Smitten with a French Chef

I confess: I'm in love with Julia Child (1912-2004). I had read Julie and Julia by Julie Powell last year, but I wasn't really in love with her then. I did put the DVD series The French Chef on my Netflix cue, but I didn't start watching them until this year.

A week or so ago, I pulled My Life in France by Julia Child from the bookshelf and started reading, and it is this book that made me fall in love with this larger than life woman. Her memoir focuses mainly on her time in France, chronicling the discovery of her passion for food, her lessons at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and her collaboration with two Frenchwomen on Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 and 2. She also writes about the beginning and rise of her television show The French Chef and concludes with her writing From Julia Child's Kitchen (which I'm currently following in eBay), which has recipes and stories.

At first, I was disappointed that the book didn't include a variety of recipes. That disappointment didn't last long because it's a truly fun read. Yes, there is a lot of writing about cooking and food, but it is also a love story. There are pictures of Julia and her husband Paul; the book is about life with Paul nearly as much as it is about her life as a chef and writer. In reading the book, you get a sense of her passion for life and how she completely threw herself into every aspect of food and cooking. She writes of how she meticulously researched ingredients and techniques and how she tried recipes out sometimes 15 times before she was satisfied they were good enough to include in Masting the Art of French Cooking, which is why I had to order it. I have purchased volume 1, and I'm watching volume 2 on eBay, hoping to find a copy at a good price. Because of her meticulous nature, the books are not only about recipes but also about the how and why of a recipe: how ingredients work together, why some techniques are used in some recipes and other techniques are used in other recipes. I get the sense she might have been an early Alton Brown.

Once I acquire both volumes, I'm throwing away The Joy of Cooking. I've never really liked it, and I have found the text rather boring. If Julia's cookbooks are written in the style and voice of her memoir, I expect them to be engaging, entertaining, and informative.

If you're curious about her television show, visit the Julia Child section of the PBS videos where several of her shows can be viewed (all are under 30 minutes in length). The video "Spinach Twins" has footage of Simone Beck, a co-author of the Mastering the Art of French Cooking books, and there is footage of Julia and Paul's home in Provence. If you love cooking, food, France, or a good love story featuring a strong heroine, I encourage you to read My Life in France.

I feel a rant coming on in a future post (I can't be completely rant-free). I invite all readers to comment on this and all posts, as well as also suggest topics you would like to read about.

As always, bon appetit!

Almost Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

I LOVE the change of seasons. Autumn means we can say good-bye to the stifling, humid, disgusting temperatures of summer and say hello to cool mornings, pleasant days, and warm comfort foods. This week when planning the menu, I consulted weather.com to see just how warm and comfortable I could get with supper. Then, I pointed my browser to epicurious.com and found Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie from Gourmet 2009. Perfect, except for the fact I had 6 butternut squash sitting on the counter and more than 1/2 lb. of opened ground beef from Randle Farms sitting in the fridge. Oh, and a container of rabbit stock I made a couple of months ago. Time to improvise.

I gathered the essential vegetables: shallot, garlic, leek, parsnip, carrot, baby bella and shiitake mushrooms, and a butternut squash weighing just under 1 pound. If you've worked with vegetables, you know prep work can be the most time-consuming aspect of a recipe.

Though I took several liberties with this recipe, I was giddy with excitement when read that I would be making a sauce with a red wine reduction, my delectable rabbit stock, and a beurre manié, which is simply equal parts butter and flour kneaded together to act as a thickening agent in a sauce.

Here I must digress ever so slightly. I've learned a bit about stocks and sauces while reading the culinary text Professional Cooking by Wayne Gisslen, as well as in reading Julia Child's My Life in France and Kathleen Flinn's book The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry. Stocks are called fond in French because the French see them as the foundation of any sauce or soup, and an excellent foundation makes for an excellent end product. I began making stock about a year ago so that I wouldn't have to buy the organic broths at about $3.50 a pop; however, I dump all manner of vegetable bits and peels to make my vegetable stock. Ohhhh, but how Julia and the great chefs would gasp–in her book, Julia nearly cries over the loss of a perfect veal stock. I can see now how my haphazard way of making vegetable stock leads to a very unpredictable end result. I'll work on that. Sauces, according to either Child or Flinn, came about to mask otherwise questionable meat. I say all this to preface the fact that my rabbit stock was divine and imparted a most wonderful flavor to this dish.

But, I'm becoming long-winded.

After reducing my wine, adding the broth, and whisking in the beurre manié, I had this beautiful, velvety sauce to simmer my veggies and ground beef in for about 25 minutes. I must say, this was the best gravy or sauce or whatever it is that I've tasted, and I think it can be attributed to a solid fond and the beurre manié.

Unlike most Shepherd's Pie, which feature ground lamb and a final bake in the oven, this dish is ready once the potatoes are added. If you're making this, be sure to find a broiler-safe casserole dish. My dish was not, and I could not pop it beneath the broiler to brown the potatoes–which, by the way, are made with a generous slathering of butter and cream.

If you would like to follow the original recipe, click the link above, otherwise follow my adaptation below. Whatever you do, keep the technique of beurre manié close at hand for your next sauce or gravy.

"Almost Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie"

2 shallots, minced

3 tablespoon olive oil, divided

1/2 pounds ground beef (optional)

1 medium leek (white and pale green parts only), halved lengthwise, sliced 1/2 inch thick, and washed

4 garlic cloves, chopped finely

1 cup mushrooms, trimmed and quartered (I used a combination of shiitake and baby bellas)

3 medium carrots, cut into 3/4-inch-thick half-moon pieces

3 medium parsnips, cut into 3/4-inch-thick half-moon pieces

2 tablespoons thyme leaves

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary

3/4 bottle Cabernet Sauvignon

3 tablespoons salted butter, softened

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 cups hot rabbit stock (you can substitute for the stock of your choice)

For Topping

3 pounds red potatoes

1/2 stick butter

1/2 cup skim milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Prep all vegetables.

2. Brown ground beef. Transfer to a plate.

3. Add about 2 Tablespoon olive oil and cook leeks over medium heat until softened, about 6 minutes. Throw in a pinch of salt. Add garlic and cook, stirring often, until slight color appears. Add 1 Tablespoon of olive oil and add mushrooms, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes.

4. Add carrots, parsnips, butternut squash, thyme and rosemary. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally until vegetables become tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer vegetables to a bowl.

5. Add wine to pot and boil until reduced to about 3/4 cup, 10 to 15 minutes.

6. While wine reduces, briskly beat together flower and butter in a small bowl until it forms a paste (beurre manié).

7. Add stock to wine reduction and bring to a brisk simmer. Whisk in beurre manié 1 Tablespoon at a time, whisking briskly to thoroughly incorporate with the liquid. Continue whisking until mixture thickens, 3 to 5 minutes. Add ground meat and vegetable mixture to pot and simmer, covered, 25-30 minutes.

8. While mixture simmers, peel potatoes and cut into 2-inch pieces. Cover potatoes with cold water and simmer, partially covered, until very tender, 20 to 25 minutes. When ready to mash, add 1/2 stick butter, cream and milk. If you have a food mill or hand mixer, mix until creamy; otherwise, just mash and beat until very smooth.

9. Put meat and vegetable mix in broiler-proof dish, top with potatoes, and heat 3 inches under broiler until potatoes are golden brown.

Bon appetit!