Salt Cod (baracala) with tomato sauce

Prepare the salt cod in water as below. Fry up until crunchy. In another pan, prepare a tomato sauce with san marzano tinned plum tomatoes, olives, garlic, basil, and dried red pepper. DO NOT salt sauce. Serve the two together and enjoy.

A bread crumb topping for fish

Mix dried bread crumbs and fresh thyme in a bowl. Add olive oil, in which garlic has been left for an hour or two (remember not to leave it in there too long for fear of botulism). Add the olive oil to the crumbs, and top the fish. Stuff all in oven.

Here are some recipes from Richard Olney's Simple French Food. This book, incidentally, is a perfect example of the kind of book I wouldn't have given a second look normally. After all, the gloriously buxom Nigella Lawson isn't on the cover. (yes, yes, it's sarcasm). But guided by John Thorne, I heard about this apparent classic. In any case, it's a terrific book, filled with interesting recipes. Some of them are beyond me (I'm not going to find fresh pork fat to line terrines), but they're interesting to read about nonetheless.

Potatoes in Beer

Finely slice some onions and potatoes. Put them in a dish, alternating layers of onion and potato. Pour over some beer and bake for one hour, starting with a hot oven and turning down to about 350 after ten minutes. Ten minutes before finishing, pour over some cream.

Eggplant Custard

Saute thinly sliced mushrooms in olive oil, finishing them with a little lemon juice. Fry a few tomatoes until nearly dry. Fry 1/3 inch slices of aubergine until golden, and then arrange all ingredients in a dish. Pour over a mixture of egg, milk (2 eggs/1 cup of milk for 1.5 pounds of aubergine) and salt, and then bake for 30 minutes at about 375, or until the custard is set in the middle.

Beef and Onions in Beer
Carbonnade du Nord

Cook one pound of sliced onions in oil until softened and lightly caramelized. Brown 2 pounds of beef cut into slices. When all the steaks have been browned turn the flame low and add 2 teaspoons of brown sugar into the empty skillet.Add 3 TB of flour, and cook for a few minutes. Finally, deglaze with 2 cups of beer, stir in 1 cup of stock, and bring the whole thing to a boil. Now arrange the slices of meat in alternatve layers with the fried onions and pour over the loquid. Cook, tightly covered, in a 300 degree oven for three hours.

I didn't know about this, but apparently boiled or fried salt cod with garlic mayo and steamed or boiled veggies is a famous meal in France and Spain. Sounds interesting. Remember to soak the cod in water for 24-36 hours before doing this.

Hmm. Clearly, I hadn't worked the starter into enough of a lather, because it didn't really work. It tastes exactly right, but the bread didn't rise. So, a few more days of feeding, and then I'll try yet again.

My apartment smells of sourdough. Or, more accurately, just of sour, since the bread hasn't been made yet. It's been smelling for three days, as the starter sitting in a bowl on top of my books has got more and and more tart. And the worst part is that I'm not sure it's going to work. Well, the moment of truth is tonight. For the first time, I'm going to try out this sourdough starter, and see if it actually raises anything. In all honesty, I'm a little sceptical, not just of my own effort, but of the concept itself. How, exactly, is a little flour left to soak in bottled water for a couple of days doing to produce yeast? Apparently, however, it works, because people seem to have produced bread before any sort of leaven came in convenient little bags. My fingers are crossed!