Somewhat tamer, and among the best dishes I tried, were powerfully gamy pigeon breasts, served with white-bean gnocchi and an aromatic pea veloute, and lamb cutlets with a ballotine of offal, a gelatinous package not for the faint of heart but bliss for the rest of us.
42.
We made a shopping list, including 24 small onions, gathered some wild thyme and bay leaves and set to simmering, skimming scum, and eventually making, with great trepidation, but quite successfully, a perfectly light sauce veloute, all on our ancient stove, using water we hauled from a well.
43.
The Culinary Institute of America teaches five mother sauces : bechamel, hollandaise, demi-glace, veloute and tomato, according to Stephen Johnson, a lecturer and chef-instructor at the school, in Hyde Park, N . Y . " We teach those in the first class where they actually use their knives, " he said.
44.
Big things : the foie gras on brioche with Pedro Ximinez, the mellow, molasses-like extract of dried grapes used to sweeten sherries; a perfectly balanced gazpacho, smooth as a veloute, but without cream; a Spanish bruschetta, with anchovies and sardines on a toast round with green tomatoes and sorrel cream, and a spicy, soupy tuna tartare wrapped in a Mexican tortilla.
45.
You can picture Waiter Al dripping with disdain as he shows no mercy to an out-of-his-depth W . on vinegar reduction and veloutes of spring peas, and, of course, desserts ( in a culinary version of his debate lecture " Yugoslavia, as they call Serbia plus Montenegro " ) : " Bananas Foster, as they call Bananas plus Foster ."
