Mastering the Art of French Cooking

I bought a copy of Julia Child's Mastering The Art of French Cooking from a used cookbook shop last year. I had always wanted a copy and it seemed only fitting to seek out a treasured old copy that had, hopefully, inspired cooks before me. I read through the book and referenced it on several occasions, but never made a complete recipe until this past weekend. I chose to make Coq Au Vin and it was a such a wonderful experience. I am generally the kind of cook who doesn't follow the recipes. I like to forge my own way and cook by instinct. But it was as though I could hear Julia's voice as I read each line of the recipe — like a link back in time to 1950's Paris when Julia first began her culinary career. I followed every step and made her suggested side dishes: Brown Braised Onions and Sautéed Mushrooms. I am including her recipe for the onions because I found it to be an exciting new little technique that I will use again as a side to other meat dishes. For the Coq Au Vin recipe, I will leave it to you to pick up a copy of this elegant old classic cooking text. It is most important to read from the pages for the full effect.


OIGNONS GLACÉS À BRUN
Brown-Braised Onions

18–24 peeled white onions about 1 inch in diameter
1 1/2 Tablespoons butter
1 1/2 Tablespoons oil

1/2 cup brown stock, canned beef bouillon, dry white wine, red wine or water (I used homemade chicken stock diluted with a little water and a teaspoon of beef bouillon paste)

Salt & Pepper to taste
A medium her bouquet: 4 sprigs parsley, 1 bay leaf and 1/4 teaspoon thyme tied is a cheesecloth

When the butter and oil are bubbling in the skillet, add the onions and sauté over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling the onions about so they will brown as evenly as possible. Be careful not to break their skins. You cannot expect them to brown uniformly.

Braise them as follows:
Pour in the liquid, season to taste, adn add the herb bouquet. Cover adn simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but retain their shape, and the liquid has evaporated. Remove herb bouquet. Serve them as they are or follow one of Julia's suggestions that follows this recipe in the book.




NOTE: Recipe taken from Mastering the Art of French Cooking By Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck; 1961

French Onion Soup

I am fortunate to be sitting under sunny skies here in Southern California, no doubt about it. For my friends and family back East who are exhausted from battling the snow and cold temps, this soup could be a bright, warm beacon on a cold snowy night! Combine this with a piece of skirt steak seared to a perfect medium, a big green salad and a bottle of good red wine for a French Bistro meal right in your own home. I hope you like my own version of traditional French Onion soup!

French Onion Soup
serves 4

4 large sweet onions, halved and thinly sliced
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup cognac or brandy
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
6 cups chicken broth
2 packets beef bouillon (I use all-natural liquid concentrate; available at Whole Foods Market & Trader Joe's)
salt and pepper to taste
crusty baguette, sliced
Gruyere cheese, grated

In a large, heavy bottom pot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté, stirring frequently, until the onions start to caramelize and are a nice golden brown (about 20 – 25 minutes). Deglaze the pan with the Cognac and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Add the wine and continue simmering 10-15 minutes more. Add the stock and beef bouillon. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

While the soup cooks, toast 8 – 12 slices of baguette in the oven and set aside.

Ladle soup into 4 oven-safe bowls, placed on a baking sheet. Top each bowl with 2 – 3 toasted baguette slices and a handful of grated Gruyere. Place the bowls under the broiler just until the cheese starts to bubble and brown (3 –4 minutes). Serve immediately.

Goat Cheese, Onion & Tomato Tart

Well, it has been much longer than I would like since I last posted an update. The last few weeks have gotten away from me — I can hardly believe it is February 2010! Where does the time go? I have been keeping busy and of course spending some time in the kitchen. One of my latest favorites is a tart I made using a sheet of puff pastry topped with fresh tomatoes, goat cheese and caramelized onions. This would make a nice addition to your menu for the big game on Sunday!


Goat Cheese, Onion & Tomato Tart

1 sheet of puff pastry (9x9), defrosted
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons dry white wine
5 ounces plain goat cheese
6 small (golf ball size) tomatoes on the vine, cut in half
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1/2 cup of Parmesan or Romano cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler, plus 1/3 cup grated
olive oil
sea salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425º. Lightly oil a baking sheet. Unfold the puff pastry onto the baking sheet, pressing the folds together gently. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and sautée for 15 – 20 minutes, until almost all the moisture is gone from the pan. Add the white wine and season with salt, pepper and thyme. Continue cooking until the onions are brown and caramelized (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat and allow to rest in the pan.

With the tip of a sharp knife, score the pastry dough all around about 1/4 inch in from the edge. Be sure not to cut all the way through. Pierce the dough inside of the score lines multiple times with the tines of a fork as you would a pie crust.

Sprinkle grated cheese over the dough and then cover with onions, staying within the scored border. Next, crumble the goat cheese over the onions and add the halved tomatoes. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and spread the shaved Parmesan over the top. Bake for 25–30 minutes, until the pastry is a nice golden brown. Add a sprinkling of thyme, cut into squares and serve.

Lemon Yogurt Cake & Reminiscing

I got the recipe for the delightful cake from one of my favorite cooking Divas, Ina Garten. This recipe is in her book: The Barefoot Contessa At Home. The recipe is made lighter than a lemon pound cake by replacing butter with yogurt, but is still sweet and decadent enough to satisfy a craving. Excellent with a cup of fresh brewed coffee in the morning!

The only change I made to the recipe, was using 2% greek style yogurt rather than whole milk regular yogurt. The result was a real crowd pleaser this weekend when we visited a dear old friend and her family.

Our friend and neighbor from our days on Churchill Drive in Charleston, WV, Roberta Allison, was visiting her daughter in Newport Beach. We drove up and spent a fabulous afternoon with them. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to chat with Roberta again and listen to her stories from her years in Charleston and of growing up in Monroe County. The day was topped of with an unbelievable sunset and a cozy dinner with the family. What a perfect way to spend a Saturday!


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Lemon Yogurt Cake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain yogurt
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons lemon zest (about 2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2–3 lemons)

Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease and flour a 8.5x4.25x2.5 inch loaf pan.

Sift together flour, caking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk together yogurt, 1 cup sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the oil into the batter, making sure it is all incorporated. Pour the batter io to the greased loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook 1/3 cup of lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup of sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully transfer to a wire rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool completely.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cooled cake.

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Chatting with Roberta

Sunset from Balboa Pier in Newport Beach, CA

Holiday Food Adventures

I can hardly believe another Christmas and 2009 have come and gone! It was a quiet, peaceful holiday here, filled with family and friends and good food and wine. Today's entry is a photo tour of some of the goodies I made over the holidays.

Homemade Italian Bread!
After talking to my cousin Nick about how his mother, my Great Aunt Katie, used to make her bread, I tweaked my usual recipe to make bread more like hers. It turned out great — crusty on the outside, soft and tender on the inside. Steve got me a great book about the art and science of baking artisan breads for Christmas. I can't wait to do some more bread baking!

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Cookies!
Chocolate Chip, Orange Cookies, Thumbprints, Pizzelles and Gallettes. I also made Penuche (an old-time candy that my grandmother used to make for my mom and aunts years ago) and Peanut Butter Fudge. All of these are family favorites and the recipes have been handed down through the years.

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Homemade Mushroom Ravioli —
Using my grandfather's antique pasta machine!

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Knead...

Divide...


Roll...


Fill...

... Shape!

Pita Piata — a family classic!
These large nut and raisin rolls are time consuming and require a lot of kneading an rolling. The dough is tender and flaky and has whiskey in it. I add a touch of whiskey to my filling as well, even though that isn;t in the original recipe. I made a hug batch this year and sent them as gifts. I was a little too generous with my filling (a mixture of regular and golden raisins, chopped walnuts and pecans, sugar and cinnamon) and I ran out, so I had to get creative with the last two. I made a mixture of dried figs, walnuts, brown sugar and cinnamon and they turned out really great. I think I will make half traditional and half with the new filling next year.

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Brined, Herb-Butter Rubbed Roasted Chicken
I decided to brine a chicken like I brined my Thanksgiving turkey. The result was a tender, juicy chicken that was full of flavor. I make a mean roast turkey the traditional way and have always considered it one of my go-to/signature meals. This just takes the flavor up a notch. I have roasted several chickens in this manner since. Drop me a line if you'd like to see the recipe.

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Homemade Pasta drying in my living room, waiting to be packed and shipped to family back East. This is the night my friend Erin stopped by and called the operation "Santa's Workshop for Food" between the pasta making and the cookie and bread baking. Love it! What a compliment!

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Frying Shrimp and Calamari on Christmas Eve
I usually fry the traditional Italian Smelts on Christmas Eve, but I couldn't find them this year and decided to go with shrimp and calamari. I cleaned and prepared both and then soaked them in milk for about an hour. I dredged them in a mixture of flour, cornmeal, seasoned salt, pepper, garlic and a dash of cayenne before frying them in canola oil in my electric skillet. They were perfectly crispy and seasoned on the outside, and tender and juicy on the inside.

Pasta!

I have been consumed with holiday baking and cooking the last several days. I am tired and have a lot left to do, but it is such a satisfied kind of tired. This weekend, I tried my hand at homemade pasta using my my grandfathers amazing old past machine that I had the honor of inheriting. The machine was one of the first pasta machines ever made and is solid as a rock, making quick work of rolling the dough, even after all these years.

I made two kinds of ravioli and also a little bit of regular pasta with the remaining dough. The texture and flavor was outstanding all around.

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Pasta Dough
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
2 eggs
water as needed starting with 1/3 cup

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I used an electric stand mixer for my dough and made sure to drizzle small amounts of water until the dough just came together. It made a beautifully satiny dough that was easy to work with.

For some of the ravioli, I made a filling of homemade pesto and fresh ricotta cheese. For the others, I created a filling of finely chopped fresh cremini mushrooms, dried porchinis that I reconstituted and chopped, a touch of butter, a little chicken bouillon, some grated Romano and a sprinkling of bread crumbs. They were delicate and delicious tossed with a little olive oil and Romano cheese!

Last night I was up until 2 am baking Pita Piatas, large nut and raisin rolls kissed with cinnamon, sugar and whiskey. These are a Calabrese tradition and a family favorite. I learned how to make them from my Aunt Rosie last year. Mine turned out really nice again this year. I will post some pictures of them soon. In the meantime, happy holiday baking!

Thanksgiving, Family Visits & Cookbook Writing

The last few weeks have been busy. The week and a half before Thanksgiving, I went on a multi-city trip to see my family. First to my hometown, Fairmont, WV, to visit my parents, grandmothers and great aunts; and then on to Houston, TX, to visit my aunts, uncles and cousins. I spent some time on both places collecting family recipes and interviewing family members for my cookbook. It is going to take time to do all the recipe testing, writing, photography and design, but it is a labor of love and it feels good to have a start on the project.

I spent some time in Aunt Rosie's kitchen, always a highlight of my trips to Fairmont, and talked to my greats aunts (Aunt Rosie, Aunt Mary and Aunt Irene) about making traditional Italian cookies, homemade pasta, gnocchi, cutlets, you name it! I can't wait to start holiday recipe testing and sharing all the goodies with my friends.

I also spent a lit of time talking recipes and traditions with my family in Houston. In fact, some of my aunts and cousins and I canned peppers in sauce the way my grandparents did every year in the fall. We had a great time and canned over 40 pints of delicious peppers. For more pictures of our canning adventures, check out my Mobile Me gallery: http://gallery.me.com/stephanie.vannoy#100073.


I got back home just in time to prepare for Thanksgiving. I cooked for 10 people and everyone seemed to really enjoy the food. The turkey was exceptionally juicy and flavorful this year. I think the brine I created this year is a definite keeper recipe.



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Savory Turkey Brine
1 gallon water
8 vegetable bouillon packets
4 chicken bouillon packets
1 cup kosher salt
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 large bunch fresh rosemary
1 large bunch fresh thyme
1 head garlic, broken apart and cloves smashed (no need to peel)
1/2 cup peppercorns

Stir ingredients together well and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool fully. Place Turkey in a large container or brining bag. Place in fridge or on ice overnight before roasting.

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Our Thanksgiving appetizer was the pumpkin fondue I wrote about in my last blog entry. It was a huge hit again this year. To accompany the turkey, I made mashed potatoes, wild mushroom-rustic bread stuffing, pork and rice stuffing (a family recipe), lemon roasted Brussels sprouts, Parmesan roasted winter squash (butternut, kabocha and sugar pumpkin), French style green beans and homemade Parker House Rolls. For dessert, I made a pumpkin pie from scratch and our guests brought apple crisps and a pumpkin cheesecake. It was a true Thanksgiving feast!


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Parmesan Roasted Winter Squash

1 small baking Pumpkin
1 small-medium Butternut squash
1 small Kabocha squash
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

Preheat oven to 350º. Peel all three squash and cut them into bite size cubes. Toss squash with cream and 3/4 of the cheese. Top with remaining cheese and bake for 45 minutes to an hour — until squash is fork tender and top is light golden brown. Serve hot.

Leftover note: Make patties of leftover squash, coat them with a light layer of flour and fry in butter like a potato cake for breakfast the next day.

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Stephanie's Homemade Pumpkin Pie
Crust:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3 tablespoons ice water

Filling:
4 large eggs
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
2/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup heavy cream
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of salt

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add ice water one tablespoon at a time and mix until dough just comes together.

Pat dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly floured work surface. Press dough into a flat disk and gently roll out with a few pushes of the rolling pin in all directions, turning dough as necessary, until you have a 12 inch circle of dough. Place dough in pie plate and crimp edges as desired. (I am not great at pie crust edges yet, but the crust always tastes good regardless!) Chill in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375º. Line crust with a sheet of parchment paper and fill with pie weights, dry beans or dry rice. Blind bake the crust for about 20 minutes, until lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

While the crust blind bakes, prepare the filling. Separate one of the eggs, reserving the yolk and discarding the white. In a large bowl, combine, pumpkin, brown sugar, cream, egg yolk, remaining whole eggs, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt and whisk until smooth. Pour filling into partially baked pie shell. Place pie in middle of preheated oven and bake about 50 minutes, until filling is set, but center is still slightly jiggly. Let cool completely on wire rack. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.