Crawfish Bisque

Crawfish Bisque, the second course, as it first appeared in Gastricolium II.


Shellfish Stock

Place the shells from 3 lbs. of shrimp (or other availble crustacean) into a stock pot along with 2 or 3 chopped carrots, 3 chopped ribs of celery, 4 or 5 smashed cloves of garlic, a bouquet of parsely stems, thyme, and bay leaf. Cover with water and add salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and strain the solids, reserving both the liquid and shells separately. Return stock to heat and continue to reduce until a nice aroma and flavor develop.




Bisque

In a stock pot, heat clarified butter, then add the reserved shells. Saute for several minutes, constantly stirring. Add finely chopped yellow onion, celery, scallions and saute 8 to 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper and cayenne. Next add chopped parsley and thyme and saute for an additional 3 to 4 minutes, followed by minced garlic for an additional minute. Add flour to the mixture, constantly stirring for several minutes until it is thickened and there are no lumps. Once it is smooth, add the reserved stock and stir thoroughly to fully incorporate. Using an immersion blender, begin to puree the vegetables and shrimp shells. This must be done in shifts, with the soup being stirred in between and the blade of the immersion blender being cleaned and shells untangled from it. Blend until solids are pulverized. Season with salt and pepper and more cayenne. Add white wine, approximately a whole bottle. Bring up to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Make sure the alcohol cooks off. Once a good aroma and flavor develop, remove from heat to strain. At this stage the bisque has been done correctly if its color is an brownish-orange in appearance and the aroma makes it unbearable for you not to taste your work. The taste should bring you to your knees. Strain the soup through a sieve and return to a low flame to keep warm.

Meanwhile, in a separate pan, saute 3 lbs. of peeled crawfish tails in clarified butter. Make sure the tails are washed, but try to not to clean off too much of the yellow fat. You will want to include this with the tails for extra flavor. Once thoroughly heated, slide the tails into the bisque and stir to mix. Allow the soup to cook for an additional 15 minutes over low heat, stirring frequently for the flavors to mix. Serve into soup cups or mugs and enjoy.

A visual document of Gastricolium II

The Gastrinauts would like to thank all the Gastricolites for making Gastricolium II such a great event.

Fish was butchered.

And brothed.
Shrimp was peeled.
And vegetables cooked.
Brillat-Savarin was read.
Wines served.

Toasts toasted.

And food was served.

Please post your comments, reactions or suggestions to Gastriculium II.
Stay tunned for Gastricolium III, where new artistic expressions will find their way into delighted stomachs.

Tostones with Mango Pico de Gallo

Tostones with Mango Pico de Gallo appetizer, as seen in Gastricolium I.

Tostones

Wash 3 or 4 green plantains (very very green!!!). Peel and cut into cylinders of about 1" height. Deep fry until golden. Use a plate to smash the cylinder into disks. Prepare some salt water with crushed garlic. Dip the disks into the garlic water, and deep fry again until golden. Serve while still hot.

Mango Pico de Gallo

Chop 3 mangos, one purple onion, 6 leaves of recao (culantro), and 3 jalapeños. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix. To be used as dip for the tostones.

Inivitation to Gastricolium II - Saturday 13th, 2007

Gastricolium II - A Feast of Crustaceans


7pm Saturday, October 13th, 2007
Kevin's house.


Menu:


Inspiration was drawn from the food and culture of the greatest city on the Gulf Coast. Crustaceans are featured at the forefront in several of these dishes, though we will also see the appearance of pompano, pecans, chicory, alcohol, and flame.




1. Crab Cakes with Remoulade Sauce
2. Crawfish Bisque
3. Pecan-Encrusted Mozzarella with Greens and Onion Marmalade
4. Pompano en Papillote - pompano cooked in a sauce with various shellfish
5. Cafe Brulot Diabolique and Key Lime Pie


So that the guest is aware:

Each guest is asked to bring one bottle of wine that pairs well with the food. When pairing wines with Creole cuisine, it is common to choose sweeter wines due to the misconception this cuisine is hot and spicy. This is because many food lovers confuse that which is Creole with Cajun, its country cousin from southeastern Louisiana. Please permit a brief digression. Creole is most decidedly classical, not rustic, and urban, not rural. While Cajun food is an adaptation of French provincial cooking, Creole is blend of traditions that could only arise from the mixing of European, African, Caribbean, and American culinary cultures found in New Orleans over the past 300 years. At the foundations of a Creole feast are these things: the permeating influence of the city's classical French heritage, the fruits de mer that make southern Louisiana the most biologically diverse coastline in the continental US, and the Creole chef's propensity for showmanship both with flavor and presentation. That being said, tell your local wine-seller about the menu to elicit a wine recommendation, or if you decide to trust me, take my suggestion.

Wine Suggestions: Chardonnay (not too sweet, this goes famously with both crab and fish), Pinot Noir (delicate enough not to obstruct flavor, red enough to have some flavor), Zinfandel or Primitivo (pairs with almost anything with frightening success).

Dress Code will be strictly enforced.

Please read below for clarification of the rules.


Respectfully,

your neighbor, the goat.

A visual document of Gastricolium I

We, the Gastrinauts, thank all the Gastricolites for making Gasticolium I a success. Here are selected pictures of the event.
First, we went to several markets, including two farmer markets, to look for the best ingredients.

We toasted in honor of Gastraea, to declare the cooking officially started.
Food was prepared with care.
And we read a passage out of Brillat-Savarin's book.
Drinks were served.
And people feasted.
Please post your comments, reactions or suggestions to Gastriculium I.

Stay tunned for Gastricolium II, where we will continue pushing the artistic expression of dinner-club cuisine.

The Saucier's Reasoning

We must consider as leading sauces the espangnole, veloute, allemande, and bechamel, because with these four sauces we can compose a very great number of small sauces, of which the seasoning differs infinitely. . . .
It is in following this reasoning that I have, I dare say, created an infinite number of new things of which my books carry the indelible mark; and in order to obtain the same results, all that is necessary is a little good sense, and occupying oneself without relaxation in the progress of the science which one professes.

-Marie-Antoine Careme in his Art of French Cooking in the 19th Century.

The Roux

The assistant of the stock, the roux, brings to the brown sauce only a flavor note of little importance, beyond its thickening principle, and it has the disadvantage of requiring, in order that the sauce be perfect, an almost absolute elimination of its components. Only the starchy principle remains in a sauce properly skimmed. Indeed, if the element is absolutely necessary to give mellowness and velvetiness to the sauce, it is much simpler to give it pure, which permits one to bring it to the point in as little time as possible, and to avoid a too prolonged sojourn on the fire. It is therefore infinitely probable that before long starch, fecula, or arrowroot obtained in a state of absolute purity will replace flour in the roux.

-From Auguste Escoffier's Guide Culinaire.

An obscure reference to the temperamental benefits of cabbage

Why is it that to those who are very drunk everything seems to revolve in a circle...?
Why is it that to those who are drunk one thing at which they are looking sometimes appears to be many?
Why is it that those who are drunk are incapable of having sexual intercourse?
Why is it that wine which is mixed but tends toward the unmixed causes a worse headache the next morning than entirely unmixed wine?
Why has wine the effect both of stupefying and of driving to a frenzy those who drink it?
Why is it that cabbage stops the ill effect of drinking?
Why are the drunken more easily moved to tears?
Why is it that the tongue of those who are drunk stumbles?
Why is it that oil is beneficial against drunkenness and sipping it enables one to continue drinking?

-From the Problemata, a work traditionally ascribed to Aristotle, the third Book of which is concerned entirely with drinking and drunkenness.

The Hangover

Then there is the matter of the hangover. The folk remedies for this affliction are many and ancient. In medieval times, the medical School of Salerno was already recommending the hair of the dog.

Si nocturna tibi noceat potatio vini,
Hoc tu mane bibas iterum, et fuerti medicina.

If an evening of wine does you in,
More the next morning will be medicine.

The insidious logic of this remedy is simple. The hangover is in part a mild withdrawal syndrome: the night before, the body adjusted to a high concentration of alcohol throughout its tissues, but by morning the drug is going or gone. Hypersensitivity to sound and light, for example, may be a left-over compensation for the general depression of the nervous system. The higher the peak blood alcohol level reached, and the longer that the peak is maintained, the more drastic the effects on the body, the stronger the compensation, and the more pronounced the aftereffects. Having another drink, then, restores the conditions to which the body had become accustomed, as well as lightly anesthetizing it. But this only postpones the hours of reckoning, and if repeated may eventually lead to alcoholism and the necessity of suffering a true drug withdrawal.

-Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen

To attain the ultimate in the pleasures of the table

But, the impatient reader may exclaim, how can one possibly assemble, in this year of grace 1825, a meal which will meet all the conditions necessary to attain the ultimate in the pleasures of the table?
I am about to answer that question. Draw near, Reader, and pay heed: it is Gasterea, the loveliest of the muses, who inspired me; I shall speak more clearly than an oracle, and my precepts will live throughout the centuries.
“Let the number of guests be no more than twelve, so that conversation may always remain general;
“Let them be so chosen that their professions will be varied, their tastes analogous, and that there be such points of contact that the odious formality of introductions will not be needed;
“Let the dinning room be more than amply lighted, the linen of dazzling cleanliness, and the temperature maintained at from sixty to sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit;
“Let the gentlemen be witty without pretension, and the ladies charming without too much coquetry;
“Let the dishes be of exquisite quality, but limited in their number, and the wines of the first rank also, each according to its degree;
“Let the progression of the former be from the most substantial to the lightest, and of the latter from the simplest wines to the headiest;
“Let the tempo of eating be moderate, the dinner being the last affair of the day: the guests should behave like travelers who must arrive together at the same destination;
“Let the coffee be piping hot, and the liqueurs of the host’s especial choice;
“Let the drawing room which awaits the diners be large enough to hold a card table for those who cannot do without it, with enough space left for after-dinner
conversations;
“Let the guests be disciplined by the restraints of polite society and animated by the hope that the evening will not pass without its rewarding pleasures;
“Let the tea be not too strong, the toast artfully buttered, and the punch made with care;
“Let the leavetakings not begin before eleven o’clock, but by midnight let every guest be home and abed.”
If anyone has attended a party combining all these virtues, he can boast that he has known perfection, and for each of them which has been forgotten or ignored he will have experienced the less delight.

-Brillat-Savarin's The Physiology of Taste

Invitation to Gastricolium I - Saturday 29th, 2007

Gastricolium I

7pm Saturday 29th, 2007
Cesar's house.

Menu:

The Gastrinaut was inspired by tropical flavors from the caribbean and asia minor. Emphasis in fat and sweet reinforces the connection of these cultures with a healthy diet.

1. Fried Plantains with Mango Pico de Gallo
2. Greens with Fried Chevre
3. Catch-of-the-day Fish in a coconut curry sauce served in banana leaves, accompanied by a side of roots.
4. Cheese Flan

Reminders:

Each person should bring a bottle of alcohol that would go well with the main dish.
Pairing wines with a spicy coconut sauce can be tricky, so ask the experts at your local wine shop. Here are some recommendations: Gewürztraminer, German Kabinett Riesling (dry, not too sweet), Demi-Sec Champagne.

Dress Code will be strictly enforced.

(Gastricolium rules can be found here)


Don Flan

An invitation and a promise

For gourmet cooking is where you find it, and connoisseurs of the culinary art are found wherever there is good eating. It is not only in Europe, it is not always in the grand places, nor is it necessarily exotic or expensive. The finest food, like the best in every art, is simply a matter of excellence of preparation, imagination and performance.

-Mary and Vincent Price, A Treasury of Great Recipes

Planning a Gastrinomicon

We are planning on recording all of our recipes, along with extensive photography of the food at all stages, and incorporating them with a semi-historic legend of Gastricolium throughout the ages of civilization. We will compile and publish this collection under the title Gastrinomicon: A True History of the Gastricolium.  At least these are our plans. 

Respectfully,

Your neighbor, the goat

Established Rules for a Gastricolium

The three Gastrinauts may invite three guests each for total of twelve so the number dining is not too taxing on the pocketbook of the head Gastrinaut nor on the quality of the food prepared.  The guests shall be called Gastricolites.  Each Gastricolite is required to bring one bottle of wine, as specified by the head Gastrinaut of the night.  Those who do not comply will be reprimanded and expelled from the feast and all future feasts and banquets with no chance for redemption.  All Gastricolites will be informed that it is their duty to adhere to the Dress Code.  Those who do not will be humiliated and expelled.  The two assisting Gastrinauts are responsible for champagne before the feast and alcoholic libations for the events following the feast.  Before the feast commences, one of the Gastrinauts will read to the Gastricolites from the ancient tome of their forefathers, The Gastrinomicon.  The two assisting Gastrinauts will begin serving the food.  Dinner begins.....

Second Meeting of the Gastrinauts

The first meeting was very fruitful. Several ancient rules were evaluated and modernized. However, several items were left untouched. This Tuesday, same place and same time, it will be the second meeting of the Gastrinauts.

Don Flan

Hemp Seed Soup

Italy, 1470

To make 12 servings, take a pound of hemp seeds. Clean them and let them boil in a pot until they begin to open, and then add a pound of white almonds, well pounded, and then add them to the seeds. Pound it well and add a crustless bread. Distemper this with meat broth or thin chicken broth and pass through a sieve. Set it to boil in a pot over the coals far from the fire, stirring many times with a spoon. The add half a pound of sugar and half an ounce of ginger, and a bit of saffron with rosewater. Serve it with sweet spices on top.

(Excerted from "Cooking in Europe, 1250-1650", by Ken Albala)

Dining in Ancient Times

Mesopotamians and Egyptians preferred small, portable tables that might serve only one or two diners, although many tables could be brought into an area for a banquet. The Greeks ate in many different styles, from individual tables to the boardinghouse-style dinners for which Sparta was famous. Rome boasted formal dining rooms, called triclinia, in which three couches were aligned in a U-shape. Each couch traditionally accommodated three diners, who took foods from a central table. Formal dining posture changed during the ancient period. In archaic times, polite society sat upright to dine; by about the seventh century B.C.E the well-to-do started reclining on couches for formal meals, a custom attributed to the Persians. Upright posture remained the rule for informal meals among all classes and civilizations. Women were usually excluded from dinner parties in Greece; they might attend Roman parties, but many times they sat, rather than reclined, on the couches. In the Greco-Roman world sitting up to dine signaled social inferiority.

(Excerpted from "Cooking in Ancient Civilizations", by Cathy K. Kaufman)

First Meeting of the Gastrinauts

What do you guys think about meeting for beer and discussing the first feast? Wednesday at 5:00 at the Crown?

The Art of Staying Sober

Most definitely this should not be practiced by those who dine. And in all likelihood, this will not be adhered to by the evening's cook; however, I have utmost faith that the food will not suffer. We are professionals.

Respectfully,

Your neighbor, the goat

Buen Provecho

If memory serves me right...

I have know the other gastric members for several years now; I can testify to their culinary skills with full confidence.

Gastricolium will push the boundaries of dinner-club cuisine to standards beyond imagination.


Don Flan