A starting place

I got some very exciting news on Saturday, and before I do anything else, I can’t help but share it: namely, that my book is available for pre-order on Amazon! A very kind reader of this site wrote to tell me (Thank you, Emily!), and apparently she’d heard because Amazon sent her a notification e-mail. Maybe this happened to others among you? Either way, I promised to let you know when you

La Fête du Fromage

Running a bit behind with things today. Actually I've been running a bit behind all week! Tis the season...

Look for a delicious fromage de chèvre from the Loire Valley in la Fête du Fromage tomorrow.

Speeding up school night dinners

I don't know if it's a European thing, but the French are big on pressure cookers, or "cocottes-minute." I was surprised and even alarmed to find this utensile among my husband's rather limited cooking equipment when I first moved to France. To me, pressure cookers had always represented a mysterious, antiquated and vaguely dangerous way of cooking.

My grandmother (in the USA) has one, but I think it has mainly been used for canning or sterilizing -- I'm not really sure. I do know that actual meals never seem to come out of it. But in France, cooks make plenty of things with them, especially stews and soups.

I have gone through a few cocottes-minute (I'm not sure of the correct plural form, so corrections are welcome) in my years here. The one I had used for about ten years came to a sad end, as pressure cookers can, when I didn't put enough liquid in it. But ten years is enough time for technology to change, and I took it as an opportunity to finally buy the famous SEB Clipso model, which is easier to close than the traditional cookers.

As you can see if you click on the link, these are not cheap pots, but they do allow one to reduce cooking time on many recipes by about two-thirds. I have lived without one for about a year now, but am glad to get back to 10-minute soups and one-hour stews!

Photo du Jour - Jardins du Palais Royal

Relaxing in the gardens behind le Palais Royal, one of my favorite spots in Paris.

Cod tenderloin on a bed of beans with mussles

I had liked so much the main course at the Grand Atelier that I have tried to replicate the recipe.So, impress your guests with this delicious fish recipe!
BEANS
2/3 cup of white beans
1 small leek
Salt and pepper
MUSSLES
½ lb mussels
FISH
4 portions of Cod tenderloin (Thick filets)
1 Tbsp butter
Salt and pepper - I used piment d’Espelette instead of pepper
SAUCE:
1 shallot
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp flour½ cup dry white wine (I use a Macon Villages)
½ cup crème fraiche (use heavy cream if you do not find crème fraiche)

Beans:
Cut the leek lengthwise in 2. Cook the beans in a pressure cooker with 3 cups of water and the leek. Season with salt and pepper. Our beans were probably last year’s crop and we had to cook them for 35 minutes.
Mussels:
Wash them until the water is clear, remove the algae if any, put in a pan, cover and cook over medium heat until they are open. Turn the heat off and keep warm.Fish: Melt the butter in a pan with a cover. Put the fish, add salt and pepper, cover and let cook over medium low heat, about 6 minutes)
Sauce:
Melt ½ of the butter in a saucepan. Add the chopped shallot. Drain the water from the mussels and add to the sauce. Add the wine. Add some of the water from the fish, if any. Add the cream. Season to taste. In a small bowl mix the other half of the butter and the flour until you have like a ball (beurre manié). Add to the boiling sauce, stirring constantly. Rectify seasoning.

Serve the sauce in a soup plate, add a few spoonfuls of beans, put the cod on top of the beans, and decorate around the cod with the mussels. Serve immediately.

Meet Chef Gopinathan of Campton Place

Campton Place the restaurant at Campton Place Taj Hotel San Francisco has an illustrious history. Many celebrated chefs have passed through the kitchen including Laurent Manrique, Jan Birnbaum, Bradley Ogden, Daniel Humm, Todd Humphries and Peter Rudolph. The restaurant added an Indian flair to the menu when the Taj took over the hotel and Executive Chef Sri Gopinathan took the helm. The restaurant has flown a bit under the radar for the last few years, but now it's back in the spotlight. Michelin just awarded Campton Place a star in their 2011 guide.

Chef Sri Gopinathan hails from Southern India, trained at the CIA Hyde Park and apprenticed in the kitchen of Raymond Blanc and Gary Jones at the famed Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, in Oxford, England, a Michelin 2 star restaurant.
Since Campton Place is sure to be on the list for local and visiting foodies, I checked in with the chef to learn more about him and his cooking.

How would you describe your food?
My style of cooking is French California with a subtle Spice Route
influence.

What is your signature dish or dishes?
Most of my dishes have my signature-  a subtle use of spices- but I have an emotional attachment to one dish in particular.  It is butter poached lobster with basmati crisp, a coconut curry sauce and cilantro. This preparation reminds me of home; it has typical southern Indian flavor but a French cooking technique.

How has your cooking been influenced by San Francisco and California?
I love the produce available here-  really some of the best produce in the world is from here!  Also there is a really great group of chefs in the Bay Area and the area offers a wonderful, and challenging, culinary platform for me.  The area is full of amazing farmers, artisans in baking and cheese-making, vintners… and the list goes on and on of people who are very influencing, inspiring and motivating.

What are your greatest sources of culinary inspiration?
This is really simple:  I’m inspired by fresh, seasonal produce…and there’s nothing like what is grown here in Northern California.  And secondly, my 90-year old grandmother’s cooking.

What do you like most about living in the Bay Area?
I’ve never lived in a part of the world that has so many people interested in food and wine.  It’s a dynamic influence on me…really everyone is so passionate about what they literally bring to the table.

What are your 3 favorite Bay Area restaurants?
Oh, and now a hard question to answer!  SPQR, Yank Sing and, of course, The French Laundry.

Thanks chef!

Wine Tours In The Languedoc

There's a lot to keep you busy while visiting the Languedoc.

You've got oodles of French culture in cities such as Carcassonne, Nîmes and Montpellier. There's Roman antiquity at sites like the Pont du Gard and the Oppidum d'Enserune. If you want to kick back and relax, there are miles and miles of Mediterranean beaches. If fresh air, hiking and river rafting excite you, head on up to the Haut Languedoc.

However, if you're like me, then the pursuit of great food and wine is the main reason to even bother boarding a crowded airplane, hurtling through space and time while trying to eat crappy airline food and ignore the kid behind you kicking the back of your seat only to land many hours later in a foreign place, disoriented and rumpled.



Luckily there is now a wine expert (and a great friend of ours) offering Wine Tours in the Languedoc. Juliet Bruce-Jones hold a prestigious Masters of Wine degree - one of only 246 in the world!
I've been fortunate enough to take a tasting trip with Juliet, attended Vinisud 2006 with her and have spent many, long lunches at her home, doing my best to help empty out taste the wine in her vast cellar. She's a delightful woman who loves to share her extensive knowledge of wine with others.

So if you're coming to the Languedoc, either for sun, for a dip in the sea or for soaking up some culture, make sure to save some time to learn about the region's fabulous wine with Juliet.