52 Weeks! 52 Recipes! One Delicious Year!

I shared this photo on New Year’s Day – I have challenged myself to cook a new recipe each week – that I make from scratch, each one from my cookbook library: one new recipe each week from one of my cookbooks for the entire year!

This is a photo of the first ten cookbooks I will be drawing my inspiration from!

So, what’s up for week one of 2022?

Vincent And Mary Price Of Course!

If you didn’t know that Horror legend Vincent Price was a Chef, that’s OK – you see, more than cooking, he just LOVED eating at the greatest restaurants around the world – and he asked them all for their recipes!

In 1965, he and his wife published this collection of some of his favorite places…many are closed now, including Oslo Norway’s classic Fish restaurant La Belle Sole:



According to the cookbook, this restaurant was as famous for their fish dish as the legendary Paris restaurant Tour d’Argent was for its pressed duck, which I ate once and yes, they give you a card with the number of your duck breast!

While it’s a shame that La Belle Sole is no longer with us, the recipe lives on!

Here is the page from the book with the recipe – let’s see if I can replicate this dish – although I can’t find a photo of it at all – so I will be building it from scratch with no idea of how it will present…

First, I gathered the ingredients needed for the dish: the mushroom and asparagus up front with a clove of garlic – which I didn’t use! That’s a golden slab of butter in front of the filet of sole, along with some lobster tails, packaged marinated Mussels and wine as well…first up, well make the base for a sauce:

I broke down the lobster tails, removing the meat and breaking the shells into piece, which I cooked in two tablespoons of butter…after they turned red, I tossed in the onion, along with salt, pepper, and a cup of water plus a cup of dry white wine…

I let it simmer for twenty minutes – then turned my attention to the other ingredients.

I decided to cook every item one at a time, then set them aside to plate later. First, I sautéed the lobster meat in a tablespoon of butter.

After 5-6 minutes, I removed the cooked lobster meat, then I added a bit more butter and did a hot sear on some stalks of asparagus…those took about five minutes as well:

I kept the heat on medium hight and used the remaining butter in the pan to give the mushrooms a nice caramelization…I kept them moving, and the entire process took less than ten minutes – then I set everything aside, along with some more butter, which I needed for my next step in the recipe!

Remember this lobster shells simmering in the wine? Well, it was time to strain it – losing all of the shells and onion, then I melted some butter, which always means time for a tablespoon of flour:

I added the flour to the butter, made a roux, then added that to the lobster broth, which I stirred until it achieved a nice creaminess….

Now, it was time for the star of the dish!

I got a nice piece of Sole, that weighed in at just under a pound…I added salt and pepper, then melted some butter in a fish pan and, instead of baking it, I pan seared it instead:

You know the frill with fish – it cooked up nicely in just a few minutes on each side…I took a moment to make sure all of the other ingredients were warm, then it was time to plate the dish!

I wasn’t sure exactly how to arrange the plate – I’m not a great food stylist, but after doing so I added the lobster sauce and sprinkled some parsley on top:

I plated the fish in the middle, topped it with the sauce, then put the Mussels near the top, the asparagus on the left, the lobster meat on the right and Mushrooms on both ends!

Could I have topped the fish with the asparagus, or even the lobster? Probably, but I decided to keep it clean so you could see each ingredient.

Presentation aside, the fish was delicious, the sauce had just enough essence of Lobster to make the effort worthwhile, and I was very happy with the sear on both the asparagus and the mushrooms.

I ultimately added some of that delicious sauce to the lobster, because it is, after all, lobster!

Overall, not a bad way to start my “52 In 22” recipe challenge!

This terrific cookbook is a treasure trove of classic recipes from around the world…in fact, I’ve cooked from it before:

Vincent and his wife attended a special dinner at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and one of the dishes was this terrific “Game Hens With Wild Rice And Orange Sauce” recipe – it’s also in the book and you can see how I made it here:

So, there are two great meals thanks to the legendary Horror Icon:



Now it’s time for a delicious cinematic treat from Vincent Price and Diana Rigg as well!

Yes, there they are cooking up a storm, although she may be in quite the costume – Diana Rigg said she had the BEST moviemaking experience of her career working with Vincent Price, and how could she not?

The comic horror film “Theater Of Blood” tells the story of a once-great Actor who decides to kill all of the Critics who helped end his career!

It’s a blast, and you can see the trailer and a lot of great behind-the-scenes information by clicking here:

Price’s daughter Victoria wrote a beautiful biography of her Dad – aside from a Morro legend, he was a passionate fan of food, travel, art and more!

It’s a loving but candid tribute to a great Actor and “lover of life” – who knew everyone in Hollywood and she tells all of the tales!

Click here for more!

If you enjoy these posts, why not subscribe and never miss out? It’s easy, and there are NO ads of any kind, just stuff I like – from music to movies, books, travel, food and more…click on the main page and “follow” me on the upper right…

https://johnrieber.com

As for my “52 Cookbooks 52 Recipes” challenge, I am sharing and storing all of these recipes on my food website as well:

“Bite! Eat! Repeat!” is your site for all things food – from these step-by-step cooking directions for 52 dishes from around the world – to fun stuff like Caviar Tater Tots!

Here’s just one of the many fun stores you can find there:

If you like what you see, please click on my link and follow this blog as well!

https://biteeatrepeat.com



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Categories: Art, BACON, Books / Media, cookbooks, Food, food blog, Food Review, Memoirs, Pop Culture, Recipes, Restaurants, Talent/Celebrities, Wacky Food

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