bleudauvergne

Rachel, another way to cook it next time might be the following version of Blanquette de Veau Maison, which is usually cooked with slices of the belly but equally good in my opinion for any kind of stewing meat: 1 - 2 lbs. thick veal chops / roast for stewing, cubed 1 onion peeled and pierced with 2 cloves 2 bay leaves a few sprigs of thyme and parsley 2 carrots, sliced 2T. all purpose flour 1T. butter 1/2 cup pitted green olives, washed and minced 1 lemon Salt and Pepper Place the cubed meat, the pierced onion, carrots, bay leaves, and herbs in a stock pot and cover with 1 inch water. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer 1 hour (add water if necessary). Remove herbs. Mix the butter and flour into a paste, add some of the liquor from the cooking to make it into a thick liquid, and then incorporate that into the meat with it's broth, raise heat until it starts to bubble and thicken. Add chopped olives, the juice of the lemon, and salt and pepper to taste - simmer 15 minutes more and serve over rice or biscuits with a fresh vegetable in season. You can enrich the sauce with more butter if desired, just before serving.

Blanquette de Veau Maison Serves 4 as Main Dish. This recipe comes from my French mother-in-law, Brigitte Vanel, and has been tweaked over the years to appeal to the tastes of her children. It is usually cooked with a mixture of slices of the belly but equally good in my opinion for any kind of stewing meat. This is a fine dish for the crock pot: adjust time of cooking to cook the meat until tender. 1 lb or 1/2 to 1 kilo veal stewing meat or blanquette 1 onion pierced with 2 cloves 2 bay leaves 3 each sprigs of thyme and parsley carrot, sliced 2 T all purpose flour 1 T Butter 1/2 c pitted washed green olives (optional) juice of one lemon salt and pepper Place the cubed meat, the pierced onion, carrots, bay leaves, and herbs in a stock pot and cover with 1 inch water. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer 1 hour. (add water if necessary) Remove herbs. Mix the butter and flour into a paste, add some of the liquor from the cooking to make it into a thick liquid, and then incorporate that into the meat and cooking liquid. Raise heat until it starts to bubble and thicken. Add chopped olives, the juice of the lemon, and salt and pepper to taste - simmer 15 minutes more and serve over rice or biscuits with a fresh vegetable in season. You can enrich the sauce with more butter if desired, just before serving. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Veal, French ( RG1114 )

Blanquette de Veau Maison Serves 4 as Main Dish. This recipe comes from my French mother-in-law, Brigitte Vanel, and has been tweaked over the years to appeal to the tastes of her children. It is usually cooked with a mixture of slices of the belly but equally good in my opinion for any kind of stewing meat. This is a fine dish for the crock pot: adjust time of cooking to cook the meat until tender. 1 lb or 1/2 to 1 kilo veal stewing meat or blanquette 1 onion pierced with 2 cloves 2 bay leaves 3 each sprigs of thyme and parsley carrot, sliced 2 T all purpose flour 1 T Butter 1/2 c pitted washed green olives (optional) juice of one lemon salt and pepper Place the cubed meat, the pierced onion, carrots, bay leaves, and herbs in a stock pot and cover with 1 inch water. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer 1 hour. (add water if necessary) Remove herbs. Mix the butter and flour into a paste, add some of the liquor from the cooking to make it into a thick liquid, and then incorporate that into the meat and cooking liquid. Raise heat until it starts to bubble and thicken. Add chopped olives, the juice of the lemon, and salt and pepper to taste - simmer 15 minutes more and serve over rice or biscuits with a fresh vegetable in season. You can enrich the sauce with more butter if desired, just before serving. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Veal, French ( RG1114 )

Pan, if you ask your brother what hotel you;re staying in in Beijing, I can think about the places we used to go in the vicinity of the hotel, if I know the area. L

There have been recent reports that the restaurant has improved and is now quite good, but I haven't been in many years. For an unhappily negative response from a week ago, see my "Eating History" thread, immediately adjacent. Link here

I have sometimes been suprised at how the taste and depth of different new chevres varies so widely. I like a tangy new chevre for salads and rolling in herbs or dipping in marc and rolling in pepper, something with a strong taste. Half the time I get fresh chevre at the markets from the producers, it doesn't seem flavorful enough to me. Does it have to be a certain age before it takes on that nice tang, or is it the method of cheesemaking that defines the flavor of a chevre from the beginning?

Yeah but in Lyon, don't you have all those weird enclosed narrow Traboule corridors linking all the buildings, which would sort of prevent you from grilling because most of the buildings dont have backyards or outdoor terraces? Paris would be somewhat different in how they celebrate, right? In Paris it's about the same thing as Lyon. There are sound systems set up, for dancing in squares thoughout the city. I don't think grilling even crosses the minds of the people here. We were in Paris a few years ago, and spent our Bastille day walking, and we did go to the Fireman's Bal where they were blasting techno music. What did we eat? I don't remember. The beer was expensive and hard to get. Last night we went outside for the fireworks. A lot of young people were drinking beer and blowing off firecrackers in the square in front of our house. Everything came to a stop, even the traffic along the Quai, when the fireworks started. Every other street corner was set up with a stand selling beer and kebab (lamb or veal) sandwiches. I asked my husband if the French eat anything special, and he said no. I also quizzed a few people at work just to be sure and they confirmed that the menu on Bastille day is not something set like Fois gras on Christmas or Oysters on New Years.

Yes. Edited to say YES to those sauces. After cheese, sauces are my favorite... Margaritas and pork roast?

Philip - About the chicken coming out dry, I've noted that Blanc recommends leaving the breast on the carcass until just before serving, for all of this Poulet de Bresse recipes, which could possibly contribute to its retaining more juices. It might be worth a try to do this the next time you prepare the dish with whatever kind of bird you use. About the rice at the restaurant, it was plain buttered rice. I did the fricasee with the fois gras sauce - EASY! The cooking temp is so hot I thought it was a typo but it works, it's easy, and it comes out beautifully. Don't be tempted to turn down the temp and don't overestimate the amount after the initial 15 mins covered in the hot oven. The time goes fast. I blended the fois gras with the butter in the blender - mainly because I wanted to make sure it was completely homogenized. I finished the sauce by incorporating the fois gras/butter with a whisk - to keep things less messy. The butter and fois gras thickened up the sauce like magic and it was a beautiful foamy beige color from both the deglazing and the fois. Another thing to mention is the garlic. I didn't feel that the garlic had enough time to roast, according to the recipe. So I pierced all over the unpeeled bunch of cloves with a fork and gave it a minute on high in the microwave to get it started before tossing it in with the chicken after the initial 15 mins. I cooked it an additional 15, but it would have been fine with a final cooking of 10 minutes only after adding the wine (the final cooking time is not mentioned in Blanc's recipe. I estimated, because the oven temp was so high that it blasted searing heat in my face every time I opened the oven, I could not conceivably keep opening it up and checking the juices.) I took photos up to the point where it went into the oven at the beginning but since I also had guests I was not organized enough to take photos in the last 5 minutes before serving. I am going to do this again and get photos because the dish is really gorgeous, so simple, but beautiful in its simplicity. I served it on a platter with a big mound of rice in the center which I had initially stirred in hot goose fat before adding the cooking water to keep it from sticking. (I managed to get my serving without rice to remain reasonable in my efforts to stick to my personal regime). It's worth noting that children adore this dish. As I finished the sauce, the 4 year old son of our guests was following my every move as he watched at the kitchen door, giving his commentary. As I removed the carrots, herbs, etc. and He said "Who's that for? I don't like sauce. What's that? I don't like fois gras. I don't like chicken." then he was served his part of a breast with rice and smothered in ample sauce. He went silent and then came out with a big smile and cheered "c'est SUCCULENT!" with his hands in the air in victory. A lovely child.

Hmmm. Bastille day. I'm really not sure. The New York Times has a list of a few French themed restaurants offering Bastille day specials. I have never had a special set kind of food on the Bastille day holiday, they don't grill meats and drink beer, that's for sure. It's a day off, a chance for the family to get together for a meal... When we've attended parties it has involved a lot of wine (but then again most parties with our friends do no matter what the occasion). The past 2 Bastille days we have had kebabs because we were out watching the fireworks and they had set up stands on every corner to feed the crowds. It was the only food available. But this year, if we're not rained out, the fireworks will take place on the 13th for some reason only known to the city of Lyon. Public transport is stopped as usual on any day involving a "fete".

Raisab - I have a great idea since you pass through Paris rather regularly. Why don't you go to the Montignac boutique? Boutique Michel Montignac 14, rue de Maubeuge 75009 Paris 01.49.95.93.42 Anyway I'm sure they'd have pain integrale if not a list of approved boulangeries. I've just checked and it's near Metro CADET on line 7.

Yes, the recipe for that chicken is in the book we both bought, Philip, on page 137. For one bird of about 2kg, he uses 1 liter of thick fresh cream, 100 g. butter, an onion, 10 white mushrooms, 2 cloves of garlic (unpeeled), a glass of white wine, a squeeze of lemon juice, & a bouquet garni. After crisping skin of the chicken in butter, and adding the quartered onion, mushrooms, garlic, bouquet garni, he deglazes with the white wine, then adds the the cream and simmers until he's ready to strain it. Just before he serves it, he brightens it with the lemon juice, adjusts the seasoning and serves it. edited to add a photo that was taken at Les Halles in Lyon:

I'm sorry my photos haven't been forthcoming, I've been really overcharged with summer and the activites that come with it - namely, guests! This week the compote was pears simmered with ground vanilla bean. The fromage of the week was Morbier: Fresh herbs were all over the market: And as I mentioned we're taking our vinaigrette up a notch with a 4 year aged white basalmic vinegar from Modena Italy and a fruity cold pressed evoo from the Moulin St. Michel in Mouriès. In this shop we had a chance to taste all of the products before we decided which one to buy. It was a really hard decision for everyone in the shop, and I think everyone must have spent at least 40 bucks each. It was all so good. We got some ham to go with the amazingly sweet canteloupes that are available now. We followed this with a salad. Vive l’été!

Hey Raisab - Pain Complet is going to contain some mixture of flours and be lighter and more springy, but "pain integrale" will be only whole wheat using the wheat and hull in its entirety. It will be dense and moist, cut almost like thick cake. Where are you shopping? Do you want me to make any calls? PM me if you need any help. Good luck.

Hi Pan - I lived in Beijing for three years but it was in the late 90s. Things change fast... I haven't checked rates but Chinaworld is a top notch hotel where we used to put visitors. From what I remember Chinaworld had a fabulous French restaurant - but that's not what you're there for... edit to add that the Traders Hotel attached to the Chinaworld complex is a good hotel at lower prices than Chinaworld. Another centrally placed hotel in the Chaoyang district is the SciTech hotel, which was certainly passable, a lot less expensive but certainly alright for a family visit, central to the subway and one stop from Tiananmen, easy even by foot. 9 Days is a good length of time to stay. Early in the trip, try to get to Ritan park which is near the Embassies, where in the park there's a fine little restaurant that serves traditional dishes. In that same area is an Indian place with aircon that we used to frequent often at lunch. As my memory is refreshed I'll offer more, but so glad to see you're going to be spending a good 9 days in Beijing. Edited to ask if youw ant to eat exclusively Chinese or are you interested in also trying the Korean, Japanese, Russian, German, restaurants ?

Lisa, I was wondering how you were, it's nice to hear your still in Paris. Thank you so much for your comment! To answer your question, my spending habits have changed but the budget has not gone up. Since I've been bring lunches to work these days, and we're buying less meat, that's dropped the amount. The Bio products are mostly raw ingredients, lentils, brown rice, etc. Not very expensive - I'm not taking supplements except brewers yeast or buying any of the exotic things that are expensive in the bio shops. I've found that since I am making my own pasta at home, the price is only centimes a meal on the nights we eat pasta, and we eat it a lot. We do spend more per gram on goose fat, but we've cut down on its use and also cut drastically on butter. I am eating my own compote so it costs whatever the fruit costs, plus a few centimes for 3-4 T. fructose. We have always eaten lots of vegetables, I would say that has remained the same. In all, the budget amount has not increased, but I have spent more time on extra projects on the side, pasta, crackers, compotes, etc. (perhaps this is balanced out by the baking I used to do?) Recently we spent a bundle on good olive oil and vinegars. As long as we are improving the general quality of what goes into our diet, this follows along. It makes sense to use only really fresh tasting and high quality for our vinaigrettes, which make salad eating that much more pleasurable. The wine expenditure has remained constant, because we've bumped up the quality while reducing the quantity. As for a stagiere's budget and your hectic schedule. I can certainly understand how easy it is just to buy a baguette and some cheese and call that a meal, and how that can start showing on your hips. But you can start with a few small things - 1) Pots of 0% fromage frais bio and pain complet - for breakfasts. Casino and Monoprix both have their store brand of this kind of fresh cheese if you're really looking to cut corners on the budget. The pain integrale costs more per loaf but lasts several days so it evens out. Locate a good source and keep stocked up. 2) Lentils and dried beans are very cheap and a good source of fiber. You can do a batch on weekends and keep using them in various things throughout the week. 3) Soups and purees have been a godsend for me, I have been pouring my creative energy into them lately. All you need is a stock pot and you can cruise your market for bargains. You can do cream based soups and follow with cheese, or stick to strict purees and have WW pasta with them. 4) Fish is problematic in Paris, and especially as a stagiere. From what I remember it was really expensive to get fresh fish when I was a student in Paris. Even more problematic with a bachelor pad frigo, the kind without the real freezer, which prevents you from stocking up when the price is right. Can you get permission to use the freezer at work? If you can, and you're serious about saving some money, you might consider checking out what Picard has to offer as far as fish goes, and keeping it at work. In reading their labels it's clear they generally don't coat things with starches or soak their meats in sugary brines. Thier Limand fillets are quite good, and I keep sea bass filets in the freezer for backups or last minute guests. They're generally less expensive than fresh from the fishmonger... Good luck!

Hi Steve - In a recent major career questionning (and identity) crisis brought on by eGullet , have taken a great interest in what the qualifications of the "Maitre Fromagiers" in restaurants outside of France are. From what I understand, this is becoming a more and more common position on the staff of many U.S. and U.K. restaurants. Their job is to choose, purchase, age, and serve the restaurant's platter, somewhat akin to the sommelier, with sometimes the sommelier wearing both hats. My big question is how does someone become qualified for this? Is it simply enough to know cheese? My thought was to work on obtaining the required certification and bring this expertise back home to the States with me one day. From what I have been able to gather so far, it seems like something people fall into, working in a cheese shop, then getting a job in a restaurant, or promoted from busboy... I have not been able to find standardized French training in this field, although the state does sponsor/require some training courses for French cheese retailers that entails the science of cheese temps and bacteria control, etc. The Insitute Bocuse features cheese/wine pairings during one day of a wine seminar - but I would hardly count that as training. In the restaurant industry, is this a job taken at random ? Thank you for any info you might be able to offer.

Chez Pierre is one of my favorite places to eat in Lyon. I explained why in my food blog - click here to read about Chez Pierre. We recently went back for dinner, because one of Loic's Parisian colleagues was here and requested that we go there for dinner since he'd enjoyed it so much when he was here one year ago. We took the bus No.1 to Square Jussieu, and walked down the the Quai of the Rhone river until we passed La Canadienne, and turned left on rue Mazenod. His adress is No. 2. Mr. Pierre brought out lovely things to eat : My entree - fois gras au torchon. (I didn't get the other two entrees as photos but it was the terrine de lapin and a meli melo aux viennoises de caille) Loic ordered the magret de canard with sauce griotte - Gilles had a wonderful veal dish with morels - Pierre brought me a succulent fillet of sandre with bone marrow. In addition to wonderful food, I felt a sense of relief. The man was at his usual table for dinner. In all it was a memorable meal.

I'm really not sure it always works like that, since I've had some pretty mangy free range birds in my day. Let me emphasize that it was a very good chicken as chickens go. And the sauce, well it was divine. The flavor of the sauce comes from the bird, of course. Now that you've so thoughtfully mentionned it, I've done a little more research into the AOC standard. They are fed on milk products, sweet corn, and cereals only, and raised on lush grass free range. Age of slaughter are specified as follows: Poulet de Bresse (avg weight - 1.2 Kg): 4 months Poularde de Bresse (avg weight 1.8Kg): 5 months Chapon de Bresse (avg weight 3Kg): 8 months This could explain the Poularde Fricasee being especially flavorful. I have not looked for the Poularde or the Chapon, but will keep an eye out this week at the producers market.

Calnsbad, it looks like you had fun in Paris. How did you get down south? Did you drive, take the TGV, or fly? Where did you go?

After visiting the closest thing to hell for a cat, complete with kennels of big barking hunting dogs lurching up and slamming their lumbering bodies against the fence in attempt to eat us (and we weren't even kitties!), we bid the kitty summer camp goodbye forever with a vow not to abandon our dear feline companion there, ever, and proceeded to a town called Vonnas, which is entirely consecrated to the Georges Blanc dynasty. Squares and streets names after his family members, etc. Statues of chickens everywhere. It came very close to Disneyland. We went to the inn where they have the fancy restaurant to ask about what they offer, and I was greeted by Georges Blanc's wife (I didn't realise it at the time, but I later saw her photo on the front of a cookbook in the Georges Blanc gift shop). She gave me some brochures. If we'd stayed another 3 minutes, we would have been greeted by the chef himself, since we saw him walking down the other side of the street from us from one of the kitchens down the street. I was tempted to approach him, but decided to wait for an official visit when I would have questions ready and be more elegantly dressed. We decided to have lunch at his l'Ancienne Auberge, which is much more casual than the formal restaurant Georges Blanc. We had the cheapest menu, which had Poulet de Bresse a la creme for a €3 supplement. Lunch for two came to about €78, complete with a pot of Macon blanc and coffee. The poulet: Although I've been avoiding rice lately, I ate it yesterday in order to fully appreciate the sauce. The rice was garnished with roasted garlic, part of the comb, and chevril. The comb wasn't very flavorful but edible and it gave a nice visual touch. In my opinion, the chicken was perfectly fine as chicken goes, but the sauce was what made the dish. We proceeded to the Georges blanc gift shop after lunch. I passed on the opportunity to buy a new wardrobe of Georges Blanc clothing, complete with his name embroidered across my chest and on back pocket, and decided instead to pick up a cookbook. There were two that interested me. One had lots of gorgeous photos and cost €36, and had a Poulet de Bresse recipe. The other, "Cuisine en Famille", did not have any photos but had 4 recipes for Poulet de Bresse. I got the second one. It cost €22. edit spellling of Georges

Dear Ruth - Congratulations on making this decision. Sick and tired is an excellent reason to take action. I certainly understand when you describe your morning routine and say it's overwhelming. One step at a time, one day at a time. Carrying the burden of excess weight, especially that which you have gained recently, and in addition to having been obligated to give up your ballroom dancing due to health reasons is undeniably painful. What ever plan you finally do adopt in action against this situation which has you enchained in this cycle of fatigue, be sure to discuss it with your doctor, who can not only be sure to monitor your progress, but offer some insight into the best way to do it with your diabetes in mind. By replacing refined sugars and refined starches with fruit based sweet flavors and whole grains, which smooth out the peaks and valleys, you've made a first step. Once you've begun to see its effects, you won't regret it. Lucy

Today we will be driving up to Bourg en Bresse to check out a kitty camp - if it turns out to promise fun for a cat, ours will take her August vacation there. I will report on the state of affairs in the locale upon our return. John - any news from Allard?

Dear Ruth - I took a short break from posting progress on the plan, due to important guests arriving and then another unnanounced, filling the couch and even the lumpy fold-out bed and monopolizing all of our evenings! I could write a chapter on how to entertain while staying on the Montignac Plan. It's easier than I thought not to drink with guests, no one ever notices! During this past week we went to our favorite restaurant, Chez Pierre, which I discreetly recorded. A pleasant suprise occurred, and those who were with me on the blog will be happy to see. The significant progress since last week is that I've lost another pound, despite the foie gras au torchon on thick slabs of white toast that Monsieur Pierre served to me (I don't order at Chez Pierre, I trust his choices completely), and I have also been presented with an excellent job opportunity within the organization where I work, but that has little to do with my having lost weight (I hope! ) I do know I'll have to fit into my suits by September. -Lucy

For me the love was peanut butter Captain Crunch - the trick was to let them soften up just enough not to scrape the roof of your mouth but not too soggy, lest they lose their sweetness. We were not allowed anything but plain cheerios in our house but all my friends had Captain Crunch. Walt - I'm so glad to see you blogging - I am having a great time reading it! Lucy