The Lost Family Virtual Dinner Party ft. 158. Beef Wellington

Welcome to The Lost Family Virtual Supper Club!

I am so happy to be one of the bloggers invited to celebrate the release of Jenna Blum’s latest novel, The Lost Family with a cookalong!

The book is a saga which revolves around Auschwitz survivor and restauranteur Peter Rashkin, his glamourous young wife, June, and their daughter Elsbeth. It’s filled with food, fashion, romance, secrets, sadness, heartbreak, scandal, and Nazis.

Spanning 3 decades, The Lost Family is written in three distinct parts, divided by decade, each one from the point of view of one of the main characters.

Because of this, I decided to cook three dishes–one for each segment.

The book opens in Fall, 1965 at Masha’s restaurant–where Peter Rashkin is the head chef.

The book included the menu:

And a review:

So for the 1960s, I decided to make the entire Dinner is Served card no. 158. Beef Wellington. I even threw a little dinner party (although nowhere near as epic as my Unofficial Mad Men Cook Book Party)!

 

To begin, I didn’t have any suet (kidney fat!) in my kitchen, so I used Crisco, an idea I got from this article from The Spruce Eats as a guide. Basically you freeze the Crisco, then grate the Crisco, and then freeze it again.

So it went onto the beef and into the oven.

And it looked pretty damn good.

Then I prepared the forcemeat.

I had to do some substitutes (of course) so in lieu of ground veal and pork I used meatball mix and for the cognac I substituted this super-old bottle of Reynac Pineau des Charentes.

Yeah, I never heard of it, either.

So everything went bye-bye into the fridge until the next evening.

This was nice because it meant that all I had to do was wrap the Wellington and bake it once my guests arrived.

My beef was only a little over 1.5 pounds, so I have no idea how you’d be able to cover an entire 2-2.5 lb roast with one package of crescent rolls. I had to work hard to get that baby burrito’ed there!

Anyhoo! 30 minutes later I had this!

And, yes, I totally schlepped that Galliano bottle (which belonged to my grandfather) all the way from Pittsburgh to Baltimore just to take this photo.

Because recreating the Dinner is Served 1972 cards is what I do. And I’M COMMITTED TO THE DINNER IS SERVED 1972 CARDS, GODDAMNIT!

So, how was it?

Well, I’m sure that it’s not a smidge like the Brisket Wellington served at Masha’s, but considering that I didn’t think I’d have an ounce of success with this, I totally impressed myself.

The good: the beef wasn’t overcooked. It was so frickin’ tender. And the crescent roll dough actually browned!

The bad: the bottom part of the dough was just soggy and blarg. And the mincemeat I found to be like a steamed, sweet, meatball.

But everyone ate theirs. Some even had second helpings!

I also know that the Wellington was a semi-success, because I already have in my head: this is what I’d change if I make this again….

Now we move to the next segment of the book, focused on June in the 1970s. There is one scene where June goes out to dinner at the Flame Room at the Minneapolis Radisson; and her dining companion orders them both Chicken Kiev.

I found a 1960s menu from the Flame Room and sure enough, Breast of Capon a La Kiev with wild rice is on the menu.

There is a lot to like on this menu. I want to know what a Radisson Salad is. And I’d also like some Beluga caviar and a Baked Alaska, please.

Anyway, Chicken Kiev it is! I found the recipe for Chicken Kiev in Foods International.

This is a neat little book divided into ten little booklets, each from a different country or region.I knew nothing about this cookbook, but after I little sleuthing I discovered that it was a promotional item from Dominion Grocery, a now defunct chain of Canadian supermarkets. According to THIS article, the brand was shut down in 1985 after flailing during the 1970s. So I’m going to guess that this is from the late 70s.

In the Ukranian booklet, there is a recipe for Chicken Kiev.

This was an interesting one, mostly because I had such a hell of a time wrapping the pieces of chicken around the lumps of frozen butter. Seemed like no matter how I pinned them together, there were gaps at the seams.

 

Hence, pan frying these little butter-filled poultry packets was a precarious endeavor. The butter started to seep out during frying and I thought I was going to suffer grease burns. The oil started popping like firecrackers ( I was really glad that my electric frying pan has a lid).

Because the oil went all explosive, I predicted that all of the butter leaked out while frying.

But no! When I cut it open I got that satisfying little geyser of butter!

Like the menu, I served the chicken with wild rice (which is a Minnesota delicacy!).

Anyway, it was good. I’m glad I made it. Right on, Dominion Grocery stores.

The last part of the saga takes place in the 1980s and is told from the daughter, Elsbeth’s, point of view. Not a lot of eating goes on in this part–I really just wanted to take a photo of a diet coke and a pack of Parliament Lights, but remembered that during a meal at the country club, Elsbeth sort of mentally food-shames her mother for ordering a Chef Salad because she thought that it would be diet-friendly.

When I think of Chef Salads they are not diet friendly.

Here is one that I made back in 2011 from the 1972 series. (Yes, I know that ultimately I only made 2 dishes. Sue me.)

Ironically, 1n 2011 I tried to make the Chef’s Salad “light” because I was in a Weight Watchers cycle.

Well, that’s all she wrote!

This was an extremely fun cook-a-long and I am so glad that I was a part of it. I had such a great time cooking and researching.

I want to thank Judy Gelman of The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook for inviting me, The Book Club CookBook for coordinating, and Jenna Blum for writing such a lovely book.

But before I go, I have to mention that there’s one anachronism in the book that just drove me bonkers. There is a scene in a taxi and June sings to herself “if I can make it there…I’ll make it anywhere…” in 1965.

Here’s the thing: New York, New York was the title title theme of the Scorcese-directed musical of the same name, starring Robert DeNiro and Liza Minnelli. It was released in 1977. Kander & Ebb wrote the song specifically for Liza before it became a signature tune for Sinatra. It’s been said,  “Liza owns this song, Frank just rented it.”

Most likely no one else noticed this little thing; but OF COURSE I did because it’s LIZA! Duh.

So here she is to play me out–Liza-with-a-Z!

She is sooooooooo channeling her mother here.

Thanks for joining my part of the dinner party! Now go visit all the other Lost Family-inspired blog posts by clicking the icon below.