What and How I Cook

Home Cooking in France and the US

Hill Country Sourdough - the best bread in Austin, available at Sour Duck Market

I do almost all the cooking for our household. Carolyn finds cooking stressful; I find it relaxing and enjoy the process, so it falls to me. Along with cooking duty comes the responsibility for food shopping; I do the vast majority of our food shopping as well, though in France Carolyn is likely to come home with treats from the market cheese counter! I have written before how much more pleasant the food shopping is in France, even with the difficulty I still have using the language; the markets are close to our home so I shop every day. This means I can buy what looks good or what I’m in the mood for on a given day.

What is consistent between France and the US is that I tend to work with ingredients that are fresh, high quality, and locally produced when possible. We generally steer away from red meats and towards fish at home both in the US and France. Interestingly, we ate much more steak and burgers in France (in restaurants, not prepared at home). The burgers and steaks are just SO good in France! I expect that will change with our evolving attitudes about food.

In France our three most frequent home-cooked meals were:

1. Sweet Chicken Surprise: whole chicken legs cooked with cherry tomatoes, herbs, and a sauce of vermouth and butter served over rice or quinoa. This recipe was adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe, Sweet Chicken Surprise (from his book 5 ingredients, Quick & Easy Food). Oliver’s recipe uses grapes and tarragon, where my variation uses cherry tomatoes and rosemary. The recipe requires you to brown the chicken on the stovetop, then add the remaining ingredients all at once and finish the dish in the oven. Before we got an oven in France I adapted the recipe to stovetop preparation which involved removing the chicken skin (which just gets slimy when you simmer it in a covered pan).

   

   Sweet Chicken Surprise as Prepared by Jamie Oliver

2. Fish Curry: This is a simple preparation that I make without a recipe - ginger, garlic, Thai red curry paste, coconut milk and fish of choice - I usually use cod but have also used talapia and snapper. Again this is served over rice and garnished with basil and thinly sliced green scallion and a squeeze of lime (and maybe some lime zest if you’re feeling fancy). It’s fun to make in France because I can shop for the fish on the day I cook and (Montpellier being a coastal town) the fish is always fresh and fantastic!

3. Fish and Potatoes: I’ve done a few versions of this. I usually use a mild white fleshed fish, brown it in butter, make a sauce of garlic, wine, and capers, then serve it over a bed of potatoes and grate some lemon zest over the top. I have done it with mashed potatoes and potatoes au gratin. I think Carolyn and I both prefer the mashed potato version, though there’s nothing wrong EVER with potatoes cooked in cream.

In the states my most frequently prepared dinners are:

1. Broccoli salad: steamed broccoli florets with red grapes, toasted pecans, scallions, white cheddar, and bacon dressed with a sauce made from reduced bacon fat, mustard, and red wine vinegar. This is fast and easy to make despite all the components that have to be prepared separately and with different cooking methods (toast the pecans, slice the grapes, shred the cheese, slice and pan-cook the bacon, steam the broccoli). This would be easy to adapt to a vegan recipe using a plant-based bacon or just skipping the bacon altogether. I apologize for not being able to share a link, I don’t recall where this recipe came from and I make it without looking at a recipe now

   

   Family Meal Fish Tacos as prepared by Sam Sifton and The New York Times

2. Fish Tacos - this is our most appealing fish dish in the US because the heavy spice mix (paprika, powdered chile pepper, garlic powder, red pepper, cumin) works well with the frozen fish we get at the local supermarket. I serve the tacos on flour tortillas with a spicy sauce of sour cream and chipotles in adobo and garnish with sliced scallion, radishes, and avocado. It has a very fresh Cal-Mex feel to it. This recipe is based on the NYT recipe Family Meal Fish Tacos, which in turn was adadpted by Sam Sifton from a recipe that Union Square Cafe prepared for staff meals. Feel free to modify the veggies to suit the season or your tastes, but give the radishes a try - they’re wonderfully peppery and bright against the heavily spiced fish.

   

   Beans and Garlic Toast in Broth

3. Beans and Garlic Toast in Broth: I made this for the first time a few years ago; it has been a more frequent preparation since we returned from our last visit to France and began moving towards a plant-based diet. The only non-vegan component is parmesan rinds that simmer in the pot to add umami. I should try to develop a work-around with seaweed or miso or something else to add the umami and make it a vegan recipe. This is a deeply satisfying meal - it photographs well, and makes the whole house smell good! The bread is a key component - the best we’ve found in the US is the Hill Country Sourdough we buy from our local bakery, Sour Duck Market, though any crusty sourdough will be great. If you make the recipe, use dried beans that you soak overnight, not canned beans. If you have a local cheese shop they probably have parmesan rinds somewhere and it’ll save you money compared to buying a wedge of parmesan cheese and cutting the rind off. Garnish with fresh thyme leaves, chopped Italian parsley, lemon zest, and freshly grated parmesan.

Jusqu’á la prochaine fois (until next time),

Roberto and Carolyn