Boeuf à la ficelle

Per Nana~

This week's recipe of beef on a string is quite interesting. 

 I will admit that I took the easy way out and used broth from a container.

  Perhaps if the weather was a bit nicer I might have considered 

shopping for all the ingredients to prepare the bouillon, but I don't

 even know where to buy oxtails or veal bones on a good day.

I used  a total of two and a half containers of broth and cooked the veggies up.

 I did not find any celery root while shopping so I decided to use parsnips 

instead. This combination of vegetables added such a lovely flavor to the 

broth. I poached the beef tenderloin for 20 minutes and it was still too rare

 for us to eat. I sliced a few pieces to use for photos and then sliced the rest to

 cook a bit more in the broth. To garnish, I used horseradish and mustard, 

and served "Hélène's All White Salad" on the side. 

Per Tricia~

Luckily this week's recipe was quite a cinch compared to the Paris Brest 

pastry of last week. Even more so if you used ready made broth like 

Nana and I did. The aroma in the kitchen was out of this world as the

 tenderloin poached and my husband, who prefers his meat rare, 

was in his glory. I decided not to tell him how much I spent on the

 piece of meat he was raving about. Why be a kill-joy..... 

In addition to enjoying this "lost recipe" as Dorie refers to it, I very much

 enjoyed her tale of trying to get the cut of meat at the Grand Epicerie

 in Paris. This one really hit home as when Nana and I have stayed in

 Paris the last few times our preferred location is about a block away. 

We often would stop by La Grand Epicerie, which is really an

 amazing food hall/court/ grocery store that is part of a department

 store- Le Bon Marche. We would enjoy ogling the fine pastries, meats

 and French specialties - as much as chuckling when we saw "American" 

food (ketchup, oreos) on the very fancy shelves. At very fancy prices. 

I love to get tote bags as souvenirs and have been using  one

 from this very store for years now. It is by no means fancy

 but it does the job and puts a smile on my

 face as I bring lunch and supplies to work. 

And Nana was spot on with it not being weather to go hunting oxtails in.

 We have had severe weather in PA, with snow that was followed by an ice
 storm. We woke up earlier this week to our tree taking out a neighbor's car. 
All is well but this winter has been quite an adventure. 
And it is far from over.

Note my feathered friend in the river birch outside my window ~

Happy French Friday ~