Cooking to Honor Julia Child

[McDuff]

I grew up in eastern mass and wgbh tv was something big in a certain socioeconomic class. I remember being served roast suckling pig at one dinner party the family got invited to in the early 60's and vichysoisse at another. It's hard to underestimate the impact Julia had locally to Boston and Cambridge. We were about 30 miles away.

This is what I made..I think they're called Pomme cocotte, glazed baby carrots, organic green peas, napoleon of red and gold beet and summer squash, crimini mushrooms provencal, and grilled loin lamb chops. Dessert was creme brulee.

[sequim]

This weekend, before frying my bacon, I boiled it.

Now I've been wondering, why does she boil it first?

[tanabutler]

Take a flameproof casserole dish the size of your breasts

Some of us have bigger, um, casserole dishes than others.

Nice post, and ditto to McDuff. I love the beet and squash Napoleon, especially.

[bloviatrix]

I made Julia's vichysoisse from The Way to Cook. Blovie loved it so much that I only got to eat one tiny serving. He demolished the rest.

[FoodMan]

This weekend, before frying my bacon, I boiled it.

Now I've been wondering, why does she boil it first?

To remove Saltiness/Smokiness

[jayhay]

Take a flameproof casserole dish the size of your breasts

Some of us have bigger, um, casserole dishes than others.

Nice post, and ditto to McDuff. I love the beet and squash Napoleon, especially.

I just finished making Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon from MAFC . Serving it tomorrow night, & will be thinking of Julia.

[jgm]

I'd love it if eG'ers would join in the tradition of cooking something from one of Julia's cookbooks on her birthday, August 15. Who will join me?

After I have a chance to go through her cookbooks, I'll post again with the plan, and if it turns out well, I'll post a picture. If not. . .then just a description. My goal is to challenge myself with a recipe I haven't made before. Julia would have liked that, don't you think?

Jenny

[Peter the eater]

August 15th is a Saturday, count me in!

Thanks jgm for digging up this thread. I've recently watched Volumes 1 and 2 of The French Chef on DVD. Now, what to make . . . .

[Lisa Shock]

Don't know what I'll make yet, but I'm in! Even an Omlette will do.

[Tri2Cook]

Sounds fun, I'm in. Just out of curiosity, what qualifies as her books for something like this? Do the "...with Master Chefs" and "Baking with..." books qualify despite really just being collections of recipes from other chefs? If not, the only other Julia book I have is Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I suppose I could find something in there to do. Might even be a better tribute since I've never done anything from it. It just seemed like one of those books every collection should have. Anyway, I'm probably over-complicating this but I definitely want to do it.

[heidih]

Sounds fun, I'm in. Just out of curiosity, what qualifies as her books for something like this? Do the "...with Master Chefs" and "Baking with..." books qualify despite really just being collections of recipes from other chefs? If not, the only other Julia book I have is Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I suppose I could find something in there to do. Might even be a better tribute since I've never done anything from it. It just seemed like one of those books every collection should have. Anyway, I'm probably over-complicating this but I definitely want to do it.

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Mastering the Art of French Cooking has 2 volumes. I use the baguette recipe in Volume 2 as a teaching tool for kids. Hand them flour and yeast and a pan. The puff pastry explanation and recipe in that volume is also great. My oven has just been de-commissioned by the gas company in a home sale fiasco so I can not participate, but I will be viewing with interest. In Volume one the chocolate orange mouse was a winner when I first started cooking as well as the spinach souffle.

[project]

Well, looks like, if only from mere coincidence, I'm about to return to some old Julia land, at least for some refinement, anyway:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1688102

[LindaK]

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.

[Chris Amirault]

I'm in.

[Tri2Cook]

For those who are fearful, relax.  Many of her recipes are simpler and more basic that you would imagine. 

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Not fearful at all, just trying to figure out which of the books I have would be most appropriate for this event.

[Lisa Shock]

I have chosen the Aspic de Pommes. It's a tad unseasonal, but I am intrigued by the fact that it's an aspic that does not contain gelatin.

[jsmeeker]

I'm in too.

I don't personally own any of her books. But I know my Dad has a copy of Julia and Jacques: Cooking together (which is being re-aired on my local PBS station now). Does cooking something from there count? I would have to do something for breakfast or lunch since I'll be out that night (I could do a dessert and eat it when I get home )

[MaxH]

Do the "...with Master Chefs" and "Baking with..." books qualify despite really just being collections of recipes from other chefs?

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For the record, please remember that except for some improvisations and variations, JC's books are basically all collections of recipes from other chefs. Her seminal Mastering titles are selections from the French repertoire found in earlier standard sources, especially Escoffier's Guide Culinaire (which has been available, in English, since decades before JC adapted some of the recipes for US audiences). She was an adapter, popularizer, and TV personality (bringing great relief, when she went national in 1963, to at least one household whose progressive-minded parents decreed educational TV for the children -- it was mostly deadly boring in those days -- I was able once to thank JC for that). But very seldom a creator of recipes.

I feel that this history is overlooked sometimes, in the general veneration of JC.

[mrsadm]

I'd love it if eG'ers would join in the tradition of cooking something from one of Julia's cookbooks on her birthday, August 15.  Who will join me?

After I have a chance to go through her cookbooks, I'll post again with the plan, and if it turns out well, I'll post a picture.  If not. . .then just a description.   My goal is to challenge myself with a recipe I haven't made before.  Julia would have liked that, don't you think?

Jenny

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What a wonderful idea! Since the 15th is on a Saturday, I won't be working all day and will have time to devote myself to this endeavor. Now to pick a recipe or two, what to do, what to do.....

[mrsadm]

I'm in too.

I don't personally own any of her books. But I know my Dad has a copy of Julia and Jacques: Cooking together (which is being re-aired on my local PBS station now). Does cooking something from there count?  I would have to do something for breakfast or lunch since I'll be out that night (I could do a dessert and eat it when I get home )

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I think that book counts, yes. It has Julia's and Jacques' versions of the same recipe, so just cook Julia's version!

[Chris Amirault]

I'm going to be cooking something in the book From Julia Child's Kitchen, my favorite of hers and a wonderful book even if you aren't cooking from it. The photos by Paul Child, the technique tips, and the tone of the book itself evoke Julia in a way that, I think, both earlier and later books do not. It's also a complete text in its own right.

I haven't chosen a dish from it; I keep getting stuck looking at the remarkable photo on the title page.

[Betts]

Our Gourmet club is doing a JC dinner tonight - there will be ratatouille, vichyoisse, boeuf bourguinon and crepes Suzette. I did not plan this menu but all her recipes and I forgot about her love of gin. I'll make a call.

BTW - I chaired a charity culinary garage sale last week and someone found a first edition Julia cookbook signed by both Julia and Paul. She got it for $2.00.

If we had known it was there we would have auctioned it off for a whole lot more money.

[snowangel]

Since the produce here has been so lovely, and we're starting to see ripe homegrown tomatoes, I'm leaning toward Salad Nicoise. Perfect for a summer dinner.

[MaxH]

I'm going to be cooking something in the book From Julia Child's Kitchen, my favorite of hers and a wonderful book even if you aren't cooking from it.

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Yes! FJCC. A distinct book, I was just recommending it to someone else. Full of quips and anecdotes (including one that'll have you making a pizza before you know it, and another I cited elsewhere on eG, "When we were with the OSS in Ceylon, ..." describing a local restaurateur and his "flied lice with mix," before proposing a recipe related to it). Many of the broadcasts were equally entertaining.

Published mid-1970s at the height of JC's TV series that made her famous, her color French Chef broadcasts (setting the stage for Dan Aykroyd's famous Saturday-Night Live sketch), the original book was the food feature in a popular US book club, and widely purchased. I gather from the Amazon link that it was also reissued more recently.

[Rover]

I'm in, although on the 15th to honour Julia, a friend and I are going to the movie, followed by a reception at Barbara-Jo's Books To Cooks.

There are so many go-to recipes from Julia's books to which I continue to return; I think Julia was all about adapting to the moment and to what you have on hand. There's a quote from her which I keep close to my heart: "Just because you don't have all the exact ingredients, doesn't mean you can't make the dish." And, of course - Never apologize!

Rover