These are the last video re-posts, I promise, but two from my archive have been on my mind since watching Julie and Julia, so I thought I'd share. The first one is Beef Stew in Two Hours. Now, this is not Julia Child's classic Beef Bourguignon, (two hours?) but I certainly aimed to follow some classic techniques. In the film, Julia's recipe instructs the cook to pat the beef chunks dry before browning them, a detail pivotal to her early success. While in the theater, watching that scene, for the life of me, I couldn't remember if I did that in my Beef Stew video. It was really bugging me. Finally, yesterday I braved a viewing, one eye closed, and there I was, paper towel in hand, patting that meat just like in the movies. Whew. Thank you to The French Culinary Institute.
The other recipe is Warm Lobster Rolls. How can you help but channel your inner Julia when going through the terrifically awkward and messy process of getting the meat from a lobster? But mine aren't like Julia's (or my Aunt Barbara's) I use butter and serve them warm like Jacques Pepin. However, as Julia expects in any lobster dish, I do start with a live one. In the film, the Amy Adams character feels awful about that. In my video, I don't really. Boy, oh, boy did the fur really fly on YouTube when I put that live lobster in the pot. Not only do some feel squeamish, a few wanted me arrested for murder. But I'm with Julia on this one. It must be done. Before boiling, put the unfortunate but generous creatures in the freezer for 15 minutes to ease them to sleep. Then thank them, cook them, and waste not a scrap.
