Making French Bread

Making French-Style Bread at Home is a Slow but Very Rewarding Process…To Be Continued….

Proper French Bread Flavour and Texture are Achieved after Five Hours

M-J’s Elegant Meat Loaf

Lining the Baking Dish with Bacon

Perfectly-Cooked Eggs are Enveloped in Ground Beef Mixed with Sage, Savoury, One Raw Egg, Sautéed Onions and Yellow Peppers ~~©M-J de Mesterton~~ 

 

Elegant Meat-Loaf, Baking in a Moderate Oven for an Hour

Elegant Bacon and Egg Meatloaf is Served
~~©M-J de Mesterton~~

Meatloaf can be elegant!

M-J’s Elegant Bacon and Egg Meatloaf, Ready to Slice

M-J’s Elegant Low-Carb Dessert

Egg Whites, Splenda and Cream ©M-J de Mesterton

Yellow in the Kitchen: Roses

Yellow is a Perfect Accent Colour for the Kitchen

Pimentón de La Vera: Smoked Paprika of Spain

Pimentón de la Vera, the smoked paprika of Spain is made from several varieties of red capsicums or peppers. The ripe capsicums  are placed on racks above an oak-wood fire, and are flipped-over daily by their respective growers, so that they are evenly roasted on both sides. This venerable old drying procedure usually endures for two weeks.

Once fully dried, the capsicum-stems and most of the peppers’ cores are removed. Then, these sweet, smoky-flavoured red capsicums are ground slowly in traditional stone mills which are now powered by electricity. The resulting paprika or pimentón  is packed in rectangular spice cans and distributed to markets in Spain and around the world. The price for 70 grams of smoked paprika imported from Spain to the United States lies anywhere between five and fifteen USD, depending upon the purveyor. Pimentón de la Vera is available on-line at Amazon.com as well as at La Tienda. Pimentón is nearly always a component of Spanish paella, and is an excellent spice-rub, imparting an interesting, piquant barbecue flavour to various meats. The oak-wood smoking process used in La Vera, Spain, gives their paprika a very special, unique quality.

©M-J de Mesterton

M-J’s Elegant Spinach Casserole

M-J's Recipe for Elegant Spinach, Lettuce and Cream Cheese Casserole Appears on The Elegant Cook Vegetable Page

M-J’s Celery Soup, on the ‘Net Since 2006

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See The Elegant Cook for M-J’s Original Cream of Celery Soup Recipe

>Bols Liquor, 1961

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Photograph of 1961 Magazine Advert by M-J de Mesterton

M-J’s Elegant Apple Potato Salad

Peel, quarter and boil eight medium sized potatoes, or ten small ones. Salt the boiling water. Alternatively, add some Maggi or Knorr chicken bouillon powder.
Boil the potato chunks for fifteen minutes. Drain but do not rinse them. In your cooking pot, sauté eight strips of bacon, finely chopped. Remove the bacon bits with a slotted spoon. and reserve in a small bowl or cup. Empty out  half of the bacon fat. Add two tablespoons of vegetable oil (I use peanut oil) and two tablespoons of vinegar (I use malt vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar). If you have it, a tablespoon of concentrated apple juice can be added to this dressing mixture. You will adjust the vinegar and oil to your taste after the initial mixing of all ingredients. Add the potatoes, one finely diced small onion (red, white or yellow), and one diced, unpeeled apple. Grind some pepper into the mixture for taste, and check for salt. Mix gently. Serve lukewarm or at room temperature for  best flavor.

~~Recipe and Photo of Autumn Potato Salad Copyright M-J de Mesterton, 2008 

>Elegant Apple-Ginger Cocktail

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