11.30.2005

Mum's Birthday, the Celeriac & the Hangover

butternutsquash

I woke up bleary eyed, thirsty, tummy aching, and tired from my expeditions the night before. After downing about three cups of whole milk (my hangover ritual) I napped half-conscious in the living room with the gentle buzz of the tv. But late afternoon rolled around quickly and I had to get started on my mom's birthday dinner.

tjtiramisu

I wanted a simple and comforting menu for our small family dinner. I decided to serve Barolo Wine Poached Filet w/Celeriac Puree (Jamie Oliver), Roasted Butternut Squash Soup (Emeril), and Trader Joe's Tiramisu (yeah I cheated a lil).

Now when one is hungover, especially me, the super strong scent of celery or celeriac is not pleasing at all. In fact, it is pretty disgusting. I had to peel the ugly thing, chop it up, and boil it. I did a lot of mouth breathing but pushed on saying to myself I can do this. The water came to a boil and the celery-scented steam was produced with vigor. It got to a point where I thought I was going to throw up. I chucked the whole thing (still breathing through my mouth), minus the russet potato I put into the mix. I had to light candles all over the house bc I would smell celeriac EVERYWHERE! I was not in a good state of mind at that point and wanted the house back to pre-celeriac abomination.

Thank god there were a few potatoes lying around. I switched to good old mashed potato with butter and milk to serve with the filet of beef. The filet was cooked to a tender medium-rare but the wine I'm not sure if I was too fond of the wine I used. It was some Chilean cab. I ended up returning the second bottle of it back to TJ. I guess I am sure. The wine sucked.

The filet was a bit bland. Even though the poaching liquid was seasoned it was not enough to season the filet. I think homemade rosemary-salt would be a great to sprinkle over the filet before serving.

The soup was okay. My family members liked it but I thought it needed way more butternut squash than the recipe called for. I tasted way too much of the mire poix and not enough of the sweet roasted squash. I served this with a salty crunchy parmesan-ciabatta crouton. I originally wanted to place the crouton across the soup bowl but the crouton fell a tiny bit short. Another thing gone wrong. Bleh.

So a pretty unmemorable dinner but effort counts right?

3 comments:

e d b m said...

maybe you should have had some of mom's gochujang soup to quell the hangover. i like to eat pho when i'm hungover.

susan said...

yea some soup would have been good! i think i settled for dumplings that day although pho with spoonfuls of sriracha and sambal would have been awesome.

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