A Miniature Boiled Dinner

When I first learned to cook, I was in college, living in a big house with a lot of other people, and cooked on a very large scale. Gradually, over the years, I have learned to cook for fewer and fewer at the table. First, I scaled down to nuclear family size, and later, when my husband died, and then my daughter grew up, I eventually adjusted to cooking for one. I still get my large scale kicks by cooking for family gatherings and friends, pretty regularly.

There are a few really good things that you just don't generally make for one person. One of these is the traditional boiled dinner. Pot au Feu, Bollito Misto, or whatever you call it, it's awfully good. There's a version from most every culture, and it's lovely stuff, comforting and luscious, plain but extravagent, the source of enviable leftovers.

People do make this for company, but to me its always been an at home, family dinner, and I have missed this indulgence. I had this thought at the supermarket, looking at the little game hens in the poultry case. While these may seem a clever choice for a single person, I never roast one- I like the leftovers from a roasted chicken too much to bother with these little guys. But suddenly I pictured one as a player in a dolls' house boiled dinner, with a small piece of chuck, and a nice selection of veg to scale.

I decided to try it out, and here it is. The wine glass will give you an idea of the overall dimensions of my little project. This would also be more than enough for two, you'd just have fewer leftovers. It is best accomplished as a two or three day venture- all boiled dinners are suited to steps and rests; but it is not complex. I did it in 3 days, which was easiest with my schedule, but you could do it in 2 without much more fuss. This is what I did:

The first day
1 1/4 lb. piece of well marbled chuck roast, quite thickly cut
4 big beef soup bones
1 onion, not peeled

1 large carrot
fresh flat leafed parsley
peppercorns
sea salt

All of these goodies were cooked in my pasta pot, with the strainer in, with plenty of water to nearly the top of the pot. I brought it to the boil, skimmed off the gray froth, and turned it to a bare simmer. Once the broth tasted great (about four hours) I pulled up the insert. I removed and saved the chuck roast, now tender, and pushed the marrow out of the bones into a little bowl. The meat, marrow, and soup were cooled, and then refrigerated, covered. The remains (depleted veg and bones and whatnot) were tossed in the trash neatly, from the strainer.

Day two

1 1/4 lb cornish game hen and its giblets, minus liver
broth from prior day, fat peeled off and discarded
1 small celery root, peeled

I put the little bird, the celery root and the defatted broth in my 5 qt dutch oven, and poached it until tender, but not falling apart. This took about an hour. I removed the bird and celery root carefully, cooled them and the broth separately, then covered and refrigerated all three. You can see that this day could easily be combined with the previous day. Instead of cooling and defatting the broth after the meat step, you would just poach the chicken in it directly after separating all your stuff, and then refrigerate all.

Day three

smallest of my farmbox carrots, whole, peeled
a small parsnip, peeled
a small turnip, peeled
3 or 4 unpeeled garlic cloves
several small potatos
handful of brussells sprouts, trimmed
green beans from farm box, lovely and fresh
chopped flat leaf parsley
sliced crusty bread

I removed the soldified fat from the broth, and put it back on the burner. I brought it to a boil, and added all the veg through the potatoes, cooking them all until fork tender, and adding the green beans for the last 5 minutes. I cooked the sprouts separately,in salted water as I would have done with cabbage, for which they are the diminuitive replacement.

Then I sliced the beef and arranged all the meat and veg on a plate. When ready to eat, I started with a little bowl of hot broth with chopped parsley and a toasted slice of bread spread with a bit of the marrow, sea salt, and pepper. I then reheated the platter of goodies, ladled a bit more hot broth over it, and had a taste of hen, a bit of beef, and most of the veg for my supper, with a glass of some local reisling, crusty bread, coarse sea salt, pepper, mayonaisse mashed with the garlic cloves, horseradish and little bits of kosher style green tomato pickles.

I was self indulgent, and spent a nice long time over dinner, disgracefully reading my book and wallowing. I also polished off a baked apple with greek yogurt , honey and walnuts. I was pleasantly stuffed. And now I have beautiful stock for soup, a bit of hen for a sandwich or salad, and beef for a mironton, about which more later. Oink.

Comments

[Kimberly]

Oh, how lovely! How I'd love to join you over that dinner, for some doubtless very spirited conversation about the state of our society. I'd bring the... um... you know, it doesn't seem that anything at all was missing. Yum. Thanks for sharing.

[Amanda Olsen]

How fantastic! I love dinners/food in small scale, and this has to be one of the best-- nothing beats a good New England boiled dinner, no matter what time of year. I can't wait to try it.