Tonight Paul Prudhomme's version of Chicken Florentine.  Pretty easy to make.  Like most of chef Paul's recipes, there are a lot of seasonings required.  We were short on spinach, but made the best of it.  Served with wild rice and some French white wine, Monmoussou Cheverny (Sauvignon Blanc & Chardonnay).

Tonight in my cooking class, French series II, we made a consume.  It was served as a soup with julienned crepe.  The crepe contained the herbs and seasoning.  The consume was very clear.  It was excellent.  We also made a chicken mushroom soup that was incredible.  It had a white-roux base, with sauteed mushrooms and stock (all blended and filtered), blended with egg yolks and cream, then sprinkled with julienned chick and mushrooms in the bowl.  (very good)  Oh yeah, and a Saffron Risotto.

The chef teaching the class is quite enjoyable.  She's of Mexican descent, studied at Le Courdon Blu in London, worked in Europe for a while after school, and will be leaving to cook in Italy in a couple of months.  I love people that love food!

After a long week, we return to an old favorite for Friday night supper.  Chicken Saltimbocca.  Tonight we combine it with Carrots braised in wine with sage and cavatappi pasta.  The Saltimbocca is the standard breast cut in half and pounded, filled with sage leaves and the best pancetta we can find.  A little salt and pepper; fried in butter and olive oil.  The carrots are a new recipe from Lynn Rosetto Kaspers "How to eat supper".

Tonight I tried a similar theme to the last post.  I still have some tartufo nero and wanted to eat it with steak.  Two grilled New York Strips were the benefactor.  Again I started by sauteing shallots in butter, but this time I had large white button mushrooms and dried re-constituted morel mushrooms to add.  Shallots first, then mushrooms, the the soak from the mushrooms, then cream.  I used this as a sauce for the steak topped with, of course, black truffles.  Served with a side of rice pilaf, broccoli and a bottle of Amancaya wine.  Amancaya is from the Lafite Rothschild estate in Argentina.  It is a blend of 50% Malbec and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon.  We liked it..

In a class I recently made a Beef Wellington stuffed with Foie Gras and truffles.  I'm here to say that Goose liver and truffles go well with beef. 

I purchased a black truffle at Caputo's market the other day (1 o-clock on plate).  I'm not finding a good pasta sauce recipe, so I'll invent.  I'm using dried porcini's, shallots & butter, then the mushroom soak liquid, then white wine, then cream.  A little parsley, salt and pepper, mixed with farfalle, then some grated tartufo nero on top.  Mi piace molto.  Emilia had a bowl as well.

In the meantime, I've got a pork roast speared with carrots and braising in red wine on the stovetop.

The beverage of choice tonight is Michele Chiarlo Barbera D'Asti...