LindaK

I would add another vote for Patricia Well's Bistro Cooking as a starter for reliable recipes, with Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking V. 1 for a deeper appreciation of the fundamentals. Their recipes are foolproof and both books provide guidance on variations. As for pushing the boundaries, Patricia Well's most recent book, Vegetable Harvest, provides inspirational (and so far as I've tested, tasty) recipes for moving French food in a lighter direction. Two others I would also recommend: Daniel Boulud's Cafe Boulud Cookbook and Alfred Portale's The Twelve Season Cookbook for some interesting variations on the classics.

This was a lot of fun. These days I tend to pick up her cookbooks more for reference than recipes, so it was nice to thumb through MTA Volumes 1 and 2 with an open mind. It was tempting to choose one of the more complex recipes that I've never tried, but with the temperature destined for the 90's and without any A/C, I decided to keep it simple and do without the oven. The recipe for Poulet Poêlé à L'Estragon (Casserole Roasted Chicken with Tarragon) in Volume 1 caught my attention, partly because it can be made on top of the stove as well as in the oven, and partly because I have a huge tarragon bush in my garden that doesn't get enough use. A morning trip to my garden plot decided the rest--I came away with everything I needed for a ratatouille (except the onions and peppers), lots of green beans, and bunches of basil, parsley, and tarragon. So I spent the afternoon in the air conditioned comfort of a local movie house watching "Julie and Julia" then stopped by the market for the chicken and the missing peppers. The chicken recipe was simplicity itself but the finished dish was amazingly flavorful. Stuff the cavity with fresh tarragon (I slipped some leaves under the skin too, for good measure), brown the chicken, then saute onions, carrot, and more tarragon, and finally place the chicken on top of the vegetables, tightly cover, then bake or cook slowly on top of the stove. The trick to cooking it on top of the stove is a heavy casserole, and my Le Creuset did just fine. This is a great one-pot dish that I will definitely make again soon. The pan juices were delectable. It was tempting to skip the simple sauce that's in the receipe and just spoon the buttery juices over the chicken. But I'm glad I didn't, at least for this meal--it made the otherwise homey dish a little more festive and my guests used bread to finish every last drop of it. The ratatouille and green beans are old standbys but I credit Julia for teaching me the secrets of cooking each perfectly: - Each ingredient of the ratatouille needs to be cooked separately and brought together at the end. I find it tastes better after resting a day, so I didn't actually serve it last night, it's sitting in the fridge waiting to be tonight's dinner. -as for the green beans, the simple technique of blanching then refreshing green vegetables in ice water was entirely new to me when I first read MTA v. 1 over 20 years ago. But it produces such superior results that you'll never stray from it. My family thinks I have some magic formula for green beans and always requests them for family gatherings. No matter how often I tell them how it's done, they refuse to believe it's so simple. If I can figure out how to upload pictures into Recipe Gullet I'll post a few pictures. Anyway, I hope everyone else enjoyed themselves, too. Chris, that chicken kiev looks great, as do the eggs.

Cook from it! Join the thread here in which we're cooking from her various books on August 15 to celebrate her birthday. Scroll to the mid/end of the thread to pick up the current discussion. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie this weekend. It's probably no coincidence that our local PBS stations are broadcasting old episodes of the French Chef during their current fundraising campaigns. As an aside, I also think it's fabulous that Hollywood, TV, newspapers, blogs, etc. are all talking about her--what does that say? A rock star, even after her death.

I'm a huge fan too. I discovered it the first time I followed Marcella Hazan's recipe for pesto, which requires both parm and pecorino cheeses. Now that I use both, I can't make it any other way, the pecorino adds a noticeably important dimension. Pesto tastes flat without it. Having a hunk of pecorino around for nibbling is another incentive, too.

Your food looks delicious and you shouldn't take it personally. I've been burned at potlucks before. Now, I ask the host(s) if there's a theme or what they are making. Their answer usually tells me whether I should play it safe or not.

Chris, that's sad. The ascension of prepared foods is well documented. But I though that BBQ was the one form of home cooking that was still thriving. One has to wonder if the economic climate will slow or even reverse these trends. Ready-made food is expensive. From what I've read and seen first-hand, there's been an increased popularity of home gardening--which is hardly fast food--even in urban areas. Over the last year, requests for plots in community gardens have grown rapidly. The wait list at my community garden is double what it's been in years past.

Thanks for mentioning Buford's writing--I haven't read him but will now. Yes, I wish I'd said this! So true. But I'll still go see the movie.

Lovely idea! For those who are fearful, relax. Many of her recipes are simpler and more basic that you would imagine. For those looking for ideas, the first recipe I ever made from MTAOFC was the recipe for pate a choux--the pastry dough behind profitoroles, gougieres, etc.. Shockingly simple and endlessly useful. Today's Boston Globe food section ran a hilarious story about a novice's attempt to pull off Julia's boneless/stuffed duck en croute. Link here.

I didn't find Pollan's NYT article to be one of his best pieces. Although it included many points re: time constraints, cost, prepared foods, and obesity, they are hardly original to this piece. But mostly I thought his efforts to lay responsibility on TV media were a stretch, and unsuccessful. What I found really odd was his simplistic portayal of the media and our relationship to it. Julia Child vs. the Food Network. Are those the choices that define us? Maybe. But now that Julia's show is not regularly broadcast, does that mean that the FN has won? Well, no. For many of us, we've gravitated towards the Web. Odd that Pollan didn't bring it up, considering his Julie/Julia context. Who can keep track of all the cooking sites that are out there? Not all are great but if you want high-quality content, it's there. I wonder how many people have switched their allegiance from TV cooking shows to the Web. How many of us on eG have gained the confidence to try something completely new, much the way an earlier generation did watching Julia? Or are we reading and not cooking, and Pollan is right, regardless of one's preferred media-based food porn? David, thanks for the link to Rulhman's piece. This part choked me up: What’s the reason for this astonishing coverage of a story about two women cooking? I think it's because we miss Julia, a force of nature... Yes, I still miss Julia.

I've been eyeing Anna Sortun's (chef at Oleana, Cambridge MA) recipe for deviled eggs with fresh tuna and black olives. Haven't made them yet but I can taste them....yum.

Great topic and recipes. Maybe those with experience in this genre can tell me--are fruit-based soups more of a dessert than a starter/main course? How do you serve them?

I've got one, too. Not quite a year old. Thus far, I love it. They're a great deal and the quality is very good. A couple of years ago Consumer Reports rated kitchen cabinet systems and gave them high marks, much better than many more expensive options. The cost savings let me spend money on other things--like my Bluestar range--and stay within my budget. I've got a number of architect friends who specify expensive custom cabinets for their well-to-do clients but who have Ikea kitchens in their own homes.

yes, there's a reason. For many of us, once a year is enough for both. hee hee. Your coconut cake is a thing of beauty, I will admit. I'd prefer your pound cake, though, since the relative simplicity of pound cake lets the quality and flavors of the ingredients really shine. Come to think about it, that's why I prefer pie. Read the current threads on cherry and blueberry pies...yumm.

I'd describe my Bluestar similarly. jmolinari, why do find your Bluestar hard to clean? I find it easy. Grates and bowls (is that the right term for the piece that surrounds the burner?) lift out for sink scrubbing and can go in the dishwasher if needed. Granted, they weigh a ton, but they're simple to dis/assemble. There's a drip tray, since the burners are open, and they catch anything that falls. I keep it lined with aluminum foil, just roll up and toss if it gets messy.

I've a friend who is launching one--in fact the first seating is tonight. There may well be others in Boston, but I don't know about them. One of my favorite cookbooks to read for the stories alone is "Supper Club Chez Martha Rose" by Martha Rose Schulman. Recipes and tales of her supper club in Paris during the early 1980s. Stumbling upon that cookbook a decade later was the first time I'd heard of such a thing, and it certainly sounded like fun.

This post reminded me that there is a recipe I've long wanted to try for an Apricot-Almond-Raspberry Tart in Francois Payard's "Simply Sensational Desserts." It looks delicious. I love apricots but here in the northeast fresh apricots are both hard to come by and arrive in farmers markets very late in the season--long after fresh raspberries have left. The recipe says that canned apricots are okay, but somehow I can't bring myself to buy canned apricots.

You can't buy at Rungis without a commercial account. No retail sales. If you want to buy a few kilos of this or that, there are plenty of marches in Paris.

It sounds as if you need to compare the performance of your current microhood to other recirculating hoods. If there are recirculating hoods that do a better job capturing grease and smoke, then you should go for it. More BTUs from the new range will generate both. You can always get a countertop microwave--they weren't born to live above a range. But recirculating hoods will not help you with the heat or odors. I feel your pain. For almost 20 yrs, I lived in apartments with either recirculating hoods or no hood at all. Since finishing my kitchen reno 9 months ago, I've had an external vented hood and the difference is remarkable. I know I'm lucky.

cupcake, if I understand your question, you want to know whether the BTU output from one of today's professional style ranges (as opposed to a 13 yr old range) can be accomodated by a recirculating hood. I don't know the BTU output of your current Darcor, but you should know the specs of any new range before you go hood shopping. For the ranges you mention, I would imagine that the BTU output is significantly higher than what you have now. You really have two issues: grease capture and heat generation. Will a good recirculating fan capture the grease and smoke produced by a high BTU range? Probably. Will it dissipate the heat generated by a high BTU range? I can't imagine how it could do so, if all it does is pump the filtered hot air back into your kitchen. And these ranges generate serious heat. re: insulation. I believe that all professional style ranges (emphasis on "style") are insulated for safe residential use. Real commercial ranges are a different matter.

I have a Bluestar 36" range, which I love. You raise two good points for anyone considering one: - gas line size. When my GC and plumber first read the installation instructions calling for the 1" gas supply line, they were sure it was an error--that's a lot of gas and larger than standard for residential appliances. They called the Bluestar service department, which confirmed the specification. Here's how my plumber explained it to me: that much gas supply is required if you have ALL the burners plus the oven running simultaneously at full capacity. For those who don't know, the six burners on a 36" Bluestar are: 2 x 22K BTU, 3 x 15K BTU, and a simmer burner. The infrared broiler is 1850 F. It kicks out a lot of heat. Since I was doing a down-to-the studs renovation, the gas line size wasn't a big deal. If I was adding a Bluestar to an existing kitchen and didn't want the expense and hassle of upgrading the plumbing, it means that you wouldn't get full power if you had everything running full steam. I don't know about you, but this wouldn't be an issue for me except for rare occasions. For most day-to-day cooking you'd get full burner output no problem. - As for your question about whether you really need all that power, that depends on your style of cooking as well as your budget. I made many great meals on my crappy old gas stove, who knows what its BTU output was. Sometimes I feel guilty that I don't do more wok cooking, which would really take advantage of those burners. Still, one become addicted very quickly to the quick responsiveness of having that kind of heat no matter your style of cooking.

hmm, very similar to my lamb meatballs, except for the cheese and yogurt. The yogurt is puzzling--a cup of yogurt, in addition to the eggs, IN the meat mixture? And it stays firm?

Some of the higher end refers do have temperature alarms. These are ones that also have a digital temperature readout, which means they have temperature sensor (a thermometer). The vast majority of refrigerators don't actually have a temperature sensor/thermometer. Instead you set the freezer "temperature" to an arbitrary number representing the amount of coldness (but not an actual temperature) and then you set the cool side by adjusting the amount of freezer air that gets passed into that side. It's literally a ratio of the freezer air to "fridge" side air. Electrolux and Frigidaire are the same company. I have not been too impressed by anything of theirs. We had more repair/DOA issues with Frigidaire than any other brand. My Jenn Air has a digital temp control and a temp alarm. Thus far no test of the temp alarm--no electrical outage or anything to cause the temp to rise. More useful on a daily basis, there is a gentle chime that sounds if the door is left open for 5 minutes--which I've appreciated on those occasions when I thought I'd shut the door completely but in reality had not. As for the discussion about brand reliability, one reason I bought the Jenn Air was that it's made by the same company as Amana, and my previous Amana fridge was quiet and trouble free.

Interesting. I rub mine with salt, rinse with water, and dry. I do this because I thought you weren't supposed to use soap on a cast iron pan. When you wrote that you scrub with metal, do you mean something like steel wool? What about dishwashing soap? I always give my cast iron pans a good scrub with soap. It has never interferred with the seasoning qualities, at least that I've noticed. I like clean pans. The clinical definition of a "seasoned" pan has always been a little bit of a mystery to me--but it's always clear when a pan is seasoned or not. Can all metal types be seasoned?

My mother's recipe, on a smaller scale than others here: 12 medium green tomatoes 3 green peppers 3 red peppers 6 onions 1 small green cabbage 4 Tbsp salt 3 cups brown sugar 1 tsp celery salt 1 tsp mustard seed 1 Tbsp whole cloves cinnamon stick 1 Tbsp whole allspice 2 cups cider vinegar coarsely chop all vegetables. toss with salt and let stand overnight, covered. next day, add cold water to cover and drain. in a large pot, combine remaining ingredients and add vegetables. bring to a boil. reduce heat and simmer 15-25 minutes until vegetables are soft but not mushy and juice is reduced. spoon vegetables into sterilized jar, adding liquid as needed to near top of jar. seal. to preserve, sterilize in a hot water bath 10 minutes.

I've only owned one aluminum pan--a hand-me-down from my grandmother--and I loved it. A straight-sided skillet with tall sides, it was the perfect size for almost everything, with a perfectly fitted lid. Conducted heat well and was lightweight even when full. Never any oxidation problems. Not so easy to clean, though. By the time it finally died, it was looking a little grungy. But it was a guilty pleasure. All the hype about stainless steel, etc. made me wonder about my own judgement and standards. It never impressed dinner guests--to the contrary. When the rivets on the handle finally failed a year ago, I said a reluctant and appreciative goodbye. Since then, I've relied on my All-Clad, cast iron, and Le Creuset. Which I also love, but what I'd really love is to find another aluminum pot like the one Nana gave me.