Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, as you may know, gave his Poet Laurete a cookbook for Christmas. The Big Hominid has photoblogged his experience with egg-less chocolate mousse. (Really. Clicky here and here and here.) Before gifting Nigella’s book your Maximum Leader read through it. Nigella Lawson has always been one of your Maximum Leader’s favourites. Indeed a link to her site has existed on this page for years… If you look over on the right side nav bar and see the link entitled “Domestic Goddess” you will get Nigella’s site. It’s the link right under Eddie Izzard and right above the NRA.)

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader wasn’t just gifting cookbooks. He recieved two of them for Christmas. Your Maximum Leader can’t recall exactly where he heard/read this, but it has stuck with him. Someone (possibly Arthur Lubow, Ruth Riechl, Jacques Pepin, or Phyllis Richmond) once said that if you really wanted to KNOW the whole western cooking tradition you only needed three cookbooks. The three are: The Joy of Cooking, Larousse Gastrnomique, and Il Cucchiaio d’Argento (The Silver Spoon).

Now your Maximum Leader has owned he Joy of Cooking for as long as he can remember. Indeed he has an original edition (which he stole from his sainted mother) and the updated version. The Joy of Cooking has always been an essential reference in the Villainschloss kitchen. He highly commends them to you.

He received for Christmas Larousse Gastronomique and The Silver Spoon. In the few days since Christmas they have both received a workout.

The Silver Spoon has been the best selling cookbook in Italy for the past 50 years. It is widely considered THE authoritative reference for recipies amongst arguing grandmothers across Italy. Until a few months ago, it was only available in Italian. Now Phaidon Press has released the mammoth tome in English. It is fabulous. Your Maximum Leader has already sampled at least 8 items from book. His two favourites so far are the Cream of Asparagus soup and the Pork Chops in Blueberry sauce. Your Maximum Leader is seriously considering buying a few copies and giving them to friends throughout the year. (Indeed, he has already gifted The Silver Spoon to his Brother & Sister-in-law and his Mother-in-law.)

Larousse Gastronomique is not a cookbook so much as it is an encylcopaedia of cooking with recipies thrown in. In a perusal of Larousse your Maximum Leader has found a recipe that he will do before he dies… He will share it with you here for your reading (if not dining pleasure)…

Stuffed Turkey Grand-Duc

Slit open a turkey along its back and stuff the bird with the following mixture: 18oz chicken rubbed through a fine sieve, 17.2 oz of double heavy cream, and 9 oz of foie gras (prepare the foie gras by poaching it in port wine and rubbing it through a fine sieve). Season stuffing to taste. Add 12 truffles (peeled and cooked for 10 mins in brandy). Add 24 chicken hearts (prepared by removing blood vessels, soaked in water, steeped in white Malaga wine, drained, dried, then stuffed with a puree of York ham, then poached for 15 mins in truffle essence).

After stuffing the turkey, carefully reshape it. Cover the bird in slices of raw ham or bacon. Enclose the stuffed, wrapped turkey in pastry taking care to keep the shape of the bird. Bake at 250 degrees for 2.5 hours. During cooking cover bird with wax paper coated with flour to assure that the pastry browns evenly and not too soon.

Serve directly from oven with a demi-glace flavoured wtih truffle essence.

Say what you will… THAT, loyal minions, is real eatin’.

Carry on.