Not A Cooks Blog ... Mastering French Cuisine With Julia Child ... (Once A Week): Series Three: Part Six

Of course catering for a Father's Day luncheon this Sunday called for a least one Cordon Bleu dish.
I went for two (I am soooo committed). For the meal I choose:
- Sweetbreads Tante Marie (CB series 49)
- Salmon Croquettes (not CB)
- Le poirat (Pear tart) (CB series 5)

Sweetbreads do require a bit of prep with soaking, simmering and boiling in stock. This recipe called for making croutes as the bed to rest the sweetbreads, mushrooms and sauce. Croutes versus croutons... what is the difference? I consultanted Julia, who informed me that croutes are hard toasted bread whilst the term croutons is applied when the bread is a triangle shape and used to garnish an entrée.
The salmon croquettes was just something I wanted to cook. I had made them years ago and really enjoyed them. They are deep fried (and anything deep fried is normally a winner with my father!).
The only problem was we didn't have a deep fryer. Hmmm... father's day.... "Jamie how would you like a deep fryer for father's day?" I asked strategically the day before. This was totally unfair as I was taking advantage of showering him with treats, this day being his birthday. We were out looking at what he could spend his birthday vouches on, however in the family flurry of getting into the car we left them on the dinning room table by mistake. So our trip to town became the hunt for the best deal for a deep fryer. Just by chance there was a sale at Briscoes (sic) and we managed to purchase one for less than $60. The salmon croquettes crisped up a treat and went down well with a simple green salad.
Le poirat is a speciality of the French province of Normandy, which is famed for its excellent fruit and cream. I knew at the early stage of the process that this dessert was going to be a winner. The indicator was one daughter having constant study breaks to claim a morsel of the pastry. The pastry is made as for pate sucree (sweet pastry) but what makes this pastry special is the addition of ground cinnamon and walnuts. William pears were called for however not knowing any difference I chose a pear that I thought looked similar from the supermarket shelves. The pears are peeled and quartered and placed in the pastry case with the pointed ends in the centre. Pasty for the top is rolled out with a cut round about 2 1/2 inches in diameter out of the centre... this is to be filled with whipped cream just before serving. It takes about 40 minutes to cook in a moderate oven.
I ticked off my mental check list of foods my father likes to ensure that I had covered all bases:
- some sort of offal (kidney etc) : done
- something fried : done
- dessert not too sweet (done)
However being from Dutch heritage a Father's day meal could not be complete with a gift of Dubble Zout Drop (salty liquorice). This is a highly salted Dutch licorice which only my sister and my Father enjoy in our family. I feel my arteries hardening just at the sight of it. No problems for my father as he joyfully threw in 4 pieces in one go following dessert! I bet I don't find those instructions in any of my Cordon Bleu magazines!