With the exception of some of the bizarre PBS cookbooks that were published when Julia acted for hostess in the kitchen to up and coming young chefs - Martha Stewart(!), Jeremiah Tower, etc.- I believe that I own her complete oeuvre. And my favorite is ...... From Julia Child's Kitchen, a book that took me years to get to know and which I today consider a close personal inanimate friend. And, like a good friend, I'm still learning things from and about it.
Our Menu
While I cannot state that I have completely cooked my way through any of Julia's books from front to back, I have made many, many of her recipes over the years. For the most part, I have to admit that they are "special occasion" recipes for me, and if you've ever used any of them you can understand why. The promise of Julia's recipes is that if you have the patience to do everything the way she tells you to that the results will be amazing, but they are also a hell of a lot of work, exhausting in fact, as the Picky Eater was about to find out.
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| The Picky Eater touches meat for the 2nd time in her life. |
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| "Sewing" the chicken skin bag. |
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| The completed chicken skin "bag." |
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| Pulling the drawstring to close the stuffed chicken skin "bag." Good thing I know how to sew! |
Dr. Hal boned out the bird the night before and I woke to the sight of my hardcore vegetarian daughter up to her ears in chicken meat. Being the very model of a thrifty neophyte French cook, she proceeded to make stock from the chicken bones, which in my hands would have gone straight into the trash!
With most of the day gone, we moved on to the rest of the meal- eggplant pizzas, wild rice mirepoix with mushroom duxelles, and a peach galette. The Picky Eater had made some yummy tomato sauce the previous week, which we pulled out for the eggplant pizzas. So all that was left for that course was to slice and salt the eggplant, grate the cheese, assemble the pizzas and bake them right before serving.
Here is the recipe From Julia Child's Kitchen, as always, it is almost excruciatingly precise -
Tranches d'aubergine a l'italienne
Eggplant pizzas, a first course, or to serve with roasts, steaks, broiled fish
1 shiny, firm, fresh eggplant, long and thin if possible
1/2 tsp salt
Olive oil
Oregano, thyme, or rosemary
About 1/2 cup excellent tomato sauce, homemade if possible
About 1/2 cup coarsely grated cheese, such as a mixture of Mozzarella, cheddar, Swiss, Parmesan
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| How restful to be an eggplant salting!! |
Shave off cap and bud ends of eggplant but do not peel; if eggplant is fat rather than long, cut it in half lengthwise. Slice into pieces about 1/2" think and 2 by 3 inches across. To remove excess moisture and puckery quality, sprinkle both sides of each slice with salt and arrange on a double thickness of paper toweling. Let drain 20-30 minutes, and when you are ready to continue, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pat the slices dry, and arrange in one layer on an oiled baking sheet. Paint tops with oil, sprinkle with a dusting of herbs, and cover with aluminum foil. Bake in the lower-middle level of oven 15-20 minutes, just until soft when pierced with a knife, but no so long that the slices become mushy and lose their shape. Spread each with a spoonful of tomato sauce, a sprinkling of cheese, and a dribble of oil.
Set aside until shortly before serving.
Then place in a moderately hot broiler to brown 2-3 minutes. Serve.
It was the wild rice mirepoix, or rather, the mincing of the vegetables and mushrooms for it, that gave the Picky Eater a real taste of what Julia is all about- sore something- back, feet, whatever part of your body is vulnerable to being vertical too long. The recipe was from The Way to Cook, and is more contemporary than her older books, but just as exacting.
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| The Picky Eater's plate- eggplant pizza & wild rice mirepoix.
At this point, all that was left to me was the Peach Galette. I must confess that we fudged a little here. the actual recipe was a variation of the Nectarine Galette from the Smitten Kitchen blog, which was based on an apricot recipe from Alice Waters. We loved it when I made it earlier in the summer, and it definitely had Julia somewhere in its lineage. Here's my adaptation of the Smitten Kitchen recipe, and some photos of our galette -
 Peach Galette Serves 8 Freeform galettes are great because they cut down on the stress attached to rolling out a circle of dough to fit a tart pan. Inevitably my circle is lopsided and I have to cut and paste the dough- an unpleasant process- to get it to fit. Crust I have enjoyed using this tart dough recipe from David Lebovitz. The egg adds richness without extra fat. For sweet tarts I add a couple of spoonfuls of sugar. 1 1/2 cups (210 g) flour 4 1/2 ounces (125 g) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 large egg 2-3 tablespoons cold water Filling 1 tablespoon flour 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar 4 tablespoons amaretti, pulverized — or — 4 tablespoons ground almonds plus an 1 tablespoon sugar One recipe of tart dough, rolled into a 14-inch circle and chilled 5-6 large peaches 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted Make the crust: Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Briefly swirl to mix. Cut the butter into 1/2' cubes, and process with the flour for about 5-10 seconds, until the dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Beat the egg in a measuring cup with 2 tablespoons of ice water and pour down the processor spout while the motor is running just until the dough starts to gather around the blade. Add one more tablespoon of water if necessary, but you run the risk of making the dough too sticky. Shape the dough into a flat disc on a large piece of plastic wrap, wrap it up, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling out. When you are ready to roll out the dough, take it out and let it soften slightly so that it is malleable but still cold. On a lightly floured piece of parchment, roll out the disk into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the dough (still on the parchment) to a baking sheet and refrigerate at least 1/2 hour before using.  Make the galette: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a pizza stone, if you have one, on a lower rack. Toss the flour, one tablespoon of the sugar, and pulverized amaretti (or mix of extra ground almonds and sugar) together. Remove the prerolled dough from the refrigerator or freezer and sprinkle the almond mixture evenly over the pastry, leaving a 1 1/2 to 2-inch border uncoated. Cut peaches in half, removing pits, then each half into thirds (you’ll get six wedges per peach). Arrange the fruit, skin-side-down, in concentric circles on the dough, making a single layer of snugly touching pieces, leaving the border bare. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the sugar and the remaining almond mixture evenly over the fruit. While rotating the tart, fold the border of exposed dough up and over itself at regular intervals, crimping and pushing it up against the fruit. Pinch or trim off any excess dough. (Make sure there are no breaks that will let juices leak.) Brush the border with melted butter, and sprinkle it with two tablespoons sugar. Bake in the lower third of the oven (preferably on a pizza stone) for about 45 to 50 minutes, until the crust is well browned and its edges are slightly caramelized. IAs soon as the galette is out of the oven, use a large metal spatula to slide it onto a cooling rack, to keep it from getting soggy. Let cool for 20 minutes. Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream or with plain yogurt. Do ahead: This galette keeps at room temperature for at least two days, and even longer in the fridge. The unbaked dough, wrapped in plastic, will keep in the freezer for a few weeks, the fridge for a day or more. Rolled-out dough may be frozen and used the next day. Our work done we settled back to enjoy our repast. (Truth to tell, I was so whipped, that I partook of a brandy and soda, which is unheard of for me!) And, the Picky Eater now knew what cooking with Julia was like! The question is, will she ever do it again? |
