A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Plate By Michael Glass Published Jan 2013 Copyright reserved by Author Contents Chapter Title From To Page Page Contents 2 2 Introduction to your Author 3 3 List of Dishes by Chapter 4 5 Glossary of Terms 5 9 Weight and Volume Conversion Table 10 10 1 From Psychedelic shirt to a Black Bow tie 11 19 2 Spilling the Soup 20 27 3 Fit for the Queen 28 37 4 Eating for Eton 38 46 5 Balls, Balls or just Balls? 47 54 6 Radley – 5 years of living 55 66 7 Neighbours 67 76 8 The Dreaming Spires of Food 77 86 9 Falklands Food for Food 87 95 10 A Tunnel of Love 96 105 11 My First Taste of the Old Soviet 106 114 12 The Death of a Gall Bladder 115 125 13 Sunshine Food 126 136 14 List of Dishes by Chapter 137 139 15 List of Courses by Dish and Chapter 140 141 16 A Few Thanks 142 Important note Often there is no recipe item or instruction to add salt and pepper this is in respect of chefs who should fully understand that you should season certain things during cooking and always taste a dish and correct seasoning to taste. Page 2 c Michael Glass Introduction to and History of your Author The author has travelled far and wide in his quest for I do not know what, along the road he has eaten and cooked some great and interesting dishes. Prior to his explosion from overweight he decided to share the emotions for foods he loves, when well cooked and attractively presented. The four corners of his world included the UK as a base where he worked in only the best public schools in the country, the Falklands where an airport was built on his food, Singapore for a quick takeaway, Cyprus for sun and sand, Kazakhstan for strange parts of a horse, Siberia where love and flowers blossomed and Poland where he enjoyed an Easter breakfast with a Pope As he says ……. You start tasting food with your eyes and stop feeling it with your heart. Remembering all the occasions and dishes has racked his brain and stretched his memory. He asks for your forgiveness if his story is not as fully factual as you may remember but it is as he can recall. The book contains 4 sections per chapter; an anecdote of how the menu came about, the menu, some tips on the making of the menu and the recipes it needs with photographs of some of the completed dishes. Readers are asked to remember the author liked to explain he was never a chef, just a catering manager with a cooking skill picked up from working with some of the best chefs around the world. This book may give some interest to the readers by giving some insight as to where the dish was served in the preamble to the chapter, it gives the author’s tips on cooking and serving the dish before you plunge into the recipe. All the recipes have been planned for six covers and tested by the writer hence his overweight. Even the pictures are in the main taken by his own lover of food – Olga, without whom this book would never have got off the plate. The writer gives many thanks, to his colleagues in Gardner Merchant where he worked for 26 years and paid for so much of the travel to obtain the recipes and to the family guests who have had to suffer the indigestion before the recipe was honed to perfection. Remembering We are what we eat and if we are happy to eat it we stay happy. He was not overweight just short for his weight- he should have been 7feet 4inches tall ! Eat on and enjoy as he does --------------- Michael Glass Page 3 c Michael Glass List of Chapters and Dishes Chapter Title Recipes 1 From Psychedelic shirt to a Black Bow tie Pate Maison Coquille St Jacques Mornay Steak Diane Mixed Green Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing Duchess Potatoes Banana Fritters in Kirsch Irish Coffee 2 Spilling the Soup Cream of Tomato Soup Grilled Dover Sole Fresh Bean Salad Lyonnaise Potatoes Orange Wheels in Cointreau 3 Fit for the Queen Melon Boats with Palma Ham Sails Entrecote of Beef Bordalaise Brussels Sprouts Baby Glazed Carrots Roast and Creamed Potatoes Coupe Jaques Demi glace 4 Eating for Eton Blini, Decked in Smoked Salmon and Sour Cream Supreme of Chicken Arch Duke Batton Courgettes Fingers of Carrots Saffron Rice Apple Tart Normand 5 Balls, Balls or just Balls? Prawn and Lemon Mousse Fillet D'Or Sautéed Peas and Bacon Potato Nests Filled with Courgette Matches Pear Belle Helene 6 Radley – 5 years of living Ox Tongue and Beetroot Salad Lobster Thermadore Braised Eastern Rice Flowers of Vegetables Orange Sorbet Veal Sweetbreads in Vol au Vents Cheese Celery and Fruit 7 Neighbours Avocado and Strawberry Salad Fillet of Sole Veronique Crown of Lamb Stuffed with Apricot, Prune and Walnuts Page 4 c Michael Glass Kenya Bean Bundles Cauliflower Polonaise Roast Potatoes Charlotte Rouse Coffee and an Elbow 8 The Dreaming Spires of Food Seafood Platter Braised Haunch of Venison Leek Mornay Baked Jacket Potatoes Chocolate Mort 9 Falklands Food for Food Ham and Salmon Cornettes Chicken Plaw Broccoli Cheese Spinach Pasta Chocolate Roulade 10 A Tunnel of Love Mulligatawny Soup Haggis, Neeps and Tatties Steak and Sausage Pie Peas & Carrots Boiled Potatoes Isle in the Mist Whisky Galore 11 My First Taste of the Old Soviet Real Horses Douvers Baursaks Besgberrmak (Pasta Soup Boiled Head of Lamb) Red and Green Cabbage Boiled Potatoes Blinchki Sour Blinchki Sweet 12 The Death of a Gall Bladder Borsch Herring Under a coat Palmani Steak Mayonnaise Potatoes Aubergines Poached in Cream Sauce Creamed Potatoes Bread and Butter Pudding 13 Sunny Food Village Salad Grilled Sea Bream Klefkhi Mushrooms in Cream Sauce Runner Beans Newest Potatoes Ravani Cypriot Coffee Also see the List of Dishes by Course in chapter Page 5 c Michael Glass Glossary of Terms Nos Term Explanation Places Used 1 Hollandaise sauce The slowest sauce in the world, takes time to make but is worth it 2 Matre dhotel butter A butter and parsley garnish that can be chilled and sliced at time of use, for example see Dover Sole chapter 2 3 Bouquet Garni Bouquet Garni is a French term used for a bundle of herbs. It can be made from fresh or dried ingredients. For a fresh, use 3 sprigs of parsley, 1 small sprig of thyme leaves and 1 small bay leaf. It is ok to use 1 dried bay leaf in with the remainder of fresh herbs. Tightly tie the bundle together using string or wrap securely in cheese cloth and tie. Use in soups, stews and sauces. Remove before serving. Add to the beginning of cooking and take out before serving. If using with fish, add dill weed for added flavor. If you use cheese cloth, add one of the following: orange peel, cloves, fennel leaves, celery leaves, marjoram or peppercorns. Also known as French Bouquet Garni. A dried bouquet garni is made from dried bay leaves, parsley, and thyme leaves. Mix together 1 tablespoon of each herb in dried form and place one or two teaspoons in a piece of cheesecloth or a metal tea ball. Then you can use in your favorite broth or soup. 4 al dente Cooked so still crisp on the teeth 5 Stripping knife Cuts a strip of skin off an orange 1/8th inch wide and thick for decoration 6 Sauters pan A flat bottomed pan with sloping sides ideal for sauce making so the flour does not stick in the corners 7 Using Vanilla To extract the flavour of vanilla it can be soaked in the cooking liquor and then removed. Alternatively the pod can be slit with a sharp knife down its length, then scrape out the seeds and add to the liquor, it will then dissolve Page 6 c Michael Glass 8 Hand Test This is to help you tell the cooking state of a steak, The toughness of the muscle on the thumb part of your palm is the same as your steak Open your palm and press the muscle – its raw. Touch the thumb with the index finger of the same hand and the muscle goes to rare, touch the middle finger onto the thumb and it goes to medium, with the ring finger and its well done, with the little finger and its burnt. 9 Test this muscle Touch these fingers 10 Flambe Use a flambé pan with rounded, deep sides and a long handle. Choose liquors or liqueurs that are complimentary to the food being cooked, such as fruit flavoured brandies for fruits and desserts and whiskey or cognac for meats. Do not pour liquor straight from the bottle to the hot pan. The lit fumes can follow the liquor stream back to the bottle and cause an explosion. Pour the needed amount into a different container like a metal ladle, warm it, and then add. The fumes can be lit by tilting the far side of the pan (opposite the handle) toward the heat source. Be prepared for a whoosh of potentially far- reaching flames and stand back accordingly, making sure to avert your face. Once you add the liquor to the pan, do not delay lighting. You do not want the food to absorb the raw alcohol and retain a harsh flavour.