on way too much salt.

I'm still not decided, what comes next. :)

Julia Child: Bifteck Sauté Au Beurre With Petits Pois á l'Anglaise

Pan-Broiled Steak With Buttered Peas

Pan-broiled steak is very French and also a very nice method for cooking small steaks.

This might be true but in addition to its Frenchyness and easyness, it was also the very first time I made steak. In fact I've had never eaten a steak until last year's summer, when I went to the Dominician Republic for vacation. They had 3 speciality restaurants and one was a steak house. I used to not like beef at all, but I've learned it's very delicious when medium.
Unfortunately beef is very expensive in Germany, so I only bought two steaks for 4 people which doesn't make me cheap but economical! The steaks were quite big, too so it was absolutely enough.
The weird thing is, you have to broil them in oil AND butter and the same time. Now I already know about Julia's affection for butter but having it when already using oil is blocking my arteries just by looking at it.
But since I've never made steak before I stuck to the recipes. I have to admit, it's SO GOOD. And it got perfectly medium! Ever heard the trick, that medium meat has to feel like your thenar? Well I have no idea what that means, but after Julia you can just look at the red juice, pouring out. It totally works!
The sauce was redwine and butter .... lots of butter ... tons of butter and I only took half!

Anyone who has eaten a plateful of small, tender, fresh, green peas in Italy or France in the springtime is not likely to forget the experience.

I never had peas in France or Italy although I've been to both countries. The peas were very simple and really delicious! All you add is some seasoning and -guessed right- butter.

And yeah, I know I promised garlic mashed potatoes ... but to recipes seemed enough and I wasn't sure how to time everything, so I made normal mashed potatoes. It was still very good.

The good thing is, when you have Julia's meals for lunch, you're stuffed like a turkye and don't need dinner. I've already lost 4 pounds!

Tomorrow I'll be cooking clams for the very first time!