Aioli is essentially a garlic mayonnaise made with olive oil. I needed some for dressing for a grilled corn salad, and turned to Serious Eats for a recipe. The two key steps are to use an immersion blender (or food processor) to make an initial emulsion with a neutral oil, and then to whisk in Read More …
This simplified version of a classic cake from Brittany originated in Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s book Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World, as further refined by Food and Wine magazine, and then as I further adapted it. I made it the first time per the recipe with Read More …
In the book Julie and Julia, author Julie Powell sets out to cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In the movie based on the book, I think that one of the first dishes she tries is chicken breasts in cream, which is indeed a very tasty dish. I made this Read More …
On my latest trip to Houston I decided to watch a Craftsy class, The Art of Caramel, and when I returned home, I wanted to make something from it, so I chose a classic, crème caramel (or flan). This version turned out well, although I did use a few pans and bowls making it. Read More …
This classic appetizer is a French take on a Greek way of fixing mushrooms. This recipe is adapted from Craig Claiborne’s Gourmet Diet, which was published in 1980 after Craig Claiborne, then the food editor of the New York Times, was advised that his blood pressure was way too high and he needed to do Read More …
Beef Wellington is a truly spectacular dish for a special occasion, like Christmas dinner. (We made a double batch of this recipe for 14 adults, and had a little left over.) I also have in the blog a simplified version using puff pastry which makes a very nice dinner for two people (Mini Beef Read More …
This is the filling which goes between the slices of beef in Beef Wellington, following the recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This is enough for stuffing a 2-1/2 lb. beef tenderloin. The photo shows the raw beef slices with the duxelles stuffing. 1 lbs. mushrooms, cleaned and finely Read More …
This enriched bread is a recipe from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and is less rich than her true brioche, which has three times the butter. We have used this dough instead of puff pastry for Beef Wellingtons, including at this year’s Christmas dinner. It is very eggy, and Julie recommends Read More …
Pain a l’Ancienne is essentially a baguette made using cold water and a slow fermentation in a refrigerator to develop additional flavors vs. a shorter fermentation using warm water. This is an adaptation from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, which is an excellent book. I baked it in a Fourneau oven, which is Read More …
Yesterday turned cold with wet snow falling heavily, and Carol thought she would like French onion soup for dinner. This would be a warm bowl of comfort food and would use up some of the excess onions we bought for Thanksgiving. It took a while to actually start cooking since first we had to buy Read More …