francois

Talking about asparagus; p. 182 '...Cook very quickly in salt water until they are ice cold'.

Was it good?

In PEI, I stayed at a place called Kindred Spirits, in Cavendish. They have great cottages, well equiped. It is a quiet place, a bit out of the way, and just a short walk to the beaches. I prefered to buy fresh seafood and to simply prepare them at the cottage. It is great to have lobsters, shrimps, scallops, crabs or halibut, outside on a nice summer day, with a good bottle of wine. I suggest you bring a few good bottles as there is not much choice on PEI

I don't have a camera (digital or not). The dishes that I made look nice but are not nearly as picture perfect as the ones in the book. Last night, I made the safran rice (p. 510). Nice but no better than other risotto 'patties' I made before (for exemple from Simply Bishop's). He instructs to make them rather thin which makes them a bit difficult to handle. Color is great! I made the fish and sauce. Result was OK but then it was stupid of me to choose the fish according to the color of the skin instead of the brightness of its eyes!. I use a yellow tail snipper (I went for the red color). The sea bass looked better, I should have used it instead. I did not stuff the fish - don't know what a fish liver looks or tastes like. Again the ingredient list is hard to make sense of: I don't have a clue what he means by 'seasoning olive oil', I just used some good olive oil instead. Has anyone else tried things from this book?

It's the way to make bisque. ← As you can see, I am really not a professional chef. I learned to cook reading cookbooks (thank you Julia!). Funny thing is that I made bisque several times but I never thought of using the same idea when making a sauce!

Actually it is only common sense. The audience will be much larger in the appropriate forum. It is really not a question of censure.

Sometimes there are little steps that add a lot to a dish. Whenever I can find nice fresh shrimps with the head on, I use the heads and shells to make a stock for the sauce. Ducasse goes one step further. He puts everything in the blender and then through a chinois (p. 156, 'prawn sauce'). Why did I not think of that before! It is simple, does not take that much more time and makes a very significant difference. Great sauce!

Last night, I made the scallops with brown butter vinaigrette (p. 723). Served them with a small salad of wild aragula. Very good. Easy and quick to do if you have some good chicken stoc around. Also did some halibut (I like that fish!) with an adaptation of the peppery sauce (p. 105). Again, it was great! These are two recipes that I will 'adopt'.

Ducasse uses 'veal jelly' in several of his sauces, to give them body I suppose. The jelly is made with calf's feet. These are not available in my part of the world, apparently the slaughter houses just will not bother with them. (Keller also uses them as optional ingredient in his stock) What would be the next best thing to use?

I think this all depends on the topping. Sometime I use a baking stone to make sure the bottom of the crust is well cooked.

Another nice idea, depending on how large of a group you have: small individual tatins of confit tomatoes Make the confit tomatoes: Skin small tomatoes (after droping them in boiling water for 10 seconds). Cut them in 1/2. Put in the oven, in about 1/4 inch of olive oil and a few basil leaves. 205-275. About 1 1/2 hour. Lightly oil small individual tart molds, if possible the same size as the tomates. Put a tomato half in each. Cover with a thin round of dough. Bake 375 for about 25 minutes (until nice and gloden). Unmold while hot. I prefer them after they have cooled slighly. With a few small basil leaves and a bit of basil oil.

If there is a pastry shop that you specially like, ask them to sell you some chocolate. Most will gladly do so. Or if you want a large amount, ask them who is their supplier. Is it cheaper than on the web? Maybe not but it may lead to an interresting relationship with your local pastry chef.

You could probably adapt a few pizza ideas to savory tarts. Look in Peter Reihart's 'American Pie' for some ideas. For exemple: Fully bake a round of tart dough. Then put a bit of sour cream/dill/caper dressing. Then a some thinly sliced onions. Then thinly sliced tomatoes. Cover with smoked salmon. A few drops of lemon juice, dill sprigs, capers, and a bit of black pepper. Or bake the tart with an onion marmalade, a bit of creamy blue cheese and walnuts (I think that would be delicious!)

The ingredient lists somethime include 'lobsters, seconds'. Does anyone know what that means?

Interresting. I did not know that. It makes a lot of sense. Last night, I did the fish with parsley-bouillabaise sauce (p 242). Nice! Smelled great, looked great and tasted great. Even the kids loved it! I used some halibut. This is definetly something I will prepare again. I must say that I am disapointed by the poor quality of the traduction/adaptation. Considering that most readers will be from outside of France, Ducasse should have made some effort to adapt the ingredients. What for exemple is a 'mountain potato'? Also I don't know how he learned to convert C into F but many times he is way off. For exemple he instructs to cook the fish in a 176 F (180C) oven, or in the confit tomatoes recipe (p. 826), in a 94F (90C) oven. These temperatures are not at all equivalent. The C temperatures make more sense. Some sentences are meaningless: 'Contrary to what is usually done, to treat the semi-dried tomato and confit tomato in the same way'. Considering the price of the book, these errors should not be. The glossary at the end is totally useless, with hardly any valuable informations (but with a few nice pictures).

I received my copy of the Grand Livre yesterday. It is HUGE! In comparaison, my Larousse Gastronomique looks like a poketbook! At first glance it looks quite nice. Every dish is pictured. As was written previously, the recipes are often sketchy, and there are often no cooking times ('cook until done'), but that does not really matter. As is often the case, truffles are over-represented (I have this thing against truffles which I find way over-valued and over-priced. I will probably change my mind about them when someone discovers how to cultivate them and when they can be grown locally instead of getting them from halfway around the globe). However, often the truffles are not central to the dishes. These are not the kind of cooking that can be done on the spur of the moment. They take some planning (unless you have a freezer full of all that different stocks, jellies, etc.). However, overall the recipes do not seem very difficult to do. I was surprised to see that most are for 4 people. I had expected recipes for much larger groups. That is a good thing as it gives me less math to do. Tomorrow I will be trying a fish dish with parsley sauce and bouillabaise sauce. I made the fish stock tonight. It looks nice. I was surprised by the large amount of oil (1 cup for 1/2 recipe - using 3 quarts of water and 5 pounds of fish). Same for the large amount of saffron (5 grams!).

How sad! I only went there a few times but I was always impressed by what I ate. Last time was at the Festival Montreal en lumiere last year. Very very nice. Let's hope the chef will quickly find a new place!

I will be in Toronto at the end of March. Unfortunatly, it will be a sunday and monday evening, a time when most good restaurants are closed. Does anyone know of good restaurant, preferably french, open on those days?

I followed your suggestion. WOW! Thanks

I perfectly agree with you about the importance of using the best ingredient possible and I certainly go to great lenght to do so, as well as getting to know the producers. However, there are too many cookbooks with just too many recipes using ingredients that are either unavailable or just expensive beyond reason (like fresh truffles!). Truffles are not an inhibition to great cooking, but they are to some recipes. Of course, when these ingredients are not central to the dish, it doesn't really matter. Great cooking does not depends on these outrageously expensive ingredients. Anyone can make a good dish with a ton of fresh truffles and foie gras (but not anyone can take a good piece of meat or vegetable and cook it to perfection).

Unfortunatly, this link no longer works. Paula, would you be willing to share the recipe?

Specially truffles. I just hate books with a lot of recipes using truffles. They just are too expensive for my purse, and for what they are worth (at least the canned variety we have around here). As a results, these recipies are useless, with probably hardly anyone ever trying them--they are mostly for show!

I am in Montreal tomorrow. I would like to get a box of chocolate. Any suggestions? I will be at Lucie Bruneau Rehab Centre, on Laurier.

As others wrote, great pictures! Thanks. Was it good? Worth the extra effort?

Very easy, if you make a small amount. In large quantity, it is better to use a blender. Put 1 egg yolk in a medium bowl. Add a pinch of salt and a bit of dijon mustard (about a teaspoon) Wisk briefly. (a trick that I read is to let them wait for a couple of minutes - while you measure the oil - for the mustard to 'cook' the yolk. I'm not sure if it really makes a difference but it made me more confident). Measure 2/3 cup of oil (I prefer grapeseed oil or peanut oil). I put a wet cloth on the counter to stop the bowl from moving all over the place. Wisk the egg yolk and add the oil slowly. The emulsion will make itself. When it gets thick, add a bit of lemon juice or wine vinegar (1/2 teaspoon, to taste). Slowly add the rest of the oil while wisking. Within a couple of minutes, it is done. If too thick (specially if you use it as a dip for fries or asparagus), 'whiten' it with a bit (a small teaspoon) of boiling water. With a bit of practice, it is almost as fast as with a blender.