La Recette

The Ingredients

Beef Fricassee (fricassee basically means a sliced, stewed meat)
Finely Sliced Beef to fill casserole
Sliced Mushrooms to fill casserole
Chunk of Butter
A Dusting of Flour
A Few Spoons of Beef Broth (preferable) or Water
Small Onion or Shallot
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Two Cloves


Liaison (sauce thickener-usually calls for cream but not in this recipe, so I will try it without-you may do as you please)
3 egg yolks
vinegar or lemon juice
pinch of nutmeg

Garnish (home-made croutons)
French Bread
Olive Oil or Butter

1. Cook the mushrooms with butter until mushrooms sweat (I would suggest in a frying pan)
2. Dust with flour, add broth, salt, pepper and onion

Publish Post

(I would suggest cornstarch instead of flour mixed with the broth or water to thicken the sauce)
3. Cook lovingly (mitonner, what a wonderful word!)
4. Add enough meat so that each slice is soaked. Cover and cook in pan over high heat, allowing to stew.
5. To make the liaison, mix all ingredients over low heat, stirring constantly.
6. Pour liaison over meat and serve with homemade croutons (bread cut into cubes and coated in oil and baked at 350 for 10 minutes)

Done! Photos and tasting notes later.

The Gifts of Comus

Today's recipe comes from Le Dons de Comus, ou l'Art de la Cuisine, Reduit en Pratique, Nouvelle Edition:
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1108709.r=cuisine.langEN.

I do not even know if this was an important or popular cookbook (which is difficult to ascertain anyway with historic books- sometimes importance is rather a result of contemporary scholars' preference than that of our forebears). I do know it was published in several editions, of which this is not the first (hence "nouvelle edition"). In 1753 it sold for 7 livres and 10 sols, quite a price but not inaccessible.

The titlepage opens with a lovely illustration of the gods relevant to cooking (Ceres, Bacchus, Pomona, etc.) in celebration, and a note that unless Comus seasons them, all their gifts of food are superfluous! I bet Gordon Ramsey thinks this about himself.

Copycatting

One thing I enjoy about cooking is that the process of transmitting and modifying recipes, which simplistically appears like copycatting, resembles that of the discipline I study, anatomical illustration. One of the works on female anatomy that I study written by Regnier De Graaf, De mulierum organis generationi inservientibus, includes a stunning fifty-page defense of the illustrations. These are among the first illustrations to diverge from the standard Vesalian anatomy. De Graaf was rightly angry the illustrations had been copied by Bartholin, thanks to his sneaky coworker Swammerdam, even before he put them in print. Before De Graaf, centuries of anatomical treatises had copycatted Vesalius' illustrations, much as we modify for our own use others' recipes rather than starting our own from scratch. A friend recently said if I were to invent an unprecedented recipe "from scratch" (as if we could discard our memories and heritage) it would probably be disgusting. Has everything tasty already been discovered, or exist in a recipe ripe for modification? I imagine if I invented something, somewhere out in the world I would have already tried it and I would be much like the Harvard sophomore chic lit writer who inadvertently reproduced a paragraph from another book she'd read. Have any of you out there invented a recipe?
Seeking help from a culinary philosopher,
American Girl

Historical Dinners Night

As a historian, I always wonder whether this or that food was invented in my favorite century, the 18th. Alas, creme chantilly and the macaron predated the 18th (the macaron arriving with Marie de Medici and chantilly during Louis XIV's reign). The argument has been made by a scholar recently that a "food revolution" in this century made way for modern cooking. Well, everyone is always trying to argue that this or that modern phenomena has a particular point of origin. This is especially true for early modern scholars, the discipline's moniker making evident its flawed approach. Nonetheless, we can enjoy some tasty and bizarre food reflective of the time of Versailles' splendor, the Age of Revolutions, and deliciously froufrou fashions. Oddly enough, you will find that the "cult of nature", inspired by Rousseau, had minimal impact on the cuisine. This is in stark contrast to today's organic and raw food craze. The French in the 18th, who set table manners for the rest of Europe, disdained the look of chewing. No raw carrots for them- who wanted to look like their carriage horse? Hence the culinary forms we know today in pates and mousses. For those who do not like broths and soups, this is not your period, apologies in advance. Hopefully the desserts will compensate.

I have decided Thursday night will be historical dinners night. I will be using Jim Chevallier's "Apres-Moi, Le Dessert" http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=70FynqJOS28C&printsec=frontcover&dq=jim+chevallier+apres-moi&source=bl&ots=_psIbULOM9&sig=c7OuuuxXEJ3YpPis0THK7lWnBTk&hl=en&ei=tgBQTL_6DoOe4QaU-cGXCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false, a few recipes by Jed Wentz, as well as recipes I've found myself trolling through historic documents available on Gallica http://www.gallica.bnf.fr.I may even throw in a few English recipes, just to ascertain my early assertion that many cuisines trump the British.

Till Thursday,
American Girl Eats London

Presentation- You Vote!

the sauce: brown sugar, soy sauce, white vinegar, fresh squeezed orange juice, ginger, and garlic. mixed together and heated. make a little cornstarch slurry (cornstarch added directly will apparently seize up) and mix in. when the cornstarch becomes clear again, it is incorporated and the sauce is done! mmmm...American-style take-out at home! It will top the scary Chinese offerings in London (maybe not the dim sum places, which are quite good here).





Please leave your comments on the site http://www.americangirleatslondon.blogspot.com and tell me which presentation for Chinese chicken you like best.

Presentation tip: rectangular and odd shaped plates (especially plates with a convex side- sexy) do magic to a dish.

Chinese Chicken and Cartier Polo

I realize the two are a very odd juxtaposition, but one inspired the other. I visited the Cartier polo with a pal and we joined in what must be one of the biggest picnic ocassions on the British social calendar. Fortunately we did not cook our own picnic as someone in the upscale crowd managed to steal our picnic and the book I have been reading- In Defense of Food.

Sidenote: In Defense of Food will permanently change how you look at nutritionism. The basic argument is that reducing food to its vitamin/nutrient content oversimplifies the complex interactions of these nutrients within food and our bodies' ways of processing different foods. It also calls into question the science behind those health recommendations we pay so much attention to in the news and grocery store aisles. His point: eat foods known to be healthy, not nutrient-enriched processed food or foods not known to be healthy but dense in the particular vitamin fad of the moment. Sadly, this may mean acai, pomegranate, and your favorite-long-list-of-vitamins-on-the-side-of-the box cereal are not the tasty saviors we thought them to be. Indeed, were we crazy to think kellog's crunch and cheerios would help us live longer? Maybe now you don't even have to read the book, since you know the endgame! Nonetheless the evidence Michael Pollan offers is both convincing and entertaining. He overturns basic assumptions like the link between dietary fat and heart disease. I hope whomever found it at Cartier devotes as much time to reading it as they did to watching polo.

Back to the point: while we brought a ready-made picnic, many of those around brought their own British food. A good time to test my hypothesis- that British food doesn't taste or even look good. I failed. All those picnics looked tasty.
However, it must be noted that there were a lot of que tal's and magnifiques tossed around at the polo amidst the British hats.


My review of the Forman and Field Picnic classic British selections on offer:
Olive & Artichokes Salad- Ew
Lavender Roast Chicken with Honey & Mustard- Yum
Thai Crab Cakes with Wasabi Mayonnaise- British take credit for foreigners' cuisines, typical
Curious Brew Brut Beer- there is no such thing as 'brut' beer
Fish Pie- nasty
Smoked salmon terrine- ugh
Horseradish and chive mash- don't even know what a mash is. i thought it meant juice!
Salmon and cucumber sandwiches- yum
Scones- my favorite part of British cuisine, with some clotted cream and jam

Victoria sandwiches with blueberry compote- even better

Scotch eggs- gross

Tell me what you think!

Towards the end I proposed my friend suggest a dinner. She's taken up Chinese cooking and recommended it to solve the age-old connundrum of how to feed a man who really likes 1) spice and 2) chicken. So what's on the menu for tonight? Annie's Eats' Orange Chicken.

http://annies-eats.com/2008/10/11/orange-chicken/ (yes, a little blog stealing, but someone needs to verify that those yummy looking recipes actually work! and I am sure I will figure out some presentational solution)



This recipe is cheap- besides basic kitchen ingredients (think brown sugar, vinegar, pepper) it only requires oranges, cornstarch, ginger, eggs, and chicken. My boy loves oj, so here's crossing my fingers her suggestion is the best idea ever!

PS Photos from my vegetarian dinner last time, no time for presentational panache as the bf arrived early:

couscous with currants and cinnamon-spice mix


feta caprese


three bean salad with pine nuts
raspberry tart

breakfast:


morning omelette with green chili slices

Visit UK Food Bloggers Association

Enjoying the concert in Canada Square Park with our tart

The tart with a singing candle- the cream turned a bit yellow, but tasty


Putting the cream on early causes it to melt around the tart.

Frangipane Photos Part II

The Chantilly mounted- a bit too close to buttery consistency perhaps, but still tasty.


Mmmm...any honey will do!


Honey and heavy cream, a beautiful sight.


Tapioca starch, found at a chinese market near Leicester square. Hoo Hing online also sells it.


The tart dough before cooking.

Photos from Raspberry Frangipane Tart

After 30 minutes chilling, the dough is rolled.

Dough for the tart- the sugar and butter combined first till fluffy, then the egg, then everything else.

The pistachio frangipane, egg yolk, butter, pistachio and some heavy cream- all the work done by the handy food processor.

A miracle transformation!
The pistachios in the food processor- might first time using a food processor. I can't believe it actually worked! After trying to blend nuts in a milkshake blender, I'd given up hope.

Marie Claire Dinner

This is from the Marie Claire cookbook, Real and Simple. This cookbook must have been designed for those who love tasty food but don't want to get fat eating it (yes, this sounds terrible, but haven't you always wondered why most skinny 20-somethings don't even touch the kitchen? butter and meat, honey). I think this book will be my saving grace- only a few cheap ingredients per recipe, nice photos of presentation techniques, and low-fat, Middle-Eastern inspired recipes. Tonight's meal I will make a few dishes because it's Friday!!!
Charred Eggplant with Parsley, Currants, and Yoghurt and Ciabbatta
Three-Bean Salad
Cinammon-Sweet Couscous
Yoghurt (either minted or with some garam masala, haven't decided yet)

Will post soon with photos of the results. Cheers to tasty, healthy food!

Toting TarteletteTarts on the Tube

Yesterday I tried out a recipe with a ridiculously long title and oddly simple execution: Raspberry Pistachio Frangipane Tart with Meyer Lemon Chantilly.

Let's decompose: raspberry topping, pistachio filling, cream (chantilly) flavoured with lemon.

What is Chantilly? Chantilly is cream whipped with sugar (honey in this case) and some flavouring (usually vanilla, here lemon). Apparently the danger with this cream is to overwhip and end up with butter (never happened to me after some substantial whipping). The chef Francois Vatel first served it to Louis XIV and 2000 guests at Versailles. Vatel reputedly committed suicide the same night he developed it for fear of the repercussions of some poorly cooked fish he made that night. Who knows what divine pastries we might have had today if it weren't for some bad fish!

What is Frangipane? Technically it is almond custard. However, in this recipe it means pistachio mixed with butter, sugar, egg, and heavy cream using a food processor. Voila!

As you can tell from the title, the recipe called for the elusive Meyer Lemon. I wouldn't have any idea how to find this in London, nor when it is in season here if at all. Any ideas blog-readers? Hence, I just used some ordinary lemons from Sainsbury's. Tasted delicious, but maybe it would have tasted better with the Meyer. One of life's mysteries.

The most fun part about this tart was toting it half way across London on the tube- with everyone warning me to be careful and worrying about ending up with a pie in the face. One man even thought I must have been dared! Thankfully it survived as did my dress and I had a wonderful night with my friend at the free Canary Wharf BBC bands swing concert.

Check out http://www.mytartelette.com/2010/02/recipe-raspberry-pistachio-frangipane.html for the recipe.

The ingredients are below from Tartelette, photos of the steps to be added soon:

For the shortbread bottoms:
1 stick (115 gr) unsalted butter or coconut oil, at room temperature
1/2 cup (95gr) whole organic cane sugar (or granulated or dark brown)
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup (80gr) brown rice flour
1/2 cup (80gr) white rice flour
1/4 cup (30gr) sorghum flour
(Or use 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour instead of the 3 mentioned above)
2 tablespoons (20 gr) tapioca starch
pinch of salt

For the pistachio frangipane:
1 stick (115 gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (95 gr) organic whole cane sugar (or granulated)
1 cup (100 gr) ground pistachios
2 eggs
1/4 cup (60ml) heavy cream

For the Meyer lemon chantilly:
1 cup (250ml) heavy cream
1 tablespoon honey
zest of one Meyer lemon

2 pints fresh raspberries

French-Thai Fusion Dinner Party

Photos from Canape Class at Atelier

Here are some yummy duck pancakes I made at an Atelier class, served over a pureed plum and orange sauce and wrapped with a chive. Next to them are spoons filled tuna tartare and topped with chervil (parsley to us Americans). Behind it are alternating lamb koftas with mint sauce and wontons filled with tomato sambal (kind of like a salsa). I highly recommend investment in spoons and verrines as they revolutionize food presentation (look up on amazon.fr cuillieres and verrines- there are really cheap box kits). Can't share the recipes as they are Atelier's, but I will give you my own variation shortly.

Challenge of the Week

One of my friends may be joining me on this hot summer day for a free swing concert to celebrate her birthday.

I would love to make some ice cream to celebrate national ice cream month, like the Annie's Eats's oh-so-appropriate cake batter ice cream:
http://annies-eats.com/2010/05/14/cake-batter-ice-cream/

or Tartelette's cherry rose and coconut:
http://www.mytartelette.com/2009/05/recipe-cherry-rose-and-coconut-ice.html

but I am not sure it will survive! Any ideas? The plain old cupcake or birthcake just doesn't do it...more on the solution later.


BTW, these are two excellent blogs I just discovered, great for those with an incurable sweet tooth like me. No promises about cavities!

Rose-Flavoured Macaron Filling

Welcome!

Welcome to my first blog. I am an American art history student living in London. Before this year I had never cooked previously, but British food leaves a little...errr...lacking. A few classes at L'Atelier des Chefs later, I am inspired to begin my journey to rectify this situation. I invite you to come along! This blog is all about making affordable, tasty food with a bit of French flair, exoticism, and presentational panache. It is not just about the right way to cook, but how to avoid those beginners' pitfalls I am sure we will come across together. I begin with some recipes from L'Atelier and the Marie Claire Cookbook. Bon appetit!