2009 Recipes: Chest-Clutching Good

These are both from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the book by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck that introduced us (and millions of others) to French cooking. They are easy to make but not for the faint of heart to eat. Click here for the account of the New Year's Eve these recipes relate to.

Bifteck Saute Bearnaise
Serves 4-6

Important notes from Julia: You must dry the steak thoroughly on paper towels - it will not brown otherwise. Also, the steaks must lie flat in one layer, which might mean you need more than one skillet. We did.

1 1/2 T. butter
1 1/2 T. vegetable oil
2 - 2 1/2 lbs. boneless club, rib eye, sirloin etc. steaks, 3/4-1" thick, patted dry
1/2 c. beef stock
3/4 c. Bearnaise sauce

Put 1 1/2 T. each butter and oil in heavy skillet(s) over moderately high heat until butter foaming begins to subside. Saute steak on one side for 3-4 minutes, regulating heat so fat is always very hot but not burning. Turn and saute the other side for 3-4 minutes (we actually did 4 1/2 minutes on each side for what we thought was perfect medium rare). The steak is done to medium-rare the moment you see pearling of red juice begin to ooze at the surface of the steak. Or, press steak with your finger - it is medium rare when it just begins to resist. Remove steaks to hot platter and season quickly with salt and pepper. Add the beef stock to the skillet, boil it down rapidly and beat by droplets into bearnaise sauce. Serve sauce in a warmed bowl with the steak.

Gratin Jurassien
Serves 4-6

Important notes from Julia: the baking dish (and thus, the layers of potatoes) should be shallow, no more than 2 inches high; do not let the cream come quite to a simmer during baking, to prevent curdling.

Additional note from Linda: these are heavenly, and if you have cholesterol issues, I mean that quite literally - a few bites of these may send you there earlier than anticipated. But trust me, you'd die happy.

4 T butter
2 lbs. red potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8" thick (6-7 cups) and patted dry
1 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
1 c. grated Swiss cheese (I think I cheated and used more like 1 1/4 c.)
1 1/4 c. whipping cream

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Smear 1T of the butter in a 10-inch fireproof baking dish, no more than 2" deep.

Arrange layers of of potatoes (I did 3 layers) seasoning each with salt, pepper, cheese and dots of butter. End with a sprinkling of cheese and butter dots. Pour on the cream and heat on top of stove, almost to simmar (I put it in the microwave for a few minutes). Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours. The gratin is done when the potatoes are tender and have absorbed the cream, and the top is lightly browned.

2009: A Toast to Julia Child

After seeing the movie Julie & Julia, based on the life of Julia Child and the blogger who tried each of the recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, we decided to ring in a new decade with a Julia-themed menu

So, sinus infection headache notwithstanding, Vonnie perused the pages of Tom's brother's edition of the landmark cookbook - which contains little notes about what he had tried and approved of - and selected the following:

• Bifteck Saute' Bearnaise (pan-broiled steak with Bernaise sauce)
• Gratin Jurassien (scalloped potatoes to die for - probably literally)
• Choice of three sauces - mushrooms in pan juices, regular Bearnaise sauce, and Bearnaise with pan juices

To round out the meal we added too many loaves of bread and a regular old tossed salad that allowed us to pretend we were offsetting some of the saturated fat content of everything else. Plus the usual pre-meal treats which we always say we shouldn't do because it fills us up too much and then we always go ahead and do anyway.

The result: spectacularly tummy-filling. We deemed the pan-broiled rib eyes to be as good as grilled. The potatoes were yummy, done just right (we think because we actually followed the instructions to put them in a shallow baking dish). We could feel our arteries harden as they went down, but what a way to go. We agreed the enhanced Bernaise took top spot among the sauces but they all were pretty darn good. Recipes here.

We topped off the evening with Vonnie's award-winning Kahula and coffee, a round of Wii bowling which was won by Vonnie, and midnight mimosas as we wondered what on earth possessed Jennifer Lopez to choose that awful body suit to sing in Times Square and on national television.

The Odells lasted 20 minutes into the new year before heading home. George made a night of it with a world-class case of the hiccups.

Given this year's hideous year-ending weather - remembering it was year-end hideous weather that started our tradition in the first place - we're thinking a New Year's Eve in some tropical location might be in order for our 32nd annual festivities. Stay tuned.