After taking my time, and pretty much savoring every moment of A Year in Provence, I finally finished the book earlier this week. My review of the book will be done soon; I want to dedicate the right amount of time to it. In the meantime, Peter Mayle's talk of the French pursuit of gastronomic satisfaction made me want to cook a French meal.
So, I searched the internet for some recipes and decided to make marinated goat cheese, petits pates a la Sage, braised fingerling potato coins and Coq au Vin.
Marinated Goat Cheese: The marinated goat cheese started out as a minor disaster (who knew it could be so difficult to buy a jar this time of year), and I worried about the rest. I think I needed a different type of goat cheese...I tried to stay local and bought something made in Sonoma, but it crumbled easily and the bottom of the jar did not look too appealing. However, it turned out to be a pretty tasty appetizer. The goat cheese was marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, fresh rosemary, salt and pepper.
Petits pates a la Sage: These did not happen because I just didn't have the bandwidth to handle it (really somewhat funny if you read the recipe and see how it quick it is to make it). I might make it tomorrow night though because there is leftover Coq au Vin.
Braised Fingerling Potato Coins: This was a recipe adapted from an Alice Waters recipe for potato coins, and I was pleasantly surprised with how tasty this turned out, despite the simple mix of ingredients. It was a pain to slice the potatoes 1/8" thick, but that's probably because I am incredibly slow with the knife.
Coq au Vin: The Coq au Vin was by far the most time consuming thing to make on my French dinner menu. I used a recipe from
America's Test Kitchen. Their recipe is not the traditional method, but they experimented to come up with a modern version that takes 90 minutes versus the 12 hours I saw in some other recipes. I am not sure how it compares to traditional Coq au Vin since I have not had it at a restaurant yet, but this was a tasty dish.
All in all, this was an interesting experience, and I am happy that I explored French culture a little (growing up in Hawaii, I learned only about my Japanese heritage and nothing about French culture). Hopefully I find more French dishes to make as I still feel like indulging in the cuisine. Apparently the time consuming work was not enough to deter my French gastronomic exploration.
As an aside, I missed out on the Twilight wristlet by pinkladydesigns on Etsy! Perhaps I will have to put in my first special order.
i recently had coq au vin at a french bistro and i've been thinking about making it myself.
ReplyDeleteNow its time for you to make some japanese french fusion dishes.