THE TERRACE OF SINFUL TREATS

FRENCH ONION SOUPE

French Onion soup is Lara's fav soup. It is beyond delicious when prepared well and this is an excellent version. You start off making a white stock:
2 lbs. veal bones
2 chicken carcasses, cut into pieces
1 ga. water
2 carrots, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
2 leeks, washed well and sliced
6 cracked black peppercorns
4 parsley sprigs
2 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves

Place the bones, carcasses, and water in a large stock pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce your heat, skim the fat, and add vegetables and herbs(thatz the peppercorn and stuff). Allow this to simmer for 4-5 hours partly covered, skimming fat off as necessary. Strain well (or just ladle the soup out, leaving the bones, etc. behind.) Nice, now you have your white stock, which is called fonds blanc in French. Now for the actual soupe.

8 cups fonds blanc
3 cups onion, sliced
2 tbsp. butter(not margerine)
8 tbsp. mixed grated Gruyere and Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 baguette

Melt the butter on low heat in a large saucepan. Add the onion, and cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring often, until the onions are soft and golden brown. Add the fonds blanc, and simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. In a 375 pre-heated oven place 16 1/2 inch slices of bread, cut into 1 inch pieces. Bake until golden brown (5-8 mins). Put the soup into individual serving dishes, top with the croutons (that you just made) and 2 heaping tbsp. cheese mixture over each. Brown the cheese under a broiler and serve immediately.

FOIE GRAS ESCALOPES with GRAPES
Foie Gras is a French Delicacy. It is basically duck liver pate but the French have turned the raising, grooming and processing of foie gras ducks or geese into an art-form. Foie Gras may be purchased at specialty food stores, if you can't find one near you, run an Alta Vista search and you will easily locate a distributor. It is a little expensive, but after the first taste you'll know where your money was spent. This recipe is listed with metric measurement so all you Americans out there(gee, like only the rest of the world uses the metric system) will have to do a little converting.
600 g foie gras
500 g grapes, peeled
1 dl of Oporto
5 cl of bubble or juice of roast
1 shallot
4 baguette slices
Butter, flour, salt and pepper

Cut 4 escalopes(slices, filets, whatever you want to call them) of foie gras, salt and pepper them them dust them in the flour. Cook escalopes 4 min. over a med. flame on each side in butter. Place them on the baguette slices. Withdraw about 3/4 of the grease from the pan. Add the shallot and the grapes, cooking them for about 2 min then laying them around the escalopes. Pour the Oporto and roast juice into the pan and let them reduce by half. Withdraw from the flame and incorporate 75 g of butter. Coat the escalopes with this sauce and serve hot. Ahhh, hope you aren't watching your weight while you're eating this!!


OYSTERS POACHED IN CHAMPAGNE

Fresh Oysters are reletively easy to come by and quite inexpensive. However, they are usually wasted in bland, lamerz dishes. Check out this Cafe' exclusive and you'll know why the French call seafood La Fruit de Mer.
2 tbsp scallions, julienne cut
1/4 cup sweet red peppers, julienne cut
1/2 tsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp chervil
1 tsp black peppercorns
2 cups champagne
1 cup washed spinach leaves
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
32 Malpeque oysters on-the-shell
liqour reserved
salt and pepper

Place the lemon zest in cold water and heat or poach 1 minute to remove the bitterness. Drain and reserve. Combine the oysters and liquor, champagne, parsley, mustard, chervil, and peppercorns in a pan and poach for 1 minute. Remove the oysters and place in the shell which have been positioned on serving plates. Over medium heat, reduce the poaching liquid to 1 cup and spoon over the oysters. While cooking saute' over the spinach, scallions, lemon zest and peppers in olive oil for 1 minute. Deglaze the pan by pouring in lemon juice and seasoning with salt and pepper. Divide vegetables and serve beside the oysters with lemon juice served over all. You're now ready to slurp them down.

OPEN-FACE MUSHROOM AND BRIE SANDWICHES

The delights of Brie, Lara's fav cheese around. In fact there might be a a lot of cheeses, but there really is only one cheese. Brie is simply fantastic. Of course it is a bit of an acquired taste, be forewarned... We will be rotating our fav Brie dishes here at the Cafe' but currently on the menu is this little tasty snack.
2 tbspn olive oil
1 1/2 cups trimmed, assorted mushrooms(such as shiitake, oyster, chanterelle or morel
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1 tbspn red wine vinegar
1 tbspn water
2 tbspn finely chopped parsley
4 slices country bread
4 slices Brie
salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a skillet and add the mushrooms, garlic, onion, vinegar, water, salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook for 3 mins. Remove the cover and cook until the mushrooms are tender, about another 5 mins. Remove from heat, transfer mushrooms to a bowl and add parsley.
Toast or grill bread. Place the bread on a baking sheet and top with mushrooms. Place a piece of Brie on top of each slice of bread and place the sheet under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Serve immediately. Just makes your mouth water thinking about it, doesn't it?

STRAWBERRIES ROMANOV

This recipe was created by Antoine Careme for our favorite autocratic Dynasty, the Romanovs(former Tsars of Imperial Russia for you uneducated patrons). Specifically for Alexander I, so it is quite old. This dish is probably a bit more French than it is Russian, but it shows up in both countries. If possible choose medium-size strawberries for this dish instead of the huge ones.
1 quart strawberries, washed and hulled
juice of 2 oranges(about 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup Cointreau
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
1/4 cup sugar
Vanilla

Put the strawberries in a bowl and add the orange juice and the Cointreau. Let them macerate for about an hour. Beat the cream in a cold bowl, gradually folding in the sugar and a few drops of vanilla. Spoon the whipped cream over the strawberries and serve at once. About time for some dessert huh? Well thats all that is on the menu currently. Savor these specialties, restore your strength and then head back out into the cafe'.

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