Soupe au Pistou and Thon à la Provençale

The busy school year is about to start again, and so this cooking project must come to an end. In fact, I had to skip last week because of an important deadline. For my last meal, I wanted to include a friend who is vegan, which posed the challenge of finding a vegetarian recipe in MAFC that could also be prepared without dairy. I landed upon soup au pistou, a vegetable soup with a garlic, basil, and herbs mash. Julia and co. describe this recipe as an early summer dish originating from the Mediterranean region of France and made distinctive by the pistou sauce. The soup begins with boiling carrots, potatoes, onion, and white beans until tender and then adding green beans, broken spaghetti, and crumbled stale white bread a for the last 15 minutes. The recipe also calls for a pinch of saffron in the soup, but that was outside of my means.

Plain soup

Pistou

The pistou is prepared alongside the soup by mashing four cloves of garlic with tomato purée, fresh basil, Parmesan cheese, and “fruity olive oil.” Tangent – if I haven’t mentioned it before, the wonders of genuine, Mediterranean olive oil are endlessly delicious. I would direct anyone interested to the book Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller for a full discussion. Anyway, these ingredients are combined and the oil slowly beaten into the paste. When the soup is finished, one cup is beaten gradually into the pistou, and then the rest of the soup is poured into the tureen. For my vegan friend, I simply omitted the pistou from her portion. As suggested, I served the soup with hot French bread – mmm.

 

Soup with pistou added - see how the color changed!

To accompany this soup, I prepared another dish from the south of France, thon à la Provençale. I was able to find decent frozen tuna steaks at my local grocery store and merely thawed them in the refrigerator for a day. The recipe instructed the blending of salt and lemon juice in a backing dish then beating in olive oil and pepper. The fish was then placed in the dish, basted with the marinated, covered, and refrigerated for 1.5 to 2 hours while turning and basting several times. I then drained and dried the fish and sautéed it in hot olive oil to brown each side. The steaks were then placed back in the baking dish.

Next, I peeled and seeded three pounds of tomatoes using the techniques described in MAFC. They instruct blanching the tomatoes for 10 seconds then the skin is easily peeled. They then suggest slicing the tomatoes in half crosswise to extract the seeds by gently squeezing. For the tuna, I then chopped the tomato pulp and added it to minced yellow onions that had been sautéed. Adding mashed garlic, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper and simmering covered for 5 minutes added the distinct Mediterranean flavor. The mixture was then spooned over the fish and brought to a simmer on the stovetop. I baked the fish for 15 minutes then added a cup of dry white wine and continued baking for another 30 minutes. After the fish was removed from the oven, the authors instructed boiling down the sauce until it was reduced and stirring in tomato paste. I skipped beating in a paste of butter and flour, but topped it with chopped parsley. This may seem like a lot of fuss for a piece of fish, but these tuna steaks were absolutely worth the effort and will certainly be cooked again.

Tuna with sauce

My friends Ami, Rachel, and Doug joined me for this meal and brought berries and vegan cream puffs. The cream puffs disappeared so quickly I barely had time to snap this picture of the few left at the end! We all enjoyed this hearty dinner from la Provençe.

 

Full meal

Last of the vegan cream puffs!

With this post my exploration into French cooking through weekly meals with friends and family has come to an end. While I will no longer be writing regularly about my cooking experiences, be assured that I will continue exploring new recipes and refining the techniques to which I have been introduced. This experience has deepened my appreciation for French food and widened my ability to replicate some of the most highly regarded dishes in the world. If I find time in the future, this blog may be rejuvenated, but for now, à la prochaine.  

Caneton à l’Orange and Navets Glacés à Brun

As previously mentioned in the goose post, I love duck.  I finally found duck at our local Asian food store, which proved to be an adventure in and of itself. As you may imagine, poultry from an Asian market comes whole. Head, eyes, feet, claws. Whole. I’ve always said you should be willing to handle raw meat if you want to eat meat. The whole beast is a different story though. I’ll spare you all the graphic details, but without a proper meat cleaver, detaching the extremities was tedious.

Orange and duck is a popular combination in many cultures and MAFC embraces it fully. The duck is roasted similarly to all the other birds: seasoned cavity, trussed, rotated in the dish occasionally, and remove excess fat with baster. The true tour de force of this recipe, as with many French recipes, was the sauce. First, I peeled four oranges and cut the skins into julienne strips. These were simmered in water for 15 minutes then patted dry. Some of the orange strips were placed in the duck cavity, the rest were set aside for the sauce.

Orange peel; peeled oranges

The sauce truly began with a “sweet-and-sour caramel coloring” of boiled sugar in red wine vinegar. This concoction gave off quite a sharp vapor and thickened to a sticky consistency after a few minutes. Then, stock was added and a cornstarch and port thickener. The recipe actually called for arrowroot mixed with wine to add thickness and color, but arrowroot was not available at my local store. The rest of the orange peel was added and it continued to simmer for a while longer. When the duck was done roasting, port was boiled down in the roasting juices and then strained into the rest of the sauce. The sauce was finished off with a couple of tablespoons of orange liqueur and butter enrichment. The complex flavors of this sauce added both acidic citrus and sweet richness. The duck was served with arranged orange slices and a drizzle of sauce.

 

Prepared duck and turnips

Orange sauce

To accompany the duck, I made the frozen pea and shallot recipe previously described. The authors insist that nothing should interfere with the flavor of the duck and thus more subtle vegetables should be served. Instead of the recommended potatoes, I decided to try glazed turnips. I don’t know that I have ever made turnips before, but I always enjoyed them with my grandmother’s roasts. MAFC calls for two pounds of turnips, peeled and quartered then blanched in boiling water. The vegetable was then sautéed in butter to lightly brown the outside. I then boiled them in bouillon and sugar until a syrupy reduction covered them. They took almost two times longer than the recipe indicated to become soft, but required little maintenance – just a stir here and then. To serve, I sprinkled the white vegetables in parsley for color. The turnips were fairly easy to prepare and were sweet and delicious.

Prepared meal

My dear friends Blake, Meghann, and her husband, Ryan, joined me for this special meal. We discussed the joys and struggles of marriage as Meghann and Ryan had recently celebrated one year of matrimony. We all enjoyed this rich meal and hearty wine that accompanied it. My meat carving skills still have not improved much, but I’ll blame it on not having the correct utensils. I greatly enjoyed the duck and, if I can find a well butchered bird in the future, will certainly make it more frequently. 

Soufflé aux Crevettes, Asperges au Naturel, and Tomates à la Provençale

I was home visiting my parents and sister this weekend in Indiana and of course wanted to share my French cooking journey with them. My mom mentioned that she had recently seen a rerun on TV of Juila Child making soufflé and suggested that as a possibility for our dinner. Of course, my parents’ well-equipped kitchen has several soufflé molds, a missing tool that has prevented me from making any molded dish so far this summer. So soufflé it would be!

The authors of MAFC give extensive directions and illustrations for the delicate processes of whipping, folding, and baking a variety of soufflés. I chose a shrimp variation because it was on hand. The diced shrimp was first cooked in butter and simmered for a moment in vermouth. The shellfish was set aside while the main mixture was made. I cooked flour in butter for a few minutes and then beat in boiling milk and seasoning. Then four egg yolks were beaten in one by one. Then, the authors direct stiffly beaten egg yolks to be folded slowly into the yolk mixture along with grated Swiss cheese. The mold had been prepared with butter and cheese sprinkled inside. The egg mixture was layered with the shrimp, sprinkled with cheese, and baked for 30 minutes. The soufflé breathed spectacularly high above the mold, but unfortunately collapsed before I was able to take the picture as soufflés are apt to do.

The main dish was accompanied by a sauce mousseline sabayon, which is very similar to hollandaise. The recipe called for fish liquor but I could not find any at the local store so substituted vegetable stock. It was simply a whipped combination of egg yolks, whipping cream, stock, butter, and seasoning. You can see the sauce below over the soufflé in the final plated images. The soufflé was a little on the dry side and denser than I expected so the sauce, while a little more bland than I had hoped, helped make it more palatable.

Souffle drizzled with sauce

To accompany the soufflé, I chose two vegetables, one more tedious than the other. The authors suggest that peeled and boiled asparagus in the French method is the best. So, even though the asparagus I bought was rather thin, I peeled every stalk – a process that took an hour. The stalks were the bundled together and boiled in a pot of salted water for about 15 minutes. They were indeed very delicate and tender, but we all agreed they were not quite worth the effort.

 

Look at that beautifully peeled asparagus!

Finally, my parents’ luscious home-grown tomatoes were too tempting not to include in some way. In fact, they had one very large tomato that, when quartered, served the four of us. I chose the Provençale recipe as a bold contrast to the delicate soufflé. The recipe is a simple process of removing the seeds and juice from halves (or in our case quarters) and stuffing with herbs and breadcrumbs. I was able to use fresh basil, parsley, and thyme from my mom’s garden along with garlic, green onion, and salt and pepper. These herbs where mixed with olive oil and some baguette crumbs, stuffed in the tomatoes and roasted in oil for about 15 minutes. This vegetable was a wonderful summer accompaniment to the rest of the meal. As an avid tomato eater, I will certainly make this dish again.

 

Close-up of the tomato

Baguette

This meal was quite enjoyable with my family on our back porch on a pleasant summer evening. We had pinot grigio paired with the fish and ate the rest of the baguette. Unfortunately, all photographs were taken in the kitchen under artificial light and many of them were blurry as I was in a bit of a hurry. Better luck next week!

Fricassée de Poulet à l’Ancienne and Crème au Beurre, Ménagère

“For this traditional Sunday dinner dish, which is not difficult to execute, the chicken pieces are turned in hot butter, sprinkled with four and seasonings, then simmered in wine and white stock.” Julia and her co-authors explain that a fricassée is between a sauté and a stew in that the meat is first cooked in butter and then simmered in liquid. This particular version recommended serving whole mushrooms and onions along with rice or noodles with the cream sauce.

Parsley, thyme, bay leaf

I am still working on my chicken dissection skills and am improving with most of the carves but still struggled with disjoining the legs from the rest of the body. Once the young fryer made its way into about eight pieces, I lightly cooked sliced onions, carrots, and celery in a large casserole and then added the chicken. The chicken needed to be turned every few minutes so that it became only “lightly golden yellow” on each side. After several turns, it was sprinkled with flour, salt, and pepper and then continued to cook for a few minutes on low heat. Then the liquids – stock and wine – were added along with an herb bouquet that included parsley from my garden. Side note: I think these herb bouquets are lovely and would like to see them as a more ecological substitute to flowers at weddings. The chicken then simmered for about 30 minutes until it was cooked through.

Cosy in the casserole

Failed flutes

In the meantime, I prepared the onions and mushrooms. The cross-reference for brazed onions (oignons glacés à blanc) calls for small white onions to be peeled and simmered slowly in butter, white wine, salt, pepper, and an herb bouquet for 40-50 minutes. Simple enough. The stewed mushrooms (champignons à blanc) are cooked so that they maintain their white color. MAFC recommends fluting the mushroom caps in a lovely decorative manner. I couldn’t quite get my knife to work the way the authors describe, but the mushrooms managed to have some texture. The mushrooms were then placed in boiling water, salt, lemon juice, and butter for five minutes.

When the chicken was finished cooking, it was removed from the casserole and the cooking liquid was boiled down. The recipe called for whipping cream to be beaten with egg yolks, but I forgot to buy cream and had to substitute skim milk which seemed to work just fine. The hot liquid was slowly added to the eggs to temper them and then the mixture was returned to the casserole dish and continued to boil down. A little salt, pepper, lemon juice, and nutmeg and the sauce was ready to strain and have the enrichment butter.

Couldn't resist another "ingredients in the kitchen" shot

I used the same steamed rice technique from a few weeks ago but without the addition of mushrooms. The whole dish was served on a platter with the chicken over the rice and garnished with mushrooms and onions and covered in sauce. I understand that aromatics that are cooked with the meat are not usually served, but they are so delicious I can’t help but nibble on them anyway so I placed them on the plate for color and extra flavor.

Bountiful platter

Plated dish

I had additional ladyfingers left over from last week and the authors say are good for at least 10 days and can be served alone or with a butter cream. I chose to make the simplest butter cream mixture with powdered sugar, rum, vanilla extract, and egg yolks. The cream was so rich that I layered only a small amount between two of the cookies in order to stick them together into a small sandwich. I did not think that the butter cream tasted like much other than slightly sweet butter but my guests seemed to like it. I served them with some wonderful fresh cherries.

Ladyfinger cream sandwiches

My friends Brandee and M.E. and her husband Phil joined me for this dinner. Brandee brought the perfect pinot noirs to pair with the richness of the meat. We all agreed that the sauce, as usual, made the dish outstanding and perfectly flavored both the chicken and the rice. M.E. had tasted the ladyfingers in the crème plombières from last week and enjoyed this variation as well, so did Phil who interrupted me mid-sentence to exclaim how good they were. Overall, this was a lovely, hearty meal with good friends and good food.

Crème Plombières au Chocolat et aux Fraises

When my friend Martha invited a few friends over for a girls’ night, I knew this was going to be the chance to spend a week focusing on desserts exclusively. Wine, games, dancing, ice cream, AND French desserts? What could be more fun?! I selected two variations of crème plombières listed in MAFC, one with chocolate and one with strawberries. The authors describe the dessert as “…a custard filling into which beaten egg whites and a flavoring or fresh fruits are folded. It is spooned over lady fingers or sponge-cake, then chilled.” 

To begin, I followed the recipe for ladyfingers, or biscuits à la cuiller. The batter is comprised of beaten egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla with beaten egg whites and flour folded into it. While this sounds simple enough, a number of steps happened simultaneously and required switching between ingredients several times as the egg whites and sifted flour were incorporated. The batter results in a lovely, airy mixture. The batter was then transferred to a pastry bag and squeezed onto buttered and floured baking sheets. I do not have much experience working with pastry bags and did not have a tip quite as large as the recommended half-inch diameter. While it was a little bit of a messy process, I was able to form the four inch “fingers” without too much hassle. Then, a layer of powdered sugar was applied and they baked for 20 minutes. The little cakes had a light crust and were flakey on the outside but had a tender chewiness to the inside. Due to my novice piping skills, some ended up wider and flatter than they were supposed to be but this may also have been the result of insufficient beating of the components or deflation in the combining process. I thought that I had done a good job of preparing the baking sheets, but a number of the ladyfingers stuck to the pans and crumbled quite a bit when I tried to remove them with a spatula. Not to worry too much as they were still delicate and delicious and were to be covered in cream anyway!

Imperfect looking but perfectly delectable ladyfingers!

The basic recipe for crème pâtissière was similar to the process for making the ladyfingers (and the mousse recipe from a previous post) by beating egg yolks and whites separately then combining. This time, the yolks and sugar mixture also included a little flour and a couple cups of boiling milk beaten as it was slowly poured into the batter. The cream was then poured into a saucepan and boiled and whisked for a few minutes before adding a bit of rum, vanilla, and butter. Since I was doing two variations, I decided not to double the cream recipe as it sounded like it would produce quite a bit. I’m glad I didn’t as there was plenty of cream for both dishes. I split the batch and added melted chocolate mixed with rum to one and sliced strawberries in sugar to the other. Then beaten egg whites and sugar were folded into each mixture.

The dishes were assembled by lining two serving dishes with ladyfingers. The ladyfingers that would have the chocolate were sprinkled with rum (it was also supposed to have a little coffee but I didn’t have any available) and the ladyfingers to be topped with strawberries were sprinkled with orange liquor (a substitute I had on hand for kirsch or cognac). The dishes were covered with their respective cream mixtures which formed about a one inch layer. Then both were refrigerated for two hours and decorated with shaved chocolate and strawberry slices, respectively.

Crème Plombières au Chocolat

Crème Plombières aux Fraises

The authors warn that if the ladyfingers are not stale, they will become too soggy with the cream on top. Since mine were freshly baked and I did not have time to dry them in the oven as instructed, I had to risk the sogginess. I didn’t mind so much that the cakes took on a little of the moisture; they still maintained their airiness as the cream thickened in the refrigerator. Of the two, I preferred the chocolate in part because it was reminiscent of the mousse from a few weeks ago that I loved so much. Also, the custard with the strawberries did not take on as much of the strawberry flavor as I would have expected, so while the fruit pieces were nice, the cream itself was less impressive. I’m also not sure that the orange liquor was an appropriate substitute for the recommended liquors as it was rather potent. The other girls seemed to enjoy both variations and the extra shot of alcohol helped kick off a truly pleasurable evening. 

Served with vanilla ice cream. YUM!

Unfortunately, all photography this week was done with artificial lighting although the photos seem alright. However, the strawberry decorations did not survive the travel well and sank some. There were extra ladyfingers leftover which the authors of MAFC say are good for at least 10 days, so they may make an appearance at next week’s dinner…

Moules à la Marinière

Happy quatorze juillet!!! The 14th of July marks the French national holiday commemorating the storming of the Bastille, the state prison, which helped ignite the French Revolution. Fun fact: unlike the American Revolution which immediately resulted in a democracy, the French Revolution was followed by three emperors (on four separate occasions) and three kings (also on four separate occasions). All this to say that now the French eat mussels and fries to celebrate – at least those in Bretagne do, I haven’t been able to confirm that this is true for the rest of the country. When I studied abroad in Bretagne, I was introduced to this tradition in full force. I had moules frites, originally a Belgian dish, with my host family about three times during the week leading up to le quatorze juillet. That was fine with me as the coastal region was perfect for mussel eating. At one community event, the mussels were served in one of those red baskets you see here in the States and the fries were shoved in right alongside them. It made me a little less homesick for our county 4H fair food…

Ok, enough reminiscing about the past. Mussels are incredibly fast and easy to cook. The challenge is buying them fresh so they are still alive and clamped shut. The live creature must remain on ice or in fresh water and not be suffocated – not enclosed in a plastic bag. I found the single grocery store in town that carried mussels and went yesterday before the meal to purchase them, and the woman at the seafood counter was wonderfully helpful. The recipe called for 6 quarts of mussels, but when the employee did the calculations this came out to 11 pounds! We decided that the standard half pound per person would be sufficient and I decided to go on the generous side and ordered a little extra. Then, I went directly home and put these little guys on ice immediately. MAFC recommends that two hours before cooking the mussels they should be scrubbed, de-bearded, and soaked in water so that they will “disgorge their sand.” I think this step may be a bit superfluous in the age of fresh-water cultivation but I did it anyway. In fact, I went the extra mile and added flour to the water which is supposed to improve the disgorging process and feed the mussels so they become even fatter.

The current recipe is a simple combination of vermouth, shallots, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, pepper, and butter (halved). All of these ingredients go in a big pot until the alcohol boils. Then throw in the mussels, shake a few times, et voila! Five minutes later they are done. The mussels’ shells should open when cooked but the organism should not cook so long that it becomes tough. These cooked for just the right amount of time and were the perfect texture and the broth was perfectly seasoned.

 

Beautifully opened mussels strewn with sauce

I cheated a tad on the fries and just bought frozen ones from the store. I decided that, since there was no recipe for fries in MAFC, I was off the hook for making them from scratch. I compensated for this shortcut by making homemade mayonnaise (same word in French) for the fries, another loan from the Belgians.  Julia writes: “Mayonnaise like hollandaise is a process of forcing egg yolks to absorb a fatty substance, oil in this case, and to hold it in thick and creamy suspension.” I’ve seen cooks make mayonnaise before but have never tried it myself. The chapter on sauces describes it as one of the easiest sauces to make. It certainly seems easy, really just whisking olive oil into egg yolks with a dash of vinegar, salt, and mustard. The trick is that the oil must be added very slowly and the whisking must be continuous. After almost 15 minutes of hand beating this mixture, I had a very thick, small dollop of mayonnaise. Unfortunately, I found it rather bland and it just tasted like oil and egg yolk. MAFC has a number of variations on this recipe that include adding herbs and other greens such as pickles or capers to the mayonnaise. I may try to perk up this little yellow blob in the coming days but otherwise I have been disenchanted with the results.

 

The bright yellow sauce is the mayonnaise.
French style mustard is on the left and
Hienz Chili sauce is to the front.

My good friend Jacklyn brought a lovely white wine to pair with the seafood and it was very refreshing indeed! We were also joined by our classmate Shweta who brought some lovely little pastries and her almost three-year-old son, Veer. Both the dessert and the boy were very sweet! Veer refused to try the mussels even after I made chomping monster noises with them and his mother said they taste like chicken, but he was content to nibble on the fries. The grown-ups all seemed to agree that the mussels were delicious and the sauce was worth sopping up with some good bread.

 

Wheat baguette recommended for soaking up the sauce

I was a little rushed with the photography this week and wish the plating were more attractive.  Hopefully, you can get a sense of the picnic atmosphere of this spread. One of my favorite aspects of eating mussels is a trick my host father taught me where you use one empty shell to extract the meat from another shell. The French eat finger food in style! 

The spread

Filets de Poisson à la Bretonne and Riz Duxelles

The two dishes I made last night are symbolic of the experiences I had studying abroad in France in two very different parts of the country. The poached white fish with vegetables takes its name from Bretagne, the far northwest region of France called Brittany in English. When I lived in the south of France, I had many dishes that included rice which was surprising to me at the time and I have wanted to replicate some of the French flavors that were added to this basic grain.

MAFC calls for sole for most of the white fish dishes but encourages flounder as an acceptable American substitute. Le boyfriend and I visited several grocery stores in the Minneapolis suburbs trying to find flounder, or at least one of the other listed substitutes in the cookbook. Not having much luck, we decided that tilapia would be the closest fish we could find. I had never poached fish before but it was really quite simple. The fish was placed in a small metal baking dish that had been buttered and layered with green onions on the bottom. More green onions were sprinkled on top and then the fish was dotted with a little butter (less than was called for, of course) and covered in water and white wine. This pan (notice it was metal this time unlike the goose pan disaster in the last post) was placed on the burner and brought to a simmer. The recipe becomes à la Bretonne with the addition of julienned carrots, onion, and celery and sliced mushrooms that have been cooked slowly in butter. The vegetables were placed atop the fish and the pan was covered with wax paper and placed in the oven for about 8 minutes.

Poached fish and vegetables drained of liquid

When the fish came out of the oven, I drained the cooking liquid into small pot and reduced it to almost a cup. The authors instruct to then beat in a paste of butter and flour, some cream, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. This makes a bercy sauce which they describe as “the simplest of white-wine fish sauces.” However simple it may be, this sauce was wonderful! The poached fish and vegetables were then re-covered with the sauce, sprinkled with swiss cheese, and then placed under the broiler for just a few minutes more to make a nice gratiné, or browning on the top.

 

Gratinéed fish - love the lightly browned spots!

A few ingredients in the kitchen

Michael thought the fish tasted fine but I thought it was a little bland. We both agreed that the sauce was fantastic and had such a unique flavor of tartness from the wine and lemon and richness from the cream. The vegetables were also delicately cooked to the point of melting in your mouth.

The rice was not much trouble and turned out to be the perfect side to the fish and delicious with the sauce. I’ve always had difficulty making rice as it often becomes mushy or overcooked. The authors of MAFC recommend the following steps for “foolproof” steamed rice. First, the rice, water, and salt are placed in the saucepan and brought to a boil. They indicate that the rice should only be stirred once and then brought to a simmer, covered, and cooked for only 12 minutes more. My rice still became slightly starchy but it was perfectly al dente with this method. Then, I simply added diced mushrooms that had been squeezed in a cloth to remove moisture and sautéed in butter with some green onions. The rice was then seasoned with a little salt, pepper, and parsley. All done!

 

Rice with garnish

Plated meal

Look at that beautiful sauce!

Overall, this was one of the simpler meals I’ve done so far and it was every bit as delicious as the others. We had a little side salad of mixed greens and drank the rest of the Belle Sera pino grigio that had been used to poach the fish, which had a wonderful flavor to it that was not too dry. We started watching Band of Brothers last night and found it quite appropriate to see a show about the invasion of Normandy while eating French food! More French history next week…