"Les Halles Cookbook" by Anthony Bourdain

[Twyst]

I can be soooo numb. When I saw this thread come back up I thought I better order the book from Amazon.

haha yes, this thread has made me reconsider my decision to not get this book and a quick trip to amazon to order this and ruhlman's charcuterie was quickly in order.

[ScoopKW]

I can be soooo numb. When I saw this thread come back up I thought I better order the book from Amazon.

haha yes, this thread has made me reconsider my decision to not get this book and a quick trip to amazon to order this and ruhlman's charcuterie was quickly in order.

That's my second favorite cookbook. Bouchon is third. And some book I picked up at a yard sale called "Goose Fat and Garlic" is currently #4.

[FrogPrincesse]

It looks like the picture embedded in my pot-au-feu post (#199) no longer works - maybe a moderator can fix it.

Here it is again.

[eldereno]

That does look delicious!!! I do own this cookbook but have only made his Cassoulet. Will have to relook at the book and consider some other recipes!!!!

[FrogPrincesse]

That does look delicious!!! I do own this cookbook but have only made his Cassoulet. Will have to relook at the book and consider some other recipes!!!!

Thank you eldereno! The weather is getting cooler here in San Diego (it's all relative though) and pot-au-feu seems appropriate. I strongly recommend that you revisit this book. I made about 30 recipes from it and they've all been great.

My favorite recipes so far are: the onion soup, the scallops with Champagne, all the steak recipes (beurre rouge, sauce Porto with shallots, onglet gascon, steak au poivre, etc), the roasted chicken, the skate grenobloise, the gratin dauphinois, the pommes puree. The desserts are great too including the chocolate mousse, the clafoutis (discussed upthread), and the charlotte aux marrons.

If I had to pick just one recipe it would have to be the roasted short ribs though. I make it with beef as veal is harder to find, and you get an amazing result for a recipe that requires very little effort. I tried a lot of short ribs recipes and this one is really a keeper. The key is to use a little bit of demi-glace as explained in the recipe. One time I forgot to add it and the sauce was not as rich.

[Crouton]

Did anyone else find the texture of the mushroom soup kinda off-putting after the instructed trip through the blender? It was great up until that point... The coq au vin was excellent!

[FrogPrincesse]

Did anyone else find the texture of the mushroom soup kinda off-putting after the instructed trip through the blender? It was great up until that point... !

I like blended soups so the texture was fine for me, but it took a while to get it completely smooth and there were still a few bits left at the end.

[FrogPrincesse]

I made the short ribs, my favorite recipe from the book, a couple of nights ago. It's dead simple and I was able to pull it off on a weeknight. Step one consists of heating white wine, sherry vinegar, and demi-glace to a boil. For step two, all the components are added to a roasting pan - a sliced onion, the wine and vinegar mixture, some garlic, a bouquet garni, and the short ribs. The short ribs are cooked for a total of two and a half hours, starting with a cold oven. That's it! He does not say to degrease the sauce but I would do it, especially if I am serving this dish to guests.

Here is the result.

[ChrisTaylor]

Trying the veal short rib recipe with beef short ribs at the moment. Bourdain's Les Halles is the first cookbook I owned ... and, 100something books later, it's still my favourite.

[Twyst]

I made the Daube Provencale (lamb stew page 162) last night. I added some fresh corn I had to the recipe and it turned out very well. Its something I will definitely cook again, but I will only use the zest of half an orange next time as the zest from a whole orange is a bit too much and makes it too well pronounced in the dish.

[FrogPrincesse]

Inspired by the ongoing thread on Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook, I made his recipe for fennel and tomato soup, and salade niçoise. The Salad was good, but the soup was phenomenal! So simple: sweat onions, fennel, and diced potato, add a can of tomatoes, cook for 10 minutes, add chicken stock, let simmer, then blend and season.

Inspired in turn by Hassouni (on the dinner thread), I also tried the Fennel and Tomato Soup. I went with the flavor-boosting options suggested in the book, so I added a couple of slices of garlic at the beginning, and a few drops of pastis (Pernod) at the end. It was very good!

It's not the most photogenic recipe, but here it is anyway.

[Country]

Yesterday I made the Brandade de Morue - page 70. Very good and I'll be making it again.

[FrogPrincesse]

Onion Soup Les Halles

In my experience, browning the onions takes longer than specified in the recipe (about 45 min vs. 20 min). I was a little short on the chicken stock so I added some demi-glace. The bacon was home-cured fresh bacon.

I love this recipe! It was just for the two of us but I made a full-scale batch and froze the leftovers into single portions for later use...

Before going in the oven:

After:

[FrogPrincesse]

I made the boeuf bourguignon from Les Halles again this weekend.

Minor tweaks/modifications & notes:

• For the meat, I used good-quality chuck roast that I cut in ~ 1.5 to 2-inch cubes
  
• made sure to brown the meat really well on all sides
  
• used an entire bottle of wine instead of 1 cup
  
• used demi-glace (about 1 tablespoon)
  
• use 1 very large onion (4 onions in the recipe, size not specified)
  
• at the end, added a garnish of fried lardons (homemade tesa/pancetta) and lightly browned pearl onions
  

I made this recipe numerous times in the past and the sauce is not very thick. Using the whole bottle of wine resulted in a thick sauce that was wonderful as is and did not need to be further reduced.

In my opinion, the lardons and pearl onions are essential (I can't believe they were left out of the recipe!).

We had the leftovers last night with creste di gallo pasta.

[FrogPrincesse]

Coquilles Saint-Jacques with Champagne

What do you do when you have leftover Californian "champagne" that went flat? Coquilles Saint-Jacques of course!

The sauce is made by sauteing shallots in butter, adding some fish fumet (I use fish stock), reducing (I skip that step since I use stock), adding heavy cream, and simmering for 15 minutes.

The scallops are seared. Then the pan is deglazed with Champagne which is reduced (I also use any juices from the scallops that may have accumulated), and to which the cream sauce is added. The sauce is finished with butter, lemon juice, and chives.

I served the scallops with bok choy and carrots from my CSA.

[FrogPrincesse]

It looks like I forgot to post this excellent Onglet Gascon that I made a few weeks ago.

It's a hanger steak served with a marrow bone. A rich sauce for a cut of beef that is flavorful and a little livery (it's a good thing). The sauce is obtained by deglazing the pan with white wine, reducing, adding stock and demi-glace, reducing further, adding the juices from the meat (which is resting at this point) together with plenty of butter and some Dijon mustard. The sauce sticks to your teeth and is pure umami. Note that I had run out of parsley so I used chives instead, but parsley would be my first choice.

Edited July 31, 2012 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

The Tomato Salad from Les Halles. The tomatoes are liberally pre-salted, peppered and degorged to concentrate the flavors. The salad bowl is rubbed with garlic. This is the olive oil/balsamic vinegar/basil version of the dressing, but the olive oil/red wine vinegar/parsley version is also very good (and much more French). There is also a very thinly sliced red onion in there (red shallot for the French version).

I love this so much I usually end up drinking the juices from the plate as a special treat once I have finished the salad.

[judiu]

(ahem) All the more reason to make this at home...

[FrogPrincesse]

(ahem) All the more reason to make this at home...

Yep. The other option is to sop up the juices with a crusty French baguette, but I prefer drinking them neat!

[loki]

Well, maybe I am being picky, but I started reading the book immediately upon receiving it in the mail. I was anticipating a great cookbook with secrets of French cooking not available anywhere else. Instead I got Anthony's wit and 'snarkyness' (his own moniker) without much else. I already have recipes for every other dish in the book, and ones that I consider better! Also his commentary mentions dishes that are not in the book (especially some pasta dishes - perhaps not appropriate for the book, but then don't use them as examples in the text - not good editing if you ask me). I thought this book was thrown together quickly to get something out at the peak of his popularity and did not live up to a great cookbook. I much prefer Glorious French Food by James Peterson. I also love Larousse Gastronomique (the 80's version) - the recipes are sometimes lacking, but this book contains so much information it's overwhelming. Take note, some of the information is really opinion - but it's pretty easy to separate.

Oh - I love his shows! However I may take another look at Le Halles. It seems I'm in the great minority here and on Amazon!

[gfweb]

I like the book. It has explicit directions and the dishes are unfailingly tasty. What more could one ask?

[&roid]

Well, maybe I am being picky, but I started reading the book immediately upon receiving it in the mail. I was anticipating a great cookbook with secrets of French cooking not available anywhere else. Instead I got Anthony's wit and 'snarkyness' (his own moniker) without much else. I already have recipes for every other dish in the book, and ones that I consider better! Also his commentary mentions dishes that are not in the book (especially some pasta dishes - perhaps not appropriate for the book, but then don't use them as examples in the text - not good editing if you ask me). I thought this book was thrown together quickly to get something out at the peak of his popularity and did not live up to a great cookbook. I much prefer Glorious French Food by James Peterson. I also love Larousse Gastronomique (the 80's version) - the recipes are sometimes lacking, but this book contains so much information it's overwhelming. Take note, some of the information is really opinion - but it's pretty easy to separate.

Oh - I love his shows! However I may take another look at Le Halles. It seems I'm in the great minority here and on Amazon!

comparing it with Larousse is a bit... um... odd! They are not exactly the same sort of book!

FWIW I really enjoy Les Halles, I love books that have a bit of background about why a recipe or technique works, not just a set of instructions.

[radtek]

FrogPrincesse excellent pics as always. You'll have to let me know your which camera and lens you use...

Only wish I'd been around in the days this thread was started! Didn't know what a tremendous fan I'd become of Bourdain's and how influential he'd be. Funny thing is I read Kitchen Confidential 8 years ago (loved it!) but I have two of Ruhlman's books on my coffee right table now...

[loki]

Well, I still have a few issues with the book, BUT... I reread it last night - at least parts and I have changed my mind. I must have been in a bad mood - or expected something else at the time, but now I actually like the recipes. There are the examples of dishes that are in the prose - with no recipes to follow - which irritates me still. However I looked at the Duck a l'orange recipe and it was the real deal - old style - not updated (though the actual popularity of this dish is probably more of an English one - French cooking in England and then in the US, that is). And then looked before it and saw wild duck - with the breasts cooked rare. Many people have gotten this wrong - at least in my opinion - farm raised breeds of duck are not the ones you do rare breasts with - it's the wild ones (still often farm raised). At least those are the ones that benefit most from this. Also a recipe for Tarteflette! Wonderful.

I found a few other issues with the book - like explanations missing - slab bacon (smoked? - yes I think so) but nowadays it's not a given, except I would not think Mr. Bourdain would use the term for raw or cured (unsmoked) as they often do in European recipes, even though many French recipes do not use smoked bacon. And the Tarteflette recipe - no real verbage about what it really is - or about the cheese which really needs a bit as it's pretty unusual to put a half a cheese in a dish - without grating or slicing it. But I knew because this was a sort of kick for me for awhile. Escargots aux noix needs some explaining to me. I did a little research on it and not see what it is, but it strikes me strange to just plop the snails mixed with a sort of puree down and serve it (seems you do - but maybe eat it with bread? - but more info would really help). There are others too. I think I'm being a bit over critical because I am such a fan of his.

And I did think mentioning Glorious French Food, and Larousse Gastronomique was a bit strange as they really are not very comparable to this book. Both are very different books, the former sort of a compendium of as much French food and technique as the author could fit in, and the other an encyclopedia. However in both I have used the recipes extensively and used the information to create my own. They both have been invaluable to making great dishes.

[FrogPrincesse]

Soupe au Vin (wine soup).

You start with a nice bottle of Bordeaux (or California Cabernet in my case) and you boil it for 5 minutes. Crisp some lardons/diced bacon (Benton's) in butter, add minced onions and leeks, sweat for 10 minutes, add a little bit of flour. Add the wine, some homemade chicken stock and a bouquet garni. Cook for 45 minutes. Discard the bouquet garni and season. Serve topped with a little bit of "raw" wine and a slice of rustic bread.

Very nice, like a thinner version of the boeuf bourguignon sauce. One thing I will do next time will be to degrease the soup slightly as there was a lot of bacon fat.