brunosdream

Last weekend I had a bunch of friends over for a fall feast that was 3 days in the making. We had a great time filling our bellies! On the menu was a 6 1/2 pound grass fed beef brisket from Missouri. The brisket was braised in the oven at a low temperature for 6 hours with a potpourri of veggies and mushrooms which created a delicious broth.  Two sauces were made that are traditionally serve w/ braised meats at the fair of the fatted ox in Piedmont, Italy (one is a tomato based sauce, the other is a horseradish based sauce). I made a pizza for my vegetarian friend and used the remaining dough to make bread to go with the brisket. For dessert I churned up a fennel gelato and served it w/ a bottle of nice cognac and fortune cookies.  The consensus from my friends was the fennel gelato is one of the best flavors I’ve created so far. It was a beautiful crisp fall evening so we all went outside after dessert to light a fire in the chimenea and sip our cognac. We were having such a good time that we hung out for a few hours by the fire and nearly finished off the entire bottle of cognac!

Fennel Gelato w/ Fennel Fronds

Ingredients:

1 fennel bulb thinly sliced

1 tablespoon fennel fronds – minced

6 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

1 quart half & half

Procedure:

1) In a metal bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar until mixture becomes smooth and pale yellow

2) Place half & half and fennel  in a heavy pot and heat until scalded 

3) Pulse half & half  mixture in a food processor then strain out fennel

4) Very slowly whisk warm half & half into egg/sugar mixture so as not to curdle the mixture

5) Place bowl w/ mixture over a pot of simmering water, stirring continuously w/ a heat resistant spatula until mixture coats the back of a metal spoon (do not let mixture exceed 170 degrees F to prevent curdling), then quickly place bowl in an ice bath to stop the cooking process and promote rapid cooling

6) Once cool, refrigerate mixture for at least 4 hours or overnight