"Larousse Gastronomique" & "As Always, Julia" & "The Hour" - Chicken Sautee a la Bourguignonne

Date I made this recipe: November 6, 2011

Larousse Gastronomique – The Encyclopedia of Food, Wine & Cookery by Prosper Montagne - Introduction by A. Escoffier and PH. Gilbert; Edited by Charlotte Turgeon and Nina Froud (The First American Edition)
Published by: Crown Publishers, Inc.
© 1961
Recipe: Chicken sauté a la bourguignonne or matelote – p. 262

Additional reading:
As Always, Julia – The Letters of Julia Child & Avis DeVoto – edited by Joan Reardon
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 978-0-547-41771-4
No recipe

The Hour by Bernard DeVoto
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company
© 1948, 1949, 1951
No recipe

Were it not for Julia Child, I would likely not have pulled Larousse Gastronomique off the shelf any time soon, especially since it weighs a ton and sits on my highest bookshelf, such that I need to stand on a chair to reach it. That would have been a shame because it’s a fun book to peruse.

So how did I come to cook from this book? Well, it was all because “Larousse” was mentioned in a very entertaining read, As Always, Julia.

In 1951, Julia Child was residing in Paris with her husband, Paul Child when she read an article about kitchen knifes published in Harper’s Magazine, written by Bernard DeVoto. When Julia wrote a fan letter to Bernard, his wife, Avis, answered. Bernard was a very busy writer and often left correspondence to Avis.

When Avis responded on behalf of Bernard, it triggered a correspondence between the women that lasted until Avis’ death in 1989.

Besides becoming a good friend of Julia’s, Avis championed Julia Child’s soon-to-be masterpiece, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. When Houghton Mifflin dropped the ball on the manuscript, Avis, who worked in publishing, brought the book to the attention of Alfred A. Knopf publishing and the rest as they say is history (or “l’histoire” if you’re French).

I have to tell you that reading the correspondence between these two ladies during this tense time of “will they/won’t they publish this?” was riveting. Without Avis, I doubt this book would have been published. Avis was also instrumental in securing Judith Jones, then an up-and-coming editor to review and test the recipes. Judith has gone on to achieve fame in her own right, and I enjoyed her recently published The Pleasures of Cooking for One. I tell you what, between these three women, they propelled home cooking and French cooking and really, all kinds of cooking, to the forefront and never looked back. They are my heroes.

A hero of a different nature though, is Avis’ husband, Bernard, who wrote the article that triggered the eventual publishing of Julia’s book. Bernard already had quite the name for himself but his book, The Hour, a book about the cocktail hour, cemented his friendship with Paul Child forever. And wouldn’t you know I happen to have that book on my bookshelf as well. (And who knew that one day I’d be able to tie all these books together?!)

Neither the As Always, Julia book nor The Hour have recipes per se but Bernard talks a lot about my favorite drink, the martini:

“There are only two cocktails. One can be described straightforwardly. It is a slug of whiskey and it is an honest drink…With the other cocktail we reach a fine and noble art, and we reach too the wars over the gospel that have parted brothers, wrecked marriages, and made enemies of friends.”

He goes on to talk about there is a misconception that women cannot make a good martini: “For instance there is a widespread notion that women cannot make martinis, just as some islanders believe that they can cast an evil spell on the tribal fishnets. This is a vagrant item of male egotism: the art of the martini is not a sex-linked character. Of men and women alike it requires only intelligence and care—oh, perhaps some additional inborn spiritual fineness…”

For the record, my dad taught me how to make martinis and was always impressed when I made them even better than he did. So what Bernard says is true: women rock the cocktail world.

Bernard totally wins me over though, when he talks about other drinks that while popular, are not cocktails. And he makes it clear as clear can be that “A martini, I repeat, is made of gin and vermouth. Dry vermouth.” Amen to that! He scoffs at Gibsons (p. 39), a drink made of gin and an olive and on p. 61 gives us all a worthwhile reminder: “Remember always that the three abominations are: (1) rum, (2) any other sweet drink, and (3) any mixed drink except one made of gin and dry vermouth in the ratio I have given.

I could wax on about this book but I do need to get to the recipe at some point (And no, I haven’t forgotten) but I tell you what, you need to read Bernard’s book. It starts slowly but after 30 odd pages, he just nails the art of the cocktail. And he’s funny in a dry whit sort of way-kind of like my martinis!

So anyway, okay, back to earth and to today’s recipe.

When Avis asked Julia for some casserole recipes with a French flair, Julia initially responded that she couldn’t think of any but then went on to say that she found some in “Larousse.” And that prompted me to pull the book from the shelf and see if I couldn’t find the recipes. Well—between the first and last copyrights, some pages must have changed or the version changed because the page numbers that Julia cited were not the pages with the recipes. So shoot.

But actually, that was all okay because Larousse Gastronomique is an encyclopedia (I had forgotten) and it was a blast to look through the recipes and definitions and whatnot, all from A-Z. There were food I had never heard of, photos and maps and all kinds of diagrams regarding food and utensils and everything in between.

Seeing as how Julia recommended some chicken casserole recipes to Avis, I was bent on finding one that worked (and let’s face it, making a calves’ head meal or something with eel was just not going to happen). And people, you have no idea what a challenge that was.

For starters, there are about 25 pages of chicken recipes. Each recipe is about a paragraph long, and unfortunately for me (and for you), the “main” chicken recipe isn’t so much a recipe as a description and you have to go back to the beginning of the chicken section to find it. And then it offered up no clues whatsoever, not to cooking time, not to chicken size. Nothing.

So then I read through all the little recipes but eliminated a good portion of them because they required that I make an additional sauce of some sort like tomato sauce or brown gravy. And just like the chicken recipe itself, the sauce recipes weren’t any clearer so I ditched those recipes tout de suite

This left with me tonight’s chicken dish. And so my hubby and I went to the grocery store where we reenacted a scene from one of my favorite episodes from I Love Lucy where Lucy’s mother is coming to LA for a visit but she doesn’t reveal any details in the telegram she sent (which was addressed to Micky Micado. Lucy’s mother did not like Ricky.)

Lucy: “Well, at least she wrote us a wire and told us she’s arriving at 9:30.”
Ricky: “Hooray for mother. AM or PM?”
Lucy: “She doesn’t say.”
Ricky: “What day?”
Lucy: “She doesn’t say.”
Ricky: “What airline?”
Lucy: “She doesn’t say.”
Ricky: “What happened to that woman’s brain?”
Lucy: “She doesn’t say.”
(From: I Love Lucy, California Here We Come episodes, The Hedda Hopper Story. Thanks to http://ultimateilovelucy.wikia.com/wiki/The_Hedda_Hopper_Story for providing the dialogue.)

Anyway, so Andy and I went to the grocery store:

Andy: “So what size chicken do you need?”
Me: “It doesn’t say.”
Andy: “Well, does it need to be boneless or not?”
Me: “It doesn’t say.”
Andy: “Well, do we need a whole chicken?”
Me: “It doesn’t say.”
Andy: “Well how long do you cook it for?”
Me: “It doesn’t say.”

So I bought a couple pounds of chicken breasts with ribs, hoped for the best and commenced firing:

Step 1 – “Fry in butter 4 slices bacon…” Okay—how much butter? It didn’t say. So I used about 4-5 tablespoons and that seemed to work. And then you add blanched onions and raw mushrooms. So far, I managed that just fine.

Step 2 – “Drain this mixture and brown quickly in the same fat a chicken cut into pieces in the ‘ordinary way.’” Okay – define “ordinary way” because it sounds like we’re talking about a whole chicken cut up into parts although again, it doesn’t say.

Step 3 - “When the chicken is half-cooked…” Okay, stop right there. How would I know when the chicken is “half-cooked?” Because like everything else with this recipe it doesn’t say!! So for this portion of our program, I thought about a chicken recipe I made really early on for this blog where you put the chicken in a pot, (no oil or butter required, just the chicken) covered it and cooked it on high heat for about 45 minutes. So I went that route and the chicken was perfectly tender. Score one for me!

Step 4 – “Take the chicken out and garnish. Dilute the juices in the pan with 1 cup of red wine, boil down to half and thicken with a tablespoon of butter worked together with flour. Strain.”

Here’s where the thing almost derailed: there just weren’t juices left to dilute in the pan and so I added butter…and then more butter…and then more butter. And then after cooking down the red wine (and butter), I added the tablespoon of butter and flour (At last, we have a measurement) but didn’t know how much flour to add to the butter. I ended up using about a teaspoon of flour to one tablespoon of butter.

Well. The butter/flour mixture sat like a blob in the pan so I had to whisk it to get the huge lumps out and then I tasted it and “yech.” And I mean “yech.” It was so sour I almost spit it out. So to save it, I added sugar in small increments until it wasn’t so awful. (Well, it awful but infinitely more edible).

In the end, the chicken was good, the onion/bacon/mushroom mixture was good, but the gravy was forgettable. Next time around, I’d either add the wine straight to the chicken or I’d drink it and call it a day. If I were you, I’d lean heavily toward drinking! (And throw in a martini to boot, compliments of Bernard DeVoto!)

I served this chicken with wide noodles and green beans. As to what side dishes Larousse recommends well…it doesn’t say.

Chicken sauté a la bourguignonne or matelote – serving size…it doesn’t say
4 slices bacon
12 small onions (pearl onions)
12 small raw mushrooms
1 cup red wine
Butter

Fry in butter 4 slices of lean bacon cut in a big dice and blanched. Add 12 small onions, blanched; cook till golden and add 12 small raw mushrooms. (A note about blanching: to blanch means that you cook items for a very short time period in boiling water and then you place the items in a cold water bath to stop the cooking. I couldn’t really find a definitive time to blanch items on the internet so I went with about a minute. My guess it was probably less but since it didn’t say….

Drain this mixture and brown quickly in the same fat a chicken cut into pieces in the ordinary way. When the chicken is half-cooked, put the garnish back in the pan, cover and cook for 15 minutes.

Take out chicken and garnish. Dilute the juices in the pan with 1 cup of red wine, boil down to half and thicken with a tablespoon of butter worked together with flour. Strain.

Set the chicken on a dish, surrounded with its garnish and pour the sauce over it.

"The French Chef Cookbook" by Julia Child - Salad Nicoise

Date I made this recipe: August 16, 2009

The French Chef Cookbook by Julia Child, Drawings and Photographs by Paul Child
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf
© 1961 (1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968)
Recipe: Salad Nicoise – p. 17 (plus Sauce Vinaigrette – p. 5 and French Potato Salad – p. 16)
Note: these recipes are all from Julia Child’s TV show, The French Chef

I don’t know about you, but I’m about ready to start a petition to rename August “Julia Child month” because our beloved Julia is all over the airwaves and in the press.

On August 7th, the movie Julie and Julia, based upon two books – My Life in France by Julia Child and Julie and Julia by Julie Powell - was released and though I haven’t seen it yet, I’ve lost track of the number of friends telling me “You would love it.”

Then on August 15th those of us in the know celebrated what would have been Julia’s 97th birthday (she died on August 13, just two days shy of her 92nd birthday).

So this dish is a birthday homage to the great lady who turned the culinary world on its ear. And I have to tell you that as was Julia’s style, making this seemingly simple salad turned out to be a rather long series of steps to get to the goal line.

Before I get into the recipe, I have to recount (again) the tale of purchasing Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia’s culinary contribution to the world. It goes like this: There I was, minding my own business, happily shopping for cookbooks at Joan Hendricks bookstore in New York, when I spied a couple of copies of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Believe it or don’t, up until then, I had trouble finding a copy. There were two books on the shelf, one that was close to being a first edition and reasonably priced and another that was a second printing (and therefore less desirable to collectors like me). The second-printing book was priced at $200 (and yes, that was for one book) and that’s because it was signed by both Julia and Paul Child.

So I hemmed and hawed about what to do—buy the stack of books in my hand that probably totaled $200 or go for what’s behind the curtain and plop all my money down for this one, solitary book? Joan was clearly cheering for me to buy the $200 book but I just couldn’t justify spending that much money on one book when I had others that sounded more interesting (I mean, I ask you—would you have passed up Jack Knife Cookery? I didn’t think so.)

And so I walked away from the $200 book. And Julia Child passed away two weeks later. #$%@!!!!! You’ve gotta know that the book probably sold for double that amount but so it goes. I still think I made the right decision just as I’m sure Joan made sure that book went to a good home. As for me, I walked away with a Julia Child book, just not the one that cost me a quarter of my mortgage and that made me happy.

So to the recipe -- it was okay but not great and that was a disappointment. Julia used way (and I mean way) more vinaigrette than I was comfortable with, such that the potato salad and overall salad was just swimming in oil. So my biggest advice to those who want to recreate this recipe is to start small – I’m talking tablespoon by tablespoon – until you get the result you want. When I made the potato salad, there was so much oil in it from the vinaigrette that I had to use a slotted spoon to transfer the salad to another bowl and then back again. And then she called for vinaigrette on the lettuce…and then again once the dish was made. If you ask me, too much of a good thing is still too much.

Plan on this recipe taking just a bit to pull together because you must cook the potatoes and the beans and then slice and dice and whisk and…well, you’ll be busy. It took considerably less time than when I made her Boeuf Bourgignon (we’re talking hours and hours of work for that one) but you’re still in the kitchen for quite some time.

Sauce Vinaigrette – for about ½ cup, enough for salad for 6 (Ann’s Note: it made just shy of a ½ cup. You will need ½ cup alone for the potato salad and then another ¾ to 1 cup for the salad itself (although as I said, this is overkill).
1 to 2 T excellent wine vinegar or a combination of vinegar and lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt
¼ tsp dry mustard
6 to 8 T best-quality olive oil, salad oil or a combination of both
Big pinch of freshly ground pepper
Optional: ½ T minced shallots or scallions and/or ¼ tsp dried herbs, such as tarragon or basil

Either beat the vinegar, salt and mustard in a bowl until dissolved, then beat in the oil and season with the pepper and herbs, or place all ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake vigorously for 30 seconds to blend thoroughly. Taste carefully for seasoning.

Pommes de Terre a L’Huile (French Potato Salad) – for about 6 cups
Note: again, I would season as I went along. 2 T chicken bouillon is a lot of bouillon. The dish wasn’t salty but it sure could have been. I also used less of the shallots and parsley than called for as 2 (and 3) tablespoons seemed like way too much. You’d be wise to use more than 2 lbs of potatoes.

8 to 10 medium “boiling” potatoes (about 2 lbs)
2 Tb dry white wine or dry white vermouth
2 T chicken bouillon
½ cup of the vinaigrette
2 T minced shallots or scallions
3 T minced parsley

Boil or steam the potatoes in their jackets until just tender. Peel and slice while still warm. Toss gently in the mixing bowl with the wine and bouillon, and after several minutes, toss again. When liquid has been absorbed by the potatoes, toss with the vinaigrette, shallots or scallions and parsley.

Salad Nicoise for 6 to 8 people
3 cups previously cooked green beans in a bowl
3 quartered tomatoes in a bowl
¾ to 1 cup vinaigrette (I’m telling you, just say “no!”)
1 head Boston lettuce, separated, washed and dried
3 cups cold French potato salad
½ cup pitted black olives, preferably the dry Mediterranean type
3 hard-boiled eggs, cold, peeled and quartered
12 canned anchovy fillets, drained, either flat or rolled with capers
About 1 cup (8 ounces) canned tuna, drained

Just before serving, season beans and tomatoes with several spoonfuls of the dressing. Toss the lettuce leaves in the salad bowl with ¼ cup of the vinaigrette and places leaves about bowl. (Again with the vinaigrette!) Arrange potatoes in bottom of bowl, decorate with the beans and tomatoes, interspersing them with a design of tuna, olives, eggs and anchovies. Pour remaining dressing over salad (!!!!), sprinkle with herbs, and serve.

Note: I’ve had Salad Nicoise several times when in France and never did I see this much dressing but if you cut back, this is one rockin’ summer salad!

"Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Vol. 1 &2)" - Beef Bourguignon and Celery Soup with Potatoes, Leeks and Rice

Date I made these recipes: May 18, 2008

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Simone Beck, Louisette Berthole and Julia Child
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
© 1961
Recipe: Boeuf Bourguignon (Beef Stew in Red Wine, with Bacon, Onions and Mushrooms) – p. 315-317, plus Oignons Glaces A Brun (Brown-braised onions) – p. 483 and Champignons Sautes Au Beurre (Sauteed Mushrooms) – p. 513

Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume Two by Julia Child and Simone Beck
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
© 1970
Recipe: Potage Celestine (Celery Soup with Potatoes, Leeks, and Rice) – p. 15

My husband and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary today and in honor of our honeymoon trip to France, I whipped out Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. I hate to say this but I almost wished I hadn’t. More on that in a minute.

Lest you think that my husband and I must have been loaded with money in order to take a trip to France for our honeymoon, you should know that we ended up doing it for so darned cheap that we couldn’t afford not to. Here’s why: in 1991, the US was engaged in the first Gulf War and nobody wanted to fly. In need of revenue and passengers (in that order), Northwest Airline offered fares to France for something like $300 each. I happened to have enough miles for one-half off a companion fare and all total we went to France (and later Switzerland and Italy) for $500. I don’t even think I could get to Poughkeepsie for that!

Now I had been to France before but my husband hadn’t. In 1988, I went with my friend, Susan, and I must say that it turned into a 90’s version of Lucy and Ethel Go to Paris. But we had a great time, stayed in a great place on the Left Bank, went out one evening to a place now long forgotten, had ourselves some Boeuf Bourguignon and thought we died and went to heaven.

My husband and I also visited the same restaurant and loved it but as to hotel, we ended up staying on the Right Bank in a hotel that most certainly did not meet my standards, not then, not now, not ever. To this day, Andy loves to tell the story of how I took one look at the dog-eared room and started crying whereas he started laughing. And yet we’re still together so….

Okay, as to the recipes, I had forgotten (at least until I was three quarters of the way through making these dishes) how determined Julia was that the average American housewife be able to make true-blue French food. She was so determined that in order to complete the Boeuf Bourguignon, one also needed to braise some onions (45 minutes in the making on that alone) and sautee mushrooms (another 20 minutes, give or take a minute). The recipe also required straining the liquid through a sieve and all kinds of other things that were almost my undoing. And in order to complete the soup, one needed to run the potatoes through a potato ricer, then add heated milk, and then puree the leek and celery mixture into the potatoes. Was it worth it? Sure. But was I also cursing her during the preparation of these dishes? Oh, absolutely.

Now I didn’t acquire these two cookbooks until just a few years ago and of course, there’s a backstory on that.

I was in New York and finally got around to visiting Joan Hendricks Cookbooks and she had two copies of Volume 1. The one I ultimately purchased was a first edition but the other one I didn’t purchase was not. What it was, however, was signed (but not personalized) by both Julia and Paul Child. It also cost $250 dollars.

Well, what to do, what to do? I hemmed, I hawed and finally, to Joan’s amazement I might add, I purchased the unsigned first addition along with some other books instead of the one that was signed. I just didn’t feel right only buying one book when the others in my stack were so interesting, plus there was that small matter of the $250 dollars.

So it would just figure that the venerable Julia up and died two weeks later and I’m sure the price of the book I left behind skyrocketed. Live and learn.

When I was growing up, we didn’t get Julia’s show on WGBH in Boston but in the mid-70’s I was watching The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder the night he had Julia Child and Jacques Pepin on—the night of the infamous finger cut that was parodied by Dan Ackroyd on Saturday Night Live. I might add that Tom Snyder was a major chain-smoker but back then, it was perfectly acceptable to smoke on TV.

On this particular show, Tom, Julia and Jacques were preparing a meal (likely beef but I can’t remember) and were imbibing oh…a little wine (just like cigarettes, drinking was no big deal on TV back then), when Julia accidentally cut her hand. It was a teeny cut but Julia soldiered on, fortified by the wine that went into the dish. (Let’s just say they were “in their cups” by the time the meal finished cooking.) But when Dan got a hold of the story, he blew it up into this hilarious sketch where Julia passed out after losing so much blood from a very big cut. I think he glossed right over the “drinking on the set” issue. If it were me, I think I would have taken that ball and run with it.

Now, whether it be the real version of a parody, Julia was just a presence on TV and she just made her audience feel so comfortable about cooking that it forgot how complicated some of her French recipes could be. But a woman named Julie Powell soon found out.

Those of you in the know have probably read Julie & Julia by Julie Powell (soon to be a movie staring Meryl Streep as Julia) in which she chronicles her attempt to cook all the recipes in Julia’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Madam, I salute you! I almost threw in the towel after two recipes, never mind an entire book. Rather, I’m cooking my way through my entire cookbook collection of almost 1000 books (3 more to go until I hit the magic number) and I between you and me, I think that’s the easier route to go.

For all their work, these recipes are tres, tres bon (very, very good) and they brought back fond memories of my times in France when a French franc (precursor to the Euro) bought a fine meal and a glass of wine. Ahhhhhh…..

Note: Julia’s recipes are a little challenging to make because she never gives you an exact shopping list. Instead, she lists ingredients and then the pan or utensil needed to make that portion of the recipe and continues that way until the entire recipe is done. Call me modern but I usually don’t pick up an enameled skillet in the produce section!

Boeuf Bourguignon (Beef Stew in Red Wine, with Bacon, Onions and Mushrooms) – Serves 6
6-ounce chunk of bacon (or a package of bacon as lean as you can find it.)
1 T olive or cooking oil
3 lbs. lean stewing beef cut into 2-inch cubes
1 sliced carrot
1 sliced onion
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 T flour
3 cups of a full-bodied, young red wine or a Chianti
2 to 3 cups brown beef stock or canned beef bouillon
1 T tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic
½ tsp thyme
1 crumbled bay leaf
18-24 small white onions, brown-braised in stock (see separate recipe to follow)
1 lb. quartered fresh mushrooms sautéed in butter (see separate recipe to follow)

I made this recipe in a Dutch oven. You should probably use something similar.

To make the beef:
Remove rind on bacon, cut into lardoons (sticks, ¼ inch thick and 1 ½ inches long). Simmer rind and bacon for 10 minutes in 1 ½ quarts of water. Drain and dry.

Sautee the bacon in the oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is almost smoking before you sauté the beef.

Dry the beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Saute it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon.

In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the sautéing fat.

Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set the casserole uncovered in the middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to oven for 4 minutes more. (This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.). Remove casserole, and turn oven down to 325 degrees.

Stir in the wine, and enough stock our bouillon so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs, and bacon rind. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 3 to 4 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms. Set them aside until needed.

When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms over the meat.

Skim the fat off the sauce. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 ½ cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons of stock or canned bouillon. Taste carefully for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables.

Note: Recipe may be completed in advance to this point.

For immediate serving, cover the casserole and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times. For later serving, bring the mixture to a simmer, cover and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes.

To make the brown-braised onions (oignons glaces a brun):
18 to 24 peeled white onions, about 1 inch in diameter
1 ½ T butter
1 ½ T oil
½ cup of brown stock, canned beef bouillon, dry white wine, red wine or water
A medium herb bouquet: 4 parsley sprigs, ½ bay leaf, and ¼ tsp thyme tied in cheesecloth

When the butter and oil are bubbling in the skillet, add the onions and sauté over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling the onions about so they will brown as evenly as possible. Be careful not to break their skins. You cannot expect to brown them uniformly.

Pour in the liquid, season to taste, and add the herb bouquet. Cover and simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but retain their shape, and the liquid has evaporated. Remove herb bouquet.

To bake the onions, transfer the onions and their sautéing fat to a shallow baking dish or casserole just large enough to hold them in one layer. Set uncovered in upper third of a preheated 350-degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes, turning them over once or twice. They should be very tender, retain their shape, and be a nice golden brown. Remove herb bouquet.

Add onions to recipe as directed above.

To sautee the mushrooms:
2 T butter
1 T oil
1 pound fresh mushrooms, quartered

Place a 10-inch skillet over high heat with the butter and oil. As soon as you see that the butter foam has begun to subside, indicating it is hot enough, add the mushrooms. Toss and shake the pan for 4 to 5 minutes. During their sauté the mushrooms will at first absorb the fat. In 2 to 3 minutes the fat will reappear on their surface, and the mushrooms will begin to brown. As soon as they have browned slightly, remove from the heat.

Add mushrooms to recipe as directed above.

Potage Celestine (Celery Soup with Potatoes, Leeks, and Rice) – makes about 8 cups, serving 6 people
2 medium leeks or 1 ¼ cup sliced onions
3 cups sliced celery stalks
¼ tsp salt
3 T butter
4 cups light chicken stock, or canned chicken broth and water
1/3 cup plain white rice
3 or 4 medium baking potatoes, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)
2 cups water
½ tsp salt
2 cups milk heated in a small pan
1/8 teaspoon sugar to bring out the flavor
Salt and white pepper

Cook the leeks and celery slowly with the salt and butter in a covered saucepan until tender but not browned – about 10 minutes. Add the liquid, bring to a boil, stir in the rice, and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes with the water and salt. When tender, drain their cooking water into the leeks and celery. If you are using a food mill or ricer, puree the potatoes, return to the saucepan and beat in the milk to make a smooth, white cream. If you are using a blender, puree the potatoes with a cup of milk, pour into saucepan and beat in the rest of the milk.

Puree the leek and celery mixture with its liquid into the potato cream. Blend well with wire whip and bring to a simmer; beat in sugar and seasonings to taste.

Note: at this point, Julia instructs the chef to heat a soup tureen or a bowl and soup cups, then mash butter and herbs (fresh chervil or tarragon; or minced fresh parsley and ¼ tsp crumbled diced tarragon) in the soup tureen, blend the hot soup into the herb butter, sprinkle with croutons (instructions for this follow) and serve. People, at this point I was exhausted and really did not have the stamina to heat a tureen (oh, wait, I don’t have a tureen), nor the stamina to mince herbs and especially not the stamina to make my own frickin’ croutons (using clarified butters no less). Julia Child I am not, Martha Stewart I am not and French-chef wannabe I am not! But if you have it in you, go for it! Bon appetit, everybody!