chefzadi

I'm asked about this all the time. I mean ALL the time by English and French speakers. (As if I'm reading Julia Childs or something. ) I have no idea what to recommend. I understand that English is lingua franca here, but I also need some French language books. Help!

Well in France the traditional take aways as they are called here are different. It is entirely possible to purchase a full meal by shopping at the charcutier, the traiteur, fromagerie, boulangerie, patisserie, , etc... in France. It's not as complicated as it sounds, stopping at all those shops. Also the French aren't very entrepreneurial in the way that say Korean-Americans are. We don't immigrate to America and then open up businesses so quickly. Another factor is that because there is a perception that French food (and other things) should cost more and that customers are willing to pay more, I've seen French cooks/chefs of all sorts over extending their areas of culinary expertise and opening more upscale or expansive places then they normally would in France. Like the baker and pate/sausage maker who have full blown restaurants here in LA for example. The breads are good and the duck confit are exceptional at these places, but the other dishes fall short. Another factor of course that in LA the market is different, so a traditional French bakery would have to serve other things in order to survive. Or do some wholesale, which wouldn't be that hard to do. But as my wife likes to tell me I wouldn't recognize a business opportunity if it came and bit me in the ass." We also don't talk about money, finances and business openly as some other cultures do, so this prohibits the entrepreneural spirit as well. Basically we're not a capitalist culture. Although in LA we have a French-American chamber of commerce. It's fork and knife food. The first time my wife went to France she noticed immediately that we eat even French fries with forks. The closest I can think of to "street food" are those North African and Middle Eastern owned kebab and couscous places. I think those might be the most casual. I enjoyed street food in Algeria and Korea, but I just can'y imagine French food in this context. I mean what would we serve? We eat open faced sandwiches with a knife and fork for crying out loud.

Poulet de Bresse site. It's kind of campy, the visuals I mean.

When I read some of the "complaints" on egullet, I wonder where such customers have been throughout my entire career. Beef or lamb cooked to customer preferences are obviously standard. I just can't imagine, "can the kitchen cook my vegetables slightly soft or a little under." Even with fish I just don't recall too many requests regarding temp.

I've noticed that even during the winter months, a simple vegetable potage is no longer on menus. I remember when my wife would take a melon baller to a large potato and we would sautee the little balls to the delight of company who would always ask where we found such perfect little potatoes and if they were a bitch to peel. The other three fifths of the potato would go into the next day's soup. ← I'm laughing so hard, I'm crying.

Er, at least that's what I understood. ← hardy har har It's mostly the cheeses, pastries and halal sausages that I miss along with a whole bunch of other stuff. The free range chicken just doesn't taste the same as a Volaille de Bresse. Even the bread. I have a really high metabolism and I play soccer. I need a calorically dense diet to maintain my weight.

I'm quoting myself again. It's practical in the sense of crafting the football shape. You'll see what I mean when you see the photos in the tutorial I plan on doing.

What?? (&$()#*&(*#^*^*&!!!!!!! I like to keep it on the menu occassionally for a couple of reasons. It's really easy to cook vegetables properly with this technique, but the pot has to be watched. It's a way of teaching the newbie that even the easiest of things takes care. Also if those places that are fucking up tourne vegetables, safe to guess the rest was pretty bad or just plain awful. At the French haute cuisine level, unlikely that boiled vegetables will be served. This is where we are getting into different trends, which I don't always embrace. Boiled vegetables also go with heartier dishes which are sort enjoying a bit of a renaissance in America (comfort food trend), whereas in France it's still about refinement. Guess those darn chefs can't be everything to everyone all over the world. We can try though for our local customer base.

They just don't have the same flavor here. Unless we luck out and pay an arm and a leg. I lost 20 pounds within 6 months of leaving France and I have never gained it back. I was 185, now I'm 165.

I'm quoting myself, 'cause I say alot of quotable things. Leave it to the French to create a shape that intensley bores some and fascinates others for the simplest of preparations.

You certainly know you're vegetable garnishes. Turning is more fall/winter, root vegetables. We use horse carrots for turning. It's a shape well suited to big pot blanching. It tenderizes the meaner vegetables, gives them a bit of freshness. Whereas roasting intensifies the flavors, brings out the sugars for a more rustic flavor. Turned vegetables are a nice alternative in this sense. So there are practical and flavor considerations as well. Turning also goes along with the French chef's devotion to cooking things seperately, each to the desired doneness. There's no reason to use this technique with tender young carrots and zuchini for instance. The quality of vegetables, the season inform the presentation. Also uniformity of shape/size ensure even cooking. If a potato were just sliced up and blanched, it would not cook evenly. Turning is not so much an affectation, it's a great way to serve boiled vegetables. It's a really simple thing.

Ptipois can look at it whenever he (or she? ) has trouble sleeping. I'll place a cup of chamomile tea and a teddy bear next to the turned vegetables.

Not superstition or Feng Shui. When you quarter a round potato to start the tourne there are three edges that have to smoothed, rounded out. Four more turns and you a have a symmetrical vegetable. I'll do a little step by step photo tutuorial within a week. When I teach it at school it's always a favorite with students. The first knife skill that's like sculpting. They get a kick out of it. The tourne is a way to give common vegetables a little more visual appeal. Most customers like them. They get a kick out of it, especially in the States. Although I don't recall a dining room full of dozing customers in France either. I never gave up on the tourne (No it's the only cut or even the most common cut that I do). Sounds like I'm in good company. Well if Mr Busboy is tourneing I know I'm in stellar company.

Some Lebanese friends of mine go back every year. Family home and all that. Last summer they had a blast. Came back to LA with Med sun kissed tans and all. Is the sun just better in the Mid and Maghreb or what? We got it good.

I'm not familiar with those names or that cookbook. The naming of dishes in North Africa, Algeria in particular is highly idiosyncratic. An Algerian flat bread with a spicy stuffing could be made with Foodmans dough, the mixture might be pureed chickpeas, caraway seeds, cumin, sumac, minced garlic, finely chopped herbs such as thyme and Algerian felfel. The spices should be ground. There is also Kessra with a felfel spread on top. EDIT" the first bread I mentioned is known as Kalentika.

Hilarious!

To keep some regional focus. For instance a kebab question on the Middle Eastern/Africa Forum will be focused on versions for those regions. Whereas a kebab question on the cooking forum will take the idea of a kebab allover the world. So with egullet we have these two options. It's a way of engaging in dialogue on different levels. I don't agree that French cuisine is really familiar to North Americans. I'm asked questions about it all the time, Outside of the school I teach at of course. Also in the Middle East/Africa forum for instance there's alot of dialogue between Ms. Wolfert, myself, Zeitoun, Food man, Behemoth who have a quite a bit of knowledge regarding North African and Middle Eastern cuisine. It's like this on a few other forums here as well. I think that part of is that there are quite a few French language sites that cover cooking, recipe sharing, techniques. But surely non-Francophones must want to know about French cooking, techniques, regional differences, home recipes...

Curious. This forum in particular seems to be lacking questions regarding actually cooking French dishes. Why is this? Whereas the Middle East and African forum for example is mostly about cooking. Is it because no one actually cooks French food at home?

The dishes remind me of the my culinary school days. I like those old fashioned things sometimes. The names too, straight out of my old textbooks!

Smithy- As I mentioned before mehemer are similiar to Spanish Tortillas or Italian Frittatas. In fact some are indistinguishable and can be prepared in the same way. Others are distinctively North African in preparation and flavoring such as the one Ms. Wolfert mentioned. The versions with caramelized or roasted vegetables with spice is another regional specialty. I usually like the place the vegetables in the pan for cooking, if they are already cooked I still arrange them in the pan. Spices, salt and pepper, herbs I beat into the eggs. Of course I whip them as for a French omelet. And North African omelets can be quite thick, more than omelets found on the othe side of the Med. You can also add pine nuts.

olive oil garlic, chopped fresh lemon juice cumin salt and pepper cayenne pepper sumac tomato paste or yoghurt might explain the more sauce part. or there could have been vinegar in the marinade. The answer to your question is a bit tricky, because you are not asking what a typical version might be from a certain region. You are asking about what a particular cook/chef made at a very specific restaurant. I'm just giving you some things to play around with. I think that what you are looking for is in a combination of something above. The restaurant version could have more spices. Instead of searching for tawouk motefa recipe. Try chicken taouk.

I'm not sure what you're asking. How would I form the meat or how would I season it?

Pork? You won't be finding pork kebabs in North Africa or the Middle East. The sweet marinade would be good for chicken or *gulp* p p p pork. I'm teasing. The rest you can use any meat. I use enough oil to coat the meat, so the quantities depend on the meat. As for honey you can omit if from the marinade, make a little glaze by combining it with some orange juice to brush it on the meat during the last couple of minutes of cooking. In the marinade enough orange juice to coat the meat, not too much so that it's swimming in it. I hope I'm not confusing you with the lack of precise quantities. But I feel that it's much easier to actually cook when you stop measuring and you learn how to gauge with your eyes. As for the spices, it's like salt and pepper. To taste. I don't know about acids inhibiting browning. The sugars in the orange juice would encourage browning though. High heat is of course the key to browning.

This thread is huge. There's a similar one in another forum that's more for industry professionals and it's equally big. I like Emeril. His style of cooking and food is very different from mine, but I can see that he is a skilled chef. Cooking that's demonsrated on a 30 minute TV show? When I do a cooking demo in real life it's more like 1 hour per dish or even longer. Not 3-4 dishes in 30 minutes. Of course I'm fielding questions and taking my time to demonstrate everything precisely and correctly. In case anyone is wondering if I'm the world's slowest chef. Emeril is not my favorite though. I just felt like defending him a bit.

Too much TV. I grew up watching alot of the same things that my wife did. Me, tiny French Village. Her, big city America. I don't think too many Europeans would have trouble understanding the imagery. Behemoth, I also understand the other point your making.