French Cooking: Week 1

As many of you know, I had a tough time for the first 5+ months of my pregnancy... Lots of vomiting and nausea... Not a good recipe for enjoying French cooking and food, or any cooking and food for that matter. Thankfully, although the nausea has not gone away completely, I can say that I feel well enough now to at least begin enjoying my situation: living in a culinary capital of the world and being a stay-at-home wife with the time to plan, shop, experiment, and enjoy. I also must admit that the local market (which happens every Thursday and Saturday around the corner from our apartment in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower - see post from December for more details) is becoming even more glorious to me as I am able to cook and enjoy the fresh foods I see there.

But I digress; let me get to the point: I have decided to try my own (MUCH less ambitious) form of Julie and Julia. Each Friday night or Saturday morning, I am hoping to sit down with my French cookbooks and find at least five recipes for the upcoming week, one of which must be appropriate for a Sunday brunch-ish meal that we cook together (since our church does not begin until 3:30 pm). This past week was our pilot run, and I found it a raging success. My hope here is not only to give you all a taste of our culinary experiences (and record them for myself), but also to give you suggestions/ideas for recipes you might want to try. Most of these are quick and easy, though the fresh ingredients are pretty important for the right flavors. I welcome questions via comments or email if you need help with the recipes. And please bear with me these first few weeks (as I intend to give you weekly, rather than daily, reports), as I explore the best format for this discourse. For now, I'm only going to give the full recipe for those that were a roaring success AND were quick and relatively easy; for the rest I'll will post a report and pics, and I'm happy to share the recipes if anyone is interested. Here we go!

Saturday night: Onglet aux Echalotes (Skirt Steak with Shallots)

From Parisian Home Cooking by Michael Roberts

This was quick, easy, and REALLY good. But, as a warning, I fear that skirt steak in the US (which is not a perfect equivalent to onglets) may not come out as good. Try your best to get a lean skirt steak that is thick enough to have a pink middle after being seared (the thicker, the better). And onions are technically a substitute option for shallots, but it will change the flavor a bit.

1. Cook the shallots in the butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat until soft buy not browned, about 5 minutes. Season with coarse salt and pepper, mix in the parsley, and transfer to a small bowl. Keep warm.
2. Return the skillet to the stove over high heat. When the skillet is smoking hot, add the steaks. Season with pepper and cook for 3 minutes. Turn the steaks over and season with salt and pepper. Cook for another 3 minutes for rare, up to 5 minutes for medium. Transfer the steaks to a platter. **Searing the steaks but not over cooking them is ESSENTIAL for this; be sure there is a little butter in the pan and scoot the steaks back and forth with a fork to keep them from sticking, if necessary, but don't turn down the heat!
3. Return the skillet to the stovetop over low heat, add the wine, and stir with a wooden spoon to scrape up any brown bits that have stuck to the bottom of the skillet. Cook until the liquid in the skillet is reduced to a mere tablespoon, then mix the deglacage into the shallots. Spoon the shallots over the steaks and serve immediately. Not bad with a bit of Dijon mustard on the side, too.
4. Final result: Excellent and Easy. Great with fresh green beans (nice mild flavor to counteract the bold shallot sauce).

Sunday lunch: Omelette Aux Fines Herbes

From Paris by Marlena Spieler

As always, the pan you use and the proper heat are very important in determining the quality of an omelette. But, thankfully, by following these instructions very closely, I had no problems (and I'm not much of an omelette maker since I don't like eggs very much... but these were GOOD!). Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of these masterpieces. :-(

Special note: Any time you are using fresh herbs, there are two things to bear in mind - keep them fresh as long as possible (hence the herbs in water below), and use a VERY sharp nice to chop them or they'll just turn to mush.

1. Using a separate bowl for each omelette, whisk together 2 or 3 of the eggs just until blended. Whisk a quarter of the herbs into each bowl and season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat a 7 or 8 inch frying pan over medium-high heat. Put about 1 T of the butter into the pan. The moment it melts, tilt the pan to coat the bottom and sides. When the butter sizzles but has not yet begun to brown, remove the pan from the heat and pour in 1 bowl of the egg mixture. Immediately return the pan to the heat until the bottom of the omelette browns lightly but the surface remains runny; this should take no more than 15-20 seconds. When the centre is the consistency of very soft scrambled eggs, using a wooden spatula and tilting the pan as needed, roll the omelette toward you, a little at a time. Let the omelette cook for a few seconds longer once it is rolled - the bottom should be pale gold and the centre should be creamy - then, transfer to a warm plate by carefully sliding the omelette out of the pan. The whole cooking process should take no more than 2 minutes.
3. Serve the omelette at once, and repeat with the other three bowls of egg mixture. BEST served with freshly sliced tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

Monday night: Bifteks a la Minute, Sauce a l'Estragon (Minute Steaks with Tarragon)

From Parisian Home Cooking by Michael Roberts

Because this is a thinner piece of meat than the shallot steak above, it feels a little less like "fine steak." The flavor, however, was just as good, in my opinion, and quite unique without being overwhelming. Another Easy recipe with Excellent results. Note: You cannot really sear the minute steaks like the onglets above because they are too thin. Instead, nurse them in a moderately hot skillet with butter. Also, as above, you may not find it quite as rewarding unless you get your meat from a good butcher; but try the supermarket and see... It may turn out great!

1. Season the steaks with salt and press liberal amounts of pepper into one side (I just used the back of a fork to do so). Melt the butter in a large nonreactive skillet over medium heat. Cook the steaks for about 2 minutes on each side. Remove from the skillet.
2. Add the wine and vinegar to the skillet and whisk in the mustard. Replace the steaks and cook for a minute or until the sauce smooths and thickens a bit. Add the tarragon and remove from heat. (Note: I used red wine vinegar because I didn't have any white; it turned out great.)
3. Arrange the steaks on a platter and scrape the sauce over the top. Serve immediately.
4. I served it with some fabulous small white potatoes which I steamed (per the instructions of the potato guy at the market who kept mumbling about "vapeur" and "seulement beurre et herbes" (only butter and herbs) while I was buying them. They like to tell you how to cook things, and I'm glad I listened to him; they were amazing!

Tuesday night: Bible Study Potluck... no new recipes

Wednesday night: Cotes de Porc a l'Aneth (Dilled Pork Chops)

While I enjoyed these VERY much, and I especially liked the fact that the chops (which I think can sometimes be rather dry) were wonderfully moist since they were cooked in a sauce of heavy cream, chicken broth, and fresh dill, I'm not sure it would be a favorite of many.

The dill flavor is different (but I happen to like it); the heavy cream is obviously not particularly healthy, and I know pork chops aren't everyone's favorite. But I'll give you the pictures, and I'd be happy to send on the recipe to anyone who is interested. On the side, I just made white rice which I mixed with some olive oil, sauteed shallots, and fresh parsley. Quick and yummy.

Thursday night: Dinner Date... didn't cook

Friday night: Soupe a L'Oignon (French Onion Soup... and yes, they just call it Onion Soup here)

The recipe I used was VERY yummy and not particularly difficult, but it did take just over 2 hours from start to finish. Much of that time was simply waiting while the soup simmered, so it was not labor intensive, but I would suspect, if you are really craving onion soup, that you can find a quicker recipe. I'll share pictures of my success anyway, though, because we thoroughly enjoyed it! Oh, and a quick note, the traditional recipes call for baking the soup with the bread and cheese on top in individual bowls. Unfortunately, I do not have oven-proof bowls, so I baked in a casserole dish and we spooned from there. Not as pretty on the table, but it worked.

Ok, that's week one. If you're bored, I'm sorry. If you're a foodie like me, then I hope you enjoyed. And if you have any requests/suggestions/etc. for my weekly post, let me know. I want it to be helpful, enjoyable, and interesting. Oh, and finally, if you have any tips on photographing food well, I welcome them. I realize my attempts are probably less than appetizing! Sorry!