All hail Julia Child and her No. 1 books

Never doubt the power of a movie starring Meryl Streep. For the first time since it was published in 1961, Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" will hit the No. 1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list this Sunday. And, think of how they are licking their chops at Random House, "Julia's Kitchen Wisdom" will hit No. 1 on the Times list for advice, how-to and miscellaneous books. AND, get this, "My Life in France," La Julia's memoir, will be No. 3 on the paperback nonfiction list this Sunday.

Viva Julia! (And thanks Meryl.)

If you've seen the movie and you want to make the lovely Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream, get the recipe here.

Photo: Associated Press, 1992

Janet & Julie & Julia Project, the end

I am now officially spent and bow down to Julie Powell. All 524 recipes from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in a year? She deserves the best-selling book and her name attached to a movie starring Meryl Streep. I could not do what she did because there are far too many recipes like Boeuf Bourguignon.

Boeuf Bourguignon is a bitch. Actually, the techniques are simple, but it's tough to carve out an entire day to make dinner. And having the oven on for the better part of a day in August in Florida is, well, insane.

As for the ingredients, do not be a dope like me and buy 18 to 24 white pearl onions in the produce bin. You will only have to peel them. Get frozen. Also, I used thick-cut bacon which wasn't exactly right but tasted great. Finding a 6-ounce chunk of bacon required a special stop I didn't want to make.

"Boof," as it's pronounced in "Julie & Julia," was the first recipe that Julia Child prepared on her PBS show "The French Chef." I would love to have seen that before I started. Julia's classic Boeuf Bourguignon has subsequently been made in thousands of homes by women of a certain age. I am glad I made it. It was delicious. I don't know if I'll ever make it again.

There, I said it.

My family may have a different opinion. I served it with wide egg noodles, which soaked up the earthy sauce and they lapped it up like dogs who hadn't eaten in a week. When you see the movie, and you should because it's a lot of fun, write and tell me why Julie was cooking the "boof" in the middle of the night for dinner guests the next night. It doesn't take that long! Oh. I just realized. It's because she had to work during the day. Who would be home to braise the onions for 50 minutes?

Okay, here's the last of the weeklong tribue to Julia Child. Next week, we ban butter and cream on Stir Crazy.

Boeuf Bourguignon a la Julia Child
For the stew:
6 ounces bacon, in one solid chunk
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 pounds lean stewing beef, cut into
2-inch cubes
1 onion, peeled and sliced
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper, freshly ground
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups red wine (a full bodied wine like Bordeaux or Burgundy or Chianti)
2 to 3 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, mashed (you may choose to add more)
1 sprig thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme)
1 bay leaf

For the braised onions:
18 to 24 white pearl onions, peeled, fresh or frozen and thawed
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup beef stock
Salt and fresh ground pepper
1 bay leaf
1 sprig thyme
2 sprigs parsley

For the sauteed mushrooms:
1 pound mushrooms, quartered
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil

First prepare the bacon: cut off the rind and reserve. Cut the bacon into lardons about 1/4-inch thick and 1 1/2 inches long. Simmer the rind and the lardons for 10 minutes in 1?1/2 quarts of water. Drain and dry the lardons and rind and reserve.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the tablespoon of olive oil in a large (9 to 10 inches wide, 3 inches deep) fireproof casserole and warm over moderate heat.

Saute the lardons for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Dry off the pieces of beef and saute them, a few at a time in the hot oil/bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides.

Once browned, remove to the side plate with the bacon. In same oil/fat, saute the onion and the carrot until softened. Pour off the fat and return the lardons and the beef to the casserole with the onion and carrots.

Toss the contents of the casserole with the salt and pepper and sprinkle with the flour. Set the uncovered casserole in the oven for 4 minutes. Toss the contents of the casserole again and return to the hot oven for 4 more minutes.

Now, lower the heat to 325 degrees and remove the casserole from the oven. Add the wine and enough stock so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, the garlic and herbs and the bacon rind.
Bring to a simmer on the top of the stove.

Cover and place in the oven, adjusting the heat so that the liquid simmers very slowly for about 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the meat is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms and set them aside.

For the onions, if using frozen, make sure they are defrosted and drained.

Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet and add the onions to the skillet.Saute over medium heat for about 10 minutes, rolling the onions about so they brown as evenly as possible without breaking apart.
Pour in the stock, season to taste, add the herbs and cover.

Simmer over low heat for about 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but retain their shape and the liquid has mostly evaporated. Remove the herbs and set the onions aside.

For the mushrooms, heat the butter and oil over high heat in a large skillet. As soon as the foam begins to subside, add the mushrooms and toss and shake the pan for about 5 minutes. As soon as they have browned lightly, remove from heat.

To finish stew: When the meat is tender, remove the casserole from oven and empty contents into a colander set over a saucepan.

Return the beef mixture to the pot. Distribute the mushrooms and onions over the meat.

You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce, thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If the sauce is too thick, add a few tablespoons of stock. If sauce is too thin, boil down to reduce to the right consistency.

Taste for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables. If you are serving immediately, place the covered casserole over medium-low heat and simmer 2 to 3 minutes.

Serve in the casserole or on a warm platter surrounded by noodles, potatoes or rice and garnished with fresh parsley. If serving later or the next day, allow the casserole to cool and place covered casserole in the refrigerator. Twenty minutes prior to serving, place over medium-low heat and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes, occasionally basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce.

Serves 6.

Source: Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child (Knopf, 1961)

Yeah, I took the photo.

Julie & Julia, the feel-good flick

Get a babysitter this weekend. Call your sister, mother or best girlfriend. Go see "Julie & Julia."  I promise you'll like it. There are sex scenes.

I saw it at a screening last week and was thoroughly charmed, especially by Meryl Streep. It's amazing how she crawls inside a character. Pretty good feat to make her look so tall when she's just 5-6.

I was nervous that the portrayal would be cartoonish or make fun of her, a la Dan Aykroyd on "Saturday Night Live." (If you haven't seen it, watch it here.) It is funny, but there is more to her than the trilling voice. Streep plays Julia with all the lust that the 6-footer had for life. I liked that director Nora Ephron made a big deal about the grand love affair she had with her husband Paul (played by Stanley Tucci). Oh and the clothes and scenes from 1950s France! If they don't want to make you pack your bags, I'll eat a stale baguette.

I liked "Julie & Julia," not so much for what it says about cooking, but for the hope it gives to women struggling to find what they should do with their lives. Food, cooking and teaching became the vehicle to fulfillment for Julia Child and in a new media world Julia became the vehicle that took Julie Powell to a writing career. Julia didn't much like the blog (read more about that here), and that portion of the film isn't as weighty. Still, Amy Adams is adorable (though I wish she was as profane as the real Julie) and her contemporary angst will ring true with a lot of Gen-Xers. On the flip side, it's nice to be reminded that life doesn't stop for women over 50. Julia's masterpiece book and the start of her TV career began about then.

Check out my colleague Steve Persall's review. He wasn't as taken with the movie as me and the girlfriend I saw it with. I still think Meryl will get her 3,000 Academy Award nomination for it. At least a Golden Globe.

After you see it, go home and make Leek and Potato Soup. It's an amazing testament to how good just a few ingredients can taste.

This is the first recipe in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and it probably gave Julie Powell hope. Hope that the rest of recipes were just as easy. She was fooled!

Potage Parmentier 
(Leek and Potato Soup)
3 to 4 cups or 1 pound peeled potatoes, sliced or diced
3 cups or 1 pound thinly sliced leeks including the tender green (see note)
2 quarts water
1 tablespoon salt
4 to 6 tablespoons whipping cream or 2 to 3 tablespoons softened butter
2 to 3 tablespoons minced parsley or chives

In a 3- to 4-quart saucepan, simmer the potatoes, leeks, water and salt, partially covered, for 40 to 50 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

Mash the vegetables in the soup with a fork or masher, or pass the soup through a food mill. Correct seasoning. Set aside uncovered until just before serving, then reheat to a simmer. (When testing the recipe, I blended half the soup in the blender and returned it to the pot. It thickened the entire soup.)

Off heat and just before serving, stir in the cream or butter by spoonfuls. Pour into a tureen or soup cups and garnish with herbs.

Note: Leeks tend to hold sandy soil between their leaves. Trim off both ends and slice the leeks lengthwise. Plunge into water and shake to allow sand to sink to the bottom.

Serves 4 to 6.

Source: “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” by Julia Child (Knopf, 1961)

Movie photo by Columbia Pictures; soup photo by me.

Make a clafouti ... it only sounds fancy

In all of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," I found only one recipe that could work with a rotisserie chicken and that was the one I posted Monday for Gratin aux Fruits de Mer. Sub diced chicken for the seafood and voila! you've got a recipe suited for Rotisserie Chicken Wednesday.

But, heck, it's Julia Child week at Stir Crazy and I figure a dessert is in order. And something simple. So Cherry Clafouti it is. It's what was on the menu when New York Times food writer Amanda Hesser came to dinner at Julie Powell's. Read the 2003 story of that visit here and you can see Amanda in "Julie & Julia" as herself. It was her article that launched Powell to stardom. Or at least to a living as a writer.

Cherry Clafouti is a peasant dish compared to the elegant tarts and souffles found elsewhere in the book. Sort of like an old-fashioned dump cake. Essentially, clafouti is pancake batter poured over fruit and baked. In this case, the fruit is cherries, which are abundant at the grocery now. Don't be put off about pitting them. I don't have a fancy pitter, so I just cut them in half with a small paring knife and dug out the pits. It took just minutes to get 3 cups worth.

Clafouti is best eaten soon after it is made. It doesn't store well and especially goes insipid in the fridge. Pop it in the oven at the start of dinner and you'll have a warm, fresh dessert in about an hour.

Cherry Clafouti
(Cherry Flan)
3 cups pitted fresh cherries or drained, canned, pitted Bing cherries or frozen sweet cherries, thawed and drained
1 1/4 cups milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar, divided use
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
Powdered sugar for serving

Prepare cherries, depending on the kind you are using. Set aside.

Place milk, 1/3 cup sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, salt and flour in a blender in the order they are listed. Cover and blend at top speed for 1 minute.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour a 1/4-inch layer of batter in a 7- to 8-cup lightly buttered, fireproof baking dish or Pryex pie plate 1 1/2-inches deep. Set over moderate heat for a minute or two until a film of batter has set in the bottom of the dish. Remove from heat. (I have an electric stove and skipped the the heating part. I didn’t want to put my baking dish directly on the heat.) Spread cherries over the thin layer of batter and sprinkle the other 1/3 cup sugar over all. Pour on the rest of the batter.  

Place in the middle position of preheated oven and bake for about an hour. The clafouti is done when it has puffed and browned, and a knife plunged into its center comes out clean. Sprinkle the top wit powdered sugar just before bringing it the table. 

The clafouti does not have to be served hot, but should still be warm. It will sink down slightly as it cools. The flan does not store well.

Serves 6 to 8 people.

Source: “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” by Julia Child (Knopf, 1961)

That's my clafouti snapped with my trusty Canon.

Day 2 of Julia Child recipes

The sauce broke. What I expected to be a luxe, creamy sauce for my Supremes de Volaille aux Champignons separated. You can see in the photo above that the butter pulled away from the cream.

The likely culprits: The heat was too high and I wasn't stirring enough. So, another lesson learned in my weeklong tribute to Julia Child and her legendary "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." The even better lesson, and one Julia taught over and over, was that even a small mistake won't necessarily compromise the taste. "Have the courage of your convictions," she used to say. So, I served it anyway.

The wolverines at my house chowed down and asked for more. Sorry, guys, this recipe only serves four. And we've got three so that seemed like enough food.

I was dubious that my chunky chicken breasts would cook in such short a time. Six minutes? Really? So I placed a piece of wax paper over each and pound them a bit before seasoning and sprinkling with lemon juice. Not flattened like a paillard, but thinner and more uniform. Then, after their time in the oven, I turned it off and left them there while I made my broken sauce. They were plenty juicy, not dried out at all like boneless, skinless chicken can be.

I would make this again. And stir faster.

Supremes de Volaille aux Champignons
(Chicken Breasts with Mushroom and Cream)

4 supremes (boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
Big pinch white pepper
5 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon minced shallot or green onion
1/4 pound diced or sliced fresh mushrooms
1/8 teaspoon salt
For the sauce:
1/4 cup white or brown stock or canned beef bouillon
1/4 cup port, Madeira or dry white vermouth
1 cup whipping cream
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons minced parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Rub the chicken breasts with drops of lemon juice and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Heat the butter in a heavy, oven-proof casserole, about 10 inches in diameter until it is foaming. Stir in the minced shallots or green onion and saute a moment without browning. Then stir in the mushrooms and saute lightly for a minute or two without browning. Sprinkle with salt.

Quickly roll the chicken in the butter mixture and lay a piece of buttered wax paper over them, cover casserole and place in hot oven. After 6 minutes, press top of chicken with your finger. If still soft, return to oven for a moment or two. When the meat is springy to the touch it is done. Remove the chicken to a warm platter (leave mushrooms in the pot) and cover while making the sauce (2 to 3 minutes).

To make sauce, pour the stock and wine in the casserole with the booking butter and mushrooms. Boil down quickly over high heat until liquid is syrupy. Stir in the cream and boil down again over high heat until cream has thickened slightly. Off heat, taste for seasoning, and add drops of lemon juice to taste. Pour the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Source: “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” by Julia Child (Knopf, 1961)

Photo by me.

The Janet & Julie & Julia Project

If you don't think it was quite a feat to make all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," sit down with the book for a while. Really look at the recipes and try to find a few that would work for a worknight meal. Better yet, start talking to your bank about a loan. Even the boneless, skinless chicken breasts, called supremes in French, will set you back. Nevermind the live lobsters and the duck that must be boned. That will require some pretty fancy knives. Or at least sharp ones.

Nevertheless, in honor of "Julie & Julia," which opens Friday, I am making recipes from the cookbook all this week, ending on Friday with the classic long-cooked Boeuf Bourguignon, a major player in the flick. Julie Powell had a dynamite idea and despite the fact she has ticked off the food blogging community by trying to divorce herself from that renegade clan, I still admire tremendously what she did. It wasn't easy. If you want to read her blog from the Aug. 25, 2002, beginning, click here. For readers of the book, you'll notice that her language was much cleaned up. I think the blog was more fun than the book.

I predicted it would be a movie in a story I wrote in summer 2003 but suggested Kate Winslet as Julie and Matt Damon as her saintly husband. I guess my future as a Hollywood casting agent is not so bright since it was Amy Adams and Chris Messina who got the roles. I never would have guessed Meryl Streep as Julia; probably would have gone with Geena Davis, since she's tall. (Julia was 6-2.)

I'll start the Janet & Julie & Julia Project with Gratin aux Fruits de Mer (Gratin of Creamed Seafood). If you've not tackled French cooking, this is the perfect recipe to get your feet wet. It's rich and fabulous, sort of like Julie Powell after she had one great idea. Damn her. (Serve with salad and crusty bread to soak up creamy sauce.)

Gratin aux Fruits de Mer
1/4 cup finely minced onions
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup boiling milk
1/4 cup dry white wine or dry white vermouth (I used the vermouth)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of pepper
1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
4 to 6 tablespoons whipping cream
1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
3/4 pound bay scallops
1/4 cup grated Swiss cheese
1 tablespoon butter

In a heavy-bottomed, 2-quart sauce pan, cook the onions in butter over low heat for 5 minutes or so, until onions are tender but not browned. Stir in the flour and cook slowly for another 2 minutes without coloring.

Off the heat, beat in the boiling milk, then the wine or vermouth and the seasonings. Now bring this sauce to boil over moderately high heat, stirring. Boil several minutes to evaporate alcohol and allow sauce to thicken considerably; stir frequently. Then thin it out to a medium consistency with cream, adding a tablespoon at a time. Taste carefully for seasoning.

Fold in the shrimp and scallops. Spoon into a shallow baking dish or two gratin dishes. Sprinkle on the cheese, and distribute the butter in pea-site dots. Bake in upper third of preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until top is nicely browned.

Serves 4 to 6.

Source: "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," by Julia Child (Knopf, 1961).

Photo by me!

A special project next week

I won't be posting a recipe today because of a very special project next week. Tune in on Monday for the Janet & Julie & Julia Project. I'll be featuring recipes and photos every day from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

It's my homage to "Julie & Julia," which opens next Friday. Plan to see it. It's really a hoot.

Look for Monday's easy weeknight meals menu a day early. It'll pop up on Sunday.

Have a great weekend and think of me Sunday as I am making Boeuf Bourguignon, Julia-style!

Cheers